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Berlin Films: Menschen am Sonntag
Still image from “Menschen am Sonntag”, Directed by Robert Siodmak et. al. Germany, 1930.
Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2016, 6:30 p.m.–8 p.m.
People on Sunday (Menschen am Sonntag) represents an astonishing confluence of talent—an early collaboration by a group of German filmmakers who would all go on to become major Hollywood players, including eventual noir masters Robert Siodmak (The Killers, Criss Cross) and Edgar G. Ulmer (Detour, Bluebeard) and future Oscar winners Billy Wilder (Sunset Boulevard, Ace in the Hole) and Fred Zinneman (High Noon, A Man for All Seasons). This effervescent, sunlit silent film, about a handful of city dwellers enjoying a weekend outing (a charming cast of nonprofessionals), offers a rare glimpse of Weimar-era Berlin. A unique hybrid of documentary and fictional storytelling, People on Sunday was both an experiment and a mainstream hit that would influence generations of film artists around the world.
Commentator Noah Isenberg is Professor of Culture and Media at the New School’s Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, in New York City, where he teaches film history, theory, and criticism and also serves as the director of Screen Studies. He holds a joint appointment in the multi-disciplinary M.A. program in Liberal Studies at the New School for Social Research. The author, most recently, of Edgar G. Ulmer: A Filmmaker at the Margins (California, 2014), which the New York Times hailed as “a page turner of a biography” and the Huffington Post selected among its Best Film Books of 2014, his other books include Detour (British Film Institute, 2008) and, as editor, Weimar Cinema: An Essential Guide to Classic Films of the Era (Columbia, 2009), which was named a Choice Outstanding Academic Title. His latest book, We’ll Always Have ‘Casablanca’: The Life, Legend, and Afterlife of Hollywood’s Most Beloved Movie, will be published in early 2017 by W.W. Norton in the U.S. and by Faber & Faber in the U.K. His introduction to the reissue of Vicki Baum’s bestselling novel of 1929 Grand Hotel is now out from New York Review of Books Classics.
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Leafly : https://www.leafly.ca
Cannabis Under the Volcano: A Visit to the Naples Hemp Fair
Posted By Enrico Fletzer On October 26, 2016 @ 12:57 pm In Lifestyle | 1 Comment
Enrico Fletzer
Scenic picture-postcard view of the beautiful town of Amalfi at famous Amalfi Coast with Gulf of Salerno, Campania, Italy.
The number of cannabis and hemp fairs in Italy has skyrocketed in recent years. The biggest in southern Italy, Canapa in Mostra
, was held in Naples this month. Under the shadow of Vesuvius, the region’s 1,277-meter-tall active volcano, crowds flocked to the event for entertainment, dynamic conference speakers, and roughly 90 different exhibitors.
Opening the fair, which ran Oct. 14–16, was the charismatic mayor of Naples, Luigi de Magistris, who has signaled his openness to cannabis as an industrial resource, medicine, and source of inspiration. His support curried favor within the cannabis community, and organizers presented De Magistris with a 3D-printed crown of hemp leaves, embellished with 22-karat gold hemp leaf.
Hopes are high that De Magistris could help fuel a soft revolution in Naples. His approach is certainly different from the past. His predecessor, Rosa Russo Jervolino, was responsible for an anti-cannabis law during his time as minister of domestic affairs. The law so disgusted the Italian people that the country passed a referendum in 1993 to fully decriminalize cannabis use.
“There's a lot of prejudice on the subject of hemp, often even with professionals in the judiciary, the police, and doctors.”
Luigi de Magistris, mayor of Naples
De Magistris’s crown was intended “to honor his open stance and efforts for the cannabis community and industry,” said the two men who came up with the idea, cannabis entrepreneur Nol van Schaik and Marco Manfredini, the founder of Cannabistró, a fashionable hemp bar and Neapolitan restaurant.
Italy’s legal hemp economy is growing fast: The country is now Europe’s third-largest producer after France and Lithuania, with 2,070 hectares harvested in 2015. There are roughly 120 farms growing hemp in southern Italy as well as dozens of paper manufacturers and other processors. Kanèsis of Sicily produces bio-plastics from hemp, and one of the bigger players, South Hemp Tecno, opened a hemp processing plant
in Crispiano Taranto in 2014 that’s widely considered the best in Italy.
Public opinion and media coverage are evolving along with the industry. Ten years ago, the Fumero cannabis shop was discredited by the media as “a new shop where drug addicts could find replacement organs.” These days the same publications seem much more open to cannabis becoming part of the mainstream. All this is unfolding as Naples works to reinvent itself as an open, modern, and tolerant city.
Is Legalization Coming to Naples, Home of Mafia-Controlled Cannabis?
The shifting opinions were evident at Canapa in Mostra. School students came to the fair to study the cannabis industry, and a hundred medical doctors were on hand for an official medical cannabis qualification course taught by University of Salerno professor Di Fulco and Ettore Novellino, president of the pharmacy faculty of the University of Naples Federico II. Another noteworthy presentation was that of a book, Canapa in Tesi, containing edited dissertations on medical and recreational cannabis by eight Italian students, with an introduction by Dr. Michael Carus of the European Industrial Hemp Association.
On a lighter note, the outdoor portion of the festivities featured concerts, hemp beers, hemp pizzas, and real cannabis joints. Ivan Artugovish, a cannabis artist living in a remote valley of Switzerland, presented a cartoon exhibition and used the fair to launch a cultivation-focused card game called Growerz
Mayor De Magistris told reporters he was proud to host the fair in his city. “There’s a lot of prejudice on the subject of hemp,” he said
, “often even with professionals in the judiciary, the police, and doctors. Canapa in Mostra focuses on knowledge, research and analysis. You can do business with hemp and overturn the concepts of development and progress, through respect, equality, and nature.”
Born in Venice, Enrico Fletzer began work as a journalist in the free radio movement and has gone on to write for newspapers and magazines in Europe and North America. He has translated books and films on cannabis and has participated in research in Bologna, Europe's former hemp capital, that led to the Italian Army's cannabis program. He is a member of the Steering Committee of Encod, the European Coalition for Just and Effective Drug Policies.
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Canada’s Prime Minister Wants to Save This Place From Oil Tankers
The plan to bring tar sands oil through the Great Bear Rainforest isn’t dead yet. TakePart Journeys explores an alternative source of local development: tourism.
TakePart.com | Dec. 30, 2015
Greg Shea knelt down and inspected several football-size mounds of upturned earth. “This is fresh,” he said in a whisper. “That’s bears digging for roots.” He paused, looking around as if inspecting a crime scene, senses heightened for clues. “They were probably just here.”
The sky was beginning to brighten on an October morning at the end of a long fjord on the northern British Columbia coast. Shea, captain of the Maple Leaf, a 92-foot sailboat that brings tourists to remote wilderness areas, and first mate Skye Maitland had motored eight passengers to shore in skiffs to explore a mucky estuary in search of wildlife.
“A wolf pack has been using this area pretty extensively,” he said. Tall and athletic, with a shock of boisterous blond curls, he gestured to the salmon carcasses strewn along the banks of a creek. “You see how all the salmon have their heads ripped off?” he said. “Basically the wolves will wait right here and pluck ’em out of the stream.” We tiptoed through the long grass on a path tamped down by the pack. Sitka spruce and cedar trees presided over the scene, resplendent in sleeves of moss. Nearby, fresh grizzly and wolf tracks crisscrossed a muddy hollow.
“You guys! Over there!” Shea whispered hoarsely. A couple hundred feet away, a grizzly bear reared up out of the meadow, standing probably over eight feet tall. I froze as fear rippled through my body, my unblinking eyes trained on the massive creature. The bear eyed us and sniffed for one crystalline moment, then returned to all fours and resumed clawing at the ground for roots. After a few minutes, it reared up again and spooked, disappearing into the trees. Before I could wonder what happened, a huge gray wolf materialized from the edge of the forest. It spotted us, paused, then sprinted after the bear. The wolf moved so fluidly and vanished so fast I almost wondered if I had conjured it from the dark corners of my imagination.
“That was probably a scout,” said Shea. “Where there’s one, you know there’s more.” Coastal wolves, he explained, occasionally hunt grizzly bears, teaming up and nipping at their haunches, sometimes for days, until the bears bleed to death. I was so immersed in the scene, I temporarily forgot myself, and Shea must have noticed my starry-eyed stare. “Being out here almost creates a bit of an addiction,” he said, his eyes lit with the thrill of the encounter. “You never know what’s going to happen.”
“Here” was the Great Bear Rainforest, a wild expanse of coastal British Columbia bigger than West Virginia that reaches from about 250 miles northwest of Vancouver to the border with Southeastern Alaska. It’s the largest remaining swath of intact temperate rainforest in the world, a kingdom of old-growth forests that harbor grizzlies, wolves, eagles, and rare white spirit bears. Thanks to a collision of landforms 9 million years ago, the coastline is crenellated with inlets, bays, and islands, which were then flattened and carved by glaciers. On a chart, the waterways look like the veins and arteries of some mysterious creature. Immersed in the landscape, the waters quiver with life—harbor seals, sea lions, dolphins, orcas, otters, and birds by the thousands. On occasion, there are so many humpbacks, the surface of the water smokes with whale breath.
As with any landscape of abundance, the Great Bear Rainforest has been targeted by extractive industries over the years. In the 17th and 18th centuries, international fur-trading ships hunted otters nearly to extinction—from an estimated 300,000 to a few hundred. Logging companies have tried to clear-cut swaths of the forest, meeting fierce resistance among environmental groups and activists from the indigenous communities, known as First Nations. Unsustainable commercial fishing operations, salmon farming, trophy hunting, offshore oil and gas exploration, and fossil fuel transport have also threatened the region’s ecosystems.
Now, it is facing arguably its greatest threat to date. In 2008, Enbridge, a Calgary-based energy infrastructure company, publicly proposed a $7.9 billion, 730-mile pipeline that would transport diluted bitumen, known as dilbit, from the tar sands of Alberta, the world’s third-largest oil reserve, to Kitimat, a remote First Nations port on the northern British Columbia coast. Dilbit is the same stuff that the Keystone XL pipeline, which President Obama rejected in November, would have transported from Alberta to Texas. Tar sands oil is a particularly carbon-intensive fossil fuel, so thick that to be transported it must be diluted—usually with carcinogenic toxins including benzene, which can pollute land and groundwater far beyond where it spills.
The Northern Gateway Pipeline would transport up to 525,000 barrels per day. From there, tankers would carry the crude to Asian markets. Proponents say that Northern Gateway would bring 3,000 construction jobs and 560 long-term jobs to British Columbia, infusing the economy with an estimated $32 million annually. Perhaps more important, it would provide the landlocked tar sands oil with new lucrative markets. Ninety-nine percent of Canada’s oil is now sold to the United States at deeply discounted prices because it effectively has nowhere else to go; supporters say access to new markets would boost Canada’s economy while reducing gas prices in the U.S. (though others have cast doubt on the claim). In 2014, Canada’s National Energy Board, under a conservative-led federal government, green-lit the project with 209 conditions, causing an uproar.
Critics say that the pipeline would run near sensitive forests and streams and that the proposed marine route to the Pacific would force 1,000-foot-long tankers, each loaded with as many as 2 million barrels of dilbit, to navigate narrow channels and complex shorelines mined with rocks and islets. Enbridge claims that stringent shipping standards and pipeline safety protocols would minimize the risk of a spill, but greens and many locals believe there is no acceptable risk.
On a broader level, climate scientists say that if we have any hope of preventing the worst effects of climate change, the oil from the tar sands must stay in the earth. A groundswell of British Columbians, including many First Nations bands, have unified against the pipeline, raising enough funds through film screenings, coffeehouse concerts, yoga classes, and other grassroots efforts for seven of them to fight the approval in court. A number of environmental organizations have also filed lawsuits to stop Northern Gateway.
On Nov. 13, a week after President Obama rejected Keystone XL, Canada’s newly elected prime minister, Justin Trudeau, asked his ministers to formalize a moratorium on oil tankers on the northern B.C. coast. With no way to transport the crude by sea, a pipeline would seem pointless. Environmental groups lauded the decision as the death knell for Northern Gateway, but an Enbridge spokesman said the company would continue to pursue it. A moratorium is an effective tool, but it is only as good as the administration that upholds it—and the permit has no expiration date. The First Nations case is now before the Federal Court of Appeal, which is expected to make a decision in 2016.
“We still have to kill that National Energy Board permit,” said Susan Smitten, executive director of RAVEN, a small nonprofit that raises funds for First Nations legal defense. “There’s still work to be done. Now is the time. Now is our window.”
I signed up for a nine-day trip on the Maple Leaf, a 1904 mahogany schooner with two masts, four sails, and brass fittings, to see the fjords and bays, the First Nations communities, and the abundant wildlife that would be affected by tanker traffic and the risk of a spill if Northern Gateway ever proceeds—and what would be protected if it doesn’t. I also came to experience ecotourism, which many on the coast are advocating as a more sustainable alternative to the boom-and-bust extractive development that has marred aspects of the region for decades.
In mid-October, on a 19-seat turboprop, I arrived in the morning in Bella Bella, a settlement of about 1,500 members of the Heiltsuk Nation. I was to meet the Maple Leaf at the marina that afternoon. On a bay rimmed with mountains, Bella Bella is little more than a crowd of unruly houses—square weather-beaten clapboards, some with trash in the yard. It’s a town that resists romanticization, but there was also a friendliness among the people so strong it surprised me. Just about every driver waved as I walked down the road. One even offered me a ride to the nation’s administrative building, where I was hoping to catch Marilyn Slett, the chief councillor of the Heiltsuk Tribal Council.
In an office overlooking the bay, Slett, a soft-spoken woman with an air of serene capability, told me stories illustrating the Heiltsuk’s committment to protecting their territory. In the spring, a group of matriarchs and other tribal members occupied the local office of Fisheries and Oceans Canada for days with their sleeping bags, demanding an end to the unsustainable commercial harvest of herring, an important traditional food. They succeeded in stopping that fishery from operating in 2015 and are in talks to improve policies for the future.
Slett and others have been leading the opposition to Northern Gateway, and a few years ago an environmental organization invited her on an aerial tour of Alberta’s tar sands, a 1,850-square-mile expanse of open-pit mines and other infrastructure. She didn’t really want to go at first, but a friend told her she had to see for herself what they were dealing with.
“We were up in the air for about 45 minutes, and we still didn’t see everything,” she said. Slett and the others met with a group of elders from the Fort McKay First Nation, who warned them against allowing a pipeline through their B.C. home. “Because Fort McKay, they’re literally surrounded with the tar sands,” said Slett. “You could smell it when you’re there, even inside.” The elders told her they couldn’t hunt, or pick berries, or fish in their river “because their fish are all deformed.” She was told about the community’s high rates of cancer.
“I felt really sad after leaving those elders because they were basically the last people of their community that ever experienced fishing, hunting, berry picking,” she said, looking out the window over the water and the mountains. “We can’t let that happen.”
That afternoon, I boarded the Maple Leaf and gazed over the whole bay from the middle of it. I was more aware than usual of the moment’s context in time. In my mind’s eye, I fast-forwarded a few dozen years to a moment when, if the pipeline and tankers came to be, this place might look and feel very different. But here I am now, I thought, when the land and sea are still reasonably whole, and there is still the opportunity both to enjoy it all and to act. It seemed, in a sense, a gift.
The next day, seven passengers—retirees from Oregon and southern B.C., three German men in their 40s, and a couple from Australia—and I woke around dawn in Morehouse Bay and motored in Zodiacs—small, inflatable, flat-bottom boats used to make landings where there are no docks or moorings—to a nearby island. The water was still as tea and the air cold enough to turn our breath to steam. All around, hills clad in mossy spruce, cedar, and hemlock cascaded into the sea.
“We tell people to look for the golf balls in the trees,” said Maitland, the tall, young, Viking-blond first mate, as she steered the outboard motor and braced against the wind. I scanned the trees, and sure enough, the gleaming white heads of several bald eagles dotted the canopy like suspended golf balls. At the end of the bay, we stepped ashore onto seaweed-slicked rocks. Shea splashed a bucket of seawater on one boulder and magically the outlines of ancient petroglyphs appeared—figures with big round eyes, huge salmon with elegant, arcing tails.
A recent dig led by Hakai Institute and University of Victoria archaeologists discovered footprints in the area that date to 13,200 years ago. If further study confirms the dating, the footprints are the oldest in North America—and the second oldest in all of the Americas after a site in Chile.
After breakfast in the galley in the bow of the ship, we motored north. (These inlets are so protected sailors often don’t have enough wind to gather speed.) Cool sunshine illuminated the granite shoreline. A sea otter floated on its back in a kelp garden. Three humpbacks broke through the surface a few hundred feet from the ship, exhaling and bugling. Their flukes gracefully curled before disappearing into the black. A pod of three orcas traveled up the coast at speed, almost outpacing the ship. Their dorsal fins rose six feet out of the water.
In Salmon Bay, we clambered into the Zodiacs and puttered to shore as another trio—harbor seals, this time—poked their heads up and eyed us. Harmless moon jellies hung in the water like straying celestial bodies, and I counted 10 bald eagles between trees and sky. Walking up the estuary and into the forest, the sharp smell of decaying salmon arose. Their spent bodies littered the streams as the living patrolled the shallows, their fins breaking the surface—a reminder of the cycles of nutrients that support the entire landscape.
Later, on the Maple Leaf, I wandered into the wheelhouse, where Shea was poring over a monitor with digital charts as he guided the ship up Mathieson Channel. He zoomed out on the chart and pointed to all the rocks in Caamaño Sound that the tankers would need to negotiate. “On a clear day, it wouldn’t be a big deal,” he said, because you could easily see them. “But in a storm there would be breakers.” He zoomed out to show the possible routes out to open ocean.
“This here, Hecate Strait, is a notorious body of water,” he said, pointing to the screen. “With the shallows and southeast winds and current, all these things lined up the right way cause the seas to build to enormous size. Even the captains themselves are probably intimidated.”
A few days later, in Klemtu, a remote Kitasoo and Xai’Xais village of about 400, we pulled up to the dock and went ashore to visit a huge cedar community hall that smelled of deep, wet forests and hosted potlatches—celebrations once banned by an intolerant government—that lasted until the small hours. That evening, Doug Neasloss, the Kitasoo Band’s chief councillor and resource director, visited for dinner. (The Maple Leaf maintains relationships with many locals.) Neasloss, who sports a shaved head, a mustache, and a soul patch, has led efforts in his community to stop the Northern Gateway Pipeline and to end trophy hunting of grizzly bears in its territory; many First Nations have outlawed the practice, but British Columbia continues to issue permits for it. (Unlike most other indigenous groups in North America, many of the nations on the northern B.C. coast were never conquered. They never ceded lands and never signed treaties, which makes matters of jurisdiction a gray area.) The crew and guests gathered on the deck to hear Neasloss speak.
“We’re just trying to beat off all these big industries that want to come in and log it all out, fish it all out, transport oil and gas through our territories—it’s absolutely crazy what’s going on,” he said, standing next to the foremast. First Nations citizens living on reserves have much lower rates of employment than the national average; the need for economic development is pressing, and it’s easy to understand the temptation of extractive schemes. Yet, the First Nations in this area are unwavering in their opposition to the pipeline. “There are just a lot of unanswered questions,” Neasloss said. How would tanker traffic affect wildlife? How would the acoustic noise affect whales? What about gray-water discharge? We’re trying to send a strong message to the government to say they can’t push big projects without consulting First Nations.”
Neasloss has also led efforts to develop more sustainable forms of economic development in his community, particularly tourism. Fifteen years ago, he became one of the community’s first tour guides, taking visitors out into the forests to see spirit bears. Over time, the bears became so comfortable with him, they’d try to hide behind him in fights. One even approached and sniffed him from inches away. In 2007, he spearheaded the development of Spirit Bear Lodge, now the second-largest employer in the town after commercial fishing. As a result, Klemtu is the most-employed First Nations town in Canada on a per-capita basis.
Other coastal communities have also observed the power of tourism and are developing ventures. Four years ago, the Haida Enterprise Corporation bought Westcoast Resorts, a network of high-end fishing and ecotourism lodges. The Gitga’at run tour operations in Hartley Bay, and the Heiltsuk have identified ecotourism as a development priority. A study on the value of bear-viewing tourism versus trophy hunting led by the Center for Responsible Travel and Stanford University found that just bear-viewing tourists alone, only in the Great Bear Rainforest, bring in about $15.1 million annually, supporting more than 500 jobs. In all of British Columbia, tourism generated about $14 billion in revenue in 2013. “They’re undervaluing tourism here,” said Neasloss, as we made our way into the galley for dinner. “It’s huge.”
Beyond the economic benefits, I was beginning to see other boons to tourism managed sustainably. In 1986, when it opened as a tour operator after many years as a halibut long liner, Maple Leaf was the first ecotourism ship in the Great Bear Rainforest. A sailor named Kevin Smith bought the company in 2001 and still runs it as a conservation-focused company—from small measures such as only serving wild-caught salmon to a shareholder contract that empowers Smith to make decisions prioritizing the environment over the bottom line. Along with other tour operators, he started a program in which they pay First Nations a per-person per-day fee that funds a watchmen program that sends locals out in aluminum boats to protect their territories from trophy bear hunting, illegal fishing, and other concerns.
But one of the most powerful and undersung benefits of tourism is the value of showing people from around the world what there is to conserve here. “People will only protect what they love, and they have to get to know a place to be able to love it,” Smith told me after my trip. “We don’t shy away from telling the true stories of what’s going on. We don’t sugarcoat it and turn it into McTourism and say that everything’s fine and dandy. We want people to see and understand everything.” Smith says that on multiple occasions, guests felt so attached to the place that they donated huge grants to local nonprofits. Leafing through the guest book one day, one entry caught my eye.
“I was ambivalent about the possible effect of oil tankers on the coast, versus the economic value of the oil to the country,” wrote a guest on May 13. “No longer! I needed to see for myself and am convinced that no risk is acceptable.”
Over the week, I spent long hours on the deck, wrapped in down and Gore-Tex, as the scenery unfurled—simple, pleasing tableaux of blue, green, and white punctuated by whales and sea lions. Bald-headed mountains rose out of the water. For hours, I watched the fog move—rising and falling, swirling like smoke, and flattening over the trees. Come evening, I ventured out to see fistfuls of stars reflecting perfectly in the black sea.
There is great hope, with the recent move to enact a moratorium on oil tankers on the northern B.C. coast, that the Northern Gateway Pipeline will soon wither. Even if the Federal Court of Appeal releases a decision in 2016 favorable to First Nations or Enbridge abandons the pipeline, I suspect that this relatively intact, abundant place will always field threats, which makes alternative sustainable development all the more urgent for those who call the Great Bear Rainforest home.
One morning, toward the end of the trip, we motored in the Zodiacs to some overhanging cliffs marked with faded red-tinted pictographs, likely centuries old. I sat there in the peaceful gloom of an overcast dawn, tilting my head to get a better look at the smudges and dots that remained. Some even looked vaguely humanoid. Before shortsighted industries discovered the region, people managed to live on these difficult but abundant shores for 13,000 years—or maybe longer. What, I wondered, could we learn from them?
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Bono Says Spending Cuts To U.S. Development Aid Would Harm Global Health Efforts
Speaking at the World Bank on Wednesday, “Irish rock star and anti-poverty activist Bono said thousands of people could die from AIDS if the United States cuts development assistance to reduce the budget deficit,” Reuters reports. Bono is in “Washington this week to urge politicians to spare U.S. development aid, as Congress is embroiled in negotiations aimed at preventing looming tax hikes and spending cuts known as the ‘fiscal cliff,'” the news agency writes. Citing “figures from amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research,” Bono said “a shrinking U.S. budget for global health would leave more than 275,000 people without treatment for the autoimmune disease, leading to 63,000 more AIDS-related deaths,” the news service writes (Yukhananov, 11/14). “We know there’s going to be cuts. … We understand that. But not cuts that cost lives,” Bono said, according to the Wall Street Journal (11/14). “Bono … also spoke to World Bank President Jim Yong Kim on Wednesday about the need for transparent data to fight corruption, and the deadline for eliminating poverty,” Reuters adds (11/14). “According to Bono, who peppered his serious speech with jokes, guaranteeing transparency would be the biggest ‘turbo-charger’ to the fight against extreme poverty,” the Manila Bulletin reports (11/15). Business Insider provides video footage of Bono’s discussion with Kim (Ro, 11/14).
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The first two solar parks under the World Bank’s Shared Infrastructure for Solar Parks Project are in Rewa and Mandsaur districts of Madhya Pradesh, with targeted installed capacities of 750 MW and 250 MW respectively. Photo: Mint
India, World Bank ink $98 million loan pact for renewable energy
1 min read . Updated: 20 Nov 2017, 07:50 PM IST PTI
The Shared Infrastructure for Solar Parks Project will finance IREDA to provide sub-loans to states to invest in various solar parks, World Bank says
IndiaWorld Bankrenewable energyrenewable energy loanssolar parkssolar power plantsRewaMandsaurMadhya PradeshShared Infrastructure for Solar Parks ProjectIREDA
New Delhi: India and the World Bank on Monday signed a $98 million loan pact, and a $2 million grant agreement to help the country increase power generation capacity through cleaner, renewable energy sources.
The Shared Infrastructure for Solar Parks Project will finance Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Ltd (IREDA), to provide sub-loans to states to invest in various solar parks, the World Bank said in a statement. The solar parks will be mostly under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy’s (MNRE) Solar Park Scheme, it said.
The first two solar parks are in the Rewa and Mandsaur districts of Madhya Pradesh, with targeted installed capacities of 750 MW and 250 MW respectively, it said. Other states where potential solar parks could be supported under this project are in Odisha, Chhattisgarh, and Haryana.
The government is committed to setting up an enabling environment for solar technology penetration in the country, said Sameer Kumar Khare—Joint Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs. “This Project will help establish large-scale solar parks and support the government’s plan to install 100 gigawatts (GW) of solar power out of a total renewable-energy target of 175 GW by 2022," he said in the statement.
The IREDA will utilise the funding under this project to develop the common infrastructure such as power pooling substations, intra-park transmission infrastructure and provide access to roads, water supply and drainage. While some states intend to provide a full range of infrastructure services to the selected private or public sector developers, others plan to provide only pooling stations to facilitate internal evacuation.
With about 331 GW of installed capacity, India’s power system is among the largest in the world. Yet, the per capita electricity consumption is less than one-third of the global average. An estimated 300 million people are not connected to the national electrical grid, the statement said, adding that with a rapidly growing economy the need for reliable power is only going to grow.
The $75 million loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), has a 5-year grace period, and a maturity of 19 years. The $23 million loan from the Clean Technology Fund (CTF) has a 10-year grace period, and a maturity of 40 years. The $2 million is an interest-free CTF grant.
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Metals CHANGE TOPIC
Home » Metals and alloys » News » Scientists blow hot and cold to produce single-crystal metal
Scientists blow hot and cold to produce single-crystal metal
This image shows how the heat treatment causes a grain in the metal alloy to grow rapidly into a large single crystal. Image: Toshihiro Omori (via Nature Communications).
A new heating method for certain metals could lead to improved earthquake-resistant construction materials.
A Japanese team led by researchers from Tohoku University has found a cost-effective way to improve the properties of some 'shape memory' metals, known for their ability to return to their original shape after being deformed. The method could pave the way for the mass production of these improved metals for a variety of applications, including earthquake-resistant construction materials.
Most metals are made of a large number of crystals. In some cases, however, the properties of metals improve when they are formed of a single crystal, but single-crystal metals are expensive to produce.
The researchers have now developed a cheaper production method that takes advantage of a phenomenon known as 'abnormal grain growth'. Using this method, a metal's multiple 'grains', or crystals, grow irregularly, some at the expense of others, when it is exposed to heat.
The team's technique employs several cycles of heating and cooling to induce the growth of a single-crystal metal bar 70cm in length and 15mm in diameter, which is very large compared to the sizes of current shape-memory alloy bars. This makes it suitable for building and civil engineering applications, says Toshihiro Omori from Tohoku University, the lead researcher of the study.
To produce the large single-crystal metal bar, a metal alloy is heated to 900°C then cooled to 500°C, five times. This is followed by four cycles of heating to 740°C then cooling to 500°C. Finally, the metal is heated one last time to 900°C. All these heating/cooling cycles are required to produce the single-crystal metal.
The alloy used by the researchers, which is made of copper, aluminium and manganese, is a well-known shape memory metal that is easy to cut with machines. Increasing the size of the metal's crystals drastically enhances its elasticity, while altering their shape makes the metal quite strong. With these combined features, the metal could prove of use for building structures that can withstand earthquakes.
"Since the present technique is advantageous for mass production of single crystals because of the simplicity of the process, this finding opens the way for applications of shape-memory single crystals for structural materials, such as for seismic applications in buildings and bridges," conclude the researchers in a paper on this work in Nature Communications.
This story is adapted from material from Tohoku University, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier. Link to original source.
Evolution under wind yields continuous single crystal graphene films
“Self-selection” method for growing large single-crystal-like graphene films.
30 March 2018Laurie Donaldson
Novel nickelate crystal poised for superconductivity
A novel nickel oxide compound is an unconventional but promising candidate material for high-temperature superconductivity.
Large perovskite single crystals take it slow
simple method produces centimeter-sized single crystals of organolead halide perovskites
23 October 2018Cordelia Sealy
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More powerful storms pound several central U.S. states
PIEDMONT, Okla. - In storm-weary middle America, many people counted themselves lucky Thursday after powerful storms swept through the region for the third time in four days but apparently claimed no lives.
Dozens of people were injured, mobile homes were flipped and roofs were torn off houses when tornadoes and thunderstorms hit Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and other states Wednesday evening.
Early Thursday, forecasters withdrew a slew of tornado watches in the South and said the heavy weather that pounded the Midwest in recent days had finally receded. Nevertheless, violent storms could not be ruled out elsewhere.
In southern Indiana, residents used flashlights to check on their homes, barns and neighbors near Bloomington after powerful winds overturned two mobile homes. Crews worked overnight to clear uprooted trees and downed power lines after a tornado touched down in a mostly rural area about 25 miles south, near Bedford.
Authorities began assessing the storm damage after daybreak, tallying up the number of homes damaged and destroyed. More than a dozen people were injured, including several children, but those living in the most affected areas said they were relieved no one was killed.
Brad Taylor, who lives in a mobile home park near Bloomington where one trailer was toppled and another was destroyed, said he, his wife and their two children rode out the storm by hiding in a closet. The trailer lost some siding and a window was blown out, but it was still standing.
"I'm just thankful everybody's alive," Taylor said.
A neighbor, 19-year-old Brandon Arthur, said he has never been so scared.
"All I know is the power went out, the trailer started shaking and I looked out the window and there was green lightning," said Arthur, whose trailer survived except for its wooden deck.
Marie Mason, who owns the trailer park with her ex-husband, Sam Mason, looked bewildered as she sifted through the debris of his trailer for a cell phone. She wanted to call him in the Philippines to tell him what happened. Moments later, neighbors found his dog dead in a nearby field, and she knelt over the animal and cried.
Her son was bruised and bloodied by the storm, but was treated at a hospital and would be all right, she said.
"The good thing is everybody's here to talk about it," Marie Mason said. "I've got a lot to be grateful for. Things can be replaced. People can't."
Wednesday's storms followed a deadly outbreak of violent weather a day earlier in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kansas that killed at least 16 people, including a 3-year-old Oklahoma boy whose body was found along a lakeshore near his home Thursday. On Sunday, the nation's deadliest single tornado since the National Weather Service started keeping records in 1950 killed 125 in the southwest Missouri city of Joplin.
The weather service canceled tornado watches and warnings for most of Mississippi, northwestern Alabama and central Kentucky on Thursday. Jared Guyer, a forecaster at the NOAA National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center, in Norman, Okla., said the situation had calmed to a "relative lull."
"We don't have any existing watches," Guyer said Thursday. "There is a severe threat, but not on the magnitude of the last few days."
He said the Appalachians, parts of the Southeastern U.S., and the upper Ohio Valley into the northeastern U.S. remained at "severe risk."
A tornado damaged several homes and businesses Wednesday afternoon in the central Missouri city of Sedalia, causing minor injuries to as many as 25 people. Officials said most of the injured were able to get themselves to the hospital for treatment.
"Considering the destruction that occurred in Joplin - being that we're in tornado alley and Sedalia has historically been hit by tornadoes in the past - I think people heeded that warning," Pettis County Sheriff Kevin Bond said. "And so, I think that helped tremendously."
Sedalia ended its school year several days early because the school buses were damaged.
Sean McCabe was rushing to the basement of his mother's home in Sedalia when the tornado struck and shoved him down the final flight of steps. The 30-year-old suffered scrapes and cuts on his hands, wrists, back and feet. He said neighbors and firefighters helped him get out.
Most of the roof was ripped off the house, which was among the more heavily damaged homes in the area. McCabe, who has a service dog for epilepsy, said both his family's dogs survived, including one found muddy and wet about a block away.
Elsewhere in the hard-hit neighborhood, law officers stood on corners and electrical crews worked on power lines. Numerous trees were down, and tarps were covering some houses while others were missing chunks of their roofs. People were cleaning debris and sifting through belongings.
Heavy rain, hail and lightning pounded Memphis on Wednesday night as a tornado warning sounded. There were no confirmed reports of tornadoes touching down.
Elsewhere in Tennessee, strong winds from thunderstorms damage homes and wrecked a convenience store in Smithville, about 55 miles east of Nashville. The Rutherford County emergency management director reported a possible tornado southeast of Murfreesboro just before midnight.
In Illinois, strong winds, rain and at least four possible tornadoes knocked down power lines and damaged at least one home and a number of farm buildings across the central and eastern parts of the state.
"Mostly it was shingles off roofs and garages," said Illinois Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Patti Thompson.
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Report: Schools distort numbers to meet Title IX
Many Division I schools are distorting the number of students participating in sports so they can comply with Title IX, The New York Times reported Tuesday. Among the tactics is to pad rosters of women’s teams with unqualified players or even men.
The newspaper found schools counted athletes who no longer wanted to compete or never played for that team, listing male practice players as women and trimming the rosters of men’s teams.
The Times analyzed public records from more than 20 colleges and universities and federal participation statistics from all 345 institutions at the NCAA’s highest level.
“Those of us in the business know that universities have been end-running Title IX for a long time, and they do it until they get caught,” University of Miami President Donna Shalala told the paper.
National champion Texas A&M and Duke are among the elite women’s basketball teams that take advantage of a federal loophole that allows them to report male practice players as female participants, the report said.
Passed in 1972, Title IX is a federal law that bans sex discrimination in schools and opened academic and sports opportunities for women.
Schools can comply in one of three ways:
— show proportionality of female athletes to female students on campus.
—demonstrate a history of increasing sports for women.
—prove it has met the interest and ability of the underrepresented group.
Women have grown to 53 percent of the student body at Division I schools, yet make up 46 percent of all athletes.
Instead of putting money into new women’s teams or trimming the rosters of football, which can have 111 players, some schools are engaging in “roster management,” the Times said. Shrinking budgets can prompt such an approach.
“It’s easier to add more people on a roster than it is to start a new sport,” said Jake Crouthamel, a former Syracuse athletic director.
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Fabricio Paulino de Melo: just call him Fab!
JOHN KEKIS
SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Maybe it was tough love from his college coach during a disappointing freshman year. Maybe it was playing overseas for his native Brazil. Maybe it was just wanting to please his mom.
Or maybe it was all that and more that transformed Fabricio Paulino de Melo into just plain Fab - the 7-foot center who made Syracuse an imposing team last season and now dons the famed uniform of the Boston Celtics hoping to leave his mark on the NBA. He was the 22nd pick in the NBA draft on Thursday night, a week after his 22nd birthday.
"Any time a guy only started playing basketball seriously about three or four years ago, there is some learning curve," Celtics assistant general manager Ryan McDonough said. "But we're encouraged by his ability to learn."
Melo, who left Syracuse after being declared ineligible in March for the NCAA tournament, watched the draft from Florida with family and friends. He said he was happy to be a Celtic and will have a familiar face around when he takes the practice floor. Former Orange teammate Kris Joseph also was picked by Boston.
"He's proud of where he's at today," said Adam Ross, Melo's former coach at The Sagemont School, a small private institution in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. "It hasn't been a smooth ride - he's had some bumps in the road - but he's managed to fight his way through all that stuff. He's done well for himself."
It's difficult to fathom the journey.
Melo's dad died of a heart attack when he was a toddler, and when Melo was a teenager his mother, Regina, decided that her son should leave his hometown of Juiz de Fora, an industrial city of about a half million people just north of Rio de Janeiro, and sent him to Florida with a dream to chase and not a dime to spare.
"Imagine as a 17-year-old you packed your bags and flew to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to pursue your lifelong dream not knowing any Portuguese, not knowing what school or life in Brazil was like, and you did it without your parents or any kind of adult supervision," Ross said. "How do you think you would have done? Personally, I would have folded.
"It's just too much."
Not for Melo, who eventually landed at Sagemont and moved in with his host family, Albert and Amy Gamarra and their three young children.
"My kids loved him," Albert Gamarra said. "They look at him as their big brother. He's very family-oriented. Once the kids met him, they took to him right away."
So, too, did Melo's teammates the instant he ducked through the door at Sagemont. Even though he had only started playing basketball in ninth grade after his soccer coach decided Melo and his size-18 shoes had outgrown the sport most dear to his heart, he was greeted with a resounding "Yes!"
"Everyone was obviously impressed with his size," Ross said. "But once he was here, he was just another kid. He was clearly very talented. He needed some work, but he caught up very quickly. He was a soccer player and he was pretty good. You'd be shocked what he can still do with a soccer ball."
After sitting a year because of rules regarding international transfer students, Melo's budding basketball talent helped lead the Lions to a 24-7 record. He averaged 16 points, 12 rebounds and six blocks in his first full season in the United States and became a McDonald's All-American and a Parade All-American, a portent of what lay ahead.
Despite its snowy reputation and his tropical roots, Melo chose Syracuse over offers from Connecticut, Louisville, Miami and Florida State, partly, he said, because the weather was the only bad thing anyone ever said about the upstate New York town.
Ah, but that name proved a curse at the outset. The other Melo in Syracuse lore - New York Knicks star Carmelo Anthony - had led the Orange to their lone national championship in 2003 and great expectations were placed on the new one.
When the Big East preseason rookie of the year struggled as a freshman, Ross blamed himself. Unable to pronounce Melo's full name when the big Brazilian first arrived at Sagemont, Ross suggested an abridged version after mispronouncing it for six months.
"In some ways I felt responsible," Ross said. "We shortened it to Melo not knowing he was going to end up at Syracuse. In hindsight, I don't know if it was a good thing or a bad thing."
At first, it seemed like a good thing. Coach Jim Boeheim inserted Melo in the starting lineup for the 2010-11 opener, and though he started 24 games, Melo was not prepared for the pace and physical nature of the Big East. Overweight and not in the best of shape, he often gasped for breath and was unable to get up and down the court fast enough.
More often than not, Boeheim made Melo his prized pupil on the bench. Melo also found it difficult to deal with Boeheim's quick substitutions, missed two practices, and was benched. He ended his rookie season averaging 2.3 points and 1.9 rebounds and had only 25 blocks, then landed in City Court on a misdemeanor charge that summer after a fight with his girlfriend. (He was accused of breaking the turn-signal arm of his girlfriend's car during an argument, pleaded not guilty, and his record was sealed after he underwent counseling and stayed out of further trouble).
"It was more the pressure that I had to be like Carmelo Anthony," Melo said. "I will come in here and win a national championship for Syracuse. It was something I didn't expect. I think that was the toughest thing for me. I'm still new to the game."
Seemingly overnight, Melo morphed into a defensive monster. After playing last summer for Brazil's national team at the World University Games in China, he returned to school more than 30 pounds lighter and in the best shape of his life.
Despite a three-game suspension at midseason because of academics, Melo shot 56.6 percent from the field, averaged 7.8 points and 5.8 rebounds, and registered 88 blocks, probably altering three shots for every block, forcing opponents to take the types of shots they were not accustomed to taking. His presence in the middle of Boeheim's zone defense helped lead the Orange to No. 1 in the nation for six weeks and earned him Big East defensive player of the year honors. He also became adept at taking charges in the paint, which impressed the Celtics.
"Every rookie is unique," said Danny Ainge, president of basketball operations for the Celtics. "I know he can block shots. ... He both blocks shots and takes charges. That's unique for a big guy."
"If he played another year here, he'd probably make a bigger jump. His future is very much upside," Boeheim added.
Melo's coming-out party came against Seton Hall in the Big East opener in December. He registered a school-record 10 blocks and scored 12 points for his first career double-double. Without him in the postseason, the Orange fell short of expectations, losing to Ohio State in the final of the East Region.
"The difference in their team when he was on and off the court was fairly significant," McDonough said. "I think there'll be a little bit of learning curve there with Fab, not only because he played zone at Syracuse but he played soccer most of his life. Their coaches gave him great reviews, said he was a very quick learner.
"That's kind of what we saw, too, just from watching him as a freshman and his improvement this year."
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LymeDisease.org
UMaine awarded $1.17 million to protect forest workers from ticks
A team of University of Maine researchers has been awarded $1.17 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to develop and test land management practices to protect Maine forest workers from exposure to tick-borne diseases.
The three-year project, “Developing adaptive forest management practices to mitigate impacts of climate change on human health,” is being led by Allison Gardner, an assistant professor of arthropod vector biology, and Carly Sponarski, an assistant professor of human dimensions of wildlife and fisheries conservation.
Other UMaine researchers involved in the study are Jessica Leahy, a professor of human dimensions of natural resources, and Anne Lichtenwalner, a professor, veterinarian and director of the Animal Health Laboratory. Laura Kenefic, a research forester with the U.S. Forest Service Northern Research Station, also is working on the project.
By integrating natural and social science research, extension and education, the team aims to develop and test adaptive land management practices to protect private forest owners, foresters and loggers against exposure to tick-borne diseases. They also hope their recommendations will manage the spread and persistence of tick-borne diseases in Maine’s forests.
“Our forest management decisions can have dramatic effects on the abundance and behavior of vertebrate hosts of tick-borne pathogens and also the abiotic conditions that influence tick survival during the large proportion of the tick life cycle spent off-host,” Gardner says. “Because our state is dominated by forest land cover, it is important that Mainers understand the numerous ecosystem services provided by healthy forests, including buffering zoonotic disease transmission.”
Maine has experienced a fivefold increase in Lyme disease cases over the past decade, likely due to climate change and land use change, according to the researchers. The increase in cases combined with the high percentage of nonindustrial private land ownership in southern Maine, they say, provides an urgent need and a unique socio-ecological context to investigate the effects of forest management on infectious disease transmission.
“A lot of land is privately owned in Maine, creating a unique context for large landscape management practice,” Sponarski says. “We need to work together with private landowners to come to creative solutions on how to mitigate disease spread and keep people healthy.”
Forest workers are at particularly high risk of contracting tick-borne illnesses due to their frequent exposure to ticks. The team plans to conduct applied ecological research to understand the impact of timber harvesting on risk of exposure to tick-borne diseases.
They also plan to conduct applied social science research to understand the economic, environmental and production factors that influence private forest landowners’ decision-making processes related to land management and tick-borne disease prevention.
Results will be used to inform practical recommendations to mitigate the impacts of climate change on tick-borne disease transmission that are based on scientific data and compatible with landowners’ economic interests.
Other long-term goals of the study include understanding how land management can alter infectious disease transmission in the context of an urgent public health problem in the country; analyzing and forecasting how landowner decision-making may alter risk of human exposure to infectious disease on the front lines of climate change; and developing place-based, interdisciplinary education models to engage students and forest workers in promoting resilient agroecosystems and protecting community health while sustaining a robust forest product supply chain.
Funding for the project comes from the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) and is made possible through NIFA’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program, authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill.
Source: University of Maine news release.
Weak government response to ticks threatens public health
Hopkins awarded $10 million grant to pursue new Lyme treatments
NEWS: Chemical-free ways to protect your pets from ticks
Forest ecology shapes Lyme disease risk in eastern US
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Trump administration orders closure of Palestinian office
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration ordered the closure of the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Washington on Monday and threatened sanctions against the International Criminal Court if it pursues investigations against the U.S., Israel, or other allies. The moves are likely to harden Palestinian resistance to the U.S. role as a peace broker.
The administration cited the refusal of Palestinian leaders to enter into peace talks with Israel as the reason for closing the Palestinian Liberation Organization office, although the U.S. has yet to present its plan to resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict. The Palestinians accused the administration of dismantling decades of U.S. engagement with them.
Shortly after the State Department announcement, President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, launched a broadside against The Hague-based International Criminal Court. Bolton declared that the ICC “is already dead” to the U.S. He also threatened the court and its staff with sanctions if it proceeds with investigations into alleged war crimes by American troops in Afghanistan.
The closure of the PLO office — the latest in a series of moves targeting the Palestinians — was centered on the fact that no “direct and meaningful negotiations with Israel” are underway despite previous warnings, the State Department said. It said the decision was also in line with U.S. law, a reflection of congressional concerns and consistent with U.S. policy to oppose and punish Palestinian attempts to bring Israel before the ICC.
The administration had told the Palestinians last year that closure was a distinct possibility unless they agreed to sit to down with the Israelis. It has yet to release its own much-vaunted but largely unknown peace plan although it said it still intends to do so.
Instead of heeding the warning to resume talks, “PLO leadership has condemned a U.S. peace plan they have not yet seen and refused to engage with the U.S. government with respect to peace efforts and otherwise,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement. “As such, and reflecting congressional concerns, the administration has decided that the PLO office in Washington will close at this point.”
Bolton followed up in his address to The Federalist Society, a conservative, Washington-based think tank.
“The Trump administration will not keep the office open when the Palestinians refuse to take steps to start direct and meaningful negotiations with Israel,” he said. “The United States supports a direct and robust peace process, and we will not allow the ICC, or any other organization, to constrain Israel’s right to self-defense.”
Palestinian official Saeb Erekat said the move was “yet another affirmation of the Trump administration’s policy to collectively punish the Palestinian people, including by cutting financial support for humanitarian services including health and education.”
The Palestine Liberation Organization, commonly known as the PLO, formally represents all Palestinians. Although the U.S. does not recognize Palestinian statehood, the PLO has maintained in Washington a general delegation office that facilitates Palestinian officials’ interactions with the U.S. government.
The closure was just the latest move the administration has taken against the Palestinians and in favor of Israel.
Just last month, it canceled more than $200 million in aid for projects in the West Bank and Gaza as well as the remainder of its planned assistance for the U.N. agency that helps Palestinian refugees around the Middle East. Over the weekend, it announced it would cut $25 million in assistance for hospitals in east Jerusalem that provide critical care to Palestinian patients.
Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the U.S. Embassy there, from Tel Aviv, in May. That led Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to break off contact with U.S. officials for what he called pro-Israel bias, and the opening of the new embassy was met with large Palestinian protests in which dozens were killed.
“The United States continues to believe that direct negotiations between the two parties are the only way forward,” spokeswoman Nauert said in her statement. “This action should not be exploited by those who seek to act as spoilers to distract from the imperative of reaching a peace agreement.”
As for the ICC, Bolton questioned the legitimacy of the court and warned that the U.S. would thwart any attempt by its prosecutors to open investigations into Americans for alleged war crimes and other abuses in conflicts in Afghanistan or elsewhere. Bolton, a leading critic of the ICC said the Trump administration would impose sanctions on the court and take other measures to hamper its ability to function should it proceed with such probes.
“The United States will use any means necessary to protect our citizens and those of our allies from unjust prosecution by this illegitimate court,” Bolton said. “We will not cooperate with the ICC. We will provide no assistance to the ICC. We will not join the ICC. We will let the ICC die on its own. After all, for all intents and purposes, the ICC is already dead to us.”
Bolton said the U.S. would “not sit quietly” if the ICC came after it, Israel or other U.S. allies. He said ICC judges and prosecutors would be banned from coming to the U.S., their assets in U.S. jurisdictions would be frozen and they would face prosecution. Similar measures would be taken against any company or state that assists an ICC investigation of Americans, he said.
“No committee of foreign nations will tell us how to govern ourselves and defend our freedom,” he said.
The Clinton administration signed the Rome Statute that created the ICC but had serious concerns about the scope of the court’s jurisdiction and never sought ratification by the Senate, where there was broad bipartisan opposition to what lawmakers saw as a threat to U.S. sovereignty.
When George W. Bush took office in 2001, Bolton sought and received permission to travel to New York to ceremonially “unsign” the document at the United Nations.
Associated Press writer Ken Thomas contributed to this report.
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Venezuela through the Eyes of the Global North
By Gretel Kahn On Mar 11, 2019
Many in the West have become obsessed with Venezuela, whose complicated politics, history, economic and social dynamics are often reduced to simplistic narratives that attempt to explain the current crisis in ways that fits their ideological agenda. Conservatives commonly use the situation in Venezuela to push their free-market ideology by blaming the crisis on the adoption of socialist policies. For some leftists, the most recent developments in Venezuela are a Western imperialist ploy to out a democratically-elected socialist leader.
Both sides, however, fail to successfully account for the nuances of the current Venezuelan crisis. Instead the country is used as an object to promote the political ideology of each side. The narrowness of this dichotomy between left and right fails to account for the complexities of Venezuela, and the Latin American region on the whole including the historical contexts, economic variability, and political conditions that are inherently unique to the region.
The right-wing obsession over Venezuela is clear in conservative media headlines: “Venezuela is the socialist-wasteland that Ocasio-Cortez and fellow Democrats are leading the US towards”, “How socialism turned Venezuela from the wealthiest country in South America into an economic basket case”, “Venezuelan who escaped socialist nightmare slams Green New Deal”, among a myriad of others. Conservatives argue that socialism is what has plummeted Venezuela into a devastating humanitarian, economic and political crisis. The reality, however, is that the collapse of Venezuela is more nuanced than simply the adoption of socialist policies. The narrative of a complex geopolitical system, however, does not benefit the political agenda of those on the right that seek to denounce the dangers of socialism which is why the narrative remains consistent among conservative circles. I have unpacked and debunked the Global Right’s mythology on Venezuela previously, which is why the focus of this piece highlights the narratives perpetuated by the Global Left.
Despite the many accounts of human rights abuses, deteriorating quality of life, and wide-spread suppression of opposition voices, there are still a number of people in the Global Left that condone the authoritarianism of the Maduro regime. This tolerance comes largely from a desire to denounce American imperialism in the region, particularly in light of the US sponsored interventionist rampage of the 20th century that spread across Latin America.
This worldview, though, is grounded in reality. Looking back to years of U.S. interventions in the region and their support for many brutal right-wing military dictatorships, as well as the history the United States has of sponsoring coups to overthrow democratically elected leftist leaders such as Jacobo Arbenz in 1954 Guatemala and Salvador Allende in 1973 Chile. In the context of the Cold War, the U.S. viewed these leftist social movements that emerged in the region as a threat to their global hegemony and the balance of power, particularly since the communist USSR was the challenger, which is why they used a number of interventionist methods. Thus, when left-leaning Maduro says that the U.S. is trying to govern Venezuela from Washington by pushing for Guaidó to take over, he is invoking a very real historical past.
Juan Guaidó, Interim President of Venezuela.
Nevertheless, there seems to be some fundamental differences in this case. First, Guaidó does not plan to become Venezuela’s permanent president. As the Venezuelan constitution dictates, when the National Assembly leader assumes power in a situation like this, he must call elections within 30 days. Secondly, the dire humanitarian crisis in Venezuela and Maduro’s shades of authoritarianism have allowed for Guaidó to have the backing of a significant part of the population with tens of thousands of people turning out for protests that he has called. Despite the grassroot nature of Venezuelan support for Guaidó, many in the Global Left have reduced this situation to a narrative of socialism versus imperialism rather than looking at the nuances of the situation.
The “Venezuelan Solidarity Campaign”, a pro-Maduro group based in London, for example, has decried the international coverage of Maduro’s repression and the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela as narratives pushed forwards by the “fake news media”. Many of the supporters of this movement deem the 2018 Venezuelan elections, where Maduro won with over 68 per cent of the votes, as “free, fair, and fully transparent.” It is important to note that these elections had a record-low voter turnout with only 46% of the population voting which is not only an indication of a democracy in decline, but with the disillusionment people have with the democratic system in the country. These assertions ignore the multiple accounts from third-party international observers of election tampering. This includes the European Union, the Organization of American States, and the Lima Group, who have all rejected the legitimacy of the electoral process in Venezuela.
For starters, the electoral committee of Venezuela, the Consejo Nacional Electoral, is mostly comprised of Maduro loyalists who have ignored vote tampering in past elections to favour Maduro’s regime. Moreover, as most T.V. and radio stations are controlled by the government, it is the norm for it to constantly spout pro-Maduro propaganda.
Allegations that the elections were indeed not “free, fair, and fully transparent” get more specific by having Maduro essentially implying that anyone that does not vote for him, will lose their food subsidies. “Everyone who has this card must vote,” Maduro said at campaign rallies, referring to the IDs Venezuelans use to receive their subsidies. “I give and you give.”
In a country where nine out of ten people live in poverty and where currently Venezuelans on average have lost 24 pound in body weight, food translates into political power. Maduro knows this. His food subsidy program, called CLAP for its name in Spanish, offers a lifeline in the unprecedented economic crisis the country is suffering. As reported by Reuters, “Mariana, a single mother who lives in the poor hillside neighborhood of Petare in the capital Caracas, says the handouts will decide her vote.” As minimum wage fails to cover the exorbitant prices of basic needs brought about by inflation, the CLAP is the only thing a lot of people have.
The weaponization of access to food distorts the democratic process as many people who live in the margins had no choice but to cast their vote for Maduro or else fail to meet their basic needs for survival. As established by the Center for Strategic and International Studies: “the Maduro regime is weaponizing its safety net program during a time of crisis in order to prioritize, amplify, and concentrate political power.” The recent developments in the crisis further illustrate this point with the Maduro regime establishing a self-imposed blockade to prevent humanitarian aid, much of it being food, coming from the Colombian and Brazilian border. As Maduro knows the power that comes with controlling food access, by taking these measures, Maduro is not only depriving his own constituents of food, but also blocking the opposition from reaching to those people that live on the margins.
Protest against Maduro in Caracas, 2017.
Another Global North-based campaign that has garnered recent media attention is the “Hands Off Venezuela” movement. This campaign is focused on denouncing imperialist foreign intervention that rejects the validity of the Maduro regime which stems from the aforementioned long history of U.S. meddling in the region. Notably, foreign intervention for the “Hands Off Venezuela” movement includes not only military force, but any form of aid.
The movement started in response to the 2002 coup on Chávez, when the U.S. publicly recognised interim president Pedro Carmona. Despite accusations that the U.S., in fact, staged the coup, CIA documents revealed that while the U.S. was aware of the intention of a coup, they were not behind it, establishing rather that American officials issued “repeated warnings that the United States will not support any extraconstitutional moves to oust Chávez.” Considering that the current administration has virtually no foreign policy in Latin America, it is unlikely that the coup was backed by the United States.
The movement also fails to recognize that Maduro is not Allende and that he is certainly not Chavez. Maduro had to tamper with the democratic process in order to cling to power. Not only did he engage in vote-buying and ensuring that his loyalist controlled the electoral office, but he also banned and imprisoned opposition leaders that were most popular with the citizens of Venezuela. He is cracking down on street protests with lethal force, and he held a rigged election in 2017 to instate a legislative body that supplanted the country’s parliament, the only branch that was controlled by the opposition.
Unlike Maduro, his predecessor, Chávez, was always careful “to maintain electoral legitimacy”, as Francisco Toro, editor of Caracas Chronicles, an opposition-friendly news and analysis site, told Vox News. Indeed Chávez had autocratic tendencies such as using state money to fund his campaigns, but he did not steal or cancel elections blatantly unlike Maduro. So even though Chávez arguably laid the foundations that established the current political, social and economic crisis in Venezuela, he remained widely loved by many of the country’s poor even in the face the opposition against him because he maintained a level of legitimacy and relative efficacy in his policies.
Many in the “Hands Off Venezuela” movement take an apologist rhetoric that fails to condemn an autocrat that has left over 3 million people displaced and over 80 percent of households living in poverty. The movement seems unable to acknowledge Maduro’s shortcomings as a leader and a politician, even though his disdain for opposition voices is “systematically blocking the ability of the Venezuelan people to express themselves through electoral means”, as political sociologist Gabriel Hetland points out.
Demonstrators of the “Hand Off Venezuela” movement in Chicago, IL.
Toshiko Sakurai, a progressive Venezuelan exile, expresses this frustration with the rhetoric of the Global Left in her blog on the Caracas Chronicles: “You know the worst of it all?” she wrote. “We agree on most things. We both believe in public universal education and healthcare financed with taxes. We agree that every government should ensure that its citizens have a safety net and that wealth redistribution should be a major driver against inequality.”
“Here’s a secret though: supporting socialist policies doesn’t keep me from denouncing the brutal monstrosity being inflicted upon my country.”
Unfortunately, both the right and the left are blinded by their own ideological agenda when making assertions and arguments about Venezuela. When we discuss Venezuela, and perhaps any country and region that is not our own, it needs to be done in a manner based on facts that leaves behind political interests and personal political ideology. Reductive conservative and leftist narratives strip Venezuelans from their agency as writers of their own history and fails to account for the multiple and complex dynamics that shape the country and the current crisis at hand.
democracyEditors' PickelectionsGuaidohuman rightsImperialismMaduroprotests
Gretel Kahn
Gretel Kahn is a U3 student currently pursuing a degree in Honours International Development with minors in History and Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies. Hailing from Panama, Gretel is a proud Latina at heart thus she has an unwavering interest in Latin American domestic and foreign politics. Aside from writing about Latin America, she also has a keen interest in topics about gender, culture, and the environment. In addition to writing for the MIR, you can find Gretel performing under the theatre lights or in the look-out for free fancy cheeses on campus.
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The Apple Doesn't Fall Far From the Tree
Sacramento Daily Union, 21 July 1882, page 2, col. 4, courtesy California Digital Newspaper Collection
It would be difficult to assess who was the blackest sheep in the Brannack fold, but Julia’s brother, Charles Edgar Brannack might be a good candidate.
In January 1882, Charles and his nephew, Fred Wermuth (the two of them only a year apart in age) were involved in a barroom brawl in Calaveras County. Charles and Fred along with their friends, a pair of cousins named Thomas and Robert Pope had gone quail hunting. The four men, none older than 23, packed their hunting gear, including four shotguns, and camped in a deserted cabin in the Sierra foothills. On Friday evening they traveled to the town of Camanche, and after a period of drinking in John Cavagnero’s general store, they got into a row with each other, breaking up furniture, glassware and windows. Henry Cavagnero, John’s brother[1], sent word to John who came in, calmed the men down and got them out into the street. Back inside, the Cavagnero’s heard someone in the street yell, “Look, he’s going to shoot!” whereupon Charles Brannack rushed back inside, leveled his shotgun at Henry and exclaimed, “Shall I shoot the son of a bitch?” And he did! Cavagnero was seriously injured, shot entering in his head and neck. Another man standing by him, Michael Fox, was also struck with shot in his nose.[2]
The four ruffians took off in a wagon at break-neck speed, headed for Lodi. The wagon hit a stump, threw some of the men and some of the shotguns which fired as they hit the ground. The Pope cousins, one of whom was wounded on his head, turned themselves in the next morning, but were later discharged. Charles Brannack was arrested and jailed in Sacramento, though no charges were brought against Fred Wermuth.[3] In July, Brannack was sentenced to two years imprisonment at San Quentin prison for shooting Cavagnero.[4] It appears Henry Cavagnero survived.[5]
Any time he may have served in prison did little to improve Charles Brannack’s behavior. In November 1887, the Santa Cruz police chief and another officer witnessed a man purchase opium. The two followed him, trying to find his “joint” – the place where he would smoke the entrancing drug. They followed him to Lyman Brannack’s barn . The officers saw a light in the upper part of the barn. Stepping to the door, the officers were confronted by Charles Brannack, the son of the owner, carrying a lantern in one hand and a shotgun in the other. Seeing the officers, Brannack blew out the light. They seized Brannack, and upstairs in the barn found there a regular opium joint. They arrested Brannack and confiscated all the paraphernalia.[6] Charles Brannack and fellow smoker, Henry Horn, were brought before Justice Skirm, who fined Brannack $100 and Horn $25, and while Brannack was able to pay his fine, Horn could not and was sentenced to $25 in jail.[7]
By the time Charles Brannack was arrested in Santa Cruz, his sister had been married to her third husband, Meliton Achard, a Frenchman, and at last a husband near to her own age…. More next week about Julia’s marriage to Mr. Achard.
[1] It appears that Henry Cavagnero was likely John Cavagnero’s brother-in-law per the 1900 census. - US Census 1900 Year: 1900; Census Place: Jenny Lind, Calaveras, California; Roll: 84; Family History Film: 1240084; Page: 6A; Enumeration District: 1038; lines 36-43, accessed through Ancestry.com 29 January 2017
[2] San Francisco Chronicle, 22 Jan 1882, page 8 “A Barroom Brawl” and Sacramento Daily Union, 23 Jan 1882, page 1, “Result of a Carouse”
[4] San Francisco Bulletin, 22 July 1882, page 2, “State News Items”
[5] US Census 1900 Year: 1900; Census Place: Jenny Lind, Calaveras, California; Roll: 84; Family History Film: 1240084; Page: 6A; Enumeration District: 1038; lines 36-43, accessed through Ancestry.com 29 January 2017
[6] Santa Cruz Daily Surf, 5 November 1887, page 1, col 5. “Opium Smokers Arrested”
[7]“Sentinel Jottings,” Santa Cruz Sentinel (Santa Cruz, California) 06 Nov 1887, Page 3, col 1, accessed through Newsapapers.com 29 January 2017
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The life and killing of Flint homeless man and Tent City dweller Gary Nagy
Updated Aug 2, 2013 ; Posted Aug 2, 2013
Friends remember Gary Nagy
Gallery: Friends remember Gary Nagy
By Blake Thorne | bthorne1@mlive.com
FLINT, MI -- Gary Nagy's body was treated like a piece of trash.
Thrown away and cast off under a broken-off dumpster lid at an abandoned school. Barely any care put into concealing him. Not even hidden enough to stop a bus driver from spotting the lifeless body while practicing driving maneuvers in the parking lot.
It was as if the killer figured he wasn't worth burying, or even properly hiding. He was, after all, just another homeless man.
Who would notice?
In a city averaging more than one homicide per week -- where elementary school students and mothers are being gunned down -- who would care?
He was just another homeless guy.
Dirty, smelly, unshaven. Occasionally drunk.
But he didn't deserve this, said Scott Greer, Nagy's nephew.
"He chose to be homeless," Greer said. "But he didn't choose to be murdered."
David Pattinson wells up with tears when he thinks about his best friend. He gets choked up and his voice shakes behind a thick red-and-gray beard. A grown and weathered man who spent decades living on the streets, crying like a young boy.
"He couldn't weigh 99 pounds. He couldn't whip a fly," said Pattinson, 54, who goes by "Red."
Pattinson served as the de facto mayor of Tent City, a makeshift community on an overgrown former General Motors parking lot in Burton where a close-knit group of homeless men made camp for about 10 years. In 2011, city officials and the property's owner got word of the encampment and kicked the men off.
Pattinson never returned, taking shelter at a friend's nearby home and swearing off his life on the street.
Nagy stayed in the life, bouncing around from place to place before suffering what police are calling a homicide after his body was discovered the morning of Tuesday, July 30.
Pattinson and other men who knew Nagy from his years on the streets say they were shocked to hear what had happened to him. They describe a man small in stature who kept to himself, had no enemies and couldn't hurt anyone even if he'd wanted.
"He talked so mild and quiet," said Darnell Littlejohn, a homeless man who hung around with Nagy.
A group of them -- some Tent City campers, some not -- would drink beers and smoke cigarettes near a liquor store by the school where Nagy's body was found.
"Good, calm, peaceful. Didn't bother anybody," said another member of the group, a thin man in a Los Angeles Kings hat who said he only goes by the name of Jackson.
Few of the men knew much about Nagy's upbringing. What is available on his background is patchy and scattered. Pattinson seems to be the person who knew him best and longest. It's just a part of life on the street, the men say. It's not about how you got here, it's about how you'll get by.
He was 57 when he died.
Life on the street
Nagy was born in Flint in 1955. A time when the American Dream was in full swing and being born in the hometown of General Motors was, more or less, a ticket to the good life.
For so many men, it was the right place at the right time. They would go on to well-paying factory jobs, white picket fences, kids, retirement in Florida.
Nagy seemed headed that way. He and Pattinson attended school at the Bendle district and graduated from there in the early '70s.
In 2011, Nagy told an MLive-Flint Journal reporter that he joined the Army after high school. Pattinson said his friend served in Korea before returning home.
Nagy told the Journal that he came home and worked at the Fisher Body plant for several years before it closed in 1987, leading to years of odd jobs and, eventually, homelessness. He was married for several years -- even his friends don't know how long -- and divorced in 1994, according to court records.
"Gary was a different sort of guy," said Larry Shears, a Flint resident who lives in a house nearby and had become friends with the men at Tent City. "I was sad when I saw the news (of his death)."
Shears used to manage a hotel nearby and let Nagy do some odd jobs for him and sometimes stay in a room there.
Nagy never caused problems, never had enemies, Shears said.
Eventually, Nagy found Tent City. He and Pattinson were among the founders and longest residents there.
“I didn’t have the seniority to move to Buick,” Nagy said in 2011, then 56 years old and sporting a long, white beard. “So, this is where I’m at."
In those conversations with The Journal, he spoke frankly about his desire to drink and be outside and live by his own set of rules.
“If you want to sit down and have a beer, you can’t drink a beer when you’re at a shelter. ... Out of sight, out of mind is the way we look at it. We don’t bother nobody," he had said.
Nagy's only flaw, Pattinson said, is that he would get a little aggressive when he drank. He'd act like he knew everything.
"He got a little hard-headed when he got a drink or two," Shears said. "But outside of that, he was a damn good guy."
At Tent City, they called him Turtle, for the way he poked his head out of his tent.
Nagy couldn't walk very well, Pattinson said, and would often hold down the camp while others went to get food from the nearby Methodist church and buy beer with bottle deposit money. Steel Reserve -- known for its tall silver cans and high alcohol content -- was Nagy's favorite.
Nagy's health was a concern to his camp mates and to Tom Knight, an outreach worker for Resource Genesee who seeks out and tries to direct the area's homeless to resources and help.
"Gary's been very ill," Knight said. "We didn't think he was going to make it through the winter last year."
Knight suspected Nagy may have had cirrhosis of the liver, a consequence of years of heavy drinking.
After getting kicked out of Tent City, Nagy and a few of the other campers found an abandoned house on nearby Allen Street to crash in.
There, they tried something that was unheard of at Tent City. They spent the winter.
Typically, the men would spend winters in a shelter or with a family member or friend. In the old house with no furnace, things turned grim.
Pattinson didn't live at the house on Allen Street, but he stopped by on occasion. One day this last winter, Nagy asked Pattinson to check on Anthony Clark, another former Tent City resident at the house.
He hasn't moved in three days, Pattinson was told.
"I went to check on Tony and Tony was dead," Pattinson said.
He had frozen to death.
Shortly after, police kicked the men out and the house was boarded up.
Homelessness on the rise
It isn't unusual for homeless people to bounce around like this, said Knight, who had known Nagy for a few years.
"He's a pretty quiet guy," Knight said. "Obviously didn't give anybody a bad time, because he was welcome to stay wherever he could put his sleeping bag."
Nagy was one of those homeless men who didn't ask for much, Knight said, wasn't keen on staying in shelters or getting into rehab programs. Still Knight would check in, visiting Nagy to see how he was doing, to talk and maybe bring him a few burgers from McDonald's.
But increasingly, there are more and more people that need the outreach. More people needing burgers and a warm bed.
Homelessness is on the rise in the area, Knight said.
"It's really getting bad again. I don't know all of the causes," he added.
Mary Stevenson, of Catholic Charities of Shiawassee and Genesee Counties, said the annual Warming Center has served many more homeless people in recent years.
In the winter of 2010-11, there were 8,964 homeless who used the center. In 2011-12, that figure jumped up to 9,701. This last winter, it increased again, to 12,674.
That's a 41 percent increase in homeless people seeking help in just two years.
And just in the last week, the organization registered roughly 25 new people each day for a program that provides clothes and supplies for the homeless.
"It's a lot of people," Stevenson said.
Death on the street
Flint police haven't said much about Nagy's case, only that they've ruled it a homicide because of head trauma and are investigating further.
People who knew Nagy don't know why anyone would want to kill him, but they have theories.
"He may have witnessed something that he shouldn't have," Knight said.
It happens to the homeless more than you'd think, he said. They will be minding their own business, out of sight, when they'll see or overhear someone doing something illegal -- a drug deal, for example.
When the criminals notice they're not alone, they'll simply kill the witness, Knight said.
And there are some people who -- placing little value in human life and even less on homeless life -- will, Knight said, simply kill a man for sport.
Like an animal.
"Some individuals just prey on the homeless," Knight added.
Shears has his own theory.
"Probably somebody got in a fight and he fell. Hit his head or something."
Back to Tent City
After being kicked out of the Allen Street house, Nagy spent some time in Hurley Medical Center and a local shelter, said Greer, his nephew.
Eventually, Nagy returned to Tent City.
Today, the site is a shell of its former heyday.
Walking through Tent City this week, Shears said he noticed the lack of tents and tarps that once dotted the grounds.
No makeshift toilets. No drunken laughter around the campfire.
But there are signs, he said, that some people have returned. Like pioneers slowly repopulating an old ghost town.
Shears said he heard a woman's voice back there, but when he returned later that day she was gone.
There was one place, Shears said -- a few busted up sections of concrete making a cave-like formation -- where it looked like someone had been sleeping.
It was a cramped space, he said, tight quarters. If someone was sleeping there, it would have had to be someone small, someone short.
Someone who couldn't whip a fly.
Blake Thorne is a reporter for MLive-The Flint Journal. Contact him at bthorne1@mlive.com or 810-347-8194. Follow him on Twitter or Facebook.
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Stacy Pollack
Elissa "EJ" Levy
Eden Lopez-Robles
Andrea Arzt
Josh Dorf
Jane Greene
Stephen Krieger, M.D.
Fred D. Lublin, M.D.
Catherine McKenzie
Claire Riley, M.D.
Lisa Risi
David Schafran
Joel D. Siegel
Stacy’s father was diagnosed with primary progressive MS in the summer of 2012, and is struck that even as his balance worsens, his optimism is unwavering.
His positive outlook has motivated Stacy to find the best way to support the search for a cure.
Stacy is convinced that by joining the Board of MS Hope that she has been presented with the opportunity to do more than just wish she could help her dad. She looks forward to dedicating her time, energy and enthusiasm to make a difference.
Stacy graduated with a BSJ from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She holds an MSc in Comparative Politics from the London School of Economics. In her pre-mom life, she worked in television news and as the director of marketing for a designer shoe company.
She is now a full time mom and volunteer. Stacy co-chairs the JCP (Jewish Community Project) Tzedakah Sunday program, arranging community service opportunities for the children and families of the organization and also co-chaired two previous JCP annual benefits. In addition, she served on the host committee for the Elyse Walker Pink Party, a Los Angeles-based event supporting the Cedars-Sinai Womens Cancer Research Center. The Pink Party raised more than $10 million for the hospital during the past 10 years. Stacy is also on the host committee of the Change for Kids Super Chefs event.
Stacy moved back to New York from London six years ago and currently lives in Tribeca with her husband, Jonathan, their two sons, Braden (6th grade) and Evan (2nd grade), and their two dogs.
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Westfield W-League fixtures released
Football Federation Australia has announced the fixtures for the upcoming Westfield W-League season as Melbourne City FC embarks on its inaugural campaign in Australia's premier women's competition.
Like the men’s side, Melbourne City FC will play its first Westfield W-League match against Sydney FC at Lambert Park in Leichardt on Sunday 18 October, kick-off 5:30pm.
Our first home match is a blockbuster Melbourne Derby at AAMI Park in a double header before our first Hyundai A-League home match against Central Coast Mariners on Sunday 25 October. Kick-off for the W-League match is 2pm with the A-League fixture at 5pm.
Remember the best way to see all W-League, A-League and National Youth League matches this season is with a Melbourne City membership. Sign up now!
Melbourne City FC Fixture (All times AEDT)
Round 1 - Sydney FC, Sunday 18 October, 2015. Kick-off 5:30pm (A)
Round 2 - Melbourne Victory, Sunday 25 October, 2015. Kick-off 2pm (H)
Round 3 - Perth Glory, Saturday 31 October, 2015. Kick-off 7pm (A)
Round 4 - Canberra United, Sunday 8 November, 2015. Kick-off 2pm (A)
Round 5 - Adelaide United, Saturday 14 November, 2015. Kick-off 4pm (H)
Round 6 - Brisbane Roar, Sunday 22 November, 2015. Kick-off 2pm (H)
Round 8 - Melbourne Victory, Sunday 6 December, 2015. Kick-off 3pm (A)
Round 9 - Newcastle Jets, Sunday 13 December, 2015. Kick-off 2pm (A)
Round 10 - Perth Glory, Sunday 20 December, 2015. Kick-off 4pm (H)
Round 11 - Brisbane Roar, Monday 28 December, 2015. Kick-off 4pm (A)
Round 12 - Western Sydney Wanderers, Sunday 3 January, 2016. Kick-off 2pm (H)
Round 14 - Sydney FC, Saturday 16 January, 2016. Kick-off 2pm (H)
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Smith, Joseph Wayne
Joseph Wayne Smith is Research Scholar in the School of Law, University of Adelaide and a Research Fellow in the Department of General Practice, University of Adelaide. He holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Adelaide University and a D.Litt. from Flinders University of South Australia.
Climate Change as a Crisis in World Civilization
This study examines the scientific evidence relating to “abrupt” or “dangerous” climate change and explores the social, political, legal and philosophical significance of this evidence. The authors locate the “climate crisis” within the context of a wider crisis of civilization, consisting of a series of converging threats to human survival. There will need to be major changes to human living and thinking, including an abandonment of the idea that unending economic growth and a philosophy of consumer hedonism are compatible with the idea of an ecologically sustainable society.
MEDICAL MALPRACTICE, MISTAKES AND MISHAPS:
Essays on Medical Litigation, the Mandatory Reporting of Health Professionals and the Limits of the Law
This book discusses several important topics. Firstly, the book analyzes the limits of tort law; the problems with Australian law on the negligent failure to disclose medical risks and the merits of no-fault compensation schemes. Then it studies the importance of the elimination of medical error and the adoption of sound and comprehensive risk management principles; apologies and open disclosure in medicine. It also discusses the relationship between expert evidence and medical malpractice litigation.
New Way of Thinking About Our Climate Crisis: The Rational-Comprehensive Approach
2009 0-7734-4808-X
This work provides an examination of the scientific evidence of rapid climate change, offering suggestions on combating the crisis to policy makers. The authors show how our thinking must be transformed in order to avert catastrophe.
Self-Destructive Affluence of the First World: The Coming Crisis of Global Poverty and Ecological Collapse
This study provides a comprehensive and scholarly introduction to the debate around global apocalypse. The work presents an up-to-date overview of global climatic change, while also addressing challenges from climate change skeptics. Issues discussed include, the limits of scientific knowledge, and the capacity for societies to adapt to environmental challenges.
THE INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON THE PRACTICE OF SURGERY:
The Scientific and Public Policy Implications
This is the first book in the world to be published on the topic of surgery and climate change. It is the aim of this book to present an up-to-date summary of the relevant climate science, information on the impact of climate change upon human health, and to situate the new research paradigm of surgery and climate change within this scientific framework.
THE SURGICAL LITIGATION CRISIS:
Medical Practice and Legal Reform
The authors bring together a new legal and medical analysis of history and developments in the area of malpractice litigation. The book provides a valuable resource for doctors, lawyers and patients/consumers, especially in terms of its in-depth examination of the components of the surgical litigation crisis and legal reform.
Why Climate Change is Creating New Catastrophic Medical Problems: The Crisis of Surgery
In this book by Dr. Smith and Dr. Maddern, the argument of The Influence of Climate Change on the Practice of Surgery is expanded upon by placing climate change itself into the context of what Smith and others have called the "crisis of civilization". A "crisis of civilization" is a set of converging sand compounding ecological, resource and socio-political problems that constitute an existential threat to modern techno-industrial civilization. Here, surgery is used as a case study if what it is likely to happen if societies do not make the transition to ecological sustainability, and consequently undergo societal collapse.
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Here’s Everything You Need to Know About Simone Biles, Rio’s Olympic Gymnastics Favorite
Gymnast Simone Biles has quickly become a household name in not only the United States, but in competitive gymnastics worldwide. She's been a competitive force in recent years, and as FOX Sports points out, she is a three-time world and four-time U.S. all-around champion.
While her resume certainly impressive, there's one thing missing from it: an Olympic gold medal.
Biles is a massive gymnastics favorite at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, and rightfully so. According to the official Rio events breakdown, Biles will be taking part in the following events on Sunday:
Women's uneven bars
Women's beam
Women's vault
Women's team all-around
Women's floor exercise
Women's individual all-around
Here's what to know about Biles ahead of Sunday's events:
Simone Biles of the United States runs through her floor routine during a training session before the start of the Summer Olympic Games on August 4, 2016, at Rio Olympic Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.Source: Elsa/Getty Images
At 4 feet, 9 inches tall, Biles may not have won an Olympic gold medal yet, but she holds the record for the most gold medals won by a female gymnast in World Championships history, according to The Gym Report.
Back in 2014, Biles chose to attend the UCLA, NBC Sports reported, but her direction changed quickly. Less than one year later, Biles deferred her enrollment until after the Rio 2016 Olympics. Doing so meant that she can no longer compete collegiately; she signed on with the same agency that represents United States superstar swimmer, Michael Phelps.
In terms of exactly how dominant Biles has been during her short career, the 19-year-old has won 14 medals at worlds, including 10 golds, per The Guardian. It's widely expected that she will not only win a gold medal, and could wind up taking home the gold in multiple events. The young superstar is already set up for an incredible Olympic career, and it will all begin Sunday in Rio.
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Appeals court rules Second Amendment doesn't protect right to assault weapons
By Talia Jane
The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, ruled Tuesday that the Second Amendment doesn't apply to protections of assault weapons in Maryland.
Maryland has a complex recent history regarding the legality of assault weapons: In 2013, Maryland passed a law — the Firearms Safety Act — barring the sale, possession, transfer or purchase of assault weapons. A panel of 4th Circuit judges later ruled that the law infringed on Second Amendment rights.
This time around, however, the majority decision that assault weapons aren't covered by the Second Amendment came en banc, or by a full bench of judges rather than just a selected panel. The court leaned its decision on the 2008 Supreme Court ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller. Heller concluded that the Second Amendment does indeed allow the right to bear arms, but isn't unlimited — a decision that opened up the discussion on whether assault weapons go beyond the limits of Second Amendment protections.
A Connecticut state police officer holds a Bushmaster AR-15, the same weapon used at Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012, where Adam Lanza killed 20 children and six adults.Source: Jessica Hill/AP
Tuesday's majority decision invoked the names of several mass shootings including the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, and the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando, Florida, both of which were committed with assault weapons:
"Both before and after Newtown, similar military-style rifles and detachable magazines have been used to perpetrate mass shootings in places whose names have become synonymous with the slaughters that occurred there."
"We conclude — contrary to the now-vacated [2013] decision of our prior panel — that the banned assault weapons and large-capacity magazines are not protected by the Second Amendment," Judge Robert King said in his concurring opinion.
The ruling strikes a blow to Second Amendment supporters who believe the provision is an umbrella for all weapons, including ones designed specifically for military situations, and that the Heller ruling conclusion exceeds reasonable necessity to protect oneself.
While gun control advocates are celebrating the decision, Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III emphasized in his concurrence that the courts "are not the instruments of anyone's political agenda" — either for or against gun control:
As Heller recognized, there is a balance to be struck here. While courts exist to protect individual rights, we are not the instruments of anyone's political agenda, we are not empowered to court mass consequences we cannot predict and we are not impaneled to add indefinitely to the growing list of subjects on which the states of our Union and the citizens of our country no longer have any meaningful say.
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Most recently, Michele’s play, RADIO GALAXY, took part in TRU Voices Play Reading series after which it was optioned by a commercial producer. Her play, UNFIT, was workshopped and presented as a reading at Rider University, NJ. Her play, ABDUCTED, was read at WorkShop Theatre Company September 2014 and The Barrow Group in April 2015. THE TEXT OF SEX, premiered in the New York International Fringe Festival 2014. In August 2014, the musical she wrote with composer/ lyricist, Keith Gordon, GIRL POWERS, was invited to the Santa Fe Musical Theatre Festival. Michele’s play, THE BABY GAME, is the recipient of Fulton Theater's Discovery Project New Play Contest 2012. In 2014 THE BABY GAME was a finalist for William Patterson University's New Jersey New Play Contest. Michele’s play, THE TEXT OF SEX, took part in Centenary Stage Company’s Women Playwrights Series April 2012 and had a reading at Luna Stage Company, also in April of 2012. Michele’s play, THE TEXT OF SEX, took part in Centenary Stage Company’s Women Playwrights Series April 2012 and had a reading at Luna Stage Company, also in April of 2012. THE TEXT OF SEX as workshopped with American Academy of Dramatic Arts’ New York Company in January 2012, and had a reading at the Soho Club, New York, November 2011. Her play, ADVANCED WOMEN, is the 2009 recipient of the Todd McNerney Playwriting Award from the College of Charleston. The College presented two public readings of the play at the 2010 Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC. ADVANCED WOMEN, was invited to The Great Plains Theatre Conference Playlabs 2010, Omaha, NE, and presented there as a staged reading. As a finalist for the W. Keith Hedrick Playwriting Contest in October 2009, ADVANCED WOMEN was given a staged reading at HRC Showcase Theatre in Hudson, NY. In November 2008, ADVANCED WOMEN took part in the New Moon Reading Series at Luna Stage Company, NJ. Michele's historic murder mystery, 31 BOND, was originally commissioned by and produced at the Brooklyn Lyceum, NY, in 2002. In June 2007 31 BOND, was presented at the North American Actors Association Playreading Festival at the Soho Theatre, London, England. Michele’s dark comedy, THE PROGRAM, premiered at the New York International Fringe Festival 2007. Michele was named one of “three Fringe Festival playwrights to watch” in the Backstage article, “Breakout Talent – Writers on the Rise” after the critically acclaimed production of her play, DEAR AMERICA, took part in the New York International Fringe Festival 2006. With composer/lyricist, Keith Gordon, Michèle wrote an original musical, GIRL POWERS (book), which participated in Dixon Place’s Warning: Not For Broadway in November 2006. Her other plays have premiered as readings or workshops in New York, New Jersey and Los Angeles. Michele’s screenplay 11 MONTHS, is the winner of the Alfred P. Sloan Award; her screenplay, THIS SWEET EARTH, was a finalist in the Moondance International Film Festival. Michèle is a current member of Passage Theatre's Playwrights Lab, Dramatists Guild, British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and is an affiliated artist of New Georges and The Barrow Group; she is an alumna of the Women’s Project and Production’s Playwrights’ Lab. MFA, New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, Dramatic Writing Program.
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Papirøen
MVRDV's Papirøen proposal looks at further developing the identity of one of the main hotspots in Copenhagen, Denmark. MVRDV’s approach to the new mixed-use master plan was to enhance the identity of the site through preserving the existing buildings; warehouses, paper halls and boiler houses. The existing structures and new developments are used as a backdrop for a new era of activity on Paper Island which MVRDV opens back up to the people of Copenhagen.
By & Havn
Offices, Retail, Bar-restaurant, Auditorium, Master plan
Transformations, Urbanism
MVRDV, in collaboration with local architects BCVA, created the “Papirøen” proposal with the aim of further developing the identity of one of the main hotspots in Copenhagen, Denmark. The competition was ultimately won by our friends at COBE. The artificial Paper Island, which was once home to a salt distillation plant and paper storage for the city’s newspapers, is one of the last of its kind remaining in the inner-harbour. MVRDV’s approach to the new mixed-use master plan was to enhance the identity of the site through preserving the existing buildings; warehouses, paper halls and boiler houses. At the same time residential units would be added above ground level, marked as white towers in the proposal, to be designed by future architects working with in the master plan. The existing structures are witnesses of the port’s history, development and industrial character and are used as a backdrop for a new era of activity on Paper Island. The proposal prioritises the island’s present functions, the port setting, unique atmosphere and historic structure; but adds facilities to build a more solid future from the temporary activities that currently sit there.
The plinth, made up of a combination of existing and new buildings at ground level, would house spaces for public activities, retail and flexible use that allow for the organisation of events such as the Copenhagen Fashion Week. The island’s new swimming pool we located on the sunny south-western side of the site and the outdoor bath functions provide access to the harbour via a sun deck. On top of this plinth, raised above the public arena, sits several housing typologies organised in narrow residential towers. The housing units provide prime views over the river, privacy from the public, as well as shared gardens for residents; whilst keeping the ground level open and accessible for the people of Copenhagen. MVRDV’s masterplan proposal keeps the towers as white volumes to give the future architects of each tower the opportunity to explore a range of unique designs and give each building an individual character within this white colour scheme. The towers on the artist's impressions are not designs, only ‘placeholders’.
Papirøen proposal transforms historic structures into creative cultural district
In usual circumstances, an urban renewal of this scale would call for the island to close and for all its functions to be relocated or shut down for a number of years; a counterproductive loss for the site. MVRDV’s proposal works with the site and its current inhabitants, offering a phasing strategy in which the Street Food Market can remain open, thereby maintaining the island’s identity through one of its most popular features. MVRDV’s Papirøen provides a new perspective from which to view the future of the island; a space for the people of the city, rather than an exclusive settlement; and a proposal that not only preserves a rich history, but builds on it to create new cultures and an enhanced identity.
Jeroen Zuidgeest
Emilie Koch
Julius Kirchert
Andrea Anselmo
Elien Deceuninck
Kalina Pilat
Silvia Mogini
Andrei-Ducu Predescu
Co-architects: Urban Power, Copenhagen, DK
Landscape: GHB Landskabsarkitekter A/S, Copenhagen, DK
The Coral Tower
Serp & Molot Factory
We are a family of 0 creative minds
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FFA 1562626852
FFA Chief Executive Officer David Gallop said the move to a principles-based approach to deal specifically with the issue of club identity – e.g. name, logo, principles and actions – was a positive step for the game.
“These new principles are not intended to be enforceable regulations. They are really about helping clubs be more inclusive and welcoming of people from all cultural backgrounds.
“Football in Australia has a rich and diverse history which FFA wishes to acknowledge and celebrate. Many clubs were formed and have developed from particular local communities who have made significant contributions to the growth and reputation of the sport of football as a whole.
“The way a club identifies itself to its community can have a significant impact on whether a person feels welcome and included at that club. Following extensive consultation with the football community and independent industry experts, FFA recommends that clubs embrace broad identities that are not tied to a single specific culture. Clubs that celebrate diversity, promote inclusion and make people feel like they belong regardless of their cultural background are more likely to succeed.
“At the same time, FFA understands the importance of clubs being able to respectfully recognise their heritage and the specific communities that were instrumental in establishing and developing them,” he said.
“So long as they are not offensive, each club in Australia is now free to register the name and logo of its choice, including by incorporating a cultural identifier.”
“We believe the football community in Australia is committed to diversity and inclusion and we encourage all participants to embrace the new principles and continue to make football welcoming of people from all cultural backgrounds.”
Rabieh Krayem, President of the Association of Australian Football Clubs (AAFC), said: “I would like to thank the FFA Board and management for their work in bringing together the new Inclusivity Principles for Club Identity.
"This has been a very thorough consultation process with AAFC happy to have played its part in reaching this positive conclusion.” He added: “Our clubs can now fully recognise their heritage and history. AAFC worked closely with two clubs in particular, Charlestown City Blues and Hamilton Azzurri, and they can now move on and celebrate their identity without worrying about a policy that previously prevented them from doing so.”
The new principles will form part of FFA’s Inclusion and Diversity framework for football which is currently under development. The broader framework will encompass other matters that are fundamental for football to create an open and inclusive environment, such as promoting gender diversity and improving the accessibility of football for people with a disability and will include practical tools and education resources for clubs and football participants.
FFA INCLUSIVITY PRINCIPLES FOR CLUB IDENTITY
Creating an inclusive and welcoming environment for participants from all cultural and linguistic backgrounds.
Football in Australia has a rich and diverse history which FFA wishes to acknowledge and celebrate. Many clubs were formed and have developed from particular local communities who have made significant contributions to the growth and reputation of the sport of football as a whole. These communities are reflective of the multicultural nature of Australia and the vast reach of the love for the “World Game”.
FFA celebrates diversity and multiculturalism in our game and wants to ensure that football in Australia is open, accessible and embracing of all participants from all cultural backgrounds. Every person should feel welcome, safe and included at their local football club.
The way a club identifies itself to the community (including through its name, logo, principles and actions) can have a significant impact on whether a person feels welcome and included at that club. It can also affect the broader reputation of the game.
Following consultation with independent industry experts, FFA recommends that clubs embrace broad identities that are not tied to a single specific culture. FFA understands the importance of clubs being able to respectfully recognise their heritage and the specific communities that were instrumental in establishing and developing such clubs. At the same time, clubs that celebrate diversity, promote inclusion and make people feel like they belong regardless of their cultural background are more likely to succeed.
FFA has developed the following Inclusivity Principles for Club Identity to provide guidance to clubs on how they can be more inclusive in the way they identify themselves as well as the practices and actions that clubs adopt in engaging with their members and the broader community.
Importantly, these Principles are only a part of the development of a broader FFA Inclusion and Diversity framework which will encompass other matters that are fundamental for our sport to create an open and inclusive environment, such as promoting gender diversity and accessibility for people with a disability (to name just two examples). The Inclusivity Principles for Club Identity also provide guidance on how clubs may wish to recognise their heritage in ways that are not inconsistent with these fundamental objectives.
Inclusivity Principles for Club Identity
(a) These Inclusivity Principles for Club Identity are not intended to be enforceable, strict regulations. Rather, they are guiding principles for clubs to refer to in seeking to be inclusive to people from all cultural backgrounds.
(b) Clubs are encouraged to consider various ways to recognise and celebrate their heritage while still respecting and welcoming people from all backgrounds. Clubs that identify themselves in an all-embracing and inclusive manner that is open to all participants may be perceived as more welcoming than clubs with branding that is targeted to one single culture.
(c) Club names that reflect the local geographical region they represent and do so in a way that is welcoming to people from all cultural backgrounds are encouraged.
(d) Clubs may be more attractive to a broader range of participants if their name is:
(i) in English rather than a foreign language; and
(ii) of broad appeal rather than solely associated with a particular cultural, political or religious group.
(e) Clubs are encouraged to celebrate multiculturalism and diversity and make it clear to the community that they welcome people from all cultural backgrounds. Club names that reference another country or region (outside their locality) may indicate to the community that only people from that country or region are welcome (or are more welcome) to participate at that club.
(f) Clubs are encouraged to use symbols and words in their logo or emblem that are of broad appeal to make it clear to the community that they welcome people from all cultural backgrounds. Clubs that adopt a logo or emblem with a dominant reference which is associated with a particular culture, religion, or political group may cause people who do not associate with that background to feel less welcome.
(g) Milestone years for clubs present an opportunity for them to recognise their heritage and show the journey that the club has been on. This heritage could be acknowledged by displaying a temporary commemorative version of their old logo alongside their new current logo in marketing and promotional materials and on the club’s website.
(h) In seeking to acknowledge their heritage clubs should have regard to the FIFA Laws of the Game and relevant regulations in relation to playing kit which the club must adhere to, including any prohibition on political and religious slogans, statements and images.
(i) Clubs should be aware of their obligations under federal, state and territory discrimination laws (including but not limited to the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth)) and never give preference to one player over another on the basis of their cultural background or religious or political beliefs. The FFA Statutes (including the National Member Protection Policy and National Code of Conduct) also prohibit discrimination on these grounds.
(j) Clubs should encourage positive, welcoming and safe support at (and in connection with) Matches and take all reasonable steps to discourage rivalry with another club on the basis of any actual or perceived cultural, political or religious affiliations to that club, including in relation to their supporters.
Discrimination and other prohibited conduct
To be clear, FFA has a zero-tolerance policy in relation to discrimination, vilification, hatred and violence on all legally recognised grounds including race, nationality, ethnicity, religion and political views. FFA strongly encourages anyone who becomes aware of these behaviours, including by any club, to immediately report these incidents to their competition administrator. There are also applicable federal, state and territory discrimination laws that clubs must adhere to at all times.
Any incident of this nature may be dealt with by the appropriate body in accordance with applicable rules and regulations including any local or FFA rule or regulation, such as the National Code of Conduct. Clubs should note that, under the National Code of Conduct, they may be held liable for the actions of their supporters.
Accordingly, clubs have an important role to play in ensuring that football matches in particular are played in an open, safe and welcoming environment for all participants and spectators.
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Collier areas designated low tax zones to spur business development
U.S. officials designated areas in Immokalee, Golden Gate and Naples Manor as zones where businesses may benefit from lower taxes to spur development.
Collier areas designated low tax zones to spur business development U.S. officials designated areas in Immokalee, Golden Gate and Naples Manor as zones where businesses may benefit from lower taxes to spur development. Check out this story on naplesnews.com: https://www.naplesnews.com/story/news/local/2018/06/15/areas-near-naples-designated-low-tax-zones-spur-business-development/706221002/
Patrick Riley and Laura Layden, Naples Daily News Published 7:24 p.m. ET June 15, 2018 | Updated 7:30 p.m. ET June 15, 2018
This March 9, 2018, file photo shows Florida Gov. Rick Scott talking to the media at the Florida Capital in Tallahassee. Attorney General Pam Bondi on Wednesday, April 4, 2018, appealed Judge Mark Walker's ruling to U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit and asked that his order to overhaul the system by April 26 be put on hold. Gov. Scott and other Republican state officials are strongly defending the state's current system of restoring voting rights to ex-prisoners despite a federal judge's finding the system is flawed and potentially discriminatory.(Photo: AP Photo/Mark Wallheiser, File)
Federal officials on Thursday designated areas in Immokalee, Golden Gate and Naples Manor as zones where businesses may benefit from lower taxes to spur economic development.
The low tax Opportunity Zones are intended to "encourage long-term investment and job creation by reducing taxes for businesses that create jobs there," Collier County officials said in a news release Friday.
Under a sweeping tax bill, passed by Congress in December, states nominate low-income communities to be designated as qualified Opportunity Zones, which are eligible to receive tax benefits. The zones retain the designation for 10 years.
In April, Gov. Rick Scott submitted 427 Florida census tracts, including five from Collier, to federal officials. So far, the U.S. Department of Treasury has approved designations in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and five U.S. possessions.
More: Gov. Rick Scott challenges Bill Nelson out of the gate for U.S. Senate
More: Collier sales tax hike debated at public forum
The five tracts in Collier include:
Naples Manor communities west of Collier Boulevard, north of U.S. 41 East and south of Rattlesnake Hammock Road
A stretch of land in Golden Gate, west of Collier Boulevard, south of Golden Gate Parkway and east of Santa Barbara Boulevard
Three swaths of land in and around Immokalee, stretching from Lake Trafford in the west to the county line in the east
The designations allow investors to defer capital gains taxes through investments in federally established funds, called opportunity funds.
The tax benefits are available to investors even if they do not live, work or have a business in an Opportunity Zone, according to the Internal Revenue Service's website. All they have to do is invest in a qualified opportunity fund.
The new designations "will be a boon to our highest-need areas" and "will boost growth investment,” said Jace Kentner, director of Collier County's office of business and economic development, in a news release.
“We look forward to seeing local investors and businesses take advantage of the benefits provided in our Opportunity Zones," he said.
Federal officials will now begin making rules to designate how opportunity funds are created and how businesses, developers and financial institutions can invest in qualified zones, the county said in its release.
Column: Immokalee Foundation receives strategic initiative partnership award
Column: Commentary: Guadalupe Center opens doors to higher education for Immokalee students
Danny Gonzalez, president of the Immokalee Chamber of Commerce and manager of Lozano's Mexican Restaurant in Immokalee, said he's heard no details about how the Opportunity Zones would work, so he's not sure what the designation will mean for the town.
"Nobody hears nothing and that's the stuff that frustrates me," he said.
Too often, he said, Immokalee is overlooked when it comes to business and economic development opportunities.
"We've seen a few businesses open, a few new buildings, but we want to see more," Gonzalez. "We want to see more getting done here. I'm all for that."
He said he'd welcome any new incentives that could help jump start more development in Immokalee.
"Believe me," he said, "there is a lot of land available here."
The town has an estimated 180,000 acres of developable land under private ownership, Gonzalez said.
"I'm up for everything. I'm up for new restaurants to come to town," he said.
Michael Dalby, president and CEO of the Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce, said: "Every little bit helps."
More: What slow season? Collier, Lee unemployment holds steady in May
More: Jobs market strong overall in SWFL, but Irma wallops Collier jobs
The designation, he said, will provide everything from federal tax breaks on capital gains to more attractive business loans through the U.S. Small Business Administration.
"We always feel like any time we can get one of these designations it helps encourage investment in the community," Dalby said.
Attracting investment in these communities will still be tough, he said, as they're receiving the designation because they're "economically challenged."
In Lee County, 15 tracts were approved to be designated as low tax Opportunity Zones, dotting areas from Lehigh Acres to North Fort Myers and Cape Coral.
"We are pleased to have the Opportunity Zones in our economic development tool box, although it’s not clear yet how specifically we can use them,” said Pamela Johnson, Lee's economic development office interim director, in an email.
Glen Salyer, Lee's assistant county manager who oversees the economic development office, added that as Treasury officials work through "clarifying the program and issuing related rules" the county "will create corresponding initiatives to attract investment in our community that will benefit from the preferred capital gains tax treatment."
Read or Share this story: https://www.naplesnews.com/story/news/local/2018/06/15/areas-near-naples-designated-low-tax-zones-spur-business-development/706221002/
Collier, Lee schools review state test results
Rollover crash shuts down portion of Tamiami Trail
Florida drivers face penalties using phones and driving
FHP trooper injured after patrol vehicle sideswiped
North Naples Church pastor delivers final sermon
Voting starts on names for lion cubs at Naples Zoo
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Rongai locals accuse SGR contractor of altering road design
Sunday January 13 2019
This image taken on January 12, 2019 shows the bridge constructed in Olooltepesi sub-location, Kajiado County, to aid the Standard Gauge Railway. PHOTO | FRANCIS NDERITU | NATION MEDIA GROUP
Residents are now demanding that the SGR contractor stops work at the affected sections until their concerns are addressed.
The concerns raised by the residents, unless handled expeditiously, could further delay the completion of Phase 2A of the SGR project.
By KIPCHUMBA SOME
Residents of a village in Ongata Rongai, Kajiado County, have accused the Chinese contractor of Phase 2A of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) of illegally altering the designs of a major road in the area.
In a letter dated January 7, 2019, the Oloosirkon Residents Association (ORA) petitions the managing director of the Kenya Railways Corporation “to urgently intervene and stop the intentions of the SGR contractor to permanently block and alter the design and nature of the Ongata Rongai-Kitengela Road (the Greater Southern bypass).”
The association claims that the original design of the SGR route had provided for the construction of an overhead bridge (at point DK12-035) — which is near Tuala trading centre — for the SGR, across the road.
“Instead of following this important provision, the contractor has decided, without any consultation with the community to build a permanent 12-metre high concrete embankment across the road, thereby completely blocking and altering the nature of the road,” ORA said in a letter signed by their chairman Mr Awori Achoki and Mr Philip Kulangash, who signed on behalf of the local community.
To alter the design of the road, ORA claims in their petition that the contractor created a sharp right angle diversion one kilometre from Tuala town into two five metre-wide tunnels.
“The road emerges from the tunnel into another sharp right angle turn to the left — 10 metres from the tunnel. The hazard posed by these reckless design provisions is unimaginable,” the letter says.
They further complained that the SGR contractor — China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) — had made significant modifications in to the nature of the road, including reducing the width from the original 25 metres to 10 metres.
“Vehicles entering the tunnel from either direction are not visible to the driver until one is inside the tunnel. The sharp angle turn does not allow for gradual safe manoeuvring by large vehicles such as lorries and buses into the tunnel,” the letter claims.
The road is the only major link between Ongata Rongai and Kitengela towns and is a key component of the Nairobi metropolitan Transport Authority’s plan to decongest Nairobi city.
The ministry of Transport and Infrastructure tendered for the tarmacking of the road in 2017.
The residents are now demanding that the SGR contractor stops work at the affected sections until their concerns are addressed as well as other emerging issues of public interest.
“We demand to know why a major public road has been diverted into private land at a great cost to the public while adequate land for its expansion and development had been reserved by the government,” the ORA letter says.
Two-day efforts to get comment from the Kenya Railways Corporation Acting Managing Director Philip Mainga were not successful as he did not answer our calls or answer the text messages we sent to his mobile phone.
Mr Luka Kimeli, the acting director-general of the Kenya Rural Roads Authority, (KeRRA) said, in a text message, “I will need to confirm whether the road is a county road or national government road before providing a response.”
The concerns raised by the residents of Oloosirkon, unless handled expeditiously, could further delay the completion of Phase 2A of the SGR project, which runs from Nairobi to Naivasha.
In a press statement sent to newsrooms on Friday, Mr Mainga said that construction work on the 120-kilometre route is 88 percent complete and is scheduled to be completed by May 30, 2019 and will be officially launched the following day.
The project experienced delays over acquisition of land. To date a total of Sh17.6 billion has been used to compensate land owners affected by the project.
“I want to assure Kenyans that they will begin enjoying our train services, both passenger and freight from Mombasa to Mai Mahiu from June 1, 2019,” said Mr Mainga.
Work on the Nairobi-Naivasha section of the SGR began in January 2017 at a cost of Sh150 billion.
The first phase from Mombasa to Nairobi was completed in June 2017 at a cost of Sh327 billion.
Majority of the funding for the project has come from the Exim Bank of China. Phase 2B of the project from Naivasha to Kisumu will cost Sh350 billion, the bulk of which is expected to be financed through loans from the same lender.
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Tag: U.N.
5 things to know before next week’s critical UN climate talks
Lorraine Chow - November 27, 2018
You can participate, too. Climate change is not some far-away phenomenon, it is here now and impacts people around the globe everyday.
Mainstream media are trying to spin Nikki Haley as a moderate
Grace Bennett - October 11, 2018
During her tenure at the U.N., she advocated and defended extremist policies.
Nikki Haley gives her resignation as UN ambassador
Ashley Curtin - October 10, 2018
While it's unclear what prompted Haley's resignation, Trump said that he has known for six months, but hopes she will come back to the administration in another capacity.
US officially withdraws from UN Human Rights Council
Ruth Milka - June 20, 2018
The announcement comes on the heels of the U.N. human rights chief calling the Trump administration's policy of separating migrant families "unconscionable."
Drug wars, missing money, and a phantom $500 million
Nick Turse - February 9, 2018
More effective use of spreadsheets won’t solve the underlying problems of America’s wars or cure an addiction to policies that continue to fail.
Pan African Parliament Endorses Ban on FGM
Desmond Latham - August 6, 2016
Pan-African Parliament (PAP) representatives and the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) put forth a movement to end female genital mutilation (FGM).
Former UN President Arrested in Chinese Bribery Scheme
Andrew Emett - October 7, 2015
John Ashe, the former president of the United Nations General Assembly, was arrested after he was accused of accepting over $1 million in bribes in exchange for political favors. U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara vows to "root out public corruption" at every level.
VIDEO: Obama and Putin Spar at UN: Will Regime Change in...
Amy Goodman - September 30, 2015
During a formal meeting in New York, President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed their views on Syria and Ukraine with Obama expressing his willingness to work with Russia to resolve the Syrian crisis.
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Prince of Peace Lutheran brings Good Friday story to life
Vanessa RayFor the Monroe News
At Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Ida, the “Journey to the Cross,” a series of short skits depicting the life and crucifixion of Jesus Christ has been a Good Friday tradition for nearly two decades.
For Christians, Good Friday is a time to reflect on one of the most solemn parts of their faith.
“We’ve been doing this for 18 years,” said Paul Marks. “It’s always been a complete group effort.”
The journey begins shortly after arriving.
Guests are seated in the front pews and are treated to both music and an interaction between two Roman women meant to set the scene.
Around 15 minutes after the previous group began, the guests of the new “tribe” are ushered into the first room.
It’s here the tour guides – unique to each tribe – are introduced as a short synopsis of Jesus’ birth and life plays out in three small vignettes.
The tribe then makes their way down a long dark candle-lit hall and into the “upper room,” where Jesus and his disciples are sharing the Last Supper.
The attention to detail in the imagery, costumes and lighting makes for a completely immersive experience, transporting the viewer back 2000 years.
“There are around 100 people from church involved,” Marks said. “And 80 of them are in costumes.”
After leaving the upper room, a tent full of fresh pine trees, forsythia, ferns, hyacinth and tulips awaits the tribe.
They are now in the Garden of Gethsemane and watch as Jesus, portrayed by Leonard Fox, agonizes over his fate.
Once Jesus is betrayed by his disciple Judas, the eyes of those watching dance between anger and sadness as the “King of the Jews” is forcefully arrested.
The carpenter’s shop and the tomb are the last two stops of the journey.
In the shop, two carpenters portrayed by Ida Veterinarian Dr. Brian DeLand and Petersburg resident Steven Prati, discuss the ruling class and Jesus as they whittle away and await the arrival of the Roman soldiers.
Shortly after Jesus is forced to carry the cross from the carpenter’s shop, the room goes pitch black and the sharp sound and vibration of hammering is felt throughout the room.
Once the hammering stops, the horror of the sound of crucifixion is tempered by the beautiful voice of Bethany Kreps singing “Were You There.”
After the somberness of the carpenter’s shop, the last stop is the tomb – where a soldier chastises the tribe as though they were Roman citizens.
The journey ends when the tour guides tell the tribe the rest of the story can be heard this Sunday at Prince of Peace during either the 6:30 a.m. or 9 a.m. service.
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Please E-mail suggested additions, comments and/or corrections to Kent@MoreLaw.Com.
Help support the publication of case reports on MoreLaw
Case Style:
MATTHEW ROBERT STUTSMAN v. KANSAS DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE
Case Number: 119,528
Judge: Before BRUNS, P.J., MALONE and POWELL, JJ. PER CURIAM
Court: COURT OF APPEALS OF THE STATE OF KANSAS
Plaintiff's Attorney: Daniel C. Walter
Defendant's Attorney: Ashley R. Iverson, of Legal Services Bureau
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On April 22, 2017, Officer Randy Myles of the Kansas State University Police arrested Stutsman for driving under the influence of alcohol. According to Officer Myles, Stutsman rear-ended another vehicle at a stoplight. When the officer arrived at the scene of the accident, he found that Stutsman smelled of alcohol and had slurred speech, bloodshot eyes, difficulty communicating, and poor balance. Stutsman admitted to Officer Myles that had consumed alcohol.
After Stutsman failed field sobriety tests as well as a preliminary breath test, Officer Myles placed him under arrest. Stutsman was then taken to the Kansas State Police Department. Officer Myles administered a breath test using an Intoxilyzer 8000 to test Stutsman's blood-alcohol content. The test revealed a blood-alcohol count of 0.209, which was well above the legal limit.
Before releasing Stutsman, Officer Myles gave him a copy of a "Officer's Certification and Notice of Suspension"—commonly called a DC-27 form—as well as a copy of an "Implied Consent Advisory" form—commonly called a DC-70. Subsequently, Stutsman requested an administrative hearing and his suspension was upheld on June 29, 2017. Thereafter, Stutsman filed a petition for review with the district court.
The district court held a de novo hearing on April 23, 2018. At the hearing, a copy of the DC-27 form given to Stutsman was admitted into evidence as Exhibit 2. In addition, a copy of the DC-27 form provided to the Kansas Department of Revenue was admitted into evidence as Exhibit 3. Finally, a copy of the DC-27 form kept by Officer Myles was admitted into evidence as Exhibit 4.
Although all three copies were different, Exhibits 3 and 4 contained substantially identical information. However, Exhibit 2 was lacked much of the information found on the other two exhibits. In particular, Exhibit 2 does not contain:
the officer's initials in the spaces provided on the left side of the form, any checkmarks in the boxes in paragraph 4 to indicate whether the form was completed because of a test refusal or a test result, any checkmarks in the boxes provided in paragraph 5 to indicate the reason for the contact or stop, any checkmarks in the boxes provided in paragraph 6 to indicate the reasonable grounds to believe Stutsman was operating or attempting to operate a motor vehicle, and the signature of a law enforcement officer.
Concerning the discrepancies between the copy of the DC-27 form given to Stutsman and the other versions of the DC-27 form, Officer Myles testified:
"A: Well, the copy that Mr.—originally we just received the electronic capability. At that time we were still new to it, we didn't have full knowledge of how to use the program, so the DC-27 was written on the old copy, a hard copy. It was written out. Everything was filled out correctly. From there I gave the pink copy from my hand to Mr. Stutsman. I explained the whole entire document to him. At the time he said he understood. Once he took it out of my hand we took the—well, I'm sorry, not 'we'—I took the pink copy and I put it in his property bag, being that he was go[ing] to be transported to Riley County Police Department. "Q: And you retained the yellow copy for your records? "A: Yes, we kept all that, and we usually scan all of the documents after we get done. "Q: And the top white copy is submitted to KDOR? "A: Yes. I sent it to my sergeant and kind of go through the—yes. "Q: Sure. So pardon me. Kansas Department of Revenue received a DC-27— "A: Uh-huh.
"Q: —which was vetted by KD[O]R and satisfied the statutory requirements. What is your explanation as to Mr. Stutsman's argument that his is different than the one that we received? "A: My only explanation from that is being that it did not transfer from the top of the page down to his copy didn't transfer clearly from the carbon copies."
The district court upheld Stutsman's administrative suspension in a journal entry filed on April 30, 2018. It found that "the triplicate DC-27 form, as manually filled out by the arresting officer, substantially complied with statutory requirements and was properly served upon [Stutsman]." Specifically, the court stated that:
"[T]he white [DC-27] copy clearly ha[d] all of the appropriate boxes marked. The yellow copy that's Exhibit 4, I've closely examined it as it relates to Exhibit 3 [the white copy] and it appears to be identical other than the fact that some of [the markings] are very hard to read. And then finally you have Exhibit 2 which is the pink copy, and it on its face would appear to be different.
"However, as we know these are carbon copies and it appears to me that they simply did not—there wasn't sufficient pressure or it didn't copy from the white, to the yellow, to the pink. And it also appears that the officer then went back and wrote over what faint transfer I guess there was from the original copy so that it was legible and it would be clear to anyone who stopped Mr. Stutsman that he had a valid license to drive with his pink slip.
"Based on all of that I don't think that he was served a different copy. I think it is substantial compliance. The officer testified that the . . . breathalyzer was performed at the Kansas State Police Department. For those reasons, the Petition for Review is denied."
Stutsman timely appeals to this court.
On appeal, Stutsman contends on appeal that "the mistakes among the various DC27's in this case are major, replete and undeniable." Stutsman argues that because the version of the DC-27 provided to him did not include the certification or signature of a law enforcement officer as required by K.S.A. 8-1002, the Kansas Department of Revenue did not have subject matter jurisdiction to administratively suspend his driver's license. In response, the Kansas Department of Revenue contends that this is not a case of an incomplete DC-27 but simply a matter of the law enforcement officer not applying enough pressure for the information to reach the copy of the DC-27 that was provided to Stutsman.
Subject matter jurisdiction is vested by statute and establishes the court's authority to hear and decide a particular type of action. Wiechman v. Huddleston, 304 Kan. 80, 8687, 370 P.3d 1194 (2016). Parties cannot confer subject matter jurisdiction by consent, waiver, or estoppel, and parties cannot convey subject matter jurisdiction on a court by failing to object to the court's lack of jurisdiction. Wall v. Kansas Dept. of Revenue, 54 Kan. App. 2d 512, 513, 401 P.3d 670 (2017). If an administrative agency lacks jurisdiction, neither the district court nor an appellate court acquires jurisdiction over the subject matter on appeal. See Rodewald v. Kansas Dept. of Revenue, 296 Kan. 1022, 1038, 297 P.3d 281 (2013) (holding that administrative agencies must "derive . . . subject matter jurisdiction from statutory authority"); Sandlin v. Roche Labs., Inc., 268 Kan. 79, 85, 991 P.2d 883 (1999) (stating that "if the trial court lacked jurisdiction, the appellate court likewise does not acquire [subject matter] jurisdiction[.]")
The question as to whether subject matter jurisdiction exists is a question of law over which this court's scope of review is unlimited. State v. Dunn, 304 Kan. 773, 784, 375 P.3d 332 (2016). Because subject matter jurisdiction is conferred by statute, it should be noted that the interpretation of a statute is also a question of law subject to unlimited
review. Pratt v. Kansas Dept. of Revenue, 48 Kan. App. 2d 586, 588, 296 P.3d 1128 (2013). As the parties recognize, subject matter jurisdiction may be raised at any time, whether for the first time on appeal or even on a court's own motion. Wall, 54 Kan. App. 2d at 513.
K.S.A. 8-1002 governs the notification and certification that must be completed by a law enforcement officer when a driver refuses to take or fails a blood-alcohol test. Moreover, K.S.A. 8-1002(g) requires the Kansas Department of Revenue, Division of Motor Vehicles, to "prepare and distribute forms for use by law enforcement officers in giving the notice required by this section." Accordingly, DC-27 forms have been prepared "as an aid to law enforcement officers, the [Division of Motor Vehicles], and an operator of a motor vehicle facing an officer's request that he or she submit to alcohol or drug testing." See State v. Baker, 269 Kan. 383, 385, 2 P.3d 786 (2000).
There are two primary components of the DC-27 form—notification and certification. The notification aspect arises under K.S.A. 2018 Supp. 8-1001(k) and includes information an officer must advise a driver before administering an alcohol test. On the other hand, the certification aspect arises under K.S.A. 8-1002(a) and concerns matters occurring after the test failure or test refusal has already taken place. See State v. Baker, 269 Kan. at 385-87.
K.S.A. 8-1002(a) requires that whenever there has been either a test failure or test refusal, a law enforcement officer must prepare and sign a certification. With regard to a test failure, K.S.A. 8-1002(a)(2) requires that the officer must certify the following:
"(A) There existed reasonable grounds to believe the person was operating a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or both, or to believe that the person had been driving a commercial motor vehicle, as defined in K.S.A. 8-2,128, and amendments thereto, or is under 21 years of age while having alcohol or other drugs in such person's system; (B) the person had been placed under arrest, was in custody or had
been involved in a vehicle accident or collision; (C) a law enforcement officer had presented the person with the oral and written notice required by K.S.A. 8-1001, and amendments thereto; and (D) the result of the test showed that the person had an alcohol concentration of .08 or greater in such person's blood or breath."
In addition, K.S.A. 8-1002(b) provides that "certification shall be complete upon signing, and no additional acts of oath, affirmation, acknowledgment or proof of execution shall be required. The signed certification or a copy . . . thereof shall be admissible in evidence in all proceedings brought pursuant to this act. . . ."
Moreover, K.S.A. 8-1002(a)(3) requires:
"With regard to failure of a breath test, in addition to those matters required to be certified under subsection (a)(2), that: (A) The testing equipment used was certified by the Kansas department of health and environment; (B) the testing procedures used were in accordance with the requirements set out by the Kansas department of health and environment; and (C) the person who operated the testing equipment was certified by the Kansas department of health and environment to operate such equipment."
Furthermore, K.S.A. 8-1002(d) lists the information that must be included in the certification:
"In addition to the information required by subsection (a), the law enforcement officer's certification and notice of suspension shall contain the following information: (1) The person's name, driver's license number and current address; (2) the reason and statutory grounds for the suspension; (3) the date notice is being served and a statement that the effective date of the suspension shall be the 30th day after the date of service; (4) the right of the person to request an administrative hearing; and (5) the procedure the person must follow to request an administrative hearing."
Finally, K.S.A. 8-1002(f) states that "[i]f the requirements of subsection (a) are not met, the division shall dismiss the administrative proceeding and return any license surrendered by the person."
After filling out and signing the DC-27 form, the law enforcement officer must "serve upon the person notice of suspension of driving privileges . . . ." K.S.A. 8-1002(c). Substantial compliance with this service requirement satisfies K.S.A. 8-1002(c). Byrd v. Kansas Dept. of Revenue, 43 Kan. App. 2d 145, 154, 221 P.3d 1168 (2010), aff'd 295 Kan. 900, 287 P.3d 232 (2012). Likewise, "it is generally recognized that substantial compliance with statutory notice provisions will usually be sufficient. To substantially comply with the requirements of the statute, a notice must be sufficient to advise the party to whom it is directed of the essentials of the statute." Barnhart v. Kansas Dept. of Revenue, 243 Kan. 209, 213, 755 P.2d 1337 (1988).
Here, the deficiencies are not in the manner of service of the DC-27 form. Rather, we find that there are multiple statutory deficiencies on the face of the DC-27 form that was actually given to Stutsman. It is undisputed that Exhibit 2—the version of the DC-27 form provided to Stutsman—does not match the other two versions of the DC-27 form admitted into evidence. The Kansas Department of Revenue argues—and the district court evidently believed—that these deficiencies can be excused because the officer "went back and wrote over what faint transfer . . . [existed] from the original copy so that it was legible[.]" Even if we assume this is true, it does not explain why the officer would have failed to check the pertinent boxes, failed to initial were as appropriate on the lines provided, or failed to sign the version given to Stutsman.
It is undisputed that Exhibits 3 and 4 are duplicates of the same document. On these versions of the DC-27, Officer Myles' initials appear 11 times down the left-hand side, multiple boxes are checked, and his signature is on the line provided near the
bottom of the page. However, Exhibit 2—which is the version of the DC-27 actually served on Stutsman—is substantially different than the other two trial exhibits.
On its face, the handwriting on Exhibit 2 appears to be different from the handwriting on Exhibits 3 and 4. Regardless, even if we accept the premise that Officer Myles was the one who wrote on Exhibit 2—which appears unlikely—he failed to include essential information required by K.S.A. 8-1002. We also note that at the de novo hearing, the State did not object to the admission of Exhibit 2 nor did it challenge that it was indeed the version of the DC-27 that was provided to Stutsman.
As indicated above, Exhibit 2 does not contain:
Although we acknowledge that substantial compliance by a law enforcement officer is sufficient, we do not find these omissions to be mere technicalities. Rather, we find Exhibit 2 to be missing essential information required by K.S.A. 8-1002. Specifically, Exhibit 2 is not certified as required by K.S.A. 8-1002(a), (b), and (d) either with the officer's initials or with his signature. In addition, as we have pointed out, much of the information that the statute requires to be certified is missing completely.
Outcome: Consequently, we conclude that the DC-27 form provided to Stutsman does not comply with the requirements of K.S.A. 8-1002. As a result, we conclude that the Kansas Department of Revenue did not have subject matter jurisdiction to administratively suspend Stutsman's driver's license. Thus, we reverse the district court's decision upholding the administrative suspension.
Plaintiff's Experts:
Defendant's Experts:
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Husband and wife married 63 years die 20 minutes apart
A husband and wife died within 20 minutes of one another side-by-side in a South Dakota nursing home after 63 years of marriage.
KSFY-TV reports Henry and Jeanette De Lange died July 31 at Platte Care Center.
The couple's son, Lee De Lange, says his 87-year-old mother suffered from Alzheimer's and had been in a nursing home since 2011. He says his 86-year-old father visited her daily before recently entering the same nursing home.
Lee De Lange says after his mother died peacefully, he told his father, "mom's gone to heaven. You don't have to fight anymore, you can go too if you want." He says his father looked at his wife, closed his eyes and died minutes after.
The couple's joint funeral was to be held Monday.
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Shawn Taylor, a reporter at the Wake Forest-based newspaper, asked for correspondence earlier this month that might shed light about why Youngsville’s police chief retired and an administrative employee at the police department was fired.
The request for Town Administrator Phil Cordeiro’s emails and text messages involving the former employees over a two-month period drew an estimate of $70,000 for records production and legal review.
“We were all pretty astounded,” said Taylor, a reporter for the 5,000-circulation newspaper.
Experts say Cordeiro and town attorney Edward Bartholomew may have overstated how much it would cost to produce the records and misapplied the public records law in determining how much the town can charge. After The Wake Weekly published a front-page article about the records battle, Cordeiro provided a new estimate in the $15,000 range.
Cordeiro said in an interview with The News & Observer that he supports open government and the role of the press. But the newspaper’s request was broad and would capture records that aren’t public, he said, such as employees’ medical information. As a result, he said processing it would require substantial time and technical expertise to identify all the records and review them so nonpublic information could be withheld.
“I still want to provide the records to The Wake Weekly,” Cordeiro said. “The question is who should bear the cost?”
The public records law doesn’t allow public agencies to charge for the cost of separating nonpublic information from public records.
Since 1967, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) has provided the public the right to request access to records from any federal agency. It is often described as the law that keeps citizens in the know about their government.
The request centers on personnel matters. That’s an area of state and local government in which the law gives public entities some leeway in what they can withhold. While they need to make basic information public, such as an employee’s position and salary, there are limits on disclosing employee performance.
Cordeiro told Taylor there was nothing unusual about police chief Daren Kirts’ retirement. But Cordeiro said he could not produce more information about why the administrative employee was fired beyond a dismissal letter that says it was for “unsatisfactory performance.”
The state’s personnel law requires public agencies to produce a letter that identifies the actions or lack of actions that led to an employee’s dismissal. The law also allows public agencies to disclose additional personnel information to show they are acting with integrity. Taylor requested that Cordeiro exercise that option, but he hasn’t.
Cordeiro told The News & Observer he is worried that providing more information about why the administrative employee was fired could open the town to a lawsuit.
His initial record-production estimate to the newspaper was $36,167. A chunk of that cost involved having an information technology company do much of the record search. But then Bartholomew, the town’s attorney, said if the paper wanted him to expedite his legal review of the records, it would cost as much as an additional $34,000. He would charge the paper $300 an hour to expedite the request, more than twice the $125 hourly rate he charges the town.
Bartholomew said in an email message Friday evening that he was out of the office and unable to comment until Monday.
Mike Tadych, a lawyer specializing in public records matters, said judging by the newspaper’s report, the town was needlessly complicating the records search. Cordeiro should be able to quickly search his own email to identify the necessary records, and it shouldn’t take as long to review them as he estimated, Tadych said.
“You guys make public records requests of far greater breadth, and nobody bats an eye,” Tadych said of The N&O, which is a client of Tadych’s firm.
He and Brooks Fuller, director of the North Carolina Open Government Coalition and Sunshine Center at Elon University, said the town shouldn’t be charging for a legal review, either.
Martinez said the newspaper’s next step is to reach out to the town’s elected officials to see if they are standing behind their administrator’s position.
“Regardless if it’s $15,000, $30,000 or $70,000, the fact remains the same — these values are exorbitant and well beyond the capacity that we, or really any other small-town newspaper, could reasonably pay,” he said. “These public officials’ emails that pertain to public business belong to the people and to expect us to pay any of these amounts to access them should alarm the people that call the Youngsville community home.”
The Freedom of Information Act isn’t just for journalists. Here’s how you can use it too.
opn-columns-blogs
NC government needs more sunlight
north-carolina
Behind the scenes of government, millions in payouts and little transparency
Mecklenburg leaders broke law with private budget talks, suit claims
Dan Kane
Dan Kane began working for The News & Observer in 1997. He covered local government, higher education and the state legislature before joining the investigative team in 2009.
By Jacquelyn Melinek
Bee activists believe pesticides and insecticide like neonics contribute to honeybee population decline. Environment North Carolina petitioned Governor Roy Cooper to ban the sale and use of these products.
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nigereducation
» Profile
Education in Niger - An Overview
The Ministry of National Education Niger Government is administering authority of education at Primary and Secondary level. Training of teachers is also the responsibility of the ministry. Niger made schooling compulsory to all children in the age bracket 7 to 15 years. Education in Niger is provided for free, despite very few children make it to school. Many of them start work in early childhood, as the parents are not very rich to fulfill basic needs of children like clothing, food, medicine and education.
Adult literacy rate in Niger is one of the lowest in West Africa. Literacy program in Niger are conducted in five different African languages. In 1991–92, 4,513 students were enrolled in institutions of higher education, with 232 teachers. In 1963, the National School of Administration was founded in Niamey. The University of Niamey, founded in 1973, has schools of the sciences, letters, education, mathematics, agriculture, health, economics, and social sciences. The Islamic University of Niger opened up in 1987.
The education system in Niger is mainly based on French system of education; however, changes are gradually made to fit the education for local needs. The educational programs are mainly aimed at expanding the educational system and so as to lower the illiteracy rate. According to one estimate there was 84.3% illiterate population in Niger in the year 2000. The government expenditure on education in the year 1999 was 2.7% of GDP. The government of Niger is working to expand educational opportunities and aims to increase this enrollment ratio to 91% by 2013.
Niger has joined UNESCO on November 10, 1960. The country is covered by UNESCO cluster office of Bamako in Mali. In 2005, UNESCO launched the "Strengthening of Technical Capacities at the Education Ministry of Niger" project, which helped the authorities of the country in devising education policy. Niger is one of 11 countries chosen to pilot-test UNESCO national education support strategies (UNESS). The program Launched in May 2006 aims to help governments establish coherent education policies in order to achieve Education for All. Niger also participates in UNESCO's Teacher Training Initiative for sub-Saharan Africa (TTISSA), a 10-year project focused at reforming national teacher policies in 46 sub-Saharan countries. Around 115 schools in Niger are part of the Associated Schools Project Network (ASPnet), and there are two UNESCO Chairs.
91-9693488888 Dua For Getting Lost Love back in
Niger Select a Country
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Revived Lilith Fair Tour Cancels 10 Dates
By Michael Preston
Published Jul 6, 2010 at 5:03 AM | Updated at 5:15 AM EDT on Jul 6, 2010
Receive the latest music updates in your inbox
Singer Sarah McLachlan paid tribute to all the stars that died in 2009.
Once a hot ticket during the summer concert season, Sarah McLachlan's reconstituted Lilith Fair tour has recently seen its momenteum slowed by poor sales and a slew of defecting headliners.
On July 1, the tour cut ten dates across the country, canceling shows in Austin, Dallas, Charlotte, Tampa and Salt Lake City among others, reported Entertainment Weekly.
Additionally, big name acts like Kelly Clarkson and Norah Jones have pulled out of scheduled dates for various reasons.
A statement released by Lilith co-founder Terry McBride addressed the cancellations in a matter of fact way.
Top Entertainment Photos
“We are in the midst of one of the most challenging summer concert seasons with many tours being cancelled outright. Everyone involved with the tour would like to apologize to the fans and artists scheduled to play in these markets, and express appreciation for all the support for the festival’s return. Lilith remains the only tour of its kind, and we are confident that fans will be amazed by what each date has to offer.”
But it's not just the ladies who've been affected by slupming sales. Other major acts like Christina Aguilera, Rihanna and The Eagles have been affected by lack of demand, and others, like U2 and Simon & Garfunkel, have been cursed by the injury bug. Many industry analysts blame the poor showings on the continuing effects of the recession, a sentiment McBride agrees with.
"It's the reality of this summer," said McBride in an interview with Rolling Stone. "It's just across the board. Main Street is still in recession. We're not out of this yet. Did we see that four months ago? I don't think anyone did."
Tears & Tributes at the BET Awards: Chris Brown Breaks Down, Kanye Comes Back
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Joe Boozell | NCAA.com | August 3, 2016
6-9, 345-pound Zach Banner does little man things
USC offensive tackle Zach Banner is a mountain of a human. Listed at 6-9, 345 pounds, pass rushers have their work cut out for them when trying to apply pressure. Pancakes are a familiar sight.
But when Banner isn’t busy stonewalling foes in the trenches, he’s venturing outside of his comfort zone. Like, way outside of his comfort zone.
Watch as the USC lineman does a series of ‘little person’ things, including riding a mini tricycle, playing basketball on a tiny hoop and trying his hand at gymnastics. It’s quite the sight:
I’d hang out with that guy.
The Cape Cod Baseball League is in full swing. Here's a look at some of the college baseball players swinging hot bats preparing for the coming 2020 season.
These 9 NCAA women's volleyball programs have won the most national championships
Stanford claimed the 38th national championship in NCAA women's volleyball in 2018. Let's take a look at the programs with multiple titles.
The 9 winningest college baseball teams in NCAA history
It's safe to say that the winningest school in college baseball history won't be caught for a long, long time (if ever).
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By Steven Case, 2010.
NC Government and Heritage Library.
Greenville is the county seat of Pitt County. It was established by statute in 1771 (incorporated 1774) as Martinsborough, named in honor of Josiah Martin, the last Royal Governor of the colony. The town was renamed Greenesville in 1786, in honor of the Revolutionary War general Nathanael Greene, and the name was gradually shortened to Greenville.
Originally peopled by the Tuscarora Indians, the land around Greenville was slowly re-settled in the early 18th century by immigrants moving up the Tar River or down from Virginia and the Albemarle region. Early settlers engaged largely in subsistence farming and some tobacco cultivation. By the 1840's, the area had developed a small but thriving cotton culture, and the town, situated at the intersection of the river and the plank road from Wilson, became a regional link between the Piedmont and the trading cities on the coast during the antebellum years.
Greenville's status as a transportation hub on the Tar River made it a potential target for operations during the Civil War. Though no major fighting occurred, the town was fortified and entrenched, and several skirmishes took place in and around it. Recovery from the war was slow, and because of war casualties and out-migration, the population of the city dropped to about 600 by 1870. Tobacco processing and storage increased in the 1880's, and this factor, coupled with the arrival of the railroad, created favorable conditions for expansion, so that by the turn of the century the population had reached more than 4000..
Education--always a priority in the town, with its first academy chartered in 1787--was considerably enhanced when the state chartered the East Carolina Teachers Training School in 1907. Within a few years, the Training School was a four year college, and by 1967 had become East Carolina University, adding the Brody School of Medicine in the 1970s.
Culturally diverse and vibrant, the city currently plays host to the Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival and the Billy Taylor Jazz Festival, as well as being the home base for many of the top BMX riders in the world.
Greenville's estimated population
1980: 35,740
Greenville's land area (square miles):
1980: 15.03
Data from the NC State Data Center: http://www.osbm.state.nc.us/ncosbm/facts_and_figures/socioeconomic_data/population_estimates/demog/ppla8009.htm
References and additional resources:
"About Greenville." City of Greenville. http://www.greenvillenc.gov/live/about-greenville
Bratton, Mary Jo Jackson, 1991. Greenville: Heart of the East. Chatsworth, Ca.: Windsor Publications.
Greenville-Pitt County Chamber of Commerce. http://www.greenvillenc.org/
Kammerer, Roger. "Yours if you come." Greenville-Pitt County NC Convention and Visitors Bureau. http://www.visitgreenvillenc.com/about/historical.php
"The New Breed of Greenville" ESPN. http://espn.go.com/action/bmx/blog/_/post/5162065#
Pitt County Historical Society, 1982. Chronicles of Pitt County, North Carolina, 1982. Winston-Salem: Hunter Publishing Co.
Powell, William Stevens, and Michael R. Hill. 2010. The North Carolina gazetteer: a dictionary of Tar Heel places and their history. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. p. 218.
Williams, Thomas, ed., 1974. A Greenville Album: The Bicentennial Book. Greenville: ERA Press.
"Seal of the City of Greenville." From 2010 Citizens Handbook, City of Greenville, NC.
"Steamboat on River" Photograph no. N_74_8_98. From the North Carolina State Archives, Non-Textual Materials unit.
Case, Steven
Government & Heritage Library, State Library of North Carolina.
22 October 2010 | Case, Steven
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Astonished to Wake by Julie Suk
Jacar Press
17.95, paperback
Available from the publisher
“The poetry of Julie Suk is at once deceptively spare and metaphorically rich, and the sensual mystery of her perfectly pitched and etched lines is haunting, elemental, and wild,”
—R. T. Smith
In her sixth collection, Julie Suk continues to write poems that are deeply sensuous and unflinching.
"Oh the things we would all say to the stars in the sky if we found ourselves alone in a lifeboat at sea."
—Charles Simic, former Poet Laureate of the United States
Julie Suk is the author of five previous volumes of poetry. The Angel of Obsession won the University of Arkansas Poetry Competition, the Roanoke-Chowan Award, and was on the short list for the Poets Prize. The Dark Takes Aim (Autumn House Press) was awarded the Brockman-Campbell and the Oscar Arnold Young awards. Suk is also a recipient of the Bess Hokin Prize from Poetry magazine, and received the Irene Honeycutt Lifetime Achievement Award from Central Piedmont Community College. She was formerly a managing editor of Southern Poetry Review, and co-editor of Bear Crossings and the Anthology of North American Poets.
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Play Netball
Community Netball
Mother Earth futureFERNS
Technical Officials
Resources & Equipment
New voice for New Zealand’s Umpires
New Zealand is leading the way with a Netball world first in advocating for those in control of the game with the establishment of a New Zealand Netball Umpires’ Association.
A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed off between Netball New Zealand (NNZ) and the newly formed New Zealand Netball Umpires’ Association (NZNUA), with a key objective to support the country’s High Performance Umpires.
NNZ Chief Executive Jennie Wyllie said it was a significant move which would create structure and ensure a closer working relationship between NNZ and the NZNUA.
“It is important that, like the players who have the Players’ Association, there was a voice for the Umpires who could support and advocate for them,” she said.
“We recognise the importance of quality High Performance Umpiring in New Zealand, which will also have a significant benefit on the international game.”
She said the relationship would ensure that the two parties would work more closely together with the best interests of the game in mind.
“New Zealand has a committed group of officials and we want to make sure that our Umpires are the best and most respected Umpires in the world.”
The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) would also provide the terms and conditions on which contracted Umpires would officiate in elite competitions in New Zealand.
Experienced international umpire Jono Bredin, who will head the NZNUA, said it was an exciting initiative which would not only strengthen ties with NNZ but also promote the role of Umpiring in Netball throughout the country.
“It is important that we continually attract new Umpires but also work hard to retain those who are dedicated at all levels by advancing their interests and welfare,” he said.
“I believe there is an understanding that our elite Umpires are high performance athletes and I think this relationship will underpin the importance of having high quality Umpiring in netball in this country.”
The MOU was signed off between the NNZ and the NZNUA in February to cover the next 12 months when it will be reviewed.
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Home » Sports » NHL Eastern Conference Final: Tampa Bay vs. Rangers – Game 7
NHL Eastern Conference Final: Tampa Bay vs. Rangers – Game 7
May 29, 2015 •
It’s come to game 7, and it’s anybody’s game. The Tampa Bay Lightning and New York Rangers have been wildly offensive in Eastern Conference final which has had it’s ups and downs and exciting OT surprises.
After six games, both teams have combined to score his 40 goals. Outside the 2-1 Rangers win in Game 1 and 2-0 Lightning win in Game 5, the games have looked like baseball scores of 6-2, 6-5, 5-1 and 7-3. They are still 29 goals away from breaking the imfamous Oilers’ record and going into Game 7 Friday night, the players probably want to keep it that way and not get into a run and gun type of play.
“We have to go in there with a 1-0 mentality,” said Lightning defenceman Victor Hedman. “I think it’s a matter of playing better defence,” said Rangers forward Rick Nash. “We’re going to get a big push from the other team, and we’re going to make sure we’re defensively sound.”
The Lightning and the Rangers are averaging 6.6 goals per game and have kept the red goal light burning brightly. In the West, the Anaheim Ducks and Chicago Blackhawks have averaged 6.2 goals per game. In comparison, the two leading offensive teams during the regular season (Tampa Bay and Dallas) averaged a combined 6.3 goals per game. So this series is explosive. Usually, the playoffs are a time when scoring goes down. Coaches are typically trying to coach to prevent goals, at the same time the officials put their whistles away allowing players to dictate the flow.
The Lightning and Rangers have ranked first and third, in goals per game, with Steven Stamkos finishing second with 43 goals in the regular season, and Nash, third with 42 goals. Tampa Bay versus New York has been an awesome ride, with so many lead changes, odd-man rushes, breakaways and highlight-reel goals. It’s been exactly what the NHL needed: an exciting series that will definitey provide a worthy competitor for the Stanley Cup. This hockey has been a pleasure to watch.
The Eastern Conference champion will play the winner of Saturday’s Game 7 of the Western Conference Final between the Ducks and the Chicago Blackhawks in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, which is expected to hit the ice Wednesday, June 3.
This game will probably come down to the goaltenders. Rangers’ Lundqvist is phenomenal in Game 7s, only giving up five goals total in winning six straight since suffering his lone Game 7 defeat to Washington in 2009.
Tampa Bay’s Ben Bishop will be playing in the second Game 7 of his career, the first of which he won in the opening round against the Detroit Red Wings.
Who’s side will Lady Luck be on? The team that scores first and can carry it through 60 minutes.
Our Pick: The Tampa Bay Lightning
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Conductor, Artist of the past
Nationalities : Italy
Representation :
Claude Debussy: La Mer (Lucerne Festival Orchestra,...
Claudio Abbado - GIOACCHINO ROSSINI - Ouvertures
Friedrich Gulda & Claudio Abbado - Mozart: Piano Concerto...
L'ORCHESTRA - Claudio Abbado
Beethoven:Egmont Abbado 2004
Beethoven - Piano Concerto No. 3 (Brendel, Abbado)
Cecilia Bartoli & Claudio Abbado,Exsultate ,Jubilate...
Claudio Abbado, moved after Mozart Requiem in Lucerne...
Verdi - Requiem: Dies Irae (Claudio Abbado, Berlin...
Mahler - Symphony No 4 - Abbado
Claudio Abbado, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (Italian pronunciation: [ˈklaudjo abˈbaːdo]; 26 June 1933 – 20 January 2014) was an Italian conductor. One of the most celebrated and respected conductors of the 20th century, particularly in the music of Gustav Mahler, he served as music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan, principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, principal guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, music director of the Vienna State Opera, founder and director of Lucerne Festival Orchestra, music director of European Union Youth Orchestra and principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic orchestra.
Family history and early life
The Abbado family for several generations enjoyed both wealth and respect. Abbado's great-grandfather squandered the family fortune and reputation by gambling. His son, Abbado's grandfather, became a professor at the University of Turin.His grandfather re-established the family's reputation and also showed talent as an amateur musician.
Born in Milan, Italy, Claudio Abbado was the son of violinist and composer conductor Michelangelo Abbado, and the brother of the musician Marcello Abbado (born 1926). His father, a professional violinist and a professor at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory, was his first piano teacher. His mother also was an adept pianist. Marcello Abbado later became a concert pianist and teacher at the Rossini Conservatory in Pesaro. His sister also exhibited talent in music, but did not pursue a musical career after her marriage. His other brother later became a successful architect.
Abbado's childhood encompassed the Nazi occupation of Milan. During that time, Abbado's mother spent time in prison for harbouring a Jewish child. This period solidified his anti-fascist political sentiments. However, his musical interests also developed, with attendance at performances at La Scala,as well as orchestral rehearsals in Milan led by such conductors as Arturo Toscanini and Wilhelm Furtwängler. He later recalled that Toscanini's periods of abusive behaviour to musicians in rehearsal repelled him. Other conductors who influenced him as a child were Victor de Sabata and Rafael Kubelík. It was not until hearing Antonio Guarnieri's conducting of Claude Debussy's Nocturnes that Abbado resolved to become a conductor himself. At age 15, he met Leonard Bernstein, who commented, "You have the eye to be a conductor."
Musical education and early engagements
Abbado studied piano, composition, and conducting at the Milan Conservatory, and graduated with a degree in piano in 1955. The following year, he studied conducting with Hans Swarowsky at the Vienna Academy of Music, on the recommendation of Zubin Mehta. Abbado and Mehta both joined the Academy chorus to be able to watch such conductors as Bruno Walter and Herbert von Karajan in rehearsal. He also spent time at the Chigiana Academy in Siena.
In 1958, Abbado made his conducting debut in Trieste. That summer, he won the international Serge Koussevitzky Competition for conductors at the Tanglewood Music Festival, which resulted in a number of operatic conducting engagements in Italy. In 1959, he conducted his first opera, The Love for Three Oranges, in Trieste. He made his La Scala conducting debut in 1960. In 1963, he won the Dimitri Mitropoulos Prize for conductors, which allowed him to work for five months with the New York Philharmonic as an assistant conductor to Bernstein. Abbado made his New York Philharmonic professional conducting debut on 7 April 1963. A 1965 appearance at the RIAS Festival in Berlin led to an invitation from Herbert von Karajan to the Salzburg Festival the following year to work with the Vienna Philharmonic. In 1965, Abbado made his British debut with the Hallé Orchestra, followed in 1966 by his London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) debut.
Abbado taught chamber music for 3 years during the early 1960s in Parma. His early advocacy of contemporary music included conducting the world premiere of Giacomo Manzoni's Atomtod, on 25 March 1965, in Milan.
Conducting career
In 1969, Abbado became principal conductor at La Scala. Subsequently, he became the company's music director in 1972. He took the title of joint artistic director, along with Giorgio Strehler and Carlo Maria Badini, in 1976. During his tenure, he extended the opera season to four months, and focused on giving inexpensive performances for the working class and students. In addition to the standard opera repertoire, he presented contemporary operas, including works of Luigi Dallapiccola and of Luigi Nono, in particular the world premiere of Nono's Al gran sole carico d'amore. In 1976, he brought the La Scala company to the USA for its American debut in Washington D.C. for the American Bicentennial. In 1982, he founded the Filarmonica della Scala for the performance of orchestral repertoire by the house orchestra in concert. Abbado remained affiliated with La Scala until 1986.
On 7 October 1968, Abbado made his debut with the Metropolitan Opera with Don Carlo. He began to work more extensively with the Vienna Philharmonic (VPO) after 1971,which included two engagements as conductor of the orchestra's New Year's Day concert, in 1988 and 1991. He was a recipient of both the Philharmonic Ring and the Golden Nicolai Medal from the Vienna Philharmonic.
He served as Principal Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) from 1975 to 1979 and became its Principal Conductor in 1979, a post he held until 1987 (he was also the LSO's Music Director from 1984 until the end of his principal conductor tenure). From 1982 to 1985, he was principal guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO). In 1986, Abbado became the Generalmusikdirector (GMD) of the city of Vienna, and in parallel, was music director of the Vienna State Opera from 1986 to 1991. During his tenure as GMD in Vienna, in 1988, he founded the music festival Wien Modern.
Berlin Philharmonic
Abbado first conducted the Berlin Philharmonic in December 1966. After 33 appearances as a guest conductor, in 1989, the Berlin Philharmonic elected him as its chief conductor and artistic director, in succession to Herbert von Karajan. During his Berlin tenure, he oversaw an increased presence in contemporary music in the orchestra's programming. In 1992, he co-founded 'Berlin Encounters', a chamber music festival. In 1994, he became artistic director of the Salzburg Easter Festival. In 1998, he announced his departure from the Berlin Philharmonic after the expiration of his contract in 2002.Prior to his departure, he was diagnosed with stomach cancer in 2000,which led to his cancellation of a number of engagements with the orchestra. Subsequent medical treatment led to the removal of a portion of his digestive system, and he cancelled his conducting activities for 3 months in 2001.
In 2004, Abbado returned to conduct the Berlin Philharmonic for the first time since his departure as chief conductor, for concerts of Mahler's Symphony No. 6 recorded live for commercial release.The resulting CD won Best Orchestral Recording and Record of the Year in Gramophone Magazine's 2006 awards. The Orchestra Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic established the Claudio Abbado Kompositionspreis (Claudio Abbado Composition Prize) in his honour, which has since been awarded in 2006, 2010 and 2014.
Other orchestras and post-Berlin work
In addition to his work with long-established ensembles, Abbado founded a number of new orchestras with younger musicians at their core. These included the European Community Youth Orchestra (later the European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO)), in 1978, and the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester (GMJO; Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra) in (1988). In both instances, musicians from the respective youth orchestras founded spinoff orchestras, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe (COE) and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, respectively. Abbado worked with both these ensembles regularly as well, and was artistic advisor to the COE, though he did not hold a formal title with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. In turn, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra formed the core of the newest incarnation of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, which Abbado and Michael Haefliger of the Lucerne Festival established in the early 2000s, and which featured musicians from various orchestras with which Abbado had long-standing artistic relationships. The final new orchestra that Abbado helped to establish was the Orchestra Mozart, of Bologna, Italy, in 2004, and he served as its founding music director until his death.
In addition to his work with the EUYO and the GMJO, Abbado worked with the Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar of Venezuela.
Amongst a wide range of Romantic works which he recorded and performed, Abbado had a particular affinity with the music of Gustav Mahler, whose symphonies he recorded several times. Despite this, he never managed to complete a cycle with a single orchestra: in a mix of studio and concert releases, he recorded Symphonies 1-2 and 5-7 in Chicago, Symphonies 2-4, 9 and the Adagio from 10 in Vienna, Symphonies 1 and 3-9 in Berlin, and Symphonies 1-7 and 9 in Lucerne. A planned Eighth in Lucerne (the intended culmination of his traversal of the symphonies there) had to be cancelled owing to his ill health. The symphony was finally performed and recorded in 2016 under Riccardo Chailly as a tribute to Abbado.
He was also noted for his interpretations of modern works by composers such as Arnold Schoenberg, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Giacomo Manzoni, Luigi Nono, Bruno Maderna, György Ligeti, Giovanni Sollima, Roberto Carnevale, Franco Donatoni and George Benjamin.
Musical style
Abbado tended to speak very little in rehearsal, sometimes using the simple request to orchestras to "Listen".This was a reflection of his own preference for communication as a conductor via physical gesture and the eyes, and his perception that orchestras did not like conductors who spoke a great deal in rehearsal. Clive Gillinson characterised Abbado's style as follows:
"...he basically doesn't say anything in rehearsals, and speaks so quietly, because he's so shy, so people can get bored. But it works because everyone knows the performances are so great. I've never known anybody more compelling. He's the most natural conductor in the world. Some conductors need to verbally articulate what they want through words, but Claudio just shows it, just does it."
In performance, Abbado often conducted from memory,as he himself noted:
"...it is indispensable to know the score perfectly and be familiar with the life, the works and the entire era of the composer. I feel more secure without a score. Communication with the orchestra is easier."
Courtesy: Wikipedia
FranceMusique
28 December 18 10:39
with : Gil Shaham , Jian Wang , Alfred Brendel , Claudio Abbado
Abbado et l'orchestre de Berlin (5/5)
Abbado et l'orchestre de Berlin (5/5) du 28 12 2018 : l'émission de radio replay sur France Musique. Retrouvez les podcasts et les programmes en réécoute gratuite.
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Upsell & Intelligence Platform
eStandby Upgrade®
eXpress Upgrade™
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About Nor1
Careers at Nor1
We know we can’t do it alone, that’s why Nor1 welcomes and searches for the influence and guidance from business and technology’s greatest minds. Our Board of Directors are a balanced blend of skill and experience, allowing each member to offer guidance in critical areas of the Nor1 business. It’s been that influence that has led to some of the biggest names in capital investment to sit up and take notice of this burgeoning upstart.
Jason Bryant – Nor1 Founder, CEO, and Chairman of the Board
Jason Bryant, Nor1 Founder, CEO and Chairman of the Board oversees day-to-day operations, provides visionary leadership and strategic direction for the upsell technology company.
With Jason at the helm, Nor1 has quickly emerged as the technology leader in upsell solutions. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, Nor1 provides innovative revenue enhancement solutions to the hospitality industry.
A seasoned entrepreneur, Jason has over 20 years experience building and leading international software development and operations organizations. Prior to Nor1, he founded and grew DRCI into a world-class offshore software development organization which maintained facilities in India and Mexico. DRCI focused on providing services to the travel industry, specialized in both high-volume transaction systems and Internet technologies.
Jason is a frequent speaker on technology and entrepreneurship at global events such as World Travel Market, the Hospitality Upgrade Vendor Summit, ITB Berlin, and many other industry events. He also volunteers his time to a number of non-profit organizations. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Michigan. Jason currently sits on the board of CYC – Giving Foster Youth A Voice.
John Pasquesi – Managing Director, Otter Capital, LLC; Nor1 Board Member
Mr. Pasquesi serves as Vice Chairman of the Board and Chairman of the Finance and Investment Committee of Arch Capital Group Limited (Nasdaq: ACGL), a Bermuda based insurance and reinsurance company with $4+ billion of shareholders equity and $9+ billion of investment assets. Mr. Pasquesi also serves as Chairman of the Board of AgraQuest, a leading producer of biopesticides and as a director of several other private companies.
Mr. Pasquesi graduated from Dartmouth College (AB degree in Religion 1981) and Stanford Graduate School of Business Administration (MBA degree 1985).
Otter Capital was founded by John Pasquesi to make a variety of private equity investments. Prior to founding Otter Capital, Mr. Pasquesi was a Managing Director and member of the Executive Committee of Hellman & Friedman LLC, a private equity investment firm that has raised and managed over $4.8 billion of committed capital. Prior to joining Hellman & Friedman in 1987, Mr. Pasquesi was associated with Golder, Thoma & Cressey, a Chicago based private equity firm.
More information: http://www.archcapgroup.com/BoardOfDirectors.aspx
Charlie Sultan – Senior Vice President, Concur Supplier Service, Nor1 Board Member
Mr. Sultan joined Concur in April 2014 as the SVP of Supplier Services, where he leads the team that is responsible for travel content in Concur Travel and managing all relationships with Travel Suppliers.
Previous to joining Concur, Mr. Sultan spent 2 years outside the travel industry as the Chief Operating Officer of Bankrate Insurance and 15 years at American Airlines in 11 different roles. He left American Airlines as Vice President of AAdvantage Partner Marketing, where he was responsible for overseeing AAdvantage’s relationships with over 100 partners, including the major Hotel and Car Rental companies, along with Citibank.
Mr. Sultan also ran the Sales Planning & Distribution group at American Airlines and was responsible for creating and managing American’s incentive programs for TMCs, evaluating corporate discounts, and reshaping American’s Small/Medium Business selling strategy. In addition, he was responsible for directing the activities of American Airlines’ $300MM+ Distribution strategy, which included renegotiated agreements with 3 GDSs along with the OTAs and Meta sites.
Mr. Sultan has a Bachelor of Science in Economics degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.
He currently resides in Denver with his wife and 3 children.
Art Norins – Nor1 Founder and Board Observer
Art Norins serves as a Board Observer for Nor1. Prior to founding Nor1, he also founded Sandium, a B2B commercial heating ventilation and air conditioning system equipment supplier. Art continues his role as Chairman of Sandium. Art is passionate about supporting fellow entrepreneurs; whether that be via angel investment, mentoring/board/advisory board roles or speaking engagements. He serves on the Board of the Indiana Institute of Global Health along with Purdue University’s Strategic Alliance Council. Art has traveled extensively (visited over 100 countries spanning six continents) and has lived internationally. He is a patent holder and earned an Engineering degree from Purdue University.
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(1 of ) The sign for the Graton Resort & Casino's hotel casts a shadow near the main entrance, in Rohnert Park, on Wednesday, September 28, 2016. (Christopher Chung/ The Press Democrat)
Hotel occupancy in May climbs in Napa Valley, declines in Sonoma County
NORTH BAY BUSINESS JOURNAL
North Bay hotel data
For May, compared with a year before.
• Occupancy: 79.9%, up 3.7%
• Average daily rate: $382.24, up 4.6%
• Revenue: $47.5 million, up 7.2%
• Revenue year to date: $155.9 million, up 5.3%
• Survey size: 5,023 rooms
• Occupancy: 78.2%, down 5.2%
• Revenue year to date: $115.7 million, down 6.9%
• Occupancy: 79.7%, up 2%
• Revenue year to date: $52.6 million, up 4.9%
Source: STR
See past reports on local lodging: nbbj.news/hoteldata
Napa County hotel occupancy rebounded in May, scoring its first month this year in which rates increased over the previous year, according to data released by STR on Friday.
Meanwhile to the west, the average occupancy rates for Sonoma County continued to decline, albeit at the slowest rate so far this year. And occupancies in Marin and Solano counties, as well as revenue, climbed.
A year in which occupancy rates declined took a big swing toward the positive in May, increasing to 79.9%, a 3.7% increase. That was the best for the year so far.
Revenues for May were also up, 7.2% higher than May last year. Napa’s hotel industry for the first five months year saw revenues up 5.3%, or $155.9 million.
Average room rates – declining since January — showed a slight improvement in May, according to the data. The average rate of $196.82 per night was up 1.8% from a year before. Rates had declined throughout 2019.
Occupancy in May, however, continued the trend lower than a year before, as Sonoma County occupancy rates have moved all this year. Occupancy surged in early 2018 to house survivors of the October 2017 wildfires. The average occupancy last month was 78.2%, down 5.2% from a year before and down year to date by 9.9%.
Hotel revenues for May were up by nearly 5% over the previous May and by 6.4% year to date, at $52.6 million.
Year to date average occupancy rates, as well as those for May, were relatively flat, though trending positive.
With 4,153 rooms included in the survey, Solano County in May remained in the positive for average occupancy rate and revenue.
The latter figure was $10.9 million for May, up 8.1%, and $42.3 million year to date, up 5.4%, the data showed.
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Costel on clean sheet
NFFC
Costel Pantilimon was pleased to have kept a clean sheet as Nottingham Forest drew with Preston and feels there is plenty to build on.
The Reds had the better of the game against North End at Deepdale, with Pantilimon also called into action to make a couple of fine stops, but neither side could find the breakthrough.
Speaking after the game, he said: "I tried to be focused every single minute because you never know what can happen in the game. I am happy because I was able to help the team and a clean sheet is very important for the confidence.
"We are proud of the hard work and that was an important thing. We tried to keep our heads up, to keep working and to hope we can get into the play-offs and see what the future will be."
Pantilimon felt that Forest deserved all three points overall yesterday afternoon and is now looking to carry on building some momentum ahead of the East Midlands derby next week.
He said: "I think we could have taken all three points but in the end it was hard work as the pitch wasn't the greatest.
"It is important that we didn't lose these two away games and we can now look forward to the Derby game.
"We are approaching the games in a different way with the new manager and his different ideas and we are all trying to adapt as quickly as possible. I think we are getting there and after a few games we are understanding what the manager wants and we are starting to improve."
Preston North End vs Nottingham Forest on 16 Feb 19
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First Novels: Acquiring Minds Martha Woodroof looks at the process of acquiring a first novel from the point of view of publishers who both employ their own taste and then take care of the deal.
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First Novels: Acquiring Minds
December 13, 20138:43 AM ET
Martha Woodroof
The Night Circus
by Erin Morgenstern
Paperback, 516 pages |
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The first in my series of posts on The First Novel Experience was called "The Romance of Agents." A couple of people wrote me after it was posted and asked if I was going to include in this series any stories of any writers who'd had a bad time with their books. I thought about it and decided no – at least not yet. As someone who's had her share of disappointments in these uncertain and confusing publishing times, it seems more useful – and encouraging – to tell stories of books that are having the kind of success authors dream of.
But I'm open to other thoughts, so feel free to leave them in the comments.
I'm calling this second post in the series "Acquiring Minds." It is, as you might have guessed, about first novels from the acquiring editor's point of view.
As in the series' first post, the novels referred to come from a list sent to me by Elizabeth Khuri Chandler, Co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of Goodreads.
Publishing is, of course, a business. It has to make money.
If you're a writer and you'd like to read a well-written and engaging real-life publishing business story in which the hero endures ten years of poverty in order to write his first novel, then signs with a relatively unsung agent who then sells the novel for a whopping $665,000, then Keith Gessen's article "The Book On Publishing" is for you. It gives useful insight into novel publication by telling the backstory of Chad Harbach's first novel, The Art of Fielding. You can find Mr. Gessen's article in the October 2011 issue of Vanity Fair, or as a Kindle Single on Amazon (where it's called "Vanity Fair's How A Book Is Born: The Making Of The Art Of Fielding").
There's one sentence in the article that, to me, speaks eloquently to the beating heart of publishing as well as its bottom line. "Publishing houses," Gessen writes, "appear to be giant monoliths. In fact, in the end, they are the sum total of the judgment and taste of their individual editors ..."
Among those editorial tastes are those of Alison Callahan, who was an Executive Editor at Doubleday when she bought Erin Morgenstern's first novel, The Night Circus, a story of magic and young love set in a mysterious circus that arrives in the book's setting one day without warning. And as the title suggests, this mysterious circus is open only at night.
The Night Circus was the first novel ever submitted to Ms. Callahan by Richard Pine, an agent at InkWell Management. He sent it based on intuition, honed by the couple of times Alison had taken him out to lunch to talk books.
So what does Alison Callahan look for in a manuscript? She puts it this way:
The books that I tend to gravitate toward typically have a bit of an edge or a high-concept element of style or tone or storytelling. The best way I can describe my taste is that I like books that go off the beaten path...but you can still see the path. The Night Circus unapologetically plays with time, with actual magic and illusion and love.
Alison began reading the manuscript in her office, but soon decamped to the Random House cafeteria.
With The Night Circus, I knew from those first few chapters that [this] book was unlike any other first novel I had read. My heart started pounding, and every time the phone rang or my email chimed, I was annoyed to be pulled away from the pages, which is why I went to the cafeteria. Once the distractions were gone, I flew through the pages as fast as I could both because I was enthralled by the story, and propelled by the fear that someone else in another office in town was doing the same thing and would beat me to it.
Each publishing house, Alison Callahan says, works differently when it comes to acquiring books.
When I acquired the novel, I was an Executive Editor at Doubleday and no, I was not allowed to buy anything I wanted and I certainly didn't have a blank check. But I am rather reserved when it comes to acquiring novels, so when my boss saw how wild I was about it, we moved in a much quicker way than is typical when attempting to buy a fiction debut. At Doubleday, it is typical to have the publisher [in this case Bill Thomas of Doubleday] read it as well as an editor or two from the paperback division. The reads that came back were unanimously positive.
There was a ton of competition [for The Night Circus], but because we moved very quickly (and very aggressively), we had a jump on some of the other houses. I also spoke with the author at length about how much I was in love with her manuscript and she and I hit it off on the phone instantly. Sometimes, all the pieces line up perfectly.
Okay, that's pretty much that as far as the influence of Alison's Callahan's "judgment and taste." Now, it was on to serious business. Ms. Callahan says everyone at Doubleday knew the book was going to be pricey.
But we also knew that the sales potential was huge. These days, editors must appreciate a debut novel for not only its beautiful writing or creative storyline but also for its marketability and The Night Circus had it in spades. We gave the pages to our foreign rights director to gauge if she thought she could sell it in translation and she came back with a big number which we could incorporate into our profit & loss. She wound up selling it to nearly 30 publishers worldwide.
Publishing is not a business for the faint of heart. It is as subject to the vagaries of consumers as, say, software development or the fashion industry.
Doubleday found out through Mr. Pine that other houses were also pursuing The Night Circus. The book was heading into auction, when Ms. Callahan offered a "pre-empt," a publishing term for an offer from a publishing house that's so good it stops the book from going to auction.
About that looming auction, Ms. Callahan says:
We [Doubleday] didn't want to be in a competitive situation where the money would continue to creep higher and higher. We made a very generous offer, and when the agent said there was one other publisher nipping at our heels, about to make the very same pre-emptive offer, we upped ours substantially. My conversation with Erin is what tipped the scale in our favor.
The day we acquired the book was one of my happiest at Doubleday...followed closely by the afternoon we found out that she was going to debut on the New York Times Bestseller list at Number 2. The whole publication process was, if you'll indulge me, magical.
Okay, so how much did The Night Circus sell for? Nobody at either Doubleday or InkWell Management would talk money specifics — at least not to me. But Publisher's Marketplace, the industry's journal of money, reported The Night Circus went for a "major deal."
That means at least half a million dollars.
So, there was Doubleday, willing to stake at least $500,000 on an unpublished author.
Tell the Wolves I'm Home
by Carol Rifka Brunt
Hardcover, 360 pages |
Carol Rifka Brunt
Carol Rifka Brunt's first novel, Tell the Wolves I'm Home, was named one of the best books of the year by The Wall Street Journal, O: The Oprah Magazine, BookPage, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, and School Library Journal. Amazon.com one-sentences the novel's story as: "... a singular portrait of the late-'80s AIDS epidemic's transformation of a girl and her family."
Does that sound like a sure-fire bet to you? Or a gamble?
I asked Dial Press's Jennifer Smith – who championed and edited Wolves – how close book-buying feels to high-stakes gambling?
Her answer:
I'm not a big gambler, to be honest, but I imagine it's much the same. You put your chips down when you love a book, show your cards when you talk to the author and agent, and if it turns out they're not good enough, it can be a crushing blow. But when you win? It's such a great feeling. Even better than gambling, I imagine, because it lasts longer. Winning a book is just the beginning of a long journey to publication. It's the start of something really exciting.
Speaking of excitement, my next post will be about what it's like to sell your first novel from the author's point of view.
Before I finish this post, however, I want to go back for just a moment to InkWell Management's Richard Pine, who, when we talked, insisted on making the point that a lot of publishers' limited resources are dedicated to what he calls "house authors" who have dominated these resources for a long time. It was, he says, a thrilling experience [in the case of The Night Circus] to have a publishing house muster its personnel, dollars, imagination and enthusiasm, in a way that every author – not just every first-time author – dreams of.
I take this as encouragement for all novel writers. Speaking from personal experience, I hit my own soon-to-be published gold with the fourth novel I'd written and hustled. Was it worth it to write three that didn't sell? It was.
Read an excerpt of The Night Circus
Read an excerpt of Tell the Wolves I'm Home
first novels
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Della Reese, 'Touched By An Angel' Star And Singer, Dies At 86 : The Two-Way When she was cast as an angel boss on the long-running CBS spiritual drama, Reese had been famous for decades as a gospel-influenced R&B performer, TV guest star and talk show fixture.
Della Reese, 'Touched By An Angel' Star And Singer, Dies At 86
Della Reese, 'Touched By An Angel' Star And Singer, Dies At 86 3:47
November 20, 20176:16 PM ET
Heard on Morning Edition
Merrit Kennedy
Enlarge this image
Reese, the actress and gospel-influenced singer who in middle age found her greatest fame as Tess, the wise angel in the long-running television drama Touched by an Angel, has died at age 86. Douglas C. Pizac/AP hide caption
Douglas C. Pizac/AP
Reese, the actress and gospel-influenced singer who in middle age found her greatest fame as Tess, the wise angel in the long-running television drama Touched by an Angel, has died at age 86.
Della Reese, a performer and pastor best known for her starring role on the CBS spiritual drama Touched by an Angel, has died at 86.
"Her signature television role came late in life," NPR's Eric Deggans reported. "Reese already had been famous for decades as a gospel-influenced R&B performer, TV guest star and talk show fixture."
Her husband Franklin Lett released a statement through her Touched by an Angel costar Roma Downey, saying that Reese "has passed away peacefully at her California home surrounded by love."
Downey added, "I know heaven has a brand new angel this day."
Reese, who was born Delloreese Patricia Early in Detroit, started singing in church when she was six. She told NPR in 2003 that she was recruited by gospel legend Mahalia Jackson to tour with her at the age of 12.
"My mother took Mahalia aside and looked into her eyes and said, `I've got a good child here. I wouldn't let her go off with everybody, but I trust you. I know you're a woman of God and I'm expecting you to bring me back a better child than I'm sending away with you,'" Reese told the Tavis Smiley Show.
From there, her songs climbed pop charts, such as "Don't You Know," which is adapted from an aria from the opera La Boheme. As Eric reports:
"Her dignified image led to mainstream stardom. She was on The Ed Sullivan Show 18 times in one year. She also became the first black woman to host her own syndicated variety series and the first black woman to guest host Johnny Carson's Tonight Show.
"It was on the set of that show in 1979 that she suffered a brain aneurysm; a near-death experience that inspired her to become an ordained minister."
Her own show, Della, was on air for one season in 1969-70 with nearly 200 episodes, The New York Times reported, with guests including "George Burns, Ike and Tina Turner, Little Richard, Steve Allen, Tony Bennett, Ethel Waters and Gypsy Rose Lee."
In Touched by an Angel, Reese plays Tess, a sarcastic angel boss who is a maternal figure to Downey's apprentice guardian angel. "No one played the down to earth, worldly mother figure like Della Reese," Eric adds.
The show was a hit, and ran for nine years "telling stories of God's impact in everyday life," Eric says. "People need something to help them with their lives. In the show, we didn't tell you what to do, we said, 'did you ever think about it like this?'" Reese said, as Eric reports.
Reese also sang the show's theme song, "Walk with You."
As an ordained minister, Reese founded a church called the Understanding Principles for Better Living Church out of her living room. The church's website recounts that from an original eight members, the church soon outgrew her living room. As the Times reported, "she delivered Sunday services there for many years."
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The Country from a Segway: 'America at 10 MPH' It's been two months since a Denver-based film crew finished shooting America at 10 MPH, a documentary about a road trip on a Segway scooter. Filmmaker Josh Caldwell speaks to NPR's Liane Hansen about the last leg of the journey and the post-production process.
The Country from a Segway: 'America at 10 MPH'
January 23, 200512:00 AM ET
Liane Hansen
It's been two months since a Denver-based film crew finished shooting America at 10 MPH, a documentary about a road trip on a Segway scooter. Filmmaker Josh Caldwell speaks to NPR's Liane Hansen about the last leg of the journey and the post-production process.
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Daley May Outlast Father As Chicago Mayor The lessons Richard M. Daley learned from his father's missteps during the chaos of the 1968 Democratic Convention helped him claim — and hold — the seat behind the Chicago mayor's desk where his father served for 21 years.
Daley May Outlast Father As Chicago Mayor
David Schaper
Photo Gallery: Convention Chaos
Richard J. Daley (right) served for 21 years before he died in 1976. His son has held the seat for 19 years. hide caption
NPR Tours Chicago Before The 1996 Democratic Convention
Vietnam War protesters clashed with police on the streets and in the parks of Chicago during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. The violent crackdown on the Chicago demonstrators marred the convention and may have cost the Democrats the election that year.
It also badly damaged the city's image and hurt Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley's career.
Now, Richard M. Daley runs the city and is closing in on his father's record for longevity in the Chicago mayor's office. Some say the younger Daley is the city's most powerful Chicago mayor since his father and, like his dad, he is one of the most powerful mayors in the country.
But in order to sit behind the desk on the fifth floor of Chicago's City Hall where he's served for 19 years, Richard M. Daley had to take a much different path.
Young Activists, Old Guard
The younger Daley has always argued that what happened on the streets of Chicago those steamy nights 40 years ago was not really his father's fault.
In late August 1968, the nation was still reeling from the assassinations of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy. There was a cultural clash between young activists who wanted the party to be more progressive and inclusive, and the old-guard bosses, like Richard J. Daley, who cut deals behind closed doors and maintained tight, iron-fisted control.
Democrats came to Chicago for the convention as a party deeply divided over the Vietnam War and civil rights.
"There were plenty of warnings for anyone who was listening that there was going to be confrontation in the streets of Chicago," says Bob Crawford, retired political editor of Chicago news radio station WBBM-AM. "The only question was how was it going to be handled and what would the ultimate outcome of it be."
By most accounts, the elder Daley handled the situation poorly.
'Gestapo Tactics'
At the time, Richard J. Daley was the most powerful big city, Democratic machine boss in the country. He was known as a kingmaker after delivering critical votes that helped put John F. Kennedy in the White House. Daley had the president's ear just about any time he wanted, and hosting the convention was his way of flexing his party muscle.
As the city geared up for the convention, he wasn't going to let any long-haired, vulgar demonstrators ruin the party.
"He was the last of the big city bosses," said Ed Burke, alderman of Chicago's 14th Ward since 1969, when he was elected as an ally of Richard J. Daley. "He had a great pride in Chicago. He had a great love for the city. Throw into that a good measure of his Irish temper and you had a volatile mix."
In 1968, Burke was a Chicago police officer assigned to the International Amphitheater for the convention. He was on the floor, just a few feet behind the mayor and his sons when television images of the violent clashes between demonstrators and Chicago's police force were being broadcast. The footage led Sen. Abraham Ribicoff (D-CT), to alter his speech nominating George McGovern for president to denounce what he called "Gestapo tactics in the streets of Chicago."
"Ribicoff stared down at Daley, looked him in the eye," Burke says. "It was a direct insult to Daley."
The mayor tried to defend himself, his city and his police force.
"The confrontation was not created by the police," he said at the time. "The confrontation was created by the people who charged the police. Gentlemen, get the thing straight once and for all — the policeman isn't there to create disorder, the policeman is there to preserve disorder."
But the sounds and pictures of the events told a different story: Daley's machine overreacted. An inquiry after the convention labeled it a police riot.
"The Democratic Convention of 1968 was a disaster for the city of Chicago. It was a disaster for Richard J. Daley, and it was a disaster for the Democratic Party," says Paul Green, director of the Institute for Politics at Roosevelt University in Chicago, who has co-authored four books on the Daleys. "He was never the same."
'Power Is Everything'
After the dust settled, Daley's influence in the party nationally started to wane.
"The '68 convention left such a bad taste in the mouths of Democrats all across the country that even party regulars were blaming Richard J. Daley for the fate of the party, losing the election in '68," Crawford says.
By 1972, reformers in the party were able to change the rules for selecting delegates to the nominating convention and Daley's delegation to Miami was thrown out.
"But here at home, Mayor Daley was a hero," Crawford says. "Chicagoans thought the way he handled those demonstrations was the way it ought to be handled."
"As a result of the convention in 1968, Richard J. Daley could never be defeated in the city of Chicago," Alderman Burke says. "The people of Chicago admired him for being a strong leader."
Daley easily won re-election in landslides in 1971 and 1975. He maintained firm control over Chicago's City Council, where he never lost a vote and never needed to use his veto — lessons his son Richard M. Daley took note of.
During that infamous scene on the floor of the convention hall when Ribicoff criticized the mayor, the younger Daley was screaming back at Ribicoff right alongside his father.
"He saw chaos and he saw his dad lose control," which for a Daley is everything, says Roosevelt University's Paul Green.
"I think he may have learned at that time that power is everything and weakness is nothing," says Crawford.
Mini-Machine And Patronage
While serving in the Illinois Senate, Richard M. Daley felt the sting and betrayal of some city ward bosses who turned their back on him in the power struggles that followed his father's death in 1976.
Although the younger Daley won election as Cook County State's Attorney in 1980, he lost a bid for his dad's old job in 1983 when he challenged Mayor Jane Byrne. The two split the white vote, enabling a new coalition of independent blacks, Latinos and liberals to elect Chicago's first black mayor, Harold Washington.
With all of the elements of the old machine falling apart, Daley had to start building a new machine all his own.
"He came to the conclusion very early on that he had to change with the times or that he was doomed to failure," says Burke, who was a leader in the anti-Harold Washington block on the City Council in the 1980s and who supported Byrne over Daley in 1983.
"And he made a very conscious effort to avoid the mistakes that older political bosses in Chicago had made," he says.
When Washington died in 1987, his coalition split, creating the opening for Daley in a special election to finish Washington's term in 1989. He pulled together the remaining white ethnic machine bosses, Hispanics and white liberals, including a growing and politically viable gay community, to start a new mini-machine.
"That coalition has never wavered in their support for Richard M. Daley, not once," says Green. "And he's added to that the growing support in the black community [and] the other new communities like the Asian community. You win elections by addition and he has been very good at that."
Daley did not seek to be chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party, a position his father used to control politics and government from the courts to the state capitol to Congress. His father's machine doled out lower level offices, jobs and political favors in exchange for loyalty. The younger Daley's machine rewards loyalty, too, often with jobs and favors — his last patronage chief, Robert Sorich, is now in a federal prison after being convicted last year on corruption charges — but this Daley keeps a further distance from the inner workings of his machine.
He garnered the support of Chicago's business community, using pinstripe patronage — government contracts — to amass millions in campaign contributions, making the foot soldiers of the old machine less important. He has also surrounded himself with brilliant young minds, both on politics and urban policies, invested heavily in public works, building new parks, schools, libraries and police and fire stations in the neighborhoods, while at the same time, sparking a new building boom of skyscrapers downtown and along the lakefront.
In order to get done what he wants, this Daley operates just as autocratically as his father.
He has complete control of the City Council, he squashes and sometimes ridicules dissenters, and he leans heavily on the private sector. As a result, the city looks better, city services operate smoothly and Chicago has retained a vibrant middle class.
"There's a lot to be said for the progress of the city. It's important for tax revenues; it's important to make the city livable," says Crawford. "How would I sum up their leadership? Call them great mayors, but remember the price. The price is corruption."
Richard M. Daley is admired by mayors around the country for his innovation in managing cities and coming up with new ways to tackle old urban ills such as failing schools, affordable housing and cleaning up the environment.
His longevity in office, 19 years and counting, has helped him forge important relationships in Washington, where his influence has been helped by his brother Bill, who was Commerce secretary under President Bill Clinton, campaign manager for Al Gore and is now a key adviser to presidential hopeful Barack Obama.
While he may not yet be as powerful nationally as his father was at the height of his reign in Chicago, Daley's stature on the national political scene stands to rival that of his father, should Obama win the White House in November.
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Bids to Unlock iPhone Yield Mixed Results AT&T's legal team has discouraged one company's efforts to offer software that would open up Apple's iPhone to services not provided by AT&T. But a 17-year-old has posted instructions on the Web for how to unlock the iPhone — using a soldering gun.
Bids to Unlock iPhone Yield Mixed Results
< Bids to Unlock iPhone Yield Mixed Results
August 27, 20076:00 AM ET
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
People who love Skype might like to use it on the most hyped phone in history. The trouble is that the iPhone is linked exclusively to AT&T. You can't use any other companies.
One group announced that it has software that frees the iPhone so you could use other companies, and they were planning to sell that software until they got a 3:00 a.m. phone call from AT&T's legal team over the weekend.
You can, however, still find the instructions that a 17-year-old posted on the Web. He revealed how to unlock the iPhone, provided you are willing to attack your pricy phone with a soldering gun.
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
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As L.A. Probes Sex Abuse Charges, Staff Replaced At Elementary School : The Two-Way Two teachers at Miramonte Elementary School have been arrested on charges related to the alleged sexual abuse of students. Officials say no other staffers at the school are under suspicion, but they want to allay the fears of students and parents.
As L.A. Probes Sex Abuse Charges, Staff Replaced At Elementary School
As L.A. Probes Sex Abuse Charges, Staff Replaced At Elementary School 3:28
< As L.A. Probes Sex Abuse Charges, Staff Replaced At Elementary School
February 7, 20128:00 AM ET
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.
And I'm Audie Cornish.
In south Los Angeles, Miramonte Elementary is closed to students today. The school, the district and the community are dealing with a still-unfolding scandal. Two teachers are in jail, accused of sexual abuse and lewd acts involving their students.
And some major changes are coming to the school, as NPR's Karen Grigsby Bates reports.
KAREN GRIGSBY BATES, BYLINE: Miramonte reopens on Thursday, and the brightly painted building will look the same. But, says Superintendent John Deasy, students will be greeted by an entirely new faculty and administration.
DR. JOHN DEASY: And we're talking, in this case, the entirety of the staff. That would be custodian to secretary, to teacher to administrator.
BATES: Drastic measures because of the scandal.
The school is located in Florence Firestone, an often-overlooked part of unincorporated Los Angeles, far away from the affluence of neighborhoods like West L.A. or Beverly Hills. Miramonte's population is almost 100 percent Latino.
Raymond Canal(ph) grew up in this neighborhood. At a recent protest, he says demographics may have everything to do with why nobody has paid attention to Miramonte until now.
RAYMOND CANAL: Where is Gloria Allred at? They touch a white lady's booty in somebody's political office, and Gloria Allred is there already. We got over 30 kids probably got molested, and all that, in here. And we're not doing nothing about it - nothing!
BATES: In fact, civil rights lawyer Gloria Allred might not yet be on the case, but lawsuits have been filed. Lawyer Luis Carrillo said the turmoil at Miramonte is the result of a school system that kept no running record of complaints that have been lodged against 61-year-old John Berndt and 49-year-old Martin Bernard Springer over the years.
LUIS CARRILLO: Year after year, parents were complaining. But the school district failed to monitor the classroom of these teachers, failed to monitor these teachers, and failed to properly supervise the children to protect them from abusive teachers.
BATES: Although there were no recorded complaints against John Berndt, there had been warning signs. The L.A. Times reports a former student saying she and two friends complained to their counselor about Berndt's lascivious behavior in the classroom, but they were told to stop making things up. The Times also said a father complained in 2008 that Berndt had taken inappropriate photos of his daughter.
Carrillo believes these reports won't be the only ones to surface.
CARRILLO: As a result of all these failures, we have all these tragedies. And I predict that we're just looking at the tip of the iceberg.
BATES: At a press conference yesterday evening, Superintendent John Deasy faced an auditorium of angry Miramonte families. Pale and obviously shaken, Deasy told them they were right to be furious.
DEASY: I'm a dad and a teacher, and I can't imagine anything more horrible than the trust that was violated of the students. I try to think about what I would say to my own child, and you struggle for words.
BATES: And, he said, two bad teachers shouldn't taint all the extraordinary ones he's met at Miramonte.
DEASY: I've also walked the campus, and seen astonishing teaching and caring and work inside that school - amazing work.
BATES: But, Deasy said, some hard steps will have to be taken to restore trust, including relocating all previous adults to an unoccupied school. They'll be placed on paid administrative leave until the end of the school year. And, like their students, Miramonte faculty and administrators will also receive psychological counseling, as the scandal is sorted out.
It's a lot of change to restore trust. But parents are already asking, is it enough?
Karen Grigsby Bates, NPR News.
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Film, TV & Commercial Casting Notices
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Martin Bóna – Henrieta Žažová
Church of St. Helena in Demandice-Hýbec
The municipality of Hýbec in the Hont county is first mentioned in a document from 1276. The local noble family of Hébeczy originally owned it. The Deméndys, owners of the neighbouring Demandice village, acquired it during the reign of Louis I (1342 – 1382). Hýbec today, is one of the three municipalities of the Demandice village part called Osady.
Above the Hýbec municipality, in a wooded hillock near a functional cemetery (139 metres above sea level) is the concealed Roman-Catholic Church of St. Helena, a solitary one-nave building with polygonal presbytery. The year of the church’s construction, in 1023, is engraved on a late-gothic pastoforion (tabernacle). The lawyer and county archivist Lajos Hőke, however, questioned the authenticity of the ANNO D İ 1023 inscription during the middle of the 19th century. The oldest known reliable report on the church in Hýbec comes from as late as February 9, 1526.
After the Battle of Mohács (August 29, 1526) and the seizing of Buda and Esztergom in the 1540s, southern Slovakia became an immediate neighbour with the Ottoman Empire. The Church of St. Helena was abandoned, but it was repaired in the 1720s using the money of local landlord Samuel Blaskovich (around 1680 – 1737). According to István Majer, the Blaskovich family tomb is situated in front of the cross near the Hýbec church.
In modern history Hýbec became a country estate and the church was turned into a chapel, which only held processions on Easter Monday and the day of St. Helena. The map of the first military planning from 1782 – 1784 details the Hýbec church as a ruin (Rudera einen alten Kirche).
At the beginning of the 19th century, local landlord František Simonyi de Simony et Varsany (1761 – 1833) and his wife Mária Bellusi Baross initiated the renovation of the Church of St. Helena. In 1836, Pope Gregory XVI granted the Hýbec church the privilege of indulgences, which could be renewed every seven years. Eventually, the church became a popular pilgrim place on the day of St. Helena (August 18) and birth of the Virgin Mary (September 8).
The exterior of the chapel was renovated in 1882. At the beginning of the 20th century, the church was again in a dismal condition. Despite that, the Hungarian monuments commission refused to allocate money from the state budget for its reparation in 1905. The pilgrimages have been forbidden since 1950 and the church was only used sporadically. Between 2000 and 2007, the Hýbec church underwent a renovation, which also included an architectural-historical and restoration research that brought new information about the building’s development.
Eva Borecká
Killy Mansion in Častá
The reconstruction works in Killy Mansion in Častá (Pezinok district) revealed fragments of glass items dating to the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries, Hutterite (Haban) pottery from the 17th and 18th centuries and an early Renaissance wall painting on the house’s façade. The archive documents about the house are incomplete and offer little information on its previous owners. The owners of the mansion, who are mentioned in documents, worked for the owners of the Červený Kameň castle. The name Killy Mansion is derived from the Kelio family, who lived there for several generations since the 17th century. According to the land maps, the following owners, the Pálffys, who most probably rented the mansion to tradesmen, are identified from the middle of the 19th century. The property also included a neighbouring house with land.
The current ground plan of the one-storeyed mansion was created in the past by adding a traditional longitudinal house, which contained a black kitchen in the centre, to an older stone building. Other extensions and adjustments added to the plan’s overall outline. The buildings were interconnected in the basement as well as aboveground, and covered with a high, steep saddle roof, reminiscent of the so-called German roof. The excavation works in the interior revealed glass fragments, unglazed pottery, pottery with brown and green glazing, Hutterite faience, a golden men’s ring with brick-brown semi-precious stone and clay pipe (so-called “štiavnička”). The products can be dated when compared with similar findings from the 16th to 18th centuries. Some items of the Hutterite pottery are marked with a date (the last one from 1760). The findings improve the knowledge of period decorative items as well as items of everyday usage, the level of workmanship and the dining habits of burghers, or landlords living in the town’s market square, outside the stone castle walls that offered protection from frequent plundering. The most recent discovery is the fresco on the corner of the Killy Mansion, dated to the beginning of the 16th century, which was hidden, until now under a newer stone wall.
Vladimír Krupa
History of the Piešťany Town Park
The two-century-old Town Park, originally called Spa Park, dominates the spa town of Piešťany in western Slovakia. Piešťany, as we know it today, originated when a town of the same name merged with the Teplice spa (aka Thermae or Small Piešťany). Count George Erdődy (1754 – 1824) bought the town of Piešťany and the Piešťany spa from Emperor Charles III in 1720. The Erdődy family owned the town until 1848 and the spa until 1940, when it was nationalized.
Joseph Erdődy managed the family property from 1789 to 1824. He was the first to initiate arrangements in the park, which he planted in a French style in the area behind the former František (Francis) villa and former spa headquarters. Between these two buildings was the main entrance to the park with a small square, where the Baroque Chapel of St. John of Nepomuk (built in 1760) used to stand. It also had a separate belfry with a single bell. A cemetery developed around the chapel before the last third of the 18th century.
The park arrangements of Joseph Erdődy are captured in detail on the Frauenfeld’s plan from 1824. The so-called Manorial House stood at the park’s eastern end and faced the house of a spa inspector. This park’s area was also called the Old Park at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, when the New Park was planted. Both parks form a united complex today, the Town Park, which is an immovable cultural monument.
A park survey from January 1890 has been preserved, which was probably ordered by Francis Erdődy, the then owner of the spa, before he rented it to Alexander Winter. The survey was done by architect Anthony Pelka and surveyor Hugo Pelka, and captures the most significant buildings, such as the Spa Hotel and its adjacent pavilion, café, Park Villa, Arena summer theatre, inn and the Chapel of St. John of Nepomuk. Between 1893 and 1894, A. Winter ordered the building of a poly functional Spa Saloon at the edge of the park. It was used for organising cultural events (concerts, exhibitions), and as a restaurant, café, wine-room, confectionery, and later, as a casino. Spa guests were accommodated upstairs. A theatre stood nearby, and on the other side were tennis courts and an original music pavilion.
A large planting in another part of today’s Town Park took place at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. The so-called Main Alley of the New Park was built, which led from the Spa Saloon to the centre of the park, where a big fountain stands today.
Denis Pongrácz
Painted coffins from Trstená
The beginnings of the parish Church of St. Martin in Trstená are not yet historically clarified. It was probably built at the time, when Trstená acquired the town privileges (1371). The first written reference comes from 1397. After the arrival of the Thurzo family, in the second half of the 16th century, the parish became evangelical. Based on some sources, the evangelists rebuilt the church in the 17th century, while other authors think the church’s Baroque reconstruction did not start before 1738.
The canonic visitations mention two crypts in the church. The church interior, however, almost certainly contains other graves as well, because during the construction modifications in the interior in 1996, the workers of the company, which laid the floor heating, found two other stone boards under the side altars. The older crypt could have originated at the end of the Middle Ages (around 1500?). It has a rectangular ground plan of 8.99 and 4.46 m. It contained 88 fully and partly preserved coffins and around 11 coffins that were partially burnt. The coffins were in a bad condition and were literally thrown one over the other, often in 3 – 4 layers. Many body remains were lying outside the cases. The coffins come from the middle of the 18th century to 1837. Members of local noble families of Stankovics, Kruzlics, Stas, Gasparides, Bocko, Koroda de Főlsó, Javorka-Javorek, Hattala, Stefanides and Vilcsek de Podwilk were buried in the crypt, as well as Trstená’s prominent inhabitants, such as the notary Wrchovina.
The specific feature of the Trstená coffins, is their painted decoration with floral and votive motifs, often with recording the name and day of death of the deceased one. Also remarkable are the coloured – blue and green – children’s coffins. Textiles and footwear, in several cases, have been very well preserved. Most of the coffins come from the period of late Rococo and Empire. Experts selected a set of 27 best preserved coffins to include them on the list of the movable cultural monuments. As an integrated collection of rustic funeral art, they have a great documentational, artistic and ethnological value. Besides, they represent a collection that is unique in the territory of Slovakia.
Katarína Beňová
Rombauer’s portrait of Ferdinand V
Painter Johann Rombauer (1782 – 1849), a native of Levoča, who was a globetrotter who lived in Petersburg, decided to settle in Prešov after his return from the Russian metropolis, where he lived until his death. The Šariš Gallery in Prešov, in cooperation with the Slovak National Gallery (SNG), initiated a research project that documented this artist’s personality, which culminated in exhibitions of his work in Bratislava (June 4 – August 29, 2010) and Prešov (September 21, 2010 – January 9, 2011), as well as a voluminous catalogue entitled Ján Rombauer (1782 – 1849) Levoča – Petersburg – Prešov. The inter-disciplinary research carried out by experts from Slovakia and Hungary focused on Rombauer not only as a painter, but also as a historic person, whose example enables the documentation of fine art created during the first half of the 19th century in Slovakia.
In a surprisingly short time, after the exhibitions opened, new works of the painter appeared. The restoration works on collection items at Šariš Museum in Bardejov revealed Rombauer’s signature on the painting of the Portrait of Monarch Ferdinand V. The museum acquired this work in 1953, but its original locality is unknown.
Johann Rombauer was one of the popular portrait artists living mainly in the Šariš and Spiš regions. Apart from the works ordered by Prešov and Šariš aristocracy, burghers and tradesmen, he also painted for the Prešov administration. The centre of the Šariš See required portraits of the monarch, who could not be present in Hungary in the long term, for representation purposes. Ferdinand V was crowned as the Hungarian king in Bratislava on September 28, 1830. Consequently he also received titles of Austrian emperor (1835), Czech king (1836) and king of Lombardy and Venice (1838). In 1848, he assigned the reign to his nephew Francis Joseph I.
Based on graphic models, Rombauer made two versions of portraits of Ferdinand V. The Šariš See ordered the portrait in 1840 and originally placed it in the See residence. The portrait was discovered in the collection of the Slovak National Museum-Červený Kameň Museum, as the Portrait of Ferdinand V in hussar uniform with the signature Joh. Rombauer Anno 1840 pinxit. The second monarch’s portrait has recently been discovered during the restoration works on a painting in the collections of the Šariš Museum in Bardejov, where Rombauer’s signature was revealed during the cleaning process. The work was made three years earlier than the painting from Červený Kameň Museum. The monarch wears a brocade, richly embroidered coronation coat, with an unidentifiable country painted in the background. The painting from the Bardejov Museum shows composition parallels with the graphic drawings in the collection of the Hungarian National Museum, where the monarch is situated in an interior with the regalia of power and coronation coat.
Milan Togner
Unknown drawing by J. J. Keller
In several variants of the Baroque transcript in Slovak territory and fine-art literature, the name of Johann Julius Keller is associated with two works created in the first half of the 17th century. As painter Hans Keyller from Lipnik in Moravia, he created a set of coats-of-arms for the Thurzo family, which were ordered by the widow Elisabeth Czobor-Thurzo for the burial of Palatine George Thurzo at the Bytča castle. In the second case, as a painter from Vienna, he decorated the University Church in Trnava. He most probably painted the Trnava church’s altar with the theme of St. Stephen’s Martyrium, which is situated in the Chapel of St. Martyrs. The chapel’s original decoration apparently contained a hitherto unknown Keller’s drawing, which was preserved in a collection of old drawings by the Olomouc painter Anthony Martin Lublinsky (1636 – 1690), in a set of drawings adjusted for an original Baroque album. The drawing with the theme of the saint martyrs bears the full signature of Johannes Julij Kelleris delineavit Wienna Ao 1642 and probably entered the Lublinsky collection before 1690.
The hitherto unknown drawing shows only an average, and to a certain extent, basic drawing level, and can thus be considered to be a sketch for the altar painting that has the theme of the saint martyrs in the Trnava University Church, which has by now been the only proof of J. J. Keller’s painting activity in the area. Regarding the theme, dating to 1642 and Viennese origin, the drawing could also be a contract sketch for another painting with the presumptive location in the Chapel of Saint Martyrs of the Trnava church. Unfortunately, the painted picture is not known; nevertheless, the composition arrangement of the more or less traditional scheme suggests that in this case we can talk of Keller’s own interpretation.
Ivana Fialová
Belveder Hunting Castle in Šaštín-Stráže
Francis I, the husband of Maria Theresa, became the owner of the Holíč and Šaštín estates in western Slovakia in the course of the 1730s and 1740s. As a modern economist, he used these estates for implementing economy theories into practice. He introduced many reforms and innovations, which turned the neglected and indebted properties into effectively functioning economic units. The lands of both estates hosted large hunts each September and the Holíč estate, with its castle, became a favourite summer residence of the imperial family.
Very little, however, is known about the other, no longer existing building of the Belveder Hunting Castle, which served the needs of the Vienna court. It was located in the municipality of Stráže (today part of Šaštín-Stráže), which belonged to the Šaštín estate. It was built before 1736, when the estate was in the hands of the Czobor family. The historical documents from the 18th century mention the castle’s existence very sporadically, mainly recording the accounts of its repairs during certain years. However, some of the inventories of the castle’s furnishings have been preserved to help create at least a partial picture of its interior. There also are a few records that directly concern Belveder, or the buildings in its vicinity.
The death of Emperor Francis I on the 26th June 1765 significantly influenced the fate of the Belveder Castle. Maria Theresa did not consider it necessary to keep the building any longer and in 1766 sent part of the mobiliari to the Halbturn Castle (Burgenland, Austria) and neighbouring Holíč. The castle and its garden was rented, but later deteriorated and during the first three decades of the 19th century was razed to the ground.
Barbora Matáková Jr.
Laskár – the memory of a country
Laskár lies in the Upper Nitra valley, around 5 km southwest of Prievidza. This, originally an independent village became part of the Nováky town in 1941. Laskár was founded at the end of the 12th century, when it separated from the settlement of Svätý Jakub (Saint Jacob). It is first mentioned in 1355, in connection with aristocrat Ján, the son of Laskár from Svätý Jakub. The document from 1419 records the name of Laskár as Lazkarfalva. The settlement of Svätý Jakub ceased to exist in the first quarter of the 16th century. The village of Laskár was part of the Prievidza castle estate, and yeoman families of Majthényi, Berényi, Erdődy and Tarnóczy. The document from 1546 first mentions the existence of a fortified construction Castellum Lazkar vocatum, which was rebuilt in the Renaissance style at the end of the 16th century. In 1788, the Laskár manor house was enclosed with two walls, between which was a water moat with drawbridge. The Chapel of St. Jacob was part of the fortified manor house. With the Baroque reconstruction in 1799, the manor house lost its appearance of a fortress. An arched bridge was built and a natural-landscape park grew around the manor house. The building was again modified at the end of the 19th century, when the family of Tarnóczy built up a family archive there. Near the manor house were the houses of a pandour, blacksmith and brewer, a manorial bakery, granary, distillery, brewery and smith’s forge. A wooden manorial mill and sawmill were also in the village. One tavern stood at the end of the village and two others on the roads to Nováky and Bojnice.
The events of 1918 and 1948 brought radical changes to the life of Laskár, when the manor house met a similar fate, like many others in Slovakia. The noble family was moved out, and the manor house was nationalised by the Ministry of Home Affairs and turned into a military building. The onset of the Laskár’s end, however, came in the 1990s, when the Upper Nitra Mines Prievidza purchased the lands of the local people in order to begin an underground exploitation of coal and lignite. The planned undermining of Laskár was also the reason that the manor house was excluded from the Central Register of Cultural Monuments in 1988, where it was registered in 1965. The demolition of the manor house was subject to a construction-historical and archaeological research. The adjacent buildings were demolished in 1997 and garden allotments were created on their sites. The manor house was demolished in the summer of 1999. Today, these places bear noticeable remains of the natural-landscape park – with sycamores, that are almost 200 years old, which were planted during the manor house’s Baroque reconstruction. The only place preserving the memory of the municipality is the cemetery in Laskár, which is also unique with its stone grave crosses dating from the end of the 19th century. It is crucial to preserve it in its original place by identifying the cemetery’s area as a significant cultural-historical locality in the general ground plan and by defining the conditions of its preservation.
Peter Nagy
Archaeology of the Church of All Saints in Dechtice
The origin of the All Saints Church in Dechtice (Trnava district) can be dated to 1172, based on the record from a canonic visitation that took place in 1782. It is a unique building, which (though it sounds like a nonsense) can be described as a square rotunda. A church with such a ground plan was not to be found anywhere else in Slovakia or the then Hungary. The only similar construction is in the village of Hidegség, on the bank of the Neusiedl Lake in modern day Hungary.
The church is situated above the village, in the middle of a cemetery. It consists of a square-circular nave, which is finished with an elongated semi-circular apse. The Dechtice church has always had a slanted saddle roof, as the preserved gable wall on the eastern side suggests. Today, we can still admire the original entrance on the southern side, with a Romanesque portal, where a stone pointed arch was inserted in the gothic period. A tower with a new entrance from the western side and matroneum, which disarranged the nave’s circular ground plan, were added in the Baroque period.
Architecturally significant is the construction material used. Despite the fact, that the locality has plenty of suitable construction stone, the whole church was built from bricks. Brick making in the Middle Ages was financially demanding as well as time consuming; apart from the raw material it also required an experienced brick-maker. The brick material could create a unique decoration; in Dechtice they used layers of bricks, which originally protruded from the profile by several centimetres. These relief elements were removed in the latter years, which made the wall level. Fortunately, the rare wall paintings with the scenes from the life of Christ have been partially preserved in the church interior. It is possible that the white walls still hide rare medieval paintings and that there are other decorations behind the smooth outer façade, which could only be revealed by potential restoration research.
An archaeological research that took place in the All Saints Church in July 2010 revealed the construction of the church foundations and a unique cornice built of two rows of specially shaped bricks. Another unique finding was discovered during an interior probe under the original Romanesque entrance. Three layers of brick floors have been preserved there, of which the lowest one was made using Romanesque bricks, that were identical with the construction material of the church. It is the first medieval discovery of this type of paving in Slovakia.
Zuzana Zvarová – Miroslav Matejka – Tomáš Janura
Fifth Canonry House in Nitra
A chapter in the Roman-Catholic church grouped priests-canons, who followed certain rules – a canon, according to the monastery example. The priests-canons jointly served the holy mass and helped the bishop with the administration of the diocese. The canonic life was different from the monastic one. The canons could own a private property and the canonic houses were separately run households. They were fenced and consisted of the house of a canon and the house of servants. A canon could not sell his house, sign it away or exchange it.
The Upper Town of Nitra was divided between the Nitra’s residential chapter and bishopric. The chapter’s property could momentarily appear in the hands of the canons, who kept houses – canonries, and had to live and keep the chapter’s residency. The number of priests-canons varied; there were probably twelve in the Middle Ages, ten after 1500, twelve in the second half of the 16th century, thirteen in 1629, nine at the end of the 17th century and only six in 1789. Each newly appointed canon was officially assigned a canonry house. The canon usually lived there until his death.
The so-called Fifth Canonry House on the Square of John Paul II, No 2 and 4, in Nitra was researched in 2010. The research confirmed that it had undergone a complicated construction development and what is really important is that the archival-historical sources primarily described this specific canonry house. The house is situated in the centre of the castle hill; in the place of the present access to the Nitra Castle from the north of the Pribina Square. It consists of two buildings: a newer southern building No 2 and older northern building No 4. The two oldest construction phases out of the overall number of 12, which concern the development of No 4, are dated to the 15th and end of the 16th centuries. The building was extended in the 17th century, enlarged to the south in the 18th century and to the west in 1757.
The building No 2 was built in the southern part of the area during the first half of the 19th century. It had two wings, the street one served as a lodging, dooryard and communication place. The most significant construction adjustment was the reconstruction from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and the utility arrangements following the damage to the building caused by the bombing of the castle hill in 1945.
The building of the Baroque canonry house with masonry wall, green area and courtyard, accurately documents the development of architecture specifically in Nitra’s Upper Town, as well as, in general terms, across Slovakia.
Peter Buday
Močenok manor house in archive sources
In order to get to know the architecture of the 19th century, one needs to study archive sources. This is also inevitable because there are almost no authentic records regarding the construction development of the representative examples of recent history. Only in exceptional cases – rather by a happy coincidence than an aimed effort – we find monuments that can be explored in almost every detail thanks to their archives. The story of the former bishop’s manor house in Močenok is also told as a mosaic of secondary documents, such as official records, correspondence and newspaper coverage.
The former residency of Nitra’s bishops in Močenok is unique because not only is it preserved as a monument; it also has completed documentation, mainly concerning the fundamental construction phase of the building in the 1840s. The manor house escaped the tragic fate that most of the Slovak noble residencies met, because the former (Communist) regime gathered priests and nuns (the “enemies” of the state) in there. It has thus survived without significant changes, as a unique example of the classicistic gesamtkunstwerk from around the middle of the 19th century.
The six decades between 1848 and 1911, which mark the completion of the manor house and the transfer of the bishop’s office to the renovated castle palace in Nitra, could be seen as a blooming era of the Močenok estate’s residence. The building has a symmetrical ground plan in the shape of the letter H and is situated in a large park in the historical centre of the municipality, where the late-Baroque Church of St. Clement also stands.
The manor house was most probably built on the site of an older building, which stood there until the second half of the 18th century, at the latest. The inventories recorded by John Zelenay, the economy director of the bishopric, suggest that it was quite a large, luxuriously furnished residence. Its unusual beauty is described not only in period records, but also in the hitherto unexplored voluminous archive material kept in Ivanka pri Nitre, which contains documents from 1840 to 1848, 1876 and 1900 to 1901. With regards to the documents referring to the interior description of the “summer house”, of particular interest, is the exceptional collection of chandeliers, which were probably made in Vienna.
Ľudmila Husovská – Naďa Hrašková – Adriana Reťkovská
The Burgher’s house opposite the Kremnica walls
The central-Slovak mining town of Kremnica had not only an urban centre enclosed by walls in the Middle Ages, but also a built-up area along the roads leading to the individual gates of the town fortification. Dolná (Lower) Street, lined on sides by a continuous row of Burgher’s houses gradually built from the end of the 14th century, leads to the barbican and the up-to-day preserved Lower Gate.
The storeyed Burgher’s house No. 2/67 at the north-western corner of Dolná Street is a national cultural monument. Despite its significance, it has not yet undergone detailed architectural-historical, artistic-historical and archaeological research. The house has been almost continuously repaired since the 1980s. No expert documentation has been done during these interventions, only a geodetic survey of the house in 1980 that served as a preparation for research and consecutive works, which took place in 2007 – 2008.
The development of the house is based on the historical data mainly concerning the urban landscaping in this part of the town, reconstructions following the fires of the town and Dolná Street and town images on vedutas from the 18th century. The researchers also drew on the cadastral map from 1858 and historical cards and photo-documentation from the first half of the 20th century.
The first construction phase dated from before 1599. The basement was the oldest part of the house and determined a two-tract ground-floor house typical for Kremnica inside the fortified part of the town as well as at Dolná Street. The second construction phase concerned the period from after the fire in 1599 to the 17th century, when the house was extended and vaulted by renaissance vaults. The third construction phase dated after 1742 and after other fires in the town. It is clear that the individually standing houses were joined together in the 18th century, creating a corner storeyed house drawn in the veduta from 1742. We assume that the fire in 1716 influenced the reconstruction of the building, when a corner with niche and sculpture of St. Florian, the patron saint of fire-fighters, was built there as a sign of fire protection. The fourth construction phase of the house, which only brought along smaller adjustments, dated from after the fire in 1787 until the first half of the 19th century, or 1858. The fifth construction phase, mainly documented by the precise drawing of the building on the cadastral map, took place from 1858 to the beginning of the 20th century. The house received today’s appearance with a drawn-in addition of a garage with workshop and open passage through the gate. The sixth construction phase, dated between 1918 and 2007, mainly recorded negative interventions into the building.
Eva Spaleková
The Holy Sepulchre in the Church of St. George in Spišská Sobota
The regional restoration atelier of Slovakia’s Monuments Board in Levoča (ORA) last year restored quite a significant and unique monument in Slovakia – the Holy Sepulchre in the Church of St. George in Spišská Sobota. Following restoration of the late-gothic altar, baroque pulpit, cancellus, oratory parapet and the church’s sculptural and painting decorations, this was another progressive step regarding preservation of the mobiliari in this sacral interior which is of both artistic and historical significance.
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District 10 Supervisor Concerned About Public Safety
Published on March, 2015 in News by Ben Taylor
Since winning her second term as District 10 Supervisor last November, Malia Cohen has pursued the same policy priority she initially put for-ward four years ago: public safety. She pointed to car break-ins, armed robberies, home invasions, and gun violence as problems that need to be addressed in the district.
“Last year I put in several re-quests. First, I established a request to create a gun violence prevention task force,” Cohen said. Cohen drafted legislation – which was unanimously approved – to establish a thirteen member task force, to be appointed by the Board of Su-pervisors Rules Committee. Cohen also requested that the Legislative Analyst conduct an audit of current violence prevention programs in San Francisco.
“This audit has yielded me a few gems. First, it’s identified where the resources are being spent. Most of the resources are being spent in the Mission, and in the South-of-Market,” Cohen said. The audit also revealed that San Francisco has spent $208 million on violence prevention programs since 2010, yet there were thirteen homicides in the first six weeks of the year, at least nine of which took place in District 10. Co-hen wants adequate police resources allocated to District 10; specifically Bayview and Potrero Hill’s Southern Slope, areas which she said are most adversely affected by violence.
Cohen and her staff have been working on evaluating the impacts of Proposition 47, which reduced the classification of most non-serious and non-violent property and drug crimes from a felony to a misdemeanor. Pas-sage of the measure in 2014 allowed hundreds of inmates, being held on charges such as petty theft or pos-session of small amounts of drugs, to be released from state prisons or to appeal their convictions. Critics of the initiative have expressed concern that it could lead to an increase in crime, and a heightened risk to public safety.
“It’s going to have an impact on us, and I’m trying to understand ex-actly how,” Cohen said. “We need to talk a little bit more about the pros-ecution of these crimes. I’m working with the district attorney’s office and getting his commitment and his as-surance that this is a priority for him, that he is not plea bargaining out, not letting established criminals go into community courts, but that they are being punished for the crimes that they have committed.”
In response to the onslaught of construction in the district, Cohen said she wants development that matches the neighborhoods’ tone and composition. She’d like to discourage developers from proposing projects that are too dense, and is looking for retailers that will complement the community. “One of the things that I hear often is that people would like a pharmacy in the area, a Rite Aid, a Walgreens, or something like that.” While there are Walgreens on Potrero Avenue and on Third Street, the desire for more pharmacies has come from individuals across the district, according to Cohen. As chair of the Board of Supervisors Land Use and Economic Development Committee, which oversees legislation related to zoning, planning, and development, Cohen can play a significant role in green-lighting such projects.
On the issue of homelessness, Cohen advocates relaxing the City’s rules governing same-sex shelters. One prominent homeless shelter in the district, Providence Baptist Church at 1601 McKinnon Avenue, like the majority of San Francisco’s homeless shelters, is gender segregated. “A lot of folks on the street are in couples,” Cohen said. “They’re hesitant to go into shelters because they don’t want to be separated from their husband, or wife, or partner, and they don’t want to be separated from their dog if they have one.”
According to Cohen, there are legitimate reasons for gender segregated shelters, but she wants at least once space that would allow couples. “That’s really been the chal-lenge because our City has a policy where there are very few beds for couples. There are family shelters, and then there are male shelters and female shelters,” she said. Cohen isn’t working on legislation to relax gender segregation at Providence or any other shelter.
Cohen supports the proposed Navigation Center, to be located at 16th and Mission streets, which would serve as a triage center, offer-ing services to those most in need. It’s intended to move homeless people into treatment and housing, or guide them towards other resources. Cohen is working with City agencies to en-courage them to prioritize homeless people from District 10 at the facility.
Cohen said she has no plans to run for another office once she’s termed out in four years.
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We are delighted by your visit to our website and would like to extend our thanks for your interest in power2max and our products. The protection of your privacy when using our website is important to us. Below you will find detailed information about how we use your data.
The controller in the meaning of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG) and any other relevant data protection rules is:
Saxonar GmbH
represented by its Managing Director: Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Andreas Görnitz
02906 Waldhufen OT Nieder Seifersdorf
Phone: + 49 3 58 27 – 84 99 1190
Email: support@power2max.de
Our Data Protection Officer can be reached at the aforementioned address and under the following contact details:
Email: datenschutz@saxonar.de
The browser used on your device will automatically send information to our website server when you visit our website www.power2max.com. This information is stored temporarily in so-called log files. The following information is registered without your active involvement and then stored until it is erased automatically:
IP address of the requesting computer,
date and time of access,
name and URL of the accessed file,
website from which the access took place (referrer URL),
browser used, possibly the operating system of your computer and the name of your Internet service provider.
We process this data for the following purposes:
to guarantee the establishment of a stable connection with our website,
to guarantee ease-of-use of our website,
to compile analyses on system security and stability, and
for other administrative purposes.
The legal grounds for data processing are set out in Art. 6 paragraph 1 sentence 1 point (f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest is based on the purposes of data collection listed above. On no accounts will we use the collected data for the purpose of identifying you personally. We also use cookies and analytics services when you visit our website. For more detailed information in this regard, refer to Sections 3 and 4 of this Privacy Statement.
In addition, we only collect personal data where you communicate it to us by the following actions:
a. opening of a customer account/purchase of a product in our web shop
b. subscription to our newsletter
We offer the option of storing your personal data on a permanent basis in a password-protected customer account in order to offer you the greatest possible freedom in the use of our website.
The creation of a customer account is always voluntary and takes place according to your consent pursuant to Art. 6 paragraph 1 point (a) GDPR. You will not be required to enter your data again after opening a customer account. Moreover, you may access and change the data stored in your customer account at any time.
It is only necessary to open a customer account for the performance of a contract if you wish to place orders on our website. The necessary data include:
first name, surname
invoice and delivery address
invoice and payment data
In this case, the (additional) legal grounds for data processing are set out in Art. 6 paragraph 1 point b GDPR.
In addition to the data requested in order to place an order, you must select an individual password in order to open a customer account. Together with your email address, you access your customer account by entering this password. You have the right to delete your customer account at any time. Kindly take note, however, that by deleting your customer account, the accessible data will not automatically be erased as well, insofar as you have already placed an order with us. We store your data for the duration of the contract and until the end of the contractual, i.e. statutory warranty period. At the end of the aforementioned period, we are obliged to comply with the retention periods under commercial and fiscal law that apply to us: the retention period set out therein for the storage of documentation is ten years, after which your data will be erased automatically. The legal grounds for this data processing are as set out in Art. 6 paragraph 1 point (c) GDPR and Art. 6 paragraph 1 point (f) GDPR.
b. Newsletter
You have the option to subscribe to our newsletter on our website/applications. We use the so-called double-opt-in procedure in order to ensure that mistakes are not made when entering your email address: this means that when subscribing to our newsletter, you receive an email in which you are requested to confirm that you are the owner of the email address provided and that you consent to receipt of our newsletter. You will receive our newsletter if you provide this consent. The data you provide is only stored for the purpose of sending you the newsletter and to document our entitlement. The data is not passed on to third parties. You may withdraw consent to your subscription to our newsletter and to the storage of your email address at any time. To do so, simply send an email to support@power2max.de or click on the link at the end of each newsletter.
The legal grounds for this data processing are as set out in Art. 6 paragraph 1 point (a) GDPR.
2. Transfer of personal data
Sales, shipping and payment
The personal data we collect is transferred to the following parties for the purpose of performing a contract as set out in Art. 6 paragraph 1 point (b):
power2max GmbH (service provider for sales and customer care), Breite 1, 15806 Zossen,
and the transport company commissioned for shipping (e.g. DHL, DPD).
Payment by bank transfer
We transfer your payment details to the commissioned banking institution for the settlement of payments.
Payment by PayPal
Where you have selected payment by PayPal, we pass on your payment details for settlement of payments to PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. et Cie, S.C.A., 22-24 Boulevard Royal, L-2449 Luxembourg. For more information about the privacy policy of PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. et Cie, S.C.A., kindly visit the PayPal website at: https://www.paypal.com/de/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full.
Payment by credit card, Maestro card, Sofortüberweisung and Giropay
Payment by credit card, Maestro card, Sofortüberweisung and Giropay – as well as the associated collection, processing and storage of data for the settlement of electronic payment transactions – is managed by Heidelberger Payment GmbH, Vangerowstraße 18, 69115 Heidelberg (referred to in the following as Heidelpay). The data is processed on behalf of Saxonar GmbH.
Heidelpay receives the following customer data in connection with an order for the purpose of settling the electronic payment transaction: first name, surname, address, postal code, town/city, country, email address and payment method.
Where payment by credit card is selected, the following information is also collected during the purchase process and transferred directly to Heidelpay: credit card number, credit card holder, credit card expiry date (month and year) and credit card.
Where payment by online bank transfer is selected, some of the following information may also be transferred to Heidelpay, depending on the specific system: account holder, name of the bank, account number or IBAN, bank sort code or BIC.
The legal grounds for this data processing are set out in Art. 6 paragraph 1 lit (a), Art. 6 paragraph 1 point (b) and Art. 6 paragraph 1 point (f) GDPR.
In order to guarantee the full functionality of the web pages, we or the third parties commissioned by us place so-called cookies on the hard drive of our customers’ devices. A cookie is a small text file that enables the collection of information concerning the usage of a website, among other things. These cookies do not contain any personal data, cannot be associated with a certain person and are automatically deleted after no more than one year, except where stated otherwise. The data collected in this way is not associated with other data. Our website can also be used without cookies. You can disable cookies or restrict their use to certain websites by adjusting the settings in your browser, or adjust your browser such that you receive an alert any time a cookie is sent. You can also delete cookies from the hard drive of your computer any time.
The data processed by these cookies is required for the protection of our legitimate interests and the legitimate interests of third parties according to Art. 6 paragraph 1 sentence 1 point (f).
Kindly note that certain functionalities of our website may not be accessible or may only be partially accessible if you adjust the settings of your browser to disable cookies.
4. Use of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram plug-ins
Our website uses so-called social plug-ins (“Plug-ins”) by the social networks Facebook and the microblogging services Twitter and Instagram. This takes place according to our legitimate interest pursuant to Art. 6 paragraph 1 point (f) GDPR, i.e. the continued advertisement of our company and the optimisation of our online services. These services are provided by the companies Facebook Inc., Twitter Inc. and Instagram LLC. (“Providers”“).
Facebook is operated by Facebook Inc., 1601 S. California Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA (“Facebook”). For an overview of the plug-ins used by Facebook and their appearance, visit: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins
Twitter is operated by Twitter Inc., 1355 Market St, Suite 900, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA (“Twitter”). For an overview of the Twitter buttons and their appearance, visit: https://twitter.com/about/resources/buttons
Instagram is operated by Instagram LLC., 1601 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA (“Instagram”). For an overview of the Instagram buttons and their appearance, visit: http://blog.instagram.com/post/36222022872/introducing-instagram-badges
If you access a page on our web presence that contains this kind of plug-in, your browser will establish a direct connection to the servers of Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. The content of the plug-in will be transferred directly to the browser by the respective provider and integrated in the web page. Through integration of the plug-in, the provider will receive information that your browser has accessed the relevant page on our web presence, even if you do not have a profile or are not currently logged in. This information, including your IP address, will be transferred directly by your browser to the server of the respective provider in the United States and stored there.
If you are logged into the services, the providers can directly associate your visit to our website with your profile on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. When you interact with the plug-ins – for instance by clicking on “Like”, “Tweet” or on the “Instagram” button – the information will also be transferred directly to the provider’s server and stored there. In addition, the information will be posted on the social network, i.e. on your Twitter or Instagram account, and shown to your contacts.
For the purpose and scope of data collection, as well as the continued processing and use of the data by the providers and your associated rights and configuration options for the protection of your privacy, kindly refer to the respective provider’s privacy policy.
Facebook privacy policy: https://www.facebook.com/policy.php
Twitter privacy policy: https://twitter.com/de/privacy
Instagram privacy policy: https://help.instagram.com/155833707900388/
If you do not want Facebook, Twitter or Instagram to associate the data collected in regard to our web presence with your profile on the respective service, you must log out of the respective service before visiting our website.
You may prevent loading of the plug-ins, also by installing an add-on for your browser, e.g. the script blocker “NoScript” https://noscript.net/
5. Web Analytics Services
This website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. (“Google”). Google Analytics uses “cookies”, which are text files placed on your computer, to help the website analyse how you use the site. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website will generally be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. In case IP anonymization is activated on this website, your IP address will be truncated by Google within the area of Member States of the European Union or in other countries which are party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional cases will the full IP address be transferred to a Google server in the United States and truncated there.
Google will use this information on behalf of the operator of this website for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity for website operators and providing them with other services relating to website use and Internet usage. The IP address transferred by your browser during the use of Google Analytics will not be associated with any other data held by Google. You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings in your browser software, however, please note that if you do this, you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website.
Furthermore, you can prevent the collection of data generated by the cookie and related to the usage of the website (including your IP address) and the processing of this data by Google by downloading and installing the browser plugin available under the following link: (http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en). As an alternative to the browser add-on, especially for mobile devices, you can also opt out from being tracked by Google Analytics by using this link https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated?hl=de. An opt-out cookie will be set, which will prevent your data from being collected in future when you visit this website. This opt out cookie only applies to this particular browser and our website and is placed on your device. You must place another opt-out cookie if you have deleted the cookies in your active browser. For information on the integration of the opt-out cookie, visit: https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/gajs/?hl=de#disable.
Moreover, we use Google Analytics to analyse data from double-click cookies and AdWords for statistical purposes. If you do not want us to do so, you can disable this function using Google Ads Settings (http://www.google.com/settings/ads/onweb/?hl=de).
Google is certified according to the Privacy Shield Framework and therefore guarantees compliance with European data protection laws (https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt000000001L5AAI&status=Active).
Google Analytics is used for the protection of our legitimate interests for the aforementioned purposes pursuant to Art. 6 paragraph 1 point (f) GDPR.
b) Hotjar
We use Hotjar in order to better understand our users’ needs and to optimize our service and users’ experience. This is provided by Hotjar Ltd, Level 2, St Julians Business Center, 3, Elia Zammit Street, St Julians STJ 1000, Malta, Europe. Hotjar is used for the protection of our legitimate interests for the aforementioned purposes pursuant to Art. 6 paragraph 1 point (f) GDPR.
The information is transmitted to the Hotjar servers in Ireland and stored there. By using Hotjar, the following information is collected:
the IP address of your device (in an anonymous format)
Your e-mail address including your first and last name, as far as you have provided us with this information
referring domain
geographical position (country only)
Date and time of access to our website
Screen size of your device
Device type and browser information
With Hotjar we can follow your movements on our website (with the help of so-called heatmaps). For example, we can see how far you scroll and which buttons you click and how often. Furthermore, with the help of Hotjar it is also possible to get feedback directly from you. We will use this information to evaluate your visit on our website, to generate reports of use and to evaluate other services related to the website. In this way, we receive valuable information to make our website even more customer-friendly.
Nevertheless, when using Hotjar we pay particular attention to the protection of your personal data. The areas of our website in which personal data of you or third parties are displayed are automatically hidden by Hotjar and are at no time traceable.
In addition, Hotjar offers the option of using a “Do Not Track header” to prohibit the use of Hotjar, so that no data about the visit of the respective website are recorded. This setting is supported by all common browsers in current versions. To function your browser sends a request to Hotjar, with a command to disable the tracking. If you use our website with different browsers, you must set up the “Do Not Track header” for each of these browsers / devices separately.
Detailed instructions with information about your browser can be found here: https://www.hotjar.com/opt-out
More information about Hotjar Ltd. and about the Hotjar tool can be found on the Hotjar website: https://www.hotjar.com
The privacy policy of Hotjar Ltd. can be found at: https://www.hotjar.com/privacy
6. Retargeting/remarketing/Online Marketing
a) Adroll
This website uses the retargeting technology AdRoll, Semantic Sugar, Inc. (dba AdRoll), 972 Mission Street, San Francisco CA, 94103, United States
this enables the display of personalised, interest-based advertising to visitors on our Internet presence that have already shown interest in our shop and our products. The advertising is displayed using a cookie-based analysis of previous user behaviour, which does not include the storage of personal data. Where retargeting technology is used, a cookie is placed on your computer or mobile device to collect anonymous data about your interests and to adapt the advertising individually in line with the collected information. These cookies are small text files that are stored on your computer or mobile device. You are therefore shown advertising that with a high degree of probability reflects your interests in products or information. You can permanently disable the use of cookies by downloading and installing at your own risk the browser plug-in available at the following link:
https://www.google.com/settings/ads/onweb/
Further information and the privacy policy of Adroll Inc. can be found here:
https://www.adroll.com/about/privacy
b) Facebook Custom Audience
We have integrated the Remarketing feature “Custom Audience” of Facebook Inc., 1601 S. California Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA (“Facebook”) on our website. This allows us to provide interest-based advertisement (“Facebook Ads”) to users of our website as part of their visit to the social network Facebook or other websites that also use this process.
For this marketing function, we use the “Facebook pixel” on our website, a so-called web beacon or tracking pixel. When you visit our website, this tracking pixel establishes a direct link between your browser and the Facebook server. Facebook receives the information from your browser that our website has been called up by your device. We point out that we have no influence on the extent of the transmitted data and their further use by Facebook and therefore inform you according to our knowledge. By integrating Facebook Custom Audience, Facebook receives the information that you have accessed the corresponding website or clicked an ad from us. If you are registered with a service of Facebook, Facebook can assign the visit to your account. Even if you are not registered with Facebook or have not logged in, there is a chance that the provider will find out and store your IP address and other identifying features.
You may object to the use of Facebook Website Custom Audience anytime in the future via https://www.facebook.com/settings/?tab=ads.
For more information about privacy and your related options, visit https://www.facebook.com/settings/?tab=ads and https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy.
c) Google Adwords
We have integrated Google AdWords into our website. Provider is the Google LLC., 1600 Amphitheater Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA (“Google”). Google AdWords is an internet advertising service that allows us to serve ads both on Google’s search engine and on the Google Network. Google AdWords allows us to set certain keywords, which will only display an ad on Google’s search engine results when the search engine retrieves a keyword-related search result. In the Google Network, ads are distributed on topic related web pages using an automated algorithm and according to pre-defined keywords.
The purpose of using Google AdWords is to advertise our website by displaying interest-based advertising on third-party websites and in the search engine results of Google’s search engine, and by displaying advertisements on our website.
If you access our website through a Google ad, Google will pass a conversion cookie on your system. All about cookies can be found in the “Cookies” section of this privacy policy. This cookie will expire after thirty days and will not be used to identify you. We use the conversion cookie to find out if certain subpages have been visited on our website. The conversion cookie helps both us and Google to understand whether a user who came to our site through an AdWords ad generated revenue, such as completing or canceling an order.
The data and information collected is used by Google to provide visitor statistics for our website. We use the visitor statistics to determine the total number of users, to measure the success or failure of each AdWords ad, and to optimize our AdWords ads for the future. Neither our company nor any other Google AdWords advertiser receives any information from Google that identifies users. The conversion cookie stores personal information, such as the websites you visit. Each time you visit our website, your personal information is transferred to Google.
You can prevent the setting of cookies by our website, as already described in this privacy policy. This fact also applies to the conversion cookie. In addition, a cookie already set by Google AdWords can be deleted at any time via your Internet browser or other software programs.
You can also opt-out of Google’s interest-based advertising by visiting https://www.google.com/settings/ads from any of the internet browsers you use to make the settings you want. Additional information and Google’s privacy policy can be found at https://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/.
We use the widespread SSL (Secure Socket Layer) technology – in connection with the highest level of encryption supported by your browser – when you visit our website. The individual pages of our Internet presence are encrypted if a closed key or closed padlock icon is shown in the lower status bar of your browser.
Otherwise, we use suitable technical and organisational measures to protect your data against coincidental or wilful manipulation, partial or complete loss and destruction and against unauthorised access by third parties. Our security measures are kept up-to-date in line with technological progress.
8. Rights of the data subjects
You have the right to obtain confirmation of whether data concerning you is processed, the right to obtain information about this data and the right to obtain a copy of this data as set out in Art. 15 GDPR.
Moreover, you have the right according to Art. 16 GDPR to obtain completion of the data concerning you, as well as rectification of incorrect data concerning you.
Pursuant to Art. 17 GDPR, you have the right to obtain erasure of the data concerning you, or alternatively to obtain restriction of processing of the data concerning you, as set out in Art. 18 GDPR.
You have the right to obtain a copy of the data that you have provided to us in accordance with Art. 20 GDPR and to obtain the transfer of this data to another controller.
Further, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the competent supervisory authority in accordance with Art. 77 GDPR.
9. Right of withdrawal
You have the right to withdraw at any time the consent you have provided pursuant to Art. 7 paragraph 3, Art. 14 paragraph 2 point (d) GDPR, effective for the future. Withdrawal of your consent does not mean that data processing conducted until the withdrawal of your consent is unlawful.
10. Right to object
You may object to the processing of your data as set out in Art. 21 GDPR, effective for the future. In particular, you have the right to object to processing for the purposes of direct marketing.
Last update: August 2018
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- Prison Planet.com - https://www.prisonplanet.com -
‘Rulers’, ‘Foolers’, & ‘Shooters’: They’re Closing The Cage In Plain Sight
Posted By admin On May 8, 2018 @ 7:55 am In Prison Planet | Comments Disabled
Jeremiah Johnson [1]
SHTFplan.com,
A picture that has been around awhile depicts Homo sapiens society at its finest…as it truly is.
There are four “tiers,” so to speak, with the politicians, royalty, and rulers occupying the uppermost level, followed by the clergymen and religious swamis on tier two, and then the gendarmes/police/soldiers on tier three. The bottom tier is occupied by the people, supporting the other three tiers upon their back. The caption is “We rule you [Leaders], we fool you [Religious Heads], we shoot you [the “Enforcer” class].
These “tiers” are to be found in every nation, among every people and tongue. It is not a new concept: these three levels of nabobs have existed ever since man formed social communities that encompassed more than the nuclear family.
The difference between the past and now: for the first time, these tiers will soon be interconnected regardless of location and mutually supportive of one another to obtain global totalitarian rule.
They already have so much in place, as outlined in previous articles: cell phones for most of the populations that transmit user location along with biometrics (in the latest models), interconnected CCTV (Closed Circuit Television) cameras that coordinate and fix your position with the phones, and a record of all that you buy or sell at a POS (Point of Sale) in the happy big-box stores. They have laws to make you pay taxes on income, property, and they will come to seize your property and/or you if you don’t pay it…with force.
The laws are increasing in number, tightening the corral around you in your daily life…controlling where you can live, what type of home you can build, how you can communicate on the Internet, how you conduct business. Every business has a corresponding government inspector or regulator. The death of cash is coming soon, as governments replace it with EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer) completely: they will then be able to keep track of every dime you earn or spend, keep track of what they can tax you (overt theft) and what they can pilfer (covert theft, in the case of an electronic “glitch,” a “matter of national security,” or some other nonsensical operation).
Many people do not realize the depth…the lengths these people are going to in order to achieve global totalitarian rule over all mankind. Recently Bill Gates announced a decision to invest with corporations to place 500 satellites in orbit to be able to monitor every inch of the globe in real-time surveillance. Last week he announced his intentions to develop a “super vaccine” in order to “safeguard” the health of the planet from an outbreak that could kill tens of millions of people.
There is one “biggie” that must be “taken care of” before all this control can be finalized: They must first confiscate all firearms.
The most recent news headlines show their intent to do just that. Let’s take it by “category” of the three tiers:
Rulers: The United States’ very own Representative Eric Swalwell, (D-CA) is the one representing the first big push toward totalitarian takeover via gun seizures. On Thursday, 5/3/18, Swalwell (as reported by NBC News on an interview with Swalwell by USA Today) proposed a complete ban of what he describes as “military-style semiautomatic assault weapons,” along with a government “buy-back” of these rifles…and pursuit of those who refuse it. Swalwell describes this last part as “criminally prosecute any who choose to defy [the buyback] by keeping their weapons.” Swalwell cited the Australian mandatory gun buyback laws and as an example used the “unprompted” walkout and demonstrations of Parkland High School students after that school’s shooting. Here’s what Swalwell had to say:
“There’s something new and different about the surviving Parkland high schoolers’ demands. They dismiss the moral equivalence we’ve made for far too long regarding the Second Amendment. I’ve been guilty of it myself, telling constituents and reporters that ‘we can protect the Second Amendment and protect lives.’ The right to live is supreme over any other. Australia got it right.”
Foolers: On Sunday, 5/6/18, the Pope came out and said that all firearms must be confiscated and taken away, and that the only firearms must be in the hands of the UN (United Nations). This is not a new thought, as it was John F. Kennedy who proposed a ban of all nuclear weapons and firearms, with the UN “peacekeepers” being the only ones who retained any weapons. That “clarion call” has been echoed by the UN Small Arms Treaty (the one that Bolton…current Secretary of State…refused to sign when he was UN ambassador under Bush Jr.). Sure, many may try to disregard what the Pope is saying…but you can’t completely discount anyone who has a billion people under his dominion, spiritually and economically.
Shooters: There are two excellent articles for your perusal written by John W. Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute [3]. One of them is entitled Armed and Dangerous: If Police Don’t Have to Protect the Public, What Good Are They? [4] on 2/28/18. The other more recent article of 5/2/18 is entitled Dial T for Tyranny: While America Feuds, the Police State Shifts Into High Gear [5].
In “tier 1” of the “Rulers,” we have a sitting Representative of Congress who openly advocates bypassing the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution of the United States by banning a specific type of rifle; he also proposes the governmental “buying” of those semiautomatic rifles. It would do well here to remember the words of Alexis DeTocqueville in “Democracy in America,” [para.] “The end of the Republic [America] will come when the government can buy the people with their own money.” Then(so-called) Representative Swalwell suggested the government follow (in the event weapons owners do not submit) a violation of due process, as well as the supreme law of the land to illegally confiscate any weapons not submitted under a proposed government buyback…a clear violation of the 2nd Amendment.
It runs deeper, as we can see how the “Parkland Students” cited as an example by Swalwell are the new mantra, the new paradigm to enforce social consciousness and supplant Constitutional law with the law of the mob…the “tyranny of the majority” (a phrase of DeTocqueville) inflicting its wishes. Then there’s the “Australia got it right” grammatical eyesore of Swalwell’s populist jargon, a phony attempt to appear “grass roots” and an average guy…jargon that also pushes the “groupthink” (Australia’s doing it, why shouldn’t we?) so necessary to obtain global governance.
In “tier 2” we have a Marxist who is the leader of one of the world’s largest religions openly calling for a confiscation of the guns, with only the UN holding them. As mentioned, this guy has more than a billion people under his control, and he’s clearly in the “pocket” of those moving toward global governance. Standard Alinsky principle in “Rules for Radicals” is “organizing the organized.” His loyal followers will follow his lead. Don’t worry: Protestants, Jews, Mormons, and all the others are also “subjected” to the same playbook, perhaps not under one “figurehead” but with their own “Master of Puppets” enforcing their submittal to his/her authority and then compliance with outside directives of the governments.
In “tier 3,” when you read these articles, you will come to see how there is no more “Officer Friendly.” The police are duty-bound to protect the taxpaying corporate entities, businesses, and politico-oligarchy, and nothing more. They are our jailers, not our protectors. They ensure the continuity of the establishment: the existing social, political, religious, and economic order of things, nothing more. Those who mistakenly believe in the law (as police officers) will eventually be marginalized and drummed out of the force. Recently it was reported in Austin, TX that trainees/police cadets were informed by their instructors that the public are nothing more than cockroaches. In truth, the public pays for their funding…and they are under governmental control and direction: to obtain ad valorem for the municipal and state coffers while keeping the beeves moving, “tagging” the strays with tickets for the quotas and ensuring the docility of the herd.
The rulers, “foolers,” and shooters are tightening their grasp by the day, aided by the ever-increasing technology that allows for more surveillance and control, along with the stultified and complacent mentality of the public. There is a conspiracy, but it is not a theory: it is a fact. It is no longer a hidden agenda, but openly being pursued in plain sight. The goal is global governance and the complete abrogation of all rights. We’re seeing it today, and it becomes worse with the passage of time.
Article printed from Prison Planet.com: https://www.prisonplanet.com
URL to article: https://www.prisonplanet.com/rulers-foolers-shooters-theyre-closing-the-cage-in-plain-sight.html
[1] Jeremiah Johnson: http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/rulers-foolers-and-shooters-theyre-closing-the-cage-in-plain-sight_05072018
[2] Image: https://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/cap.jpg?itok=OqssBO3_
[3] Rutherford Institute: https://www.rutherford.org/
[4] Armed and Dangerous: If Police Don’t Have to Protect the Public, What Good Are They?: https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/armed_and_dangerous_if_police_dont_have_to_protect_the_public_what_good_are_they
[5] Dial T for Tyranny: While America Feuds, the Police State Shifts Into High Gear: https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/dial_t_for_tyranny_while_america_feuds_the_police_state_shifts_into_hi
Copyright © 2013 PrisonPlanet.com. All rights reserved.
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Relay of Voices research expedition travels length of Mississippi
LET'S TALK TRASH: Separate non-burnable from burnable waste
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FAITH BRIEFS
By Enterprise Staff on Mar 7, 2019 at 4:11 p.m.
Faith briefs from area churches.
St. Johns Lutheran (Park Rapids)
Worship with us Sunday at 8 or 10:30 a.m. Sunday, March 10. The sermon is titled "A Walk Through the Wilderness," based on Luke 4:1-13. Bible study and Sunday School are held between services at 9:15 a.m. St. Johns sponsors "The Lutheran Hour" broadcast on KPRM 870AM at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday. This week's topic is "Through Another's Eyes," based on John 9:1-41. Join us Wednesday, March 13 for our second Lenten service at noon or 6 p.m., with a light lunch following the noon service and a light supper preceding the evening service. St. Johns (LCMS) is located on Highway 34 across from the Hubbard County Fairgrounds. For more information, contact the church at 732-9783 or visit our website at www.stjohnspr.org.
Hubbard United Methodist
"Catch the Hubbard Spirit" at Hubbard United Methodist Church when the lively hymn sing begins at 8:45 a.m. on Sunday, March 10. We continue with worship at 9 a.m. with Rev. Laurie Kantonen. Join us as we begin our Lenten Season. This week's message is "A New Identity," based on Matthew 5:1-16. Our choir anthem this week will be "The Pure in Heart," with music by Patrick Hawes. All are invited to stay for coffee fellowship following the Sunday service. Thank God It's Wednesday (TGIW) schedule for next week: Kids' Club and youth group, 4:30 p.m.; supper, 5:30 p.m.; worship service and tutoring, 6 p.m.; choir practice, 7 p.m.
Eastside Christian Church
This Sunday, March 10, Eastside Christian Church invites you to join us for worship and our pastoral message at 8:30, 10 and 11:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Join us as we begin our series "Modgnik." Is it a new dance move? Maybe it's a high-tech material used in space exploration. Learning the meaning behind this mysterious word will be full of wisdom and spiritual truth. Wondering what your next step is? Try "Next Steps" during our 10 a.m. service. Find out what Eastside is all about, what God is doing here and how you can join in our exciting journey. Jump in any week. Children ages birth through fifth grade are welcome in Kidside during each service. We are located 6 miles southeast of Park Rapids at 16623 State Hwy 87. Check out www.eastside.com.
Join us in worship this season of Advent at Riverside United Methodist Church, Highway 71 North in Park Rapids. Worship is led by Pastors Chip and Lori Nielsen. Riverside offers a traditional service at 8:30 a.m. and a contemporary service at 10:30 a.m., with a staffed nursery available at both services. The building is handicap accessible, and bus service is available in Park Rapids city limits to the 10:30 a.m. service; call the church office at 732-5205 to schedule a pickup. Communion is served the first Sunday of each month, and all are welcome. This Sunday, March 10, is the first Sunday of Lent. Pastor Chip Nielsen will begin a new sermon series on the Beatitudes with the message, "Realizing the Good Life Now: Heaven Happens." For more information about worship, outreach and programming, call 732-5205 or visit www.riversideumcchurch.com. Become a fan on Facebook.
Lakes Area Vineyard Church
Join us for our Sunday morning worship service! We are a community of believers with an outward focus on mission and a vision of experiencing God, growing in love and giving it away. Service time is 10 a.m. Vineyard Kids is available for nursery through fourth grade. Vineyard Church is located at 17765 State Hwy. 34 in Park Rapids. For more details check us out at www.myvineyardchurch.com.
Faithbridge Church
Faithbridge Church worship schedule includes a traditional service at 8:15 a.m., Sunday school for all ages at 9:30 a.m., and a contemporary service at 10:45 a.m., which is streamed live from our website. Fellowship time begins at 9 a.m. A staffed nursery is available at both services. Wednesday night activities from 6:55 to 8:30 p.m. include AWANA, God's Path Seekers (GPS), Faith Student Ministries (FSM) and Parents Time Out coffee and conversation. Faithbridge is located on Highway 71 South in Park Rapids. For more information, call the church office at 732-1404 or visit www.faithbridgepr.org.
Calvary Lutheran Church
Calvary Lutheran Church welcomes all for services. Saturday service is at 5:30 p.m. Sunday worship is at 8 and 10 a.m. Coffee and fellowship will be at 9 a.m. Sunday in the fellowship hall. Total Impact Bible study for senior high youth is at 7 a.m. Monday at Bella Caffé — a great kick-start for the week. Text study of the Sunday readings will be at 10 a.m. Monday in the Luther Room. Christian Life Study Group meets at 5 p.m. Monday. Tai Chi meets at 10 a.m. Tuesday in the youth commons. Release time begins at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday. After-school program for youth grades K-5 is 3-5 p.m. Wednesday. Bell choir will practice at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. Stephen Ministry is at 5:45 p.m. Wednesday. Heritage Living Center Bible study is at 1:30 p.m. Thursday. Faith Conversations begin at 3 p.m. Thursday at Knute Nelson. Men's Fellowship will meet at 7 a.m. Friday.
Trinity Church - Episcopal and Presbyterian
Morning worship on Sunday will begin at 9 a.m., with coffee time and fellowship to follow. The church office will be open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Wednesday, with a service of morning prayer at 9:30 a.m. The congregation will observe its tradition of "Cookie Day," with each member encouraged to bring a half-dozen cookies to share during coffee hour, every Sunday until attendance picks up at the end of winter. Trinity Church is a unique partnership recognized by the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota and the Presbyterian Church (USA). It is located at Court Ave. and Third St. W. in Park Rapids, and is handicap accessible. Look for the red doors.
Our Lady of the Pines
The church is located at 205 Main St. W. in Nevis. Phone: 652-4005.
Assemblies of God Church
Sunday school at Assemblies of God begins at 9:30 a.m. for all ages. At 10:30 a.m. there is a praise and worship experience. Wednesday night Bible study is from 7 to 8:15 p.m. for all ages. Office hours at Assemblies of God are Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. For additional information, call the church at 732-8818. The church is located at 208 Western Ave. South in Park Rapids; half a mile west of the fairgrounds off of Highway 34.
St. John's Lutheran (Akeley)
We are located at the corner of Carroll Street and Pleasant Avenue, one block south of Highway 34 in Akeley. Come and be a part of our church family!
Nevis Church of Christ
Nevis Church of Christ is located at the corner of Pleasant Ave. and Bunyan Trails Road (County Road 2) in Nevis. Services at the church are at 10 a.m. on Sundays, with junior worship during the service. Adult Bible study is at 9 a.m. The church has a bus available for transportation if needed. All are welcome to attend. For more information or to arrange to be picked up for services, call Pastor Paul at 652-3900.
Park Rapids SDA Church
Join the Park Rapids Seventh-Day Adventist Church this Saturday with Sabbath School beginning at 9:30 a.m. and Worship at 11 a.m. The church is located at 18908 Elisha Dr., a mile and a half west of Park Rapids. For more information visit their website at parkrapidsmn.adventistchurch.org.
Peace Lutheran Church
Sunday morning worship at Peace Lutheran Church (LCMC) begins at 9:30 a.m. Services on the first and third Sundays of the month are a traditional service, and the second and fourth are contemporary. Women's community Bible study meets on Mondays at 1 p.m. Men's Bible study meets at 8 a.m. Wednesdays. Follow us on Facebook! The church is located at 24025 State 34 in Nevis. For more information, visit www.peaceluthernnevis.com, call 652-6508, or email peacelutherannevis@gmail.com or pastorbalfanz83@gmail.com.
Akeley UMC
The Akeley United Methodist congregation exists to serve the Hubbard County Communities in any way we can. If you are looking for a church home to connect with others and grow in your faith journey, you'll find a place to belong at Akeley UMC! Akeley United Methodist Church is located one block south of the Hwy. 34 & Hwy. 64 intersection, on State 64 in Akeley. Questions? Call 218-252-6251 or 218-652-2572.
Redeemer Lutheran Church
Redeemer Lutheran Church (LCMS) is located at 15 12th St. SE in Menahga. Worship is led by Pastor David Walsh at 9 a.m. Sunday, and a Bible study is held at 7 p.m. Wednesday. For more information, call 564-4931 or visit dwallkenobi.wixsite.com/redeemerlutheran.
Heartland Lutheran Community Church
The Heartland Lutheran Community Parish invites all to worship Sunday at 9 a.m. at Bethany Lutheran Church in Nevis and 10:30 a.m. at First Lutheran Church in Akeley. All are welcome at the Lord's Supper every Sunday. Fellowship coffee at First Lutheran begins at 9:30 a.m. and follows the worship at Bethany. Visitors are always welcome! The community dinner at Bethany is from 5 to 6:30 p.m. on the last Thursday of every month. All are invited to these free monthly meals, a time for food and fellowship. Bethany prayer chain is at 652-3485 or cmstennes@arvig.net. For more information go to Facebook, www.flcakeley.org, or www.bethanylutherannevis.org.
Fellowship Baptist Church is located at Pleasant and Main streets in Nevis, half a block east of the giant muskie. Call Pastor Tom Drury at 952-222-0596 for more information.
First Baptist Church is located at 909 W. 8th St., Park Rapids. For more information, call 732-3321 or visit www.fbcpr.org.
Frontline Church
Join us for worship Sundays at 10:30 a.m. and 7 p.m. Weekly small groups are also available. Pastor Russell Smith's purpose is to introduce Jesus to people and connect them with their destiny in God. Frontline Church is located at 15936 192nd Street in Park Rapids, one mile north of Walmart and one block east of Henrietta Avenue. To contact us, call 237-3727, email info@accessfrontline.com or visit www.accessfrontline.com.
Grace Community
Grace Community Church of Osage invites all to a worship service on Sundays at 10:30 a.m. Preceding the service is Sunday school and an adult Bible class at 9:30 a.m. Following the morning service there is a weekly time of fellowship and refreshments. The church is located one block north of the old schoolhouse in Osage. Grace also hosts a community breakfast each Wednesday at 9 a.m. with a freewill donation. Also available are a women's Bible study Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. and an adult Bible study Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. Pastor Paul McKibben can be reached at 573-3143.
Iglesia Cristo Viene
Damos la bienvenida a nuestros amigos españoles de habla hispana en los Servicios de becas que se celebra todos los sábados a las 4:30 p.m. Iglesia Puente de Fe Fireside Sala del Centro de Vida Familiar en el 1505 Park Ave. S. (Note: This Spanish-language ministry meets in the fireside room at the Faithbridge Church Family Life Center.)
The Restoration Christian Church currently meets on Sunday evenings at 6 p.m. in the basement of the Park Rapids Library. For more information call 237-1700 or visit their website at www.restorechurch.com.
First English Lutheran, Dorset
First English Lutheran Church (LCMS) is located at 20252 State Hwy. 226 in Dorset. The Rev. Chris Davis is pastor. Sunday worship is at 9 a.m. with Sunday school and Bible study at 10:30 a.m. Book club meets at 9 a.m. on Thursdays. A Bible class is at 10:30 a.m. on Fridays. Men's club meets at 8 a.m. the second and fourth Fridays of the month. Lutheran Women's Missionary League meets at 1 p.m. the first Wednesday of the month. For more information, call 732-9466 or visit dorsetlutheran.org.
Community of Hope Church of the Nazarene
Park Rapids Community of Hope Church of the Nazarene, formerly Evergreen Church, invites all to worship service and Bible study every Sunday at 10 a.m., as well as women's group every Thursday at 6:30 p.m. and men's group every Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. All are welcome to join in fellowship, study and worship, with a goal of bringing the hope of Christ to the Park Rapids community. Contact Campus Pastor Seth Keysor at 330-1130 for more information, find them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/PRChurchOftheNazarene, or at www.cohmn.com. The church campus is located at 295 Western Ave. S. in Park Rapids.
New Life Community Church
Join New Life Community Church on a journey to know God better. Sunday school classes for all ages meet every Sunday at 9 a.m., followed by the worship service at 10 a.m. New Life Community Church is a non-denominational church located at 600 Bridge Street in Park Rapids; two blocks north and two blocks west of Holiday gas station.
Bethany Lutheran
Sunday Worship at Bethany Lutheran Church (LCMC) in Menahga begins at 10:30 a.m. with Pastor James Hallaway officiating. Sunday school is on the first and third Sundays of the month at 9:30 a.m. during the school year. The church is located at 59423 140th Street in Menahga. For more information visit www.firstenglishbethany.org or call 564-4610.
Friends In Christ Lutheran
Sunday worship at First In Christ Lutheran Church (LCMC) in Sebeka begins at 9:30 a.m. with Pastor James Hallaway officiating. Sunday school begins at 10:30 a.m. during the school year.
The church is located at 305 5th Street NW in Sebeka at the DAC building. For more information visit www.firstenglishbethany.org or call 564-4610.
First English Lutheran, Menahga
Sunday Worship at First English Lutheran Church (LCMC) in Menahga begins at 8:30 a.m. with Pastor James Hallaway officiating. Sunday school begins at 9:45 a.m. during the school year. The church is located at 17 Main St. NW in Menahga. For more information visit www.firstenglishbethany.org or call 564-4610.
Join White Oak Bible Chapel for Sunday school at 9:45 a.m. Worship services begin at 11 a.m.
White Oak Bible Chapel is located at 30908 170th St. in Akeley for questions call the church at 652-3848.
Sunday Mass at Assumption of Our Lady Catholic church in Menahga begins at 10:30 a.m. Thursday Mass at Green Pines Acres Nursing Home begins at 10 a.m. The church is located at 113 Aspen Ave. in Menahga. For more information contact the church at 564-4509.
Messiah Yahusha
Disciples of Messiah Yahusha are meeting each Sabbath in homes. For more information, call 766-8176.
Gethsemane Lutheran
Join in worship at Gethsemane Lutheran Church in Snellman every Sunday at 10:30 a.m. with Holy Communion every first and third Sunday of the month. Bible class and Sunday school begin at 9:30 a.m.
St. Peter the Apostle Catholic Church is located at 305 W. 5th St. in Park Rapids. Mass is at 5 p.m. on Saturday and 9 a.m. on Sunday. Office hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday. For more information, call Father Thomas Friedl at 732-5142 or visit stpeterpr.org.
Mass is at 11 a.m. on Sunday at St. Mary's Catholic Church and Grotto, 55744 County Road 44 in Two Inlets. For more information, call Father Thomas Friedl at 732-5142 or visit www.stmarys-twoinlets-churchandgrotto.com.
Explore related topics:lifestylefaithFaithchurchesReligion
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Discover great cities in your pocket with Pilot Pocket Guides, get under the skin of a place with The Grassroots Tour or relax with Slow TV, all free to view.
Presenter : Ian Cross
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Canberra Style
Australia’s capital, Canberra, a city described by writer Bill Bryson as, “living death” on account of its lifeless exterior, may well be a triumph of style over content, but its modern cityscape remains cutting edge. Travel journalist, Ian Cross, takes to the road for a series of short reports on people, places and events across the globe – The Grassroots Tour…
Architect and city planner, Walter Burley Griffin, a colleague and student of Frank Lloyd Wright, laid out the city less than 100 years ago. His symmetrical vision of straight lines, circles and curves is still in evidence today.
The futuristic Academy of Science building was built more than 50 years ago in the 1960s. Opposite is the brand new Hotel Hotel in the New Acton district which carries on this innovative tradition, having won many Australian architectural and design awards.
The National Gallery offers an impressive James Turell installation, in addition to showcasing Australia’s premier artworks and foreign prizes like Jackson Pollock’s Blue Poles.
Canberra is home to Australia’s national Parliament, a building built into the hillside of the appropriately named Capitol Hill.
A very popular attraction here is the Australian War Memorial. One of the oldest national institutions in the capital, its Hall of Remembrance, houses the tomb of the unknown soldier. Outside the pool of reflection is centred by the eternal flame, surrounded by the Roll of Honour, walls containing the names of more than 100,000 Australians killed in world wars. Red poppies adorn the walls in a moving tribute to the fallen.
Across town in the New Acton district, Canberra rushes into the future. This is a new city looking forward, true to the futuristic vision of the architect who developed it less than 100 years ago.
Presenter/voice/producer: Ian Cross
Photography: Robin Constable
Places Mentioned - Australia
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Streetcar from St. Paul to Airport Takes an Initial Step Forward
Regional interests around the Twin Cities are considering a proposal that would connect St. Paul to the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and the city of Bloomington by streetcar.
December 18, 2017, 7am PST | James Brasuell | @CasualBrasuell
Riverview Corridor
A plan to build a modern streetcar line to connect Downtown St. Paul to the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and the city of Bloomington is moving forward, after a regional committee approved the plan.
"After three years of study and 29 public meetings, the Riverview Corridor’s policy advisory committee voted 11-2 on Thursday in support of the future $1.4 billion to $2 billion transit line, which would travel down West Seventh Street in St. Paul and cross the Mississippi River at or near the Minnesota 5 bridge," reports Frederick Melo.
As Melo notes, the streetcar "would share a travel lane of West Seventh Street with local traffic" and "operate no more than one train car at a time" so transit advocates might have some reason to criticize the proposal.
Melo also notes that despite the approval and all the study already completed, years of planning, environmental, and engineering work remain before the project can break ground. "Over the next several months, local municipalities such as St. Paul, Bloomington, Hennepin and Ramsey counties, and the Metropolitan Airports Commission will be expected to vote on the transit concept, which will eventually be added to the Metropolitan Council’s regional transit plan," according to Melo.
Panel approves St. Paul-to-airport streetcar concept, but much more work to come
Published on Thursday, December 14, 2017 in Pioneer Press
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PLUGGED IN RATING
Watch This Review
Victory is so sweet.
Especially when you win countless awards and receive mountains of recognition. But nothing lasts forever. And when the stage lights and applause die out, the only thing left is reality.
That is exactly where the former Barden Bellas have found themselves these days: trudging through the mundane routines of post-competition life. Until one day, that is, when they get a call from a current Barden Bella, Emily, inviting them to reunite.
Brimming with renewed purpose, the Bellas prepare to take the stage once again. That's when they discover they've been asked to watch, not to perform.
Bummer. Talk about a complex.
But it's hard to keep a good Bella down. So these young women devise a plan to reclaim their a cappella fame: performing for military personnel and their families on the USO tour in Europe. But when they get to France, they find that the competition is far tougher than they expected.
Facing stakes higher than they've ever been, the Bellas must rally together one last time as they compete for the top spot and work to remain a loyal, musical family.
Beca and Fat Amy share an apartment these days, working hard to stay positive about where their lives have taken them. And when all of the members of the Barden Bellas reunite, they realize that they can still have fun shooting for the stars. And what says "shooting for the stars" better than a European tour?
After the women arrive in France, Fat Amy consoles Aubrey, who's disappointed that her father may not be able to see her last performance as a Bella. Later, Fat Amy ponders the possibility of reconnecting with her own father (who's just reappeared in her life), though she's hesitant because he's a criminal with a tendency to bend the truth.
A soldier named Chicago, along with his partner, offer to be personal body guards for the women—especially in one particularly threatening situation.
After realizing that they may not win the competition, the Bellas set aside their insecurities and decide to have fun instead of just competing. And that leads to a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Beca. In support of Beca, the members of the group agree that family members hold each other up, not back.
Finally, we hear public recognition for all the hard work and sacrifice made by American troops, even as Beca sings about the importance of trust and remaining faithful: "I won't let you down, I will not give you up."
Lilly, who's notorious for her silence, eventually speaks, saying, "Satan has finally left my body." Flo responds by crossing herself.
One of the Bellas, Stacie, is pregnant. When asked who the father is, she shrugs as if it's unknown and unimportant.
The women dance provocatively on- and offstage. The Bellas and other competitors wear short skirts and dresses, as well as low-cut shirts baring cleavage, bras and midriffs. One man rips open his shirt, while another stands shirtless, and we see men and women in bathing suits at a pool and at the beach.
Fat Amy says she knows some of her father's criminal associates "really well," implying past sexual experiences with them. She's also responsible for most of the movie's sexual innuendos. Fat Amy talks about a band named Ever Moist, while referring to her own grandmother as "never moist." We hear a crude references to a "camel toe," as well as comments about various body parts and Fat Amy's promiscuous past. There's also a gag about a tattoo her boyfriend has on his backside.
When referring to how close she feels to the Bellas, a singer named Chloe says, "I'm inside all of you and it feels so good." In one scene she "accidentally" grabs Beca's breasts for an extended amount of time. She also tells the women they won't have to "sleep on top of each other" since they have their own rooms, which visibly interests Chicago (whom she eventually kisses).
Some song lyrics are suggestive, such as those we hear in the tune "Ignition." Someone crudely quips that Beca must be having her period when she refuses to produce a song entitled "Bend Over." She is referred to as "sweet cheeks" by one of the announcers, who also says he got footage of "a little bit of … panties." Someone comments that she intends to pursue a career in the Air Force, now that they "accept gay people." There's a double entendre gag about the women being in a "sea of seamen."
A Chicken's Guide to Talking Turkey With Your Kids About Sex
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Even the bravest parents feel timid about discussing sex with their 8- to 14-year-olds! This resource offers reassuring, humorous, real-life anecdotes along with reliable information to help you with this challenging task.
Aubrey says her father "basically killed Osama bin Laden." Fat Amy refers to her father as having used C-4 explosives.
[Spoiler Warning] After Fat Amy finds that her father has sent men to abduct the Bellas, she threatens, "I will kill you." Fat Amy beats up a few men along the way, twisting the nipples of one and knocking out the rest during one pursuit scene. She even has a knife fight with one of those antagonists (though no one is seriously injured), and an explosion follows.
A yacht is named the "Fat Dingo B--ch." We hear several s-words, as well as uses of "b--ch" and "h---." We also hear insults such as "slutty," "idiot" and "stupid." Emily tells the girls to "pick up their t-ts" and says that during their performance they "sucked b-lls." Someone says she could "crap herself."
Various scenes show the Barden Bellas, as well as other characters, drinking beer, liquor and wine.
Fat Amy's father tries to reconnect with her for selfish, manipulative reasons. One scene shows Chloe, who's working as a veterinarian, with her hand in a cow's backside. One character mockingly refers to a group of woman as looking "like they were breastfed." A competition announcer makes sexist comments about women not being as intelligent as men. One scene shows a woman and man licking the same Starburst wrapper.
In a recent interview with Elle, actress Anna Kendrick (who plays Beca) described how those involved with this franchise have bonded while filming these three movies. "We got especially close. … I just feel so proud. It's such a diverse group. I think I didn't fully appreciate until the third one how rare it is to work with ten women from such different backgrounds. We're close in age, but we have such different points of view and such different senses of humor. I feel very lucky."
It's truly a precious thing to form such close friendships with people who are different than you. And while those tight, largely positive bonds are evident in the latest Pitch Perfect film, so are a variety of other things. Pitch Perfect 3 has some funny moments, to be sure. But too often, they come at these characters' expense (especially in the case of Rebel Wilson's Fat Amy). The humor here is often loaded with sexual innuendo and crass vulgarity, too. So despite this film's undeniable feel-good moments, it's still quite a ways from perfect.
Anna Kendrick as Beca; Rebel Wilson as Fat Amy; Brittany Snow as Chloe; Anna Camp as Aubrey; Hailee Steinfeld as Emily; Ester Dean as Cynthia Rose; Hana Mae Lee as Lilly; Kelley Jakle as Jessica; Shelley Regner as Ashley; Chrissie Fit as Flo; Elizabeth Banks as Gail; John Michael Higgins as John; John Lithgow as Fergus; Matt Lanter as Chicago; Guy Burnet as Theo; Alexis Knapp as Stacie; DJ Khaled as himself; Troy Ian Hall as Zeke; Michael Rose as Aubrey's Father; Ruby Rose as Calamity; Andy Allo as Serenity; Venzella Joy as Charity
Trish Sie ( )
Kristin Smith
Content Caution
Chasing Happiness
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PAID SICK LEAVE FOR ALL!
It's time to add hand sanitizer and medical face masks to your company's office supply list. The cost of doing business in California just went up (yet again!) especially as it pertains to lost employee time due to illness. Over the Labor Day holiday weekend, the California legislature worked feverishly to beat the deadline to pass new legislation, and approved the largest expansion of employer-paid sick leave in the nation.
Assembly Bill 1522, which was promptly signed by the Governor and becomes effective on July 1, 2015, provides that all employees who work at least 30 days per year must accrue paid sick leave at the rate of one hour for every thirty (30) hours worked. This means that every full-time (40 hours per week) employee could earn as many as 70 hours per year of paid sick leave.
The legislature did provide a small reprieve by allowing employers to put a "soft cap" on the accrual of the new benefits, as long as every employee receives a minimum of three (3) days or twenty-four (24) hours of paid sick leave each year. Part-time employees accrue at the same rate, and may be subject to the same "soft cap." Much like vacation time, the new paid sick leave benefits will carry over to the next calendar year (though the maximum accrual from year-to-year can be capped at six (6) days or forty-eight (48) hours). Unlike vacation time, however, sick leave does not need to be paid out at the time of separation (e.g. resignation, termination or layoff).
The new law provides that paid sick leave may be used to take care of the employee, as well as family members (including parents, grandparents, domestic partners, etc.). The law also specifically forbids discrimination or retaliation against an employee who requests paid sick days. Failure to provide notice to all employees or failure to comply with the new requirements will subject the employer to statutory penalties, liability for lost wages/benefits, interest and, of course, plaintiff's attorneys' fees and costs.
Employers of any size are required to comply. Employees may begin using their accrued benefits after 90 calendar says of continuous service. The legislature also specifically indicated that "exempt" employees (those employees who are not subject to the wage and hour requirements set forth in the Industrial Wage Commission's Wage Orders) are subject to the new protections. This poses an interesting problem for business owners, since it will effectively require them to track and confirm that exempt employees are receiving the appropriate benefits, even though the employer would generallynot track the exempt employee's work hours.
The only employees who are specifically excluded are: (1) Union employees subject to a collective bargaining agreement that provides sick leave and earn 30% more than the state minimum wage; (2) Construction employees subject to a collective bargaining agreement that specifically waives the protections of the new law; (3) flight crew members covered by the federal Railway Labor Act; and (4) certain in-home supportive services providers.
What should you do if you are a California employer? First, contact competent employment law counsel to discuss revising any existing sick leave policies and procedures to comply with the new law, and to ensure that the "soft cap" language is properly drafted, limiting your liability. In addition, all wage statements (a/k/a paystubs) should be updated to reflect accrued sick leave pursuant to Labor Code section 226. Finally, the latest "Wage Theft Notification" poster, which will include updated information regarding sick leave, should be posted beginning on January 1, 2015. Though obtaining a new poster may be the least of your concerns, there is a $1,000 penalty for failure to have an up-to-date notice.
While the motivation behind this new law seems fair and just on its face (protecting workers from losing income due to illness), the legislature has been unable to articulate why it should be the employer's burden to bear the cost of employee illness, especially during a period when more businesses are leaving the state, than coming in. California small business owners may be forced to take a sick day of their own after realizing what the cost of AB 1522 will be on their business!
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TicketGuardian and International Speedway Corporation "ISC" Partner to Offer Ticket Insurance to All Motorsports Fans
LOS ANGELES, March 6, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- TicketGuardian announced today that it has entered into an exclusive partnership with International Speedway Corporation (ISC) to offer millions of NASCAR fans ticket insurance to ISC motorsports facilities.
Under the terms of the multi-year agreement, TicketGuardian will start providing an option for fans to insure their tickets to major motorsports events when they buy them in advance. ISC owns and/or operates 13 of the nation's premier motorsports entertainment facilities, which include historic Daytona International Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway and ISM Raceway, of which TicketGuardian is the title sponsor of the TicketGuardian 500, held in Arizona this March.
"Our partnership with ISC couldn't be any more exciting!" says Bryan Derbyshire, Founder and CEO of TicketGuardian. "The opportunity for TicketGuardian to work for such a dedicated group of fans is a major milestone towards our endeavors in the live events industry and with the help of ISC, we hope that peace of mind and TicketGuardian become synonymous with motorsports fans everywhere," added Derbyshire.
TicketGuardian's insurance technology provides fans a feeling of security when buying tickets in advance. With low-cost coverage, fans are protected from the burden of having to resell their ticket or losing their money altogether if they're unable to attend the event. Customers instead can receive a refund despite the traditional status quo of events, tickets, and registrations being non-refundable.
"We are excited about our new partnership with TicketGuardian," adds Tom Canello, Managing Director of Consumer Engagement Services at ISC. "Their fresh approach to providing a low-cost ticket insurance coverage option is a benefit to our race fans and provides peace of mind that their purchases are protected. We look forward to integrating TicketGuardian into the ISC family of tracks."
ISC was founded in 1953 and is a leading promoter of motorsports themed entertainment activities in the United States. ISC's facilities are located in six of the nation's top 13 media markets, and nearly 80 percent of the country's population is located within the primary trading areas of its facilities.
About TicketGuardian
TicketGuardian is a full transactional insurance engine, built for the non-refundable world that is ticketing and events. Founded in 2016, TicketGuardian's intuitive and easy-to-use platform provides low cost coverage to protect attendees from financial stress, should normal life circumstances prevent them from attending an event. Based in California, TicketGuardian provides ticket protection in various different markets in addition to racing, including concerts, festivals, professional sporting events, endurance races, conferences and more. Find out more at TicketGuardian.net.
About International Speedway Corporation
ISC is a leading promoter of motorsports activities, currently promoting more than 100 racing events annually as well as numerous other motorsports-related activities. The company owns and/or operates 13 of the nation's major motorsports entertainment facilities, including Daytona International Speedway® in Florida (home of the DAYTONA 500®); Talladega Superspeedway® in Alabama; Michigan International Speedway® located outside Detroit; Richmond Raceway® in Virginia; Auto Club Speedway of Southern CaliforniaSM near Los Angeles; Kansas Speedway® in Kansas City, Kansas; ISM Raceway near Phoenix, Arizona; Chicagoland Speedway® and Route 66 RacewaySM near Chicago, Illinois; Homestead-Miami SpeedwaySM in Florida; Martinsville Speedway® in Virginia; Darlington Raceway® in South Carolina; and Watkins Glen International® in New York.
The company also owns and operates Motor Racing NetworkSM, the nation's largest independent sports radio network and Americrown Service CorporationSM, a subsidiary that provides catering services, and food and beverage concessions. In addition, the company owns ONE DAYTONA, the retail, dining and entertainment development across from Daytona International Speedway, and has a 50 percent interest in the Hollywood Casino at Kansas Speedway. For more information, visit the company's website at InternationalSpeedwayCorporation.com.
Bryan Derbyshire March 6, 2018
TicketGuardian and International Speedway Corporation "ISC" Partner to Offer Ticket Insurance to Motorsports Fans
TicketGuardian Partners with EzTix to Offer Refundable Tickets
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DVD|When Hollywood Learned to Talk, Sing and Dance
DVD | DVDs
When Hollywood Learned to Talk, Sing and Dance
By DAVE KEHR JAN. 15, 2010
AS the snowballing box-office success of “Avatar” suggests a paradigm shift in film, it’s rewarding to contemplate the last time the movies assumed a new dimension, that of sound.
The gradual transition from silent films to talkies took place between 1926 and 1930 and included many small steps — both technological developments and adjustments to audience expectations — before it was complete. Many of these steps are vividly illustrated by a group of nine early musicals released last month by the Warner Archive Collection, the burn-on-demand division of Warner Home Video.
The limited scale of the Archive Collection makes sense for these titles, most of which are in imperfect condition and would not have been suitable for a mass-market home video release. Some were shot in two-color Technicolor and survive only as black-and-white prints that suffer from fuzzy definition and low contrast. Others have their Technicolor sequences intact but are marred by dirt and scratches. All of these films reflect the limitations on sound recording of the time; to modern ears they will seem hollow and tinny.
The transition to sound was carried on the backs of two genres, the gangster film and the musical. Gangster films were already in vogue, thanks to the success of Josef von Sternberg’s “Underworld” (1927), but they flourished when sound introduced the sensational elements of chattering machine guns, screaming tires and, most important, the varied timbres of contemporary American speech, bursting with vivid idioms (“Aw, go slip on the ice!”) and filtered through every accent known to man.
Early talkies seemed to revel in the range and diversity of American English, from the elocutionary exercises of transplanted Broadway stars like Conrad Nagel and Claudette Colbert to the creative manglings practiced by ethnic comedians like Benny Rubin, Stepin Fetchit, Leo Carrillo and Herman Bing. Here is what America sounded like before time and television made Nebraskans of us all.
Music, of course, was a key component of the Vitaphone short subjects that, as they began to appear in 1926, probably played the crucial role in establishing sound as an added value for audiences: “The Jazz Singer,” for example, was preceded by the 1926 Vitaphone short “A Plantation Act” in which Al Jolson performed three songs in blackface and employed his famous signature line, “You ain’t heard nothin’ yet.” Some of the early musical features resemble random collections of shorts strung together — isolated musical numbers and comedy bits introduced by masters of ceremonies.
Most of the studios made revue films as a quick way to get their stars before the microphones — and to see who would survive the transition and who would not. The Warner Archive Collection batch includes two of them. MGM’s “Hollywood Revue of 1929” features many of that studio’s fabled roster of contract players — John Gilbert, Norma Shearer, Buster Keaton, Joan Crawford, William Haines — gamely singing, dancing and performing comedy bits; from Warner Brothers, “The Show of Shows” seems almost aggressive in the way it pits the studio’s biggest stars of the silent era, including John Barrymore and Rin Tin Tin, against peppy newcomers like Sally Eilers and Chester Morris.
Another strain of early musicals consisted of Broadway shows simply transplanted to Hollywood (or Astoria) sound stages and back lots. The Warner Archive Collection includes RKO’s 1929 “Rio Rita,” a Florenz Ziegfeld hit from 1927 with songs by Harry Tierney and Joseph McCarthy. An operetta with a western theme, the film is at its most awkward when it is straining to be cinematic, by staging the action on a back-lot ranchero; it recovers its fluidity in the final two reels — presented here in well-preserved red-and-green Technicolor — which take place on a highly stylized interior set representing a gambling ship.
Warner Brothers persuaded the Broadway favorite Charlotte Greenwood (“Oklahoma!”) to recreate her 1916 Broadway hit “So Long Letty” (1929) for the Vitaphone cameras, with the play’s startling wife-swapping plot intact. (Enforcement of the Production Code was almost five years away.)
The oddest of this bunch is “Golden Dawn,” a transplant of a bizarre 1927 show by Oscar Hammerstein II, Otto Harbach and Emmerich Kalman. The film is set during World War I in a jungle encampment in German East Africa, where captured British officers look on in imperialist frustration as the local savages prepare to sacrifice a white virgin (Vivienne Segal) to their “grinning, wooden god,” and Noah Beery, in blackface as a Simon Legree-like overseer, croons a love song to his favorite whip. Filmed entirely in Technicolor, it survives only in black-and-white, which may be just as well.
The most fertile of the early forms, though, was the backstage musical. Direct inspiration may have come from the show business plotline of “The Jazz Singer” (and of that film’s more financially successful follow-up, “The Singing Fool”). But the father of all backstage musicals was probably “Broadway,” an enormously successful 1926 stage piece by George Abbott and Philip Dunning (brilliantly filmed by Paul Fejos for Universal in 1929, and a movie in dire need of restoration).
From left, Lawrence Gray, Vivian Duncan and Rosetta Duncan in “It’s a Great Life” (1929). Credit Warner Brothers Entertainment
By cutting between the stylized performance space of the stage to the naturalistic drama unfolding in the wings, the backstage musical offered a way of integrating music and dialogue that did not disrupt the established tenets of movie realism. Audience members who may have been tempted to laugh when the jungle girl of “Golden Dawn” started crooning the love song “My Bwanna” had no trouble accepting show folk doing much the same thing.
“On With the Show!,” directed by the Alan Crosland (“The Jazz Singer”) and released in 1929, establishes many of the themes that would soon become clichés: the bankrupt producer (Sam Hardy) hustling for money; the temperamental star (Betty Compson); the lovable stage doorman, Dad (Thomas Jefferson); the chorus girl (Sally O’Neil) who goes out there a nobody and comes back a star.
“They Learned About Women” (1930) offers the forgotten vaudeville team of Joe Schenck and Gus Van as baseball players who work as song-and-dance men in the off-season. (A woman comes along and nearly breaks up their act.) “It’s a Great Life” (1929) presents the equally obscure Rosetta and Vivian Duncan as a pair of performing sisters. (A man comes along and nearly breaks up their act.) Mervyn LeRoy’s 1930 “Show Girl in Hollywood” is a backstage musical set in a movie studio that also functions as a documentary on early sound technology.
As glimpsed in LeRoy’s film that technology now seems outlandishly cumbersome. Noisy, clattering contraptions, cameras still had to be isolated in soundproof booths, from which they peered with fixed, telephoto lenses. Because sound mixing was still primitive, and the trick of performing to a recorded “playback” had not yet been discovered, live orchestras had to be present off screen to accompany the performers. Musical sequences were performed in continuity, with as many as six cameras (as we see at one point in “Show Girl”) positioned at different angles, to allow intercutting in the editing room.
The results could be visually flat and dramatically stiff, but because no one had yet laid down the rules, there was also a freedom to experiment in the air. For example, in “It’s a Great Life,” directed by the decidedly nonadventurous Sam Wood, one of the Duncan sisters suddenly “hears” the other calling her name from her sickbed in another city, a blatantly nonnaturalistic use of sound that would have been problematical just a year later.
Intriguingly, as sound grew more naturalistic, the visual element was allowed to become more unreal. Gradually the static camera assuming the position of a spectator in the center of the auditorium unmoors itself and begins to float free, assuming “impossible” angles, like overhead shots of the chorus line. And where the production numbers of 1929 mostly respect the actual dimensions of a theater stage, by 1930 they had expanded into the non-Euclidean dream space that Busby Berkeley would soon be exploring so brilliantly. “It’s a Great Life” climaxes with a Technicolor production number, “Sailing on a Sunbeam,” that erases any sense of a proscenium, as giggling chorus girls glide down giant chutes in every direction.
Hollywood turned out too many musicals in those first years of sound, and audiences grew tired of them: it’s said that some theaters started advertising “Not a musical” to lure patrons back. Will Hollywood overproduce fantasies and space operas as the industry tries to recapture the 3-D magic of “Avatar,” or will it learn, as it did once before, to spread the new technology to other genres and other forms? The grace period will last about two years, or so history suggests.
ALSO OUT THIS WEEK
CHE Steven Soderbergh’s ambitious, two-part, 261-minute biography of Che Guevara (Benicio Del Toro), presented as contrasting studies in success (the Cuban revolution of Part 1) and failure (the disastrous Bolivian campaign of Part 2). “In chronicling the deeds of their hero — and the heroism of Ernesto Guevara is not something ‘Che’ has any interest in questioning — Mr. Soderbergh and the screenwriter, Peter Buchman, restrict themselves to a narrow register of themes and effects,” A. O. Scott wrote of the film in The New York Times in December 2008. “Its motifs are facial hair, tobacco smoke and earnest militant bombast.” (Criterion, Blu-ray $49.95, standard definition $49.95, R)
GAMER A new generation of video games allows players to use real-life prisoners as their avatars in gladiatorial duels to the death. With Gerard Butler, Michael C. Hall and Kyra Sedgwick; directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor. “If you thought that Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (the brain trust behind the “Crank” franchise) had already plumbed the basement of bad taste, be prepared to discover the sub-basement,” Jeannette Catsoulis wrote of the movie in The Times in September, adding that the movie is “a futuristic vomitorium of bosoms and bullets.” (Lionsgate, Blu-ray $39.99, standard definition $29.95, R)
THE INVENTION OF LYING Ricky Gervais stars in and co-directed (with Matt Robinson) this comedy, set in a world where the concept of an untruth does not exist — until a failed screenwriter (Mr. Gervais) makes a signal discovery. With Jennifer Garner, Jonah Hill and Jeffrey Tambor. Manohla Dargis wrote in The Times in October that “while the movie is a conceptual pip filled with quotable laughs and gentle pokes at religious faith at its most literal, it also looks so shoddy that you yearn for the camerawork, lighting and polish of his shows, like the original ‘The Office,’ because, really, these days TV rarely looks this bad.” (Warner Home Video, Blu-ray $35.99, standard definition $28.98, PG-13)
YOU, THE LIVING From Roy Andersson of Sweden (“Songs from the Second Floor”), a haunting black comedy constructed as a series of elaborately staged tableaus. “The film is slow, rigorously morose and often painful in its blunt reckoning of disappointment and failure,” Mr. Scott wrote in The Times in July. “It is also extremely funny.” (Tartan Video, $19.93, not rated)
8 1/2 Federico Fellini’s influential fantasia, about a filmmaker (Marcello Mastroianni) who fears he has run out of ideas, gets a handsome Blu-ray upgrade. “Here is a piece of entertainment that will really make you sit up straight and think, a movie endowed with the challenge of a fascinating intellectual game,” Bosley Crowther wrote in The Times in 1963. (Criterion, $39.95, not rated)
Correction: January 31, 2010
The DVD column on Jan. 17, about the transition from silent movies to talkies, misidentified the composers who wrote songs for the 1927 Broadway musical “Rio Rita,” which Warner Brothers released as a movie in 1929. The songs were written by Harry Tierney and Joseph McCarthy not by E. Y. Harburg and Harold Arlen, who wrote some of the music for the 1942 version of the film.
A version of this article appears in print on January 17, 2010, on Page AR19 of the New York edition with the headline: When Hollywood Learned To Talk, Sing and Dance. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
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Europe|Panel in Hacking Case Finds Murdoch Unfit as News Titan
Panel in Hacking Case Finds Murdoch Unfit as News Titan
By JOHN F. BURNS and RAVI SOMAIYA MAY 1, 2012
LONDON — A damning report on the hacking scandal at Rupert Murdoch’s British newspapers concluding that Mr. Murdoch is “not a fit person” to run a huge international company has convulsed Britain’s political and media worlds and threatened a core asset of Mr. Murdoch’s American-based News Corporation.
The parliamentary report, issued Tuesday, found that three senior Murdoch executives misled Parliament in testimony. It also alleges that the company sought to cover up widespread phone hacking that Mr. Murdoch’s News of the World, a tabloid newspaper now shut down, used to gather information about politicians, celebrities and other people in the news.
It has opened deep divisions between the main political parties, accentuated the challenge Prime Minister David Cameron faces in explaining his past ties to Mr. Murdoch and some of his top executives in Britain, and added new momentum to regulators’ scrutiny of Mr. Murdoch’s controlling interest in the British Sky Broadcasting network, or BSkyB, which is one of the most lucrative Murdoch investments.
It also offers new details that suggest further damaging revelations may lie ahead. Sprinkled through its 121 pages are tantalizing references to potentially damaging sealed documents in dozens of lawsuits from the scandal, and an audio recording in police hands of a conversation between two News of the World journalists that may implicate an unnamed Murdoch executive.
The select committee that issued the report closed ranks in making many of its critical findings, but split, 6 to 4, on party lines over the specific censure of Mr. Murdoch as unfit for his responsibilities as head of one of the world’s most powerful media conglomerates. The governing Conservatives opposed it, while the Liberal Democrats, the junior partner in Mr. Cameron’s government, joined the Labour opposition in supporting it.
The partisan divide leaves Mr. Cameron as a de facto defender of Mr. Murdoch, while his Labour Party opponents have asked British regulators to move, on the basis of the report, toward reducing Mr. Murdoch’s 39.1 percent controlling interest in BSkyB, the satellite broadcaster that produces a hefty profit for the News Corporation.
The members of Parliament rejected the defense of Mr. Murdoch, 81, that his executives kept him in the dark about the hacking, saying he “exhibited willful blindness to what was going on in his companies and publications.”
It said the use of illegal reporting methods and the efforts to thwart inquiries into the practice came from a culture that “permeated from the top throughout the organization and speaks volumes about the lack of effective corporate governance at News Corporation and News International,” its British newspaper subsidiary.
Rupert Murdoch in Paris last year. On Tuesday, he sidestepped criticisms of his leadership. Credit Pool photo by Lionel Bonaventure
“We conclude, therefore, that Rupert Murdoch is not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company,” the report said.
While the long-term impact on Mr. Murdoch’s United States-based News Corporation remains uncertain, the report at least initially cheered investors, some of whom have pressed for a change of leadership at the News Corporation and a reduced role for Mr. Murdoch and his family. The company’s share price rose about 1.25 percent in early afternoon trading on Wall Street.
The parliamentary findings increase pressure on Ofcom, Britain’s broadcast regulator, which since last summer has been assessing the News Corporation to determine whether it is “fit and proper” to hold the BSkyB television license. In the nine or so years of its existence, Ofcom has only once removed a television license on the basis that its owner had not met the “fit and proper” test — in the case of the broadcaster of a pornography channel.
Losing BSkyB would be a startling blow for the News Corporation, but one that could be mitigated by the reaction of analysts and investors, who have long urged that the company shed some minority-owned assets in an effort to raise its share price.
In its report, the committee did not use the full term “fit and proper” in condemning Mr. Murdoch, a distinction that John Whittingdale, the committee’s Conservative nonvoting chairman, told the BBC was significant. Media commentators said the phrasing appeared to be an effort not to throw the committee’s weight fully behind the Labour Party push for a regulator-ordered sell-off of News Corporation’s BSkyB interest.
Mr. Murdoch released a message to News Corporation employees that sidestepped the criticism directed at him, stressing instead the company’s cooperation with the inquiry and his recognition of “mistakes we have made.”
“I recognize that for all of us — myself in particular — it is difficult to read many of the report’s findings,” the memo said. “But we have done the most difficult part, which has been to take a long, hard and honest look at our past mistakes.
“There is no easy way around this, but I am proud to say that we have been working hard to put things right.”
Tom Watson, one of the most vocal British lawmakers on the hacking scandal, spoke during the report's release in London on Tuesday. Credit Carl Court/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
In a statement from its New York headquarters, the company acknowledged “serious wrongdoing” but also said the committee was “wildly outside” its mandate in finding that Mr. Murdoch was “not a fit person.” It called that a purely partisan attempt to influence regulators.
In a statement on Tuesday, Ofcom said it was reading the committee’s report “with interest” and would use it, along with other evidence, to make its final judgment on the News Corporation. It gave no timetable, but some analysts say they expected the decision before the summer.
But it is significant, media analysts said, that Ofcom has openly discussed some of the evidence it is considering as it makes its assessment — evidence that at the very least presents an unflattering portrait of the News Corporation’s activities.
The committee report singled out James Murdoch, the second son of the media tycoon, who until recently was head of the family’s media interests in Britain, for failing to act much earlier. “Had James Murdoch been more attentive to the correspondence that he received at the time, he could have taken action on phone hacking in 2008, and this committee could have been told the truth” during an earlier inquiry in 2009, the report said.
It said the News Corporation had tried to blame lower-ranking executives while “striving to protect more senior figures, most notably James Murdoch.”
The panel raised the possibility that three senior former managers at News International, Colin Myler, Tom Crone and Les Hinton, could be cited for contempt of Parliament for misleading the panel in their testimony.
“I am shocked and disappointed by the culture, media and sport select committee’s allegations that I have misled Parliament and was ‘complicit’ in a cover-up,” Mr. Hinton said in a statement on Tuesday. “I refute these accusations utterly.” He said he would formally object to the findings.
Mr. Myler, now the editor of The Daily News in New York, said he stood by his testimony. “I have always sought to be accurate and consistent in what I have said to the committee,” he said in a statement.
TimesCast | Report Criticizes Murdoch
May 1, 2012 — A British parliamentary panel investigating the phone-hacking scandal found Rupert Murdoch unfit to run a large international corporation.
By Emily B. Hager and Rob Harris on Publish Date May 1, 2012. . Watch in Times Video »
Mr. Crone did not respond to a message seeking comment.
The committee’s findings appeared certain to set off a new storm in Parliament, with the Labour opposition signaling that it would press for a vote finding the three men guilty of contempt of Parliament, a sanction rarely used in modern times that Labour supporters said would seriously damage the men’s reputations and careers.
James Murdoch told the panel last week that when he took over News International in late 2007 — months after a News of the World reporter and a private investigator were jailed for hacking into the voice mail of members of the royal family — he believed that the affair had been settled.
But that version has been challenged by Mr. Myler, a former editor of The News of the World, and Mr. Crone, the newspaper’s former legal manager — the executives accused by Rupert Murdoch of a cover-up. The men have testified that they told James Murdoch in June 2008 of the extent of the hacking, but Mr. Murdoch has said he did not learn of the extent of the practice until last year.
In a measure of the damage to his interests since the scandal broke last year, Rupert Murdoch has closed the 168-year-old News of the World and the family has withdrawn a $12 billion bid to assume full control of BSkyB.
For his part, James Murdoch has severed many business ties with Britain, although he remains on BSkyB’s board.
Meanwhile, the company still faces investigations by Scotland Yard and the Crown Prosecution Service, which the parliamentary committee criticized as failing to take action soon enough.
The police in Britain have started three separate investigations into phone hacking, e-mail hacking and bribery of police officers. All have focused largely on Mr. Murdoch’s newspapers, but can extend to more general wrongdoing in newspapers he does not own.
A public inquiry led by a judge, Brian Leveson, has also been calling witnesses under oath and publishing evidence on the “culture, practices and ethics of the press.” It has most recently sought to investigate allegations of inappropriate closeness between Mr. Murdoch, his family and closest executives, and the British political establishment.
More than 40 people have been arrested and questioned — though not charged — including senior editors and executives at News International. They include Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of News International, and Andy Coulson, a former editor who left the company to become Mr. Cameron’s media adviser — a job he quit last year under pressure from the media scandal.
Sarah Lyall and Allen Cowell contributed reporting from London, and Amy Chozick from New York.
A version of this article appears in print on May 2, 2012, on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Panel in Hacking Case Finds Murdoch Unfit as News Titan. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
THE LEDE BLOG
Reading the British Hacking Report
Cameron Stands to Lose Much as Hacking Scandal Wears On MAY 1, 2012
News Corp. Report Bolsters Call for Change at Company MAY 1, 2012
Colin Myler, Daily News Editor, Back in Spotlight With Phone-Hacking Report MAY 1, 2012
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Business Day|Popular Wrench Fights a Chinese Rival
https://nyti.ms/Tc1Yss
Popular Wrench Fights a Chinese Rival
By SHAILA DEWAN NOV. 8, 2012
Last Christmas, Sears had a brisk seller in the Bionic Wrench, an award-winning, patented tool with spiffy lime green accents. This holiday season, though, Sears has a special display for its own wrench, in the red and black colors of its house brand, Craftsman.
One customer who recently spotted the new Craftsman tool, called the Max Axess wrench, thought it was an obvious knockoff, right down to the try-me packaging. “I saw it and I said, ‘This is a Bionic Wrench,’ ” recalled Dana Craig, a retiree and tool enthusiast in Massachusetts who alerted the maker of the Bionic Wrench. “It’s a very distinctive tool,” he added.
The tools have one significant difference, Mr. Craig noted. The Bionic Wrench is made in the United States. The Max Axess wrench is made in China.
The shift at Sears from a tool invented and manufactured in the United States to a very similar one made offshore has already led to a loss of American jobs and a brewing patent battle.
The story of the Bionic Wrench versus Craftsman, which bills itself as “America’s most trusted tool brand,” also raises questions about how much entrepreneurs and innovators, who rely on the country’s intellectual property laws, can protect themselves. For the little guy, court battles are inevitably time-consuming and costly, no matter the outcome.
Still, the inventor of the Bionic Wrench is determined to fight. He is Dan Brown, an industrial designer in Chicago who came up with the wrench after watching his son try to work on a lawn mower. Mr. Brown says he believes that the Max Axess wrench copies his own and he is planning to file suit against Sears, which declined to answer any questions about the wrenches for this article.
The Bionic Wrench is distinguished by its gripping mechanism, a circle of metal prongs that, inspired by the aperture in a single-lens reflex camera, descend evenly to lock onto almost any nut or bolt.
Since Sears has halted new orders, the Pennsylvania company that makes the Bionic Wrench has had to lay off 31 workers, said Keith Hammer, the project manager at the company, Penn United Technologies. “And that’s not to mention our suppliers,” he added.
Mr. Brown sees a broader issue than just the fate of his wrench. “Our situation is an example of why we’re not getting jobs out of innovation,” he said. “When people get the innovation, they go right offshore. What happened to me is what happened to so many people so many times, and we just don’t talk about it.”
Inventors typically spend $10,000 to $50,000 to obtain the type of patent Mr. Brown has on the wrench, said John S. Pratt, a patent expert at Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton in Atlanta. Though he said he could not comment on the merits of Mr. Brown’s potential suit, patent infringement cases can be especially difficult in the tool field, where many improvements are incremental, Mr. Pratt explained.
A defendant in such a case would most likely argue that either the tool did not warrant a patent in the first place, or that its own product did not violate the patent.
Dan Brown, inventor of the Bionic Wrench, is defending his patent rights against the Max Axess, made in China. Credit John Gress for The New York Times
The fact that Sears made some changes to the wrench’s design, like making the grooves that allow the metal prongs to slide back and forth visible instead of hidden, will make the case more challenging, he said. “It’s hard for me to imagine that Sears isn’t particularly careful about breach of patent, so there’s probably another side to the story,” he said.
After patenting the wrench in 2005, Mr. Brown formed a company, LoggerHead Tools, to bring it to market, making a point of having it made in the United States.
The Bionic Wrench was greeted with enthusiasm at trade shows and in industrial design competitions, and the company survived the downturn in 2008. Mr. Brown resisted overtures from large chain stores that wanted to sell the tool under their proprietary brand, he said, and rejected the lure of cheaper manufacturing in China. “I was raised a different way,” he said.
The tool sold fairly well on its own — LoggerHead has shipped 1.75 million of them — but Mr. Brown, 56, who teaches industrial design at Northwestern University, says LoggerHead operated on a shoestring and he plowed much of the profit back into the company. “You cannot have big offices and fancy cars and everybody with an administrative assistant, because we are competing with China,” he said.
In 2009, LoggerHead hit pay dirt when Sears agreed to do a test sale. The product sold out, Mr. Brown said, and Sears ordered 75,000 Bionic Wrenches the next year. In exchange Mr. Brown agreed not to sell the wrench to Sears’s competitors, including Home Depot and Lowe’s.
In 2011, sales at Sears increased again, far outpacing LoggerHead’s other outlets like the QVC shopping channel and smaller hardware stores. But LoggerHead’s profit margin remained small, in part because it produced a television commercial and paid Sears to show it.
The Sears Holdings Company, which owns the Craftsman brand, declined multiple requests to comment on the Bionic Wrench or the Max Axess Wrench. The company would not answer questions about patent infringement or the volume of sales.
But in a string of e-mails provided by Mr. Brown, the buyer at Sears who had the LoggerHead account wrote, making liberal use of exclamation points, that the wrench’s holiday sales last year exceeded its target by 23 percent.
In the manufacturing world, lead time can determine price, and from the beginning cost was a particular issue for the Bionic Wrench, because of the competition from China. A 2006 article in The Wall Street Journal was headlined, “Wrench Wins Awards, but Is It Priced Too High to Be a Hit?”
According to Mr. Brown’s account of his dealings with Sears, the chain was pleased with the tool’s performance and agreed to place an order for 2012 in plenty of time to keep the cost low. Then his buyer at Sears changed and that agreement seemed to get lost in a new round of haggling. When the order for Father’s Day finally came, Mr. Brown said, it was too late to guarantee the lower price. He refused the order.
Sears responded by agreeing to the higher price. But when it came time for the Christmas holiday order, negotiations stalled once more, again pushing LoggerHead past the deadline to get the best price, according to Mr. Brown.
“We were sitting there going, ‘Why do they want Father’s Day so bad but they won’t commit for Christmas?’ ” Mr. Brown said. Now he believes that the company had already placed its order for the Craftsman version.
The Bionic Wrench is made in America by Penn United Technologies. Sears sells the Max Axess, sourced from China. Credit William P. O'Donnell/The New York Times
In late September, Mr. Brown said, his suspicions were confirmed. LoggerHead got a “customer feedback” e-mail from Mr. Craig, the tool connoisseur, describing the new Max Axess wrenches. “Sadly, they are made in China,” Mr. Craig wrote. “Can you tell me if LoggerHead has authorized these?”
Craftsman has come under fire before, accused of misleading customers into thinking that its tools are made in America and for stealing intellectual property. In one case, Sears spent two decades defending itself against a claim by Peter M. Roberts, who as a young Sears employee had, on his own time, invented a type of socket wrench.
Mr. Roberts told the court that Sears had played down the value of his invention, paid him $10,000 for the rights, and then made tens of millions of dollars. He eventually received settlements of less than $10 million, according to news reports.
In another, more recent case led by Lee Grossman, Mr. Brown’s lawyer, a judge awarded $25 million to the maker of a tool called the Rotozip who said he had disclosed trade secrets to Sears in an attempt to get the store to carry a new version of the tool.
Sears, a jury decided, took the trade secrets and had the tool made abroad for Craftsman.
“You have LoggerHead out, Dan Brown out, and dozens of American workers laid off — all in the name of profits for Sears,” Mr. Grossman said.
LoggerHead’s lawsuit, Mr. Brown said, will most likely include claims that Sears interfered with the company’s ability to do business with other stores.
“I’m in favor of free trade,” Mr. Brown said. “The person who’s out-innovated loses. But it’s destructive when someone competes but doesn’t out-innovate, they just produce it in a different market without regard to safety codes and human conditions.”
The company that makes the Max Axess wrench and other tools for Craftsman, the Apex Tool Group, is being acquired by Bain Capital, the company founded by Mitt Romney, in a $1.6 billion deal.
Throughout the presidential campaign, Bain was criticized on the grounds that it encouraged outsourcing by companies it buys at the expense of American workers. Apex makes many of its tools overseas. A company spokesman referred all questions to Sears.
Mr. Brown and his lawyer say they believe they have a solid case against Sears, but it could take years to litigate. “What happens to us in the meantime?” Mr. Brown asked.
Mr. Brown is also concerned that while he fights in court, Sears can undercut the price of his wrench.
For now at least, Sears still has some of Mr. Brown’s wrenches in its inventory. On the Sears Web site, the Craftsman and the LoggerHead wrenches are listed at the same regular price, $24.99 for the 8-inch version, and today both are on sale. But for at least a few days in recent weeks, only the Craftsman version was on sale, for $19.99.
Correction: November 13, 2012
An article on Friday about a patent battle between an American inventor and Sears misidentified the camera feature that inspired the gripping mechanism on the patented product, called the Bionic Wrench. It was the aperture, not the shutter.
A version of this article appears in print on November 9, 2012, on Page B1 of the New York edition with the headline: An Innovator vs. a Follower. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
TODAY'S QUESTION
Could the Inventor of the Bionic Wrench Have Avoided This Fight? NOV. 9, 2012
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Access to thousands of journals in danger of being blocked
MAASTRICHT. A sinister radio silence is all that is left, after negotiations between Dutch universities and Reed Elsevier publishers have failed. Licences are due to run out on 1 January and researchers will no longer be able to read the latest editions of many journals, including The Lancet.
What exactly is the problem? Dutch universities and government want publishers to change over to an open access model, in which articles based on publically funded research will be freely accessible for anyone. Things are not that far yet. At the moment there is a transitional phase, which is very unfavourable for universities. They have double expenses, which is referred to as double dipping. The institutes pay subscription fees for the journals and they also have to pay (an average of two thousand euro) for each open access publication. It works like this: the author pays, not the subscriber. Universities expect a gesture from the publishers.
A breakthrough was achieved recently with the Springer publisher. University umbrella organisation VSNU and Springer had reached agreement, a press release stated: “Open access publishing is the way of the future.” Exactly what that entails, remains to be seen. Negotiations are still going on. Discussions with Elsevier, the largest publisher, came to a standstill at the beginning of November. The proposal that the publisher presented, was brushed from the table by VSNU. And then all was quiet.
What was Elsevier’s proposal? What was unacceptable for VSNU? What will happen now? Nobody knows, says Henk van den Hoogen, programme manager at the university library. “Things are tense at the moment. The licence runs out in a couple of weeks’ time. Having articles published is always possible and older articles will remain accessible, but new content will not. This means that researchers cannot learn about the latest insights in their field.”
Access to thousands of journals will be blocked, including leading journals such as The Lancet and Cell. “Many researchers are capable of finding each other, I expect, and will exchange articles among themselves. It is now more important than ever to have an international network, where researchers inform each other about new publications. I expect a lively exchange of academic publications on social media. The geographic position of Maastricht is no disadvantage in that case. There is a lot of content present in Hasselt and Aachen. It is not something that the university library promotes, but some researchers will reconnect with their Belgian and German contacts.”
Not all researchers will be affected equally. “Economists have a culture in which they share early versions of articles, at congresses, or on digital platforms such as Repec. There is SSRN for social scientists. In medical-biological circles, this hardly happens at all.”
Alongside the so-called golden route to open access (through publishers), there is also a green route. This is when universities, such as the UM, give researchers the opportunity to place their manuscript in a repository (digital archive), which is accessible through Google. “There is usually a ban or embargo on the publisher’s version, but to a lesser extent on the author’s version, which does not differ in content, only in its look and feel.”
However, very few people at the UM have found their way to the repository, says Van den Hoogen. “It is a matter of lack of awareness, as well as the willingness to look into things. You have to know what conditions the publishers set. Fortunately there is a website, by platform Sherpa Romeo, where you can see exactly which requirements the publishers have, and the university library has an information desk.”
How many Maastricht publications end up in open access journals? Research by the university library shows that 10 per cent of the 3,200 Maastricht research publications that saw the light in 2013, ended up in freely accessible journals. “So the UM is pretty much in line with other universities. Those who want to know more about what is ‘on sale’, can visit the DOAJ site, a Danish initiative that provides a directory of open access journals.”
Maurice Timmermans - 03-Dec-2014 15:11
Oxford University Press journals behind a paywall
THE NETHERLANDS/MAASTRICHT. Dutch scientists are soon to lose access to Oxford University Press jour...
Deal between Elsevier and universities after all
THE NETHERLANDS. The Association of Universities (VSNU) and publisher Reed Elsevier have reache...
“Young researchers aren’t panicking – that came as a surprise”
Twenty-eight days to go. Will the Dutch universities manage by 31 December to reach an agreement wit...
News, Science
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Resale Store
Oconee County Habitat for Humanity
Amanda Harris
Oconee County Habitat receives Malachi 3:10 Award
Habitat's vision: A world where everyone has a decent place to live.
This summer, Oconee County Habitat for Humanity received the Malachi 3:10 Award from Habitat for Humanity International. This award recognizes a $500,000 lifetime tithe milestone. Founded in 1986, Oconee County is only the 2nd affiliate in South Carolina, the 128th affiliate within the United States (there are over 1,200 affiliates), and the very first all-volunteer affiliate to meet this goal. Oconee County Habitat has, through its tithe, supported Habitat International’s Global Mission Fund which enables the gifts to be used where they are needed most around the world. The tithe represents helping over 140 families worldwide obtain decent homes, as well as community projects for safe infrastructure and water.
Susan Yow, Director of Affiliate Tithe and Global Engagement, Habitat for Humanity International; Jon Goyert, Oconee County Habitat President; Tom Bottin, Past President; Ken Cushing, Past President
The award was presented by Susan Yow, Director of Affiliate Tithe and Global Engagement, Habitat for Humanity International, to the Oconee affiliate's board of directors on June 10th. “The work here in Oconee County is as much a part of our big global mission is as the work in Zambia, Nepal, Ethiopia, Guatemala, and the other 70 countries around the world where we’re working,” said Yow. “I know you are all very blessed here in Oconee County, and our families around the world certainly are blessed with your support.”
This coveted award is named after a verse in the Bible, Malachi 3:10: "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that it may be food in my house. Test me in this and see if I do not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it."
For more information visit www.oconeehabitat.org.
Older PostWest Union Subdivision Moves Along Quickly
Email: oconeeSChabitat@gmail.com
130 Bountyland Rd.
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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Déardaoin, 19 Meith 1924
DAIRY PRODUCE BILL. - INTOXICATING LIQUOR BILL, 1924—SECOND STAGE.
Ar ais chuig clár ábhair
Motion made and question proposed —"That this Bill be read a Second Time."
MINISTER for JUSTICE (Mr. O'Higgins)
The Dáil will remember that last year a Bill was passed through this House which the Seanad had not time to consider before the Dissolution. I have been glancing over it. It is a Bill of six sections and it dealt with very little more than the question of hours. Section 1 of that Bill laid down the opening hours as from 9 o'clock in the morning until 9.30 in the evening for week-days. In that Bill there was no distinction between Saturday and the other week-days. That Bill, as I say, did not become law owing to the dissolution of the Dáil, and we find ourselves now considering again this question of the licensed trade and certain matters in connection with it.
The Bill which Deputies are asked now to consider is somewhat more comprehensive than last year's measure. It is divided altogether into five parts.. Part I. deals with hours; part II. with licensing, part III. with clubs, and then there are two parts dealing with illicit distillation and methylated spirits. In preparing the Bill we had, of course, very numerous conferences with all the interests concerned, whether concerned in a direct personal way or through temperance enthusiasm or otherwise. On the 12th of last month a rather large Conference was held, at which I brought together representatives of all the interests—temperance associations, of which there are four or five; representatives of the licensed trade throughout the country, and the city traders; representatives of clubs; representatives of hotels, theatres, and so on. Something that perhaps might be expected happened at that Conference. There was not unanimity. It is scarcely a caricature of what happened to say that the temperance people abused the clubs; that the licensed traders abused the temperance people and the clubs; and that the clubs abused the licensed traders and the temperance people.
Mr. JOHNSON
Did anyone abuse the Minister?
Mr. O'HIGGINS
Perhaps it would not be untrue to say that I distributed a certain amount of abuse impartially. I thought really it would have an educative effect on all sections to bring them together in that way and let them hear what the other people had to say. It was useful, too, for me. What I aimed at was to strike a reasonable mean between the conflicting views. There will, of course, never be unanimity on a question of this kind. There is no unanimity this year; there was no unanimity last year; and if a measure of the kind were introduced next year, or the year after, I think the miracle would not happen. We regarded it as our duty to endeavour to strike a fair and reasonable mean between the conflicting views, to endeavour, as it were, to get the mentality of the average elector who would not have any special vested interest involved, who would simply be out for ordinary decency of life in the country.
We have in this country 15,000 licensed establishments. In other words we have a publichouse for every 200 head of our population—men, women and children. In England there is one to every 400, and in Scotland one to every 695 inhabitants. So that in that respect, if in no other, we seem better catered for than the inhabitants of the other island. I think that is far too many licensed establishments, and I do adhere to the belief that the real trouble with regard to this trade is that there is scarcely enough legitimate trade to go round, and that there is always a scramble for the crumbs.
Mr. DARRELL FIGGIS
For the drops.
For the drops, exactly. And that the people in a smaller way are led into lapses and breaches of the law and so on, in an endeavour to pick up something from their more substantial competitors. I would like to see, and I hope to see, a Commission established to go into the question of how best the number of licences might be reduced. On such a Commission, of course, there would need to be adequate representation for all the interests involved—and this is a trade and this is a subject matter in which there are many interests involved. It is not a question merely of the licensed traders on the one hand and temperance enthusiasts on the other. There is the question of the producer right back to the farmer.
And the Minister for Finance.
From the farmer to the Minister for Finance, as Deputy Johnson says. It is a question that would need to be gone into most carefully. But I think that we would all agree that 15,000 public-houses in the Saorstát is something far in excess of the reasonable requirements of the inhabitants, and that the traders themselves would welcome an investigation with a view to a very substantial reduction.
In the meantime, this measure purports to be a reasonable measure of temperance reform. There is nothing in its 28 sections that does not seem to us to be an interpretation of what the average reasonable elector would wish on this question. We have avoided, of necessity, matters which would involve, or which might be considered as involving, the question of compensation. There are bigger questions than are dealt with in the Bill which must be left over to the consideration of some such Commission as I have outlined. In the meantime you have this Bill. It deals in the first instance with the question of hours. In that matter the Bill of last year, which was passed by the Dáil, laid down the opening hours be from 9 a.m. to 9.30 p.m. In this measure it is proposed that the opening hours be from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., except on Saturday, when the closing hour shall be 9.30 p.m. There is no change on Sunday, except one that I think is a reasonable and a proper change, that drink shall not be sold between the hours of 7 a.m. and 1 p.m.—in other words, between the hours that might be considered as the hours of Divine Service. There are provisions dealing with special days—Good Friday, Christmas Day, and St. Patrick's Day—on which complete closing is provided for.
With regard to the question of theatres, I enquired into that matter rather closely, and am not disposed to make any alteration in their hours, beyond laying it down, as Deputies will see by sub-section 3 of Section 1, that people shall not be admitted to a theatre after the hours of 9.30 in the evening, unless they have previously engaged or paid for seats in the theatre, or are employed therein. Theatres have a limited kind of licence, which involves permission to sell drink from half an hour before the performance until half an hour after the performance. I am satisfied that interference with that would lead to irregularities within the theatre, such as people drinking out of bottles in the corridors, and that kind of thing. There is no serious case for any interference with the existing position, beyond seeing that people do not resort to theatres after the licensed establishments have closed, for the purpose of obtaining drink. The Bill provides for that.
With regard to clubs, it is proposed to have the same hours for the sale and consumption of drink in clubs as for licensed premises. Of course there will be two views about that as about many other aspects of the Bill. There are those who hold that the club is an excellent institution, meant for the social and moral upliftment of its members, or possibly for their physical development; that the sale of drink there is the merest sideline, and that there is no case for the State stepping in and saying that they shall have the same hours, in respect of the sale of drink, as the licensed trade. Such investigations as we have made do not point exactly to that ideal state of affairs. For instance, a club on the north side of the city whose average monthly purchase is twenty barrels of stout and fifty-two barrels of porter, is doing a rather hefty sideline in the sale of drink. The view is put up that it is very much on a par with people drinking in their own homes; that a number of citizens come together, form themselves into an association, and that there is no case for State interference. There are matters in which people have to be protected from themselves, and the consumption of drink in clubs is not on a part with the man drinking in his own home. I am inclined to believe that many men consume far more drink in clubs than they would consume in their own homes, or that they would be allowed to consume there. In any case, a thirteen-hour-day for the consumption of drink is not so bad, and if people make the most of it they will find they will be able to get outside quite a lot of drink.
I do not pretend to be unaware that in this document, as in another document, Article 12 is the most contentious portion.
It is not a Treaty.
Mr. O'CONNELL
Another Boundary question.
Section 12 provides:—
From and after the 25th day of September, 1925, it shall not be lawful to carry on any business (except the businesses hereinafter expressly authorised) in the same building as that in which the business of the sale of intoxicating liquor by retail for consumption on the premises is carried on, unless the portion of the building in which such sale of intoxicating liquor is carried on is structurally separated from and has no internal communication with any portion of the building in which any other business (except as aforesaid) is carried on.
Now, I put that to Deputies as a proposal, and with regard to that section, if I cannot convince the majority of the Deputies, voting freely and without party ties or obligations, as to the propriety of that portion of the Bill, I am prepared to drop it. That is not a new decision on my part. It is an arrangement which I came to four or five weeks back with the party which gives habitual support to the Government. I put that section in the Bill because I want to argue it with the Dáil, and it is a matter which I am prepared to argue and discuss very fully on the Committee Stage. Now, I will see on the Order Paper when the Committee Stage comes, an amendment to delete that section, and I would much prefer an amendment purporting to deal with cases where the application of the principle would involve undoubted hardship. My complaint is that with regard to this matter there is a tendency to exploit the hard case. I would sooner have the principle examined on its merits, whether at this hour of the day, whether in the year 1924 the public are satisfied that a system should continue by which women and girls going into shops for a package of tea, or a pound of butter, or half a pound of rashers, must, as it were, force their way in, past men standing over their pints; or, put it in another way, whether at this hour of the day it is considered proper that a man going in for a pound of nails should be subject to the temptation of wasting—I will not use the word "wasting" because it is partisan—of spending his time and money in a different way to that which he intended. I think it is a fair thing to say that a man going in for a drink should go in for a drink, and that a man going in for a pound of nails, and should go in for a pound of nails, and there will not be that inducement of spending that time and money in a different way to that which he originally intended. Extravagant statements have been made as to the expenditure that this would involve, and people have spoken as if it were a three-foot wall that would be necessary between one portion of the establishment and the other. Deputies know, of course, that a lath-and-cardboard, or a lath-and-plaster partition would meet the requirements of the Bill, that all that is asked is that the two portions of the shop shall be separate. If the principle is right, if at this hour of the day the public are entitled to be better served, then let the hard cases not be exploited. I am well aware, and was well aware when I asked that that section be written into the Bill, that there are cases in which very considerable architectural difficulties would arise, cases in which the question of light would be somewhat difficult if the owner of premises would be expected to divide them in the way suggested in the Bill.
Very good; let us, by amendment, deal with the hard cases but let the hard cases not be exploited to defeat a principle, if that principle is right and sound, or, if it is a question that September, 1925, is too near and that the time should be extended, let that, too, be argued. I will ask Deputies on the Committee Stage to agree with me that this system of a mixed trade carried on in the same room is bad in its sociological aspect; that, first of all, that is not the way that people should be served, that women and girls and children should not be expected to go in through a public house for the purchase of their groceries and other household requirements, and, there is also that other aspect, that temptation should not be there for a man going in for some requirements for his house or for his farm to spend his time and money in a different way. I am told that it would really mean two shops, and that it would mean additional requirements as to staffs. Well, there is considerable unemployment in the country and, if it means additional requirements as to staffs, I think that in that matter I can depend on the support of the Labour Deputies. This Bill, as I have stated, is an attempt to interpret the mentality and to interpret the wishes of the average electors, and I put this aspect to people who referred to this measure as tyrannical and confiscatory—I do not know how many other adjectives were applied to it in resolutions that I have got during the last few weeks—that the measure might very well be something different even from their point of view. I feel that, if year after year measures of reasonable reform are shouted down and voted down, a time will come when matters of this kind will be put by referendum to the people, and when the people, with the recent large additions to the electorate, and with the recent large additional woman vote to the electorate, may pass a much more comprehensive and much more drastic measure of reform. And I do put it, even to those who are vitally and personally affected by the Bill, that unless they show a disposition to meet the reasonable requirements of the public as to temperance, as to sobriety, and a reasonable catering for what people are entitled to expect for their wives and children, boys and girls, the public may very well deal with this whole question in its own way at a later stage.
I am not a Prohibitionist, nor in any measure that I would take responsibility for would there be any complexion of that kind. But if I am right, I believe that the trend of public opinion in this country is running strongly in favour of reasonable temperance reforms of this kind, and that, if that is not met, and met in a reasonable way by the interests concerned, there may come more far-reaching measures. I put that simply as food for thought to those who are inclined to think, or, if not inclined to think, are inclined to say that this measure goes beyond the bounds of reasonable change. That structural separation clause must abide the verdict of the free vote of the Dáil. That is an understanding and an arrangement. But the other sections involve very little more than was embodied in the Bill that was passed by the Dáil last year.
I feel certain that it is unnecessary for me to dilate upon or to advocate the two concluding portions of the Bill —the portion dealing with illicit distillation and that dealing with methylated spirits. Deputies know the need for both of these parts of the Bill. The illicit distillation traffic is one on which considerable inroads have been made by the activities of the Gárda Síochána, but which has not been stamped out; and I have come to the conclusion now that much further headway is unlikely to be made unless we take power to control the raw material. I am so advised by the police themselves, and by Deputies and public officials in the areas affected. I am advised that we have got to come down to the point of absolute control of the raw materials of poteen if we are to hope to absolutely stamp it out. It is a great evil—a great social evil—in the areas in which it prevails. The methylated spirits traffic is, of course, no less an evil. If it exists on a smaller scale, at any rate it is no less injurious in its effects; and we propose here what we hope are adequate powers. It will be noted that illicit distillation no longer remains on the basis of being mainly or primarily a revenue offence; it is made an ordinary criminal offence, punishable by imprisonment.
I do not know that at this stage of the Bill there is matter calling for much further comment. Deputies will notice that in Section 23 power is given to the police to search clubs or to visit and inspect clubs under certain circumstances where there is suspicion that a breach of the law is taking place. Formerly the police were under considerable difficulty with regard to clubs, because they had to have something more than suspicion, they had to have something little short of absolute personal knowledge before they would get from a magistrate the necessary warrant. I am glad to say that at the conference which I had the representatives of the club assured me that they would welcome police supervision and police inspection, and had no objection to the insertion of a clause of that kind in the Bill; and that is something which certainly gives every evidence ofbona fides and every evidence of a desire to run the clubs properly on the part of those who represented the clubs at the conference.
I am aware that Deputies—or some Deputies—will see in the Bill not merely sins of commission, but sins of omission. From time to time I got requests to bring certain matters within the scope of the Bill. There are local problems and special interests here and there in regard to which people saw, or thought they saw, in the Bill, an opportunity of having grievances, real or imaginary, redressed. There is the problem of the Cork tied house, which I am not attempting to deal with in this measure, and which must be left over for fuller examination by a Commission. And then, here in Dublin, there were two special requests, one from certain people on the North side who had six-day licences, and who would like to have seven-day licences, and the other had reference to a problem which I am sure is well known by circular and memoranda to many Deputies, if not to all—the problem of the added areas. These are questions which I think can better be dealt with on the Committee Stage, if amendments are put down, and which I would suggest, at any rate, ought to be omitted from the scope of the discussion at this stage of the Bill. I formally move the Second Reading.
Mr. DALY
I do not agree with the general terms of this Bill at all. There are some clauses in it that nobody can say anything against, and there are some clauses in it that everybody can speak against. But before I start off to say that I should like to see the Bill rejected, the Minister himself rejects it by saying that he would like to see a Commission set up. So should I. I gave evidence before a Commission seven years ago. The late Mr. Justice Gordon presided at that Commission, and in connection with that Commission, any publican who would be shut up would be compensated. As regards this Bill, the Minister has very generously given leave to everybody to slaughter the structural clauses. There are clauses inserted in this Bill, some of which would suit the cities, and more of which would suit the country districts. You take, for instance, the cities where you have a tram service, and where Ministers are living, I may say. They are prejudiced by the fact that a man can be converted into abona fide traveller, for a penny, on a Sunday.
You do not know the Tramways Company.
A man jumps into a tram and pulls the bell, and off he goes, and he is abona fide traveller—and that, after getting for three hours before that the privilege of boozing away in a publichouse. It is no wonder that the bona fide traveller part of it is objected to, when, as I am told, here in the city the three hours' period is abused and people are not satisfied with it. Give us the three hours in the country and a little of the bona fide traveller business, and no structural clauses, and we will almost fall into line with the Minister for Justice.
He has taken charge of the theatre and the publichouses there by night— the bars. He objects to the girl of eighteen going inside the publichouse bar. So do I. I agree with him that a girl under the age of eighteen should not be allowed inside any counter, for her health's sake. If she is not we will have better athletes in the country, for the girls will make better mothers. I come back to the theatre. I was in there the other night. Not alone were there people there eighteen years of age, but there were a few there not eight, ten, eleven, twelve or thirteen, all, walking around dressed up nicely. They would pick the eye out of you. I was up in the gallery with other Deputies. I had a look down into the pit to see were there any Ministers there to put a stop to the kickers, but I did not see any Ministers.
Not in the pit yet.
To come back to thebona fide traveller part of the Bill, I would ask the Minister for Justice to bear in mind seriously that it would be a great hardship on the people in country districts, if this one o'clock in the day bona fide business were imposed on the publicans. He mentioned Divine Service a while ago. The people where I come from are as divine as they are in Dublin, and the travellers from the country especially, can hardly go to Mass at all without a drop. I do not say this now by way of a joke. From time immemorial those people living three to five miles away in the country drive into the village to chapel on Sundays. They put up their horses in the stables that have been built for them years ago by our fathers. I am a publican myself. A farmer like Deputy Gorey would drive in his horse.
A DEPUTY
His motor car.
And put him up in the publican's yard in the stable and make off for Mass, or if it were snowing he might go into the fire, and you know the remainder. If this Bill were passed it would be a crime for the farmers' horse to drink in the publican's yard, and it will be a hardship on the people coming into Mass on Sundays, if they have to come home again without being able to get messages in the house with which they are dealing, with which their fathers have dealt before them, and in which they get the best value. As to the opening hours, nine o'clock in my district anyhow, is early enough. God knows, with the amount of unemployment that exists—publicans as a rule are sleepy chaps—nine o'clock is early enough for them except on fair or market mornings, when the thirsty farmers come in. The Minister knows it himself. He spent some time in Cork and Youghal, a watering place down in my district. How would it affect holiday-seekers—they may call it a holiday or a necessity—who go to Youghal to enjoy the fresh air after the week's work, if they could not enter a publichouse before one o'clock? In those watering-places travellers should be specially catered for. I make a suggestion—I hope I will be on the Commission—that a country publichouse should get permission to open for three hours, say, from eleven until two. We have Mass at 12 o'clock. You would have an hour before Mass and an hour after. Then you could put down thebona fide business. This deals with the country, where a man has to walk two or three miles on business or pleasure. He has not merely to hop into a tram. Alas, we are asked not to taste a tint of drink on St. Patrick's Day. Our fathers would turn in the grave if they heard it. Many of them got their heads smashed on St. Patrick's Day, and it would not be a Patrick's Day unless they came home half “boosed.” All those time-honoured customs are to be put aside to please the Pioneers, the people who have a big banner, with Pussyfoot drawn out on it. I do not like to say anything against the Pioneers, because I am a kind of Pioneer myself. I may as well say that, because some Deputy may fling the taunt at me, “Why don't you have a drink yourself?” I drank my own share of it. I would like to point out that the Minister for Justice thinks it necessary that there should be a Commission set up. I think it should be set up also, and it would be a golden opportunity to avoid this pardon or absolution in connection with the structural clauses. I say: “Withdraw the whole Bill.” Should there be a Commission set up afterwards you can bring forward a new Bill at the time you will be bringing forward the Rural Councils again. Bring forward a new Bill after the Commission, and do not put the car before the horse by having the Bill first and the Commission after. I would ask that the Minister for Justice in justice to the Bill, should withdraw it. In that Commission he suggests we will give him our blessing and every assistance.
Mr. MILROY
Would I be in order now, in accordance with Standing Order No. 17, to move that the House do now adjourn for two hours?
On what grounds?
I understand you are not allowed to give grounds on moving a motion like this.
Major COOPER
Is it not a fact, sir, that in order to do that, Deputy Milroy requires your permission, and he has not asked your permission?
I asked was I in order.
I think not, unless the House desire an adjournment.
Can we take the sense of the House in the matter?
I submit, sir, it is for your decision.
I will not accept the motion.
The Minister, in introducing this Bill, covered a great deal of ground, which I shall try to cover briefly. It not unfrequently happens that when I am speaking here I am conscious of speaking on a subject of which I have only an academic or superficial knowledge. That is not the case in this instance. So far as the Intoxicating Liquor Bill is concerned, I have, I may say, absorbed the subject. I shall deal with it in the spirit in every sense of the word in which the Minister put it before us, when he said he tried to get at the mentality of the average elector by striking the mean between conflicting views. There is no worse way of getting at the mentality of the average man, than by striking a mean between two extremists. They come off at tangents, and you do not get at the centre. But where the Minister will get at the mentality of the average electors is here in this Dáil. Therefore, it is to be hoped that we will have a full debate, and that Deputies will express not opinions dictated to them, but their own opinions, whether they are popular or unpopular. The Minister expected to be accused of sins of omission. He accused himself of one sin of omission. I am going to rub it in. It is that there is in this Bill no provision whatever for the reduction of the number of licences. That is one of the things that have been in the forefront of every agitation and temperance movement in this country for years. The reason for the omission is obvious. The reason is the Minister for Finance. It is a serious omission, and one that is felt to be serious. I do not myself believe that drunkenness depends in any great degree on the number of publichouses. I am confirmed in that by the figures the Minister gives. He said there was one licence to every 400 of the population in England, and that there was one to every 695 of the population in Scotland. I have not the figures with me, but it is common knowledge that Scotland is a more drunken place than England. The average number of convictions for drunkenness is much higher than in England, though the proportion of the number of houses is very much smaller.
The police are more efficient.
I never heard that. It is entirely new to me to hear that any police force is more efficient than the City of London police force. Yet the number of arrests for drunkenness is infinitely lower in London than in Glasgow. There are other factors to be taken into consideration, such as the climate, what people drink, and Sunday closing in Scotland, which has had a very considerable effect. As I say, I do not believe the number of licences has really a great effect on the amount of drunkenness. I think the truest thing on this subject was said by the late Lord Salisbury, that though he had a large number of bedrooms at Hatfield they never made him feel any more sleepy. It did not necessarily follow, he concluded, that because of the number of public houses there was any more drunkenness. What I do think is that the number of small publichouses we have in this country is uneconomic. We have in a small village of forty or fifty houses, eight or ten licensed houses, which is too much of a good thing, even allowing it to be a good thing. It is not economic, and it involves an enormous number of small transactions—buying a barrel of beer at a time, and that sort of thing, which makes the work of the railways more difficult. I do hope the Minister is not putting the reduction of the number of public-houses out of mind altogether.
Another question the Minister has failed to deal with, so far, is the question of spirit drinking. It has been in the past the aim of a great many temperance reformers to discourage the drinking of spirits, as compared with the drinking of ale and porter. There is an English poet—I should rather call him a rhymster—who once said:
Brandy and gin blows out your skin
And makes you feel quite clear,
So damn your eyes, whoever tries
To rob the poor man of his beer.
That sentiment has been endorsed by a good many. I do not know whether the Minister is familiar with the system adopted in Gothenburg, in Sweden. He has been borrowing one or two details of it in this scheme, but whether he has been borrowing them unconsciously or not I do not know. He has borrowed one provision which prohibits the sale of alcohol on credit. That is a very good provision, and I heartily endorse it. He has also borrowed another provision, less excellent, which prohibits the sale of any form of alcoholic liquor to anyone under 18 years. He has borrowed from the Gothenburg system, and he has gone one better, because the Gothenburg law applies only to spirits and does not apply to beer. Comparatively recently there were twenty-nine houses in Gothenburg selling spirits across the counter, and there were 200 beer houses, so that a person under 18 years had ample opportunity of obtaining beer. I do not think it can be seriously contended that a glass of beer does a boy of 18 years, taking hard exercise, any harm at all, or that a glass of cider does him any harm. I think that there the Minister is following a precedent—a British precedent. I do not know whether it should be called a British precedent or an American precedent, because an Act passed last year in the House of Commons was introduced by a lady who is American by birth and British by marriage, and who succeeded in getting this made illegal in Great Britain. There has been no great improvement, so far as I can see, in any of the young people in England since, and at the same time there is that unreasonable restriction. I have known children under 18 years—even children of 15 and 16 years—ordered beer, stout or porter by doctors. As long as they were at home they would, under this Bill, be able to have that, as they would be in a private house. But if they went to stay at an hotel, or if they went to one of those watering-places of which Deputy Daly spoke, where, apparently, people go for no other purpose than to drink, they would not be able to get stout or porter, according to the provisions of this Bill, even if ordered it by the doctor. That is as far as I understand the provision.
I venture to think that the general characteristic of the Bill is rather excessive rigidity. It has many very valuable provisions, but the whole scheme is too cut and dry, and there is not enough allowance for exceptional cases. The Minister is placing all licensed houses on the same basis. It is rather ridiculous to apply exactly the same standards to the Shelbourne Hotel and to a publichouse, say, in Clifden, or Cahirciveen. The kind of business is different, the conditions under which they work are different, and it is almost impossible to get a scheme of hours that would suit them. If you try to crush them into a Procrustean mould you will create hardship and ill-feeling. Take the question of theatres. The Minister has grouped all theatres. together, even theatres that do not possess licences. There is one theatre in Dublin—the Abbey Theatre—which has no licence. The Bill says:—
"No person shall be admitted to any theatre, music hall or other licensed place of amusement after the hour of half-past nine in the evening unless ..."
I take it that means any place possessing a patent as a theatre. The Abbey Theatre has no licence for the sale of alcoholic liquor at all. It is a theatre which very often has two or three plays on the programme, some of which may be very familiar to frequenters of that theatre. I might wish, for instance, to avoid a play by the Minister for External Affairs which I had seen several times before, and to go down at a quarter to ten or ten o'clock to see some new play put on at the end of the programme. Under this Bill I would not be able to get in. That is not to prevent me getting a drink, because I could not get a drink, in any case, and I would be able to get a drink in a publichouse up to that time. That simply shows that the scope of the Bill is a little rigid. As the Minister begs us not to labour hard cases, I will not deal further with that, but I would like to know if, under this Bill, the privilege which exists at present of applying to a District Justice for extension of licensed hours for particular purposes still continues or not. There is nothing in the Bill about it, and I am not clear whether it is repealed.
It is not.
I am glad to hear that. That, to some extent, meets my view. In my opinion there ought to be five kinds of licences. We are trying to standardise this matter too much. There should be a licence for a hotel, and in defining a hotel the Minister might very reasonably demand a certain standard—a certain number of bedrooms, so that any little village publichouse would not be at liberty to call itself a hotel.
Then there should be another standard for restaurants. I might say that the only legislative effort in my life was when, 14 years ago, I helped Mr. P.J. Brady to carry a Bill in the House of Commons which made it possible to have a drink at supper in Dublin. I never heard that the Bill did any harm, but it lapsed during the European War and has not been revived. Now the trade of the restaurants in Dublin is so small that I do not think it would be possible to revive it. As far as I know, it was a harmless provision, which gave a certain amount of enjoyment and a certain amount of employment suitable to a capital city. After all, Dublin is a Metropolis. I know I shall be reminded that Dublin should not sit up late, so that it may go to work early in the morning. But Dublin does not sit up late, and it does not go to work early in the morning. Paris sits up late, and goes to work early in the morning, and remember that in Paris there are practically no restrictions. Paris is a very much earlier city than either London or Dublin, and I suggest that the two things are not necessarily incompatible. The third form is the licence for clubs. The fourth is the ordinary licence for sale across the counter, and the fifth is the off-licence, a problem which the Minister has not tackled in this Bill, but which he will have to tackle some time. There are various abuses connected with it.
Now, I come to the provision with regard to the closing on St. Patrick's Day, on Good Friday, and on Christmas Day. I am not going to support what Deputy Daly described as the time-honoured custom of getting half boozed on St. Patrick's Day. That reminds me very much of a saying of Shakespeare. It is "a custom more honoured in the breach than in the observance." I would ask Deputies to remember that St. Patrick's Day is a bank holiday and a general holiday in the country now. I think it is very hard to lay it down as this Bill does, that if I go to Bray, or in a misguided moment to the other end of the County Dublin to address my constituents, I cannot have a glass of beer or a whiskey and soda at my meals unless I take a room in the hotel. That seems to me unnecessary. Close all the bars as much as you like, but to say that a drink should not be served at meals under the circumstances I have described is, I suggest, pressing the thing a little too far. I am not going to lay the same stress on Good Friday or on Christmas Day, because these are days that should be spent in the bosom of the family. But St. Patrick's Day is now a bank holiday, and a day on which people go out to enjoy themselves. I cannot see that it would do them any harm if they had an opportunity for having refreshment at their meals. I do not think that such a regulation would do any harm, or that the fabric of the State would be shaken in any way. I now come to the question of the clubs. I admit that this is a very difficult question, but I agree with the Minister that a club that is only a camouflage publichouse should have no better treatment, and, if necessary, have worse treatment, than the publichouse. Here, also, we should be aware of undue rigidity. There are a great many clubs with bars. There are such things as golf clubs with bars. I suggest to the Minister that if he is able to make a rule that no member of a golf club should be supplied with alcoholic liquor until he has played at least eighteen holes, it might not only be useful, but I am sure it would help to raise the standard of the golf. At the present time you have people playing golf up to a late hour. At the present season, particularly on Saturday afternoons, golf is played up to 9.30, and sometimes a good deal later. It seems to me if the closing hour in golf club bars is fixed at 10 o'clock that it is a little arbitrary. What I suggest is that the Minister should lay down certain hours during which the bars in clubs can be kept open.
I suggest with regard to club bars that the Minister should fix a maximum number of hours during which the club can sell drink, and that he should make that maximum number considerably less than the thirteen hours allowed to the publichouse. If it would conciliate the Labour Party in any way I would suggest eight hours as the club day for drink. I suggest also that the clubs themselves, when applying for a licence or for a renewal of a licence, should state the hours during which they wish to sell drink. It will be open to the police to make an objection if in any case they think these hours are going to be abused. The suggestion I make would, I think, put an end to the camouflage publican, because it would not then be worth his while giving up thirteen hours' sale of liquor in order to secure eight. This provision, if enforced, would impose a great hardship on a number of clubs. For instance, I know that in London the Press Club is used entirely by people who work at night, and as the club has an all-night licence it is allowed to sell drink. If the Dublin Press, printers, telegraphists, and other people who have to work at night, wish to start a club, or if they have a club already, I do not believe it would do any harm to let them have a glass of ale with their supper, even if that meal were served at 2 o'clock in the morning. All these matters are subject to the police regulations, and if clubs make application for unusual hours without any valid reason the police will oppose the application and the club will probably not get its licence. Of course, it is simpler, from the police point of view, to have an absolute fixed rigidity, and that everyone should conform to it. To have no variation in the hours is not a solution of the difficulty. It has been found possible to work the licensing laws in London with a variation in the hours. For instance, at one side of Oxford Street the publichouses close at 10 o'clock, while at the other side they remain open until 10.30, but the police do not find any difficulty because of that. I feel that this uniform rigidity which I find in the Bill is due to the Minister's Napoleonic cast of mind. Napoleon once felt great pleasure in thinking that at a certain hour every day every child in his Empire, which then stretched from Calais to Rome, and from Barcelona to Rotterdam, should be doing a certain sum.
I am sure the Minister would derive great pleasure from feeling that on every Saturday night at twenty-five minutes past 9 o'clock the last tumbler is being emptied in every publichouse in Ireland; at twenty-eight minutes past 9, all over Ireland, that thousands of mouths are being wiped after the last drink, and that at thirty minutes past 9 the keys in the locks of thousands of publichouse doors are grating. That is a beautiful dream, of course, but I do not think it makes for the happiness of the Government.
Therefore, on the Committee Stage, I propose to do all I can to mitigate the rigidity of the Bill. I am not opposing the Bill, because it is one that has very valuable provisions, and I would vote for it if it were only for the two last parts dealing with illicit distillation and methylated spirits, both of which I believe are urgently needed. I do think, however, that it will cause a certain amount of friction and ill-feeling and will make for what the Minister once described as "persistent unpopularity." But I support the Bill under great difficulties, because of the conditions in which we are discussing legislation. The Minister begged us to deal with these points in Committee. While we have not a great deal of time to deal with these points in Committee, the great difficulty for the ordinary private member is that he cannot call a draftsman to his aid to frame satisfactory amendments that will stand fire. Therefore, I would urge the Minister to do one of two things, either to be satisfied with a Second Reading now and to leave the Committee Stage to the autumn when we shall have more time, and when possibly the organisations that ought to come to his assistance and support and which have not done so up to the present, will have come into action. If he cannot do that, I would urge him to help us with the drafting of amendments as far as possible, and not to turn down amendments because they are badly drafted. He could give us the benefit of the Government draftsman's assistance and advice, and an assurance that any such amendments that meet with substantial support in the Dáil shall not be rejected because they are badly drafted, but that he should help us to lick them into workable shape. The Minister also said that contentious matters had better be left for the Committee stage. If we respond in that spirit, will he give us an assurance that he will give us a helping hand?
When this Bill was brought forward on Second Reading I rather first, as Deputy Cooper did, thought it was likely to be contentious in a number of respects, and that if it was intended to become law this summer, it would mean a very much longer sitting than had been anticipated, and would have meant very urgent pleading with the Seanad to sit longer than they proposed to do. I do not think it is reasonable to submit a Bill of this kind along with a number of other Bills of great importance which require to be examined closely and minutely, at this stage of the session, and, therefore, I suggest that it is a Bill which ought not to be persisted in in view of the big programme before the Dáil, unless other parts of the programme or many of them are to be dropped. There is not much sign of these other Bills ceasing to flow, and I cannot understand how this Bill is likely to become law within the time suggested as reasonable as the length of this session.
For my pains I received two or three very abusive letters, saying I was trying to plead the cause of the publican and to ensure the perpetuation of drunkenness in the homes of the writers of these letters. It is not because I receive these letters that I am supporting this Bill. I would support a very much more drastic Bill than this is. But I want to suggest to the Minister that it is very doubtful wisdom to try to pass the whole of this Bill at the present stage, and that to remedy the acute evils he would do well to make a separate Bill of the two clauses, the one relating to illicit distillation, and the other relating to methylated spirits. I feel confident he would get almost unanimous support if he introduced those two sections as a separate Bill, and allow it to pass through quickly. By that means he would deal with an immediate and pressing evil, and he would at least save six months in the active treatment of those two evils, because I cannot think, whatever the Dáil may be persuaded to do in regard to this Bill by the throwing overboard of a number perhaps, of very valuable provisions, that the Seanad will be persuaded to do the same. I do not think they will, and then we will not only lose the Bill as a whole, but the clauses dealing with distillation and methylated spirits.
But on the general question, and I am speaking for myself alone on this matter, I am prepared to support the Bill to the full, reserving freedom, as I always do, to criticise and vote against such clauses or sections or special proposals in relation to those sections. In the course of discussion in regard to the Bill outside the Dáil I find a curious state of mind developing, a state of mind which rather suggests the necessity for examining first principles with regard to the use and sale of intoxicating liquor. I find a tendency to argue that there should be no restriction, and that there should be as much freedom in regard to the sale of intoxicating liquor as in regard to the sale of bread. And it is even suggested that while the immediate results would be disastrous, still in the long run, and perhaps not too long a run, benefit would accrue to the country inasmuch as the fittest to take intoxicating drink, without evil results, would survive and would breed a race immune from intoxication. In a sense that is the end of the argument put forward in regard to freedom to sell all intoxicating liquor. But most people on examination, thinking for any length of time upon the matter, will come down to the agreement that there must be in this country and in this climate and in these latitudes certain restrictions upon the sale of intoxicating liquor, because we know from experience that a considerable section of the public—an influential section of the public—are quite prepared to exploit the appetites of men and women to the detriment and deterioration of men and women. Because of that exploitation and because it is necessary, as the Minister said, to put some restriction in the way of mankind in the satisfaction of the degrading appetites, licensing restrictions on the sale of intoxicating liquor have been found necessary. The question then arises as to the extent of the restriction and the extent of the interference. I think anybody who has travelled the country and has observed the conditions under which spirits and beer are sold, and the effect of that sale upon the general social condition, will agree that there should be steady and increasing restrictions upon that free traffic.
A good many people were greatly elated three or four years ago at the spirit of the country when there was a determined effort to reduce the sale of intoxicants. Now, undoubtedly, there was a great deal of good in that effort. It may be that there was too much elation and not enough of thought and consideration of the fact that there was a reaction against that wave of temperance, and perhaps the nett result has not been entirely good. But if there had been more restriction and less freedom when the reaction came, if it had been possible to enforce the law, even as it existed we would not have had the complaints and the grievances expressed that we have had. There is no doubt that the increase in the last couple of years in the sale of intoxicating drink has done a great deal to demoralise the country. Deputies talk as though the matter of Sunday trading, and the opening of houses in the country are simply a matter of satisfying what one might call the reasonable desire to refresh oneself, but Deputy Daly and most other Deputies well know what the conditions in the country are. We know that men, not men who have travelled, but men who live next door or within twenty, thirty or a hundred yards of the publichouse, spend hours and hours there drinking pint after pint and degrading their surroundings and everything connected with them.
It is wasteful and simply doing harm to themselves and to their families. Now, I believe that we ought not to be afraid to risk unpopularity in respect of this question. I was sorry that the Minister adopted a somewhat apologetic tone in regard to this Bill. He seemed to be a little afraid that he was asking the Dáil to do too much, and rather asked to be excused for inviting legislation of this kind. It is a very moderate Bill, very much more moderate as he suggests than the Bill which will be introduced and passed within a few years. I think that there ought to be very little cutting in the provisions of this Bill even as presented. The structural alterations clause is one that seems to have excited the most opposition. I think that it will cause a certain amount of hardship and expense to a large number of people. I think that possibly the time allowed in the Bill is too short, but I frankly tell the Dáil that in my belief that clause is intended, or, at least, it will have the effect of making the country trader and the city trader decide whether he is to be a publican or a grocer, whether he is to be a publican or an ironmonger, and he will have to decide whether he is going to conduct one business or the other business. I think it would be well for the country if people were made to decide that. You go into a country town and you find 120 houses, 70 of them having licences. Of course, they are not there for the trade of the town. It is intended to be a weekly or monthly trade—perhaps one day's trade in a month, or one day in the week, a fair day trade or a market day trade. They try to combine two or three businesses, and they have a slum of a house, and they call it the "pub." It is dirty, ugly, dilapidated in every respect, and the surroundings are disastrous to the mentality of the people that frequent these places. Now, I say it would be a very good thing, indeed, for the country if those places were reduced by two-thirds, and if this clause, this proposal insisting that there shall be structural divisions as between the general trade and the liquor trade, were passed. If it would have the effect of closing up a considerable number of houses, I think it would be a very good thing indeed. Now, I think it is quite reasonable, say, within a period of 15 months or two years—and I think the longer period would be preferred, a longer period than that fixed in the Bill—to call upon the trade itself to provide an insurance fund that will buy out or compensate those houses that have to be closed. I would certainly make that the basis of any compensation. Those houses that are to remain would undoubtedly get the benefit of the trade that remains. And if it is not a fact that the existence of public houses increases the consumption, then the remainder of the public houses will have the same amount of consumption and they will have a sufficiently increased revenue to provide compensation. But notwithstanding Lord Salisbury and the statement that because he has 100 bedrooms, he does not sleep more than once per night, we know, as a matter of fact, and we know as a matter of practice that the more public houses there are, and the greater the facilities for drinking, the greater the quantity of drink taken.
Hear, hear.
One does not go through life in cities and in country towns without knowing that when two or three are gathered together and the facility for drink is at hand the inducement to drink is succumbed to. And unfortunately we have the habit in this country of having public houses which are nothing but drinking places, and you have to stand for your drink —simply places where you can open your mouth and pour down beer. Now, I say that ought to be altered in the best and quickest possible way. Deputy Cooper spoke of the Gothenburg system. I am not talking as a Prohibitionist, for I am not a prohibitionist.
I do say if you could induce any considerable number of people to establish a publichouse trust on the Gothenburg system, make it compulsory that the licensee would also have available food and other kinds of drink besides intoxicants, let a manager be there who would only be paid a profit on the nonintoxicants, establish a place where there would be some little recreation, an occasional game, and perhaps even an occasional lecture, and song, and where you would not have simply a drinking establishment, you would do a great deal for the promotion of temperance in the country.
On a point of explanation, if you will pardon me for interrupting, I would like to draw attention to my reference to the banners of the Pioneers. I beg to withdraw that reference. Instead of being Pussyfoot, I find that there were some very sacred emblems on those banners. I am very sorry for the remark I made, and I withdraw it. I have great respect for the Pioneers, even though they are against me.
I have a great deal of sympathy with the views expressed by Deputy Cooper regarding the difficulty that Deputies find, and will find, on the Committee Stage, in drafting amendments of a nature such as the Minister himself has invited. The invitation almost necessitates having an official draftsman at the disposal of the Deputies. The suggestion of Deputy Cooper is one which I hope the Ministry, and the Dáil generally, will think of as a suggestion which might be given effect to in regard to legislation in general. Particularly in this Bill, it will be found that if the invitation of the Minister is considered, the drafting will be of a technical character, and unless Deputies are to be expected to allow interested associations to appoint draftsmen—which I do not think is altogether the best procedure—then the drafting will be difficult, and the opportunities for submitting sensible amendments will not be so great as the Minister suggests.
I am going to support the Bill, and the Minister, in general, in his defence of the various clauses, if he deems it necessary, and if the Dáil decides that this Bill is to be passed at this period of the legislative year. Again, however, I suggest that it would be more likely to bring outsensible and well-considered legislation if he would defer the Committee Stage of the main portion of the Bill, take sections 25 and 26 and make a separate Bill of them, and ask the Dáil to give the Bill rapid passage. I think the country would be very much more satisfied, and I think more valuable work would be done than by risking the loss of the whole Bill between the Dáil and the Seanad.
Mr. McGOLDRICK
Like many Deputies, I have not very much affection for this Bill. It seems to me to be a somewhat clumsy attempt to whitewash a condemned structure, to tinker with what I consider is an impossible system. The Minister for Justice, who has my sympathy in the matter, forcibly reminds me of the somewhat squeamish maiden who, after visiting the museum for the first time, came back the next day with a supply of kilts for some of the statues. I think that the drastic reform that is needed in this system should be only undertaken after thorough and careful inquiry has been made into the system. There is reform needed in the uniformity of the liquors supplied, and there should be such uniformity as will guarantee to the ordinary public that they are getting what is safe and what is best for their own interests.
Reform is required with regard to the tied-house system that the Minister has referred to. It is extremely necessary that that reform should be brought about with regard to the tied houses. Then reform is also required in the reduction of licences. As the Minister for Justice has stated, there are fifteen thousand licences in Ireland. I find from the return issued that the number of licences in the Free State is 10,135.
resumed the Chair.
I find that the larger percentage of that number engaged in dual trading, and only 2,918 sold liquor alone. The reduction of licences generally is a question that will have to be envisaged, and it is a question on which this inquiry is absolutely necessary. We have licensed houses altogether out of proportion to the requirements of the community, and it does not tend to insure that business is conducted in the best possible way when we have a superfluity of licences, and when it is the interest, not merely the duty, of everybody, if he wants to live, to do things that otherwise he might not do.
I think that while this inquiry is necessary, there may be anomalies, and there are, I think, in the metropolitan area, that could be rectified by a much less pretentious measure than this, and there are certain inequalities and unfairnesses between individual traders, I understand, existing in the neighbourhood of the City. These people should be brought into the City for licensing purposes also. It is a most intolerable thing, and it is a most unjust thing that they should be refused the privileges of the City, when they have been taken in for all other purposes generally. As regards the proposals in the Bill, although they are tinkering with the case I think they are tinkering wrongfully in some ways. I feel that while they should be closing on Christmas Day and Good Friday, St. Patrick's Day should be placed on the same basis as Sunday. I think there are certain requirements of the public on that day that necessitate that there should be elasticity with regard to St. Patrick"s Day, and that after 1 o'clock the same facilities should be given on that day with regard tobona fide travellers as on a Sunday. I think that the hours of opening would be all right if discretion were given to a District Justice in the case of an early morning fair or market, to make provisions for the requirements of rural areas where people may have long distances to go, and where it may, perhaps, be necessary for them to get stimulants, particularly in the winter time. With regard to the hours of closing, I do not see any necessity for making a difference between Saturday and any other day. I do not think that any argument can be put up for it. I think a better argument might be made in favour of the hours of trading on Saturday being longer than they are, instead of making them shorter. I think that the proposal with regard to Sundays is right.
I now come to the question of structural separation. I consider this is the greatest myth that could possibly be invented. The idea that this dual trading has any sinister influence with regard to temperance I would not agree with at all. I do not believe it has, but it is a grand text, undoubtedly, for those who want to preach Prohibition, and for some fanatics who are more or less extreme in their views, but I do not think that they could give any argument to show that the present system is in any way detrimental to the general interests of the community from the point of view of temperance. I do not see why structural separation should be enforced, especially as it would be impossible in a great many cases. It seems to me that if structural alteration is ordained by this Bill, and if a man is ordered to separate his business structurally where it is not possible for him to do so, he should have the option of going out of the trade and claiming compensation. The State should be prepared to give him this compensation, because you cannot ordain any hardship on a trader for the benefit of the whole community. That should be well understood, because I do not think it would be just or equitable to order any man to separate his premises structurally when it would mean that he would have no alternative but to go out of the trade. I could not at all agree with the proposal to order structural separation, except it was accompanied by a proposal with regard to compensation, and I am sure, when an inquiry is held into the trade in general, that we will arrive at reasonable ways and means of arranging that the number of licences can be reduced, and that if separation is deemed advisable where premises do not admit of it, compensation should be paid. It would be the duty of such an inquiry to arrange that. The spirit grocer is very much penalised in the Bill. There are only 390 of these altogether. Deputy Cooper elaborated a scheme for five separate standard licences. I think that the object of those that are concerned in the matter should be to bring all the licence-holders on to the one register. I think that there should be only one register. The spirit grocer is the black sheep of the licensed trade generally, and he is exploited as such by everyone who gets up to talk temperance.
In what way is he penalised? The Deputy says that the spirit grocer is very much penalised. In what way?
He is penalised in the Bill, as far as I know—in a section of it. He loses his licence on the second offence, and on the first offence there is a pretty heavy penalty.
The Deputy will agree that the offence is a breach of the condition on which he was given his licence.
I do not know what that condition may have been. It may be that it was given because the premises were structurally suitable, and the character of the applicant was good.
I would like to be clear on this point, because, of course, if the Deputy is right I will be open to reconsider the Section. My view is that the spirit grocer was given his licence to sell wine for consumption off his premises. If he sells wine and intoxicating liquor to be consumed on the premises, that, in my opinion, is a breach of the condition on which he was given his licence.
I agree that that is a condition that attaches to spirit grocers' licences, that no drink is to be sold for consumption on the premises. Unfortunately, very few of the spirit grocers have been able to keep to that condition. The difficulty of their being able to carry it out ought to be considered, and they ought to be placed on the same register as other licensed traders. They only got these licences because the exigencies of the situation compelled it, because it was not considered desirable to increase the number of the other licences. As regards the clause against girls under eighteen being employed on the premises, I think an exception might be made in the case of a trader's own family in regard to that. I take no exception to the hours as regards Sundays. As far as materials for manufacturing illicit spirits are concerned, I consider that very drastic penalties should be imposed. They could not be too drastic for me. I would be very much inclined to send persons found dealing in such things to gaol. The arrangements with regard to clubs I am perfectly satisfied with. I do not see that members of clubs should have any rights beyond the ordinary people who patronise the licensed establishments. I think they should not be able to exempt themselves from liability to prosecution by supplying drink at hours when people could not get it in the ordinary way. I think it a danger if you allow them to have greater facilities than what are allowed to ordinary people in the ordinary public-houses.
Deputy Johnson suggested that after an inquiry those who remain in the trade should pay for those who go out. I think that proposal is one that could be put into force in this country. I believe it is one that is capable of being applied. They have such a scheme, in fact, in Wales. It has imposed certain hardships, undoubtedly, on the people remaining in the trade by having redundant licences extinguished in areas at long distances from the areas in which those remaining carry on their trade. Those remaining are compelled to pay compensation in an area from which they would not get any trade in the ordinary way. An Inquiry could arrange the areas and the means by which licences could be materially reduced. Trade is extremely bad at the present time, and the temptations to those engaged in the trade to do things they should not do in order to make a living are far too great. An Inquiry should be set up to go into the matter thoroughly and put forward ways and means for getting these licences reduced. Unless that is done you will not help the cause of temperance in this country. There are a great many proposals in the Bill that I can support. I can support the Second Reading, but with reservations with regard to some of the points I have spoken of.
Mr. SHAW
My position in connection with this Bill has been made very easy owing to the very reasonable opening statement of the Minister for Justice. He has agreed to leave to a free vote of the House the most controversial clause in the Bill, namely, the structural alteration clause. As far as that clause is concerned, it is my intention on the Committee Stage to vote against it, because from my knowledge of a large number of houses throughout the country districts it would be practically impossible to comply with the conditions. I do not think at the present time such drastic legislation should be adopted. It would be necessary, if the structural alterations were carried out, for various shops to have double staffs, and while it was suggested that that might be a very good matter in the interests of labour, I think with the trade those people are doing at the present time, and the fact that they are practically, in my opinion, only paying expenses, it would be an impossibility to carry that out.
The other matters I take exception to are the hours, particularly with regard to districts which keep old time. In a large number of country areas they are 1½ hours behind the ordinary time, and the proposal in the Bill would mean, where old time is kept, they would be obliged to close at 8 o'clock. Other matters which I think might be amended would be in connection with fairs and markets. It is not my intention to say anything further at this stage more than to suggest that the Minister should be agreeable to accept reasonable amendments in connection with these matters. I think the Bill might be passed, and might be a great benefit to the country without causing any very serious loss to the persons engaged in the trade.
Mr. D'ALTON
There are a few points I wish specially to refer to. I would wish that Deputy Johnson's views, as stated in his opening remarks, could be carried into effect. That is, that Clauses 4 and 5 would be dealt with immediately, and that an opportunity would be given to the members of the Dáil for a conference to consider what further alterations should be made in the clauses that have been suggested, and to put forward a scheme that would be more acceptable to the Dáil, that would be more advantageous in the interests of temperance, and certainly would not be a loss to the people concerned in the trade.
I presume the Deputy means Parts 4 and 5.
Yes, Parts 4 and 5. As to illicit distillation, any punishment that could be given to those connected with that would not be too severe. The number of inmates in many asylums has been increasing largely for the past three or four years owing to the amount of illicit spirit coming into the towns and villages. If more powers are required than are taken in this Bill to deal with this evil I hope the Government will apply to the Dáil for them. I believe that those who engage in illicit distillation are the lowest and the worst type of criminals. Robbery, murder and crimes of violence of the worst kind have been brought about as a result of this spirit being sold in the towns and villages. I believe, too, that no whiskey should be allowed out of bond under five years' old. It is this bad type of whiskey that is one of the chief causes of drunkenness and of the crimes attendant on drunkenness.
As regards methylated spirits, we know what the result of drinking that has been in some of the industrial centres. We know how degrading and how ruinous it is. As to the opening hours on fair days, I believe there should be power to grant exemption. Those who wish to open their houses early on the days that fairs are held should be allowed to apply for an exemption and pay a certain amount for it. Each year when the licences are being renewed those who wish to open early on those days should get an exemption, which would be marked on the licence, for which they would be charged a certain amount. I do not see why the closing hour on Saturday should be earlier than on other days, In the country districts the working people are not paid until Saturday. They leave their work according to old time, so that they have only a half or three-quarters of an hour to get to the nearest town. If they have to travel a couple of miles that would be very unfair to working people. The wealthier classes can get their housekeeping done during the day, but those people who only get paid on a Saturday should not be prevented from doing their business by introducing such an hour as this in the Bill.
I am entirely in agreement with the proposal for absolute closing on Good Friday. It is a day which should be specially devoted to the Lord. It is a day on which there should be devotions for all Christians. The same thing should apply to Christmas Day. But St. Patrick's Day is a national festival on which our people go to Feiseanna, football matches, &c. In London on that day there are Irish re-unions which very prominent men attend, and which continue perhaps until an advanced hour in the morning. People of every nationality do rejoice on their festival day. Why should the Irish people at home be told that they cannot enjoy it in the same way? The wealthier classes can get a supply of whiskey or wine into their houses and they can, if they wish, take their hamper with them in their motor car. The working man cannot afford to pack a hamper or have a motor car. I do not see why on St. Patrick's Day these people should be prevented from taking drink in moderation. The idea that some people have that you must bring in legislation for the purpose of making people do what is right is not, I am afraid, going to lift the standard of our people. It is not going to give them a very high moral sense. I believe that temperance in Ireland will come through the schools and through the children. It will come through the fathers who wish to show an example to their children by not indulging in too much drink. I believe a certain amount of drink is good, but I believe too much of it is an abuse. Moderation in drinking is a necessity with a great many people, and it is not wrong for anyone to take drink so long as they do not abuse it.
As regards the number of licensed houses, I believe that there is an excess of them. But I wish to remind Deputies that it was by legislation these licences were created. Now we are asked by legislation to deprive these people of their licences without any compensation. I do not think that is just. This section as to structural alteration would certainly do this, and that would be a great disadvantage to the country. Some of those people who are merely existing in the country towns will be driven out of business by this proposal for structural alterations. In the country areas, owing to reduced trade, due to lack of employment, some of these people are merely existing at present. It would be better for the country that numbers of these people should go out of business, but this is not the time to force them, until the country begins to find its feet and get to work, which it has not done as yet.
It is not for us to increase the unemployment market, or to send farmers' sons, who are in business in small towns and villages, back to the country. Many of the people there are at present sending vegetables, butter and other things, to help their friends in the towns to eke out an existence. If their sons who are at business are sent back to farmers, having regard to the present state of agriculture, they are certainly not going to help their parents to get out of their difficulties. If these people cannot go to friends in the country they are going to be an expense to the public, as they will come on the rates, directly or indirectly. I absolutely object to that section. It may be possible that under a revised scheme the question of separating these business houses can be dealt with. The fact that there is drapery at one end of the shop, and grocery at another end, does not lead to drunkenness. In the country towns the bars in such shops are generally at the far end, or perhaps near the entrance. The bar is certainly not at the counter where other goods are sold. It strikes me that those people who are determined to take a glass of wine, and who will not drink anything stronger, as it would not be suitable to their sex, would find a place to go and have a glass of wine. We know of a country where they have prohibition, and we know what has been the result. I know from friends who came over lately that there are many people in that country now drinking who never drank before, simply because they have been prohibited from doing so. I am afraid that is a rather Irish characteristic too, and that until there is a higher moral standard in the country, if you want to prevent people doing something, you will not succeed by simply telling them they must not do it. I believe the question is really one of example, and that the temperance reformers should rely on the schools. I do not believe you are going to help the cause of temperance by turning a certain number of people out of the trade or by bringing in restrictions. I do not see why a man's daughter of 17 years of age should not help in his shop. If she leaves school at 16 and goes to the grocery business, she attends behind his counter. If he is not able to look after her, I am sorry for him. I think she would be better employed under her father's supervision than pretending to be amusing herself on the roadside.
There are other sections in the Bill with which I do not agree, and I trust that the Minister for Justice, if he persists with the Bill this Session, will agree to some amendments. Dealing with clubs, I suggest that the closing hours should be 11 o'clock. It is unfair to men in country districts, who leave their business perhaps at 9 or 9.30 p.m. and get to their clubs at 10, that when they sit down to a game of cards, or go to the reading room, they cannot have a drink up to 11 o'clock. It would be a very good thing if all clubs closed not later than 12 o'clock. In my young days people stopped in these clubs until 2 a.m. I do not think that is right. At the same time, I think clubs are entitled to remain open an hour longer than the licensed houses, in as much as many of the owners of these houses close at 9 o'clock and then go to their clubs. Let the power that this Bill places in the hands of the authorities be used to see that clubs are properly conducted. If that is done, to my mind there is no need for enforcing unnecessary restrictions. The law will see to it that there will be no abuses.
Mr. LYONS
I wish to congratulate the Minister for Justice on the introduction of this Bill. I have been listening to sermons and lectures on temperance for many years, but I do not know of anything that will have such an influence on the citizens of the Saorstát, in the way of giving up intoxicating drink, as this Bill will when it becomes law. I quite appreciate the need for temperance in the country, but suggestions have been made by some Deputies that this Bill will not help temperance but will be instrumental in creating more excessive habits of drinking. Take for example the closing of public houses on Saturday nights at 9.30 p.m. That is five minutes past eight, Irish time. Now, in order that I may be able to explain, so that the Minister for Justice will understand it, the difference which the various times make in the country I should mention that I was once in the town of Athlone and I heard the Angelus ring there. I then motored to Moate, ten miles away, and I heard the Angelus ringing there. I then went on a few miles to Tubber and I heard it ring for the third time.
Did the Deputy make any halts in these towns?
I invite the Minister for Justice to look at the badge in my coat. Now what is the result to workers who live in these places and who keep Irish time? When they get their money on a Saturday evening it is late, for the farmers in that part of the country are not too fond of parting with the workers' wages until the last moment and they like to hold the money as long as they can, like all employers. The workers cannot send their wives into the shops at night as they would be told that it is after 9 o'clock, although in reality it is only after 8 o'clock. They are, in fact, beginning to think in the country that the Summer Time Act is as drastic as this measure, though I admit that I supported it for the sake of giving extra daylight to my fellow-workers. The effect of this Bill will be that in large towns on Saturday night, when it comes to 9 o'clock the workers will be told by the publican that the time is up, and they will take large quantities of drink home. The result will be that a kind-hearted father or mother will give intoxicating drink to the children, and when these children grow up they will get a certain gnawing around the bottom of their hearts which will make them take more liquor than will be good for them. At present with the 10 o'clock closing in country towns, drink is not brought home, so that the children do not get the taste of it. I do not know what influence there is in alcohol or whiskey, but I believe there is an influence in it which makes people who get a taste for it unable to do without it. I ask the Minister to extend the hour at night for closing and make it 10 o'clock all round on a Saturday night. I do not see why, in one part of the Bill, he gives certain facilities to certain very small places. Under the old Act public-houses are open until 9 o'clock in one town, 10 o'clock in another and 11 o'clock in another, according to population. Under this Bill they all close at the same time, but I think the hour should be 10 o'clock all round, and I think that in towns in which fairs and markets are held it is necessary to open at an extra early hour in order that buyers who come in for a half of whiskey or a bottle of stout may be put in good humour to make a bargain. The sellers get a better price because they are in better wit. Deputy Johnson has dealt with thebona fide traffic at fair length. Some Deputy has mentioned that the workers go into a public-house on a Sunday and do nothing but stand in the bar pouring beer down their throats. Now that is really wrong. I am sure that the Deputy who mentioned that knows very well that we have the Civic Guard throughout the country. I quite agree that years ago, during the British régime, the R.I.C. used very often allow a man to go in to get a drink in his town on a Sunday. The publicans now, however, at the sight of a member of the Civic Guard starts to shiver like blancmange on a plate. The result is that no native of that town will get a drink in the town. Very often I went in to a strange town in my own constituency and tried to bring a native of the town in with me to get a drink, but I found it impossible to get it for him.
A question has been raised concerning public houses in the country districts, and we are told that they are dirty and that they are simply places to spend your money in the whole day long. We are told that it is more or less degrading for a man to enter inside the door. Well, I have visited a good many of them, not for drink, and I have not seen any of this dirt that we are told of. To my mind every publican, whether he is in a big financial position or whether he is a man waiting the change of a shilling over the counter in order to send out for something that he may require himself, tries to do his best to keep the house as clean as it possibly can be kept. I hope when it comes to a vote on this Bill that the Deputies of the Dáil will not be inclined to vote for Section 12. There is more opposition to this section in the country than there is to Article 12 of the Treaty in the North, and I certainly was very, very pleased when I learned that the Minister for Justice is allowing a free vote of the Dáil on this section, which means that the section is finished. Every Deputy in the Dáil will quite agree that it would be a shame and a disgrace —if I could find a worse word I would use it—to request a man who has not the room or the means of doing so to convert his little house into two different departments so that he might sell chains and secondhand coffins in one and drink in another. I quite agree that if we had ample house accommodation, it would be necessary to apply the principle of "one man one trade." But at the present time, owing to the scarcity of houses and owing to the poor state of the Saorstát Exchequer, the Minister for Justice will run the risk of not being on the very best terms with the Minister for Finance if he goes on with this Bill, because by reducing the number of publicans in the country you are also reducing the revenue of the country; and I believe that the duty charged on liquor is the only guarantee that they have at the present time for the carrying on of the administration of the State.
A word or two concerning the clubs. Deputy D'Alton agreed that the clubs should be left open till eleven o'clock. At the present time they are allowed to continue open till 12. If the clubs are allowed to continue open until 11 o'clock, will that have a bad effect on the members of the club who will be able to get drink there until 11 o'clock? Will it have the effect of making the bank account of a member, if he has such a thing, any heavier at the end of the year? I do not think it will. If a man has only one-and-sixpence, and is going to have three pints before closing time, he will have them whether the club is closed at 9 o'clock or 11 o'clock, so I do not think it would mean anything extra to allow the clubs to refresh their members until 11 o'clock. There is another point in connection with the club—I do not think it is right at all that a member of the Civic Guard should have power to walk into a club at any time and to search the club, and to see if there was a breach of the Licensing Act. I think it should be necessary that the Civic Guard should have a warrant before entering a club, or else that he should be a member of it. You will find that practically the majority of the clubs in the country— any of them that I have seen—are managed in the most respectable manner, and that there are not any such things as abuses except on the night of a smoking concert. And I believe the Minister for Justice himself and other members of the Government do not object an odd time to a smoking concert or to a bit of diversion or amusement. And why should we deprive the people in the country of the same little bit of diversion that we require sometimes ourselves to relieve the monotony here? The same thing applies to the country, where you have workshops with dust flying around, and the workers there like to have an hour or so once or twice a week at a smoking concert, and I certainly think they ought to be allowed that privilege. It is certainly not a great privilege.
There is a further sub-section which I object to as being a weak one. It refers to family attendants and barmaids. If 18 years of age is to be the minimum age for females before they begin to serve their time in a bar, they will be 21 years of age before they have served the three years necessary. Their parents are paying for them when they are at school and while they are serving their time. When they are 21 years of age some lucky or unlucky man comes along and the barmaid gets married. She is simply out of her time as a barmaid, and the result is she has done nothing for her parents in any shape or form to compensate them for having reared her. Sixteen years of age is an age that would suit barmaids to start to serve their time. At 19 their time would then be served, and they have two years in which to give a return to their parents. In the majority of cases the parents are poor people who cannot afford to send their children to a University in order that they may become priests, doctors, or solicitors, and the only alternative is to put them inside a counter and let God do for them as God did for themselves. Every Deputy in the Dáil has received a great many resolutions and telegrams from all parts of the country. I do not know whether every Deputy has been as unfortunate as I have been. I have received them from all parts of the country.
They know you.
They may know me all right, but it is not because of what I spent in a public house in intoxicating drinks. In the town of Athlone we have eighty-two public houses. The population is something between seven and eight thousand. I have been going to that town, and living in it at times, for the last twenty or twenty-two years. In all that time I have not seen any real signs of intoxication. I have not seen people falling about the streets as you do in many other places.
They are able to carry their drinks.
AN LEAS-CHEANN COMHAIRLE took the Chair at this stage.
Coming to Mullingar, there are there about 70 publicans. The population is something about four thousand. I know Mullingar well, and since the Civic Guards went there I do not think they had ten cases for drunkenness against any of the citizens. At least I have not seen any. The Minister for Justice knows these things. He knows the number of prosecutions there have been for drunkenness throughout the country and he will find that in Mullingar there have not been ten cases for drunkenness and disorder in the streets since the Civic Guards went here. That speaks very well for Deputy Shaw. From Edgeworthstown, Granard, Ballymahon, down to Longford, we have large numbers of public houses, but if section 12 is allowed to stand—I am sure it will not—95 per cent. of all those publicans will have to sell out, and the price they will get for the premises will be very small. Those people will be losing a large sum, but not alone will those people be losing but the State will also be losing. Those people will have to go out of the country. Any employees they have will be put on to the Labour Exchange where they will not receive benefits because they cannot be insured. I do not know whether the Minister for Local Government will agree that a person selling drink is in an insurable occupation. He would want to be sometimes. Another point I want to make is that if the Minister for Justice really wants to satisfy the people he will allow this Bill to stand on the shelf for two or three years. The Act they have at the present time I think is quite enough. I do not see any great abuse throughout the country. I am sure every Deputy in the Dáil knows well that the vast majority of them have promised to vote against this Bill. At least I have seen in the daily Press where Deputy so-and-so made promises. Furthermore, they said, the Government were withdrawing the Whips. If the Government withdraw the Whips, what will be the result? If the Government are defeated on this measure, will there be an election and will they have to resign? I am sure the country is not at the present time fit for an election. Personally I am not particular.
You will get in anyhow.
I will get in before any of your men. The result is you will have a vast majority of the people against you. You are penalising a large number of publicans and small traders. I do not speak for the very big ones who have ample accommodation for improvements. They have also a good deal of money. They were in business in the good old times, when the duty was not so high and they could make more profit. We have also traders who are dependent on the few shillings they get over a counter for the education, clothing and feeding of their families.
Some of them are just in as poor a position as any workman or artisan. I know a couple of public houses which are thatched. Judging by the outside, those are not houses that you would like to ask the Minister for Justice into, if you met him on the way. Neither would you like to ask a Deputy in for refreshments, if you judged the place by the outside. But the inside of these houses is clean and the owners are doing their best. I certainly do not agree with the Deputy who says that these places are kept in a dirty, filthy condition. I hope, for the sake of those poor people, the Deputy did not really mean that it should go to the public that our Irish publicans are so slothful that they do not keep the premises, for which they pay licence duty, in a proper condition, or in such a condition that they would act as a magnet to draw passers-by in for a drink. With the amendments which I hope the Minister will accept, I agree with the Bill. I think the Bill ought to get a Second Reading on conditions. One of these conditions would be that a publican not in a financial position to employ barmaids over the stated age should be entitled, if he is sick, to have his daughter serve in the bar though she be under the age of eighteen—that is, provided he has no sons. That is not a very big concession to ask. Surely it is not too much to ask either that public houses should be open up to 10 o'clock on Saturday nights. On fair and market mornings a publican should be permitted to open an hour or two hours before 9 o'clock. Above all, it is not too much to ask that the same concession that has been given in the past in regard to Sunday drinking, to the city of Dublin, should be applied to all parts of the Saorstát—that is, that public houses should be open from 2 o'clock until 5 o'clock on Sundays, and that there should be no bona fide business at all. That would meet with the good wishes of all concerned. I am authorised by practically every publican in the constituency I represent to say that they would be delighted to agree to this arrangement. If the Minister for Justice would agree to this he would receive the blessings of all the publicans of the country.
There is one question I would like to refer to in connection with the powers of District Justices. The District Justices, under this Bill, have power, on the application of any superintendent or inspector of the Civic Guard, to close down any town on any day they may wish. I do not know what is meant by that—whether we are expecting another rebellion, or whether we are expecting any serious trouble in the country. I think such a provision is really uncalled for. We are told that we are living in a Free State, but any body of people who may have a grudge against another section of the community can go to the inspector of the Civic Guard and can have the place closed up. Fear of disturbance, I take it, is the real reason for this provision. But you will have disturbance if you have these public houses closed up all day. It will be something like old times, when cattle were driven away from the landlords and the landlords were driven out of the country. The publicans may rise up and drive out the Civic Guard.
I was very pleased to hear the Minister say that he is going to leave Section 12 to the free vote of the Dáil. I intend to support the Bill on condition that the hours are 10 o'clock for Saturdays and that the other things I mentioned are accepted. If these are not accepted then I will call for a division.
Mr. GOREY
I intend to express our views on the Bill very briefly indeed. All the Deputies on these benches will support the Bill, but they will vote against Section 12.
Mr. McCARTHY
I intend to vote for the Second Reading of the Bill for the very same reasons that I voted for Deputy Redmond's Town Tenants Bill, that 5 per cent. of it is good and 95 per cent. bad.
Mr. CORISH
So far as I am concerned I am going to vote for the Second Reading of this Bill. I think we ought to congratulate the Minister on certain clauses he has included in the Bill. The attitude that Deputy Lyons has taken up on the Bill is certainly very extraordinary. He has dealt with practically every section in the Bill and condemned them, and yet he tells us that he is going to support the Bill.
I said on conditions.
Deputy Lyons dealt with the matter of the employment of bar maids. The Bill states that barmaids are not to be employed under 18 years of age. With that provision I thoroughly agree, because I do not think that a public house is a suitable place to have any young girl who is under 18 years of age. As matter of fact, I do not think that a public house is a place for a woman at any time, and I think the Minister is to be congratulated on putting that provision into the Bill.
With regard to the bona fide question, I thoroughly agree with the Minister so far as that section is concerned. It is all cant, if I may use the expression, to talk about refreshments in connection with this particular section, because we all know very well, and there is nothing to be gained by trying to humbug ourselves, that there are people who go out into the country for the special purpose of procuring drink on Sundays. They do not go out to refresh themselves in the accepted sense of that word, but rather they go out deliberately to get a lot of drink in country public houses on Sundays. I am very glad that the Minister has practically decided to drop Section 12, because I am convinced it would be a great hardship on publicans if they were compelled to carry out a reconstruction of their premises. This, too, would be a most inopportune time to introduce a provision of that kind, because we all know that with many of these people business is very bad at the present time. I do say, however, that something must be done in that connection, because it is certainly not a desirable thing to see men drinking stout, porter and whiskey at a counter when young girls, women and young boys have occasion to enter licensed premises in order to procure groceries and other things. I think that as far as possible there should be some division made between the grocery counter and the particular portion of the shop where drink is being sold. I do not think legislation should go so far as to stipulate that the two departments in the business premises should be completely isolated. I think that outside the counter there should be a wooden partition between the departments where groceries are sold and where drink is offered for sale. I think we could allow a connection between the two departments inside the counter, but certainly not outside. I think that is a matter that should be insisted on, because certainly a lot of young people are demoralised in a great many public houses where groceries and drink and all the rest are sold at the one counter.
Now, with regard to clubs, certainly every one of us has been canvassed by people interested in clubs, and I agree with the Minister for Justice in the action he has taken so far as clubs are concerned. And there again there is no use trying to fool and humbug ourselves. We know very well that the fact of clubs having a licence and being permitted to sell drink is an inducement in 19 cases out of 20 to people in various parts of the country to join these clubs. We know that is held out as an inducement, and we know there are abuses in these clubs. I do not know why Deputy Lyons objects to the Civic Guard visiting these clubs. I think they should have permission, without any warrant at all, to enter these clubs, because we all know there are abuses in these clubs and they should be looked after.
I do not want to make any other points, but again I say I think the Minister is doing right in allowing his party to vote freely on Clause 12. I do think something should be done to cut off the bar from ordinary groceries in houses where mixed trading is done. I would ask the Minister especially to stand by the clause in so far as the barmaids are concerned, because I think it is a desirable clause and a very proper provision that no girl should be allowed at that age to go into a public house at all.
I did not like to interrupt the Deputy, but as a matter of explanation I would like to say that my point as regards barmaids had reference to the case of the publican's daughter. I quite agree it is very awkward having girls under eighteen serving in bars, but that regulation should not apply to the publican's daughter.
If I am in order I will move the adjournment of the debate until to-morrow. The hour is late, and the time between now and half-past ten is very short.
If we have not had enough of debate on this matter by now we never will have.
Only eight minutes remain between now and the hour fixed for the adjournment this evening, and it is more frank and more can did to move the adjournment of the debate until to-morrow than to try to keep it alive until 10.30 by commencing a speech now. I move that the debate be adjourned.
Question put and declared carried.
Debate adjourned until to-morrow.
The Dáil rose at 10.25 p.m. until 12 (noon) to-morrow (Friday).
DAIRY PRODUCE BILL. - DEBATE RESUMED.
[WRITTEN ANSWERS.] - EXPEDITING COMPENSATION AWARDS.
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New York, NY – Poets & Writers, Inc. received a $25,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support creative writing workshops for seniors. Poets & Writers is one of fourteen recipients of the NEA’s first Creativity and Aging in America grants. According to the NEA, “the program supports projects that involve older Americans as creators through literature and music, and that promote lifelong learning in the arts.” The writing workshops sponsored by Poets & Writers will be led by published writers and will focus on poetry and creative nonfiction. Each year, Poets & Writers’ Readings/Workshops program supports hundreds of writers participating in events in large cities and small towns throughout New York and California, as well as in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Seattle, New Orleans, Tucson, and Washington D.C.
ABOUT POETS & WRITERS
Poets & Writers is the nation’s largest nonprofit organization serving creative writers. Since its founding in 1970, Poets & Writers’ mission has been to foster the professional development of poets and writers, to promote communication throughout the U.S. literary community, and to help create an environment in which literature can be appreciated by the widest possible public. Poets & Writers accomplishes this by publishing Poets & Writers Magazine, maintaining Poets & Writers Online, offering publishing advice to writers, producing an on-line database of more than 7,500 authors, introducing emerging writers outside of New York City to the New York City literary community, and providing direct financial support to writers participating in public literary events.
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Molecular data helps specialists predict chance of breast cancer recurrence
March 15, 2019 | Michael Walter | Care Delivery
Molecular data from a patient’s breast cancer cells can help predict if they are at an increased risk for recurrence, according to new findings published in Nature.
The research, a collaboration of the Stanford University School of Medicine and the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, built on previous work published by the team from Stanford and included tracking the medical histories of more than 3,000 breast cancer patients. It revealed that approximately one in four patients with ER-positive, HER2-negative tumors are at a higher risk of recurrence for up to 20 years after diagnosis.
“We found that about 25 percent of women whose tumors express the estrogen receptor and not HER2 have an exceedingly high risk of late distant relapse and account for the vast majority of these events,” co-author Christina Curtis, PhD, assistant professor of medicine and genetics at Stanford and co-director of the Stanford Cancer Institute’s Molecular Tumor Board, said in a prepared statement. “These are the women who seem to be cured but then present with systemic disease many years later. Until now, there has been no good way to identify this subset of women who might benefit from ongoing screening or treatment.”
Another subgroup of patients with triple-negative breast tumors, according to the team’s work, is unlikely to see its cancer return after five years.
“A clinical challenge in breast cancer management has been distinguishing which tumors pose greatest risk of late recurrence,” Harold Burstein, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, said in the same statement. Burstein was not an author of the study. “This important scientific paper identifies molecular features that determine the timing of cancer recurrence. In the future, this type of genomic classification should help us separate patients who remain at jeopardy—and might warrant additional or ongoing treatment—and those who do not.”
The research team’s next step is to conduct clinical trials to investigate if these findings can help improve patient outcomes.
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PG&E says prepare for days-long power…
PG&E fire-safety shutdowns: ‘We’re all freaking out about it’
Utility says it must keep customers safe in dangerous 'new normal'
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – June 18: Neal Narayan and Anthony Malnati confer inside PG&E’s Wildfire Safety Operations Center, Tuesday, June 18, 2019, in San Francisco, Calif. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – June 18: Aaron Green keeps an eye on monitors inside PG&E’s Wildfire Safety Operations Center, Tuesday, June 18, 2019, in San Francisco, Calif. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – June 18: Components for a PG&E weather station sit on a window ledge inside the company’s Wildfire Safety Operations Center, Tuesday, June 18, 2019, in San Francisco, Calif. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – June 18: Neal Narayan works inside PG&E’s Wildfire Safety Operations Center, Tuesday, June 18, 2019, in San Francisco, Calif. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – June 18: Sarah Gibson works inside PG&E’s Wildfire Safety Operations Center, Tuesday, June 18, 2019, in San Francisco, Calif. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
By Ethan Baron | ebaron@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
In a large office overlooking the San Francisco Bay Bridge, PG&E’s wildfire-safety analysts keep watch 24/7, monitoring streams of images and data from satellites, weather stations, forest cameras and emergency responders. Sitting in front of dual monitors at work stations, with a wall of giant screens in front of them, they track winds, temperatures, humidity and the dryness of vegetation to calculate wildfire risk across Northern California. Under a new PG&E program to reduce the threat of its power lines sparking fires, these are the people whose work could get your power shut off even if your community is not in danger.
Under the embattled utility’s new Public Safety Power Shutoff program, when the analysts in this Wildfire Safety Operations Center determine conditions have reached a threshold for fire risk in an area, company officials will activate an emergency center in the basement of a building next door, and begin cutting power to electricity lines. That means that communities that aren’t at risk but get power from the same lines could also be blacked out. Any of the utility’s 5 million customers could be affected for several hours or “multiple days,” according to PG&E.
“That is why we are telling all of our customers to be prepared because it is possible that you could be some distance from the problem area and experience a public safety power shutoff,” said PG&E spokesman Jeff Smith.
As the utility seeks to limit the threat of fires sparked by power lines in what it calls a “new normal” of massive fire risk from drought, widespread tree deaths, record heat waves and “extremely strong” windstorms, its program has ushered in a new era in Northern California that’s forcing everyone to prepare for blackouts that could come without notice. The company says in an online fact sheet that it will give customers up to 48 hours advance notice of shutdowns — “when possible.” PG&E is urging customers to update their contact information with the utility for calls, texts and email notifications, and offering tips to prepare.
The program, similar to one in effect in Southern California for years, has already raised concerns as health care providers, restaurant owners and others scramble to figure out how to power electricity-dependent medical devices, air conditioning, appliances and more during a shutdown.
Jason Belden, a disaster-preparation manager for the California Association of Health Facilities, which represents 1,300 skilled-nursing facilities and intermediate-care facilities, worries about a worst-case scenario if back-up power isn’t immediately available to patients who rely on oxygen, dialysis or other life-sustaining equipment. “You could kill people right away,” he said.
For Alan Carlson, chef and owner at Italian Colors in the Oakland hills, PG&E’s new program came as a shock. “We’re all worrying and freaking out about it,” Carlson said, noting that power outages can cause problems that range from filling a restaurant with smoke when kitchen fans shut down to spoiled food. “We maybe have to get a generator, at least for the walk-ins and freezer. It’s pretty darn scary.”
Since the shutoff program was approved by California regulators in May, PG&E has turned off power due to fire risk in two areas. One day earlier this month, power was cut to 1,700 customers in Solano, Napa and Yolo counties and to some 21,000 customers in Butte and Yuba counties. Both shutdowns lasted less than a day, PG&E said.
The utility did its first preventative power shutdown last year, but that was only for distribution lines, which carry power shorter distances than transmission lines. That outage, in the North Bay and Sierra Foothills, left 60,000 customers in the dark for four days.
“The changing conditions in climate throughout the state and … extreme weather events driven by climate change have caused unanticipated wildfires in our state primarily over the last couple of years,” Smith said. “We’ve been looking at how can we best keep our customers safe.”
After devastating fires in Southern California, the state Public Utilities Commission in 2012 gave San Diego Gas & Electric approval to run a program that’s been a model for PG&E’s plan. However, although a commission review of two 2017 shutdowns by the San Diego-based utility found the blackouts were a “reasonable” response to fire risk, the commission concluded that even five years after the program was approved, there had been multiple complaints about last-minute or non-existent warnings of shutdowns, and the utility’s provision of back-up power was inconsistent.
PG&E, which filed for bankruptcy in January seeking relief from billions of dollars in debts and liabilities following a series of deadly wildfires that torched Northern California over the past two years, says it expects it will restore power after public-safety shutdowns within 24 to 48 hours once extreme weather conditions have subsided.
The Camp Fire rages in Magalia Nov. 9, 2018, as Sacramento Metropolitan firefighters battle the flames. The fire burned for 18 days and was determined fully contained when rainstorms hit the area. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group file)
Large areas of the hills surrounding the Peninsula and East Bay are “extreme” fire-threat areas, and most of the rest of the Bay Area’s heights have “elevated” risk, according to the Public Utilities Commission. PG&E says electric lines passing through such areas are the most likely to be shut off for public safety.
Nursing homes and other care facilities worry about what could happen if an outage persists. Back-up power systems typically provide effective air conditioning, and facilities where frail seniors live would have to be evacuated, leading to “transfer trauma,” said Belden. “About 10 percent of those residents are going to die in the next three months just simply because of that evacuation,” he said.
If, for example, during the 2018 Carr Fire in the Redding area, PG&E had shut down power to that city while temperatures were hitting 115 degrees, every resident of skilled-nursing homes and intermediate-care facilities serving the mentally disabled would’ve had to be evacuated, Belden said. “It could be really, really bad,” he said.
Redding is under evacuation as the Carr fire makes its way into the city. A long line of traffic on Buenaventura Blvd. along Benton Air Park. Credit: Hung T. Vu/Special to the Redding Record Searchlight
PG&E, which recently agreed to pay $1 billion to local governments for damage from fires in 2015, 2017 and 2018, acknowledges that while the blackouts may shield it from liability for causing fires, shutting off power carries its own threats. “It’s not a decision that we make lightly,” Smith said.
Although state and federal law requires backup power systems for hospitals, skilled-nursing facilities, intermediate-care facilities and long-term care facilities, many people who get home care or live in hospices, assisted-living or group homes don’t have generators to power medical devices, said Corrigan Gommenginger, CEO of Advanced Home Health and Hospice, which provides home-based services in the East Bay and other areas of the state.
Gommenginger thinks PG&E’s program falls short. “Our public utilities have a real responsibility to consumers to be able to provide us safe energy, and we shouldn’t have to worry about … trees rubbing against the lines,” he said. “Turning off people’s electricity to prevent fires is a band-aid. The real response should be, ‘How can we deliver safe energy to everybody all of the time?’”
Ethan Baron
Ethan Baron is a business reporter at The Mercury News, and a native of Silicon Valley before it was Silicon Valley. Baron has worked as a reporter, columnist, editor and photographer in newspapers and magazines for 25 years, covering business, politics, social issues, crime, the environment, outdoor sports, war and humanitarian crises.
Follow Ethan Baron @ethanbaron
46 whales were confirmed entangled in 2018, trending up from the year before
California heat wave to slowly ease
Lightning strikes in Red Bluff; power knocked out to nearly 200
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After returning to Formula 1™ in 2001, Renault gradually moved up through the field, eventually claiming its first race wins in 2003 and 2004. The following year, Renault was officially aiming for the world championship title. Giancarlo Fisichella and Fernando Alonso were tasked with leading the team to glory in an R25 designed to meet the new regulations. The new car boasted an innovative front suspension system to combat the outlawing of tyre changes, improved aerodynamics and an engine capable of running in two successive Grand Prix. Despite pressure from Ferrari and McLaren-Mercedes, Renault became the first mainstream manufacturer in F1™ history to win both the Drivers’ and Manufacturers’ titles, an achievement they would then repeat in 2006.
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EBTC Enterprise Bancorp Inc.
Enterprise Bancorp, Inc. Announces First Quarter 2019 Net Income of $8.7 Million
LOWELL, Mass., April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Enterprise Bancorp, Inc. (the "Company" or "Enterprise") (NASDAQ: EBTC), parent of Enterprise Bank, announced net income for the three months ended March 31, 2019 of $8.7 million, an increase of $1.9 million, or 27%, compared to the three months ended March 31, 2018. Diluted earnings per share were $0.74 for the three months ended March 31, 2019, an increase of 28%, compared to $0.58 for the three months ended March 31, 2018.
As previously announced on April 16, 2019, the Company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.16 per share to be paid on June 3, 2019 to shareholders of record as of May 13, 2019.
Chief Executive Officer Jack Clancy commented, "Over the past twelve months, total assets increased 8%, total loans increased 4% and customer deposits have increased 14% as compared to March 31, 2018. The increase in customer deposits includes several relationships which had large short-term balance increases in the quarter. Loan and deposit growth, along with a reduction in the loan loss provision due to improved credit metrics compared to the March 2018 quarter, were the key drivers to our earnings increase as compared to the first quarter of 2018."
Mr. Clancy added, "The collective efforts and contributions of our dedicated Enterprise team, including active community involvement, relationship building, a customer-focused mindset, and ongoing enhancements to our leading-edge product and service offerings, continue to drive our growth. This includes operating from a sense of purpose to serve our fellow team members, customers and communities. Our top priority and focus has been, and always will be, ongoing investment in our greatest asset: our people. We also remain focused on organic growth and continually planning for and investing in our future with an emphasis on people, technology, digital transformation, branch renovations and market expansion."
Founder and Chairman of the Board George Duncan commented, "We are profoundly grateful for the trust and confidence placed in us by those who create our success—our shareholders, our customers, our team members, and the communities we are privileged to serve—and who embrace our mission as a genuine community bank to create a lasting and positive impact in our world. All of us at Enterprise Bank have an overwhelming sense of pride and accomplishment in what we have achieved to date—a branch network consisting of 24 locations in 19 communities, assets in excess of $3 billion, assets under management in excess of $4 billion and 118 consecutive profitable quarters—and we are extremely excited about the opportunities that lie ahead."
Net interest income for the three months ended March 31, 2019 amounted to $28.1 million, an increase of $2.1 million, or 8%, compared to the three months ended March 31, 2018. The increase in net interest income was due largely to interest-earning asset growth, primarily in loans. Average loan balances (including loans held for sale) increased $98.7 million for the three months ended March 31, 2019, compared to the same 2018 period average. Tax equivalent net interest margin was 3.98% for the three months ended March 31, 2019, compared to 3.95% for the three months ended March 31, 2018.
For the three months ended March 31, 2019 there was a negative provision to the allowance for loan losses of $400 thousand, compared to a provision of $1.6 million for the three months ended March 31, 2018. The primary factor in the decrease in the year-to-date provision for loan losses compared to the prior year was a reduction in the balance of the allowance for loan losses allocated to impaired, adversely classified, and criticized loans of $81 thousand for the three months ended March 31, 2019, compared to an increase of $1.4 million during the three months ended March 31, 2018.
Also affecting the provision for loan losses for the three months ended March 31, 2019 compared to the prior year were:
Net recoveries of $280 thousand for the three months ended March 31, 2019, compared to net recoveries of $9 thousand for the three months ended March 31, 2018.
Total non-performing loans as a percentage of total loans amounted to 0.46% at both March 31, 2019 and March 31, 2018.
The ratio of adversely classified loans ("substandard," "doubtful," "loss") to total loans amounted to 1.45% at March 31, 2019, compared to 1.19% at March 31, 2018. However, the reserves allocated to these loans declined $472 thousand over the same period due to generally improved collateral values on impaired loans.
Loan growth for the three months ended March 31, 2019 was relatively flat, compared to loan growth of $20.3 million during the three months ended March 31, 2018. The allowance for loan losses allocated to general reserves for non-classified loans declined $39 thousand for the three months ended March 31, 2019, compared to an increase of $233 thousand for the three months ended March 31, 2018.
The allowance for loan losses to total loans ratio was 1.41% at March 31, 2019, 1.42% at December 31, 2018 and 1.51% at March 31, 2018.
Non-interest income for the three months ended March 31, 2019 amounted to $3.8 million and was relatively flat compared to the three months ended March 31, 2018. Increases in deposit and interchange fees and other income, primarily as a result of market value adjustment gains on equity securities, were partially offset by lower wealth management fees.
For the three months ended March 31, 2019, non-interest expense amounted to $20.9 million, an increase of $1.4 million, or 7%, compared to the three months ended March 31, 2018. Increases in non-interest expense over the first quarter of 2018 primarily related to the Company's strategic growth, digital and market initiatives, particularly salaries and employee benefits expenses and technology and telecommunications expenses, partially offset by lower FDIC deposit insurance expenses in the first quarter of 2019.
Key Financial Highlights
Total assets amounted to $3.07 billion at March 31, 2019, compared to $2.96 billion at December 31, 2018, an increase of $109.4 million, or 4%.
Total loans amounted to $2.38 billion at March 31, 2019, compared to $2.39 billion at December 31, 2018, a decrease of $2.9 million, or 0.1%.
Customer deposits (total deposits excluding brokered deposits) were $2.73 billion at March 31, 2019, compared to $2.51 billion at December 31, 2018, an increase of $217.7 million, or 9%.
Investment assets under management amounted to $848.4 million at March 31, 2019, compared to $800.8 million at December 31, 2018, an increase of $47.7 million, or 6%.
Total assets under management amounted to $4.01 billion at March 31, 2019, compared to $3.85 billion at December 31, 2018, an increase of $158.1 million, or 4%.
Enterprise Bancorp, Inc. is a Massachusetts corporation that conducts substantially all of its operations through Enterprise Bank and Trust Company, commonly referred to as Enterprise Bank. Enterprise Bank is principally engaged in the business of attracting deposits from the general public and investing in commercial loans and investment securities. Through Enterprise Bank and its subsidiaries, the Company offers a range of commercial, residential and consumer loan products, deposit products and cash management services, digital banking options, and insurance services. Enterprise Bank also provides a range of wealth management, wealth services and trust services delivered via two channels, Enterprise Wealth Management and Enterprise Wealth Services. The Company's headquarters and Enterprise Bank's main office are located at 222 Merrimack Street in Lowell, Massachusetts. The Company's primary market area is the Greater Merrimack Valley, Nashoba Valley, and North Central regions of Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire (Southern Hillsborough and Rockingham counties). Enterprise Bank has 24 full-service branches located in the Massachusetts communities of Lowell (2), Acton, Andover, Billerica (2), Chelmsford (2), Dracut, Fitchburg, Lawrence, Leominster, Methuen, Tewksbury (2), Tyngsborough and Westford and in the New Hampshire communities of Derry, Hudson, Nashua (2), Pelham, Salem and Windham.
This earnings release contains statements about future events that constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may be identified by references to a future period or periods or by the use of the words "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "estimate," "assume," "will," "should," "plan," and other similar terms or expressions. Forward-looking statements should not be relied on because they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond the control of the Company. These risks, uncertainties and other factors may cause the actual results, performance, and achievements of the Company to be materially different from the anticipated future results, performance or achievements expressed in, or implied by, the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause such differences include, but are not limited to, general economic conditions, changes in interest rates, regulatory considerations, competition and market expansion opportunities, changes in non-interest expenditures or in the anticipated benefits of such expenditures, the receipt of required regulatory approvals, and changes in tax laws. For more information about these factors, please see our reports filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), including our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K on file with the SEC, including the sections entitled "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations." Any forward-looking statements contained in this earnings release are made as of the date hereof, and we undertake no duty, and specifically disclaim any duty, to update or revise any such statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.
ENTERPRISE BANCORP, INC.
(Dollars in thousands) March 31,
2018 March 31,
Cash and cash equivalents:
Cash and due from banks $ 35,715 $ 43,865 $ 34,703
Interest-earning deposits 99,547 19,255 22,175
Total cash and cash equivalents 135,262 63,120 56,878
Investments:
Debt securities at fair value 458,765 431,473 412,213
Equity securities at fair value 2,049 1,448 295
Total investment securities at fair value 460,814 432,921 412,508
Federal Home Loan Bank stock 1,491 5,357 2,370
Loans held for sale 332 701 —
Loans, less allowance for loan losses of $33,729 at March 31, 2019, $33,849 at December 31, 2018, and $34,524 at March 31, 2018 2,350,908 2,353,657 2,255,649
Lease right-of-use asset 18,851 — —
Accrued interest receivable 12,619 11,462 11,210
Deferred income taxes, net 10,632 11,747 12,858
Prepaid income taxes — 732 —
Prepaid expenses and other assets 8,470 11,279 10,953
Goodwill 5,656 5,656 5,656
Customer deposits $ 2,725,667 $ 2,507,999 $ 2,385,895
Brokered deposits 30,499 56,783 185,494
Borrowed funds 488 100,492 —
Subordinated debt 14,863 14,860 14,850
Lease liability 17,871 — —
Income taxes payable 809 — 53
Accrued interest payable 1,092 979 596
Preferred stock, $0.01 par value per share; 1,000,000 shares authorized; no shares issued — — —
Common stock, $0.01 par value per share; 40,000,000 shares authorized; 11,798,114 shares issued and outstanding at March 31, 2019, 11,708,218 shares issued and outstanding at December 31, 2018, and 11,682,914 shares issued and outstanding at March 31, 2018 118 117 117
Additional paid-in capital 92,089 91,281 89,159
Accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) 1,850 (1,284 ) (5,848 )
(Dollars in thousands, except per share data) 2019 2018
Loans and loans held for sale $ 29,616 $ 26,150
Investment securities 3,222 2,487
Other interest-earning assets 459 134
Total interest and dividend income 33,297 28,771
Deposits 4,706 2,236
Borrowed funds 279 292
Subordinated debt 228 228
Total interest expense 5,213 2,756
Net interest income 28,084 26,015
Provision for loan losses (400 ) 1,600
Net interest income after provision for loan losses 28,484 24,415
Wealth management fees 1,299 1,408
Deposit and interchange fees 1,564 1,489
Income on bank-owned life insurance, net 162 168
Net (losses) gains on sales of investment securities (1 ) 1
Gains on sales of loans 36 84
Other income 776 641
Total non-interest income 3,836 3,791
Non-interest expense:
Salaries and employee benefits 13,471 12,108
Occupancy and equipment expenses 2,212 2,157
Technology and telecommunications expenses 1,726 1,553
Advertising and public relations expenses 715 720
Audit, legal and other professional fees 423 507
Deposit insurance premiums 351 500
Supplies and postage expenses 224 232
Other operating expenses 1,728 1,670
Total non-interest expense 20,850 19,447
Income before income taxes 11,470 8,759
Provision for income taxes 2,774 1,934
Net income $ 8,696 $ 6,825
Basic earnings per share $ 0.74 $ 0.59
Diluted earnings per share $ 0.74 $ 0.58
Basic weighted average common shares outstanding 11,730,482 11,628,587
Diluted weighted average common shares outstanding 11,783,405 11,700,854
Selected Consolidated Financial Data and Ratios
At or for the
year ended At or for the
(Dollars in thousands, except per share data) March 31, 2019 December 31, 2018 March 31, 2018
BALANCE SHEET AND OTHER DATA
Loans serviced for others 90,200 89,232 88,816
Investment assets under management 848,412 800,751 846,853
Total assets under management $ 4,012,393 $ 3,854,341 $ 3,770,597
Dividends paid per common share $ 0.16 $ 0.58 $ 0.145
Total capital to risk weighted assets 11.89 % 11.77 % 11.48 %
Tier 1 capital to risk weighted assets 10.06 % 9.93 % 9.62 %
Tier 1 capital to average assets 8.57 % 8.56 % 8.24 %
Common equity tier 1 capital to risk weighted assets 10.06 % 9.93 % 9.62 %
Allowance for loan losses to total loans 1.41 % 1.42 % 1.51 %
Non-performing assets $ 11,304 $ 11,784 $ 10,558
Non-performing assets to total assets 0.37 % 0.40 % 0.37 %
INCOME STATEMENT DATA (annualized)
Return on average total assets 1.17 % 1.00 % 0.98 %
Return on average stockholders' equity 13.59 % 12.15 % 12.00 %
Net interest margin (tax equivalent)(1) 3.98 % 3.97 % 3.95 %
(1) Tax equivalent net interest margin is net interest income adjusted for the tax equivalent effect associated with tax exempt loan and investment income, expressed as a percentage of average interest earning assets.
Contact Info: James A. Marcotte, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer (978) 656-5614
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Reports by Enterprise Bancorp Inc.
Enterprise Bancorp, Inc. Announces First Quarter 2019 Net Income of $8.7 Million LOWELL, Mass., April 18, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Enterprise Bancorp, Inc. (the "Company" or "Enterprise") (NASDAQ: EBTC), parent of Enterprise Bank, announced net income for the three months ended March 31, 2019 of $8.7 million, an increase of $1.9 million, or 27%, compared to the three months ended March 31, 2018. Diluted earnings per share were $0.74 for the three months ended March 31, 2019, an increase of 28%, compared to $0.58 for the three months ended March 31, 2018. As previously announced on April 1...
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Galecki Christmas Vacation
Anthony Michael Hall in "Vacation" (1983), Jason Lively in "European Vacation" (1985), Johnny Galecki in "Christmas Vacation" (1989) and Ethan Embry in "Vegas Vacation" (1997). In this new "Vacation,".
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, 8 p.m. ET The Griswolds are preparing for. Directed by Jeremiah Checkik, starring Chevy Chase, Beverly D`Angelo, Juliette Lewis, Johnny Galecki and Randy Quai.
Quarks fly when two geeky physicists discover that they have a new neighbor: a sexy actress who inspires them to try a relationship with a real woman. This quirky sitcom follows the adventures of roommates Sheldon and Leonard, two brilliant physicists who don’t have a.
The actress has landed a guest-starring role as the girlfriend of Johnny Galecki’s character, David. The casting is a little odd as the two former child stars once played brother and sister in 1989 co.
Movies.com, the ultimate source for everything movies, is your destination for new movie trailers, reviews, photos, times, tickets + more!Stay in the know with the latest movie news and cast interviews at Movies.com.
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more.
Each week, The News-Gazette will show a screen shot of a home from a movie and ask readers, "Who lives here?" The first person to. and son Russ (Johnny Galecki) in "National Lampoon’s Christmas Vac.
Articles and galleries about the latest celebrity news, breaking stories, and Hollywood exclusives from PEOPLE.
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation is a 1989 American Christmas comedy film directed by Jeremiah S. Chechik. It is the third installment in National Lampoon ‘s Vacation film series , and was written by John Hughes , based on his short story in National Lampoon magazine, "Christmas ’59".
You will get a notification at the top of the site as soon as the current price equals or falls below your price. You can also optionally receive an email notification (sent only once), this is specif.
Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase). The ringleader of the Griswold clan, Clark “Sparky” Griswold has grand visions of a good old-fashioned family Christmas. In typical fashion, however, things do not go to plan.
The comic misadventures of the beleaguered Griswold family continue in this latest "Vacation" outing, the third and most successful of the series.
"National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation" is a classic holiday comedy, and it features all of the Griswold family hijinks we’ve come to know and love. If you are a fan of this film, take our quiz and see how much you really know about Clark and the gang!
Blue Water Vacation Rentals Vacation Rentals Crescent City Ca We sell real estate in Crescent City CA, Smith River, Hiouchi, Klamath, and. Our other services include vacation rentals, property management, build-to -suite. Such a project would have capital costs of about $160 million, Swanson
Christmas Quizzes – Our bank of pub Christmas quizzes – Christmas picture rounds, Christmas films, Christmas songs plus many more. Pick a complete pub quiz of seven rounds or choose by topic.
"Christmas Vacation" is a cuckoo clock of a movie. including the remarkably deadpan Juliette Lewis and Johnny Galecki. "Everything in comedy is setup," "Christmas Vacation" director Jeremiah S. Che.
Christmas Vacation. Let us celebrate that holiday wonder written by. Also look for Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Brian Doyle-Murray The Griswold kids are played by Johnny Galecki (The Big Bang Theory) an.
in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989). On the set, Chase took a liking to him, and Galecki recalled in a later interview that Chevy Chase showed him some tricks for comedic timing. By that t.
Johnny Galecki. Left: Galecki in 1989’s National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation; Right: Galecki at the 25th Annual GLAAD Media Awards in Los Angeles in April 2014. Back to top
and "Christmas Vacation," in which the son was portrayed by Johnny Galecki of TV’s "The Big Bang Theory." For "Vegas Vacation," Ethan Embry, who’d previously starred in the Hughes-scripted "Dutch," st.
Mainz Travel Germany profile, German facts and links to internet recourses regarding geography, travel, culture, art and history. Official web sites of the government, embassies, cities, tourist boards and newspapers. Germany profile, German facts and links to internet recourses regarding geography, travel,
Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, Randy Quaid, Juliette Lewis and Johnny Galecki star in the 1989 comedy "National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation" (9 p.m., ABC Family). — Willy cuts a Christmas record on.
Johnny Galecki, Actor: The Big Bang Theory. John Mark Galecki was born in Bree, Belgium, to American parents; his father was stationed there while serving in the U.S. Air Force. When he was three years old, his family moved to Chicago, Illinois, where he grew up with his parents, Mary Lou and Richard Galecki…
Johnny Galecki – ‘Christmas Vacation’ (1989) Before he was one of the world’s most endearing and favorite nerds, Johnny Galecki was dealing with Clark Griswold’s desire to put on the perfect Christmas.
. their own Christmas Tree deserves some kudos – it plays out as a nice hat tip to Johnny Galecki’s performance in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Assuming it was intentional, aside from it p.
Then I think of him as "Rusty" on Christmas Vacation. Find this Pin and more on big bang theory by Ashley Michelle. johnny galecki: When I think of him, the first thing I think of is when he was "David" on the show Roseanne.
Johnny Galecki once said. Johnny Galecki Quotes – Notable Johnny Galecki Quotes Index – Born: April 30, 1975, Bree, Flanders, Belgium. We lived in the same apartment building when I was about. jeez, I guess it was when I was doing ‘Christmas Vacation’, so I was about 13 or 14.
Seeing as it’s Christmas Eve and the entire staff is out of the office, we’re republishing this 2009 piece about one of the undisputed champions of holiday cinema: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacatio.
Frommers Travel Insurance None of the authors contacted reported that their titles would appear in print. Google purchased Frommer’s Travel and Unofficial Guides from Wiley in August 2012 for $22 million. The search giant woul. Frommer’s EasyGuide to Iceland (Easy Guides) [Nicholas Gill]
He appeared as Rusty Griswold in the 1989 film National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and, in 2011, he made a guest appearance on Entourage as himself. Family Life He began dating actress Kelli Garner in 2011, but the couple split in 2014.
The most popular of all the Chevy Chase "Vacation" movies was. attempts at having a big family Christmas end in disaster. Beverly D’Angelo, Randy Quaid, Miriam Flynn, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Juliette.
Galecki and Lewis, who famously played siblings back in 1989’s National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, will guest star on The Conners Season 1.
The best Christmas bit: Kidnapping Santa so that they can take over Christmas. Why it qualifies: It’s wild and crazy comedy, certainly, but it also makes some decent observations about a ‘real family.
Playing Mona Lisa and the comedy classic National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, playing Rusty, the son of dad Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase). A longtime patron of the theater, Galecki has himself been i.
Luggage For International Travel Reviews Norwegian Cruise Line is known for its fun, laid-back ambiance and inventive "freestyle cruising" concept, which promotes no enforced dress codes, no fixed dining times and comes with a plethora of on. Travel is the movement of people between distant
There will be a Christmas. Vacation. I worked on that movie for several months, and what a wonderful experience. The script was so funny, and the cast so amazing (Chevy Chase, Randy Quaid, Juliette.
On the big screen, Galecki’s film work includes "Rings," "Vanilla Sky," and "National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. ARIES (Mar 21-Apr. 19): Stay on the sidelines. Trying to be a cheerleader or becomin.
While its slapstick humor, strong language and raunchy jokes set it apart from most traditional "holiday movies," National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation has emerged as a modern Christmas classic in.
Vacation Rentals Dallas Fort Worth
Luggage For International Travel Reviews
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Grenjaðarstaður
Sitting exposed to the prevailing icy winds in a broad valley, Grenjaðarstaður is a nineteenth-century church and block of well-insulated turf-roofed farmhouses, now a museum (June–Aug). The estate was founded in medieval times (a contemporary altar cloth from the original church is now in the Paris Louvre) when it counted as one of the best holdings in all Iceland, and now comprises the largest collection of period buildings in the country. Most of the rooms are kept as they were when last lived in, full of household items and farming implements from days gone by, though one building has been taken back to its original state, with beaten earth floors and central stone fireplace and kitchen.
The Rough Guide to Naples, Pompeii & the Amalfi Coast
The Rough Guide to the Cotswolds, Stratford-upon-Avon and Oxford
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Men in Contemporary Russia
The Fallen Heroes of Post-Soviet Change?, 1st Edition
$59.95$47.96 SAVE ~$11.99 12 Month Rental - $35.97 6 Month Rental - $29.98
Rebecca Kay assesses how men in post-Soviet Russia are represented through media and popular discourses. Using case studies she explores the challenges which have arisen for men since 1991 and the ways in which their responses are shaped by and viewed through the prism of widely accepted attitudes towards gender. The lives and concerns of men in provincial Russia are examined through ethnographic fieldwork, combining extensive participant observation with in-depth interviews. The book reveals how individual men strive to maintain a sense of equilibrium between the activities in which they are engaged and the ways in which they are perceived, both by others and by themselves. The findings of the research have produced significant areas of contrast and comparison with the author's earlier work on women. This is drawn out throughout the book, placing the study of Russian men in a broader gendered context. The issues raised by the men mirror concerns discussed in men's studies literature and popular discourse beyond Russia. The book is therefore of interest to a wider international audience as well as contributing to ongoing interdisciplinary debates, in Russian Studies, Anthropology, Sociology and Human Geography, addressing the need for new approaches to understanding post-Socialist change.
’An intriguing and suggestive book that illuminates men's experience as they try to find new meanings for manhood in post-Soviet Russia. Based on interviews with men from Siberia and the European heartland of Russia, and from a wide range of backgrounds, Kay's book explores how these men have responded to the challenges of military service, the new economy, marital life and fatherhood. The commonplace view of Russia's men as superfluous and self-destructive in the face of economic and national crisis is found wanting, and the significance of both the civic and the intimate in Russian men’s own reconstructions of gender should give politicians, policy makers and scholars pause for thought.’ Dan Healey, Senior Lecturer, Swansea University, UK ’Rebecca Kay’s study of narratives of masculinity brings an important new dimension to the English-language literature on gender in post-Soviet Russia. This book is a thoroughly researched, empathetic and engagingly written account of how the other half� has negotiated the constraints of the post-Soviet gender regime. It will be an important resource for teaching and research in the fields of gender studies, Russian and East European studies, sociology, cultural studies and social policy.’ Hilary Pilkington, University of Warwick, UK ’Russian policymakers concerned about very high male mortality and very low birthrates would do well to read Kay’s account…The challenges for Russian men and women are great because of the scale and rapidity of change but they are also part and parcel of far broader processes of globalization. Kay’s fascinating and insightful work helps to enhance our understanding of both.’ Transitions Online ’With this thorough and rich study of changing masculinities in contemporary Russia, Rebecca Kay has made an important contribution to our understanding of gendered structures and relations in post-socialist societies…Kay’s study…fills a gap in the literature and simultan
Contents: Introduction: studying men in Russia: historical perspectives and international contexts; Heroes or Villains?: 'being a man' in contemporary Russia. Men in the Public Sphere: Military service: rite of passage or waste of time?; 'What kind of a man doesn't provide for his family?': making ends meet in the new labour market; 'What's a man without capital?': the pitfalls and potential of private enterprise. Men in the Private Sphere: 'I couldn't live without my kids': fatherhood as a contested identity; 'A woman has a right to expect certain conditions': personal relationships between men and women; 'Just give me an aspirin and I'll be fine': the provision of social services and support for men, a case study of the Altai Regional Crisis Centre for Men; Conclusions: new perspectives on men in contemporary Russia; Appendix: Respondents' socio-demographic data; Bibliography; Index.
About the Originator
Rebecca Kay is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Central and East European Studies at the University of Glasgow, UK. She is author of Russian Women and their Organizations, Macmillan, 2000, winner of the Heldt Prize for the best book in Slavic Women’s Studies in 2000. In addition, she is author of a series of articles on gender in contemporary Russia.
Central Asian, Russian & Eastern European Studies
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Men's Studies
SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / General
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Swiss court frees air worker's killer
Published time: 8 Nov, 2007 14:13 Edited time: 8 Nov, 2007 17:13
The highest Swiss court has ruled that Vitaly Kaloyev should be freed. The Russian was jailed for stabbing to death an air traffic controller he blamed for an air crash that killed his wife and two young children in 2002. Earlier this year, his eight-yea
Sister Zoya Kaloyeva said they felt great joy:
“Tears were in our eyes when we got the news. The phone keeps ringing all the time. Vitaly must take care of his health – he suffers from high blood pressure. He will first stay with his older brother in Moscow, and then will see”.
“Finally the truth has triumphed and Vitaly is released. We thank those judges who have been deciding his fate and who understood that this man has had enough and shouldn't be punished any longer. He has already lost the most precious things he had – his loved-ones. The whole family and all the neighbours have been praying for him and God eventually heard us,” she added.
“This is a long-awaited moment. He is exhausted. This is a person who went through two major tragedies: the first one, when he lost his family, and this got him into the second one, when he killed Peter Nielsen,” Konstantin Kaloyev, Vitaly Kaloyev’s brother, commented.
Kaloyev's lawyer, Markus Hug, told Russia Today that it was one of the most difficult cases he's ever had to deal with because of all the tragic circumstances of the crash and unanswered questions. Kaloyev was also a victim of this tragedy, the lawyer believes.
Monument on the grave of Kaloyev's family
And he added that he believed that good reasoning by the defence helped persuade the judges:
“I was always convinced that we had good arguments in the case and we proved it today. I've already contacted Kaloyev's translator. I will perhaps meet Kaloyev tomorrow – if he stays in prison until tomorrow. He could be released in a matter of several hours”.
Kaloyev, 50, stabbed Peter Nielsen to death because he held the SkyGuide employee responsible for an air crash that killed his wife and two young children in 2002.
Earlier this year, the eight-year term was cut to five years and three months with the possibility of parole. But an appeal to the Federal Court by the prosecution overruled the parole decision.
Now the court has ruled Kaloyev is a free man as he served more than 2/3 of his term and behaved well in prison. Kaloyev will be actually released within a few days.
On July 1, 2002 a Russian passenger plane collided with a DHL cargo plane over southern Germany, killing 71 people, including 49 children.
Peter Nielsen was the only air traffic controller on duty at the time of the accident.
Kaloyev tracked him down to his home in Switzerland, where he stabbed him to death.
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Ultra-left activists storm Russia’s foreign ministry
Published time: 2 Jul, 2008 07:25 Edited time: 2 Jul, 2008 11:25
Banner says: “Foreign ministry – a lair of traitors” (AFP Photo / Natalia Kolesnikova) © AFP
A dozen Bolshevik activists have been detained in Moscow after storming the reception of Russia’s main foreign ministry building. The members of the banned National Bolshevik movement handcuffed themselves to pipes and h
“Police detained three Muscovites and nine Moscow Region residents in the Russian Foreign Ministry lobby in Denezhny side-street. They were brought to the Khamovniki police station,” the source in Moscow’s police said, adding that they were likely to be given fines.
The ultra-left activists timed the act to coincide with the criminal sentencing of one of the National Bolshevik movement leaders, Vladimir Abel, in a Latvian court. Abel was arrested in Moscow in February, 2008, and extradited to Latvia, where he had been accused of plotting an assassination attempt on the country's president at the time Vaira Vike-Freiberga.
National Bolsheviks themselves claim it was the Russian foreign ministry inaction in protecting the Russian-speaking minority rights in the Baltic states that made them go the length of such a move.
A week ago the Latvian Ambassador to Russia, Andris Teikmanis, was attacked by members of the same movement during a media briefing in Moscow. The assailants, a man and a woman, threw a substance which they claim was blood at him. During the incident they chanted “Free Vadimir Abel”.
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Learning Disability Super League Launched
Wed 13 Feb League
Super League (Europe) and the Rugby Football League (RFL) have partnered with the national social care charity Community Integrated Care to form a ground-breaking inclusive sports programme for people with learning disabilities and autism.
The ‘Community Integrated Care Learning Disability Super League’ will give people with learning disabilities the opportunity to play an adapted version of Rugby League, in a series of high-profile festivals and events. The programme aims to promote the development of skills, confidence and positive experiences for people with learning disabilities, and make a major statement about social inclusion. This world-first initiative is the first ever example of a professional sports league sharing its brand with a learning disability sports programme.
The inclusive competition has been supported by eleven founder clubs, who have established or will be developing Learning Disability Rugby League teams: Castleford Tigers, Huddersfield Giants, Hull KR, Leeds Rhinos, Newcastle Thunder, Salford Red Devils, St Helens, Wakefield Trinity, Warrington Wolves, Widnes Vikings, Wigan Warriors and York City Knights.
Learning Disability Rugby League is a specially adapted non-competitive game, which focuses on encouraging participation and skills development. To support the success of this programme, Community Integrated Care is providing specialist training to all participating clubs, as well as direct investment into the sport.
The programme is set to launch at the Betfred Super League’s Dacia Magic Weekend event, which takes place at Anfield Stadium, Liverpool, on 25-26th May 2019. This will provide one of the biggest ever crowds for a learning disability sport event.
The initiative was revealed today at Community Integrated Care’s Annual Conference, which took place at Old Trafford, the home of Manchester United. The launch event was hosted by Sky Sports presenters Terry O’Connor and Brian Carney. It featured contributions from Warrington Wolves hooker Danny Walker, Leeds Rhinos forward Jamie Jones-Buchanan, Wigan Warriors second-row, Willie Isa, and St Helens prop, Luke Douglas, who have all signed up as Ambassadors for the programme, having proudly supported LDRL initiatives or the charity Community Integrated Care in the past.
Community Integrated Care is one of Britain’s biggest and most successful social care charities, supporting over 3500 people who have learning disabilities, autism, mental health concerns and dementia across England and Scotland. The charity has developed several pioneering sports and social care programmes, including initiatives with leading Rugby League clubs that have been recognised at the National Dementia Care Awards, 3rd Sector Care Awards and the Great British Care Awards.
This announcement is part of a wider strategic partnership between Community Integrated Care, the Super League and the RFL, which aims to develop and enhance the community programmes provided by the sport to people with care and support needs. As the Official Social Care Partner of the sport, the charity will be leading the development of a range of programmes that will use Rugby League to transform the lives of people who require care and support.
Robert Elstone, CEO of Super League, said: “I would like to thank Community Integrated Care for presenting this ground-breaking opportunity to Super League. The passion and commitment shown to date to get this project underway bodes well for a partnership that will reward all participants in so many ways. Not only will this deliver amazing opportunities for all the players, and experiences that will live in the memory for lifetimes, it will also endorse everything that Super League stands for.
Our Clubs sit at the heart of proud communities and bring people together every day of the year. The Community Integrated Care Learning Disability Super League will widen that reach and amplify these special qualities.”
Ralph Rimmer, the Chief Executive of the RFL, said: “As a governing body we are extremely proud of our work in developing both Physical Disability and Learning Disability Rugby League over the past 12 months. To have a partner of the calibre of Community Integrated Care come on board is really exciting and they will add real value as we look to develop this format.
The work the Club Foundations have done in giving players with a learning disability the chance to experience Rugby League has been first class and we look forward to working with Super League, Club Foundations and Community Integrated Care to continue to deliver some unprecedented playing opportunities.”
Mark Adams, CEO of Community Integrated Care, says: “We believe that this collaboration will become one of the most significant inclusive sports programmes in the world. This initiative gives people with learning disabilities an unparalleled platform to stay active, make friends, develop skills and achieve their dreams. By providing people with the opportunity to represent the clubs that they love, become Super League players, and be part of the game’s biggest events, such as Magic Weekend, the sport is not only changing people’s lives but also making a powerful statement about the inclusiveness and values of Rugby League.
“As the Official Social Care partner of the sport, we are looking forward to working with the sport to changing the lives of thousands of people with learning disabilities, mental health concerns, autism and dementia.
“We would like to commend the Super League, RFL, all participating clubs, and the players and legends who have signed up as Ambassadors, for their vision and passion for this programme.”
St.Helens LDRL face Wigan Warriors LDRL this Sunday at Robin Park. 3pm kick off
This is the first game of the Community Integrated Care Learning Disability Super League so come on down and support the saints!
Robin Park Leisure Centre
Loire Drive
WN5 0UL
See whats it all about here.
Watch J.P, A current LDRL saint. check out his story here.
Wed 22 May League
Super League and Betfred announce record deal
3 months ago Club
New refereeing rules in place with immediate effect
5 months ago League
Man Of Steel Panel Announced
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Immoweb takes full advantage of changing search behaviour with mobile apps
SAS Visual Analytics lives up to the expectations at Electrabel GDF SUEZ
Get Started With SAS
BeLux Support
SAS Belgium
SAS Institute nv/sa
Kasteel de Robiano
Hertenbergstraat 6
B-3080 Tervuren
E-mail: info@sbx.sas.com
Journalist Alan Schwarz crunches the numbers and breaks a scandal wide open
Anne-Lindsay Beall, SAS Insights Editor
How Alan Schwarz took his statistical background and used it to achieve what one Hall of Fame sports writer described as “the most remarkable feat in sports journalism history.”
On his first day of kindergarten in 1973, when the teacher asked Alan Schwarz what he wanted to do when he grew up, Schwarz’s answer was: “I want to learn square roots because I don’t know all of them yet.”
Schwarz describes himself as “a proud, card-carrying math geek.” He was on the math team in high school, and his life’s ambition was to teach high school math. But when he found out he’d need a master’s degree, he changed course to something else he’d always loved: sports.
He became a sports journalist and brought his love of math into his writing, finding fertile ground in baseball’s numbers and statistics. He even wrote a book about the history of statistics in baseball. And then everything changed.
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The story of a lifetime
Someone came to Schwarz with something big: A brain disease commonly associated with boxers (dementia pugilistica, commonly known as “punch-drunk syndrome”) had been found in deceased NFL football players Mike Webster, Terry Long, Andre Waters and Justin Strzelczyk. All of them had basically lost their minds between the ages of 30 and 52.
Why did these players have cognitive problems? Postmortem examinations found that they had chronic traumatic encephalopathy – a rare disease related to punch-drunk syndrome that’s not seen in the general population.
“So we went to the NFL and said, ‘Hey, your ex-employees are showing brain damage, psychological problems, memory problems and emotional problems – far earlier than the general population,’” said Schwarz.
In a response to The New York Times, an NFL spokesman said: “There are a great many people who have played football … who do not appear to have suffered these types of deficits.”
But Schwarz knew the numbers didn’t add up.
“Statistically, it doesn’t matter how many healthy players there are,” said Schwarz. “What matters is how many players have the disease and how it compares to the right proportion.”
When Schwarz pushed further, the NFL released another pseudo-statistical argument, saying: “Memory disorders affect many people who never played football or other sports.”
“Right. But, once again, it’s not how many people in the general population have the disease,” said Schwarz. “It’s how many guys in football have it, compared to how many should?”
Statistically, it doesn’t matter how many healthy players there are. What matters is how many players have the disease and how it compares to the right proportion. Alan Schwarz Pulitzer Prize-nominated National Correspondent The New York Times
With more retired players reporting problems, the NFL came up with a plan to pay any ex-football player who had dementia $88,000 a year to help offset medical expenses – but the league wouldn’t admit that head trauma sustained from football was the cause.
“I knew this would be their downfall,” said Schwarz. “They were now collecting data and figuring out how many ex-football players had this disorder, and then we could take that data and compare it to the general population.”
Schwarz began collecting the names the NFL came up with, getting their birthdays, researching who they were. “I was obsessed with this for two years,” said Schwarz. “And when I found out that there were 95 players in January 2009, I ran the numbers in many different ways to try and conceptualize and show that what I knew in my bones was true. And I was so close.”
But before he could finish his analysis, the NFL scooped him. They did their own study with the University of Michigan, and the numbers they found helped Schwarz make his case.
The Michigan report stated that in the US population, for men ages 30-49, only one out of 1,000 suffered from dementia. For retired NFL players ages 30-49, one out of 50 suffered from dementia.
The numbers were even worse for retired NFL players 50 and above. When compared to the general US population, the retired players were six times as likely to suffer from dementia.
When Schwarz asked the NFL about this, the response was: “The numbers are still small.”
In response, Schwarz wrote his groundbreaking 2009 article, stating:
All rates appear small. But if they are accurate, they would have arresting real-life effects when applied across a population as large as living N.F.L. retirees. A normal rate of cognitive disease among N.F.L. retirees age 50 and above (of whom there are about 4,000) would result in 48 of them having the condition; the rate in the Michigan study would lead to 244. Among retirees ages 30 through 49 (of whom there are about 3,000), the normal rate cited by the Michigan researchers would yield about 3 men experiencing problems; the rate reported among N.F.L. retirees leads to an estimate of 57.
So the Michigan findings suggest that although 50 N.F.L. retirees would be expected to have dementia or memory-related disease, the actual number could be more like 300. This would not prove causation in any individual case, but it would support a connection between pro football careers and heightened prevalence of later-life cognitive decline that the league has long disputed.
The New York Times put Schwarz’s article on the front page, and it caused an immediate sensation.
“People went bananas,” said Schwarz. “Congress held hearings. I proved that other data reinforced the Michigan study, and everything started changing. The NFL changed its rules and philosophy of how to handle a concussion. And they finally acknowledged that the data was out there to show the link.”
Alan Schwarz took his statistical background and used it to achieve what one Hall of Fame sports writer described as “the most remarkable feat in sports journalism history.”
He’s been credited with saving lives and revolutionizing the protocol for head injuries in almost every youth and professional sport.
And it all goes back to the numbers. “I love finding the mathematical argument where I can say, ‘No. 2 + 2 does not equal 5, and I’m not going to let you get away with that,’ ” said Schwarz.
Adapted from SAS Technology Connection Keynote, SAS Global Forum 2015.
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Article Analytic simulations: Using big data to protect the tiniest patientsAnalytic models help researchers discover the best way to care for babies in the NICU, saving lives (and millions of dollars) in the process.
Article Analytics. Fighting cancer for more than 40 years. Thanks partly to analytics, cancer survival rates are higher, treatments are more personalized and cancer research continues to expand.
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Music in the Air, Music Everywhere: Students host pop-up concert series across Greater Victoria to celebrate diversity in music
More than 1,500 music students in the Greater Victoria School District will be performing in concerts across the region from May 6-16th, 2018. Students and their instruments will be popping up in city squares, parks, senior residences and shopping centres to sing and play for the community.
This is part of an 11-day concert series called, “Music in the Air/ Music Everywhere”. Elementary, middle and secondary students in music programs are participating to raise awareness of, and engagement with, Greater Victoria School District’s music programs.
“This is a great opportunity for community members to engage in our music programs collectively”, noted Board Chair Edith Loring-Kuhanga. “Over the years, school music programs have played a significant role in student learning while promoting musical competence across the District. Now, students can showcase their talents to the broader community through a shared musical experience.”
More than 30 student performances will happen during the festival. The concert series will feature choirs, string quartets, orchestras, ukulele ensembles, drum circles, concert bands and marching bands.
Concert Schedule Highlights:
Beacon Hill Park – May 6, 2018, at 1:30 p.m.
Centennial Square – May 9, 2018, at 2:00 p.m.
Willows Park – May 11, 2018, at 6:00 p.m.
Buccaneer Days Parade – May 12, 2018, at 10 a.m.
Ship Point – May 12, 2018, at 10:45 a.m.
University of Victoria – May 15, 2018, at 7:00 p.m.
Songhees Wellness Centre – May 16, 2018, at 7:00 p.m.
Senior Residence performances – May 7-16, 2018
For more information on above performances visit Music in the Air, Music Everywhere Brochure.
Detailed Concert Schedules:
Jazz Stage
Music in the Air, Music Everywhere is supported by the Cooper Smith Music Library (CSML). The Cooper Smith Music Library Collection holds over 9,000 sets of choral works, vocal and instrumental jazz charts, musicals, string orchestra selections, and pedagogical resources for ukulele, recorder, general music at all levels, conducting, music theory, world music, and music history. It also houses a large inventory of instruments for rent and a recording studio.
The CSML is supported by the Administration and Board of Education of the Greater Victoria School District. The library opened in 2003 and has expanded steadily over the years. It was formally named after its founders, Eileen Cooper and Bonnie Smith, in the fall of 2013.
This will be the last year Eileen Cooper and Bonnie Smith will oversee the library. The pair were part of the first music steering committee in 1981, which held the District’s first music festival.
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Sunny. High 72F. Winds WNW at 15 to 25 mph..
Bar, gym approved in San Carlos
By Anna Schuessler Daily Journal staff
San Carlos will be home to a downtown cocktail bar and a gym slated for a warehouse space on the city’s east side after two separate sets of plans submitted to the city’s Planning Commission got the green light in recent weeks.
Expected to replace the dry cleaning business Jin’s Cleaners at 765 Laurel St., a proposal to operate a piano bar and lounge offering high-end cocktails earned approval from the Planning Commission Monday.
Situated just south of Frank D. Harrington Park, the single-story building where the business has been proposed would receive interior improvements and a new facade under the plans submitted by applicant Kevin Canfield. Equipped with a 6-inch podium for musical performances, a 250-square-foot bar as well as tables and banquette seating, the bar will feature space for live entertainment and a lounge, according to a staff report.
The bar is expected to be open Sunday through Wednesday from 4 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. and Thursday through Saturday from 4 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. with one to two bartenders, a bar-back and a security guard working at the business each night, according to the report.
Required to provide eight parking spaces, the applicant plans to pay $143,488 in parking in-lieu fees to the city. As a condition of approval, the applicant is also required to close windows and doors at 10 p.m. each night to comply with the city’s noise ordinance.
The Planning Commission also approved a conditional use permit allowing Rev Fitness to offer personal training and fitness classes at a warehouse space at 930 Commercial St. previously used by Abbey Carpet for storage. Though his business currently operates as Core Total Fitness in a shared space at 969 Industrial Road, applicant Elliott Spear said at the commission’s June 17 meeting that the move into the 7,200-square-foot space marks an opportunity for his business to expand.
Spear’s business would share the building with Galleher Corporation, which uses the space for warehouse use, and the 1.7-acre lot where the 14,400-square-foot building currently stands holds another commercial building.
“We’ve loved being part of the community and hope to continue doing so as we expand into this new facility,” said Spear, according to a video of the meeting.
By offering boutique-style classes, the business is expected to draw no more than 40 people at a time with three employees at its busiest hours, said city planner Lisa Costa Sanders. Because the business plans to create two on-site bicycle parking spaces, two motorcycle parking spots and two accessible parking spaces, the 46 parking spaces currently provided on the site were deemed sufficient for the new use, explained Sanders.
Sanders said Rockin’ Jump at 401 Quarry Road and PongPlanet at 848 Brittan Ave. are among the other recreational uses that have more recently been approved in the city’s industrial zones.
In response to Commissioner Jim Iacoponi’s question about whether the business would consider expanding its hours from the 5:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. as currently proposed to a 24-hour model, Spear said he doesn’t plan on keeping the business open 24 hours due to safety concerns.
As owner of the building, Tony Bollock, president of Black Mountain Properties, said he was pleased to work with Spear, who was a previous tenant of the company. Bollock said he felt Spear’s business could meet demand for a high-quality, membership-based fitness facility, noting it may fall into a sort of middle ground between 24 Hour Fitness, which is more affordable, and some of the higher-end, expensive clubs on the Peninsula.
anna@smdailyjournal.com
Elliott Spear
Tony Bollock
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AB 1968 Creates Lifetime Gun Ban for Some Afflicted with a Mental Health Disorder
Posted by Neil Shouse | Jan 04, 2019 | 0 Comments
Assembly Bill 1968 establishes a lifetime ban on gun ownership for certain individuals
Assembly Bill 1968 was signed into law by Gov. Brown in September 2018. The bill establishes a lifetime ban on gun ownership for those persons who are:
involuntarily admitted to a facility for a mental health disorder more than once in a year; and,
are considered a danger to themselves or others.
Please note, though, that persons subject to this ban can petition the court every five years to have the ownership ban reversed.
AB 1968 marks a change in California law. Prior to the bill, persons involuntarily committed to a mental health facility, and deemed a danger to themselves or others, could potentially own a gun after five years from the date of release from the facility.
New Laws Under Assembly Bill 1968
AB 1968 applies to those persons who are both:
involuntarily admitted to a mental health facility on more than one occasion in a single year; and,
are designated as a danger to themselves or others.
The bill states that if a person falls into this category, they are prohibited from owning a firearm for the rest of their lives.
But this ban can be reversed. Persons subject to the ban can petition the court every five years to have the gun prohibition overturned. Gun ownership will be granted if a judge believes the person would be likely to use a gun in a safe and lawful manner.
Laws Prior to Assembly Bill 1968
AB 1968 changed California's existing law on gun ownership for those involuntarily admitted to a mental health facility. Under the State's old law, persons involuntarily admitted to a mental health facility, and deemed a danger to themselves or others, were prohibited from possessing a firearm for five years from the date of release from the facility.
After the five-year period expired, a party could petition the court for the restoration of the right to own a gun. This right would be restored if a judge determined that the party would be likely to use a firearm in a safe and lawful manner.
Reasoning for AB 1968
Proponents of the new law support it for two main reasons.
The first is a pure policy interest in safety. Supporters of the bill state that it is in the best interest of society if people at risk of harming themselves and others do not have easy access to guns.
The second reason is to help prevent persons with mental health disorders from killing themselves. According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, mental health afflictions are a major contributor to suicide, and 51% of suicides are committed with firearms. The reasoning then follows that if persons with a mental health disorder do not have a gun, they will have less of a chance to take their own lives.
Assembly Bill 1968 was introduced in January of 2018 by Assembly member Evan Low. The bill adds Section 8103 to the California Welfare and Institutions Code.
Neil Shouse
Southern California DUI Defense attorney Neil Shouse graduated with honors from UC Berkeley and Harvard Law School (and completed additional graduate studies at MIT).
driver's license revocation
room confinement
solitary confinement of juveniles
juvenile justice fees
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Ledley King Stresses the Importance of England International for Tottenham Hotspur
Former Tottenham Hotspur legend Ledley King has hailed current Spurs player Eric Dier for his versatility, and praised him for his importance to the North London club, reports the London Evening Standard.
King, who started 268 matches for Spurs between 1999 and 2012 before retiring due to injury, recalled his thoughts when he first watched him put on the Lilywhites' jersey in 2015.
"I remember watching him in pre-season in Denver, and he impressed me straight away. At the time, I didn’t know he could step into midfield and perform that well."
King, who is now an ambassador for the team, continued: “I quickly saw he was capable of that and he went on to have a great season in midfield. I’m not sure what position he would say he wants to play, but he does both equally well."
Alex Menendez/GettyImages
“It can be difficult but playing multiple positions is the sign of a good player. When you’re competing in a tough team that’s full of top players, you’re usually happy to be on the pitch and to have a starting position. He can start and if he feels as comfortable at the back as he does in midfield, it may be no problem to him."
King then went on to discuss the England international's importance to his club side: “That’s a great strength that this Tottenham team have. They are able to play three centre-halves or two, so you can change. You’ve seen Eric either step out or step back and make subtle adjustments.
"It’s a great strength for any team to have, without having to change your personnel. It makes it a lot easier. People rotate a lot more now and that’s one of the things that surprised me about how easy it was for Eric.
"With the ball at his feet he looks very comfortable and very cultured. He doesn’t give the ball away at all but also he’s not just playing sideways and backwards, he’s turning on the ball under pressure and playing forward balls, and he’s been brilliant.”
King's praise comes as Dier celebrates spending three years at the club, after joining from Sporting Lisbon on 31 July 2014, for an estimated £4.5m. There had been rumours that Jose Mourinho had been looking to lure Dier to Old Trafford, with a £40m bid being made last week. However, with the news of Manchester United's £45m signature of Nemanja Matic from Chelsea, it appears that his future is safe at Tottenham.
And the club's fans are most definitely happy about that, with some suggesting Dier is of a higher standard to Matic.
When you need a plan B after failing to sign Eric Dier. #THFC https://t.co/tWTItuMWU1
— Marc Benamram (@MarcBenamram) July 31, 2017
Dier has only missed three Premier League matches in the last two seasons as his team have put forward two sustained title challenges for the first time in decades. He has also played on 19 occasions for the England national team.
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Relative motion The laws of physics which apply when you are at rest on the earth also apply in any reference frame moving at a constant velocity with respect to the earth. The bike racers here are in relative motion with respect to each other. Lets learn more about the concept of relative velocity as we run through this topic.
After completing the topic, the student will be able to:
Connect day–to–day experiences to linear motion.
Discriminate clearly between distance and displacement.
Define and distinguish between speed, average speed, instantaneous speed, velocity, acceleration and deceleration.
Differentiate between uniform and non–uniform motions.
Develop and apply equations of motion.
Understand the nature of acceleration due to gravity.
Develop and apply position and displacement vectors in two dimensions.
Apply equations of motion in X and Y directions.
Develop and apply equations of motion, time of flight and range of projectile for any projected object.
Apply changes to the equations of motion, time of flight, height reached by the projectile, range of projectile when a projectile is launched vertically upwards.
Understand and correlate the concept of relative velocity to daily life examples like moving boat in a river etc.,.
Tugboat race The participants in the tugboat race maneuver to optimize their chances of winning. They do so by controlling the displacement, velocity and acceleration of their boats.
Kinematics is the branch of mechanics that describes the motion of objects without considering the cause of motion. It provides a foundation that will help us in all areas of physics. It is most intimately connected with dynamics (another branch of mechanics): while kinematics describes motion, dynamics explains the cause for this motion.
It involves the relationships between the quantities displacement (d),velocity (v), acceleration (a), and time (t). We develop a mathematical formalism that allows us to represent the position, velocity, and acceleration of moving objects, and to express how these quantities are related to each other with time.
Note: We will restrict our study to speeds that are slow compared to the speed of light and also to objects which are generally large, compared to atoms or molecules.
Reference frame When we talk about the motion of an object, we first determine a reference frame and then according to this reference frame we discuss the motion of the object. With respect to Earth, the Sun appears to move across the sky, but it is the Earth which is actually spinning and causing that apparent motion.
Study of Motion - Frame of reference
The world, and everything in it, moves. We see cars and trains moving, a person walking on the street, birds flying in the sky, a leaf floating in the breeze. Even seemingly stationary things such as buildings move with Earth′s rotation. Earth orbiting around the Sun, the Sun's orbit around the center of the Milky Way galaxy and the galaxy′s migration relative to other galaxies are all examples of such movements. In fact, nothing in the entire universe is completely stationary.
Reference Frame: All motions are relative to some frame of reference. An object is said to be in motion if the position of the object changes with respect to some reference frame. If an object is said to be at rest, then it means that it is being described with respect to a reference frame that is moving together with the body. The reference frame is called the 'observer' and is arbitrarily chosen. The example below illustrates the concept of an observer.
Look at a person standing in a playground. His position relative to the ground, the trees and the buildings in the background does not change. So it appears as if he is at rest. But he is standing on the ground i.e. on the Earth, which rotates on its axis revolving around the Sun. If we have a facility to stand on the Sun, we will feel that the person is moving! That is the person is rotating as well as moving forward, along with the Earth. Thus, the person is at rest (or is not moving) relative to the ground, the trees and the buildings. But, on the other hand, the person, along with the ground, the trees and the buildings, is moving with respect to the Sun.
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You are here: Home News News and features Student wins national social mobility award at House of Lords ceremony
Student wins national social mobility award at House of Lords ceremony
A social work student from Kingston University and St George's, University of London has won a national social mobility award for her voluntary and charity work at the inaugural UpReach Student Social Mobility Awards.
Rochelle Watson, a single mother to three-year-old son Allan Junior and the first in her family to go to university, picked up the Charity and Third Sector accolade at a ceremony at the House of Lords. The awards recognise the achievements of undergraduates from less advantaged backgrounds across the United Kingdom.
Rochelle is in the final year of her degree at the Faculty of Health, Social Care and Education, run jointly by Kingston and St George's. The 24-year-old carer from Merton, whose mother was diagnosed with bipolar disorder when she was 12, regularly volunteers at the Kingston Family Contact Centre supporting non-residential parents to see their children.
Reacting to her award, Rochelle said: "I'm still in shock. More than 200 students were originally nominated so to win the award is a massive thing. It's great to be recognised for my achievements and I'm proud to represent students who have gone through similar things. I want to be a positive role model."
Rochelle has played an active role in student life at Kingston University, inspiring and supporting others to overcome barriers to success. As well as being a member of the student council and a student ambassador, she has taken part in Kingston Hub's Transform Leadership Programme, which helps second year students plan for public sector graduate schemes. She has also worked as an Empower co-ordinator, helping mentors support disadvantaged young girls to achieve their potential.
Inspired by her mother's mental health issues, Rochelle has written a report about parental mental health and engagement with schoolchildren for the Reach Academy. The report explored the impact having a parent with mental health problems has on young people. She was also first person from her course to be a finalist in the University's Bright Ideas competition, where she created a personal development programme to support children affected by parental mental health and help them realise their full potential and develop skills they otherwise wouldn't have been able to.
The BA(Hons) Working with Children and Young People: Social Pedagogy student, who also took part in the University's SADRAS project to develop research into enriching students from underrepresented groups, credits the University for helping her develop as a person and igniting her self-belief.
"My experience at Kingston has transformed my life. I've been able to build my confidence during my studies and I'm so grateful to my lecturers and personal tutor for believing in me and encouraging me," she said. "When I started I wanted to develop my confidence and gain new skills but all of the extra-curricular activities Kingston offers have helped me develop belief in myself and have made me become more independent," she added.
Working with children and young people: social pedagogy course leader Yvalia Febrer, who is also Rochelle's personal tutor, said: "We are absolutely thrilled with Rochelle's success in the Social Mobility Awards, she is a model student and an inspiration to others not just on her course, but to everyone in the Department of Social Work and Social Care."
Associate Dean for Learning and Teaching at the Faculty of Health, Social Care and Education Professor Jane Lindsay added: "We are all so proud of Rochelle. She has really taken on every initiative we have to offer at Kingston to develop herself and help others. She has overcome so many obstacles and is a shining example of what we want our students to be, she deserves every bit of success that comes her way."
Find out more about completing a BA(Hons) in Working with Children and Young People: Social Pedagogy at Kingston University and St George's, University of London.
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'He has left our family broken,' Sheffield man says as brother is jailed for raiding family home
'I don't feel safe in my own home because of my own brother,' the brother of a prolific Sheffield criminal said, as he described the devastating impact his raid on their family home has had.
Wednesday, 15 August, 2018, 17:31
Patrick Bailey, 34, was jailed for four years and three months during a hearing held at Sheffield Crown Court today (Wednesday, August 15)
During a hearing held at Sheffield Crown Court today (Wednesday, August 15), Recorder James Baird jailed Patrick Bailey, 34, for four years and three months for a range of offences committed between July 2017 and February 2018.
Among the offences committed by Bailey, of no fixed abode, was the theft of several items from his family home during a raid carried out on July 29 last year, including priceless guitars that had once belonged to his late grandfather.
"He has left our family quite broken," said the man, adding: "I was shaken. I don't feel safe in my own home. I don't feel safe in my own home because of my own brother."
The court was told how their mother, who suffers from anxiety and panic attacks, had been left with post-traumatic stress disorder in the wake of the raid on their home.
Prosecutor, Eddison Flint, told the court that the family managed to locate three stolen guitars at a branch of Cash Converters, but said the majority of items, which had a combined value of several thousand pounds, were not recovered.
In addition to stealing from the family home, Bailey also took his step father's car without permission a few days later, the court heard.
During Bailey's spate of offending he also burgled a number of commercial premises including PP News in Crookes; the Aagrah restaurant in Leopold Square, Sheffield; the Cheese and Wine Emporium in Bakewell, Derbyshire and Scarborough Lifts in Burniston, North Yorkshire.
Bailey pleaded guilty to charges of burglary, theft, common assault, possession of a bladed article, taking a vehicle without consent, driving whilst disqualified and possession of cannabis at an earlier hearing.
James Gould, defending, told the court that Bailey had a range of mental health problems including schizophrenia, which, he said, were 'no doubt' exacerbated by his drug misuse.
"Perhaps by his guilty pleas, preventing his family from having to give evidence [in court] it's some small demonstration of remorse," said Mr Gould, adding: "As you can see, he's struggling with emotions of shame for bringing these offences on those who were doing their best to cope with him."
In addition to sending Bailey to prison, Recorder Gould also granted restraining orders requested by members of his family.
He told Bailey: "Whatever your impressions of your family, it is clear to me that they have only ever offered you their full support. You regrettably cannot see that because of your drug use, and no doubt, mental health issues."
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Pakistan deploys troops, fighter jets in anti-militant offensive
A Pakistani tribesman in a shuttered market in Miranshah in North Waziristan, a stronghold for Taleban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants near the border with Afghanistan, on June 15, 2014. -- PHOTO: AFP
Jun 16, 2014, 11:12 am SGT
http://str.sg/ZUqf
MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (AFP) - Pakistan on Monday launched fresh air strikes on the northwest tribal region where it has deployed up to 30,000 troops in a long-awaited offensive to eliminate Taleban and Al-Qaeda militants from their border stronghold.
The action in North Waziristan was launched a week after a brazen insurgent attack on Pakistan's main airport in Karachi which left dozens dead and marked the end of a troubled peace process.
The offensive was announced on Sunday, shortly after airstrikes killed at least 105 people including insurgents linked to the airport raid, and jets and helicopter gunships continued to pound the region over the weekend.
A local security official said fighter jets bombed two government schools west of Miranshah - the main town of North Waziristan - early on Monday, killing at least 10 Uzbek militants who were sheltering in them.
The military announced the offensive on Sunday, saying it would wage "a comprehensive operation against foreign and local terrorists who are hiding in sanctuaries in North Waziristan".
Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said that the time for dialogue was over and that the nation could no longer tolerate attacks on "innocent Pakistanis and damage to national assets".
"This operation will continue till the surrender or elimination of enemy," he said.
The Karachi airport siege was claimed by Taleban and Uzbek militants holed up in the district on Afghanistan's border - considered the last remaining stronghold of Islamist militants in the region.
An operation in the region has been a long-standing demand of Pakistan's Western allies. Washington accuses Islamabad of using the area to give sanctuary to the Haqqani network of fighters, known for their raids on NATO targets inside Afghanistan.
A military official in Miranshah told AFP: "Thousands of troops will participate in this action. You can roughly say 25,000 to 30,000 troops will be involved in the operation.
"We are trying to finish this operation as soon as possible but can't give an exact time frame. It can conclude in a few days but can also take longer," he added.
At least another 10 militants were killed in attacks by Pakistani helicopter gunships in the village of Mir Ali as the fighting got underway Sunday, a local intelligence official in Miranshah said.
SHOOT-ON-SIGHT ORDERS
The initial overnight air strikes on Saturday killed at least 105 people according to the military - though local officials placed the toll as high as 150.
One official said the alleged Uzbek mastermind of the Karachi attack had been killed in the air strikes.
"Abu Abdul Rehman Almani, who was mastermind of attack on Karachi airport, and several other commanders have been killed in the strikes," he said.
Some 40 per cent of the region's population of half a million have already fled the violence, leaving around 300,000 behind, residents told AFP.
Shoot-on-sight orders have been imposed on those who leave their homes after dark, according to local intelligence officials, leading to two people being critically wounded near Miranshah.
In Miranshah itself, imams made announcements from mosque loudspeakers asking people to recite from the Quran and pray to God for the safety of those who remained behind.
US drones were also spotted hovering overhead, raising suspicion that Washington and Islamabad were coordinating their efforts after two US drone attacks - the first this year - killed 16 militants on Wednesday.
DIALOGUE OVER
Washington reportedly suspended its drone attacks in December to give Islamabad time to pursue peace talks with the Tehreek-e-Taleban Pakistan (TTP), aimed at ending a seven-year insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives.
The dialogue resulted in a month-long ceasefire between March and April, but later broke down, with Pakistan resuming air strikes on suspected militant hideouts in the tribal areas.
The army was widely seen as being opposed to the dialogue because of the heavy casualties it has sustained at the hands of the TTP.
Mr Talat Masood, a retired general and security analyst, said the army would aim to end its operation before the Islamic holy month of Ramadan which begins around June 28.
"It should go only for two three weeks and then troops can be stationed in the area to control the situation and consolidate the positions," he said.
The operation's success, he added, was contingent on sealing the porous Pakistan-Afghanistan border which foreign fighters including Chechens, Uzbeks, Turkmen, Tajiks and Uighurs have crossed in recent weeks.
A military statement said Afghan security forces "have been requested to seal the border on their side to facilitate elimination of terrorists who attempt to cross the border".
It added that announcements would be made for local residents to approach designated evacuation points.
"Surrender points have also been made for those militants who chose to quit violence and give up their arms," it said, without elaborating on their fate.
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‘Rugged And Uncompromising Formula’ – HipHopDX Reviews ‘Kickin’ & Screamin’
HipHopDX continues to show love for Krizz Kaliko as the popular hip hop site recently put Kickin’ & Screamin‘ to the test and saw how Krizz Kaliko’s best work measured up during one of Strange Music’s strongest years.
As his fourth full length solo album, Kickin’ & Screamin’ challenged Krizz Kaliko to take his music in different directions and paired him up with the likes of Tech N9ne, Twiztid, Chamillionaire, and Rittz. Praising his collaborative efforts, the review noted:
“Kaliko’s team up with Tech N9ne and Twista, “Kill Sh*t,” is as ferocious and lyrically intense as you’d expect, while “Mayday,” in cahoots with Chamillionaire and Rittz, is similarly defiant. Business as planned, then.”
With a final ranking of 3.5/5, HipHopDX credits Strange Music’s lieutenant as keeping true to the indie label’s cause and while some of Kickin’ & Screamin‘ may not be for everyone, it certainly maintains its mission to be completely out of the ordinary.
Click here to read the full review.
Click here to pre-order Kickin’ & Screamin’.
What did you think of the review?
Let us know in the comments section below!
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Johnson has concerns as end nears
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- It's down to Talladega Superspeedway in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship, which has hardly resembled a title race over the past four weeks.
Three-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson has taken commanding control in his bid for a NASCAR record fourth consecutive title, and his challengers have one last desperate hope at the largest and most unpredictable track on the circuit.
Only it's not about how well Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart or Juan Pablo Montoya might run on Sunday. Nope, this race is all about what could happen to Johnson.See, Talladega is Johnson's worst track in the 10-race Chase. There was a win in 2006 and a pair of runner-up finishes the next season, but the rest of his record represents the struggle that Johnson has had on the high-banked Alabama track.
Three engine failures and three wrecks, including a late accident in April that led to a 30th-place finish, have left Johnson with six DNF's and a 17.7 average finish.
"Man, it (stinks) racing here," Johnson said after wrecking out of April's race.
So it makes sense that Johnson was a bit testy following his second-place finish at Martinsville last week.
The questions, of course, turned to Talladega and all the unknowns that track brings for the usually unflappable champion.
He knows the smallest miscalculation Sunday could trigger "The Big One" and the damage might be enough to swallow up a ton of Johnson's cushy 118-point lead over Mark Martin.
Tell us, champ, just how do you feel about going to Talladega?
"I'm so tired of answering this question," he replied. "I think you guys can all figure it out. Talladega, there's no telling."
No, there's not, and that apparently has Johnson on edge. Particularly since it's the one place that has his challengers chomping at the bit.
Martin, who has made no secret of his dislike of Talladega despite two career victories, figures the odds are in his favor of having a good race on Sunday. He was caught in the very first accident in April and was headed home after just six laps. He finished last.
"Somehow or another, I just feel lucky about this one," Martin said recently. "If you can wreck on lap five of the last one there, something tells me I ought to be able to miss it this time. That's about as bad of luck as you can have."
Gordon, another Hendrick teammate, is a six-time Talladega winner with a 12.3 average finish. Although he also was a victim of accidents in the last two races -- he has consecutive finishes of 38th and 37th -- he swept the 2007 events.
Gordon, the four-time series champion, is hoping a good finish Sunday will trim into the 150-point lead Johnson has over him.
"You can be aggressive or you can be conservative, either approach can be good or bad, and I don't believe one approach works better than the other," Gordon said. "The 'Big One' is going to happen, it's just whether you get caught up in the crash or not, or whether it comes early or late in the race. Just be ahead of it or way behind it -- don't be in the middle of it.
"Rarely do you escape when you are in the middle of it."
Then there's Stewart, the defending race winner. A six-time runner-up at Talladega, his victory last October was long overdue and another one could help him chip away at his 187-point deficit.
And don't forget Montoya, who wishes he could forget the Chase race at Charlotte two weeks ago. Throw out his 35th-place finish there, and Montoya would be right on Johnson's back bumper. Instead, he's 195-points out despite finishes of either third or fourth in every other Chase race.
Now he goes to Talladega, a track that has suited him since his 2006 departure from Formula One. He made his stock-car debut at Talladega three years ago in an ARCA race, finished second in the 2007 Cup event and won the pole in April.
He's perhaps the one driver not concerned with how Johnson runs every week, and that could play into his favor Sunday.
"You've got to worry about what you're doing, not what everybody else is doing," Montoya said. "I think people keep worrying about what he is doing and as long as you keep worrying about what he's doing, you're not doing your job properly."
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59: Don’t Die With Your Book Still Inside You
http://traffic.libsyn.com/publishingprofitspodcast/PPP059.mp3
Chris Kennedy is a bestselling Science Fiction and Fantasy author. He’s also a former naval aviator with over 3,000 hours flying attack and reconnaissance aircraft (basically, he’s a badass).
We sat down with Chris for an exclusive interview, and he shared some powerful ideas and tips for any author who wants to build a platform and create an avid group of loyal readers.
The Journey to Bestseller
Chris took an unlikely path to becoming a best-selling self published author. He read somewhere that 81% of people say they have a story to tell. Chris always thought of himself as part of the other 19%.
All of Chris’s friends will tell you that his strong suits are math, science, and systems. No one in his life thought of him as a particularly creative person (I used to feel the exact same way!).
Then one day while he was driving home from work, he got an idea for a story. He actually talked himself out of writing that story. When he got home Chris found out there was an hour to wait until dinner would be ready, so he decided to start writing his first novel.
When Chris told his wife he was writing a novel, she didn’t believe him.
After he finished the novel, Chris began writing query letters and trying to get a literary agent. He queried over 80 agents but he didn’t see any results.
That’s when he started on the path to self-publishing.
Why Self Publishing
As he began to research self-publishing, Chris realized that he needed to create a plan to publish his book and put it into action. And that’s exactly what he did. He created a plan and saw it through.
Chris publishes four books a year. He would publish more if it weren’t for his day job doing instructional systems design for the Navy.
Get a Daily Action Plan
Chris’s daily publishing work changes based on what phase of production he’s in at any given time. Right now he’s doing editing for an upcoming novel, so not as much writing is getting done.
A typical day for Chris when he’s writing goes like this:
Work from 7 AM to 4:30 PM
Come home and engage in social media for 1 to 2 hours before dinner
Eat dinner
Write for one hour to three hours. His goal is to get at least 1000 words written every day during the writing phase of his production process
It can be hard to sleep with his production schedule and he finds himself playing a lot of catch-up on the weekends when it comes to sleep.
“Start marketing (your book) early. Do not wait until it comes out. Start developing the relationship with the readers about 4 to 6 months early.” – Chris Kennedy
The biggest mistake Chris sees new self published authors making is that they don’t try to develop a relationship with customers before the book is released.
The best thing you can do to ensure the success of your book is to get on Amazon’s email list. And the best way to maximize your chances of doing that is to get enough traffic to your book when you launch your book that Amazon’s algorithms take notice.
That’s why Chris suggests building a relationship with your audience 4 to 6 months before the book is released.
If you build a relationship with people who might be interested in your novel, and then tell them when it’s released, a percentage of those people will buy that book.
Then, you email those people who bought your book and say “If you like this book would you mind leaving a review?” Again a percentage of those people won’t leave a review, but some will.
And that’s how you begin to build your platform as an indie author.
Chris’s Marketing Strategy
Chris does the majority of his marketing on social media. He is active on Facebook and twitter. He makes a point to post 3 to 4 pieces of content a day that will help aspiring indie authors.
The most important thing you need to do is begin building your email list. Building an email list allows you to communicate with your fans directly. Especially these days where everyone has a cell phone when you email people you often get their attention immediately.
Chris’s Redshirt Marketing Strategy
Chris’s biggest marketing success has been his redshirt marketing strategy.
The term redshirt comes from Star Trek. A “redshirt” in Science Fiction refers to a walk on character who gets killed almost immediately after they enter the scene.
People can email Chris and ask to be put into his next book. You have a better chance of getting into the book if you can give Chris one or two details about your personality and interest that will help him flesh out your character for the book.
It turns out people really enjoy being killed in a fictional story (not so much in real life, though).
Chris has several fans who have requested that he put their friends and family into the books after he has already killed them.
Chris actually had a blogger for the Pope ask to be in one of his books. That was the first character that Chris carried over into a sequel. The priest was killed in the next book.
He’s currently running a contest to see which one of the redshirts characters for his next book will survive into the future.
Chris is getting the rest of his audience involved in the competition by having them vote on who deserves to survive based on the reason they gave for why they should survive the book.
The cool thing about this redshirts marketing strategy is that it gets the audience involved as collaborators in the creative process.
“Everyone’s going to get opportunities to have their big break. A lot of times people will be willing to change their plan to capitalize on those opportunities.” – Chris Kennedy
Chris has had a couple of podcast hosts who were interested in being killed in his novels. When you have someone who has an audience that wants to be part of your creative project, it can really help spread the word about what you’re doing.
Chris puts an invitation to be part of his next book in every book he publishes.
The great thing about this strategy is it recruits people who’ll be eager to buy your book when you launch it. They’ll also spread word-of-mouth about your book because they’re in it.
The redshirts have to buy the book in order to read it. That’s how Chris gets the initial momentum when he launches his books.
Chris has a stable of editors he works with on any given project. So he doesn’t need beta readers or fresh eyes before publishing.
Making Audiobooks
All of Chris’s books are available in e-book, paperback, and audiobook formats.
At first Chris was reluctant to create an audiobook because of the time and expense involved. But one of his friends is visually impaired and insisted that Chris create the audiobook for him.
When Chris began to research ACX he found out that creating an audiobook was much easier than he first thought.
All you do is go to ACX.com and sign up. Then you put your book on there and audition producers. If you can’t afford to pay a producer upfront you can do a royalty split with the narrator of your book. That way they get half of the royalties, and you get half the royalties and produce the book without having to spend thousands of dollars up front.
Chris has developed a relationship with the narrator who has produced all of his audiobooks to date.
The only thing Chris has to do after agreeing to work with a narrator is listen to the chapters as they are produced to make sure that the narrator isn’t mispronouncing character names or other words.
Producing different versions of the same book maximizes your audience because different audiences want different ways of consuming your content.
To do a paperback and an e-book is simply a matter of formatting. You should really do both types of book so that your audience can buy the type of book they prefer.
In Chris’s case he actually sells more audiobooks than he sells e-books, so investing his time in audiobooks really paid off for him.
If you think about it, everyone has some device that they can play an audiobook on. Listening to an audiobook allows you to consume a book while you’re doing other things.
If you want to create your own audiobooks, check out our free guide on how to make an audiobook.
Write Your Story
“Don’t die with your story still inside you.” – Chris Kennedy
81% of people have a story inside them that they want to tell.
10% of people actually start to write the story.
1% of people actually publish the story.
Be part of the 1%.
Right now is the easiest time in history of the world to publish your book. You don’t need an agent or publisher. All you need is the determination to achieve your goals.
Self-publishing a story is something anyone can do as long as they have a process and plan in place and they follow the plan to completion.
You do still want to find a good editor, but there are plenty of editors out there. There is no reason not to get your story out into the world where people can read it at this point in history.
https://chriskennedypublishing.com/ – Chris’s website. You can contact Chris and get links to all of his books.
Chris Kennedy’s Amazon author page
Ebookpublishingschool.com – learn how to format your e-book for free and upload the book to Amazon.
How to get a great book deal that will launch or expand your writing career
Tom Corson-Knowles
Tom Corson-Knowles is the founder of TCK Publishing, and the bestselling author of 27 books including Secrets of the Six-Figure author. He is also the host of the Publishing Profits Podcast show where we interview successful authors and publishing industry experts to share their tips for creating a successful writing career.
Latest posts by Tom Corson-Knowles (see all)
12 Best Baby Name Generators - June 30, 2019
9 Best MasterClass Courses for Writers - June 7, 2019
14 Best QR Code Generators - May 29, 2019
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Interview: Sebastián Lelio on the Making of Disobedience
Leilo discusses finding the balance between his characters’ respective narrative arcs.
Marshall Shaffer
Photo: Mongrel Media
If Sebastián Lelio were looking to establish himself as a globally known master filmmaker, he could not have scripted 2018 any better for himself. The year began with his film A Fantastic Woman winning the Academy Award for best foreign language film (he accepted the award, though technically the statue goes to the country of Chile). And he’ll almost certainly be back on the festival circuit this fall with the American remake of his 2013 film Gloria, with Julianne Moore in the lead. But now, barely a month after beaming into tens of millions of households at the Oscars, the Argentinian-born Chilean director already has another film arriving in theaters, Disobedience.
The film, which maintained a quiet profile after its Toronto premiere last year so as to avoid diverting attention away from A Fantastic Woman, is another magisterial exploration of identity and sacrifice. Immersing us in the minutia of London’s restrictive Orthodox Jewish community, Lelio opens a window on the pained interior lives of Ronit (Rachel Weisz), who left this community many years ago; Esti (Rachel McAdams), who struggles to follow her lover’s lead; and Dovid (Alessandro Nivola), who seeks, with misgivings, to take over as head of the community after the death of Ronit’s father.
In a phone conversation prior to the film’s Tribeca Film Festival premiere, Leilo discussed how he immersed himself in the milieu of the film and found the appropriate balance between his characters’ respective narrative arcs.
Your last three films have focused on women who find themselves at odds with society, either because of their age, their gender identification, or their sexual orientation. Is this a through line that you’ve consciously drawn?
It’s been a very organic process. I didn’t make the decision three films ago to make three films centered around women who are somehow on the fringes of society, or narratives that put them at the center. I just felt very moved and attracted by the idea of creating these portraits. Maybe like cubist portraits where I can see them from every possible angle and still go through an entire emotional spectrum, falling and then standing up again. There’s something about that that really moves me, and I’m just following that emotion.
I spoke with Daniela Vega earlier this year when A Fantastic Woman came out, and she talked all about how you collaborated with her to learn about the life of trans women in Chile. Did you undertake a similar process with anyone to understand the Orthodox Jewish community in London?
Oh yes. It wasn’t dissimilar in that sense. For the writing process, we had probably up to four consultants. And Naomi Alderman, who wrote the book on which the film is based while she was a part of the community in 2006, was always there to explain the nuances of what being an Orthodox Jewish woman means. And then for the pre-production process and the filming process, the amount of consultants grew and increased up to probably 12. I was very obsessed with getting the cultural nuances right. I wanted to capture the texture of that community, and then I really wanted to forget about it and focus on what I care about the most, which is the three main characters.
Ronit is probably the main character of the film, but it seems like all three of the lead performers could be considered the protagonist in a way. How did you go about striking a balance between their different journeys?
Well, it wasn’t easy because it’s a baroque structure, like when you listen to Bach. In this case, there are three narrative lines. It starts with Ronit, then Dovid comes in, and then Esti. Then the three of them are mixing, sometimes coexisting, separating again, mixing again. It’s like when you listen to a Goldberg variation. It wasn’t easy, but it was fascinating to try and find the balance between the three of them and give them enough space so that the spectator can see them facing the challenges and evolutionary crossroads that they’re going through. Because the three of them are facing their own dilemma. It was a fun and interesting process to find the final architecture of the story. If you pay attention to it, the camera is always framing at least one of them. The camera never observes anything else that’s apart from them. Even when we see a reverse angle in a conversation that’s pointing at some other character, it’s through the body of one of the three main characters.
The film casts a critical eye toward the forces that inhibit personal expression. How do you determine who’s worthy of critique, the institutions or the people, without turning either into obvious villains or antagonists?
I don’t believe there’s any perfect human society. It’s a personal quest to not fall into the trap of making a community an antagonistic force, but for that force to exist within the characters themselves. They’re the main obstacle for them to get to the next level. The community, of course, plays a big role. But it’s really about the tension between the interests of the group and individual freedom. When it comes to that, I’m closer to the individual battle, if you want.
Disobedience was Rachel Weisz’s baby in many ways, a project she’s been attached to and tried to get made for over a decade. Should we look for her authorship of the film anywhere other than in her performance as Ronit?
I think it’s been very special and an honor to be invited to direct the film because I always felt it was very personal for Rachel. She grew up not far away from the neighborhood, and it’s the world of her childhood even though she didn’t grow up in that community. There are certain things that are personal to her. She embraced the challenge passionately because of that. But at the same time, she was generous enough to let me find my own perspective and angle and solution. Then she really was an actress during the shooting and really generous, really trusted me. I’m really grateful for that.
Is there any particular Rachel McAdams performance that made you realize she was the right choice to play Esti?
Well, I’ve always considered her to be a great actress. She’s the kind of actress that you can’t take your eyes off of, and you’re always on her side. I thought it was going to be great for the character. But I remember watching her in To the Wonder, the Terrence Malick film, and being blown away by her cinematic presence. Almost like, this is a huge actress. I thought the combination of Rachel McAdams and Rachel Weisz was going to be electric and explosive and so attractive. So I was so happy when she accepted the part.
There’s a moment after the sex scene when Ronit takes Esti’s picture, and it made real the concept of the female gaze between the two women. Was that moment already in the novel or something you added in as a commentary?
That’s something that wasn’t in the novel, that was born during the writing process when we had to decide what was Ronit’s profession. It was different than the one described in the novel. I wanted to make Ronit a photographer because in the Orthodox culture there’s a certain rejection toward images and icons, and I found that to be an interesting paradox.
Was there anything you learned about working in the English language that you brought to the Americanized remake of your film Gloria?
Well, that at the end of the day, despite the amount of trucks that are parked outside the set, it’s the same thing. You have a camera, the team, the actors in front of the camera and a few hours to get the scene right. That felt like home.
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Review: The Gospel According to André
Review: Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda
Review: Gloria Bell Could Have Been an Expectation-Ducking Comedy
Review: Disobedience
Oscar 2018 Winner Predictions: Foreign Language
Tremblay discusses how horror can be a progressive, hopeful way to understand the world.
Neil McRobert
Photo: Allan Amato
Paul Tremblay laughs a lot. Our conversation, about demonically infested children and the end of the world, is interspersed with a low chuckle that suggests he loves doing what he does. And what he does is scare people. Tremblay is at the forefront of a supposed renaissance of horror fiction, and with good reason, as his books cut to the bone.
Tremblay burst onto the horror scene in 2015 with A Head Full of Ghosts, a deconstruction and excoriation of the exorcism subgenre. The most frightening book this critic has ever read, it won the Bram Stoker Award and, perhaps more crucially, Stephen King’s nod of approval. Disappearance at Devil’s Rock and The Cabin at the End of the World cemented his reputation as horror’s cruellest craftsman. In these tales, bad things happen to good families. Worlds collapse, lives shatter, and the ambiguity of existence is shown through a glass darkly.
Tremblay’s latest collection, Growing Things and Other Stories, continues his disquieting project. Twisted teachers give lessons in inhumanity, Polaroids reveal dark histories, and some very sinister dogwalkers commit metafictional trespass. The collection, now out from William Morrow, suggests a merciless worldview. Yet as we talk, Tremblay chuckles, pets his dog, and talks about how horror can be a progressive, hopeful way to understand the world.
Do you have a favorite story in Growing Things?
“It’s Against the Law to Feed the Ducks” is the earliest story in the collection and the first one where I thought, “I can do this.” That was the first time I made uncertainty essential to the story, central to the theme and the “why.” Though it could be hard for a reader to point at any one thing and say, “That’s why it’s a horror story,” I do feel it’s one of the more horrific things I’ve ever written. “Nineteen Snapshots of Dennisport” was also a lot of fun to write. I basically retook my own childhood vacation at a place in Cape Cod that we rented once. It was a chance to turn nostalgia on its ear and make it dangerous. I do think nostalgia can be a threat in the way it blurs over the messy parts of your history.
That’s interesting, because your fiction seems obsessed with memory.
I think much of horror is about memory. Memories are so malleable, yet we rely almost entirely on them to define what we think of as our self. Especially childhood memories. So many of them are usurped by retellings—whether your own or your friends’ or family’s—each gives you different versions of things that are the core of who you are. If you can’t trust your memories, then how can you trust identity? As a horror writer, that just feels like infinitely fertile ground. When you wake up in the middle of the night, you confront the question of who you are, and who is the person you’re sharing your bed and your life with. These thoughts freak me out, but I find them fascinating. I boil down horror stories as “a reveal of a dark truth.” In a lot of my stories the reveal is that identity isn’t ironclad and memories aren’t safe.
The media is another thing that emerges as both the format and focus of much of your writing. Is that an intentional theme?
Well, it’s a reflection of the time we’re living in. It’s pretty clear that social media hasn’t only changed society, it’s also changed us as individuals. It’s scary stuff and we’d be fools not to use it in stories. And I don’t just mean to have it there as background noise. If you’re going to use the media it has to be crucial to the story. Some older writers in the horror community would say that you shouldn’t mention this stuff—that it’s not timeless and will date your writing. That seems wholly ridiculous to me, because where’s the cut-off for timelessness? If you make the media central to your stories then people will still be able to read those stories in future decades because you’re essentially world-building.
The contingent realities of memory and media come together in the concept of “fake news.” Do you think horror, or your own work, is well-equipped to address that?
Well, the information age was greeted with a lot of optimism, but my books approach it with disappointment. I’ve met people all around the world through the power of social media. But I’ve also seen the pervasiveness and insidiousness of disinformation, It’s affected family members and relationships. It influences nations and political systems. It blows my mind.
Each of my novels address this is some way. In A Head Full of Ghosts, I use reality TV and the blogger to further enhance the ambiguity. Typically, books approach ambiguity by withholding information. I thought the cooler idea was to give a storm of information. You can’t know what’s real because there’s too much data to consider. I think that reflects the world we live in.
In Disappearance at Devil’s Rock, I took a stereotypical missing-teenager case. People think that it’s easy to locate someone because of all the information we have, hence the claim that “the cellphone killed the horror story.” I purposely wanted to write that story with these kids having snapchat and Facebook but show how that stuff makes it harder to get to the truth.
The Cabin at the End of the World is definitely riffing on those anxieties. I try not to be too didactic, but I absolutely wanted Cabin to be an allegory for our political times.
Why are you so drawn to ambiguity?
I think it reflects one of the horrors of our existence: that reality is more ambiguous than we allow. A smaller reason is that I resist committing to the supernatural in the novel. I’m an agnostic atheist, so if I encountered something in my everyday life, I think I’d have a hard time realizing that it was supernatural. It would be so liminal that how would we know? I’ve found it easier to go full supernatural in my short fiction. Soon I’ll need to come down on one side or the other, because people will get tired of me doing the ambiguity thing every time.
So, what would it take to convince you that your house was haunted?
In your head you imagine it wouldn’t take much. But in reality, we have 30-year mortgages. I’d probably think I had to gut it out, even with a ghost standing in the living room.
I’m not naïve enough to ask you to clarify any of your ambiguous endings. But I am interested in whether you know the truth in those novels.
For each book it’s slightly different. I started A Head Full of Ghosts intending to write a secular exorcism novel. But then I decided to split the evidence 50/50. To be honest, I haven’t really got a clear idea of whether Marjorie is possessed or mentally ill. That’s been a fun novel to discuss with fans because they have interpretations that I never considered. Devil’s Rock has a less ambiguous ending. I feel like it’s fairly clear what those last few pages say. And with Cabin I can honestly say that I haven’t spent a single second thinking about what happens after the last line of that book. That story is all about the choice that Andrew and Eric make, and by the end they have made it. At that point, it doesn’t matter if the world is ending or not.
Speaking to you now, and following you on social media, you seem a very positive guy. Yet your fiction is unremittingly bleak…
[laughs]
…yet every now and again you throw the reader an escape from the horror, or at least the potential for escape. I’m thinking in particular of your story “A Haunted House Is a Wheel Upon Which Some Are Broken,” where you use the choose-your-own-adventure format to lead the protagonist and reader through a history of trauma. It ends with a way out, which I didn’t expect. Would you say you are an optimist?
I don’t know really. With that story I wanted to give the character a way out. Because I think most people, or many people, do survive their personal traumas, their personal ghosts. When Cabin came out, I mentioned in interviews this thing that I called “the hope of horror.” It may sound pretentious but the reason I’m drawn to horror is the same reason I’m drawn to punk. It’s the idea that terrible truth is revealed, and we may not survive it, but there’s value in the shared recognition that something is wrong. So even though the novels and stories are bleak, I find some hope in the fact that we realise something is wrong, even if we can’t fix it. That’s the fist-pump moment If anything ties together the things that I like reading and watching, it’s the chance to look at how other people get through this thing we’re all doing…this life.
Speaking of which, you’re a parent, yet your stories do the worst things to children.
That’s my parental anxiety on show. My first child was born in 2000, and when I was getting serious about writing in the first half of that decade, a friend pointed out to me that I wrote about parents and children all the time. I hadn’t realized, but from there it became purposeful. With Devil’s Rock, I realized I was treading in the same family dynamic as Head Full of Ghosts. Then I wrote Cabin about another young family, and even though they’re individual books, I think they’re a nice thematic trilogy. Each book features a different kind of family in crisis.
You recently tweeted about doing research into some grim childhood illnesses. Dare I ask what that was for?
Yeah, that’s for my next novel. It will be my take on the zombie, but it’s about infected people rather than the undead. It’s set during the first four-to-six hours of an outbreak in Boston.
Is there a title?
The working title is Survivor Song. It’s due with my publishers at the end of the summer.
That’s quite the scoop. Aside from the new book, you also have the adaptation of A Head Full of Ghosts in the works. How involved are you in that process?
[laughs] Aaah, not at all. It’s understandable really. They optioned the book in 2015 before it was even published. At that point, I was rebooting my career, as my earlier crime novels hadn’t sold much. There was no reason for them to consider my feelings. It’s the rare writer who gets invited into in the filmmaking process. In TV they may consult you more, but even then I’m not sure how much of a say you have. I don’t have any say in A Head Full of Ghosts, but they have a director, Osgood Perkins, and a script that we like. It’s all getting a lot closer to being a real thing, with a very solid shot at starting production later this year.
Perkins’s The Blackcoat’s Daughter and I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House use ambiguity to great effect. Are you happy with him helming the film?
Definitely. He’s the perfect director for this material. I’m really looking forward to seeing what they do. It’ll be tough to squeeze that book into a 90-minute movie.
As it would with any of your writing. Many of the stories in Growing Things experiment with form and structure. Do you feel the need to escape traditional narration?
House of Leaves is one of my favourite novels. I’d love to one day write an experimental novel on that scale. But if you’re going to experiment with structure, then it must serve the story, and that’s easier in short fiction, which seems to beg for experimentation. No, I don’t feel the need to escape. Sometimes it’s just me trying to play with all the toys.
You’re at the center of a new school of young horror writers, people like Laird Barron, Alma Katsu, John Langan, Sarah Langan. Do you think the genre is enjoying a resurgence?
People talk about a new golden age of horror. That’s a little self-serving because I expect every horror writer throughout the ages has looked around and thought, “Hey, what we’re doing is great.” But I think it’s also undeniable that the current breadth of horror hasn’t been seen before, both in terms of gender and diversity as well as style. We aren’t all the way there yet, but it’s exciting and promising. I’m happy to be playing a little part in it.
Finally, what’s your favorite scary book, and your favourite scary movie?
With books it’s a tie. Mark Danielewski’s House of Leaves and Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle. There are so many more calling out in neglect, but let’s stick with those two. With movies it’s either John Carpenter’s The Thing or Steven Spielberg’s Jaws. I’ve probably seen Jaws close to 50 times and I still can’t watch the part where Quint is bitten in half. The first time I saw that it broke my brain and I’m too afraid to watch it again in case it takes me back in time. I had at least eight years of shark nightmares. The Thing asks: “Do you even know who you are?” It takes us back to that question about memory and identity and that idea of the dark reveal. It’s the heart of horror.
Paul Tremblay’s Growing Pains and Other Stories is now available in the U.S. from William Morrow and in the U.K. from Titan Books.
It’s been a whirlwind for Reynor to process the wide swath of reactions sparked by his character in the film.
Photo: A24
“I wrote this when I was going through a break up,” said writer-director Ari Aster as he introduced the finished cut of Midsommar to its first New York public screening back in June, “I’m better now.” Judging from what ensues in the film, much of Aster’s healing comes at the expense of the character Christian, played by Jack Reynor. As the emotionally distant romantic partner of Florence Pugh’s Dani, Christian bears the brunt of the film’s rage once his girlfriend becomes empowered to confront her past and present traumas through the rituals and traditions of a small Swedish village they visit.
Aster’s sophomore feature certainly doesn’t lack for that uneasy tension between hilarity and horror—spawned by fraught, complicated relationship dynamics—that marked Hereditary. As Pugh’s performance strengthens in tenacity over the course of the film, only Reynor’s fully realized portrayal of Christian stands in the way of total audience alignment with Dani’s retributive awakening. Instead of letting his character become a simplistic villain to draw our ire, he plays Christian in such a way that frustrates rather than outright antagonizes.
Midsommar has all the trappings of a major breakout for the American-Irish Reynor, thanks to his nuanced rendering of contemporary masculinity. The character fuses the sensibilities he’s honed across a range of productions from studio fare like Transformers: Age of Extinction and Delivery Man to mid-budget American indies like Detroit and On the Basis of Sex, though the 27-year-old’s best preparation may have come from playing tortured young Irish men in homegrown fare like What Richard Did and Glassland.
It’s been a whirlwind for Reynor to process the wide swath of reactions sparked by Christian. He and the rest of the cast first saw Midsommar just a day before A24 began screening it before crowds, and, as he expressed, some of the fervent responses caught him off guard. I talked with Reynor over the phone a week later to discuss how he approached playing such a polarizing character and what he’s learned from the audience’s feedback. We discuss plot points from the third act in generalities, but those looking to avoid any spoilers for Midsommar might want to bookmark and return to this interview after seeing the film.
I was in a Q&A where you asked the audience if they thought Christian deserved his fate, but I couldn’t see in the frame how they voted. What was the verdict?
I think almost half the people put up their hands instantly, in a very tellingly reactionary fashion. [laughs] It was really interesting.
Is that what you were expecting?
It wasn’t what I was expecting, but I think I should have been expecting it. I think it says more about me that I wasn’t expecting it than it does about them. It’s an interesting one, because my feeling about this movie is that I’m okay whether you feel like Christian deserves it or not, it’s fine. But it needs some real thought. Ultimately, the reason I wanted to do the movie was because I felt like this character was not one-dimensional. Ari never wanted him to be that way. Both of these characters represent the human condition, the things we can all relate to, in all of our relationships, be it with a parent, a family member, a friend, or a romantic partner. At one point or another, we’ve all been guilty of being insensitive or emotionally unavailable to a person or self-involved in a toxic, dysfunctional way. Just as we have experienced emotional needs and those needs not being met. These are all parts of the human condition. So that, for me, was the really interesting thing to portray.
Ultimately, the purpose of something like Midsommar is to challenge people to acknowledge the fact that they can relate to both of these people. And, ultimately, we do find ourselves in alignment with Dani at the end of the movie. This is a movie about her liberation from a toxic relationship and the catharsis that comes with it, albeit that the catharsis is confusing, painful, complex and not entirely clear. It’s very clear that it’s ultimately where we’re supposed to find ourselves at the end of the movie.
I was interested in giving extra layers of dimensionality to Christian and challenging myself to empathize and relate to a guy who, on the surface, is just an archetypal toxic alpha male. What allowed me to get into that was to follow this guy’s journey, which is the reverse of the hero’s journey. This guy’s structures, identity, and everything about him breaks down and is stripped away from him before he can even realize it. It’s happening all around him, and he doesn’t see it before it’s too late. But he finds himself literally stripped bare in this humiliating, exposing place, which is absolutely terrifying. That allowed me to get into the character, looking at him and acknowledging there are plenty of elements of that character that are in me and every single human being on the face of the planet. It’s the human condition.
I think you also said something to the people who thought Christian deserved what he got, “Go home and take a look at yourself in the mirror.” I don’t think anyone would want to be judged by their worst day or the worst thing they did. People are complicated, and they make decisions that don’t even make sense to themselves.
I totally agree, dude. I might have been a little bit reactionary myself to the audience! [laughs] But now that I’ve had an opportunity to talk about it, this is how I feel.
Some scenes that supposedly showed Christian in a more sympathetic light were left on the cutting room floor—obviously, what makes the most sense for the film is what should win out, but is there a part of you that wishes people might see the fuller picture of the character you created?
Partly, but then it would have been a very different film. I think, ultimately, it’s the director’s decision that we’re aligned with Dani. And it’s an interesting one. If the scenes where Christian exhibits more compassion and provides her with stuff she needs in the moment had been left in, the film would be even more divisive and polarizing for an audience than it is. But as I said, it was the director’s decision to take it out.
How do you tackle playing beats in Midsommar like the one when Christian turns on a dime and decides he also wants to research the Hårga in direct mimicry of Josh, his friend and colleague. The underlying reasons of jealousy and entitlement read clearly to us, but Christian himself seems a bit aloof and isn’t cognizant of why he’s doing what he is. How do you approach those moments?
I looked through the script, and there’s so much of being a dick and being aloof. But I wanted to play this guy, further to your point, on his worst day. It’s the worst of this guy. Although that’s pretty much all we see of the character, my baseline for Christian is that he’s a well-meaning guy. He would probably think he’s a good dude who tries to do the right thing. When you pitch the character there for yourself and allow the character to do questionable things, I think it gives context to everything. So that’s what I tried to do, making it a case where an audience is watching a good dude do really, really dickish things. All they’re seeing is these awful things he’s doing, but it’s all coming out of a guy who’s largely well-meaning. Some of the stuff he does is really unforgivable, particularly the element of stealing Josh’s idea for the thesis and being so brazen about it. It’s unbelievable. If there’s one thing in particular I find unforgivable about him, it’s that. I think to base the character as someone who means well but is acting out their worst aspects of their character in this moment is how I got into it.
You’ve spoken about wanting to get in on the ground floor with directors and being a part of their success, not just latching yourself on when they’re already established. How do you know or gauge who’s going the distance and who’s a one-hit wonder?
You never really know completely. You’re taking a swing, and there’s so much luck involved. It’s a question of educating yourself as much as possible in the culture of cinema and making an educated guess from there. Ari in particular is someone who I thought his short films were visionary when I watched them, because I never got to see Hereditary before I signed on to do this movie. The script was really interesting, but what he wrote goes far beyond the words on the page. The conversations I had with him prior to signing on to be a part of the film were definitely incredibly encouraging for me. We have a common admiration for a number of quite obscure filmmakers, but some of the best filmmakers who ever lived, nonetheless. To me, that was a sign that this was something I wanted to be a part of and this was a director who valued the artistic merit of the project above all else. As long as you’re in the company of someone like that and as cultured as he is in the conversation of filmmaking, you’re probably in good hands. I’m going to endeavor to continue down that route interrogating directors I work with.
Is that education aspect of it a part of what your new Instagram movie review account, Jack Reynor’s Cinemania, is about? Watching movies with an eye to your own development as an artist?
One-hundred percent, man. That’s something I started not only because I wanted to start conversations with others about the cinema I love, but because it also helps me to advise and absorb what I’m seeing when I’m watching it. It educates me further in the grammar of cinema, and it’s a very useful tool for me as much as it’s an outlet. I absolutely love it.
On the eve of Spider-Man: Far from Home’s release, we ranked the 23 films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Photo: Columbia Pictures
Most of Marvel Studios’s films are the cinematic equivalent of breadcrumbs, which have been dropped into theaters strategically so as to keep one looking for the next sequel or crossover, when the endless televisual exposition will eventually, theoretically yield an event of actual consequence. Occasionally, however, a Marvel film transcends this impersonality and justifies one’s patience. Weird, stylish, and surprisingly lyrical, Ant-Man, Iron Man 3, and Doctor Strange attest to the benefits of the old Hollywood-style studio system that Marvel has resurrected: Under the umbrella of structure and quota is security, which can bequeath qualified freedom. Chuck Bowen
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on April 25, 2018.
23. The Incredible Hulk (2008)
The aesthetic dexterity and psychological depth of Ang Lee’s Hulk is corrupted by Marvel’s “reboot” of the superhero franchise, Louis Leterrier’s intermittently kinetic but depressingly shallow The Incredible Hulk. In response to complaints that Lee’s unjustly excoriated 2003 effort was too talky and slow, Leterrier swings the pendulum to the opposite side of the spectrum, delivering a slam-bang spectacle so lacking in weight that, until the impressive finale, the film seems downright terrified of character and relationship development, as if too much conversation or—gasp!—subtextual heft will immediately alienate coveted young male fanboys. Nick Schager
22. Iron Man 2 (2010)
Upgraded with the latest CGI hardware but also more shoddy screenwriting software than its system can withstand, Iron Man 2 is an example of subtraction by addition. For a sequel designed to deliver what its predecessor did not, Jon Favreau’s follow-up to his 2008 blockbuster piles on incidents and characters it doesn’t need while still managing to skimp on the combat that should be this franchise’s bread and butter but which remains an element only trotted out at sporadic intervals and in modest portions. Schager
21. Captain Marvel (2018)
As another of the character-introducing MCU stories existing mostly to feed new superheroes into the Avengers series, Captain Marvel looks like something of a trial run. You know the drill: If the film lands with audiences, then you can count on Captain Marvel (Brie Larson)—like Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and even Ant-Man before her—getting her own series. But if not, then, hey, she’s at least assured of being asked to pop by the game room at Stark Industries for a kibitz in somebody else’s franchise down the road. Based on what’s on display here, Captain Marvel could well get her own star turn again at some point, but hopefully it will be with a different crew behind the camera. Chris Barsanti
20. Avengers: Endgame (2019)
There’s some fleeting fun to be had when Avengers: Endgame turns into a sort of heist film, occasioning what effectively amounts to an in-motion recap of prior entries in the MCU. Yet every serious narrative beat is ultimately undercut by pro-forma storytelling (the emotional beats never linger, as the characters are always race-race-racing to the next big plot point), or by faux-improvised humor, with ringmaster Tony “Iron Man” Stark (Robert Downey Jr., so clearly ready to be done with this universe) leading the sardonic-tongued charge. Elsewhere, bona fide celebs like Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Natalie Portman are reduced to glorified extras. Even the glow of movie stardom is dimmed by the supernova that is the Marvel machine’s at best competently produced weightlessness. Keith Uhlich
19. Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
What is this, a crossover episode? After 18 films, the overlords at Marvel Studios have gathered almost all of their indentured servants, er, star-studded stable together into the ever-crashing, ever-booming, and ever-banging extravaganza Avengers: Infinity War. Whether you look at this whirling dervish and see a gleefully grandiose entertainment or a depressing exemplar of the culturally degraded present moment will depend on your investment—in all senses of that term—in Marvel’s carefully cultivated mythos. The film is all manic monotony. It’s passably numbing in the moment. And despite the hard-luck finish—something an obligatory post-credits sequence goes a long way toward neutering—it’s instantly forgettable. Strange thing to say about a film featuring Peter Dinklage as the tallest dwarf in the universe. Keith
18. Thor (2011)
With some notable exceptions, Marvel Studios-produced films usually plateau at a glossy but totally indistinct level of mediocrity, and Thor continues the trend of weakly jumpstarting a franchise based on a Marvel comic with an adequate but instantly forgettable origin story. Kenneth Branagh’s film is reasonably well put-together, but unlike even his worst films, it has no internal life, instead feeling like an impersonal, assembly-line product. The film’s most notable feature is that it serves as a continuation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe set up by the Iron Man movies. Characters from those films pop up during Thor’s main narrative and after the end credits, living up to Marvel’s commitment to populating their films with the same bland versions of perfectly acceptable characters. While Thor is certainly competent, that’s just not enough. Simon Abrams
17. Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
A spectacle of star-spangled superheroics, Captain America: The First Avenger gives sturdy big-screen treatment to Marvel’s square-jawed—and square—jingoistic military man. With Joe Johnston delivering pyrotechnical action-adventure in a period guise, à la The Rocketeer (which was similarly fixated on its female lead’s buxom chest), this costumed-crusader saga is a capable, if somewhat unremarkable, affair beset by the same origin-story shortcomings that plagued another U.S.-virtue-via-army-weaponry fable, Iron Man—namely, a bifurcated structure in which the introductory first half exceeds, in compelling drama and kick-ass thrills, the latter fight-the-baddies combat. Schager
16. Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
While writer-director Joss Whedon takes considerable strides to make Avengers: Age of Ultron’s narrative feel more nuanced and personal, his few sublime scenes of expressive melodrama are drowned out by the massive amounts of exposition and backstory that make up most of the dialogue and subsequently make the film feel overworked. When the talk isn’t about the intricate plot and the characters’ mythology, it’s a whole lot of dick-centric jabs. In cases like the competition over who can pick up Thor’s (Chris Hemsworth) hammer, there’s a vague sense that Whedon is in on the joke, but then there’s a plethora of other exchanges that don’t seem so tongue in cheek. The bro-isms that underscore these interpersonal relations might explain why Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff strikes up a romance with Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), a.k.a. the Hulk, the only male Avenger who isn’t consistently preoccupied with the size of his…ego. The growing relationship between Romanoff and Banner is the tender heart of Age of Ultron, and Whedon clearly thrills in the cheesy but heartfelt melodrama that builds between them. Unfortunately, as the film has approximately another half-dozen or so plotlines to tend to, this section of the story barely makes up a sixth of the narrative. Chris Cabin
Joey Burns and Sam Beam spoke with reverence about each other, revealing their multifaceted relationship.
Max Winter
Photo: Piper Ferguson
From “Father Mountain,” which urges you to savor love in the face of life’s inevitabilities, to “In Your Own Time,” with its shadowy images flirting with the nightmarish, there’s a melancholy percolating beneath Years to Burn, the second collaborative album from Iron and Wine and Calexico. In a recent conversation with Iron and Wine, a.k.a. Sam Beam, and Calexico’s Joey Burns, the musicians spoke with reverence about each other, both personally and professionally, revealing their multifaceted relationship.
As elusive as the exact source of Years to Burn’s mellowness might be, the work on the project was, to hear Beam and Burns tell it, focused and grounded. The album grew, as Beam says, “out of a determination and a willingness to work together. After we made [2005’s In the Reins], that time we spent together promoting it, and just sort of playing together for so long, formed really strong bonds—familial bonds—and we just really enjoy each other’s company.”
The questions they faced were, according to Burns, “Well, where do you go next? Do you do begin where you last left off or do you just go somewhere totally different?” As it happened, they wouldn’t have too much of an opportunity to ruminate about that: Their time in the studio was limited to five days, and they limited the number of musicians they used, sticking with tried-and-true band members like John Convertino, Paul Niehaus, and Paul Valenzuela. Burns describes a fairly stoic regimen: “You show up at 10 o’clock, do some work, break for lunch, work up until dinner, finish up or just listen back, and then do it all over again. There’s really not much time for hanging out or doing anything else.”
These limitations ended up working to the album’s benefit. “Having a limited amount of time kind of forces you as an artist to make decisions,” Beam says. “You can get really hung up on what the right choices are, and that’s kind of an endless question. With this approach, I’m able to separate myself in a way where I say, well, this is the best choice that we’ve made on this day from this point in the snapshot of our best ideas at the moment. And to me that’s a freeing thing. You make decisions, and those decisions stick, and you live with them, and then you can move on to the next thing.”
Remarkably, Beam and Burns and the other musicians surrounding them found room to improvise and experiment within their constraints. The most evident sign of this, “Bittersweet,” is an entrancing mix of three songs. Burns says it started with his primary partner in Calexico, John Convertino, who suggested they do one song that was totally free of lyrics, chords, and rhythm. “I came up with a title for that, ‘Outside El Paso,’ sort of connecting us geographically,” Burns remembers. “And, of course, there we were in Nashville. And so Sam had a song called ‘Tennessee Train.’ And I thought, hey, what if we took just one chord and we just made a ‘70s groove? And we wound up putting some really great trumpet solos on that. We added some backing vocals. And since it was sort of linked with the song ‘Tennessee Train,’ we started bridging those together. And then I suggested that we take one of the verses and translate it into Spanish for Jacob [Valenzuela] to sing. And then that became sort of a medley. Everything fell together really naturally and quickly.”
Burns describes other moments of productive experimenting too: “We had John Convertino climb into this big old empty tall echo-chamber. It’s at the studio. And we had him record the drum intro [for ‘What Heaven’s Left’]. And he had to carry his floor tom inside there. It’s a very small opening. It’s like a tiny window. And basically what you do is you put a microphone at one end of this room, and then at the other end you put a speaker. And that’s how you get the natural reverb sound.”
Though Beam had clear ideas about how he wanted the album to proceed, he also welcomed and appreciated these gestures of spontaneity. “It’s what can potentially make music really exciting, recording music and also playing music,” he says. “It’s sort of losing the safety net and stretching out. And so I wanted to make sure that we incorporated that into what we were making this time. Last time, I don’t feel like we really did that, because I didn’t really understand that about them at the time.”
Time has made the two bands more effective collaborators. The way Burns sees it, time has changed them, but that’s inevitable: “We’re just different people. Different experiences have accumulated. And so there’s a different end result. And not only that, but if we were to record the same songs and do another album like this, a week or a month later, it probably would come out a lot differently. That’s the beauty of this—it just depends on the mood and the vibe and the place where you’re at, and where everyone is at internally or emotionally.”
Beam, similarly, takes time in stride but is also curious about the changes it could bring. “It was odd, you know, that almost 15 years had passed in between, kind of crazy to think of,” he says. “The first time we did it, we hadn’t worked together before, so I was just sort of bringing in songs without knowing what it would sound like or what the collaboration would end up being like. And this time, it was 15 years later, so I was looking over my memories, and memories can be not quite so trustworthy sometimes. But I was also working off those strengths, and then also trying some new things.”
And so what of the songs themselves? Many musical collaborations sound like they were were designed by committee. With Years to Burn, like collaborations ranging from that of Norah Jones and Billie Joe Armstrong and reaching all the way back to Paul Simon and Ladysmith Black Mambazo, something just works. While you might hear traces of each individual performer in the mix, the sound created is unique.
Beam says collaboration drove everything here, starting with the track sequence: “There were thematic elements going on in the songs chosen for the album. I think we were all really intent on there being a lot of shared singing responsibilities. And so, in putting the sequence together I really wanted to feel like we kept sort of passing the baton around. When you’re putting those things together, you’re looking for a sort of sonic feel, flow, variety. You’re looking for different kinds of musical movements, and then also passing the baton around like a hot potato of singing responsibilities.”
And yet Beam’s process for writing the songs on the album (he wrote all but one of them) was fairly private and intuitive. “Writing songs is not a math problem,” he says. “There’s not a right or wrong answer. So you kind of do what you feel like at the moment. It’s a matter of what you’re trying to achieve with a song, any individual one. If you want to express an idea outside of your experience and live into that, songs and art are a great place to do that, to explore an ideal or fantasy. I don’t really do that. I just talk about my experience, sometimes directly and sometimes indirectly. But I guess that’s just where my mind is when I sit down to write. I get contemplative.” The album, indeed, is all about thoughts, and the emotions behind them, more than it’s about tangible things; these songs float just outside of what we might easily summarize. And yet the feelings and impressions being described in the songs are quite real, and recognizable, becoming more poignant with each listen.
Whatever the outcome of the streaming wars, we hope that when the dust clears, there’s still a digital home for films like these.
Photo: Music Box Films
In our present day, it feels like we’re sitting on the edge of too many abysses to count. Confining our perspective to the world of film, it’s arguable that the streaming apocalypse has arrived. Consumers are already fed up with the glut of services offering a library of films at low, low prices that, in sum, add up to the price of the premium cable package we thought we’d escaped. We’re still months away from the launch of Disney+, which now looks not so much like the herald of the apocalypse as a behemoth that will arrive in its wake to rule over the vestiges of the internet’s cine-civilization.
And there’s a different ongoing streaming apocalypse, at least according to the defenders of the movies as a unique medium. The year opened with cinema’s old guard attempting to forestall the effects of streaming’s rise on the rest of the film industry: Most visibly, Steven Spielberg attempted to cajole the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences into disqualifying Netflix-produced films from competing for Oscars. And is streaming also to blame for this summer season’s dismal box-office numbers? Perhaps in part. In any case, the cracks in the Hollywood fortifications are showing. For years, prognosticators have predicted the unsustainability of the “tent pole” model of film production, but the outcome is that everything is coming up Disney: Even Fox is Disney now, or soon will be.
But if streaming is indeed facilitating the long-delayed collapse of the tent-pole model, then more power to it. The year so far has been disappointing from the perspective of box-office returns, and it has been downright dreadful in terms of the so-called blockbusters themselves—another summer of sequels, side-quels, and soft reboots that has made it difficult to recall a time when big-budget superhero flicks like Dark Phoenix felt like cultural events.
That said, it’s worth noting that streaming isn’t simply killing the box office, but offering an alternative to a moribund institution, as the best chance to see many of this year’s best films, for those outside the country’s major markets, will be on streaming services. Whatever the outcome of the streaming wars, we should hope that when the dust clears, there’s still a digital home for films like the ones on our list. Pat Brown
3 Faces (Jafar Panahi)
Jafar Panahi works references into his film to some of the compositions, landscapes, and boundary-pushing plays of fiction and documentary evidenced in Abbas Kiarostami’s cinema. But instead of mere replication, 3 Faces filters these elements through Panahi’s own unique sensibilities. Rather than letting the mysteries in his film stand, or prolonging its ambiguities, Panahi prefers to signify potential plot directions and formal strategies and then promptly pivot away from them at the moment they outlast their usefulness. This isn’t the mark of a lesser filmmaker, but merely one who recognizes that his own strengths lie in his intuitiveness, his wit, and his humor. Sam C. Mac
Ash Is Purest White (Jia Zhang-ke)
The political dimensions of Jia Zhang-ke’s films hve led to a strained relationship with state censors in the past—and so the director’s appointment this year as a representative of China’s 13th National People’s Congress, and the larger indication that he was working to gain the favor of the state, created some worries about the integrity of his films going forward. But thankfully, the clever, subversive, and hugely ambitious Ash Is Purest White assuages those concerns. The film serves as a considered retrospection, and a coherent transition between Jia’s neorealist early films and his more recent populist melodramas. It’s a quixotic and profound statement on the spatial and temporal dissonances that inform life in 21st-century China. Mac
The Beach Bum (Harmony Korine)
Despite its lax, vignette-like quality, The Beach Bum is perhaps Harmony Korine’s most straightforward film to date, even while its form fully embraces its inherently circuitous, nonsensical subject matter. Indeed, the way Moondog (Matthew McConaughey) buoyantly moves from locale to locale, Korine’s semi-elliptical style, and a tendency for events to just happen lend the film a chronic haziness where even life-threatening occurrences are treated with a cheery dementia. At one point, a character loses a limb, but it’s “just a flesh wound”—something to quickly move on from and to the next toke. Not for nothing has Korine likened the film’s structure to pot smoke. Its dreamy, associative style is pitched to its characters’ almost random inclinations, while mirroring the spatiotemporal dilation of a high. Peter Goldberg
Birds of Passage (Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra)
A narcotrafficking origin story embedded inside an ethnographic study of a vanishing culture, Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra’s Birds of Passage starts and ends in the harsh Guajira desert peninsula that sticks into the Caribbean Sea from northern Colombia. Showing the same fascination with the interstices of Western and native cultures that Guerro and Jacques Toulemonde Vidal brought to Embrace of the Serpent, the story initially takes a back seat to an examination of ritual and belief. While the basics of the narrative are familiar from other stories about how Colombia tore itself apart serving America’s drug culture, the film stands apart for Gallego and Guerra’s studied focus on the drip-drip-drip of traditions falling before encroaching modernity as a family grows in wealth and shrinks in awareness. Also, their arresting visual sense power the story in the eeriest of ways, from the sweeping vistas of desert and sky to the surreal appearance of a glistening white mansion where an ancient village once stood. Chris Barsanti
Black Mother (Khalik Allah)
Black Mother finds Khalik Allah doubling down on his established aesthetic to bold, hypnotic ends. This essayistic documentary is organized into “trimesters,” chapter headings marked by the growing stomach of a naked woman, and it drifts between digital, Super 8, and Bolex footage as Allah tours the home country of his mother, beginning with a remarkably cogent examination of Jamaican political and religious history through the voices of those the director encounters on the street, before sprawling into more existential terrain, chiefly the feedback loop between humans and the environment. Allah is attracted to loud, confident voices, and the ways in which they hold forth about poverty, sex work, spirituality, and food is crucial to the filmmaker’s vision of the proud, angry beating heart of a nation. Christopher Gray
E3 2019: The Best and Worst Surprises
The 2019 Electronic Entertainment Expo presented an industry in transition.
Ryan Aston
Photo: Devolver Digital
The 2019 Electronic Entertainment Expo presented an industry in transition. As the current console generation winds down and new hardware is still in development, the subject of how games will be played going forward has come into question, as the technology to stream games via the cloud supplants the need for consoles or PCs.
In a 15-minute presentation prior to E3’s launch, Google unveiled their cloud gaming service Stadia, a subscription-based service—for use on desktop computers, laptops, and mobile devices—that allows high-end gaming without the need for expensive hardware. Supposedly offering computing power significantly stronger than that of the PlayStation Pro and Xbox One X combined, Stadia relies on Google’s own data centers, with the only real bottleneck being consumer internet speeds and bandwidth caps as the gameplay is streamed to the end user. Hands-on experience with Stadia has shown it to be incredibly impressive—provided one’s internet connection is stable and fast enough to handle the required download speed.
Even before the expo officially kicked off at the Los Angeles Convention Center, notions of “traditional” video gaming were being challenged. There was no greater sign of the shake up than the absence of one of the three major console makers: Sony. The company eschewed not only their usual press conference, but any showing at all. While many have suggested that Sony, who had informally announced their upcoming PlayStation 5 console earlier in 2019, wanted to benefit from Microsoft announcing what the target specs would be for the Project Scarlett, the simple truth is that Sony doesn’t have much to currently show to the public.
Only two of Sony’s upcoming first-party exclusive titles particularly stand out: Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us 2, a known quantity which has already seen multiple previews, and Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding, whose trailer premiered shortly before the expo kicked off. In the end, releasing the trailer ahead of E3 was a smart move on the company’s part, as the ongoing enigma that is Kojima’s next title dominated discussion for days instead of getting lost in the sea of announcements after E3 was officially under way, and a solid release date is something that Sony can boast about in a year where their exclusives are scant.
EA also elected not to host their customary press conference, instead opting for a streamed video presentation similar to the Nintendo Direct broadcast. The company’s decision not to discuss anything about this year’s disappointing Anthem is damning, not only for the remaining fans of the game hoping to see the game properly supported moving forward, but for EA itself, whose frustrating trend of misusing developers they acquire has left BioWare on thin ice. As one live service game in an ocean, and created by a company with little experience making such games, Anthem was always destined to face an uphill battle; at this point, some four months after its release, turning the game around would require faith in the product and an evolving cycle of new content, both of which EA could have presented to the world here. And there’s precedent for this, demonstrated by the success of Destiny after its first tumultuous year. Alas, not even a mention across the entire show.
The main event of EA’s Play presentation was their upcoming Star Wars title Jedi: Fallen Order. Though the somnolent 14-minute video that capped the presentation seems to promise a cross between Uncharted and The Force Unleashed, hands-on time with the game reveals that its closest analogue is Dark Souls, given that it takes place across large open areas with bonfire equivalents the protagonist can meditate at, which inexplicably revives all enemies. The combat feels like that of Dark Souls, with the fast-paced lightsaber duels of something like Jedi Academy replaced by slower, more precise one-on-one battles where you must manoeuver around enemies to fight them individually, and in a manner that recalls other From Software games. Whether Jedi: Fallen Order will be as difficult as the Soulsborne titles remains to be seen, though one would assume EA would want the title to be accessible as possible, especially considering their recent and lousy track record with the franchise.
The first official E3 press conference was presented by Microsoft, which had a stellar showing of new games and announcements. New titles demonstrated include Outer Worlds, a Fallout-esque sci-fi action adventure game, a new Battletoads game featuring bright and colourful cartoonish graphics, the latest iteration of Microsoft Flight Simulator, the next chapter in the Gears of War series simply titled Gears 5, and survival horror outing Blair Witch. Microsoft’s next console, Project Scarlett, was broadly discussed as a technical powerhouse without mentioning any specifics, including price, as if to ensure Sony has no edge on the competition when their PS5 announcement finally comes. More interestingly, Microsoft presented their version of the cloud streaming gaming, the Microsoft xCloud service, which Phil Spencer was able to elaborate on during Giant Bomb’s Nite Two live show.
Spencer notes that while cloud streaming services are convenient, allowing gamers to play games anywhere, they’re to the detriment of consumers in terms of actually letting them own the games they buy. The Stadia pricing model includes not only subscription fees, but also additional prices on top for some games, which is troubling as purchasers will only “own” any game they buy as long as the service is active, or if they have an active internet connection. If Google, or any streaming service, pulls the plug, purchased products simply go away.
Which is why Microsoft is working toward a hybrid of cloud streaming services with traditional ownership models, where gamers will own their console and their games, but can also stream them to other devices to play games on the go using the cloud. Google’s Stadia offers something more akin to Netflix, and looks to suffer from some of the same issues as Netflix when it comes to content disappearing as licenses expire. Whether Microsoft’s model works also remains to be seen, but their excellent and inexpensive Game Pass service, which saw extension to the PC during E3, has demonstrated both the excellent value and the focus on services benefitting the end user that Spencer advocated for.
Bethesda was in full-apology mode for their first press conference since the disastrous launch of Fallout 76, bookending their presentation with saccharine, insipid videos about how they understand and like gamers, how they’re gamers themselves, and other such rigmarole. Bringing out Todd Howard to discuss said elephant in the room would have been a misstep had it not been for the announcement of the game’s Nuclear Winter DLC—a fresh take (currently available in beta) on the battle-royale genre—as well as a Fallout 76 freeplay period where anyone can play the game with the new content. Nuclear Winter is a surprising amount of fun, a squad-based battle royale allowing players to choose where they spawn on the map and then take advantage of classic Fallout devices while fighting to become the only survivor. For example, becoming invisible with a Stealth Boy offers a fleeting chance to get the drop on enemies or flee an area teeming with overpowered opponents, or jumping into a set of Power Armor gives more health but impedes player speed and is loud enough to give away player location. At time of writing, Bethesda have made Nuclear Winter an indefinite add-on for Fallout 76, which gives the populace at large a reason to try Fallout 76.
Standing high above Bethesda’s other announcements and demos, Doom Eternal looks to be a spectacular follow-up to the successful 2016 reboot, escalating on the core gameplay with new abilities including a combat grappling hook and a flamethrower, and an expanded narrative involving angels as well as the demons of Hell. Elsewhere, Square Enix’s press conference largely focused on the Final Fantasy VII Remake and concluded with a baffling look at Marvel Avengers, a game that probably should have been revealed back when Avengers: Endgame was still a part of the popular conversation but probably wasn’t given its ugly and bizarre character models. More notable, though buried within the conference, was the announcement of Dying Light 2, which looks to be an ambitious and sprawling follow-up to the original game. It boasts expanded parkour gameplay in a new environment that changes with player choice, promising to give fans a unique experience with each playthrough.
Nintendo Direct closed out the conferences, announcing two new Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC characters: the much-loved dynamic duo of Banjo and Kazooie and the not-so-loved hero from Dragon Quest. The Link’s Awakening remaster, which boasts frustratingly cutesy graphics that go against the original game’s theme and tone, was also exhibited; it’s as if the developers thought that the cartoonish look of the original 8-Bit Game Boy title was an intentional stylistic choice, rather than how Zelda games looked at that time, and that it was something that needed to be made cuter. It feels like a significant misstep, and one that’s bound to cheapen the surprisingly mature and thoughtful narrative. Nonetheless, it’s pleasing that this underplayed classic will find a new audience, and Nintendo’s diorama displays of areas from the game on the show floor were exceptional and gorgeous.
Finally, a new Animal Crossing was revealed, with a fresh island setting, new crafting gameplay, and the inclusion of fruit stacking. After sideline missteps like Pocket Camp, Amiibo Festival, and Happy Home Designer, a new Switch entry seems to be exactly the shot in the arm that this beloved series needs to get back on track.
Although E3 2019 demonstrated that there are major changes coming for the gaming industry, some things remain the same, even if it’s just Devolver Digital taking the piss out of, well, the big-budget press conference. Indeed, latest conference was as fresh, joyous, and deranged as its predecessors. The future of video gaming might be uncertain, but there’s still plenty to look forward to and celebrate, and this is something the folks at Devolver Digital are committed to proving year after year, and with a humor that could stand to rub off on the industry at large.
E3 ran from June 11—13.
All 21 Pixar Movies, Including Toy Story 4, Ranked from Worst to Best
Upon the release of Pixar’s Toy Story 4, we’re counting down the animation studio’s 21 films, from worst to best.
Photo: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Editor’s Note: This entry was originally published on June 21, 2013.
Among the familiar elements on display throughout Josh Cooley’s Toy Story 4 is the abandoned and resentful toy as a villain who holds the heroes hostage, which easily invites comparison to Lee Unkrich’s brilliant Toy Story 3. It’s a comparison that doesn’t favor the new film, which isn’t as impactful in terms of story or image. Cooley’s direction is fluid, seamlessly interweaving the fun escapades and the earnest emotions, but it lacks the visual power of the prior film. There’s no equivalent to the moment in Toy Story 3 when, headed into a blazing incinerator, Woody and his friends silently grasp hands, taking comfort in one another as they face their ends head-on. On the occasion of the film’s release, join us in revisiting the Pixar canon, ranked from worst to best. Pat Brown
21. Cars 2 (2011)
The effect of the Toy Story films is practically primal. They appeal to anyone who’s ever cared about a toy—one they outgrew, gave away, or painfully left behind somewhere. These films, with scant manipulation and much visual and comic invention, thrive on giving toys a conscience and imagining what adventures they have when we turn our backs to them. Conversely, the effect of Cars and its infinitely worse sequel, toons about dudes-as-cars not quite coping with their enormous egos and their contentious bromances, is entirely craven in the way it humorlessly, unimaginatively, and uncritically enshrines the sort of capitalist-driven desires Pixar’s youngest target audience is unable to relate to. Unless, that is, they had a douchebag older brother in the family who spent most of his childhood speaking in funny accents and hoarding his piggy-bank money to buy his first hot rod. Ed Gonzalez
20. Cars (2006)
Maybe it’s my general aversion to Nascar, or anything chiefly targeted at below-the-line states. Maybe it’s that Larry the Cable Guy’s Mater is the Jar Jar Binks of animated film. Or maybe it’s just that a routinely plotted movie about talking cars is miles beneath Pixar’s proven level of ingenuity, not to mention artistry (okay, we’ll give those handsome heartland vistas a pass). Whatever the coffin nail, Cars, if not its utterly needless sequel, is thus far the tepid, petroleum-burning nadir of the Pixar brand, the first of the studio’s films to feel like it’s not just catering, but kowtowing, to a specific demographic. Having undeservedly spawned more merchandising than a movie that’s literally about toys, Cars’s cold commercialism can still be felt today, with a just-launched theme park at Disneyland. And while CG people are hardly needed to give a Pixar film humanity, it’s perhaps telling that this, one of the animation house’s few fully anthropomorphic efforts, is also its least humane. R. Kurt Osenlund
19. The Good Dinosaur (2015)
The Good Dinosaur has poignant moments, particularly when a human boy teaches Arlo, the titular protagonist, how to swim in a river, and there are funny allusions to how pitiless animals in the wild can be. But the film abounds in routine, featherweight episodes that allow the hero to predictably prove his salt to his family, resembling a cross between City Slickers and Finding Nemo. There’s barely a villain, little ambiguity, and essentially no stakes. There isn’t much of a hero either. Arlo is a collection of insecurities that have been calculatedly assembled so as to teach children the usual lessons about bravery, loyalty, and self-sufficiency. The Good Dinosaur is the sort of bland holiday time-killer that exhausted parents might describe as “cute” as a way of evading their indifference to it. Children might not settle for it either, and one shouldn’t encourage them to. Chuck Bowen
18. Monsters University (2013)
It’s perfectly fair to walk into Monsters University with a wince, wondering what Toy Story 3 hath wrought, and lamenting the fact that even Pixar has fallen into Hollywood’s post-recession safe zone of sequel mania and brand identification. What’s ostensibly worse, Monsters University jumps on the prequel, origin-story bandwagon, suggesting our sacred CGI dream machine has even been touched by—gulp—the superhero phenomenon. But, while admittedly low on the Pixar totem pole, Monsters University proves a vibrant and compassionate precursor to Monsters, Inc., the kid-friendly film that, to boot, helped to quell bedroom fears. Tracing Mike and Sulley’s paths from ill-matched peers to super scarers, MU boasts Pixar’s trademark attention to detail (right down to abstract modern sculptures on the quad), and it manages to bring freshness to the underdog tale, which is next to impossible these days. Osenlund
Cars 3 is content to explore the end of Lightning McQueen’s (Owen Wilson) career with a series of pre-packaged sports-film clichés—an old dog trying to learn new tricks, struggling with a sport that seems to have passed him by, and facing, for the first time in his career, a sense of vulnerability. The template turns out to be a natural fit for the Cars universe, organically integrating racing into the fabric of the film and rendering it with a visceral sense of speed, excitement, and struggle. Cruz Ramirez (Cristela Alonzo) is a welcome addition, a plucky foil to McQueen who’s also a three-dimensional presence in her own right, much more richly developed than one-joke characters like Mater (Larry the Cable Guy) and Luigi (Tony Shalhoub). Cruz’s presence also allows the filmmakers to bring some social conscience to this sometimes backward-looking franchise, exploring the discouraging pressures placed on young female athletes while also nodding toward the historical exclusion of women and racial minorities from racing. Watson
Interview: Joe Talbot and Jimmie Fails on the Friendship Behind The Last Black Man in San Francisco
Fails and Talbot live and breathe their city, even as its dominant tech industry is wiping away its offbeat majesty.
Photo: Adam Newport-Berra/A24
The surrealistic verve of The Last Black Man in San Francisco often makes the film feel as if it exists apart from time and reality. But perhaps no facet of Joe Talbot’s film cuts against the grain of the present political climate than the form of its nostalgia. In a time where politicians on the right are weaponizing a rose-colored view of America’s past in order to rouse action in support of a whiter, more homogenous country, Talbot and co-writer/star Jimmie Fails’s story pines for a truly diverse, pluralistic society in San Francisco.
Fails and Talbot, who sports a San Francisco Giants ballcap that’s been seemingly surgically attached to his head, live and breathe their city, even as its dominant tech industry is wiping away its offbeat charms and majesty. Fails’s painfully personal biography is the backbone of The Last Black Man in San Francisco, and it connects to a larger history of San Francisco. Gentrification moves beyond serving as just an empty thematic buzzword and emerges as a process that takes tangible effects in its characters. As Fails, playing a version of himself, attempts to reclaim an old Victorian home built by his grandfather, he must directly confront the social and economic forces leading to his own obsolescence in the city that made him.
I chatted with Talbot and Fails about their creative partnership over coffee in New York—and, ironically enough, at a venue in a part of town that the Urban Displacement Project classifies as having fallen victim to “super gentrification.” Our conversation began with a discussion about their early work together in scrappy short films and closed with a talk about how they hope to encourage public dialogue about gentrification in the future.
Was the 2017 short film American Paradise your first collaboration together?
Joe Talbot: No, actually, we made movies together since high school. One of our first movies was called Last Stop Livermore.
Was American Paradise a proof of concept for The Last Black Man in San Francisco at all? Or just trying to level up a bit?
JT: We did a concept trailer for Last Black Man five years ago that was closer to proof of concept for this. It was essentially Jimmie skateboarding through the city. I’m hanging out of my little brother’s car filming it, very funky, and he’s skating and telling his story that inspired the film. That was the first thing we did. Jimmie’s wearing the beanie and red plaid shirt [an outfit he wears throughout the feature]. We put it online not expecting anything to happen. We’d never done anything big like this before. But we started getting emails from people who wanted to join and help us. They became a part of our film family, and as we developed Last Black Man over the next few years, basically learning how to write a script together, because we’d never done anything like that, and we had an opportunity to do a short film that eventually became American Paradise. In American Paradise, even though Jimmie’s character bookends it, it was a completely different story for us. It was a chance for us to come together and make something en route to making the feature.
So, like a ride with training wheels beforehand?
JT: A little bit, yeah! I had never been on a set. Part of it was that I knew I was gonna fuck up in some ways, so I wanted to lessen the chance of that.
You mentioned there being a long tracking shot in the trailer, and a lot of those shots made it into the feature. Is that something you always envisioned as a key part of telling Jimmie’s story?
JT: Yeah, I think the city lends itself to them in some ways. Obviously, it’s a beautiful city, a place you keep falling back in love with, but it’s a place we’re very critical of and have a lot of problems with. That’s part of the ambivalent relationship we have with the city.
Jimmie Fails: At the time that he did it, I thought it was very well put together. He edited and scored it himself. It makes sense why people reached out when they saw it. He did a good job.
At what point did Plan B, Brad Pitt’s production company, come on board to help fund the film?
JT: Much later.
JF: Took a while! [laughs]
JT: Me, Jimmie, Khaliah, and a group of other people who saw that concept trailer became our film family. We spent these years working on it together. Then, Plan B saw our work, read the script, and we spent a little more time further developing it with them. They came on to produce it and went to A24 to finance it.
Did that change the scope at all or what you thought would be possible?
JF: We had big dreams! We can shoot it on Technicolor, we can shoot it on film—it could have cost $100 million. But we’re first-time filmmakers, so what the fuck do we know?
JT: It was an ambitious movie. And even finally getting a budget, it still required us to call in favors left and right, and a lifetime’s worth of experiences in San Francisco. It still felt in a way like a bigger version of the movies we made as teens, just with more people and more cameras. Like outdoing the same thing you’ve done for a long time.
JF: Pretty much, just more professionally.
How did you all come to determine the visual or tonal language for the film? It seems like the story came first since it has such personal roots, but was the poetic and surreal nature of the project always evident?
JF: I think that just speaks to our imaginations as people. We always try to make the best stuff kind of dreamy. Ghost World was a big influence. I think that’s important to tell that personal story, and it came first. But especially me, because it’s so personal to me, I don’t want to shove a personal story down someone’s throat without making it more magical or poetic.
JT: When Jimmie first told me the stories about his life, he always did it in that way. It always felt like he had some unique outsider’s context in the way he told it. I think he’s just naturally a really good storyteller. It was as much about the stories as the way he told them. And then, on top of that, he could take something that was true and then we could imagine. Mike Epps’s character was based on someone in Jimmie’s life, but it was funny to imagine someone who drove off with your car and coming back to pick Jimmie up. It was funny to think about Mike Epps driving around and not acknowledging that. That’s fucking funny, and Mike Epps is hilarious! A lot of it was starting with something real and then going off into our imaginations as to what we thought would be fun to watch.
I know that this project is an intense collaboration between the two of you, but Joe, as a white man conveying a very black story and history, was your job just to learn as much as you could from Jimmie and the community to be a faithful steward?
JF: I’m just gonna chime in. That’s the problem with change in San Francisco. We grew up in the same neighborhood, so we were around a lot of the same people. It was very diverse. There [were] white, black, Latino kids. Obviously, our experiences are different: His parents are white, and my family is black. He was around. It wasn’t like he had to come in and study the black community. He was already there. A lot of his friends were black. We all knew about everyone’s culture growing up in San Francisco, but not so much anymore because it’s changed so much. He’s also very well educated on San Francisco. His dad wrote a book called Season of the Witch that tells a lot of the black history that is important and central to San Francisco. He’s telling his friend’s story, and he’s black. I totally get the question, but we’ve known each other for so long that I can’t imagine anyone else telling the story.
JT: Yeah, I think that this story for us, everything we’ve made has come out of our conversations. This felt like an extension of that. That’s part of how this naturally unfolded. Had I come into a different situation, I might not be the right person to make that film. I think there are other films in San Francisco from other people in other experiences, and I’m certainly not the person to make [them] despite being a lifelong San Franciscan. Even then, it starts with us, but it’s also about the other people who are involved in the project. One of the first people to become involved, Khaliah Neal, is an East Oakland native who cut her teeth in New York producing. This was her first big leap into independent filmmaking as a lead producer, and she became our producing partner like Jimmie was my creative partner. I think that collaboration was really important because I’m a white guy, and even though we had grown up together, as many voices in the room helps in getting to a deeper truth. That way it’s not all on Jimmie, it’s on us as a group. And not even just in terms of race, some of our closest collaborators aren’t from San Francisco at all, so they don’t know the nuances of the shit we saw growing up. They don’t know what a candy house is necessarily. We see San Francisco in one way, with a very specific kind of love, but bringing in people who don’t know as much about San Francisco is important in telling a story that is going to exist outside it.
I was really struck by the “this guy fucks” moment, a reference to Silicon Valley, when Jimmie’s character sits next to a naked guy on a bench and watches a trolley full of tech bros chant the quote from the show. What inspired this scene and led you to put it in the movie?
JF: It’s supposed to speak to me coming from my dad’s house, which is a rough moment. He doesn’t respond how I wanted when I break the news that I’m back in the house. I think it’s representative of old San Francisco and new San Francisco meeting. Obviously, I’m unfazed by the naked guy because I see that all the time. I relate to him more than all the “this guy fucks” cable car. Visually, it’s old meets new. They’re listening to a newer version of “Somebody to Love” by Jefferson Airplane. They’re on a cable car on wheels, which is a contradiction. It just goes to show that the people in San Francisco don’t pass judgement, really. You meet so many different people.
Is this a nostalgic film?
JF: Yeah. We’re nostalgic people. [laughs] That would have come through either way because we just go through life that way. I’m pretty sure any film he makes would be a little nostalgic.
What role should looking back at the city’s history play as it looks forward to the future?
JF: All I want is for friendships like ours to be able to exist, and that doesn’t exist in the new San Francisco. That’s really what it’s about, getting back to that point where artists and outsiders can live there. Where weirdos who didn’t feel accepted could come because that’s what it used to be about. That’s the best San Francisco in my eyes.
Now that this project has made you all cult heroes in the city, how do you view your role in the ongoing conversation about the future of San Francisco? Activists? Storytellers? Artists? Something else entirely?
JF: I think a little bit of all of that. I think you definitely want to speak out if you can and let the voice be heard. But we’re artists first and foremost. Let our art create that conversation where there can be activism. Start the dialogue. I’m going to be in contact with Danny [Glover, who co-stars in the film].
JT: Danny is a hero to us in San Francisco, because not only is he an actor who’s been in important work, but he was an activist in the city before that. We grew up on the stories of his activism. Those two things feel like San Francisco the best: art and politics. With someone like him, you look up to him and hope you can carry on, in some very small way, the tradition that he set forward.
There’s been quite a Bay Area Renaissance recently: Sorry to Bother You, Blindspotting, now The Last Black Man in San Francisco. Do either of you have theories about why this is all coming to pass now?
JF: Well, those are both Oakland movies. It’s about the same sort of thing, but they’re both Oakland, which is extremely different even though it’s across the water. Hopefully somebody else makes something else so we can have two.
JT: And Fruitvale Station. It’s always Oakland!
JF: Then they got Kicks too.
JT: Kicks and Licks. It speaks to how Oakland is a place that’s always birthed incredible talent. Boots Riley, long before that, recorded music in the Bay. Oakland has a really incredible history artistically. For us, it’s really cool to see that happen across the water, but like Jimmie said, San Francisco has a different history and a different relationship to gentrification as it exists now. We feel it in different ways than they do in Oakland. I think this movie is us trying to wrestle with our own situation.
Docaviv 2019: Comrade Dov, A Whore Like Me, & The Times of Bill Cunningham
Docaviv continues to thrive in increasingly challenging circumstances.
Paul O'Callaghan
Photo: Harold Chapman
Docaviv, Tel Aviv’s biggest film festival and Israel’s most high-profile celebration of documentary cinema, continues to thrive in increasingly challenging circumstances. The festival is partially reliant on government funding, but since her appointment as minister of culture in 2015, conservative politician Miri Regev has done her best to create a nerve-racking environment for Israel’s artists, threatening to withdraw financial support for any cultural enterprise deemed to undermine Israel’s image or criticize government policy.
Yet these threats have largely proven empty, and after spending a week at the recent Docaviv, I was left with a strong sense of Tel Aviv’s film community rallying together to resist censorship and preserve their freedom of speech, albeit in a tactful manner. The festival sustains a tone of political neutrality in its presentation of films, but a striking number of titles in this year’s selection, both from Israel and abroad, centered around tenacious underdogs speaking truth to power, questioning the status quo and remaining optimistic in the face of adversity.
Freedom of artistic expression in Israel is directly addressed in Comrade Dov, Barak Heymann’s affectionate portrait of left-wing Jewish politician and activist Dov Khenin, who represented the Arab-dominated Joint List party at the Israeli parliament, or Knesset, for 12 years before retiring in April 2019. During one of the documentary’s numerous heated parliamentary exchanges, Khenin eloquently voices his outrage at a proposal by fellow member Alex Miller that funding for the Tel Aviv Cinematheque (Docaviv’s primary venue) should be cut in response to a festival commemorating the 1948 Palestinian exodus. The sequence illustrates both Khenin’s innate skill as a negotiator and his effectiveness as a stone in the Knesset’s shoe: He persuasively counters extreme-right rhetoric with an impassioned leftist stance, and deftly steers conversation towards a middle ground.
Heymann is plainly enamored with his subject, and strikes a playful, upbeat tone in the establishing scenes. As we observe Khenin silently moving around his spartan apartment, the filmmaker wryly explains, in voiceover, that “this is the first and only time I filmed him at home. I was so excited that I forgot to turn on the sound.” Shortly thereafter, Heymann remarks that “all of the activists I know are depressed. But Dov always seems to be optimistic, which is why I love being with him.” Indeed, Dov is an instantly appealing protagonist, equal parts scrappy boyish charm, intellectual rigor, and emotional honesty.
But despite Dov’s enviable personal attributes, and his impeccable track record of fighting for social justice, Heymann takes care to ensure that the film doesn’t become too blandly hagiographic. In a particularly poignant sequence, Israeli Arab activist Hana Amoury explains, calmly and respectfully, that while Dov clearly wants to improve the lives of his Palestinian constituents, his desire to simultaneously be part of the Israeli establishment ultimately makes him an ineffective ally. And several of the battles we witness Dov wage over the course of the film, including one on behalf of mistreated factory workers, end in decisive failure.
Sharon Yaish and Yael Shachar’s A Whore Like Me, another Israel-set account of a David-versus-Goliath battle, benefits from an instantly gripping, thriller-like premise. At 22 years of age, Chile was abducted in her native Hungary and sold to Israeli sex traffickers, leaving behind a young daughter. She ultimately escaped her captors, but subsequently lived on the streets for years before conquering drug addiction. Now, 20 years on from her kidnapping, her only hope for successfully appealing against the Israeli Ministry of Interior’s decision to deny her residence is to procure concrete proof of her ordeal. Thus, she hires a private detective and embarks on a quest that forces her to relive past traumas.
The film clocks in at just 60 minutes, but it offers an impressively rich portrait of a woman who’s been failed by society at every turn. The filmmakers keep the exposition succinct, focusing on the emotional cost of Chile’s decades-long ordeal. She has, by all accounts, made a remarkable recovery: When we meet her, she’s 10 years sober, and volunteering at a sexual health clinic helping other vulnerable women. Yet the odds remain depressingly stacked against her. Without permission to work in Israel, she finds herself lapsing back into prostitution to stay on top of legal costs. And in the film’s most uncomfortable scene, we’re introduced to an older man, presumably a former client, who takes complete credit for her rehabilitation and demeaningly refers to her as his pet, while she sits awkwardly by his side.
However, as the investigation into the whereabouts of her captors begins to yield promising results, Chile becomes increasingly emboldened, and uses the filmmaking process as an opportunity to reckon with the ways in which sex work has shaped her identity and sense of self-worth. At one point she begins filming encounters with clients, as if to assert authorship of her narrative. While Chile’s future hangs in the balance at the end of A Whore Like Me, one is left with a powerful sense that Yaish and Shachar have at least armed their protagonist with the tools she needs to build a better life for herself.
As if to offer respite from appalling social injustice and hot-button political issues, Docaviv lightened the tone of this year’s international selection with a host of art, fashion, and music docs. But even among these glossier picks, tales of underdogs and marginalized communities took center stage. Mark Bozek’s The Times of Bill Cunningham, a worthy companion piece to Richard Press’s Bill Cunningham, New York, is structured around a previously unseen interview with the late fashion photographer, conducted by Bozek in 1994. It’s a pleasure to hear Cunningham describe in his own words his rise from impoverished milliner to the toast of Manhattan high society; he’s an irresistible screen presence, with a wide-eyed enthusiasm for his industry, a childlike demeanor, and an occasionally eccentric turn of phrase.
Moreover, when detailing Cunningham’s work as a discreet queer activist, the film packs an emotional punch. Though by all accounts he lived a monastic existence, he clearly felt a deep personal kinship with New York’s LGBTQ+ communities, and took advantage of editorial freedom at the New York Times to celebrate them throughout the dark days of the AIDS crisis. At one point in the film, his chirpy demeanor cracks and he begins silently weeping for the friends he lost to the disease. And yet the film is ultimately celebratory, paying tribute to a headstrong individual who resolutely refused to obey his family’s orders to pursue a more “manly” career, and who pursued his passions entirely on his own terms.
The Docaviv International Documentary Film Festival ran from May 23—June 1.
The 100 Best LGBTQ Movies of All Time
Cinema isn’t the sole mechanism for making our presence known, but it can be among the most powerful.
Photo: Kino International
Three years ago this month, in the aftermath of the attack on Orlando’s Pulse nightclub, one call to action rose above the din: “Say their names.” New Yorkers chanted it steps from the Stonewall Inn. The mother of a child gunned down at Sandy Hook penned it in an open letter. The Orlando Sentinel printed the names. Anderson Cooper recited them. A gunman murdered 49 people and wounded 53 others in the wee hours of that awful Sunday, massacring LGBTQ people of color and their allies in the middle of Pride Month, and the commemoration of the dead demanded knowing who they were. “These,” as MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell urged his viewers, “are the names to remember.”
The titles on our list of the best LGBTQ movies of all time are a globe-spanning, multigenerational testament to our existence in a world where our erasure is no abstraction. From Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Michael to Todd Haynes’s Carol, naming and seeing emerge, intertwined, as radical acts—acts of becoming (Sally Potter’s Orlando) and acts of being (Shirley Clarke’s Portrait of Jason), acts of speech (Marlon Riggs’s Tongues Untied) and acts of show (Jennie Livingston’s Paris Is Burning) that together reaffirm the revolutionary potential of the seventh art. “My name is Harvey Milk,” the San Francisco supervisor, memorialized in Rob Epstein’s The Times of Harvey Milk, proclaimed in 1978, less than one year before his assassination. “And I’m here to recruit you!”
The cinema isn’t the sole mechanism for making our presence known, but it can, if the films listed below are any indication, be among the most powerful, projecting the complexities of the LGBTQ experience onto the culture’s largest, brightest mirror. There’s rage here, and also love; isolation, and communal spirit; fear, and the forthright resistance to it. These films are essential because we are essential: The work of ensuring that we aren’t erased or forgotten continues apace, and the struggle stretches into a horizon that no screen, no matter its size, can quite capture. But this is surely a place to start. Matt Brennan
Michael (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1924)
Many critics have chosen to downplay the film’s gay subtext, but to do so would deny the power of Carl Theodor Dreyer’s fastidious attention to the polarity of love’s vicissitudes. If stripped of the notion that the artist Zoret’s (Benjamin Christensen) attraction toward his titular muse (Walter Slezak), whose alleged bisexuality is clearly of a solely opportunistic strain, is physical as well as social, Michael essentially becomes an embittered (and fairly rote, despite the astonishingly suffocating mise-en-scène) tale of two cuckolds. Eric Henderson
The Blood of a Poet (Jean Cocteau, 1932)
Enrique Rivero’s shirtless torso remains the most enduring emblem of Jean Cocteau’s The Blood of a Poet, whether the actor is clutching his bare chest after witnessing his palm sprout a pair of lips or peering through keyholes while drifting through a gravity-free hallway. But this surrealist masterpiece isn’t merely about flesh; rather, the body becomes an entry point to memory and art, where hands and mouths breed images to defy the mind. Decades of close readings, whether along psychological or self-reflexive lines, have been unable to diminish or demystify the film’s effervescent sensuality. Clayton Dillard
Beauty and the Beast (Jean Cocteau, 1946)
Much of Beauty and the Beast’s deep magic comes from Jean Cocteau’s sense of himself as a vulnerable beast in love: In his mid-50s when he made the film, Cocteau was openly gay in an often viciously homophobic post-Vichy France, an opium addict, plagued by skin-disfiguring eczema, and yet still enamored of his much younger star, the Adonis-like Jean Marais, his sometime-lover and great friend and collaborator. In Marais’s triple role—as the monstrous yet tender-hearted Beast; Avenant, the hunky but caddish suitor of Josette Day’s La Belle; and the ensorcelled Prince Ardent, whom the Beast is ultimately revealed, with some ambivalence, to be—the actor lends virtuosic as well as symbolic appeal to Cocteau’s cinematic inquiry into the complex interplay of identification and desire. Max Cavitch
Fireworks (Kenneth Anger, 1947)
Fireworks inaugurates not merely Kenneth Anger’s own private mythology, but also the subversive expression of gay sensuality in American film, a torch carried into the early days of the New Queer Cinema. A veritable dictionary of homoerotic iconography, it is also, literally, a home movie shot while Anger’s parents were away for the weekend, and a transfixing view of the violence and seditious rapture of being “different” in the 1940s. Fernando F. Croce
Un Chant d’Amour (Jean Genet, 1950)
Jean Genet’s overpowering 1950 short, Un Chant d’Amour, is a milestone not just of gay rebellion, but also of pure sensual expression in film, a polemical vision of desire forged with the provocateur’s randy ardor and the artist’s spiritual directness. Having never made a film before or after, Genet nevertheless had an in-the-bone awareness of the medium as a procession of raptures—visual, cosmic, sensual—that could match and expand the passion of words on a page. Croce
Strangers on a Train (Alfred Hitchcock, 1951)
Alfred Hitchcock knew what he was doing casting the plush-lipped Farley Granger as the straight man in his adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s cruise-baiting thriller Strangers on a Train. Robert Walker’s flamboyant Bruno Anthony gets all the ink, but it’s Granger’s poker-faced, blank-slate attractiveness as Guy that captures the illicit thrill of the chase. And the consequence. Once Bruno has availed Guy of his inconvenient woman and Guy refuses to return the favor, Bruno sets out to integrate himself into Guy’s social circle and carry with him the threat of exposure and public shame. Their erotic one-upmanship reaches its breaking point in one of Hitchcock’s gaudiest set pieces, a runaway-carousel climax depicting their rough trade of blows amid contorted petrified horses whose pinions look like they’re pornographically violating their sockets. Henderson
Rebel Without a Cause (Nicholas Ray, 1955)
The most complicated aspect of Rebel Without a Cause, and the thing that makes it seem daring even today, is its depiction of sexuality. Nicholas Ray brings Natalie Wood’s beauty into full flowering and gets a simple, touching performance from her. And with Sal Mineo, he craftily put together a portrait of a tormented gay teenager. Stewart Stern’s script tells us that Plato is searching for a father figure in Jim (and Plato’s famed locker photo of Alan Ladd shows that he wants a Shane-type father, not a lover), but the way Mineo looks at James Dean leaves no modern audience in doubt as to what his real feelings are. Dan Callahan
Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959)
Punchline or not, “nobody’s perfect” may as well have been the “born this way” of the Eisenhower era. Billy Wilder’s cross-dressing parfait now feels like both a relic and also a carefree throwback to an era that, for all its copious and vindictive shortcomings, was more than a tad less solemn about identity politics and popular representation. Regardless of whether you believe the “humor” behind Daphne and Josephine’s deliberately crunchy drag feeds into the same mentality that gives a shit about which bathroom someone takes a piss in, it’s impossible to miss that Wilder’s true satiric target is the pathetic fragility of machismo. In that sense, few other contemporary drag movies can claim to be so modern as Some Like It Hot. Henderson
Victim (Basil Dearden, 1961)
There’s a striking sense of fatalism that infuses Basil Dearden’s masterful Victim, a scathing examination of England’s rampant homophobia and problematic social codes. Dick Bogarde plays Melville Farr, a closeted lawyer victimized by an elaborate blackmail scheme targeting high-profile gay men. Constructed like a detective film, Victim follows Farr’s investigation into the various catacombs of the London elite, where far-reaching compromise and repression construct a pressure cooker of emotional fear. Since homosexuality is illegal in England at the time, Farr’s stake in the vexing search for the truth is both personal and professional. A duo of cops also provides an interesting dual perspective on the laws against homosexuality, with the elder being sympathetic and pragmatic and the younger entrenched in the more conservative majority opinion. Mostly, Victim is fascinating for its consistent attention to the complex emotions of its gay characters, men who often show an unwavering honesty in respect to their sexuality. “I can’t help the way I am, but the law says nature played me a dirty trick,” one particularly conflicted character says, and this type of substantive dialogue reveals Dearden as a surveyor of progressive ideologies way ahead of the norm. Heath
Flaming Creatures (Jack Smith, 1963)
Flaming Creatures was Jack Smith’s first finished film. Well, in truth, it’s his only finished film, since it ricocheted out of his hands when a trend of underground film raids made his opus a trophy for either side of a decency debate. Seized at the same time as Jean Genet’s Un Chant D’Amour and Kenneth Anger’s Scorpio Rising, it made it all the way to the Supreme Court, who could detect little value in its over-exposed rumpus of genitalia, transvestitism, baroque orgies, and dance dervishry. Meanwhile, Susan Sontag and Jonas Mekas heralded the film as high art, hijacking (so Jack saw it) his vehicle to bolster their tastemaker status. Bradford Nordeen
Our preview section is your best, most complete guide for all the films, big and small, coming your way soon
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Gene Bertoncini
16 archived shows
Previous shows (16 ):
Gene Bertoncini Solo Guitar
Gene Bertoncini (Guitar)
Gene Betroncini Solo Guitar
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Over decades, Gene Bertoncini has firmly established himself as one of the most eloquent and versatile masters of the guitar. With elegance and ease, he bridges jazz, classical, pop, and bossa nova styles, integrating his own spontaneous and tasteful improvisations along the way. He has earned highest critical acclaim for his artistry on both the classical and electric guitar.
Bertoncinis musical roots go back to his early years in the Bronx where he grew up in a house filled with music. His love affair with the guitar began when he was seven, and by the time he was sixteen, he was appearing on New York television.
His career took an unusual turn when he decided to fulfill another long-standing interest, and took a degree in architecture at Notre Dame. He was quickly swept into the musical scene at the university, and the first thing he did after picking up his degree was to work opposite Carmen McRae in Chicago. He returned to New York to work with vibraphonist Mike Manieri, and then with a quintet led by drummer Buddy Rich.
He describes his architectural experience as something which gives his music its finely-wrought form and style. He wins continual praise for the superb structure of his arrangements and improvisations which serve as a vehicle for his virtuosic technique.
Gene Bertoncini has worked and recorded with the Metropolitan Opera orchestra, the Benny Goodman Sextet; singers Tony Bennett, Morgana King, Lena Horne, Vic Damone and Edye Gorme; jazzmen George Benson, Jimm Hall, Tal Farlow, Johnny Smith, Buddy Rich, Wayne Shorter, Hubert Laws, Clark Terry, Paul Desmond, and Paul Winter; and arranger/composers Burt Bacharach, Lalo Schifrin and Michel LeGrand, among others. He performed regularly on the Merve Griffin and Johnny Carson shows, and has been one of the most prolific and popular studio musicians in New York City. For the past eight years Bertoncini has performed with bassist Michael Moore in a duo which The New York Times describes as ...one of the finest pairings of jazz strings....
Mr. Bertoncinis teaching credits include the Eastman School of Music where he regularly performs and conducts summer workshops for jazz guitarists, the New England Conservatory, New York University, and the Banff School of Fine Arts. He has been a highly sought-after guest clinician in colleges and universities throughout the country.
Weblinks:
www.genebertoncini.com
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How The Sights & Sounds Of The Casino Inspired “Mississippi Grind”
By : Rory Fish
Tag: mississippi grind
Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s Mississippi Grind, about a charismatic poker player determined to change his luck, is inspired by the energy and characters the writer-director team found while making their previous movie in Iowa.
Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck were living in Iowa making their second film Sugar when road movie Mississippi Grind was conceived. Fleck remembers a poker room separated from the main casino by glass and recalls watching the games with interest, not understanding the rules but eager to learn them.
Boden says the pair started to go to a local riverboat casino while shooting Sugar, a film about a Dominican baseball player in Iowa, where they became fascinated by what they saw. This wasn’t like the glamorous gambling meccas of Las Vegas but a place for seasoned local players to frequent, playing classic games from slots to blackjack and, of course, poker. The two filmmakers found their interest piqued by the various characters they saw there.
Fleck began to learn the game of poker, spending his free time going up and down the Mississippi river getting to know other players as well as the rules of popular forms such as Texas Hold’em. The fact Mississippi Grind somewhat ignores the spectacle of the casino as seen in, for example, Martin Scorsese’s Casino, it gives it a unique aesthetic that focuses on the characters and why they’re gambling.
Fleck told USA Today the casinos he spent time researching were “dark, divey little places” unlike what you typically see in Vegas. He saw people “either grinding out a living at the poker table or just sitting at the slot machines, using their pay cheques. The characters really fascinated us.”
Actor Ryan Reynolds, who plays Curtis in the film, says he too wanted to see how gambling played out in venues that weren’t on the tourist map. “These types of places are sort of the end of the rainbow,” he says, rememebering he saw some people who had been playing for 30 years. These gamblers had many of the most interesting stories to tell and while he wasn’t sure how much of their tale was fabricated, it was fascinating nonetheless.
Facing financial hardship, Curtis joins Gerry (played by Ben Mendelsohn) for a road trip on which they hope to win not only money but their own sense of direction, an existential hangover drifting amongst quietly contemplative scenes.
Fleck told Collider.com it was important for the realism of the film to have lived it in someway. He and Boden did the trip we see in the film in reverse.
“Along the way we took pictures and wrote down any dialogue we heard that might fit in. We played in poker tables, visited dog tracks, horse tracks, and off-track betting parlours which I definitely didn’t know about. You know, down and dirty places along the Mississippi River.”
It was one of these conversations that heavily influenced the theme of the movie. “Anna was sitting at a table and she was the only woman and she was eavesdropping on the poker conversation,” Fleck said in an interview with Jessica Kiang of IndieWire. “The topic of rainbows came up and a guy literally said “I drove to the end of a rainbow once. Wasn’t nothing there.” And how great is that? Without any sense of the irony of what it means to be chasing a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. And so we worked that into the movie.”
That the film has become a firm favourite of casino fans comes as no surprise given the mainstream appeal of table games like poker and slot machines thanks to online casino operators bringing the joys of these to internet-based platforms. And while the film didn’t enjoy success at the box office, it was well-received at major film festivals in 2015 and now ranks amongst Casino, The Gambler, Croupier, The Cooler, Hard Eight and California Split as one of the finest films about gambling.
Aside from Mississippi Grind’s strong sense of kinship between its two protagonists, it’s the casino that offers a third main character. It is here where the sights, sounds and smells of the environment add drama, energy and a singular colourful aesthetic that gives Fleck and Boden’s film an appealing charm.
Rory Fish has loved movies since he can remember. If he was to put together an "all time" top 10 of absolute favourites it would have to include North By Northwest, 12 Angry Men and Sunset Boulevard.
See Inside Michael Jackson’s “Neverland” Home 10 Years After His Death
Top 10 Casino Related Films
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Treasurer grants energy funding | The Triangle
Treasurer grants energy funding
By Alissa Falcone
State Treasurer Rob McCord announced Oct. 5 that Drexel University will be the inaugural participant in the Campus Energy Efficiency Fund program.
Drexel University will be the inaugural participant in the government-sponsored Campus Energy Efficiency Fund program, Pennsylvania Treasurer Rob McCord announced Oct. 5. during a visit to Drexel’s campus.
The initiative, which was developed in partnership with the Pennsylvania Treasury and Blue Hill Partners, will help as many as 12 Pennsylvania colleges and universities cut utility costs by funding efficiency improvements that will create jobs and create a cleaner environment. The Pennsylvania Treasury and Blue Hill Partners is the local investment firm that acts as an investment manager to the Treasury and has a background in green technology.
As the first school to join the program, Drexel will use the money given by the Treasury to make environmentally friendly renovations in six of its buildings.
According to Bob Francis, University Facilities vice president, a project engineering team from the Transcend Equity Development Corporation will spend the next six weeks analyzing and choosing which buildings will be upgraded.
“They like each building to have a lighting, a demand management and a building automation feature in the recommendations. These things can be implemented within six months, with the possible exception of lighting, which will need to be timed with a break in classes,” he wrote in an email.
Other examples of general upgrades that will be funded through the Campus Energy Efficiency Fund include heating and cooling systems, building control systems, energy-efficient windows and high-efficiency lighting.
The improvements are estimated to save Drexel between $500,000 and $600,000 annually while reducing the University’s annual energy consumption by more than 7 percent, with no cost to Drexel.
“The idea is to make investments that pay back within five to seven years, which translates into an attractive return on investment,” Francis stated.
Francis continued, “Drexel volunteered when it learned the Commonwealth [of Pennsylvania] was interested in investing public funds in sustainable projects on a basis competitive with any other private market investment.”
Jim Tucker, senior vice president of Student Life and Administrative Services, explained that representatives from Blue Hill and the Treasury met at Drexel in the summer of 2010 to review Drexel’s work in sustainability and discuss how Drexel could work with the program.
“They visited our Drexel Green website, met with members of the faculty and profession staff to learn more about our work and commitment to sustainability. They also assessed our interest in being a first responder to the Energy Efficiency project. The team left impressed with Drexel’s efforts around sustainability and invited us be their first project,” he said.
The Campus Energy Efficiency Fund has the potential to generate up to $45 million in environmentally friendly improvements for the colleges on the receiving end of the sponsorship, with as much as $10 million of the funding coming from the Treasury. The upgrades are expected to last around 20 years and save up to $150 million in utility costs while reducing the schools’ carbon footprint. Over 700 jobs are projected to be created through the project.
The Treasury previously received $1 million from the state Department of Environmental Protection to bear the cost of developing the fund and then identifying possible schools to have as participants. Additionally, the Treasury received over $200,000 in grant funds from the Rockefeller Foundation for the Treasury to team up with the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Pennsylvania for developing a peer-auditing course that will train staff and students in campus energy master planning so they can conduct primary campus evaluations with the aid of professional energy auditors.
It is not known what other Pennsylvania colleges and universities will also receive funding to make their campuses greener.
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Much has been said about the nature of government and how it “should” serve the interests of the “people” or the “public”. Unfortunately, I can think of no government on the planet that fits this description – and in fact I have come to the conclusion that the description itself is a mechanism intended to deceive the public, thereby hiding the true nature of government from those to be governed.
The description below is a parable or metaphor for government as it really is and always has been. Those who give faith more credence than truth will take issue with it; but those who love truth, and who won’t accept comforting falsehoods in the name of faith, will recognize its validity in the real world.
Origin of the B.O.R.G. “Robot”
Many years ago, some eight thousand to be precise – or not so precise – a group of kings and chieftains in Sumer (now southern Iraq), got together and decided they were tired of fighting with each other over local resources. The bloodshed for arable land, water rights, mineral deposits, seaport access, and slaves was just getting to be too much to bear the cost of. So they formed a cartel – a shared power monopoly – choosing to cooperate henceforth instead of continuing to compete. From a business standpoint you’d say their “product” was power over others – their industry, “power brokerage”. This was consistent with their ethic: “Might Makes Right” that was accepted by many in that era.
To accomplish their ends they traded specific segments of their power/authority to others in exchange for services rendered. For instance, they would appoint a Master Tax Collector, upon whom they would bestow the privilege of stealing from other (less powerful) people. In return for this delegated privilege they expected to receive the lion’s share of the taxes thus collected. The Master Tax Collector, in turn, was authorized to hire whatever thugs he wished to go out and do the dirty work of enforcing the tax collection – rewarding them in turn for their efforts. This process of delegating authority is what we today call hierarchy.
Through this invention of the power brokerage cartel “government” was born. And in the years that followed, the bigger businesses and organized religions adopted the very same model for their own development – and for their relationships with one another. Today, Big Business, Organized Religion, and Government (The B.O.R.G.), the institutions that most of us have been duped into believing exist to serve the public, are in fact the central causes of almost all societal problems.
On the Nature of Machines The most general and accurate definition of a machine is “any device, tangible or intangible, that augments or extends one’s intelligence” – where intelligence is defined as “the ability to predict or control events in one’s environment.” In this sense, government may be thought of as a machine designed to forever increase the power and wealth of those who own it. Today that machine incorporates modules and components in all of the world’s important institutions, be they social, financial, religious, corporate, educational, charitable, legal, or military. So it is technically correct to say that government, in this broad sense of the word, has become an evil robot.
Characteristics of the Evil Robot Like any machine, the robot of government can be characterized by its structure, its functions, and the behavioral rules that have been built into it. It is further characterized by its meta-rules – which is to say the rules about the rules. The meta-rules determine how the rules can be changed (or not), who has the authority to change them, and by what means and under what circumstances permitted changes can be made. There also exist meta-meta-rules that determine who may know about the details of the rules, what may be said about them in public, and which ones are intended to be kept secret from the public. The following section provides a concise specification of the more important characteristics of the robot we know as government.
Mission (The Robot’s Prime Directive): To serve the interests of its creators – forever increasing their wealth and power over others, in accordance with the Power Ethic (might makes right).
Awareness: The robot has a high level of awareness, but lacks awareness of its own awareness and has no conscience whatever. The robot’s awareness includes the determinants of its internal states and can evaluate the performance of each of its internal components.
Construction: The robot is highly complex and is comprised of many hierarchically organized components and modules, including perceptors, effectors, and both internal and external communicators. It also has “thinking” components that include memory storage and recall as well as logic and math. In addition, the robot has remote components that are not obviously part of it, yet which are controlled by the robot and/or its makers. Most of its components are people. Most of its modules are organizations comprised of people.
Control: The robot is run by an operating system, the “prime directive” of which is its mission. The operating system permits no component or module thereof to interfere with its mission – nor can the prime directive be altered by means of “parts” replacement. Only a very few elite individuals are able to directly influence the robot’s programming – and they are very careful about who gets invited to join their club.
Parts Replacement: Many, though not all, of the robots components and modules are replaceable. Some can only be replaced by the robot’s makers and their delegates. Some can be replaced by the robot itself. Others can be replaced by the public; but only using the tools and methods built into the robot for this purpose; and only at those times that the robot is programmed to permit such replacement.
Response to “Malfunctioning” Parts: The robot is able to tell if one of its parts, components, or parts is performing in support of the robot’s mission – or not – and, if not, it can repair itself.
If a particular part is not critical to the robot’s mission and is performing poorly or not at all, the robot will simply ignore the part.
If a part is performing in a way that threatens to hinder the robot’s mission, the robot’s first response will be to isolate the part from the rest of the system (without removing it), so the hindrance becomes ineffectual.
If the malfunctioning part continues to hinder the robot in its mission, the robot will remove the part from its system and replace it or have the public replace it.
If the robot sees the part that has been removed as a continuing threat to its mission, it will first attempt to isolate the part from the public, so no one can re-deploy it within the robot’s system.
Failing in this, the robot will take whatever steps are required to nullify the threat – often destroying the part removed without compunction. To this end it has killed millions of human people without the slightest remorse – and it will probably kill millions more. Success of the Robot The robot has been doing its job successfully for some eight thousand years! Although its makers are long gone, their (philosophical) heirs are still with us and the robot still serves their interests extremely well.
Since the robot is not aware of its awareness, it would be incorrect to call it a “person” and it would therefore be incorrect to call it “immoral” any more than it would be correct to call a sword immoral. Unfortunately, many of the robot’s components and modules are people, who choose to act on the robot’s behalf. Their behavior can be properly characterized as immoral.
Immoral or not, it remains to be seen whether the robot is immortal. If so, it can only be destroyed by its own actions – and this is a likely outcome, because the robot is parasitic, feeding on the public at large that is its host – while creating nothing of intrinsic value. Like most parasites, it will probably destroy its host and itself with it, since it cannot exist without those who nurture it.
I have no doubt of the truism that it is evil to nurture parasites. If you agree, then you must decide what you are willing to do to avoid nurturing this particularly destructive parasite. If no one nurtured it, it would disappear – but this is an unlikely outcome, because the lure of power over others is very seductive to those who have been dominated by others all their lives.
Make a decision. Take a stand. For much more on this subject, read Ethics, Law, and Government.
Posted by Morpheus Titania at 6:02 pm
4 Responses to “Government: The BORG Robot”
Simon Black – what is a sociopath? » Titania - Ethical Creative Society says:
[…] In Levin’s world, it’s perfectly acceptable to hold US citizens on US soil without charges or trial, based merely on the suspicion of terrorist activity in the sole discretion of the government. […]
Copyright and the End of Internet Freedom » Titania - Ethical Creative Society says:
[…] Government: The BORG Robot […]
The next frontier says:
I agree that no government actually serves the people. However, a robot government would mean that the society under it would be dominated by cold facts and objective reality, meaning more subjective fields like arts, literature, subjective emotions like love and others would gradually become dominated by scientific facts, which would gradually make people under a robot government robots themselves: what makes us humans is emotions and desire for progress, and since an apparently perfect system removes the ability for progress and also removes emotion as mentioned above, so the meaning of life once again returns to that of survival, just like in primitive times. I would rather have the current human government than such a perfect government.
doc tdynamics says:
Much has been said about the nature of government and how it “should” serve the interests of the “people” or the “public”. Unfortunately, I can think of no government on the planet that fits this description
Only because you have been witchcrafted into it… By takedown of two trade towers… By an evil president. Why do you think Steven Segal walked away… Because most of what you say, is on the opposite of what you should say…. My Constitution includes the Declaration of Independence first, which First, puts the Ten Commandments … Then, the Constitution, of which it states, \For the People\ But before it can be \For the People\ it must be \In God We Trust\ Why dont you go to church jerk who wrote this, then get the true History straight in your head of just how the real United States Government is supposed to work. AS it was built…
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Study: Telehealth Doesn't Improve Quality of Life
Lindsay Abrams
Remote health monitoring, which allows clinicians to keep track of the behaviors and symptoms of patients from afar, is promoted as a more cost-efficient and comfortable way of managing chronic conditions. But a new analysis didn't find any psychological or patient-reported health benefits from the new technology as compared to regular care.
Sarah Twitchell/Flickr
Patients Who Are Confident About Their Care Save Everyone Money
Forcing a Smile Genuinely Decreases Stress
Parents Are Better Off Not Admitting They've Tried Drugs
Of the coolest (or creepiest, depending on how you look at it) health care innovations currently in use, the toilet that keeps track of how often you pee probably tops the list. Systems like this, designed for monitoring health from afar, are lauded as the high-tech assisted-living solution for the aging population. They're promoted as a way of allowing people with chronic conditions to live on their own, all the while remaining under the watchful eye of health professionals who can identify symptoms that indicate changes or declines in their health.
As implemented by the U.K. Department of Health, patient homes are equipped with monitors that keep track of their vital signs -- which are collected by equipment like blood pressure cuffs, scales, and blood glucometers -- and then transmit that information to remotely located clinicians.
But the systems have been rolled out based largely on assumptions of their utility instead of evidence for their effectiveness, and a study published by BMJ is now suggesting that remote monitoring may not have any quality of life or psychological benefit for people managing chronic conditions.
Following 1,500 patients as they used telehealth to manage conditions like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, and heart failure over the course of a year, British researchers found no evidence of improvements in the patients' health-related quality of life, nor of their symptoms of anxiety or depression, as compared to patients receiving ordinary, low-tech care. They based their measures on a series of questionnaires administered before the system was installed and at various points during the year that it was used.
The evolution of health technology. See full coverage
The authors take a swipe at previous reviews that suggest differently, arguing that, "while most conclude that telehealth is beneficial, such inferences are not supported by the evidence they present."
On the upside, they didn't find any negative effects -- which is significant in that many have expressed concern that being constantly monitored might increase people's anxiety. And this study didn't look at objective health or cost efficiency. The larger trial from which this study emerges, which includes a variation on remote health monitoring intended for vulnerable populations such as people with dementia or physical disabilities, previously identified an astounding 45 percent decline in mortality, for example, and a 95 percent reduction in costs for treating infertility. But quality of life, depression, and anxiety are all linked to worse outcomes for patients with chronic conditions, the authors argue, so from a patient's perspective, it may not be the optimal solution.
Lindsay Abrams is a former editorial fellow at The Atlantic.
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Bill O'Reilly's "Killing Kennedy" Released Today
Bill O'Reilly describes himself as a journalistic "watchdog" and a "champion bloviator."
He's not a historian — "not really. That's not my discipline," he says in his corner office at Fox News, home of The O'Reilly Factor, the top-rated show on cable news. But few history books can approach the popularity of O'Reilly's Killing Lincoln, which has sold more than 2 million copies since it was released a year ago. His new book, Killing Kennedy (Henry Holt), about the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, could be as popular. It goes on sale Tuesday.
Both books were co-written by Martin Dugard, who did most of the research, leaving the writing to O'Reilly, whose approach is to write "history that's fun to read" in a "populist way. No pinheaded stuff, just roar it through!"
It's history as fast-paced thriller, with dramatic foreshadowing in a you-are-there present tense. And, O'Reilly says, "it's all true!"
A few historians questioned details and a lack of documentation in Killing Lincoln. O'Reilly, a former high school history teacher, says any errors, corrected in later editions, are "picayune." The criticism, he says, is just jealousy.
"These guys toil in obscurity their whole lives, and a punk like me comes along and sells 2 million copies. They're not happy."
O'Reilly, 63, is to traditional history what best-selling novelist James Patterson is to literature. Neither gets much respect from academic types. Both say they don't care — all the way to bank.
They also share a collaborator. Dugard (whom O'Reilly calls "the best researcher I could find — and I talked to all the top guys") co-wrote Patterson's 2009 non-fiction bestseller, The Murder of King Tut, about a 3,000-year-old mystery.
O'Reilly says he didn't solve all the mysteries of the Kennedy assassination. He found no evidence of a conspiracy but stops short of ruling it out.
"I know that Oswald killed Kennedy. Now, was he pushed? Encouraged to do it by outsiders? Possibly. Possibly. Was he sitting down with Fidel Castro? No."
But he adds, "There were people around Oswald who shouldn't have been there." He cites George de Mohrenschildt, a well-educated Russian immigrant with possible CIA connections, who "had ties to some very, very important people. Why is he hanging with this loser (Oswald)?"
De Mohrenschildt pops up in other books on the assassination. He's even a minor character in Stephen King's best-selling novel 11/22/63. But O'Reilly has a personal connection.In 1977, as a Dallas TV reporter, O'Reilly tried to interview de Mohrenschildt, who also was a target of congressional investigators re-examining the assassination. As O'Reilly tells it, as he knocked on the door of de Mohrenschildt's daughter's house in Palm Beach, Fla., he heard a shotgun blast. Police later ruled that de Mohrenschildt committed suicide. "There were rumors he was murdered," O'Reilly says, "but I found no evidence of that." He adds, "I'm still working the story. There's something there. What it is, I just don't know."
O'Reilly's biggest surprises were "how crazy, and I mean crazy," Oswald was, and "how little the authorities did to protect Kennedy" in Dallas.
Two-thirds of the book deals with Kennedy's presidency and private life, including his extramarital affairs. It portrays Kennedy as a pragmatic and decisive leader who treated sexual risks as "his carpe diem way of living life to the utmost."
"I wanted to show the good and the bad," O'Reilly says.
He says his biggest break was getting FBI agents who flooded Dallas after the assassination to share what they learned about Oswald. He says that helped him understand the assassin, a former Marine who defected to Russia, then returned to the USA with his Russian-born wife, Marina.
For a taste of O'Reilly's style, consider his description of Oswald on the eve of the assassination as he visits his estranged wife.
As O'Reilly sets the scene, Oswald is undecided about shooting Kennedy as he begs his wife to take him back. "But if she doesn't, " O'Reilly writes, "Oswald will be left with no choice."
"That's how delusional Lee Harvey Oswald's world has become. He now deals only in absolutes: either live happily ever after — or murder the president."
O'Reilly may not be a historian, but his office walls are filled with historic artifacts, including the last South Vietnamese flag to fly over the U.S. Embassy in Saigon and the errant Chicago Tribune front page proclaiming "Dewey Defeats Truman."
He boasts, "Everything in here is an original," which could be applied to O'Reilly himself.
His love-him-or-hate-him personality is part of his appeal. To viewers who complain that he shouts, he says, "Turn down the volume. I don't really shout that much. I'm just a loud Irish guy."
He says that the liberal media "don't get me" — that he's not a conservative but a "traditionalist." In 2009, he supported President Obama's financial bailouts and economic stimulus, which, he says "led to a big brouhaha with (Rush) Limbaugh." Now, O'Reilly complains, Obama "has lost control of the economy." Mitt Romney, he says, can't connect with "the guy making $40,000 a year."
He writes popular history "to get people engaged with their country." He complains that few history books are fun to read: "Even the really good ones, by Robert Caro and these guys — I mean, they're brilliant guys, but to get through 800 pages, you either have to be retired or on vacation for six weeks."
For those keeping score, Caro's fourth book on Lyndon Johnson,The Passage of Power, is 712 pages, including 79 pages of footnotes and sources. Killing Kennedy is 325 pages, including seven pages about its sources.
The Passage of Power landed on USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list at No. 15 and spent seven weeks in the top 150. Killing Lincoln landed on the list at No. 3 and has been in top 50 for 42 weeks. It's now No. 38. (A kids' version, Lincoln's Last Days, landed on the list at No. 42 and is now No. 61.)
No history book has sold so well since David McCullough's 2001 biography, John Adams, which was adapted as an HBO miniseries. A two-hour version of Killing Lincoln, narrated by Tom Hanks, will be on National Geographic in February.
But beyond its commercial success, Killing Lincoln got mixed reviews. Its "narrative flair" was praised by University of New Hampshire historian Ellen Fitzpatrick in a Washington Post review, but she said it "offers no direct citations for any of its assertions."
Rae Emerson, deputy superintendent at Ford's Theatre, site of Lincoln's assassination, cited seven errors in the book — such as references to Lincoln in the Oval Office, which wasn't built until 1909.
O'Reilly says he invited anyone who challenged his facts to appear on his TV show, but no one would. Emerson didn't respond to questions from USA TODAY.
As with Killing Lincoln, Killing Kennedy doesn't always name names or cite its sources.
It describes a 1962 party at Bing Crosby's home and a rendezvous between Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe this way: "There is an intimacy in their movements that leaves no doubt they will be sleeping together tonight."
O'Reilly says that's based on an article in the British tabloid Daily Mail, confirmed by a federal agent who was at the party. "I don't want to sound defensive, but either you believe what we wrote, or you don't," he says. "I'm not writing a Ph.D. dissertation."
Douglas Brinkley, a Rice University historian and prolific author (most recently of the biography Cronkite), says that popular history often omits footnotes and that O'Reilly shouldn't be "held to a double standard because of his politics."
But Brinkley adds that the Kennedy assassination remains a heated issue, and "whatever O'Reilly writes, it will be picked apart. The lack of footnotes and details about its sources make it harder to find the book's frailties. But someone will find them — if they are there."
Thanks to Bob Minzesheimer.
Related Stories Book Recommendations, JFK, LBJ, RFK
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Our solar project Bijli reaches over 25,000 people in India and joins social enterprise SunSaluter
Bijli, India
NEW DELHI: The Climate Group’s project Bijli - Clean energy for all has now reached over 25,000 people in India, and is on its way to achieving its goal of connecting over 50,000 to solar power in India alone by the end of 2015.
Principally founded by the Dutch Postcode Lottery, Bijli aims to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions while enhancing the lives of rural villagers in India, providing clean and cheap renewable and solar-powered energy.
This is particularly important in a nation with a failing energy system: 40% of India is still not connected to the power grid - a number we could eventually connect via renewable sources.
One of the means to reaching this goal is installing off-grid solar panels. To accelerate the development new, bold solar projects, recently The Climate Group joined SunSaluter, an award-winning social enterprise founded by the young engineer Eden Full.
In 2011, Eden Full's project was a runner up in the Postcode Lottery Green Challenge Competition, which is closely followed by The Climate Group.
“This was a fantastic opportunity for us,” says Krishnan Pallassana, India Director, The Climate Group. “To apply an award-winning technology that is simple, appropriate and adaptable but also adding significant value to our ongoing efforts to reach clean energy to rural people in India.”
Eden Full's technology was built from developing a low-cost rotating tracker for solar panels, based on a simple but ingenious mechanism.
Bottles full of water are attached to the solar panel with a counterweight to the other side. The water then passes through a filter and goes to a receiving container, so the more water is filtered, the less it remains in the bottles. This make the solar panel rotate and follow the sun for maximum exposure, and so harnesses the most power.
The system increases solar panels’ energy output by up to 40%, by the end of the day producing at least 4 liters of clean water. “It’s a win-win,” underlines Jarnail Singh, India Program Manager, The Climate Group who leads the Bijli project. “The areas where our projects are deployed often have to struggle both with the lack of energy and clean water. This is a big improvement for their every day’s life, and can really help us to switch towards a clean, healthier use of energy.”
Since September, the company has deployed over 20 installations throughout India aiming to increase this number to 45 for the pilot phase. After that SunSaluter, with the help of The Climate Group and the Dutch Postcode Lottery, will gather the data to show how this innovative concept can be scaled up.
Igniting a solar revolution in India's villages
Low auction bid prices show solar cheaper than coal in India
The Climate Group awards winners of Indian off-grid energy challenge
Picking up the pace – India Inc. accelerates the electric mobility...
EV100, India
Low Carbon Mobility in India
The clean makeover of India’s transportation systems: Reasons for optimism
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Electoral Commission turns to geo-targeting to reach young voters
By Jennifer Faull-16 March 2015 10:29am
The Electoral Commission has begun targeting young voters on their mobile devices for the first time in an effort to remind them to register online.
There are an estimated 7.5 million eligible people who aren’t correctly registered to vote – equivalent to the population of Greater Manchester, West Midlands and West Yorkshire combined. In the last general election less than half of 18-24 year olds voted.
Based on the insight that 85 per cent of this age group in the UK either own or have ready access to a smartphone, the campaign from the Electoral Commission has harnessed data from Weve – the joint venture between O2, EE, and Vodafone – to target potential voters.
It will see messages sent around some of the biggest university campuses in the UK to remind people that they need to be registered to vote by the deadline of 20 April. Additionally, in Wales, activity is to run in Welsh and English to reflect the correct location.
“Registering to vote is now easier than ever. For the first time in the run up to a General Election people can use their smartphones to go online and register to vote, so it makes sense to use that same technology to remind young people they can do this,” said Michael Abbott, head of campaigns at the Electoral Commission.
“We know young people are less likely to be registered to vote than older people, so it’s vital that we use innovative methods to communicate with them.”
The government team at Carat worked with Weve to harness the vast amounts of data it collects. Oliver Mountstephens, manager of the digital display team at Carat said it expects to see an uplift in 18-24 year olds registering to vote as a result.
“We know how much this audience love their phones so it makes sense to talk to them encourage them to register to vote whilst they are already on their handsets,” added Nigel Clarkson, commercial director at Weve.
“They can register whilst in a coffee shop or waiting for the bus, the important thing is that they can participate in the forthcoming general election.”
It comes as Weve restructured its commercial team with a raft of new hires and promotions. Tom Pearman has been promoted to sales director which will see him manage three agency group heads and a client and brand group head.
The restructure has also seen the research and marketing teams bought together and centralised under the control of Nigel Kwan, the former Microsoft, News Int and PHD strategist, as the newly-appointed group head of marketing and research.
This article is about: UK, Weve, UK Government, General Election, Carat, Electoral Commission, Advertising, Digital, Marketing, Mobile, Public Sector
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RM486m tax refunds not returned in 2018 due to mismatch of info or inactive bank accounts — IRB
March 18, 2019 18:30 pm +08
KUALA LUMPUR (March 18): The Inland Revenue Board (IRB) of Malaysia said today that 6.2% or RM486.29 million in tax refunds last year failed to be returned to taxpayers due to a mismatch of information provided, or closed or inactive bank accounts.
In a statement today, it said it places great importance on the processing of tax refunds to ensure taxpayers who are eligible for a refund receive them within a stipulated timeframe.
"However, failure in updating personal information and bank account details results in the failure to complete the tax refund process," it said.
In terms of mismatch of information, it said cheques or vouchers were not delivered to taxpayers due to differences in taxpayers' actual address with the one they had registered in the IRB's database.
There were also incidents of mismatch of bank information, account number and identification number or company registration number between the IRB's database and that registered at the bank.
"Therefore, taxpayers are advised to update their latest personal and banking information in the annual Income Tax Return Form (ITRF) in a move to assist IRB Malaysia in minimising the failure rate of processing tax refunds. In addition, they also can use the e-Kemaskini system or the Feedback Form which can be accessed online at any time through www.hasil.gov.my to update their personal and banking information," the IRB said.
Among the information it said is needed to expedite the tax refund process are: personal identification number, bank account number, correspondence address, telephone number, e-mail address and company registration number (for taxpayers in the company/organisation category).
"Starting Jan 1, 2020, income tax refunds will be fully made using the electronic method of e-payment which is in line with the government's aspiration to preserve the environment by promoting paperless Go Green campaign," it added.
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Follow FIRE
FIRE > Justices > Byron White
Majority Opinions Authored by Justice Byron White
FRAZEE v. ILLINOIS DEPARTMENT OF EMPLOYMENT SECURITY et al., 489 U.S. 829 (1989)
The Illinois Unemployment Insurance Act provides that "[a]n individual shall be ineligible for benefits if he has failed, without good cause, either to apply for available, suitable work when so directed . . . or to accept suitable work when offered him . . . ." Ill. Rev. Stat., ch. 48, ¶ 433 (1986). In April 1984, William Frazee refused a temporary retail position offered him by Kelly Services because the job would have required him to work on Sunday. Frazee told Kelly that, as a Christian, he could not work on "the Lord's day." Frazee then applied to the Illinois Department of Employment Security for unemployment benefits claiming that there was good cause for his refusal to work on Sunday. His application was denied. Frazee appealed the denial of benefits to the Department of Employment Security's Board of Review, which also denied his claim. The Board of Review stated: "When a refusal of work is based on religious convictions, the refusal must be based upon some tenets or dogma accepted by the individual of some church, sect, or denomination, and such a refusal based solely on an individual's personal belief is personal and noncompelling and does not render the work unsuitable." *831 App. 18-19. The Board of Review concluded that Frazee had refused an offer of suitable work without good cause. The Circuit Court of the Tenth Judicial Circuit of Illinois, Peoria County, affirmed, finding that the agency's decision was "not contrary to law nor against the manifest weight of the evidence," thereby rejecting Frazee's claim based on the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. Id., at 23.
GRAVEL v. UNITED STATES, 408 U.S. 606 (1972)
408 U.S. 606 (1972) GRAVEL v. UNITED STATES. No. 71-1017. Supreme Court of United States. Argued April 19-20, 1972. Decided June 29, 1972.[*] CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIRST CIRCUIT.*607 Robert J. Reinstein and Charles L. Fishman argued the cause for petitioner in No. 71-1017 and for respondent… Read more
HAZELWOOD SCHOOL DISTRICT et al. v. KUHLMEIER et al., 484 U.S. 260 (1988)
Three former editors of the Spectrum, a student newspaper run as part of a journalism class and funded by the Board of Educators, sued after the principal removed two articles from the May 1983 issue that described student experiences with pregnancy and divorce. The principal believed that the students interviewed and parents discussed in the articles could be identified and found the discussions of birth control and sexual activity inappropriate for younger students.
HEFFRON, SECRETARY AND MANAGER OF THE MINNESOTA STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY BOARD OF MANAGERS, et al. v. INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR KRISHNA CONSCIOUSNESS, INC., et al., 452 U.S. 640 (1981)
A rule (Rule 6.05) of the Minnesota Agricultural Society (Society), a Minnesota public corporation that operates the annual state fair, provides that sale or distribution of any merchandise, including printed or written material, except from a duly licensed location on the fairgrounds shall be a misdemeanor. As Rule 6.05 is construed and applied by the Society, all persons, groups, or firms desiring to sell, exhibit, or distribute materials during the fair must do so only from fixed locations. However, the Rule does not prevent organizational representatives from walking about the fairgrounds and communicating the organization's views to fair patrons in face-to-face discussions. Space in the fairgrounds is rented in a nondiscriminatory fashion on a first-come, first-served basis, and Rule 6.05 applies alike to nonprofit, charitable, and commercial enterprises. Respondents, International Society for Krishna Consciousness, Inc. (ISKCON), an organization espousing the views of the Krishna religion, and the head of one of its temples filed suit in a Minnesota state court against state officials, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief on the ground that Rule 6.05, on its face and as applied, violated their First Amendment rights. ISKCON asserted that the Rule suppressed the practice of Sankirtan, a religious ritual that enjoins its members to go into public places to distribute or sell religious literature and to solicit donations for the support of the Krishna religion. The trial court upheld the constitutionality of Rule 6.05, but the Minnesota Supreme Court reversed.
HERBERT v. LANDO et al., 441 U.S. 153 (1979)
By virtue of the First and Fourteenth Amendments, neither the Federal nor a State Government may make any law "abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press . . . ." The question here is whether those Amendments should be construed to provide further protection for the press when sued for defamation than has hitherto been recognized. More specifically, we are urged to hold for the first time that when a member of the press is alleged to have circulated damaging falsehoods and is sued for injury to the plaintiff's reputation, the plaintiff is barred from inquiring into the editorial processes of those responsible for the publication, even though the inquiry would produce evidence material to the proof of a critical element of his cause of action.
LAMB’S CHAPEL AND JOHN STEIGERWALD v. CENTER MORICHES UNION FREE SCHOOL DISTRICT et al., 508 U.S. 384 (1993)
The school district of Center Moriches, New York, adopted rules that permitted its facilities to be used for social, civic, and recreational purposes, but that prohibited any group from using the facilities for religious purposes. Lamb's Chapel, an evangelical church, applied for permission to show a six-part film series in one of the buildings. The series presented a religious perspective on family issues and child rearing. The school district denied the application, relying on the prohibition against using the facilities for religious purposes. Lamb's Chapel sued in federal court, but both the trial court and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals found in favor of the school district. A government is not obligated to make its non-public facilities available for use by the general public. Even when it does so, it may limit the purposes for which the facilities may be used. The government may not, however, deny access to the facilities based upon the viewpoint of the person who seeks access to them.Cornelius v. NAACP Legal Defense and Ed. Fund, 473 U.S. 788 (1985). A government may deny access to a religious group if allowing access would violate the First Amendment's prohibition against establishing a religion. One test for evaluating whether the Establishment Clause is being violated is set forth in Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602 (1971) — whether the challenged governmental action has a secular purpose, whether the action has the principal effect of advancing or inhibiting religion, and whether it fosters an excessive entanglement with religion. While never quite repudiated, this test has proven unpopular with many members of the Court.
METROMEDIA, INC., et al. v. CITY OF SAN DIEGO, et al., 453 U.S. 490 (1981)
453 U.S. 490 (1981) METROMEDIA, INC., ET AL. v. CITY OF SAN DIEGO, ET AL. No. 80-195. Supreme Court of United States. Argued February 25, 1981. Decided July 2, 1981. APPEAL FROM THE SUPREME COURT OF CALIFORNIA. *492 Floyd Abrams argued the cause for appellants. With him on the briefs were Theodore B. Olson, Dean… Read more
MUNRO, SECRETARY OF STATE OF WASHINGTON v. SOCIALIST WORKERS PARTY et al., 479 U.S. 189 (1986)
The State of Washington requires that a minor-party candidate for partisan office receive at least 1% of all votes cast for that office in the State's primary election before the candidate's name will be placed on the general election ballot. The question for decision is whether this statutory requirement, *191 as applied to candidates for statewide offices, violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit declared the provision unconstitutional. 765 F. 2d 1417 (1985). We reverse.
NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD et al. v. SEARS, ROEBUCK & CO., 421 U.S. 132 (1975)
The National Labor Relations Board (the Board) and its General Counsel seek to set aside an order of the United States District Court directing disclosure to respondent, Sears, Roebuck & Co. (Sears), pursuant to *136 the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U. S. C. § 552 (Act), of certain memoranda, known as "Advice Memoranda" and "Appeals Memoranda," and related documents generated by the Office of the General Counsel in the course of deciding whether or not to permit the filing with the Board of unfair labor practice complaints.
NEW YORK STATE CLUB ASSOCIATION, INC. v. CITY OF NEW YORK et al., 487 U.S. 1 (1988)
New York City has adopted a local law that forbids discrimination by certain private clubs. The New York Court of Appeals rejected a facial challenge to this law based on the First and Fourteenth Amendments. We sit in review of that judgment.
NEW YORK v. FERBER, 458 U.S. 747 (1982)
The owner of a bookstore in Manhattan was convicted of promoting a sexual performance of a child by selling two sexually explicit films involving young boys to undercover police officers. New York argued this was in violation of a state criminal statute that prohibits knowingly promoting sexual performances by children under 16 by distributing material which depicts such performances. It also prohibits such materials that are produced out of state.
OSBORNE v. OHIO, 495 U.S. 103 (1990)
In order to combat child pornography, Ohio enacted Rev. Code Ann. § 2907.323(A)(3) (Supp. 1989), which provides in pertinent part:
PERRY EDUCATION ASSOCIATION v. PERRY LOCAL EDUCATORS’ ASSOCIATION et al., 460 U.S. 37 (1983)
Under a collective bargaining agreement between the Board of Education of Perry Township, Ind., and Perry Education Association (PEA) as the exclusive bargaining representative for the School District's teachers, PEA was granted access to the interschool mail system and teacher mailboxes in the Perry Township schools. The bargaining agreement also provided that access rights to the mail facilities were not available to any rival union, such as Perry Local Educators' Association (PLEA). PLEA and two of its members filed suit in Federal District Court against PEA and individual members of the School Board, contending that PEA's preferential access to the internal mail system violated the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
POPE et al. v. ILLINOIS, 481 U.S. 497 (1987)
In Miller v. California, 413 U. S. 15 (1973), the Court set out a tripartite test for judging whether material is obscene. The third prong of the Miller test requires the trier of fact to determine "whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value." Id., at 24. The issue in this case is whether, in a prosecution for *499 the sale of allegedly obscene materials, the jury may be instructed to apply community standards in deciding the value question.
RED LION BROADCASTING CO., INC., et al. v. FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION et al., 395 U.S. 367 (1969)
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has for many years imposed on broadcasters a "fairness doctrine," requiring that public issues be presented by broadcasters and that each side of those issues be given fair coverage. In No. 2, the FCC declared that petitioner Red Lion Broadcasting Co. had failed to meet its obligation under the fairness doctrine when it carried a program which constituted a personal attack on one Cook, and ordered it to send a transcript of the broadcast to Cook and provide reply time, whether or not Cook would pay for it. The Court of Appeals upheld the FCC's position. After the commencement of the Red Lion litigation, the FCC began a rulemaking proceeding to make the personal attack aspect of the fairness doctrine more precise and more readily enforceable, and to specify its rules relating to political editorials. The rules, as adopted and amended, were held unconstitutional by the Court of Appeals in RTNDA (No. 717) as abridging the freedoms of speech and press.
REGAN, SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY, et al. v. TIME, INC., 468 U.S. 641 (1984)
468 U.S. 641 (1984) REGAN, SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY, ET AL. v. TIME, INC. No. 82-729. Supreme Court of United States. Argued November 9, 1983 Decided July 3, 1984 APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK*643 Elliott Schulder argued the cause for appellants. With him on… Read more
RENEGOTIATION BOARD v. GRUMMAN AIRCRAFT ENGINEERING CORP., 421 U.S. 168 (1975)
The issue in this case is whether certain documents documents generated by the Renegotiation Board (Board) and by its Regional Boards in performing their task of deciding whether certain Government contractors have earned, and must refund, "excessive profits" on their Government contractsare "final opinions" explaining the reasons for agency decisions already made, and thus expressly subject to disclosure pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (Act), 5 U. S. C. § 552 (a) (2) (A), or are instead predecisional consultative memoranda exempted from disclosure by § 552 (b) (5). See NLRB v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., ante, p. 132.
RICHARD A. LYNG, SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE v. INTERNATIONAL UNION, UNITED AUTOMOBILE AEROSPACE AND AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENT WORKERS OF AMERICA, UAW, et al., 485 U.S. 360 (1988)
A 1981 amendment to the Food Stamp Act states that no household shall become eligible to participate in the food stamp program during the time that any member of the household is on strike or shall increase the allotment of food stamps that it was receiving already because the income of the striking member has decreased. We must decide whether this provision is valid under the First and the Fifth Amendments.
SABLE COMMUNICATIONS OF CALIFORNIA, INC. v. FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION et al., 492 U.S. 115 (1989)
The issue before us is the constitutionality of § 223(b) of the Communications Act of 1934. 47 U. S. C. § 223(b) (1982 ed., Supp. V). The statute, as amended in 1988, imposes an outright ban on indecent as well as obscene interstate commercial telephone messages. The District Court upheld the prohibition against obscene interstate telephone communications for commercial purposes, but enjoined the enforcement of the statute insofar as it applied to indecent messages. We affirm the District Court in both respects.
SCHAD et al. v. BOROUGH OF MOUNT EPHRAIM, 452 U.S. 61 (1981)
In 1973, appellants began operating an adult bookstore in the commercial zone in the Borough of Mount Ephraim in Camden County, N. J. The store sold adult books, magazines, and films. Amusement licenses shortly issued permitting the store to install coin-operated devices by virtue of which a customer could sit in a booth, insert a coin, and watch an adult film. In 1976, the store introduced an additional coin-operated mechanism permitting the customer to watch a live dancer, usually nude, performing behind a glass panel. *63 Complaints were soon filed against appellants charging that the bookstore's exhibition of live dancing violated § 99-15B of Mount Ephraim's zoning ordinance, which described the permitted uses in a commercial zone,[1] in which the store was located, as follows:
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215-717-FIRE
fire@thefire.org
More ways to reach FIRE
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Explore the burma map for a complete trip
burma is the ancient name of myanmar - the Buddhist country with tens of thousands of temples, pagodas and antique cultures that are preserved intact until now. Located in the northwest of the Sino-Indian Peninsula, in recent years, burma is considered as an captivating destination for international visitors. To get a complete and noteworthy trip in this country, before going, you need to learn a bit about the myanmar map. Use the map below to start planning a trip to myanmar - The Golden Land in the world.
Introduction about myanmar country
myanmar is a country in Southeast Asia, northwestern Indian Peninsula. It has 5,876 km of borderlines with China (2,185 km), Thailand (1,800 km), India (1,463 km), Laos (235 km) and Bangladesh (193 km). The coastline is 1,930 km long. Area 676,577 km². Burma gained independence from Britain in 1948 and became the Union of myanmar Socialist Republics in 1974 and later changed to the Union of burma in 1988.
myanmar is the name derived from the local name Myanma Naingngandaw. It was used in the early 12th century but its origins are still unclear. The root of this name is Brahmadesh in Sanskrit, meaning "land of Brahma", the Hindu god of all creatures.
burma - The country of gold pagodas
Yangon is the ancient capital and also the largest city of burma. Now, The capital of this country is Naypyidaw.
myanmar has a population of 50,020,000 people with 135 ethnic groups and tribes, including Burmese (68%), San (9%), Karen (7%), Chinese (3%), Indians (2%), Mon (2%) and other ethnic groups (5%)
The myanmar map
1. Geographical location
burma is a republic in Southeast Asia with the coordinates 16 ° 48 'north latitude, 96 ° 09' east latitude (16.8, 96.15), according to the GMT/GMT +6: 30-hour zone.
- In the north: bordered by the Tibet Autonomous Region of China
- In the east: bordered by China, Laos, and Thailand
- In the south: bordered by the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal
- In the West: bordered the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh, and India.
The total area of the country is 676,552 square kilometers (261,218 square miles), makes it the largest country in the mainland Southeast Asia and is the 40th largest country in the world (after Zambia). It is slightly smaller than Texas and slightly larger than Afghanistan.
The burma map image
2. Topographic characteristics
The horseshoe-shaped mountains and valleys of the Ayarwaddy River system (Irrawaddy) are the major terrain features in burma. The mountains at the north edge are 5881 meters high, on top of Hkakabo Razi, the highest mountain in Southeast Asia. Two other mountain systems have axes from north to south. The Arakan Yoma area, with its peaks reaching over 2740 meters, separates burma and the Indian subcontinent. Bilauktaung area, south of the Shan plateau, lies along the border between south-west Thailand and southeastern burma. The Shan plateau, originating from China, has an average elevation of about 910 meters.
The continent is generally narrow and long, with central ridges about 320 km stretching over the Ayarwaddy-Sittaung plain. The deltas, especially the country's most fertile and economically important lands, cover an area of about 46,620 square kilometers (18,000 square miles). Both the Arakan coast (northwest) and Tenasserim (south-west) of burma is full of rocks and are surrounded by islands.
3. Popular tourist destinations on burma map
Yangon (16.8661° N, 96.1951° E): Formerly known as Rangoon, with over 7 million people, Yangon is Myanmar's largest city and its most important commercial centre. On the map of myanmar, Yangon is located in Lower burma (Myanmar) at the convergence of the Yangon and Bago Rivers about 30 km(19 mi) away from the Gulf of Martaban at 16°48' North, 96°09' East (16.8, 96.15). Its criterion time zone is UTC/GMT +6:30 hours.
The map of burma with cities
Bagan (21.1717° N, 94.8585° E): This is an old city located in the Mandalay Region of burma. The Bagan Archaeological Zone is the main highlight for the country's nascent tourism industry. It is seen by tremendous as equal in attraction to Angkor Wat in Cambodia, with over 2,200 temples and pagodas still survive to the present day.
The Bagan Archaeological Zone, defined as the 13 x 8 km area centered around old Bagan, consisting of Nyaung U in the north and New Bagan in the south, lies in the vast expanse of plains in Upper myanmar on the bend of the Irrawaddy river. On the myanmar map, it is located 290 kilometers (180 mi) south-west of Mandalay and 700 kilometers (430 mi) north of Yangon. It accorde to the GMT/GMT +6: 30-hour zone.
Inle Lake (20.5863° N, 96.9102° E): This is a freshwater lake located in the Nyaungshwe Township of Taunggyi District of Shan State, part of Shan Hills in burma (Burma). It is the second largest lake in myanmar with an estimated surface area of 44.9 square miles (116 km2), and one of the highest at an elevation of 2,900 feet (880 m). During the dry season, the average water depth is 7 feet (2.1 m), with the deepest point being 12 feet (3.7 m), but during the rainy season this may increase by 5 feet (1.5 m).
Hope that the useful information about the myanmar map above will help you on exploring burma and having captivating experiences in this Golden Land - one of the most magical and undiscovered destinations in the world.
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Music · Features
The 405 Exchange: Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes in combining ambition with creativity
Ken Grand-Pierre linked up with Carter and guitarist Dean Richardson to discuss how End Of Suffering came to be.
The 40526 Jun, 2019. Photography by Ken Grand-Pierre
No one could’ve predicted the career that Frank Carter has carved for himself. From Gallows to Pure Love and now Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes - he’s always been an ambitious musician, but that’s never been clearer on The Rattlesnakes' latest album, End Of Suffering (out now). It’s a rock album that reminds us how much dynamism can be evoked from a band; album opener ‘Why A Butterfly Can’t Love A Spider’ being a prime example of such growth. Ken Grand-Pierre linked up with Carter and guitarist Dean Richardson to discuss how the album came to be and why it’s important to risk alienating others when evolving a sound.
"If you’re grumbling about your album being old news than you’ve already lost the battle."
You can subscribe to the 405 Exchange podcast on iTunes, Spotify, TuneIn, Stitcher, Google Play, and Overcast. You can also listen to the podcast over at Anchor.
The 405 ExchangeFrank Carter & The RattlesnakesThe 405 Podcast Network
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THE KID in CONNAISSANCES DES ARTS Magazine - France - April 2013 - Page 112
Stay tuned about THE KID's latest works and exhibitions via social medias :
Official website of young & provocative self-educated contemporary artist THE KID, presenting a selection of his socially-committed and thought-provoking art works, including some of his already world-famous wall-size blue Bic ballpoint pen or oil-pencil and charcoal drawings and oil-paintings, as well as of his controversial fully hand-made and oil-painted hyperrealist life-size silicone sculptures and installations, plus extracts of the press review about his work, of his biography, his book and contact details.
Contemporary Artist THE KID is a committed activist and supporter of the leading International Non Governmental Organization HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH (http://www.hrw.org/) - which defends The Human Rights all over the world, in particular for its fight against social discrimination and inhumane justice.
Exhibitions (Extracts) :
THE KID : I GO ALONE. Solo Show. March 30 - April 3, 2016. Art Paris 2016 International Exhibition. Le Grand Palais Museum. Paris.
THE KID : GOD IS DEAD. March 29 - April 3, 2016. Our Future Is Now International Exhibition. Drawing Now. Le Carreau du Temple. Paris.
THE KID : DO YOU BELIEVE IN GOD? March 11 - May 8, 2016. Triennale Of Their Times ADIAF Exhibition. Contemporary Art Institute. Villeurbanne.
THE KID : UNTIL THE QUIET COMES. Solo Show. March 25 - 29, 2015. Art Paris 2015 International Exhibition. Le Grand Palais Museum. Paris.
THE KID : THE MORNING I WAS BORN AGAIN. Solo Show. March 26 - 30, 2014. Art Paris 2014 International Exhibition. Le Grand Palais Museum. Paris.
THE KID : ENDGAME. Solo Show. March 30 - May 25, 2013. ALB Anouk Le Bourdiec Gallery. New Art District. Paris.
THE KID : ARTIST IN FOCUS. April 9 - 14, 2013. Drawing Now International Exhibition. Le Louvre Museum. Paris.
THE KID : HUMANITY IS OVERRATED. October 16 - 20, 2012. Slick International Exhibition. Le Garage. Paris.
THE KID : GOD IS DEAD. June 16 - July 19, 2012. ALB Anouk Le Bourdiec Gallery. New Art District. Paris.
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