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Dean and the Historian: Their Lives and Times through Letters Transformational Journeys: An Ethnologist’s Memoir: Transactions, APS (Vol. 106, Part 5)
William S. Middleton, a graduate of the Univ. of PA School of Med., taught thousands of students during his 63 years at the Univ. of Wisconsin (UW) School of Med. One of his most important decisions was to establish a medical history dep’t. and appoint as its first chair, Erwin Ackerknecht, the pioneering medical historian. The correspondence between the dean and the historian began in 1947 and continued until 1974. Both men fought for causes they believed in: Middleton for improved veterans’ healthcare, better training of physicians, and the establishment of medical libraries; and Ackernecht for a social view of medicine and rejection of fascism in education. The letters show how these two outstanding men viewed the world and viewed themselves, as they discuss their daily lives and concerns, and above all, their friendship. Illus. This is the professional memoir of an ethnologist, who studies the cultures and languages of ethnic groups, in the present and in the past. Victoria R. Bricker’s journeys -- from Hong Kong to Shanghai during World War II, to the U.S. after the war, to Germany, Harvard, southeastern Mexico, and eventually to New Orleans -- influenced her choice of ethnology as a career and shaped that career over 50 years. Ethnology served as the stepping stone for intellectual forays into other related fields, such as linguistics, ethnohistory, epigraphy, and astronomy, all focused on the Maya people of southern Mexico and Central America. Bricker, a Professor Emerita who holds several other positions, is the author, with her husband, Harvey M. Bricker (1940-2017), of “Astronomy in the Maya Codices.” Illus.
Of Elephants & Roses: French Natural History, 1790-1830: Memoir 267 Strait Through: Magellan to Cook & the Pacific (An Illustrated History)
This award-winning illustrated book explores the fascinating history of the natural sciences in the turbulent years of post-revolutionary and Restoration France, from Empress Josephine’s black swans and rare Franklinia tree to a giraffe that walked 480 miles across France to greet the king. It is the catalogue for an international loan exhibition held in 2011 at the APS Museum in Philadelphia and the record of an associated interdisciplinary symposium held at the American Philosophical Society (APS) on December 1-3, 2011. The essays, commentaries, and discussions present new perspectives on French natural history, its influence on French culture, and its ties to the natural sciences in North America. Contributors include art historians, historians of science, and scholars of French literature, history, and culture. Illus. This beautifully-designed book documents the story and the drama of the unfolding exploration of the Pacific Ocean that followed the discovery of the Strait of Magellan. In rare historic maps, many in full-color, and the original printed narratives of the main European explorers, the volume traces 250 years (1520s-1770s) of both national and personal maritime achievements, as the map of the Pacific slowly developed into its present shape. Chronological maps of the Magellan Strait, Pacific Ocean, and Spice Islands (Moluccas) form the backdrop to the narratives of individual explorers and explorer-pairs: Ferdinand Magellan (d. 1521), Alvaro de Mendaña de Neira (1542?-1595) and Pedro Fernandes de Queirós (d. 1615), Sir Francis Drake (1540?-1596), and many others.
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Topic: Duke of Suffolk
William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk
Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk
Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk
Mary Tudor (queen consort of France)
Henry VIII of England
Battle of Bosworth Field
Field of the Cloth of Gold
Pilgrimage of Grace
Francis I of France
Sweating sickness
History of the English language
In the News (Mon 15 Jul 19)
Family compact
Earls and dukes of Suffolk - LoveToKnow 1911
A certain holder of land in Suffolk, named John de Peyton, had a younger son Robert, who acquired the lordship of Ufford in that county and was known as Robert de Ufford.
The duke's SOD, John, 2nd duke of Suffolk (1442-1491), married Elizabeth, daughter of Richard, duke of York, and sister of King Edward IV., by whom he had six sons.
www.1911encyclopedia.org /Earls_and_dukes_of_Suffolk (768 words)
Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk - Definition, explanation
Suffolk took part in the jousts which celebrated the marriage of Mary Tudor, Henry's sister, with Louis XII of France.
Suffolk was only saved from Henry's anger by Wolsey, and the pair eventually agreed to pay to Henry £24,000 in yearly instalments of £1000, and the whole of Mary's dowry from Louis of £200,000, together with her plate and jewels.
Suffolk was entirely in favour of Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon, and in spite of his obligations to Wolsey he did not scruple to attack him when his fall was imminent.
www.calsky.com /lexikon/en/txt/c/ch/charles_brandon__1st_duke_of_suffolk.php (1159 words)
The Second Insurrection of the Duke of Suffolk
The flight of the duke of Suffolk is mentioned in p.
Holinshed correctly says, that the duke, "in the towne of Leycester and other places, [6] caused proclamation to be made in semblable wyse as sir Thomas Wiat had done, against the queenes matche, which she ment to make with the sayd king of Spain, but fewe there were that woulde willingly harken thereto.
Modern writers are generally content to characterise the duke of Suffolk as a very weak man -- a judgment which his conduct throughout the period embraced in the present volume seems abundantly to justify.
www.tudorhistory.org /primary/janemary/app7.html (1105 words)
Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Charles_Brandon,_1st_Duke_of_Suffolk (1153 words)
Suffolk, Henry Grey, duke of - HighBeam Encyclopedia (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-10)
Upon the accession (1547) of Edward VI, Grey at first supported the protectorship of the duke of Somerset but soon shifted his allegiance to John Dudley, earl of Warwick (later duke of Northumberland).
Lady Jane Grey was his daughter, and, upon the death (1553) of Edward, Suffolk joined Northumberland's plot to place her on the throne.
The Duke and the Beggar in Shakespeare's 2 Henry VI.
www.encyclopedia.com /doc/1E1-suffolkh.html (352 words)
Charles Brandon, duke of Suffolk and Princess Mary Tudor: Biography, Portrait, Primary Sources
For, by this time, he knew the duke of Suffolk was on his way to France to bargain for Mary's return, specifically the return of her jewels, plate, and dower rights.
Suffolk was swayed by tears and ambition and, sometime in February 1515, they married secretly at the Cluny chapel.
Suffolk and Mary were wed again at Greenwich Palace on 13 May with Henry and Katharine of Aragon in attendance.
englishhistory.net /tudor/relative/brandon.html (5377 words)
tudorhistory.org /primary/janemary/app7.html (1105 words)
Lady Jane Grey: Frances Grey, Duchess of Suffolk
Frances was born in 1517 to Princess Mary, Henry VIII's youngest sister and Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk.
In 1516 Frances married Henry Grey, Marquis of Dorset at the Church of St. Saviour in Southwark (now Southwark Cathedral.) Much has been written about Frances' harsh treatment of Jane and her sisters, however, it is also clear that Frances had very high aspirations for her family.
During her husband and daughter's imprisonment Frances as a groom in the Suffolk household.
www.britannia.com /history/ladyjane/frances.html (229 words)
Suffolk, Charles Brandon, 1st duke of - HighBeam Encyclopedia (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-10)
He was created duke of Suffolk in 1514, perhaps to aid him in his suit of Margaret of Austria, regent of the Netherlands.
In 1515, while on an embassy to the new king of France, Francis I, Suffolk married Mary of England, recent widow of Louis XII of France and sister of Henry VIII.
Suffolk accompanied Henry to the Field of the Cloth of Gold (1520) and led an invading army into France (1523).
www.encyclopedia.com /doc/1E1-suffolkc.html (318 words)
Luminarium Encyclopedia: Lady Jane Grey
Lord Seymour, however, was attainted of high treason and beheaded in 1549, and his brother, the duke of Somerset, made some overtures to the marquess of Dorset to marry her to his son the earl of Hertford.
The duke of Suffolk was obliged to tell his daughter that she must lay aside her royal dignity and become a private person once more.
The duke of Suffolk and Lady Jane were also committed to the Tower; but the former, by the influence of his duchess, procured a pardon.
www.luminarium.org /encyclopedia/ladyjanegrey.htm (1240 words)
Shakespeare Henry Sixth 6th Part II Summary
Suffolk (William de la Pole, Marquess and later 1st Duke of Suffolk) presents Queen Margaret of Anjou to Henry VI, in whom Henry is delighted [the coronation was historically in 1445].
Suffolk presents the charge that Peter has made against his master, that he said York is the rightful heir to the throne, but York denies this.
Suffolk replies angrily that he is being slandered, insulting the Neville family name in turn--the two adversaries leave together to fight, then return with swords drawn.
www.mcgoodwin.net /pages/otherbooks/ws_henry6_2.html (2691 words)
EARLS AND DUKES OF SUF... - Online Information article about EARLS AND DUKES OF SUF...
In 1385 the earldom of Suffolk and the lands of the Uffords were granted by Richard II.
His titles and estates were forfeited, but in 1399 the earldom of Suffolk and most of the estates were restored to his son Michael (c.
His brother Richard now called himself duke of Suffolk, and put forward a claim to the English crown.
encyclopedia.jrank.org /STE_SUS/SUFFOLK_EARLS_AND_DUKES_OF.html (961 words)
Suffolk — FactMonster.com
Suffolk is bordered on the N by the Ouse and Waveney rivers and on the S by the Stour River.
Suffolk, Henry Grey, duke of - Suffolk, Henry Grey, duke of, d.
Suffolk, Thomas Howard, 1st earl of - Suffolk, Thomas Howard, 1st earl of, 1561–1626, English nobleman; son of the 4th duke of...
www.factmonster.com /ce6/world/A0847116.html (282 words)
ORB: The Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies
Suffolk was condemned to exile in a bid to save his life.
Richard, duke of York was, except for the anomalous Beauforts, the still-childless king's closest male relative, and had inherited the the seniority of the Earls of March.
The king agreed to have the Duke of Somerset tried for his so-called crimes, but the moment York's forces dispersed, York himself was forced to ask for pardon, and some of his retainers were executed.
www.the-orb.net /textbooks/muhlberger/rose_wars.html (2326 words)
William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk, 1st Marquess of Suffolk, 4th Earl of Suffolk (16 October 1396 at Cotton, Suffolk, - 2 May, 1450), was an important English soldier and commander in the Hundred Years' War, and later Lord Chamberlain of England.
William was the second son of Michael de la Pole, 2nd Earl of Suffolk and Katharine de Stafford, daughter of Hugh, 2nd Earl of Stafford, K.G. Almost continually engaged in the wars in France, he was seriously wounded during the siege of Harfleur (1415), where his father was killed.
The body of Sir William de la Pole, K.G., 1st Duke of Suffolk, was returned to the Collegiate Church at Wingfield, Suffolk, where it was buried beneath a purfled arch.
en.wikipedia.org /wiki/William_de_la_Pole,_1st_Duke_of_Suffolk (588 words)
photo3 Page
Suffolk was the son of William Brandon, standard-bearer of Henry VII, who was slain by Richard III in person on Bosworth Field, and had taken part in the jousts to celebrate Mary's marriage to Louis.
Lady Frances Brandon was the second child and eldest daughter of Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk and Mary Tudor, former queen consort of France.
Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk and his wife Lady Frances Brandon, painted by Hans Eworth.Henry Grey, 1st duke of Suffolk, 3rd marquess of Dorset and baron Ferrers of Groby, Harrington, Bonville and Astley (c.1515 — February 23, 1554) was an English nobleman of the Tudor period and the father of Lady Jane Grey.
www.ladyjanegrey-dudley.50megs.com /photo3.html (3971 words)
The arms of Senior quartered with Duke (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-10)
The Dukes were an old Suffolk family, tracing their descent from Roger le Duc, Sheriff of London in 1190 but they almost certainly came to this country during the Norman conquest.
Mary Duke was the daughter and co-heiress of Henry Duke, Solicitor-General of Barbados, who was killed in a hurricane in 1781 while protecting his wife and two daughters.
Col. Robert Duke, of the Wiltshire branch, was convicted of treason in 1655 as a result of the Penruddock rebellion, an attempt to overthrow Cromwell.
www.gmilne.demon.co.uk /arms.htm (648 words)
Brief History of Edward VII
The Duke of Somerset was no longer merely a *first among equals*; instead, he was allowed to act without the consent of the Council, the composition of which he was permitted to change at his whim.
The Duke of Somerset, however, did not encourage persecution; rather, he refrained from it, as he feared the wrath of Europe's powerful Catholic monarchs, especially the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. One of the Duke of Somerset's primary aims was to achieve a union between England and Scotland.
The Duke of Somerset became extremely unpopular, and was deposed by John Dudley, 1st Earl of Warwick.
www.beadchaser.com /renfaire/history/edward6.htm (2691 words)
wpeters: Oh, the grand old duke of York....
A scapegoat is needed and the Duke of Suffolk happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Suffolk was largely if not solely responsible for the unforgiveable loss of the state of Maine.
The King pardoned Suffolk and reduced his sentence instead to exile in France (I'm not sure exactly where in France he'd be welcome, Calais maybe?).
wpeters.livejournal.com /61343.html (628 words)
AllRefer.com - Suffolk, Charles Brandon, 1st duke of (British And Irish History, Biography) - Encyclopedia
Suffolk, Charles Brandon, 1st duke of, British And Irish History, Biographies
Suffolk, Charles Brandon, 1st duke of[suf´uk] Pronunciation Key, d.
He supported the king's divorce from Katharine of AragOn, received confiscated monastery lands, led troops against the rebels in the Pilgrimage of Grace (1536), and led an invasion of France (1544).
reference.allrefer.com /encyclopedia/S/SuffolkC.html (338 words)
JJP (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-10)
The young Pole, Duke of Suffolk, wasted with sickness, could barely stagger to the front line in his battle armor at the battle of Agincourt.
He was Duke of Suffolk because he was in the line and died and he died in the line because he was Duke of Suffolk.
The loyalty table shall not affect the death of the Dukes of York and Lancaster.
members.aol.com /prbolduc/boris/hrules/JJP.html (1970 words)
William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk : William de la Pole
William de la Pole (1396- May 2, 1450), 4th Earl and 1st Duke of Suffolk, was an important English soldier and commander in the Hundred Years' War, and later Lord Chamberlain of England.
With the deaths in 1447 of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester and Cardinal Beaufort, Suffolk became the principal power behind the throne of the weak and compliant Henry VI.
The next year he was raised to the rank of duke.
www.findword.org /wi/william-de-la-pole.html (694 words)
Suffolk (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-10)
Suffolk was an ambitious aristocrat yet he probably was not as influential and as successful as Shakespeare portrays.
The exile and death of Suffolk are actually moved back several years so that Shakespeare could make him instrumental in Gloucester's fall, yet in reality, he had nothing to do with it.
After he was banished his ship was captured by another one and, as portrayed in the play, the men on this other ship thought Suffolk had slain the "good Duke Humphrey" and executed him.
www.umich.edu /~shkspre/2henryvi/characters/suffolk.htm (319 words)
Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk - Definition, explanation
Henry Grey, 1st duke of Suffolk, 3rd marquess of Dorset and baron Ferrers of Groby, Harrington, Bonville and Astley (c.
In 1533, with the permission of King Henry VIII he married Lady Frances Brandon (1517 - 1559), the daughter of Henry VIII’s sister Princess Mary Tudor and Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk.
As a reward, he was created duke of Suffolk on 11 October 1551, in the same ceremony that elevated John Dudley to the duchy of Northumberland.
www.calsky.com /lexikon/en/txt/h/he/henry_grey__1st_duke_of_suffolk.php (599 words)
Leighton-Linslade Past Times - Manorial History
In the 1438, with the consent of William Philip (brother and heir of Alice's first husband), Alice and her husband agreed to the reversion of Grovebury to Eton College, and by a further agreement of 1446 conveyed possession of Grovebury to Eton College for an annual rent of £220.
The Duke of Suffolk was murdered in 1450, and notwithstanding the grant to Eton, the widow Alice was still tenant in 1465, when she claimed the liberties granted to the Abbess of Fontévrault, including view of frankpledge, waif and stray and a market on Tuesdays.
Alice's son John, second Duke of Suffolk, and his wife Elizabeth (Edward IV's sister) succeeded to the manor.
www.leighton-linslade.com /manors (1131 words)
Earl of Suffolk (husband of Katherine nee Wingfield).
Duke of Suffolk, K.G. John de la Pole, 2
Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk (grandson of Elizabeth Wingfield).
www.wingfield.org /lord.htm (176 words)
The Peerage - Dukes
Since the title Duke signified Sovereign status (William the Conqueror was Duke of Normandy) it was not adopted until 1337, when Edward III conferred the Dukedom of Cornwall on his eldest son, the Black Prince.
The first subject to receive a dukedom who was not a member of the royal family, nor one nearly connected, was Sir William de la Pole, Marquess of Suffolk, who was created Duke of Suffolk in 1448.
A Duke is styled Most Noble (or less formally His Grace), and by the Sovereign in public instruments, Our right trusty and right entirely beloved cousin, with the addition of and counselor when a member of the Privy Council.
hereditarytitles.com /Page12.html (213 words)
Henry GREY (1° D. Suffolk)
Jane now believed that she was betrothed to the Duke of Somerset's son, Lord Hertford.
Lady Jane was stunned when her parents informed her that she was instead to marry Guildford Dudley, the youngest son of the Duke of Northumberland.
Determined to save himself, the Duke of Suffolk signed the proclamation making Mary Queen, then went to his daughter's apartments and tore down her canopy of estate, telling her she was no longer Queen.
www.tudorplace.com.ar /Bios/HenryGrey(1DSuffolk).htm (2962 words)
Disclaimer Duke Automotive Suffolk VA
Duke Automotive Corp (hereinafter "Dealer") is an automotive dealer or related dealership marketing entity located at 2016 N Main St, Suffolk, VA, 23434.
Please note that this Site is operated in Suffolk, VA and therefore all Disclaimers are predicated on applicable VA or country laws and standards.
Duke Automotive Corp will substantially comply with the GLB Act and Regulation P for all Customer NPI received, transferred or obtained from the use of this site or from a party (a party and collectively the parties).
www.dukeauto.com /Disclaimer.aspx (1078 words)
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Home » Posts » Assassin’s Creed Origins – Latest info on AC in Egypt
Assassin’s Creed Origins – Latest info on AC in Egypt
Assassin’s Creed Origins will be set in Egypt!
Assassin’s Creed Origins was initially thought to be called Assassin’s Creed Empire. Notably, Assassin’s Creed took 2016 off, the first time since 2009 Ubisoft hasn’t released an Assassin’s Creed game. But that hasn’t stopped the rumor mill running and we’ve collected everything you need to know about Assassin’s Creed Origins. Although Ubisoft is infamous for leaking game details early this time around they have been tight-lipped. Still, it looks as though Assassin’s Creed Origins is set in Egypt around 305 – 30 BC.
Ubisoft copped a bit of backlash for the buggy release of Assassin’s Creed Unity which has since been fixed. Then the next addition to the series, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate had the worst week one sale of any Assassin’s Creed game. So, it’s fair to say taking a year off to revamp the series and develop the game right is a good decision. In a blog in February 2016 Ubisoft said
We’re taking this year to evolve the game mechanics and to make sure we’re delivering on the promise of Assassin’s Creed offering unique and memorable gameplay experiences that make history everyone’s playground.”
The year off for AC also left room for the Assassin’s Creed movie starring Michael Fassbender to take the limelight. Reviews of the movie are pretty negative and the movie did not quite make the connection to the video game people were hoping for. However, the movie did make just over $240 million at the worldwide box office. Assassin’s Creed releases in March 2017 on Bluray and DVD and includes 90 minutes of bonus footage. That bonus footage may include the alternate movie ending and the film is also said to have a sequel planned already.
Everything we know about Assassin’s Creed Empire (Origins)
The Assassin’s Creed franchise has taken gamers through history and beautiful cities and countries including Syria, France, and America. The Assassin’s Creed Origins setting will most likely be Egypt according to rumors and possible leaks from 4chan and social media.
According to the 4chan source and Neogaf forums, Assassin’s Creed Origins will be a complete revamp of the series. This revamp includes an overhaul of the combat system with more freeform style combat similar to that of The Witcher. Assassin’s Creed Origins is in development by the same team that made Black Flag which supports theories surrounding Black Flag director Ashraf Ismail. Back in 2013, he said
I’m not saying we are going there, but one day I would love to explore Egypt as a setting for this game. Ancient Egypt could be a really cool place. We have a really cool explanation for how we can do this, and it is with this Animus device that allows us to go to anytime in history. It was never a set rule that we always get closer to the present day. But again, I’m not saying Egypt is where the next one is going, it’s just where I would like it to go.”
Moreover, since finishing Black Flag’s development in 2014, Ashraf Ismail is working on an unannounced game by Ubisoft. Ismail commented he can’t confirm any of the rumors but is excited to talk about Ubisoft’s new game.
It was also indicated that Assassin’s Creed Origins will bring back boats and horses. The boats will be used for navigation and have quest interiors onboard. The new world is built completely from scratch with some minor animation recycling and a seamless world. Assassin’s Creed Origins might be 3 times the size of Black Flag and not feature co-op. The protagonist will also have an eagle companion perhaps for combat or scouting.
The leaker said Assassin’s Creed Origins (Empire) would be a prequel to the other ACs and historical accuracy was not the main concern. However, the story will be in-depth and you may play as a slave or ex-slave similar looking to Altair. The opportunities for fantastic storytelling with Assassin’s Creed and Egypt are immense. This isn’t the first time figures from Egypt and mythology have appeared in AC games.
For instance, the Orion constellation is in the night sky of AC Black Flag, relating to Orion of Greek mythology. Greece and Rome could be part of a trilogy along with Egypt and this also fits historically. Egypt also could bring focus to a female character like Amunet whose name means ‘the female hidden one’. Further clues lie in the ending of Assassin’s Creed Revelations (spoilers incoming) where Altair’s son, Darim tells his father to take one of the pieces of Eden to Alexandria, the ancient capital of Egypt.
There’s also a mention of Egypt in Assassin’s Creed 4 in the emails of Abstergo’s bosses. The emails discuss Desmond’s ancestry and show artwork of Osiris and Egypt. They also mention Egypt as a good setting for the next experience. Watch Dogs 2 has an easter egg that could suggest an upcoming Assassin’s Creed game. In addition, there was a leak in 2013 of Osiris which is since confirmed as an old Ubisoft project. But it’s likely aspects of Osiris will still get recycled in Assassin’s Creed Origins.
Leaks would suggest a 2017 release although interviews with developers and CEOs at Ubisoft suggest otherwise. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said ‘it will be back when it’s ready’ so launch might not be until 2018. Especially considering developers have mentioned wanting to bring the game into Alpha for a year before launching.
*Updated to reflect the official game name – Assassin’s Creed Origins.
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A warm church with a warm welcome, the church of All Saints was built in c.1180 and originally belonged to the abbey at Abingdon. It stands at the top of the High Street in the village of Cuddesdon and is open daily during daylight hours.
The parish is very proud of its strong links with Ripon College Cuddesdon, a Church of England Theological College, who use the Church daily for evensong at 5.45 pm.
Benefice Service
On the first Sunday of the month, the parishes of Cuddesdon, Garsington and Horspath worship together alternating in each other’s churches. At the service we have coffee and, sometimes, a special preacher.
Every first Sunday at 10:00am for 1 hour
Holy Communion (Book of Common Prayer)
A prayer book communion service which lasts about half an hour. Every first and third Sunday at 8:00am.
Parish Communion
Every second, third, fourth and fifth Sunday at 9:30am for 1 hour
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First Presbyterian Church, Rockaway, NJ
Worship TIme
Reaching Out to Others
Feasting on the Word and Blast Spiritual Formation for All Ages >
GIFT Small Group Ministry
Faith from Birth
Jr and Sr High Youth Group
2019 Presbyterian YOUTH TRIENNIUM
PCUSA News!
FPC Historic Cemetery
Revolutionary War Veterans Interred in FPC Cemetery
PCCNS (Presbyterian Church Cooperative Nursery School)
Our Cemetery Sexton
Our Cemetery Sexton is Robert Nichols and we are very blessed to have Rob on staff. Rob considers his care of the cemetery to be his ministry and we couldn't agree more. Rob's special care for those who are interred in First Presbyterian Church Cemetery is evident from the care he gives the grounds and the headstones & memorials. Thanks to Rob's tireless searching for information, a large number of veterans' graves that were previously unrecognized as such, now have special markers from the United States government (in honor of their service).
Rob is a wealth of information about the background of the cemetery and many of those interred there. To contact Rob, either call the church office and leave a message (973-627-1059) or his e-mail address is: rob9427@yahoo.com.
The Historic Cemetery of First Presbyterian Church, Rockaway, New Jersey
Part of the present day cemetery was believed to be an old Native American burial ground. Colonial settlement took hold here in Rockaway, Morris County New Jersey, around the year 1720, and considerable business formed around 1730 with the building of the Job Allen Sr. Iron Works. Tradition states that this particular spot was selected as a burial ground by the earliest families. On March 2, 1758 the Presbyterian Church was founded and organized. The first Meeting House constructed of wood, was built in 1758-60, primarily by Job Allen Sr. Job Allen Jr. would complete the construction of the Meeting House some 36 years later in 1794. The present church sanctuary was built in 1832. (Photograph above is the tomb of General William Winds.)
The original church property consisted of 10 acres and 30 perch, which used to cover property west of Wall Street, and also included property across the street from the present church, which today is a baseball field and park. Some of the earliest settlers whose grave sites are unknown and forgotten can be under the large church parking lot or even under some of the cemetery roads.
On September 27th 1773, David Beaman: a founding member, deacon, chorister, elder of the Rockaway Presbyterian Church, a Revolutionary War patriot as well, was voted "to take care of the burying yard, to tell people where to bury their dead, and to advertise it through the parish.” This makes him the first sexton at the Rockaway Presbyterian Church. Ironically, David Beaman is buried in a grave that was never marked. He died in December of 1802, and has a cenotaph in the cemetery. Thomas Conger became sexton in 1797, then another Revolutionary War veteran, David Gordon, became sexton in 1802. People used to call him “the old sexton.” His broken headstone bears the same inscription. He held the position as sexton for over 30 years. He died in 1852 at the age of 92 years and 10 months. In 1832 William Wear became the new sexton, having “the privilege of tilling and pasturing the grave yard.” After his service there was Silvanus Howell in 1840, in 1845 Samuel Garrigus, then John B. Kelsey and Fredrick Star, then David Hamilton in 1858, Joseph H. Beach in 1864, then John Gordon Mott (David Gordon's grandson) in 1875, who held the position for an astounding 47 years! He was also the first sexton who kept accurate records. He was assisted by William Rogers and Peter Beatty in the last few years of his tenure. Peter Carlyon followed John Gordon Mott in 1923 retiring in 1955.
The oldest grave stone is dated April 8th 1762. David Estill lost his beloved wife Mary at the age of 24 years. There are estimated to be 47 Revolutionary War veterans buried here, some accounts say around 100 people buried here participated in the conflict. The Morris County- New Jersey Militia’s highest ranking officer, Brigadier General William Winds is buried in the small knoll behind the church. He was also elected as one of three delegates from Morris County to the New Jersey Convention which ratified the Constitution of the United States for the state of New Jersey in 1788. He died in 1789.
There are 16 War of 1812 veterans interred in the cemetery, 6 War of 1812 "peace time era" service members of the Morris County N.J. Militia, 135 Civil War veterans, 13 Spanish American War veterans, 88 WWI veterans (including one soldier who served in the German army), as of Aug. 2017 there are 156 WWII veterans (including one soldier who served in the German army), as of Aug. 2017 there are 38 Korean War veterans, and as of Aug. 2017, 11 Vietnam War veterans resting in peace. There are approximately 7,000 people interred in the cemetery.
In 1861 - 1865 the cemetery was surveyed and plotted, and walkways and roads were constructed. In 1933 part of George W. Stickle’s will was bequeathed to the cemetery. Part of the money was used to erect the iron spiked fence that surrounds half of the property.
First Presbyterian Church of Rockaway
35 Church Street, Rockaway, NJ 07866-3027
Phone: 973-627-1059 Fax: 973-983-0090
E-mail: office@fpcrockaway.org
Website: www.fpcrockaway.org
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Hadashot Arkheologiyot
Excavations and Surveys in Israel
Guide to Contributors
List Of Volumes
Extended Reports
Volume 123 Year 2011
Yavne’el, Bet Gan
Edna Dalali-Amos
During March 2009, a trial excavation was conducted at Yavne’el-Bet Gan (Permit No. A-5615; map ref. 24656–60/73515–8), prior to construction. The excavation, on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, was directed by E. Amos (drawing and photography of finds), with the assistance of Y. Lavan (administration), R. Mishayev (surveying and drafting), M. Hartal (guidance) and laborers from Tiberias and Nazareth.
The excavation area was located in an agricultural field at the northwestern end of the Moshava Yavne’el in the Lower Galilee, c. 350 m southwest of Tel Bet Gan (Kh. Beit Jann; Fig. 1). Several seasons of excavation had previously been carried out at the tell by Prof. H. Liebowitz of the University of Texas, and settlement remains from the Late Bronze Age until the Mamluk period were exposed (ESI 14:53–54; IEJ 47:117–121).
Two squares were excavated and the southeastern part of a large building, in which two construction phases were discerned, was exposed (Fig. 2). The finds ascribed to the first phase included several worn potsherds that were insufficient for determining the time of the building’s construction. The finds recovered from the second phase, when changes were made to the building, included a floor that was overlain with numerous pottery vessels dating to the end of the Hellenistic period (end of second–beginning of first centuries BCE).
The First Phase. A large building was constructed; it consisted of a wall on its southern side (W4; Fig. 3) and four walls perpendicular to it (W6, W18, W20 and W28). The foundations of the walls were set on clay soil. It seems that Walls 4 and 28 delimited the building from the south and east because no architectural remains were discovered on their exterior side. The interior walls (6, 18, 20; width 0.8 m) partitioned the building into three spaces of different sizes: an eastern space between Walls 6 and 28 (width 2.5 m); a middle space between Walls 6 and 20 (width c. 1.2 m) and a western space between Walls 20 and 18 (width 0.8 m). The few recovered potsherds were mostly body fragments, insufficient for dating this phase.
At some point in time, another wall (W2; Fig. 3: Section 2-2) was adjoined to the southern side of W4. Its foundations penetrated the ground to a depth double that of W4 and were founded on basalt boulders that were tossed into the foundation trench. It seems that W2 was meant to support W4, which began to tilt northward on the slope of the hill (Fig. 4).
The Second Phase. Changes were made to the building’s interior. Wall 20 was canceled and a new wall (W14; Fig. 5), preserved a single course high, was built on top of it. At the northern end of W14 was an opening that led to the narrow space between it and W6, which paralleled it on the east. Wall 14 and the upper course of W6 were built of large soft nari ashlars that were arranged alternately on their narrow and bottom sides (Fig. 6). A rectangular installation (L15; Fig. 7), whose walls consisted of a row of basalt fieldstones, was built in the narrow space between the walls, close to W6; the function of the installation is unclear. Wall 18 was also canceled and a tamped earth floor (L23; not marked on plan) was placed on top of it, abutting the western side of W14. Floor 23 was covered with a layer of soil (L12; not marked on plan; Fig. 8) that had burnt marks and pale pink mud-brick material and contained fragments of pottery vessels, including a bowl (Fig. 9:1), cooking pots (Fig. 9:2, 3), jars (Fig. 9:4–8), a jug (Fig. 9:9) and a juglet (Fig. 9:10) that dated to the end of the Hellenistic period. Sections of a floor built of basalt flagstones were found on both sides of Floor 23; one section (L13; Fig. 10) was located south of Floor 23, close to the northern side of W4, and the other (L16) was north and c. 2 m from the first section. A finely crafted basalt bowl (Fig. 11:1) and a fragment of a small footed-basalt bowl (Fig. 11:2) were found on the northern floor section. It is not clear when the stone pavement was installed, and whether it was connected to Floor 23 or canceled it. Floors 16 and 23 were found sunken and inclined to the east (Fig. 12).
Another section of a stone floor (L26; Fig. 13), sunken and slanting eastward, was discovered next to W28; a few potsherds were found above it. Since this floor resembled Floors 13 and 16, it was dated to the same construction phase. Both Walls 6 and 28 were also found inclined to the east. The floors and the walls slanting eastward were covered with building stone collapse (L7) that had fallen from west to east. These stones were soft chalk, whereas the walls’ foundation consisted of basalt stones. The settling of the floors and inclination of the walls to the east probably indicates that the building was destroyed by a massive earthquake.
The building was probably located at the southern end of the Tel Bet Gan settlement. The size of the structure and thickness of its walls indicate it was large and massive; whether it was used for defense or agricultural purposes is not clear. The destruction of the building can probably be attributed to the earthquake that struck the country in the year 64 BCE.
1. Location map.
2. The building, looking south.
3. The first phase, plan and sections (levels are relative)
4. Wall 4 supported by Wall 2, looking west.
5. The second phase, plan and sections (levels are relative).
6. Walls 6 and 14, looking east.
7. Installation 15, looking south.
8. Soil accumulation (L12), looking east.
9. Pottery.
10. Sections of a stone floor, looking west.
11. Stone vases.
12. Floor 16, inclined to the east, looking north.
13. Floor 26, looking south.
Print Without Figures Print With Figures למאמר בעברית
Built teti-tu
Websites, texts and photos © Israel Antiquities Authority
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Home Offshore Offshore: ‘Wealth preservation, asset protection more important than tax reduction’
Offshore: ‘Wealth preservation, asset protection more important than tax reduction’
Hans-Lothar Merten
Hans-Lothar Merten, trained in banking and business administration, is known in Germany as an insider in the offshore world. He has written books about tax havens for more than 20 years, and he also publishes articles on finance and taxes as a freelance journalist. According to the German financial newspaper Handelsblatt, his guide “Steueroasen” has cult appeal in relevant circles. His new book “Vermögen richtig schützen,” co-authored with German inheritance law expert Markus Schuhmann, will be published this month.
Q. Many people are concerned about the stress in the global political, economic and financial systems and worry about their savings. Where is our money still safe nowadays, in your opinion?
A. In Europe, there are the classic examples: Switzerland, Luxembourg, Austria, as well as Liechtenstein or the Channel Islands. In Asia, Singapore and Hong Kong should be mentioned; in Africa, Mauritius; and in the Caribbean, the Bahamas or the Cayman Islands.
The deciding factor in these financial centers is not zero taxes. In addition to the quality of the respective financial industry, investors value political stability, legal certainty and access to their assets, either directly or via offshore structures.
Central Europeans, for example, should stay away from offshore destinations like Liberia or Sierra Leone in Africa; Panama or Paraguay in the Americas; or the financial centers in the Middle East.
Q. What do you think about the headlines around the Panama Papers?
A. The Panama Papers or LuxLeaks prove that customer data is no longer safe. There will be more whistleblowers. For tax evaders there is always the risk of getting caught. The media attention on the subject of tax havens in recent years has increased the public awareness around the topic.
Making billions in profits without paying taxes as Apple does currently with the help of Ireland and the Cayman Islands is not accepted by taxpayers anymore. Even less so since the coffers of treasuries in industrialized countries are empty, and at a time when in Europe hundreds of thousands of refugees have to be taken care of and many more are waiting behind the border.
Q. Does the increased media attention on offshore issues have a negative effect on the ability to avoid tax?
A. In any case, the tax savings practices of individual countries and companies, as well as offshore structures, are now in general under the microscope.
Q. Given the increasing criticism, does the “tax haven” business model still have a promising future?
A. In the light of empty state coffers in many industrialized countries, it is understandable that their finance ministers in recent years have targeted tax havens in their attempt to search for additional income sources. Bank customer data purchases by governments, LuxLeaks or the Panama Papers came at the right time.
Tax havens simply for tax evasion or for tax savings are no longer viable. Offshore destinations have to find new business models. The protection of assets will be the topic of the future. This applies to wealthy families and to businesses alike.
Only on this basis will offshore financial centers be able to successfully compete for wealthy individuals and companies.
Should the Caymans Islands succeed in preserving its more positive offshore image of the recent past and be able at the same time to develop solutions for the current changes in the offshore world, then there is a future. Here the offshore industry has to play its part.
Q. Where do you see the strengths and weaknesses of the Cayman Islands in the struggle for international capital?
A. Assistance in tax evasion is off the table. For wealthy individuals the topics of the future are wealth preservation as well as asset protection and that should be the direction of the business model of the Caymans Islands. The use of offshore companies is part of these topics.
For companies like Apple and Facebook, the new business model is still to be found. Their tax saving detours via Cayman and other offshore places in the Caribbean have no future in the face of impending back payments of taxes for previous years. Here the offshore industry in Cayman is also required to break new ground.
The required infrastructure for an offshore financial market is in place. Hedge funds and banks feel in good hands in the Cayman Islands with the customer money they manage because of the weaker regulations and capital requirements compared to other regions like Europe, for example. As a result, wealthy people feel well protected at the multinational financial institutions which are active in Cayman. They also make use of the local Trust Law in order to safeguard assets and to circumvent the often strict inheritance regimes in their home countries.
While other offshore places in the Caribbean have to fight for international clientele, the Cayman Islands remains an attractive destination in the offshore world.
Q. Where exactly has Cayman done things right or wrong lately in the rivalry with the competition?
A. Cayman has managed in the last few years to stay largely out of the global debate about tax havens. However, they are now required to adapt to new developments in the business of companies. The good image of the past years could otherwise be burned quickly. You only have to look at Panama to understand how quickly that can happen.
Q. The number of registered companies in the Cayman Islands has exceeded the 100,000 mark for the first time. That does not give the impression that offshore centers lose traction in that respect?
A. The Cayman Islands has developed quite late into an international financial center compared to other offshore centers in the Caribbean. The numerous hedge funds and branches of international banks contributed to that evolution. But in recent years the process was also helped by the flight capital that left Southeast Asia or Europe in reaction to the introduction of withholding taxes. That money is usually incorporated in offshore companies. That is one reason why now the 100,000 mark for registered companies has been exceeded. But compared to the more than 600,000 registered companies in the British Virgin Islands, there is still room for improvement.
Another contributing factor is the tax-saving models such as the “Double Irish” in Ireland, which is used by U.S.-companies like Apple and Facebook to channel their global earnings into the Cayman Islands because of the zero income tax regime there.
Q. How important are all the tax transparency initiatives like FATCA, the OECD common reporting standard, etc.?
A. Initially these treaties achieved little. It was only due to the mounting pressure of public debt in industrialized countries that political decision-makers saw the need to jointly combat the harmful tax practices of tax havens.
Q. How much value does the proposed agreement for automatic information exchange have, if even leading countries do not fully participate in it?
A. Whether it is the United States or others, unless all states around the world cooperate in the information exchange, gaps and tax havens will always exist. Taxes are typically still national law and therefore many different tax rates exist worldwide. In other words, international tax and corporate law firms will continue to find new loopholes and then try to design tax-saving models for the wealthy. The experts are always one step ahead of the regulators.
Q. What do you think about the accusation that the U.S. is the largest tax haven?
A. The United States is indeed a significant tax haven. While on the one hand they brought, for example, Switzerland to its knees in tax matters, they offer themselves, in states like Delaware, Nevada, Wyoming and Florida, many possible ways for companies, wealthy people, tax evaders and criminals from abroad to save taxes, hide or launder money, at the expense of their resident countries. The banks involved usually do not care about the origin of the money they manage.
What once was Zurich’s Bahnhofstrasse in Switzerland for many German tax evaders, is now called Brickell Avenue, Miami’s financial district. For the more than 300 banks there, business with undeclared money is still thriving. That means, instead of increasing the pressure on other tax havens and offshore centers, it is about time for the United States to question the tax practices foreigners can use in their own country. Here the OECD and the EU should also finally show their colors.
Q. After the Brexit vote, the United Kingdom has announced it will reform its tax system. Could this lead to the emergence of a new haven for foreign capital?
A. Well, the Channel Islands, which belong to the United Kingdom, for decades have been an attractive haven for wealthy foreigners. Why should Great Britain not make itself more attractive for international companies as well? In 2013, the so-called “patent box” with a profit tax of just 10 percent, was introduced. And neighboring Ireland demonstrates how companies can be attracted.
Q. What functions must a legal entity fulfill nowadays to be attractive to potential founders?
A. Foundations, trusts, asset managing companies or special funds for large assets usually provide tax advantages to some extent. But that is not necessarily the most important feature anymore. Much more important for them is wealth preservation and asset protection.
This also applies to the protection from increasing state repression, against systemic risks in the financial system, against creditor claims and against claims from family members. By moving assets into such legal entities, risks can be avoided, and the legal entities can also assist in structuring assets in a sustained way across generations.
Q. How have the entities typically used in offshore jurisdictions changed over time?
A. The stronger international control measures against tax avoidance are, the more complex the constructs become that are used in the attempt to minimize the tax burden of wealthy people and corporations. It is a global race with new offshore destinations and the constant search for new loopholes in national laws, as well as bilateral and multinational agreements. But that is also always connected with new pitfalls in the international tax jungle. Without expert advice, nobody can navigate these anymore.
Q. How cost-effective are the available structures?
A. The transfer of assets or income into low- or zero-tax countries, just because of lower taxes, is often a zero-sum game given the costs connected with it.
And it is – as the recent examples of Apple or Starbucks demonstrate – more and more just a matter of time until the tax savings backfire in the form of billions of dollars in back tax demands. Due to the increased international information exchange, it seems as if this calculation will no longer add up.
Q. What should one consider with regard to moving inheritable assets abroad?
A. These assets can lead to unwanted pitfalls that adversely affect their value. There is a significant need for advice in advance. Asset holders with undeclared assets abroad, out of deference to their heirs, should in good time before their death report to the tax authorities. It saves their heirs a lot of trouble.
If untaxed inheritance money was stashed in the Caymans Islands in the past, this was usually done via offshore companies. This money is easily passed on to the heirs via the transfer of shares. The relevant tax authorities usually did not learn anything about that.
Hedge funds and banks feel in good hands in the Cayman Islands with the customer money they manage because of the weaker regulations and capital requirements compared to other regions like Europe, for example. As a result, wealthy people feel well protected at the multinational financial institutions which are active in Cayman.
Offshore destinations have been the topic of a lot of headlines in 2016, as in most every year. This is reason enough to ask German tax expert Hans-Lothar Merten for a European point of view about the controversial topic in general and about the prospects of the Cayman Islands as an offshore jurisdiction in particular.
Previous articleTackling the decline of correspondent banking relationships in the Caribbean
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No ‘jumping the gun’ in regulating cryptocurrencies
Offshore insolvency petitions on the rise
EU tax list implications represent a gray area
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Matt Scott: The hard times are over – Villa is no longer a bleak house
“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery.” David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
Sixpence a year of overspending was all it took to bring misery to the burghers of 19th Century London, as Wilkins Micawber famously observed. Although life in the Premier League today could not be more different to that of Dickensian England, Micawber’s lesson is well heeded, for there is little happiness to be found for clubs living beyond their means.
This is something Aston Villa have expensively discovered. In the five years between 1 June 2009 and 31 May 2014, Villa spent fully £117.4 million in cash more than they earned. In the first of those seasons, £44.2 million more was spent than received. Yet although the result was a creditable sixth-place finish in the Premier League with two Wembley appearances to boot: a League Cup final and FA Cup semi-final, all the investment was no platform for future success. In 2010-11, with £16.7 million of overspending, they dropped to ninth, then 16th (on £12.8 million) and 15th in each of the last two completed seasons (£41 million and £2.7 million respectively).
It is clear that the owner, Randy Lerner, feels bruised by this experience and he has put the club on the market for sale, using Bank of America Merrill Lynch to find a buyer. Yet there have been no ready takers. The frequent flirtations with relegation despite the cash drain indicate that Villa would be a massive investment risk for anyone who might take them on.
Yet that simple reading of the situation might not do justice to the truth, as what Villa have achieved over the past five years is a remarkably successful restructuring while still trading as a Premier League entity. At the start of the 2010-11 season, Villa’s squad had an average age of 28.73 years. Now, with only three players left from that side (the goalkeeper Brad Guzan, the centre-half Ciaran Clark and the England international midfielder Fabian Delph) the age profile has reduced to 26.4 years.
It seems from reading the league table that while an element of creative destruction is necessary for teams to be successful, this wholesale dumping of playing staff is a risky business. But although it has coincided with difficulties on the pitch, it has not been without its longer-term benefits to Villa off it. The wage bill has reduced substantially over the five-year period since 2009-10. The £10.6 million less spent on wages in 2013-14 than in 2009-10 constituted a reduction of 13.3%, at a time when turnover was rising 22.4%.
Consequently the wages-to-turnover ratio, a key metric for the solvency of any club, fell from the unsustainable 90.6% of 2010-11 to 62.33% in 2013-14. It meant that for the first time Villa were able to produce a genuine operating cash inflow, of £13.3 million, permitting a similar sum to be invested in the transfer market. Although the club did dip more deeply into its overdraft, which now stands at £17.9 million, its overall solvency improved as Lerner withdrew his claim on £90 million of loans he was owed.
The word is, and it is consistent with what the balance sheet suggests, that Villa is available for a purchaser at £100 million. Whoever might be tempted to invest that sum would be buying a club in better shape than its league position indicates. The vast bulk of revenues for the majority English top-division clubs derive from central payments from the Premier League’s broadcast arrangements, which in turn are determined by football performance. Yet despite weakness in this area at Villa, they were the eighth-richest team in England and the 22nd richest in all of Europe in 2014, according to the Deloitte Football Money League.
This suggests there is tremendous spare capacity at Villa, where improved football performance would have a ratcheting effect on broadcast revenues. The same can be said of match day receipts, which have suffered an alarming drop since 2009-10. Back then, boosted as they were by the two long cup runs, Villa earned £24.4 million from match day activities. In 2013-14 they received only £12.8 million from that source, having been knocked out of both cup competitions in their first outings. (It is worth pointing out that it seems executive-box rentals, match day sponsorship and hospitality are now accounted for under the ‘commercial revenue segment and not the ‘match day’ one. However, the prior value of Villa’s sales in these areas has certainly not been maintained.)
So the opportunity for much better returns from match day activities and broadcasting income exists in the event of improved football performance. There is the flexibility to achieve that without recourse to Lerner’s funds through the judicious investment of the club’s growing revenues, which, provided Premier League survival is maintained, will increase dramatically from 2016-17.
Villa have the eighth-largest stadium in England, a strong commercial revenue stream, an outstanding training facility and an academy that has produced 75 current professional footballers including nine still at the club. There is much to build on, and the bulk of the hardest work seems now to have been done.
Most clubs who have undertaken a retrenchment like Villa’s – reducing the average player’s age, wages, transfer spending and cash outflow all at once – have suffered for the experience. Several have paid the devastating ultimate price for it: relegation. [See related article http://bit.ly/1H57Car]
Until now, Premier League survival has been highly expensive for Villa’s owner, dearer still than relegation for some clubs. But, provided the future is not as profligate as the past, you do not need to be an eternally optimistic Micawber type to believe that something will turn up for Villa and its owner in the end, whomever that owner may be.
Journalist and broadcaster Matt Scott wrote the Digger column for The Guardian newspaper for five years and is now a columnist for Insideworldfootball. Contact him at moc.l1563220344labto1563220344ofdlr1563220344owedi1563220344sni@t1563220344tocs.1563220344ttam1563220344.
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Voices for Internet Freedom: FCC Chairman's Anti-Net Neutrality Plan Will Harm People of Color
Timothy Karr, 201-533-8838
WASHINGTON — On Wednesday, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai unveiled his plan to kill the agency’s 2015 Net Neutrality rules. If successful, the move would pave the way for internet service providers like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon to discriminate online.
Net Neutrality is the principle that requires ISPs to treat all data equally, and prohibits them from discriminating or providing preference to any data, regardless of its source, content or destination.
In a speech hosted by right-wing activist group FreedomWorks, President Trump’s FCC appointee announced that he will launch a proceeding to dismantle the legal framework essential to maintaining Net Neutrality. The FCC's landmark 2015 Open Internet Order rests on the laws in Title II of the Communications Act, the statute that governs the FCC and sets out the basic obligations for carriers that provide internet access.
The Voices for Internet Freedom Network, a coalition of organizations representing communities of color on internet issues, opposes Chairman Pai’s push to kill Net Neutrality, a move that would diminish the opportunities for people of color to be heard online. In the past several months, communities of color have used the open internet to organize against the Trump administration’s reactionary agenda.
“Chairman Pai’s plan to gut the FCC’s Net Neutrality rules will devastate Black communities,” said Color Of Change Executive Director Rashad Robinson. “Net Neutrality is essential to protecting our free and open internet, which has been crucial to today’s fights for civil rights and equality. Our ability to have our voices heard in this democracy depends on an open internet because it allows voices and ideas to spread based on substance, rather than financial backing. Net Neutrality helps ensure that the internet is a place for innovation and opportunity for all, rather than just the wealthy few. Chairman Pai has now joined the chorus of Republicans in Washington who have signed on to Donald Trump’s corporate attack on our freedoms. But we won’t go down without a fight. Heading into the FCC’s May 18 meeting, we’re going to demand that our communities’ access to the internet is protected. This is an attack on 21st-century civil rights, and we are committed to defending them.”
“Chairman Pai’s plan will destroy Net Neutrality and is a direct attack on Latinos and other communities of color,” said National Hispanic Media Coalition Director of Policy and Legal Affairs Carmen Scurato. “Net Neutrality is critical to our continual fight for human dignity and equality. The open internet has empowered us to tell our own stories and organize for civic change in a world where Latinos are still often silenced, stereotyped and discriminated against by traditional media outlets. By handing over control of the internet to corporations, Chairman Pai will inevitably stymie voices of color.”
“We are less than 100 days into Pai’s chairmanship and two things have become clear: He’s captured by the industries he’s supposed to watchdog and is all too willing to shirk his duty to make communications services available to all people,” said Free Press Deputy Director and Senior Counsel Jessica J. González. “Today he says he cares about Net Neutrality in one breath and then spells out a plan to destroy it in the next. Chairman Pai is a phony and he is fooling no one, particularly people of color. We have used the internet to organize, hold power accountable and tell our own stories. We will fight Pai at every step as he enables authoritarianism in the White House by taking away free expression and dissenting voices on the web.”
"An internet protected by Title II Net Neutrality gives those without a seat at the table an equal voice in decisions about the issues that matter most to them,” said Center for Media Justice Executive Director Malkia Cyril. “That’s why communities of color have so much to lose if Trump’s FCC chairman, Ajit Pai, has his way. Net Neutrality doesn’t only protect opportunity for struggling families; it preserves our right to organize in a digital age. The internet, protected by the current Net Neutrality rules, has enabled the mothers of children killed by police to demand an end to police violence; it has enabled undocumented students to fight for changes to our broken immigration system. It's provided the opportunity for new Black voices in the arts to bypass Hollywood gatekeepers. It has given me comfort as I care for my ailing spouse. The only solution that protects the digital voice and rights of communities of color is vigorous enforcement of the rules we fought for and were passed by the FCC two years ago. That’s what we and our partners in the Media Action Grassroots Network will continue to demand. There’s too much at stake to urge anything less."
“The internet has long been a key part of creative and civic life for immigrant communities like ours,” said 18 Million Rising Executive Director Cayden Mak. “Like many young Asian Americans, the internet was the first place I connected with other Asian Americans, and throughout my life it has been a critical connection to family across the globe — it’s a crucial part of how I learned about who I am and why I matter. Today the free and open internet helps us distribute our own music, movies and art depicting our experiences; educate and organize our people; and link geographically dispersed ethnic communities across the United States. Gutting Net Neutrality protections fundamentally threatens the way that Asian American communities live, learn and thrive.”
Voices for Internet Freedom is a national organizing project led by the Center for Media Justice, Free Press, Color Of Change and the National Hispanic Media Coalition.
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Back to full view
The Stratford-on-Avon (Electoral Changes) Order 2014
Draft Order laid before Parliament under section 59(9) of the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009; draft to lie for forty days pursuant to section 6(1) of the Statutory Instruments Act 1946, during which period either House of Parliament may resolve that the Order be not made.
Draft Statutory Instruments
2014 No.
Local Government, England
Coming into force in accordance with article 1(2)
Under section 58(4) of the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009(1) (“the Act”) the Local Government Boundary Commission for England(2) (“the Commission”) published a report dated March 2014 stating its recommendations for changes to the electoral arrangements for the district of Stratford-on-Avon. The Commission has decided to give effect to the recommendations.
A draft of the instrument has been laid before Parliament and a period of forty days has expired and neither House has resolved that the instrument be not made.
The Commission makes the following Order in exercise of the power conferred by section 59(1) of the Act:
1.—(1) This Order may be cited as the Stratford-on-Avon (Electoral Changes) Order 2014.
(2) This Order comes into force—
(a)for the purpose of proceedings preliminary or relating to the election of councillors, on the day after it is made;
(b)for all other purposes, on the ordinary day of election of councillors in 2015.
2. In this Order—
“map” means the map marked “Map referred to in the Stratford-on-Avon (Electoral Changes) Order 2014”, prints of which are available for inspection at the principal office of the Local Government Boundary Commission for England;
“ordinary day of election of councillors” has the meaning given by section 37 of the Representation of the People Act 1983(3).
Wards of the district of Stratford-on-Avon and number of councillors
3.—(1) The existing wards of the district of Stratford-on-Avon are abolished.
(2) The district of Stratford-on-Avon is divided into 36 district wards, each listed by name in the table in Schedule 1.
(3) Each district ward comprises the area designated on the map by reference to the name of the district ward.
(4) One councillor is to be elected for each district ward.
(5) Where a boundary is shown on the map as running along a road, railway line, footway, watercourse or similar geographical feature, it is to be treated as running along the centre line of the feature.
Wards of the parish of Alcester and number of councillors
4.—(1) The existing wards of the parish of Alcester are abolished.
(2) The parish of Alcester is divided into three parish wards, each listed by name in the first column of table 1 in Schedule 2.
(3) Each parish ward comprises the area designated on the map by reference to the name of the parish ward.
(4) The number of councillors to be elected for each parish ward is the number specified in relation to that ward in the second column of table 1 in Schedule 2.
Wards of the parish of Bidford-on-Avon and number of councillors
5.—(1) The existing wards of the parish of Bidford-on-Avon are abolished.
(2) The parish of Bidford-on-Avon is divided into three parish wards, each listed by name in the first column of table 2 in Schedule 2.
Wards of the parish of Luddington and number of councillors
6.—(1) The parish of Luddington is divided into two parish wards, each listed by name in the first column of table 3 in Schedule 2.
Wards of the parish of Sambourne and number of councillors
7.—(1) The parish of Sambourne is divided into two parish wards, each listed by name in the first column of table 4 in Schedule 2.
Wards of the parish of Shipston-on-Stour and number of councillors
8.—(1) The parish of Shipston-on-Stour is divided into two parish wards, each listed by name in the first column of table 5 in Schedule 2.
Wards of the parish of Southam and number of councillors
9.—(1) The existing wards of the parish of Southam are abolished.
(2) The parish of Southam is divided into four parish wards, each listed by name in the first column of table 6 in Schedule 2.
Wards of the parish of Stratford-upon-Avon and number of councillors
10.—(1) The existing wards of the parish of Stratford-upon-Avon are abolished.
(2) The parish of Stratford-upon-Avon is divided into nine parish wards, each listed by name in the first column of table 7 in Schedule 2.
Wards of the parish of Studley and number of councillors
11.—(1) The parish of Studley is divided into two parish wards, each listed by name in the first column of table 8 in Schedule 2.
Wards of the parish of Wellesbourne & Walton and number of councillors
12.—(1) The parish of Wellesbourne & Walton(4) is divided into three parish wards, each listed by name in the first column of table 9 in Schedule 2.
Sealed with the seal of the Local Government Boundary Commission for England
Local Government Boundary Commission for England
SCHEDULE 1Names of district wards
Alcester Town
Alcester & Rural
Bidford East
Bidford West & Salford
Bishop’s Itchington
Brailes & Compton
Clopton
Ettington
Harbury
Kineton
Long Itchington & Stockton
Napton & Fenny Compton
Shipston North
Shipston South
Shottery
Snitterfield
Southam North
Southam South
Studley with Mappleborough Green
Studley with Sambourne
Tanworth-in-Arden
Welford-on-Avon
Wellesbourne East
Wellesbourne West
Wotton Wawen
Articles 4 to 12
Name of parish ward
Number of councillors
Alcester West 5
Oversley 10
Oversley Green 1
Bidford East 6
Bidford West 3
Broom 1
Luddington East 3
Luddington West 4
Sambourne North 2
Sambourne South 3
Shipston North 4
Shipston South 9
Browns Bridge 4
Merestone 2
Mill Hill 5
Southam Fields 3
Bishopton 2
Clopton 2
Guildhall 2
Hathaway 2
Shottery 2
Tiddington 2
Welcombe 2
Studley North 6
Studley South 6
Mountford 5
EXPLANATORY NOTE
(This note is not part of the Order)
This Order makes changes to electoral arrangements for the district of Stratford-on-Avon following recommendations made by the Local Government Boundary Commission for England. The area of the district remains unchanged.
The electoral changes apply in respect of local government elections to be held on and after the ordinary day of election of councillors in 2015.
Article 3 abolishes the existing wards of the district of Stratford-on-Avon and replaces them with 36 new ones. That article, the map (as defined in article 2) and Schedule 1 also establish the names, areas and number of councillors of the new district wards.
Articles 4, 5, 9 and 10 abolish the existing wards of the parishes of (i) Alcester, (ii) Bidford-on-Avon, (iii) Southam and (iv) Stratford-upon-Avon respectively and replace them with new ones. Those articles, the map and Schedule 2 also establish the names, areas and number of councillors of the new parish wards.
Articles 6, 7, 8, 11 and 12 create new parish wards in each of the parishes of (i) Luddington, (ii) Sambourne, (iii) Shipston-on-Stour, (iv) Studley and (v) Wellesbourne & Walton respectively. These parishes were formerly unwarded. Those articles, the map and Schedule 2 also establish the names, areas and number of councillors of the new parish wards.
The map defined in article 2 shows the new district and parish wards. It is available at https://www.lgbce.org.uk/current-reviews/west-midlands/warwickshire/stratford-on-avon-fer. The map is also available for inspection at all reasonable times at the offices of Stratford-on-Avon District Council, Elizabeth House, Church Street, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, CV37 6HX and at the offices of the Local Government Boundary Commission for England at Layden House, 76 – 86 Turnmill Street, London EC1M 5LG.
An impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no impact on the private or voluntary sectors is foreseen.
2009 c.20.
The Local Government Boundary Commission for England was established on 1st April 2010 by section 55(1) of the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009.
1983 c.2; section 37 has been amended by section 18(2) of the Representation of the People Act 1985 (c.50), paragraph 5 of Schedule 3 to the Greater London Authority Act 1999 (c.29) and section 60(1) of the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 (c.28).
The parish of Wellesbourne was renamed Wellesbourne & Walton with effect from 1 April 2014 by order of Stratford-on-Avon District Council dated 22 July 2013 in exercise of the powers conferred by the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007.
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Seoul Council passes student rights ordinance
By Lee Woo-young
Published : Dec 20, 2011 - 15:42
Updated : Dec 20, 2011 - 19:50
The Seoul Metropolitan Council passed an ordinance granting more rights to students amid controversy over some contested issues in the ruling that has caused a confrontation between a progressive and conservative group.
Until Monday when the ordinance was passed, the opposing groups protested four disputed points of the ordinance: respect of students’ sexual orientation, pregnancy and childbirth, religion and the right to hold collective protests.
But with the ordinance expected to take effect next March in all elementary, middle and high schools in Seoul, the progressive group which includes a teachers’ union, hailed the passing of the ordinance, welcoming the council’s decision. But the conservative group, representing about 63 teachers, parents and civic groups, vowed to use every possible means to block the ordinance from being implemented.
Under the ordinance, students are given “freedom from corporal punishment, any kind of verbal and nonverbal violation” at schools as well as “the right to express their personality through clothing and hairstyle.” However, schools can impose some guidelines on the length of hair and dress code, considering most secondary school students wear uniforms.
Progressive and conservative civic groups hold rallies seperately in front of the Seoul Council on Friday, in show of their support, and opposition against, a controversial ordiance on student rights. (Yonhap News)
The schools will also be required to respect students’ right to stage a collective protest, the rights of students regarding sexual orientation and to not discriminate against students who are pregnant and give birth. Religious classes and events at schools will no longer be mandatory as well. These rights have drawn fierce criticism from the conservative group.
“The ordinance will be the foundation for democratic and anthropocentric education that upholds values such as participation, equality and care for others,” Democratic Party lawmakers of the Seoul Metropolitan Council said in a statement on Tuesday.
“The influence and impact the ordinance will have on our society will be much greater than the ordinances passed in other municipalities. The Seoul student rights ordinance will bring a big change in Korean schools and education,” they added.
Seoul became the third municipality to pass a students’ rights ordinance after Gyeonggi Province and Gwangju in South Jeolla Province.
The student rights ordinance was initiated by progressive civic groups and was supported by a petition with about 90,000 signatures of citizens since last July.
But the conservative Korean Federation of Teachers’ Association called the move short-sighted and politically motivated in its statement opposing the ordinance.
“The ordinance will bring about the collapse of the school system and undermine teachers’ rights. The members of the education subcommittee and opposition party-affiliated councilors who passed the ordinance will have to take responsibility for the consequences that schools will suffer because of the ordinance,” it said.
They also said that they will take legal action against the ordinance and launch a campaign against the city councilors who voted for it.
Meanwhile, the Education Ministry expressed concern over the ordinance on Monday, saying it needs to be reconsidered because it may create confusion at schools and concern for parents and teachers.
“The ordinance will disrupt the students’ right to learn, and undermine teachers’ rights, and create confusion at schools. So, the ordinance needs to be reconsidered in its implementation,” it said.
By Lee Woo-young (wylee@heraldcorp.com)
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Tarbiya
MAS Usrah
Usrah Application
All Masjid Ramadan Qiyam
Muslim American Society (MAS) traces its historical roots back to the call of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him). Its more recent roots can be traced to the Islamic revival movement that started evolving at the turn of the twentieth century. This movement brought the call of Islam to Muslim masses across the world to reestablish Islam in their lives.
Established in 1993 as a non-profit 501(C)(3) organization, the Muslim American Society (MAS) is a dynamic charitable, religious, social, cultural, and educational organization. Over the past two decades, MAS has expanded to more than 50 chapters across the United States. MAS offers unique programs and services that seek to better the individual and, in turn, the greater society by imparting Islamic knowledge, promoting community service, engaging in political activism, and much more.
Over the past two decades, MAS has evolved into a nationally recognized grassroots movement. The organization is empowered by a unique chapter structure that is linked through a common mission and vision. Focusing on personal development of individuals through a comprehensive Islamic educational curriculum, MAS promotes active involvement in communities across the U.S. by providing opportunities for community service, interfaith initiatives, youth programs, and civic engagement. By cooperating and collaborating with other organizations, MAS has expanded its reach into thousands of communities across the United States.
Visit MuslimAmericanSociety.org for more information.
To move people to strive for God-consciousness, liberty and justice, and to convey Islam with utmost clarity.
Copyright © 2014 MAS Greater LA. All rights reserved. | 501(c)(3) Non-Profit Organization
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Commercial and Corporate Practice
Real Estate, Banking and Finance
Banking and Microfinance
ICT and Media Communication
Mining, Oil and Gas
Real Estate in Kenya
The Partners
Muthangari Primary School Prayer Day 2016
Muthangari Primary School Prayer Day
Muthangari Primary School Sports Day
Lex Seminars
Mboya Wangong’u & Waiyaki Advocates > The Team > The Associates
Martin Omulama
Martin Omulama is a Senior Associate at the firm. He is a graduate of Makerere University Kampala and holds a Bachelor of Laws degree and a Diploma in Law from the Kenya School of Law.
His areas of expertise include:
Employment & Labour Laws
Estate Planning & Administration
Sylvia Kang’ethe
Sylvia Kang’ethe is an Associate at the firm. She is a graduate of the University of Nairobi and holds a Bachelor of Laws Degree and a Diploma in Law from the Kenya School of Law. She is also a Certified Public Accountant.
Her areas of expertise include:
Julia Mukami Kuria
Julia Kuria is an Associate at the firm. She is a graduate of the University of Warwick (UK) and holds a Masters of Law Degree in International Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation. She is also a graduate of the University of Nairobi and holds a Bachelor of Laws degree and a Diploma in Law from the Kenya School of Law.
Cynthia Kagiri
Cynthia Kagiri is an Associate at the firm. She is a graduate of the Catholic University of Eastern Africa and holds a Bachelor of Laws degree. She holds a Diploma in Law from the Kenya School of Law. She is also a registered Certified Public Secretary and a member of the Institute of Certified Public Secretaries Kenya.
Her areas of practice include
Real Estate and Banking
Sheila M. Mutiga
Sheila M. Mutiga is an Associate at the Firm. She is a graduate of the Catholic University of Eastern Africa. She holds a Bachelor of Laws degree and is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya.
Banking and Finance Practice
Ecrone Omulloh
Ecrone Omulloh is an Associate at the firm. He holds a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) from Moi University and a Postgraduate Diploma of Law from the Kenya School of Law.
His areas of practice include:-
Patience Laki
Patience Laki is an Associate at the firm. She holds a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) from Moi University and a Postgraduate Diploma of Law from the Kenya School of Law.
George Kinyua
George Kinyua is a Legal Associate at the firm.
Mary Ndung’u
Mary Ndung’u is a Legal Associate at the firm.
Enock Mulongo
Enock Mulongo is an Associate at the firm. He holds a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) from Moi University and a Postgraduate Diploma of Law from the Kenya School of Law.
Judy Marindany
Judy Marindany is an Associate at the firm. She holds a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) from Moi University and a Postgraduate Diploma of Law from the Kenya School of Law.
Protecting Intellectual Property Rights in the Digital Space: Part I
The Energy Act, 2019: Opportunities to the Private Sector
Unclaimed Financial Assets: Obligations of Holders of Assets
SEVERANCE PAY: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Lex Chambers
Maji Mazuri Road, Off James Gichuru Road
Lavington, Nairobi, Kenya
P.O. Box 74041-00200 Nairobi.
Telephone: +254 (0)20 3860183(4)
Wireless Lines: +254 (0)20 2160312
Cell: +254 (0)714 611954
Fax: +254 (0)20 3860183
Email: advocate@lexgroupafrica.com
Mboya Wangong’u & Waiyaki Advocates
By Afrisurf
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Stop politicising the merit-based higher education system for bumiputra students which should be regarded as a national problem and one of the country’s greatest challenges in the era of globalisation and ICT
Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang
(Petaling Jaya, Saturday): Two weeks ago, after the UMNO Supreme Council meeting, the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad announced “shock tactics” including basing university admissions on meritocracy to shock Malay students into doing better.
He said: “If forced to, we will stop or reduce the intake of Malay students into university. We will do it, and may be, for one year we might just base all admissions on meritocracy”.
However, there seems to be some back-pedalling in the past fortnigtht.
On Wednesday, after briefing UMNO members on government plans to introduce university admission based on merit, Mahathir said gradual meritocracy will be introduced for university admission among Malay students to serve as a warning for them to study hard and achieve good results if they wish to pursue their education further.
He said although no changes would be made to the university quota system, admission requirements into some courses for Malay students would be tightened.
On Thursday, the Education Minister, Tan Sri Musa Mohamad announced that a Cabinet Committee would be set up to draw up standard guidelines on the merit-based system to be followed by all public universities and university colleges.
He said that whatever method eventually implemented by next year would not cause a decrease in the number of bumiputra students at university nor would it affect the quota system.
Musa’s statement raised eyebrows and questions all round. Is it possible to introduce a merit-based system for university admission for bumiputra students without affecting the quota system?
Is the government admitting that all these decades, university admission for bumiputra students had not been based on a merit system among the bumiputra students, and that there had been the prevalent practice where less deserving bumiputra students had been given university places at the expense of academically better-qualified bumiputra students?
If so, what is the basis of such discrimination among bumiputra students - is it on the basis of social and educational needs or purely on connections and influence-peddling?
Is the government prepared to establish an independent commission of inquiry to inquire into the abuses of the university quota system for bumiputra students, and whether these abuses are one of primary causes for the problem of poor bumiputra academic attainments and excellence?
UMNO leaders should stop politicising the merit-based higher education system for bumiputra students which should be regarded as a national problem and one of the country’s greatest challenges in the era of globalisation and information and communications technology.
As the problem of poor educational attainment of bumiputera university students is not a present-day problem, Mahathir’s sudden discovery of the issue raises the question as to whether it is motivated by genuine educational concerns or by the UMNO political agenda to clamp down on campus student activism which is increasingly alienated by high-handed government contempt for student idealism, self-respect and rights.
Is the government prepared to admit that Malaysia is seriously lagging behind other countries whether in Asia or in the world in the quality of our higher education system, that this is the Achilles’ heel in the national efforts for Malaysia to take our rightful place in the international arena whether in terms of economic competitiveness or as an IT power, and finally, the urgent need to adopt radical measures to transform Malaysia into an international centre of academic excellence, not just in words but recognised by the international community.
If so, this is not an issue to be discussed and decided merely by UMNO leaders and members but by all Malaysians, involving all political parties as well as the entire Malaysian citizenry.
Is the government prepared to provide leadership for a nation-wide educational revolution to raise the quality of our higher-education system, not only for bumiputra students but for all Malaysians, to ensure national survival and prosperity in the 21st century?
(11/8/2001)
*Lim Kit Siang - DAP National Chairman
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Future Tensed
There is a point in each project, whether a seven hundred fifty word book review, a short story, or, as in the current case, a book of a projected sixty thousand words, when a problem, not seen before, edges its way out of the shadows, waves its arms at you, and brings you screeching to a halt.
This moment often happens for you not long after you've found the shape the work will take and the effect you hope it will leave with most of the individuals, in particular editors, but readers as well. At this stage, you've only one major thing to work out, the sound of the narrative voice.
You already know you don't want it to have the detachment of the scholarly or the theorizing of the academic. Instead, you want the equivalent of a two-beer conversational, with a slight hint of towel-snapping-in-the-locker-room challenge. You want a definite edge of enthusiasm.
With that in mind and you about to immerse yourself in the first two or three of what will be one hundred mini-essays of about five hundred words each, the arm-waving problem turns out to be something you now wonder how you missed..
You came upon these hand-picked hundred novels from about the age of ten to more or less the present, which is to say the most recent novel within the hundred to deliver some one-two combination to your midsection was 2012, with a number of titles falling right on the cusp of the new century.
This means you've got some voice and retrospect problems. You have a clear enough memory of what was going on when you heard one of the titles read aloud on a soggy, rainy afternoon when you were in the fourth grade. The teacher most likely had to settle for reading to a class that under more ordinary circumstances would be running off the effects of lunch and sitting still. She may well have kept this particular book in her desk as an emergency measure.
You recall how, after she told you she was going to read, then began, you did something you wouldn't have dared do under most circumstances. You stood to get her attention, then apologized for the interruption, then asked her to please reread that opening line.
The teacher spoke in the nasal, don't-give-a-damn about the final consonants on words so common to Middlesex County, New Jersey. "You don't know about me," she reread, "without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter."
To that point in your life, you'd read a number of books, most of them because you were bored still with the restrictions and rules of being your age. Many of the books you read were impressive with their immediate ability to transport you to that place of adventure and and transportation you sought.. But you'd never heard a line or a voice like that. Not even Robert Louis Stevenson, whom you admired. Nothing approximated that.
You knew you were going to have to get your own copy of Huck Finn because, as the teacher continued reading, the words kept taking you farther along into Huck Finn's story and your future.
Your problem is to capture that defining moment and the pull it had on you, causing you to reread that novel any number of times until you forgot how many, your mounting curiosity to see if you could understand how a man nearly fifty could capture the voice and presence of that boy who for some years had become your role model.
You get a few sentences to that, then you have to show how you came back to the book in your early twenties and late twenties, struggling to learn from that boy you reckoned to be about thirteen. Then, you get co come back later still, noticing the equivalent of what Mr. Twain learned when he set out to become a steamboat pilot on that most majestic of rivers.
The problem before you is a high-class problem, but still--
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ManagementParadise.com | Management & Business Education Learning Platform PUBLISH / UPLOAD PROJECT OR DOWNLOAD REFERENCE PROJECT > Marketing Management
Marketing Strategy of China Southern Airlines Company Ltd.
Discuss Marketing Strategy of China Southern Airlines Company Ltd. within the Marketing Management forums, part of the PUBLISH / UPLOAD PROJECT OR DOWNLOAD REFERENCE PROJECT category; ...
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Marketing Strategy of China Southern Airlines Company Ltd. - December 15th, 2010
China Southern Airlines (simplified Chinese: 中国南方航空公司) (SSE: 600029, SEHK: 1055, NYSE: ZNH) is an airline headquartered in Baiyun District, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People's Republic of China.[1][2][3] It is regarded as the "flag carrier" for Southern China.[3] China Southern operates scheduled domestic and international passnger flights.[4] In 2008, China Southern was the world's 5th largest airline by passengers carried, and Asia's largest airline in terms of both fleet size and in passengers carried. It is also the 4th largest airline in the world in domestic passenger traffic and 6th largest in scheduled domestic passenger-kilometres flown. China Southern carries more domestic cargo than any other airline.[5] It is a member of the SkyTeam airline alliance.
Its main operation hubs are Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport and Beijing Capital International Airport, with other focus cities at Longjia, Changsha, Dilian, Shenyang, Shenzhen, Ürümqi, Wuhan and Zhengzhou[citation needed]. The airline plans to develop Chongqing and Ürümqi as hubs, to supplement its current hubs at Beijing and Guangzhou.[6]
China Southern Airlines is accredited by IATA with the IOSA (IATA Operational Safety Audit) for its safety practices.[7] Other developments include the joining of airline alliance SkyTeam in 2007 and its cargo division in 2010.]
Incorporated: 1988
Employees: 15,000
Sales: RMB 11.85 billion ($1.43 billion) (1998)
Stock Exchanges: New York Hong Kong
Ticker Symbol: ZNH
NAIC: 481111 Scheduled Passenger Air Transportation; 481112 Scheduled Freight Air Transportation
Company Perspectives:
Stringent administration; safe and punctual flight; smooth and efficient operation; warm and courteous services are the main objectives of China Southern Airlines.
With fleet expansion and further growth of our route network, China Southern Airlines enters a new milestone.
Key Dates:
1984: Civil Aviation Administration of China divides into five separate airlines.
1988: China Southern Airlines (CSA) is officially granted autonomy.
1992: Beijing grants CSA further financial independence.
1997: CSA goes public, listing on the Hong Kong and New York Stock Exchanges.
1998: Asian financial crisis leads to CSA's first ever annual loss.
Company History:
China Southern Airlines Company Ltd. (CSA) has been China's top passenger carrier for two decades, propelled by the robust economy of Guangzhou, the country's commercial center. After gaining permission to fly abroad, China Southern has eclipsed rivals China Eastern and Air China in terms of international prestige. CSA boasts one of the world's youngest fleets and an above-average safety record among Chinese carriers. It offers Western-style passenger amenities such as Hollywood movies and an in-flight magazine. One of the top 25 carriers in the world, China Southern flies to more than 80 cities worldwide, including Los Angeles and Amsterdam. The carrier is also developing a cargo network.
Origins and Independence
China Southern Airlines was formed out of the China Civil Aviation Administration (CCAC), which itself had been created from the U.S.-led China National Aviation Corporation and other assets left behind by those fleeing the Communists in 1949. Five years later, CCAC merged with the Sino-Soviet Joint Stock Company, which had responsibility for air service in the north of China. This created the Chinese Civil Aviation Bureau (CAB), with divisions based in Peking, Shanghai, Shenyang, Si'an, Wuhan, and Guangzhou--later the base for China Southern. In April 1962, the CAB became the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). Over the next 20 years, the CAAC gradually evolved from dependence on Soviet aviation technology to a customer-driven preference for British and American jets, culminating in orders for Boeing 747s and Concordes, although the latter were never delivered.
A reorganization of the CAAC in late 1984 produced the following four regional divisions: Eastern, Southern, Southwestern, and Northwestern. The liberalization of the domestic market soon produced other carriers such as Xiamen Airlines, which operated on China Southern's turf. Because of the commercial importance of Guangzhou (formerly Canton), China Southern was cleared for international flights, along with Shanghai-based China Eastern. Yu Yanen, an active pilot himself, was appointed president of the airline.
China Southern was granted its autonomy on July 1, 1988. However, the CAAC still controlled aircraft purchasing and worked very closely with its newly independent branches. The government also made its voice known to domestic passengers--an official letter of recommendation was a prerequisite for booking a flight until 1993.
In spite of the oversight from Beijing, the airline pursued partnerships with Western aviation companies to increase its expertise and revenue potential. In 1990, China Southern set up a maintenance joint venture with Hutchison Whampoa (Hong Kong; 25 percent) and Lockheed (United States; 25 percent) called Guangzhou Aircraft Maintenance Engineering Co. (GAMECO). The center specialized in Boeing 757 and 747 aircraft and boasted labor costs one-forth of those in the West. A flight simulator station was also under development.
China Southern carried nearly six million people in 1991, up more than sixfold from a decade earlier. Cargo traffic boomed as well. The carrier flew to 90 cities at home and 17 international destinations and operated a fleet of 38 Boeing jets. Employment was about 6,000. One of China Southern's 737s flew into a mountain in 1992, puzzling observers who had seen the vast improvements made by China's commercial airlines in the previous decade.
CSA posted a profit of US$102 million on revenues of US$537 million in 1992. With Air China, China Eastern, and a few dozen companies in other industries, the carrier was given special financial independence. One drawback to this was the increased cost of buying fuel on the open market and paying airport fees. China Southern also had to compete vigorously to attract qualified pilots. However, the carrier was able to shed various general aviation activities such as forestry service inherited from the 1950s.
Demand for commercial aircraft softened in the wake of the Persian Gulf War, giving Yu an opportunity to acquire the Boeing 777s needed to establish China Southern as a long-haul international carrier. Boeing lowered its price and stepped up its delivery schedule; CSA was the first Asian airline to operate this state-of-the-art jet.
Letting in the Foreigners in the Mid-1990s
The Chinese government opened its airlines to the possibility of foreign investment in 1994. United Airlines and China Southern were early to the negotiating table. CSA also began to plan for a listing on the New York Stock Exchange. It needed the capital to distance itself from other smaller, largely unprofitable Chinese airlines, among the world's most dangerous to fly. CSA had already entered training and maintenance agreements with U.S. carriers. It contracted with American Airlines' sister company Sabre Decision Technologies to develop its operations control center.
Sales doubled in 1994, although profit fell due to increased costs associated with the company's growth. It added four international and 26 domestic routes in 1995. Passenger traffic exploded in the early 1990s; gross revenues reached $1.1 billion in 1996; the Xiamen Airlines unit contributed another $400 million. Net income was $1.4 billion (RMB 887 million). CSA and associated airlines were flying 15 million passengers a year. CSA's domestic subsidiaries covered 68 destinations within China.
Yu had resisted pressure to order Airbuses (and, earlier in the decade, MD-80s being manufactured in Shanghai), at least until April 1996, when the CAAC ordered 20 Airbus A320s for the company. CSA added a fifth Boeing 777 in 1997 as it expanded international services in a bid to usurp Air China's leading position. CSA had an advantage in the liberal, business-oriented climate of its southern home, compared to Air China's bureaucratic home base of Beijing. The carrier operated 63 jets (plus 15 through Xiamen Airlines and dozens more through other subsidiaries) to Air China's 50.
Even though the airline had invested heavily in bringing capacity to the international market, domestic flights accounted for almost 80 percent of its passenger revenues. The domestic carriers were an important source of feeder traffic; to keep passengers coming in from abroad, CSA signed a code sharing arrangement with Delta Air Lines. However, international flights brought in vitally needed hard currency. Cargo operations provided less than ten percent of the carrier's revenues.
In July 1997, China Southern finally made its initial public offering on the Hong Kong and New York Stock Exchanges, raising some $600 to $700 million. A strong local economy and hub in the gateway city of Guangzhou were two key selling points. The CAAC still owned about two-thirds of CSA after the IPO. CSA reported revenues of $1.5 billion) in 1997. The next year, the first loss in CSA's history, compounded by unfavorable exchange rates, amounted to RMB 544 million ($65 million) on revenues of RMB 10.6 billion. As a group, Chinese airlines lost US$775 million in 1998.
Even after the IPO, CSA and Xiamen Airlines together had nearly US$2 billion in debt. Within a few months, the Asian financial crisis soured investors on CSA's short-term prospects. A sharp decline in traffic manifested itself quickly. In the first half of 1998, CSA lost even more than was expected, RMB 72 million. Managers scrambled to contain costs but with already cheap land, cheap labor, and expensive new planes to maintain, their options were limited. About 600 workers were laid off and a couple of airplanes returned. The prospect of growth via teaming with Delta Air Lines in the U.S. market offered some hope; CSA offered special incentives to U.S. travel agents. The Chinese government reduced infrastructure taxes to help the struggling airlines, saving China Southern approximately RMB 500 million a year.
The domestic Chinese market showed some signs of improvement by early 1999, as the CAAC intervened to control pricing and capacity. CSA's cargo traffic improved by 12 percent in the first quarter. The CAAC also planned to merge all of China's 34 airlines into a handful of groups. A merger of China Southern with Air China was expected to lead the process. China Southern management was likely to take over the proposed entity--Air China's head had already been replaced by the leader of China Eastern Airlines due to poor financial performance. In fact, Air China was not yet strong enough to launch its own public offering, despite several years of trying. Air China would bring better U.S. destinations to the merger, a key to competing with major U.S. airlines. As of mid-1999, CSA operated 99 aircraft and Air China 60, together accounting for more than a third of China's total commercial airliners and half the country's air traffic.
Although susceptible to exchange rate fluctuations in the future, China Southern has long demonstrated an uncanny ability to navigate between bureaucratic demands of the socialist regime at home and the requirements of competition in the open market. China Southern President Yan Zhi Qing stated a goal of becoming the world's number one airline--not an altogether out of sight target, given the airline's phenomenal rate of growth and the impending merger.
Principal Subsidiaries: China Southern Henan Airlines; Hubei Airlines; Hunan Airlines; Shenzhen Airlines; Hainan Airlines; Zhuhai Helicopter Company; Xiamen Airlines (60%); Shantou Airlines (60%); Guangxi Airlines (60%); Zhuhai Airlines (60%); Guangzhou Aircraft Maintenance and Engineering Co. (50 %); Guangzhou Nanland Air Catering Co. (51%); Baiyun Xinhua (Guangzhou) Air Cargo Service (70%); China Southern West Australian Flying College (Australia; 65%); Hainan Phoenix Information Systems (45%); Southern Airlines Group Finance Co. (47%).
Principal Competitors: China Eastern Airlines; Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd.; Korean Air Lines Co. Ltd.
Re: Marketing Strategy of China Southern Airlines Company Ltd.
Jitendra Mazee
Student of Bachelor of Engineering at RGTU Bhopal
Bhopal, India | Electronics, Computers and IT Courses
Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh
Institute: RGTU Bhopal
Location: Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh
Re: Marketing Strategy of China Southern Airlines Company Ltd. - June 17th, 2017
Originally Posted by anjalicutek
Hey anjali, thanks for your contribution and providing the marketing strategies report on China Southern Airlines Company Ltd which would really help many students and professionals. BTW, I am also going to share a document on China Southern Airlines Company Ltd for helping others.
China Southern Airlines Company Ltd..pdf (418.0 KB, 0 views)
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Mark J. Connor, Composer
CSIC Orchestra Commission
EB Podcast
Rock Island Bridge March for concert band
Grade 1.5
In 1856 the first bridge across the Mississippi connecting the cities of Rock Island, Illinois and Davenport, Iowa was built. Shortly after completion of the bridge, a steamship named the Effie Afton crashed into the bridge and was destroyed. The high profile trial that followed between the steamship owners and the railroad garnered national attention and thrust the Illinois lawyer who represented the railroad into the national spotlight. That lawyer, Abraham Lincoln, would use this fame as a stepping stone to the presidency. This delightful march for young band celebrates the building of the bridge and the removal of the Mississippi as a barrier for the railroads. With light syncopation and a distinctive tenor countermelody, this march features only four distinct parts plus percussion with all parts doubled throughout the ensemble making it suitable for bands of all sizes.
Site and contents copyright © 2019 Mark J. Connor. All rights reserved.
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Why I am a Mormon Democrat
Defending the Family
It's a new world
posted by LDSDems | 527sc
I know all Democrats don't agree with me on this one, but I think New York Times columnist Tom Friedman is a national treasure. In a recent article entitled "It's a 401K World", Friedman makes an excellent summary of how our new world of technology and globalization "empowers individuals to access learning, retrain, engage in commerce, seek or advertise a job, invent, invest and crowd source — all online." Friedman goes on to say, "But this huge expansion in an individual’s ability to do all these things comes with one big difference: More now rests on you. If you are self-motivated, wow, this world is tailored for you. The boundaries are all gone. But if you’re not self-motivated, this world will be a challenge because the walls, ceilings and floors that protected people are also disappearing. That is what I mean when I say "it is a 401(k) world." Government will do less for you. Companies will do less for you. Unions can do less for you. There will be fewer limits, but also fewer guarantees. Your specific contribution will define your specific benefits much more. Just showing up will not cut it."
Your typical conservative is pointing at us Democrats right about now and saying, "Yeah, I told you so. You liberals who believe in an entitlement society have got it all wrong." More than any other of the lies told about us, this one makes me tear my hair out! Democrats do not believe in an entitlement society! No one would be more thrilled than me if that single mother out there had the tools to provide food, clothing, shelter and medical care for her children without government assistance.
The difference is in the best way to get there. Conservative philosophy seems to be pretty simple; everyone's on his own.
Democrats have a different view. I am currently enrolled in a class on the Toyota Production System at work. One characteristic of the coursework is you get to learn a bunch of Japanese words. One of these is "nemawashi". It's the word for properly preparing the soil to plant a tree. The tree won't grow if you don't prepare the soil. The application of this principle in the business world is obvious, but in our changing society, it especially applies to people. We can't expect those being left behind by our new economy to grow and thrive without some soil preparation. If you just plunk them down in the dirt, they will perish just as surely as all those trees I've tried to plant out in the crappy, alkaline soil in Plain City.
So, back to Friedman's column: "I find a lot of this scary. We’re entering a world that increasingly rewards individual aspiration and persistence and can measure precisely who is contributing and who is not. This is not going away, so we better think how we help every citizen benefit from it.
It has to start, argues Ryan Burke, the director of jobs and workforce for Hope Street, with changing our education-to-work system to one that enables and credits a variety of viable pathways to needed skills. But for students and workers to take advantage of the opportunities open to them in a 'defined contribution’ world, they will need much better information to inform their decisions. Right now it’s much easier to evaluate a choice about buying a car or picking a mutual fund than to find the competencies employers are looking for and the best cost-effective way to obtain them."
This isn't going to be easy. It will take work and creativity, Which means simplistic answers won't do. One final quote, from Friedman's book Hot, Flat and Crowded: "There was a lot about Reagan's economic policies that made sense when it was first introduced. We did need to unlock talent, energy and entrepreneurship that had been bottled up in our economy. But like all good things in politics, for everything there is a season and limits. Reaganism, which coincided with the collapse of America's mortal enemy, the Soviet Union, ushered in a period of history in which more and more public officials denigrated government and offered painless bromides for prosperity. The market was always right. Government was always wrong. And any government proposal that involved asking the American people to do something difficult - to save more, drive more fuel-efficient cars, study harder, or to be better parents - was 'off the table'. You could not utter such phrases and expect to be elected to any high office in America."
The time for those "painless bromides" are past. They won't work. It will take a lot of effort and sacrifice to prepare the soil in America so all her citizens can be self-sufficient and prosper in the new economy.
ldsdems
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Follow @MormonPress on Twitter
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Murder-Suicide Leaves Eight Dead in Florida
Renee Johnson
Officials from the Sheriff’s Office in Gilchrist County in the small town of Bell Florida announced that a grandfather has apparently killed his daughter, her six children, and himself in what is described as a horrific tragedy.
Being deemed a murder-suicide, the Sheriff’s Office received a 911 call from the grandfather, 51-year-old Don Charles Sprint, who during the call with dispatchers made a reference to harming not only himself but other people in the home. By the time officers arrived on scene, Sprint was still alive but within a short time, turned the gun used in the killings on himself.
After emergency personnel arrived to assist, a search of the home was conducted. It was at that time that law enforcement authorities from seven additional people dead in the home from appeared to be gunshot wound. Included in the murder was 28-year-old Sarah Sprint and her six children, Kaleb age 11, Kylie age 9, Jonathan age 8, Destiny age 5, Brandon age 4, and Alanna, age 3 months.
This incident occurred in a very small community of just 350 people and according to the Gilchrist County Sheriff, Robert Schultz this will be devastating for people to handle. He adds that everyone is more like family and that unfortunately there are just some things in life that cannot be understood or explained. Because there were so many children involved, classmates will be offered grief counseling.
Apparently, this is not the first time law enforcement has been called to the Sprint home. Sprint, a New Jersey native, was arrested and served three years in the Florida Department of Corrections in 2001 relating to a hunting accident that resulted in his eight-year-old son’s death.
Sprint was said to have been pointing out rust of the rifle muzzle when it accidentally fired, striking his son Kyle in the head. Kyle was placed on Sprint’s truck flatbed and driven to a campsite where he called for help. When the shooting occurred, Sprint was a felon from a prior drug conviction. In exchange for a minimum sentence, he ultimately pled guilty to the charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm. If the plea had not been made, Sprint could have faced anywhere from 3 to 15 years in prison.
At that same time of Sprint’s son being shot and killed, the daughter who lost her life in today’s murder-suicide was on community service for grand theft. Schultz confirmed that Sprint had other run-ins with the law and quite a criminal history.
The exact type of firearm used or the number of times the daughter and children were shot has not been disclosed. Although this appears to be an obvious murder-suicide, detectives will still need to conduct a thorough investigation. Until complete, very few details are expected to come out.
As a final note, Sheriff Schultz said he strongly believed that the community of Bell will come together to work through this and that everyone will continue to be family. A press release is said to be coming sometime later today.
Related ItemsMurder-Suicide florida
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'The X-Files' Turns 20: Where Are The Cast And Crew Now?
Tami Katzoff 09/10/2013
On September 10th, 1993, the world was introduced to "The X-Files" and a pair of alien-chasing FBI agents, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. For nine conspiracy-filled TV seasons (and two feature films) they fought to uncover The Truth about the existence of extra-terrestrials, along the way becoming iconic characters in pop culture.
To celebrate the twentieth anniversary of "The X-Files," we present an update on some of its major players.
David Duchovny (Special Agent Fox Mulder) will once again star as writer Hank Moody in Showtime's dramedy "Californication" when it returns for a seventh season in 2014.
Gillian Anderson (Special Agent Dana Scully) recently returned to TV in a big way, with roles on BBC's "The Fall," NBC's "Hannibal" and NBC's upcoming "Crisis."
Mitch Pileggi (FBI Assistant Director Walter Skinner) plays Harris Ryland on TNT's "Dallas" revival, which begins its third season in 2014.
William B. Davis (C.G.B. Spender/Cigarette Smoking Man) has a recurring role on the Canadian sci-fi series "Continuum."
Vince Gilligan (writer/executive producer) created AMC's "Breaking Bad" and ran the show for all of its five glorious seasons.
[caption id="attachment_97663" align="alignnone" width="575"] Source: Getty Images [/caption]
Howard Gordon (writer/executive producer) co-developed and exec-produces Showtime's "Homeland." He also served as showrunner on "24" and will head up production when it returns as a 12-episode limited series.
Chris Carter (creator/executive producer) has tried to get other TV series off the ground, with limited success. Recently his post-apocalyptic pilot "The After" was picked up by Amazon, but many X-Philes are hoping that his next big project will be a third "X-Files" film.
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Nadya Okamoto
Why I'm Running For City Council At 19
Nadya Okamoto could be the youngest council member elected in Cambridge history.
For a lot of college sophomores, life consists of studying, partying, and picking a major. But Nadya Okamoto, a sophomore at Harvard College, has a bit more on her plate. The 19-year-old is on a mission to become Cambridge's youngest City Council member ever — and is registering all the students she can in process. Okamoto told MTV News about her historic race, her dreams for her community, and what it's like to knock on doors of locals who've been voting longer than she's been alive.
This piece has been edited and condensed.
I'm Nadya Okamoto. I'm 19 years old and I’m a sophomore at Harvard College. I'm running for Cambridge city council.
I got involved [with politics] with no intention of running. It became a joke among some of the people who knew how passionate I was about housing policy and economic diversity strategies here in Cambridge. It sort of became, "If you have so many ideas, why don't you just run yourself?" Suddenly it just clicked, like, "Why don’t I run?" I realized the only thing holding me back was the fact that [thought I] was too young.
Within the first week, it solidified in my mind that we were a small part of a larger movement for young people in politics. When I launched my campaign video, I simply put it on Facebook [and] didn't put any money behind boosting it or anything. It's gotten like 30,000 [views]. Those views were from all over the country and actually all over the world. A lot of young people [have been] reaching out [saying], "This is so cool. I didn't even know you could run and also I wish I could vote for you."
https://www.instagram.com/p/BWWISryAJSH/?taken-by=nadyaokamoto
That was a big thing for us because a lot of the people who were messaging us, especially in Cambridge, could vote. It's just a matter of filling out those [registration] forms. And because [Cambridge has] ranked choice voting, every single vote counts. There are councilors elected by, like, 11 votes. You only need about 1000 number one votes to be elected — so your vote could single handedly be the deciding factor.
But my age is definitely something we receive pushback [on]. This can range anywhere from not-so-nice social media posts, to people saying that my running is the "epitome of Harvard entitlement and millennials thinking they can do anything," to doors slamming in my face and people saying, word for word, "Sorry, I'm going to vote for someone who's lived in Cambridge longer than you've been alive." It's something my volunteers also notice when they bring up my age in conversation at doors. We’ve knocked on about 13,000 doors so far, so it's kind of frequent.
People have this assumption that maybe I haven't worked before, and maybe I don't have life experience [with my campaign] issues. I want to ask, "Okay, what does it mean when you say I'm too young? If you tell me you don't think I have what it takes in terms of experience, that's fine. But just talk to me about it first."
https://www.instagram.com/p/BSPcVNFAyDz/?taken-by=nadyaokamoto
I'm running a very progressive platform focused on housing affordability, education equity, and sustainable living. Housing affordability is something I care deeply about because I have experienced housing instability. I grew up with quite a bit of domestic violence, and Cambridge was a place my family could return to once or twice a year because my godparents live here. This concept of home is something I want to protect for all residents, regardless of their race, their religion, their age, their socio-economic status, where they come from, or how long they've been here.
I started working when I was 16. I worked six jobs last year to [pay for] school and to support my family. I continue to work multiple jobs. I have run nonprofits that now have national and global reach. So I want to push for this message that the year I [was] born should not define my capabilities. I have this unique ability to mobilize and engage more citizens and voices than any other candidate right now, and part of that is because of my identity and what I've been through.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BYdoVPEgJ0K/?taken-by=nadyaokamoto
The hardest thing for me to hear is from people I see as my [peers] who say, "I don't understand what makes you think that you can do this." That's the hardest thing to hear not only because I am a 19-year-old who cares about what my peers think, but also because I really, really [don’t] want young people to question my age because I interpret that as them questioning their own capabilities as well. We're living in a city where a whole portion of the demographic hasn't had a seat at the table because we haven't believed in our own voice and our potential.
[We also get backlash] because I'm a university student [and] there is a tense relationship in Cambridge. Students are often looked at as passing through the city and not being a part of the community. In a district where over 35 percent of the demographic is under the age of 25 and over 34 percent of the adult population is enrolled in a university, we've never had student or youth representation on the council.
We're doing a whole push on just registering students to vote. The idea is that we're going to try to [get] at least 10 volunteers to register at least 10 voters respectively each day. We're just trying to make little steps that all add up to a large amount. As I said, you only need about 1000 number one votes to win.
We do come across this response of "I don't have time to register to vote" or "sorry, I’m already registered back in my hometown." For us it's like, "Text me when you're available and I will come to you with the voter registration paper." We're trying to make it as easy and streamlined as possible so you can't use the excuse "I don't have time." It's anywhere from doing that all the way to saying, "If you re-register [in Cambridge] we will help you re-register wherever you want to be for 2018, because we know that's a really important year where swing states are really going to matter."
For us it's like, "Text me when you're available and I will come to you with the voter registration paper." We're trying to make it as easy and streamlined as possible so you can't use the excuse "I don't have time."
I'm pretty optimistic about our chances. Voter turnout is so low that if we do mobilize students we do have a pretty strong chance. I would be the youngest and the first Asian-American female ever elected in Cambridge history, which is exciting. There are a lot of adults who will reach out and say, "I support you. I love that you're running but I don't know if you're going to win." I really hope that people will get it into their minds that young people can not only run but can be elected.
This is the most terrifying and exhausting thing I've ever done. You cannot do it alone. You need to collaborate with people and you need to find people who are going to believe in this as much as you do. But at the end of the day your name is the one that's out there. If things go wrong it's not on your team, it's on you. But I truly believe that if [we want] a representative democracy and [to see] social progress being exponentially pushed forward by our generation, we need to have that voice at the table.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BZANDIcAQuG/?taken-by=nadyaokamoto
I say this thing, and it's very cheesy but I really hold it to my heart, which is, politics and social change [are] really just games to push forward better futures. And what better way to better our future than including the voices or future leaders in those conversations? That's how we carry on the legacy of changing ideas. That's [why] we really do need young people in those seats. And if they're not going to create a seat we're going to keep pulling a chair up to the table until they let us have a permanent seat there.
National Voter Registration Day is Tuesday, September 26. Register to vote at vote.mtv.com to make your voice heard.
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New England Historical Radio Society
Operating NEWS
HOMEBREWERS CORNER
HOMEBREW PG 2
The New England Historical Radio Society was organized to preserve the art and equipment of using Morse code on the maritime frequencies as a viable and vital method of communications. This mode of communications will be lost to history for all time if something is not done to preserve these methods and practices for future generations. The goal for this organization is to have a working interactive museum with a licensed Coastal Radio station to demonstrate this operation for all to enjoy and still supply a vital communication link in an emergency for those to still use. There are a dwindling number of ships on the high seas along with museum ships that are set up along the coasts of the United States who still have Radiotelegraphy equipment that can be used. We would dedicate this operational museum to all maritime radio operators and especially the operators who went down with their ships still at there telegraph key trying to make sure help was on the way in an effort to save as many lives as possible.
Another aspect of the organization is to restore antique radio equipment that would include communications receivers, transmitters and antenna systems of yesterday that could educate the younger generation in this element of history. All of this was needed to get to where we are today that in general is taken for granted and should not be. At this time 2/5/2008 there is a restored RCA coastal station in operation in California that is now considered a national landmark and two more that have been licensed to come on the air as museum stations, one station in Washington and one station in Florida.
Key image by gynti_46 and released under a Creative Commons License.
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David F. Miller v. Amica Mutual Insurance Co.
Arguing the Rhode Island Supreme Court to Affirm the Individuals and Businesses Who Assist Law Enforcement are Shielded from Civil Liability for Those Actions
The background to this case is the history of acrimonious relations between car insurers and the auto body repair industry in Rhode Island. Simply put, each side has long believed that it is being cheated by the other.
David Miller, the plaintiff in this case, is the former head of the trade association of repair shops and has long played a prominent role in the ongoing dispute between the shops and insurers like Amica. In 2001 he was the target of two sting operations. Apparently allegations had been made by several sources that Miller inflated the costs of repairs; in other words, Miller was alleged to have committed insurance fraud. As part of the undercover investigation, Metropolitan Property and Casualty Insurance Co. provided the Rhode Island State Police with a vehicle that was taken into Miller’s shop for repairs. This sting operation led to Miller’s being charged with billing more than $1,100 in fraudulent repairs. In a second sting operation, Amica provided a damaged vehicle and a fake insurance policy, and Miller supposedly billed $1,050 in fraudulent repairs on that job. Miller was arrested and charged with insurance fraud and with attempting to obtain money under false pretenses. The charges were later dismissed because of evidentiary problems, but Miller was required to surrender his license to run his repair shop.
In this case, he claimed that Amica and Metropolitan vindictively abused legal process in order to get him arrested. The case went to a jury, which found against both insurers. The trial judge, however, finding a dearth of evidence against Amica, granted Amica’s motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict (he, however, found ample evidence to justify the jury’s verdict against Metropolitan). Miller appealed. Miller’s argument urging reinstatement of the abuse of process verdict rested entirely upon an analysis of the sufficiency of the evidence presented at trial. He claims that the evidence is sufficient to support a jury-finding that Amica initiated the investigation against him, rather than Amica’s having merely assisted the police when called upon to do so.
On appeal, Amica argued that the evidence presented at trial was insufficient, as a matter of law, to support the verdict against it. It also responded that it merely did its civic duty in assisting police in an investigation that the insurer played no role in initiating.
NELF filed an amicus brief in support of Amica. While NELF was in no position to decide between conflicting views of the trial evidence, it laid out for the Court the ancient, widely-recognized Anglo-American public policy of protecting private individuals from civil liability when they have rendered assistance to law enforcement officials at the latter’s request. First, NELF reviewed the numerous Rhode Island statutes, including insurance law statutes, that codify this policy, some of which acknowledge the living common law background of the policy. Then NELF discussed the policy’s broader common law background as most memorably embodied in Justice Cardozo’s decision in Babington v. Yellow Taxi Corp., 250 N.Y. 14, 164 N.E. 726 (1928). NELF concluded by examining two federal cases that it suggests clarify the situation in which Amica finds itself in this case. In filing its brief, NELF hoped to spur the Court to use the occasion of this appeal to acknowledge, for the first time in Rhode Island decisional law, the vitality of the common law principle.
In its March 20, 2015 decision, Miller v. Metropolitan Property and Cas. Ins. Co., 111 A.3d 332 (R.I. 2015), the Court decided the appeal in Amica’s favor on the basis of a release Miller had given as part of the dismissal of the criminal case against him. Unfortunately, therefore, the Court did not reach the issue of common law immunity.
American States Insurance Co. v. LaFlam
Defending the Right of Business Parties to Contract for a Reasonable Limitation of the Period Within Which a Suit May be Brought
This case raised essentially the same issue recently decided by the Massachusetts SJC in Creative Playthings Franchising Corp. v. Reiser, 463 Mass. 758 (2012), which NELF also briefed. The issue is the extent to which parties to a contract are free under the common law to determine the time within which litigation may be brought on claims arising under the contract. Here the issue has been certified to the Rhode Island Supreme Court by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, which phrased the question as follows:“ Under Rhode Island law, may an insurance policy providing uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage limit the period for suit against the insurer to less than the ten-year statutory period…?”
The case arose out of injuries suffered by the insured, LaFlam, in an automobile accident while she was driving a car insured under a policy issued to her employer by American States Insurance Company (ASIC). The policy indemnified insureds like LaFlam from injuries caused by negligent underinsured motorists; it also contains a contractual limitation of action period of three years, displacing the statutory ten-year period. More than three years after the accident, LaFlam’s attorney sent ASIC a letter asserting a claim under the policy. Believing the claim to be unenforceable because of the contractual limitations period, ASIC brought a declaratory judgment action in the Rhode Island Federal District Court seeking a declaration that LaFlam’s claim was time-barred under the policy. The district court granted ASIC’s motion for judgment on the pleadings, and LaFlam appealed to the First Circuit which, as noted, referred the limitations question to the Rhode Island Supreme Court.
In the course of arguing her case to the Court of Appeals, LaFlam took the position that parties to a contract may not validly agree to shorten the statutory limitations period unless a statute expressly authorizes them to do so for the given type of contract. NELF filed an amicus brief in the case supporting ASIC and pointing out that for more than a century and a half the courts of Rhode Island have upheld as valid contractual agreements that reasonably shorten the statutory limitations period, a position from which the Rhode Island Supreme Court has never deviated. In addition to tracing some of the history of this ubiquitous and ancient Anglo-American common law right, NELF also argued that no statutory authorization is required to enable parties to agree freely in their contracts to a reasonable time limit for bringing suit on the agreement. In particular, NELF rebutted LaFlam’s use of one section of the Rhode Island UCC, which she claims was an example of the legislature granting the right to shorten the limitations period. NELF also asked the Court to take the opportunity offered by the case to announce the precise common law rule, never previously formulated though implicit in some form in its earlier decisions.
Unfortunately, in its July 2013 decision, the Court resolved the insurance coverage questions before it, tacitly acknowledging the validity of agreements to shorten the limitations period, but without clarifying the principles governing such agreements in Rhode Island.
Defontes v. Dell Computer Corp
Arguing for the Enforcement of Class-Action Waivers in Consumer Arbitration Contracts
This is a consumer class action raising the same issues before the Rhode Island Supreme Court as were raised in Massachusetts in Feeney v. Dell Computer Corp. (see supra at p. 1). As in the Feeney case, the plaintiffs purchased computers and optional service contracts from Dell and were allegedly wrongfully charged sales tax on the service contracts. The question that NELF briefed was whether Rhode Island would enforce a class-action waiver in the arbitration clause of the service contracts where the waiver was enforceable under the agreement’s chosen law (in these cases, the law of Texas). This question resolved into the question whether Rhode Island had a fundamental public policy against the waiver of class actions in consumer arbitrations, and NELF argued in its brief in support of Dell that Rhode Island does not have such a substantial public policy.
In its December 2009 decision, the Rhode Island Supreme Court never reached the issue that NELF had briefed, holding instead that, as a whole, the “shrinkwrap” terms and conditions agreement containing the arbitration provision was not enforceable because it failed to inform consumers adequately of their right to reject the agreement by returning the goods. Therefore, consumers’ retention of the goods did not indicate overall assent to the terms and conditions agreements, including the arbitration provision. “We are not persuaded that a reasonably prudent [consumer] would understand that by keeping the Dell computer he or she was agreeing to be bound by the terms and conditions agreement and retained, for a specified time, the power to reject the terms by returning the product.”
State of Rhode Island v. Lead Industries Association, Inc.
Opposing Expansion of Public Nuisance Liability
In this case, which garnered national attention, the Rhode Island Supreme Court agreed with NELF and others that the jury verdict below improperly imposed liability on lead pigment manufacturers for abatement of alleged lead paint hazards in Rhode Island buildings. The 2006 jury verdict was the first in the nation ever to hold lead pigment manufacturers liable on a public nuisance theory and a decision upholding that verdict would have vastly expanded public nuisance doctrine, with far-reaching potential ramifications for all who make, market, or sell products. The trial court rejected traditional limitations on common law public nuisance liability, including the need to prove both actual and proximate causation of the alleged harm and control by the defendants over the instrumentality allegedly causing that harm. In fact, there was no proof that any defendant’s product was even present in any Rhode Island building allegedly requiring abatement; and, of course, it is the building owners, not manufacturers who sold lead pigment to paint makers decades ago, who have had the ability to maintain and repair lead paint on building surfaces so as to prevent the risk of exposure.
Recognizing that an adverse decision in this appeal would have troubling implications that would not be limited to lead paint cases, NELF filed an amicus brief in support of the pigment manufacturers. NELF’s brief reviewed out-of-state decisions and academic commentary to demonstrate that a decision upholding the jury verdict would place Rhode Island far outside the mainstream. The Court, which relied heavily in its decision on the authorities cited in NELF’s brief, embraced the point, noting that Rhode Island’s definition of public nuisance is “largely consistent with that of many other jurisdictions … and several scholarly commentators” and concluding that “[t]he law of public nuisance never before has been applied to products, however harmful.” NELF had further argued that there was no deterrent value to imposing retroactive, unforeseeable, no-fault liability on parties who lawfully manufactured and sold products many decades before those products allegedly caused harm and that doing so would discourage product development that is critical to a vibrant economy.
The Court, agreeing that the Attorney General was attempting to skirt the proof requirements of product liability law and vastly expand public nuisance liability, concluded that “the state has not and cannot allege any set of facts to support its public nuisance claim that would establish that defendants interfered with a public right or that defendants were in control of the lead pigment they, or their predecessors, manufactured at the time it caused harm to Rhode Island children.”
Horn v. Southern Union Co.
Advocating a One-Year Statute of Limitations for All Employment Discrimination Claims Brought Under Rhode Island’s Anti-Discrimination Statutes
Unlike the Rhode Island Fair Employment Practices Act, R.I. Gen. Laws §§ 28-5-1 et seq., (“FEPA”), which expressly provides for a one-year statute of limitations, the Rhode Island Civil Rights Act, R.I. Gen. Laws §§ 42-112-1 et seq., (“RICRA”) includes no express limitations period. In Horn v. Southern Union Co., 927 A.2d 292 (R.I. 2007), the Rhode Island Supreme Court was faced with the question whether, as NELF and its co-amicus Defense Counsel of Rhode Island argued, employment discrimination claims under RICRA should also be governed by a one-year limitations period or whether they should instead be governed by Rhode Island’s residual three-year statute of limitations for personal injury actions.
In a decision rendered on June 27, 2007, the majority of the Court agreed with NELF that FEPA and RICRA are in pari materia with respect to employment discrimination claims—i.e., that they address the same subject and, hence, must be harmonized by “engrafting onto the RICRA the one-year statute of limitations contained in the FEPA.” The Court found, as NELF had argued, that setting a three-year limitations period for RICRA employment discrimination claims would effectively repeal FEPA’s protection of employers from stale claims, since plaintiffs could obtain the same remedy without the burden of the one-year limitations period by proceeding under RICRA. As NELF explained in its amicus brief, requiring claims to be brought promptly is especially important in the employment discrimination area because those claims are often based on alleged oral communications, memories of which can quickly fade, and because witnesses can readily become unavailable given today’s high worker turnover. Dissenting Justices Suttell and Flaherty, who would have applied the three-year statute of limitations, faulted the majority for fashioning a special limitations period under RICRA limited to employment discrimination claims.
Rhode Island Econ. Dev. Corp. v. The Parking Co., LP
Arguing That Rhode Island’s “Quick Take” Eminent Domain Statute Violates Due Process
This case challenged the constitutionality of Rhode Island’s “quick take” statute, R.I.G.L. 1956 §§ 42-64-9, which permits the taking of property without notice to the owner. The Parking Co., LP (“TPC”) is the parking concessionaire of the Rhode Island Airport Corp. (“RIAC”), a subsidiary of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation (“EDC”). Under its Concession and Lease Agreement with RIAC, TPC was required, among other things, to build Garage B at the Airport. Under the agreement, TPC owned Garage B in fee, but was required to deed it to RIAC gratis after twenty years, i.e., on or after December 31, 2007. The agreement also granted RIAC the right to purchase the garage prior to that date, upon payment of a sum to be calculated under a formula. Apparently, at a certain point RIAC decided that it could make more money operating Garage B directly than through its concessionaire TPC. Rather than pay the contractual price, however, RIAC arranged to have TPC’s interest in the garage taken by its parent EDC by eminent domain (RIAC itself does not have eminent domain powers), which then conveyed the interest to RIAC. It was thought that, through the use of eminent domain, RIAC would be able to obtain the interest for less than if it had used the purchase price formula in the agreement. Because EDC used the unique procedures under the Rhode Island “quick take” statute TPC received no prior notice of the taking, and was only able to challenge its validity through the appellate process. TPC appealed the case to the Rhode Island Supreme Court and NELF filed an amicus brief supporting TPC. While TPC challenged the taking and the compensation on a number of grounds, NELF’s brief focused on the constitutionality of the “quick take” procedure itself, which allowed EDC to take TPC’s parking garage ex parte, without even a post-taking procedure available to challenge the validity of the taking. Building on the arguments that it made successfully in Gem Plumbing & Heating Co. v. Rossi, 867 A.2d 796 (R.I. 2005), NELF argued that due process requires a pre-deprivation hearing and an opportunity to challenge the validity of the proposed taking before a state agency can take property by eminent domain. The case was decided on February 23, 2006. The Court decided that, despite the language of the “quick take” statute, the law must be interpreted to allow a post-taking hearing and determination of the validity of the taking and amount of damages. The Court overruled the taking on the ground that a taking to avoid contractual payment is in bad faith and not a legitimate public use.
Palazzolo v. Rhode Island
Fighting Regulatory Takings
Rhode Island’s Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) determined that Anthony Palazzolo could not fill fifteen wetland acres on his property and could only build a single home on a small upland portion of the lot. Because Palazzolo acquired title in his own name following the dissolution of his solely owned corporation after CRMC’s enabling legislation was enacted, the Rhode Island Supreme Court held that his investment-backed expectations were not reasonable. The Court relied on the “post-enactment purchaser” theory — that a purchaser on notice of a regulation cannot contest its validity. The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari.
At the United States Supreme Court, NELF filed a brief on behalf of similarly situated Rhode Island property owners, arguing that the “post-enactment purchaser” theory is contrary to sound public policy. The Supreme Court reversed and remanded, holding that acquisition of property with knowledge of existing regulations cannot bar challenges to such regulations. The Court also determined that the presence of one buildable lot on the 74-lot parcel was sufficient to deny treatment as a categorical (total) taking. The Court remanded for consideration as a partial regulatory taking under the test established in Penn Central Transportation Co. v. City of New York. On remand, NELF has undertaken direct representation of the plaintiff in the Rhode Island courts. After briefing by the parties, the Rhode Island Supreme Court further remanded the case to the Rhode Island Superior Court for consideration of the Penn Central test and the other outstanding issues, including the state’s public trust defense and Palazzolo’s revival of the “total taking” theory in light of the State’s denial of a septic permit for the one “buildable” lot.
Because NELF pressed the issue, the State ultimately granted Palazzolo all necessary permits for the single buildable lot, which he is now marketing. Trial commenced in April, 2004 and concluded in June, 2004. Post-trial briefing was completed on September 15, 2004. On July 5, 2005, the Superior Court issued a decision unfavorable to Palazzolo, who has decided not to file an appeal.
Gem Plumbing v. Rossi and F.C.C., Inc. v. Reuter
Upholding the Constitutionality of the Mechanics’ Lien Law in Rhode Island
These related cases involved a constitutional challenge to the Rhode Island Mechanics’ Lien Law (R.I. G.L. 1956 §§ 34-28-1 et seq.) The Rhode Island Superior Court held in both cases that the law violates due process because it encumbers private property without adequate procedural safeguards. Those decisions have been appealed to the Rhode Island Supreme Court.
These cases were brought to NELF’s attention by the Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office, which had already submitted an amicus brief supporting the Mechanics’ Lien statute against the constitutional challenge. NELF’s principal concern with the Superior Court’s decision was that it failed to recognize the long-standing purpose behind mechanics’ lien statutes, which is to ensure payment for the time, labor, and money that the contractor invests in the affected property. If the Superior Court’s decisions were upheld, they would deprive the owners of construction businesses in Rhode Island of a meaningful and effective remedy against delinquent customers, with adverse economic consequences on the construction industry of Rhode Island.
On December 3, 2004, NELF filed an amicus curiae brief with the Rhode Island Supreme Court in these cases which focused on showing that the Superior Court erred when it held that Connecticut v. Doehr, 501 U.S. 1 (1991), required a finding that the Rhode Island Mechanics’ Lien Law was unconstitutional. NELF argued that under Doehr, due process does not require a pre-deprivation hearing in every situation. Instead, Doehr holds that due process involves a more flexible balancing test that weights the particular vulnerability of the defendant against the plaintiff’s interest in the affected property.
On February 22, 2005, the Rhode Island Supreme Court reversed, holding that the Mechanics Lien law, as amended after the trial court’s judgment, did not violate procedural due process.
Haldane v. Hasbro, Inc.
Whether a Company Has the Right to Observe the Destructive Testing of its Own Products and Obtain the Results
This case raised the issue whether a company should have the right to observe the destructive testing of its own products that are the subject of a lawsuit against it, and to obtain the results of the testing, regardless of whether the party conducting the testing will introduce the test results or expert testimony at trial. On August 11, 1994, Richard Haldane, then 5½ years old, was hit by a truck and seriously injured while riding a toy manufactured by Hasbro. In a subsequent products liability lawsuit alleging defective design, the plaintiffs requested that Hasbro produce two copies of the toy, which is no longer manufactured, for destructive testing. Hasbro objected, arguing that the plaintiffs had not shown why destructive testing was necessary. Hasbro also argued that if the court did allow the destructive testing, Hasbro should be able to observe. The Superior Court issued an order allowing plaintiffs to conduct the testing, but denied Hasbro’s request to attend the testing or to obtain testing results. The court concluded that Hasbro would only be entitled to the results if plaintiffs intended to have their experts testify at trial. Otherwise, the court concluded that the test results were protected work product. Hasbro filed a petition for writ of certiorari to the Rhode Island Supreme Court, seeking interlocutory review of the order.
NELF filed a memorandum in support of Hasbro, arguing that the trial court abused its discretion in barring Hasbro both from observing the scheduled destructive testing and from obtaining the results of the testing. NELF argued that ex parte testing will forever deprive Hasbro of the opportunity to evaluate or replicate the circumstances and results of a one-time-only test. Courts from other jurisdictions condition destructive testing on the attendance by the party opposing the testing, along with its counsel and experts, and allow the opposing party to obtain the results of the testing. NELF argued that allowing the opposing party to observe the testing is a simple procedural safeguard that is indispensable to allowing that party to know the circumstances of the testing that bear upon its results. This procedural safeguard also advances the balanced truth-seeking function of discovery. The Court denied Hasbro's petition for certiorari. The parties are in settlement negotiations.
Governor Almond v. Rhode Island Lottery Commission
Fighting for Separation of Powers
NELF filed an amicus brief in its own name in the Rhode Island Supreme Court in this politically charged case. Governor Almond sought a declaration that the legislation creating the Rhode Island Lottery Commission, which mandates that six of the Commission’s nine members be members of the Senate and House, violates the doctrine of separation of powers. The Superior Court held that the Lottery Commission "is exercising legislative power and… that the exercise of that power is not constrained by the constitutional legislative processes… [and] is unconstitutional to the extent that it requires appointments by the House Speaker and the Senate Majority Leaders of members of the General Assembly to sit on and comprise a majority of the Lottery Commission membership." The Lottery Commission appealed. NELF argued that the General Assembly’s attempt to evade the Governor’s veto power violates the separation of powers doctrine. NELF contended that, if the decision below were reversed, the General Assembly would be allowed to arrogate to itself, through the creation of law-making boards and commissions, the plenary legislative power that the people denied it by amending the Constitution to give the Governor the veto. NELF also argued that the continued blending of the legislative and executive powers creates the appearance that Rhode Island is governed by men not laws. The Court rejected these arguments and held that the Legislature has plenary power over lotteries and that it may appoint its own members to the Lottery Commission.
Women and Infants’ Hospital Inc. v. Department of Labor & Training
Challenging the Payment of Unemployment Compensation to Striking Workers
Women & Infants’ Hospital (W&I) petitioned the Rhode Island Supreme Court to review a decision of the Department of Labor and Training awarding unemployment benefits to striking workers. NELF urged the Court to take the case. The principal issue was the interpretation of a Rhode Island law which details when employees are entitled to receive unemployment compensation during a labor dispute. If employees begin a labor stoppage by striking, they are not entitled to unemployment compensation; if management begins a labor stoppage by a lockout, the employees receive unemployment benefits. The lockout provision includes an exception: unemployment compensation is not paid if management demonstrates that it offered the union an extension of the existing contract for up to three days and the union refused to agree to an extension. The Department held that the exception did not apply because the lockout was not solely to secure the extension, but also to enhance W&I’s bargaining position generally. NELF was prepared to argue that this interpretation added a condition to the plain language of the statute and vitiated the Legislature’s carefully crafted balance of employer/employee rights. The Court refused to review the decision.
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Peter Hanlon
Acting Instructor
Peter Hanlon’s career as a professional actor spans over three and a half decades. He began his career in 1969 by appearing in guests spots on The Rovers, Division 4, Catwalk and Homicide. Hanlon soon began to garnish an impressive resume.
He gained international recognition by portraying the iconic suicidal teacher in the top grossing film of 2000, Scary Movie. Hanlon has appeared in recurring characters on the L-Word, X-Files, Millennium and So-Weird.
Peter’s speciality in the classroom is clarity, posture and verbiage “I find it is incredibly important for an actor, whether professional or just starting out to be specific with one’s intention. We are specific and understand exactly what we want in life, we must learn to duplicate that on stage or for the camera. I teach our students to bring a strong level of clarity to the work that they produce”.
One can also see Hanlon’s work in 21 Jump Street, Behind the Camera: Mork & Mindy, The Unsaid, Psych, Supernatural and The Killing. Peter has worked with industry heavyweights such as The Wayan Brothers, Andy Garcia, Benicio Del Toro, Ed Asner and Rodney Dangerfield.
Hanlon has emerged as one of Vancouver’s most sought after acting coaches. His strength being his incredible ability to open up students to the possibilities that lie before them; drawing out the courage and skill to hone the natural talents they never thought they had within them.
Peter is a passionate, energetic and caring member of the New Image College acting team. Three qualities that have made him one of our most beloved members.
History of the mentor
Peter Hanlon (1950-01-01)
Popularity @ NIC: 5-StarPlace of Birth: Vancouver, Canada
Peter Hanlon’s career as a professional actor spans over three and a half decades. He began his career in 1969 by appearing in guests spots on The Rovers, Division 4, Catwalk and Homicide. Hanlon soon began to garnish an impressive resume. He gained international recognition by portraying the iconic suicidal teacher in the top grossing film of 2000, Scary Movie...
Known for: Supernatural, The X-Files, Psych
The Man in the High Castle (2015–)
60 min|Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller|15 Jan 2015
8.1Rating: 8.1 / 10 from 66,981 users
In a dystopian America dominated by Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, a young woman discovers a mysterious film that may hold the key to toppling the totalitarian regimes.
Creator: Frank Spotnitz
Actors: Rufus Sewell, Alexa Davalos, DJ Qualls, Joel de la Fuente
Ice (2016–)
60 min|Crime, Drama|16 Nov 2016
6.9Rating: 6.9 / 10 from 687 users
A diamond dealer navigates the culturally diverse and otherwise treacherous world of the diamond business.
Creator: Robert Munic, Ronald Bass
Actors: Cam Gigandet, Jeremy Sisto, Audrey Marie Anderson, Judith Shekoni
The Killing (2011–2014)
45 min|Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller|03 Apr 2011
A police investigation, the saga of a grieving family, and a Seattle mayoral campaign all interlock after the body of 17-year-old Rosie Larsen is found in the trunk of a submerged car.
Creator: Veena Sud
Actors: Mireille Enos, Joel Kinnaman, Billy Campbell, Liam James
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Månedsarkiv: december 2011
Soundslide: The (Western) story of Somalia
15. december 2011 nbillie Skriv en kommentar
I recently discovered Charlie Chaplin’s speech in the movie “The Great Dictator” from 1940. Here, Chaplin talks about the terrors of Hitler’s nazi regime. Although, I do not mean to compare the situation in Somalia with the atrocities of the Second World War, I find the central message – giving power back to the people – inspiring in the light of what is happening in Somalia. The original speech is protected by copyright, so you will have to do with my vocals.
Charlie ChaplinSomalia's plightSpeech
Media coverage, New media
New media and new technology in East Africa
9. december 2011 nbillie Skriv en kommentar
Access to mobile phones is booming in East Africa. This has seen a growth in social networking fueled by the transition from the PC to the mobile. Online communication is becoming the new trend, but does everyone benefit from this?
Photo Credit: Pernille Bærendtsen, Nairobi-Klubben
The mobile phone revolution
The developing world’s share of mobile phone subscriptions increased 20% in 2010. In comparison, subscriptions increased by 1.6% in the developed world. According to the Tanzanian daily, The Citizen, 75% of the 42 million population will have access to a mobile phone within the next four years.
The development of access to the internet in Tanzania as well as other East African countries has gone and is going fast, partly due to the access via mobile. Growth in social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook has been fueled by the transition from the PC to the mobile.
For example, access to Facebook via mobile phone in Kenya is relatively cheap (8 Kenyan shilling for 10 MB – ‘which is a little for lot’). Statistics show that mobile users in Kenya spend on average 3.1 hours per week on social networking sites compared to just 2.2 hours on email.
What about the minority, who don’t have mobile phones?
The impact of the access of the mobile phone has little effect, if we are talking:
people with little or no education.
The articles: ‘Is the ‘mobile phone revolution’ in Africa really for everybody?’ and ‘Mobile phones and the new ‘digital divide’’ couple the positive development with concerns.
In a paper published by Audience Scapes, Gayatri Murthi acknowledges the unprecedented rapid increase of mobile phones in the developing world – but she goes on to show that gender and income disparities mean that by no means everybody is able to reap the benefits.
Men are much more likely to have access to mobile phones than women. In East Africa, a woman is 23% less likely to own a mobile phone than a man. Unequal educational opportunities present another divide.
For example, 93% of Kenyans with formal education had access to a mobile phone, as opposed to 50% of those without. Since a higher proportion of men than women have access to formal education, this reinforces the gender imbalance.
Will new media and new technology liberate the people?
The fact is that people in rural areas, women and the uneducated are less likely to receive information via mobile phone, relying more in interpersonal communication. This challenges assumptions that new technologies are in and of themselves, going to democratize the information environment.
The advantages of new media lie in the ability to not only access information, where ever you might be, but also the ability to contribute with content. But the challenge remains though, that control over technique and access does not necessarily make good content.
On the other hand, online communication facilitates the establishment of online communities. Political activism and civil journalism can be used to voice opinions that might otherwise be silenced if expressed off-line. The strongest case of this might be the role of Facebook to organize demonstrations in the Middle East.
East AfricaFacebookMobile phonesOnline communitiesSocial mediaTwitter
Debate: Somali struggle to flee violence
Somali people have been fleeing violence and famine for over 20 years. This has caused a humanitarian crisis that is often met with oppression and exploitation. Most countries along the refugee routes deny forced migrants basic human rights.
From violence to safety
Somali people were fleeing the violence and famine in their homeland even before the civil war broke out in 1991. My father along with many other Somalis sought asylum in Denmark as early as 1989.
However, with the growth in violence occasioned by the Ethiopian invasion of 2006, the exodus has severely increased. The majority of Somalis flee to neighboring countries such as Ethiopia, Kenya and Yemen.
Somalis, who flee their homeland may be defined as forced or economic migrants by some nation states and refugees by others, who are willing to recognize often ill-defined violence as persecution.
Migrants are denied basic human rights
Forced migrants and refugees often flee the same violence, but the former have few rights and are sometimes given some form of subsidiary protection, so that the hosting nation will not be accused of sending the migrant back into a zone in which his/her life is at risk.
On the other hand, refugees have the right to travel, work, and educate their children in a fashion equivalent to that of ordinary citizens. According to the Geneva Convention, the definition of a refugee is:
”a person, who because of a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable or owing to such fear unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.” (UN General Assembly 2007, 16)
If say a Somali is forced to migrate because of bandits that have cleared his/hers village, so they can take advantage of the food and livestock left behind, then how does one determine whether or not the migrant is, in fact, a refugee.
The perpetrators could have been made free to commit such atrocities by the chaos created by a larger pattern of persecutions. Nevertheless, the indeterminate nature of violence can make it relatively easy for nation states to deny refugee status to people who are directly or indirectly victims of war and persecution.
Somali diaspora provides financial support
Most countries do not welcome mass migration, so they create legal barriers for Somali migrants. In turn, Somalis create and participate in a transnational community (diaspora) that operates to overcome these barriers.
A worldwide network of money-wiring offices run by Somalis allows them to send money to friends and relatives even in the refugee camps. Meanwhile, organizations smuggle Somali migrants across borders and seas.
The current approach to the humanitarian crisis in Somalia hinders organizations charged with the care of refugees and forced migrants from carrying out their missions successfully. Instead of being a temporary solution, Dadaab has become the largest refugee camp in the world and has been operated as a human warehouse for nearly twenty years.
The current approach removes Somalis from the category of human through a discourse that selectively distributes human rights – rights that were supposed to be universal.
Rutledge, Doug and Roble Abdi, 2010, “The Infrastructure of Migration and the Migration Regime: Human Rights, Race, and the Somali Struggle to Flee Violence” in Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Perspectives 3 (2), pp. 153-178
dadaab refugee campDiasporahuman rightsHumanitarian crisismigration policy
Video: Dos and don’ts when travelling in Somalia (Danish)
2. december 2011 nbillie 2 kommentarer
Danish mediaLaura Marie SørensenRasmus KrathRasmus TantholdtRisks
International, Media coverage
Profiles: International coverage of Somalia
Kenya and Canada can boast of some of the best coverage of Somalia told by young and courageous journalists bent on investigative and independent reporting from one of the most dangerous places on earth.
Fatuma Noor, 24, Kenyan-Somali journalist
Noor won the “2011 CNN African Journalist of the Year” award for her investigative three-part series on the Al-Shabaab in Star newspaper. The articles tell the story of the young men who give up their freedom abroad to return and fight for the Al-Shabaab in Somalia.
Noor is a renowned journalist, who has won many awards in a young age. She currently works for The Observer as part of a David Astor Journalism Programme, which works to promote independent journalism in Africa.
As a Somali woman writing investigative stories, Noor faces regular threats and her own family oppose her profession. According to Noor, in Somali culture, it is wrong to speak and raise an opinion in front of men. Even travelling for work unaccompanied by a relative is not permitted.
Jay Bahadur, 27, author of “The Pirates of Somalia”
The Toronto-based freelance journalist recently published the book “The Pirates of Somalia”, which is based on three months of research in Puntland – an autonomous region of Somalia and the heart of the pirates’ tribal homeland.
For a foreigner, his access to the region was truly unique. Bahadur brilliantly juggles background stories, gossip, family ties, backroom political dealings and daily impressions of life in Somalia.
Recently, Bahadur landed the job as the Managing Editor at SomaliaReport – a Nairobi-based website with an extensive network of local journalists, which aims to be Somalia’s premiere source for non-partisan and clan-neutral news coverage.
Bashir Yusuf Osman, Somali Hotel owner
Situated in the heart of Mogadishu, the Peace Hotel serves as the accommodation of choice for most foreign journalists visiting the capital. BBC, CNN and Al Jazeera. They all come here. The hotel is like a white flag in city torn by battles between different militias.
The owner, Bashir Yusuf Osman arranges professional security teams for every journalist. The importance of having a good security team cannot be overstated in this lawless city. Several journalists have been targeted or killed in or around other Mogadishu hotels in the past.
Osman is also able to fix meetings with anyone and everyone, from the militant Shabaab fighters to local businessmen to the parliament members of the transitional government. Ironically perhaps, it is the civil war that may be the key to the success of Bashir’s business.
Fatuma Noorinternational coverageJay BahadurJournalistPeace Hotel
Debate: Humanitarian relief
One common image of Somalia is poverty. Add to that disease and famine. The somali people are often portrayed as in need of humanitarian relief. Images of malnourished children with big bellies accompanied by relief shows begs donations to aid agencies. But does anyone benefit from the aid?
Emergency aid and relief shows
On 27 August 2011, the Danish viewers of a national relief show named “Afrika Nu!” donated 110 million Danish kroner to people affected by famine in the Horn of Africa. The money was given to 16 Danish humanitarian organizations (NGO’s) that operate in the region.
Three months later, the Islamic militant group, Al-Shabaab issued a statement banning these organizations from working in areas under the group’s control, accusing them of “illicit activities and misconduct.”
Before that, reports told of aid relief piling up in warehouses in Mogadishu, while people were dying of hunger. Other reports showed how sacks of grain meant for starving Somalis were being stolen and sold in markets.
Aid saves thousands, UN says
Meanwhile, Valerie Amos, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, states that humanitarian relief efforts have saved thousands of lives since famine was declared in July. In Somalia, 4 million people are still in crisis and 250.000 face famine at this moment.
Humanitarian organizations working in Somalia remain strictly neutral, with their only task being to save lives, according to the UN. Amos urges all parties to the conflict in Somalia to respect international humanitarian law.
In addition, environmental scientists suspect that the severe drought in the Horn of Africa is a direct consequence of climate change and the rising global temperatures. Droughts have so far occurred every 5 – 7 years in the region, but almost never with the extreme conditions of today.
Empowering the people, not the government
Some argue that aid alleviates suffering, while others point out that aid is not effective in the long run. The basic criticism is that aid neither goes where it was intended nor helps those intended.
According to Paul Collier, Professor of Economics, there are four known traps that contribute this problem:
Conflict trap, where aid end up being used to finance military endeavors.
Natural resource trap, where aid is given to resource-rich countries that already have capital flowing into their economies. However, it is not being used to its potential.
Landlock trap is when it is difficult for landlocked countries to engage in global trade.
Bad governance.
Collier’s conclusion is, that aid needs to somehow provide incentives for giving the people power. Power needs to be transferred from the governments to the people. Therefore, aid should be restructured in order to allow for skills building in the countries.
aidAl Shabaabhumanitarian reliefNGO'sUN
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Greetings to the New Pilots: 20 Series We Hope to See in Fall 2011
Posted by Will Harris (03/09/2011 @ 1:09 pm)
Yes, once again, it’s pilot season: the time when the broadcast networks put all of the potential projects for the 2011 – 2012 season on the table, take a cold, hard look at what’s available to them, and decide which ones have the most potential for success come the fall…or spring, depending on how much or how little confidence they end up having in the final product.
Critics everywhere should be throwing parades in honor of TV Guide’s Natalie Abrams, who has done the heavy lifting for the rest of us and offered up The Complete Pilot Report, listing off all of the pilots currently in the running for ABC, CBS, The CW, Fox, and NBC, along with their creators, their premises, and the actors currently attached to them as of this writing.
Having taken a gander at Abrams’ decidedly comprehensive list, here’s our list of the 20 shows we’d most like to see turn up come the kickoff of the Fall 2011 season:
1. Alcatraz (Fox): A cop (Sarah Jones) and a team of FBI agents track down a group of missing Alcatraz prisoners and guards who reappear in the present day after disappearing 30 years earlier. J.J. Abrams will executive-produce and Liz Sarnoff (“Lost”) will be the showrunner. Jorge Garcia, Sam Neill, Jonny Coyne, Jason Butler Harner, Parminder Nagra, Santiago Cabrera and Robert Forster also star.
2. Awakening (The CW): Two sisters (Lucy Griffiths and Meredith Hagner) face off during a zombie uprising. William Laurin, Glenn Davis, Howard T. Owens, Carolyn Bernstein and Todd Cohen will executive-produce.
3. Brave New World (NBC): The project centers on a group of characters at Pilgrim Village, a theme park that recreates 1637 New England. Peter Tolan (“Rescue Me”) wrote the pilot and will executive-produce with Michael Wimer (“2012”). Ed Begley Jr., Nick Braun, Will Greenberg, Jazz Raycole, Robbie Benson and Anna Popplewell will star.
4. The Council of Dads (Fox): Based on the non-fiction book by Bruce Feiler, a man who learns he’s dying enlists five men to help his wife raise their two children. The project comes from “Rescue Me” creator Peter Tolan. Kyle Bornheimer, Diane Farr, Patrick Breen and Ken Howard will star.
5. Hail Mary (CBS): An Atlanta-set P.I. drama tells the story of a suburban single mom (Minnie Driver) who teams up with a street hustler (Brandon T. Jackson) to solve crimes. Jeff Wadlow will write and executive-produce with Joel Silver and “The L Word” creator Ilene Chaiken. Enrique Murciano and Stephen Tobolowsky will also star.
6. How to Be a Gentleman (CBS): An uptight guy (David Hornsby) learns to live his life with the help of an old high school friend. The project comes from Hornsby (“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”). Dave Foley, Nancy Lenehan and Rhys Darby will also star.
7. Little in Common (Fox): This project revolves around families whose children play Little League together. “Veronica Mars”‘ Rob Thomas will write and executive-produce. Rob Corddry, Paula Marshall, Kevin Hart and Gabrielle Union star.
8. Pan Am (ABC) – The stewardesses and pilots of the titular airline are the stars of this soap set in the Jet Age of the 1960s. Jack Orman (“ER”) wrote the pilot and will executive-produce with Nancy Hult Ganis and Tommy Schlamme (“The West Wing”). Christina Ricci, Margot Robbie, Karine Vanasse and Michael Mosley will star.
9. Person of Interest (CBS): A presumed-dead CIA agent (Jim Caviezel) is recruited by a billionaire (Michael Emerson) to catch violent criminals in New York City. “Memento”‘s Jonathan Nolan and J.J. Abrams will executive-produce. Taraji P. Henson will also star.
10. Playboy (NBC) – At the Playboy Club in Chicago in 1963, “bunnies” (incuding Amber Heard and Naturi Naughton) flirt with danger. Chad Hodge and “Apollo 13″‘s Brian Grazer will executive-produce. Jeff Hephner, Laura Benanti, Jenna Dewan-Tatum, Leah Renee, David Krumholtz and Wes Ramsey also star.
11. Reconstruction (NBC) – In the aftermath of the Civil War, a soldier (Martin Henderson) crosses the country and settles in a complicated town where he is welcomed as its savior — whether he likes it or not. “St. Elsewhere” co-creator Josh Brand wrote the pilot. Bill Sage, Claire Wellin, Emma Bell and Rachelle Lefevre will also star.
12. REM (NBC): A police detective (Jason Isaacs) who’s involved in a traumatic car accident wakes up in two fractured realities. The project comes from Kyle Killen, creator of Fox’s short-lived “Lone Star,” and “24”‘s Howard Gordon will also executive-produce.
You can follow us on Twitter @moviebuffs and on Facebook as well.
Read and Discuss »
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Tags: Adrianne Palicki, Alcatraz, Amber Heard, Andrew Reich, Anna Popplewell, Awakening, Bill Sage, Brandon T. Jackson, Brave New World, Brian Grazer, Britt Robertson, Bruce Feiler, Bruce Greenwood, Carolyn Bernstein, Cary Elwes, Chad Hodge, Christina Ricci, Claire Wellin, Conan O'Brien, Dave Foley, David E. Kelley, David Hornsby, David Krumholtz, Diane Farr, Eamonn Walker, Ed Begley Jr., Elizabeth Hurley, Eloise Mumford, Emily Spivey, Emma Bell, Enrique Murciano, Eric Carmelo, Gabrielle Union, Glenn Davis, Hail Mary, How to Be a Gentleman, Howard Gordon, Howard T. Owens, Ilene Chaiken, Ioan Gruffudd, J.J. Abrams, Jack Orman, James Callis, Jamie Bamber, Jason Blum, Jason Butler Harner, Jason Isaacs, Jazz Raycole, Jeff Hephner, Jeff Wadlow, Jenna Dewan-Tatum, Jim Caviezel, Joe Anderson, Joel Silver, John C. McGinley, Jonathan Nolan, Jonny Coyne, Jorge Garcia, Josh Brand, Julie White, Karine Vanasse, Ken Howard, Kevin Hart, Kevin Williamson, Kyle Bornheimer, Kyle Howard, Kyle Killen, L.J. Smith, Laura Benanti, Leah Renee, Little in Common, Liz Sarnoff, Lorne Michaels, Lucy Griffiths, Marcia Gay Harden, Margot Robbie, Martin Henderson, Matt Long, Meredith Hagner, Michael Emerson, Michael Wimer, Mike Colter, Minnie Driver, Nancy Hult Ganis, Nancy Lenehan, Naturi Naughton, Nestor Carbonell, Nick Braun, Nicole Snyder, Oren Peli, Pan Am, Parminder Nagra, Patrick Breen, Paula Marshall, Pedro Pascal, Person of Interest, Peter Tolan, Phoef Sutton, Playboy, Rachelle Lefevre, Reconstruction, REM, Rhys Darby, Ringer, Rob Corddry, Rob Thomas, Robbie Benson, Robert Forster, Ron Moore, Sam Neill, Santiago Cabrera, Sarah Jones, sarah michelle gellar, Secret Circle, Smothered, Stephen Tobolowsky, Stockard Channing, Tara Summers, Taraji P. Henson, Ted Cohen, The Council of Dads, The River, Todd Cohen, Tommy Schlamme, Tracie Thoms, Tricia Helfer, Untitled Emily Spivey Project, Vince Uncensored, Wes Ramsey, Will Greenberg, William Laurin, Wonder Woman
TCA Tour: NBC Executive Session
A roundtable chat with Paul Giamatti and Rosamund Pike, of “Barney’s Version”
Winter 2011 TCA Press Tour: No Quotes from Day 6? (Well, not many, anyway…)
Fox: What’s New for Fall 2010
Bullz-Eye’s TCA 2010 Summer Press Tour Wrap-Up: From the Big Bang to the Jersey Shore
James Bond Fan Hub
Check out our 007-themed fan hub as we look back at all the James Bond films, from Connery to Craig, and more.
Blu Tuesday
New Blu-rays are released every Tuesday and Jason Zingale lets you know which ones to see or skip.
Plenty of Rebecca Romijn
Rebecca Romijn like you've never seen her before.
Bullz-Eye.com
FilmBender
StarPulse.com
Pop Candy
Red Balcony
with any comments, tips or questions.
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Teaching/Consulting
Rebecca Fischer Violin
Becoming a more resonant body
October 05, 2016 / Rebecca Fischer
Performing Rodney LIster's "Explanatory Notes: The Only Difference Between" at the Lied Center in Lincoln, NE. Photo credit: Rana Young
There is a lot of singing in my family. Not just singing in church and school choirs but extensive Gilbert and Sullivan, Amahl and the Night Visitors type of sing-alongs over extended family gatherings. When I was a kid my father sang in opera productions in summers off, and both sets of grandparents revered vocal expression. Perhaps it’s not surprising that my sister Abby Fischer became a professional singer. What began as her almost constant humming as a child (sometimes to her family’s annoyance) transformed into a gorgeous, heart-rending mezzo-soprano voice that still brings me to tears every time I hear her.
Abby’s trajectory (and that of all singers) fascinates me. The way a beautiful voice grows and deepens with age and experience is different from the way an instrumentalist develops; we instrumentalists traditionally seek resonance from our instruments while vocalists find resonance from within their bodies. My sister recently sang in the 2016 Resonant Bodies Festival in New York, a festival devoted to programming stunning vocalists in cutting edge new repertoire and configurations. Just looking at the programs provoked the questions: what IS a resonant body and how do we make sound?
I have been thinking about these questions of resonance quite a lot recently while exploring the range of my own voice. For my 40th birthday last winter, my husband presented me with a ridiculously marvelous gift: solo violin commissions from eight composers (and a premiere date for August 2016)! While this was a surprise in and of itself, two of the pieces were written for “singing violinist” and one for violin and vocalizations. Byron Au Yong’s music (composer of “Water Partitas” for violin and vocalizations) was entirely new to me and I loved it immediately. The two composers who wrote for singing violinist, Lisa Bielawa and Rodney Lister, are people whose work I had performed in previous years, and I couldn’t wait to get started.
In 2012 my sister Abby introduced me to Lisa Bielawa’s “Kafka Songs.” These haunting songs are set to texts of Kafka and were written for Carla Kilhstedt, an inspiring musician I met as a teenager in Oberlin, Ohio where we both studied with violinist Kathleen Winkler. I had been looking for a challenging solo project, and Abby said, “well, I’m sure you’ll figure it out, go for it!” (My last great vocal triumph had been as a laryngitis-ridden donkey in “The Christmas Jazz” in 1986, so it had been a while since I thought about solo vocal performance.) The idea of singing and playing together was exciting to me, if slightly terrifying, so I learned four of Lisa’s songs and performed them in 2013. At that time I was mesmerized by Lisa’s music and loved the challenge, but I don’t think I was fully owning the vocal aspect.
This time around, however, instead of focusing on the novelty I wanted to explore the deepening of my own resonance. That would mean practicing the vocal part a lot, taking some voice lessons, and learning to love the sound of my own voice, something I found to be quite difficult. It was easy to make excuses—“I’m not really a singer, but I’m doing these pieces…I mean, I’m primarily a violinist, well only a violinist, but I’m working on these pieces, etc”—but that attitude only prevented me from enjoying my voice, however small or wobbly it was at the moment. And aren’t we all singers in some respect?
The voice lessons I had with my sister were incredible. She was patient and kind, and she helped me to ground myself and sing from my heart. She also stressed the importance of having a character motivation for every single word and phrase I sing or speak. It occurred to me that although it’s never ideal, one can often “get away” with a mildly boring violin performance the goals of which are things like good intonation and consistent bow technique. But when there are words involved, one has to make their meaning the focus: purely technically-oriented vocal performances are flat and meaningless. So for Rodney Lister’s piece “Explanatory Notes: The Only Difference Between” which switches between singing and speaking and involves many character changes, I carefully wrote in my chosen characters beside each line of text: 1. sassy friend, or 2. urgent truth, or 3. judgmental Republican grandmother (JRG), etc. This helped me to make sense of the text and sell the music more convincingly while also inspiring me to think of all of my performing in these terms, regardless of whether or not the music has words.
Acting as a singing violinist is at the best times an arrangement of true intimacy. It is an unusual opportunity to dialogue with myself—also the topic of Lisa’s astonishing, soul-searching piece “One Atom of Faith,” set to a poem by Mary MacLane—a time to accompany myself from both angles. I have great admiration for the singer-songwriters and performers who experience this type of collaborative relationship everyday as pianists, string players, guitarists, percussionists. And with each performance of these birthday commissions I will keep searching for ways to become a more resonant body.
From a live performance September 25, 2016, five of Byron Au Yong's "Water Partitas" (video by Anthony Hawley of The Afield):
For more information about the solo violin commissions and performances, visit: www.theafield.com.
Refining truth: a guide to surviving the artistic life
The living, breathing memory of wood
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Nobuo Uematsu Leaves Square Enix
Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu has left Square Enix and is set to found his own company. Reflecting on his busy recent schedule, which included a Final Fantasy concert tour throughout Japan this year, activities related to his rock band The Black Mages as well as composer duties for last year's Hanjuku Eiyuu Tai 3D and the upcoming Final Fantasy XII, Uematsu mentioned, it might be best for him to become a freelance composer. However, he mentioned that there is still a possibility his relationship with his former employer will continue. Looking back Uematsu said he really liked his compositions for Final Fantasy VI, VII and VIII and will never forget Final Fantasy VIII's main theme Eyes on Me.
Nobuo Uematsu's departure is just one of many high profile resignations that has hit the world's leading maker of RPGs in the last few years. Following the resignations of Seiken Densetsu designer and current Brownie Brown president Shinichi Kameoka, Xeno series creator Tetsuya Takahashi and composer Yasunori Mitsuda, Chrono series mastermind and Chrono Cross director Masato Katou left the company in 2002. Final Fantasy mastermind Hironobu Sakaguchi, who has not been involved in the game creation process since Final Fantasy VII, has set up his own company Mist Walker. The most recent departure came when scenario writer Kazushige Nojima, who has worked on Final Fantasy VII, VIII, X, X-2 and the Kingdom Hearts series left Square Enix for Stella Vista late last year. Despite working as freelance composers, Youko Shimomura (Parasite Eve, Seiken Densetsu Legend of Mana, Kingdom Hearts), Kenji Itou (SaGa series, Chocobo Mysterious Dungeon) and Hitoshi Sakimoto (Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Final Fantasy XII) have continued to work for Square Enix on various projects.
Square Dream
Chris Winkler
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The Gospel According to the Sopranos
The Sopranos debuted on HBO in 1999 and soon became a cultural phenomenon, then a ratings phenomenon, then a permanent fixture in popular culture. The complicated drama about a mob boss, his family, his shrink and his crew garnered critical raves, stacks of awards and endless media coverage. It also encourages people to consider questions about morality, faith, religion and spirituality. A "Gospel According to the Sopranos" would make a great educational event for adults.
Name: The Gospel According to the Sopranos
Course Number: SSOL-POP 0017
Course Time: Offline Course (Resources provided below)
Course Days: Offline Course (Resources provided below)
Notes: Explore this television show and these books to deepen your own spiritual journey and/or utilize them to create an educational event in your own religious community.
The Gospel According to Tony Soprano: An Unauthorized Look Into the Soul of TV’s Top Mob Boss and His Family
The Sopranos has captured audiences and awards with its portrayal of life in an Italian-American crime family. But it is more than just a mob show. It provokes us, excites us, and pries back the exterior to peek into the darkest parts of our souls. The plotlines and characters raise spiritual issues that leave us questioning our own beliefs. The Gospel According to Tony Soprano explores the many reasons why this hit series has connected so deeply with American culture and exposes the mysteries of faith, family, life, and God that permeate the show.
Published to coincide with the debut of the highly anticipated fourth season of the HBO series, The Gospel According to Tony Soprano is a fascinating book that looks through the violence and drama to the deeper moral issues. Spiritual teacher and writer Chris Seay analyzes the characters and their all-too-human behaviors, and helps us evaluate our own humanity, and ultimately our relationship with God.
Accessible, witty, and enlightening, The Gospel According to Tony Soprano is essential reading for every fan of the television show, and for anyone who wants to examine the larger questions of right and wrong.
The Sopranos and Philosophy: I Kill Therefore I Am
This collection of essays by philosophers who are also fans does a deep probe of the Sopranos, analyzing the adventures and personalities of Tony, Carmella, Livia, and the rest of television’s most irresistible mafia family for their metaphysical, epistemological, value theory, eastern philosophical, and contemporary postmodern possibilities. No prior philosophical qualificationsor mob connections are required to enjoy these musings, which are presented with the same vibrancy and wit that have made the show such a hit.
Exploring religion in film, the spirituality of television shows, and meaning found within popular culture.
Disclaimer: Images and videos of movies, television shows, books, album covers, actors and/or singers are the sole property of the media’s respective production company, distribution company or artist. SSOL-POP and SSOL makes no claim of ownership of these images or videos and encourages users of SSOL to purchase these items from legitimate retailers.
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2005 Suzuki GSX-R1000 - Added by webmaster.sportbikerider.us on 17-Jun-2013
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More Information on the Suzuki GSX-R1000
The Suzuki GSX-R1000 is a sport bike from Suzuki's GSX-R series of motorcycles. It was introduced in 2001 to replace the GSX-R1100 and is powered by a liquid-cooled 999 cc (61.0 cu in) inline four-cylinder, four-stroke engine.
2001 (K1, K2)
For 2001, Suzuki introduced a new GSX-R model that replaced the largest and most powerful model of the GSX-R series sport bike, the GSX-R1100, with the all new GSX-R1000. As the model name revealed, the engine's cylinder displacement was roughly 1,000 cc (61 cu in), about 100 cc smaller than its predecessor. The GSX-R1000 was not just an enlarged version of the GSX-R750, although it shared many features with its little brother. The main frame is the same in both models, but the material used on the big brother was .5 mm (0.020 in) thicker. Suzuki claimed the torsional rigidity of the frame had increased 10% in comparison with the GSX-R750.
The GSX-R1000 engine was a redesigned GSX-R750 engine. The R1000 had a 1 mm (0.04 in) bigger bore and 13 mm (0.51 in) longer stroke, newly designed pistons with lower crown, and gear-driven counter balancer. The engine weighed 130 lb (59 kg) which was slightly heavier than the 750 engine but 31 lb (14 kg) lighter than the engine of the GSX1300R. The performance of the engine is a peak of 160 bhp (119 kW) at 9,500 rpm, as measured on the crank and 143 hp (107 kW), when measured on the rear wheel with small variations between different instances of the same model. The redline is set at 12,000 rpm. The maximum torque of the engine is 80 ft·lbf (108 N·m) at 8,000 rpm. Combined with a total (dry) weight of 374 lb (170 kg) this gives the GSX-R1000 a top speed of 173 mph (278 km/h), a 1/4 mile time of 10.1 seconds at 141.7 mph (228.0 km/h), and a 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) time of 3 seconds.
Using titanium for the exhaust down pipe (K1 model link pipe is black, K2 model link pipe is polished titanium) and the inside of the silencer, enabled the 1000s exhaust system to become 4 lb (1.8 kg) lighter than that of the 750. Titanium was also used in the front fork (titanium-nitride) to coat the stanchions. An exhaust tuning valve had been mounted inside the exhaust pipe. Using a servo the system dynamically adjusted the exhaust back pressure, according to engine speed, throttle position, and gear selection for increased torque, lower emissions, and decreased noise—the (stock) exhaust noise of the GSX-R1000 is notably lower than that of the GSX-R600.
With the 2001 model of the GSX-R1000, the 1998 Yamaha YZF-R1 was finally surpassed with the GSX-R being lighter and more powerful.
The 2001 model carried over to 2002 with minimal changes. 2002 introduced i.a. modifications to the fuel pump, clutch, front axle, torque link, mirrors, and luggage hooks. The manual fast-idle was replaced with a computer operated implementation (the "STV servo"). New colours, and new GSXR stickers.
After the GSX-R1000 had been three years on the roads and race tracks, Suzuki put out a new version of the model in late September 2002. Suzuki engineers had been working on the three things that made a fast bike faster; weight, power and handling. The 2003 year's GSX-R1000 was improved in all three counts. It weighed less, had more power/torque and handled better.
The physical dimensions of the bike were almost identical with the previous year's model. The seat height and the overall height were somewhat lower but the geometry of the bike was exactly the same as before. The already rigid aluminum alloy frame was newly designed and enforced with internal ribs, also there was an updated headlight and tail fairing. The frame as well as the wheels were now coated black.
The front brakes were also new. Suzuki decided to drop the six-piston calipers. The new radially mounted four-piston calipers weigh 30 grams less and grip smaller 300 mm (11.8 in) discs that save another 300 g (11 oz). Though smaller, Suzuki claimed that the new brakes provide better stopping and turn-in performance.
The headlights of the 2003 year's GSX-R1000 were mounted vertically to enable the ram-air intakes in the front to be placed 20 mm (0.79 in) nearer the bike's center line. The new design was very much inspired by the look of the Hayabusa. The instruments were also redesigned.
The cylinder displacement of the engine remained the same 988 cc (60.3 cu in), but more power/torque and better throttle response had been achieved by adding four ventilation holes between the cylinders to equalize crankcase pressure beneath the pistons, moving the air intake nearer to the centerline and upgrading the engine management system from a 16-bit to a 32-bit ECU. The entire exhaust system was now made of titanium to save an additional 1.32 lb (0.60 kg) and the tail light was replaced with LEDs.
The 2003 model carried over to 2004 without any significant improvements.
The 2005 model year GSX-R1000 had a redesigned engine and chassis. It had 4.4 lb (2.0 kg) lower weight than the previous model and the engine had an 11 cc (0.67 cu in) larger piston displacement. It had a totally new frame reducing the total length of the bike by 1.6 in (41 mm) but reducing its wheelbase only 0.02 in (0.51 mm). There were new brakes with radial mounted calipers and 310 mm (12.2 in) discs at the front. The new titanium silencer (catalytic in Europe) was said to be designed to reduce turbulence to minimum. This model weighs in at a mere 365 lbs dry, putting it towards the top of the power-to-weight ratio charts. This weight reduction came at a cost of durability issues with the 2005-2006 models experiencing frame cracking.
The 2005 model has a tested wet weight of 444 lb (201 kg). Power output is tested at 147.3 hp (109.8 kW) and peak torque is 75.4 ft·lbf (102.2 N·m) both at the rear wheel.
The 2005 model carried over to 2006 without any significant improvements other than a few appearance changes. The 2006 model had a measured top speed of 178 mph (286 km/h).
On September 22, 2006, Suzuki revealed a significantly updated GSX-R1000 for 2007 at the Paris motor show. The new bike gained 14 lb (6.4 kg) over the 2006 model which was due to its new exhaust system and new emissions regulations. To counter this weight increase, Suzuki claimed improved aerodynamics along with a faster revving engine and larger throttle body. Although not a completely new model, the engine and chassis have been updated. It also featured three different engine mapping configurations, selectable via two buttons located on the right handlebar. One up, and one down arrow to cycle between Mode A (unrestricted), Mode B (reduced power until 50% throttle is applied), and Mode C (reduced power throughout the rpm regardless of throttle application). It also received a hydraulic clutch.
2017 (L7)
The 2017 model, introduced to reporters at EICMA in late 2016, had a significantly redesigned engine the first since the last engine update on the 2009 model. This new engine has a higher RPM limit and no balancer shaft to quell vibration, also a mechanical variable valve timing used for ten years by Suzuki in MotoGP and drive by wire throttle. This model is the first to get the addition of traction control with a (IMU) inertial measuring unit measuring yaw, roll and pitch also all lighting is now LED. Another first for any GSX-R is the use of a fuel gauge on this model. Along with the new 2017 GSX-R1000 model, Suzuki has also released a up spec model GSX-R1000R; this R model comes with a Motion Track Brake System, Bi-directional quick shifter and launch control. Also on the R model, as reported by Sport Rider, are the same Showa Balance Free Front (BFF) fork and Balance Free Rear Cushion (BFRC Lite) shock that come standard on the 2016 Kawasaki ZX-10R. Specifications are 199 horsepower at 13,200 rpm (claimed) and 157.2 hp (117.2 kW) (rear wheel), 86 lb-ft torque at 10,000 rpm (claimed) and 76.3 lb·ft (103.4 N·m) (rear wheel); 76.0 mm x 55.1 mm bore x stroke, and 13.2:1 compression ratio.
Troy Corser won the 2005 Superbike World Championship season, and Alessandro Polita won the 2006 FIM Superstock 1000 Cup season. The bike was used by Yukio Kagayama and Kousuke Akiyoshi to win the Suzuka 8 Hours endurance race in 2007, with Kazuki Tokudome and Nobuatsu Aoki doing the same in 2009.
List of fastest production motorcycles by acceleration
GSX-R1000 at Global Suzuki website
Suzuki at Curlie
http://www.cycleworld.com/2017-suzuki-gsx-r1000-and-gsx-r1000r-superbike-technical-preview
http://www.motorcycle.com/manufacturer/suzuki/2009-suzuki-gsxr1000-review-88180.html
http://www.motorcycledaily.com/2001/01/25jan01suzuki2001gsxr1000review2/
http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/performancedata/
http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/weight-barrier-motorcycles//
http://www.sportrider.com/2017-suzuki-gsx-r1000-first-look
http://www.sportrider.com/bikes/street_bike_dyno_charts
http://www.sportrider.com/sportbike-news/2012-literbikes-dyno?image=2//
http://www.sportrider.com/tech/sportbike-weights-and-measurements//
The photo 2005-Suzuki-GSX-R1000-86112.jpg (2005 Suzuki GSX-R1000 - Uploaded for: BM) was uploaded by: webmaster@sportbikerider.us.
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New School Meals Bills Introduced in Congress
Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-MN) introduced H.R. 3220, the Kids Eat Local Act. The bill will allow schools to use geographic preference when procuring unprocessed agricultural products.
Sen. John Boozman (R-AR) introduced S. 1918, the Hunger-Free Summer for Kids Act of 2019. The bill proposes two alternative options states can utilize through the program. The first would allow for meals to be consumed off-site through innovative means like mobile feeding programs and backpack meal programs. The other option would authorize the summer Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) program, which would provide eligible families $30 per summer month per child, with a maximum of $100 per child per year, to purchase eligible food items from Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) approved retailers.
Rep. Jon Wright (R-TX) introduced H.R. 3291, the SNACKS Act. The bill would allow schools to sell a la carte any food that can be served as part of a reimbursable meal under the National School Lunch or School Breakfast Programs.
Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) introduced S. 1907 and H.R. 3366, the No Shame at School Act. The bill would prohibit public schools from shaming students who are unable to pay for school meals or who have outstanding debt. Additionally, the measure requires schools to certify a child’s unpaid meal fees and authorizes the federal government to reimburse the meals for up to 90 days.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) introduced S. 1908, the Summer Meals Act of 2019. The bill would expand access to summer meal programs by reducing regulatory burdens for local organization serving summer meals and expanding the availability of meals and snacks to students outside of normal school hours.
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Southeastern > News & Media > News Releases > 2016 News Releases > March 2016 > Southeastern Community Music School announces summer workshops
Southeastern Community Music School announces summer workshops
by: Tonya Lowentritt
HAMMOND – The Southeastern Louisiana University Community Music School (CMS) has announced its Southeastern Music Celebration 2016 schedule, a series of summer programs for young musicians.
Summer Music Celebration 2016 includes a middle school band camp, guitar workshop, chamber music workshop, as well as a brand new beginners’ string orchestra workshop, said Community Music School Director Jivka Duke.
“We are very excited about the upcoming summer programs. The musical growth we have seen in the students who attend regularly has been truly rewarding, and we are thrilled that more and more students attend every year,” Duke said.
Musicians in grades five through eight have until May 1 to register for the middle school band camp, which is scheduled June 20-24, from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., with a concert at 7 p.m. on June 24 at the Pottle Music Building. Tuition is $225, which includes lunch each day, as well as dinner on Friday, June 24. Registration is open until the first day of camp; however, a $20 late fee will apply to registrations postmarked after May 1.
Southeastern’s Associate Band Director Paul Frechou will coordinate the middle school band camp. Along with the concert band, the camp will also offer private lessons and masterclasses, jazz combos, lessons in improvisation and theory classes.
The chamber music and guitar workshops are scheduled for June 27- July 1, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. with a concert at 1 p.m. on July 1. Tuition is $170, which includes lunch on Friday, July 1. Registration is open until the first day of the workshops, however a $20 late fee will apply to registrations postmarked after May 20.
Students participating in the guitar workshop will learn how to approach and arrange music that is typically presented by experienced musicians. This workshop is open to guitar students10 years of age and older with at least one year of previous guitar experience. Enrollment limit is 20. Pat Kerber, Southeastern’s guitar instructor, will teach this workshop.
The chamber music workshop is open to violin, viola, cello and piano students of any age who have at least one year of previous experience. The workshop will focus on chamber music repertoire, including but not limited to duets, piano trios and quartets. Student will have the opportunity to improve their sight-reading skills and instrumental technique, as well as develop stronger ensemble skills.
The beginners’ string orchestra workshop will take place from June 27 to June 30, 4 -5:30 p.m. and 10:30 a.m. - 12 p.m. on July 1 with a concert at 1 p.m. on July 1. The workshop, suitable for first to third year violin, viola, cello and bass students, will be taught by Duke. Through various fun activities students will improve upon their sight-reading and performance skills, as well as their knowledge of music theory.
Tuition for the beginners’ string orchestra workshop is $125. Students may register until the first day of the workshop; however, a $20 late fee will apply to registrations postmarked after June 1.
The CMS will also offer private instrumental and vocal lessons from June 6 to July 21.
For more information on or to register for any of these programs, go to www.southeastern.edu/smc or call 985-549-5502.
St. Tammany students participate in Southeastern Music Celebration
Southeastern offices closed during holiday break
Southeastern Community Music School selects 2016 Outstanding Musicians
Southeastern student selected for national fellowship
Southeastern MBA program ranked 35th in nation
Southeastern to collect discarded Christmas trees to enhance wetlands
Have a story idea for Southeastern's website? Send your contact information, a brief description and available photos to outreach@southeastern.edu. We will contact you if we decide to use your story idea.
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Anne Reid
Title: Anne Reid
Subject: The Mother (film), Dinnerladies, Smith and Jones (Doctor Who), Upstairs Downstairs (2010 TV series), The Bad Mother's Handbook
Collection: 1935 Births, 20Th-Century English Actresses, 21St-Century English Actresses, Actors from Newcastle Upon Tyne, Actors from Northumberland, Actresses from London, Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, English Film Actresses, English Musical Theatre Actresses, English Radio Actresses, English Soap Opera Actresses, English Stage Actresses, English Television Actresses, English Voice Actresses, Living People, Members of the Order of the British Empire, People Educated at Rydal Penrhos, Royal National Theatre Company Members
(1935-05-28) 28 May 1935
Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, England, United Kingdom
Peter Eckersley (1971–1981; his death)
Anne Reid, MBE (born 28 May 1935), is a BAFTA Award-nominated English stage, film and television actress from Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, known for her roles as Valerie Barlow in the television soap opera Coronation Street; Jean in Dinnerladies; and Celia Dawson in Last Tango in Halifax.
Reid was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2010 Birthday Honours.[1]
Early life 1
Coronation Street 2.1
Later work 2.2
Selected film and television appearances 5
Reid was born in Newcastle upon Tyne,[2][3] the daughter of Colin Norman Reid (1896-1979)[4] and Annie Eliza Weetman/Reid (1896-c.1980).[5][6][7][8] She lived with her parents and three older brothers in Redcar where she attended John Emmerson Batty primary school and the White House School. From the age of 11 she attended Penrhos College, a boarding school in North Wales,[9] when her father was posted abroad as a foreign correspondent for the Daily Telegraph: she visited her parents occasionally in India, Tehran and Beirut in the school holidays. Upon leaving school she moved to London to attend the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.[10] She then became a stage manager and worked in repertory theatre.[9]
Reid's first major acting role was as the character of Valerie Tatlock (later Barlow) on Coronation Street. Her character was very popular with the fans with Valerie's marriage to Ken Barlow being an early example of a soap supercouple. Her character Valerie was the mother of the twins Susan and Peter. Reid joined the cast, initially for two months, starting in August 1961 and leaving in October. She returned to the programme to marry Ken on 1 August 1962 in a wedding watched by 15.8 million viewers. In 1965 Val and Ken had twins and Granada Television received numerous gifts addressed to the couple as congratulations.
In 1968, Reid played one of the most difficult parts in Coronation Street, when Val was held hostage by a rapist. Although Val was not harmed, viewers sent in hate mail to the actor who played the rapist. In November 1970, Reid announced she was leaving Coronation Street as she was then pregnant with her son. In a 2011 interview with the Radio Times, Reid said she'd had enough and wanted to do other things.
I was a basket case when I left! I'd already had too much of it. That kind of work suits some people, but it didn't suit me. It was my decision to leave and I was desperate, really desperate, to go. Because I knew I was good at comedy and there was no way that Valerie Barlow was ever going to be funny.[11]
On 27 January 1971, 18.26 million viewers watched as Valerie Barlow was written out, dying after being electrocuted by a hairdryer with a faulty plug.[11] On 3 February 1971, the character's funeral was shown and 18.92 million people watched.
Later work
Following a break from acting to bring up her son, Reid resumed her career on stage and television in the 1980s.[9] From 1998 to 2000, Reid played the major role of Jean in the BBC comedy series Dinnerladies by Victoria Wood, and has appeared in other television programmes including The Benny Hill Show (1957), Hancock's Half Hour (1957), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1958), Boon (1988), Casualty (1992) and Hetty Wainthropp Investigates (1996). She also made an appearance in the Doctor Who serial The Curse of Fenric which was broadcast in October 1989.
In 2003, Reid had a part in Midsomer Murders in the episode "A Tale of Two Hamlets", and a main part in the comedy drama The Booze Cruise. She also had a major role in the ITV drama series Life Begins, which ran from 2004 to 2006, in which she appeared alongside Caroline Quentin and Frank Finlay. In 2005 she had a supporting role in the BBC's adaptation of Bleak House[12] and in 2006 made a brief appearance in Jane Eyre.
On 31 March 2007, Reid appeared for a second time in the series Doctor Who in the episode "Smith and Jones".[13] In the episode, she played Florence Finnegan: a shape-shifting, blood-sucking alien known as a Plasmavore, who took on the guise of a human. That same year she appeared in the ITV television adaptation of the novel The Bad Mother's Handbook, co-starring alongside Catherine Tate.
In February 2008, Reid appeared as the mother of Monica Gallagher, Joan, who was suffering from Alzheimer's in the Channel 4 drama Shameless.[14] In October 2008, she played the title role in In Love with Barbara on BBC Four, a biographical film of Barbara Cartland.[15]
In 2009 Reid appeared in the television series Agatha Christie's Marple in the episode Nemesis.[16] From 2009 to 2010 she starred as Vera alongside Maureen Lipman as Irene in an ITV3 adaptation of the BBC Radio 4 series Ladies of Letters.[17]
In 2010 she began playing Mrs Thackeray, the cook, in the BBC's short-lived revival series of Upstairs Downstairs,[18] and also appeared in Five Days,[19] New Tricks and Moving On. In 2011 Reid had a major part in Marchlands,[20] a five-part ITV supernatural drama, made a guest appearance in Doc Martin and played a supporting role in The Jury II.[21]
In 2012 Reid starred as Celia alongside Derek Jacobi as Alan in a six-part BBC romantic comedy-drama series, Last Tango in Halifax.[22] A second series was broadcast in 2013[23] and a third series began in December 2014.[24] Reid was nominated for the 2013 British Academy Television Award for Best Actress for this performance.[25]
In 2013 she appeared in the second series of the BBC drama Prisoners' Wives.[26] She also starred with Katherine Kelly in The Last Witch, part of a series of original dramas for Sky Living[27] and appeared in the final Agatha Christie's Poirot mystery, Curtain.[28]
In 2014, she guest-starred in "Sardines", the first episode of BBC anthology series Inside No. 9.[29] She also starred alongside Lee Ingleby and Ralf Little in the six-part BBC drama series Our Zoo.[30]
In September 2015 Reid took part in an episode of the BBC genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are?.[31]
In 1995, Reid was the voice of Wendolene Ramsbottom in the Wallace and Gromit film A Close Shave. Her other film appearances include Love and Death on Long Island (1997) and The Mother (2003), the latter performance secured her a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role in 2004.[32]
She filmed a minor role as a lesbian headmistress in the 2003 film Love Actually, but Reid is not credited in the cast list since all her scenes were ultimately deleted because they were not central to the main plot. The scenes can, however, be viewed in the deleted scenes on the Love Actually DVD.[33] She also appeared in the film Hot Fuzz in 2007.[34] In 2010, she appeared with Ricky Gervais in the film Cemetery Junction, which he wrote and directed with Stephen Merchant.
Reid co-starred with Vanessa Redgrave and Terence Stamp in the film Song for Marion which was released in UK cinemas in 2013.[35]
In 2002 Reid appeared in the premiere of The York Realist at the Royal Court Theatre, which later transferred to the West End.[36]
From September 2005 to January 2006, she appeared on stage in the West End in
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20th-century English actresses
21st-century English actresses
Actors from Northumberland
Actresses from London
Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
English film actresses
English musical theatre actresses
English radio actresses
English soap opera actresses
English stage actresses
English television actresses
English voice actresses
Members of the Order of the British Empire
People educated at Rydal Penrhos
Actors from Newcastle upon Tyne
Royal National Theatre Company members
London Film Critics Circle Award for British Actress of the Year
Miranda Richardson (1993)
Crissy Rock (1994)
Brenda Blethyn (1996)
Emily Watson (1999)
Julie Walters (2000)
Lesley Manville (2002)
Anne Reid (2003)
Eva Birthistle / Kate Winslet (2004)
Julie Christie (2007)
Kristin Scott Thomas (2008)
Carey Mulligan (2009)
Olivia Colman (2011)
Andrea Riseborough (2012)
Rosamund Pike (2014)
Anne Reid at the Internet Movie Database
^ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 59446. p. 21. 12 June 2010.
^ "Index entry: Births June 1935". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 18 July 2014.
^ "Anne Reid featured article". The Genealogist. Retrieved 14 September 2015.
^ "Colin Reid: Daily Mail". ZoomInfo.com. 2015. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
^ "Anne's Swinging Sixties". This Is London. 14 November 2003. Retrieved 13 January 2015.
^ "Index entry: Marriages June 1920". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 18 July 2014.
^ "Index entry: Births September 1896". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 18 July 2014.
^ a b c Swann, Yvonne (28 January 2011). "Anne Reid: I saw my parents only once a year during the summer".
^ Ward, Rachel (19 November 2013). "Last Tango in Halifax: Anne Reid interview".
^ a b Kilkelly, Daniel (25 January 2011). "'"Reid: 'I was desperate to leave Corrie. Digital Spy. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
^ "Filming Begins on Andrew Davies' Innovative Adaptation of Dickens' Bleak House".
^ "Tennant Back in the Tardis, as Filming Gets Under Way for Series Three of Doctor Who".
^ Keal, Graham (25 February 2008). "Anne Reid: From Bedding James Bond to Joining Shameless".
^ "Putting on the Pink: Dinnerladies Actress Anne Reid to Play Late Novelist Dame Barbara Cartland".
^ Thomas, Liz (27 September 2006). "Star Line-Up for Next Miss Marple Run".
^ "Ladies of Letters".
^ Hastings, Chris (24 July 2010). "What WOULD Mrs Bridges Think? Upstairs, Downstairs Is Back... with Keeley Hawes".
^ "Five Days Returns to BBC One: Anne Reid is Jen Mason".
^ Wylie, Ian (1 February 2011). "Marchlands: Anne Reid". lifeofwylie.com. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
^ Press release. [1]. ITV.
^ Jeffery, Morgan (11 January 2012). "'"Derek Jacobi, Anne Reid Lead BBC Romance 'Antony and Cleopatra.
^ "Last Tango In Halifax". BBC. 2015. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
^ "Last Tango in Halifax, Series 3". BBC One. 2015. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
^ "Bafta TV awards 2013: List of winners". BBC News. 12 May 2013. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
^ "Prisoners' Wives Is Back on the Box". ()
^ Fletcher, Alex (24 January 2013). "Katherine Kelly, Emily Mortimer to Star in New Sky Living Shows". Digital Spy. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
^ Bayford, Natasha (26 October 2013). "Agatha Christie's Poirot: Curtain: Poirot's Last Case". ITV Press Centre. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
^ "Inside No. 9". BBC Media Centre. 2014. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
^ Morgan, Jeffrey (24 March 2014). "BBC One's Our Zoo, Lee Ingleby, Liz White, Ralf Little for new drama". Digital Spy. Retrieved 25 March 2014.
^ Roberts, Lesley (13 September 2015). "Actress Anne Reid on shock family discovery on BBC show Who Do You Think You Are". Daily Record. Retrieved 30 September 2015.
^ "Film in 2004". BAFTA Awards. 2015. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
^ Hogan, Heather (29 November 2011). ""Love Actually' Has a Lesbian Relationship You Probably Never Knew Existed'".
^ Dawtrey, Adam (1 March 2006). Shaun' Team Chases 'Fuzz' – Working Title Rounds Up Coogan, Broadbent and Dalton"'".
^ Lyttelton, Oliver (8 July 2011). "Terence Stamp, Vanessa Redgrave & Gemma Arterton Lead Paul Andrew Williams' 'Song For Marion' – Christopher Eccleston and Anne Reid Also on Board".
^ Paddock, Terri (5 February 2002). "ETT's York Realist Transfers".
^ "Cast: Reid’s Epitaph, Asher’s Diamond & Journey". whatsonstage.com. 1 September 2005. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
^ "ROH Goes Into the Woods with Rowe, Klein & Reid". whatsonstage.com. 15 March 2007. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
^ "Russell Beale Leads NT Major, Williams Gets Happy". whatsonstage.com. 14 November 2007. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
^ "Cast: Dominic Cooper in Phaedra; Dimetos & Days". whatsonstage.com. 14 November 2008. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
^ Bosanquet, Theo (12 June 2012). "Sheridan Smith plays Hedda at Old Vic, Nunn's Kate transfers". whatsonstage.com. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
^ Bosanquet, Theo (10 October 2014). "Exclusive: West End concert marks 40th anniversary of Sondheim's Little Night Music". whatsonstage.com. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
1957: Hancock's Half Hour
1958: The Adventures of Robin Hood
1961–1971: Coronation Street
1985: Bleak House
1986: Victoria Wood As Seen On TV
1989: Doctor Who – serial: The Curse of Fenric
1992: Casualty
1994: Pat and Margaret
1995: Wallace and Gromit: A Close Shave
1996: Hetty Wainthropp Investigates
1993–1999: Peak Practice
1998–2000: Dinnerladies
2000: Liam
2001: Linda Green
2001–2002: Dalziel and Pascoe
2003: Midsomer Murders
2003: The Mother
2003: The Booze Cruise
2004: Rose and Maloney
2004–2006: Life Begins
2005: A Little Trip to Heaven
2005: The Booze Cruise II: The Treasure Hunt
2006: The Booze Cruise III: The Scattering
2006: Jane Eyre
2007: The Bad Mother's Handbook
2007: Hot Fuzz
2007: Doctor Who – episode: "Smith and Jones"
2007: Savage Grace
2008: Shameless
2008: In Love with Barbara
2009: Agatha Christie's Marple – episode Nemesis
2009–2010: Ladies of Letters
2010: Cemetery Junction
2010: Five Days
2010: New Tricks
2010–2012: Upstairs, Downstairs
2011: Marchlands
2011: The Jury II
2012–ongoing: Last Tango in Halifax
2013: Song for Marion
2013: Prisoners' Wives
2013: The Last Witch
2013: Agatha Christie's Poirot – episode Curtain
2014: Inside No 9
2014: Our Zoo
2014: Believe
Selected film and television appearances
On 26 January 2015 Reid played Madame Armfeldt in a special concert version of A Little Night Music at the Palace Theatre to celebrate 40 years since the musical premiered in the West End.[42]
Reid appeared at London's Old Vic from September to November 2012 in a production of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler, starring Sheridan Smith.[41]
From March to May 2009 she appeared at the Donmar Warehouse in Dimetos, a 1975 play by Athol Fugard.[40]
From January to May 2008 she appeared in the National Theatre's production of Happy Now?, a new play by Lucinda Coxon.[39]
In June 2007 she played the role of Jack's mother in Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.[38]
. Woman's Hour's BBC Radio 4, a short series of plays on School Run and in July 2006 starred in [37]
The Mother (film)
Roger Michell, Anne Reid, Daniel Craig, England, London
Dinnerladies
Victoria Wood, Celine Dion, Association football, Julie Walters, Thelma Barlow
Smith and Jones (Doctor Who)
Doctor Who, Doctor Who (series 3), Torchwood, Freema Agyeman, The Runaway Bride (Doctor Who)
Upstairs Downstairs (2010 TV series)
Bbc, Drama, Doctor Who, Heidi Thomas, Keeley Hawes
The Bad Mother's Handbook
%s%s, Catherine Tate, Anne Reid, Holly Grainger, Robert Pattinson
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Title: Central air conditioner
For the Curved Air album, see Air Conditioning (album).
This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page.
Air conditioning (often referred to as aircon, AC or A/C) is the process of altering the properties of air (primarily temperature and humidity) to more favourable conditions. More generally, air conditioning can refer to any form of technological cooling, heating, ventilation, or disinfection that modifies the condition of air.[1]
An air conditioner is a major or home appliance, system, or mechanism designed to change the air temperature and humidity within an area (used for cooling and sometimes heating depending on the air properties at a given time). The cooling is typically done using a simple refrigeration cycle, but sometimes evaporation is used, commonly for comfort cooling in buildings and motor vehicles. In construction, a complete system of heating, ventilation and air conditioning is referred to as "HVAC".
Air conditioning can also be provided by a simple process called free cooling which uses pumps to circulate a coolant (typically water or a glycol mix) from a cold source, which in turn acts as a heat sink for the energy that is removed from the cooled space. Free cooling systems can have very high efficiencies, and are sometimes combined with seasonal thermal energy storage (STES) so the cold of winter can be used for summer air conditioning. Common storage media are deep aquifers or a natural underground rock mass accessed via a cluster of small-diameter, heat exchanger equipped boreholes. Some systems with small storage are hybrids, using free cooling early in the cooling season, and later employing a heat pump to chill the circulation coming from the storage. The heat pump is added-in because the temperature of the storage gradually increase during the cooling season, thereby declining in effectiveness. Free cooling and hybrid systems are mature technology.[2]
1.1 Mechanical cooling
1.2 Electromechanical cooling
1.3 Refrigerant development
2 Refrigeration cycle
3 Humidity control
4 Energy
4.1 Seasonal energy efficiency ratio
5.1.1 Window and through-wall
5.1.2 Split systems
5.1.2.1 Ductless (split-system) air conditioning
5.1.2.2 Central Air Conditioning
5.1.3 Evaporative coolers
5.1.4 Portable units
5.1.5 Heat pumps
5.2 Refrigerants
6 Uses
6.1 Domestic use
7 Health issues
get involved!) (September 2010)
The basic concept behind air conditioning is said to have been applied in ancient Egypt, where reeds were hung in windows and were moistened with trickling water. The evaporation of water cooled the air blowing through the window, though this process also made the air more humid (also beneficial in a dry desert climate). In Ancient Rome, water from aqueducts was circulated through the walls of certain houses to cool them. Other techniques in medieval Persia involved the use of cisterns and wind towers to cool buildings during the hot season. Modern air conditioning emerged from advances in chemistry during the 19th century, and the first large-scale electrical air conditioning was invented and used in 1902 by Willis Haviland Carrier. The introduction of residential air conditioning in the 1920s helped enable the great migration to the Sun Belt in the US.
Mechanical cooling
The 2nd-century Chinese inventor Ding Huan (fl 180) of the Han Dynasty invented a rotary fan for air conditioning, with seven wheels 3 m (9.8 ft) in diameter and manually powered.[3] In 747, Emperor Xuanzong (r. 712–762) of the Tang Dynasty (618–907) had the Cool Hall (Liang Tian) built in the imperial palace, which the Tang Yulin describes as having water-powered fan wheels for air conditioning as well as rising jet streams of water from fountains.[4] During the subsequent Song Dynasty (960–1279), written sources mentioned the air-conditioning rotary fan as even more widely used.[5]
In the 17th century, Cornelis Drebbel demonstrated "turning Summer into Winter" for James I of England by adding salt to water.[6]
In 1758, Benjamin Franklin and John Hadley, a chemistry professor at Cambridge University, conducted an experiment to explore the principle of evaporation as a means to rapidly cool an object. Franklin and Hadley confirmed that evaporation of highly volatile liquids such as alcohol and ether could be used to drive down the temperature of an object past the freezing point of water. They conducted their experiment with the bulb of a mercury thermometer as their object and with a bellows used to "quicken" the evaporation; they lowered the temperature of the thermometer bulb down to −14 °C (7 °F) while the ambient temperature was 18 °C (64 °F). Franklin noted that, soon after they passed the freezing point of water 0 °C (32 °F), a thin film of ice formed on the surface of the thermometer's bulb and that the ice mass was about a quarter-inch thick when they stopped the experiment upon reaching −14 °C (7 °F). Franklin concluded, "From this experiment one may see the possibility of freezing a man to death on a warm summer's day"...[7]
In 1820, English scientist and inventor Michael Faraday discovered that compressing and liquefying ammonia could chill air when the liquefied ammonia was allowed to evaporate. In 1842, Florida physician John Gorrie used compressor technology to create ice, which he used to cool air for his patients in his hospital in Apalachicola, Florida.[8] He hoped eventually to use his ice-making machine to regulate the temperature of buildings. He even envisioned centralized air conditioning that could cool entire cities.[9] Though his prototype leaked and performed irregularly, Gorrie was granted a patent in 1851 for his ice-making machine. His hopes for its success vanished soon afterwards when his chief financial backer died; Gorrie did not get the money he needed to develop the machine. According to his biographer, Vivian M. Sherlock, he blamed the "Ice King", Frederic Tudor, for his failure, suspecting that Tudor had launched a smear campaign against his invention. Dr. Gorrie died impoverished in 1855, and the idea of air conditioning faded away for 50 years.
Since prehistoric times, snow and ice were used for cooling. The business of harvesting ice during winter and storing for use in summer became popular towards the late 19th century.[10] This practice was replaced by mechanical ice-making machine.
James Harrison's first mechanical ice-making machine began operation in 1851 on the banks of the Barwon River at Rocky Point in Geelong (Australia). His first commercial ice-making machine followed in 1854, and his patent for an ether vapor-compression refrigeration system was granted in 1855. This novel system used a compressor to force the refrigeration gas to pass through a condenser, where it cooled down and liquefied. The liquefied gas then circulated through the refrigeration coils and vaporised again, cooling down the surrounding system. The machine employed a 5 m (16 ft.) flywheel and produced 3,000 kilograms (6,600 lb) of ice per day.
Though Harrison had commercial success establishing a second ice company back in Sydney in 1860, he later entered the debate over how to compete against the American advantage of unrefrigerated beef sales to the United Kingdom. He wrote Fresh Meat frozen and packed as if for a voyage, so that the refrigerating process may be continued for any required period, and in 1873 prepared the sailing ship Norfolk for an experimental beef shipment to the United Kingdom. His choice of a cold room system instead of installing a refrigeration system upon the ship itself proved disastrous when the ice was consumed faster than expected.
Electromechanical cooling
In 1902, the first modern electrical air conditioning unit was invented by Willis Carrier in Buffalo, New York. After graduating from Cornell University, Carrier, a native of Angola, New York, found a job at the Buffalo Forge Company. While there, Carrier began experimenting with air conditioning as a way to solve an application problem for the Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographing and Publishing Company in Brooklyn, New York, and the first "air conditioner", designed and built in Buffalo by Carrier, began working on 17 July 1902.
Designed to improve manufacturing process control in a printing plant, Carrier's invention controlled not only temperature but also humidity. Carrier used his knowledge of the heating of objects with steam and reversed the process. Instead of sending air through hot coils, he sent it through cold coils (ones filled with cold water). The air blowing over the cold coils cooled the air, and one could thereby control the amount of moisture the colder air could hold. In turn, the humidity in the room could be controlled. The low heat and humidity helped maintain consistent paper dimensions and ink alignment. Later, Carrier's technology was applied to increase productivity in the workplace, and The Carrier Air Conditioning Company of America was formed to meet rising demand. Over time, air conditioning came to be used to improve comfort in homes and automobiles as well. Residential sales expanded dramatically in the 1950s.
In 1906, Stuart W. Cramer of Charlotte, North Carolina was exploring ways to add moisture to the air in his textile mill. Cramer coined the term "air conditioning", using it in a patent claim he filed that year as an analogue to "water conditioning", then a well-known process for making textiles easier to process. He combined moisture with ventilation to "condition" and change the air in the factories, controlling the humidity so necessary in textile plants. Willis Carrier adopted the term and incorporated it into the name of his company. The evaporation of water in air, to provide a cooling effect, is now known as evaporative cooling.
Evaporative cooling was the first real air-conditioning and shortly thereafter the first private home to have air conditioning (The Dubose House) was built in Chapel Hill, North Carolina in 1933. Realizing that air conditioning would one day be a standard feature of private homes, particularly in the South, David St. Pierre DuBose (1898-1994) designed an ingenious network of ductwork and vents, all painstakingly disguised behind intricate and attractive Georgian-style open moldings. Meadowmont is believed to be one of the first private homes in the United States equipped for central air conditioning.[11]
In 1945, Robert Sherman of Lynn, MA, invented the portable, in-window air conditioner that cooled and heated, humidified and dehumidified, and filtered the air (Patent # 2,433,960 granted January 6, 1948). It was subsequently stolen by a large manufacturer. Sherman did not have the resources to fight the big corporation in court—they promised to "break him" if he tried - and thus never received any money or recognition. He died in 1962. Patent at http://navlog.org/patent_1.html
Refrigerant development
The first air conditioners and refrigerators employed toxic or flammable gases, such as ammonia, methyl chloride, or propane, that could result in fatal accidents when they leaked. Thomas Midgley, Jr created the first non-flammable, non-toxic chlorofluorocarbon gas, Freon, in 1928.
"Freon" is a trademark name owned by DuPont for any Chlorofluorocarbon (CFC), Hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC), or Hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerant, the name of each including a number indicating molecular composition (R-11, R-12, R-22, R-134A). The blend most used in direct-expansion home and building comfort cooling is an HCFC known as R-22. It was to be phased out for use in new equipment by 2010, and is to be completely discontinued by 2020.
R-12 was the most common blend used in automobiles in the US until 1994, when most designs changed to R-134A. R-11 and R-12 are no longer manufactured in the US for this type of application, the only source for air-conditioning repair purposes being the cleaned and purified gas recovered from other air-conditioner systems. Several non-ozone-depleting refrigerants have been developed as alternatives, including R-410A, invented by AlliedSignal (now part of Honeywell) in Buffalo, and sold under the Genetron (R) AZ-20 name. It was first commercially used by Carrier under the brand name Puron.
Innovation in air-conditioning technologies continues, with much recent emphasis placed on energy efficiency and on improving indoor air quality. Reducing climate-change impact is an important area of innovation because, in addition to greenhouse-gas emissions associated with energy use, CFCs, HCFCs, and HFCs are, themselves, potent greenhouse gases when leaked to the atmosphere. For example, R-22 (also known as HCFC-22) has a global warming potential about 1,800 times higher than CO2.[12] As an alternative to conventional refrigerants, natural alternatives, such as carbon dioxide (CO2. R-744), have been proposed.[13]
Refrigeration cycle
In the refrigeration cycle, a heat pump transfers heat from a lower-temperature heat source into a higher-temperature heat sink. Heat would naturally flow in the opposite direction. This is the most common type of air conditioning. A refrigerator works in much the same way, as it pumps the heat out of the interior and into the room in which it stands.
This cycle takes advantage of the way phase changes work, where latent heat is released at a constant temperature during a liquid/gas phase change, and where varying the pressure of a pure substance also varies its condensation/boiling point.
The most common refrigeration cycle uses an electric motor to drive a compressor. In an automobile, the compressor is driven by a belt over a pulley, the belt being driven by the engine's crankshaft (similar to the driving of the pulleys for the alternator, power steering, etc.). Whether in a car or building, both use electric fan motors for air circulation. Since evaporation occurs when heat is absorbed, and condensation occurs when heat is released, air conditioners use a compressor to cause pressure changes between two compartments, and actively condense and pump a refrigerant around. A refrigerant is pumped into the evaporator coil, located in the compartment to be cooled, where the low pressure causes the refrigerant to evaporate into a vapor, taking heat with it. At the opposite side of the cycle is the condenser, which is located outside of the cooled compartment, where the refrigerant vapor is compressed and forced through another heat exchange coil, condensing the refrigerant into a liquid, thus releasing the heat previously absorbed from the cooled space.
By placing the condenser (where the heat is rejected) inside a compartment, and the evaporator (which absorbs heat) in the ambient environment (such as outside), or merely running a normal air conditioner's refrigerant in the opposite direction, the overall effect is the opposite, and the compartment is heated. This is usually called a heat pump, and is capable of heating a home to comfortable temperatures (25 °C; 70 °F), even when the outside air is below the freezing point of water (0 °C; 32 °F).
Cylinder unloaders are a method of load control used mainly in commercial air conditioning systems. On a semi-hermetic (or open) compressor, the heads can be fitted with unloaders which remove a portion of the load from the compressor so that it can run better when full cooling is not needed. Unloaders can be electrical or mechanical.
Refrigeration air-conditioning equipment usually reduces the absolute humidity of the air processed by the system. The relatively cold (below the dewpoint) evaporator coil condenses water vapor from the processed air (much like an ice-cold drink will condense water on the outside of a glass), sending the water to a drain and removing water vapor from the cooled space and lowering the relative humidity in the room. Since humans perspire to provide natural cooling by the evaporation of perspiration from the skin, drier air (up to a point) improves the comfort provided. The comfort air conditioner is designed to create a 40% to 60% relative humidity in the occupied space. In food-retailing establishments, large open chiller cabinets act as highly effective air dehumidifying units.
A specific type of air conditioner that is used only for dehumidifying is called a dehumidifier. A dehumidifier is different from a regular air conditioner in that both the evaporator and condenser coils are placed in the same air path, and the entire unit is placed in the environment that is intended to be conditioned (in this case dehumidified), rather than requiring the condenser coil to be outdoors. Having the condenser coil in the same air path as the evaporator coil produces warm, dehumidified air. The evaporator (cold) coil is placed first in the air path, dehumidifying the air exactly as a regular air conditioner does. The air next passes over the condenser coil, re-warming the now dehumidified air. Having the condenser coil in the main air path rather than in a separate, outdoor air path (as with a regular air conditioner) results in two consequences: the output air is warm rather than cold, and the unit is able to be placed anywhere in the environment to be conditioned, without a need to have the condenser outdoors.
Unlike a regular air conditioner, a dehumidifier will actually heat a room just as an electric heater that draws the same amount of power (watts) as the dehumidifier would. A regular air conditioner transfers energy out of the room by means of the condenser coil, which is outside the room (outdoors). That is, the room can be considered a thermodynamic system from which energy is transferred to the external environment. Conversely, with a dehumidifier, no energy is transferred out of the thermodynamic system (room) because the air conditioning unit (dehumidifier) is entirely inside the room. Therefore all of the power consumed by the dehumidifier is energy that is input into the thermodynamic system (the room) and remains in the room (as heat). In addition, if the condensed water has been removed from the room, the amount of heat needed to boil that water has been added to the room. This is the inverse of adding water to the room with an evaporative cooler.
Dehumidifiers are commonly used in cold, damp climates to prevent mold growth indoors, especially in basements. They are also used to protect sensitive equipment from the adverse effects of excessive humidity in tropical countries.
The engineering of physical and thermodynamic properties of gas–vapor mixtures is called psychrometrics.
In a thermodynamically closed system, any power dissipated into the system that is being maintained at a set temperature (which is a standard mode of operation for modern air conditioners) requires that the rate of energy removal by the air conditioner increase. This increase has the effect that, for each unit of energy input into the system (say to power a light bulb in the closed system), the air conditioner removes that energy.[14] In order to do so, the air conditioner must increase its power consumption by the inverse of its "efficiency" (coefficient of performance) times the amount of power dissipated into the system. As an example, assume that inside the closed system a 100 W heating element is activated, and the air conditioner has an coefficient of performance of 200%. The air conditioner's power consumption will increase by 50 W to compensate for this, thus making the 100 W heating element cost a total of 150 W of power.
It is typical for air conditioners to operate at "efficiencies" of significantly greater than 100%.[15] However, it may be noted that the input electrical energy is of higher thermodynamic quality (lower entropy) than the output thermal energy (heat energy).
Air conditioner equipment power in the U.S. is often described in terms of "tons of refrigeration". A ton of refrigeration is approximately equal to the cooling power of one short ton (2000 pounds or 907 kilograms) of ice melting in a 24-hour period. The value is defined as 12,000 BTU per hour, or 3517 watts.[16] Residential central air systems are usually from 1 to 5 tons (3 to 20 kilowatts (kW)) in capacity.
In an automobile, the A/C system will use around 4 horsepower (3 kW) of the engine's power.[17]
Seasonal energy efficiency ratio
Main article: Seasonal energy efficiency ratio
For residential homes, some countries set minimum requirements for energy efficiency. In the United States, the efficiency of air conditioners is often (but not always) rated by the seasonal energy efficiency ratio (SEER). The higher the SEER rating, the more energy efficient is the air conditioner. The SEER rating is the BTU of cooling output during its normal annual usage divided by the total electric energy input in watt hours (W·h) during the same period.[18]
SEER = BTU ÷ (W·h)
this can also be rewritten as:
SEER = (BTU / h) ÷ W, where "W" is the average electrical power in Watts, and (BTU/h) is the rated cooling power.
For example, a 5000 BTU/h air-conditioning unit, with a SEER of 10, would consume 5000/10 = 500 Watts of power on average.
The electrical energy consumed per year can be calculated as the average power multiplied by the annual operating time:
500 W × 1000 h = 500,000 W·h = 500 kWh
Assuming 1000 hours of operation during a typical cooling season (i.e., 8 hours per day for 125 days per year).
Another method that yields the same result, is to calculate the total annual cooling output:
5000 BTU/h × 1000 h = 5,000,000 BTU
Then, for a SEER of 10, the annual electrical energy usage would be:
5,000,000 BTU ÷ 10 = 500,000 W·h = 500 kWh
SEER is related to the coefficient of performance (COP) commonly used in thermodynamics and also to the Energy Efficiency Ratio (EER). The EER is the efficiency rating for the equipment at a particular pair of external and internal temperatures, while SEER is calculated over a whole range of external temperatures (i.e., the temperature distribution for the geographical location of the SEER test). SEER is unusual in that it is composed of an Imperial unit divided by an SI unit. The COP is a ratio with the same metric units of energy (joules) in both the numerator and denominator. They cancel out, leaving a dimensionless quantity. Formulas for the approximate conversion between SEER and EER or COP are available from the Pacific Gas and Electric Company:[19]
(1) SEER = EER ÷ 0.9
(2) SEER = COP × 3.792
(3) EER = COP × 3.413
From equation (2) above, a SEER of 13 is equivalent to a COP of 3.43, which means that 3.43 units of heat energy are pumped per unit of work energy.
The United States now requires that residential systems manufactured in 2006 have a minimum SEER rating of 13 (although window-box systems are exempt from this law, so their SEER is still around 10).[20]
The external section of a typical single-room air conditioning unit. For ease of installation, these are frequently placed in a window. This one was installed through a hole cut in the wall.
The internal section of the above unit. The front panel swings down to reveal the controls.
Window and through-wall
Room air conditioners come in two forms: unitary and packaged terminal (PTAC) systems. Unitary systems, the common one room air conditioners, sit in a window or wall opening, with interior controls. Interior air is cooled as a fan blows it over the evaporator. On the exterior the air is heated as a second fan blows it over the condenser. In this process, heat is drawn from the room and discharged to the environment. A large house or building may have several such units, permitting each room to be cooled separately.
PTAC systems are also known as wall-split air conditioning systems or ductless systems.[21] These PTAC systems which are frequently used in hotels have two separate units (terminal packages), the evaporative unit on the interior and the condensing unit on the exterior, with tubing passing through the wall and connecting them. This minimizes the interior system footprint and allows each room to be adjusted independently. PTAC systems may be adapted to provide heating in cold weather, either directly by using an electric strip, gas or other heater, or by reversing the refrigerant flow to heat the interior and draw heat from the exterior air, converting the air conditioner into a heat pump. While room air conditioning provides maximum flexibility, when used to cool many rooms at a time it is generally more expensive than central air conditioning.
The first practical through the wall air conditioning unit was invented by engineers at Chrysler Motors and offered for sale starting in 1935.[22]
Split-system air conditioners come in two forms: central and mini-split. In both types, the inside-environment (evaporative) heat exchanger and fan is separated by some distance from the outside-environment (condensing unit) heat exchanger and fan.
In http://www.mitsubishipro.com/media/382145/m-series_revised_july13.pdf ) If the split system is contains a heat pump, as is often the case, the system may be easily switched seasonally to supply heat instead of cold. Controls can be wall-mounted or handheld (the size of the remote control for a television).
Ductless (split-system) air conditioning
Mini-split systems - today usually called ductless air conditioners — typically produce 9,000–36,000 Btu (9,500–38,000 kJ) per hour of cooling.[23] Most ductless systems are similar to PTAC air conditioners in that they are often designed to cool a single room or space, but ductless air conditioning allows design and installation flexibility because the inside wall space required is significantly reduced and the compressor and heat exchanger can be located further away from the inside space, rather than merely on the other side of the same unit as in a PTAC or window air conditioner. In addition, ductless systems will offer much higher efficiency (up to 27.1 SEER on some systems).. Today's brands include Aircon, Carrier, Daikin, Klimaire, LG, Mitsubishi, Sanyo, and YMGI.
Most ductless (split system) air conditioners still typically provide cooling to a single room or interior zone, just like a window air conditioner or PTAC; but more powerful outside units are becoming more and more available, supporting cooling of ever-more interior zones. Advantages of the ductless system include smaller size and flexibility for zoning or heating and cooling individual rooms. Flexible exterior hoses lead from the outside unit to the interior one(s); these are often enclosed with metal to look like common drainpipes from the roof. Those enclosures can be painted to match the color of the house.
The primary disadvantage of ductless air conditioners is their cost. Such systems cost about $1,500 to $2,000 per ton (12,000 Btu per hour) of cooling capacity. This is about 30% more than central systems (not including ductwork) and may cost more than twice as much as window units of similar capacity."[24]
An additional possible disadvantage that may increase net cost is that ductless systems may sometimes not be eligible for energy efficiency rebates offered by many electric utility companies as part of an incentive program to reduce summer cooling load on the electrical grid.[25]
Central (ducted) air conditioning offers whole-house or large-commercial-space cooling, and often offers moderate multi-zone temperature control capability by the addition of air-louver-control boxes.
Main article: Evaporative cooler
In very dry climates, evaporative coolers, sometimes referred to as swamp coolers or desert coolers, are popular for improving coolness during hot weather.
An evaporative cooler is a device that draws outside air through a wet pad, such as a large sponge soaked with water. The sensible heat of the incoming air, as measured by a dry bulb thermometer, is reduced. The total heat (sensible heat plus latent heat) of the entering air is unchanged. Some of the sensible heat of the entering air is converted to latent heat by the evaporation of water in the wet cooler pads. If the entering air is dry enough, the results can be quite cooling; evaporative coolers tend to feel as if they are not working during times of high humidity, when there is not much dry air with which the coolers can work to make the air as cool as possible for dwelling occupants. Unlike other types of air conditioners, evaporative coolers rely on the outside air to be channeled through cooler pads that cool the air before it reaches the inside of a house through its air duct system; this cooled outside air must be allowed to push the warmer air within the house out through an exhaust opening such as an open door or window.[26]
These coolers cost less and are mechanically simple to understand and maintain.
An early type of cooler, using ice for a further effect, was patented by John Gorrie of Apalachicola, Florida in 1842. He used the device to cool the patients in his malaria hospital.
Portable units
A portable air conditioner is one on wheels that can be easily transported inside a home or office. They are currently available with capacities of about 5,000–60,000 BTU/h (1,800–18,000 W output) and with and without electric-resistance heaters. Portable air conditioners are either evaporative or refrigerative.
Portable refrigerative air conditioners come in two forms, split and hose. These compressor-based refrigerant systems are air-cooled, meaning they use air to exchange heat, in the same way as a car or typical household air conditioner does. Such a system dehumidifies the air as it cools it. It collects water condensed from the cooled air and produces hot air which must be vented outside the cooled area; doing so transfers heat from the air in the cooled area to the outside air.
A portable split system has an indoor unit on wheels connected to an outdoor unit via flexible pipes, similar to a permanently fixed installed unit.
Hose systems, which can be monoblock or air-to-air, are vented to the outside via air ducts. The monoblock type collects the water in a bucket or tray and stops when full. The air-to-air type re-evaporates the water and discharges it through the ducted hose and can run continuously.
A single-duct unit uses air from within the room to cool its condenser, and then vents it outside. This air is replaced by hot air from outside or other rooms, thus reducing the unit's effectiveness. Modern units might have a coefficient of performance (COP, sometimes called "efficiency") of approximately 3 (i.e., 1 kW of electricity will produce 3 kW of cooling). A dual-duct unit draws air to cool its condenser from outside instead of from inside the room, and thus is more effective than most single-duct units.
Evaporative air coolers, sometimes called "swamp coolers", do not have a compressor or condenser. Liquid water is evaporated on the cooling fins, releasing the vapour into the cooled area. Evaporating water absorbs a significant amount of heat, the latent heat of vaporisation, cooling the air: humans and animals use the same mechanism to cool themselves by sweating. They have the advantage of needing no hoses to vent heat outside the cooled area, making them truly portable; and they are very cheap to install and use less energy than refrigerative air conditioners. Disadvantages are that unless ambient humidity is low (as in a dry climate) cooling is limited and the cooled air is very humid and can feel clammy. Also, they use a lot of water, which is often at a premium in the dry climates where they work best.
A typical single hosed portable air conditioner can cool a room that is 475 sq ft (44.1 m2) or smaller and has at most a cooling power of 15,000 BTUs/h (4.3 kW). However, single hosed units cool a room less effectively than dual hosed as the air expelled from the room through the single hose creates negative pressure inside the room. Because of this, air (potentially warm air) from neighboring rooms is pulled into the room with the cooling unit to compensate.[27]
Main article: Heat pump
"Heat pump" is a term for a type of air conditioner in which the refrigeration cycle can be reversed, producing heating instead of cooling in the indoor environment. They are also commonly referred to, and marketed as, a "reverse cycle air conditioner". Using an air conditioner in this way to produce heat is significantly more energy efficient than electric resistance heating. Some homeowners elect to have a heat pump system installed, which is simply a central air conditioner with heat pump functionality (the refrigeration cycle can be reversed in cold weather). When the heat pump is in heating mode, the indoor evaporator coil switches roles and becomes the condenser coil, producing heat. The outdoor condenser unit also switches roles to serve as the evaporator, and discharges cold air (colder than the ambient outdoor air).
Heat pumps are more popular in milder winter climates where the temperature is frequently in the range of 40–55°F (4–13°C), because heat pumps become inefficient in more extreme cold. This is due to the problem of ice forming on the outdoor unit's heat exchanger coil, which blocks air flow over the coil. To compensate for this, the heat pump system must temporarily switch back into the regular air conditioning mode to switch the outdoor evaporator coil back to being the condenser coil, so that it can heat up and defrost. A heat pump system will therefore have a form of electric resistance heating in the indoor air path that is activated only in this mode in order to compensate for the temporary indoor air cooling, which would otherwise be uncomfortable in the winter. The icing problem becomes much more severe with lower outdoor temperatures, so heat pumps are commonly installed in tandem with a more conventional form of heating, such as a natural gas or oil furnace, which is used instead of the heat pump during harsher winter temperatures. In this case, the heat pump is used efficiently during the milder temperatures, and the system is switched to the conventional heat source when the outdoor temperature is lower.it also works on the basis of carnot cycle
Absorption heat pumps are actually a kind of air-source heat pump, but they do not depend on electricity to power them. Instead, gas, solar power, or heated water is used as a main power source. Additionally, refrigerant is not used at all in the process.[dubious – discuss] An absorption pump absorbs ammonia into water.[further explanation needed] Next, the water and ammonia mixture is depressurized to induce boiling, and the ammonia is boiled off, resulting in cooling.[28]
Some more expensive window air conditioning units have a true heat pump function. However, a window unit that has a "heat" selection is not necessarily a heat pump because some units use only electric resistance heat when heating is desired. A unit that has true heat pump functionality will be indicated its specifications by the term "heat pump".
Main article: Refrigerant
Modern refrigerants have been developed to be more environmentally safe than many of the early chlorofluorocarbon-based refrigerants used in the early- and mid-twentieth century. These include as HCFCs (R-22, used in most homes today) and HFCs (R-134a, used in most cars) have replaced most CFC use. HCFCs, in turn, are being phased out under the Montreal Protocol and replaced by hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) such as R-410A, which lack chlorine.
Carbon dioxide (R-744) is being rapidly[according to whom?] adopted as a refrigerant in Europe and Japan. R-744 is an effective refrigerant with a global warming potential of 1. It must use higher compression to produce an equivalent cooling effect.
Historically, "Freon"—a trade name for a family of haloalkane refrigerants manufactured by DuPont and other companies—refrigerants were commonly used in air conditioners due to their superior stability and safety properties. However, these chlorine-bearing refrigerants reach the upper atmosphere when they escape.[29] Once the refrigerant reaches the stratosphere, UV radiation from the Sun homolytically cleaves the chlorine-carbon bond, yielding a chlorine radical. These chlorine atoms catalyze the breakdown of ozone into diatomic oxygen, depleting the ozone layer that shields the Earth's surface from strong UV radiation. Each chlorine radical remains active as a catalyst unless it binds with another chlorine radical, forming a stable molecule and breaking the chain reaction. The use of CFC as a refrigerant was once common, being used in the refrigerants R-11 and R-12. In most countries[which?] the manufacture and use of CFCs has been banned or severely restricted due to concerns about ozone depletion.[30] In light of these environmental concerns, beginning on November 14, 1994, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has restricted the sale, possession and use of refrigerant to only licensed technicians, per Rules 608 and 609 of the EPA rules and regulations.[31]
Air-conditioning engineers broadly divide air-conditioning applications into what they call comfort and process applications.
Comfort applications aim to provide a building indoor environment that remains relatively constant despite changes in external weather conditions or in internal heat loads.
Air conditioning makes deep plan buildings feasible, for otherwise they would have to be built narrower or with light wells so that inner spaces received sufficient outdoor air via natural ventilation. Air conditioning also allows buildings to be taller, since wind speed increases significantly with altitude making natural ventilation impractical for very tall buildings. Comfort applications are quite different for various building types and may be categorized as:
Low-rise residential buildings, including single-family houses, duplexes, and small apartment buildings
High-rise residential buildings, such as tall dormitories and apartment blocks
Commercial buildings, which are built for commerce, including offices, malls, shopping centers, restaurants, etc.
Institutional buildings, which includes government buildings, hospitals, schools, etc.
Industrial spaces where thermal comfort of workers is desired.
Sports stadiums: recently, stadiums have been built with air conditioning, such as the University of Phoenix Stadium[32] and in Qatar for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.[33]
The structural impact of an air conditioning unit will depend on the type and size of the unit.[34]
In addition to buildings, air conditioning can be used for many types of transportation, including motor-cars, buses and other land vehicles, trains, ships, aircraft, and spacecraft.
Process applications aim to provide a suitable environment for a process being carried out, regardless of internal heat and humidity loads and external weather conditions. It is the needs of the process that determine conditions, not human preference. Process applications include these:
Hospital operating theatres, in which air is filtered to high levels to reduce infection risk and the humidity controlled to limit patient dehydration. Although temperatures are often in the comfort range, some specialist procedures, such as open heart surgery, require low temperatures (about 18 °C, 64 °F) and others, such as neonatal, relatively high temperatures (about 28 °C, 82 °F).
Cleanrooms for the production of integrated circuits, pharmaceuticals, and the like, in which very high levels of air cleanliness and control of temperature and humidity are required for the success of the process.
Facilities for breeding laboratory animals. Since many animals normally reproduce only in spring, holding them in rooms in which conditions mirror those of spring all year can cause them to reproduce year-round.
Environmental control of data centers
Physical testing facilities
Plants and farm growing areas
Nuclear power facilities
Chemical and biological laboratories
Food cooking and processing areas
In both comfort and process applications, the objective may be to not only control temperature, but also humidity, air quality, and air movement from space to space.
Domestic use
Air conditioning is common in the US, with 88% of new single-family homes constructed in 2011 including air conditioning, ranging from 99% in the South to 62% in the West.[35] In Europe, home air conditioning is generally less common. Southern European countries such as Greece have seen a wide proliferation of home air-conditioning units in recent years.[36] In another southern European country, Malta, it is estimated that around 55% of households have an air conditioner installed.[37] In India AC sales have dropped by 40% due to higher costs and stricter energy efficiency regulations.[38]
Air-conditioning systems can promote the growth and spread of microorganisms,[39] such as Legionella pneumophila, the infectious agent responsible for Legionnaires' disease, or thermophilic actinomycetes; however, this is only prevalent in poorly-maintained water cooling towers. As long as the cooling tower is kept clean (usually by means of a chlorine treatment), these health hazards can be avoided.
Conversely, air conditioning (including filtration, humidification, cooling and disinfection) can be used to provide a clean, safe, hypoallergenic atmosphere in hospital operating rooms and other environments where an appropriate atmosphere is critical to patient safety and well-being. Air conditioning can have a negative effect on skin, drying it out,[40] and can also cause dehydration.[41] Air conditioning may have a positive effect on sufferers of allergies and asthma.
Prior to 1994, most automotive air conditioning systems used Dichlorodifluoromethane (R-12) as a refrigerant. It was usually sold under the brand name Freon-12 and is a chlorofluorocarbon halomethane (CFC). The manufacture of R-12 was banned in many countries in 1994 because of environmental concerns, in compliance with the Montreal Protocol. The R-12 was replaced with R-134a refrigerant, which has a lower ozone depletion potential. Old R-12 systems can be retrofitted to R-134a by a complete flush and filter/dryer replacement to remove the mineral oil, which is not compatible with R-134a.
EcoCute
European Union energy label
Free cooling
Ground-coupled heat exchanger
Ice storage air conditioning
Inverter (air conditioning)
Seasonal thermal energy storage
Seawater air conditioning
Thermoelectric cooling
Trigeneration
Commons has media related to Air conditioners.
U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
Bureau of Energy Efficiency, India
tax rebates for companies who use products which are ECA approved.
American Council for Energy-Efficient Economy cooling guide
A.C. Tonnage Calculator from LG
How to Install a Mini-Split Air Conditioner, This Old House, 19 July 2007.
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Ender's Game (series)
Title: Ender's Game (series)
Subject: Earth Unaware, Shadows in Flight, First Meetings, Speaker for the Dead, Earth Awakens
Collection: Novels by Orson Scott Card, Science Fiction Book Series, Space Opera
The Ender's Game series (often referred to as the Enderverse or the Ender saga) is a series of science fiction books by Orson Scott Card. The series started with the novelette "Ender's Game" which was later expanded into the novel of the same title. It currently consists of fourteen novels, thirteen short stories, 47 comic issues, an audioplay, and a film. The first two novels in the series, Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead, each won both the Hugo[1][2] and Nebula[1][3] Awards, and were among the most influential science fiction novels of the 1980s.
The series is set in a future where mankind is facing annihilation by an aggressive alien society, an insect-like race known formally as "Formics", but more colloquially as "Buggers". The series protagonist, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, is one of the child soldiers trained at Battle School (and eventually Command School) to be the future leaders of the protection of Earth.
Enderverse 1
Ender series 1.1
Shadow saga 1.2
Formic Wars 1.3
The First Formic War 1.3.1
The Second Formic War 1.3.2
Fleet School 1.4
Novels in the series 2.1
Publication date 2.1.1
Chronological order 2.1.2
Short stories in the series 2.2
Comic books in the series 2.3
Manga 2.4
Audioplay 2.5
Film 2.6
Related 2.7
The Authorized Ender Companion 2.7.1
Ender's World: Fresh Perspectives on the SF Classic Ender's Game 2.7.2
Enderverse
Ender series
Starting with Ender's Game, five novels have been released which tell the story of Ender (also known as the "Ender Quintet"). Card first wrote Ender's Game as a novelette, but went back and expanded it into a novel so he could use Ender in another novel, Speaker for the Dead. That novel takes place three thousand and two years after Ender's Game, although due to relativistic space travel, Ender himself (now using his full name Andrew) is only 36, making him only 25 years older than he was at the end of the Formic Wars.
While the first novel concerned itself with armies and space warfare, the novels in the Speaker trilogy (Speaker for the Dead and its two sequels Xenocide and Children of the Mind) are more philosophical in nature. They deal with the difficult relationship between the humans and the "Piggies" (or "Pequeninos"), and Andrew's (Ender's) attempts to stop another xenocide from happening.
A War of Gifts: An Ender Story was released in October 2007.[4] It is a parallel story set during Ender's first year in Battle School.
A prequel to Speaker for the Dead named Ender in Exile was released in November 2008. It involves Ender's journey to the first colony (and thus serves as a replacement of the last chapter of Ender's Game and as a sequel to the remainder of the novel), as well as his meeting a character from the parallel Shadow saga (effectively wrapping up a remaining plotline in the parallel series).
Shadow saga
Starting with Ender's Shadow, five more novels have been released which tell the story of the people whom Ender left behind – this has been dubbed the Shadow saga (also known as the "Shadow Quintet").
Ender's Shadow is a parallel novel to Ender's Game, telling many of the same events from the perspective of Bean, a mostly peripheral character in Ender's Game, while the first three sequels, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets and Shadow of the Giant tell the story of the struggle for world dominance after the Bugger War. This involves the Battle School children, as well as Ender's brother, Peter Wiggin, and Petra Arkanian going up against Achilles de Flandres (from Poke's crew).
A sequel novel to Shadow of the Giant named Shadows in Flight further introduces Bean's children who also have Anton's key turned.
Shadows Alive, a future sequel, takes place after both Children of the Mind and Shadows in Flight, tying up the two series, and explaining some unanswered questions.
Formic Wars
The First Formic War
Card and Aaron Johnston wrote a trilogy to cover the events of the First Formic War. Chronologically, this series comes before all other books in the Ender's Game series. Earth Unaware was released on July 17, 2012. Earth Afire, was released on June 4, 2013,[5] and Earth Awakens[6] on June 10, 2014.
The Second Formic War
On November 4, 2013, Johnston confirmed[7] work on a second trilogy of novels covering the Second Formic War, with the manuscript for the first book due in 2014.[8] The titles of the novels (In order) will be The Swarm, The Hive, and The Queens.[9] On July 2, 2015, Johnston confirmed[10] that the first book, The Swarm, has been completed and continues Vico's story.
Fleet School
According to an interview with Orson Scott Card[11] at Southern Virginia University, Fleet School[12] is "a new set of sequels to Ender's Game. It's for a YA audience. It's what happens to Battle School after the International Fleet loses its purpose of war. It becomes what is called Fleet School, and it prepares kids to become commanders / explorers in the colonies that are going to be forming. We get to see that as the school administrators repurpose the school, the Battle Room is still there, but it's a whole different kind of education."
Novels in the series
To date, there are six novels in the Ender's Game series and five novels in the Shadow series. According to Card, there is no strictly preferred order of reading them, except that Xenocide should be read right before Children of the Mind.[13] The books can be read in the order in which they were originally written or in chronological order.
Ender's Game (1985) – Nebula Award winner, 1985;[1] Hugo Award winner, 1986;[1] Locus Award nominee, 1986[1]
Speaker for the Dead (1986) – Nebula Award winner, 1986;[1] Hugo & Locus Awards winner, 1987;[1] Campbell Award nominee, 1987[1]
Xenocide (1991) – Hugo and Locus Awards nominee, 1992[14]
Children of the Mind (1996)
Ender's Shadow (1999) – Shortlisted for a Locus Award, 2000[15]
Shadow of the Hegemon (2001) – Shortlisted for a Locus Award, 2002[16]
Shadow Puppets (2002)
First Meetings (2002) – short story collection
Shadow of the Giant (2005)
A War of Gifts: An Ender Story (2007)
Ender in Exile (2008)
Shadows in Flight (2012)
Earth Unaware (2012)
Earth Afire (2013)
Earth Awakens (2014, final book in the First Formic War trilogy)
Shadows Alive (forthcoming, "Shadows in Flight" was originally planned as part of "Shadows Alive")
The Swarm (TBA)
The Hive (TBA)
The Queens (TBA)[17]
Chronological chart of Enderverse stories
Audioplay
Formic Wars:
Burning Earth
Silent Strike
First Formic
War Trilogy
Earth Unaware
Earth Afire
Earth Awakens
First Meetings
The Polish Boy
Teacher's Pest
OSC's IGMS
Mazer in Prison
Pretty Boy
A Young Man
with Prospects
Second Formic
The Swarm
(TBA)
Series (TBC)
[note 1]
Fleet School 1
Fleet School X
War of Gifts
The League War
Ender's Stocking
A War of Gifts
Ender's Game:
Battle School
Command School
Recruiting Valentine
Ender's Shadow
Ender's Shadow:
Ender's Homecoming
A Young Man with
Prospects (2007)
Ender in Flight
The Gold Bug
Ender in Exile
at near-lightspeed
to Planet
[note 3][note 4]
Shadow o/t Hegemon
Shadow Puppets
Shadow of the Giant
Shadows in Flight
Gloriously Bright
Speaker for the Dead
Xenocide
Children of the Mind
Shadows Alive
^ To be confirmed as "a new set of sequels to Ender's Game".
Title is also mentioned in regard to a possible sequel for the film.
^ a b c The events of Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow and A War of Gifts take place in roughly the same time period.
The events of A War of Gifts only take place during the time at Battle School).
^ a b The events of Ender in Exile and the Shadow Trilogy take place in roughly the same time period.
- First part of Ender in Exile (2/3) takes place during the Shadow Trilogy.
- Last part of Ender in Exile (1/3) takes places after Shadow of the Giant.
^ a b Note on the following (maybe not yet so common) Trilogies:
"Speaker Trilogy": Original set of sequels to Ender's Game, also referred to as:
- "Ender Quartet" (Ender's Game combined with "Speaker Trilogy"), also referred to as:
- "Ender Quintet" ("Ender Quartet" combined with Ender in Exile).
"Shadow Trilogy": Original set of sequels to Ender's Shadow, also referred to as:
- "Bean Quartet"/"Shadow Quartet" (Ender's Shadow combined with "Shadow Trilogy"), also referred to as:
- "Bean Quintet"/"Shadow Quintet" ("Bean Quartet" combined with Shadows in Flight), to be (?) referred to as:
- "Bean Sextet"/"Shadow Sextet" ("Bean Quintet" combined with Shadows Alive)
Ender's Shadow (Note: The events of Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow take place in roughly the same time period.)
A War of Gifts (Note: This takes place during Ender's Game/Ender's Shadow.)
Shadow of the Hegemon
Ender in Exile (Note: Beginning takes place during Shadow of the Hegemon and through Shadow of the Giant)
First Meetings (A collection of short stories whose settings range from before Ender's Game until after Shadows in Flight)
Shadows Alive (TBA)
Short stories in the series
Comic books in the series
Comic books in the Ender Universe are currently being published by Marvel Comics.
In 2014, Satō Shūhō's manga, Ender's Game (Jp Ender no Game) appeared.
The film Ender's Game was released in the UK on October 25, 2013 and in the USA on November 1, 2013. The first script was based on two installments of the Ender series, Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow, when optioned by Warner Brothers, but was adapted to focus exclusively on Ender's Game when purchased by Lionsgate.[18] The cast includes Harrison Ford, Abigail Breslin, Ben Kingsley, and Asa Butterfield as Ender Wiggin. The film was directed by Gavin Hood.[19][20]
The Authorized Ender Companion
Written by Jake Black, The Authorized Ender Companion is "the indispensable guide to the universe of Ender's Game."[21] Sections in this book include: The Ender Encyclopedia, Ender's Timeline, Ender's Family Tree by Andrew Lindsay, Getting Ender Right: A Look at the Ender's Game Screenplay Development by Aaron Johnston, and The Technology of Ender's Game by Stephen Sywak. The majority of the book consists of encyclopedia references to the events, characters, locations, and technology found in the Ender's Game series up to the publication of Ender in Exile.
The book is notable for having new and behind the scenes information on certain topics such as Battle School Slang, The Look of the Formics, The History of Hyrum Graff, Ender and Valentine's Travels, and Mazer Rackham's Spaceship.
Ender's World: Fresh Perspectives on the SF Classic Ender's Game
Ender's World contains 14 essays from Science Fiction and Young Adult writers, as well as military strategists and others about various aspects of Ender’s Game. The book includes an introduction[22] by Orson Scott Card, who edited Ender's World and answers from many fan-submitted Enderverse questions from the Smart Pop Books Website.[23] The following essays are included in the compilation:
"How It Should Have Ended" by Eric James Stone[24]
"The Monster's Heart" by John Brown[25]
"The Cost of Breaking the Rules" by Mary Robinette Kowal[26]
"Winning and Losing in Ender’s Game" by Hilari Bell[27]
"Parallax Regained" by David Lubar, Alison S. Myers[28]
"Mirror, Mirror" by Alethea Kontis[29]
"Size Matters" by Janis Ian[30]
"Rethinking the Child Hero" by Aaron Johnston[31]
"A Teenless World" by Mette Ivie Harrison[32]
"Ender on Leadership" by Colonel Tom Ruby[33]
"Ender Wiggin, USMC" by John F. Schmitt[34]
"The Price of Our Inheritance" by Neal Shusterman[35]
"If the Formics Love Their Children Too" by Ken Scholes[36]
"Ender's Game: A Guide to Life" by Matt Nix[37]
Ender's Game (film)
List of characters in the Ender's Game series
List of works by Orson Scott Card
^ a b c d e f g h "1986 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-07-15.
^ "1987 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-07-15.
^ Orson Scott Card at Fantastic Fiction
^ EARTH AFIRE, the sequel to EARTH UNAWARE by me and @orsonscottcard will be released on June 4, 2013. Aaron Johnston on Twitter. October 30, 2012. Retrieved April 12, 2013.
^ Title for book 3 of First Formic Trilogy will be EARTH AWAKENS Aaron Johnston on Twitter. March 15, 2013. Retrieved April 12, 2013.
^ @therootsundo Thanks. Hope you like book three. And the three more after that. There's another trilogy coming. The Second Formic War. Aaron Johnston on Twitter. November 4, 2013. Retrieved November 4, 2013.
^ @EndersAnsible @therootsundo Yes. The second trilogy is happening. Manuscript for book one is due in 2014. Aaron Johnston on Twitter. November 4, 2013. Retrieved November 4, 2013.
^ The Second Formic Wars trilogy titles released: The Swarm; The Hive; The Queens. Orson Scott Card on Twitter. April 3, 2014. Retrieved April 21, 2013.
^ @nolan724 You're welcome. The next trilogy will continue Vico's story, as well as the others. Book one is written. Titled: THE SWARM. Aaron Johnston on Twitter. July 2, 2015.
^ "Orson Scott Card announces new sequels to Ender's Game". SouthernVirginiaUniv's YouTube Channel. Retrieved 2013-11-01.
^ "Orson Scott Card interview – the extended version". New Zealand Listener. Retrieved 2013-10-31.
^ a b https://twitter.com/orsonscottcard/status/451800392926363649
^ http://www.endersansible.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/7-18-2013-Interview.mp3
^ "Ender's Game". Retrieved 2013-01-22.
^ Ender's Shadow Audiobook, author's epilogue
^ Black, Jake (2009). The Authorized Ender Companion. Tor Books.
^ Introduction: Ender's World
^ Ask Orson Scott Card a question about Ender’s Game!
^ "How It Should Have Ended" by Eric James Stone
^ "The Monster's Heart" by John Brown
^ "The Cost of Breaking the Rules" by Mary Robinette
^ " by Hilari BellEnder’s Game"Winning and Losing in
^ "Parallax Regained" by David Lubar, Alison S. Myers
^ "Mirror, Mirror" by Alethea Kontis
^ "Size Matters" by Janis Ian
^ "Rethinking the Child Hero" by Aaron Johnston
^ "A Teenless World" by Mette Ivie Harrison
^ "Ender on Leadership" by Colonel Tom Ruby
^ "Ender Wiggin, USMC" by John F. Schmitt
^ "The Price of Our Inheritance" by Neal Shusterman
^ "If the Formics Love Their Children Too" by Ken Scholes
^ : A Guide to Life" by Matt NixEnder's Game"
The official Orson Scott Card website
The Ender Quartet, Ender's Shadow, and Ender series pages at Tor Books
The Ender Saga
Ender's Universe series listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game series
Ender's Game (1985)
Speaker for the Dead (1986)
Xenocide (1991)
Ender's Shadow (1999)
Shadow of the Hegemon (2001)
First Meetings (2002)
Earth Awakens (2014)
"Ender's Game" (1977)
"Gloriously Bright" (1991)
"Investment Counselor"
"The Polish Boy"
"Teacher's Pest"
"Mazer in Prison"
"Pretty Boy"
"Cheater"
"A Young Man with Prospects"
"The Gold Bug"
"Ender's Stocking"
"Ender's Homecoming"
"Ender in Flight"
Ender Wiggin
Formics
Works by Orson Scott Card
The Tales of Alvin Maker
Seventh Son (1987)
Red Prophet (1988)
Prentice Alvin (1989)
Alvin Journeyman (1995)
Heartfire (1998)
The Crystal City (2003)
Master Alvin (TBA)
"Prentice Alvin and the No-Good Plow" (poem, 1989)
"The Grinning Man" (1998)
"The Yazoo Queen" (2003)
"Alvin and the Apple Tree" (2014)
Red Prophet: The Tales Of Alvin Maker (comic book, 2006)
Alvin's World (MMORPG, TBA)
Homecoming Saga
The Memory of Earth (1992)
The Call of Earth (1992)
The Ships of Earth (1994)
Earthfall (1995)
Earthborn (1995)
Women of Genesis
Sarah (2000)
Rebekah (2001)
Rachel and Leah (2004)
The Wives of Israel (TBA)
The Sons of Rachel (TBA)
Mithermages series
The Lost Gate (2011)
The Gate Thief (2013)
"Sandmagic" (1979)
"Stonefather" (2008)
Mayflower series
Lovelock (1994)
Rasputin (TBA)
The Worthing series
Capitol (1979)
Hot Sleep (1979)
The Worthing Chronicle (1983)
The Worthing Saga (1990)
"A Thousand Deaths"
"Skipping Stones"
"Second Chance"
"Lifeloop"
"Breaking the Game"
"Burning"
"Killing Children"
"And What Will We Do Tomorrow?"
"When No One Remembers His Name, Does God Retire?"
"The Stars That Blink"
"Worthing Farm"
"Worthing Inn"
"The Tinker"
The Empire duet
Empire (2006)
Hidden Empire (2009)
The Pathfinder series
Pathfinder (2010)
Ruins (2012)
A Planet Called Treason (1979)
Songmaster (1980)
Hart's Hope (1983)
Saints (1983)
Wyrms (1987)
Treason (1988)
Lost Boys (1992)
Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus (1996)
Treasure Box (1996)
Stone Tables (1997)
Homebody (1998)
Enchantment (1999)
Magic Street (2005)
Invasive Procedures (2007)
Bully and the Beast (TBA)
Unaccompanied Sonata and Other Stories (1980)
Cardography (1987)
The Folk of the Fringe (1989)
Maps in a Mirror (1990)
Waterbaby (2001)
Doorways (2002)
Keeper of Dreams (2008)
Eye for Eye (1990)
Magic Mirror (1999)
Robota (2003)
An Open Book (2004)
Ultimate Iron Man (2005)
The Space Boy (2007)
Hamlet's Father (2011)
Advent Rising (2005)
The Dig
Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show
Stories of Strength (2005)
Use mdy dates from February 2013
Novels by Orson Scott Card
Science fiction book series
Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, Orson Scott Card, Shadow of the Giant, Shadows in Flight
Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card, Dan Simmons, David Brin, Kim Stanley Robinson
Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card, Ender in Exile, Ender's Shadow, Ender's Game (series)
Ender's Game, Ender in Exile, Orson Scott Card, Ender's Shadow, Ender's Game (series)
Ender's Game, Ender in Exile, Orson Scott Card, Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Giant
Ender's Game, Ender in Exile, Orson Scott Card, Ender's Shadow, Earth Afire
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Sing-Sing Prison
Title: Sing-Sing Prison
Subject: George Westinghouse, Nuclear espionage, Jonny Zero
For other uses, see Sing-Sing (disambiguation).
Coordinates: 41°9′6″N 73°52′8″W / 41.15167°N 73.86889°W / 41.15167; -73.86889
Sing Sing Correctional Facility
Ossining, New York, United States
Security class
1826 (Completed in 1828)
Former name
Ossining Correctional Facility
New York State Department of Correctional Services
Wardens[1]
Elam Lynds (1825–1830)
Robert Wiltse (1830–1834)
David L. Seymour (1834–1843)
William H. Peck (1843–1845)
Hiram P. Rowell (1845–1848)
Chauncey Smith (1848–1849)
Edward L. Potter (January, 1849)
Alfred R. Booth (July, 1849)
Munson J. Lockwood (1850–1855)
C. A. Batterman (1855–1856)
William Beardsley (1856–1862)
Gaylord B. Hubbell (1862–1864)
Thomas E. Sutton (1864–1865)
Stephen H. Johnson (1865–1868)
David P. Forrest (1868–1869)
Henry C. Nelson (1869–1870)
E. M. Russell (1870–1872)
James Williamson (September 1874)
Alfred Walker (October 1874)
George R. Youngs (1876–1877)
Charles Davis (February 1877)
B. S. W. Clark (March 1877)
Charles Davis (1877–1880)
Augustus A. Brush (1880–1891)
W.R. Brown (1891–1893)
Charles F. Durston (1893–1894)
Omar V. Sage (1894–1899)
Addison Johnson (1899–1907)
Jesse D. Frost (1907–1911)
John S. Kennedy (1911–1913)
James Connaughton* (June 1913)
James M. Clancy (1913–1914)
Thomas McCormick (June 1914)
George Weed* (October 1914)
Thomas M. Osborne (1914–1915)
George W. Kirchwey (1915)
Thomas M. Osborne (July 1916)
Calvin Derrick (October 1916)
William H. Moyer (1916–1919)
Edward V. Brophy (April 1919)
Daniel J. Grant* (1919–1920)
Lewis E. Lawes (1920–1941)
Robert J. Kirby (1941–1944)
William F. Snyder (1944–1950)
Wilfred L. Denno (1950–1967)
John T. Deegan (1967–1969)
James L. Casscles (1969–1972)
Theodore Schubin (1972–1975)
Joseph Higgins* (July 1975)
Harold Butler (October 1975)
William G. Gard (1975–1977)
Walter Fogg* (August 1977)
Stephen Dalsheim (1977–1980)
Wilson E.J. Walters (1980–1983)
James E. Sullivan (1983–1988)
John P. Keane (1988–1997)
Charles Greiner (1997–2000)
Brian S. Fischer (2000–2007)
Louis Marshall (2007–2009)
Phillip Heath (2009–2012)
Michael Capra (2012-Present)
* = Acting
Sing Sing Correctional Facility is a maximum security prison[2] operated by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision in the town of Ossining, in the U.S. state of New York. It is located about 30 miles (50 km) north of New York City on the east bank of the Hudson River.
In 1970, the name of the facility was changed to "Ossining Correctional Facility" and, in 1985, it received its present name.[3] "Sing Sing," was derived from the name of a Native American Nation, "Sinck Sinck" (or "Sint Sinck"), from whom the land was purchased in 1685.[4]
The Sing Sing prison confines about 1,700 prisoners.[5] There are plans to convert the original 1825 cell block into a museum.[6]
1 The facility
2.2 20th century
2.3 21st century
3 Executions
4 Educational programs
5 Museum
6 Contribution to American English vernacular
The prison property is bisected by a four-track railroad line. There are four bridges over the tracks which connect the two halves of Sing Sing Correctional Facility. The northernmost bridge is a pedestrian crossing for employees which is outside the secure perimeter; this bridge is currently closed due to structural deficiencies. The next bridge southward contains utility lines such as steam pipes and electric lines. The 3rd bridge is a secure pedestrian bridge which can be used to move inmates from one side of the prison to the other. The southernmost bridge is a vehicle bridge inside the secure perimeter, which allows maintenance vehicles, shuttle buses and delivery trucks to move between sides without having to be re-inspected.[7]
Sing Sing was the third prison built by New York State. The first prison was built in 1797 in Greenwich Village and a second one in 1816 called Auburn State Prison.[8]
In 1824 the New York Legislature gave Elam Lynds, warden of Auburn Prison and a former Army captain, the task of constructing a new, more modern prison. Lynds spent months researching possible locations for the prison, considering Staten Island, The Bronx, and Silver Mine Farm, an area in the town of Mount Pleasant, located on the banks of the Hudson River.
He also visited New Hampshire, where a prison was successfully constructed by inmate labor, using stone that was available on-site. For this reason, by May, Lynds had finally decided on Mount Pleasant, located near a small village in Westchester County with the unlikely name of Sing Sing. This appellation was derived from the Native American words "Sinck Sinck" which translates to "stone upon stone".[9] The legislature appropriated $20,100 to purchase the 130-acre (0.53 km2) site, and the project received the official stamp of approval.[9] Lynds hand-selected 100 inmates from his own private stock for transfer and had them transported by barge along the Erie Canal to freighters down the Hudson River. On their arrival on May 14, the site was "without a place to receive them or a wall to enclose them"; "temporary barracks, a cook house, carpenter and blacksmith’s shops" were rushed to completion.[10][11]
When it was opened in 1826,[12] Sing Sing was considered a model prison, because it turned a profit for the state, and by October 1828 was finally completed.[8] Lynds employed the Auburn system, which imposed absolute silence on the prisoners; the system was enforced by whipping and other brutal punishments.
Thomas Mott Osborne's tenure as warden of Sing Sing prison was brief but dramatic. Osborne arrived in 1914 with a reputation as a radical prison reformer. His report of a week-long incognito stay inside New York's Auburn Prison indicted traditional prison administration in merciless detail.[13]
Prisoners who had bribed officers and intimidated other inmates lost their privileges under Osborne's regime. One of them conspired with powerful political allies to destroy Osborne's reputation, even succeeding in getting him indicted for a variety of crimes and maladministration. After Osborne triumphed in court, his return to Sing Sing was a cause for wild celebration by the inmates.[14][15]
Another notable warden was Lewis Lawes. He was offered the position of warden in 1919, accepted in January 1920, and remained for 20 years as Sing Sing's warden. While warden, Lawes brought about reforms and turned what was described as an "old hellhole" into a modern prison with sports teams, educational programs, new methods of discipline and more. Several new buildings were also constructed during the years Lawes was warden. Lawes retired in 1941 after 21 years as warden and died six years later.
In 1943, the old cellblock was finally closed and the metal bars and doors were donated to the war effort.[16][17]
In 1989, the institution was accredited for the first time by the American Correctional Association, which established a set of national standards by which every correctional facility should be judged.[18]
Today Sing Sing houses more than 2,000 inmates, with about 1,000 people working there and 5,000 visitors per month. The original 1825 cellblock is no longer used and in 2002 plans were announced to turn this into a museum.[19] In April 2011 there were talks of closing the prison in favor of real estate.[20]
For more details on this topic, see Capital punishment in New York.
Altogether, 614 men and women were executed at Sing Sing. Four inmates under federal death sentences were executed in the electric chair at Sing Sing. On June 19, 1953, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were electrocuted for espionage. On August 12, 1954, Gerhard A. Puff was electrocuted for murder.[21] The last prisoner to be executed in the electric chair was Eddie Lee Mays who was convicted of murder and executed on August 15, 1963.
In 1972, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Furman v. Georgia that the death penalty was unconstitutional and the chair was no longer used. The electric chair was later moved to Greenhaven Prison in working condition but was never used again.[22]
In 1996, Katherine Vockins founded Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) at Sing Sing.[23] RTA works in collaboration with theater professionals to provide prisoners with a curriculum of year-round theater-related workshops.[23] The RTA program has put on a number of plays at Sing Sing open to prisoners and community guests. The program has shown that the use of dramatic techniques leads to significant improvements in the cognitive behavior of the program's participants inside prison and a reduction in recidivism once paroled.[24] The impact of RTA on social and institutional behavior was formally evaluated by John Jay College for Criminal Justice, in collaboration with the NYS Department of Corrections.[25] Led by Dr. Lorraine Moller, Professor of Speech and Drama at John Jay, the study found that RTA had a positive impact on prisoners who participated in the program, showing that "the longer the inmate was in the program, the fewer violations he committed."[26] The RTA program currently operates at 5 other New York state prisons.[24]
Plans to turn part of Sing Sing into a museum go back to 2005, when local officials sought to turn the old power house into the museum, linked by a tunnel to a retired cell block, at a cost of $5 million.[28] In 2007, the village of Ossining applied for $12.5 million in federal money for the project, at the time expected to cost $14 million.[29] The proposed museum would display the Sing Sing story unfolded over time.[30]
Contribution to American English vernacular
The use of the expression "up the river" to mean "in prison" or "to prison" derives from the practice of sentencing people convicted in New York City to serve their prison terms in Sing Sing, which is literally "up the Hudson River" from the city. Its use dates from 1891.[31][32]
Sing Sing
The prison and workshops c.1863–1885.
A cell in the older facility
"Old Sparky", the electric chair at Sing Sing prison in the early 20th century.
The prison c.1913.
Old cell block c.1938.
New York portal
Prisons portal
Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum which contains one of Sing Sing's Electric Chairs
Wardens of Sing Sing
List of reduplicated place names
Barnes, Harry Elmer. The Repression of Crime, Studies in Historical Penology. Montclair, NJ: Patterson Smith.
Blumenthal, Ralph. Miracle at Sing Sing: How One Man Transformed the Lives of America's Most Dangerous Prisoners. (2005)
Brian, Denis. Sing Sing: The Inside Story of a Notorious Prison. (2005)
Brockway, Zebulon Reed. Fifty Years of Prison Service. Montclair, NJ: Patterson Smith.
Christianson, Scott. Condemned: Inside the Sing Sing Death House. (2000)
Conover, Ted. Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing (2000) ISBN 0-375-50177-0
Gado, Mark. Death Row Women. (2008) ISBN 978-0-275-99361-0
Goeway, David. Crash Out: The True Tale of a Hell's Kitchen Kid and the Bloodiest Escape in Sing Sing History. (2005)
Lawes, Lewis E.. Twenty Thousand Years in Sing Sing. New York: Ray Long & Richard H. Smith, Inc., 1932.
Lawes, Lewis E.. Life and Death in Sing Sing. Garden City, NY: Garden City Publishing Co., 1928
Morris, James McGrath. The Rose Man of Sing Sing: A True Tale of Life, Murder, and Redemption in the Age of Yellow Journalism.(2003)
Papa, Anthony. 15 to Life: How I Painted My Way To Freedom (2004) ISBN 1-932595-06-6
Pereira, Al Bermudez. Sing Sing State Prison, One Day, One Lifetime (2006) ISBN 978-0-8059-7290-0
Pereira, Al Bermudez. Ruins of a Society and the Honorable (2009) ISBN 978-0-578-04343-2
Weinstein, Lewis M. A Good Conviction. (2007) ISBN 1-59594-162-2 (fiction)
Commons has media related to Sing Sing.
New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision
The Crime Library
New York Corrections History Society
Town of Ossining, NY - Town History
"The History of Sing Sing Prison" Half Moon Press, May 2000 issue
Rehabilitation Through the Arts homepage
C-SPAN's Alexis de Tocqueville Tour
, June 6, 1997
Unedited footage from C-SPAN's Sing Sing documentary
New York State Department of Correctional Services prisons
Willard♂♀
Shock Facilities
Lakeview♂♀
Beacon♀
Camp Gabriels
Camp Georgetown
Camp Pharsalia
Edgecombe
Queensboro
Medium Security
Albion♀
Bare Hill
Butler ASACTC
Chateaugay ASACTC
Hale Creek ASACTC
Mid-Orange
Mt. McGregor
Taconic♀
Bedford Hills♀
Downstate
Great Meadow
Shawangunk
Arthur Kill
Bayview♀
Above facilities are male-only unless noted by ♀(female) or ♂♀ (unisex)
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Title: Sydney, Australia
Subject: Chaim Topol, Davy Jones (musician), Jerry Lewis, Lleyton Hewitt, Bodyline, Pentecostalism, Sydney underground railways, Thomas Henry Huxley, 1941, Hayley Wickenheiser
This article is about the Australian metropolis. For the local government area, see City of Sydney. For other uses, see Sydney (disambiguation).
Kirribilli
33°51′35.9″S 151°12′40″E / 33.859972°S 151.21111°E / -33.859972; 151.21111Coordinates: 33°51′35.9″S 151°12′40″E / 33.859972°S 151.21111°E / -33.859972; 151.21111
4,627,345 (2011)[1] (1st)
380/km2 (984.2/sq mi) (2013)[2]
12,144.6 km2 (4,689.1 sq mi)
AEST (UTC+10)
AEDT (UTC+11)
881 km (547 mi) NE of Melbourne
938 km (583 mi) S of Brisbane
286 km (178 mi) NE of Canberra
3,970 km (2,467 mi) E of Perth
1,406 km (874 mi) E of Adelaide
LGA(s)
State electorate(s)
Federal Division(s)
Mean max temp Mean min temp Annual rainfall
71 °F 13.8 °C
57 °F 1,212.8 mm
Sydney /ˈsɪdni/[3] is the state capital of New South Wales and the most populous city in Australia. It is on Australia's south-east coast, on the Tasman Sea. In June 2010 the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people.[1] Inhabitants of Sydney are called Sydneysiders, comprising a cosmopolitan and international population.[4]
The site of the first British colony in Australia, Sydney was established in 1788 at Sydney Cove by Arthur Phillip, commodore of the First Fleet, as a penal colony.[5] The city is built on hills surrounding Port Jackson, which is commonly known as Sydney Harbour, where the iconic Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge are prominent structures. The hinterland of the metropolitan area is surrounded by national parks, and the coastal regions feature many bays, rivers, inlets and beaches, including the famous Bondi and Manly beaches. Within the city are many notable parks, including Hyde Park and the Royal Botanic Gardens.
Sydney is a consistently high-ranking world city for quality of life. It is ranked the 2nd best city in the world in the 2013 Anholt-GfK City Brands Index.[6] It has hosted multiple major international sporting events, including the 1938 British Empire Games (now known as the Commonwealth Games), the 2000 Summer Olympics and the final of the 2003 Rugby World Cup. The main airport serving Sydney is Sydney Airport[7] and its main port is Port Botany. Fox Studios Australia has a headquarters there
2.1 Topography
2.2 Geology
3 Urban structure
3.1 Parks and open spaces
3.2 Architecture
6.1 Entertainment and performing arts
6.2 Tourism
6.3 Sport and outdoor activities
6.4 Media
9 Infrastructure
9.1 Health systems
9.3 Utilities
10 World cities rankings
Main article: History of Sydney
Radio carbon dating suggests that the Sydney region has been inhabited by indigenous Australians for at least 30,000 years.[8] The historic indigenous inhabitants of Sydney Cove are the Cadigal people, whose land once stretched from south of Port Jackson to Petersham.[9] While estimates of the population before the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788 remain contentious, an estimated 4,000–8,000 Aboriginal people lived in the Sydney region before contact with British settlers. The British called the indigenous people the "Eora";[10] when asked where they came from these people would answer: Eora, meaning "here", or "from this place" in their language.[9]
The three language groups in the Sydney region were divided into dialects, spoken by smaller clans. The principal languages were Darug (the Cadigal, inhabitants of the area of present-day City of Sydney, spoke a coastal dialect of Darug), Dharawal and Guringai. Each clan had a territory, and the location of each territory determined the resources available. Although urbanisation has destroyed much earlier evidence of these settlements, such as shell middens, a number of Sydney rock engravings, carvings and rock art remain visible in the Hawkesbury sandstone of the Sydney basin.[11]
In 1770, British sea captain Lieutenant James Cook landed at Botany Bay on the Kurnell Peninsula. Here Cook made first contact with an Aboriginal community known as the Gweagal.[12] Under instruction from the British government, Arthur Phillip founded a convict settlement in the area, arriving at Botany Bay with a fleet of 11 ships on 18 January 1788. Closer examination determined the site to be unsuitable for habitation, owing to poor soil and a lack of reliable fresh water. Phillip subsequently founded the colony one inlet further north along the coast, at Sydney Cove on Port Jackson on 26 January 1788. The official proclamation of the founding and naming of Sydney took place nearly two weeks later on 7 February 1788. The original name was intended to be Albion, but Phillip named the settlement after the British Home Secretary, Thomas Townshend, Lord Sydney, in recognition of Sydney's role in issuing the charter authorising Phillip to establish the colony.[13]
In April 1789, a catastrophic epidemic disease, now thought to be chickenpox, spread through the Eora people and surrounding groups, with the result that local Aborigines died by the thousands. Their bodies could often be seen bobbing in the water in Sydney Harbour.[14] The cause of the epidemic has always been a matter of controversy, but if it was chickenpox, an outbreak of shingles among the convicts was the most likely explanations. Because the Eora had no immunity to such Eurasian endemic diseases, the results were catastrophic for them. By the early 1800s, the Aboriginal population of the Sydney basin "had been reduced to only 10 percent of the 1788 estimate",[15] or an estimated 500 to 1000 Aboriginal people between Broken Bay and Botany Bay.[10]
Some indigenous people mounted violent resistance to British settlement, notably by the warrior Pemulwuy in the area around Botany Bay. Conflicts were common in the area surrounding the Hawkesbury River. By 1820 only a few hundred Aborigines survived. Governor Lachlan Macquarie had begun initiatives to 'civilise, Christianise and educate' the Aborigines by removing children from their clans and placing them with British households.[10] Macquarie's tenure as Governor of New South Wales was a period when Sydney was improved from its basic beginnings. Roads, bridges, wharves and public buildings were constructed by British and Irish convicts. By 1822 the town had banks, markets, well-established thoroughfares and an organised constabulary.
The 1830s and 1840s were periods of urban development, which included the first suburbs. The town grew rapidly with the arrival of British and Irish immigrants seeking a new life in a new country. On 20 July 1842 the municipal council of Sydney was incorporated. The town was designated as the first city in Australia, with John Hosking elected as its first mayor.[16] The first of several Australian gold rushes started in 1851. The port of Sydney has since been a destination for many waves of people immigrating from around the world.
Rapid suburban development began in the last quarter of the 19th century with the advent of steam-powered tramways and railways easing commutes to work. With industrialisation, Sydney expanded rapidly and, by the early 20th century, it had a population of more than a million. In 1929, the novelist Arthur Henry Adams called it the "Siren City of the South" and the "Athens of Australia".[17]
The Great Depression hit Sydney hard in comparison to other Australian cities.[18][19] One of the highlights of the Depression era, however, was the completion of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1932.[20]
There has been a rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne since the gold rushes of the 1850s made the latter, capital of Victoria, Australia's largest and richest city.[21] Sydney overtook Melbourne in population in the early years of the 20th century,[22] and continues to be the largest city in Australia. During the 1970s and 1980s, Sydney's central business district (CBD), with a great number of financial institutions including the headquarters of the Reserve Bank, surpassed Melbourne as the nation's financial capital.[23] Throughout the 20th century, especially in the decades immediately following World War II, Sydney continued to expand as large numbers of European and later Asian immigrants settled in the metropolitan area.
Main article: Geography of Sydney
Sydney's urban area is in a coastal basin, which is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the east, the Blue Mountains to the west, the Hawkesbury River to the north and the Royal National Park to the south. It lies on a submergent coastline, where the ocean level has risen to flood deep river valleys (ria) carved in the Hawkesbury sandstone. Port Jackson, better known as Sydney Harbour, is one such ria.[24] The Sydney area is not affected by significant earthquakes.
The urban area has nearly 70 harbour and ocean beaches, including the famous Bondi Beach. Sydney's urban area covers 1,687 km2 (651 sq mi) as of 2001.[25] The Sydney Statistical Division, used for census data, is the unofficial metropolitan area[26] and covers 12,145 km2 (4,689 sq mi).[27] This area includes the Central Coast, the Blue Mountains, and national parks and other unurbanised land.
Geographically, Sydney lies over two regions: the Cumberland Plain, a relatively flat region lying to the south and west of the harbour, and the Hornsby Plateau, a sandstone plateau lying mainly to the north of the harbour and dissected by steep valleys. The parts of the city with the oldest European development are located in the flat areas south of the harbour. The North Shore was slower to develop because of its hilly topography and lack of access across the harbour. The Sydney Harbour Bridge was opened in 1932 and linked the North Shore to the rest of the city.[28]
Main article: Sydney Basin
Sydney is mostly Triassic rock, with a some recent igneous dykes and the volcanic neck. The Hawkesbury sandstone is some 200 metres (660 ft) thick, with shale lenses and fossil riverbeds dotted throughout it. Almost all of the rocks exposed around Sydney will be sandstone. The sand that was to become this sandstone was washed from Broken Hill and laid down in the Triassic period, about two hundred million years ago, a time when plants were ferns, reptiles were becoming dinosaurs, and mammals did not yet exist. The Sydney Basin sits on the east coast of Australia, which is made up of a basin filled with near horizontal sandstones and shales of Permian to Triassic age that overlie older basement rocks of the Lachlan Fold Belt. The sedimentary rocks have been subject to uplift with gentle folding and minor faulting during the formation of the Great Dividing Range. Erosion by coastal streams have created a landscape of deep-cliffed gorges and remains of plateaus across. The Sydney Basin bioregion includes coastal landscapes of cliffs, beaches and estuaries.[29]
Sydney is situated on low, rolling hills with wide valleys, situated in a rain-shadow zone below the Blue Mountains.[30]
Further information: Climate of Sydney
Sydney has a temperate climate with warm summers and mild winters, with rainfall spread throughout the year.[31] The weather is moderated by proximity to the ocean, and more extreme temperatures are recorded in the inland western suburbs. The warmest month is January, with an average air temperature range at Observatory Hill of 18.6–25.9 °C (65.5–78.6 °F). An average of 14.6 days a year have temperatures of more than 30 °C (86.0 °F).
In winter, temperatures rarely drop below 5 °C (41 °F) in coastal areas. The coldest month is July, with an average range of 8.0–16.3 °C (46.4–61.3 °F). Rainfall is fairly evenly spread through the year, but is slightly higher during the first half of the year, when easterly winds dominate. The average annual rainfall, with moderate to low variability, is 1,214 mm (48 in), with rain falling on an average of 138 days a year.[32] Snowfall was last reported in the Sydney City area in 1836, while a fall of graupel, or soft hail, mistaken by many for snow,in July 2008, has raised the possibility that the 1836 event was not snow, either.[33][34] Extreme temperatures have ranged from 45.8 °C (114.4 °F) on 18 January 2013 to 2.1 °C (35.8 °F), the lowest recorded minimum at Observatory Hill.[35]
The city is not affected by cyclones, although remnants of ex-cyclones do affect the city. The El Niño–Southern Oscillation plays an important role in determining Sydney's weather patterns: drought and bushfire on the one hand, and storms and flooding on the other, associated with the opposite phases of the oscillation. Many areas of the city bordering bushland have experienced bushfires, these tend to occur during the spring and summer. The city is also prone to severe hail storms and wind storms. One such storm was the 1999 hailstorm, which severely damaged Sydney's eastern and city suburbs. The storm produced massive hailstones of at least 9 cm (3.5 in) in diameter and resulting in insurance losses of around A$1.7 billion in less than five hours.[36] The next notable event was in the first weeks of February 2010 when Sydney received some of the highest rainfalls in 25 years, which caused flash flooding and traffic chaos.[36]
The Bureau of Meteorology has reported that 2002 through 2005 were the warmest summers in Sydney since records began in 1859.[37] The summer of 2007–2008, however, proved to be one of the coolest summers on record.[38] Warmer and drier conditions came back in 2009 and 2010, when above-average temperatures were recorded. In 2009, the dry conditions brought a severe dust storm towards eastern Australia.[39][40] In 2011, above-average rainfall was recorded.[41] On 18 January 2013, Sydney experienced record-breaking temperatures with 45.8 °C (114 °F) recorded at Observatory Hill and 46.4 °C (116 °F) at Sydney Airport.[42]
The average annual temperature of the sea is above 21 °C (70 °F), and the monthly average ranges from 19 °C (66 °F) in July to 24 °C (75 °F) in January.[43]
Climate data for Sydney
Rainfall mm (inches)
(3.055) 1,214
Avg. rainy days
Mean daily sunshine hours
7.1 6.7 6.4 6.4 5.9 5.5 6.4 7.1 7.2 7.2 7.8 7.6 6.8
Source #1: Bureau of Meteorology[44]
Source #2: [45]
Urban structure
Sydney's Central Business District (CBD) extends southwards for about 3 kilometres (2 mi) from Sydney Cove to the area around Central station. The Sydney CBD is bounded on the east side by a chain of parkland, and the west by Darling Harbour, a tourist and nightlife precinct. Although the CBD dominated the city's business and cultural life in the early days, other business/cultural districts have developed in a radial pattern since World War II. As a result, the proportion of white-collar jobs located in the CBD declined from more than 60 per cent at the end of World War II to less than 30 per cent in 2004.
Together with the commercial district of North Sydney, joined to the CBD by the Harbour Bridge, the most significant outer business districts are Parramatta[46] in the central-west, Penrith[47] in the west, Bondi Junction in the east, Liverpool[48] in the southwest, Chatswood to the north, and Hurstville to the south.
The extensive area covered by urban Sydney is formally divided into 649[49] suburbs (for addressing and postal purposes), and administered as 40[50] local government areas. There is no metropolitan-wide government, but the government of New South Wales and its agencies have extensive responsibilities in providing metropolitan services.[51] The City of Sydney itself covers a fairly small area comprising the central business district and its neighbouring inner-city suburbs. In addition, regional descriptions are used informally to conveniently describe larger sections of the urban area. These include Canterbury-Bankstown, the Eastern Suburbs, the Forest District, Greater Western Sydney, the Hills District, the Inner West, the Macarthur region, the Northern Beaches, the Northern Suburbs, the North Shore, Southern Sydney, South-western Sydney, the St George district, the Sutherland Shire and Western Sydney.
Sydney Tower.
Sydney CBD panorama from Taronga Zoo, North Sydney.
Sydney is well-endowed with open spaces and access to waterways, and has many natural areas (botanic gardens and parks), even in the city centre. Within the CBD are the Chinese Garden of Friendship, Sydney Park, Hyde Park, The Domain and the Royal Botanic Gardens.
The metropolitan area also contains prominent parks and gardens, such as the Auburn Botanical Gardens,[52] and national parks, including the Royal National Park, the second oldest national park in the world, Ku-ring-gai Chase and several parks in Sydney's far west which are part of the World Heritage listed Greater Blue Mountains Area.[53]
The Domain was established by Governor Arthur Phillip, just six months after the arrival of the first fleet. Originally established as being exclusive to Governors, it was opened to the public in the 1830s. Hyde Park was dedicated on 13 October 1810 by Governor Macquarie for the "recreation and amusement of the inhabitants of the town and a field of exercises for the troops". Hyde Park is named in honour of the original Hyde Park in London, England. Containing over 580 trees, it is located in the eastern section of the inner city district.
To celebrate the first 100 years of European settlement, Centennial Park—also a residential area—was dedicated by Sir Henry Parkes in January 1888. It is the largest open space in the city, occupying 220 hectares. Similarly, Bicentennial Park was opened on 1 January 1988 to commemorate 200 years since European settlement.[54] 1988's Bicentennial celebrations also saw the opening of the Chinese Garden of Friendship, designed by the City of Sydney's Chinese sister city Guangzhou.
Sydney has various heritage listed buildings, including Parliament House (1816), Sydney Town Hall (1889), the Queen Victoria Building (1898), and the Australian Museum. There is no particular architecture style that entirely characterises the whole of Sydney. Prominent styles include Gothic Revival, Georgian, Classical, Romanesque, Italianate, Federation, Edwardian, Second Empire, Queen Anne, as well as more contemporary styles. The first substantial buildings designed for Sydney were by transported convict Francis Greenway, who designed such buildings and structures as the Macquarie Lighthouse, Hyde Park Barracks, St James' King Street and Government House.[55]
Other prominent architects were James Barnet, who designed the General Post Office (1891), The Customs House (1845), and various court houses; and Edmund Blacket, who designed the Gothic revival style St. Andrew's Cathedral and St Philip's Church.
More contemporary architecture includes the Sydney Opera House (1973), designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon.[56] Described as an "artistic monument", it is one of the most recognisable landmarks in both Sydney and Australia and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.[57] The upcoming One Central Park (2013) urban renewal development will be a prominent example of green design in Australian buildings and will feature vertical gardens.
Residential architectural styles vary, with Victorian terrace houses being most common in the inner city regions, while single detached family homes with mid to large gardens are prevalent in the suburbs. Harry Seidler built modernist homes and skyscrapers in Sydney, and designed prominent buildings such as the MLC Centre, the Capita Centre, and Australia Square. Seidler's designs contrasted with the "Sydney school" of the 1950s and 1960s, who favoured more natural and organic designs, often hidden from view in bushland. This style of architecture often utilised natural local materials as structural elements.[58] These views were shared by Glenn Murcutt, who believed that a building should blend in with its environment.
Sydney has the largest skyline in Australia.[59] The very first skyscraper built in the city was Culwulla Chambers, on the corner of King Street and Castlereagh Street to a height of 50 meters. It was designed by Spain, Cosh and Minnett and consisted of 14 floors. This had been preceded by various lower structures in the late 1910s and 1920s, notably the grey sandstone Commercial Travelers Club Building on Martin Place (demolished in the 1970s) and the Commercial Pallazo style Trust Building on Castlereagh Street, both of significant height for their time. Regulations limit future buildings to the height of 235 metres, in part due to the proximity of Sydney Airport. As of 2012, the city has a total of 914 high-rise buildings, with 20 under construction, 105 planned and 36 at proposal stage.[60]
Main article: Economy of Sydney
As the financial and economic hub of Australia, Sydney has grown to become a wealthy and prosperous city and its residents enjoy the world's second highest earnings when measured using domestic purchasing power, among world cities. The largest economic sectors in Sydney, as measured by the number of people employed, include property and business services, retail, manufacturing, and health and community services.[61] Since the 1980s, jobs have moved from manufacturing to the services and information sectors. Sydney provides approximately 25 percent of the country's total GDP.[62] The Australian Securities Exchange and the Reserve Bank of Australia are located in Sydney, as are the headquarters of 90 banks and more than half of Australia's top companies, and the regional headquarters for around 500 multinational corporations.[62]
Of the ten largest corporations in Australia by revenue,[63] four have headquarters in Sydney: Caltex Australia, the Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, and Woolworths. Of the 54 authorised deposit-taking banks in Australia, 44 are based in Sydney including nine of the 11 foreign subsidiary banks in Australia and all of the 29 local branches of foreign banks. Major authorised foreign banks in Sydney include Citigroup, UBS Australia, Mizuho Corporate Bank, HSBC Bank Australia and Deutsche Bank. Shopping locations in Sydney include Pitt Street, George Street, King Street, Market Street, and Castlereagh Street, shopping complexes such as the Queen Victoria Building and Westfield Sydney, arcades such as The Strand Arcade and Mid City Centre, and department stores such as Myer and David Jones, all of which are in the shopping district in the city centre, a place to find major international brand name labels. Also in the city centre is Chinatown, which includes Paddys Markets, which is Sydney's city markets, a place for bargain hunting.
Outside the city centre there are a number of other shopping destinations of interest. Inner eastern suburbs such as Potts Point, Darlinghurst and Surry Hills provide a diverse range of shops for the culturally creative and alternative lifestyle groups that live there, whilst other inner eastern areas like Paddington and Woollahra are home to boutiques selling more niche products. Inner western suburbs like Newtown and Glebe cater more towards students and alternative lifestyles. Double Bay in Sydney's harbourside eastern suburbs is an upmarket area known for its expensive boutiques. Seaside areas, including Bondi Beach in the eastern beaches area and Manly in the northern beaches area, have a retail scene based upon their beach locations, with many surfing and surfer style clothing shops. Sydney received 7.8 million domestic visitors and 2.5 million international visitors in 2004.[64] In 2007, the (then) Premier of New South Wales, Morris Iemma established Events New South Wales to "market Sydney and NSW as a leading global events destination". Business Events Sydney, formerly known as Sydney Convention and Visitors Bureau, also markets Sydney and New South Wales as a destination for Australian and international business meetings, incentives, conventions and exhibitions. Fox Studios Australia has large film studios in the city.
As of 2013, the unemployment rate in Sydney was 5.6 percent. According to The Economist Intelligence Unit's Worldwide cost of living survey, Sydney is the sixteenth most expensive city in the world, while a UBS survey ranks Sydney as 7th in the world in terms of net earnings.[65] As of September 2009, Sydney has the highest median house price of any Australian capital city at $636,822,[66] and a median unit price of $500,000.[67] Sydney also has the highest median rent prices of any Australian city at $450 a week. The Sydney Region accounts for 12 percent (approximately $1 billion per annum) of the total agricultural production, by value, of NSW.[68] Sydney provides 55% of NSW's flower production and 58% of its turf production, as well as 44% of the state's nurseries.[69] In 1994–1995 Sydney produced 44% of New South Wales' poultry meat and 48% of the state's eggs.[70]
Main article: Demographics of Sydney
The ten largest overseas born populations[72]
United Kingdom 175,166
People's Republic of China 109,142
New Zealand 81,064
Vietnam 62,144
Lebanon 54,502
Philippines 52,087
Italy 44,563
Hong Kong 36,866
South Korea 32,124
The 2006 census reported 4,119,190 residents in the Sydney Statistical Division,[73] of which 3,641,422 lived in Sydney's Urban Centre.[74] Inner Sydney was the most densely populated place in Australia with 4,023 inhabitants per square kilometre (10,420 /sq mi).[75] In the 2006 census, the most common self-described ancestries identified for Sydney residents were Australian, English, Irish, Scottish, and Chinese.[76] The Census also recorded that 1.1% of Sydney's population identified as being of indigenous origin, and 31.7% were born overseas.[73]
Asian Australians made up 18.8% of the population in Sydney's Urban Centre and 16.9% of the wider Statistical Division.[77] The three major sources of immigrants are the United Kingdom, China and New Zealand, followed by Vietnam, Lebanon, India, Italy, and the Philippines.[73] Many residents are native speakers of English; many have a second language, the most common being Arabic (predominantly Lebanese Arabic), Cantonese, Mandarin, Greek and Vietnamese.[73] Sydney has the seventh-largest percentage of foreign-born individuals in the world.[78] Immigrants account for 75% of Sydney's annual population growth.[79]
The median age of Sydney residents is 36; 15.4% of the population is over 65 years old.[80] 15.2% of residents have educational attainment equal to at least a bachelor's degree,[81] In the 2011 census, 60.9% of the residents identified themselves as Christians, 17.6% had no religion, 7.6% left the question blank, 4.7% were Muslims, 4.1% were Buddhists, 2.6% were Hindus, 0.9% were Jewish and 1.6% were another religion.[82]
Main article: Culture of Sydney
As a dynamic cultural hub, Sydney has many fine and internationally known museums, galleries and art spaces, such as the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the White Rabbit Gallery, CarriageWorks, Brett Whiteley Studio, Museum of Sydney and the Powerhouse Museum, in addition to a thriving commercial gallery scene of contemporary art, mainly in the inner-city areas of Waterloo, Surry Hills, Darlinghurst, Paddington, Chippendale, Newtown and Woollahra.
Sydney hosts many different festivals and some of Australia's largest social and cultural events. These include the Sydney Festival, Australia's largest arts festival which is a celebration involving both indoor and free outdoor performances throughout January; the Biennale of Sydney dedicated to international and Australian contemporary art; the Big Day Out, a travelling rock-music festival which originated in Sydney; the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras along Oxford Street; the Sydney Film Festival and many other smaller film festivals such as the short film Tropfest and Flickerfest. Sculpture by the Sea, Australia's largest outdoor sculpture exhibit, began at Bondi Beach in 1996. Vivid Sydney, an annual outdoor festival featuring lit up art installations, light projections, music and ideas began in 2009.
Australia's premier prize for portraiture, the Archibald Prize is organised by the Art Gallery of New South Wales. The Sydney Royal Easter Show is held every year at Sydney Olympic Park, the final of Australian Idol takes place on the steps of the Opera House, and Australian Fashion Week takes place in April/May and September. Sydney's New Year's Eve and Australia Day celebrations are the largest in Australia.
A survey based on tracking the frequency of words and phrases in the media, cited Sydney as number 9 on a list of the world's top fashion cities in 2009.[83] The city is the site of the world renowned Rosemount Australian Fashion Week, which occurs biannually, and is home to many of Australia's premier fashion houses. Most international designers have a major presence in Sydney and Australia's Next Top Model is one of the most watched shows on national television.
Entertainment and performing arts
Sydney's cultural institutions include the Sydney's famous Opera House. It has five halls, including a large concert hall and opera and drama theatres; it is the home of Opera Australia—the third-busiest opera company in the world, and the Sydney Symphony under the leadership of Vladimir Ashkenazy.[84] Other venues include the Sydney Town Hall, City Recital Hall, the State Theatre, the Theatre Royal, Sydney, the Sydney Theatre and the Wharf Theatre, the Capitol Theatre and the Lyric and Star Theatres at The Star. The Sydney Conservatorium of Music is located adjacent to the Royal Botanic Gardens and serves the Australian music community through music education and biannual Australian Music Examinations Board exams. The Sydney Dance Company was under the leadership of Graeme Murphy during the late 20th century. The Sydney Theatre Company has a regular roster of local plays, such as noted playwright David Williamson, classics and international playwrights. In 2007, The New Theatre celebrated 75 years of continuous production in Sydney. Other important theatre companies in Sydney include Company B and Griffin Theatre Company. From the 1940s through to the 1970s the Sydney Push, a group of authors and political activists whose members included Germaine Greer, influenced the city's cultural life. The National Institute of Dramatic Art, based in Kensington, boasts internationally famous alumni such as Mel Gibson, Judy Davis, Baz Luhrmann and Cate Blanchett. Sydney's role in the film industry has increased since the opening of Fox Studios Australia in 1998.
There have been many prominent films that have used Sydney as a filming location or setting. The Great Gatsby, the most recent Hollywood production shot in Sydney, is expected to earn the New South Wales economy $120 million, with the shoot estimated to last seventeen weeks and another thirty weeks to be spent on post-production.[85][86] Additionally, many Bollywood movies have also been filmed in Sydney including Singh Is Kinng, Bachna Ae Haseeno, Chak De! India, Heyy Babyy. As of 2006, over 229 films have been set in, or featured Sydney.[87] Sydney's most popular nightspots include Kings Cross, Oxford Street, Darling Harbour, Circular Quay and The Rocks, which all contain various bars, nightclubs and restaurants. The Star is Sydney's only casino and is situated around Darling Harbour. There are many traditional pubs, cafes and restaurants in inner-city areas such as Newtown, Balmain, Leichhardt and Surry Hills. Sydney's main live music hubs include areas such as Newtown and Annandale, which nurtured acts such as AC/DC, Bliss n Eso, Sparkadia, Midnight Oil and INXS. Other popular nightspots tend to be spread throughout the city in areas such as Bondi, Manly, Cronulla and Parramatta.
Main article: Tourism in Sydney
In the year ending 2012, Sydney received a total of 10.5 million international and domestic visitors, which injected $11.7 billion into the state of New South Wales' economy.[88] The most well-known attractions include the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Other attractions include Royal Botanical Gardens, Luna Park, Darling Harbour, some 40 beaches and Sydney Tower.[89] The New South Wales Government operates two programs relevant to Sydney as part of the NSW Tourism Strategy, they are: Brand Sydney (to revitalise and strengthen the image and appeal of Sydney) and Visit Sydney (to increase promotion of Sydney as a tourist destination through a strengthened dedicated business unit within Destination NSW).
Sydney also has several popular museums, such as the Australian Museum (natural history and anthropology), the Powerhouse Museum (science, technology and design), the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Australian National Maritime Museum.[90]
Sport and outdoor activities
Sport is an important part of Sydney's culture. Sydney is the only city other than Melbourne and Brisbane to have an elite presence in the 4 major football codes of Australia – rugby league, Australian rules football, rugby union and soccer. Prominent sporting venues in Sydney include the Sydney Cricket Ground or SCG, ANZ Stadium, the Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney Motorsport Park, Royal Randwick and Rosehill Gardens Racecourse. Large sporting events such as the NRL Grand Final and Bledisloe Cup games are regularly held at the ANZ Stadium, the main stadium for the 2000 Summer Olympics.
The most popular sport in Sydney is Association Football. The A-league (today known as the A-league) began in Sydney in the 1908 season and is the largest and most prestigious domestic football competition in the Southern Hemisphere.[91] The city is home to nine of the sixteen teams in the National Rugby League competition: the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks, Manly Sea Eagles, Penrith Panthers, Parramatta Eels, South Sydney Rabbitohs, St George Illawarra Dragons, Sydney Roosters and Wests Tigers. The New South Wales rugby league team contests the annual State of Origin series against the Queensland Maroons, with at least one game each series played in Sydney. Rugby Union is represented by the NSW Waratahs in the elite Southern Hemisphere Super Rugby competition. The Suburban rugby competition is the Shute Shield which provides many Super 15 players. High profile Wallabies games are held in Sydney such as the Bledisloe Cup, Tri Nations matches, British and Irish Lions games, and most notably the final of the 2003 Rugby World Cup against England.
Cricket is the most popular summer sport in Sydney. The Ashes Series between Australia and England is widely popular among the people. As the state capital, Sydney is also the home of the NSW Blues cricket team in the Sheffield Shield cricket competition, as well as the Sydney Sixers and Sydney Thunder in the Big Bash Twenty20 competition. Sydney Cricket Ground and ANZ Stadium host both domestic and international cricket matches. The city has also hosted games in the 1992 Cricket World Cup and will also host games in the 2015 Cricket World Cup. The Sydney Cricket Ground is at present the only test venue in the city. Plans are going on to accommodate ANZ Stadium as an international cricket venue for Australia.
Soccer is represented by Sydney FC of the A-League. The second tier competitions NSWPL and NSW Super League provide many players to the A-League. Sydney also hosts major soccer events of the national team, the Socceroos, most notably the World Cup Qualifier against Uruguay in 2005.
Australian rules football is considerably less popular in Sydney than in many other regions of Australia. The sport's premier competition, the Australian Football League, includes two teams based in Sydney — the Sydney Swans and the Greater Western Sydney Giants. The city also has a number of teams in the state's second tier competition, the North East Australian Football League.
The city is represented in National Basketball League by the Sydney Kings. A women's team, the Sydney Uni Flames, compete in the Women's National Basketball League.
Sydney also has a women's netball team (Swifts), a ABL baseball team (Sydney Blue Sox), a field hockey team (Waratahs), two ice hockey teams (Penrith Bears and Sydney Ice Dogs)
The city plays host to the Australian Drag Racing Nationals each year at Sydney Dragway.[92] Other events in Sydney include the start of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, the Golden Slipper horse race, and the City2urf race.
Main article: Media in Sydney
Sydney has two main daily newspapers. The Sydney Morning Herald is the oldest extant newspaper in Australia, having been published regularly since 1831. The Herald's competitor, The Daily Telegraph, is a News Corporation-owned tabloid. Both papers have tabloid counterparts published on Sunday, The Sun-Herald and the Sunday Telegraph, respectively.
The three commercial television networks (Seven, Nine, Ten), as well as the government national broadcast services (ABC and SBS) are headquartered in Sydney. Also a community television station, TVS, broadcasts in the Sydney area. Historically, the networks have been based in the northern suburbs, but the last decade has seen several move to the inner city. Nine has kept its headquarters north of the harbour, in Willoughby. Ten has its studios in a redeveloped section of the inner-city suburb of Pyrmont, and Seven also has headquarters in Pyrmont, production studios at Epping as well as a purpose-built news studio in Martin Place in the CBD.
The ABC has a large headquarters and production facility in the inner-city suburb of Ultimo and SBS has its studios at Artarmon. Foxtel and Optus both supply pay-TV over their cable services to most parts of the urban area, and both have their national headquarters in the Northern suburb of North Ryde.[93][94]
The five free-to-air networks have provided digital television transmissions in Sydney since January 2000. There are also nine additional Freeview Digital Services. These include ABC2, ABC3, ABC News 24, SBS Two, 7Two, 7mate, GO!, GEM HD, ONE HD, Eleven and TVS.
Many AM and FM government, commercial and community radio services broadcast in the Sydney area. The local ABC radio station is 702 ABC Sydney (formerly 2BL).[95] The talkback radio genre is dominated by the perennial rivals 2GB and 2UE. Popular Music radio stations include Triple M, 2Day FM and Nova 96.9, which generally target people under 40. In the older end of the music radio market, Mix 106.5 target the 25–54 age group, Smooth 95.3 targets the 35–54 age group and WS-FM targets the 40–54 age group with their Classic Hits format mostly focusing on the 70s and 80s. Triple J (ABC), 2SER and FBi Radio provide a more independent, local and alternative sound. There are also a number of community stations broadcasting to a particular language group or local area.[96]
On 1 July 2009, DAB+ Digital Radio officially started. ABC and commercial radios provide full programming.[97]
Apart from the limited role of the Cumberland County Council from 1945–1964, there has never been an overall governing body for the Sydney metropolitan area; instead, the metropolitan area is divided into local government areas (LGAs, commonly: 'councils' and 'shires') which are comparable to boroughs in cities such as London. These areas have elected councils which are responsible for functions delegated to them by the New South Wales State Government, such as planning and garbage collection.
The City of Sydney includes the central business area and some adjoining inner suburbs, and has in recent years been expanded through amalgamation with adjoining local government areas, such as South Sydney. It is led by the elected Lord Mayor of Sydney and a council. The Lord Mayor, however, is sometimes treated as a representative of the whole city, for example during the Olympics.[98]
Most citywide government activities are controlled by the state government. These include public transport, main roads, traffic control, policing, education above preschool level, and planning of major infrastructure projects.[99] Because a large proportion of the New South Wales population lives in Sydney, state governments have traditionally been reluctant to allow the development of citywide governmental bodies, which would tend to rival the state government. For this reason, Sydney has always been a focus for the politics of both state and federal parliaments. For example, the boundaries of the City of Sydney LGA have been significantly altered by state governments on at least four occasions since 1945, with expected advantageous effect to the governing party in the New South Wales Parliament at the time.[100]
According to the New South Wales Division of Local Government, the 38 LGAs making up Sydney are:[101][102]
Bankstown
Holroyd
Hunter's Hill
Ku-ring-gai
Marrickville
Pittwater
Warringah
Woollahra
The classification of which councils make up Sydney varies. The Local Government Association of New South Wales considers all LGAs lying entirely in Cumberland County as part of its 'Metro' group, which excludes Camden (classed in its 'Country' group).[103] The Australian Bureau of Statistics defines a Sydney Statistical Division (the population figures of which are used in this article) that includes all of the above councils as well as Wollondilly, the Blue Mountains, Hawkesbury, Gosford and Wyong.[104]
Main article: Education in Sydney
Sydney is home to some of Australia's most prominent educational institutions.[105] The University of Sydney, established in 1850, is Australia's oldest university, and is the largest and highest ranked university in Sydney and New South Wales.[106][107] Other public universities located in Sydney include the University of Technology, Sydney, the University of New South Wales, Macquarie University, the University of Western Sydney and the Australian Catholic University (two out of six campuses). Other universities which operate secondary campuses in Sydney include the University of Notre Dame Australia, the University of Wollongong and Curtin University of Technology.
There are four multi-campus government-funded Technical and Further Education (TAFE) institutes in Sydney, which provide vocational training at a tertiary level: the Sydney Institute of Technology, Northern Sydney Institute of TAFE, Western Sydney Institute of TAFE and South Western Sydney Institute of TAFE. Sydney has public, denominational and independent schools. Public schools, including pre-schools, primary and secondary schools, and special schools are administered by the New South Wales Department of Education and Training. There are four state-administered education areas in Sydney, that together co-ordinate 919 schools. Of the 30 selective high schools in the state, 25 are in Sydney.[108]
Health services in Sydney are delivered through a mix of public and private systems, funded by government (from tax revenue) and private health insurance. The Local Health Districts (LHDs). These eight LHDs cover the Sydney metropolitan region, and seven more cover rural and regional NSW. In addition, two specialist networks focus on Children's and Paediatric Services, and Forensic Mental Health. A third network operates across the public health services provided in three Sydney facilities operated by St Vincent's Health: these include St Vincent's Hospital and the Sacred Heart Hospice at Darlinghurst and St Joseph’s at Auburn.
The largest teaching hospitals are: the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, The Prince of Wales Hospital and the Royal North Shore Hospital, Westmead Hospital, and Liverpool Hospital.
Main article: Public transport in Sydney
Road transport and the motor vehicle are the main form of transports. The road system consists of an extensive network of freeways and toll roads (known as motorways). The most important trunk roads in the metropolitan area are the nine Metroads, which include the 110 km (68 mi) Sydney Orbital Network. According to the 2006 Census, 85% of households own at least one automobile at an average of 1.5 per household and there are a total of over 2.1 million cars in the metropolitan area. Almost a third of the metropolitan area is dedicated to driving and parking.[109] 61.8% of all Sydneysiders travel to work as either driver or passenger with a total of over 350,000 cars using the road infrastructure simultaneously during rush hour, causing significant traffic congestion.[109]
Public transport in Sydney consists of an extensive network of road transport as well as rail transport and water transport modes. According to the 2006 Census, in terms of travel to work or study Sydney has the highest rate of public transport usage among the Australian capital cities of 26.3%.[110] According to the New South Wales State Plan, the state has Australia's largest public transport system.
Trains in Sydney are run by Transport for NSW, a statutory authority of the State of New South Wales. Trains run as suburban commuter rail services in the outer suburbs, then converge in an underground city loop service in the central business district. In the years following the 2000 Olympics, CityRail's performance declined significantly.[111] In 2005, CityRail introduced a revised timetable and employed more drivers.[112] A large infrastructure project, the Clearways project, is scheduled to be completed by 2010.[113][114][115] In 2007 a report found Cityrail performed poorly compared to many metro services from other world cities.[116] Figures released by RailCorp show that during the period of 2011/2012, 95.4% of trains arrived on time[117] and 99.6% of services ran as scheduled.[118] However, a survey conducted in September 2011 revealed that 6 of the 13 lines had a maximum load that exceeded 135% (of the seated capacity) during the peak morning commute.[119]
Sydney was once served by one of the largest tram networks in the world, with routes covering 181 miles, but this was closed in February 1961.[120] Sydney has one modern light rail line, the Inner West line, running from Central Railway Station to inner western suburb of Lilyfield, mostly along the route of a former goods train line. The operation of the Sydney Monorail, which ran in a loop around the main shopping district and Darling Harbour ceased operations in June 2013 and is in currently undergoing dismantlement. Most parts of the metropolitan area are served by buses. In the city and inner suburbs the state-owned Sydney Buses has a monopoly. Many of Sydney Buses routes follow the pre-1961 tram routes. In the outer suburbs, service is contracted to many private bus companies. Sydney has two rapid bus transitways called T-ways, built in areas of the western suburbs not previously well served by public transport. State government-owned Sydney Ferries runs numerous commuter and tourist ferry services on Sydney Harbour and the Parramatta River.[121] A rapid transit line is currently in planning stages.[122]
Sydney Airport, in the suburb of Mascot, is Sydney's main airport, and is one of the oldest continually operated airports in the world.[123] The smaller Bankstown Airport mainly serves private and general aviation. There is a light aviation airfield at Camden. RAAF Base Richmond lies to the north-west of the city. The question of the need for a Second Sydney Airport has raised much controversy. A 2003 study found that Sydney Airport can manage as Sydney's sole international airport for 20 years, with a significant increase in airport traffic predicted.[124] The resulting expansion of the airport would have a substantial impact on the community, including additional aircraft noise affecting residents. Land has been acquired at Badgerys Creek for a second airport, the site acting as a focal point of political argument.[125]
Water storage and supply for Sydney is managed by the Sydney Catchment Authority, which is an agency of the NSW Government that sells bulk water to Sydney Water and other agencies. Water in the Sydney catchment is chiefly stored in dams in the Upper Nepean Scheme, the Blue Mountains, Woronora Dam, Warragamba Dam and the Shoalhaven Scheme.[126] Historically low water levels in the catchment have led to water use restrictions and the NSW government is investigating alternative water supply options, including grey water recycling and the construction of a seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant at Kurnell.[127] As of May 2009, the plant was 80% completed, and was due to start supplying fresh water to Sydney at the end of the year.[128] In late January 2010, the NSW government announced that desalination plant was operating and people in different regions were being supplied with desalinated water. Sydney Water also collects the wastewater and sewage produced by the city.
Two distributors supply electricity to Sydney: Ausgrid (previously Energy Australia), and Endeavour Energy (previously Integral Energy). There are several retailers including TRUenergy, Origin Energy, AGL Energy, Lumo Energy and others. Several companies supply natural gas to Sydney through retailers: AGL, TRUenergy, Origin Energy and others. The natural gas supply for the city is sourced from the Cooper Basin in South Australia. Numerous telecommunications companies operate in Sydney providing terrestrial and mobile telecommunications services.
World cities rankings
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Sydney is classified as an Alpha+ World City by the Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) study group, indicating its influence in the region and throughout the world,[129] ranking among the top global cities in the world.[130][131][132][133] In 2010, Sydney was ranked 7th in Asia and 28th globally for economic innovation in the Innovation Cities Top 100 Index by innovation agency 2thinknow.[134] In 2013 The Wealth Report ranked Sydney as the seventh most economically important city in the world.[135]The Anholt-GfK City Brands Index placed Sydney as the 2nd best city in the world.[136]
Sydney also ranks among the top 10 most liveable cities in the world according to Mercer Human Resource Consulting, The Economist and Monocle[137][138][139] and is considered among the top fashion capitals in the world.[140] It was also ranked in the top 10 global university cities according to RMIT University[141]—which limited its selection to cities already ranked in its list of the "top 100 most liveable cities".
The Economist Intelligence Unit 2013 worldwide cost of living index placed Sydney as the third most expensive city in the world to live in behind Tokyo and Osaka.[142]
Dictionary of Sydney
Crime in Sydney
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AFL: Sydney Swans · Greater Western Sydney Giants
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ANZ Championship: New South Wales Swifts
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Main article: Sport in Sydney
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Title: X-ray Diffraction
Subject: XRD, Borra Caves
X-ray crystallography is a method used for determining the atomic and molecular structure of a crystal, in which the crystalline atoms cause a beam of X-rays to diffract into many specific directions. By measuring the angles and intensities of these diffracted beams, a crystallographer can produce a three-dimensional picture of the density of electrons within the crystal. From this electron density, the mean positions of the atoms in the crystal can be determined, as well as their chemical bonds, their disorder and various other information.
Since many materials can form crystals—such as salts, metals, minerals, semiconductors, as well as various inorganic, organic and biological molecules—X-ray crystallography has been fundamental in the development of many scientific fields. In its first decades of use, this method determined the size of atoms, the lengths and types of chemical bonds, and the atomic-scale differences among various materials, especially minerals and alloys. The method also revealed the structure and function of many biological molecules, including vitamins, drugs, proteins and nucleic acids such as DNA. X-ray crystallography is still the chief method for characterizing the atomic structure of new materials and in discerning materials that appear similar by other experiments. X-ray crystal structures can also account for unusual electronic or elastic properties of a material, shed light on chemical interactions and processes, or serve as the basis for designing pharmaceuticals against diseases.
In an X-ray diffraction measurement, a crystal is mounted on a goniometer and gradually rotated while being bombarded with X-rays, producing a diffraction pattern of regularly spaced spots known as reflections. The two-dimensional images taken at different rotations are converted into a three-dimensional model of the density of electrons within the crystal using the mathematical method of Fourier transforms, combined with chemical data known for the sample. Poor resolution (fuzziness) or even errors may result if the crystals are too small, or not uniform enough in their internal makeup.
X-ray crystallography is related to several other methods for determining atomic structures. Similar diffraction patterns can be produced by scattering electrons or neutrons, which are likewise interpreted as a Fourier transform. If single crystals of sufficient size cannot be obtained, various other X-ray methods can be applied to obtain less detailed information; such methods include fiber diffraction, powder diffraction and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). If the material under investigation is only available in the form of nanocrystalline powders or suffers from poor crystallinity, the methods of electron crystallography can be applied for determining the atomic structure.
For all above mentioned X-ray diffraction methods, the scattering is elastic; the scattered X-rays have the same wavelength as the incoming X-ray. By contrast, inelastic X-ray scattering methods are useful in studying excitations of the sample, rather than the distribution of its atoms.
1.1 Early scientific history of crystals and X-rays
1.2 X-ray analysis of crystals
1.3 Development from 1912 to 1920
1.4 Cultural and aesthetic importance of X-ray crystallography
2 Contributions to chemistry and material science
2.1 Mineralogy and metallurgy
2.2 Early organic and small biological molecules
2.3 Biological macromolecular crystallography
3 Relationship to other scattering techniques
3.1 Elastic vs. inelastic scattering
3.2 Other X-ray techniques
3.3 Electron and neutron diffraction
4 Synchrotron Radiation
5 Methods
5.1 Overview of single-crystal X-ray diffraction
5.1.1 Procedure
5.2 Crystallization
5.3 Data collection
5.3.1 Mounting the crystal
5.3.2 X-ray sources
5.3.3 Recording the reflections
5.4.1 Crystal symmetry, unit cell, and image scaling
5.4.2 Initial phasing
5.4.3 Model building and phase refinement
5.5 Deposition of the structure
6 Diffraction theory
6.1 Intuitive understanding by Bragg's law
6.2 Scattering as a Fourier transform
6.3 Friedel and Bijvoet mates
6.4 Ewald's sphere
6.5 Patterson function
6.6 Advantages of a crystal
9.1 International Tables for Crystallography
9.2 Bound collections of articles
9.3 Textbooks
9.4 Applied computational data analysis
9.5 Historical
10.1 Tutorials
10.2 Primary databases
10.3 Derivative databases
10.4 Structural validation
Early scientific history of crystals and X-rays
Crystals have long been admired for their regularity and symmetry, but they were not investigated scientifically until the 17th century. Johannes Kepler hypothesized in his work Strena seu de Nive Sexangula (1611) that the hexagonal symmetry of snowflake crystals was due to a regular packing of spherical water particles.[1]
Crystal symmetry was first investigated experimentally by Danish scientist Nicolas Steno (1669), who showed that the angles between the faces are the same in every exemplar of a particular type of crystal,[2] and by René Just Haüy (1784), who discovered that every face of a crystal can be described by simple stacking patterns of blocks of the same shape and size. Hence, William Hallowes Miller in 1839 was able to give each face a unique label of three small integers, the Miller indices which are still used today for identifying crystal faces. Haüy's study led to the correct idea that crystals are a regular three-dimensional array (a Bravais lattice) of atoms and molecules; a single unit cell is repeated indefinitely along three principal directions that are not necessarily perpendicular. In the 19th century, a complete catalog of the possible symmetries of a crystal was worked out by Johan Hessel,[3] Auguste Bravais,[4] Evgraf Fedorov,[5] Arthur Schönflies[6] and (belatedly) William Barlow. From the available data and physical reasoning, Barlow proposed several crystal structures in the 1880s that were validated later by X-ray crystallography;[7] however, the available data were too scarce in the 1880s to accept his models as conclusive.
X-rays were discovered by Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen in 1895, just as the studies of crystal symmetry were being concluded. Physicists were initially uncertain of the nature of X-rays, although it was soon suspected (correctly) that they were waves of electromagnetic radiation, in other words, another form of light. At that time, the wave model of light—specifically, the Maxwell theory of electromagnetic radiation—was well accepted among scientists, and experiments by Charles Glover Barkla showed that X-rays exhibited phenomena associated with electromagnetic waves, including transverse polarization and spectral lines akin to those observed in the visible wavelengths. Single-slit experiments in the laboratory of Arnold Sommerfeld suggested the wavelength of X-rays was about 1 angstrom. However, X-rays are composed of photons, and thus are not only waves of electromagnetic radiation but also exhibit particle-like properties. The photon concept was introduced by Albert Einstein in 1905,[8] but it was not broadly accepted until 1922,[9][10] when Arthur Compton confirmed it by the scattering of X-rays from electrons.[11] Therefore, these particle-like properties of X-rays, such as their ionization of gases, caused William Henry Bragg to argue in 1907 that X-rays were not electromagnetic radiation.[12][13][14][15] Nevertheless, Bragg's view was not broadly accepted and the observation of X-ray diffraction in 1912[16] confirmed for most scientists that X-rays were a form of electromagnetic radiation.
X-ray analysis of crystals
Crystals are regular arrays of atoms, and X-rays can be considered waves of electromagnetic radiation. Atoms scatter X-ray waves, primarily through the atoms' electrons. Just as an ocean wave striking a lighthouse produces secondary circular waves emanating from the lighthouse, so an X-ray striking an electron produces secondary spherical waves emanating from the electron. This phenomenon is known as elastic scattering, and the electron (or lighthouse) is known as the scatterer. A regular array of scatterers produces a regular array of spherical waves. Although these waves cancel one another out in most directions through destructive interference, they add constructively in a few specific directions, determined by Bragg's law:
2d \sin \theta = n \lambda
Here d is the spacing between diffracting planes, \theta is the incident angle, n is any integer, and λ is the wavelength of the beam. These specific directions appear as spots on the diffraction pattern called reflections. Thus, X-ray diffraction results from an electromagnetic wave (the X-ray) impinging on a regular array of scatterers (the repeating arrangement of atoms within the crystal).
X-rays are used to produce the diffraction pattern because their wavelength λ is typically the same order of magnitude (1–100 angstroms) as the spacing d between planes in the crystal. In principle, any wave impinging on a regular array of scatterers produces diffraction, as predicted first by Francesco Maria Grimaldi in 1665. To produce significant diffraction, the spacing between the scatterers and the wavelength of the impinging wave should be similar in size. For illustration, the diffraction of sunlight through a bird's feather was first reported by James Gregory in the later 17th century. The first artificial diffraction gratings for visible light were constructed by David Rittenhouse in 1787, and Joseph von Fraunhofer in 1821. However, visible light has too long a wavelength (typically, 5500 angstroms) to observe diffraction from crystals. Prior to the first X-ray diffraction experiments, the spacings between lattice planes in a crystal were not known with certainty.
The idea that crystals could be used as a diffraction grating for X-rays arose in 1912 in a conversation between Paul Peter Ewald and Max von Laue in the English Garden in Munich. Ewald had proposed a resonator model of crystals for his thesis, but this model could not be validated using visible light, since the wavelength was much larger than the spacing between the resonators. Von Laue realized that electromagnetic radiation of a shorter wavelength was needed to observe such small spacings, and suggested that X-rays might have a wavelength comparable to the unit-cell spacing in crystals. Von Laue worked with two technicians, Walter Friedrich and his assistant Paul Knipping, to shine a beam of X-rays through a copper sulfate crystal and record its diffraction on a photographic plate. After being developed, the plate showed a large number of well-defined spots arranged in a pattern of intersecting circles around the spot produced by the central beam.[16][17] Von Laue developed a law that connects the scattering angles and the size and orientation of the unit-cell spacings in the crystal, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1914.[18]
As described in the mathematical derivation below, the X-ray scattering is determined by the density of electrons within the crystal. Since the energy of an X-ray is much greater than that of a valence electron, the scattering may be modeled as Thomson scattering, the interaction of an electromagnetic ray with a free electron. This model is generally adopted to describe the polarization of the scattered radiation. The intensity of Thomson scattering declines as 1/m2 with the mass m of the charged particle that is scattering the radiation; hence, the atomic nuclei, which are thousands of times heavier than an electron, contribute negligibly to the scattered X-rays.[further explanation needed]
Development from 1912 to 1920
After Von Laue's pioneering research, the field developed rapidly, most notably by physicists William Lawrence Bragg and his father William Henry Bragg. In 1912–1913, the younger Bragg developed Bragg's law, which connects the observed scattering with reflections from evenly spaced planes within the crystal.[19][20][21] The Braggs, father and son, shared the 1915 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work in crystallography. The earliest structures were generally simple and marked by one-dimensional symmetry. However, as computational and experimental methods improved over the next decades, it became feasible to deduce reliable atomic positions for more complicated two- and three-dimensional arrangements of atoms in the unit-cell.
The potential of X-ray crystallography for determining the structure of molecules and minerals—then only known vaguely from chemical and hydrodynamic experiments—was realized immediately. The earliest structures were simple inorganic crystals and minerals, but even these revealed fundamental laws of physics and chemistry. The first atomic-resolution structure to be "solved" (i.e. determined) in 1914 was that of table salt.[22][23][24] The distribution of electrons in the table-salt structure showed that crystals are not necessarily composed of covalently bonded molecules, and proved the existence of ionic compounds.[25] The structure of diamond was solved in the same year,[26][27] proving the tetrahedral arrangement of its chemical bonds and showing that the length of C–C single bond was 1.52 angstroms. Other early structures included copper,[28] calcium fluoride (CaF2, also known as fluorite), calcite (CaCO3) and pyrite (FeS2)[29] in 1914; spinel (MgAl2O4) in 1915;[30][31] the rutile and anatase forms of titanium dioxide (TiO2) in 1916;[32] pyrochroite Mn(OH)2 and, by extension, brucite Mg(OH)2 in 1919;.[33][34] Also in 1919 sodium nitrate (NaNO3) and caesium dichloroiodide (CsICl2) were determined by Ralph Walter Graystone Wyckoff, and the wurtzite (hexagonal ZnS) structure became known in 1920.[35]
The structure of graphite was solved in 1916[36] by the related method of powder diffraction,[37] which was developed by Peter Debye and Paul Scherrer and, independently, by Albert Hull in 1917.[38] The structure of graphite was determined from single-crystal diffraction in 1924 by two groups independently.[39][40] Hull also used the powder method to determine the structures of various metals, such as iron[41] and magnesium.[42]
Cultural and aesthetic importance of X-ray crystallography
In what has been called his scientific autobiography, The Development of X-ray Analysis, Sir William Lawrence Bragg mentioned that he believed the field of crystallography was particularly welcoming to women because the techno-aesthetics of the molecular structures resembled textiles and household objects. Bragg was known to compare crystal formation to "curtains, wallpapers, mosaics, and roses."[43]
In 1951, the Festival Pattern Group at the Festival of Britain hosted a collaborative group of textile manufacturers and experienced crystallographers to design lace and prints based on the X-ray crystallography of insulin, china clay, and hemoglobin. One of the leading scientists of the project was Dr. Helen Megaw (1907–2002), the Assistant Director of Research at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge at the time. Megaw is credited as one of the central figures who took inspiration from crystal diagrams and saw their potential in design.[44] In 2008, the Wellcome Collection in London curated an exhibition on the Festival Pattern Group called "From Atom to Patterns."[44]
Contributions to chemistry and material science
X-ray crystallography has led to a better understanding of chemical bonds and non-covalent interactions. The initial studies revealed the typical radii of atoms, and confirmed many theoretical models of chemical bonding, such as the tetrahedral bonding of carbon in the diamond structure,[26] the octahedral bonding of metals observed in ammonium hexachloroplatinate (IV),[45] and the resonance observed in the planar carbonate group[29] and in aromatic molecules.[46] Kathleen Lonsdale's 1928 structure of hexamethylbenzene[47] established the hexagonal symmetry of benzene and showed a clear difference in bond length between the aliphatic C–C bonds and aromatic C–C bonds; this finding led to the idea of resonance between chemical bonds, which had profound consequences for the development of chemistry.[48] Her conclusions were anticipated by William Henry Bragg, who published models of naphthalene and anthracene in 1921 based on other molecules, an early form of molecular replacement.[46][49]
Also in the 1920s, Victor Moritz Goldschmidt and later Linus Pauling developed rules for eliminating chemically unlikely structures and for determining the relative sizes of atoms. These rules led to the structure of brookite (1928) and an understanding of the relative stability of the rutile, brookite and anatase forms of titanium dioxide.
The distance between two bonded atoms is a sensitive measure of the bond strength and its bond order; thus, X-ray crystallographic studies have led to the discovery of even more exotic types of bonding in inorganic chemistry, such as metal-metal double bonds,[50][51][52] metal-metal quadruple bonds,[53][54][55] and three-center, two-electron bonds.[56] X-ray crystallography—or, strictly speaking, an inelastic Compton scattering experiment—has also provided evidence for the partly covalent character of hydrogen bonds.[57] In the field of organometallic chemistry, the X-ray structure of ferrocene initiated scientific studies of sandwich compounds,[58][59] while that of Zeise's salt stimulated research into "back bonding" and metal-pi complexes.[60][61][62][63] Finally, X-ray crystallography had a pioneering role in the development of supramolecular chemistry, particularly in clarifying the structures of the crown ethers and the principles of host-guest chemistry.
In material sciences, many complicated inorganic and organometallic systems have been analyzed using single-crystal methods, such as fullerenes, metalloporphyrins, and other complicated compounds. Single-crystal diffraction is also used in the pharmaceutical industry, due to recent problems with polymorphs. The major factors affecting the quality of single-crystal structures are the crystal's size and regularity; recrystallization is a commonly used technique to improve these factors in small-molecule crystals. The Cambridge Structural Database contains over 500,000 structures; over 99% of these structures were determined by X-ray diffraction.
Mineralogy and metallurgy
Since the 1920s, X-ray diffraction has been the principal method for determining the arrangement of atoms in minerals and metals. The application of X-ray crystallography to mineralogy began with the structure of garnet, which was determined in 1924 by Menzer. A systematic X-ray crystallographic study of the silicates was undertaken in the 1920s. This study showed that, as the Si/O ratio is altered, the silicate crystals exhibit significant changes in their atomic arrangements. Machatschki extended these insights to minerals in which aluminium substitutes for the silicon atoms of the silicates. The first application of X-ray crystallography to metallurgy likewise occurred in the mid-1920s.[65][66][67][68][69][70] Most notably, Linus Pauling's structure of the alloy Mg2Sn[71] led to his theory of the stability and structure of complex ionic crystals.[72]
On October 17, 2012, the Curiosity rover on the planet Mars at "Rocknest" performed the first X-ray diffraction analysis of Martian soil. The results from the rover's CheMin analyzer revealed the presence of several minerals, including feldspar, pyroxenes and olivine, and suggested that the Martian soil in the sample was similar to the "weathered basaltic soils" of Hawaiian volcanoes.[64]
Early organic and small biological molecules
The first structure of an organic compound, hexamethylenetetramine, was solved in 1923.[73] This was followed by several studies of long-chain fatty acids, which are an important component of biological membranes.[74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82] In the 1930s, the structures of much larger molecules with two-dimensional complexity began to be solved. A significant advance was the structure of phthalocyanine,[83] a large planar molecule that is closely related to porphyrin molecules important in biology, such as heme, corrin and chlorophyll.
X-ray crystallography of biological molecules took off with Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, who solved the structures of cholesterol (1937), [penicillin] (1946) and vitamin B12 (1956), for which she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1964. In 1969, she succeeded in solving the structure of insulin, on which she worked for over thirty years.[84]
Biological macromolecular crystallography
Crystal structures of proteins (which are irregular and hundreds of times larger than cholesterol) began to be solved in the late 1950s, beginning with the structure of sperm whale myoglobin by Sir John Cowdery Kendrew,[85] for which he shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Max Perutz in 1962. Since that success, over 73761 X-ray crystal structures of proteins, nucleic acids and other biological molecules have been determined.[86] For comparison, the nearest competing method in terms of structures analyzed is nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, which has resolved 9561 chemical structures.[87] Moreover, crystallography can solve structures of arbitrarily large molecules, whereas solution-state NMR is restricted to relatively small ones (less than 70 kDa). X-ray crystallography is now used routinely by scientists to determine how a pharmaceutical drug interacts with its protein target and what changes might improve it.[88] However, intrinsic membrane proteins remain challenging to crystallize because they require detergents or other means to solubilize them in isolation, and such detergents often interfere with crystallization. Such membrane proteins are a large component of the genome and include many proteins of great physiological importance, such as ion channels and receptors.[89][90]
Relationship to other scattering techniques
Further information: X-ray scattering techniques
Elastic vs. inelastic scattering
X-ray crystallography is a form of elastic scattering; the outgoing X-rays have the same energy, and thus same wavelength, as the incoming X-rays, only with altered direction. By contrast, inelastic scattering occurs when energy is transferred from the incoming X-ray to the crystal, e.g., by exciting an inner-shell electron to a higher energy level. Such inelastic scattering reduces the energy (or increases the wavelength) of the outgoing beam. Inelastic scattering is useful for probing such excitations of matter, but not in determining the distribution of scatterers within the matter, which is the goal of X-ray crystallography.
X-rays range in wavelength from 10 to 0.01 nanometers; a typical wavelength used for crystallography is 1 Å (0.1 nm), which is on the scale of covalent chemical bonds and the radius of a single atom. Longer-wavelength photons (such as ultraviolet radiation) would not have sufficient resolution to determine the atomic positions. At the other extreme, shorter-wavelength photons such as gamma rays are difficult to produce in large numbers, difficult to focus, and interact too strongly with matter, producing particle-antiparticle pairs. Therefore, X-rays are the "sweetspot" for wavelength when determining atomic-resolution structures from the scattering of electromagnetic radiation.
Other X-ray techniques
Other forms of elastic X-ray scattering include powder diffraction, SAXS and several types of X-ray fiber diffraction, which was used by Rosalind Franklin in determining the double-helix structure of DNA. In general, single-crystal X-ray diffraction offers more structural information than these other techniques; however, it requires a sufficiently large and regular crystal, which is not always available.
These scattering methods generally use monochromatic X-rays, which are restricted to a single wavelength with minor deviations. A broad spectrum of X-rays (that is, a blend of X-rays with different wavelengths) can also be used to carry out X-ray diffraction, a technique known as the Laue method. This is the method used in the original discovery of X-ray diffraction. Laue scattering provides much structural information with only a short exposure to the X-ray beam, and is therefore used in structural studies of very rapid events (Time resolved crystallography). However, it is not as well-suited as monochromatic scattering for determining the full atomic structure of a crystal and therefore works better with crystals with relatively simple atomic arrangements.
The Laue back reflection mode records X-rays scattered backwards from a broad spectrum source. This is useful if the sample is too thick for X-rays to transmit through it. The diffracting planes in the crystal are determined by knowing that the normal to the diffracting plane bisects the angle between the incident beam and the diffracted beam. A Greninger chart can be used [91] to interpret the back reflection Laue photograph.
Electron and neutron diffraction
Other particles, such as electrons and neutrons, may be used to produce a diffraction pattern. Although electron, neutron, and X-ray scattering are based on different physical processes, the resulting diffraction patterns are analyzed using the same coherent diffraction imaging techniques.
As derived below, the electron density within the crystal and the diffraction patterns are related by a simple mathematical method, the Fourier transform, which allows the density to be calculated relatively easily from the patterns. However, this works only if the scattering is weak, i.e., if the scattered beams are much less intense than the incoming beam. Weakly scattered beams pass through the remainder of the crystal without undergoing a second scattering event. Such re-scattered waves are called "secondary scattering" and hinder the analysis. Any sufficiently thick crystal will produce secondary scattering, but since X-rays interact relatively weakly with the electrons, this is generally not a significant concern. By contrast, electron beams may produce strong secondary scattering even for relatively thin crystals (>100 nm). Since this thickness corresponds to the diameter of many viruses, a promising direction is the electron diffraction of isolated macromolecular assemblies, such as viral capsids and molecular machines, which may be carried out with a cryo-electron microscope. Moreover the strong interaction of electrons with matter (about 1000 times stronger than for X-rays) allows determination of the atomic structure of extremely small volumes. The field of applications for electron crystallography ranges from bio molecules like membrane proteins over organic thin films to the complex structures of (nanocrystalline) intermetallic compounds and zeolites.
Neutron diffraction is an excellent method for structure determination, although it has been difficult to obtain intense, monochromatic beams of neutrons in sufficient quantities. Traditionally, nuclear reactors have been used, although the new Spallation Neutron Source holds much promise in the near future. Being uncharged, neutrons scatter much more readily from the atomic nuclei rather than from the electrons. Therefore, neutron scattering is very useful for observing the positions of light atoms with few electrons, especially hydrogen, which is essentially invisible in the X-ray diffraction. Neutron scattering also has the remarkable property that the solvent can be made invisible by adjusting the ratio of normal water, H2O, and heavy water, D2O.
Synchrotron Radiation
Synchrotron Radiation is one of the brightest lights on earth. It is the single most powerful tool available to X-ray crystallographers. It is made of X-ray beams generated in large machines called synchrotrons. These machines accelerate electrically charged particles, often electrons, to nearly the speed of light, then whip them around a huge, hollow metal ring.
Synchrotrons were originally designed for use by high-energy physicists studying subatomic particles and cosmic phenomena. The largest component of each synchrotron is its electron storage ring. This ring is actually not a perfect circle, but a many-sided polygon. At each corner of the polygon, precisely aligned magnets bend the electron stream, forcing it to stay in the ring. Each time the electrons’ path is bent, they emit bursts of energy in the form of electromagnetic radiation. Because particles in a synchrotron are hurtling at nearly the speed of light, they emit intense radiation, including lots of high-energy X-rays.
Overview of single-crystal X-ray diffraction
The oldest and most precise method of X-ray crystallography is single-crystal X-ray diffraction, in which a beam of X-rays strikes a single crystal, producing scattered beams. When they land on a piece of film or other detector, these beams make a diffraction pattern of spots; the strengths and angles of these beams are recorded as the crystal is gradually rotated.[92] Each spot is called a reflection, since it corresponds to the reflection of the X-rays from one set of evenly spaced planes within the crystal. For single crystals of sufficient purity and regularity, X-ray diffraction data can determine the mean chemical bond lengths and angles to within a few thousandths of an angstrom and to within a few tenths of a degree, respectively. The atoms in a crystal are not static, but oscillate about their mean positions, usually by less than a few tenths of an angstrom. X-ray crystallography allows measuring the size of these oscillations.
The technique of single-crystal X-ray crystallography has three basic steps. The first—and often most difficult—step is to obtain an adequate crystal of the material under study. The crystal should be sufficiently large (typically larger than 0.1 mm in all dimensions), pure in composition and regular in structure, with no significant internal imperfections such as cracks or twinning.
In the second step, the crystal is placed in an intense beam of X-rays, usually of a single wavelength (monochromatic X-rays), producing the regular pattern of reflections. As the crystal is gradually rotated, previous reflections disappear and new ones appear; the intensity of every spot is recorded at every orientation of the crystal. Multiple data sets may have to be collected, with each set covering slightly more than half a full rotation of the crystal and typically containing tens of thousands of reflections.
In the third step, these data are combined computationally with complementary chemical information to produce and refine a model of the arrangement of atoms within the crystal. The final, refined model of the atomic arrangement—now called a crystal structure—is usually stored in a public database.
As the crystal's repeating unit, its unit cell, becomes larger and more complex, the atomic-level picture provided by X-ray crystallography becomes less well-resolved (more "fuzzy") for a given number of observed reflections. Two limiting cases of X-ray crystallography—"small-molecule" and "macromolecular" crystallography—are often discerned. Small-molecule crystallography typically involves crystals with fewer than 100 atoms in their asymmetric unit; such crystal structures are usually so well resolved that the atoms can be discerned as isolated "blobs" of electron density. By contrast, macromolecular crystallography often involves tens of thousands of atoms in the unit cell. Such crystal structures are generally less well-resolved (more "smeared out"); the atoms and chemical bonds appear as tubes of electron density, rather than as isolated atoms. In general, small molecules are also easier to crystallize than macromolecules; however, X-ray crystallography has proven possible even for viruses with hundreds of thousands of atoms.
Further information: Crystallization, Recrystallization, and Protein crystallization
Although crystallography can be used to characterize the disorder in an impure or irregular crystal, crystallography generally requires a pure crystal of high regularity to solve the structure of a complicated arrangement of atoms. Pure, regular crystals can sometimes be obtained from natural or synthetic materials, such as samples of metals, minerals or other macroscopic materials. The regularity of such crystals can sometimes be improved with macromolecular crystal annealing [93][94][95] and other methods. However, in many cases, obtaining a diffraction-quality crystal is the chief barrier to solving its atomic-resolution structure.[96]
Small-molecule and macromolecular crystallography differ in the range of possible techniques used to produce diffraction-quality crystals. Small molecules generally have few degrees of conformational freedom, and may be crystallized by a wide range of methods, such as chemical vapor deposition and recrystallization. By contrast, macromolecules generally have many degrees of freedom and their crystallization must be carried out to maintain a stable structure. For example, proteins and larger RNA molecules cannot be crystallized if their tertiary structure has been unfolded; therefore, the range of crystallization conditions is restricted to solution conditions in which such molecules remain folded.
Protein crystals are almost always grown in solution. The most common approach is to lower the solubility of its component molecules very gradually; if this is done too quickly, the molecules will precipitate from solution, forming a useless dust or amorphous gel on the bottom of the container. Crystal growth in solution is characterized by two steps: nucleation of a microscopic crystallite (possibly having only 100 molecules), followed by growth of that crystallite, ideally to a diffraction-quality crystal.[97] The solution conditions that favor the first step (nucleation) are not always the same conditions that favor the second step (subsequent growth). The crystallographer's goal is to identify solution conditions that favor the development of a single, large crystal, since larger crystals offer improved resolution of the molecule. Consequently, the solution conditions should disfavor the first step (nucleation) but favor the second (growth), so that only one large crystal forms per droplet. If nucleation is favored too much, a shower of small crystallites will form in the droplet, rather than one large crystal; if favored too little, no crystal will form whatsoever.
It is extremely difficult to predict good conditions for nucleation or growth of well-ordered crystals.[98] In practice, favorable conditions are identified by screening; a very large batch of the molecules is prepared, and a wide variety of crystallization solutions are tested.[99] Hundreds, even thousands, of solution conditions are generally tried before finding the successful one. The various conditions can use one or more physical mechanisms to lower the solubility of the molecule; for example, some may change the pH, some contain salts of the Hofmeister series or chemicals that lower the dielectric constant of the solution, and still others contain large polymers such as polyethylene glycol that drive the molecule out of solution by entropic effects. It is also common to try several temperatures for encouraging crystallization, or to gradually lower the temperature so that the solution becomes supersaturated. These methods require large amounts of the target molecule, as they use high concentration of the molecule(s) to be crystallized. Due to the difficulty in obtaining such large quantities (milligrams) of crystallization grade protein, robots have been developed that are capable of accurately dispensing crystallization trial drops that are in the order of 100 nanoliters in volume. This means that 10-fold less protein is used per-experiment when compared to crystallization trials setup by hand (in the order of 1 microliter).[100]
Several factors are known to inhibit or mar crystallization. The growing crystals are generally held at a constant temperature and protected from shocks or vibrations that might disturb their crystallization. Impurities in the molecules or in the crystallization solutions are often inimical to crystallization. Conformational flexibility in the molecule also tends to make crystallization less likely, due to entropy. Ironically, molecules that tend to self-assemble into regular helices are often unwilling to assemble into crystals. Crystals can be marred by twinning, which can occur when a unit cell can pack equally favorably in multiple orientations; although recent advances in computational methods may allow solving the structure of some twinned crystals. Having failed to crystallize a target molecule, a crystallographer may try again with a slightly modified version of the molecule; even small changes in molecular properties can lead to large differences in crystallization behavior.
Mounting the crystal
File:Kappa goniometer animation.ogg
The crystal is mounted for measurements so that it may be held in the X-ray beam and rotated. There are several methods of mounting. In the past, crystals were loaded into glass capillaries with the crystallization solution (the mother liquor). Nowadays, crystals of small molecules are a typically attached with oil or glue to a glass fiber or a loop, which is made of nylon or plastic and attached to a solid rod. Protein crystals are scooped up by a loop, then flash-frozen with liquid nitrogen.[101] This freezing reduces the radiation damage of the X-rays, as well as the noise in the Bragg peaks due to thermal motion (the Debye-Waller effect). However, untreated protein crystals often crack if flash-frozen; therefore, they are generally pre-soaked in a cryoprotectant solution before freezing.[102] Unfortunately, this pre-soak may itself cause the crystal to crack, ruining it for crystallography. Generally, successful cryo-conditions are identified by trial and error.
The capillary or loop is mounted on a goniometer, which allows it to be positioned accurately within the X-ray beam and rotated. Since both the crystal and the beam are often very small, the crystal must be centered within the beam to within ~25 micrometers accuracy, which is aided by a camera focused on the crystal. The most common type of goniometer is the "kappa goniometer", which offers three angles of rotation: the ω angle, which rotates about an axis perpendicular to the beam; the κ angle, about an axis at ~50° to the ω axis; and, finally, the φ angle about the loop/capillary axis. When the κ angle is zero, the ω and φ axes are aligned. The κ rotation allows for convenient mounting of the crystal, since the arm in which the crystal is mounted may be swung out towards the crystallographer. The oscillations carried out during data collection (mentioned below) involve the ω axis only. An older type of goniometer is the four-circle goniometer, and its relatives such as the six-circle goniometer.
X-ray sources
Further information: Diffractometer and Synchrotron
The mounted crystal is then irradiated with a beam of monochromatic X-rays. The brightest and most useful X-ray sources are synchrotrons; their much higher luminosity allows for better resolution. They also make it convenient to tune the wavelength of the radiation, which is useful for multi-wavelength anomalous dispersion (MAD) phasing, described below. Synchrotrons are generally national facilities, each with several dedicated beamlines where data is collected around the clock, seven days a week.
Smaller, X-ray generators are often used in laboratories to check the quality of crystals before bringing them to a synchrotron and sometimes to solve a crystal structure. In such systems, electrons are boiled off of a cathode and accelerated through a strong electric potential of ~50 kV; having reached a high speed, the electrons collide with a metal plate, emitting bremsstrahlung and some strong spectral lines corresponding to the excitation of inner-shell electrons of the metal. The most common metal used is copper, which can be kept cool easily, due to its high thermal conductivity, and which produces strong Kα and Kβ lines. The Kβ line is sometimes suppressed with a thin (~10 µm) nickel foil. The simplest and cheapest variety of sealed X-ray tube has a stationary anode (the Crookes tube) and run with ~2 kW of electron beam power. The more expensive variety has a rotating-anode type source that run with ~14 kW of e-beam power.
X-rays are generally filtered (by use of X-Ray Filters) to a single wavelength (made monochromatic) and collimated to a single direction before they are allowed to strike the crystal. The filtering not only simplifies the data analysis, but also removes radiation that degrades the crystal without contributing useful information. Collimation is done either with a collimator (basically, a long tube) or with a clever arrangement of gently curved mirrors. Mirror systems are preferred for small crystals (under 0.3 mm) or with large unit cells (over 150 Å)
Recording the reflections
When a crystal is mounted and exposed to an intense beam of X-rays, it scatters the X-rays into a pattern of spots or reflections that can be observed on a screen behind the crystal. A similar pattern may be seen by shining a laser pointer at a compact disc. The relative intensities of these spots provide the information to determine the arrangement of molecules within the crystal in atomic detail. The intensities of these reflections may be recorded with photographic film, an area detector or with a charge-coupled device (CCD) image sensor. The peaks at small angles correspond to low-resolution data, whereas those at high angles represent high-resolution data; thus, an upper limit on the eventual resolution of the structure can be determined from the first few images. Some measures of diffraction quality can be determined at this point, such as the mosaicity of the crystal and its overall disorder, as observed in the peak widths. Some pathologies of the crystal that would render it unfit for solving the structure can also be diagnosed quickly at this point.
One image of spots is insufficient to reconstruct the whole crystal; it represents only a small slice of the full Fourier transform. To collect all the necessary information, the crystal must be rotated step-by-step through 180°, with an image recorded at every step; actually, slightly more than 180° is required to cover reciprocal space, due to the curvature of the Ewald sphere. However, if the crystal has a higher symmetry, a smaller angular range such as 90° or 45° may be recorded. The rotation axis should be changed at least once, to avoid developing a "blind spot" in reciprocal space close to the rotation axis. It is customary to rock the crystal slightly (by 0.5–2°) to catch a broader region of reciprocal space.
Multiple data sets may be necessary for certain phasing methods. For example, MAD phasing requires that the scattering be recorded at least three (and usually four, for redundancy) wavelengths of the incoming X-ray radiation. A single crystal may degrade too much during the collection of one data set, owing to radiation damage; in such cases, data sets on multiple crystals must be taken.[103]
Crystal symmetry, unit cell, and image scaling
Further information: Space group
The recorded series of two-dimensional diffraction patterns, each corresponding to a different crystal orientation, is converted into a three-dimensional model of the electron density; the conversion uses the mathematical technique of Fourier transforms, which is explained below. Each spot corresponds to a different type of variation in the electron density; the crystallographer must determine which variation corresponds to which spot (indexing), the relative strengths of the spots in different images (merging and scaling) and how the variations should be combined to yield the total electron density (phasing).
Data processing begins with indexing the reflections. This means identifying the dimensions of the unit cell and which image peak corresponds to which position in reciprocal space. A byproduct of indexing is to determine the symmetry of the crystal, i.e., its space group. Some space groups can be eliminated from the beginning. For example, reflection symmetries cannot be observed in chiral molecules; thus, only 65 space groups of 230 possible are allowed for protein molecules which are almost always chiral. Indexing is generally accomplished using an autoindexing routine.[104] Having assigned symmetry, the data is then integrated. This converts the hundreds of images containing the thousands of reflections into a single file, consisting of (at the very least) records of the Miller index of each reflection, and an intensity for each reflection (at this state the file often also includes error estimates and measures of partiality (what part of a given reflection was recorded on that image)).
A full data set may consist of hundreds of separate images taken at different orientations of the crystal. The first step is to merge and scale these various images, that is, to identify which peaks appear in two or more images (merging) and to scale the relative images so that they have a consistent intensity scale. Optimizing the intensity scale is critical because the relative intensity of the peaks is the key information from which the structure is determined. The repetitive technique of crystallographic data collection and the often high symmetry of crystalline materials cause the diffractometer to record many symmetry-equivalent reflections multiple times. This allows calculating the symmetry-related R-factor, a reliability index based upon how similar are the measured intensities of symmetry-equivalent reflections, thus assessing the quality of the data.
Initial phasing
Further information: Phase problem
The data collected from a diffraction experiment is a reciprocal space representation of the crystal lattice. The position of each diffraction 'spot' is governed by the size and shape of the unit cell, and the inherent symmetry within the crystal. The intensity of each diffraction 'spot' is recorded, and this intensity is proportional to the square of the structure factor amplitude. The structure factor is a complex number containing information relating to both the amplitude and phase of a wave. In order to obtain an interpretable electron density map, both amplitude and phase must be known (an electron density map allows a crystallographer to build a starting model of the molecule). The phase cannot be directly recorded during a diffraction experiment: this is known as the phase problem. Initial phase estimates can be obtained in a variety of ways:
Ab initio phasing or direct methods – This is usually the method of choice for small molecules (<1000 non-hydrogen atoms), and has been used successfully to solve the phase problems for small proteins. If the resolution of the data is better than 1.4 Å (140 pm), direct methods can be used to obtain phase information, by exploiting known phase relationships between certain groups of reflections.[105][106]
Molecular replacement – if a related structure is known, it can be used as a search model in molecular replacement to determine the orientation and position of the molecules within the unit cell. The phases obtained this way can be used to generate electron density maps.[107]
Anomalous X-ray scattering (MAD or SAD phasing) – the X-ray wavelength may be scanned past an absorption edge of an atom, which changes the scattering in a known way. By recording full sets of reflections at three different wavelengths (far below, far above and in the middle of the absorption edge) one can solve for the substructure of the anomalously diffracting atoms and thence the structure of the whole molecule. The most popular method of incorporating anomalous scattering atoms into proteins is to express the protein in a methionine auxotroph (a host incapable of synthesizing methionine) in a media rich in seleno-methionine, which contains selenium atoms. A MAD experiment can then be conducted around the absorption edge, which should then yield the position of any methionine residues within the protein, providing initial phases.[108]
Heavy atom methods (multiple isomorphous replacement) – If electron-dense metal atoms can be introduced into the crystal, direct methods or Patterson-space methods can be used to determine their location and to obtain initial phases. Such heavy atoms can be introduced either by soaking the crystal in a heavy atom-containing solution, or by co-crystallization (growing the crystals in the presence of a heavy atom). As in MAD phasing, the changes in the scattering amplitudes can be interpreted to yield the phases. Although this is the original method by which protein crystal structures were solved, it has largely been superseded by MAD phasing with selenomethionine.[107]
Model building and phase refinement
Further information: Molecular modeling
Having obtained initial phases, an initial model can be built. This model can be used to refine the phases, leading to an improved model, and so on. Given a model of some atomic positions, these positions and their respective Debye-Waller factors (or B-factors, accounting for the thermal motion of the atom) can be refined to fit the observed diffraction data, ideally yielding a better set of phases. A new model can then be fit to the new electron density map and a further round of refinement is carried out. This continues until the correlation between the diffraction data and the model is maximized. The agreement is measured by an R-factor defined as
R = \frac{\sum_{\mathrm{all\ reflections}} \left|F_{o} - F_{c} \right|}{\sum_{\mathrm{all\ reflections}} \left|F_{o} \right|}
where F is the structure factor. A similar quality criterion is Rfree, which is calculated from a subset (~10%) of reflections that were not included in the structure refinement. Both R factors depend on the resolution of the data. As a rule of thumb, Rfree should be approximately the resolution in angstroms divided by 10; thus, a data-set with 2 Å resolution should yield a final Rfree ~ 0.2. Chemical bonding features such as stereochemistry, hydrogen bonding and distribution of bond lengths and angles are complementary measures of the model quality. Phase bias is a serious problem in such iterative model building. Omit maps are a common technique used to check for this.
It may not be possible to observe every atom of the crystallized molecule – it must be remembered that the resulting electron density is an average of all the molecules within the crystal. In some cases, there is too much residual disorder in those atoms, and the resulting electron density for atoms existing in many conformations is smeared to such an extent that it is no longer detectable in the electron density map. Weakly scattering atoms such as hydrogen are routinely invisible. It is also possible for a single atom to appear multiple times in an electron density map, e.g., if a protein sidechain has multiple (<4) allowed conformations. In still other cases, the crystallographer may detect that the covalent structure deduced for the molecule was incorrect, or changed. For example, proteins may be cleaved or undergo post-translational modifications that were not detected prior to the crystallization.
Deposition of the structure
Once the model of a molecule's structure has been finalized, it is often deposited in a crystallographic database such as the Cambridge Structural Database (for small molecules), the Inorganic Crystal Structure Database (ICSD) (for inorganic compounds) or the Protein Data Bank (for protein structures). Many structures obtained in private commercial ventures to crystallize medicinally relevant proteins are not deposited in public crystallographic databases.
Diffraction theory
Further information: Dynamical theory of diffraction and Bragg diffraction
The main goal of X-ray crystallography is to determine the density of electrons f(r) throughout the crystal, where r represents the three-dimensional position vector within the crystal. To do this, X-ray scattering is used to collect data about its Fourier transform F(q), which is inverted mathematically to obtain the density defined in real space, using the formula
f(\mathbf{r}) = \frac{1}{\left(2\pi\right)^{3}} \int F(\mathbf{q}) e^{\mathrm{i}\mathbf{q}\cdot\mathbf{r}} \mathrm{d}\mathbf{q}
where the integral is taken over all values of q. The three-dimensional real vector q represents a point in reciprocal space, that is, to a particular oscillation in the electron density as one moves in the direction in which q points. The length of q corresponds to 2\pi divided by the wavelength of the oscillation. The corresponding formula for a Fourier transform will be used below
F(\mathbf{q}) = \int f(\mathbf{r}) \mathrm{e}^{-\mathrm{i}\mathbf{q}\cdot\mathbf{r}}\mathrm{d}\mathbf{r}
where the integral is summed over all possible values of the position vector r within the crystal.
The Fourier transform F(q) is generally a complex number, and therefore has a magnitude |F(q)| and a phase φ(q) related by the equation
F(\mathbf{q}) = \left|F(\mathbf{q}) \right|\mathrm{e}^{\mathrm{i}\phi(\mathbf{q})}
The intensities of the reflections observed in X-ray diffraction give us the magnitudes |F(q)| but not the phases φ(q). To obtain the phases, full sets of reflections are collected with known alterations to the scattering, either by modulating the wavelength past a certain absorption edge or by adding strongly scattering (i.e., electron-dense) metal atoms such as mercury. Combining the magnitudes and phases yields the full Fourier transform F(q), which may be inverted to obtain the electron density f(r).
Crystals are often idealized as being perfectly periodic. In that ideal case, the atoms are positioned on a perfect lattice, the electron density is perfectly periodic, and the Fourier transform F(q) is zero except when q belongs to the reciprocal lattice (the so-called Bragg peaks). In reality, however, crystals are not perfectly periodic; atoms vibrate about their mean position, and there may be disorder of various types, such as mosaicity, dislocations, various point defects, and heterogeneity in the conformation of crystallized molecules. Therefore, the Bragg peaks have a finite width and there may be significant diffuse scattering, a continuum of scattered X-rays that fall between the Bragg peaks.
Intuitive understanding by Bragg's law
An intuitive understanding of X-ray diffraction can be obtained from the Bragg model of diffraction. In this model, a given reflection is associated with a set of evenly spaced sheets running through the crystal, usually passing through the centers of the atoms of the crystal lattice. The orientation of a particular set of sheets is identified by its three Miller indices (h, k, l), and let their spacing be noted by d. William Lawrence Bragg proposed a model in which the incoming X-rays are scattered specularly (mirror-like) from each plane; from that assumption, X-rays scattered from adjacent planes will combine constructively (constructive interference) when the angle θ between the plane and the X-ray results in a path-length difference that is an integer multiple n of the X-ray wavelength λ.
2 d\sin\theta = n\lambda\,
A reflection is said to be indexed when its Miller indices (or, more correctly, its reciprocal lattice vector components) have been identified from the known wavelength and the scattering angle 2θ. Such indexing gives the unit-cell parameters, the lengths and angles of the unit-cell, as well as its space group. Since Bragg's law does not interpret the relative intensities of the reflections, however, it is generally inadequate to solve for the arrangement of atoms within the unit-cell; for that, a Fourier transform method must be carried out.
Scattering as a Fourier transform
The incoming X-ray beam has a polarization and should be represented as a vector wave; however, for simplicity, let it be represented here as a scalar wave. We also ignore the complication of the time dependence of the wave and just focus on the wave's spatial dependence. Plane waves can be represented by a wave vector kin, and so the strength of the incoming wave at time t=0 is given by
A \mathrm{e}^{\mathrm{i}\mathbf{k}_{\mathrm{in}} \cdot \mathbf{r}}
At position r within the sample, let there be a density of scatterers f(r); these scatterers should produce a scattered spherical wave of amplitude proportional to the local amplitude of the incoming wave times the number of scatterers in a small volume dV about r
\mathrm{amplitude\ of\ scattered\ wave} = A \mathrm{e}^{\mathrm{i}\mathbf{k} \cdot \mathbf{r}} S f(\mathbf{r}) \mathrm{d}V
where S is the proportionality constant.
Let's consider the fraction of scattered waves that leave with an outgoing wave-vector of kout and strike the screen at rscreen. Since no energy is lost (elastic, not inelastic scattering), the wavelengths are the same as are the magnitudes of the wave-vectors |kin|=|kout|. From the time that the photon is scattered at r until it is absorbed at rscreen, the photon undergoes a change in phase
e^{i \mathbf{k}_{out} \cdot \left( \mathbf{r}_{\mathrm{screen}} - \mathbf{r} \right)}
The net radiation arriving at rscreen is the sum of all the scattered waves throughout the crystal
A S \int \mathrm{d}\mathbf{r} f(\mathbf{r}) \mathrm{e}^{\mathrm{i} \mathbf{k}_{in} \cdot \mathbf{r}}
e^{i \mathbf{k}_{out} \cdot \left( \mathbf{r}_{\mathrm{screen}} - \mathbf{r} \right)} = A S e^{i \mathbf{k}_{out} \cdot \mathbf{r}_{\mathrm{screen}}} \int \mathrm{d}\mathbf{r} f(\mathbf{r}) \mathrm{e}^{\mathrm{i} \left( \mathbf{k}_{in} - \mathbf{k}_{out} \right) \cdot \mathbf{r}}
which may be written as a Fourier transform
A S \mathrm{e}^{\mathrm{i} \mathbf{k}_{out} \cdot \mathbf{r}_{\mathrm{screen}}}
\int d\mathbf{r} f(\mathbf{r}) \mathrm{e}^{-\mathrm{i} \mathbf{q} \cdot \mathbf{r}} = A S \mathrm{e}^{\mathrm{i} \mathbf{k}_{out} \cdot \mathbf{r}_{\mathrm{screen}}} F(\mathbf{q})
where q = kout – kin. The measured intensity of the reflection will be square of this amplitude
A^{2} S^{2} \left|F(\mathbf{q}) \right|^{2}
Friedel and Bijvoet mates
For every reflection corresponding to a point q in the reciprocal space, there is another reflection of the same intensity at the opposite point -q. This opposite reflection is known as the Friedel mate of the original reflection. This symmetry results from the mathematical fact that the density of electrons f(r) at a position r is always a real number. As noted above, f(r) is the inverse transform of its Fourier transform F(q); however, such an inverse transform is a complex number in general. To ensure that f(r) is real, the Fourier transform F(q) must be such that the Friedel mates F(−q) and F(q) are complex conjugates of one another. Thus, F(−q) has the same magnitude as F(q) but they have the opposite phase, i.e., φ(q) = −φ(q)
F(-\mathbf{q}) = \left|F(-\mathbf{q}) \right|\mathrm{e}^{\mathrm{i}\phi(-\mathbf{q})} = F^{*}(\mathbf{q}) = \left| F(\mathbf{q}) \right|\mathrm{e}^{-\mathrm{i}\phi(\mathbf{q})}
The equality of their magnitudes ensures that the Friedel mates have the same intensity |F|2. This symmetry allows one to measure the full Fourier transform from only half the reciprocal space, e.g., by rotating the crystal slightly more than 180° instead of a full 360° revolution. In crystals with significant symmetry, even more reflections may have the same intensity (Bijvoet mates); in such cases, even less of the reciprocal space may need to be measured. In favorable cases of high symmetry, sometimes only 90° or even only 45° of data are required to completely explore the reciprocal space.
The Friedel-mate constraint can be derived from the definition of the inverse Fourier transform
f(\mathbf{r}) = \int \frac{d\mathbf{q}}{\left(2\pi\right)^{3}} F(\mathbf{q}) \mathrm{e}^{\mathrm{i}\mathbf{q}\cdot\mathbf{r}} =
\int \frac{d\mathbf{q}}{\left(2\pi\right)^{3}} \left|F(\mathbf{q}) \right|\mathrm{e}^{\mathrm{i}\phi(\mathbf{q})} \mathrm{e}^{\mathrm{i}\mathbf{q}\cdot\mathbf{r}}
Since Euler's formula states that eix = cos(x) + i sin(x), the inverse Fourier transform can be separated into a sum of a purely real part and a purely imaginary part
f(\mathbf{r}) =
\int \frac{d\mathbf{q}}{\left(2\pi\right)^{3}} \left|F(\mathbf{q}) \right|\mathrm{e}^{\mathrm{i}\left(\phi+\mathbf{q}\cdot\mathbf{r}\right)} = \int \frac{d\mathbf{q}}{\left(2\pi\right)^{3}} \left|F(\mathbf{q}) \right| \cos\left(\phi+\mathbf{q}\cdot\mathbf{r}\right) + i \int \frac{d\mathbf{q}}{\left(2\pi\right)^{3}} \left|F(\mathbf{q}) \right| \sin\left(\phi+\mathbf{q}\cdot\mathbf{r}\right) = I_{\mathrm{cos}} + iI_{\mathrm{sin}}
The function f(r) is real if and only if the second integral Isin is zero for all values of r. In turn, this is true if and only if the above constraint is satisfied
I_{\mathrm{sin}} = \int \frac{d\mathbf{q}}{\left(2\pi\right)^{3}} \left|F(\mathbf{q}) \right|\sin\left(\phi+\mathbf{q}\cdot\mathbf{r}\right) =
\int \frac{d\mathbf{q}}{\left(2\pi\right)^{3}} \left|F(\mathbf{-q}) \right| \sin\left(-\phi-\mathbf{q}\cdot\mathbf{r}\right) = -I_{\mathrm{sin}}
since Isin = −Isin implies that Isin=0.
Ewald's sphere
Further information: Ewald's sphere
Each X-ray diffraction image represents only a slice, a spherical slice of reciprocal space, as may be seen by the Ewald sphere construction. Both kout and kin have the same length, due to the elastic scattering, since the wavelength has not changed. Therefore, they may be represented as two radial vectors in a sphere in reciprocal space, which shows the values of q that are sampled in a given diffraction image. Since there is a slight spread in the incoming wavelengths of the incoming X-ray beam, the values of|F(q)|can be measured only for q vectors located between the two spheres corresponding to those radii. Therefore, to obtain a full set of Fourier transform data, it is necessary to rotate the crystal through slightly more than 180°, or sometimes less if sufficient symmetry is present. A full 360° rotation is not needed because of a symmetry intrinsic to the Fourier transforms of real functions (such as the electron density), but "slightly more" than 180° is needed to cover all of reciprocal space within a given resolution because of the curvature of the Ewald sphere. In practice, the crystal is rocked by a small amount (0.25-1°) to incorporate reflections near the boundaries of the spherical Ewald shells.
Patterson function
Further information: Patterson function
A well-known result of Fourier transforms is the autocorrelation theorem, which states that the autocorrelation c(r) of a function f(r)
c(\mathbf{r}) = \int d\mathbf{x} f(\mathbf{x}) f(\mathbf{x} + \mathbf{r}) = \int \frac{d\mathbf{q}}{\left(2\pi\right)^{3}} C(\mathbf{q}) e^{i\mathbf{q}\cdot\mathbf{r}}
has a Fourier transform C(q) that is the squared magnitude of F(q)
C(\mathbf{q}) = \left|F(\mathbf{q}) \right|^{2}
Therefore, the autocorrelation function c(r) of the electron density (also known as the Patterson function[109]) can be computed directly from the reflection intensities, without computing the phases. In principle, this could be used to determine the crystal structure directly; however, it is difficult to realize in practice. The autocorrelation function corresponds to the distribution of vectors between atoms in the crystal; thus, a crystal of N atoms in its unit cell may have N(N-1) peaks in its Patterson function. Given the inevitable errors in measuring the intensities, and the mathematical difficulties of reconstructing atomic positions from the interatomic vectors, this technique is rarely used to solve structures, except for the simplest crystals.
Advantages of a crystal
In principle, an atomic structure could be determined from applying X-ray scattering to non-crystalline samples, even to a single molecule. However, crystals offer a much stronger signal due to their periodicity. A crystalline sample is by definition periodic; a crystal is composed of many unit cells repeated indefinitely in three independent directions. Such periodic systems have a Fourier transform that is concentrated at periodically repeating points in reciprocal space known as Bragg peaks; the Bragg peaks correspond to the reflection spots observed in the diffraction image. Since the amplitude at these reflections grows linearly with the number N of scatterers, the observed intensity of these spots should grow quadratically, like N2. In other words, using a crystal concentrates the weak scattering of the individual unit cells into a much more powerful, coherent reflection that can be observed above the noise. This is an example of constructive interference.
In a liquid, powder or amorphous sample, molecules within that sample are in random orientations. Such samples have a continuous Fourier spectrum that uniformly spreads its amplitude thereby reducing the measured signal intensity, as is observed in SAXS. More importantly, the orientational information is lost. Although theoretically possible, it is experimentally difficult to obtain atomic-resolution structures of complicated, asymmetric molecules from such rotationally averaged data. An intermediate case is fiber diffraction in which the subunits are arranged periodically in at least one dimension.
Bragg diffraction
Bravais lattice
Crystallographic database
Crystallographic point groups
Difference density map
Electron crystallography
Henderson limit
Neutron diffraction
Powder diffraction
Energy Dispersive X-Ray Diffraction
Ptychography
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Small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS)
Structure determination
Ultrafast x-rays
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Max von Laue
John Desmond Bernal
William Henry Bragg
William Lawrence Bragg
Dorothy Hodgkin
John Kendrew
Max Perutz
International Tables for Crystallography
Bound collections of articles
, PDF copy of select chapters
Applied computational data analysis
Ewald, P. P., editor (Reprinted in pdf format for the IUCr XVIII Congress, Glasgow, Scotland, International Union of Crystallography).
Library resources about
Resources in your library
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has a book on the topic of: Xray Crystallography
Learning Crystallography
Simple, non technical introduction
Illinois Institute of Technology website
International Union of Crystallography
Crystallography 101
Interactive structure factor tutorial, demonstrating properties of the diffraction pattern of a 2D crystal.
Picturebook of Fourier Transforms, illustrating the relationship between crystal and diffraction pattern in 2D.
Lecture notes on X-ray crystallography and structure determination
Online lecture on Modern X-ray Scattering Methods for Nanoscale Materials Analysis by Richard J. Matyi
Primary databases
Crystallography Open Database (COD)
Protein Data Bank (PDB)
Nucleic Acid Databank (NDB)
Cambridge Structural Database (CSD)
Inorganic Crystal Structure Database (ICSD)
Biological Macromolecule Crystallization Database (BMCD)
Derivative databases
Proteopedia – the collaborative, 3D encyclopedia of proteins and other molecules
RNABase
HIC-Up database of PDB ligands
Structural Classification of Proteins database
CATH Protein Structure Classification
List of transmembrane proteins with known 3D structure
Orientations of Proteins in Membranes database
Structural validation
MolProbity structural validation suite
ProSA-web
NQ-Flipper (check for unfavorable rotamers of Asn and Gln residues)
DALI server (identifies proteins similar to a given protein)
Protein structural analysis
Medium resolution
Dual Polarisation Interferometry
Absorbance
Fluorescence anisotropy
Translational Diffusion
Analytical ultracentrifugation
Size exclusion chromatography
Light scattering
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←Tertiary structure
Quaternary structure→
ar:دراسة البلورات بالأشعة السينية
da:Krystallografi de:Kristallstrukturanalyse he:קריסטלוגרפיה באמצעות קרני רנטגן ja:X線結晶構造解析 pt:Cristalografia de raios X fi:Röntgenkristallografia zh:X射线晶体学
X-ray Diffraction, Extensible Resource Descriptor, Guilty Gear Xrd
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Rhonda Spurrell
Phil Foster/ Features
By Phil Foster / March 4, 2014
“Let the Lord lead and guide your life and your ministry will make way for itself.” (1)
The first time I saw and heard Rhonda Spurrell was in Kingston Ontario. My wife and I had traveled to Kingston, Ontario, to hear the Talley Trio in concert. I’m guessing it was in the mid to late ‘90’s. Rhonda was on the program and when I heard her perform, I became an instant fan! It was also the first time I heard Rhonda’s classic song, I Just Want to Make a Mark. I have told Rhonda many times that her song is one of my very favorites. She sang it during a time in my life, when I needed to make some changes, spiritually speaking.
When Rhonda stepped on that stage and started to sing, I remember sitting there probably with my mouth wide open in amazement at what was coming out of this young lady. When I first heard her I compared her to Vestal Goodman, sort of, as both women have remarkable power to belt out a song, but honestly, Rhonda has her own style and delivery of a song. It makes her quite unique.
Since that day to present, Rhonda has been a good friend of mine. When I was doing concerts, Rhonda graciously agreed to come to Peterborough and was on the same program as Perfect Heart. Over the years, I still have people commenting about that concert and that wonderful soloist.
Rhonda is an American living in Verona, Ontario. She was born in Dexter, Maine and because her dad was a minister, she moved around quite a bit and eventually moved to Ontario.
I asked Rhonda how old she was when she first started singing. She replied, “I was two-years-old when I first starting singing with my dad.” She continued, “I think I was four- or five-years-old when I first sang publicly. I had a little guitar and sang with my folks in church.” Rhonda comes from a musical family. When asked if anyone else in her family was musical, she replied, “We all are, from the oldest to the youngest on both sides.”
Rhonda has been singing and evangelizing for about 29 years now. She has quite the impressive resume. Rhonda has worked with Bill and Gloria Gaither, the Gaither Vocal Band, The Talleys, the Hoppers, Russ Taff, Michael English and many more. As she travels and ministers, Rhonda shares her testimony of living with a neurological disease called Myasthenia Gravis, which can impair muscle function and speech. To think that Rhonda can travel and minister with this challenge is genuinely amazing. Her testimony of how God has brought her through all the different medical procedures and continues to use her is quite remarkable. Rhonda goes for regular treatments for her ailment, which really take a toll on her. It just adds to the miracle working power of God that allows Rhonda to keep ministering as she does.
I asked Rhonda, if she had any role models growing up. “I would have to say, that Evie Karlsson’s music and ministry had a huge effect on me. Through her music I was able to find my gifting. Also, Dottie Rambo [was a model] for her song writing. She was one of the best! I was fortunate enough to hear her when I was just a child and then to actually meet her years later and have fellowship with her which was amazing!”
When asked if she had any favorite singers, Rhonda replied, “I have many favorites; Ella Fitzgerald to Andrea Bocelli to Evie and Dallas Holm and many more.” Rhonda keeps herself busy when she is not singing. “I love photography” Rhonda explained, “And cooking, sewing, crafts and writing.” Rhonda loves many styles of music, but in particular, music by Andrea Bocelli, especially his rendition of Sognare, which Rhonda explains; “It means dream and whenever I hear that, it’s what it makes me do!”
When I asked Rhonda if she had any advice for anyone who may want to pursue a career in Gospel singing, she had this to say: “Sing in your church, because doing that makes you a gospel singer. There you will be able to grow spiritually and musically with people who love you. Let Jesus be first in your life, put Him ahead of everything, music, dreams etc. His plans for us are always the best! If it is meant to be, it will be.” When I asked Rhonda, if she had any hidden talents, that perhaps the public may not know, she laughed and said, “I’m pretty good at impersonations.”
Gospel Music icon, Henry Slaughter had this to say about his friend Rhonda. “Rhonda Spurrell is one of the most talented people I’ve ever met and we have a friendship as well as being comrades in the world of gospel music. One has to be very impressed with her talent as a singer, which is tops. Then her gospel song writing is of such quality no publisher would ever ignore. But most of all, she sings from her heart of what is her heart and passion, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ, His (and our) heavenly Father and Spirit. One of the biggest mysteries I have encountered in this world of gospel music is why she did not become a ‘super star’ for the entire world to know and to hear. But, I am confident the Lord led her in all He wanted her to be and that is “to make a mark in the world for Him,” and that she has and continues to be and do….. From one who will have to be challenged if I am not her biggest fan and admirer; and she is my sister in the Lord…and that makes it just great!”
With Rhonda’s busy schedule, she still found time to graduate from Trinity Seminary and Bible College in Newburgh, Indiana, with her Bachelor of Arts Degree, in Biblical Counseling. Rhonda is a qualified Christian Counselor and also volunteers at Hospice Kingston as a spiritual care counselor, as well as working part-time for Youth for Christ in Kingston. Rhonda has several recordings to her credit, including her award winning song “I Just Want To Make a Mark.” Rhonda received a songwriting award from Christian Women in Media Association in Nashville, TN for “I Just Want to Make a Mark” (2)
I know Rhonda would love to hear from you. Visit her webpage, and order some of her anointed music or email her at the link below.
For more information on Rhonda visit: http://www.rhondaspurrell.com/
See Rhonda on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rhonda-Spurrell
Email Rhonda: singergal1964@aol.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HFsQpnhK4U I just want to make a mark
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sPRnn-kdE8 He can heal your heart
(1) Rhonda Spurrell
(2) Rhonda Spurrell website
Questions? Comments? Email Phil at prossfoster@gmail.com
Written by Phil Foster
Philip Foster
Tags: Canada, Christian music, Gospel Music, Henry Slaughter, I Just Want To Make a Mark, March 2014, Myasthenia Gravis, Ontario, Phil Foster/ Features, Rhonda Spurrell, Southern Gospel
Bill Griffin: The Influence and Reach of a Gospel Music Promoter
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The Tennessee River Boys
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Gospel Artists’ Memories: Calvin Newton, Henry Slaughter, Bill Nelson
By Phil Foster / July 22, 2015
ARTISTS’ MEMORIES Part 1: Neil Enloe of The Couriers
By Phil Foster / June 26, 2015
Mike Moran of The Torchmen: Choosing to be a Cheerleader
Three Bridges: Full Of Joy
A Goodly Heritage: The Mylon Hayes Family
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Diligent shares jump as first-quarter figures show growth slowing less than feared
Diligent Board Member Services stock rose as much as 12 percent after the governance app developer posted quarterly figures showing sales growth hasn't slowed as much as some investors had expected.
The New York-based, New Zealand-listed company added a net 113 new client agreements in the three months ended March 31, taking its total number of customers to 2,563. That's up 28 percent from the same quarter of 2013, when it added 201 customers.
Diligent shares rose 9.4 percent to $4.43 and earlier touched $4.55 after the figures were released. The stock sank in the second half of 2013 as sales missed targets and the company was distracted by administrative errors that forced it to restate revenue for the 2010 through 2013 financial years. It had previously been forced to revise executive options that exceeded company guidelines.
"They're back to reasonable news, versus the flood of bad news over the last while, this is going back towards more business as usual," said James Lindsay, who holds Diligent among $450 million of equities he helps manage at Tyndall Investment Management.
"Although new additions were a lower number, it probably wasn't as low as some people had thought," Lindsay said. "At some stage it will reach maturity or saturation point in the US market - that hasn't transpired immediately."
The share's 15 percent gain this year is twice the pace of the NZX 50 Index. The company is rated an average of 'buy' according to four analysts surveyed by Reuters, with a median price target of $4.72.
Diligent said it incurred costs of about US$5.1 million for the restatement and re-auditing of its accounts, including US$1.8 million incurred in the latest three months. It also spent US$1.6 million of the estimated US$2.3 million earmarked for building a European data centre, the company said today.
Lindsay said Diligent hasn't reached the same level of saturation in Europe as in its US market.
Diligent is among New Zealand tech stocks caught up in a global sell off over the past month as investors questioned the ability of companies to deliver the profits implied in their high valuations. Big movements in the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index on Wall Street have flowed through to the local stock market.
Still, Diligent's selloff has "mostly been related to its own woes rather than that of the market," Lindsay said.
Xero, the cloud-based accounting software, slipped 0.7 percent to $28.25. Pacific Edge, the Dunedin-based biotech company, was up 5.6 percent to $1.13 while outside the benchmark index security software firm Wynyard Group has risen 4.3 percent to $2.43.
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Home > Domestic Violence > Best Practices > Child Custody and Family Law Issues > Child Custody Issues
Domestic Violence and Child Custody
Last updated August 2012
Research shows that 30 to 60 percent of children living in homes where domestic violence occurs are also physically or sexually abused.[i] Even children who are exposed to domestic violence, but not directly abused themselves, exhibit emotional and behavioral problems, trauma symptoms and compromised social and academic development comparable to children who are direct victims.[ii]
Men who assault their partners parent differently from other men.[iii] They tend to be under-involved with their children, use negative parenting practices such as spanking, shaming and displaying anger toward their children.[iv] They undermine and interfere with the other parent’s authority,[v] and are generally poor role models for developing healthy relationships and conflict resolution. [vi] Unfortunately, compared to non-batterering fathers, batterers are more likely to seek custody of their children, "and they may misuse the legal system as a symbolic battleground for continuing abuse through harassing and retaliatory litigation."[vii]
Aside from court proceedings that involve child abuse or neglect, there are five main points where issues of child custody intersect with domestic violence, including (1) when victims seek protective orders; (2) during divorce proceedings; (3) when parenting time is being decided; (4) when child protective services become involved with the family; and (5) when a parent removes a child from one country to another because of domestic violence. There are different considerations at each of these points, but the common goal in each situation should be the best interests of the child and the safety of the non-violent parent.
Women seeking orders for protection may have a variety of child custody concerns. This fear is not unfounded, since some domestic violence laws do not automatically grant temporary custody to the non-violent parent, and in many places, the woman's parenting history is then subjected to the scrutiny of child protective services. >>Learn more
Divorce from a domestic abuser often involves a lengthy and difficult child custody battle. Unfortunately, for many women, this is an uphill battle, since abusive parents will often use custody proceedings as a way to continue a campaign of coercion and control against a former spouse. >>Learn more
Parenting time must be considered both when a victim who is a parent seeks a protective order and when the parents divorce. Women who are experiencing domestic violence may have unique parenting time considerations that should be taken into account before a court grants visitation rights. >>Learn more
In many locations throughout the world, shedding light on a domestic violence situation instigates an investigation by Child Protective Services. For many battered women, the investigation may place blame on them for allowing the children to witness the violence, which may ultimately even lead to removal of the children. >>Learn more
In an effort to protect their children, battered women may attempt to remove the children from the country and seek refuge in a new location out of reach of the abuser. Before doing so, women should understand the implications of The Hague Convention, under which moving the children to a new country may be considered an illegal abduction. >>Learn more
Additional resources are available on a variety of domestic violence topics, including the batterer as "parent," protective orders, divorce, parenting time, child protective services, the Hague Convention, and more. >>Learn more
[i] Edleson, J.L., “The Overlap Between Child Maltreatment and Woman Battering,” Violence Against Women Vol. 5, No. 2, (1999), pp. 134-154; Appel, A.E., & G.W. Holden, “The Co-Occurrence of Spouse and Physical Child Abuse: A Review and Appraisal,” J. Fam. Psychol., Vol. 12, No. 4, (1998), pp. 578-599, cited in Violence Against Women in the United States and the State’s Obligation to Protect, Civil Society briefing papers on community, military and custody submitted to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Rashida Manjoo in advance of her Mission to the United States of America January 24 – February 7, 2011, at p. 57, para. 66, www.law.virginia.edu/vaw.
[ii] Edleson, J.L. “Children’s Witnessing of Adult Domestic Violence,” J. Interpersonal Violence, Vol. 14, No. 8, (1999), pp. 839-70; U.N. Children’s Fund, “Behind Closed Doors: The Impact of Domestic Violence on Children”, (2006), http://www.unicef.org/protection/files/BehindClosedDoors.pdf ; Jaffe, P.G., D.A. Wolfe & S.K. Wilson, Children of Battered Women, Developmental Clinical Psychology & Psychiatry No. 21, Sage Publications, (1990), all cited in Violence Against Women in the United States, at p. 57, para. 66.
[iii] Edleson, J.L. & O.J. Williams (eds.), Parenting by Men Who Batter: New Directions for Assessment and Intervention, (2007), cited in Violence Against Women in the United States, at para. 67.
[iv] Holden, G.W. & K.L. Ritchie, “Linking Extreme Marital Discord, Child Rearing, and Child Behavior Problems: Evidence from Battered Women,” Child Development, Vol. 62, Issue 2, (1991), pp. 311-327; Holden, G.W. , J.D. Stein, K.L. Ritchie, S.D. Harris & E.N. Juries, “Parenting Behaviors and Beliefs of Battered Women,”in Children Exposed to Marital Violence: Theory, Research and Applied Issues, p. 185, (G.W. Holden, R. Geffner & E.N. Juries eds., 1998), all cited in Violence Against Women in the United States, at p. 57, para. 67.
[v] Bancroft, L. & J. Silverman, The Batterer as Parent: Addressing the Impact of Domestic Violence on Family Dynamics, Sage Publications, (2002); Levendosky, A.A. & S.A. Graham-Bergmann, “Mothers’ Perceptions of the Impact of Abuse on their Parenting,” Violence Against Women, Vol. 6, No.3, (2000), pp. 247-271, all cited in Violence Against Women in the United States, at p. 57, para. 67.
[vi] Jaffe, P.G. , C.V. Crooks & N. Bala, “A Framework for Addressing Allegations of Domestic Violence in Child Custody Disputes,” J. Child Custody, Vol. 6, (2009), pp. 169-188, cited in Violence Against Women in the United States, at p. 57, para. 67.
[vii]
Judith M. Reichler & Nancy S. Erickson, Custody, Domestic Violence and a Child's Preference, in Domestic Violence Report, vol. 8, no. 5, 65, 66 (June/July 2003) (citing L. Bancroft & J.G. Silverman, The Batterer as Parent: Addressing the Impact of Domestic Violence on Family Dynamics 98-129 (2002)).
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In most professional play and some amateur competition, there is an officiating head judge or chair umpire (usually referred to as the umpire), who sits in a raised chair to one side of the court. The umpire has absolute authority to make factual determinations. The umpire may be assisted by line judges, who determine whether the ball has landed within the required part of the court and who also call foot faults. There also may be a net judge who determines whether the ball has touched the net during service. The umpire has the right to overrule a line judge or a net judge if the umpire is sure that a clear mistake has been made.[59]
In 1954, Van Alen founded the International Tennis Hall of Fame, a non-profit museum in Newport, Rhode Island.[41] The building contains a large collection of tennis memorabilia as well as a hall of fame honouring prominent members and tennis players from all over the world. Each year, a grass court tournament and an induction ceremony honoring new Hall of Fame members are hosted on its grounds.
By the 1960s, Budge and others had added Pancho Gonzales and Lew Hoad to the list of contenders. Budge reportedly believed that Gonzales was the greatest player ever.[99] Gonzales said about Hoad, "When Lew's game was at its peak nobody could touch him. ... I think his game was the best game ever. Better than mine. He was capable of making more shots than anybody. His two volleys were great. His overhead was enormous. He had the most natural tennis mind with the most natural tennis physique."[100]
The first thing to consider when looking at tennis racquets is the frame. You have many options when it comes to size, shape, material, and so on. A racquet with a larger head will help you make more powerful swings, whereas a smaller head affords you more control. Can’t decide? A mid-sized head offers a little of both! For length, a longer racquet can offer better leverage per swing for more power, but a traditional-length racquet provides a better balance of power and control. When considering the weight of a racquet, remember that heavier tennis racquets offer more power and less control while lighter racquets yield more control at the expense of power. The shape of your racquet determines where the sweet spot is: Traditional oval racquets have a sweet spot at the bottom, and a teardrop racquet features a larger sweet spot overall.
An alternative tie-break system called the "Coman Tie-Break" is sometimes used by the United States Tennis Association. Scoring is the same, but end changes take place after the first point and then after every four points. This approach allows the servers of doubles teams to continue serving from the same end of the court as during the body of the set. It also reduces the advantage the elements (e.g. wind and sun) could give playing the first six points of a seven-point tiebreak on one side of the court.
"Tennis Court" received generally positive reviews from contemporary critics. Siân Rowe from NME complimented Lorde's "strong pop vocals".[31] Emily Yoshida from Grantland labelled it a "murkily winsome, ever-so-slightly chopped ballad",[48] while Kyle Jaeger writing for The Hollywood Reporter commended the track's lyrical content and its "catchy" melody.[49] Billboard's Jason Lipshutz was favourable towards the song's "detached attitude" and minimalist production that evoked "something intoxicating" in the music scene.[29] Sharing the same sentiment, Adam Offitzer from independent music blog Pretty Much Amazing regarded "Tennis Court" as a "[burst] of originality" in the mainstream music scene of "mindless hooks and dubstep anthems" for its minimalism and "clever" lyrics.[23]
Standard squash rackets are governed by the rules of the game. Traditionally they were made of laminated timber (typically Ash), with a small strung area using natural gut strings.[8] After a rule change in the mid-1980s, they are now almost always made of composite materials such as carbon fiber or metals (graphite, Kevlar, titanium, and/or boron) with synthetic strings.[8] Modern rackets are 70 cm long, with a maximum strung area of 500 square centimetres (approximately 75 square inches) and a mass between 90 and 200 grams (4–7 ounces).
The players (or teams) start on opposite sides of the net. One player is designated the server, and the opposing player is the receiver. The choice to be server or receiver in the first game and the choice of ends is decided by a coin toss before the warm-up starts. Service alternates game by game between the two players (or teams). For each point, the server starts behind the baseline, between the center mark and the sideline. The receiver may start anywhere on their side of the net. When the receiver is ready, the server will serve, although the receiver must play to the pace of the server.
"Tennis Court" is written in the key of A minor and has a moderate tempo of 92 beats per minute. Lorde's vocal range on the song spans one octave, from G3 to G4.[22] As with Lorde's early releases, the song features a minimalist production, employing simple and sparse instrumentation.[23][24] It utilises reverbed synthesisers and an electronic pulse.[25] "Tennis Court" combines alternative pop, art pop and downtempo genres over hip hop-influenced beats.[26][27][28] Billboard editor Jason Lipshutz commented that "Tennis Court" conveys a darker aspect of pop music.[29] Nick Messtite from Forbes wrote that the track was reminiscent of The Postal Service's 2003 song "The District Sleeps Alone Tonight",[30] while Siân Rowe from NME compared the song to works by Lana Del Rey.[31] Clash's Joe Zadeh likened the electronic composition of "Tennis Court" to that of The xx's song "Together" from The Great Gatsby soundtrack (2013).[25]
Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society and at all ages. The sport can be played by anyone who can hold a racket, including wheelchair users. The modern game of tennis originated in Birmingham, England, in the late 19th century as lawn tennis.[1] It had close connections both to various field (lawn) games such as croquet and bowls as well as to the older racket sport today called real tennis. During most of the 19th century, in fact, the term tennis referred to real tennis, not lawn tennis.
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I focus on the student ability to improve skills in the court by having constant repetitions of drills. I also make the lesson more attractive for the students by playing with them and make them experience real game practice. I structure my lessons with short warm up continued by certain amount of drills and finally different games applied to different situations of the game.
Jeu de paume, an older version of modern-day tennis, was very popular in the 17th century and played an important part in the education of princes. As a royal sport, it was codified with etiquette and rituals. Although the Louvre Palace and the palaces at Vincennes, Fontainebleau, Compiègne and Saint-Germain all had their own tennis court, the Palace of Versailles had been without one since the room built under Louis XIII was destroyed in 1682 to ease the way for the building of the Grand Commun. Four years after Louis XIV and his Court moved to Versailles (in 1686), a new room was built for Nicolas Creté, Tennis Master to the King, a few hundred metres south-east of the Palace in the Old-Versailles district. Although built with private funds, it was frequented by Parisian tennis masters, the Court, and the royal family. According to the memoirs of Charles Perrault, Louis XIV's physician had recommended "jeu de paume" to him as a salutary hygienic exercise.
Hello my name is Paolo Losno, I've been a full time tennis coach for the last 6 years. I work with all age groups as well as level of play. I played tennis during high school for and at the university level, am certified with a Professional level of coaching from the PTR, USTA and the USPTA. Have been working the after school tennis programs at various elementary schools during the past 2 years as well as worked with competitive junior players as of late. ... View Profile
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The International Tennis Federation (ITF) conducts a junior tour that allows juniors to establish a world ranking and an Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) or Women's Tennis Association (WTA) ranking. Most juniors who enter the international circuit do so by progressing through ITF, Satellite, Future, and Challenger tournaments before entering the main circuit. The latter three circuits also have adults competing in them. Some juniors, however, such as Australian Lleyton Hewitt and Frenchman Gaël Monfils, have catapulted directly from the junior tour to the ATP tour by dominating the junior scene or by taking advantage of opportunities given to them to participate in professional tournaments.
Van Alen called his innovation a "tiebreaker", and he actually proposed two different kinds or versions of it: best-five-of-nine-points tiebreaker and best-seven-of-12-points tiebreaker.[23] The first lasts a maximum of 9 points, and awards victory in the set to whichever player or team first reaches 5 points – even if the other player or team already has 4; the margin of victory can be a single point. Because this "9-point" tiebreaker must end after a maximum of 9 points, even if neither player or team has a 2-point (or greater) margin, Van Alen also called it a "sudden-death tiebreaker" (If and when the score reached four points all, both players faced simultaneous set point and/or match point.). This type of tiebreaker had its Grand Slam debut at 1970 US Open and was employed there until 1974. Apart from being used for 5 years at US Open it was also used 1 year at Wimbledon and for a while on the Virginia Slims circuit and in American Colleges.
The International Tennis Federation has tested the typical ball speed for various court surfaces, and classifies them as slow, medium, or fast. Generally, a hard concrete surface—with no surfacing system applied—provides a fast speed of play. If that's not your preference or you want a more resilient surface to reduce the impact on your joints, an abundance of acrylic color coatings and cushioning systems are on the market that allow you to adapt the court surface to your style of play.
Tennis balls were originally made of cloth strips stitched together with thread and stuffed with feathers.[44] Modern tennis balls are made of hollow vulcanized rubber with a felt coating. Traditionally white, the predominant colour was gradually changed to optic yellow in the latter part of the 20th century to allow for improved visibility. Tennis balls must conform to certain criteria for size, weight, deformation, and bounce to be approved for regulation play. The International Tennis Federation (ITF) defines the official diameter as 65.41–68.58 mm (2.575–2.700 in). Balls must weigh between 56.0 and 59.4 g (1.98 and 2.10 oz).[45] Tennis balls were traditionally manufactured in the United States and Europe. Although the process of producing the balls has remained virtually unchanged for the past 100 years, the majority of manufacturing now takes place in the Far East. The relocation is due to cheaper labour costs and materials in the region.[46] Tournaments that are played under the ITF Rules of Tennis must use balls that are approved by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and be named on the official ITF list of approved tennis balls.[47]
Tennis also became popular in France, where the French Championships dates to 1891 although until 1925 it was open only to tennis players who were members of French clubs.[24] Thus, Wimbledon, the US Open, the French Open, and the Australian Open (dating to 1905) became and have remained the most prestigious events in tennis.[25][26] Together these four events are called the Majors or Slams (a term borrowed from bridge rather than baseball).[27]
Leading juniors are allowed to participate for their nation in the Junior Fed Cup and Davis Cup competitions. To succeed in tennis often means having to begin playing at a young age. To facilitate and nurture a junior's growth in tennis, almost all tennis playing nations have developed a junior development system. Juniors develop their play through a range of tournaments on all surfaces, accommodating all different standards of play. Talented juniors may also receive sponsorships from governing bodies or private institutions.
The impetus to use some kind of a tie-breaking procedure gained force after a monumental 1969 struggle at Wimbledon between Pancho Gonzales and Charlie Pasarell. This was a 5-set match that lasted five hours and 12 minutes and took 2 days to complete. In the fifth set the 41-year-old Gonzales won all seven match points that Pasarell had against him, twice coming back from 0–40 deficits. The final score was 22–24, 1–6, 16–14, 6–3, 11–9 for Gonzales.
He said there was no way he could ever have been a pro player, and that he knew that in his early teens — for one thing, there wasn’t the money to get him to tournaments beyond those near his home. He plays competitively now one night a week, which is all his schedule allows, hitting with guys his age who had played serious college tennis and, in some cases, joined the low rungs of the pro tour for a year or two.
WILSON Pro Staff RF 97 STRUNG tennis racquet in USED condition! Offers HUGE access to SPIN and POWER! Scuffing and paint chips from regular play. BRAND NEW Solinco Tour Bite Rough strings! BRAND NEW Tourna Tac grip! 4 1/2! ROGER FEDERER! $220! EXTREMELY FAST SAME/NEXT DAY SHIPPING! Specs: - 97 sq. in. headsize - 16X19 string pattern - 4 1/2 grip - string with BRAND NEW Solinco Tour Bite Rough strings Thanks for looking!
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Tennis magazine selected Martina Navratilova as the greatest female tennis player for the years 1965 through 2005.[126][127] Tennis historian and journalist Bud Collins has called Navratilova "arguably, the greatest player of all time."[128] Billie Jean King said about Navratilova in 2006, "She's the greatest singles, doubles and mixed doubles player who's ever lived."[129]
A difficult shot in tennis is the return of an attempted lob over the backhand side of a player. When the contact point is higher than the reach of a two-handed backhand, most players will try to execute a high slice (under the ball or sideways). Fewer players attempt the backhand sky-hook or smash. Rarely, a player will go for a high topspin backhand, while themselves in the air. A successful execution of any of these alternatives requires balance and timing, with less margin of error than the lower contact point backhands, since this shot is a break in the regular pattern of play.
HTML5 is the language some Web sites are coded in and may be used to store information on your computer or device about your Service usage activities. This information may be retrieved by us to help us manage our Services, such as by giving us information about how our Services are being used by our visitors, how they can be improved, and to customize them for our users. Various browsers may offer their own management tools for removing HTML5.
I wanted to do something difficult. That was why I wanted to try tennis. I had been good at things. I was still good at things. I didn’t need a hobby, or a way to meet people. I wanted to get better at something; it had been a long time since I’d sensed that. I wanted to learn something that I would not be learning by reading; I had been reading all of my life, had spent the better part of four decades reading for a living. I wanted, one last time, to struggle at something I could control because the last real struggles were going to be ones I could not.
If the score is tied at 40 ("40-all"), that is "deuce," which is essentially another word for tie. To break the tie, someone must win two points in a row. If you are serving at deuce and you win the next point, then you say "my ad," which means "my advantage." If your opponent wins, it goes back to deuce, and someone again must win by two points in a row. Yes, this could go on forever.
The modern tennis court owes its design to Major Walter Clopton Wingfield. In 1873, Wingfield patented a court much the same as the current one for his stické tennis (sphairistike). This template was modified in 1875 to the court design that exists today, with markings similar to Wingfield's version, but with the hourglass shape of his court changed to a rectangle.[50]
I was born in Colombia but lived all my life in Venezuela. I got a tennis scholarship at Oklahoma, where I got my bachelor degree in Psychology. I worked as head pro at Club Nautico De Maracaibo in Venezuela for 23 years where I made lots of friends and made a lots of great players! 8 players I have taught played tennis for colleges here in the USA. I am a real friendly person and very serious about tennis. Sincerely yours, Jose
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If an opponent is deep in his court, a player may suddenly employ an unexpected drop shot, by softly tapping the ball just over the net so that the opponent is unable to run in fast enough to retrieve it. Advanced players will often apply back spin to a drop shot, causing the ball to "skid" upon landing and bounce sideways, with less forward momentum toward their opponent, or even backwards towards the net, thus making it even more difficult to return.
The David Ensignia Tennis Academy (DETA) program is custom designed to meet the tennis players optimal potential. Understanding the current stages in your career, we at the David Ensignia Tennis Academy, have built a program that will successfully take your game to the next level and will prepare you for the challenges you'll face on the road to success. In order to develop these results, we have employed a group of coaches and trained professionals who will help in your development, both on and off the court. This group will include: a professional coaching staff, physical trainers, and psychologists. Each ... View Profile
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Best for Beginners: All right, most beginners aren’t going to want to drop $200 on a racket, but if you want something that is very forgiving no matter what type of player you are or what type of player you want to become. The overall feel is very plush, though it bears a deceptively high stiffness rating. It’s friendly with spin and minimizes how many of your shots go rogue over the fence. It allows you to move from power hitting to finesse games with ease and gives you a chance to find what feels best without pressuring you in one direction or another. Especially kind to off-center hits the 99.5 square-inch head gives you plenty of real estate for while the 11.3 oz weight makes it good for quickdraws. [Purchase: $190]
Developed in collaboration with the master Roger Federer, this black snowshoe with its sleek design offers new tactile sensations thanks to 9 layers of paints alternating gloss and matt finish for an unprecedented result. The shiny, soft black in the center of the frame highlights the Pro Staff’s ability to quickly penetrate the air to attack each ball. The rougher black base, on the other hand, emphasizes the ability to enter more difficult phases of play.
New upcoming coach of Olimp Tennis Academy. I will build my own academy very soon. I have quite a lot of awards and trophies. If you are ready to play tennis with me, my email is below. I'm a professional tennis player. I have a lot of experience. I can teach kids, students, amateurs and pro. If you would like to know more about tennis or just have fun and leisure, just write me [email protected]
To determine who serves first, you flip a coin or (more likely) spin a racket. Whoever wins the toss gets to decide one of four things: that she wants to serve first, that she wants to receive first, which side of the court she wants to start on (in which case, the opponent chooses who serves first), or that she wants to leave the choices up to her opponent.
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Here is a great racquet from a very reputable tennis equipment manufacturer. Wilson is a well-known name when it comes to quality tennis products, to say the least, and this good racquet does not disappoint. It features such things as grippy string technology that quickly dampens the energy of the ball as it strikes the racket so you can get better spin on your return shots. It is also ultra-lightweight and has a new class paint finish that gives it some style.
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Premier events for women form the most prestigious level of events on the Women's Tennis Association Tour after the Grand Slam tournaments. These events offer the largest rewards in terms of points and prize money. Within the Premier category are Premier Mandatory, Premier 5, and Premier tournaments. The Premier events were introduced in 2009 replacing the previous Tier I and II tournament categories. Currently four tournaments are Premier Mandatory, five tournaments are Premier 5, and twelve tournaments are Premier. The first tiering system in women's tennis was introduced in 1988. At the time of its creation, only two tournaments, the Lipton International Players Championships in Florida and the German Open in Berlin, comprised the Tier I category.
The Challenger Tour for men is the lowest level of tournament administered by the ATP. It is composed of about 150 events and, as a result, features a more diverse range of countries hosting events.[92] The majority of players use the Challenger Series at the beginning of their career to work their way up the rankings. Andre Agassi, between winning Grand Slam tournaments, plummeted to World No. 141 and used Challenger Series events for match experience and to progress back up the rankings.[93] The Challenger Series offers prize funds of between US$25,000 and US$150,000.
The comprehensive rules promulgated in 1924 by the ILTF, have remained largely stable in the ensuing eighty years, the one major change being the addition of the tiebreak system designed by Jimmy Van Alen.[32] That same year, tennis withdrew from the Olympics after the 1924 Games but returned 60 years later as a 21-and-under demonstration event in 1984. This reinstatement was credited by the efforts by the then ITF President Philippe Chatrier, ITF General Secretary David Gray and ITF Vice President Pablo Llorens, and support from IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch. The success of the event was overwhelming and the IOC decided to reintroduce tennis as a full medal sport at Seoul in 1988.[33][34]
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My Losing Season Summary
My Losing Season
SuperSummary, a modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, offers high-quality study guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics. This one-page guide includes a plot summary and brief analysis of My Losing Season by Pat Conroy.
In the sports memoir My Losing Season (2002), American novelist Pat Conroy recounts his journey as a basketball player for a second-tier college basketball team in South Carolina. The memoir was Conroy’s first nonfiction work in nearly three decades and received widespread praise for its humor, fast-pacing, and sympathetic look at comradery among young men. It was a New York Times Bestseller.
Its themes include love, perseverance, and the value of losing.
From a very young age, Conroy loved playing basketball and showed some skill as a point guard (leader of a team’s offense), though he always knew he wouldn’t be the greatest point guard out there due to his physical normalcy. In the prologue, Conroy writes that he grew up in a very athletic family, though basketball was always his passion (he tried to play football and baseball to make his father, Don Conroy, happy).
From 1963 to 1967, Conroy was a player on the Citadel Bulldogs, a NCAA Division I basketball team. He’s thankful for athletics for teaching him to acknowledge and deal with all of his weaknesses and strengths; dealing with the aggressions of other people, in particular, was a skill he would routinely use as a future journalist and writer. Though he wasn’t the most gifted at basketball (he was only 5’10), all of his coaches from when he was nine to 25 loved him for his unflagging enthusiasm that inevitably spread to his other team members. While he, like the other players, didn’t enjoy losing, he in particular had a way of learning something valuable from each defeat.
In chapter one, Conroy recreates the eleven other players on the team. As the memoir develops, he’ll rely on interviews with each teammate and the work of other sports writers to describe his own role on the team in objective terms.
In My Losing Season, Conroy focuses, in each of the book’s four parts, on his final season with the Bulldogs. It’s during this season that he realized he wanted to become a writer (he’d go on to have immense success with The Prince of Tides and The Great Santini). However, Conroy does flash back to many basketball-related memoirs from elementary, middle, and high school, when he was on the all-state team.
In Conroy’s final season, Mel Thompson coaches The Bulldogs. (When Thompson retired in 1967, his record would be 67-96). Conroy writes that Thompson motivated his players by berating them; that’s what he intended at any rate, but the tactic would often backfire and many of the college students chose to leave the sport rather than continuing playing under him.
Along with a pretty bad coach, Conroy wasn’t exactly helped by his emotionally (and sometimes physically) abusive father. When his father attended a game, it wasn’t unusual for him to yell obscenities at his son all up until the final quarter. Don Conroy used to play basketball himself, and after a poor performance, he didn’t hesitate to slap his son across the face after he had lost yet another game. This is damaging for Conroy; since he was 17, he had used success in basketball as a way to win his father’s love. During Conroy’s last season, the two don’t have much to talk about unless it’s sports-related.
Conroy wonders if he was better suited to handle Thompson’s general malevolency because he grew up in a highly hostile home. In one detailed flashback, Conroy relieves a time when his mother attempted to stab his father. His father slapped her with all his might, causing her to fall down. To everyone’s surprise, his father than started to laugh uncontrollably.
Despite his historically rocky relationship with his father, Conroy reports that the two made up by the time Conroy Sr. died in late 1990s. After the publication of The Great Santini (1976), Don Conroy apparently took a long hard look at his life and reformed himself to be a kinder person.
The team would lose twice as many games as they won (final record: 8-17). But more than the specifics of who won or lost, Conroy remembers most vividly the times when the five people on the court worked in perfect harmony. Even when they lost, the moments when the teammates could read each other and know how the other would act before they acted were, for Conroy, sublime.
The team was prototypically “mediocre.” They weren’t the worst team in Citadel history (that title belongs to the 1955 team, which lost 37 straight meetings).
Conroy writes that he was a “military brat,” meaning that his family moved on the whims of his father’s job. Growing up, he was lucky if they got to stay in the same spot for more than 18 months. The Citadel, a military college, provided the sort of stability he had always longed for as a child. Even as the team quite literally had a losing season, his teammates provided a sort of paradise of comfort compared to the judgmental environment managed by his father.
Conroy concludes the players in any sport learn more from loss than from winning. Losing prepared him for many of life’s disappointments.
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MWSFF Children’s Concert with Sally Rogers
Saturday, February 2 @ 11:00 am
East Lansing Hannah Community Center
« MWSFF Concert with Joshua Davis
MWSFF Afternoon Workshops »
Sally Rogers has won numerous awards for writing and performing children's music. It is a real treat to have such an accomplished artist present this year's MWSFF Children's Concert, co-produced with the City of East Lansing.
Folk musician and recording artist Sally Rogers will perform at the Hannah Community Center as part of the 2019 Mid-Winter Singing and Folk Festival. This event is sponsored by the City of East Lansing.
Sally Rogers began her career as a touring musician back in 1979 and soon was performing on Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion and traveling across the United States and overseas to Europe and China. She has fifteen recordings to her credit and her second album, In the Circle of the Sun, received the Best Folk Album of 1982 award from the National Association of Independent Record Distributors (NAIRD). One of Sally’s latest recordings, What Can One Little Person Do? (Round River Records), offers empowerment to young people, teaching them that each and every one of them is important as an individual. That recording won the 1993 NAIRD Award for Best Children’s Recording and yet another Parents’ Choice Gold Award.
Sally Rogers performs traditional, contemporary and original ballads and songs, interwoven with stories taken from her life as a performer, a wife and a mother. Throughout her concerts, she accompanies herself on guitar and Appalachian dulcimer, or performs without accompaniment in a voice that needs no further enhancement. Reviewers have described her voice in superlatives ranging from “remarkable” to “mesmerizing.” As one critic summarized, “…it’s really next to impossible to do justice to a voice of that quality.
www.sallyrogers.com
Concert, Fiddle Scouts, Mid-Winter Singing and Folk Festival
Community Singing, Good for Kids, Singer Songwriters, Storytelling
http://www.singingfestival.com
819 Abbott Road
East Lansing, MI 48823 United States
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(Release Date: June 9, 2015) Based on the 1968 fantasy novel by Peter S. Beagle, 1982's "The Last Unicorn" holds a forlorn, poetic beauty that separates it from the more conventional family-targeted animated features of its timeor any era, for that matter. Sensitively directed by Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin Jr., the film has the power to enchant viewers of all ages, giving children more to think about and consider than the average entertainment of this sort. In a magical forest, a Unicorn (voiced by Mia Farrow) learns that she may be the last of her kind and sets out to confront the intimidating Red Bull, who has allegedly herded the rest of the unicorn population and entrapped them at the ends of the earth. Teaming up with novice magician Schmendrick (Alan Arkin), she heads for the castle of King Haggard (Christopher Lee), the alleged keeper of the Red Bull. When Schmendrick's spell goes awry, the Unicorn is transformed into a blonde-tressed human woman named Amalthea and begins to fall in love with the king's kind-hearted adopted son, Prince Lir (Jeff Bridges). As Amalthea moves closer to the Red Bull and struggles with whether or not she wants to return to her original form, she becomes the first unicorn in existence to experience human feelings of mortality and regret.
"The Last Unicorn" is perhaps not as well-known as Disney's oeuvre, but it deserves to be. Lovingly brought to life through exquisite hand-drawn animation and a talented voice cast led by a poignant Mia Farrow, the film features a slew of memorable characters in a story where the existential stakes are resoundingly high. Natural bits of humor arise from the narrative, but Rankin & Bass are not interested in pandering with obvious comedy or wisecracking sidekicks. Instead, their empathy is always with the title character, a gentle-souled mythological creature who yearns to find meaning and acceptance in a lonely land where there is no one else like her in sight. Complemented by a soundtrack of thoughtful, pleasantly melodic original songs by America, "The Last Unicorn" is inspiring if admittedly a bit of a downer. Even if everything works out for the best by the end, there is an undercurrent of heartache in its cinematic fabric. This is as it should be, mirroring the Unicorn's own emotional catharsis during her short but unforgettable time as a human.
A/A-
Originally released on Blu-ray in 2011 from Lionsgate, "The Last Unicorn" has been freshly remastered in 2K by Shout! Factory for this superior 2015 edition. The difference between the two is pretty staggering, with this new release's 1080p transfer head and shoulders above the Lionsgate disc. Age-related damagedirt, hairs, nicks, scratchesis all but entirely nonexistent in this transfer, while colors are boldly ravishing. Depth is stunning, with scenes such as the opening and closing ones set in the forest looking three-dimensional as the camera moves between the trees and greenery. Meanwhile, image detail and clarity are top-notch, made all the more impressive because the picture is well over thirty years old. There are a few ever-so-minor examples where the animated cells seem to fluctuate in tone, but most viewers will not even notice and it is probably inherent to the source. The 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio isn't the most active of mixes when it comes to the surrounds, but it is nevertheless full and powerful when it counts. The songs and score are glorious to hear, while dialogue is well-modulated. A 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio is also appreciably included as an audio option.
Audio Commentary with author-screenwriter Peter S. Beagle, associate producer Michael Chase Walker, Beagle's business manager Connor Cochran, and Conlan Press team members Terri Kempton and Travis Ashmore
"True Magic: The Story of The Last Unicorn" Featurette (43:29, HD)
Highlights from The Last Unicorn Worldwide Screening Tour with Peter S. Beagle (11:18, HD)
Animated Storyboards (7:23, HD)
Original Trailer (2:48, SD)
The folks at Shout! Factory have outdone themselves with the Blu-ray release of "The Last Unicorn: The Enchanted Edition." The film, and its lovely animation, have never looked better than they do right here. For viewers who have not seen the movie before, they are in for a real treat. For fans who may already have the 2011 Blu-ray, this is an easy double-dip for the exceptional 2K picture remastering and additional bonus content. "The Last Unicorn" has built up a passionate cult following over the years, but it deserves to be discovered by an even wider audience. Whether one is seeing it again or for the very first time, this Blu-ray is sure to remain the crowning home video version for many years to come, rendering all previous releases on VHS, DVD and Blu-ray obsolete. Buy it.
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The Futon's First Look: "State of Romance" (NBC)
By Brian Ford Sullivan (TFC)
Please note: As a courtesy, please do not reproduce these comments to newsgroups, forums or other online places. Links only please.
So you've seen all of the new shows this fall - but what about the ones that didn't make the cut? For the next 30 days we're going to take a "first look" at a collection of 30 pilots that didn't land on the 2009-10 season schedule. Are there any gems that got passed over or are they all deservedly locked in the networks' vaults? Stay tuned.
STATE OF ROMANCE (NBC)
(written by Barbara Wallace & Tom Wolfe; directed by Peter Sollett; TRT: 23:07)
What is it? A single-camera comedy about dating in Chicago.
Who was behind it?: Barbara Wallace and Tom Wolfe, co-creators of the short-lived Jim Gaffigan vehicle "Welcome to New York." Peter Sollett ("Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist") directed the half-hour, which was filmed on location in the Windy City.
The plot in a nutshell: Emily ("'Til Death's" Lindsey Broad) and Mike ("Reba's" Steve Howey) do not meet cute. As passengers waiting for the same flight at O'Hare airport, she happens to overhear him mentioning "she's like a six and a half, maybe a mercy seven" on his phone. And on the actual flight, she's not impressed by his look-at-me-aren't-I-smart-and/or-charming reading choice ("The Omnivore's Dilemma"), job (wine distributor) or advances (he's not the Mike Adamle, famed sportscaster). He likewise turns out to be less than enthused after learning that not only is she also a wine distributor, but she just stole his latest prospect in Green Bay. On the flip side, Ed ("The League's" Stephen Rannazzisi) and Regina (newcomer Grace Rex) do meet cute. He uncharacteristically comes to her aid after she loses a parking spot to an angry Korean War veteran after which she anoints him her hero. They're both there to pick up their respective best friends... wait for it... Mike and Emily.
Not surprisingly, after Ed and Regina begin their courtship, Mike and Emily resume annoying each other ("Are you one of those guys who went to a Big 10 school and smoked giant cigars while you played golf even though you're like 25?" she asks him. "Just extrapolating from the shirt."). Ed and Regina however have their own problems - he's actually engaged (for the fourth time, none of which he's followed through with) while she can barely take care of herself thanks to spending her childhood as a competitive ice skater (don't ask). Also thrown into the mix are Regina's event planner sister Alice (Zoe Lister Jones) who's developed a habit of sleeping with guys Emily likes ("Excuse me," she clarifies. "Accidentally making love to men you don't yet realize you are attracted to, big difference.") and their slacker friend Andrew ("MADtv's" Bobby Lee), who spends his days making web videos (WildAsianBush.com: "It's just me playing the ex-president running a bubble T stand at a mall. 250 hits bro, kids love it."). Collectively they roll their eyes at Ed/Regina's burgeoning romance and Mike/Emily's hate-slowly-turning-into-love dance. Throw in a closing sequence set to Cake's "Short Skirt/Long Jacket" and really that's it.
What works: As a Chicagoan-turned-Angelino, I'm definitely predisposed to love any show set - let alone filmed in - Chicago. Unfortunately...
What doesn't: ...there's not much to love here. First and foremost, "Romance" subscribes to my least favorite television convention, the "just happens." Mike just happens to make an ass of himself in front of Emily who just happens to wind up sitting next to him on the plane who just happens to not only share his profession but be on her way to the same potential client who just happens to be best friends with the girl who just happens to meet Mike's best friend while they both just happen to be picking them up from the aforementioned trip at the airport. That's the piece de resistance of coincidence daisy chains. Even worse, there's no chemistry to mask such romantic comedy shenanigans as Mike and Emily never quite sell the love part of the love/hate equation.
Only in the closing sequence, in which Mike fires back at her with his own "are you one of those" scenarios ("girls that rides an old bike [with] coaster brakes, was a vegetarian but now eats everything but veal... I'm extrapolating from the Chucks"), is there any sense he likes her beyond the I-guess-he-has-to-feel-something because the script requires him to. That's not to say the show itself doesn't have its amusing parts - Ed and Regina's schmoopy-esque relationship has its moments, for instance he shows up with a giant teddy bear to win her back because "it's what people throw on the ice to show a skater their love," causing Mike to deadpan, "Those are little girls who throw that stuff." - but it's not enough to create consistent laughs or a believable set of characters and situations. At the end of the day too much of the show's mechanics are of the only-on-TV/movies variety, undercutting any sense of authenticity to the proceedings. I'm all for trying to bring a fresh angle to the romantic comedy genre...
The bottom line: ...but this isn't it.
[november 2009]
· BUSTED PILOTS (TFC)
· STATE OF ROMANCE (NBC)
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You are in calendar The Fall and Rise of Yosef HaTzadik
The Fall and Rise of Yosef HaTzadik
The pattern of Joseph’s life presents an interesting phenomenon. From the beginning Joseph’s life seemed to have gone from bad to worse. It started off with difficult to explain sibling rivalry, continued with being thrown into a fateful ditch, was sold into the hands of the Yishmaelim, declining yet further to the hands of the Egyptians. In Egypt he became a slave in the house of Potifar and finally bottomed out in an Egyptian jail. From this jail his life seemed to take a drastic new turn where he was released from the jail, stood as a dignitary before Pharaoh, became the viceroy of Egypt, reunited and reconciliated with his family, until the ultimate height of his life in being able to give peace and sustenance to the entire Kneses Yisroel.
Our sages reveal to us that Joseph in his early years, notwithstanding his holiness, was a mesalsel bsaaro. He was concerned with his appearance. He possessed an element of vanity. From Joseph’s dreams to his grooming, Chazal introduce Joseph as having a focus on himself. This focus was the reason for his downfall. Let us try to pinpoint the moment of turn around in Joseph’s life. It was a moment in his prison cell where the holy and distinguished Joseph HaTzadik woke up in the morning and looked over at his Egyptian cell-mate who was a true convict and noticed that he wasn’t himself. “What is the matter?” asked Joseph “Why do you look so upset today?” Everyone knows the story from there but it was that question, that concern, that turned the tide in Joseph’s life. From that altruistic moment everything seemed to happen very fast. Suddenly Joseph was on top of the world. This was a moment of change for Joseph where he took on a whole new focus. There was no personal reason that Joseph should be concerned with the mood of his cell-mate, but his focus moved outward and success set in. Joseph began his life interpreting his own dreams; he ended it interpreting other people’s dreams.
Later, in this weeks Parsha, we learn of the moving reunion of Joseph and Benjamin. The Torah tells us that they both wept as they embraced each other. Our Sages analyze the weeping of these two brothers and give meaning to their tears. Joseph was crying over the destruction of the two Temples in Jerusalem that were both in Benjamin’s portion of Israel. Benjamin was crying over the destruction of Shilo that was in the portion of Joseph. What is most significant about these tears is not that they were crying for the future calamity of their descendants but that they were each crying over their brother’s calamity. Joseph was crying for Benjamin and Benjamin for Joseph. They were atoning in advance for the self-centeredness and sinas chinom that would ultimately destroy the holiest places in Jerusalem by crying over their brother’s calamity instead of his own.
Whether it be for us personally or for the entire Jewish people, if we are focused on ourselves we will fall; if we focus on our brother we succeed.
In political American vocabulary today ‘rights’ must be the most common word. The US Bill of Rights is one of the most referred to documents in this country. We have lobbyists for equal rights, animal rights, workers’ rights, women’s rights, men’s rights and many more. Right, right yet not so right. If in society the total focus is on rights and never on obligations we will have chaos. The Torah teaches that every person has to ask themselves, “what is my obligation in this world?” the antithesis of “what are my rights?”
In our own communities we have to focus outward. Just as we are experiencing a renaissance of Torah we are also experiencing a mind-boggling indifference of Jews to anything Jewish. My father always reviews with me the history of the Titanic. The ship was mostly millionaires who bought a ticket on an unsinkable ship. They were sipping their cocktails in the main hall when the crew announced that the ship was sinking and everyone should take to the lifeboats. But things seemed calm in their own cabin and as far as they knew the ship was unsinkable. Chaos took over the ship but the millionaires would not let go of their cocktails. It’s so easy to feel smug in the wonderful oasis’s of Torah that we have but we must also look outward to get the real picture..
And so it is in our personal lives. Relationships, all of them, marriage parent/child, friendships are crumbling because the benchmark of a successful marriage is “what am I getting out of it?”
The Torah teaches that importance should always be given to the right side. We put on our right shoe before our left shoe, we wrap our Tefilin with our right hand and we give charity with our right hand. Why than is the most important part of the body, our heart, on the left side? Rav Nachman of Breslav gives the truest answer. If we stand face to face with another individual our heart is on their right. Our heart is for them not for ourselves.
View this article, and others like it, online at: http://www.torahlab.org/calendar/article/the_fall_and_rise_of_yosef_hatzadik/
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Defeater - Defeater (Album Stream)
Defeater's self-titled album is available now // Order at https://ffm.to/defeater
Defeater is an American melodic hardcore band from Massachusetts, formed in 2004 within the Boston hardcore scene. To date they have released five full-length albums, two EPs and three singles. The band lineup consists of Derek Archambault (vocals), Jake Woodruff (guitar), Joe Longobardi (drums) and Mike Poulin (bass). All of the band's works have been released via Bridge 9 Records, aside from the album Travels, which was initially released via Topshelf Records, but was later reissued on Bridge 9 Records. Their studio album, Letters Home, was released on July 16, 2013 and debuted at number 72 on Billboard Top 200 chart, number 1 on the vinyl chart and number 13 on the Current Alternative Album chart. Their latest album is titled Abandoned and was released in 2015.
Almost two months after the release of Abandoned Defeater parted ways with guitarist Jay Maas citing both personal and creative differences.
On March 5, 2019, the band released a music video for "Mother's Sons" and announced their self-titled album, produced by Will Yip, would be released May 10, 2019.
2019 10s Defeater Metal & X-Core Album Streams
Artist: Defeater
Video title: Defeater (Album Stream)
Category: Metal & X-Core, Album Streams
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Apicorp appoints new chief financial officer
DAMMAM, 28 days ago
The Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (Apicorp), a multilateral development financial institution, has appointed Dr Sherif El Sayed Ayoub as its chief financial officer.
In this capacity, Dr Ayoub will take charge of Apicorp’s finances, including risk management, financial planning, financial reporting and accounting.
Dr Ahmed Ali Attiga, Chief Executive Officer of Apicorp, said: “We are delighted to have Dr Sherif Ayoub join our team during the next phase of our growth journey. During his career, Dr Ayoub has demonstrated his strong financial management capabilities and has made significant contributions to various institutions, through a variety of diverse senior finance and operational roles. We are confident that his breadth of technical knowledge and experience will help us to achieve further financial excellence and create longstanding value for our partners and shareholders.”
Dr Ayoub joins Apicorp from the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) where he oversaw key policy priorities, operations, and initiatives related to treasury, financial policies, planning and analytics, investment, financial control, budget and performance management as well as risk management. He has assumed numerous leadership positions during his career, serving as the assistant secretary general at the Islamic Financial Services Board (IFSB) and working with A T Kearney, the US Government, the UN, and the World Bank in different capacities.
Dr Ayoub brings with him deep expertise in financial management, as well as a proven record of accomplishment, which spans over 20 years and includes experience in the finance, management consulting, prudential regulation, economic development, and Islamic finance domains.
Dr Ayoub acquired his PhD in Finance from the University of Edinburgh, and is also a holder of a Masters’ Degree from Columbia University and a Bachelors’ Degree from Baldwin Wallace University. In addition, he has served as a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University.
Dr Ayoub is a CFA Charter holder and a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). He has also published a book and several articles that relate to the finance and risk management domains. – TradeArabia News Service
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Windy Uproar: Wind farm opponents object to commission’s appointment rejection
The Mining Gazette - Joshua Vissers - September 14, 2018
General Michigan
L’ANSE — Amid repeated outbursts from the assembled public, the L’Anse Township Board appointed three new members to the Planning Commission: JoAnn Pennock, Craig Kent and Joan Bugni.
“It seems like the wind energy board, but it’s really not,” Supervisor Peter Magaraggia said before making his first appointment.
JoAnn Pennock was unanimously approved to a two-year term on the planning commission. Pennock previously served on the commission that created the 2012 master plan for the townshp.
“She’s very good, she’s knowledgeable,” Magaraggia said.
Magaraggia then nominated Bob Kissel, a local contractor and member of Friends of the Huron Mountains, to a two-year term, citing his regular attendance at public meetings.
The Friends group has led opposition to the proposed wind farm project in L’Anse Township.
“He seems pretty well informed on what’s going on,” Magaraggia said of Kissel.
Board members Kristine Rice, Brian Kissel and Shelley Lloyd voted no, ending Bob Kissel’s chances at a commission seat.
The decision was met with murmurs from the public audience, including one exclamation of, “That’s outrageous!”
“We’ll table the rest, because... more [truncated due to possible copyright]
“We’ll table the rest, because like I said, we can’t have all the same thinking,” Magaraggia said. “I don’t see anything wrong with Bob Kissel.”
Magaraggia, authorized to appoint members to the commission as supervisor, insisted he was trying to insure a diversity of opinions on the Planning Commission.
Other board members and members of the public disagreed, accusing him of obstructing the work of the commission.
“We’ve been kicking the can down the road for how long now?” Brian Kissel asked.
For more than 10 minutes, Magaraggia, other board members, and members of the audience went back and forth about whether to continue with nominations or to table the matter for the month. Magaraggia eventually backed down and nominated Craig Kent for the remaining two-year term, and Joan Bugni for a one-year term.
Both were approved unanimously by the board.
Don Mleko, the township building inspector, stood up to defend his position on the permits issued to Renewable Energy Systems (RES) for the meteorological towers taking measurements at the sight of the proposed wind energy project.
He said he took RES officials at their word when they said they had “jumped through all the hoops,” but he now believes he never recieved a tall-structures permit from the state.
He said he would look the file over and send RES a letter with what it needed to submit.
“I’ll give them 15 days. After that, I’m going to revoke the permit,” Mleko said.
A representative from RES declined to comment.
Source: http://www.mininggazette.co...
http://www.windaction.org/posts/48806-windy-uproar-wind-farm-opponents-object-to-commission-s-appointment-rejection
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The worst bit about the PPL backflip? Voters love it
Kath Kenny May 27, 2015
When Tony Abbott and Treasurer Joe Hockey announced an end to two sets of maternity leave payments for “double dipping” mothers, it almost seemed wise to stay quiet. Abbott and his ministers seemed to be doing a good job of burying the policy themselves. There was their seemingly ill-advised language (mothers were “frauds” and “rorting” the system), the hypocrisy (Liberal Ministers were forced to admit their wives had “double dipped”) and political backflips (Abbott had made his maternity leave scheme of six months at replacement wages his signature policy at the 2013 election).
Yet a new Essential Report poll, out yesterday, shows that a majority of voters are actually applauding the decision.
This was the question posed.
Working women currently receive taxpayer-funded paid parental leave (PPL) of $641 a week (the minimum wage) for up to 18 weeks. In the Federal Budget, the Government has proposed women who can access employer-sponsored PPL schemes will lose all or part of their taxpayer-funded PPL. Do you approve or disapprove of this proposal?
A whopping 56% of those polled agreed that those women should “lose all or part of their taxpayer-funded PPL”. And the numbers didn’t split clearly along party lines either: while 73% of Liberal voters approve of the change, so did 47% of Labor voters and 37% of Greens voters. Men were marginally more likely to approve of the cutback than women (60% to 52%) and older voters were more likely to support the policy than younger voters (59% of 35- to 54-year-olds compared to 42% of 18- to 34-year-olds). As the Essential Report’s Peter Lewis told me, the result shouldn’t be that surprising: “the ‘double-dipping’ metaphor was a perfect pitch to voter-land”.
Given how well received the decision to cut PPL entitlements has been, it’s worth unpacking just what might be going on here – and taking a look at how feminists might want to repackage maternity leave policies to a seemingly unsympathetic electorate.
The most charitable interpretation of the poll result is that it’s an expression of a desire for equality: the idea “that no-one is on a better wicket than me,” as Lewis says. To win the policy debate, feminists need to better sell the message that parental leave doesn’t have to be a lose-lose scenario: just because someone gets a better deal than me, doesn’t mean I have to lose out. As any unionists will tell you, someone else’s better deal just sets a higher benchmark, one that makes it easier for me to point to when I’m bargaining for myself.
The Abbott government is playing a classic game of divide and conquer: set up a fake argument between a group that is already receiving little and watch them fight among themselves – thereby diverting their attention away from looking at who has the real power. We need to keep taking the debate away from their preferred playing field.
We also need to communicate better the message that, as the explanatory memorandum to the Paid Parental Leave Bill 2010 said, it’s a scheme that was designed to “complement” other entitlements. Though it’s in some ways a complicated message to get across, the two PPL schemes – the government and employer-funded schemes – satisfy two competing, but arguably equally valid, ideas about PPL – one is that it’s a payment to help all families and parents with new babies take time off work, with all babies being treated equally (hence the government-funded scheme of a flat payment, at 18 weeks at the minimum wage) and two, that it’s a workplace entitlement just like any other – like annual leave, sick leave, carers leave and long service leave.
The second issue I think we have to confront is the way that, despite the name, “paid parental leave”, and despite the fact that the government scheme is also available to men, if they happen to be the primary carer, feminists have oversold the idea of PPL as a mother’s entitlement. It’s true that there’s an unarguable case that, in the first few months after a baby’s birth, time off work for mothers should be the first priority – after all, it’s mothers who need time to physically recover from birth, and who are encouraged to breastfeed babies wherever possible for the first few months of their lives. But after that, who cares for a new baby should be up for grabs.
But in arguing the case for maternity leave for mothers, and continually talking about parental leave as if it was only, or at least mostly, a mother’s right – including a push by the ACTU to extend the current twelve months off work to two years – feminists have not only let fathers off the hook, and taken on the vast bulk child care duties as if it is a badge of honour, we’ve lost an opportunity to get “buy-in” from the other gender. If a portion of paid parental leave was reserved for fathers, and fathers only (on a ‘use-it-or-lose-it’ basis) some of the envy and heat would be taken out of the equation: let’s see how many men take up paid leave to look after a messy, crying baby and still want to call it a “rort”.”
The third key thing feminists need to confront when faced with a poll like Essential, is that voters seem resistant to the idea that motherhood and money go together: it’s as if there’s a real aversion to the idea that commerce enters the baby picture at all. Deep down, I think many people would prefer to imagine that, like breastfeeding, mothers and babies should be natural, free and all about maternal love and self-sacrifice. As Tony Abbott said last Mother’s Day, the day he announced the back flip, mothers are apparently people who “always put themselves last”.
But of course, babies cost. And while crossbench senator and libertarian David Leyonhjelm may prefer to think of children as merely personal choices, paid for from the pockets of families who choose to have them, feminists have got to do a lot better of job of communicating that they are also little economic units that go to your coffee shop for babycinos, who will go to the university where you teach, or work at the business you own, or the nursing home where you end up in your final years. They might be one of the causes of the climate change (particularly when they are young and churn through clothes and nappies at a great rate) but they are also the generation who might just find the solution to climate change.
We might live in families, and we live in an era that worships the individual. A policy like this one, as Essential’s Peter Lewis says, “is playing to people as consumers of government, not citizens.” But there is no getting around the fact that we still live in a society.
Tags joe hockey maternity leave paid parental leave tony abbott
Kath Kenny
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The gig economy and the increasing prevalence of freelance work is changing how companies do business. Some 55 million Americans, or 35 percent of the U.S. population, worked as a freelancer last year — more people than ever before, according to research from contract-based jobs site Upwork and the Freelancers Union. That follows a 2015 Intuit study that found non-permanent employees have grown to 36 percent from 17 percent of the workforce over the past 25 years, and is expected to hit 43 percent by 2020.
Employers are generally seen as the big winners as workers rush to take short-term jobs coordinated through mobile apps and websites. In an unpredictable business environment, contract assignments let companies better manage their labor needs more flexibly, avoid hiring mistakes and find niche talent quickly.
Ken Kanara, a managing director at Ex-Consultants Agency in Miami Beach, Florida, said HR professionals come to him to hire people with top-tier management consulting experience for short-term assignments when they have discrete projects “that are either outside the scope of ‘business as usual’ or need to be done at a more rapid pace.” Clients also hire short-term workers to fill temporary gaps in their full-time employee ranks, such as when people take maternity leave or sabbaticals. They also may do so when considering a full-time hire but first want to test an employee with project-based work, Kanara said.
On the other hand, the move to a freelance economy can also benefit workers who find security in diverse revenue streams. “In a world of at-will employment, it can be more secure and sustainable to be independent than to have a full-time job,” Leif Abraham points out in a blog post on 42Hire.com. “If you lose your full-time job, you’re ‘out of a job.’ But if you lose a client, well, you lost a client,” writes Abraham, co-founder of And Co., a New York City company that provides billing and tech support to freelancers.
But as the flexible workforce evolves, some companies are rethinking the strategy. In 2015, the app-based courier service Shyp made headlines when it reclassified its contractors as employees, which made them eligible for workers’ compensation and other benefits, in the face of a lawsuit filed by two workers.
Kevin Gibbon, Shyp’s CEO, told TechCrunch the change wasn’t a response to the lawsuit, but rather a strategic quality-control move. “Operationally, we get a lot of benefit from it,” Gibbon said. “Our service doesn’t just involve dropping off an item; our customers need to be comfortable with [the person] who is picking up their $10,000 painting.”
Jimmy Fabiano, general manager of OnForce, a freelancer management software system based in Lexington, Massachusetts, said many companies are moving to a “blended” workforce. While many use short-term workers to ramp up when demand spikes, companies with steady demand are better served by hiring full-time employees. Profitable businesses that sell services — which span everything from accounting and banking to landscaping and cleaning — can meet their labor demands most efficiently with a workforce that’s comprised of 80 percent or more full-time workers, Fabiano said.
Some human resources executives worry they lose access to the best and brightest talent when they don’t offer a traditional position with benefits. There’s also concern that gig workers lack the commitment to an employer that’s required to deliver truly dazzling performance.
At StartupBros LLC, a Tampa, Florida-based company that helps entrepreneurs launch their companies, CEO Will Mitchell said he employs contract-based virtual assistants who handle bookkeeping and database management. But it’s a different story for jobs that require customer interaction.
“We’ve found it’s much better to hire internally for customer-facing positions,” Mitchell said. “Our customers are our first priority.” As a result, Mitchell hires full-time workers to manage customer support, social media and content production.
Another deterrent for employers is the potential loss of intellectual property, said Thomas White, a corporate attorney who specializes in human resources management at the Rimon law firm in Chicago. Employers “may expand contractors’ bodies of knowledge that could ultimately help their competitors,” White said. “It may be intentional; it may be through negligence, but it’s very difficult to police.”
Ultimately, each employer needs to examine the potential upsides and downsides of contract labor based on their needs, White said. “You gain flexibility but you lose loyalty.”
The question, then: Which do you value more?
AUTHOR: Kate Rockwood is a freelance journalist based in the Chicago area.
Reprinted from TALENT ECONOMY
Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: contractual employees, freelance, hiring
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Celebrating a Season for Nonviolence With Arun Gandhi
By Toni Lapp
Arun Gandhi at Unity Village
Sometimes ordinary words fail us. Take, for instance, the concept of nonviolence. It is far more than the absence of violence, says Arun Gandhi, architect of the Season for Nonviolence.
To illustrate his point, Arun Gandhi likes to tell a story about his grandfather, the famed spiritual leader and social reformer Mohandas “Mahatma” Gandhi.
It was the mid-1940s, and Arun was an adolescent living at his grandfather’s home in India. On the way home from school he threw away a pencil stub, assuming his grandfather would replace it with a new one.
That evening when he asked his grandfather to buy him a new pencil, he was instead asked a series of questions: “He wanted to know how the pencil became small, and where did I throw it away and why did I throw it away and on and on, and I couldn’t understand why he was making such a fuss about a little pencil until he told me to go out and look for it. I said ‘You must be joking. You don’t expect me to go out and look for the pencil in the dark?’ He said, ‘Oh yes, I do. Here’s a flashlight.’”
After hours of searching, he did find the pencil, and when he returned home, his grandfather taught him a valuable lesson.
Mahatma Gandhi told him that even in the making of a simple pencil, many natural resources were used. By throwing it away, he was throwing away resources—and committing violence against nature. When society’s affluent carelessly use the world’s resources, they deprive the less affluent of those resources—which is violence against humanity.
Such acts qualify as passive violence, which the average person commits on a daily basis without thought, said Arun Gandhi.
Passive violence takes many forms, be it waste, discrimination or disrespect.
His grandfather believed that these relentless acts of passive violence incite anger in the victims, who eventually lash out with physical violence, a lesson that Arun has carried with him through life.
Arun Gandhi has dedicated himself to spreading the messages his grandfather taught him more than half a century ago. Each year he leads a tour to India to show how Gandhian principles are still applied, despite persistent poverty and inequality in the country.
The stories he tells about his grandfather have provided insight into one of the most influential leaders of the 20th century.
That’s Why He Said ‘Be the Change’
Arun says that the media helps sustain a culture of violence. For instance, when a criminal is sentenced, the press says that the victim’s family now has closure, he noted in an interview with Unity Magazine. Arun, whose grandfather was assassinated in 1948, scoffed at the idea of closure. “It just means ‘we got revenge,’” he said. “That’s not justice. That’s the main reason we can’t stop crime.”
Instead of seeking revenge, society needs to address the reason the criminal committed the crime, he said.
All too often, people do not have techniques for managing their anger, he said.
Arun himself knows something about managing anger. As an Indian youth raised in apartheid South Africa, he was the target of racial violence—not just from whites, but also from blacks. “It filled me with a lot of rage,” he said. “I wanted an eye for an eye.”
Concerned for his well-being, his parents sent Arun to India to live with his grandfather when he was 12. “He taught me how to channel anger,” Arun said.
His grandfather told him not to act on anger, but to write instead. He began to keep an anger journal, a learning tool he still recommends.
To drive home the message about the different forms violence takes, the elder Gandhi instructed his grandson to draw a “family tree” of violence, the offspring being physical violence and passive violence.
Arun would chart events that happened every day—showing disrespect, being wasteful, engaging in arguments—and see in what way his actions might have hurt someone. The “tree,” posted in his bedroom, proved to be a very visual learning tool: “It filled up the whole wall,” he said.
His grandfather believed that such introspection on a personal level would help reduce violence on a larger level.
“That’s why he said, ‘Be the change you want to see,’” said Arun Gandhi.
An Agent for Change
The cornerstone of Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy is ahimsa, the Hindu notion of a state of consciousness that is devoid of violence.
“People haven’t really understood the scope (of nonviolence),” said Gandhi. “They see it as political. Grandfather used it to gain independence for India. Martin Luther King used it to gain civil rights for blacks.”
“But it’s more than political. It’s deeper than that, and people have not understood. To live that philosophy (of ahimsa) requires sacrifice people are not willing to make.”
“We are accustomed to a culture of violence based on materialism and consumption. It’s a very selfish existence.”
Arun Gandhi’s frankness has led to controversy. A naturalized U.S. citizen, he and his late wife, Sunanda, founded the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence, now based at the University of Rochester in New York, to further the study and practice of nonviolence. In 2008, he resigned as president of the board of the institute after he posted a blog message titled “Jewish identity can’t depend on violence,” that cited Israel as a player in the “culture of violence” in the Middle East.
He later apologized. “Unintentionally, my words have resulted in pain, anger, confusion and embarrassment," he stated in his resignation letter.
Although the decision to resign was painful, “I didn’t want to sacrifice the institute for my beliefs,” he told Unity Magazine.
He has since turned his focus on another project. He describes the Gandhi Worldwide Education Institute (www.Gandhiforchildren.org), which promotes schools for impoverished children, as “my new obsession.”
Arun says he’s frequently asked if Mahatma Gandhi’s teachings are relevant still today.
“His philosophies are based on love, respect, and understanding. If we question whether his philosophies are relevant, we question whether love, respect, and understanding are relevant.”
To comment on this article, send an email to lapptm@unityonline.org.
Arun Gandhi
Season for Nonviolence
peaceful resistance
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Public bus for Highway of Tears not mentioned in B.C.’s final missing women report (updated)
Bethany Lindsay and Brian Morton, Vancouver Sun 12.04.2014
Highway 16 between Prince Rupert and Prince George, known as The Highway of Tears, where many women have vanished or been found murdered over a period of more than 40 years. B.C.'s government says it has taken action on 75 per cent of the recommendations made two years ago after a public inquiry into the Robert Pickton serial killings.
Ian Smith / Vancouver Sun
Suspect in B.C. killings well-known to police in '70s as serial rapist
Ontario man charged with murdering two girls in B.C. over 35 years ago (updated)
Highway of Tears cries out for public shuttle bus
VICTORIA - Community leaders along B.C.’s notorious Highway of Tears were frustrated to see the province release its final report on the Missing Women Inquiry without any mention of urgently needed public shuttle buses.
Two years ago, Missing Women Commissioner Wally Oppal urged the province to immediately commit to developing a “safer travel option” for people living along Highway 16, where 18 women have been murdered or gone missing in recent decades.
The B.C. government on Thursday released its final report in response to Oppal’s 56 recommendations, boasting that it has taken action on 75 per cent of them.
“The themes are compensation for the children, support for vulnerable women, improved response to missing persons, and improvements to policing. Some of the work has been completed, while some continues to be underway,” Attorney General Suzanne Anton said in an interview.
While improving transportation on Highway 16 gets a full page in the report, the measures listed refer to funding that has been in place for years and new services that some say are inadequate in a region where many people are forced to resort to hitchhiking.
Smithers Mayor Taylor Bachrach said he was deeply disappointed that the province hasn’t committed to a public bus to connect towns and cities along the highway.
“It’s overwhelmingly frustrating. I have not been able to elicit a recognition that the status quo — when it comes to public passenger transportation in the North — is inadequate,” he said.
“Today’s announcement does very little to improve the situation.”
The government report lists an existing annual commitment of $1.5 million to provide local bus services through cost-sharing agreements between BC Transit and municipal governments and First Nations. Those existing systems just aren’t enough, according to Bachrach.
“There’s a patchwork of services, there’s a lack of consistency and there are a lot of communities that aren’t served adequately, if at all,” he said.
The report also vaunts the creation of a new website.
that compiles information about the current transportation options in the region.
Carrier Sekani Tribal Council Chief Terry Teegee has his doubts about how useful the website will be. He pointed out that many members of his community don’t have regular access to the Internet.
“How is that going to be helpful to people on the ground?” he asked. “And is that something we should be boasting about? I think anybody nowadays could put that together — a website with a bunch of links.”
He was also doubtful about another measure in the report — a one-time funding injection of $75,000 to the Carrier Sekani Family Services to increase access to driver education and licensing programs.
The report does acknowledge there is still more work to be done, but the Ministry of Transportation said in an email that any expansion of the current transit system will have to come at the direction of local governments.
Anton said that the remaining recommendations made by Oppal in his 2012 report are “not as important” as those that the province has already followed through on.
“Some of them ask for research projects. But some aren’t terribly relevant now. And some of them are obsolete. We are into action, not research,” she said.
“Other recommendations we won’t pursue are being addressed through work currently underway in other areas of the ministry.”
The Missing Women Commission Inquiry headed by Oppal was formed to examine the serial murders of Robert Pickton in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
mailtoblindsay@vancouversun.com" TARGET="_blank">blindsay@vancouversun.com
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Irrigation conversion discussion continues
Posted on March 7, 2019 by Vauxhall Advance
ADVANCE FILE PHOTO
By Cole Parkinson
cparkinson@tabertimes.com
In Municipal District of Taber council’s ongoing exploration of converting a handful of quarters to new irrigation through Bow River Irrigation District expansion, the process has yet to be fully set in motion.
After being tabled again on Jan. 29, an update was brought forward to their meeting on Feb. 11 and gave council another chance to discuss whether or not they wanted to proceed.
BRID had notified the M.D. they had been approved for six quarters of new irrigation.
Upon discussion with leaseholders who were interested in converting, six had answered back stating they were still interested while another had notified the M.D. they were interested after estimated financial work had been done.
“How I see it is, it would be three different pump sites to service the six quarters,” said Brian Peers, director of municipal lands and leases.
Before that happens though, soil testing will need to be completed and administration estimated the cost to be $3,500 per quarter.
While the cost to move forward projects to be right under the $3 million mark, they would see an additional increase in total land value on the converted lands. Administration stated assuming a $4,000 per acre lease over 810 acres, would see a $3,240,000 increase in value on the lands.
“I don’t see much difference if we own them or they own them. The additional rent is going to justify the purchasing of the pivot over the same number of years basically,” added Peers. “On those six-quarters, we are receiving almost $19,000 in rent. Under the terms of the lease, we would remove any oil and gas on those quarters and the property taxes would double with being irrigated. That would equate to about $29,500, so we would more than compensate for the loss of rental from the other factors.”
One major hold up from council on the quarters was two of the original six quarters were located on tax-recovery tame grass.
While not native grass, council did express hesitation to move forward, as it may lead to further perception that they were willing to do the same to all native grass moving forward.
“They are tame grass, crested wheat primarily. They wouldn’t be deemed to be native grass, but they are tax recovery quarters,” said Peers. “It is certainly not seen in the same light as native grass.”
The other four quarters that expressed interest in converting are all located on dryland cultivation.
Another factor council was worried about was the perception relating to the tax recovery land they were still trying to get back from the provincial government.
“If we allow this to get broken, how does that impact (the land we are trying to get back)?” asked Merrill Harris.
Many on council wanted to remove the two tame grass quarters from the discussion.
“I think it’s a lot of money and a slippery slope even with tame grass/native grass. Once you break tame grass, it sends a message out that you are willing to break grass up. I know it is tame, but at the same time, it starts with tame and then the next one will be somewhat tame, somewhat native. It will be a snowball effect and that is not a message I want to be sending out,” added Coun. Leavitt Howg.
On the other side though, it was pointed out that council were the ones who had the ability to break tame native grass and it has been stated many times they weren’t willing to do that.
“I see a huge difference in breaking tame as opposed to native grass. We are the ones who control whether we are breaking native grass and I don’t think anybody at this table is in favour of breaking native up,” said Coun. John Turcato.
The other quarter added later, located at SE 27-13-17, had no financial information presented to council.
The other four quarters located at NE 26-13-17, NE 17-13-17, NW 17-13-17 and SW 16-13-17 all had information such as 2018 lease rent and potential future rent based on who provides the pivot.
Rent leases for 2018 were at $2,800.60 (NE 26-13-17), $5,135.70 (NE 17-13-17), $5,479.60 (NW 17-13-17) and $5,223.10 (SW 16-13-17). Meanwhile, the rent projected for each quarter if the leaseholder provided the pivot at $200 an acre was at $28,000 for each and $34,750 if the M.D. provided the pivot.
Debenture costs were also laid out on a 15-year and 20-year calculation with financial information for both options on who provides the pivot.
Development costs for both the 15 and 20-year debentures were slated at $2,736,550 if the pivot was provided by the M.D. and $2,066,550 if the pivot was provided by the leaseholder. Development total costs is estimated at $3,422,794 (M.D. pivot) and $2,584,780 (leaseholder pivot) on a 15-year debenture and $3,715,681 (M.D. pivot) and $2,805,960 (leaseholder pivot) on a 20-year debenture.
Annual debenture costs would be $228,186 (15-year debenture) and $185,784 (20-year debenture) with an M.D.-provided pivot and $172,318 (15-year debenture) and $140,298 (20-year debenture) with a leaseholder- provided pivot.
With the conversion, loss of dryland cultivation rental income was estimated to be $18,862.30, but the increase in revenue due to elimination of oil/gas payments and increase in property taxes on irrigation was $21,548.
“I don’t know if that is the right way to be spending this money,” stated Howg.
Others were more in favour of spending some money to convert as it would lead to further revenues down the road.
“For the future benefit, and we just came from an irrigation conference where they said every dollar invested in irrigation returns at $3 at GDP. This is money well spent and better for the community. If our forefathers had the attitude when irrigation came to not break any grass, I think we would look very similar to northern Nevada,” said Turcato.
“If we look at what the 2018 renting rate was on those six-quarters, it is $18,862.30 with the potential revenue with irrigation if the M.D. provides the pivot or the landowner provides it, it’s not even in that same ballpark. Plus, the farming revenues generated from an irrigated quarter for that farmer, the potential return to the economy looks different as well. There are some things in our M.D. that we have that others don’t, and that is water. We haven’t been prepared at this point to start selling our quarters for revenue and I think we know that we aren’t making any more land. If we have quarters that have the potential to earn more money, I feel I have a responsibility to figure out a way for the M.D. to generate more money,” added Deputy Reeve Tamara Miyanaga, who also stated she preferred having the leaseholder provide the pivot.
Council asked administration if the numbers were a good jumping off point as to what they could expect if they moved forward.
“Financially, it is essentially a project that pays for itself over those number of years. What is not included in here is value of the property, once this development is done on top of it paying for itself, the value of the asset is significantly increased once the water rights and irrigation infrastructure is installed,” said Bryan Badura, director of corporate services for the M.D. of Taber.
A motion was made to move forward on soil testing for the five quarters, excluding the two tame grass locations and was passed 5-2. Councillors Leavitt Howg and Murray Reynolds voted in opposition.
With the money to do the soil tests not in the 2019 budget, council also had to pass a motion to amend the 2019 budget.
A motion was made to add $17,500 to the budget for soil testing and was passed 5-2 with Howg and Reynolds voting in opposition.
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Buy Used Copy
Imagination is a solo album composed by Tenpei Sato. Released in 1995, it features a mixture of vocal themes, featuring Tenpei Sato, Chaco, and Utako Kurahashi, and instrumental themes in a variety of styles. Is it worth picking up if you are able to find it?
The vocal themes on this album are a mixed bag. On one hand, I really appreciate the music behind many of the vocal themes, but at the same time, some of the vocal themes are really hard to get into due to the vocals. One of the better vocal themes is “My Mood is I-N-G”. It’s a playful jazz piece with a very nice melody and some beautiful instrumental backing, particularly in the piano, brass, and the guitar. The vocalist isn’t particularly grating and her voice does tend to accentuate the playfulness of the music. “Born to Be Wild” is a rock and keyboard piece that features Tenpei Sato on vocals. It has a pretty infectious groove and melody, but Tenpei Sato’s voice is one that takes time to get used to. It’s not an entirely bad piece, and it is playful at times, but it takes a while to grow on you.
“Welcome to the Telephone Club,” on the other hand, is one of Sato’s experiments gone horribly, horribly wrong. The tone of the piece is a dark and smoky one with some pretty interesting piano and synth lines. While I appreciate the opening vocals that imitate a telephone ring and the beat of the piece, however, the vocals are utterly atrocious. They really kill the song in my opinion and feel totally out-of-place. Lastly, I’ll mention “Lovin’ You”. Those familiar with Sato’s works for Nippon Ichi Software will probably enjoy this piece the most. The vocalist’s voice really shines in this piece while the string and piano accompaniment is extremely beautiful. It’s probably my favorite vocal theme on the album, but only because I enjoy his ballads so much.
As for the instrumentals, I found them to be stronger overall. The title theme, “Imagination ~ Long Night,” is a beautiful piano and string led piece that features a mix of more lighthearted and semi-dramatic passages. It also features a bit of Debussy’s “Reverie” as well. The award for the most repetitive title ever probably goes to “A Relaxingly Relaxed Relaxing Conversation”. This piece is a nice jazzy theme that features a pretty nice beat with some beautiful piano and acoustic guitar work. It has a bit of a tropical island feel to it as well. I’m really fond of the acoustic guitar solo as well as it really adds to the atmosphere of the piece.
Continuing the impressionistic theme, “Shinjuku Walking Bolero” is a playful orchestral piece probably inspired by Ravel. However, I don’t really find this one to stick out too much. There are some interesting string and brass passages, but overall, it seems a bit clichéd. It also tries to do so much in its duration as there does seem to be a lack of cohesion throughout. There is also an instrumental version of “Lovin’ You” entitled “Lovin’ You ~ Precious Version.” This arrangement is a very beautiful piano- and string-led composition that really accentuates the original. For those who aren’t a fan of Japanese vocals, this version is probably for you. It’s a simplistic piece, but sometimes simplicity has its advantages, especially when there is a strong melody to support it.
For the most part, Tenpei Sato’s only solo album Imagination is enjoyable. A lot of the vocal themes have interesting music, though the vocals can either make or break the piece. The instrumentals are a mix of jazzy and more melancholy soundscapes, but are, for the most part, stronger than the vocal themes. If you find this one and are a big fan of Tenpei Sato, I’d say it’s worth picking up, but there may be some pieces that may put you off, such as “Welcome to the Telephone Club”. It’s worth a shot if you are a die hard fan.
Imagination Don Kotowski
Do you agree with the review and score? Let us know in the comments below!
Posted on August 1, 2012 by Don Kotowski. Last modified on August 1, 2012.
Don Kotowski Currently residing in Philadelphia. I spend my days working in vaccine characterization and dedicate some of my spare time in the evening to the vast world of video game music, both reviewing soundtracks as well as maintaining relationships with composers overseas in Europe and in Japan.
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R4 -THE 20TH ANNIV. SOUNDS- June 25 by Don Kotowski
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Chris Perry on Xenoblade2 Original Soundtrack
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April 21, 2019 April 21, 2019 By Our Correspondent
AGARTALA:
When the blood banks throughout the state are running out of adequate stock of blood, Health and Family welfare Minister Sudip Roy Barman is leaving no stone unturned in pulling all the odds to reinstate the blood banks with necessary facilities.
Health Minister Barman, who is believed to be one of the efficient ministers of the incumbent coalition government, has on today attended three one after another blood donation camps, undoubtedly, in an effort to generate more and more awareness among the people and crave people’s attention towards the noble cause.
Speaking at programme, he said, blood is one of the invaluable components of our body that can never be replaced by something else. Even, our science also has no answers when it comes to blood. So, the only way that is left over to us, which can save lives of millions of people fighting with deadly diseases—Thalasemia, Blood Cancer and people who are in the need of immediate critical surgeries, is voluntary blood donation camps.
Urging the people to organize blood donation camp in an endeavor of festivity, he said, in each and every level of the society humanity needs to prevailed, and blood donation is one of such notion that completes an individual as a human. I urge the people associated with politics, NGOs and civil societies to come forward and spread the message of harmony, peace and humanity through voluntary donation of blood.
Every year, Sudip added, near about 35 to 40 thousand unit of blood is required in the state which means every month the necessity stands around 3 to 4 thousand blood units but there remain a huge gap between the supply and need. Unless and until the entire society would start to contribute in this cause nothing would change. From higher most level administration to the lowest level, from the cabinet of ministers to the panchayet representatives contribution to this cause is highly essential, he added.
Referring to those who are critical to this voluntary exercise, he said, every pouch of 350 ml blood has a very negligible life span of 35 days. Once it gets over, it is of no use. And thus, the health department prepared a detailed calendar with the social organizations as blood donation partners. The calendar is doing its work but we need more associates eager to incorporate, he pointed out.
He also came down heavily on the ruling party wings of which he is a member saying, earlier the ruling party wings contribute hugely in the blood donation graph but unfortunately, the present ruling party and its wing are found not to be much interested in this field. Notably, he had also earlier mocked the ABVP, the student’s wing of the BJP for acting not as responsible as SFI in terms of blood camps.
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The mission of the Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra is to foster and encourage the appreciation of music through live concert performances and educational programs that are diverse, enriching and of the highest quality.
Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra
We are excited about all of the rich history and interesting facts that orchestral music has to offer. The information presented here is for those new to classical music, lovers of the art of classical music, parents that wish to share more information with their children, and anyone that loves to learn.
The Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra is dedicated to sharing the joy of music with everyone and doing all we can to educate and inspire our audiences. We have chosen some of the most interesting figures and works in our season and went in-depth to go beyond the concert program notes to bring you more stories and facts so you will be "in the know."
Thank you to the Alabama State Council on the Arts for their support of this project. Their investment in arts education allows us to bring this information to you.
Let us know what you think! We are interested in your thoughts and welcome your suggestions. Email us at tso@tsoonline.org. Read on and be inspired!
Please enjoy the fantastic information from our 2017-2018 Season. The 2018-2019 educational experience will go live on August 20!
Beethoven's Heiligenstadt House
THE MAJESTY OF BEETHOVEN
Beethoven short biography
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) is considered to be one of the most important and prolific composers in Western music, and his name is often synonymous with “legend” or “genius.” The opening notes of his Fifth Symphony and the “Ode to Joy” theme from his Ninth Symphony are recognizable across generations and demographics. To summarize his life and creative output is a tremendous task, but we will touch on some key points here.
Young Beethoven
Beethoven was born on or around December 16, 1770 in Bonn, Germany. His father, Johann van Beethoven, was a prominent bass singer and eventual Kapellmeister of the Court of the Electorate of Cologne, and also served as young Ludwig’s first music teacher. Johann was a “stage father” of sorts; he saw the success that Leopold Mozart had with his children, including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and hoped to find the same notoriety with his son. Beethoven’s first public performance on the piano was in 1778.
Soon after this, around 1779, Beethoven found his first true teacher, Christian Gottlob Neefe, the Court’s organist, who taught him the basics of musical composition. In the early to mid-1780s, Beethoven wrote his first works – piano sonatas and keyboard variations. After the death of his mother in 1787, Beethoven’s father descended into alcoholism, and Ludwig was left to look after the family finances. To earn extra money, he played viola in the Court orchestra.
In 1792, Beethoven moved to Vienna to study with the revered composer Franz Joseph Haydn – and he spent the rest of his life in Austria. He found success in Vienna, and completed his first set of string quartets and first symphonies – all of which showed notable influence of Haydn and Mozart - between 1798 and 1802. This compositional era is known as his “Early Period.” It was also around this time that he began to lose his hearing, which he lost completely by the age of 44.
The cause of Beethoven’s deafness remains unknown. It has been attributed to many things, including autoimmune disease, lead poisoning, and even his habit of immersing his head in frigid water in order to stay awake. When he began to lose his hearing around 1802, Beethoven moved to a small town outside Vienna called Heiligenstadt, where he explored coping mechanisms for his deafness and attempted to come to terms with this great change to his livelihood.
He returned to Vienna from Heiligenstadt the next year, and he brought with him a significant change to his compositional style. Most musicologists consider this change indicative of the start of his “Middle Period,” and also a bridge to a more Romantic idiom. His well-known Third Symphony (also called “Eroica”) and only opera, Fidelio, were composed during this period.
Beethoven had many personal difficulties from 1811-1817. His brother, Kasper, died in 1815, and Beethoven started a custody battle with his sister-in-law over his then 9-year-old nephew, Karl. Beethoven eventually got custody after a seemingly endless back-and-forth, but his relationship with Karl was never easy. Almost a decade later, in 1826, Karl attempted suicide. He survived, but soon after left home to join the army, and never saw Beethoven again.
Beethoven’s so-called “Late Period” began around this time, in 1815. Works from this period include the Missa Solemnis, the late string quartets, and his Ninth Symphony. Beethoven’s pieces from this era are known for their depth of emotional intensity and formal innovations. He struggled through many health challenges during the composition of these great works – especially the late string quartets.
After months of being bedridden, Beethoven died on March 26, 1827 at the age of 56. His funeral procession in Vienna three days later was attended by close to 20,000 people.
Both works featured in this concert – Symphony no. 4 in B-flat Major and Symphony no. 7 in A Major – are from Beethoven’s Middle Period. This was a time in which Beethoven found himself as a composer, and during which his deafness steadily progressed.
Symphony no. 4 was composed in 1806 and premiered in 1807. It was dedicated to Count Franz von Oppersdorf, who was related to Beethoven’s longtime patron, Prince Lichnowsky. French composer Hector Berlioz, a successor of Beethoven, called the second movement of Symphony no. 4 “the work of the Archangel Michael.” Despite this high praise, the Fourth Symphony is often overshadowed by the symphonies that came before and after it – Symphony no. 3 (Eroica) and Symphony no. 5. In comparison to these heavy, intense works, the Fourth Symphony is light, and even joyful; it is often thought to be more closely related to his first two symphonies.
Symphony no. 7 was composed in 1811-1812, and was premiered in Vienna in late 1813 with Beethoven himself at the podium. The concert was a charity performance for soldiers wounded in the Battle of Hanau (part of the War of the Sixth Coalition). The symphony’s second movement was encored immediately. The entire piece is noted for rhythmic devices throughout that are suggestive of dance, such as dotted rhythms. Richard Wagner once called the piece the “apotheosis of dance.” Beethoven himself supposedly referred to the symphony as “one of my best works,” and critics have mostly revered it, too.
BEETHOVEN IN POP CULTURE
Beethoven’s status as a legend and musical genius has made him a popular subject of films, books, and plays – to various degrees of dramatization.
British actor Peter Ustinov wrote and starred in the 1983 play Beethoven’s Tenth, which is often compared to Amadeus – though it did not find even half the level of success.
Beethoven has been a subject of films since the early era of moviemaking, starting with the Life of Beethoven, a 1927 Austrian silent film. 1992’s Beethoven Lives Upstairs, a Canadian made-for-TV movie, won the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Children’s Program. One of the most well-known films about Beethoven is Immortal Beloved from 1994. Starring Gary Oldman, the biopic deals with determining the identity of a mystery woman – a so-called “immortal beloved” – to whom Beethoven allegedly left his estate, music, and all his affairs in his last will and testament. Most recently, Ed Harris starred in Copying Beethoven in 2006, which dramatizes the final years of Beethoven’s life and focuses on the composition of his Ninth Symphony.
CHURCH OF BEETHOVEN
Beethoven and his music continue to inspire people around the globe. Some, like Albuquerque’s Felix Wurman, were inspired spiritually. Wurman was a cellist in the New Mexico Symphony, and he wanted to provide a spiritual and creative outlet for people in the community who did not have a church home. The “Church of Beethoven” had its premiere “service” on February 10, 2008 in the Filling Station, an old Albuquerque gas station that was converted into a theater.
The Church of Beethoven is described as a Sunday variety show of sorts, with poetry readings, group singing, silence, and – of course – musical performance. Admission is free, as churches do not charge admission, either. Performances do not always include Beethoven or even classical music, but they center on what Wurman feels to be the great composer’s spirit. Wurman says, “[Beethoven] poured all that spirituality that he couldn’t find a place for in the traditional church, he poured it straight into his art. And that’s what most of the great creators did. And so I can just go and grab that incredible crystallized piece of beauty and present it to the people.”
Since its beginnings in 2008, the Church of Beethoven now has branches in Tucson, Arizona, Durham, North Carolina, Chicago, Illinois, and Santa Monica, California.
Wurman and his project were featured in an 2008 NPR article: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97010881&sc=emaf
SHOUT FOR JOY - WINDS AND VOICE WITH CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
Hovhaness short biography
Alan Hovhaness (1911-2000) was an American composer who lived and worked during most of the 20th century. His musical output was enormous: he has 67 numbered symphonies and 434 opus numbers.
He was born Alan Vaness Chakmakjian in Somerville, Massachusetts to Haroutioun Hovanes Chakmakjian, an Armenian-born chemistry professor at Tufts University, and Madeleine Scott, an American of Scottish heritage. He legally changed his last name in 1930 after his mother’s death because no one could spell or say “Chakmakjian” correctly.
Young Hovhaness wrote his first piece – a cantata – at age 4. His parents saw his interest in music, and found him piano lessons. He studied piano through his teenage years, but at the age of 14, he decided to focus more on composition. After he graduated high school, he studied composition in Boston at both Tufts University and the New England Conservatory of Music (NEC). He was mostly successful in college, and even piqued the interest of composer Roger Sessions.
In the 1930s and 1940s, Hovhaness burned many of his early works; at least 1000 pieces were destroyed. He attributes this early sense of failure to Sessions’s criticism of his work. This insecurity persisted through the years. In 1942, he won a scholarship to the Tanglewood Festival to study with Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů. There, Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein critiqued his work harshly. Distraught, he left Tanglewood early.
In 1940, he became the organist of St. James Armenian Apostolic Church in Watertown, MA – a position he held for ten years. It was during this time – since he was surrounded by Armenian people and customs – that he became interested in Armenian culture and traditional music. Although he earned the respect of composer John Cage and ballet dancer Martha Graham, his music was sometimes dismissed as being simply “Armenian” or “modern.”
Lousadzak, a concerto for piano and string orchestra that premiered in 1944, was the first of Hovhaness’s pieces to use aleatoric music, or music in which some element is left to chance. Hovhaness himself called this effect “spirit murmuring,” and it became a characteristic of many of his pieces from here forward.
Also around the mid-1940s, Hovhaness took an interest in Indian classical music, and brought many well-known Indian musicians to teach and perform in Boston. He himself learned to play the sitar. He began to develop his philosophy of musical creation, which he expressed in a 1940 application for a Guggenheim fellowship:
“I propose to create a heroic, monumental style of composition simple enough to inspire all people, completely free of fads, artificial mannerisms and false sophistications, direct, forceful, sincere, always original but never unnatural. Music must be freed from decadence and stagnation. There has been too much emphasis on small things while the great truths have been overlooked. The superficial must be dispensed with. Music must become virile to express big things. It is not my purpose to supply a few pseudo-intellectual musicians and critics with more food for brilliant argumentation, but rather to inspire all mankind with new heroism and spiritual nobility.”
In 1948, Hovhaness joined the faculty of the Boston Conservatory of Music, and taught there until 1951, when he relocated to New York City to focus on being a full-time composer. While in New York, he worked for the U.S. government-sponsored news source Voice of America as a scriptwriter for the Armenian section and director of music for the Near East section. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in composition in both 1953 and 1954. Between 1951 and 1955, he wrote the score for two NBC documentaries, a ballet for Martha Graham, and the score for the Broadway play The Flowering Peach. His biggest break came in 1955, when the Houston Symphony premiered his Second Symphony (“Mysterious Mountain”), and MGM released recordings of his works.
Between 1959 and 1963, Hovhaness took research trips to India, Hawai’i, Japan, and South Korea in order to expand his knowledge of different kinds of traditional music, including Japanese gagaku music. In 1965, he went to Russia, Georgia, and Armenia on a U.S. government-sponsored tour – which ended up being the only time he ever visited Armenia.
In the early 1970s, Hovhaness relocated to Seattle and stayed there until he died in 2000. Between 1973 and 1992, he stayed very musically active, writing 37 new symphonies and many other symphonic and chamber works.
About Prayer of St. Gregory
Hovahness’s “Prayer of St. Gregory” was written during his early years in Boston, before he worked at the Boston Conservatory, but after he solidified his musical style with the concerto Lousadzak in 1944. Some scholars have called this era his “Armenian” period. It was premiered in New York City in October of 1946. Originally, it was an interlude from his opera Etchmiadzin. Hovhaness called it a “prayer in darkness.”
The subject is St. Gregory “The Illuminator,” the patron saint of the Armenian Apostolic Church, who was imprisoned for twelve years while trying to bring Christianity to Armenia in the early 4th century. It is modal, dark, and chorale-like. The gentle trumpet melody unfolds over understated string chords. The piece makes use of silence for dramatic effect, as Gregory’s cries fade into darkness.
About Siegfried Idyll and Wagner’s aesthetic
Richard Wagner (1813-1883) was a German composer best known for his operatic works. Wagner was unique among composers of his time because he also wrote the libretti, or lyrics, to his operas. He became associated with a German term called Gesamtkunstwerk, or “total work of art,” which is what he aspired to in his compositions. The Gesamtkunstwerk aimed to synthesize visual, poetic, musical, and dramatic arts. He is best known for his 4-opera set, the Ring Cycle (Der Ring des Nibelungen), and for building his own opera house at Bayreuth in Germany. The Bayreuth Festival, which Wagner began at the end of his life to showcase his own works, continues annually to this day.
Siegfried Idyll is a symphonic poem originally conceived for 13 musicians. Wagner composed it as a birthday present for his second wife, Cosima, after their son, Siegfried, was born in 1869. It premiered privately in Wagner’s villa, Triebschen, in Lucerne, Switzerland, on Christmas morning in 1870. He set up the musicians on the staircase leading up to Cosima’s bedroom. Cosima herself wrote in her diary about the performance:
“When I woke up I heard a sound, it grew even louder, I could no longer imagine myself in a dream, music was sounding, and what music! After it had died away, Richard came to me with the five children and put into my hands the score of his ‘symphonic birthday greeting.’ I was in tears, but so, too, was the whole household; Richard had set up his orchestra on the stairs and thus consecrated our Tribschen forever! The Tribschen Idyll – so the work is called…”
Wagner intended the work to remain private. Its original title is Tribschen Idyll with Fidi’s birdsong and the orange sunrise, as symphonic birthday greeting. (Fidi was the nickname for their son, Siegfried.) However, he, to Cosima’s dismay, sold the piece to Schott for in 1878. In order to make it more marketable, he expanded it from 13 to 35 players.
Siegfried Idyll is unique in Wagner’s output. It remains one of his only purely orchestra works that is regularly played today. Additionally, Wagner used some of the material from Idyll in his 1876 Ring Cycle operas Siegfried and Götterdämmerung (in the “Siegfried’s Rhine Journey” section).
The TSO will present the chamber orchestra version of Siegfried Idyll.
About Bach cantatas and “Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen”
Cantata, which means “sung” in Italian, is typically a multi-movement vocal work with instrumental accompaniment, and often involves choir. Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) is the best-known composer of cantatas. He wrote hundreds of them – and at least 209 of them have survived. The earliest known Bach cantata was written in 1707, but most of them are from the years he spent as cantor of the main churches in Leipzig, Germany – Thomaskirche and Nikolaikirche – starting in 1723. Sometimes, Bach would complete a full cantata every week, as the works were related to the cycle of the liturgical calendar.
Generally, Bach’s cantatas followed a 6-movement structure: Opening chorus – Recitative – Aria – Recitative or Arioso – Aria – Chorale. However, he did not always follow a specific structure. His main goal was to set the texts in the most expressive way possible.
“Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen” (“Shout for joy to God in all lands”) is Bach’s only cantata scored for solo soprano and trumpet, and is one of only four cantatas involving solo soprano voice. It is unique because it was, according to Bach’s own inscription, written for general use and not necessarily for a specific day in the liturgical calendar. He himself used it for the 15th Sunday after Trinity, and it premiered on September 17, 1730 in Leipzig. The text is from an unknown poet, but it uses various Biblical books, especially the book of Psalms. It is in 5 movements: Aria – Recitative – Aria – Chorale – Final Chorus.
About Concerto Grosso and Corelli
“Concerto grosso” means “ big concerto” in Italian, and is an orchestral piece consisting of musical material passed between a group of soloists (“concertino”) and orchestra (“ripieno” or “concerto grosso”). It was developed in the late 17th century. The first major composer to use the term was Archangelo Corelli. Corelli (1653-1713) was also a very well-known violinist who was active in Rome.
Op. 6, which includes the “Christmas Concerto,” is a set of 12 concerti grossi, arranged for publication after Corelli’s death in 1714. The first eight were composed for the church (including the Christmas Concerto) and the second four were intended as concert pieces. The Christmas Concerto was intended for a Christmas Eve service, and may have had its premiere in 1690. It is in six movements.
Susan Williams
Susan Williams, soprano, has performed nationally and internationally in a wide range of leading opera roles and as a vocal soloist. In December of 2016 she made her second trip to Kolkata, India to perform concerts with Kolkata Classics Concert Series. Twice, she has traveled to Havana, Cuba where she lectured and worked with students at the Instituto Superior de Arte. In Florida, she was soprano soloist in Mozart’s Requiem with the Master Chorale of South Florida, Mahler’s Fourth Symphony with the Frost Symphony Orchestra, and Brahms’s Liebeslieder Waltzes for Miami’s Mainly Mozart Festival.
With the Duke Symphony Orchestra, she has sung Despina in Così fan tutte, Gretel in Hansel and Gretel, Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro, and Sophie in excerpts from Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier. For Opera Birmingham, she sang the Erste Knabe in Die Zauberflöte and the title role in over 30 performances of Barab’s Little Red Riding Hood. She toured northeast Ohio with Lyric Opera Cleveland’s Overtures and with Cleveland Opera as Adina in The Elixir of Love.
Under the baton of Franz Welser-Möst, she performed in The Cleveland Orchestra’s production of Le nozze di Figaro. She has been a soloist with the Tuscaloosa Symphony, the Akron Symphony, the Cleveland Pops Orchestra, the Cleveland Bach Consort, and the Johnson City Symphony. In Graz, Austria, she sang the soprano solos in Mozart’s Coronation Mass and was a finalist in the Meistersinger Competition at the American Institute of Musical Studies.
A graduate of Birmingham-Southern College, she earned the master’s degree at the University of Akron, and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music under the guidance of Mary Schiller. At Vanderbilt University, she was a 2013 member of the prestigious NATS internship program where she worked under master teacher Kenneth Bozeman. She was appointed as Assistant Professor of Voice at the University of Alabama in 2013. Prior to her position at the University of Alabama, Dr. Williams was a member of the voice faculty at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music.
Her scholarly interests include using body movement systems and the use of virtual anatomy to enhance student learning in the studio. Her most recent article “Finding the Right Metaphor: Strategies to Optimize the Educational Value of Virtual Anatomy Software in the Voice Studio ” can be found in the Journal of Singing Volume 73, Number 2, November/December 2016. Dr. Williams began practicing yoga in 2001 and earned her 200-hour Registered Yoga Teacher certification in June 2014.
Eric Yates
Eric Yates serves as an associate professor of trumpet at The University of Alabama, principal trumpet in the Tuscaloosa Symphony, and first trumpet of The University of Alabama Brass Quintet.
Yates is also an in-demand soloist and clinician and has appeared throughout the United States and in numerous countries as a soloist, touring ensemble member, and teacher. He has performed in Russia, England, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, and Cuba, and has presented master classes and recitals at the St. Petersburg and Moscow Conservatories; the Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) in Havana, Cuba; the American University of Rome, Italy; and at numerous institutions in the U.S., including Emory University, Furman University, the University of Georgia, Northwestern University, and others.
He has twice hosted the Trumpet Festival of the Southeast at The University of Alabama and served as a judge at the National Trumpet Competition since 2009. He was awarded the Best Cornet Player of the 2006 U.S. Open Brass Band Championships; toured with the award-winning Fountain City Brass Band of Kansas City, MO; and served two years as Principal Solo Cornet of the Prairie Brass Band of Arlington Heights, IL.
Before his appointment at The University of Alabama in 2007, Dr. Yates was an active performer in the Chicago area as principal trumpet of the Northbrook Symphony, co- principal trumpet of the Chicago Brass Choir, and a faculty member of the Lake Forest College Department of Music and Wright City College Department of Fine Arts in Chicago.
His performance career has included engagements with numerous professional orchestras in the United States, including the Alabama (Birmingham) Symphony Orchestra, the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra, the South Bend Symphony, the Illinois Symphony, the Elmhurst Symphony, the Northwest Indiana Symphony, and the Nashville Symphony. Dr. Yates’s trumpet performance skills and experience encompass all aspects of classical trumpet and cornet playing, from modern symphonic, chamber, and solo work to authentic period performance on historic natural trumpets.
He earned his Doctor of Music degree in trumpet performance from Northwestern University, and his principal teachers include Charles Geyer, Barbara Butler, Vincent Cichowicz, and Gary Armstrong.
In addition to his teaching duties at The University of Alabama, Dr. Yates also serves as chair of the performance pivision at the UA School of Music and director of the Alabama Brass Choir. He is a Courtois Performing Artist.
ANNUAL TSO CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION
Leroy Anderson was an American composer who lived during the 20th century, and mostly wrote works in the light classical style. The Boston Pops orchestra, under the direction of conductor Arthur Fielder, premiered many of the Massachusetts native’s pieces throughout his lifetime.
Anderson was born on June 29, 1908 in Cambridge, Massachusetts to Swedish immigrants. Music was a large part of his life growing up; his mother was the organist at the Swedish Mission Church in Cambridge, and his father, a postal clerk, played the mandolin as a hobby. His mother gave him his first piano lessons when he was five years old. It was clear from an early age that Leroy had a knack for music, and even for writing his own melodies. When the boy was eleven, he began taking piano lessons at the New England Conservatory of Music. Anderson attended the Cambridge High and Latin School, an institution that prepared young people to enter Harvard University. While there, he mastered Swedish (which he already spoke informally at home), Latin, and French, and learned to play the trombone, mandolin, and double bass. He even conducted the school orchestra on pieces he composed a few times.
Anderson entered Harvard University in 1926, where he studied music primarily, and earned both a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts in Music by 1930. He continued to study at Harvard during the 1930s, and worked toward a PhD in German and Scandinavian languages with the intention of becoming a language teacher. After all – he thought – a career in music did not hold much promise. He was offered a position teaching at a school in Pennsylvania, but at the last moment, turned it town to pursue music.
While in graduate school at Harvard, he began writing arrangements for the university band, and his work caught the attention of Arthur Fielder, director of the Boston Pops Orchestra. One of Anderson’s arrangements of Harvard songs called Harvard Fantasy was premiered by the BPO in 1936, and his first composition for the orchestra, Jazz Pizzicato, premiered in 1938. He continued to write and arrange for Fielder and the Pops Orchestra for many years.
When World War II broke out, Anderson was drafted into the U.S. Army, where his skill in languages proved useful. He first served in Iceland as a translator and interpreter for the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps starting in 1942. In 1943, he returned to the U.S., and graduated from Officer’s Candidate School in 1943. He then served at the Pentagon as Chief of the Scandinavian Department of Military Intelligence. After the war was over, Anderson remained in the military, but also pursued music, and composed one of his most well known pieces, The Syncopated Clock, in 1945 for the Boston Pops Orchestra. He was offered a promotion within the army, but declined it and decided to pursue music full-time, and was released from active duty in 1946. He and his wife then moved to New York City
In the summer of 1946, he spent some time in Connecticut and it was there, during a heat wave, that he composed what is possibly his most famous piece – the holiday classic, Sleigh Ride. The piece premiered in Boston in May of 1948, and by the end of that year, many NYC department stores were playing Sleigh Ride for their customers during the holiday season. He and his family relocated to Connecticut permanently in 1950, and Sleigh Ride became more and more popular around North America and Europe. Lyrics were written and rewritten, and it became ubiquitous during the holiday season in many cities and towns. It was during this time that he wrote many of his other well-known works, including Blue Tango, Bugler’s Holiday, and Forgotten Dreams.
During the 1950s, Anderson experimented with longer pieces and, as a result, worked with some larger orchestras. His Concerto in C Major for Piano and Orchestra has performed and recorded by Chicago’s Grant Park Symphony, the Cincinnati Pops, and the BBC Concert Orchestra (among others) throughout the years. During the 1960s and 1970s, Anderson’s works were used in popular television and radio programs. Anderson himself stayed active guest conducting and serving on the boards of local symphony orchestra. He died in Woodbury, Connecticut on May 18, 1975.
John Rutter (official bio from website)
John Rutter was born in London in 1945 and received his first musical education as a chorister at Highgate School.
He went on to study music at Clare College, Cambridge, where he wrote his first published compositions and conducted his first recording while still a student.
His compositional career has embraced both large and small-scale choral works, orchestral and instrumental pieces, a piano concerto, two children’s operas, music for television, and specialist writing for such groups as the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble and the King’s Singers.
His larger choral works, Gloria (1974), Requiem (1985), Magnificat (1990), Psalmfest (1993), and Mass of the Children (2003) have been performed many times in Britain, North America, and a growing number of other countries.
He co-edited four volumes in the Carols for Choirs series with Sir David Willcocks, and, more recently, has edited the first two volumes in the new Oxford Choral Classics series, Opera Choruses (1995) and European Sacred Music (1996).
From 1975 to 1979 he was Director of Music at Clare College, whose choir he directed in a number of broadcasts and recordings.
After giving up the Clare post to allow more time for composition, he formed the Cambridge Singers as a professional chamber choir primarily dedicated to recording, and he now divides his time between composition and conducting.
He has guest-conducted or lectured at many concert halls, universities, churches, music festivals, and conferences in Europe, Africa, North and Central America and Australasia.
In 1980 he was made an honorary Fellow of Westminster Choir College, Princeton, and in 1988 a Fellow of the Guild of Church Musicians.
In 1996 the Archbishop of Canterbury conferred a Lambeth Doctorate of Music upon him in recognition of his contribution to church music.
He was honored in the 2007 Queen’s New Year Honors List, being awarded a CBE for services to music.
Irving Berlin was an American composer and lyricist who lived during the 20th century, and his songs form a large part of the Great American Songbook. He is perhaps best known for writing the songs “White Christmas” and “God Bless America,” among many others. Over the course of his career, he wrote at least 1,500 songs, including original scores for 20 Broadway shows and 15 Hollywood films.
Berlin was born Israel Beilin on May 11, 1888 in Imperial Russia to Jewish parents. His father was a cantor in a synagogue, and moved with the family to New York City around 1893. His father died when Berlin was only 13 years old. Berlin started taking jobs to help support the family before that at the age of 8, and started selling newspapers in the Bowery. It was there that he was first exposed to a variety of music and sound effects that spilled from the saloons and restaurants on the city streets.
He left home around the age of 14 and moved to the Lower East Side, taking up residence in lodging houses that sheltered other homeless boys. He sang to customers in saloons and on the streets in order to make money, and eventually got a job as a singing waiter in Chinatown. During his free time, he learned to play the piano and to improvise.
A staffer for the music publisher Harry Von Tilzer took notice of the young Berlin and eventually hired him as a songwriter. When Berlin was only 20, he also became a lyricist with the Ted Snyder publishing company. Between 1910 and 1920, Berlin rose to fame as a songwriter in Tin Pan Alley and on Broadway. He had his first hit, “Alexander’s Ragtime Band,” in 1911. He was a featured performer at Oscar Hammerstein’s vaudeville house. “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” went on to be recorded by such well-known artists as Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith, and Johnny Mercer. Also during this time, Berlin honed his skills as a songwriter, moving away from ragtime and toward love songs.
In 1917, Berlin was drafted into the army during World War I. However, Berlin was so famous by this time that the army wanted to use him for his musical talents. He composed an all-soldier review called “Yip Yip Yaphank.” It was also during this time that he penned one of his most famous songs, “God Bless America,” although it would not be introduced to the public for another 20 years.
After the war, Berlin returned to Tin Pan Alley and collaborated with a man named Sam Harris to build the Music Box Theater in 1921. In its early years, the Music Box was a place almost solely devoted to Berlin’s musical revues. During the 1920s and 1930s, Berlin composed many songs, mostly for his own shows. “Puttin’ On the Ritz” was composed in 1928, and was made famous by Fred Astaire in the 1946 Blue Skies. “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm,” another one of his well-known tunes, premiered in 1937.
“God Bless America” was released in 1938, almost 20 years after its composition, when singer Kate Smith needed a patriotic song to mark the 20th anniversary of Armistice Day. The song became a second national anthem after the U.S. entered World War II. Berlin continued to write patriotic songs throughout the war, including many from the stage show “This is the Army,” which was shown at military bases all over the world.
During the 1940s, Berlin’s career as a composer for the stage and screen continued. The 1942 film Holiday Inn featured what was to become one of his most famous songs, “White Christmas,” first sung in the film by Bing Crosby. Berlin won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for “White Christmas, which was the first of seven Oscar nominations he would receive throughout his life. In 1946, he wrote the lyrics and music to Annie Get Your Gun, based on the life of Annie Oakley.
For several decades during his later life, Berlin retreated from the public eye, with his last stage show being the musical Mr. President, which premiered in 1962 on Broadway. He died on September 22, 1989 at the age of 101.
Prentice Concert Chorale
The Prentice Concert Chorale, directed by Dr. Leslie Poss, presents a full season of concerts and frequently performs for/with local arts and civic organizations. Now in its 47th Season, the Prentice Chorale has served the greater Tuscaloosa and West Alabama communities with a wide variety of cultural experiences. The Chorale’s broad-spectrum repertoire of choral masterworks includes Durufle’s Requiem, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s B minor Mass, and Rachmaninov’s All Night Vigil. Additionally, the Chorale performs a variety of traditional and contemporary choral music, ranging from anthems and festival compositions to Broadway classics, spirituals, and folk music. The 2017-2018 season concludes with a May 20, 2018 performance of Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass with the First Presbyterian Church’s Sanctuary Choir; Ms. Marjorie Johnston, director.
Joining the Prentice Chorale for this year’s holiday concert are the Shelton Singers directed by Dr. J. F. Mark Brown. The Shelton Singers were the first ensemble to be established in the Shelton State Music Department, and they are still the principle choral performing ensemble on campus. An auditioned concert choir, the choir performs major works, traditional choral repertoire, and full-scale musicals and themed concerts. This Shelton Singer’s first performance with the Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra.
Puccini short biography
Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) was one of the foremost opera composers of the Romantic and modern periods, and is widely considered to be the greatest opera composer after Verdi. He was born in Lucca, Italy in 1858 as “Giacomo Antonio Domenica Michele Secondo Maria Puccini.” He came from a long line of important musicians in Lucca. His great-great grandfather was maestro di cappella of the Cathedral of San Martina, and all the generations who followed him studied music at Bologna in order to compose music for the church. His great-grandfather, grandfather, and father all served as maestro di cappella, and his father wrote one opera. His father died when Puccini was only six years old, so he was too young to take over the maestro role.
Puccini received general and musical training at the seminary of San Michele in Lucca, and received a diploma from the Pacini School of Music in 1880. He received a scholarship to complete his studies at the Milan Conservatory, where he was roommates with fellow opera composer Pietro Mascagni. He wrote the instrumental Capriccio Sinfonica in 1883 as a thesis composition at the Conservatory. One of his professors, Amilcare Ponchielli, upon noting the vocal style of the piece, suggested that his next work be an opera. Ponchielli introduced him to a young librettist, Fernando Fontana, who collaborated with Puccini on his first opera, Le Villa, which was first performed in 1883.
Giulio Ricordi, who was the head of the prominent Ricordi music publishers, was impressed with Le Villaand commissioned Puccini to write another opera. This was Edgar, also written with Fontana, and was premiered in 1889. Reviews were mixed – mostly due to the libretto – and Puccini revised it several times (a practice he continued throughout his career). For his next work, Manon Lescaut, Puccini vowed to write his own libretto. Ricordi persuaded him to collaborate with someone and Puccini agreed – but remained very selective. Five librettists ended up contributing to Manon, which premiered in 1893. It was very successful. George Bernard Shaw noted that Puccini looked like “an heir to Verdi.”
The lauded La boheme (based on the 1851 novel by French writer Henri Murger) was Puccini’s next work, premiering in 1896 with Toscanini conducting/ It remains one of the most frequently performed operas of all times. However, Puccini struggled financially during its composition, and noted that his situation at the time of its creation mirrored the struggles of some of the characters in the story.
Tosca, which premiered in 1900, is considered to be his first opera in the verismo style – or an opera that aims to depict life realistically, including violence. Tosca is more through-composed (instead of set pieces and arias) than some of his earlier works, and uses Wagner-like musical signatures (“leitmotivs”) to weave sections together.
On February 25, 1903, Puccini, along with his wife and son, was in a horrific car accident. He barely survived, and his progress on his next work, Madama Butterfly, was significantly impaired. It eventually premiered almost a year later in 1904 at La Scala. Typical of Puccini, it went through many revisions, and the fifth version is what is most often heard today.
After 1904, Puccini composed and published much less often. His longtime librettist and friend, Giuseppe Giacosa, died, his wife accused him of having an affair, and his longtime supporter and publisher, Ricordi, died as well. However, he still completed several large works up until his death. In 1910, La fanciulla del West premiered. 1916’s La rondine was originally conceived as an operetta, but Puccini ended up ridding the work of spoken words parts. In 1918, Il trittico premiered, which was a set of three one-act operas: a horrific happening (Il tabarro), a tragedy (Suor Angelica), and a comedy (Gianni Schicchi). His final opera, Turandot, was left unfinished at the time of his death. It was finished by composer Franco Alfano, and premiered at La Scala in 1926.
Throughout his life, Puccini remained indifferent to politics (he did not take a stance during World War I, for instance), and preferred to stay out of the public eye. From 1891 onward, he spent most of his time in a small town outside of Lucca called Torre del Lago. He had a love of cars and hunting, and he could indulge his interests there without disturbance from the public. He built a residence in Torre del Lago in 1900 called Villa Musea Puccini, where he and his family lived until 1921.
Puccini was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1923, and died in November of 1924. News of his death reached Rome during a performance of La boheme, which was halted in his honor.
Puccini’s style/about Verismo opera
Puccini is generally considered to be a composer of the late Romantic style. He is often grouped into what is called the giovane scuola (“young school”) with other post-Verdi Italian composers who graduated from the Milan Conservatory around the same time, such as Pietro Mascagni, Ruggero Leoncavallo, and Umberto Giordano. However, Puccini was always trying to refresh his style, both over time and within specific works; he was known to update and revise his operas many times. He also often used outside music in his operas – such as his integration of Chinese folk themes in Turandot.
Most of his operas have at least one set piece that can work as a stand-alone aria in concert performances. As his career progressed, though, he moved away from this “set piece” style of writing and worked toward a more through-composed style. This coincided with the verismo opera movement.
Verismo is a style of Italian opera that began around 1890 with Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticano; it reached its height in the early 1900s, and stretched into the 1920s. Other composers from the giovane scuola also wrote in this style. Verismo opera has its roots in the Italian verismo literary movement, which itself is an extension of the international Naturalism movement. Composers of verismo works attempt to portray a more realistic version of life, including the violent events and struggles experienced by the lower classes. It rejects the mythical subjects common to Romanticism.
Musically, verismo operas do not follow a recitative-set piece structure, and are generally more through-composed. Arias do exist, but arise naturally from the dramatic surroundings and do not stand alone as well as arias from earlier operas.
Puccini’s career fell right into the time when verismo was most popular in Italian opera, as only two of his operas were premiered before Cavalleria rusticano. Some musicologists consider him to be a purely verismo composer, starting with Tosca in 1900, but others believe he followed more of a hybrid model. Generally, though, Puccini is considered to be part of the movement, and perhaps even the prime example of a verismo composer.
About Baubles, Bangles, and Beads
“Baubles, Bangles, and Beads” is a song from the 1953 musical Kismet, which was adapted from the music of Russian Romantic composer Alexander Borodin. It won the Tony Award for Best Musical in 1954. The music and lyrics were co-written/adapted by Robert Wright and George Forrest.
“Baubles” is adapted from a theme in the second movement of Borodin’s famous String Quartet in D (1881). Peggy Lee released the most well-known and best-selling version in 1954. The song has also been recorded by Frank Sinatra, the Kirby Stone Four, Julie Andrews, Marlene Dietrich, and Tuscaloosa’s own Dinah Washington.
ANNUAL DISCOVERY DAY – DANCING MUSICAL CHARACTERS
ANNUAL FAMILY DISCOVERY CONCERT
Britten short biography
Benjamin Britten (1913-1975) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist best known for his operatic and vocal works. He was born in Suffolk, England on November 22, 1913, and was the youngest of four children. He was born into a middle-class family, and was the only one of the family to show any musical prowess. His mother recognized his interest at a young age, and had him begin piano lessons at age 7, and viola lessons at age 10. She hoped that he would become “the fourth B” of great composers – the other three being Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms.
Britten went to prep school in the town of Lowestoft. While there, he witnessed a good deal of corporal punishment, and he believes that this influenced his later staunch pacifist philosophy. When he was a teenager, he began composition lessons with the prominent composer Frank Bridge. He won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music (RCM) in 1930, where he studied composition with John Ireland and piano with Arthur Benjamin until 1933. However, he continued to study privately with Bridge, as he was dissatisfied with the instruction he received there, despite winning many prizes in composition.
His first works to gain critical and public attention were his Sinfonietta (1932) and A Boy Was Born (1934), written for the BBC singers. In 1935, the BBC approached Britten to write a score to a film, The King’s Stamp. It was through this work in film that he met the writer W.H. Auden, who became a key collaborator in the coming years. They worked together on the song cycle Our Hunting Fathers (1936) and the operetta Paul Bunyan (1941) in addition to several BBC films. Auden helped Britten to expand his political and intellectual horizons, and introduced him to other young artists in England and beyond.
In 1937, Britten met the tenor Peter Pears, who would become his life and professional partner. Britten wrote a number of works for Pears, and they also gave many performances together throughout their lifetimes. In April of 1939, Britten and Pears moved to North America, eventually settling in New York City. Britten was against World War II, and had heard from Auden, who had moved to the U.S. earlier that year, that it was a better place for pacifists and artists. While in America, Britten wrote several key works, including the Violin Concerto and the Sinfonia da requiem, which was premiered by the New York Philharmonic.
In 1942, Britten read The Borough, a collection of poems by George Crabbe, and the images and content in the book made him homesick for England. So, he and Pears moved back, and registered as conscientious objectors to World War II. The content of Crabbe’s work inspired his first full-length opera, Peter Grimes, which premiered in 1945 to great critical acclaim, and positioned Britten as one of the most successful British opera composers since Henry Purcell (1659-1695).
Also in 1945, The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, arguably his most well-known and popular work, premiered. It was written for an educational film called The Instruments of the Orchestra. Shortly thereafter, he composed his second and third operas, The Rape of Lucretia (1946) and Albert Herring (1947). Around this time, Britten and Pears moved from London to Aldeburgh in East Suffolk, and began the preliminary work on starting a music festival. In 1948, the first annual Aldeburgh Festival occurred. It continues to this day, and focuses on the music of British composers.
During the 1950s, Britten composed even more operas: Billy Budd (1951), Gloriana (1953 – for the coronation of Elizabeth II), and The Turn of the Screw (1954). He took a trip to East Asia in 1956, where he was inspired by the traditional music he heard and observed. He used what he had learned from watching Japanese noh plays and from seeing a Balinese gamelan in his work throughout the 1960s.
In 1962, he was commissioned to write a work for the opening of a newly-built cathedral in Coventry, England. The original Coventry Cathedral was destroyed during World War II. The result was what is considered to be his watershed work: the War Requiem. It features the Latin Requiem Mass side-by-side with settings of English World War I poet Wilfred Owen, and is a plea for peace amid suffering.
In 1970, Britten began work on what was to be his final opera, Death in Venice, based on the novella by Thomas Mann. During the process, he learned that he had to have heart surgery to repair a defective valve. He completed the work in 1973 right before he entered the hospital. During surgery, he suffered a stroke, which greatly affected his right hand. It was now much more difficult for him to conduct, play the piano, and write music. Despite this setback, he continued to write music for the next two years, including his final String Quartet and Phaedra, both completed in 1975. Britten died of heart failure on December 4, 1975.
About The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra
Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra is subtitled “Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Henry Purcell,” and is based on the second movement, “Rondeau,” of Purcell’s Abdelazer suite. It was commissioned for an educational film featuring the London Symphony Orchestra called The Instruments of the Orchestra in 1945. It was conducted by Malcolm Sargent and narrated by Britten’s longtime collaborator and librettist Eric Crozier.
The piece is scored for a full symphony orchestra, and is intended to show off the tone and unique qualities of the different families of instruments. The Purcell theme is played by the entire orchestra first, and then is broken down into the different instrument groups during the variations. The groups are then put back together, gradually, in a fugue.
The Young Person’s Guide remains Britten’s most-performed work, and is one of the most popular pieces played on family and children’s concerts. It is also used in many film soundtracks. Most recently, it was prominently featured in Wes Anderson’s 2012 movie, Moonrise Kingdom alongside other works by Britten.
Benjamin Britten and music for children
Throughout his life, Britten dedicated himself to educating young people, and wrote a number of works intended to be heard and performed by children. Aside from his most famous Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, he wrote two operas intended for child performers: The Little Sweep (1949) and Noye’s Fludde(1958), which is based on the biblical story of Noah.
Many of his other works feature children’s or boys’ choir alongside the orchestra, traditional choir, or within an opera. Those pieces include: Spring Symphony (1949), Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac (1952), The Turn of the Screw (1954), Missa Brevis (1959), War Requiem (1962), Voices for Today (1965), and The Golden Vanity (1966). Britten was also drawn to operatic subject matter concerning the loss of innocence of children as they mature into adults. Child characters are also prominently featured in many of his operas and stage works.
About Theme and Variations form
Theme and Variations is a musical form in which original or borrowed material (the theme) is repeated in an altered form (variations). Composers can manipulate the theme in a number of ways. They can vary the rhythm, the melody, the tempo, and even the tonality (it can move from major to minor, for instance). Sometimes, the theme is original, as in Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations and sometimes it is a borrowed theme from another composer such as Johannes Brahms’s Variations on a Theme of Joseph Haydn or Britten’s Young Person’s Guide.
Examples of variation form date from before the Baroque period, and is thought to have first emerged in the 16th century in a piece by Luis de Narváez from 1538 called Diferencias. Later examples of variation form are Bach’s Goldberg Variations, the finale of Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet, and the final movement of Beethoven’s Third Symphony (“Eroica”). Franz Schubert was known to write variations on his own songs, most notably in the String Quartet “Death and the Maiden” and in the “Trout” String Quintet. It continues to be a popular form to this day.
TSO FAMILY CONCERT OVERVIEW POWERPOINT
TSO FAMILY CONCERT- MEET THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE SHOW!
TSO FAMILY CONCERT- STUDY GUIDE
TSO FAMILY CONCERT- CROSSWORD PUZZLE
MUSICAL BRILLIANCE – THE PHENOMENAL STEWART GOODYEAR
Gunther Schuller short biography
Gunther Schuller (1925-2015) was an American composer, conductor, and French horn player who also had a career as a jazz musician, author, and arts administrator. He was born in Queens, New York City to German immigrant parents. His father was a violinist in the New York Philharmonic, so Gunther was exposed to classical music from a very young age. During his formative years, he studied French horn and flute in the precollege division at the Manhattan School of Music, but dropped out of high school to perform professionally. By the age of 15, he played horn with the American Ballet Theatre and soon thereafter, he won the principal horn position with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
During his time at the Cincinnati Symphony in the 1940s, Schuller heard Duke Ellington in concert, and this sparked a keen and even obsessive interest in jazz music. In 1949-1950, he recorded with Miles Davis, and in 1959, he founded the Modern Jazz Society with pianist John Lewis. During a lecture at Brandeis University in 1957, he coined the term “Third Stream” to define a musical genre that combines classical and jazz idioms, including improvisation. This style was a key part of Schuller’s aesthetic throughout his career. Works utilizing the Third Stream philosophy include Transformation for jazz ensemble (1957), Abstraction for nine instruments (1959), Variations on a Theme of Thelonius Monk for 13 instruments (1960), and Seven Studies on Themes of Paul Klee (1959).
In 1959, Schuller gave up performing in order to devote his time to composition, teaching, and writing. During the 1960s and 1970s, he was President of the New England Conservatory of Music. From 1970-1984, he was Artistic Director of the Boston Symphony’s Tanglewood Center, and, while there, created the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music. His interest in jazz continued, and he also served as Co-director of the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra and editor-in-chief of Jazz Masterworks Editions.
From 1993 until his death, he was Artistic Director of the Northwest Bach Festival in Spokane, Washington, and appeared as a guest conductor in cities around the country. He continued to compose until the end of his life. In 2009, the Boston Symphony Orchestra premiered his orchestral work, Where the World Ends. He died on June 21, 2015 at the age of 89.
Although he never earned any formal degree in his lifetime, Schuller was the recipient of ten honorary degrees from various institutions. He won the MacArthur Genius Grant in 1991, and won the 1994 Pulitzer Prize in composition for his piece, Of Reminiscences and Reflections for the Louisville Orchestra. He also won two Grammy Awards – for Best Album Notes (1976) and Best Chamber Music Performance, as conductor of the New England Conservatory Ragtime Ensemble (1974). He is the author of seven books, including works on conducting, horn technique, and jazz history.
Schuller and Miles Davis recording (Deception): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2F2suRc9iLU
About Seven Studies on Themes of Paul Klee
In 1959, Gunther Schuller quit performing to focus solely on composition and teaching. Seven Studies was one of the first works to come out of this period of new productivity. It was commissioned for the Minneapolis Symphony, and is an attempt to find musical equivalents for seven paintings by the Swiss modernist painter Paul Klee (1879-1940).
Schuller wrote, “Each of the seven pieces bears a slightly different relationship to the original Klee picture from which it stems. Some relate to actual design, shape, or color scheme of painting, while others take the general mode of the picture or its title as a point of departure.”
Schuller coined the term “Third Stream” in 1957 to describe a hybrid musical genre combining classical and jazz idioms. Seven Studies on Themes of Paul Klee is probably his most popular work in this style.
Interview with Schuller about Seven Studies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4yW_IcntYE
Classical music and visual arts
Visual artists have been inspiring composers for centuries. Aside from Gunther Schuller’s Seven Studies on Themes of Paul Klee, here are some examples of works written in response to paintings and other visual art.
Igor Stravinsky’s 1951 opera The Rake’s Progress was based on the story told in the William Hogarth (1697-1764) collection A Rake’s Progress. Franz Lizst’s 1857 symphonic poem Hunnenschlacht was inspired by a work of the same name by German muralist Wilhelm von Kaulbach (1805-1874). Paul Hindemith’s symphony Mathis der Maler (1934) was based on the tableau paintings of German Renaissance painter Matthias Grünewald (1470-1528). Perhaps most famous is Modest Mussorgsky’s 1874 piano work Pictures at an Exhibition (along with Ravel’s more well-known 1922 orchestration), which is inspired by a series of watercolors and sketches by Russian architect and painter Viktor Hartmann (1834-1873).
YouTube Links:
Hindemith: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqVSuAcMahM
Schuller: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7jpI-DQEXs
Mussorgsky: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPnPJ9mcwWQ
About Debussy’s Ibéria
“Ibéria” is part of an orchestra triptych by French composer Claude Debussy (1862-1918) called Images pour orchestre, and was written between 1905 and 1912. It was intended to be a sequel to Images for solo piano (1901-1907), and Debussy originally conceived it for two pianos. However, he ultimately decided that the colors he wanted to express would be better suited for the orchestra.
Of the three pieces in the collection – Gigues, Ibéria, and Rondes des printemps – Ibéria is the most popular. Formally, it has three sections, and is a triptych within the larger triptych. The three sections are titled:
i. Par les rues et par les chemins (Through the streets and the paths)
ii. Les parfums de la nuit (The fragrance of the night)
iii. Le matin d’un jour de fête (The morning of a festival day)
Ibéria is inspired by impressions of Spain, but these impressions came purely from Debussy’s imagination; he had spent no more than a few hours in the country.
Debussy is often referred to as an “impressionist” composer. In this piece, though, Debussy said that he was “trying to achieve something different – an effect of reality.” Was he trying to move away from “impressionistic” images? Spanish composer Manuel de Falla seems to believe that impressionism prevailed: “The echoes from the villages, a kind of sevillana – the generic theme of the work – which seems to float in a clear atmosphere of scintillating light; the intoxicating spell of Andalusian mights, the festive gaiety of a people dancing to the joyous strains of a banda of guitars and bandurrias…all this whirls in the air, approaches and recedes, and our imagination is continually kept awake and dazzled by the power of an intensely expressive and richly varied music.”
About Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concert no. 2
This giant in the piano concerto repertoire was written by late Romantic Russian composer and pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) in 1901. It premiered with Rachmaninoff at the piano and his cousin, Alexander Siloti, conducting.
Critics panned his First Symphony in 1897, and Rachmaninoff fell into a deep depression as a result. He turned to daily hypnotherapy with a doctor named Nikolai Dahl and found it very effective. Afterwards, he traveled to the Mediterranean to recover for a few months, and returned to Russia with a collection of new musical creations – including the second piano concerto. Rachmaninoff dedicated the work to Dahl to show his gratitude.
The concerto was a huge critical success, and has been one of the staples of the Romantic piano repertoire ever since. In fact, it is so popular that non-classical musicians have used it in their work. Frank Sinatra’s 1945 song “Full Moon and Empty Arms” (written by Buddy Kaye) uses the last movement of the concerto, and Muse’s 2001 song “Space Dementia” takes themes from the first movement. Additionally, it has been used in a number of film scores, including Billy Wilder’s The Seven Year Itch (1955) and Clint Eastwood’s Hereafter (2010).
Sinatra: Full Moon and Empty Arms: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKsdCtsRczY
Stewart Goodyear
Proclaimed "a phenomenon" by the Los Angeles Times and "one of the best pianists of his generation" by the Philadelphia Inquirer, Stewart Goodyear is an accomplished young pianist as a concerto soloist, chamber musician, recitalist and composer. Mr. Goodyear has performed with major orchestras of the world , including the Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Bournemouth Symphony, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, MDR Symphony Orchestra (Leipzig), Montreal Symphony, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Symphony , Atlanta Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, and NHK Symphony Orchestra.
Mr. Goodyear began his training at The Royal Conservatory in Toronto, received his bachelor's degree from Curtis Institute of Music, and completed his master's at The Juilliard School. Known as an improviser and composer, he has been commissioned by orchestras and chamber music organizations, and performs his own solo works. This year, Mr. Goodyear premiered his suite for piano and orchestra, "Callaloo", with Kristjan Jarvi and MDR Symphony Orchestra in Leipzig, and in July of this year, the Clarosa Quartet will premiere his Piano Quartet commissioned by the Kingston Chamber Music Festival. Mr. Goodyear performed all 32 Beethoven Piano Sonatas in one day at Koerner Hall, McCarter Theatre, the Mondavi Center, and the AT&T Performing Arts Center in Dallas.
Mr. Goodyear's discography includes Beethoven's Complete Piano Sonatas (which received a Juno nomination for Best Classical Solo Recording in 2014) and Diabelli Variations for the Marquis Classics label, Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto and Grieg's Piano Concerto, and Rachmaninov's Piano Concertos No. 2 and 3, both recorded with the Czech National Symphony under Stanislav Bogunia and Hans Matthias Forster respectively, and released to critical acclaim on the Steinway and Sons label. His Rachmaninov recording received a Juno nomination for Best Classical Album for Soloist and Large Ensemble Accompaniment. Also for Steinway and Sons is Mr. Goodyear's recording of his own transcription of Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker (Complete Ballet)", which was released October 2015 and was chosen by the New York Times as one of the best classical music recordings of 2015.
Highlights of the 2016-2017 season are recitals dates at McCarter Theatre and the Phillips Collection, return engagements with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and Toronto Symphony, and his debut at the Savannah Music Festival performing the complete Beethoven piano sonatas in one day.
Designed by Eliza Sheffield.
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Factcheck: Democratic disinformation from Charlotte
Reporter profile
More by Factcheck.org
Posted Sep 5, 2012, 9:42 pm
Factcheck.org, Robert Farley, Eugene Kiely, Ben Finley & Brooks Jackson
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — We heard a number of dubious or misleading claims on the first night of the Democratic National Convention:
The keynote speaker and others claimed the Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, would raise taxes on the "middle class." He has promised he won't. Democrats base their claim on a study that doesn't necessarily lead to that conclusion.
The keynote speaker, San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, also said there have been 4.5 million "new jobs" under Obama. The fact is the economy has regained only 4 million of the 4.3 million jobs lost since Obama took office.
Castro also insisted Romney and Ryan would "gut" Pell Grants for lower-income college students. Actually, the Ryan budget calls only for "limiting the growth" of spending for the program, and Ryan has said the maximum grant of $5,550 would not be decreased.
A Democratic governor said Romney "left his state 47th out of 50 in job growth." Actually, Massachusetts went from 50th in job creation during Romney's first year to 28th in his final year.
Two advocates of equal-pay legislation said women make 77 cents for every dollar men earn. That's true on average, but the gap for women doing the same work as men is much less, and not entirely or even mostly the result of job discrimination.
A union president accused Romney of seeking "a government bailout" for "his company." Not really. In fact, Romney negotiated a favorable but routine settlement with bank regulators on behalf of a former company, the one he had left to form his own Bain Capital firm. No taxpayer funds were involved.
Multiple speakers repeated a claim that the Ryan/Romney Medicare plan would cost seniors $6,400 a year. That's a figure that applied to Ryan's 2011 budget plan, but his current proposal (the one Romney embraces) is far more generous. The Congressional Budget Office says it "may" lead to higher costs for beneficiaries, but it can't estimate how much.
In prepared remarks released to reporters, Rep. James Clyburn engaged in partisan myth-making with the claim "Democrats created Social Security" while Republicans "cursed the darkness." History records strong bipartisan support in both House and Senate for the measure President Roosevelt signed in 1935.
Middle-class taxes
The keynote speaker, San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, repeated a frequent but groundless Democratic talking point, warning that Romney would raise taxes on the middle class.
Castro was joined in this by other Democrats including former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine and Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley. But they all misrepresented the position Romney has made clearly and repeatedly — that he would somehow lower taxes on those in the middle class. Their claim rests on a distortion of a nonpartisan group's findings.
Castro: And now we need to make a choice. It's a choice between a country where the middle class pays more, so that millionaires can pay less or a country where everybody pays their fair share.
Kaine: To pay for their plan, they'd slash middle-class tax breaks, raising taxes on the middle class.
O'Malley: Instead of a balanced, achievable plan to create jobs and reduce the deficit, Mitt Romney says he will cut taxes for millionaires and raise them for the middle class.
Their comments are based on an Aug. 1 report from the Tax Policy Center that concluded it is simply not mathematically possible for Romney to lower tax rates across the board — as he has proposed — without losing revenue, which he has also promised, or shifting the tax burden to the middle class.
Tax Policy Center, Aug. 1: Our major conclusion is that a revenue-neutral individual income tax change that incorporates the features Governor Romney has proposed – including reducing marginal tax rates substantially, eliminating the individual alternative minimum tax (AMT) and maintaining all tax breaks for saving and investment – would provide large tax cuts to high-income households, and increase the tax burdens on middle- and/or lower-income taxpayers.
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To see our full analysis of the TPC report, and the Romney campaign's push-back against it as "biased," see our Aug. 3 article, "Romney's Impossible Tax Promise."
For his part, Romney has repeatedly insisted he will not raise taxes on the middle class. He reiterated that promise during his speech accepting the presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention:
Romney, Aug. 30: I will not raise taxes on the middle class.
In a blog post on the TPC analysis, Donald Marron, director of the Tax Policy Center, wrote: "I don't interpret this [the Aug. 1 study] as evidence that Governor Romney wants to increase taxes on the middle class in order to cut taxes for the rich, as an Obama campaign ad claimed. Instead, I view it as showing that his plan can't accomplish all his stated objectives. One can charitably view his plan as a combination of political signaling and the opening offer in what would, if he gets elected, become a negotiation."
In other words, Romney has over-promised. But that's no reason to assume –as Kaine, O'Malley and Castro have — that Romney would choose the course of breaking a promise not to raise middle-income taxes. He could choose, for example, to renege on his promise to cut rates or to keep the amount of revenue neutral rather than violate his promise not to raise taxes on those in the middle.
There's also been some dispute about the Tax Policy Center's findings. Republican economist Martin Feldstein wrote an Aug. 28 piece for the Wall Street Journal's opinion pages saying that Romney could lower rates across the board as promised without losing revenue — if he eliminated most deductions for those making $100,000 or more.
In a rebuttal, Democratic tax expert Len Burman — a former director of the Tax Policy Center — said "such a plan would make no sense as policy," because eliminating deductions for family income above $100,000 would cause an effective tax rate as high as 62.5 percent on income just above that level.
Romney has yet to provide details of just how he would manage to avoid either losing revenues (and thus increasing the deficit) or shifting the tax burden onto middle-income taxpayers. But as things stand, he's promised that neither will happen, and Democrats who accuse him of proposing a middle-income tax increase are misrepresenting what he's said.
Keynoter's jobs spin
Keynote speaker Castro also put a misleading spin on employment data. He claimed "we've seen 4.5 million new jobs" under President Obama. In fact, the nation has regained 4.5 million jobs that had been lost, but employment is still below where it was when the president took office.
Castro: Four years ago, America stood on the brink of a depression. Despite incredible odds and united Republican opposition, our president took action. And now we've seen 4.5 million new jobs.
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Although he didn't say so, Castro is referring only to private-sector jobs — which have fared better than government jobs — and he is using February 2010 as the starting point, because that was the low point for private-sector jobs. There were 106,773,000 jobs then, and the number has been rising ever since. In July, there were 111,317,000 private-sector jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's an increase of 4,544,000.
The picture changes dramatically, however, when starting from the beginning of Obama's presidency. Between January 2009 and the most recently reported figures, there has been a net increase of just 332,000 private-sector jobs.
Moreover, if you include all jobs — including the hard-hit government job sector — there remains a net decrease of 316,000 jobs since the start of Obama's presidency. Total employment has gained about 4 million since February 2010, not 4.5 million. It's all in how you slice the data.
Pell Grant piffle
Castro also went too far in saying the Republican ticket "guts Pell Grants." The Ryan budget plan would limit the growth, but maintain the maximum award of $5,550.
Castro: It's a choice between a nation that slashes funding for our schools and guts Pell Grants — or a nation that invests more in education.
Ryan has called for changes in the Pell Grant program. His fiscal year 2013 budget proposal, known as "Path to Prosperity," says that Obama's budget "pushes Pell Grant spending toward unsustainable rates." Ryan's budget plan proposes "limiting the growth of financial aid and focusing it on low-income students who need it the most."
He does not, however, set specific funding levels for the program, so we don't know — and neither does Castro — how much Ryan would limit the program's growth. However, Ryan said in April that his plan "maintains the maximum Pell award of $5,550," so for those who do receive the grants, they will continue to get the same level as this year.
Castro could have said that Ryan's plan would result in fewer students receiving Pell Grants, since the Wisconsin Republican does want to tighten eligibility requirements and limit the growth of the program. But Castro went too far in saying that the Republican plan "guts Pell Grants."
Massachusetts 47th? Or 28th?
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn went on the offensive, saying Romney had failed to deliver on campaign promises he made while running to become governor of Massachusetts. But some of Quinn's talking points were a stretch.
Quinn: Mitt Romney promised Massachusetts three things: more jobs, less debt and smaller government. Then he left his state 47th out of 50 in job growth, added $2.6 billion in debt and on his watch, government jobs grew six times faster than private-sector jobs. What does Romney promise today? More jobs, less debt and smaller government. But he didn't do it then, and he won't do it now.
We've covered some similar claims before. Let's start with the claim that Romney "left his state 47th out of 50 in job growth." That's a slightly different twist on a recurring Democratic attack line. It's true that over Romney's entire four years as governor, the state ranked 47th out of 50 states in percentage of job growth. But that's a four-year, cumulative number. The state's ranking actually improved while Romney was in office.
In the 12 months before Romney took office, the state ranked 50th in job creation, and by his final year, the state ranked 28th. Quinn would have been more accurate to say Romney "left his state" in 28th place, not 47th.
Quinn also made the misleading claim that Romney "added $2.6 billion in debt." That's a reference to long-term bond debt, used for capital improvements, such as paving roads, building bridges and repairing public college buildings and courthouses.
To be sure, long-term debt increased by $2.7 billion during Romney's tenure. But that's nothing out of the ordinary. It increased by $4 billion in the four years before Romney took office. State debt rose under Romney, but more slowly than before.
Last, Quinn said that under Romney, "government jobs grew six times faster than private-sector jobs." Not exactly. Private-sector jobs in Massachusetts climbed by a modest 39,500, a little less than a 1.5 percent jump. Meanwhile state government jobs increased by 3,100 jobs, a 2.8 percent increase (all government jobs, including local, state and federal, increased by 1,300 jobs). That's a larger percentage increase for government jobs than private-sector ones, but a far smaller number of jobs.
The 77-cent exaggeration
Making a pitch for "equal pay for equal work," Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut said "America's women still make just 77 cents for every dollar men earn." And the equal-pay crusader Lilly Ledbetter used the same figure and added: "[W]hen we lose 23 cents every hour, every day, every paycheck, every job, over the entire lives, what we lose cannot be measured in dollars."
But that oft-cited 77-cent statistic exaggerates the actual gap between women and men doing the same work.
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As we noted back in June, the most recent Census figures show that in 2010, "the earnings of women who worked full time, year-round were 77 percent of that for men working full time, year-round." But that's the median (midpoint) for all women in all jobs, not for women doing "the same work" or even necessarily working the same number of hours.
The actual gap for doing the same work varies by occupation but tends to be much less. We cited a study by the Institute for Women's Policy Research that found, for example, that female registered nurses made nearly 96 percent of male nurses, female elementary and middle school teachers made 91 percent of what their male counterparts earned, secondary school teachers made 94 percent, and police officers made 99 percent.
A senior program analyst wrote recently in the Department of Labor's official blog: "Economists generally attribute about 40% of the pay gap to discrimination – making about 60% explained by differences between workers or their jobs." As we noted at the time, women tend to work fewer overtime hours, tend to choose jobs that offer more "family friendly" fringe benefits in lieu of higher pay, and sometimes leave the workforce for years to rear children, for example.
Bain 'bailout' baloney
A union president claimed that Romney "asked for a government bailout" for his troubled company. That's not what happened.
First of all, it wasn't Romney's company that was troubled; it was the consulting firm he had left — Bain & Co. — in order to form Bain Capital. And while Romney did negotiate a favorable debt settlement with banking regulators for Bain & Co's partners, they did not receive taxpayer dollars.
Mary Kay Henry, international president of the Service Employees International Union, made the claim.
Henry: We just learned that when his company found itself in trouble, Mitt Romney asked for a government bailout.
Our fact-checking colleagues at the Washington Post and ABC News vetted similar claims made by Democrats.
Based on their reporting, here's what happened:
Romney had left Bain & Co. in 1984 to form the spin-off private equity firm Bain Capital. But Romney came back in the early 1990s when Bain & Co. was on the brink of bankruptcy. The company's founders — Romney wasn't one of them — had taken $200 million of borrowed money out of the firm for themselves, which led to the firm's financial problems.
The company owed $38 million to a failed bank, which had been taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, an independent federal agency that insures bank deposits. Romney negotiated with the FDIC a reduction of $10 million in debt, and the FDIC forgave $4 million in interest.
The agreement didn't amount to a loss for taxpayers. The FDIC is funded by bank insurance premiums and treasury security investments — not congressional appropriations.
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In fact, as the Post points out, these kinds of agreements are typical and recover more of the outstanding loan. The FDIC's own handbook said that restructuring a loan is more productive than spending money on litigation to recover the money.
More Medicare malarkey
We once again heard misrepresentations of the Medicare plan that Romney and Paul Ryan have proposed. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and labor leader Mary Kay Henry both said the plan would cost seniors $6,400, but that's a reference to an outdated Ryan plan, not the more generous one he, and Romney, now back.
Sebelius also claimed that Medicare was "missing" from the "Romney-Ryan plan." But that's wrong. The plan keeps traditional Medicare for current seniors, and as an option for younger workers.
California Rep. Xavier Becerra's prepared remarks also said that Romney was telling "older Americans after a lifetime of hard work that you're going to pull the rug out from under them and turn Medicare into a voucher system." But for "older Americans," nothing would change under the Romney and Ryan plan. In fact, anyone now 55 or older would stay in the current Medicare system for the rest of their lives — and younger workers could still choose traditional Medicare from among a menu of competing private insurance plans subsidized by federal dollars. Becerra was scheduled to speak on the first night, but did not.
Several times this year, we have swatted down similar claims from Democrats and the Obama campaign about the Medicare plan Ryan proposed as part of his "Path to Prosperity" budget and Romney has embraced. At the convention, Sebelius said:
Sebelius: What's missing from the Romney-Ryan plan for Medicare is Medicare. Instead of the Medicare guarantee, Republicans would give seniors a voucher that limits what is covered, costing seniors as much as $6,400 more a year.
Henry, the international president of the Service Employees International Union, said the plan that "would cost the average senior $6,400 a year out of their own pocket." Both are referring to Ryan's old plan.
It's true that a Congressional Budget Office analysis indicated that a 65-year-old in 2022 could pay about $6,400 more per year under the plan Ryan proposed in 2011. Ryan's latest plan is more generous in terms of the subsidies and choices it provides to seniors.
Ryan's plan would create a Medicare exchange for new Medicare beneficiaries starting in 2023. They would choose from private plans or traditional Medicare and buy plans with the help of government subsidies. The old Ryan plan tied the growth of those subsidies to the rate of inflation — but health care costs have risen faster than that. The new plan ties the subsidies to the cost of the second-cheapest health care policy on the exchange. And if that policy grows faster than gross domestic product plus 0.5 percentage points, Congress would be required to do something to lower costs.
On the latest Ryan plan, CBO did say that "beneficiaries might face higher costs," but added that there was plenty of uncertainty. There wasn't a detailed analysis and no mention of Sebelius' and Henry's $6,400 claim.
The comment in Becerra's prepared remarks about "older Americans," however, is misleading whether it pertains to Ryan's 2011 or 2012 plan. He claimed older Americans would be put in a "voucher" system. But, as we said, anyone 55 or older would stay in the traditional Medicare system, under either Ryan proposal.
Becerra: And, Governor Romney, you should know it's not right to tell older Americans after a lifetime of hard work that you're going to pull the rug out from under them and turn Medicare into a voucher system — Couponcare!
We should add that there are actually no vouchers or coupons involved. Under Ryan's plan the federal government would pay insurance companies directly, just as it now pays for most of the cost of health insurance for millions of federal workers and retirees and their families, and just as the government will pay for subsidized policies for lower-income workers under Obama's Affordable Care Act if it is allowed to take full effect in 2014.
Sebelius' comment that Medicare is "missing" from the plan is also false. Ryan's latest plan would keep traditional Medicare as an option even for younger Americans who won't turn 65 until 2023.
Social Security mythology
Rep. James Clyburn's prepared remarks, which were not delivered because of a scheduling change, exaggerated in claiming that "Democrats created Social Security" without Republican support in 1935. The fact is, despite some early Republican opposition, Congress overwhelmingly approved the proposal with strong bipartisan support. And President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the bill into law within seven months of its introduction — in stark contrast to the protracted partisan battle over Obama's health care law.
Echoing John F. Kennedy's 1960 acceptance speech — in which JFK said, "We are not here to curse the darkness; we are here to light a candle" — Clyburn's prepared remarks said:
Clyburn: When too many of our senior citizens were living their golden years in the darkness of economic insecurity, Franklin Roosevelt and Democrats created Social Security, lighting a candle while Republicans cursed the darkness.
The historical comparison, however, does not hold up.
The Social Security Act of 1935 was a result of the Committee on Economic Security, a Cabinet-level committee created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on June 29, 1934. On Jan. 17, 1935, two days after the committee issued its final report, Roosevelt proposed the "Financial Security Act of 1935," and it was introduced in Congress the same day.
For sure, there was opposition to the legislation.
Sen. Daniel Hastings, a Delaware Republican, warned that it would "end the progress of a great country," as the New York Times reported. But Hastings was in the minority, even within his own party, when it came to voting on the bill — which was renamed the "Social Security Act of 1935″ in committee.
The Social Security Administration website shows that the Social Security Act of 1935 passed with bipartisan support in both chambers — 372-33 in the House and 77-6 in the Senate — in April and June of 1935, respectively.
In the House, 81 Republicans voted for it, and an equal number of Republicans and Democrats – just 15 from each party – voted against it. In the Senate, 16 Republicans voted for it, and only five against, including Hastings.
Both houses gave final approval to the bill by voice vote on Aug. 8, 1935. Roosevelt signed the bill into law Aug. 14, 1935 — just seven months after it was introduced.
– Lori Robertson, with Eugene Kiely, Rob Farley, Ben Finley and Brooks Jackson
Factcheck.org's managing editor, Lori Robertson is on the scene in Charlotte at the convention center. This story was written with the help of the entire staff, based in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. We are vetting the major speeches at this convention for factual accuracy, holding Democrats to the same standards we applied in last week's coverage of the Republican convention.
news, politics & government, business, health, nation/world, FactCheck
barack obama, democrats, donald marron, election, health care, james clyburn, julian castro, medicare, mitt romney, paul ryan, republicans, social security, tax policy center, taxes
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Shane Thompson · @Showa_Shane
11th Sep 2017 from TwitLonger
Toku Theory: The Hidden Backstory of Decade
Disclaimer: The following article is based off of MatPat’s Game Theory format. Any and all likeness to the series is completely for entertainment/parody purposes, and any resemblance of another fan theory is completely coincidental. If you find any fallacies or errors in this theory, do not hesitate to point them out. Enjoy.
Even if this is one of the worst Rider series, it’s still draped in mystery. The A.R. Worlds, where the Decadriver came from, Natsumi’s dreams of the Rider War, all seemingly unanswered, but when you look deep enough, you’ll find that this series is deeper than we once thought.
Ten-Faced Demon Llumu Qhimil: You bastard. Who are you?!
A passing-through Toku Theorist. Remember that!
*Cue obligatory opening*
Hello, Internet! Welcome to Toku Theory! You know, we all have a lot of fun watching tokusatsu: Giant robots, cool toys, grown men fighting enemies while clad in brightly colored spandex (Dr. K: THAT IS NOT SPANDEX!). However, there are times when a toku show is just down right stupid! Whether it’s a show about a team of heroes lead by a spotlight stealing ‘King’, idiot ninja, or some guy with an insane amount of dumb luck, or a show about a space hero that tries the My Little Pony approach to fighting or a ghost that can never seem to stay a ghost (Oddly enough, a lot of people like those shows. SERIOUSLY?! Who would like that crap?), we have plenty of bad toku, even though certain weebs won’t admit it, even when the Japanese audience does. I’m looking at you, Ryuki vs Dragon Knight people; but (shot of Wagon’s butt), I digress.
One show that has been the topic of fan hate since its debut is the 2009 Kamen Rider Series, D-D-D-Dickhead! Whoops! I mean, Decade. *pause for silence* No, no. ‘Dickhead’ is accurate. This show was created as the 10th anniversary series to the Heisei Kamen Rider run, which began with Kamen Rider Kuuga, and is still going on to this day, until 2019 when Japanese government will make a new law allowing the Emperor to step down from the throne. God, why can’t our politicians be this classy or proper? Basically, the show centers around Tsukasa, a man from another world where he can harness the power of Kamen Riders through cards that allow him to transform into any Rider he wants. Remember Gokaiger? Imagine that, only not nearly as cool.
Anyway, in the series, Tsukasa is said to be the Destroyer of Worlds, said to be the one to destroy the A.R. Worlds of the Heisei Riders (As well as Amazon, Black, and Black RX, but let’s not get into how THAT works!), worlds that have the heroes we are familiar with, only vastly different in terms of story, characters, powers… on second thought, they are almost NOTHING like them.
However, there are a few mysteries left unsolved in this series. How do Tsukasa and Kaito know each other? Why does Natsumi keep having predictions that seem to never come true. And most of all, who is Narutaki? Well, it's Super Hero Time (Forced pun is forced) for those answers!
First, let's look at the things we know about the A.R. worlds. They are alternate realities based on the main Rider World, each Rider there has the face and first name of the main world riders (Outside of Black/Black RX, who have the exact same name. Again, not getting into how THAT works.), and they each have their own monsters and villains, also based on the main Rider World. This means any rider from one of these worlds is a world based on someone in the main world. And outside the A.R. World Riders, who are the odd men out? Well, outside Den-O and Shinkenger, since that is main world, but if I point out the faults in Decade, we're gonna be here all day. Anyway, the answer is simple. They're the main characters: Tsukasa Kadoya, aka Decade, and Daiki Kaito, aka Diend. After all, out of all the A.R. Riders, Tsukasa and Kaito are the only ones not based on a main world Rider. Or are there?!
If you want any real answers, just look at the trailer for Decade Final Chapter (since the movie pulled the old bait and switch on us at the last minute, just like with the Joker in Suicide Squad. ONORE TOEI!) Anywho, there are lines and images in the trailer that never made it into the film, such as Tsukasa dying and being attacked by someone in his Decade outfit, as well as the line 'So, you're the real Tsukasa?' That’s right! This movie, had it not be ruined by the execs and change in writers, (But let’s not point fingers, INOUE!) this movie would have revealed the identity of the real Tsukasa, as in, the one who resides in the Main Rider World. Well, it's time for us to meet finally meet him. Ladies and Gentlemen, the real Tsukasa/Decade is... *drum roll* Narutaki! *collective gasp, followed by someone saying 'Hey, wait a minute!'*
Yes, I know. Sounds a bit hard to believe, right? The dumbass villain of Decade being the true Destroy of Worlds? It simply can’t be true. That is, until you look at the evidence. What exactly to we know about Narutaki? Except for his tendency to blame everything on Decade and become a meme. #OnoreDecade Well, let's see. He has the ability to dimension jump between A.R. Worlds, he knows who Tsukasa is, he can summon Riders at will, and just like Tsukasa, he has amnesia, or at least, that's what's implied. In addition to that, there's one more thing about the Final Chapter film that most people have overlooked. In a YouTube video (youtube.com/watch?v=DdNS1oYZTZM) about Narutaki's identity, and in one image, you see Decade being attacked from behind by Narutaki. However, what else do you see? That's right! Tsukasa's camera. That would mean one of two things: Narutaki is a thief or Narutaki IS the real Tsukasa, and by extension, the real Decade.
This leads into another theory about the series. Knowing how Natsumi seems to have predictions, like the Rider War (that was totally different from the one we got. (Again, Gokaiger did it better), and all the stuff that was shown in Final Chapter, which was in the trailer. There are actually two mini theories that suggest how she has these dreams. Theory 1: Natsumi is a psychic. Now, there have always been stories about psychics who predict the future from touching another person, as well as seeing into a pass life through similar means. This ability is known as psychometry, which can be grossly simplified into obtaining information simply by touching another person. What if what she saw wasn't the future, but another lifetime, before Tsukasa lost his memory? Like her coming into contact with Tsukasa may had given her glimpses into his past as the Destroyer of Worlds. This would explain a few things, like Decade's title of Destroyer of Worlds, as well as his connection to Diend.
Theory 2: Natsumi is from the World of the Rider War. Since we already know her own ‘Grandfather’ seems to be from one of the A.R. Worlds, it isn’t out of the realm of possibility that Natsumi herself is from an A.R. World and, as a result of the last fight between Decade and an unknown enemy (Unknown, as in someone we don’t know, not the enemies from Agito), somehow erased the past and separated the World of the Rider War into many A.R. Worlds, explaining how she has these memories, and also low-key involving the first theory about her memories. This would also explain why Narutaki no longer takes on the role of Decade. His final battle in the World of the Rider War reset everything and wiped his own memory of being Decade, and his only memory of Decade being Tsukasa coming from the A.R. World and being their version of Decade, and could very well explain how Diend still remembers Tsukasa, but not Narutaki.
Speaking of Diend, this also leads to the biggest question that no one ever asks: If Kaito is the A.R. Diend, where is the real Diend? Since we've come to the conclusion that Narutaki is the real world Tsukasa, that must mean that in the main world, there must be a real world Daiki who can become Diend. Which leads us into the last piece of this complicated jigsaw puzzle. Outside of Diend, there is one thing in the A.R. Worlds yet to make an appearance in the Main World. I'm talking about the organization that Tsukasa was the leader of in the A.R. World: Dai-Shocker. Just like Kaito, Dai-Shocker is in the A.R. World, and yet we never see it in the Main World. Or, do we? We don't, but there is one piece of evidence that would strongly suggest that there is another Decade, Diend, and Dai-Shocker in the Main World: Tsukasa's Decadriver. While Kaito got his from the World of Decade, Tsukasa actually received his in the Main World, but how can that be? The only explanation is that a real Dai-Shocker exists in the Main World, which means there's another Diendriver and, since Tsukasa grabbed his K-Touch in the World of Negatives, that means there is another Decadriver in the A.R. Worlds somewhere, and there is another Diend, Diendriver, and Dai-Shocker in the real world. What is there plan? Where are they? Do they plan to use Decade's power to destroy the Main World Riders? No one knows, but we do that somewhere in the Main Rider World, they are out there: waiting, watching, biding their time until they can finally act out the very plan that Narutaki says is Tsukasa's destiny: Destroy all Kamen Riders.
But, hey! That's JUST a theory. A Toku Theory! Thanks for reading!
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Ukraine's Greek Catholic Church: The new pope and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church | The Economist
Apr 12th 2013, 15:42 by A.C. | LVIV
METROPOLITAN Hilarion of Volokolamsk, a bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church, recently expressed hope that the new pope, Francis, will continue the policy of rapprochement with the Orthodox Church and will not support, what he calls the expansion of the Ukrainian Greek Catholics. “The union is the most painful topic in the Orthodox-Catholic dialogue, in relations between the Orthodox and the Catholics. If the pope will support the union, then, of course, it will bring no good," he said
The metropolitan is worried: it is said that the new pope has an affinity for the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC). So much so that one Russian commentator claimed that in Francis, “we have a Ukrainian pope”. This may worsen relations between the Orthodox and Catholic Church Greek Catholics.
The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church confuses most outsiders. It is an Eastern rite church that is in communion with Vatican. Drawing on the Christian legacy of medieval Kievan-Rus', it was officially founded through the 1596 Union of Brest (hence the church’s other widespread name, Uniate). “Greek” was added later to distinguish it from the Roman Catholic Church.
Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the new pope, had a Ukrainian Greek Catholic priest as his mentor and is familiar with the Church's rites, says Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the UGCC. Mr Shevchuk previously served in Buenos Aires and got to know the future pope there. Many in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church hope that Francis will elevate it to a patriarchate, from its current status as a Major Archbishopate.
Today Greek Catholics make up about 15% of Ukraine's population. Most of them live in the west of the country, including the city of Lviv. (They also have a strong presence in the Ukrainian diaspora.) After almost half a century of persecution under Soviet rule, the Church resurfaced as one of the pillars of national identity in western Ukraine. It is an influential force here, though it has kept its distance from politics.
Someone once quipped: in the rest of Ukraine, religious people go to church; in Lviv, everyone goes to church. The city is famous for its panoply of churches, most of them now Greek Catholic, though it still has both a Roman Catholic and an Armenian cathedral. (Up until 1941, Lviv was also an important centre of the Jewish religion.) In the mornings the sound of the liturgy, sung in Ukrainian, spills out into the cobbled streets.
Lviv Business School, part of the Ukrainian Catholic University which is affiliated with the [Ukrainian Greek Catholic] Church, has become known for combining business education with ethics. Encouraging “trust, openness and ethics” in the new generation of business leaders can help change negative trends in Ukraine, says Sophia Opatska, the School's chief executive. This is especially important in Ukraine, where “business often takes on social and economic responsibilities that belong to government in democratic countries”, she adds.
On April 7th crowds of Greek Catholics joined a procession through Lviv representing the way of the cross, slowing down the traffic. The Church's leaders have already invited pope Francis to visit Ukraine. The new pope himself has made no special mention of Ukraine since his election as the Ukrainian media has pointed out. All the same, many of Ukraine's Greek Catholics eagerly await the visit of pope Francis, the closest they have had to a Ukrainian pope.
Labels: church
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Lutsenko hopes for Ukraine-EU agreement
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Frontier Fund Offers Small Chabad Centers Some Relief
by Dvora Lakein
Rabbi Shaul and Esther Wilhelm landed in Oslo in 2004 to serve Norway’s 2,000 Jews. The young couple knew they’d be starting from scratch, developing programs and services to serve and build the local community. What they hadn’t anticipated was how difficult it would be to raise the copious funds needed to grease the wheels of their project.
Contrary to common misconceptions, Chabad’s 4,700 global representatives are independently funded. “We expected to cultivate a base of locals who appreciate our work, and then become supporters,” says the rabbi some 13 years later. But Norway is a socialist country and philanthropy is not part of the local lexicon. So although there are some local supporters, Wilhelm travels abroad eight times a year to fundraise. “I didn’t know it would be this challenging.”
In 2009, help came in the form of a grant by The Frontier Fund of Machne Israel, the social-services division at Chabad-Lubavitch Headquarters. “Heaven-sent” is how Wilhelm describes the two-year grant. “It freed me up to dedicate more time and energy to our real objective—to reach out to more Jews in Norway. The programs we established using these funds are successful still today.”
A long time observer of the work of Chabad, the anonymous donor says he created The Frontier Fund with Machne Israel to help ten Chabad representatives every year based on need and other variables. “My objective is to let the Chabad emissaries—who do so much for the Jewish people—know that they are appreciated, admired and loved.”
Targeted to representatives who live in locales with limited local funding and for whom the grant represents a significant portion of their budget, “it is intended to help families in far-flung places survive and thrive,” explains Machne Israel’s Rabbi Shmaya Krinsky. Krinsky helps identify eligible recipients.
Rabbi Pinchas Zaklas, who has been serving the Jews of Zagreb, Croatia, since 2003, used the gift to grow and enlarge his preschool. “We almost closed a few times before receiving the money,” he recalls. “To sustain a successful kindergarten here is very expensive.” Croatian parents expect progressive education but can generally afford to pay only $40 a month in tuition. It costs Zaklas $250 per child per month. With this money, Zaklas is investing in attracting new students and advancing the school’s academic, sports, and language programs for its current roster of twenty-four children.
Preschool might be for the younger set, but it’s not only the tots who benefit. “The Lubavitcher Rebbe directed people to focus on the children and we find that they spark change in their families,” Zaklas notes. “Some make kiddush at home on Friday nights, some families started to keep kosher.”
More than 230 kids graduated Chabad’s kindergarten here and Zaklas says that the effects of their early education are still evident. “This year, we made the first bar mitzvahs for two boys who went to our school. Teaching them was so much easier, they knew Hebrew, they could read their haftarah.”
Zaklas still travels almost monthly to fundraise for his community’s existence. There is no local support, he says, though tourists and businesspeople sometimes contribute. It is the money of the Fund that keeps him in the black.
“The Frontier Fund recognizes that for Judaism to survive, it must be supported wherever Jews are, even in the Wild West,” Rabbi Chaim Bruk emphatically states. Chabad’s representative to Montana, Bruk received the grant in 2013. The money, he says, “gave us the stability, the back-up support, to do our work here in Bozeman.”
Most of the people who call Montana home are “looking for mountains, not synagogues,” the rabbi says. “People move here with no intention of making the synagogue a big part of their lives. It takes time to develop.” Bruk makes a point of referring to his donors not as supporters, but as partners. “I want people to recognize when they are writing a check that they aren’t doing it for the rabbi. They’re doing it for humanity, for Jewry, for themselves.”
When the Bruks arrived eleven years ago, their annual budget was $120,000. It has more than tripled in the past decade, as their reach has spread across Big Sky Country. Now Bruk counts many vacationers from around the world among the loyal donors supporting Jewish life in Montana. “They come here and see that we don’t live here for our own benefit; our work is not on behalf of Chabad but to benefit the entire Jewish community.”
Wilhelm also receives support from travelers to Oslo who are inspired that he and his family are living there just to help fellow Jews. But it’s the generosity of the anonymous donor that touches him strongly. “For someone to understand that there are representatives in small communities, disconnected from the larger Jewish world, and to say ‘I want to help make a difference in your life,’ that is very special.”
Rabbi Chaim and Chavi Bruk at the ten year gala for Chabad of Montana.
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The Beatles Share Unreleased Versions Of "Glass Onion"
Recordings included on new anniversary editions of the 'White Album'
Photo by Keystone Features/Getty Images
It won’t be long before die hard Beatles fans can get their hands on an anniversary edition of the White Album – packed with unreleased tracks and demos. The collection is due out next week, but the band just released a little something to whet your appetite.
Related: The Beatles Set To Release Deluxe Edition Of Iconic 'White Album'
The Beatles are giving us two previously-unreleased versions of “Glass Onion.” It was the third song on side one of the original double album.
First up is a demo. It’s a stripped-back acoustic version that closely approximates what the final recording would become.
The Beatles also shared “take 10” of "Glass Onion," which includes some back and forth between the band and the control room.
The White Album was released in 1968 and was the Beatles 9th studio album. It contained 30 songs, including “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” “Birthday,” and “Back in the U.S.S.R.” You can listen to three different mixes of the latter track right now.
The new collection will be available November 9th. You can preorder it here.
The White Album
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Texas aide hired without competition, granted tuition money
AUSTIN, TX -- A top deputy at Texas' massive state health agency received the job without any competition and then was granted nearly $100,000 to pay for his graduate school tuition, according to state records.
Casey Haney, a former aide to Gov. Rick Perry who also previously worked for state Health Commissioner Kyle Janek, was hired in 2012 as Janek's deputy chief of staff at $159,000 a year, without a formal application process. Janek later approved a $97,000 payment to Haney to pursue a master's degree in business.
Both moves appear to violate agency policy that calls for jobs open to external candidates to be posted online and for tuition payments to be reimbursed after graduation.
Janek also approved $37,000 in up-front tuition payments for Deputy Commissioner Patricia Vojack, whose salary is $165,000 a year, to pursue an executive master's degree, records show.
There was no formal application for Haney's job because officials thought Haney was well qualified, agency spokeswoman Stephanie Goodman told the Houston Chronicle. The agency also pays tuition for three to five employees a year, she said.
Goodman also said the agency has changed its tuition payment policy to put applications before a review panel, and to only cover 50 percent of programs that cost more than $5,000.
Both Haney and Vojack have agreed to return half of the tuition reimbursements they received.
The state health commission already is facing a criminal investigation into a recently awarded no-bid contract.
Travis County prosecutors are looking into a now-canceled $110 million contract to an Austin technology company that was put through a no-bid program for much smaller purchases. Two agency officials, Inspector General Doug Wilson and his deputy Jack Stick, have resigned. Stick was a former lobbyist for the company that was granted the contract.
Haney worked for both Janek and Stick when they were state legislators, then moved to Perry's office. Vojak also previously worked for Janek, who was appointed by Perry as state health commissioner in 2012.
Jack Stick's wife, Erica, served as Janek's chief of staff, supervising Haney and signing off on his request for the prepaid tuition, according to state records. She has been placed on leave.
Jack Stick's salary was $200,000. Erica Stick was paid about $160,000.
House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, said Friday that the state budget will require agencies and universities to meet new reporting requirements before entering into contracts worth more than $10 million and purchases worth more than $1 million that were not competitively bid.
austinrick perrytexas news
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Topic: Black Hawk War
The Osage Massacre
When the treaty council with the Osage at Fort Gibson broke up in disagreement on April 2, 1833, three hundred Osage warriors under the leadership of Clermont departed for the west to attack the Kiowa. It was Clermont’s boast that he never made war on the whites and never made peace with his Indian enemies. At the Salt Plains where the Indians obtained their salt, within what is now Woodward County, Oklahoma, they fell upon the trail of a large party of Kiowa warriors going northeast toward the Osage towns above Clermont’s. The Osage immediately adapted their course to that pursued by their enemies following it back to what they knew would be the defenseless village of women, children, and old men left behind by the warriors. The objects of their cruel vengeance were camped at the mouth of Rainy-Mountain Creek, a southern tributary of the Washita, within the present limits of the reservation at Fort Sill.
Peace Attempts with Western Prairie Indians, 1833
What was known as the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek was entered into in Mississippi with the Choctaw Indians September 27, 1830; 1Kappler, op. cit., vol. ii, 221. pursuant to the terms of the treaty, in 1832 the movement of the Choctaw to their new home between the Canadian and Red rivers was under way but they were in danger from incursions of the Comanche and Pani Picts 2Called by early French traders Pani Pique tattooed Pawnee, and known to the Kiowa and Comanche by names meaning Tattooed Faces. [U.S. Bureau of Ethnology, Handbook of American Indians, part ii, 947.]
Washington Irving at Fort Gibson, 1832
The McIntosh Creeks had been located along Arkansas River near the Verdigris on fertile timbered land which they began at once to clear, cultivate, and transform into productive farms. The treaty of 1828 with the Cherokee gave the latter a great tract of land on both sides of Arkansas River embracing that on which the Creeks were located. This was accomplished by a blunder of the Government officials, in the language of the Secretary of War, 1U.S. House, Executive Documents, 22d congress, first session, no. 116, President’s Message submitting the memorial of the Creek Indians. “when we had not a
Biography of James Fulkerson
Fulkerson (This name in the native tongue, was Volkerson, but after the removal of the family to America they began to spell it as it is pronounced.) James Fulkerson, of Germany, came to America at an early date and settled in North Carolina. There he became acquainted with and married Mary VanHook, and subsequently removed to Washington Co., Va. The names of their children were Peter, James, John, Thomas, Abraham, Jacob, Isaac, William, Polly, Catharine, Hannah, and Mary. Peter married Margaret Craig, and they had Polly, Robert C., James, Benjamin F., Jacob, Peter, Jr., John W., Margaret, Rachel, David C.,
Biography of Victor Craig
Victor Craig, of England, came to America in 1760, and settled in Maryland. He had four sons, William, James, Robert, and Samuel. William and James lived in Albemarle County Va. Samuel was drowned in the Susquehanna River. Robert was a soldier of the revolutionary war. He was married first to Susan Carter, of Virginia, who was afterward killed by the Indians. She lived nine days after having been scalped. Mr. Craig was married the second time to Sarah Ellington, of New Jersey, by whom he had-John, David, Victor, Jonathan, Jacob, Cynthia, Nancy, and Sally. Mr. Craig settled in Montgomery County
Biography of James Sidney Rollins
James Sidney Rollins, lawyer and statesman, distinguished for extraordinary public services, was born April 19, 1812, at Richmond, Kentucky, and died at Columbia, Missouri, January 9, 1888, in the seventy-sixth year of his age. His parents were Anthony Wayne and Sallie Harris (Rodes) Rollins. The father was a native of Pennsylvania, a graduate of Jefferson College in that state and an eminent physician. He was a son of Henry Rollins, who was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, emigrated to America during the Revolutionary war, enlisted in the Continental army and fought in the battle of Brandywine. The mother, a lady
Biographical Sketch of William Wrightsell
William Wrightsell, farmer; P. O. Turner’s Point; was born in Jefferson Co., Tenn., Oct. 9, 1811; came to this State and settled in Coles Co., in 1856. He was married to Miss Permelia White Oct. 31, 1844; she was born in Jefferson Co., Tenn., Nov. 15, 1825; they have four children, viz., Sarah J., James M., Louisa E., and Margaret Ann. The farm of Mr. Wrightsell consists of sixty acres valued at $1,800. He was a participant in the Black Hawk war, and is quite an early settler in the western part of Coles Co.
At Yellow Banks
Major Dement’s Battle with the Indians
Stillman’s Defeat
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Home › Healthcare Reform › Socialists introduce Universal Healthcare Bill…no, not in 2010, in 1945.
Socialists introduce Universal Healthcare Bill…no, not in 2010, in 1945.
By AWC on February 21, 2011 • ( 0 )
James Madison once said, “I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.”
What we must understand is that Socialism is not unlike a religion. Followers of Socialism believe in their ideals like the Catholics, the Jewish and the Muslims believe in their religions.
We can all agree that there was Socialism and Socialists before the fall of the Soviet Union, but just where do you think all of the Socialists went after the collapse of Russia? Do you think they just shriveled up and blew away with the dust of the Berlin Wall? No…they are still among us and they still firmly believe in the concept of Socialism. They are politicians, businessmen, journalists and bloggers. Many of them don’t even realize that many of the laws they support and the beliefs they hold are the first building blocks of Socialism and the wrecking balls of a free Republic.
We must also understand that Socialists understand that Americans do not like the word Socialism or Socialists. So they changed their name…now they are Liberals that believe in Liberalism.
In 1927, an American Socialist Norman Thomas, six times candidate for President of the U.S. on the Socialist Party ticket stated, “The American people would never vote for ‘Socialism,’ but under the name ‘Liberalism’ the American people will adopt every fragment of the socialist program.”
Like James Madison said, Socialism is not achieved through violent and sudden uprisings. Socialism is patient, and methodical and is satisfied with the quiet, stealthy baby steps of freedom’s deconstruction. Like a frog in a pot brought slowly to a boil, you will become enslaved and subject to a socialist government before you even realize you needed to take action and jump out. It will be too late. It is the slow, quiet, brick by brick demolition of your freedoms that you are not paying attention to.
Despite resounding disapproval and rejection of Obama’s Universal Healthcare Bill by Americans everywhere, the Democrats in the legislative and executive branches of our government were not about to miss an opportunity while they have complete control of the government to make a giant leap forward in the Socialist agenda instead of their decades of baby steps.
Socialists can try and fail…and try and fail again. They will never stop. They will never tire. They will always be here. Generation after generation, they will continue to try and pass laws that will slowly shift control over from the people to the government. They are simply waiting for the generation to come along that is not paying attention and will blindly hand control over to them on a platter made of ignorance, greed and apathy.
The last generation has been here before, but they were paying attention. In 1945, under the Truman administration, there was an effort made to socialize medicine but the American people resoundingly rejected it during the 1950 off-year election when according to the CATO Institute, “incumbents who had supported compulsory national health insurance were defeated. Moreover, while retaining control of Congress, Democrats suffered net losses in the House and Senate.” Sound familiar? History repeats itself, and so will they…again…and again…
This only dissuaded the Socialists from trying to pass a single all-encompassing health care bill and instead focus on implementing nationalized medicine in pieces, “thus reflecting a deliberate decision to use an incremental strategy, initially targeting the group of recipients who would evoke the greatest sympathy with the public,” the elderly. As they stated when they were able to add disability to Social Security, “incremental change … has less potential for generating conflict than change that involves innovation in principle.”
Those incremental baby steps towards Socialism included passing laws to create Social Security, then laws to include disability with Social Security, then medical care for the aged poor (Kerr-Mills Bill), then Medicare, then Medicaid and now…finally…they have achieved the ultimate Socialist agenda in Obama’s Universal Healthcare Law. There was resistance to these efforts every step of the way, but Socialists can try to pass their agenda a thousand times and fail, while we can not fail to block them even once.
“However, despite this foot-in-the-door approach, resistance continued. With Eisenhower’s election in 1952, Medicare advocates sought to keep the issue alive by continuing to introduce bills in every session of Congress.”
Socialists will never stop, and never tire and they will always be among us…they will just keep hammering away until we aren’t paying attention.
2010 might have been the year, and the generation, that wasn’t paying attention.
The CATO Institute has an excellent paper on the century long battle to take over America through health care click here.
‹ Chris Christie tells the Democrats to shutdown the state government, he’s gonna go watch the Mets
Socialists admit, Universal Healthcare is the “foot in the door” to taking control ›
Categories: Healthcare Reform, Socialism, Uncategorized
Tags: Forand Bill, liberals versus socialists, socialism, socialized medicine, universal healthcare
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Dave FaulknerEducation Changemakers (EC)
Dave is the CEO and co-founder of EC, and a global leader in K-12 education innovation. As a renowned facilitator and keynote speaker for some of the world’s largest education events, Dave has chaired London’s BETT Arena, spoken at ASCD USA and Edutech Australia, and shared the stage with education innovators including Ken Robinson, Angela Lee Duckworth, Anthony Salcito and Sugata Mitra. Dave’s education leadership journey began when he became a Principal at age 24, with further Principal tenures at Primary and Secondary schools over the next decade as well as a three-year period as a District Superintendent. Dave works globally to advise and support system and organisational leaders and presents to thousands of educators each year across the globe.
Amanda Blair
Louka Parry
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Home > Businesses > Energy > In focus
Insight into Essar businesses
..........................................................................................................................................................................
Turnaround at Stanlow reflects Essar Oil's global vision
November 03, 2017 | India Global Business
Essar Stanlow safety record helps local Cerebral Palsy charity
Essar Stanlow receives prestigious safety award
Essar adopts unconventional approach to coalbed methane
January 25, 2017 | Upstream - Focus India
Essar Oil UK: Growing from strength to strength
Scripting a success story: The incredible transformation of Essar Oil UK
Essar-Rosneft Deal
Essar-ONGC consortium makes gas discovery in Mumbai offshore; opens up new exploration play
Leading by example: The Let’s Give initiative
Essar Stanlow marks safety milestone by supporting differently abled children
Essar Energy to drill at Mumbai High, Vietnam blocks to increase crude oil production
April 27, 2015 | Economic Times
Essar’s Consortium Efforts in E&P Pay Off
'Why keep coal for power plants which will come up in 6-7 years'
August 07, 2014 | Business World
Expert Speak: Essar Energy CEO in Economic Times
June 30, 2014 | Economic Times
Many Essar Energy operational milestones
February 14, 2014 | Bureaucracy Today
Making way for gas-on-gas competition
July 22, 2013 | Financial Chronicle
Turnaround for Essar Energy
July 22, 2013 | Power Today
Delivering growth
July 08, 2013 | Business India
LEX: Essar Energy
July 02, 2013 | The Financial Times
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← First Lady Michelle Obama & Dr. Jill Biden Adress National Governors Association
First Lady Michelle Obama Teams Up With Tennis Stars Andre Agassi & Stefanie Graf to Fight Childhood Obesity →
Tuesday Open Thread
Posted on March 1, 2011 by SouthernGirl2
Ledisi Anibade Young (pronounced /ˈlɛdɨsiː/ born July 9, 1978) is an American recording artist, singer-songwriter, record producer, CEO and actress. Her first name means “to bring forth” or “to come here” in Yoruba.[1] Ledisi is known for her jazz influenced vocals. In 1995, Ledisi formed the group known as Anibade. After unsuccessfully trying to get the group signed to a major label, she formed LeSun Records with Sundra Manning. Along with her group Anibade, Ledisi released an album entitled Take Time. The album gained major airplay from local radio stations.[citation needed]
In 2000, Ledisi released her first album, entitled Soulsinger: The Revival. Ledisi and her group toured in 2001, performing various shows.[1] In 2002, Ledisi released her second album, Feeling Orange but Sometimes Blue. The album won her an award for “Outstanding Jazz Album” at the California Music Awards.
About SouthernGirl2
A Native Texan who adores baby kittens, loves horses, rodeos, pomegranates, & collect Eagles. Enjoys politics, games shows, & dancing to all types of music. Loves discussing and learning about different cultures. A Phi Theta Kappa lifetime member with a passion for Social & Civil Justice.
View all posts by SouthernGirl2 →
This entry was posted in Current Events, Music, Open Thread, Politics and tagged 3 Chics Politico, Actress, Anibade, California Music Awards, CEO, Gospel, In The Morning, Jazz, Ledisi, music producer, Neo Soul, New Orleans Louisiana, poetic, R&B, Singer, Songwriter, Soul. Bookmark the permalink.
51 Responses to Tuesday Open Thread
SouthernGirl2 says:
White House to hold anti-bullying conference
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/01/AR2011030104665.html
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will host a White House conference next week on preventing bullying.
The White House says the March 10 conference will bring together students, parents and educators to discuss ways to end bullying and make schools safer for students.
Aides say this is a personal issue for both the president and his wife, Michelle Obama. The president taped a message for the “It Gets Better Campaign” last fall following the deaths of several young people who were bullied for being gay.
Obama said at the time that it was important to dispel the notion that bullying is an inevitable part of growing up.
Read Across America 2011: Michelle Obama To Read Classic Dr. Seuss Book
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/01/read-across-america-2011_n_829880.html
The National Education Association (NEA) will host its 14th annual Read Across America Day tomorrow, March 2, at the Library of Congress. First Lady Michelle Obama will read the Dr. Seuss children’s classic “Green Eggs and Ham” alongside U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and NEA President Dennis Van Roekel. Hundreds of local school children will attend.
The event was created in 1998 in order to get children excited about reading. On the
NEA’s website, the group notes that the event also “provides NEA members, parents, caregivers, and children the resources and activities they need to keep reading on the calendar 365 days a year.”
The NEA decided to host the event on Dr. Seuss’s birthday, and this year will mark his 107th.
There will also be appearances made by actress Jessica Alba, TV host Padma Lakshmi, and Super Bowl Champion Donald Driver.
Readers can log on to make reading pledges at the NEA’s website. Currently, California is by far in the lead with 342 pledges. The closest state behind is New York, with 200 pledges.
Ametia says:
LOL Dannie, LOOKIE HERE!
IT’S DON LEMON’S BIRTHDAY. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DON!
Don Lemon (born March 1, 1966?)[1][dead link] is a reporter for CNN and news anchor on the prime-time weekend version of CNN Newsroom, based in Atlanta.[2]
[edit] Life and careerLemon received a degree[ambiguous] in broadcast journalism from Brooklyn College and also attended Louisiana State University.[2]
While still in college, he became a news assistant at WNYW (TV 5 in New York City). He has also been a reporter and weekend anchor for WCAU (TV 10 in Philadelphia); anchor and investigative reporter for KTVI (TV 2 in St. Louis); and anchor for WBRC (TV 6 in Birmingham, Alabama).[2]
He became a reporter for NBC News’ New York City operations, including working as a correspondent for Today and NBC Nightly News and an anchor on Weekend Today and MSNBC. In August 2003 he began at NBC O&O station WMAQ-TV (5 in Chicago), and was a reporter and the 5 p.m. local news co-anchor.[2]
Lemon joined CNN in September 2006.[2]
During an on-air interview with members of Bishop Eddie Long’s congregation on September 25, 2010, Lemon said that he was a victim of sex abuse as a child, and that it wasn’t until he was thirty that he told his mother about it.[3]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Lemon
dannie22 says:
Thanks Ametia!! I sent him a birthday tweet earlier.
Are you getting back w/him? :)
LOL Stay strong, now, Dannie. I’m sure Don will appreciate the birthday wishes, though.
Ledisi just performed “My Guy” on Motown in the WH on PBS!
I’m watching. It’s a good show.
Who is the washed out bleach blonde singing Tracks of My Tears?
I’ve never seen her before.
To Rude: May God Bless you and your family. Condolences to you on the passing of your mother, Rude.
3 Chics sending you and your family prayers.
Taking a Few Days of Comp Time:
My mother passed away this past weekend after battling t-cell lymphoma. So this blog will be dark for the next few days as I head back south to be with family.
I thank you in advance for watering the plants, and, while the bar is always open, leave a little whiskey for when I get back.
http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/
Sympathy Graphics
Prayers to your family, Rudepundit!
Breaking News Alert: House approves two-week funding measure, putting Congress on track to avert government shutdown
March 1, 2011 4:16:22 PM
The House on Tuesday approved a stopgap measure that would keep the federal government funded through March 18 and cut $4 billion in spending by targeting programs that President Obama has already marked for elimination.
The measure, which passed the House on a 335 to 91 vote, now goes to the Senate. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Tuesday that the measure is likely to be approved in the Senate within the next 48 hours. If Congress does not pass a funding resolution by Friday, the federal government would be forced to shut down, but the apparent agreement between the two chambers seems likely to avert that possibility in the short-term.
http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/PSLW3N/UUB8T2/DDIGNJ/T5SQNI/PAJ8W/SN/h
Mike Huckabee: Obama Grew Up In Kenya
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/01/mike-huckabee-obama-kenya-_n_829912.html
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee says President Barack Obama’s childhood in Kenya shaped his world view — despite the fact that Obama did not visit Kenya until he was in his 20s.
The potential Republican presidential candidate told New York radio station WOR that Obama was raised in Kenya with a Kenyan father and grandfather.
Actually, Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961 to a mother from Kansas and a father from Kenya whom he would barely know. He spent his youth in Hawaii and Indonesia and did not visit his father’s homeland until 1987, well after his father’s death.
Huckabee has criticized those who suggest Obama is Kenyan and thus ineligible to be president. Recently he said that birthers are wasting their “time and energy” by mounting attacks on the citizenship issue during an appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
A Huckabee adviser did not have an immediate explanation for Huckabee’s comments to WOR.
WTF? Epic Fail Huckabee! Go sit your lying ass down someplace. Stupid mofo!
These cracka ass crackas don’t know any other way to win fairly. They resort to lies, distortion, and fear-mongering. It’s pathetic really, that they have no conscience, no regard or morals. And they are only preying on teh ignorant, white low information voters’ fears and bigotry.
Too late for you Fuck-a-Bee, you’ll neva get into the WH as POTUS.
The Steve Malzberg Show-
February 28, 2011- Hour 2
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee discusses his latest book, “Simple Government,” and where he stands on a potential Presidential run next year.
Huckabee mention President Obama grew up in Kenya
Audio here: Conversation begins around the 13:00 minute mark
http://www.wor710.com/topic/play_window.php?audioType=Episode&audioId=5190131
Vettte says:
I’m still NOT believing “This One”: Chief Birther in Charge
Run Huck Run!!!
Obama By a Landslide in 2012!!
Hi Vette.
You got it,Vette! Whoo Hoo!
Run Huck Run!
KARMA!
By SARAH EDDINGTON, Associated Press Sarah Eddington, Associated Press – Tue Mar 1, 12:07 am ET
GREENBRIER, Ark. – The central Arkansas town of Greenbrier has been plagued for months by hundreds of small earthquakes, and after being woken up by the largest quake to hit the state in 35 years, residents said Monday they’re unsettled by the increasing severity and lack of warning.
[Related: What is an earthquake swarm?]
The U.S. Geological Survey recorded the quake at 11 p.m. Sunday, centered just northeast of Greenbrier, about 40 miles north of Little Rock. It was the largest of more than 800 quakes to strike the area since September in what is now being called the Guy-Greenbrier earthquake swarm.
The activity has garnered national attention and researchers are studying whether there’s a possible connection to the region’s natural gas drilling industry. The earthquake activity varies each week, though as many as nearly two dozen small quakes have occurred in a day.
“You don’t know what to expect. It’s unnerving,” said Corinne Tarkington, an employee at a local flower and gift shop. “I woke up last night to the sound of my house shaking.”
What woke Tarkington was a magnitude 4.7 earthquake that was also felt in Oklahoma, Missouri, Tennessee and Mississippi. No injuries or major damage have been reported, but the escalation in the severity of quakes in and around the small north-central Arkansas town has many residents on edge. Some said they’re seeing gradual damage to their homes, such as cracks in walls and driveways.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110301/ap_on_re_us/us_arkansas_earthquakes
Raucous Caucus: Tea Party Meeting Exposes Dangerous Rifts
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/01/raucous-first-caucus-for-tea-partiers-exposes-rifts_n_829815.html
A boisterous first meeting of the House’s Tea Party Caucus on Monday night exposed two potential rifts — one between its members and state-level Tea Party activists, who have no appetite for compromise, and another between its members and Republican Party leaders, who will soon be asking them to do just that.
Tea Party leaders from Virginia, Florida and Pennsylvania hotly demanded that the members of the caucus not settle for anything less than defunding the Obama health care law, even on a very short-term basis, attendees told the Huffington Post. They also scoffed at the new Republican target of $61 billion in budget cuts from the rest of this fiscal year, calling it insufficient. And they made it clear Republicans who don’t stand firm will face primary opponents in 2012.
Darrell Issa fires press secretary Kurt Bardella in New York Times e-mail flap
By JAKE SHERMAN & JOHN BRESNAHAN |
3/1/11 11:08 AM EST Updated: 3/1/11 3:01 PM EST
House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) fired Kurt Bardella, one of Capitol Hill’s top press secretaries, after he provided e-mailed correspondence with other journalists to New York Times reporter Mark Leibovich.
Issa, in a statement Tuesday afternoon, said that the “information shared with Mark Leibovich appears to have been limited to Kurt’s own correspondence with reporters,” claiming that the internal workings of the committee — which include sensitive documents — had not been jeopardized.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/50412.html#ixzz1FNkBeg6L
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/50412.html#ixzz1FNk5bVka
Look for more to come out of these “sensitive documents.”
High court tries to crack cocaine case
By Dana Milbank
Monday, February 28, 2011; 8:00 PM
The Supreme Court is earning its reputation as the high court.
The robed ones have deliberated over cocaine at least half a dozen times in recent years, taking up the drug in some form in each of the past four years. On Monday, the justices took another hit – and this one was particularly mind-blowing.
For one thing, the law they were interpreting – the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine – was changed by Congress last year, making the argument largely inconsequential.
For another, the argument hinged on chemical properties of cocaine derivatives – a technical discussion for which law school did not quite prepare the justices.
“Could you grind it up so that it’s not rock-like anymore, so it’s like a powder, and smoke it after it’s in that form?” inquired Justice Samuel Alito.
“Can you get cocaine into a rock form without using a base?” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wanted to know.
Justice Anthony Kennedy had a question about the age and sun exposure of the coca leaf. Justice Elena Kagan invoked Richard Pryor’s freebasing accident. Alito, who showed off by reciting the chemical formula for cocaine – C17H21NO4 – sought information on how many Americans smoke coca paste.
Justice Stephen Breyer had even less refined cocaine knowledge. “People sniff it often, I guess, if it’s a salt, and that’s bad,” he said. “And then there’s a kind that’s worse. That’s freebase or crack.”
From the looks of them, the lawyers – Andrew Pincus, son of The Washington Post’s Walter Pincus, and Justice Department lawyer Nicole Saharsky – had as little firsthand experience with the substance as their questioners. But they shared what they could about rock and snow.
Breyer told Saharsky it was “very interesting” that she described coca paste as “being a yellow substance that came directly from grinding up leaves, something like that.”
“The paste doesn’t have to be yellow, just like crack doesn’t have to be white or off-white,” Saharsky explained. “There was evidence that a few years ago there were folks in Ohio that were coloring crack green for St. Patrick’s Day.” The justices smiled at this clever marketing technique. Saharsky further explained that the drug has been described as “a brown, soft, mushy, wet substance” and a “wet, gooey, cream-colored substance.”
“What you end up with,” Alito inquired, “is a gummy, yellowish solid called coca paste – that’s correct?”
“It can also be dried and smoked,” Saharsky added. “It has been dried in South America, so it’s not always wet.”
Symptoms of a cocaine high include talkativeness, hyperactivity and a feeling of superiority, often followed by lethargy during the crash. By coincidence, these were the same traits on display in the chamber. Talkativeness? Sotomayor. Hyperactivity? Breyer. Lethargy? Clarence Thomas. Feeling of superiority? Antonin Scalia.
“You’re urging upon us a definition that neither is the definition of crack nor is the chemical definition of cocaine base,” Scalia snorted. “It’s neither fish nor fowl.”
Pincus provided a culinary response, saying the “question that we’re debating is whether the use of baking soda is essential.”
“It’s essential to crack,” Scalia informed counsel. But even the all-knowing Scalia became muddled as he inhaled deeply of the drug discussion.
“Let’s assume that the government’s right,” he told Pincus. “Or that you’re right. And that it’s – no, let’s assume the government’s right, and it’s – no, you say it’s base. And let’s assume you’re right.”
Saharsky lectured her slow pupils. “Optical isomers are nonsuperimposable mirror images, like right- and left-handed versions of the same molecule,” she informed them, and “geometric isomers . . . are based on spatial arrangements where a certain part of the molecule is pushed out or pushed up axially or equatorially.”
“They’re all very exotic,” Justice Ruth Ginsburg observed.
So the justices tried to simplify. “Cocaine base means the same exact same thing as cocaine, because cocaine is a base,” Kagan thought aloud. “It’s like referring to an apple by saying ‘apple fruit’ or referring to a poodle by saying ‘poodle dog.’ ”
Breyer later declared that “I’m not going to repeat the same stupid joke – poodles and fruits.” Kagan didn’t join in the laughter.
As an alternative metaphor, Breyer said that the drug law reads to him like a riddle: “Who’s your father’s son who’s not your brother?”
Clearly the high court needs to take a powder.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/28/AR2011022805516_pf.html
President Obama called House Speaker John Boehner on Tuesday, White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters.
The purpose of the call was to “discuss the progress being made on the negotiations for a continuing resolution,” Carney said, adding that the conversation lasted 10 to 12 minutes.
Before calling on reporters to take questions, Carney added, “And you will ask, but I will not divulge, any more information about the phone call.”
Pressed about Boehner’s suggestion earlier that day that Obama had been too slow in initiating a conversation about extending the deadline for the CR set to expire on Friday, Carney reiterated that Obama and Boehner had “a productive and useful conversation” and that Obama remains “committed to cutting spending.”
“We have made clear that we could accept even over a relatively short period of time 8 billion dollars in cuts that we could agree on,” Carney said, citing this as a demonstration of Obama’s commitment to “tighten our belts.”
http://www.politico.com/politico44/perm/0311/speaking_to_the_speaker_7bbf914b-2a8e-4812-93be-a94b6a47adeb.html
Source: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
Washington, D.C., March 1, 2011 – The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced insider trading charges against a Westport, Conn.-based business consultant who has served on the boards of directors at Goldman Sachs and Procter & Gamble for illegally tipping Galleon Management founder and hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam with inside information about the quarterly earnings at both firms as well as an impending $5 billion investment by Berkshire Hathaway in Goldman.
The SEC’s Division of Enforcement alleges that Rajat K. Gupta, a friend and business associate of Rajaratnam, provided him with confidential information learned during board calls and in other aspects of his duties on the Goldman and P&G boards. Rajaratnam used the inside information to trade on behalf of some of Galleon’s hedge funds, or shared the information with others at his firm who then traded on it ahead of public announcements by the firms. The insider trading by Rajaratnam and others generated more than $18 million in illicit profits and loss avoidance. Gupta was at the time a direct or indirect investor in at least some of these Galleon hedge funds, and had other potentially lucrative business interests with Rajaratnam.
Read more: http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2011/2011-53.htm
COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio Senate is expected on Thursday to consider a revised version of a bill to end collective bargaining for public-sector workers, and union members gathering outside the Statehouse here Tuesday morning said they were bracing for the worst.
“This is going to get passed and people will sit back and say, ‘What happened?’ ” said Mark Horton, a retired firefighter who is treasurer of the Ohio Association of Professional Firefighters. “Once it’s done, there’s no putting the genie back in the bottle.”
Unlike similar legislation in Wisconsin, which exempts police officers and firefighters, the Ohio bill includes them — and is controversial for that reason.
But Republicans say the legislation that seeks to eliminate long-held union prerogatives are part of broader austerity measures intended to reduce crippling budget deficits, of which public employee pensions have played a growing role.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/us/02states.html?_r=1…
Oh Dannie, where are you?!
I’m right here. I’ve been kinda busy. They had a huge rally in Columbus today. All those dumb white folks who voted for this clown were out in full force trying to save their pensions and collective bargaining rights.
LMBAO! Right, the house is on FIRE, now that it’s affecting them.
No surprises here. CNN along with the rest of the meathead media blackout a 30,000 PBO OHIO supporter rally last year.
**Breaking** CNN proves Not all Protest Movements are Reported Equally
By Joan Ruaiz, on February 28th, 2011
So here we all were, waiting for massive news coverage on the protests that took place around the country in support of Wisconsin union members. I imagine some were convinced that since the corporate media had breathlessly covered any and every gathering held by the Tea Party for the past two years, that when Wisconsin union protesters showed up in large numbers for days, joined by all-American firefighters and police, that this spontaneous people-powered movement would get the same kind of play.
Turns out… only in our wildest dreams!
Not only were the protests barely covered, but the two-year anniversary of the Tea Party was covered at length by CNN. Of course, the Wisconsin protests were allotted a few subdued minutes of reportage here and there, wherein the so-called “liberal media” made sure to provide both sides of the argument, tilted favorably toward the anti-union message.
http://www.democratsforprogress.com/2011/02/28/breaking-cnn-proves-not-all-protest-movements-are-reported-equally/#more-2121
3M’s CEO says Obama is driving firms away
George Buckley said that President Obama’s “anti-business” attitudes could have manufacturers shifting production out of the U.S. to Canada or Mexico.
By SUSAN FEYDER, Star Tribune
Last update: March 1, 2011 – 6:15 AM
By SUSAN FEYDER1, Star Tribune
3M Co. CEO George Buckley said in an
interview with the Financial Times that
President Obama’s “anti-business” attitudes
could have manufacturers shifting
production out of the U.S. to Canada or
“We know what his instincts are — they are
Robin Hood-esque,” he told the newspaper.
Buckley said companies could shift
operations out of the U.S. as a result.
About two-thirds of the Maplewood giant’s
$26.7 billion in sales last year came from
outside the U.S. In its most recent annual
report, the company said it has 76
manufacturing operations in 28 states a
http://www.startribune.com/templates/fdcp?1299004531911
BWA HA HA
Drunk ass.
Tue Mar 1, 9:59 am ET
Republican cuts would cost 700,000 jobs: Report
A new report by a leading economic forecaster finds that budget cuts passed by the House of Representatives would cost 700,000 jobs over the next two years if enacted.
“The House Republicans’ proposal would reduce 2011 real GDP growth by 0.5% and 2012 growth by 0.2%,” according to the study, by Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi. “This would mean some 400,000 fewer jobs created by the end of 2011 and 700,000 fewer jobs by the end of 2012.”
Zandi is no left-wing ideologue. He was on the economic team for Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign, and has advised members of both political parties. His findings point in the same direction as those of an even more pessimistic Goldman Sachs report, leaked last week, which concluded that the proposed cuts would reduce second- and third-quarter growth in 2010 by 1.5 to 2 percentage points.
Although the economy has been growing of late, it’s not adding jobs fast enough to start significantly bringing down the unemployment rate, which stands at 9 percent. Writes Zandi: “Imposing additional government spending cuts before this has happened, as House Republicans want, would be taking an unnecessary chance with the recovery.”
America already faces a jobs crisis, having lost around 8 million jobs since the start of the recession in late 2007.
Zandi argues that the government does need to cut spending–but that it should wait to do so until unemployment has come down further. “Significant government spending restraint is vital,” he writes, “but given the economy’s halting recovery, it would be counterproductive for that restraint to begin until the U.S. is creating enough jobs to lower the unemployment rate.”
The House proposal cuts spending by around $60 billion from 2010 levels. The Senate and the Obama administration will weigh in before any cuts become law.
(A protest against proposed cuts outside a building that houses the local offices of House Speaker John Boehner, Feb. 24, 2011, in West Chester, Ohio.: Al Behrman/AP
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/republican-cuts-would-cost-700000-jobs-report;_ylt=AgxrBefcULiwicAE0HtODyJbbBAF;_ylu=X3oDMTRmdW9rdWgwBGFzc2V0A3libG9nX3RoZWxvb2tvdXQvMjAxMTAzMDEvcmVwdWJsaWNhbi1jdXRzLXdvdWxkLWNvc3QtNzAwMDAwLWpvYnMtcmVwb3J0BGNjb2RlA21wX2VjXzhfMTAEY3BvcwMzBHBvcwMzBHNlYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcmllcwRzbGsDcmVwb3J0cmVwdWJs
JOHN BOEHNER ON JOBS: “SO BE IT!”
Judge issues temporary restraining order opening Wisconsin state capital.
Have they unwelded the windows of the state capitol?
Christian Dior is firing designer John Galliano after his “I love Hitler” remark recorded on a video.
Frank Rich Leaving NY Times
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/01/frank-rich-to-new-york-ma_n_829588.html#comments
New York Times opinion columnist Frank Rich is leaving the newspaper after 31 years to join New York Magazine.
“Frank Rich is a giant—a powerhouse critic of politics and culture, a rigorous thinker, a glorious stylist, a skeptic and optimist at the same time. There is just no one like him in American journalism,” New York Magazine editor Adam Moss said in a statement. “He is also a friend. I have had the privilege to work with him for almost 25 years. Since the day I came to New York, I have hoped I could persuade him to join us here. I’m ecstatic that he will now be bringing his wisdom to our growing audience. This is a very big day for New York.”
According to the announcement, Rich will serve as an “essayist for the magazine, writing monthly on politics and culture, and serve as an editor-at-large, editing a special monthly section anchored by his essay” as well as a commentator on nymag.com.
Democrats call for an investigation of law firm, 3 tech companies
By Dan Eggen
Monday, February 28, 2011; 10:26 PM
A group of House Democrats is calling on Republican leaders to investigate a prominent Washington law firm and three federal technology contractors, who have been shown in hacked e-mails discussing a “disinformation campaign” against foes of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
In a letter to be released Tuesday, Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) and more than a dozen other lawmakers wrote that the e-mails appear “to reveal a conspiracy to use subversive techniques to target Chamber critics,” including “possible illegal actions against citizens engaged in free speech.”
The lawmakers say it is “deeply troubling” that “tactics developed for use against terrorists may have been unleashed against American citizens.”
The call for a congressional probe marks the latest development in the controversy over tens of thousands of e-mails stolen from HBGary Federal, whose computer system was attacked in early February by members of a loose collective of unidentified hackers known as Anonymous.
The e-mails, which are widely available on file-sharing sites, show HBGary Federal, Berico Technologies and Palantir Technologies teaming up with a sales pitch to undermine chamber opponents.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/28/AR2011022805810.html?wpisrc=nl_politics
Video Raises Questions for DesignerBy DOREEN CARVAJAL
PARIS — John Galliano, the chief designer for Christian Dior, faced fresh accusations on Monday of anti-Semitism after a video surfaced of Mr. Galliano appearing to deliver a tirade in a Paris bar.
Mr. Galliano, 50, arrived Monday at a police station in Paris to answer accusations by a French couple that he had verbally abused them last week at the bar, La Perle, in the Marais district of the city. He was suspended Friday from Dior after the episode was reported.
The video, posted on the Web site of the British tabloid The Sun, appears to show a separate incident at the same bar. In it, Mr. Galliano appears to taunt other patrons, declaring in a slurred voice that “people like you would be dead,” and that “your mothers, your forefathers” would all be “gassed.” He added, “I love Hitler.” It was unclear when the video was recorded.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/01/business/global/01galliano.html?ref=todayspaper
Majority in Poll Back Employees in Public Sector UnionsBy MICHAEL COOPER and MEGAN THEE-BRENAN
As labor battles erupt in state capitals around the nation, a majority of Americans say they oppose efforts to weaken the collective bargaining rights of public employee unions and are also against cutting the pay or benefits of public workers to reduce state budget deficits, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.
Labor unions are not exactly popular, though: A third of those surveyed viewed them favorably, a quarter viewed them unfavorably, and the rest said they were either undecided or had not heard enough about them. But the nationwide poll found that embattled public employee unions have the support of most Americans — and most independents — as they fight the efforts of newly elected Republican governors in Wisconsin and Ohio to weaken their bargaining powers, and the attempts of governors from both parties to cut their pay or benefits.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/01/us/01poll.html?_r=3&hp&om_rid=DRaeQf&om_mid=_BNbPFdB8ZZsWLy
Eugene Robinson
The GOP wants Obama out, but offers no good replacements
For all their bluster about making Barack Obama a one-term president, Republicans are assembling what looks like a remarkably weak field of candidates for the 2012 election – an odd assortment of the uninspiring and the unelectable.
In part, this reflects a healthy respect for Obama’s formidable political skills. If Obama is likely to win anyway, some contenders reason, why spend all the time and effort of a campaign just to end up delivering a concession speech? Why not wait until 2016, when prospects might look brighter?
Still, it’s not yet clear what the political and economic landscape will look like next year. The recovery could stall, unemployment could remain unacceptably high, and recent elections prove that the electorate is nothing if not volatile. You’d think that a Republican with credentials and star power could give Obama a run for his money.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/28/AR2011022805826.html?referrer=emailarticle
The GOP has nobody who can offer any FORWARD thinking ideas, NO FORWARD think VISION for America.
It’s more of the same, smaller government, social wedge issues-abortion, gay marriage, (WTF is this if it isn’t socialism, trying to dictate women’s choices and whom folks should love and marry), tax cuts for the RICH!
NO plans for jobs, economic growth, infrastructure, technology, science, math, the things that will advance our people and our country. In other words, NOTHING for anyone who is not already filithy RICH!
Right now, unless they have cloned a PBO-wannabee and groomed him as a RETHUG, PBO has 2012 on LOCKDOWN!
Rachel Maddow: WISCONSIN, YOU ARE WINNING!
3 Chics, Friends & Lurkers!
Myspace Good Morning Graphics
LOL Good Morning, SG2, Friends, & Lurkers! :-)
Ametia on Monday Open Thread | “Ti…
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How Randy Bachman Got Bachman-Turner Overdrive in Gear: Interview
David Chiu
Mercury Records
Bachman-Turner Overdrive's '70s-era success represented vindication for Randy Bachman, whose decision to leave the Guess Who had been widely questioned.
“I was totally driven,” Bachman tells Ultimate Classic Rock in an exclusive interview. “I was bent on proving to everyone that I could do it. I didn’t want to do it alone, but I had to do it alone."
They said he needed a manager in order to strike a label deal, so he drafted booking agent Bruce Allen. They said he needed a signature hit, so he wrote that, too. In fact, BTO scored a trio of Top 20 hits over the course of about a year beginning in early 1974 – including the chart-topping "You Ain't See Nothin' Yet." A fourth single, "Hey You," just missed the Top 20 in 1975.
"I had to get people like Bruce Allen to join me," Bachman says. "When [BTO] got inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, I pointed out Bruce in the audience. This guy and me did the impossible. They said we couldn’t get it done. We did it. There was a roadblock, we went around it; we crawled over it.”
Things began in a decidedly small-scale way, as Allen initially booked the fledgling BTO into the clubs of Vancouver. “I moved the whole band from Winnipeg and we’re living in a motor home under a bridge in Vancouver,” Bachman says. Meanwhile, the band demos Bachman had been working on prompted a phone call from Charlie Fach, an Illinois-based executive with Mercury Records.
As Bachman recalls, Fach told him, “‘I’m willing to sign you guys, come to Chicago, meet the head of the label, and bring your manager.’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ ‘Well, you got to have a manager.'" Allen, who now manages Bryan Adams and Michael Buble, would have to use a little deception.
“I went into Bruce Allen’s office,” Bachman adds, "and said, ‘Hey Bruce, I want you to come with me to Chicago and pretend to be my manager, and then I’ll get a record deal. He asked, ‘What does a manager do?’ I said, ‘The same thing you do, but a little bit louder. You’re yelling at everybody.’ And he said, ‘I can do that.’
"So, we put on our clothes, go to Irving Steinberg, who was the president of Polygram/Mercury Records in Chicago. Charlie Fach was there. We met with these guys and they said, ‘You got a deal.’ I said, ‘Bruce, congratulations. You are our manager.’ He went, ‘Wow.’”
Fach also redirected Bachman's attention back to a certain song he'd previously overlooked.
"'You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet' was omitted from the third BTO album [Not Fragile] until Charlie Fach heard it,” Bachman remembers. “He said, ‘That’s magic, put it on.’ I said, ‘There’s no room. We already have our eight songs.’ ‘Take the longest songs, put them on one side, and squeeze this song as the fifth song on the other side.’ I did, and it was the No. 1 record and sold millions of copies, So, you know never know what’s gonna be the hit and what’s gonna live on. You just chug along.”
Watch a DVD Bonus Clip From 'Bachman'
So they did. After the band's self-titled debut stalled out at a disappointing No. 70, Bachman-Turner Overdrive reeled off three consecutive gold-selling Billboard Top 10 albums.
The symbol of all this success, as underscored in the new John Barnard-directed documentary Bachman, was a dream house in Washington state that the guitarist was building for himself, his wife and their children. But there was the flip side, since being on the road took Bachman away for long periods of time. He'd earlier left the Guess Who because of lifestyle differences, and similar problems were also creeping into his new group.
“The worst thing about being in a band is doing what you love, which is music,” Bachman says. “Your office is not even in your hometown. Daddy goes to work; Daddy’s gone to work for a month. I had six kids at the time. [BTO bandmate] Fred Turner was the same as me, I think, with four [or] five kids. We’re older guys. My younger brother Robbie is playing drums, he’s 10 years younger than me. We get [second guitarist] Blair Thornton, who’s more of Robbie’s age. These guys want to get chicks and party on the road, and Fred and I want to do the gig, get the money and go home to our wives and kids.”
By the end of the ‘70s, Bachman again found himself without a band. Meanwhile, his marriage crumbled.
“The worst thing of all is when you quit your band, you are home all the time. Your wife never gets to say, ‘He’s gone. I can have things my way," Bachman notes.
"You’re expected as the man in the relationship to run the household. You’re bashing heads all the time with your wife. She’s used to picking the wallpaper and hiring the gardener. You go to try to do it, and it’s not the way she does it. And then you end up not liking each other. You end up building a dream house together, and suddenly the house is done and you go, ‘Well, that’s very nice, but I’m not Beaver Cleaver. I don’t like living in this house. This isn’t Happy Days.' By the time anyone is building the dream house, the family grows out of it. By then, your kids are off to college or they run away from you because they think you’re weird, and life is not a storybook."
As he had done in the past, Bachman gradually overcame those adversities and has continued to record and perform as a solo artist or in collaboration with others. BTO staged a series of reunions between 1983 and 2005. Bachman and Turner began co-leading their own band in 2009. He also hosts a radio show called Bachman’s Vinyl Tap that airs on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
More recently, Bachman jump-started his solo career. Still proud of the classic songs he made with the Guess Who and BTO, he's also a staunch advocate for moving forward. He says his past two projects – 2015’s Heavy Blues and last year’s George Harrison tribute By George by Bachman – should have garnered far more attention.
“Those albums break my heart,” Bachman explains. “I listen to them and I'm like, ‘Oh my God, those are moments of brilliance to me.’ People say to me the best albums are [the Guess Who’s] American Woman and [BTO’s] Not Fragile. They ask, ‘Is that it?’ And I say, ‘No, you’re missing the other two great albums of my life.’ This is some of my best work, but right now they’re treated as strikeouts because nobody has heard them."
Watch Randy Bachman Perform 'Heavy Blues'
Make no mistake: At age 75, Bachman is still trying different things. “We keep going from success to success but people don’t realize that in between are one, two, three or four monumental failures, because we’re bored with being ourselves. We try to do something new," he says. With Heavy Blues "I’ve would've been so damn happy to go on the road and play blues for three hours. I would have loved to have toured and did the By George thing for a whole year. Nobody got it. Those are the heartbreaks. You go and try something that for you is very uplifting and inspiring and really makes you work. I had to really work to rearrange the George Harrison songs so you wouldn’t recognize what it was until I start singing, then the lyrics are familiar. That was a really creative thing for me.”
Bachman blames those who are reluctant showcase newer material by veteran rock artists. “[Eric] Clapton put out a new album and got no airplay. I put out a new album and got no airplay. [On] Vinyl Tap, I play old vinyl, but I also play new vinyl by these guys who I’m telling stories about touring with the Beach Boys, or meeting Jimmy Page with the New Yardbirds and he told me he was starting a new band called Led Zeppelin. I wish classic rock radio would do a then-and-now format and say, ‘Here’s 'American Woman,' here’s Bachman now – he did an album of George Harrison songs. It would change our lives.”
In the meantime, Bachman says everyone should take stock. “I urge anybody, when Clapton is playing, or Jeff Beck, Jeff Lynne or Brian Wilson, go see these guys," he says. "These are the Tony Bennetts and Frank Sinatras of our generation from the ‘60s and ‘70s. People are so lucky that I’m still touring, I’m 75, [but] I feel like I’m 62. I look like I’m 62 because I haven’t drank or smoked or anything. I’ve always been taking care of myself. I’ve learned to control my weight problem.”
Now, Bachman is passing on the classic-rock torch directly to his grandchildren. He took them see the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody while spending the Thanksgiving holiday at his daughter’s home in Utah.
“I’ve known Brian May since 1977, but my grandkids did not like any classic rock," he recalls. "So, I said to the kids, ‘Okay, I’m going to take you to see something great.’ They didn’t know who Queen is; they like this rap stuff. Suddenly, after they saw [the film], they asked for Queen’s greatest hits on vinyl for Christmas. My daughter calls me and says. ‘Dad this is amazing. Can you get us tickets for ELO and Queen?' I’m so thrilled to take them backstage to meet Brian May and Jeff Lynne and say, ‘These guys are like me.’”
Performing is still in Bachman’s blood, as evidenced in the Bachman documentary, which arrives March 26 on iTunes, Google Play, Prime Video and DVD. He's the opening act for Lynyrd Skynyrd as their farewell tour makes its way through Canada. Bachman approaches these new challenges the same way he did when Bachman-Turner Overdrive was just starting out: He just keeps working.
“I’ve known Skynyrd since the ‘70s,” Bachman says. “For me, it’s like going to a high-school reunion. Last year, I [played] with ZZ Top, and ZZ Top was an opening act for BTO. [Peter] Frampton, the Doobie Brothers – I go see these guys all the time on the road and we hug like we’re long-lost friends. We’ve all lived the same life and we still get to live it. We’re still living our dream [after] our fathers said, 'Get a real job or a backup job. Get a plan B.' I’ve never had a plan B. I’ve stuck with plan A.”
See BTO Among the Top 200 '70s Rock Songs
Next: Inside Bachman-Turner Overdrive's Off-Handed Smash 'Not Fragile'
Source: How Randy Bachman Got Bachman-Turner Overdrive in Gear: Interview
Filed Under: Randy Bachman
Categories: Interviews, News
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Home 2017 Trademarked: Donald Trump makes money off the name ‘Central Park’
Trademarked: Donald Trump makes money off the name ‘Central Park’
Donald Trump is arguably New York City’s most famous resident, and he’s made some of his money off the name of one of the city’s most famous public landmarks: Central Park.
The leading Republican presidential candidate first applied for a trademark to use the words “Central Park” on merchandise more than two decades ago, when the park had a far less glamorous reputation than it does today. Since then, Trump has used the nonexclusive trademark to brand furniture, chandeliers, pillows and even key chains.
A Trump spokesman declined to say how much Trump has earned from the trademark, but noted the developer’s deep connections to the park. Trump once owned the Plaza Hotel along Central Park South, operates a skyscraper hotel overlooking the park and famously renovated the park’s once-downtrodden ice rink.
“Mr. Trump, over the course of his career, has owned and developed some of the most iconic buildings in the city, many of which … sit only footsteps away from Central Park,” said Alan Garten, executive vice president and general counsel to The Trump Organization.
Since it is a public space, no one can put an exclusive trademark on the words “Central Park.” But, as first reported by cable news channel NY1, records show that Trump is the single biggest private, for-profit holder of Central Park trademarks on specific goods.
It was undeniably a savvy move.
His first application came in 1991, when the city’s violent crime rate was near its height and the park often conjured up fears of urban danger. There were 2,154 murders in the city that year, as opposed to 328 last year, and 1991 was just two years removed from the Central Park jogger case in which a woman was attacked and raped while running through the park.
According to the records kept by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Trump first received permission to use Central Park for parking garage services, and later expanded the trademark as the park became synonymous with the high-priced real estate that surrounds it in a safer, more affluent New York.
A 2007 trademark allowed him to put the park’s name on dozens of Trump-branded furniture and lighting options. Beds, tables, desks, lamps, flashlights, picture frames and throw pillows all bore the names “Central Park” and “Donald Trump.” A glossy, 44-page furniture catalog boasted photos of the “elegant and rich” furnishings with stylized shots of the park and Trump.
Many of Trump’s Central Park products are not currently in production, but they can be found in some discount stores and gift shops.
The park isn’t the only New York-area landmark on which Trump has filed a trademark. He owns one for “Westchester,” the county north of the city, that was the namesake of a furniture line, and one for “Fifth Avenue,” to label items within his casino business.
Trademark experts say it’s difficult to precisely gauge how much a name is worth.
“The question would be, how much more likely is someone to buy something called ‘Central Park’ over the name of some other landmark?” said June Besek, a Columbia Law School professor with an expertise on intellectual property issues. “But if people have a positive association with ‘Central Park’ — or a positive association with simply ‘Trump’ — that would clearly be worth something.”
The park is jointly operated by the city and the private Central Park Conservancy. Neither has any ability to revoke a trademark from Trump or any other owner. The nonprofit conservancy sells items such as sweat shirts and snow globes, which, unlike Trump’s products, can carry the official park logo.
“Nobody has ownership of the words ‘Central Park.’ It is a public space, with a city-owned logo,” said Monica Klein, a spokeswoman for Mayor Bill de Blasio. “When individuals or companies attempt to infringe on city-owned trademarks, we take appropriate legal actions.”
The city owns the rights to more than 200 trademarks and stepped up its efforts to acquire new ones and protect existing ones, including the city’s police and fire departments, after demand for their merchandise grew dramatically after the Sept. 11 attacks.
When Trump launched his presidential campaign in June with a speech in which he said Mexican immigrants were “bringing drugs” and were “rapists,” the city reviewed millions of dollars’ worth of contracts it has with him, including for a golf course and skating rinks, but found no legal way to cancel them.
De Blasio, a Democrat, has said he wouldn’t do any new business with Trump.
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A rose by any other name would smell as sweet whats in a name - William Shakespeare
8.9/103 Votes Alchetron
Rate This7.6
85% Rotten Tomatoes
Written by Derek Kolstad
Box office 88.8 million USD
Budget 20 million USD
7.2/10 IMDb
68% Metacritic
Cinematography Jonathan Sela
Film series John Wick Film Series
Directed by Chad Stahelski David Leitch (uncredited)
Produced by Basil Iwanyk David Leitch Eva Longoria Michael Witherill James McTeigue
Starring Keanu Reeves Michael Nyqvist Alfie Allen Adrianne Palicki Bridget Moynahan Dean Winters Ian McShane John Leguizamo Willem Dafoe
Music by Tyler Bates Joel J. Richard
Initial release 13 October 2014 (New York City)
Directors Chad Stahelski, David Leitch
Cast Keanu Reeves, Bridget Moynahan, Ian McShane, John Leguizamo, Lance Reddick
Similar Gun fu movies, Keanu Reeves movies, Action movies
John wick 2014 official trailer keanu reeves
John Wick is a 2014 American neo-noir action thriller film directed by Chad Stahelski and David Leitch and starring Keanu Reeves, Michael Nyqvist, Alfie Allen, Adrianne Palicki, Bridget Moynahan, Dean Winters, Ian McShane, John Leguizamo and Willem Dafoe. The film stars Reeves as John Wick, a retired hitman seeking vengeance for the theft of his vintage car and the killing of his puppy, a gift from his recently deceased wife. Stahelski and Leitch directed the film together, though Leitch was uncredited.
John wick official trailer 1 2014 keanu reeves willem dafoe movie hd
Pre release screenings
Theatrical run
The film was written by Derek Kolstad, who completed the screenplay in 2012 and further developed it for Thunder Road Pictures. The film was produced by Basil Iwanyk of Thunder Road Pictures, Leitch, Eva Longoria, and Michael Witherill. It marks Stahelski and Leitch's directorial debut as a team after multiple separate credits as second unit directors and stunt coordinators. They previously worked with Reeves as stunt doubles on The Matrix trilogy.
Stahelski and Leitch's approach to action scenes drew upon their admiration for anime and martial arts films, and the film's use of fight choreographers and gun fu techniques from Hong Kong action cinema was additionally influential in the development of the film. The film also pays homage to works such as John Woo's The Killer, Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Cercle Rouge and Le Samouraï, John Boorman's Point Blank, and the spaghetti western subgenre of Western films. On its release, the film received positive reviews from critics, who praised the performances, visuals and action sequences, and grossed $88 million worldwide. A sequel, John Wick: Chapter 2, was released in February 2017.
After John Wick (Keanu Reeves) loses his wife Helen (Bridget Moynahan) to a terminal illness, he receives a puppy named Daisy, per Helen's instructions, to help him cope with her death. He connects with the puppy and they spend their day driving around in his vintage 1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1. At a gas station, he encounters a trio of Russian gangsters whose leader, Iosef Tarasov (Alfie Allen), insists on buying his car, but John refuses to sell it. The mobsters follow John to his home that night, knock him unconscious, steal his car, and kill Daisy.
Iosef takes the Mustang to a chop shop run by Aurelio (John Leguizamo) to have the VIN changed. Aurelio recognizes the car and, upon learning that Iosef stole it from John, punches him before throwing him out of his shop. John visits Aurelio, who tells him Iosef is the son of Viggo Tarasov (Michael Nyqvist), the head of the Russian crime syndicate in New York City. Viggo, informed by Aurelio of Iosef's actions, beats and berates Iosef, explaining to him that John Wick was his best assassin, nicknamed "the Boogeyman." When John wanted to retire and marry Helen, Viggo gave him an "impossible task": killing all of his competitors in a single night. John succeeded, establishing the Tarasov syndicate.
Viggo tries to talk John out of seeking retribution, but John silently refuses. Viggo then sends a twelve-man hit squad to John's house, but John kills them all and has the bodies professionally removed. An unsurprised Viggo places a $2 million bounty on John's head and personally offers the contract to Marcus (Willem Dafoe), John's mentor. John seeks refuge at the Continental Hotel, which caters exclusively to the criminal underworld and permits no "business" on its premises. Viggo doubles the bounty for those willing to break the rules to kill John at the Continental.
John learns from Winston (Ian McShane), the Continental's owner, that Viggo has Iosef protected at his nightclub, the Red Circle. John enters the Red Circle and kills his way to Iosef, but Iosef escapes. John retreats to the Continental to treat his wounds. Ms. Perkins (Adrianne Palicki), an assassin and former acquaintance of John's, sneaks into John's room to kill him, but Marcus warns John. John subdues Perkins after a brutal hand-to-hand fight and forces her to reveal the location of Viggo's front. John knocks Perkins unconscious and leaves her with fellow assassin Harry (Clarke Peters) to await punishment. However, Perkins frees herself and kills Harry.
John travels to the Little Russia church which serves as Viggo's front and destroys Viggo's cache of money and blackmail material. When Viggo and his team arrive, John ambushes them, but he is subsequently captured. Viggo taunts John for thinking he could leave his old life behind. Marcus intervenes, allowing John to free himself and accost Viggo. At gunpoint, John forces Viggo to reveal Iosef's location. John then travels to Iosef's "safe house" and kills him.
Perkins sees that John and Marcus have been in contact and tells Viggo, who has Marcus tortured and killed in his home. Viggo calls John to report the killing, planning to have Perkins ambush John. Perkins, however, is called to a meeting with Winston, who has her executed for breaking the Continental's rules.
Winston calls John to inform him that Viggo is planning to escape by helicopter, and John races to the harbor, killing Viggo's remaining henchmen before engaging Viggo in a fistfight on the dock. Viggo pulls a knife and John allows himself to be stabbed, stunning Viggo. John then disarms and fatally wounds Viggo. Wounded himself, John stops at a waterfront animal clinic to treat his wound and takes with him a pitbull puppy which was scheduled to be euthanized. John and the dog walk home on the boardwalk where he had his last date with Helen.
Keanu Reeves as John Wick
An ex-hitman who returns to the criminal underworld following the death of his wife and a run in with a Russian Crime Syndicate. On accepting the role of Wick, Reeves explained, "Basil and Peter Lawson of Thunder Road brought the script to me with the idea that I would be a part of such a great collaboration. We all agreed on the potential of the project. I love the role, but you want the whole story, the whole ensemble to come to life." On the character of John Wick, Reeves stated, "When we first see him, he’s a guy grieving for his lost wife. But it turns out he has lived lives in two worlds: one in which he’s a happily married man and one in which he’s an assassin. He has tried to bury his past, but without his wife, he is lost." Reeves also compared Wick's story to "[…] a kind of Old Testament revenge story" adding that, "When someone takes the things he cherishes, violence erupts and John can’t temper it." In the original script, the character of John Wick was written with "a man in his mid-sixties" to play the role, given the title character’s fabled reputation, ergo, the filmmakers had initially imagined an older actor. However, head of Thunder Road Pictures Basil Iwanyk decided against this, stating, "Instead, we decided to look for someone who is not literally older, but who has a seasoned history in the film world." Both Stahelski and Leitch were adamant that Reeves wouldn't learn any martial arts which he'd learnt before; for the role, Reeves spent four months learning Judo, jujutsu, and Brazilian jiu-jitsu from "some of the toughest guys" both Stahelski and Leitch have encountered, which included their "LA SWAT and Navy SEAL friends". Stahelski spoke of developing a new style of close-quarter combat for Reeves to utilise practical grappling martial art forms combined with guns. The name John Wick is a name Kolstad had used as a reference to his grandfather, the founder of Wick Building Systems. Wick stated, "I was tickled by Derek using my name for a movie, and the hit man character was frosting on the cake." The character was written with Paul Newman in mind. Reeves was paid a reported $1–2 million salary for his role.
Michael Nyqvist as Viggo Tarasov
The head of the Tarasov family and an enterprising businessman with questionable roots. On taking the role of Viggo, Nyqvist mentioned, "I found the relationship between John and Viggo to be interesting. Viggo has always liked John because he was brilliant at his job. They have the kind of love and respect you might see between a father and son, but it breaks down when John comes for Iosef." Stahelski stated that the role of Viggo had been decided after a great many meetings due to the importance and complexity of the character, and that Nyqvist brought both odd and interesting qualities to the character, also adding that "[Nyqvist's] quirkiness is a good match for Keanu’s stoicism." The filmmakers were most determined to attempt bypassing the stereotypical Russian mobster characterization. Iwanyk stated that Viggo needed to be played by someone who would be "believable as this ultra-bad guy, but was still very, very charming." adding that, "[Nyqvist] brought the character a kind of humanity." For the role of Viggo, Nyqvist was given a style of fighting based on the Russian martial art of Sambo to which he started training in Stockholm, Sweden at the request of Stahelski and Leitch, as he stated, "I did this Russian style of jiu-jitsu called Sambo a lot. I did Brazilian jiu-jitsu and boxing a lot. […] to get closer to the character. […] the guys I worked with, back home in Stockholm, were Russians, so [I] got closer to them. It was a little bit like [method acting]." Of Viggo's background, Kolstad revealed, "A street brawler raised in the slums of Kiev, Viggo has worked his way up the underworld food chain. Now, he is in the process of transitioning to respectability." Director Stahelski stated of Nyqvist, "[Michael], he is not your stereotypical Russian bad guy. He is a quirky guy, how he gives his reads." David Leitch stated, "We had great performances and input from Michael Nyqvist who played it straight and he was excellent. He was a quirky villain. And we took time with the script and found those humorous moments and made sure we paced them correctly with the ultra-violence."
Alfie Allen as Iosef Tarasov
The arrogant, entitled and foolish son of Viggo Tarasov. Allen found it "invigorating" to play a Russian villain and shoot outside of Game of Thrones's Belfast set, and on accepting the role of Iosef, he was attracted by the idea of speaking with a different accent, i.e. the New York accent, as well as citing both Stahelski and Leitch's involvement as an incentive for drawing him to the piece. While in New York City, Allen visited Russian public baths to develop and hone the Russian accent which he developed for the film. And speaking in terms of inspiration drawn on for Iosef, Allen stated, "I guess, I found the relationship between [my character] and his father, and there was a back story about the mother that I found quite interesting." He also added that he faced challenges involving learning the Russian language, remarking: "learning the Russian was pretty tough". On the character of Iosef, Kolstad described him as, "a dinner-theater version of his father. Iosef is a rich kid who imagines himself a tough guy; but without his father’s muscle, he’s a punk. In his mind, he has the scars of battle. But the reality is he's one spoiled kid." Kolstad also spoke of Allen's admiration for his to-be colleagues, which charmed the writer, stating as follows, "When we had the first cast-and-crew dinner, I was talking with Alfie and suddenly he just froze. He just said, 'Oh my God! It's Willem Dafoe.' He's a great actor, but he's also a fan like everybody else." Allen spoke of his fellow actor Reeves with both respect and praise, stating, "He's amazing. He's such a great guy. He's a very giving, generous actor as well and just kind of relaxes you on set. If you're nervous, he just kind of chills you out. You know I didn't know that he was a director before I started this. He's made a documentary about encouraging people to make films. I think that's fantastic." Asked on what he hopes the audience take away from the film, Allen said, "It's kind of a crazy love story in there somewhere. It’s not like any other love story I've seen. I think the theme […], is that, all men can change. And who is the bad guy in it, really?"
Adrianne Palicki as Ms. Perkins
A distinguished female contract killer in the world of assassins, and a former acquaintance of John. About the character of Ms. Perkins, Palicki said, "Ms. Perkins is what you think the quintessential assassin would be. She’s cold, heartless, conniving, badass and I think that she has fun with what she does. She enjoys it. I think that she’d clearly do it for a dollar. Ultimately in the film she’s doing it for four million, so it's a little different." Originally the character of Perkins was envisioned as a man, but the decision was reversed during a brainstorming session and the desire to create "an authentic female action character." Leitch stated, "You believe this woman could come in and give John Wick a run for his money," so Stahelski, Leitch and Iwanyk changed it and offered the role to Palicki. Palicki spoke most highly of working with Reeves and the inclusion of stunt work on her part, to which she stated, "Chad wanted to make sure I would be willing to do my own stuff in the huge fight sequence that I have with Keanu—and I was all game." Palicki spent months of training learning Judo and Jujutsu. After the film's release Palicki revealed background information, "I also think we talked about a backstory. It's likely [Ms. Perkins and Wick] had a history as well, before his marriage. She may have a personal vendetta as well as the money. I think there's an enjoyment on multiple levels." On what she hopes for with regard to the fan response, "It's a lot of fun. They're going to want to see what happens next. Most importantly, I hope they’re rooting for John Wick the way that I did when I read the script."
Bridget Moynahan as Helen Wick
The beautiful wife of John Wick. On the character of Helen, Leitch stated, "Helen’s the crux of the movie, so to have an actress like Bridget come on board in such an important role was gratifying. She’s got an elegance that is captivating." Leitch spoke very highly of Bridget's acting talents. When cast in the role of John's wife, she decided not to read the screenplay, believing that the limited amount of information would serve the story well. Moynahan stated, "There was a large portion of the story that I didn’t want to be informed about. I didn’t want or need to know that side of John. Helen brought love and light and joy into his life. Knowing the other side of it would make it a different story for me." Iwanyk shared Moynahan's sentiments, adding, "Helen probably thought John had some skeletons in his closet, but it wasn't important. All we know as an audience is that the moment he met her, he became a different person. Love changed him."
Dean Winters as Avi
Viggo's right hand, the second in command, who has been Viggo's lawyer for many years. On the role of Avi, Stahelski stated, "As the part was written, he was just Viggo’s lawyer. But then Dean came in and made it funny and edgy. The scenes between him and Michael Nyqvist are some of my favorites." Winters spoke most highly of his colleagues on set, stating, "I got to work with Willem Dafoe and Keanu Reeves. We’ve got John Leguizamo, Michael Nyqvist and Bridget Moynahan. I mean, it's a really good cast and I got a front-row seat." Additionally Winters praised Stahelski and Leitch's usage of practical sets of reality to action sequences sans the involvement of green screen and special effects, adding, "Their stunt and action experience paid off." Winters also stated, "It was like a front row seat to watching just incredible, incredible filmmaking," adding, "This was just straight up in your face, not computerized, old-school stunts. I really felt like I was in the front row of like a master class."
Ian McShane as Winston
The enigmatic owner of the Continental Hotel. About the character of Winston, McShane said, "Winston is mysterious and enigmatic." He took the role due to his curiosity on the possibilities of the character, as well as his fondness for modern noir films. Writer Kolstad stated, "[Winston] doesn’t say a lot, but when he does, the earth moves. If John and Viggo are the gods of New York, Winston is the titan." On the film itself, McShane added, "The writing, the acting and the visuals all have a mythical quality. And every character has an important part to play in a puzzle that comes together gradually."
John Leguizamo as Aurelio
The proud business owner of Aurelio's Garage, a high-end chop shop. About the character Aurelio, Leguizamo stated, "When a Russian mobster’s son shows up with John Wick’s car, I know there's going to be trouble. I'm going to have a problem either with the Russian mobster or with John Wick, but I’m not going to win either way." Leguizamo believed that the costume design of the character created a big boost, and had a great impression on the actor, with him stating, "Mine is pretty slick, and that adds a lot of character. I’m walking through the set and all of a sudden I start feeling a little cocky, like I’m somebody. It all helps."
Willem Dafoe as Marcus
A member of the old guard of assassins who is battle hardened, reliable and amongst the elite. About the character of Marcus, Dafoe said, "Marcus is an assassin on a very high level. It's clear that he and [John] have a history and he's something of a mentor to him. They’re friends, but it's a friendship that was made in a very dark world." Of Marcus's psychology he also added that, "He seems pragmatic; he seems fatalistic, which you would have to be in that line of work. " Writer Kolstad stated, "Marcus is a father figure. But he’s a father in the sense that he’s the king of the pride. When a new lion takes over a pride, he slaughters all the cubs. Marcus is that guy." On taking the role, Dafoe was very impressed with the "leanness" of Kolstad's original screenplay, to which he stated, "The story is expressed mostly in action. That seemed to work well with Chad and David’s history." He also praised the "enthusiasm, freshness and eagerness" displayed by both Stahelski and Leitch within the filmmaking process. Dafoe too added that the screenplay and overall project caters to his "particularity that makes them feel special" and the character-driven nature within the setting of New York City wasn't "something that I have really experienced" and additionally the chance of working with Reeves. On the style of directors Stahelski and Leitch, Dafoe stated that their "style is reminiscent of John Woo's signature gun fu combat. The action is a real nice mix of martial arts and gunplay – you have the grace of martial arts, but then the bang of the gun." as well adding, "The choreography isn't the same old, same old, or built around set pieces or a gag. It's really integrated into the story. [Stahelski and Leitch], they aren't just stunt people, they're filmmakers."
The cast also includes David Patrick Kelly as a "cleaner" named Charlie, Randall Duk Kim as a doctor with a select clientele, Lance Reddick as Charon, a concierge at The Continental Hotel who always seems to know what the client needs, Munro M. Bonnell as a Russian Orthodox priest who protects the vault where Viggo stores his valuables, Andy as Daisy, Omer Barnea as Gregori and Toby Leonard Moore as Victor, Iosef's friends and bodyguards, Daniel Bernhardt as Kirill, Viggo's henchman; Bridget Regan as Addy, Keith Jardine as Kuzma, Tait Fletcher as Nicholai, Thomas Sadoski as Jimmy, Clarke Peters as Harry, Kevin Nash as a bouncer named Francis at the Red Circle nightclub, Gameela Wright as a delivery woman, Vladislav Koulikov as Pavel, Pat Squire as an elderly woman, Vladimir Troitsky as a team leader, and Scott Tixier (uncredited) as a violinist.
The premise for John Wick was conceived by screenwriter Derek Kolstad who began work on a treatment about a retired contract killer coming out to seek vengeance, entitled Scorn. After one month of work, he had completed the first draft of the screenplay and once he had addressed several issues he pitched the script to various clients, garnering at least three offers. When he first started thinking about writing the script, Kolstad was influenced by film-noir classics and the themes of revenge and the antihero and the occurrences of what may play out if "The worst man in existence found salvation […] When the source of his salvation is ripped from him […] Do the gates of Hades open?" For Kolstad, both Alistair MacLean and Stephen King were influences in the creating of the story of John Wick in terms of characterisation and world-building, stating, "[…] MacLean could build a world, and King could surprise you by what the main character truly was capable of."
On December 3, 2012, it was announced that Thunder Road Pictures had bought the script with discretionary funds, with Kolstad agreeing due to Thunder Road's plan to make the film straight away. When Basil Iwanyk head of Thunder Road Pictures had first read Kolstad's original screenplay, he was immediately drawn to the main character of Wick, stating, "The tone of the script was subversive and really fun." He also admired the emotional weight and action theme of the piece. After Thunder Road had optioned the script, Kolstad spent additional months refurbishing the script with them. In the original script, the character of John Wick was written with "a man in his mid-sixties" to play the role, given the title character’s fabled reputation as a revered and respected assassin. However, Iwanyk was of the belief that this was irrelevant and bent the original vision ever so slightly, stating, "Instead, we decided to look for someone who is not literally older, but who has a seasoned history in the film world."
On May 7, 2013, it was announced that Keanu Reeves began negotiations to star in the piece in April, and was later confirmed as the film's male lead, after Iwanyk and Peter Lawson of Thunder Road showed him the script, to which he thought to be full of potential and further stated, "I love the role, but you want the whole story, the whole ensemble to come to life." Reeves and Kolstad had worked closely together on further developing the screenplay and the story, with the screenwriter stating, "We spent as much time developing the other characters as we did his. [Keanu] recognizes that the strength of the storyline lies in even the smallest details." The title of the film was later changed from Scorn to John Wick, as according to Kolstad, "Keanu liked the name so much, that Reeves kept telling everyone that he was making a film called 'John Wick'", and the producers agreed, changing the title.
During story discussions for John Wick, Reeves contacted Chad Stahelski and David Leitch, who he originally met on the set of The Matrix, to see if they were interested in choreographing or directing the action of the piece. Reeves admired Stahelski and Leitch's work performing, choreographing and coordinating, stating that, "When I got the script... I immediately thought of Chad and Dave for the action design, but I was secretly hoping they'd want to direct it." he then added, "I knew that they would love the genre and I knew that they would love John Wick. And I thought the worlds that get created – the real world and then this underworld – would be attractive to them, and it was." After reading Kolstad's script, Stahelski and Leitch, told Reeves they wanted to tell the story of John Wick, as they both had a desire to get involved with a project as directors. Impressed with Reeves' enthusiasm and the quality of the script, Stahelski and Leitch, told him that they wished to direct the film and later presented him with their version of the story which was based on "[…] the idea of [Wick] as an urban legend, a thriller assassin movie with a realistic vibe and an otherworldly setting." Impressed with their concept, Reeves supported the pair, and Stahelski and Leitch pitched the idea to the studio, who hired them to direct, contrary to their initial request of directing the film's second unit. On 7 May 2013, it was announced that Stahelski and Leitch were to direct the film together as a team, though it was later ruled by the Directors Guild of America that only Stahelski would be given the director credit. Leitch was credited as a producer.
Stahelski acknowledged the challenges in balancing the action with that of both the pace and tone, stating "we're good at doing that for a particular scene when doing action, but here, we had to take a through-line for the entire film." He acknowledged also that action itself should be a collaborative entity with the story, as opposed to being a thing of its own: "If you're clever with the story and clever with the action, they can fuse together." "We don’t see any real separation that the story stops, and then we just wow you with action. If it all fits and weaves together and helps you love the character, that's what we want to do. … Demand more out of your action, as an audience."
It was remarked by Kolstad, once Reeves, Stahelski and Leitch were officially on board, that during the period of January 2013 to September 2013, he was still working on the final drafts of the screenplay and the modifying of it, to which he described in the general sense a rather "relentless process" further stating, "[…] it needs to be in order to get everyone’s vision in check."
On September 12, 2013, Willem Dafoe was confirmed to have been cast in the role of Marcus "[…] a close friend of Wick. He was the one who encouraged Wick to leave the life after his wife dies." On 19 September 2013, Michael Nyqvist, Alfie Allen, Adrianne Palicki and Dean Winters were later confirmed to be a part of the film's supporting cast. On 14 October 2013, Bridget Moynahan had joined the cast of Stahelski and Leitch's film in the role of John Wick's wife who, "the beagle puppy, Daisy, was a posthumous gift to John from." On 15 October 2013, Jason Isaacs had joined the cast, portraying David. On 27 November 2013, Daniel Bernhardt was confirmed to have joined the cast of Stahelski and Leitch's John Wick, playing Kirill, "a formal Russian military commander who is Viggo's henchman." Stahelski and Leitch are hoping for more opportunities behind the camera, with Stahelski himself stating, "Our focus has always been to be filmmakers first and department heads second" and "Now we're following our passion and our dream".
Principal photography was confirmed to have begun in New York City, with an expected late 2014 release, with an original shooting schedule meant to have occurred from 25 September to 5 December. On 14 October 2013, shooting began in Mill Neck, New York, with the filming process scheduled to continue in and around New York City and greater New York area.
On August 26, 2013, Lionsgate announced that they were looking for "a high-end glass house with a water view" that was located in Nassau County, additionally with a scene or two being shot in Long Island. On October 6, 2013, filming occurred next door to the Flatiron School, on 11 Broadway. Filming moved to Brooklyn on October 24, with filming occurring on 6th Avenue between Union and Carroll Street, President Street between 6th and 7th Avenues and Carroll Street between 6th and 7th Avenues. Additionally filming later occurred at the St. Francis Xavier Church on 6th Avenue. On October 28, 2013, a scene was shot CITGO gas station, 501 N. Highland Ave in Upper Nyack, whilst also shooting footage at Route 9W and Christian Herald Road.
On November 1, 2013, filming took place in lower Manhattan at 1 Wall Street Court, was used for the exterior of The Continental hotel. On November 12, 2013, some scenes were shot on 25 Broadway, and in downtown Manhattan on Beaver Street by Broad Street. Filming also took place at W 43rd Street and 8th Avenue, on November 13, in Manhattan, and club scenes for John Wick have been filmed on W 27 Street, with November 15 being the last night schedule at the location. On November 21, 2013, it was announced that a bath house scene was scheduled to be filmed on November 24, December 4 and December 5. Other shooting locations included Tribeca, on November 20, which a chase scene was filmed on Church Street. It was also reported, on November 27, that filming had been set up on E 83rd and 3rd Street on the Upper East Side.
On December 2, 2013, a three-week Upper East Side shoot was scheduled until December 22, with Keanu Reeves and Willem Dafoe filming several scenes. Filming continued to shoot in Tribeca from December 3 to December 5, with the notification placed on Church and Franklin. After the Tribeca shoot, the crew moved to Long Island on December 6 to film a funeral scene, and the shoot will be exterior. Additional filming was reported on December 13 for Chambers Street, Worth Street and Lafayette Street. On December 19, Reeves was filming in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn.
Principal photography was confirmed to have ended on December 20, 2013, with post-production beginning on January 10, 2014.
According to directors commentary, their first cut of the movie was 2 hours and 20 minutes long. They didn't reveal much about approximately 39 minutes of footage that was cut out of the movie but they did mentioned that ending fight between John and Viggo was longer but was cut down after they both acknowledged that Viggo shouldn’t really pose a big physical threat to Wick. Also, David Leitch said how "There’s a ton of great shots on the cutting room floor that’s just Keanu walking in cool environments."
The film was shot digitally with Arri Alexa XT in a distributed aspect ratio of 2.39:1. Cinematographer Jonathan Sela himself chose to work with Arri Alexa XT cameras due to discussions regarding the look of the film John Wick, thus he pushed for a mix of ARRICAM and ALEXA which allowed, in turn, the blend of film and digital. "Everybody loved the idea but when you run the numbers of having two packages and also the cost of film, it gets too expensive, so we decided to work entirely with the ALEXA. It's the camera I've used on commercials so I knew I was comfortable with the ALEXA and I knew I liked it." Sela spoke of the idea that Stahelski, Leitch and himself wished to achieve a visual contrast between John Wick's normal life and the other of which he's drawn back into the underworld of assassins. "We wanted the first look to be soft and clean, and the second to be grittier, darker and sharper. For cost reasons we were shooting with just the one camera format, so I used different lenses and contrasting camerawork to create these two distinct looks." He describes the first section of the film as being far more static by stating that, "the camera never stops moving". For John Wick he had decided on using both anamorphic and spherical lenses, to which he combined a set of Hawk V-Lite Vintage '74 anamorphics with that of Cooke S4 sphericals. The initial plan was to use the anamorphic and spherical lenses in the first and second parts, respectively, to create the visual contrast, however, he decided against such a course of action, as he stated, "[…] once we were shooting we felt that the camerawork was enough to separate those two worlds and we ended up using the anamorphics mainly for day work and the sphericals for night work." Sela praised Hawk's Vintage '74 as "beautiful", however, highlighting that they flare considerably which would have become overbearing during night-time shooting. Equally, Sela added, "In daylight they gave us a hazy look and reduced the contrast, which helped make the day scenes seem much more cinematic to me."
According to Sela, on-board ARRIRAW recording with the ALEXA XT cameras made a considerable difference with camerawork, stating, "Having the ALEXA XT with in-camera ARRIRAW is like going to back to an ARRICAM or an ARRIFLEX 435, which is amazing." There was a considerable amount of handheld camera work on the second section of John Wick and usage of the ALEXA M allowed filming "to squeeze through the window or into restricted spaces" to occur, especially for the car scenes. Sela was recording ARRIRAW and used the whole sensor area of ALEXA's 4:3 for the anamorphic scenes, which allowed for the maximisation of the image quality for a 4K cinema release. Of such a decision the following was stated, "Shooting in ARRIRAW and having that extra sensor area helps most when you need to manipulate the image; you'll notice it when you have to adjust the color or contrast in a scene because you simply have more information to work with."
Costume designer Luca Mosca explained that Wick had to possess a piece of attire that had to be worn throughout almost the entire production of the film, to which he then added, "Then we had to tailor it perfectly and make it sleek and timeless enough to fit into this perfect world." Due to the nature of the world Stahelski and Leitch created, Luca had to create a statement for every character based on their costume. Reeves remarked praise for the costume designer, to which he highlighted Luca's ability to give the pieces of clothing meaning, if only subtle; "All the different shades of black that Luca used gave it a lot of overtones. It's funeral and it's priestly. It's also very chic, but it doesn't call attention to itself. When I put on the suit, it definitely affects me." Initially the idea was to place the villains of the piece in combat gear, but later they decided against that due to the principle that they have to be placed in suits, with Leitch quoting Luca, "It is about men in suits."
John Wick features not two worlds, but instead "two of everything", states production designer Dan Leigh on the contrast of the worlds, speaking in jest. Leigh too added, "I approached the story as more of a fable, which ties into the graphic-novel idea. The visual manifestation of that is something that transcends reality. The light is a little bit different. There’s texture in the air. There are unexpected objects everywhere."
James Bolt and Martyn Zub were the re-recording mixers. Mark Stoeckinger was the supervising sound editor.
Production sound mixer Danny Michael had used Sound Devices' 788T-SSD Digital Recorder and CL-WiFi as sound devices, additionally with a Lectrosonics VRT-Venue System, Lectrosonics radio mics, Schoeps CMC-6U and CMIT-5U microphones, a Cooper Sound 208 mixer, Blackmagic dual seven-inch monitors and a Denecke Dcode GR-1 as the main time clock for John Wick. Due to John Wick being an action-oriented piece, it required a lot of sound effects, as well as "file-based workflow".
For Michael, the 788T-SSD's ability to swap out removable storage was an advantage, due to himself simply supplying his CompactFlash to the post-production company Light Iron, in order for them to process the raw unedited footage on the set. Michael stated, "I was basically handing over my sound every time a camera roll changed, to a person who was literally five feet away from me" adding that, "They then took my material and synced it with what was coming off the cameras, on the spot. We would rotate CF cards throughout the course of the day."
Jake Braver was the overall Visual Effects Supervisor and visual effects company Spin VFX worked on most of the visual effects on John Wick.
The musical score to John Wick was composed by Tyler Bates and Joel J. Richard, with on-screen violin music performed by Scott Tixier. The film also features a few pieces of additional music such as Marilyn Manson's "Killing Strangers" and T-Bo and Bengie B's "Get Money". The original soundtrack album, John Wick: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, was released digitally on October 21 and received a physical format release on October 27 by Varese Sarabande Records. In addition to Bates and Richard's score, the album features music by artists such as Ciscandra Nostalghia, The Candy Shop Boys, and M86 & Susie Q. Le Castle Vania also provided additional music for the score.
Director Chad Stahelski said influences on John Wick included; The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), Point Blank (1967), Le Cercle Rouge (1970), and The Killer (1989).
Stahelski said about The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, "Look at Clint Eastwood in [the film] – there is so much back-story unsaid there. We're big fans of leaving it to your imagination. We just give you some gold coins, and then it's, "Where do the gold coins come from?" We'll get to that. Have your imagination do some work there." He also said Point Blank (1967) influenced John Wick: "One of the biggest inspirations for the film was Point Blank. We watched it on a loop in our office and there are a couple homages to that [in John Wick]." Park Chan-wook's The Vengeance Trilogy (2002–2005) and Lee Jeong-beom's The Man from Nowhere (2010) influenced the film due to "[their] minimalist composition and graphic nature."
For screenwriter Derek Kolstad, both Alistair MacLean and Stephen King were huge influences in the creation of the story of John Wick in terms of characterisation and world-building, stating, with himself stating, "MacLean could build a world, and King could surprise you by what the main character truly was capable of." Outside of films, Stahelski and Leitch drew inspiration from the visual stylings of the '60s and '70s as well as cinematic influences, including Sergio Leone, Akira Kurosawa, Steve McQueen, Lee Marvin, William Friedkin and Sam Peckinpah. With Stahelski himself stating, "All the way back to Kurosawa up to Sergio Leone. We like the spaghetti western sensibility there, some of the composition." Albeit inspiration and emulation from the noir film genre, Stahelski too added that, "Noir maybe was sort of less impactful for us than the other sort of westerns and Kurosawa and things like that. I think we wanted to make this hard-boiled character."
The official website for John Wick debuted on August 15, 2014 introducing a marketing campaign and interactive layout to promote the film. The website streamed an audio file as well as containing interactive games such as "The Red Club Club" and "Revenge Ride". Lionsgate also provided information on the cast and crew as well as a gallery and video section. The first images debuted on August 21, 2014 featuring Reeves' as Wick. With the release Liongate confirmed the film being set for a "sudden release" on October 24, 2014. On September 10, 2014, the teaser poster was released as well as the confirmation date of the expected teaser trailer. The teaser trailer for John Wick debuted September 12, 2014. The theatrical release poster and the final theatrical trailer were both released on September 30, 2014, by both Stahelski and Leitch on an 'Ask me anything' Reddit session.
Lionsgate had provided Collider.com and Moviepilot, on October 2, 2014, with a prize pack to give away to various readers, which included Assassin's Creed Unity, a Fandango gift card for $25, a Lionsgate DVD 3-pack with Dredd, Gamer, and Rambo, and a John Wick poster and T-shirt. On October 6, 2014, the official website for John Wick had been updated to include three trailers, photographs with John's story as well as individual cast photos and mini-biographies. The IMAX TV spot trailer for John Wick debuted October 6, 2014, featuring new footage of the film. Carl F. Bucherer was the official partner of the John Wick premiere in New York City on October 13, 2014. Keanu Reeves sported a Manero AutoDate with a light dial, Willem Dafoe wore a Manero AutoDate in classic black, and Daniel Bernhardt with a Patravi ChronoGrade. An IMAX Featurette was released on October 22, 2014 featuring clips relating to the film, accompanied by statements by Reeves, Stahelski, and Leitch.
On October 16, 2014, John Wick was featured on the week’s issue of Entertainment Weekly.
As part of a cross-promotion deal with Overkill Software, Lionsgate and Thunder Road Pictures, on October 21, 2014, John Wick was added as a playable character in the online game Payday 2, and other elements from the film, including Wick's signature weapons, and skill tree that allowed for dual-wielding of certain firearms. Additionally, Fandango offered people who purchase tickets online at select theaters a free download of Payday 2 through Steam. Variety described Liongate's deal as a "pretty imaginative marketing move". Danielle DePalma, Lionsgate's EVP of Digital Marketing, stated, "We're big fans of Payday 2 and the team at Starbreeze, and we're thrilled to kick off our partnership with such a cool movie" and Bo Andersson Klint, Starbreeze CEO, stated, "We've finally got a real hitman on our team. Being able to play as John Wick in Payday 2 ahead of the movie's release is a great reward for our loyal Payday 2 community."
John Wick premiered at the Regal Union Square Theatre, Stadium 14 on October 13, 2014 in New York City, after screening at the Austin Fantastic Fest on September 19, where it opened the official sidebar section, Special Gala Screening, to an astounding reception, and the ArcLight Hollywood in Los Angeles on October 22, 2014. John Wick will have its television premiere on USA (Channel) on March 12th, 2017.
Pre-release screenings
Prior to John Wick's public release, an advance screening of the film was shown on October 9, 2014 at Regal Oakwood in Hollywood, Florida. A screening was shown in advance at the UA Court Street in Brooklyn, New York on October 14. Glendale Designs sponsored a private screening on October 16, 2014 at Harkins Arrowhead in Peoria, Arizona. BackstageOL and Lionsgate hosted an advance screening on October 21, 2014 at Edwards Greenway Grand Palace Stadium in Houston, Texas and at the Santikos Embassy 14 in San Antonio, Texas. Additionally, Lionsgate had announced 40 additional advanced screening's at selected theatres in the United States from October 21 to October 22., as part of a national campaign to promote John Wick. Entertainment One Films held advance screenings in Toronto, Ottawa, Halifax, Calgary, Edmonton, Victoria and Vancouver between October 20 and October 23.
John Wick began a wide theatrical release in the United States on October 24, 2014, expanding in successive weeks to France, Australia and Netherlands, ahead of a bow in the United Kingdom on February 2, 2015 after expanding throughout Europe.
On May 22, 2013, Liongate had sold more than $250 million in territorial rights to nine titles at the Cannes Film Festival, including John Wick. Studio Canal will distribute the piece throughout Germany, Metropolitan Filmexport acquired the French distribution rights to John Wick from Lionsgate, Acme Film acquired the distribution rights throughout the Baltic region, Monolith Films acquired the film rights in Poland, Imagem had acquired the Latin American distribution rights, Orange Sky Golden Harvest obtained the film rights in Taiwan and Hong Kong, and Media Pro acquired the rights in the regions of Czech, Romania, Hungary, and Bulgaria. Entertainment One Films picked up the Canadian distribution rights. On 10 June 2014, Belga Films had acquired the rights to distribute the film within the Benelux region. On 2 July 2014, MK2 Pictures were confirmed to have acquired the Italian distribution rights to John Wick. On 8 May 2014, the Huayi Brothers picked up the Chinese distribution rights to John Wick, being one of only four films in the United States that were picked up, with a planned 2015 limited theatrical release. On 11 August 2014, Lions Gate Entertainment acquired from Thunder Road Pictures the distribution rights to John Wick in the United States, with a planned 2014 limited theatrical release, and in October, Summit Entertainment, a Lionsgate company, distributed the film in the United States On 31 October 2014, it was announced that Warner Bros. Pictures would be distributing the film within the United Kingdom. It was later announced that the release date in the United Kingdom was moved back from the first weekend of 2015 to 10 April 2015.
On October 2, 2014, Summit Entertainment announced that John Wick would be released in IMAX. Phil Groves, Senior Vice President of IMAX Corp and Executive Vice President of Global Distribution, IMAX Entertainment, stated, "John Wick is a fun action romp, complete with a tremendously entertaining performance by Keanu Reeves that is perfect for IMAX fans." further adding, "There's no better place for audiences to experience the film's stylized storytelling than in IMAX theatres."
John Wick earned $14.4 million from 2,589 locations on its opening weekend, compared to the $7–8 million opening most analysts projected the film would make. By the end of its theatrical run, John Wick grossed $45.7 million in North America and $43 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $88.8 million, against a production budget of $20 million.
The film had a wide release in the United States and Canada in selected theatres on October 24. The film earned $5.45 million on its opening day, including $875,000 from Thursday night previews, which was the second highest opening of that weekend, at an average of $5,465 per theater. The film grossed $2.5 million from 347 IMAX locations that weekend, which represented 17.7 percent of the film's overall gross for its opening weekend. The audience was 60% male and 77% were older than 25.
Outside North America, the film took $1.4 million during its international opening weekend. The film's highest-grossing debuts were in France, Australia, Thailand, Mexico, and the United Arab Emirates. On its second week, it added $6.7 million from 33 territories. The film went number one in France ($1.2 million) from 300 screens, number three in Australia ($961,000) from 177 screens, and number ten in the Middle East ($1 million) from a total of 80 screens.
John Wick received generally positive reviews from critics. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 85% based on 188 reviews, with an average rating of 6.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Stylish, thrilling, and giddily kinetic, John Wick serves as a satisfying return to action for Keanu Reeves – and what looks like it could be the first of a franchise." Metacritic, another review aggregator, assigned the film a weighted average score of 68 out of 100, based on 39 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". CinemaScore reported that audiences gave the film a "B" grade, on an A+ to F scale.
Peter Travers of Rolling Stone praised the piece by stating, "John Wick is the kind of fired-up, ferocious B-movie fun some of us can't get enough of" and praising the "juicy performances" from Dafoe, Leguizamo, and McShane. Richard Corliss of Time magazine wrote, "Action movies are about movement, and John Wick pursues that goal with remorseless verve." Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of The A.V. Club gave the film an "B+" rating, stating, "An underworld fantasy that grafts crisp action on to Rian Johnson-esque world-building, producing one of the more fully realized shoot-'em-up flicks in recent memory." He continued by praising the script of Kolstad, citing that it "distinguishes itself by carefully defining the boundaries of its universe". Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly gave the film an "A-" rating and called Kolstad's screenplay, "a marvelously rich and stylish feat of pulpy world-building."
Justin Lowe of The Hollywood Reporter granted the film praise, "After a marked absence from the genre, Reeves resoundingly returns with an effortless, kinetic style that positions the film extremely well for any potential follow-ups." Peter Debruge of Variety spoke highly of the film, "Back in action-hero mode, Keanu Reeves joins forces with his Matrix stunt double to deliver a slick and satisfying revenge thriller" and described "what a thrill well-choreographed action can be when we're actually able to make out what's happening". Stephanie Zacharek of The Village Voice said that, "Reeves is wonderful here, a marvel of physicality and stern determination – he moves with the grace of an old-school swashbuckler." Bilge Ebiri of Vulture commented, "It's a beautiful coffee-table action movie."
Jeannette Catsoulis wrote, in her review for The New York Times, "Harbouring few ambitions beyond knock-your-socks-off action sequences, this crafty revenge thriller delivers with so much style – and even some wit – that the lack of substance takes longer than it should to become problematic." Catsoulis praised Dafoe and Leguizamo as "bringing real subtlety to an all-too-brief scene" and Nyqvist as "marvellous", as well as Stahelski's direction and Sela's cinematography. Forrest Wickman of Slate noted, "John Wick offers a slow burn, sizzling in a manner true to its hero’s surname." Jordan Hoffman of The Guardian scored the film four out of five stars, writing, "A slick, propulsive and ridiculous crime picture that strides like an automatic machine gun."
Peter Bradshaw, also reviewing for The Guardian, gave the film 2 out of 5 stars and stated "... Reeves's semi-deliberate zonked deadpan style only really works in juxtaposition with funny dialogue – and this is a pretty humourless and violent film, which grinds on and on with more and more gleaming black SUVs getting trashed." Ealasaid Haas of San Jose Mercury News described John Wick as a "disappointingly standard revenge movie." John Semley of The Globe and Mail called the title "the new name in crummy action cinema," giving it one-half out of 4 stars.
On August 7, 2015, Lionsgate and Starbreeze Studios announced a partnership to develop a first-person shooter virtual reality game based on the film for the HTC Vive/Steam VR. Development will be headed by Grab Games, with Starbreeze set to publish. WEVR will develop an introductory experience for the game. The game was released on February 9th, 2017 with the name John Wick Chronicles. and have a standalone narrative based on the Continental Hotel. Additionally, John Wick content – a free Character Pack and a chargeable Weapons Pack – was released for the Payday 2 games on October 20, 2016 as cross-promotion.
A sequel was released on February 10, 2017, and at the 2016 CinemaCon, Reeves hinted that more sequels had been planned.
John Wick Wikipedia
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Home Games World of Warcraft World of Warcraft Classic’s Development is “Complicated”, but “Coming Along”, Blizzard Says
World of Warcraft Classic’s Development is “Complicated”, but “Coming Along”, Blizzard Says
gamingbolt.com
There are many who hold that the vanilla World of Warcraft experience was the height of the all conquering MMORPG, and they have been looking for a way to go back to that ever since. We have had some fan servers for a classic World of Warcraft- experience, but Blizzard’s announcement of World of Warcraft Classic- finally answers fan hopes of an authentic vanilla World of Warcraft- take.
But… what exactly is going on with it? We haven’t seen hide nor tail of it since the announcement, and information on it has been scarce, somewhat worrying when you consider that, in spite of a slated release date for this year, Blizzard does after all have a reputation for delaying games, sometimes for years on end.-
Well, the good news is that development on the game is coming along. The bad news is that that’s all the new news we have—well, that, and Blizzard’s community manager calling the development of the game a “complicated process”.
“The development is definitely moving along but it’s a complicated process and I don’t have any specific details to share at this point”, the community manager wrote on the official World of Warcraft forums. “We know you’d like to have a Q-amp;A and a variety of things answered, but we’d prefer to have concrete answers to give you guys or new information. I’m personally very opposed to doing a Q-amp;A for the sake of doing it without saying anything new. For everyone’s sake that’s just the better choice when it comes to these types of things.”
I appreciate Blizzard not wanting to share any information until they have something more concrete on hand, but I sincerely hope, for Warcraft fans, that they will be able to show something some time soon. A fair few of them are probably getting antsy.-
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Everett, September 14 2018
Village Fest, the ultimate Everett street fair, this Saturday
The City of Everett’s Village Fest, the ultimate street fair, featuring music, food, craft beer and spirits will take place in the Village Business District this Saturday, September 15 from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. This year’s festival will feature the legendary rock band Sugar Ray as well some of the area’s top food trucks, beer from Craft Brewers Guild, Village Bar & Grill, Bone Up Brewing Company, Down the Road, and Night Shift Brewing, spirits from Short Path Distillery and kids activities for the afternoon. Entry to the festival is free, and it will go on rain or shine.
In addition to the music, food, beer and spirits, there will be lawn games dispersed throughout the festival, as well as vendor booths showcasing local businesses and organizations. It is a true citywide celebration and not to be missed!
Sugar Ray is an American rock band from Newport Beach, Calif. Originally forming in 1986 and playing a heavier nu metal styled music, the band achieved mainstream popularity in 1997 with their more pop influenced single, “Fly.” The song’s success led the band to shift its style dramatically to the more radio-friendly pop sound. Their best-selling album, 14:59, was released in 1999 and featured popular singles “Every Morning” and “Someday,” which were followed by a self-titled album in 2001 featuring the single “When It’s Over.” Also featured on the two music stages will be local favorites Whale’s Tail, The Gravel Project, Whiskey 6, Daemon Chili, Darren Bessette Band, Hal Holiday & The Tones, Local Scruff, Perfect Example Band, Perennial Quest and Problematik & DJ.
Some of the area’s best food trucks will be on hand, offering Asian, Mexican and Middle Eastern cuisine, as well as BBQ, bacon, pasta, homemade ice cream sandwiches, cupcakes and much more. Food trucks will include Dining Car, The Bacon Truck, Munch Mobile, Square Deli, Saté Grill, Teri Yummy, Cupcake City, Tenoch Mexican, Northeast of the Border, Frozen Hoagies, Dean’s Concessions and Cravin Shallots.
Local craft beers and drinks will be available from Craft Brewers Guild as well as Everett’s own Bone Up Brewing Company, Down the Road, Night Shift Brewing and Short Path Distillery – the perfect complement to the food trucks. Craft Brewers Guild and Village Bar & Grill will also be hosting a beer garden. Home Depot will provide free nonalcoholic beverages.
The City of Everett, Uber, and Mothers Against Drunk Driving have teamed up this year to make getting to Village Fest both safer and easier for everyone. Uber users will be offered a discount if they use a certain promo code while going to and leaving Village Fest. The promo code will be announced soon on the City of Everett’s website and Facebook page.
Presented by the City of Everett and Mayor Carlo DeMaria, Village Fest has been created to showcase the great businesses and culture that exist in Everett. “We are excited to share all that Everett has to offer with everyone in the region,” said Mayor DeMaria. “This is a celebration of the City, and we invite people from all over to join us for an afternoon and evening of great music, food, drinks and fun.”
EventsEverettVillage Fest
Sheriff Koutoujian recognizes cadets from Everett during Youth Public Safety Academy graduation
Celtics/SNHU unveil STEM Lab; advise kids to never give up
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Azerbaijan: Blowing Up in Their Facebook
Posted 10 March 2011 13:18 GMT
This article by Global Voices’ Caucasus editor was originally published on 9 March 2011 by Transitions Online and is used by permission.
When Adnan Hajizade and Emin Milli, two video-blogging youth activists in Azerbaijan, were detained on 8 July 2009 on what many believe were trumped-up charges, supporters and friends naturally used Facebook to campaign for their release. However, spreading networks wide in order to disseminate information and updates, there were obviously risks involved. Reports of the security services monitoring Facebook were coming out of neighboring Iran, and there was no reason to think it couldn’t happen in Azerbaijan.
For the two young men’s supporters, however, that didn't matter. What was arguably more important was that Facebook was crucial in the campaign to free them. And, as international awareness of the plight of Hajizade and Milli increased before their release in last November, they were probably right. Despite the inherent risks, spreading information quickly and efficiently is one thing that Facebook and Twitter are good at. However, with the use of such tools once again in the spotlight following this year’s popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, the debate over persisting personal and security concerns has re-emerged.
In particular, in a recent interview with Radio Free Europe, Evgeny Morozov, author of The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom, started the ball rolling by saying that internal security agencies might actually welcome the use of new- and social-media tools. “The reason why the KGB wants you to join Facebook is because it allows them to learn more about you from afar,” he said. “It allows them to identify certain social graphs and social connections between activists. Many of these relationships are now self-disclosed by activists by joining various groups.”
In Azerbaijan that is certainly proving to be the case. On 5 February, Jabbar Savalan, a 20-year-old activist from the opposition Popular Front, was arrested and charged with narcotics possession, something his supporters and lawyer strongly deny. Instead, they claim, Savalan was detained for comments made on Facebook a day earlier calling for Egypt-style protests in the country. Amnesty International has also denounced the charges, calling them a “pretext to punish Jabbar Savalan for his political activism and to discourage other youth activists from exercising their right to freedom of expression.”
The international human rights organization also noted that Savalan was interrogated without a lawyer and alleges that he was pressured into signing a confession that he later retracted. Amnesty further demands that the authorities “justify Jabbar Salavan’s pretrial detention or release him immediately.”
A few days later, on 9 February, another Popular Front activist, Elchin Hasanov, was summoned by police and instructed to remove messages on his Facebook page calling for protest actions in Savalan's support, and last week Harvard-educated parliamentary candidate Bakhtiyar Hajiyev was arrested. Although the charges against him relate to avoiding military conscription, his supporters say that this was again simply an excuse, given his constitutional right to alternative service instead. Moreover, they allege, before his arrest Hajiyev was questioned about his activities on Facebook.
As well he might have been. Of seven moderators of a recently launched Facebook page calling for Egypt-style protests in Azerbaijan to take place on 11 March, Hajiyev is the only one who lives in the country. Indeed, in an interview with RFE’s Baku bureau days earlier, one of those other moderators said that had he opened the page while living in Azerbaijan he would probably have been arrested. A few days later, another activist, Dayanat Babayev, was detained by police for 10 days for what they say was “disrupting public order” while speaking loudly and inappropriately on a cell phone while walking. At least one witness, however, claims that Babayev was instead forcibly removed from an Internet café.
Yet, despite officials’ apparent concern about its power, Facebook penetration in Azerbaijan remains incredibly low, at just 324,880 users or 3.9 percent of the population. This pales in comparison with even neighboring Georgia, where 516,300 people, or 11 percent of the population, use the site. Nevertheless, the authorities in Baku appear to be taking no chances. In April 2010, for example, Zahid Oruj, a member of parliament’s security and defense committee, spoke out against Facebook by suggesting it could be used by foreign powers to “recruit agents.”
“It is possible that secret agents sit in social networks trying to lure people to cooperate,” he told journalists, suggesting that this perceived threat should be legislated against. “In my opinion, one cannot exclude that intelligence services of various countries can also lead Azerbaijani nationals to secret cooperation through social networks. We must not allow hostile forces to use different Internet services against us. In this matter, the danger comes not only from Armenian nationalists, but also other forces.”
A media campaign to discredit the use of Facebook followed and continues, especially after events in the Middle East and North Africa. On 1 March, for example, the online news site Qaynar.Info published the names of prominent opposition and alternative voices in Azerbaijan who had Armenian contacts and friends listed on their Facebook pages. Responses to the piece from youth activists in Azerbaijan were critical, viewing the article as a further attempt to highlight the site as an internal security threat and to portray those named as “enemies of the state.”
The following day, Rauf Mardiyev, secretary general of the IRELI Public Union, a youth organization considered by many activists to be pro-governmental and the local equivalent of the Russian Nashi, followed the same line. In a blog post titled, “The real face of 11 March,” Mardiyev highlighted the appearance of six Armenian names among the first 50 of 2,658 members signed up on the Facebook page set up by Hajiyev. Although the group was an open one, the post ended by stating that “no other comments are necessary,” with Mardiyev saying he would instead “leave it up to the conscience of readers.”
With public hostility toward Armenians high in Azerbaijan because of the festering conflict over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, playing this card has become predictable in recent years. A household survey in 2009 by the Caucasus Resource Research Centers, for example, found that 97 percent of Azerbaijanis were against friendship with Armenians. Even so, Facebook has proved invaluable in cross-border communication in lieu of traditional means in recent years, but others have already raised concerns about how this could be used against them.
“[One activist] said if pictures of Azerbaijanis together with Armenians are found on the Internet, then they will have to go to the KGB and be questioned,” a German journalist recently wrote to this author after she visited Baku late last year.
Meanwhile, the campaign against Facebook and Twitter has even made it into the broadcast media. Last month, for example, ANS TV ran a 12-minute news item on the “dangers” of Facebook and Twitter. Although starting out neutrally enough by describing how social media can spread information worldwide, it then cut to footage of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaking about net freedom before alleging that social-media tools were “dangerous” in Azerbaijan because they damage the morale of young people and could be exploited by “foreign enemies.”
To a lesser extent, following the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia the same approach has been evident in Armenia. With the opposition staging a rally to mark the third anniversary of the 1 March post-election unrest in Yerevan that left 10 people dead, the Armenian National Congress, led by former President Levon Ter-Petrossian, tried to attract international attention to its cause by declaring that it, too, would stage a “Facebook revolution.” What’s more, the congress’ coordinator, Levon Zurabyan, claimed that most of the 132,000 Facebook users in the country supported the call.
Pro-government and nationalist bloggers, now referred to by the local media as “information security experts,” were quick to cast doubt on such claims by again alleging that social-media-induced revolutions were being promoted by the United States while others noted that in any case Zurabyan didn’t even use the site, so had no basis to make such claims. Besides, there had been very little activity noticeable on Facebook, with just 380 people both inside and outside Armenia signing up for the protest page. But that did not necessarily mean few would attend the rally: estimates of the turnout range between 10,000 and 50,000.
Nevertheless, it’s clear that activists’ use of social media played no role in the success of that rally, especially when compared with their more Internet-savvy counterparts in Azerbaijan. But even there, despite increased online activity, some remain unconvinced.
The protests planned for 11 and 12 March in Azerbaijan, where social media are being used extensively by activists, and another in Armenia on 17 March, where they are not, might help to further illuminate the bane-or-boon argument about these tools. Already senior members of the IRELI Public Union are attempting to support the authorities in Baku by countering information from activists in Azerbaijan on Facebook and Twitter ahead of the planned protests, and on 7 March they launched a new project to establish a network of young bloggers.
Meanwhile, as of the time of writing, Facebook is also inaccessible from Azerbaijani cellular phone operator Bakcell for the coming week for, it says, “technical reasons.” In an update on Twitter, IRELI’s Mardiyev denied this, but the decision was later confirmed by Bakcell’s customer service department. (Addition: Facebook is apparently accessible again via Bakcell)
Onnik Krikorian is the Caucasus editor for Global Voices Online and a freelance journalist and photographer in Yerevan.
Written byOnnik Krikorian
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Main » 2014 » October » 18 » MoI Showcases New Projects for the First Time in the Region
MoI Showcases New Projects for the First Time in the Region
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates - Wednesday, October 15th 2014 [ME NewsWire]
As part of its participation at GITEX 2014, the Ministry of Interior displayed an array of initiatives, projects and quality systems that are the first of their kind in the region. The ministry also shed the light on the myriad e-services it offers to individuals and institutions in various fields.
During his visit on Wednesday to the Ministry of Interior’s booth at the Exhibition, Major General Ahmed Nasser Al Raisi, Director General of Central Operations at Abu Dhabi Police, underscored the keenness of the ministry to present the best smart and electronic services and acquaint visitors with the most important electronic and technological initiatives and projects. “This endeavor embodies the Federal Government's strategy that supports the imminent transition to smart Government in service delivery,” said Major General Al Raisi.
Adding further, he stressed that Gitex is the world’s most successful prominent event and the largest and most important exhibition in the Middle East. It represents a good opportunity to display the latest and state-of-the-art electronic and technological equipment in various fields. “The ministry was keen to explore cooperation opportunities with the various strategic partners from the federal, local and private sectors, with a view to build additional strategic partnerships to share technical knowledge and expertise and expand the range of innovative smart electronic services,” he continued.
During the visit, Major General Al Raisi was briefed on the services and software provided by the Ministry of Interior to the public and that are displayed at the exhibition. He also toured some of the exhibition’s booths, and examined the latest innovations showcased by other ministries, local departments and major companies that are participating in the exhibition.
Major General Al Raisi noted that the various smart and electronic programs and services offered by the ministry to the public are a key enabler for effective communication and interaction between the police and community members at all times. Moreover, he lauded the efforts of individuals in charge of the ministry’s booth and their role in acquainting visitors with the electronic and technical services used by police, as well as with the various e-projects, e-systems and e-services provided by the ministry. “Gitex was a good opportunity to gain insight into the public’s feedback regarding the services provided by the ministry, as well as their suggestions for improvement,” he continued.
On the same note, he praised the keenness of government sectors to embrace wearable technology as they seek to launch smart services packages. He also commended the achievement made by the Ministry of Interior, represented by the Executive Committee of School Transport, for developing a first-of-its-kind smart bracelet in cooperation with international scientific research centers, to ensure children’s safety during school transport.
It is worth mentioning that a number of officers and non-commissioned officers from the ministry are delivering a set of presentations to visitors, in a bid to raise their awareness about these services and the optimal ways to benefit from them.
Smart Platforms to Serve the Public and MoI’s Customers
At the Gitex Technology Week 2014 that began on Sunday, the Ministry of Interior unveiled its plans to launch a set of smart solutions aimed at develop the services provided by the ministry.
Major General Dr. Ahmed Nasser Al Raisi, Director General of Electronics and Telecommunications Services at the Ministry of Interior, stressed that the trial launch of these smart platforms for the Ministry of Interior’s services reflects the ministry’s keenness to open new communication channels with the public, and provide better and easy access to customers, so they can save time and avoid the hassle of going to service centers. This would improve security work via the latest technologies.
Major General Al Raisi said that the smart platforms include devices that stream live with the public via screens to ensure instant assistance from the various Ministry of Interior’s service centers. Members of the public can inquire about the multiple services offered by the various sectors of the ministry such as: Traffic, Drivers and Vehicles Licensing, the Residency and the Foreigners Affairs, Civil Defense, Ports, as well as the Punitive and Correctional Institutions.
In conclusion, Major General Al Raisi indicated that this interactive service will be made available for the public in the upcoming period at public areas, including shopping malls, as well as their preferred location.
Smart Bracelet for Child Protection
The Ministry of Interior is displaying the latest generations of wearable technologies at its booth at GITEX. They include an early prototype of a smart bracelet designed to protect children; especially during their journey back and forth to school. The bracelet is part of the smart services that will be provided to the public and part of the smart advanced systems adopted by the ministry in support of its operations.
Brigadier Eng. Hussein Ahmed Al Harithi, Director of Traffic and Patrols Directorate at the Abu Dhabi Police and Chairman of the Executive Committee of School Transport in Abu Dhabi, said that the exhibition provides a real opportunity to acquaint all segments of society as well as visitors to the sizeable qualitative progress achieved by the Ministry of Interior in its efforts towards implementing the national agenda, by encouraging true and intergraded innovation to serve national interests. It also fulfills one of the most sought national goals, which is to make the UAE one of the safest countries in the world; especially for children and family life.
Brigadier Eng. Al Harithi said, “The Executive Committee of School Transport is endeavoring to find smart alternatives to mobile phones, and to present smart systems specifications and requirements for Child Protection System in School Transport. It is also seeking to leverage the existing smart services and those in the process of development, to complement the efforts exerted by the Ministry of Interior, which recently launched multiple electronic services as part of its quest to improve the services provided to customers.”
Adding further, Brigadier Eng. Al Harithi noted that “In this context, the ministry adopted a creative idea submitted by Lieutenant Colonel Faisal Mohammed Al Shimmari, Senior Information Security Officer at the Abu Dhabi Police General Headquarters, Head of the Cyber Security Subcommittee at the Ministry of Interior, to develop a ‘smart bracelet’. This project is being carried out in close cooperation with prominent experts from one of the most important international applied research centers in the world. The bracelet was developed according to the highest international standards, as well as the European safety standards, to reflect the ministry’s leading approach in supporting and encouraging creativity.
Lieutenant Colonel Al Shimmari, who first conceived the idea of using the wearable technology “the Smart Bracelet”, said, “Under the directives of H.E Chairman of the Executive Committee of School Transport, and with the cooperation of the concerned partners at the Transport Department; the Abu Dhabi Education Council and the Center of Follow up and Control, the Smart Systems Specifications for Children Protection System in School Transport, in the partnership with Saaed. This reflects the importance of concerted mutual efforts to enhance protection of school children by utilizing the latest modern technologies in this field. He pointed that the smart security applications, which will integrate with this project and other similar initiatives, are a crucial part of the UAE’s National Agenda for the next seven years, and serve the ultimate security and policing goals of making one of the safest countries in the world by achieving a total sense of security and safety, and by reducing response time for emergency calls to just four minutes.
Adding further, Lieutenant Colonel Al Shimmari explained that the smart bracelet will represent a smart alternative for mobile phones. It utilizes all the smart features and services available and those that are in the process of development, and complements the efforts exerted by the Ministry of Interior, which recently launched multiple electronic services as part of its quest to improve the services provided to customers. He also noted that the smart bracelet is a unique light weight device compared to similar devices, with all electronic features embedded in a single electronic board.
The smart bracelet also includes a near field communication (NFC) technology, Global Positioning System (GPS) technology, Nano-chip, in addition to a long lasting and efficient battery. The material used in the manufacture of the bracelet will not cause any allergy and is heat resistant. The light weight bracelet has a beautiful design, and is suitable for all genders and age groups.
The MoI also organized several workshops for parents and children to get insight into their needs and uses. He also noted that in order to make this service widely available, the cost of the bracelet will relatively be low compared with other similar devices.
Additionally, Lieutenant Colonel Al Shimmari announced that the smart bracelet development process will be completed in the upcoming few months and will be made available for all children in the UAE, as per the directives of the Chairman of the Executive Committee of School Transport.
He also praised the strategic cooperation with Saaed for Traffic Systems, Intermarket Company, and Infinity Bite in the efforts to develop technical studies and analyze institutional technical and architectural requirements, which currently yielded the smart systems specifications and requirements, which will become the key to activate a safe smart system to ensure children safety in school transport.
Smart Self-Service Devices
Lieutenant Colonel Faisal Mohammed Al Shimmari, Senior Information Security Officer, indicated that the smart self-service device will enable the MoI’s staff members to log their entry and exit through security gates using biometrics readers, cameras, which are directly linked to special applications related to the personnel affairs department.
These devices also provide access permits to allow visitors to enter facilities seamlessly, in addition to strict procedures; they are directly linked to the Security Control Center.
These devices are a part of a comprehensive security system that the MoI is considering to enhance secure access to all the MoI’s buildings, facilities, and information systems, utilizing the latest available technologies.
Major Mohammed Al Zaabi, MoI Services Project manager, explained that the smart platform for the MoI Services Center is a device that enables community members to communicate with the services center and access the services related to all sectors such as Naturalization and Residency Sector, Traffic and Licensing, Civil Defense, and Punitive and Correctional Establishments.
He also noted that the devices provide a sophisticated feature to enable customers to communicate via direct live high quality video and audio streaming with the MoI’s services centers staff. The platform is equipped with passport and ID readers, printer, touch screen, and a documents’ scanner. People can choose to communicate using three different languages.
In conclusion, Major Al Zaabi noted that the services debuted at Gitex have been highly acclaimed by the public, while the MoI’s booth witnessed a significant turnout of visitors wanting to see and try the smart platforms.
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Biography & Net Worth 2019
Home Biography Eric Dickerson Biography
Eric Dickerson Biography
by Rahab-Waterlow July 10, 2019
written by Rahab-Waterlow July 10, 2019
Full Name/Real Name: Eric Demetric Dickerson/Mr. Benny
Birth Date: 2 September 1960
Birth Place: Sealy, Texas, United States
Spouse: Penny Sutton
Children: Dallis Dickerson, Erica Dickerson
Dating: No
Profession: American footballer
Net Worth in 2019: $12 million
Eric Dickerson is a famous American professional football player and actor. Eric Dickerson is most renowned as the professional football player for the National Football League (NFL) for eleven seasons (the 1980s and 1990s). Eric Dickerson is well-known as All-American college football player for the SMU Mustangs of Southern Methodist University.
But do you know how much is Eric Dickerson’s net worth in 2019 and how old is he? If you do not know, we have prepared the following article in which you can find everything that interests you about Eric Dickerson’s life and career. We have prepared this article for you not only about details of Eric Dickerson’s career, professional life and personal life, but also about his net worth, age, height, weight and more facts. Well, if you’re ready, let’s start.
As of 2019, Eric Dickerson has a net worth of $12 million.
Eric Dickerson Early Life & Biography:
Eric Dickerson’s Age, Height, Weight & Body Measurements
Eric Dickerson Personal Life: Affair, Dating, Girlfriend, Wife, Family & Children
Relationship Statistics of Eric Dickerson
Eric Dickerson Career, Awards & Nominations:
Eric Dickerson Net Worth & Earnings:
Eric Dickerson on Social Media
Eric Dickerson was born as Eric Demetri Dickerson on 2nd September 1960. He was born in a small town called Sealy in Texas in the US. His biological parents are Richard Seal and Helen Dickerson. At the time of Eric Dickerson’s birth, his mother, Helen was 17 years old. She had refused to marry Eric’s father. Hence, Eric Dickerson was brought up by his uncle and aunt.
As a child, Eric Dickerson was skinny and wore spectacles. Other children teased him. Only after he began playing football, Eric Dickerson became popular. By the time he was in 7th grade, Eric Dickerson was recognized as a running back. After graduating from high school, Eric Dickerson graduated from Southern Methodist University.
Eric Dickerson was born on 2 September 1960 and currently as of 2019, he is 58 years old. Statistics put Eric Dickerson height as 1.91 m and weight 100 kg.
What is Eric Dickerson marital status? (single, married, in relation or divorced): Married with Penny Sutton
Is Eric Dickerson having any relationship affair? No)
Is Eric Dickerson Lesbian/Gay? No
Who is Eric Dickerson’s Spouse? (name): Penny Sutton
Does Eric Dickerson Have Any Kids? Dallis Dickerson, Erica Dickerson
Eric Dickerson is married to Penny Sutton. They have a son named Dallis Dickerson and a daughter named Erica Dickerson. The couple began a youth sports foundation.
As a student in high school, Eric Dickerson played excellent football. Eric Dickerson studied from Southern Methodist University where he created many college football records.
Officially, Eric Dickerson joined the National Football League (NFL) when the Los Angeles Rams chose him as the 2nd overall pick during the 1983 NFL Draft. Eric Dickerson played for the Los Angeles Rams team from 1983 to 1987. He made several team and league records. Eric Dickerson was traded to Indianapolis Colts in exchange for Owen Gill (1987). Eric Dickerson played with Indianapolis Colts team till 1991. He played successfully for the team for the first three seasons.
However, during the last two seasons, Eric missed games due to suspension, disputed contracts, and injuries. In 1992, Eric Dickerson was traded to the Los Angeles Raiders but, he played few games. Again, he was traded to the Atlanta Falcons as backup capacity. Eventually, Eric Dickerson retired in 1993 because of his poor health. Thus, Eric Dickerson played as a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons (1980s-1990s).
After retiring as a professional football player, Eric Dickerson enacted in several movies. These include 1970s ‘NFL Monday Night Football’, 2007s ‘The Comebacks’ and 2002s ‘O.J.: A Study in Black and White’.
Eric Dickerson Net Worth
As of 2019, The net worth of Eric Dickerson is $12 million. Most of Eric Dickerson’s wealth comes from his profession as a football player. In 1994, Eric Dickerson earned $3,300,000 as salary while he played football for the Atlanta Falcons (1994-1995). After retiring as a professional football player, Eric Dickerson earns from enacting in several movies. In 2018, Eric Dickerson bought his home in Texas spending $124,000.
Eric Dickerson has his official social sites Twitter. Fans and admirers can follow Eric Dickerson on this Twitter account.
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Dr. Saïd Bouamama: “Bouteflika Symbolizes the Freezing of Several Trends and It Does Not Make It Possible To Build Anything”
Bashar al-Assad Has Made a Great Service to Mankind by Stopping the Attempt to Balkanize Syria
Mohsen Abdelmoumen: What is your reading of the geopolitical situation that prevails in Syria at the moment?
Dr. Saïd Bouamama: The situation in Syria is at first a situation of failure of imperialism. In fact, what is happening in Syria has been an attempt to destabilize the Syrian state by supporting jihadist groups. We think what we want from Bashar al-Assad, but he has made a great service to mankind by stopping this destabilization and this attempt to balkanize Syria. Because in reality, it is a balkanization. If we look at all the last wars, what I call the new colonial wars, what is left? Iraq is cut in pieces, Afghanistan is a complete chaos, in Somalia, it is the slaughter, and Sudan is cut in two. In reality, there is such competition today between great powers that, in order to continue to make profits, it is necessary to destabilize states that may be states of resistance or states that do not accept the rules imposed by a number of large countries. This is what happened in Syria whose stake was first of all the control of the region and the access to the regional geostrategy, that is to say, the control of the oil resources of the region.
How do you explain that the Trump Administration threatens to strike at the positions of the Syrian Army, Iran, and Russia even though in reality, those who are encircled in Idlib are for the most part terrorists of Al Nosra and Daesh? Saving Idlib, isn't that saving al-Nosra and Daech? Does the US want to save the imperialist soldiers al-Nusra and Daesh?
I think we need to become lucid and stop being naive. There is no consistent fight against terrorism on the part of the United States. In reality, they fight it when it suits them and they support it when it suits them. And it's not new. It must be remembered that the first great advances of the so-called jihadist groups were in Afghanistan, and the pretext for supporting them was to oppose the Soviet Union. We must not forget that whenever the interest of the United States requires destabilization, they let these groups do. They are only fought when the interest of the United States is in question, and therefore there is not a consistent fight of the United States against them. There is a fight at a time, in pieces, and a support at other times. It's important to keep in mind that the United States does not have a coherent policy, they know only the politics of their economic interest, even in destroying countries and provoking the massacre of the populations, and if it is necessary for that by supporting terrorist groups, well, they do it. Unfortunately, it was done before Syria and if we are not able to immunize, it will be done again elsewhere.
I interviewed Noam Chomsky a few years ago and he told me verbatim that Syria was going to be divided into several areas. There is currently a US redeployment in northern Syria. Do not you think there is a risk of total confrontation, especially between the United States and Russia?
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In fact, the US project, at this stage, is part of a long process of destabilizing all states with an economic size, a geographical area, and oil and gas wealth or strategic minerals to balkanize them, to cut them into several pieces, because it's easier to maintain domination in chaos. And so, we had a number of wars before. With Syria, it is the same project today, but there are other countries and, in particular, there is the will to balkanize Iran. Let us not forget that the United States has not given up on destabilizing Iran. But Iran, in terms of the balance of power, is another matter and the United States is extremely cautious. Russia has understood this very well and has made agreements. Russia is not naïve and understood if it continued to let this balkanization, it could be balkanized itself, this is the big project of the United States - and so Russia has understood very well that its interest was to stop this process.
Before the Chechen sector enters the game?
Exactly, and that is why we have such strong support from Russia to Syria and that agreements with Iran exist.
The Russians regard Syria and Iran as strategic depths.
Exactly. It's like it's an inside front. And the Russians are right. Every decline before the balkanization offensive is, in the long term, the danger of war with Russia which is increasing. And whenever there is a failure of this project of balkanization, it is the danger of war that recedes. And today, the good news is that they did not succeed in Syria. And so, it makes them a bit more cautious, but of course, they do not give up.
Do not you think that Algeria is another target of imperialism, especially US and Israeli?
Of course, it is a target and we can even say that if Syria had been defeated, Algeria would be the next target country. There is Iran and then Algeria. There are not thousands of other countries that have this geographical area and this economic depth, so Algeria is on the line of fire. Besides, there is a man to listen to, even if he is an idiot, it is Bernard-Henri Lévy. He often comes to unveil the strategies of imperialism because he wants to strut. This man has nevertheless declared publicly that Algeria actually means three countries and that it was necessary to separate South, North, and Kabylia, in three countries. We can see that behind this, there are spaces, places called think tanks in which they think about different types of divisions, and in Algeria, there is actually a cutting plan. If Algerians stop being patriots and to defend the integrity of the territory, excuses will be found to intervene.
According to you, are our revolutions, Algerians, and Africans, completed? Do not you think that we need a second wind to our revolutions to complete the struggle of our ancestors?
It is absolutely necessary. First, we must not feel guilty. We've come from so far. We must not underestimate what was the colonization of Algeria and what was slavery for the countries of sub-Saharan Africa. That is to say that the work is immense to recover from such a trauma. We must not say "we are zero", etc. On the other hand, it is clear that the emancipatory project that led to independence was a project that required going much further than what we have done today. Issues as important as the issues of economic development, the distribution of wealth, the involvement of people in decisions, are still tasks ahead and so, yes, there is a need for a second wind. We also know that independence has given birth to a whole series of parasites, people who take advantage of the state apparatus to divert income, etc. and so there is indeed a need to refocus the process on those who have actually done it, those who have an interest in leading Algeria to real independence.
That is to say, if I understand you correctly, the sincere Algerian patriots who can find themselves among the young, within the population and the healthy vital forces of the nation?
Absolutely. And the matter of youth is, of course, an essential issue. When a part of the youth turns to the jihadists, we can not pretend that it is not important. This means that we have failed on a number of things and we must resume the fight. You know, young people just want to build their future. It is when the future becomes unthinkable when they can no longer imagine it, that they turn to the past and that charlatans can come to divert their legitimate anger. And so, yes, there is a need to take this breath and there is a need to recover the dynamics of the first two decades of independence. Remember the atmosphere when young people graduated from university in the years 1974-1975. It was full of hope for the future, it was the idea of building the country, it was the idea of agrarian reform and going to see the farmers, etc. We have to find that breath that has been lost notably because of parasites who have hijacked the process.
Do not you think that there is a real danger due to the various separatist movements in Algeria? Should the political and economic elite not be self-critical and remain alert to the geopolitical challenges that lie in wait for us? Can Algeria, according to you, go towards a gradual positive change well controlled without being afraid? Second question: has the red and black decade not vaccinated us against Islamist terrorists?
On the first question, yes, there are real dangers with the separatist movements, which nevertheless remain extremely minor, including in Kabylia.
And in Ghardaia.
Yes. In fact, one of the reasons for the development of these movements is that we have been shy about the issue of identity. Today, things are catching up, the Amazigh language is recognized, etc. but it took too long for it and when a right claim is not taken into account, charlatans can come to pick up the frustration. Algeria is pluricultural and multilingual and it is a wealth. There is no reason to consider this as a weakness, therefore, it must be accepted and pull the rug from under the feet to all who would like to exploit this issue.
On the side of the elites, there is no secret, all those who are attached, whatever their political and economic opinions, to the territorial integrity of Algeria and to true independence, must have in mind that this can only be done if there is a minimum of economic redistribution. That is to say that if there is no economic redistribution, if poverty sets in if people are in misery, charlatans can come again instrumentalize. That's why our youth, even the one who listened to charlatans, is first and foremost a victim because in reality, if it had could think about her future, it would never have listened to these thugs.
You talk about the 1990s. Today, when we talk about the presence of Algerians at Daesh, they are very minor in comparison with the other peoples of the Maghreb.
How do you analyze this? Have not we been vaccinated by the red decade?
Unfortunately, you are never totally vaccinated. But this has developed real resistance mechanisms and you must know that people who, at first, were able to listen to charlatans, turned away when they saw what this project of society was. There have been entire regions where huge votes have gone in favor of charlatans and which today do not want to hear about these people. So, we can see that it was a popular experience and, yes, there are antibodies in Algeria, stronger than in other countries, because there was this tragedy. We paid a high price for it. But be careful, as long as the causes are untreated, the disease can always come back and we return to the previous question about the distribution of economic wealth.
The fifth term of President Bouteflika is evoked. Do not you think that the time has come to accompany a process of renewal of the entire political class in Algeria, even at the level of “the opposition”, because, for me, the crisis is not only at the level of power, but also at the level of “the opposition”? Should the fifth term not be abandoned to inject new blood into Algeria and vaccinate the country against various risks, both internal and external? Should we not abandon this alternative of an additional term of the current president and go towards a change piloted - why not - by the army which remains the most structured force in Algeria? What is your opinion on this subject?
In any case, I am completely opposed to the idea of a fifth term. Today, Bouteflika symbolizes the freezing of several trends and it does not make it possible to build anything. I also think that there is a gap between the entire political class and the civil part of the nation. We must succeed in bringing to the political class all these young union activists, these doctors, all this generation that was born after. We must pass the baton on the basis, always, of territorial integrity and economic independence. It is time for a new generation to emerge.
President Bouteflika is very sick, very tired and he should give way to someone else. It's common sense. What is your opinion about that?
Absolutely. It is an absolute necessity and we must also question the image we give to our own people and other peoples by keeping a sick president at all costs.
To say that we are against a fifth term is not to be unpatriotic or anti-national, on the contrary, we serve our country. Do not you think that those who are against a fifth term are the real patriots?
Absolutely. I think being a patriot today means being against the fifth term. Of course.
There is a country whose people are legally killed, it is Palestine. Do not you think that Israel, in addition to being a rogue state, is reaping all the benefits of the problems associated with the various US strategies to balkanize the Arab-Muslim region?
Of course. Why was there so much support for the creation of Israel as a state and then? It is simply because this state serves as a bridgehead for all interventions, all strategies of interference, and so on. And so, we should not consider the fight as being only between Palestinians and Israelis. In fact, in confronting Israel, the Palestinians - and that is why it is a central cause in the anti-colonial and anti-imperialist struggle - clash with the entire imperialist camp. And Israel is not isolated, because precisely, there is this support. In reality, let's imagine that tomorrow there is a democratic and secular Palestinian state, where Muslims, Christians, atheists live together, the end of Israel would mean that the whole imperialist strategy has failed. Israel is a tool of the great powers and of course benefits from imperialist strategies.
What's left of Frantz Fanon's message?
Unfortunately, Fanon's message has been largely forgotten. Fanon said: "pay attention to the emergence of business managers of the West in the newly independent countries", that is to say, people who will do the work the West did before with its army. It tends to be forgotten. The message of hope is that, on Frantz Fanon, in particular, we see his name come back while he had completely disappeared. A new generation rediscovers Fanon, unfortunately after several decades of forgetfulness, and we see more and more Fanon quoted and more and more young people take back his image. There is a return to Fanon and this is good news.
What prompted you to write your book “Manuel stratégique de l’Afrique“?
What prompted me to write this book was the tiredness of the wars that followed each other. And in "wars", I put the black decade in Algeria until the French intervention in Mali. The question was "what is happening on this continent?" and the need to answer all the theories that were given to us, which were culturalist theories, that is to say we were told the war in Algeria as an opposition between Muslims and military, elsewhere we were told that it was tribes that were fighting each other. All of this seemed completely wrong to me in relation to the realities. So I went to look at what was common in all these wars. Of course, I had intuitions and I actually came across the confirmation of my intuitions. All these wars have one thing in common: the economic challenge. Whether in Algeria, we must have in mind the interests of the major powers for Algerian oil and gas, whether it is in the Congo with these wars that do not end and the wealth of the Congo. In fact, the African continent is the richest continent and the continent where we still make discoveries of ores and oil in the sea offshore, and it is, therefore, an enormous challenge for the great powers and there are wars to control the spaces of raw materials. In addition, the great fear of Western countries was the emergence of new countries like China, India or Brazil that trade with African countries and trade with more egalitarian rules and with less domination. And, indeed, it is the direct interest of the great imperialist powers that is at stake. When Algeria makes a contract with China for the construction of roads, etc., you imagine that those who used to consider Algeria as their market are not happy. When it is the Congo that has a contract, Belgium cannot be happy. And so, there are these two factors that combine and explain the African drama, because it's a real drama. From Algiers to the Congo, there have been dozens of wars since independence, and I have only spoken of wars since independence, I did not talk about wars of independence. I just reported the ones from 1960 until today. All these wars are the same.
Why did you choose the Investing’action editions of our friend Michel Collon? Have other publishers refused to publish your book? Is your book disturbing? Have you been censored?
No, I have not been censored. I did not even think of presenting this book to other publishers for the simple reason that I know very well where we are today in many publishing houses on anti-imperialist issues. This project was born following a number of articles that I wrote on the news and where, while talking with Michel, he told me: “But Saïd, you do not realize, you told us about Algeria, you told us about Congo, you told us about this and that, when do you make us an overall book?” This is how this book was made. Quite frankly, I do not see major publishers taking it back today. It is unimaginable in the French-speaking world. It is different in other countries, for example in England.
Or in the United States.
Yes, in the United States, it would be different, but in the French-speaking world, it is clear that publishing houses today are closed on these issues.
What the committed, anti-imperialist, intellectual that you are, can say to the anti-imperialist and anti-Zionist resistance fighters?
That we must never despair of peoples. There are times when we believe that things are over, there are times when we despair of seeing failures, but in reality, as long as oppression exists, resistance exists, and we are sometimes surprised that two years after our despair, well, there is an offensive in a country we did not think at all. I think we came out of the recoil period. We must not underestimate what happened in Syria, which is the end of this process of decline; we must not underestimate the resistance in Latin America, Venezuela, Nicaragua, etc.
In Cuba.
In Cuba, yes. All this points to one thing: since the collapse of the Soviet Union, we were going from recoil to recoil, people were losing, losing, losing. And there, there is a stop. Of course, we have retreated so much that we have trouble to learn the facts. But if we combine all this, if we look at the struggles in all countries, we see a youth that mobilizes, etc. So, yes, in the short term, at a year or two, there is no immediate change, but we see that people are beginning to learn from this period of twenty-five years of decline. And today, we have breakpoints. For example, they eliminated Gbagbo, but look at the number of protesters demanding that Gbagbo come back. It was unimaginable a few years ago. And so, we can see that something is moving in anti-imperialism and I think we are entering a new mobilization sequence. That's for the southern countries. For here, it's to us to be up to it, to live up to the challenge and to make known the struggles that will develop.
Do not you think that we need a global anti-imperialist and anti-Zionist front that will be decisive in the struggles ahead?
My previous book, just before the last one, is a book called "La Tricontinentale : les peuples du Tiers-Monde à l’assaut du ciel ". Why did I write this book? Because the tri-continental conference in Cuba in 1965-1966 was the moment in which there was a unity of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and that at the same time, all the progressive movements in Europe were in support of the Tricontinental. It was the moment when we were furthest, I think, in this movement. If I wrote this book, it's because I think it's time to find that kind of dynamic.
Interview realized by Mohsen Abdelmoumen
Who is Dr. Saïd Bouamama?
Saïd Bouamama is a sociologist, activist and political Algerian residing in France. A doctor in socio-economics, he has written mainly on topics related to immigration, such as discrimination and racism. As one of the founders of “the Indigenous of the Republic” movement, he is also affiliated to the CGT (General Confederation of Labor), one of the spokespersons of the Committee to support undocumented migrants in Lille (France), and a member of the Communist Coordination. Member of the Association Intervention Formation Action Recherche (IFAR), he is responsible for research and the training of social workers. He is also a member of P.H.A.R.E. (Praxis History Action-Research Popular Education for Equality), organization of sociological intervention that he co-founded.
He is among the founders and animators of the United Front of Immigration and popular districts created in 2012 following two national rallies: the Social Forum of the popular districts and the National Meetings of the immigration’s struggles.
He committed to the release of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah on several occasions.
He wrote several books, including: Dictionnaire des dominations de sexe, de race, de classe, Collectif Manouchian : Saïd Bouamama, Jessy Cormont, Yvon Fotia, Édition Syllepse, 2012 ; Femmes des quartiers populaires, en résistance contre les discriminations, women of Blanc-Mesnil with Saïd Bouamama & Zouina Meddour, Le Temps des Cerises, 2013 ; Figures de la révolution africaine. De Kenyatta à Sankara, La Découverte, 2014 ; La Tricontinentale. Les peuples du tiers-monde à l'assaut du ciel, CETIM et Syllepse, 2016 ; Manuel stratégique de l’Afrique Investing’Action, 2018.
Mohsen Abdelmoumen
Mohsen Abdelmoumen is an independent Algerian journalist. He wrote in several Algerian newspapers such as Alger Républicain and in different sites of the alternative press.
Mohsen Abdelmoumen: Your book “L'immigration en France” contradicts the theses of far-right political parties that use the theme of im...
Mohsen Abdelmoumen: How do you, as a sociologist, view recent events in Algeria? In your opinion, haven't the demonstrations that have tak...
Mohsen Abdelmoumen: You mentioned the concept of "rupture without denial". Can you explain to us what you mean by that? How can we make a ...
Abdel Bari Atwan: “The Peoples Reject Normalization with Israel”
Mohsen Abdelmoumen: What is your analysis of the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories and in Gaza? Abdel Bari Atwan: The Pal...
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Rifts in Turkey's ruling party could lead to early elections - pro gov't columnist
The loss of important cities, including Istanbul and Ankara, in this year’s local elections is a stronger blow to Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) than President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is letting on, and the rifts in the party could lead to early elections, said Abdulkadir Selvi, a writer known for his links to the AKP, in a column for Turkish daily Hürriyet.
Erdoğan has told AKP lawmakers that the loss of mayoral races in the capital city of Ankara, the country’s largest city and financial hub, Istanbul, and four more of its 10 largest cities was not of great consequence, Selvi said.
The statements are a far cry from the president’s rhetoric in the run-up to the March 31 polls, in which Erdoğan said the local elections were a “matter of national survival” and accused opposition politicians of plotting with enemies of the country.
Selvi said Erdoğan appears to have decided to blame his losses on March 31 and in the June 23 Istanbul rerun on “backstabbers” and “traitors” rather than engaging in sincere self-criticism and reshuffling his cabinet.
Yet, it may be a mistake for Erdoğan to disregard the importance of opposition victories and the role of his party’s mistakes in them, Selvi said, warning that the “ground has started to shift” under the ruling party since the elections.
One reason for that is the AKP’s attempt to hang on to Istanbul, which voted for main opposition Republican People’s Party mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu with a slim majority on March 31. The ruling party came out in force to attempt to change the result through recounts, before pressuring the Supreme Election Council (YSK) to hold a rerun on the grounds that electoral fraud had taken place.
This created a sense of victimhood around the CHP candidate that helped him achieve a landslide victory when the rerun was held on June 23, Selvi said, adding that İmamoğlu’s excellent handling of pressure throughout the process had also played a major role in his win.
Whether İmamoğlu can continue that success until 2023, when the next presidential and parliamentary elections are due to be held, will be a main driver of the results of those elections, Selvi said.
However, with the decision of former AKP stalwarts, including ex-deputy prime minister Ali Babacan, former president Abdullah Gül and former prime minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, to form two new political parties, the wait for another vote may not be that long, said the columnist.
Some commentators have speculated that early elections could be called if a large enough number of AKP deputies defect to new political parties.
It would not be simple to force through early elections, as this would require a large majority in parliament.
http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/yazarlar/abdulkadir-selvi/secimler-2023e-kalir-mi-41269071
Ankara must be wary of 'Jewish forces influencing Russia' despite S-400s – pro-gov’t columnist
Turkey building 137 new prisons
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Road Trip! Destination: Baltimore | TribLIVE.com
Road Trip! Destination: Baltimore
Bob Karlovits
Sat., November 29, 2014 7:57 p.m. | Saturday, November 29, 2014 7:57 p.m.
Ken Stanek Photography
Baltimore’s Inner Harbor
Geppi’s Entertainment Museum
In “Milestones: African-Americans in Comics, Pop Culture and Beyond,” Baltimore's Geppi’s Entertainment Museum looks at innovations from or influences by black creators.
Jewish Museum of Maryland
The early American flag is on display at the Jewish Museum of Maryland in Baltimore.
Reginald F. Lewis Museum
Sheila Pree Bright's 'TeKeyia and David' is among the works on display in Baltimore's Reginald F. Lewis Museum's exhibit 'For Whom It Stands.'
Baltimore celebrates the season with Inner Harbor Christmas
American Visionary Art Museum
Howard Finster's 'Sneakers (#2000 - 224),' 1981
Baltimore's M&T Bank Stadium
Walters Art Museum
The Walters Art Musem in Baltimore looks at the early evolution in the information industry in the exhibit “From Pen to Press: Experimentation and Innovation in the Age of Print.”
Driving distance:
Driving time: 41⁄2 hours
Baltimore is a city with plenty to do.
By itself, the Inner Harbor area offers great food and drink, the National Aquarium and the U.S.S. Constellation, the last sail-only warship built by the Navy.
Those items are only a start to a city with professional sports teams (yes, even the Ravens), a symphony orchestra and a few neighborhoods that alone are worth the trip.
But Baltimore also is a place with museums and galleries that are hosts to tempting tourist-ready events.
Some of the current ones are holiday-related, but the best are those that share some of Baltimore’s secrets.
Ho, ho, Harbor
One of the biggest elements of the worldwide celebration of Christmas has returned to West Shore Park on Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.
The German Christmas Market brings a touch of central Europe to town with 45 vendors and their arts and crafts in a heated tent near a huge holiday tree.
A Bavarian beer garden offers pretzels, bratwurst and gingerbread along with brews. There are daily concerts by choirs, bands and other performers with themed weekend events.
The market runs through Dec. 24. Weekdays are free.
For weekend events and admission: 443-760-0686 or baltimore-christmas.com
And, say, you can see
Baltimore is an appropriate place to have any kind of examination of the United States flag. After all, the Star-Spangled Banner got its name in one explosive night at Fort McHenry.
The Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture is looking at how people of all races and colors have had a role in making the flag a symbol of freedom. “For Whom It Stands” has more than 100 pieces of art, artifacts and documents showing the American experience with the flag.
It includes works by white, black, Arab- and Israeli-Americans among others and has a sound installation with many interpretations of the national anthem.
It runs through Feb. 28 and is included with admission, which is $8, $6 for seniors, students and ages 7 to 17, and free for those younger.
Details: 443-263-1800 or rflewismuseum.org
A-Mazing exploits
Mendes Cohen did it all. Or so it seems.
The Jewish Museum of Maryland tells the story of the exploits of the banker-philanthropist-adventurer who was part of the small Jewish population of Baltimore in the early 1800s.
“The A-Mazing Mendes Cohen” looks at his experiences in the city when the British were threatening Fort McHenry, at the Vatican for the installation of a pope and sailing down the Nile.
It does so in the form of a maze where visitors can make choices of directions they want to go, seeing exhibits of his various adventures.
It is open through June 14. Admission is $8, $6 for seniors, $4 for students and $3 for those under 12.
Details: 410-732-6400 or jewishmuseummd.org
A new way of thinking
America’s founding fathers, dreamers, saints, inventors and scientists all share one part of their realities: the “a ha!” moments when ideas strike.
The American Visionary Art Museum looks at those moments in “The Visionary Experience: St. Francis to Finster.”
In pieces of art that represent such thinking, it looks at the philosophy of the Roman Catholic saint, the spirituality of guitarist Jimi Hendrix and the religion of science-fiction author Philip K. Dick.
It leads viewers down the road of ancient and futuristic thought, where the voice of brilliance beckoned its listeners.
It runs through Aug. 30. Admission is $15.95, $13.95 for seniors, $9.95 for students and children, and free for those under 6.
Details: 410-244-1900 or avam.org
You can’t tell a book …
Decades from now — perhaps even sooner — the Walters Art Museum might have a display called “The Disappearance of the Book.”
For now, though, it is looking at the early evolution in the information industry: “From Pen to Press: Experimentation and Innovation in the Age of Print.”
It deals with the time when Johannes Gutenberg’s Bible in 1455 was a new, experimental medium. New formats and failed experiments developed into new forms of books.
The display examines manuscripts and early printed books and deals with issues such as how printers developed typefaces for use in these early works.
As the digital age continues, this display is a timely look at a technological revolution.
It runs through April 12. Admission is free.
Details: 410-547-9000 or thewalters.org
Something of a Marvel
African-American contributions to music, art and film are well known, but Geppi’s Entertainment Museum is looking at a role that is a bit Marvel-ous.
“Milestones: African-Americans in Comics, Pop Culture and Beyond” is a exhibit on innovations from or influences by black creators.
They include work in companies like Dark Horse, DC and Marvel Comics. It is a complete look at the black role in comic-book and graphic-novel history, curator Michael Davis says.
It will close at the end of the year. Admission is $10, $9 for seniors, $7 for those age 5 to 18 and free for those 4 and younger.
Details: 410-625-7060 or geppismuseum.com
May the Armed Forces be with you
Of course, events that are held only once a year have a great deal of significance. Christmas, for example. Or the Army-Navy game.
This year’s clash between the Black Knights of West Point and the Midshipmen of the nearby Naval Academy will be Dec. 13 at M&T Bank Stadium.
This is the third time M&T has played host to the classic, with previous stops in 2000 and 2007. It will return in 2016.
In 114 games, the Naval Academy has a 58-49-7 edge.
Details: 410-261-7283 or baltimoreravens.com
Bob Karlovits is staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at [email protected] or 412-320-7852.
Good Ship Lollipop offers cruise through time
WPXI co-anchor departing; replacement named
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Jury selected for Millvale police officer’s stun gun trial | TribLIVE.com
Jury selected for Millvale police officer’s stun gun trial
Wed., November 12, 2014 3:18 p.m. | Wednesday, November 12, 2014 3:18 p.m.
A jury has been selected to decide whether a Millvale police officer violated a suspect’s civil rights by repeatedly zapping him with a stun gun, even after he was handcuffed — an encounter recorded on another person’s cellphone.
The attorney for Millvale Officer Nicole Murphy doesn’t dispute she used the stun gun on Thomas Jason James Smith after his arrest for public drunkenness in September 2012. Rather, he contends the 30-year-old officer was justified in using it because she was trying to stop Smith from banging his head.
“This guy was out of control. They believed he was on some other kind of substance,” defense attorney Robert Stewart said after Murphy’s arraignment in June. “She had a choice of Tasering him to subdue him or letting him split his head open.”
Stewart didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment following jury selection Wednesday.
Opening statements in the case are scheduled to begin Monday morning in federal court.
The FBI began investigating after someone leaked a 52-second cellphone video of the incident to Pittsburgh-area media outlets in early 2013.
The video shows a shirtless Smith, then 28, sitting on the floor of the police station while he banged his head on the edge of a desk. Murphy then zaps him with the stun gun. Murphy reported in a criminal complaint that she used the stun gun to subdue Smith when he became violent, but Smith isn’t seen attacking her in the video.
The video also shows some emergency responders smiling and laughing at Smith’s behavior.
The prosecution and defense haven’t specified who took the video. Court documents filed in recent weeks suggest the case will boil down to the testimony of Murphy — who remains on unpaid leave — and another officer, part-timer Casey Bonincontro.
Prosecutors have asked the court for permission to raise issues relating to Murphy’s character if she testifies.
According to pretrial motions, prosecutors want to ask Murphy about a 2011 drunken driving arrest and about a man Murphy allegedly befriended or dated “who was known to her to have a drug-related criminal record.” Stewart has argued neither is relevant.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, are concerned that Stewart plans to use Bonincontro’s personnel files with the borough and other departments to allegedly show she violated various on-the-job rules.
The judge has yet to rule whether any of that can be used at trial.
The charge Murphy faces carries up to 10 years in prison and, because it’s a felony, would end her law enforcement career even if she avoids incarceration.
Popular DJ a favorite with station’s sponsors
Pittsburgh puts database of 3,000 city-owned properties for sale online
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Home / ASCENT Online / 2011 / Autumn 2011 / Rock Solid
To walk through Orton Geological Museum is to walk though time—the Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, and a few more geological ages. It is also to walk through the prehistory of Ohio and the history of Ohio State from its beginning.
Located on the Oval, landmark Orton Hall, named for Ohio State’s first president and first geology professor, Edward Orton, the museum’s first 10,000 specimens came from Orton’s own teaching collection.
Scattered throughout the massive collection are specimens numbered on the back by Orton himself, their numbers still vivid red after all these years. “We don’t know what he used; we just know that we can’t wash them,” Bill Ausich, earth sciences professor and museum director, said.
Fossil skeletons, meteorites, mastodon teeth, crystals, minerals, and fossils from Ohio and around the world, from Antarctica to Siberia, abound.
A replica of a Tyrannosaurus rex skull (the original is housed at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC)
Visitors are immediately greeted, or accosted, depending on the visitor’s frame of mind, by the 7-foot fossil skeleton of the giant ground sloth, Megalonyx jeffersoni, or “Jeff,” as he is affectionately known around Orton Hall.
While the collection is invaluable as source material for both teaching and research and is used by faculty and students on campus and off, it is the museum’s outreach efforts that set it apart from the other Arts and Sciences museums. It is the only one open to the public daily, 8 am – 5 pm, with the only gift shop.
Its curator, Dale Gnidovec, gives a staggering array of guided tours and talks. In 2010, the museum’s electronic counter told him that 12,264 people came through the heavy oak doors. Gnidovec personally gave tours to 47 groups that served 1,532 people—both adults and children.
The museum is a popular destination for school groups of all ages, along with Scouts—Boy, Girl, and Cub. Other special groups include retirement communities, metro park naturalists, teachers, and a diverse range of Ohio State classes, from civil engineering and biology to art and poetry.
Ausich said, “We bring the community to campus. Going out to the community is great, but this is more valuable. It shows kids what they can become and how they can fit in.”
“This is objective reality. I’m not a big fan of virtual museums. The thrill of putting a fossil in a child’s hand and watching that growing sense of wonder cannot be duplicated online.”
Both Ausich and Gnidovec offer a free fossil identification service and said, “We never know what we’re going to get. Lately, we’ve had a run of horse teeth.” “The best-ever,” Gnidovec said, “was the call I had from a woman who asked me to ID a rock over the phone. I asked, ‘What does it look like?’ ‘”Like a rock,’ she said. ‘What color is it?’ Well, it’s kind of rock-colored,’ she said.”
Orton museum curator Dale Gnidovec (left) and Earth Sciences Professor and museum curator Bill Ausich
Additionally, Gnidovec gives talks and tours throughout the area, including a twice-yearly fossil tour at the Ohio Statehouse, which was built out of Columbus limestone complete with wonderful fossils.
“This is a fun place for kids and hobbyists, but good science is done here. We take care of all of these collections for the scientists who come after us,” Gnidovec said.
“It is first and foremost an invaluable and unparalleled research resource that is in constant use, available not only to our own faculty and students but to scientists around Ohio and across the globe,” Ausich said.
"But more than that, we are literally preserving pieces of the earth and have an archive for the future. We cannot anticipate questions scientists will be asking in the next century— we don’t even know yet what could be important."
“And we can’t even dream of what future techniques could be used for extracting information from fossils and rocks,” Gnidovec said. “But if we don’t have the collections, they can’t be studied.”
Learn more about the Orton Geological museum.
This is the third, and concluding, feature on the museums of the College of Arts and Sciences. Be sure to read the other two stories Behind Closed Doors and Revealing the Past. A gift to the Orton Museum Support Fund #308759 can help preserve this resource for future generations.
Message from Dean Steinmetz
Where Ancient and Modern Ohio Meet
Earthworks Interactive
Making the Connection
Behavior and the Brain
Better Living Through Chemistry
To Cure What Ails Us
From India to Ohio State
Conversation on Immigration
Home is Where the Art Is
Back In Orbit
Remembering Robert Reusché
Pachyderms on Parade
Science & Scholarship
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Home News SDCC 2012 – IDW announces ‘My Little Pony’ comic series
SDCC 2012 – IDW announces ‘My Little Pony’ comic series
MattG July 16, 2012 Leave a Comment
Here’s one for the Bronies out there – IDW and Hasbro have announced the November launch of their My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic comic series. Taking a note from the hugely popular animated series, the comic will feature the stars of the show and appeal to all ages of pony fans. Check out the full press release after the jump.
San Diego, CA (July 13, 2012) – At Comic-Con International, IDW Publishing and Hasbro, Inc. teamed up to announce the addition of yet another hugely successful brand to their portfolio. Based on the Hasbro characters from the popular My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic animated series, created by Hasbro Studios and currently airing on The HUB TV Network in the US, IDW’s MY LITTLE PONY: FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC comics will offer all-new stories featuring the beloved ponies: TWILIGHT SPARKLE, PINKIE PIE, RARITY, FLUTTERSHY, RAINBOW DASH, and APPLEJACK.
“My Little Pony is a highly successful brand and we’re incredibly excited to have the opportunity to extend the franchise through this collaboration with Hasbro,” said IDW CEO and Publisher, Ted Adams. “We look forward to providing new stories for the fans and launching their favorite ponies into comic book form.”
Fans of the animated series will be excited to hear that the comics will stay true to its moral foundation, while providing themes and subject matter that older audiences can also appreciate. MY LITTLE PONY: FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC will bring new adventures to the ponies as they help residents of Ponyville while learning memorable lessons about the meaning of friendship.
Coming in November 2012, the series will be written by Katie Cook (Gronk), who has previously worked on DC and Marvel Comics. Taking on the artistic duties is Andy Price (DC Legacy, Batman Archives), with special covers throughout the series by artists including Jill Thompson (Sandman, Beasts of Burden), Stephanie Buscema (Womanthology), and many more.
Hasbro’s My Little Pony brand was re-launched in 2003 and has brought fun, friendship & joy to millions of kids of all ages around the globe. The My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic animated series premiered on October 10, 2010, on The Hub TV Network, gaining much acclaim due to its brilliantly written plot lines, high quality graphics as well as the overarching message of friendship!
comic book IDW My little pony San Diego Comic-con SDCC
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October 17, 2016 in News
The Arab World Internet Institute is glad to become part of the Global Network of Internet and Society Research Centers (NoC).
The NoC was launched by a group of academic centers in 2012 in recognition of the lack of internationally coordinated research and engagement activities in issues concerning the Internet and related technologies. The NoC is a collaborative initiative among academic institutions with a focus on interdisciplinary research on the development, social impact, policy implications, and legal issues concerning the Internet. This collective aims to increase interoperability between participating centers in order to stimulate the creation of new cross-national, cross-disciplinary conversation, debate, teaching, learning, and engagement regarding the most pressing questions around new technologies, social change, and related policy and regulatory developments.
The full list of the NoC members is available at http://networkofcenters.net/centers and it includes centers like Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, MIT Center for Civic Media and Oxford Internet Institute at University of Oxford.
Network of Centers
Maysaa Handila
Maysaa is leading the Institute Public Relations and Stakeholders Engagement. She holds a master’s degree in communication and cultural mediation from the Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris and a bachelor’s degree in English literature and translation from Birzeit University Palestine.
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The Duffels
The Rollers
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Journal The Devil's In the Details
The Devil's In the Details
Author Will Taylor
"How can we make a piece of luggage that’s really pretty simple, and keep it that way, but also make it better in every way—quality, durability, functionality?" Malcolm Vetterlein, co-founder of BAD BAGS said of the company's guiding principles in the early days. "That’s what the premise was. Those were the keys we focused on. It’s still that way."
BAD has been making their legendary duffels with the same made-in-America, quality construction for nearly 30 years. Their top-shelf material and construction process continues to prove itself, with many customers still happy with their BAD BAGS after decades of use.
Here, we'll take a look at the details of a BAD duffel bag and what makes a simple concept great.
The body of all BAD BAGS are made from 1,000 denier Cordura Classic. This nylon-based fabric is extremely abrasion resistant and used in everything from motorcycle jackets to footwear to luggage to extensive military applications, where it has been a go-to for 45 years. The air-textured nylon weave is highly water repellent and tear resistant while still being light and packable. This fabric is perfect for the most intense uses: exactly what was needed.
A zipper can be the weakest point on a bag and is often the first place to break. Vetterlein wanted to forego the standard straight-zip opening, though, and instead opt for a clam-shell zipper that would allow easy packing and unpacking because of the wide opening—and also reduce the stress on the zipper from tension. There was really only one name they had to look at: YKK. YKK is the standard setter in the zipper world and their #10 coil zipper offered smooth action and extreme strength, even when the bag is over stuffed. The zipper's beefy sliders (pulls) are easy to handle (even when wearing gloves) and overlap for locking. The action between the coils and the zipper pull can only be described as buttery and is still one of the most pleasing features on the bag.
When he went looking for straps for the bags, Vetterlein was kind of stumped. There was not a lot of extremely durable, wide webbing out there at the time and what little there was wasn't aesthetically pleasing, he said. He found not only inspiration from the seat belt in his car but also just what he needed. Seat belts are made to withstand 6,000 pounds of force before breaking—more than enough for a good duffel. They're super tough and durable; plus, they look good. Problem solved.
The seams that join the duffel pieces together are stitched once and then reinforced over the top with a piece of binding tape to cover the raw edges and increase strength. The handles are cross- and box-stitched to increase strength in high-tension areas, and the hardware on the bags are all nickel-plated stainless steel to withstand huge loads and never rust. The bags are all constructed in the Seattle by a highly skilled team with an eye for quality.
"We wanted to make a bag that would work for the most extreme uses," Vetterlein said. "Most people probably won't need that in their day-to-day travels but over-built is better than under-built. In today's throw-away society, making products that will last a lifetime is good for the consumer and the environment."
Finally, all is lost if not for good customer service.
"For me, it was a no-brainer," Vetterlein said of providing personalized service to BAD BAGS customers.
He and his wife, Lisa, respond to all customer inquiries. Those resources also include a lifetime manufacturing guarantee and repairs.
"We're not trying to fake anything," Vetterlein says. "We just make our duffels the way most people would want it done."
If what you want is an extremely durable, good-looking bag that will last for years and is backed up by a family-run company right here in the USA, look no further than BAD BAGS.
BAD BAGS, Inc 2018
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Gordon’s Dry Gin, London, England, Reg’d 610617
The initial Gordon’s Distillery dates back to 1769 in London and they began making a form of dry gin sometime after the advent of continuous distillation in the 1830’s.
Gordon & Company merged with Tanqueray in 1898 and it was around this time that listings for Gordon Dry Gin began to appear in U.S. newspaper advertisements. The first mention that I could find in a New York City newspaper were several advertisements for Macy’s, who listed Gordons Gin under the heading “Fine Wines for Medicinal Use.” According to this advertisement, printed in the February 19, 1903 issue of The Sun, you could find Gordon’s Gin on the fifth floor.
Gordon’s advertisements in several 1915 issues of Life Magazine advertised drinks that were made with Gordon’s Gin. These included mint juleps, orange blossoms, gin daiseys and south sides.
Around this time, Gordons was apparently having problems with supply, price and authenticity in this country. Statements made to the American public contained in Life Magazine bear this out. The content of two statements is shown below.
This last advertisement mentioned the establishment of a modern bottling operation in New York City which they apparently accomplished in 1916. It was listed in the various NYC Directories between 1916 and 1922 as Gordon’s Dry Gin Co., Ltd, a New York Corporation located at 101 Park Avenue. Not surprisingly, by 1925 they were no longer listed.
In 1934, shortly after Prohibition ended, Gordon’s opened a United States distillery in Linden New Jersey. The plant remained in operation until 1984 when Distiller’s Company Ltd., who had acquired Tanguery Gordon & Co. in 1923, closed it down.
Most of the 1930’s post prohibition advertisements that I could find reference the Linden N.J. location.
Gordon’s is now part of Diageo.
Today, 101 Park Avenue is a 49-story skyscraper opened in the early 1980’s that in no way is associated with the business.
The bottle I found is a typical Gordon’s bottle described in the statement above with space for the label below the embossed registration number. The Design Registration No 610617 on the bottle that I found dates between 1912 and 1913. It’s mouth blown and that makes me think it was imported from England between 1913 and 1915 and not made in the United States. Anything made in the United States in 1916 from a newly established bottling plant would probably have been machine-made. I have also seen machine made versions of this bottle that were likely made in America.
Author baybottlPosted on November 7, 2016 January 5, 2018 Categories LiquorTags antique bottle, BIM, Linden N.J., Summerset Importers, Tanguery Gordon & Co.
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S5W-10395: Mike Rumbles (North East Scotland)
Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: 24 July 2017
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to (a) promote and (b) improve the sustainability of (i) agricultural and (ii) wild land.
Answered by: Fergus Ewing 15 August 2017
(i) Agricultural land
The Scottish Government continues to promote and improve the sustainability of agricultural land through the provision of Direct Payments and the Scottish Rural Development Programme (SRDP) of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Since 2015, farmers in receipt of CAP direct payments have been required to carry out relevant Greening measures on their land. Introduced by the European Commission to make the direct payments system more environmentally friendly, the Scottish Government has taken an ambitious approach to delivering environmental outcomes through Greening, in order to address a range of environmental challenges, particularly in relation to climate change and biodiversity. The SRDP supports farming and crofting, including on remote and fragile land, agri-environment actions on agricultural land and a Farm Advisory Service which includes advice for farmers on resource efficiency and environmental and climate change actions.
(ii) Wild lands
Scotland’s scenery and landscapes remain the key motivation for visiting Scotland and the Scottish Government will continue to work closely with our public and private sector partners to promote our wild lands in order to drive inclusive growth in our visitor economy and to deliver a high-quality, sustainable visitor experience. In 2014 the Scottish Government adopted National Planning Framework 3 and a revised Scottish Planning Policy. They identified areas of wild land, as shown on the Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) 2014 Map, as a nationally important asset that requires significant protection from inappropriate development. This policy commitment is underpinned by a broader recognition, as clearly stated in National Planning Framework 3, that our world-class environment is an integral part of our culture, heritage and identity that we will respect and enhance.
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Home > AIPAC, Iran, Israel, Middle East > Former AIPAC-er Keith Weissman Talks About AIPAC’s Influence on U.S. Policy for PBS’ Frontline
Former AIPAC-er Keith Weissman Talks About AIPAC’s Influence on U.S. Policy for PBS’ Frontline
June 12, 2011 BeyondZS
In a just released interview by Robert Dreyfuss for Frontline’s Tehran Bureau, Keith Weissman talks about his stint at AIPAC. Weissman and fellow staffer Steve Rosen were indicted for espionage for allegedly passing documents to Israeli intelligence officers. These charges were eventually dropped – and the whole incident appears to be nothing more than the usual Inside The Beltway exchange of information that goes on 24 hours a day.
In the interview, Weissman paints a very flattering picture of himself and his influence within AIPAC. The most interesting details concern Iran – his personal point of view along with AIPAC’s:
The reason why I want to tell this story now is, we may be going down a path, helped along by the American Jewish community, and maybe even Israel, that is going to be worse even than the one we’re on now – some sort of military confrontation with Iran. That worries me. Because they will be able to blame [it] on the Jews, to a great extent,” says Weissman, who worked at AIPAC from 1993 until 2005, much of that time as the group’s deputy director of foreign policy. Though Weissman disagrees sharply with those who say that AIPAC played a critical role in pushing for the 2003 U.S. decision to invade Iraq, he believes a war with Iran — which he says “would be the stupidest thing I ever heard of” — might well be blamed on AIPAC’s leaders and their constituents. “What the Jews’ war will be is Iran,” he says. “Not Iraq.”:
Most of the rest of the information that he reveals isn’t necessary anything new – but does lend credence to what many observers have already presumed. One of the most interesting assertions is that following the Oslo peace process, AIPAC moved away from the Rabin government because they did not agree with his movement towards peace:
“Because of AIPAC, with the assistance of the right-wing in Israel, who — even though they weren’t the majority in Israel then — they’d come over and have very close contacts with AIPAC’s leaders, prominent financiers, and donors, in order to influence policy…. It was all because of the money that would go from the American Jewish community to politicians in the United States. The pro-Israel bloc in Congress has nothing to do with parties. It had to do with friendship and loyalty. I learned this over time. This is the secret of AIPAC’s power, its ability to fund campaigns. When people got together, they’d find ways, even if they’d given a ton of money to AIPAC, they’d still find ways to get money to candidates, Republican or Democrat.”
Though the advent of Oslo raised hopes among Israelis and Palestinians alike that a peace accord might work, inside AIPAC there was strong discontent with Oslo and its implications, and a lot of sympathy for hardliners in Israel, including Benjamin Netanyahu, the bitterest opponent of Oslo and its backers, including Yitzhak Rabin, the prime minister. As M. J. Rosenberg, a former AIPAC official, has documented, AIPAC moved steadily to the right from the 1980s onward. According to Weissman, that happened mostly because the group’s biggest donors were right-wing American Jews who identified with Likud rather than the Labor Party and other liberal Israelis. Many of its donors and some its staff split from AIPAC during the Rabin-Oslo era to work with more right-wing groups such as the Zionist Organization of America, says Weissman. After Rabin was assassinated by an Israeli extremist opposed to giving up the occupied territories, an increasingly right-leaning Israel and AIPAC moved more and more into sync. As Weissman tells the story:
“So Rabin is shot. I mean, he won Oslo in the Knesset by one vote! You could imagine that in America there was similar opposition [to Oslo]…. AIPAC had spent the last 15 years helping the Likud, so you’ve got people there that were sucking at the teat of Likud, that was how they viewed things. That’s why so many people left AIPAC. A lot of them went to join ZOA and a lot of them also contributed to the work of Daniel Pipes. When Rabin came in, they had taken their money and left, and there was a lot of turmoil. At the time, I remember, they’d send me around the country, to fundraisers, with a lot of older people, and I would be yelled and screamed at, ‘I can’t believe you’re doing this!’ Donors were leaving, taking the money, and that’s really their bread and butter, the lay leadership. AIPAC’s donors were very active in the organization. Very. They were major elements in making policy, in determining the agenda, who the leadership was.
“I tried my best to sell the peace process. But I tried to sell it in the context of what AIPAC was, that this was the way that Israel could become a permanent Middle East country. But the ideological war inside the Israel lobby, collectively, was extremely bitter — and very close, you know, the tally of votes was very close. I would argue that while most American Jews are probably center-left, the rich ones, the ones who give to organizations, the ones who are involved in politics, tend to be more to the right. Those are the ones who were close to the Israeli government when it was run by the Likud.”
Rabin, in his last years, was angry at AIPAC’s obstructionism, says Weissman. (According to M. J. Rosenberg, in New York Rabin met with liberal Jewish donors and asked them to help finance what become the Israel Policy Forum as a very small but not ineffective counterweight to AIPAC.)
Read the entire story: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2011/06/aipac-from-the-inside-1-isolating-iran.html
AIPAC’s Unrivalled Power (tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com)
Categories: AIPAC, Iran, Israel, Middle East Tags: AIPAC, American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Benjamin Netanyahu, Iran, Israel, Keith Weissman, Middle East, Yitzhak Rabin
Critical Meeting Between Fatah and Hamas Tomorrow re: Unification Government This One Too Good To Miss – Ahmadinejad and Staff May Be Under Sorcerer’s Spell!
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All posts tagged Royal Horse Guards
“A horrible long way away” from her new husband
Ivy, Marchioness of Titchfield (1887-1982) was a new bride when she wrote this letter to Ralph Glyn. She was the niece of the Duke of Richmond, and married William, Marquess of Titchfield (1893-1977), heir to the Duke of Portland and a serving officer in the Royal Horse Guards, on 12 August 1915.
Sept 20th [1915]
Langwell
Berriedale, RSO
Dear Captain Glyn
Thank you so much for your kind letter of congratulation from the Dardanelles. Titchfield is there with Byng. He arrived on the 4th September. It will be awfully interesting for him seeing both campaigns, having been in France since August last year, but it is a horrible long way away & news is scanty.
I am told you are back so send this to the WO & shall hope to see you if I am in London.
Thanking you again for your good wishes.
Yrs Ivy Titchfield
Letter from Lady Titchfield to Ralph Glyn (D/EGL/C31/20)
by berkshirerecordoffice on 20 September, 2015 • Permalink
Posted in New opportunities and other changes for Berkshire's women, News from the Front: the grim reality of war
Tagged Byng, Caithness, Dardanelles, France, Leave, Portland, Ralph Glyn, Romance, Royal Horse Guards, Titchfield, Weddings
Posted by berkshirerecordoffice on 20 September, 2015
https://berkshirevoiceswwi.wordpress.com/2015/09/20/a-horrible-long-way-away-from-her-new-husband/
A hero’s death: who will follow his example?
One of the first Berkshire men to fall in the war was a regular soldier from Cookham Dean. He was killed at the First Battle of the Aisne which ended with stalemate. He was a private in the 1st Battalion of the Royal Berkshire Regiment. The parish magazine gave the following tribute to him:
On Sept. 14th, in the Battle of the Aisne, George Carter, of Hoveden Cottages, was killed in action. George Carter was a born soldier, he was only 23 years of age, and had served nine years in the army and had joined the Militia six months previously to entering the Regulars. He came home in February last from eight years’ service in India, the same bright cheery face greeting us as it used to do in old days when he was a boy in school. He was one of the first to be called up and went off waving his goodbyes to his many friends in the village early one morning at the beginning of August. He lies in a soldier’s grave in France, having died at the post of duty a hero’s death. His name will not be forgotten in Cookham Dean.
The list of all those who are on Active Service at the Front or who are on Home Defence or who have recently joined the Army as Recruits or who are otherwise in training will be found below. I hope it is accurate and complete; I have done my best to make it so; but it is only too possible that a mistake may have occurred here or there, if so, I hope my attention will be called to it, and that anyone concerned will kindly accept my apologies for it. It has been my earnest endeavour to avoid mistakes, and I have repeatedly asked for information, but scarcely anyone has responded to my request. Our daily prayers in Church are offered for these dear men and lads who have so nobly come forward at the call of duty. It is not too late for others to place their names on this roll of honour and there are some few whom I should be proud and pleased to see doing so. Is there no one who feels an ambition to take George Carter’s place?
The first list contains the names of those whose homes are in Cookham Dean, and who, it is believed, are actually serving at the Front or who are on Home Defence. The second list contains the names of those who have, since war was declared, joined either the Officers’ Training Corps or who are in training as recruits. On the third list are the names of some closely connected with Cookham Dean but not actually resident here.
Tagged Army, Army Ordnance Department, Bampton, Battle of the Aisne, Bishop, Blinko, Cambridge University Officers Training Corps, Carter, Cavalry Reserve, Clark, Cookham Dean, County of London Regiment, County of London Sharpshooters, Crookshank, Deadman, Druce, Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, Edwards, Franklin, Garrett, Geard, George Carter, Gloucester Regiment, Grove, Groves, Hester, Higgs, HMS Attentive, HMS Hampshire, Horne, Hunt, India, Indian Army, Inns of Court Officers Training Corps, Killed, King, Lampard, Lancers, Lawrence, London Artist Regiment, London University Officers Training Corps, Long, Luker, Markham, Middlesex Yeomanry, Militia, Mons, Navy, North Staffordshire Regiment, Officers Training Corps, Owen, Oxford & Bucks Light Infantry, Piercey, Pitt, Prince, Rifle Brigade, Royal Army Medical Corps, Royal Berkshire Regiment, Royal Engineers, Royal Field Artillery, Royal Flying Corps, Royal Horse Guards, Royal West Kent Regiment, Russell, Sandalls, Saunders, Sharp, Simmons, Skinner, Snell, South Midland Brigade, Stubbles, Submarines, Tomlinson, Tuck, Vaughan-Morgan, Victoria Rifles, Vokins, Ware, West Surrey (Queen's) Regiment, White, Winkworth, Woodbridge, Wounded
https://berkshirevoiceswwi.wordpress.com/2014/09/14/a-heros-death/
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Tomorrow’s car will be autonomous, electric and recyclable
Today they are able to drive themselves, they are battery operated and made of eco-friendly materials; cars will be safer and less polluting
People in search of sustainable living styles may now be more inclined to trade in their cars. The advantages are undeniable: quick displacements, increased mobility and autonomy. That is why, although the advances in public transportation and the return of bicycles are remarkable, you bet individual motorized transport will still be around. Not coincidentally, all advances try to make the Karl Benz’s machine safer and less polluting, referring to the German who was the first to commercially produce cars in the 19th century, even before the American Henry Ford launched the series production of Model T in 1908.
When it comes to propulsion, the big bet is the lithium-ion battery-powered motors that take the first steps after some unsuccessful initiatives in the past. For other investors, drivers won’t be necessary anymore with the rise of standalone cars. Considering what today’s cars have as trump cards – mostly made of recyclable materials like plastic and metals – can become even more environmentally friendly.
Batteries charged for an electrified future
Since the South African visionary Elon Musk launched the first Tesla Roadster in 2006, electric cars seem to have finally come to stay. From the first model, created by the Scotsman Robert Anderson in the 1830s, to the projects abandoned by major automakers such as GM’s EV1 in the early 21st century, the new generation of electric cars has gained ground with the advancement of batteries and the demand for less polluting vehicles in times of climate change.
China is the protagonist in this industry. Thanks to the country’s high levels of pollution, China is the largest consumer of electric cars worldwide, having produced 680,000 units in 2017, more than the rest of the world combined. The government is even considering applying penalties to automakers that do not provide the minimum electric rates, as well as halting the sale of gasoline vehicles. Anyone who wants to buy a battery-powered car today in China has a state subsidy of up to US$ 10,000.
Currently, there are over 300 companies working on the development of electric cars in the country, “but just a few of them are developing technology,” Brian Gu, President of XPeng Motors, said to Bloomberg. According to him, only 10% of these companies are considering innovation, while the vast majority are old players in the traditional auto industry. Tesla, by Elon Musk, headquartered in the US, faces difficulties. At the end of March, he lost US$ 5 billion in market value and suffered several casualties in his highest executive positions. At least two of these professionals have migrated to potentially competing companies like Intel and Waymo – from the same group as Google -, who are now entering the automotive industry.
Musk has benefited from subsidies in the United States, which provide a credit of US$ 7,500 for each of the first 200,000 electric vehicles sold by each manufacturer in the country. Six months after reaching this mark, the incentives decreased until they disappeared entirely after one year. With about 140,000 Teslas running through American cities, Musk’s cars will soon no longer be competitive. Analysts fear the temporary encouragement may cease to exist with President Donald Trump’s new climate policy.
Better aligned with the fight against global warming, the UK has set an end to the sale of combustion cars after 2040 and has allocated £ 1 billion in subsidies for drivers who want to buy electric or hybrid vehicles. Currently, almost every major automaker has at least one electric model in its portfolio. A ranking of the British magazine Auto Express chose the best for sale in 2018: Nissan Leaf and e-NV200 Combi, Volkswagen e-Golf and e-up!, BMW i3, Renault ZOE, Tesla Model S and Model X, Hyundai Ioniq and Smart ForTwo ED
Drivers on self-driving cars without steering wheel
The next great revolution, however, is getting the driver himself out of the equation. The latest competitor in the race for the standalone car was Intel, which has been a successful processor manufacturer thus far. Last year, the company paid US$ 15 billion for Mobileye, an Israeli startup that produces a system that predicts when the driver is about to hit something and, if necessary, triggers the brakes.
Google was one of the first to go forward. It is highly likely that the company that has designed Waymo specifically for standalone cars could be the first to put its cars on the streets with no one behind the wheel. The company executives expect a safe vehicle to be driven without any human intervention. However, no other company has reached the highest level of autonomy when the car does not even have a steering wheel and pedals and can be driven without the intervention of a driver.
Cautious analysts believe that, within 10 years, we will be able to get out of the car in front of a restaurant or theater while the car searches for a parking space by itself. GM, however, is more optimistic. By the end of next year, GM plans a similar service to that of Uber or Cabify in which one can call a vehicle via cell phone – a Chevrolet Bolt – and be taken to the destination, but without a driver.
Uber has experimented with the service for some time. However, tests were discontinued in March after a woman was hit by one of the company’s standalone cars in Arizona, causing the first fatal crash of its kind in the short history of those vehicles. Uber’s interest is not coincidental. Services such as that of the company should be the first to use standalone cars, since earnings from the services division would compensate the high cost of these vehicles at first, still not very accessible to the average consumer.
Although much of the materials that make up the cars are recyclable, from the steel bodywork to the plastic panel, there is still much to change. Last year, BMW surprised visitors at CES, the world’s most significant technology event, by presenting a concept car that had moss and other plants composing the floor. Having plants as part of the car still seems impractical, but in recent years, materials such as carbon fiber, acrylic and copper have gained space within luxury brands like Bentley. Also, vegan substitutes for leather, fast-growing woods like bamboo or even banana leaf have increased the sustainable appeal of these vehicles.
To industry pundits, such news are patterns for drivers dealing with the imminence of electric and standalone cars. “The interior will become more focused around screens, so it will be important to have analog candies to delight people”, says Gorden Wagener, Mercedes-Benz global design director, to Wired. “People like jewelry, something tactile, something you can feel, something durable.” Although they follow the developments, cars will still carry the human traits.they follow the developments, cars will still carry the human idiosyncrasies.
Content published in June 20, 2018
electric car renewable energy urban transport
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Tom Waits’ debut album was released yesterday in 1973
Tim Buckley was the first major artist to record a Waits’ song from this album, Martha. Bette Midler sang it on SNL and in her Divine Madness Tour. The Eagle’s had a hit with ‘Ol 55
Tom Waits’ debut album was released yesterday in 1973 – RARE BETTE MIDLER & TOM WAITS PHOTO, BOOK EXCERPT ABOUT THEIR RELATIONSHiP AND MORE
Today in rock history: Yesterday in history, Tom Waits released his debut album, Closing Time via Asylum Records. It was largely ignored by record buyers and made no impact on U.S. charts, but another Asylum band, The Eagles, covered one of its songs, “Ol’ ‘55” (Bette Midler and Tim Buckley also covered songs from the album (Martha)).
Below, is a photo of Bette Midler and Tom Waits rehearsing for a special live performance of “I Don’t Talk To Strangers” Surely, someone taped this.
Also, at the bottom, read about their relationship
Lowside of the Road: A Life of Tom Waits
By Barney Hoskyns
Kindle:
Tags: Book, closing time, Lowside of the Road: A Life of Tom Waits, Neil Simon's Lost in Yonkers: The Illustrated Screenplay of the Film (Newmarket Pictorial Moviebook), the troubador, Tom Waits
Bette Midler, Gigi Hadid, Taraji P. Henson, Kacey Musgraves, Christiane Amanpour to Be Honored at Variety’s Power of Women: NY
4 thoughts on “Tom Waits’ debut album was released yesterday in 1973”
Just to say, I’m loving your new getup, Mr D!
Mister D says:
I really needed to hear that cause I was crying like a baby after I gOt rid of the old one. I still have a lot to work to do on this one. I’ll write about more. One good thing is ts its smartphone ready xx
RJGinNV says:
OMG Mister D, you weren’t kidding! Love the new look!! I don’t know how you do it, but it’s awesome!!! Wishing you all the best, as always!!!!
Don Bradshaw says:
Thank you so much. I meant to post something. I did on FB, but I was up all night. Some things went missing but I it backed up. I hated it and started crying like a baby. It’s not near finished yet. There’s alotv you can do with this. Now its mobile frie?dly, ill be able to host my own photo and video galleries. And much much more. I didvBruces too. Gotta get shut eye. Xx
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utah778/iStock/GettyImages
Roles of the Three Branches of the Criminal Justice System
Melissa Sherrard
Probation Officers ... $50,160/year 2012-2016 -0.4%
The American criminal justice system is comprised of three branches: law enforcement, the courts and corrections. All operate within the confines of law, as the term "criminal justice" describes the process and government organizations that are in existence to uphold local and federal laws. The three branches of the criminal justice system work in conjunction with the different branches of government to manage crime, punish unlawful activities appropriately and offer rehabilitation services to offenders.
The law enforcement branch is comprised of police officers, sheriffs and federal agents, and often acts as the first contact between offenders and the criminal justice system. The role of law enforcement is to investigate crimes and determine when to make an arrest based on evidence and eyewitness accounts. Law enforcement officers are typically allowed great discretion when it comes to their investigations and arrests, and they often work closely with prosecutors to move the case along.
Local, state and federal courts are the places in which disputes and legal affairs are heard before a judge, and perhaps a jury. A judge will use his or her knowledge of the law to ensure the case is heard under fair and just circumstances, as the accused party is considered innocent until proven guilty. Prosecuting attorneys aim to prove the guilt of the accused, while defense attorneys work to prove that there is reasonable doubt of the guilt of the accused. In a court room evidence is examined, testimonies are given and procedures are recorded in great detail in an attempt to reconstruct the offense in question.
The corrections branch of the criminal justice system works to protect society by assigning appropriate punishments for offenders, and includes jail or prison time, parole or probation as well as rehabilitation options open to offenders. Jail time, which consists of short terms of confinement in a local facility, is typically reserved for first offenses or minor infractions of the law, while prison sentences are longer periods of incarceration, and can last for a few years to several decades. Probation and parole are other aspects of the corrections branch of the criminal justice system, and both work to ensure the offender not continue to participate in a life of crime.
EDJJ Professional Development Series: History of the Criminal Justice System
Melissa Sherrard acquired her Bachelor of Science in public relations from the University of Florida in 2007 and has been writing professionally ever since. She also has extensive hands-on experience planning weddings and other private functions. She has created original print materials including announcements, invitations and programs for weddings, corporate events and private functions.
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Sherrard, Melissa. "Roles of the Three Branches of the Criminal Justice System." , https://careertrend.com/list-7405257-roles-branches-criminal-justice-system.html. 28 November 2018.
Sherrard, Melissa. (2018, November 28). Roles of the Three Branches of the Criminal Justice System. . Retrieved from https://careertrend.com/list-7405257-roles-branches-criminal-justice-system.html
Sherrard, Melissa. "Roles of the Three Branches of the Criminal Justice System" last modified November 28, 2018. https://careertrend.com/list-7405257-roles-branches-criminal-justice-system.html
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Carmanah Technologies Outgrows Old Facilities
October 7, 2005 -
CREDIT: John McKay, Times Colonist
Tim Lo, extreme right, manufacturing manager at Carmanah, explains to foreign investors how the C&C router table works.
With back orders piling up and employees working elbow-to-elbow, Carmanah Technologies is expanding its operations in Victoria.
The publicly traded solar lighting company has leased a 25,000 square-foot warehouse off Glanford Avenue in Saanich — the former factory of kayak maker Current Designs — and will move its research and development, assembly lines and shipping there by early in the new year, says chief executive officer Art Aylesworth.
Carmanah has outgrown its rustic Harbour Road offices, but will maintain the site on Victoria’s Upper Harbour for executives, design division, sales and marketing staff and some assembly procedures. The company employs 120 in Victoria, another 50 at its road-sign division in Calgary and 25 in field offices in Toronto, California and England. Recently acquired Soltek Powersource Ltd., a solar-power systems and panel designer and manufacturer, has another 65 employees in a Central Saanich facility who will be integrated into the new plant in Saanich.
“We had to make a move. With the way we are going and how busy we are, we didn’t have a choice in the matter,” said Aylesworth.
Orders for Carmanah’s marine and aviation solar-powered LED lights have spiked heavily since hurricanes ravaged the U.S. south. The company has had to redirect orders destined for other parts of the world to the Gulf Coast as the coast guard, airports and other emergency agencies rebuild waterways, roads and runways.
Lucrative military and navy contracts have also been heavy as the U.S. continues operations in Iraq and Middle East. Carmanah’s encased lights are coveted for their durability, portability and the fact they require no hardwire hookups and virtually no maintenance.
Aylesworth said back orders for marine and aviation lights are currently in excess of $2 million.
Carmanah also signed a $1.5-million deal last month to supply the city of London with its solar-LED bus shelters.
Carmanah’s other operations — the so-called “verticals” of road and industrial signs and transit products — are also showing healthy orders, says Aylesworth.
Carmanah (TSXV: CMH) shares hit an all-time high of $3.89 late last month and finished Thursday down nine cents to $3.30.
The stock has been on a steady rise since dipping to $2.50 in late March.
In its last quarter reported in July, Carmanah recorded record revenues of $6.5 million, an 87 per cent increase over the same period a year earlier. For the first six months of 2005, revenue hit $11.3 million, more than double the 2004 total.
Six-month net earnings were $650,000, compared with $213,000 over the first half of 2004.
Aylesworth says the increasing activity put Carmanah in a crunch situation for space. He said ideally the company would have liked to built its own facility, but the current construction climate makes it too expensive and too long to turn around.
The new space at 300-770 Enterprise Cres. is being redesigned by architect Franc D’Ambrosio, who also worked on Carmanah’s Harbour Road buildings and last year redesigned a former indoor playground in View Royal into headquarters and assembly plant for Reliable Controls, another high-tech company.
Construction in Saanich should start in three weeks. D’Ambrosio said the work will involve transforming a warehouse space into areas that can accommodate research and development, various offices and assembly lines that can be reconfigured for different products.
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Love, sex, passion [sound recording] / Raheem DeVaughn.
DeVaughn, Raheem. (Composer, Performer, Author). Beckner, Andrew. (Performer). Lewis, Johnathan. (Performer). Andrews, Troy. (Performer). Murphy, Patrick (Musician) (Performer). Brown, Terrance, musician. (Performer). Thompson, Carl "Chucky". (Performer). Gold, Larry, arranger. (Arranger, Conductor). Kummrow, Emma. (Performer). Mazzocchi, Luigi, violinist. (Performer). Parker, Charles, violinist. (Performer). Espy, Blake. (Performer). Kim, Jonathan. (Performer). Hardin, Aaron. (Performer). Gray, Naomi. (Performer). Allen, Kenny (Guitarist) (Performer). Bradshaw, Jeff. (Performer). Cappy, Matt. (Performer). Riker, Korey. (Performer). Beats, Cartier. (Performer). Robinson, Jeff, producer. (Performer). Mozee, Jairus. (Performer). Peña, Federico Gonzalez. (Performer). Hayes, Patrick, musician. (Performer). Shaifer, Deandré. (Performer). James, Boney. (Performer). McGant, Zachariah. (Performer). Illadelph Horns. (Performer).
CD Music recording
Media Center CD 38147 37684001084157 Temporarily Unavailable Not holdable Available -
Physical Description: 1 audio disc : CD audio, digital ; 4 3/4 in.
Publisher: [Place of publication not identified] : Entertainment One Music, [2015]
Distributor: Port Washington, New York : manufactured and distributed by eOne Music
Copyright: ℗2015
Title from disc label.
All songs written or cowritten by Raheem DeVaughn.
Full credits on container insert.
Welcum 2 love, sex & passion (Intro) (:35) -- Black ice cream (7:03) -- Pretty lady (featuring Trombone Shorty) (3:58) -- Queen (4:00) -- Nothing without you (3:45) -- When you love somebody (6:10) -- All I know (My heart) (4:29) -- Terms of endearment (4:39) -- Miss your sex (5:12) -- Baby come back (3:30) -- Never never land (5:31) -- Temperature's rising (4:14) -- Sun proof room (50 shades) (4:23) -- Strip (4:12) -- Countdown to love (4:30) -- Feather rock lovin' (featuring Boney James and the Illadelph Horns) (4:51) -- Infiniti (4:43).
Participant or Performer Note:
Performed by Raheem DeVaughn with various accompanying musicians.
Subject: Rhythm and blues music.
Soul music.
Popular music > 2011-2020.
Black ice cream / R. Christian, Raheem DeVaughn, H. Johnson, IV and K. Powell, Jr.
Pretty lady / Dalvin DeGrate, Raheem DeVaughn, Joel Hailey, Richard Hailey, Ivan Lins, Vitor Martins, Patrick Murphy and Carl "Chucky" Thompson.
Queen / Raheem DeVaughn and Carl "Chucky" Thompson.
Nothing without you / Raheem DeVaughn, Aaron Hardin and Zachariah McGant.
When you love somebody / Raheem DeVaughn and Katja "Cartier Beats" Tubman-Toweh.
All I know (My heart) / R. Christian, Raheem DeVaughn, H. Johnson, IV and K. Powell, Jr.
Terms of endearment / R. Christian, Raheem DeVaughn, H. Johnson, IV and K. Powell, Jr.
Miss your sex / Raheem DeVaughn and Jeffery "J. Oliver" Robinson, Jr.
Baby come back / Raheem DeVaughn, BJ the Chicago Kid and Jarius Mozee.
Never never land / Raheem DeVaughn and Federico Gonzalez Peña.
Temperature's rising / Travis Cherry, Raheem DeVaughn and R. Kelly.
Sun proof room / Raheem DeVaughn and Patrick "Guitarboy" Hayes.
Strip / Raheem DeVaughn and DeAndre Shaifer.
Countdown to love / Raheem DeVaughn, Zachariah McGant and DeAndre Shaifer.
Feather rock lovin' / Raheem DeVaughn and DeAndre Shaifer.
Infiniti / R. Christian, Raheem DeVaughn, H. Johnson IV and K. Powell, Jr.
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CGX Energy Inc. Announces the Appointment of Drilling Engineer to design its next well on the Corentyne Block in Guyana
March 2, 2018 7:50 AM CNW
TORONTO, March 2, 2018 /CNW/ – CGX Energy Inc. (TSX-V – OYL) (“CGX Energy” or the “Company“) announced today the appointment of Drilling Engineer Michael (Mike) P. Stockinger as Project Operations Manager, who will be in charge of designing the company's next offshore exploration well on the Corentyne Block offshore Guyana. Executive Chairman, Professor Suresh Narine said “we are delighted that Mike Stockinger has rejoined the company as our Drilling Engineer. Mike brings 40 years of experience in the oil and gas business specializing in drilling, completions, and production engineering and operations. He is also no stranger to CGX and the Guyana Basin, having designed and drilled the company's 100% interest Eagle Shallow well on its Corentyne Block and participated integrally in the design and drilling of the company's 25% interest Jaguar well on the former Georgetown block.”
Michael Stockinger graduated from Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey, with a BS in civil engineering and has significant experience in onshore and offshore drilling and completions operations, including direct involvement in spars, TLP's, FPSO's, subsea “smart wells, and drilling deep subsalt wells. Mr. Stockinger started his career with Texaco in Morgan City, La, as a drilling engineer. He then joined Conoco and worked for 18 years in various positions in drilling and completions both onshore and offshore US and international, including as Drilling Manager for Gulf of Mexico. Subsequently he joined Kerr-McGee and worked for 12 years in various positions including GOM Regional E&P Manager and Vice President for Worldwide Drilling and Completions. During this period Mr. Stockinger was involved in numerous deepwater exploration wells and was responsible for drilling and completions on six spars. In 2006, after Kerr-McGee was acquired by Anadarko, Mr. Stockinger became a consultant and worked as Project Drilling Manager for Remora in Columbia, for Murphy in Australia and Suriname, and for CGX Energy in Guyana..
About CGX Energy
CGX Energy is a Canadian-based oil and gas exploration company focused on the exploration of oil in the Guyana-Suriname Basin.
NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE
SOURCE CGX Energy Inc.
View original content: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/March2018/02/c7489.html
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OBITUARIES | CONTACT US: 585-589-4471 (Albion) | 585-638-6397 (Holley)
NFDA Pursuit of Excellence Award
Celebrant Services
Local News & Florists
Cremation With Confidence
Local Grief Support Resources
Executors
Proudly serving all of Orleans county
Elizabeth M. Donovan
S. Main Street
Albion, New York, United States
St. Joseph's Cemetery
East Ave.
Obituary of Elizabeth M. Donovan
(ALBION/DeBARY, FLORIDA)
Elizabeth M. Donovan, “Pete”, age 97, died May 8th in DeBary, Florida.
She was the daughter of the late Michael and Julia (Duffy) Donovan. She graduated from Albion High School and Rochester Business Institute and retired from the New York State Division of Parole in 1982 after 38 years of service. She was a member of Holy Family Parish-St. Joseph’s Church and the Ladies of Charity.
Ms. Donovan was predeceased by a brother, John Donovan, and sisters: Mary Donovan, Celia Keeler, Agnes Gavigan, Helen Donovan, and J. Charlotte Harrigan.
She is survived by a nephew: Michael Harrigan, nieces: Helen Hutchings, Mary Kuhn, Patricia Keeler (wife of the late James Keeler, nephew) and their families.
Family and friends are invited to attend Pete’s Mass of Christian Burial, TUESDAY JUNE 4th at 9:30 a.m. in Holy Family Parish-St. Joseph’s Church, Albion.
Interment will follow immediately after in St Joseph's Cemetery on East Avenue in Albion.
In lieu of flowers memorial donations may be made to Holy Family Parish, 106 S. Main St., Albion, NY, 14411 or Hospice of Orleans, P.O. Box 489, Albion, NY, 14411.
We invite you to contact us at any time if you have questions, comments or concerns. We are happy to assist you in anyway we can and are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
Through meaningful memorialization – that is, taking time to reflect on the unique life of a loved one and remember the difference they made – families and friends take an important step in the journey toward healing after death.
The death of a family member is a very difficult time in anyone's life. These articles will help you understand the grief you are feeling when someone in your family has died, and how you can honor the life of your departed family member.
Christopher Mitchell Funeral Homes:
585-589-4471 | 21 West Ave., Albion, NY
585-638-6397 | 16650 State Rt. 31, Holley, NY
Merrill Grinnell Funeral Homes:
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Gordhan arrest “imminent”: report
Staff Writer15 May 2016
The Hawks are preparing to swoop down on finance minister Pravin Gordahn on charges of “espionage” related to the so-called “spy unit” of SARS, the Sunday Times reported.
Citing senior sources within the Hawks, the paper said that a case has been handed to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) for a decision to be made to prosecute Gordhan and eight other SARS officials said to be involved.
The unit has been accused of illegally gathering information in tax payers in South Africa.
According to the report, a number of Cabinet ministers are aware of the imminent arrest, and the Hawk and the NPA are waiting for the political “go ahead”. The paper said Gordhan will be offered the opportunity to appear in court to avoid the embarrassment of being cuffed.
The Hawks declined to comment, while the NPA confirmed it was involved in the case, though it said the matter is still under investigation and no decision has been made to prosecute anyone.
Gordhan has long been a target of the Hawks, who have been after him since before he took up the position of Finance Minister again last year.
The unit has said that it is not investigating the minister specifically, but rather wanted him to answer for the alleged ‘spy unit’ which was set up under his watch as commissioner at SARS.
Gordhan has maintained that the unit was established legally and above board, as far as he was aware.
The Sunday Times reported that finance minister facing criminal prosecution would send South Africa’s market crashing in a similar vein to the dreaded “9/12” of 2015, when former minister Nhlanhla Nene was sacked by president Jacob Zuma in which R500 billion was said to be wiped from the economy.
The full story can be read in the Sunday Times for 15 May 2016
More on Pravin Gordhan
ANC backs Gordhan in SARS scandal
Gordhan threatened to quit Cabinet: report
Des van Rooyen most qualified to be finance minister: Zuma
Gordhan Headline
This is how many people go hungry in South Africa Next article
80% local content for TV is next: Motsoeneng Previous article
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Op-Ed Lays Out Risks Korea Trade Deal Poses to Oregon
Trade party at the cattle farm
Cola Wars Beat Drug Wars
The award in agribusiness giant Cargill's NAFTA investor-state attack on Mexico's jobs program was published last week.
The short version: a tribunal of three unelected judges determined that Mexico's efforts to save or create jobs for campesinos in the sugar sector were a violation of NAFTA. Mexico's taxpayers were ordered to cough up over $77 million plus interest, all the judges' and court fees, and to even pay Cargill $2 million for Cargill's own lawyers' costs.
Here's the longer version:
For years, large agribusiness groups have been pushing the use of high fructose corn syrup in soda drinks, despite concerns about the environmental and public health impact. Not only is HFCS opposed on health grounds, it's also opposed by some foodies on taste grounds: witness the growing demand for Mexican Coca Cola, much of which is made with sugar and is said to therefore taste better.
By the late 1990s, Mexico had a whole lot of excess sugar in its market that it hoped to be able to export to the U.S.This pile-up was driving down prices and hurting Mexico's farmers, who were generally getting battered by NAFTA-style rules and in turn driving displacement into drug trafficking or immigration, as President Obama himself noted during the campaign.
The Mexican government thought that it had a deal with the United States under NAFTA to allow more sugar exports if there was excess production within Mexico. But the Clinton and Bush administrations disputed the deal, and from 1997 onwards refused to address Mexico's concerns or even respond meaningfully to their phone calls and emails.
At the same time as Mexico's sugar farmers were getting hit from excess supply and low prices, they were also getting hit by another phenomenon: an increase in HFCS corn exports from the United States. Cargill was one of the leading companies involved in this trade, and focused on selling to soda companies in Mexico. The company apparently considered, but ultimately rejected, processing the HFCS in Mexico - which would have at least created jobs. Instead, they decided to simply ship it fully processed from the U.S. In other words, Mexico was seeing job losses due to the sugar sector problems and HFCS imports, and wasn't even seeing much job creation from the HFCS.
So, in 2001, Mexico did what any country facing a job crisis and diplomatic stonewalling would do: it imposed a 20 percent tax on soft drinks and other beverages that contained sweeteners other than sugar.
Of course, Cargill was unhappy with this, and tried to get the Mexican government to reboot the HFCS trade. In 2004, Cargill launched a challenge under NAFTA to get cash compensation from Mexico's taxpayers. So, Mexicans got a triple whammy from NAFTA: widespread campesino displacement due to agribusiness exports, a refusal to allow an outlet for excess sugar, and then they had to pay a giant U.S. corporation for the privilege of trying to construct a lifeboat for some of their farmers.
Folks that are interested in the full NAFTA award can peruse it here. Some of the lowlights, for the real trade wonks:
Cargill claimed that Mexico's tax measure was an expropriation. One of the supposed procedural safeguards in NAFTA allows the government of the host and home country to weigh in on this type of claim before it is allowed to go forward. The U.S. Treasury Department did a big favor for Cargill by choosing to not block this aspect of the claim.
Despite the obvious health, environmental and employment differentials between sugar and HFCS, the NAFTA tribunal considered that the two products were "like" for the purposes of NAFTA, and had to therefore be treated at least as well as each other.
This panel, like the panel in the Grands Rivers v. U.S. case we discussed last week, failed to resolve the question of whether there a governmental measure which diminishes the value of but does not compeltely destroy an investment could be considered an "indirect expropriation." (Thankfully, the panel did not find that Cargill was expropriated, although it left the door open to a finding of "indirect expropriation" if the damage to Cargill's Mexican distribution company had been more severe.)
The panel, like the panel in Grand River, failed to resolve the question of whether there exists a circumstance under which a mere change in regulation could rise to a violation of NAFTA, i.e. whether an investor has a compensable NAFTA right to expect stability and consistency in how democracies choose to regulate them.
As my colleague Matt Porterfield has discussed elsewhere, corporations are increasingly arguing that investor-state tribunals can expand the scope of so-called "customary international law" to include a right to not be disappointed in your expectations. He's argued that, at a minimum, we shouldn't be alleging that customary international law has evolved in this way unless we can show that there is a consistent and long-term and nearly universal practice of states conferring such a right. The Cargill v. Mexico tribunal, however, wrote that "surveys of State practice are difficult to undertake..." (paragraph 274)
I'm sorry, but if investor-state tribunals are going to continue to consider such outlandish corporate claims for hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money, the least we can expect them to do is actually undertake the work that we would expect of a liberal arts college student. (The tribunal found that Mexico did violate Cargill's right under these provisions to "fair and equitable treatment," although for different reasons that the "reasonable expectations" arguments that I'm discussing here.)
The tribunal ruled that the tax was a NAFTA-prohibited "performance requirement." In other words, countries can't use their own tax policy if it constitutes an industrial policy to promote jobs in-country.
Finally, in what could have some relevance for the ongoing NAFTA trucks dispute, the tribunal ruled that Mexico should not have erected barriers to HFCS "in an attempt to persuade another nation to alter its trade practices." (paragraph 299). It seems like Mexico had a record of instituting trade restrictions when it is unsuccessful at negotiating with the United States government, as is the case with both the HFCS and trucking disputes. But this investor-state panel argued that the U.S. companies that suffer from these retaliatory measures should not be the victims of a separate trade fight. Wonder if we'll see any of the U.S. ag producers hurt by those tariffs Mexico instituted following the trucking dispute launch an investor-state case?
In sum, the Cargill v. Mexico panel did not adopt the most extreme and ideological interpretations of the "indirect expropriation" and "fair and equitable treatment" concepts. But this will be little consolation to the taxpayers that now have to pay the company for the privilege of enacting a jobs program at a moment when diplomacy had failed and the country was spiralling towards the abyss of narco-trafficking and failed statehood. Under NAFTA, the politically available option to a pressing problem may get you stuck with hundreds of millions of dollars in corporate claims.
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Unpacking Disingenuous GOP Complaints About Presidential Trade Authority
Will the U.S. and EU Revive the Damaging Pro-corporate, Anti-people TTIP Agenda?
Today’s D.C. Visit by Top Mexican Trade Officials May Reveal Whether a Renegotiated NAFTA Deal Can Be Signed in 2018
Statement of Lori Wallach, Director, Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch
Note: Today, the top Mexican trade officials of the current Peña Nieto and incoming López Obrador administrations will meet with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. At issue is whether deals can be reached between the United States and Mexico on the last outstanding issues in North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) renegotiations in time for the pact to be signed before Mexico’s current president leaves office. The high-level meeting occurs five weeks before the August 31 date by which the U.S. Congress must be formally notified of a deal under Fast Track procedures for Mexico’s current president to sign a new pact. Even if a deal is signed this year, a U.S. congressional vote would likely occur in 2019. Lori Wallach said:
“What’s new is Mexico’s heightened motivation to finalize a deal now, given that both the outgoing and incoming administrations appear to have compelling reasons to want a deal done in time for the current Mexican president to sign it and they generally agree on what terms would be acceptable.
“If a deal cannot be reached now and negotiations roll into 2019, the timeline for talks to be concluded, as well as NAFTA’s ultimate fate, become less certain.
“Achieving a deal that can get through the U.S. Congress and that satisfies Donald Trump’s high-profile campaign pledges to bring back manufacturing jobs and reduce the NAFTA trade deficit is extremely tricky, but ironically less so if current predictions of Democratic gains in the midterm elections hold true. For decades, congressional Democrats have advocated for the NAFTA changes that could deliver the outcomes Trump promised, including elimination of NAFTA’s investor protections that promote job outsourcing and the addition of strong, enforceable labor and environmental standards to raise wages in Mexico and level the playing field.”
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