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Where does WETHERALL rank in the most common names in the U.S.?
WETHERALL is identified by the U.S. Bureau of the Census as a surname with more than 100 occurrences in the United States for the year-2000 U.S. Census. In "Demographic Aspects of Surnames from Census 2000", the Census Bureau tabulated the surnames of all people who had obtained Social Security Numbers by the year 2000.
WETHERALL ranks # 88825 in terms of the most common surnames in America for 2000.
WETHERALL had 194 occurrences in the 2000 Census, according the U.S. government records.
Out of a sample of 100,000 people in the United States, WETHERALL would occur an average of 0.07 times.
For the last name of WETHERALL the Census Bureau reports the following race / ethnic origin breakdown:
Search the web for more on the name WETHERALL :
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Where does WHISTLE rank in the most common names in the U.S.?
WHISTLE is identified by the U.S. Bureau of the Census as a surname with more than 100 occurrences in the United States for the year-2000 U.S. Census. In "Demographic Aspects of Surnames from Census 2000", the Census Bureau tabulated the surnames of all people who had obtained Social Security Numbers by the year 2000.
WHISTLE ranks # 111119 in terms of the most common surnames in America for 2000.
WHISTLE had 147 occurrences in the 2000 Census, according the U.S. government records.
Out of a sample of 100,000 people in the United States, WHISTLE would occur an average of 0.05 times.
For the last name of WHISTLE the Census Bureau reports the following race / ethnic origin breakdown:
Search the web for more on the name WHISTLE :
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Bernie Sanders: A New Authoritarian Axis Demands an International Progressive Front
To combat the rise of an international authoritarian axis, we need an international progressive movement that mobilizes behind a vision of shared prosperity, security and dignity, and that addresses the global inequality in wealth and political power
September 14, 2018 Bernie Sanders The Guardian
There is a global struggle taking place of enormous consequence. Nothing less than the future of the planet – economically, socially and environmentally – is at stake.
At a time of massive wealth and income inequality, when the world’s top 1% now owns more wealth than the bottom 99%, we are seeing the rise of a new authoritarian axis.
While these regimes may differ in some respects, they share key attributes: hostility toward democratic norms, antagonism toward a free press, intolerance toward ethnic and religious minorities, and a belief that government should benefit their own selfish financial interests. These leaders are also deeply connected to a network of multi-billionaire oligarchs who see the world as their economic plaything.
Those of us who believe in democracy, who believe that a government must be accountable to its people, must understand the scope of this challenge if we are to effectively confront it.
It should be clear by now that Donald Trump and the rightwing movement that supports him is not a phenomenon unique to the United States. All around the world, in Europe, in Russia, in the Middle East, in Asia and elsewhere we are seeing movements led by demagogues who exploit people’s fears, prejudices and grievances to achieve and hold on to power.
This trend certainly did not begin with Trump, but there’s no question that authoritarian leaders around the world have drawn inspiration from the fact that the leader of the world’s oldest and most powerful democracy seems to delight in shattering democratic norms.
Three years ago, who would have imagined that the United States would stay neutral between Canada, our democratic neighbor and second largest trading partner, and Saudi Arabia, a monarchic, client state that treats women as third-class citizens? It’s also hard to imagine that Israel’s Netanyahu government would have moved to pass the recent “nation state law”, which essentially codifies the second-class status of Israel’s non-Jewish citizens, if Benjamin Netanyahu didn’t know Trump would have his back.
All of this is not exactly a secret. As the US continues to grow further and further apart from our longtime democratic allies, the US ambassador to Germany recently made clear the Trump administration’s support for rightwing extremist parties across Europe.
In addition to Trump’s hostility toward democratic institutions we have a billionaire president who, in an unprecedented way, has blatantly embedded his own economic interests and those of his cronies into the policies of government.
Other authoritarian states are much farther along this kleptocratic process. In Russia, it is impossible to tell where the decisions of government end and the interests of Vladimir Putin and his circle of oligarchs begin. They operate as one unit. Similarly, in Saudi Arabia, there is no debate about separation because the natural resources of the state, valued at trillions of dollars, belong to the Saudi royal family. In Hungary, far-right authoritarian leader Viktor Orbán is openly allied with Putin in Russia. In China, an inner circle led by Xi Jinping has steadily consolidated power, clamping down on domestic political freedom while it aggressively promotes a version of authoritarian capitalism abroad.
We must understand that these authoritarians are part of a common front. They are in close contact with each other, share tactics and, as in the case of European and American rightwing movements, even share some of the same funders. The Mercer family, for example, supporters of the infamous Cambridge Analytica, have been key backers of Trump and of Breitbart News, which operates in Europe, the United States and Israel to advance the same anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim agenda. Republican megadonor Sheldon Adelson gives generously to rightwing causes in both the United States and Israel, promoting a shared agenda of intolerance and illiberalism in both countries.
The truth is, however, that to effectively oppose rightwing authoritarianism, we cannot simply go back to the failed status quo of the last several decades. Today in the United States, and in many other parts of the world, people are working longer hours for stagnating wages, and worry that their children will have a lower standard of living than they do.
Our job is to fight for a future in which new technology and innovation works to benefit all people, not just a few. It is not acceptable that the top 1% of the world’s population owns half the planet’s wealth, while the bottom 70% of the working age population accounts for just 2.7% of global wealth.
Together governments of the world must come together to end the absurdity of the rich and multinational corporations stashing over $21tn in offshore bank accounts to avoid paying their fair share of taxes and then demanding that their respective governments impose an austerity agenda on their working families.
It is not acceptable that the fossil fuel industry continues to make huge profits while their carbon emissions destroy the planet for our children and grandchildren.
It is not acceptable that a handful of multinational media giants, owned by a small number of billionaires, largely control the flow of information on the planet.
It is not acceptable that trade policies that benefit large multinational corporations and encourage a race to the bottom hurt working people throughout the world as they are written out of public view.
It is not acceptable that, with the cold war long behind us, countries around the world spend over $1tn a year on weapons of destruction, while millions of children die of easily treatable diseases.
In order to effectively combat the rise of the international authoritarian axis, we need an international progressive movement that mobilizes behind a vision of shared prosperity, security and dignity for all people, and that addresses the massive global inequality that exists, not only in wealth but in political power.
Such a movement must be willing to think creatively and boldly about the world that we would like to see. While the authoritarian axis is committed to tearing down a post-second world war global order that they see as limiting their access to power and wealth, it is not enough for us to simply defend that order as it exists now.
We must look honestly at how that order has failed to deliver on many of its promises, and how authoritarians have adeptly exploited those failures in order to build support for their agenda. We must take the opportunity to reconceptualize a genuinely progressive global order based on human solidarity, an order that recognizes that every person on this planet shares a common humanity, that we all want our children to grow up healthy, to have a good education, have decent jobs, drink clean water, breathe clean air and live in peace.
Our job is to reach out to those in every corner of the world who share these values, and who are fighting for a better world.
In a time of exploding wealth and technology, we have the potential to create a decent life for all people. Our job is to build on our common humanity and do everything that we can to oppose all of the forces, whether unaccountable government power or unaccountable corporate power, who try to divide us up and set us against each other. We know that those forces work together across borders. We must do the same.
Bernie Sanders is a US Senator from Vermont
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The United States Law Week
US Law Week
NewsInsightsSupreme Court Today
U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 30, 2018, before argument in case involving Yakama Nation.
Jordan S. Rubin/Bloomberg Law
Gorsuch Crossover Vote Leaves Tribes Cautiously Optimistic
Posted March 19, 2019, 7:48 PM
By Kimberly Strawbridge Robinson
Neil Gorsuch was deciding vote in 5-4 win for Yakama Nation in multi-million-dollar tax dispute
Adds to Gorsuch’s “reputation for fairness to Indian cases,” one tribal law expert said
Justice Neil Gorusch may prove to be a reliable vote for tribal groups coming before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Gorsuch sided with his four more liberal colleagues March 19 in finding that an 1855 treaty between the federal government and the Yakama tribe precluded Washington state from imposing a fuel import tax on tribal-owned businesses.
“Really, this case just tells an old and familiar story. The State of Washington includes millions of acres that the Yakamas ceded to the United States under significant pressure. In return, the government supplied a handful of modest promises. The State is now dissatisfied with the consequences of one of those promises. It is a new day, and now it wants more. But today and to its credit, the Court holds the parties to the terms of their deal. It is the least we can do,” Gorsuch wrote in his concurrence in Washington State Department of Licensing v. Cougar Den.
Gorsuch’s record in tribal cases while a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, which encompasses six western states and 76 federally recognized Indian tribes, was generally favorable to the tribes, said Colette Routel, who heads the Indian Law Program at Mitchell Hamline School of Law.
In fact, his background in tribal cases won him the support of the National Congress of American Indians during his confirmation hearing.
It’s exactly what tribal groups hoped for when Gorsuch was confirmed, said Arizona State University law professor Robert Miller, who also serves as the chief justice of the Court of Appeals for the Grand Ronde Tribe.
Gorsuch is frequently cited as the only current justice to hail from the West, though Justice Stephen Breyer is from California. He was the first justice ever to hire an American Indian Supreme Court clerk.
Elizabeth Kronk Warner, of the Tribal Law and Government Center at the University of Kansas School of Law, noted that Gorsuch hasn’t “yet had the opportunity to vote in many Indian cases pending in the Supreme Court,” making it hard to predict how he’ll vote in the future. But his deciding vote Tuesday in the 5-4 case on treaty rights bolsters his tribal bonafides.
Last term, Gorsuch wrote for the court’s 7-2 majority in reversing a lower court ruling that limited the reach of tribal sovereign immunity.
And his questions during another treaty rights case seemed favorable to the tribe. But the court ended up splitting 4-4 in that case, affirming the lower court’s ruling without comment.
The Supreme Court has been considering more tribal cases in recent terms, and has heard three cases in this one.
The result is that the “number of Indian law cases typically heard by the Supreme Court is generally disproportionate to the Indian population within the United States,” Warner said.
Ideological Lines?
Tribal cases don’t always fall along ideological lines, Warner said. She said Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg “has voted against tribes and tribal interests on numerous occasions.”
These votes are likely the result of the justices’ lack of familiarity with Indian law, Routel said.
They tend to be swayed by their thoughts on the “other” issue in the case, be it taxes or civil procedure, Routel said.
Miller, though, said that in broad terms, there is an ideological element to Indian law cases.
He said that under the court led by Warren Burger, which delivered a number of victories to liberals, tribes prevailed in 58 percent of their cases. That number plummeted to 20 percent under conservative Chief Justice William Rehnquist and has perhaps gotten worse under John G. Roberts, he said.
At one point, tribes had only won one out of 10 Indian law cases under the Roberts court, Miller said.
While Indian tribes are “cautiously optimistic” about Gorsuch’s vote, Routel said the newest justice, Brett Kavanaugh, is more of a mystery.
Like most other Supreme Court nominees, Kavanaugh didn’t have any significant experience in Indian law cases while on the D.C. Circuit, said Joel Williams, of the Native American Rights Fund.
Gorsuch is unusual in that he’d heard about 30 Indian law cases while on the Tenth Circuit, Williams said. That’s “far and away more experience in Indian law cases” than any nominee in decades, he said.
And while Justice Sonia Sotomayor has emerged as a reliable vote for tribes on the Supreme Court, you couldn’t have predicted that from her record on the Second Circuit, Routel said.
So we will just have to wait and see how Kavanaugh’s votes shake out, Williams said.
Routel noted that Kavanaugh’s questions during oral argument in the treaty case were favorable to the tribe, but he ended up voting against it.
Tribes will know more about where they stand with the new justices once the final two tribal decisions of the term are released.
To read more from The United States Law Week please
To contact the reporter on this story: Kimberly Strawbridge Robinson in Washington at krobinson@bloomberglaw.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jessie Kokrda Kamens at jkamens@bloomberglaw.com
Kimberly Strawbridge Robinson
Justices Side With Tribe Over Multi-Million Dollar Fuel Tax
(March 19, 2019, 3:31 PM )
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Wombats frontman: 'Streaming has levelled the playing field'
Lead singer Matthew Murphy says he is "eternally grateful" for the way streaming has changed the industry.
By Claire Gregory, entertainment reporter
Wednesday 20 June 2018 16:31, UK
'I only see positives with streaming'
Streaming has only brought positives to the music industry, according to the lead singer of Liverpool band The Wombats.
Many musicians have been critical of the changes in music consumption and its impact on artists, with decreases in royalties and piracy often cited as issues.
But Matthew Murphy says sites like Spotify and Apple Music allow the music to speak for itself.
He told Sky News: "The playing field feels so level to me at the moment, with streaming and everything, that really if you do have a good song it's going to rise to the top.
"All I see is positives really, it's definitely reinvigorated The Wombats."
Image: The Wombats in 2011
He explained there was a notable difference to the group, best known for their hit song Let's Dance To Joy Division, when they released Glitterbug in 2013.
"It's made the whole music industry seem a lot more exciting, it definitely did when we released our third album," Murphy explained.
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"I'm eternally grateful for streaming services really.
"I guess one of the negative things [is] it focuses on one song so people are just able to pick their favourite bits, but then again I think music's always been like that."
Despite the way streaming has changed how some people listen to records, Murphy said it has not impacted how he writes.
The playing field feels so level to me at the moment, with streaming and everything, that really if you do have a good song it's going to rise to the top.
Matthew Murphy
"For me I always want to make a body of work, an album, that works from start to finish, but then how people consume it is completely up to them," he said.
The Wombats fourth album, Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life, came out earlier this year.
Murphy said he felt more relaxed about the record than he has done previously.
"Usually I'm filled with anxiety for a good month either side of the album release date, but for this one for some reason I felt really confident about it, I don't know why," he said.
"I think that I wanted to make an album that was more sure of itself, was more organic, wasn't screaming 'listen to me' or 'you need to play me 20 times a day on the radio'.
"I wanted to make something that was more confident and that then fed my confidence going in to the album release."
The confidence appears not to have been misplaced as the album release was followed by a sell-out headline tour.
And the band will also headline the Isle of Wight festival's opening night on Thursday - it's the event's 50th anniversary - and a gig Murphy says he's looking forward to.
"We played there in 2009 and I remember it being awesome... I'm hoping that it's going to go off," he said.
"I generally prefer festivals than I do our own shows I think.
"You fly by the seat of your pants a lot more [at a festival] because you're not totally in control of everything, which I personally like, but there is still a bit of pressure I guess if you're headlining to make sure everyone feels like that is the climax of the night."
The Wombats fourth album Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life is out now.
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Chicago police find about 1,500 pot plants in city
DON BABWIN
Associated Press October 4, 2012
CHICAGO (AP) — In Chicago, a bustling urban metropolis where skyscrapers are as likely to sprout up as anything a farmer might plant, someone decided there was just enough room to grow something a little more organic: Marijuana.
The plants grew even taller than the tallest Chicago Bulls. However, just days before the crop on a chunk of land the size of two football fields would have been ready to harvest, a police officer and county sheriff's deputy in a helicopter spotted it as they headed back to their hangar about three miles away.
On Wednesday, a day after the discovery of the largest marijuana farm anyone at the police department can remember, officers became farmers for a day as they began to chop down about 1,500 marijuana plants that police said could have earned the growers as much as $10 million.
No arrests had been made as of Wednesday, and police were still trying to determine who owns the property that housed the grow site on the city's far South Side. But police said they were hopeful that because of the size of the operation, informants or others might provide tips about those involved, including a man seen running from the area as the helicopter swooped low.
James O'Grady, the commander of the department's narcotics division, said they've never seen anything like it before, in part because Chicago's harsh winters mean growers have a lot less time to plant, grow and harvest marijuana than their counterparts in less inclement places such as California and Mexico. The bumper crop was likely planted in spring, O'Grady said.
Add to that the urban sprawl: there are few spots in Chicago where such an operation could go unnoticed because of all the buildings, roads and residents. The growers took pains to ensure their crop was largely hidden by a canopy of trees and surrounding vegetation.
"Somebody put a lot of thought into it," O'Grady said. "But they probably didn't anticipate the helicopter."
Chicago Police Officer Stan Kuprianczyk, a pilot, said police helicopters flew "over it all the time," to and from their hangar, without spying the grow site. Yet somehow, a number of factors came together to allow Cook County Sheriff's Deputy Edward Graney to spot the plants.
"We had the right altitude, the right angle, the right sunlight, and I happened to be glancing down," said Graney. He said he initially spotted five plants or so through the trees before he asked Kuprianczyk to circle around for a closer look.
"We just happened to be right over a small hole in the trees and we looked down," Kuprianczyk said.
They also happened to have the right training, Graney said, explaining that just a few weeks earlier a much smaller operation in suburban Chicago prompted them to fly over and videotape the scene so they might be able to recognize marijuana if they ever saw it from the air again.
So, by the time Graney spotted the marijuana plants, which are a much brighter shade of green than the surrounding vegetation, he had a pretty good idea what he was looking at.
Superintendent Garry McCarthy, whose officers are more used to intercepting shipments of marijuana grown elsewhere or discovering hydroponic growing operations inside buildings, said the discovery of the marijuana is significant in a larger fight against street violence.
Those involved with narcotics, whether it is marijuana, heroin or cocaine, purchase firearms with their profits and have shown they're willing to use them to protect their business, he said.
"That's where the violence comes in, the competition for the markets," he said.
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Trump Says ‘Many People’ Are Racist Like Him… and He’s Right
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Norwegian expands long-haul network with flights from US to Madrid, Amsterdam and Milan
– Los Angeles crew base established to support growth –
Norwegian today announced further expansion of its long-haul networks with four new routes between Europe and the United States to Europe: New York City/JFK and Los Angeles to Madrid; New York City/JFK to Amsterdam; and Los Angeles to Milan. Norwegian now offers 61 nonstop transatlantic routes between the US and Europe.
To support the continuous growth at Los Angeles International Airport, Norwegian will open its fourth American crew base with 150 cabin crewmembers during the first quarter of 2018. The airline already has four crew bases for cabin crew and pilots in the U.S.
Norwegian CEO Bjorn Kjos said: “2017 has been a year of exponential growth for Norwegian in Europe and the United States. Next year, we will continue our long-haul expansion by offering passengers easy and affordable connections between the US and some of Europe’s most exciting cities.”
Service from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to Madrid-Barajas Airport will launch on July 18, 2018, and operate three times per week. Service to Amsterdam’s Schipol Airport will launch on May 7, 2018, and will operate four times per week.
Service from Los Angeles International Airport to Madrid will launch on July 16, 2018, and will operate four times per week. Service to Milan-Malpensa Airport will launch on June 18, 2018, and will also operate four times per week.
Economy launch fares to Amsterdam and Madrid from New York City start as low as $199 and $229 one-way, respectively, including taxes; fares from Los Angeles to both Madrid and Milan start from $229 one-way, including taxes.
Overall, Norwegian now offers 61 transatlantic flights from 13 U.S. airports to Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom, as well six routes to the French Caribbean, totaling 67 routes out of the United States. Upcoming launches from the U.S. include: Oakland/San Francisco to Rome (February 6, 2018); New York/Newark to Paris (February 28); Chicago to London (March 25); Austin to London (Mach 27); Denver to Paris (April 9); Oakland/San Francisco to Paris (April 10), Boston to Paris (May 2); New York/JFK to Amsterdam (May 7); Los Angeles to Milan (June 18); Los Angeles to Madrid (July 16); and New York/JFK to Madrid (July 18).
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Avinor welcomes Widerøe’s widening network
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Welcome to Spring 2005
Welcome to the Spring 2005 issue. This issue’s feature section was fun to put together and, we hope, will be just as much fun for you to read. We think of it as Nonprofits: the Reality Show, because it takes real life stories of six organizations and presents them as snapshots in time—warts and all—although names have been changed to protect the innocent.
Each story is accompanied by commentaries by people who have had occasion to look at a lot of nonprofits in their time. Many have also led nonprofit organizations themselves, so they understand the humbling depth of practical and emotional content in each story. You may recognize many of the commentators as some of your favorite NPQ authors; they are: Paul Light of the Brookings Institution and NYU; Clara Miller of the Nonprofit Finance Fund; Deborah Linnell of Third Sector New England; Ricardo Millett of the Woods Fund of Chicago; Margaret Leonard of Project Hope; and Kristen McCormack, director of the Public and Nonprofit Management Program at the Boston University School of Management. The commentaries provide an analysis of what has occurred in each particular situation and what steps might be taken next to ensure the best possible outcome.
Other people who contributed to this section include Jonathan Spack, Janis Foster Richardson, Nancy McGee, Heather Harker, and all of the organizations who allowed us to tell their stories to contribute to the learning of others. Lissette Rodriguez did the lion’s share of the editing on this section.
We would love to hear what you think about this special section. NPQ is considering including this kind of story accompanied by commentary as a regular feature.
Meanwhile, we publish an article we have been trying to get for some time, “The Looking-Glass World of Nonprofit Money” by Clara Miller. Clara has a wonderful way of making the murky waters of nonprofit finance clear. In this piece, she takes on the essential differences between the way money works in nonprofits and in for-profits. It is another eye-opening must-read for your boards and funders, as well as yourself.
We are also fortunate to have a pair of very timely articles about the federal budget—on both sides of the ledger. First, Chuck Collins of United for a Fair Economy has graced us with a powerful article on the state of tax “reform.” This piece is paired with a frightening article by Rick Cohen of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy on the administration’s proposed new budget. Both are full of critical information and analyses, and ways to get involved. Finally, don’t miss Phil Anthrop’s satire on the hottest new fundraising fad in his article entitled, “Busted: Raising More Moola® vs. the Law of Diminishing Returns.”
And once again, NPQ provides our readers with its annual listing of nonprofit education programs at colleges and universities, along with an article about what students are getting from their participation in these programs.
Nonprofit Workplace Culture: Why It Matters So Much to Us
By Jinna Halperin
The Nonprofit Ethicist | Conflicts of Interest and the Board
By Woods Bowman
One Nonprofit CEO is Cruelly Refused a Raise While Another Whistles
By Mark Light
Executive Committees as Nonprofit Pestilence
Controversial Single-Issue Candidate Lawrence Lessig Responds to Critics
NOT All Enterprise is Social!
By Paul Hogan
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Kuby[s Commentary
Still Resilient and Rotating
North Star Financial Services2018-06-25T14:15:31-05:00June 25th, 2018|
Resilient? But wait, you might be thinking, didn’t the market decline last week? Indeed, the S&P 500 did lose 0.89% and the DJIA 2.72%, while the Russell 2000 managed to post a fractional gain. Given the escalation in trade tensions, I think those results show tremendous resiliency. By way of comparison, the Shanghai Composite Index fell 4.4% for the week, and is now down 13% this year. Rather than dumping equities, investors (traders?) appear to be continuing to rotate into small cap stocks, with the Russell 2000 now up 10.33% YTD, essentially catching up from the underperformance in 2017.
If you put 2017 and the first half of 2018 together, all three indices are up around 25%. Small cap companies as a group have much lower percentage of their revenues generated internationally, so the strong dollar and trade barriers are less problematic for them. Additionally, the profitable small cap companies tend to pay the maximum corporate tax rate, so they will be primary beneficiaries of the lower rates in 2018. We are encouraged that the narrative has expanded beyond small caps as an index (the Russell 2000), to which small cap companies will benefit, or at least not suffer, from the recent developments. On the other hand, the upcoming earnings season will be tempered by cautionary language about the going forward impact of these trade frictions.
The yield on the Ten-Year Treasury dropped 2 basis points to 2.90%. Economists focused on yield curve shape analysis and tend to focus on the difference between the Ten-Year U.S. Treasury Yield and the and Two-Year U.S. Treasury Yield and are increasingly citing the narrowest spread (at 34 basis points) since 2017. The narrow current spread compares to a historic multi-decade average of approximately 150 basis points (excluding the extreme years of the Nixon administration), according to QVM Group. An inverted yield curve has been a good predictor of an oncoming recession.
Trade talk will continue to dominate the headlines, as the US is set to impose tariffs on $34 Billion of Chinese imports on July 6th. China provided stimulus to its economy over the weekend by cutting rates for certain banks, in preparation for the economic fallout of extended trade tensions. The Yuan will be in focus, as depreciating the currency would be a viable tactic to combat the higher costs of the tariffs. It’s worth pointing out that prior to the outbreak of this trade war rhetoric, the Yuan had appreciated significantly, which was leveling the playing field for goods produced in the US.
Stocks on the Move:
American Software, Inc. (AMSWA) +17.7%: Total revenues for the quarter ended April 30, 2018 were $29.4 million, an increase of 12% over the comparable period last year. EBITDA decreased by 8% to $4.2 million for the quarter ended April 30, 2018 compared to $4.6 million for the same period last year. The overall financial condition of the Company remains strong, with cash and investments of approximately $87.8 million and no debt as of April 30, 2018. “We are pleased with our fourth quarter fiscal year 2018 results which reflect our investments in the innovative software and services needed to power the digital supply chain and help our customers reach new levels of productivity. Digitization drives a new wave of supply chain productivity which is more intelligent, responsive, scalable and collaborative,” said Allan Dow, president of American Software. “Our momentum continues towards SaaS subscriptions as the preferred customer engagement method which is highlighted by our 108% increase in Cloud Services Annual Contract Value (ACV).” American Software develops enterprise management and supply chain related software and services. Its solutions consist of global sourcing, workflow management, customer service applications, and ERP solutions. AMSWA is a 4.3% holding in The North Star Dividend Fund and a 3.9% holding in The North Star Micro Cap Fund.
There didn’t seem to be any news to account for the other companies experiencing high percentage changes last week.
Village Super Market, Inc. (VLGEA) +9.9% and Ingles Markets, Inc. (IMKTA) +7.5%: Ingles Markets is a supermarket chain in the Southeast United States. It operates grocery retail stores offering grocery, meat and dairy products, produce, frozen foods and other perishables, and non-food products. Village Super Market operates a chain of ShopRite supermarkets in New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania and Maryland. It is engaged in retail sale of food and nonfood products. The increase in the share prices of VLGEA and IMKTA may have been in sympathy with strength in shares of Kroger (KR) which reported earnings that improved sentiment. VLGEA is a 0.7% holding in The North Star Dividend Fund and IMKTA is a 1.1% holding in The North Star Dividend Fund. Ingles Market bonds are a 2.6% holding in The North Star Bond Fund.
Arc Document Solutions, Inc. (ARC) -11.2%: ARC Document Solutions is engaged in providing document management solutions to businesses, including non-residential segment of architecture, engineering & construction industry. Its offerings include; onsite, digital, color & traditional reprography. ARC is a 1.1% holding in The North Star Micro Cap Fund.
NAPCO Security Technologies, Inc. (NSSC) +20.3%: NAPCO is engaged in manufacturing of security products, encompassing access control systems, door security products, intrusion and fire alarm systems and video surveillance products. NSSC is a 1.4% holding in The North Star Micro Cap Fund.
The information provided in this commentary is not an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to purchase any security, product, or brokerage service. The information is not intended to be used as the basis for investment decisions, nor should the information be construed as advice designed to meet the particular needs of any investor. This commentary is presented to illustrate examples of the securities that North Star Investment Management Corporation and/or its affiliates (“North Star”) may have bought for client accounts and the diversity of markets in which North Star Investments may invest, and may not be representative of current or future investments. You should not assume that the future performance of any specific investment, investment strategy, or product made reference to directly or indirectly in this commentary will be profitable or will be equal to any corresponding performance levels that might be indicated. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Investments in securities involve risks including the possible loss of the principal invested. North Star and others associated with it, including employees, may have positions in and effect transactions in securities of companies mentioned or indirectly referenced in this commentary. North Star may buy, sell or hold these securities in proprietary or client accounts. North Star will not be providing regular updates or advising you of any changes in the views expressed herein. Investors should consider their investment objectives, risk tolerance, and financial situation and needs before investing in any security. Tax considerations, commissions, fees and other costs should be carefully evaluated with one’s investment and/or tax advisors. Information provided is obtained from sources deemed to be reliable, but North Star cannot guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information. This material may not be reproduced, distributed or transmitted to any other person in whole or in part without the prior written consent of North Star. A copy of North Star Investment Management Corporation’s Form ADV Brochure, Privacy Notice and Business Continuity Plan summary can be obtained by calling 312-580-0900.
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Motorcoach Run-Off-The-Bridge and Rollover
About 12:45 a.m., central daylight time, on Friday, August 8, 2008, a 2002 56‑passenger Motor Coach Industries, Inc., motorcoach, operated by Iguala BusMex, Inc., was northbound on U.S. Highway 75 when it was involved in a single-vehicle, multiple-fatality accident in Sherman, Texas. The chartered motorcoach had departed the Vietnamese Martyrs Catholic Church in Houston, Texas, at approximately 8:30 p.m. on August 7, 2008, with a driver and 55 passengers onboard, en route to the Marian Days Festival in Carthage, Missouri. When the accident occurred, the motorcoach had completed about 309 miles of the approximately 600-mile-long trip.
Before the crash, the motorcoach was traveling in the right lane of the four-lane divided highway. As the motorcoach approached the Post Oak Creek bridge at a speed of about 68 mph, its right steer axle tire failed. The motorcoach departed the roadway on an angle of about 4 degrees to the right, overrode a 7-inch-high, 18-inch-wide concrete curb, and struck the metal bridge railing.After riding against the bridge railing for about 120 feet and displacing approximately 136 feet of railing, the motorcoach went through the bridge railing and off the bridge. It fell about 8 feet and slid approximately 24 feet on its right side before coming to rest on the inclined earthen bridge abutment adjacent to Post Oak Creek. As a result of the accident, 17 motorcoach passengers died; 12 passengers were found to be dead at the crash site, and 5 others later died at area hospitals. In addition, the 52-year-old driver received serious injuries, and 38 passengers received minor-to-serious injuries.
The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was the failure of the right steer axle tire, due to an extended period of low‑pressure operation, which resulted in sidewall, belting, and body ply separation within the tire, leading to loss of vehicle control. Contributing to the severity of the accident was the failure of the bridge railing to redirect the motorcoach and prevent it from departing the bridge. The lack of an adequate occupant protection system contributed to the severity of the passenger injuries.
Accident Location: Sherman , TX
Accident ID: HWY08MH022
NTSB Number: HAR-09-02
NTIS Number: PB2009-916202
HAR-09-02
H-09-017
NTSB Sending Team to Investigate Bus Crash in Texas
NTSB Cites Failure of Tire, Bridge Railing in 2008 Motorcoach Crash that Killed 17, Injured 39
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The Land That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Get to the dinosaurs already
The Land That Time Forgot, a science-fiction novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, was originally serialized in Blue Book Magazine in 1918 and first published as a book in 1924. The story opens with a narrator, presumably Burroughs himself, describing how on a fishing trip off the coast of Greenland he discovered a manuscript in a bottle which serves as the text of this novel. The narrative is written in the first person by Bowen J. Tyler, the heir to a shipbuilding firm in Santa Monica, California. After enlisting for military service in World War I, he finds himself on a passenger ship out of England, bound for the battlefields of France. He sees action sooner than expected, however, when his ride is sunk by a German U-boat. Tyler and his spunky dog manage to end up alone on a lifeboat with a beautiful woman. Eventually, through a series of convolutions best left unrevealed, he ends up capturing the U-boat. Luckily, it just so happens that his father’s company built the craft, and Tyler himself conveniently helped design it, so he takes command of the ship and attempts to pilot it to a safe port.
The naval action goes on for four chapters (out of ten) before we finally get to what the title promises. After losing their way in the South Pacific, Tyler and his shipmates discover the lost continent of Caprona. I don’t think I’m giving too much away by revealing that they meet dinosaurs there. In fact, the wildlife in Caprona is not a frozen slice of the Mesozoic Era, but rather a spectrum of creatures from all stages of evolution, including various species of primitive man. Tyler later learns that the local name for Caprona is Caspak. While he and his crew were hoping for a short stop to replenish their supplies, through unforeseen circumstances they end up stranded in this strange and dangerous land.
I’m an enthusiast of vintage adventure fiction, so I’m receptive to what Burroughs has to offer, but I’ve never been fully satisfied by the few works of his that I’ve read. The original Tarzan novel struck me as hacky and foolish. The Land That Time Forgot fares better, but not much. It’s not hacky, but it isn’t great either. In Caspak, Burroughs has created a fantasy world with the potential to be fascinating, but he doesn’t do anything interesting with it. Too much time is spent on the U-boat, and not enough time among the prehistoric wildlife. The plot is often driven by miraculous coincidences rather than heroic ingenuity. The prehistoric creatures are too easily killed to engender much suspense. Later in the book Tyler informs us that he has discovered “the miraculous, the gigantic truth” of Caspak, but he doesn’t let us in on the secret. This book is incomplete in and of itself and essentially acts as a prologue to another novel. Like The Empire Strikes Back, its purpose is merely to set up the next installment in the series. That would be The People That Time Forgot, the second book in a Caspak trilogy.
One can’t help but compare this book to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s novel The Lost World. Each is flawed in its own way. Doyle’s novel is laden with racism and genocide while Burroughs manages to work in an anti-Bolshevik message sympathetic to the German Empire. In the political correctness department, I’ll give Burroughs the edge, but I still like The Lost World better for its sense of humor and interesting characters. As a hero, Tyler is as dull as dishwater, and his romance with the requisite damsel in distress Lys is insipid and cloying. Perhaps the entire Caspak trilogy adds up to a good novel, but The Land That Time Forgot by itself is a disappointment. Even so, I might just find myself reading the second book, in hopes that it will live up to the potential that this volume squanders.
https://www.amazon.com/review/R37DZRGQN8SZOW/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
Posted by Karl Janssen at 9:47 AM
Labels: 2.5 stars, Adventure, American, Burroughs Edgar Rice, Classic literature, Pulp fiction, Science Fiction
The Late Monsieur Gallet by Georges Simenon
Dylan: Disc by Disc by Jon Bream
Gladiator by Philip Wylie
The Death of Olivier Becaille by Emile Zola
The Hated Son by Honoré de Balzac
A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay
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Indian Govt mulling steps to reduce gold import: FM
Edited By Odishatv Bureau Published By Odishatv Bureau On Jan 2, 2013 - 1:50 PM
New Delhi: The Indian government is considering steps to reduce gold import by making it more expensive, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said on Wednesday.
"Demand for gold must be moderated… We may be left with no choice but to make it more expensive to import gold. The matter is under government consideration," he told reporters here.
Gold import is a major constituent of India's rising Current Account Deficit (CAD). The CAD, which represents the difference between exports and imports after considering cash remittances and payment, widened to a record high of 5.4 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), or USD 22.3 billion, in the July-September quarter.
In value terms, gold imports stood at USD 20.2 billion in the April-September period of the current fiscal, a decline of 30.3 per cent over the corresponding period a year ago.
For the entire 2011-12 fiscal, gold imports stood at USD 56.2 billion.
The decline was mainly on account of increase in customs duty on gold imports by government in January and March 2012.
In his Budget proposal, the then Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had doubled the basic customs duty on standard gold bars to four per cent and on non-standard gold to 10 per cent.
He also imposed one per cent excise duty on unbranded jewellery, which was subsequently rolled back after protest from jewellers across the country.
Currently, the government is also making efforts to channelise investor money into equities and other financial instruments to reduce demand for the yellow metal.
The CAD had risen to 4.2 per cent of GDP in the 2011-12 fiscal on account of high gold import and increasing prices of crude oil in international markets.
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India to propose to Pak to increase no of trading days
Edited By Odishatv Bureau Published By Odishatv Bureau On Jul 10, 2011 - 2:57 PM
New Delhi: India has decided to propose to Pakistan to increase the number of trading days from two to four for cross-LoC commerce besides multiple entry permit for 6 months for people of Jammu and Kashmir as part of Confidence Building Measures.
The decision to make the proposal was taken at a high-level meeting convened by the Ministry of External Affairs here recently which was attended by officials from the Jammu and Kashmir Government and the Home Ministry.
It came ahead of the Indo-Pak Foreign Ministers meeting here later this month.
During the meeting, it was agreed upon to propose to Pakistan, the decisions taken by the Cabinet Committee on Security in September 2008, which includes increasing of trading ties from existing two days to four days, official sources said.
Cross-LoC trade on Poonch-Rawlakote and Salamabad-Chakoti routes is conducted every Tuesday and Wednesday on barter system.
The two sides are also expected to discuss the issue of multiple-entry permits for residents of Jammu and Kashmir valid for six months as the Cabinet Committee on Security has given an in-principle approval for the same in 2008.
The sources said these decisions were approved by the CCS in September 2008 but were kept in cold-storage after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.
India may also press for introducing banking facilities for cross-LoC trade as the volume of trade and benefit to trading community on either sides of LoC could not be worked out through barter system, the sources said.
Pakistan has some reservations over opening up of banking facilities for traders.
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Economic Development and Trade (1986-1992) (2)
Economic Development (1979-1986,1997-2006) (1)
Information Type: publications Tags: high-speed rail service Calgary-Edmonton corridor
Alberta high speed rail concept : findings of Alberta Economic Development and Trade (1981-1985)
Presents the findings of Alberta Economic Development and Trade from 1981 to 1985 regarding the Alberta high speed rail concept.
Calgary Calgary-Edmonton corridor Edmonton high speed rail systems high-speed rail service passenger rail
Report of the Alberta High Speed Rail Review Committee
A High Speed Rail Review Committee was created by Alberta Economic Development in December of 1985. Its terms of reference had as its objective the following: "To review, assess and report on the feasibility and viability of an innovative joint-venture between the private sector and government to...
Alberta High Speed Rail Review Committee Calgary Calgary-Edmonton corridor Edmonton high speed rail systems high-speed rail service
High-speed rail prospects in the Calgary-Edmonton corridor
The Calgary-Edmonton Intercity Passenger Rail Study consisted of 3 phases: Phase I consisted of five sub-studies aimed at identifying a role for passenger rail. Consultants Loram International Ltd. concluded that a high-speed rail service potentially could be useful but that additional analyses...
Calgary Calgary-Edmonton corridor Edmonton high-speed rail service passenger rail
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On Jon’s Desk: Celebrating National Aviation Day with a Look at the Evolution of Flight
Posted by Jonathan Bingham in On Jon's Desk
1903, 1931, Charlie Taylor, Evolution of Flight, Franklin D. Roosevelt, George Cayley, Jon Bingham, Kitty Hawk, Leonardo da Vinci, National Aviation Day, Nolie Mumey, North Carolina, Octave Chanute, Orville Wright, Otto Lilienthal, Samuel Langley, The Kendrick Bellamy Company, Wilber Wright, Wright Brothers, Wright Flyer I
“Some of the myths of yesterday are the facts of today. The advance and evolution of flight is fully appreciated by the world at large. The long process of its growth can be vividly traced by reading the early legends and following them through the various stages of development. The early investigators, the daring balloonists, the ingenious gliders – all have contributed to this wonderful achievement.”
~ Nolie Mumey, from the Foreword of Evolution of Flight
Evolution of Flight: Stories based on legendary and historical data
Nolie Mumey
Denver: The Kendrick Bellamy Co., 1931
TL515 M8 1931
It is easy to take for granted how far we’ve come in the field of aviation. Given the money and the appropriate political documentation, anyone can get to the other side of the world within a twenty-four-hour period of time. This fact is really quite mind boggling when one takes a moment to ponder it. I recently took a trip which involved flying in an airplane. While preparing for the upcoming flight I was more concerned with making sure I didn’t have any liquids in my carry-on bag when I got to the security check point than I was about the fact that I was about to sit inside a large piece of metal as it flew through the air at hundreds of miles per hour thirty thousand feet above the ground. I doubt I am alone in this warped sense of concern when it comes to travel via commercial airline. Flying has become so common place it is interesting to consider that we have only had the technology to travel in this way for a little over a century. For thousands of years before we finally succeeded in achieving sustained flight people had dreamed of doing so.
Each year, on August 19th, the United States of America celebrates National Aviation Day. Created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939, the day is a commemoration of the development of modern aviation. The 19th of August was selected for its observance because Orville Wright was born on this day in 1871. Orville and his older brother Wilbur are credited with achieving the first controlled, sustained flight of a powered, heavier-than-air aircraft. At 10:35 a.m. on December 17, 1903, four miles south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville lifted off into a 27 mile per hour head wind and flew for 12 seconds at an altitude of 10 feet, flying at 6.8 miles per hour and covering 120 feet of ground. Both brothers flew twice that day, Wilbur making the fourth and final flight of the day at about noon, during which he sustained flight for 59 seconds and flew 852 feet.
After experimenting with gliders in the 1890s (based upon research done by Leonardo da Vinci, Octave Chanute, George Cayley, Otto Lilienthal, Samuel Langley, and others), the Wright brothers constructed their powered Wright Flyer I using spruce wood and Pride of the West muslin. They designed and carved their own propellers and, when they couldn’t find anyone able to build an engine to their weight specifications, turned to their shop machinist and mechanic Charlie Taylor – who in only six weeks engineered and built a lightweight power plant for the Wright brothers. To minimize weight, Taylor cast the engine block from aluminum. The 152-pound engine exceeded the power output requirement of 8 horsepower by delivering 12. Using heavy duty chains that resembled those used for bicycles, the engine drove the dual eight feet long propellers. The Flyer had a wingspan of 40.3 feet and weighed 605 pounds.
To put Taylor’s engine into perspective, the self-propelled lawn mowers most of us have in our sheds today average between 5 and 7 horsepower and those of the riding variant average between 15 and 20. Building a frame of spruce wood, covering it with muslin, and placing on it the equivalent of a lawn mower engine hooked via chains to a couple of propellers seems fairly straight forward and something an engineering-minded and mechanically-inclined high school student might do during a summer break to pass the time. We, who are accustomed to seeing pictures of the SR-71, Concorde, and F-35 Lightning II, may easily take the Wrights’ achievement for granted, thinking of it as primitive. To think such, however, would show a lack of understanding for what was achieved in 1903. While Taylor’s six-week turnaround in designing and building a lightweight engine is impressive, the true accomplishment that brought the Wright brothers their fame was the development of three-axis control because it was this system that enabled a pilot to steer the aircraft effectively and to maintain its equilibrium. It was what had eluded all other aeronautical investigators up until the turn of the 20th century.
Although on National Aviation Day we celebrate the accomplishments of the Wright brothers, we should remember that there were many people who contributed to the pursuit of flight over a span of roughly two thousand years. Written by *Nolie Mumey, Evolution of Flight: Stories based on legendary and historical data takes the reader, as the title makes clear, through the history of thousands of years in which we developed the ability to fly thousands of miles in a few hours. Granted, most of the significant progress was made in the last two centuries prior to powered flight – but we shouldn’t discount even the earliest efforts because it shows the power of dreams and where those dreams can take us.
~ Contributed by Jon Bingham, Rare Books Curator
*Nolie Mumey (1891 – 1984) graduated from the University of Arkansas Medical School in 1916 and became a surgeon. He went on to earn a Master of Science degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a BA and MA from the University of Denver. A twentieth-century Renaissance man, Mumey was also a poet, silversmith, aviator, carpenter, woodcarver, artist, and inventor. He had an extensive collection of books and artifacts of the American West and its history. He wrote numerous books on both medical and Western history.
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Pam Dubel was born in 1970 and grew up in Lancaster, New York. She became blind when she was approximately two years old as a result of retinal blastoma, a type of cancer. Although her parents were shocked by her loss of sight, they fortunately realized that she was still the same child except that she could no longer see. Through love and high expectations, they instilled in Pam a sense of pride and confidence in her ability to succeed. They constantly taught her that her blindness was not a limitation to achieving her goals and dreams. Growing up as the youngest of six children also helped her learn to be independent. Since she was the youngest, nobody, especially the brother a year older than she, let her get away with anything. Pam attended a private Catholic school, where she was the only blind student. Her itinerant teacher provided a sound foundation in Braille, which helped her excel in academics. Her parents expected her to do her best and to engage in activities that would make her a confident and well-rounded person. She participated in horseback riding, skiing, and cheerleading during elementary school. During high school her interests shifted to performing in chorus, doing community service, and having fun with her friends.
Being elected to the national board has allowed me to give back and to spread the message of our movement. It is an incredible honor and privilege to serve!
While growing up, Pam had limited contact with other blind people her age. In general she had no desire to associate with other blind people. She understood that every high school senior experiences some trepidation about the transition to adulthood and independence. However, as high school graduation approached, she began to grapple with questions that her sighted peers couldn't answer. She planned to attend college, and she hoped that she would eventually find a job, but she secretly wondered if she would truly be able to obtain employment. After all, she had had difficulty finding part-time work during high school. Her loving family and friends encouraged her, but she had questions that went unanswered. Although she entered college with some apprehension, she was determined to achieve her best. Her small liberal arts college provided an exciting environment in which to learn and grow. But those unanswered questions continued to nag at her. If people were amazed that she could accomplish the most insignificant tasks, would they ever treat her as an equal? She realized that she had to meet other blind people with more experience than she who could serve as role models.
Her search exposed her to a wide variety of groups and organizations of and for the blind. However, not until she attended a student seminar hosted by the National Federation of the Blind of Ohio did she begin to find the answers for which she had been searching. Although she didn't realize it at the time, that seminar marked the beginning of a new chapter of her life. She met Barbara Pierce, president of the NFB of Ohio, who told Pam about the Louisiana Center for the Blind. More than that, she spoke with Joanne Wilson, its director, who arranged for Pam to complete an internship at the center the following May. As soon as that was completed, Joanne invited her to work as a counselor in the children's summer program that year.
Pam was a 1991 National Federation of the Blind scholarship winner when she was a senior at Denison University, where she majored in psychology and minored in women's studies. She served as vice president of the Ohio Association of Blind Students and as secretary of the National Association of Blind Students, and throughout college she worked summers for Joanne Wilson at the Louisiana Center for the Blind with the Children's Program.
After graduation from college Pam decided to become a student at the Louisiana Center for the Blind. She recognized that she still needed to gain some confidence in her skills and in her ability to be a successful blind person.
Since 2001 Pam Allen has served as the director of the Louisiana Center for the Blind, one of three NFB adult rehabilitation centers. Prior to becoming the director, she served as the director of youth services, working with blind infants and toddlers and their parents, supervising the training of classroom aides to teach Braille throughout Louisiana, coordinating summer camps, and developing innovative programs for blind children and teenagers.
People often ask her what makes the Louisiana Center for the Blind such a special place. She responds, "What sets our alumni apart from those of other kinds of rehabilitation facilities? The answer is that, by attending our center and the other centers conducted by Federationists, students are exposed to the National Federation of the Blind and its philosophy. The NFB is more than an organization; it is a loving family. Regardless of where you are, you can find members of the NFB who can give you support and encouragement when you need it. The NFB also provides a constant supply of mentors and role models who challenge you to set goals for yourself. Lives are positively changed every day at the Center because of the philosophy of the NFB."
Allen recalls that she used to believe that she did not need other blind people. She thought that being independent meant succeeding without the help of others. Her involvement with the National Federation of the Blind has taught her that this is not true. She has learned that she needs reinforcement from her blind colleagues and friends.
Pam lives in Ruston, Louisiana, with her husband Roland Allen, a dedicated Federation leader and a gifted orientation and mobility instructor at the center. She is currently the president of the NFB of Louisiana and secretary of the National Association of Blind Rehabilitation Professionals. In July of 2002 she was elected to the National Federation of the Blind board of directors. Four years later, in 2006, she was elected to serve as treasurer of the National Federation of the Blind. In 2012, Pam and Roland received the prestigious Jacobus tenBroek Award in recognition of their distinguished service in the Federation. In 2015, Pam was elected as first vice president of the National Federation of the Blind. Allen is also involved in a variety of community and professional organizations, including the Chamber of Commerce and as a gubernatorial appointee to the Louisiana Rehabilitation Council. She says, "Being elected to the national board has allowed me to give back and to spread the message of our movement. It is an incredible honor and privilege to serve!"
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International: Taiwan banned digital components manufactured by China
by njoo June 12, 2019 June 12, 2019 0
China’s exports of rare earths to the US declined
China, the world’s largest rare earth supplier and refinery, has cut shipments of rare earth to overseas in the first five months of 2019, when nationalists call for use of land reserves. rare country to make tit-for-tat tools in trade war with the United States.
Export of rare earth elements fell 16% in May, compared with the previous month to 3,640 tons, according to data from the General Department of Customs. Foreign shipments in the first five months of 2019 fell 7.2% to 19,265 tons over the same period last year.
The United States is the world’s largest importer of refined rare earth elements, with 59% of $ 92 million worth of imports originating in China, according to data from the US International Trade Commission.
Taiwan prohibits Chinese digital box decoding components
Taiwan’s telecoms regulator has banned television cable providers from stopping the supply of Chinese-made components used in digital set-top boxes, a move that adds anxiety. for Huawei and its chip manufacturing company is HiSilicon, according to SCMP.
A spokesman for the National Communications Commission (NCC) told SCMP that digital decoder boxes provided by Taiwan’s cable TV stations no longer use “chips and wafers.” of hybrid integrated circuits produced in China ”.
The ban applied to chips manufactured by HiSilicon, is a further headache for a company that has struggled to maintain customer relationships since the US officially banned Huawei from buying sets. technology and technology.
German Foreign Minister: Europe will stick with the Iranian nuclear deal, but cannot do the magic
England, France and Germany are committed to sticking to their commitments on the Iranian nuclear deal, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Monday, adding that it is important to continue talking to avoid climbing. Military ladder, according to Reuters.
“We want to fulfill our obligations,” Maas told a joint news conference with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif in Tehran. “We cannot do miracles, but we will try to prevent a failure (of the nuclear deal),” Maas added.
“The situation in the area here is very explosive and extremely dangerous,” Maas said. “A dangerous escalation of current tensions can also lead to a military escalation.”
Hong Kong lawmaker was convicted for protesting for democracy to be free because of a serious disease
Legislator Tanya Chan, the defendant was ultimately convicted for Hong Kong’s 2014 protests against the Middle Eastern Dominant democracy, which was released on Monday, according to SCMP. Chan was sentenced to eight months in prison, but postponed for 2 years.
Chan was sentenced to eight other activists – including the founders of the Middle Ages, including Benny Tai Yiu-ting, Chan Kin-man and Reverend Chu Yiu-ming – who were convicted because of escalating the largest civil disobedience campaign ever.
Protesters took to the streets on September 28, 2014, and soon took over large streets for 79 consecutive days. They camped at protest sites against Beijing’s control of the city leadership election. Tanya Chan, 47, was sentenced with a crime of inciting others to cause public trouble.
On April 25, when Chan was expected to be sentenced to other activists, her lawyer revealed to the court that the defendant was suffering from a brain tumor the size of a ping-pong ball.
Terrorist IS expanded its scope in Afghanistan, threatening the West
The IS Islamic state group has lost its institutions in Syria and Iraq, but in the forbidden mountains in northeastern Afghanistan, the group is expanding their reach, recruiting new warriors and assault attacks. The United States and other Western countries, according to US and Afghan security officials.
The extremist group is now considered an even greater threat to the Taliban because of its increasingly sophisticated military capabilities and strategy aimed at civilians both in Afghanistan and abroad.
An Afghan intelligence official based in Afghanistan told the Associated Press news agency that a recent wave of attacks in Kabul, was to practice for even greater attacks in Europe and the United States. States
US ambassador: China is fighting war and will surely fail
Expert: After Sri Lanka, Asia should prepare for attacks by IS terrorists
Parliament endorses new laws in battle against illicit gas trade
Kenya government guarantees no discrimination in enlistment
The US is monitoring Chinese militia in the South China Sea
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The Death of Affirmative Action?
Wisconsin Law Review, 2013:715
Minnesota Legal Studies Research Paper No. 13-24
See all articles by Michele Goodwin
Michele Goodwin
University of California, Irvine School of Law
This Essay urges a more robust examination of affirmative action policies applied in the United States. It suggests that there is more to be said about affirmative action than the narrow, predictable frames typically accounted for in the literature that places race at the center of the debate. Rather, this project takes up the role of gender and the middle-class white family. On the one hand, it makes the case that legal scholarship has overlooked that affirmative action benefits middle class white families. On the other hand, it explains that, overwhelmingly, the lead litigants opposing affirmative action have been white women. The Essay examines the legacy of exclusion from education in the US, including the pernicious quota systems imposed against Jews in the 20th century. It concludes by challenging scholars and educators to think beyond traditional frames and to critique who really benefits from and who is left behind in the application of contemporary affirmative action practices in the United States.
Keywords: Affirmative Action, Gender Discrimination, Race, Class, Fisher v. Texas, Grutter v. Gratz, Jews, Racism, Antisemitism, Social Justice, Education, Equality, Integration
JEL Classification: H10, H11, H41, H42, H52, H53, I21, I28, I31, I38, J15, J16, J24, J71, J78, Z10
Goodwin, Michele, The Death of Affirmative Action? (June 24, 2013). Wisconsin Law Review, 2013:715; Minnesota Legal Studies Research Paper No. 13-24. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2284958
Michele Goodwin (Contact Author)
University of California, Irvine School of Law ( email )
401 E. Peltason Dr.
Ste. 1000
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Book Review: The Girl in the Hard Hat by Loretta Hill
Category: Essentials
Published: Tuesday, 26 March 2013 09:58
At Perth Walkabout we love to review books by West Australian authors. The latest novel that I have read is The Girl in the Hard Hat by local Perth author Loretta Hill.
The Girl in the Hard Hat tells the story of Wendy, a safety manager who works up in the harsh surrounds of Cape Lambert, up north in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. From the moment that I picked up The Girl in the Hard Hat the story caught and held my attention.
Loretta Hill tells the story of Wendy with a personal closeness so that you feel that you are with Wendy as she travels to find a new job up at Cape Lambert. When Wendy has a win you feel like punching your hands in the air to say “Go Wendy! Go girl!”. And when disaster hits, you agonise with her instead. There are plenty of twists and turns along the way as Wendy dons her hard hat and navigates the harsh working environment of the Cape Lambert wharf, getting workers to toe the line regarding safety procedures and guidelines.
She’s got challenges to face and comes head to head with strong personalities such as Gavin, Chub, Dan, Mike and Fish who all take on a life of their own as the story unfolds. With such a novel, there are several key themes running through the book that keep you turning the pages.
One such theme is Wendy’s search for her real Dad - someone by the name of Hector, a fact which she only discovered recently and which pulled the rug out from under her. Wendy is focused on finding her feet in her new job, but in the background, there’s always that hidden question about the identity of her real father.
Then of course, there is Gavin, the love of her life, both parties skirting around the edges of a love that is blossoming whether or not each party cares to acknowledge it. Gavin is another key character in the story and also has his fair share of challenges to face. Gavin has a tough as nails exterior personality, where nothing seems to bother him, but we don't find out the truth about his personal life until the climactic ending of the novel.
If you would like to gain an insight into the sometimes harsh environment of working up north in the Pilbara region, you will enjoy this novel by Loretta Hill.
Loretta Hill is born and bred in Perth, has 4 kids, and wears two hats – one as a local talented Perth novelist, and the other as an engineer. Her experience as an engineer up north was the beginnings of the idea for this story.
The Girl in the Hard Hat is a great read. It is dramatic, funny in parts, poignant at other times, and is set in the rugged environment of Cape Lambert. If you are looking for a WA based novel with a twist of drama, pick up The Girl in the Hard Hat and settle down with a good cup of tea to enjoy yourself. You will be drawn to Loretta Hill’s story of Wendy, and probably won’t be putting the book down until you have finished it with the satisfaction that comes with devouring a good novel.
For more Book Reviews, please scroll to the bottom of this page.
Australian Books Part Two - Looking for More Than Just Guide Books on Australia? (1 match)
Australian Books to Read to Get A Taste of Western Australia (1 match)
Book Review: A Youth Not Wasted by Ian Parkes (2 matches)
ian parkes
Book Review: Australian Fishing Guide by Steve Cooper (1 match)
Book Review: Caravan Survival Guide by John Basham (1 match)
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US access talks: it’s PR
Ellen Tordesillas, Contributor
The Inbox• 13 August 2013
By Ellen Tordesillas
In the media briefing last Monday announcing the start of the talks between the Philippines and the United States on “a possible framework of agreement on the increased rotational presence” of U.S military in the Philippines, the question that was repeatedly asked was, “What does the U.S. wants that the existing Visiting Forces Agreement does not cover?”
The VFA is an agreement between the Philippines and the United States regarding the treatment of U.S. Armed Forces Visiting the Philippines. It was signed in 1998 by Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon and U.S. Ambassador Thomas Hubbard and ratified by the Philippine Senate.
It covers a whole range of issues including the contentious criminal jurisdiction. It does not set a limit to the number of American visiting troops in the country and their length of stay.
This was how Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Carlos Sorreta and Defense Undersecretary Pio Lorenzo, both members of the negotiating panel, Batino answered the question:
Question: Preliminary negotiations; requirements identified by both side that made them decide to come up with framework agreement; requirements that are not covered by VFA and TOR (Terms of Agreement) that necessitate this separate framework agreement.
Sorreta: We are not renegotiating the VFA in this process. We are having consultations regarding the VFA separately, incidentally with the same person, Amb. Eric John he is in charge.
(We will) try to come up with guidelines that will clarify some of the issues particularly raised by the Supreme Court so we are not reinventing anything,… Ii think we will do a briefing on VFA soon, separately.
Question: Why the need for a separate agreement?
Batino: We have seen in the past that when countries execute agreement, they build greater momentum to the strengthening of their relationship. In this case we, both countries would want a strengthening of the alliance to the execution of this agreement, executing defense and military agreements strengthens alliances. It is a position of the department that a stronger alliance with the US creates a stronger defense posture for the Philippines.
Sorreta: If I may add to that when we agreed on a policy with the United States on increased rotational presence, you have been hearing about this policy for past years so we are now going to be institutionalizing this policy. The contemplated format agreement will indicate what are the activities under increased rotational presence, when you talk about increased rotational presence, it seems a good policy but still abstract. We are going to put down on paper what can be done, what can’t be done, where it will be done, where it should not be done, you are going to see eventually modalities like we said parameters and types of activities.
Like what Undersecretary Batino said each activity will be subject to approval, this framework agreement by itself does not authorize any activity, it sets the parameters, it’s up to the Philippines to approve each activity, and if it feels it is to our benefit and it is not detrimental to our interest or to our constitutional laws, then there is that mechanism for approving it.
Batino: May I add something, as pointed out the Mutual Defense Treaty and the VFA have already provided the legal framework covering the temporary presence of US forces in the Philippines and also the corresponding access to facilities, to Philippine facilities. However we can take advantage of this opportunity to provide clearer safeguards for the protection of our national concerns, and these concerns we will discuss with the U.S. panel come negotiations.
Question: What are the things that you can’t do with existing agreements which makes it necessary to enter into new agreement, why need to enter into this one?
Sorreta:I believe that’s been asked and answered but there are things that we can do under the existing the agreements we have, but we have a policy now with the United States on increased rotational presence and we want to institutionalize it.
The Aquino government has already given its consent to the United States and the so-called negotiation is just going through the process. It’s a done deal.
This is just to address criticisms that the government is giving what the Americans want. Which is really the case.
It’s all PR.
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England thump Australia to reach first World Cup final in 27 years
Julian GUYER
AFP News 11 July 2019
England's Jason Roy in action against Australia in the World Cup semi-final at Edgbaston
England marched into their first World Cup final for 27 years on Thursday, thrashing reigning champions Australia by eight wickets at Edgbaston to set up a showdown with New Zealand.
Jason Roy hit a blistering 85 as England reached a victory target of 224 with a mammoth 107 balls to spare after bowling out Australia for 223.
Openers Roy and Jonny Bairstow (34) put on 124 for the first wicket, their fourth consecutive century stand.
England, losing finalists in 1979, 1987 and 1992, will now face New Zealand, who have also yet to win the World Cup, in Sunday's title match at Lord's.
The Black Caps, runners-up to Australia in 2015, enjoyed a surprise semi-final win over India on Wednesday.
Four years after a woeful World Cup campaign triggered a major overhaul of England's one-day international set-up, captain Eoin Morgan admitted reaching the final was a reward for his team's hard work.
"If you told me after the last World Cup that we'd reach the final I wouldn't have believed you. It sums up how far we have come in the last four years. Everyone should take a huge amount of credit," Morgan said.
"Today was close to a perfect performance. Chris Woakes and Jofra Archer bowled a hell of a spell."
"This final is a huge opportunity for us," he added. "Making the most of it would be brilliant but getting to the final alone is awesome."
Defeat meant Australia suffered their first loss in eight World Cup semi-finals and skipper Aaron Finch conceded they had been dominated from start to finish.
"We were totally outplayed today. We expected the new ball to seam a little but they bowled a great length, hitting the stumps a lot," he said.
"We came here thinking we could win the tournament. We've had backs to the wall. I'm proud of how the group have progressed but it still hurts."
- Roy power -
Roy, who missed three matches earlier in the tournament with a torn hamstring, was in particularly good form, hitting five sixes.
Australia were in desperate need of early wickets after suffering a top-order collapse on the way to being dismissed for 223, with the record five-time champions thankful for Steve Smith's battling 85.
All three of England's defeats this tournament -- including a group-stage loss to Australia -- have come batting second but Roy and Bairstow showed few signs of nerves in Birmingham.
Smith, who bowled a single over that cost 21 runs, was booed by a large crowd, a reflection of the former Australia captain's role in a ball-tampering scandal in South Africa that saw him banned for 12 months.
But the jeers turned to cheers as Roy hit three huge straight sixes in as many balls off his leg-spin.
Bairstow fell lbw to Mitchell Starc, who in the process set a new record for most wickets at a single World Cup of 27.
Roy was in sight of a hundred when he was given out caught behind down the legside by wicketkeeper Alex Carey off fast bowler Pat Cummins.
The batsman was visibly angry and had to be ushered away from the crease by square-leg umpire Marais Erasmus. England had earlier squandered their lone review.
But Joe Root (49 not out) and Morgan (45 not out) finished the job as the crowd chanted "Cricket's coming home".
Earlier, England paceman Woakes and spinner Adil Rashid each took three wickets.
Woakes, voted man of the match for his lethal spell of 3-20, struck twice early on as Australia slumped to 14-3 after winning the toss.
Australia's prolific opening pair of David Warner and Finch, as well as Peter Handscomb, were all back in the pavilion by the seventh over.
Warner, who like Smith walked out to boos because of his role in the ball-tampering scandal, returned to even louder cat-calls after being dismissed for nine.
Smith and Alex Carey steadied the innings with a fourth-wicket stand of 103 but wickets tumbled at regular intervals and Australia were unable to halt England's sprint to the final.
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Menu Inside UEFA
Slovakia Slovakia
UEFA RANKING 2018
Slovakia's sweet smell of success
Slovakian football has been creating its own modern history ever since Czechoslovakia split into Slovakia and the Czech Republic in 1993.
Slovakian football has been creating its own modern history ever since Czechoslovakia split into Slovakia and the Czech Republic in 1993. Yet while Slovakia attempts to forge a new football identity, it should not be forgotten that the Slovak Football Association (Slovenský futbalový zväz – SFS) was formed as far back as 1938, nor that between 1939 and 1945 an independent Slovak league was played.
When the two countries were united, the Slovakians had many outstanding personalities who stamped their name on Czechoslovakia's football story and assisted the nation in achieving glory. These included Dr Ivan Chodák, after whom a Slovak fair play award is named, and Ladislav Kubala, one of the most prominent players in the annals of FC Barcelona.
Another Slovakian, Dr Josef Vengloš, helped Václav Ježek coach the Czechoslovakia national team that won the 1976 UEFA European Championship, before he assumed sole responsibility for the side and steered them to third place at the 1980 tournament. Dr Vengloš also worked at clubs in Portugal, England, Turkey, Scotland and Japan, as well as becoming a central figure in UEFA and FIFA technical programmes.
Ján Popluhár is considered the best Slovak player of the 20th century: the legendary ŠK Slovan Bratislava and 1. FC Brno libero topped a poll to decide the foremost footballer of the age. Other notable talents have included Lubomír Moravčík, who played with distinction at AS Saint-Etienne, SC Bastia and Celtic FC, and Peter Dubovský, formerly of Real Madrid CF and Real Oviedo, who died tragically in 2000.
In UEFA EURO and FIFA qualifying tournaments, Slovakia had been unfortunate to find stronger rivals barring their path to major finals. However, they eventually made the breakthrough by reaching South Africa 2010; coach Vladimír Weiss's team won their crucial last qualifier 1-0 in Poland to clinch pole position in a group also containing Slovenia and the Czech Republic. Their reward was a FIFA World Cup pool featuring Italy, Paraguay and New Zealand, from which they progressed to the round of 16 after a famous 3-2 win over the Azzurri, which eliminated the holders from the competition.
The second success came in 2015, when the team led by coach Ján Kozák qualified for UEFA EURO 2016, the first time that Slovakia had reached a EURO finals since independence. With key figures prominent such as Marek Hamšík, Juraj Kucka or Martin Škrtel, the Slovenskí sokoli (Slovak falcons) recovered from an opening 2-1 defeat against Wales to beat Russia 2-1 and achieve a battling goalless draw with England to book a place in the last 16, where they were defeated by Germany.
The seeds for this success had arguably been planted with the intensive youth development programme that yielded fourth place at the UEFA European Under-21 Championship of 2000 and a ticket to the Sydney Olympics. In 2017, Slovakia made it to another U21 final round, this time in Poland, after winning their qualifying group ahead of the Netherlands and Turkey.
Slovakia's World Cup feat in 2014 also made up for previous near misses. With Jozef Adamec in charge of players such as Peter Babnič, Vladimír Janočko, Jozef Valachovič, Juraj Buček, Vladimír Labant and Vratislav Greško, the national side had been edged into third spot by Sweden and Turkey in their 2002 bid. England and Turkey then pipped them to the post in UEFA EURO 2004 qualification. Coach Dušan Galis fared better en route to the 2006 World Cup in Germany, as Slovakia came second in their section behind Portugal, only to lose heavily to Spain in a play-off. Finally, though, Weiss struck gold, having replaced Ján Kocian after an unhappy UEFA EURO 2008 attempt.
On the club scene, 2009 Slovak champions Slovan Bratislava – who lifted the 1969 European Cup Winners' Cup after defeating Barcelona 3-2 in Basel – FC Spartak Trnava, MŠK Žilina and the now defunct AŠK Inter Bratislava have been regular participants in European competition. The goal for these sides must surely be to reach new heights.
Ján Kováčik
Ján Kováčik©UEFA.com
Nationality: Slovakian
Date of Birth: 4 December 1962
Association president since: 2010
• Ján Kováčik proved his business acumen in the construction industry, and moved on into the entertainment world, co-founding one of Slovakia's largest production companies.
• Took his skills into the world of football as owner of his hometown club FK Dukla Banská Bystrica, helping them to compete among the top teams in Slovakia and qualify for the UEFA club competitions.
• Elected as Slovak Football Association (SFZ) president in September 2010, he said: "I want to be a strong but fair and proper president. My priority is to build a new national stadium, set new standards in communication between the SFZ and the media and, for sure, raise the standard of football in Slovakia." He was re-elected for a second term of four years in February 2014, and oversaw the national team’s qualification for UEFA EURO 2016. Stadium infrastructure improvements and amateur football development are among his major objectives in this term of office.
Jozef Kliment
Jozef Kliment©UEFA.com
Date of birth: 29 May 1964
Association general secretary since: 2011
• Jozef Kliment studied at the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports at Comenius University in Bratislava. He worked for the Slovak Football Association (SFZ) in the international department between 2001 and 2007, before joining UEFA in May 2007 as HatTrick project manager.
• Within the framework of UEFA’s HatTrick investment programme, Kliment coordinated implementation of different development projects in 21 UEFA member national football associations until the end of 2010.
• He became SFZ general secretary on 1 January 2011, and is the sixth general secretary since independence.
© 1998-2019 UEFA. All rights reserved. Last updated: Monday 20 August 2018
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You are here: Parliament home page > Parliamentary business > Publications and Records > Hansard > Commons Debates > General Committee Debates > Other Standing Committees
House of Commons Session 2002 - 03
Publications on the internet
Delegated Legislation Committee Debates
Police Act 1997 (Criminal Records) (Amendment No. 4) Regualtions 2003
Column Number: 3
Tenth Standing Committee
on Delegated Legislation
Wednesday 9 July 2003
[Mr. Joe Benton in the Chair]
Police Act 1997 (Criminal Records) (Amendment No. 4) Regulations 2003
Mrs. Annette L. Brooke (Mid-Dorset and North Poole): I beg to move,
That the Committee has considered the Police Act 1997 (Criminal Records) (Amendment No. 4) Regulations 2003 (S.I., 2003, No. 1418.
Good afternoon, Mr. Benton; I look forward to serving under your chairmanship.
I start by quoting briefly from a Library note, which states:
''These regulations, which came into force on 1st July 2003, amend the Police Act 1997 (Criminal Records) Regulations 2002, which came into force in March 2002. They simply increase the fees payable for criminal record certificates and enhanced criminal record certificates previously both �12 to �24 and �29 respectively.''
Although the Library uses the word ''simply'', and with due respect to the Library researcher, I emphasise that, in its short chequered history, nothing has been simple for the Criminal Records Bureau. An early-day motion seeking an annulment of the statutory instrument was tabled on 17 June by my right hon. Friend the Member for Ross, Skye and Inverness, West (Mr. Kennedy), with 12 signatures that included mine and that of my hon. Friend the Member for Colchester (Bob Russell). On 19 June, it was ordered that the statutory instrument be referred to a Standing Committee on Delegated Legislation, which is why we are here today.
Reasons were given for the increase, and I am sure that the Minister will elaborate on them in due course. It would be all too easy to launch a full debate on the fiasco surrounding the CRB, and I shall do my best to avoid that. However, I need to comment on the background that led to us discussing the regulations today.
I would like to make it clear that Liberal Democrats continue to support the principle of providing comprehensive criminal record checks, to help protect the vulnerable. However, most people would accept that its practice has been deficient in so many ways. Now, on top of those failings, an awesome burden is being placed on the voluntary sector and parts of the private and public sectors�to the best of my knowledge, with no prior consultation and with less than one calendar month's notice. The jump from �12 to �29 is an increase of about 130 per cent. That is scandalous.
The regulations reconfirm that no fee is payable in relation to an application that is made in relation to a volunteer. However, we need to remind ourselves that in reality there is a cost of at least �10 to cover administration by registration bodies. That, in itself, is placing a huge burden on the voluntary sector�a sector on which we all depend so much.
The CRB started operating in March 2002, seven months late. Its many problems and failures have been the subject of at least two Adjournment debates, at which I have been present, and many parliamentary questions. Among the more recent revelations are that Capita has been fined �1.8 million for delivering a defective system; on the other hand, the company has been paid an extra �8.4 million.
The organisation failed to hit seven of eight key targets, which is shown in detail in a recent written answer to a question asked by my hon. Friend the Member for Sutton and Cheam (Mr. Burstow). The targets were missed by massive margins. For example, the target that 95 per cent. of standard CRB checks should be completed in one week was met in only 19.4 per cent. of cases, and that 90 per cent. of all enhanced CRB checks should be completed in three weeks was achieved in only 52.4 per cent. of cases. I do not want to go too far along that line, but it is obvious that we are considering a failed institution that needs remedial action. Who will bear the burden of that action? It appears that customers and taxpayers will have to bail out the flawed project.
The doubling of the fees will hit schools, care homes and charities hardest, at a time when all of them are struggling with cash shortages. It is a catastrophe, due to disastrous planning, bad decisions and bad implementation, all of which can be traced back to Capita and to Government decisions. It is sad that the losers are the vulnerable people who are owed the reassurance of CRB checks on care staff and the customers who face the massive charges�and, of course, the taxpayer who has to foot the bill for the huge losses.
We need to reflect on the burdens and the benefits of the charges. A private charge is made on organisations and public sector bodies, but a public good comes out of it; that is what we all appreciate. It is difficult to agree a pricing policy when a public good is involved. The late announcement of massive increases in this instance means that there is huge harm on the private side. The National Council for Voluntary Organisations suggests that the fee increase will not only harm voluntary organisations, but will damage their ability to complement public services in areas such as child care, youth services and care of the disabled. The same organisation estimates that the additional cost to the sector in the first year will be between �7.6 million and �9.3 million.
Bob Russell (Colchester): Would my hon. Friend care to comment on whether the increases will help the Government in their objective to embrace the voluntary sector more and more in our daily lives?
Mrs. Brooke: We all appreciate the enormous contribution that the voluntary sector makes to our public services, so it has to be a matter of great concern. More directly, our public services, education and social services are also affected.
Mr. George Foulkes (Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley): I accept the point that the hon. Lady makes about the voluntary sector. I used to be a director of Age Concern Scotland, so I know what she is talking about. I know also how easy it is to criticise things that
might not have gone as well as expected. I did it for 18 years, and I used to enjoy it. It is more difficult to come up with alternatives. When will the hon. Lady tell us what she thinks ought to be done, or to have been done? I hear repeatedly from the Liberal Democrats yap, yap, yap, criticism, criticism, criticism but no positive alternative. Let us hear the alternative.
Mrs. Brooke: I am sure, Mr. Benton, that you would not wish me to go into a complete description of a new solution. We have in front of us a statutory instrument laying out specific proposals. Of course, my party would be happy to meet representatives of the Government to discuss the matter, but that should be outwith the Committee, as it is outside the scope of the regulations. I wish to continue�
Mr. George Howarth (Knowsley, North and Sefton, East): I am sorely tempted to support the hon. Lady in her opposition to the measure, having heard her arguments. My difficulty is that, as my right hon. Friend the Member for Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley (Mr. Foulkes) has said, without knowing what her alternative is, I would be opposing something for the sake of opposing it, rather than supporting something. I know that that is a habit into which Liberal Democrats slip easily, but some of us have to have alternatives.
Mrs. Brooke rose�
The Chairman: Order. We are not here to discuss Liberal Democrat policy. Let us return to the regulations.
Mrs. Brooke: Thank you so much, Mr. Benton. I am grateful to hear that some have as much concern as I have about the proposals; they are what we should concentrate on.
The one month's notice gives me great cause for concern. Notice was given on 5 June. Clearly there could have been differences in the handling; the budgets of the voluntary organisations and the care homes from which we have received representations tend to set in April. The short notice makes budgeting difficult, as does the timing. Given that the charges are in place as we are speaking, that is a matter of great concern.
I draw my comments together by raising a series of questions for the Minister. The compact advocacy programme based at the NCVO expresses concerns that introducing the fee rise without consultation could be a serious breach of the compact. I understand that the compact includes undertakings from the Government to appraise the impact of new policies and procedures on voluntary organisations, and to consult the sector on issues that are likely to affect it.
The decision to more than double fees for disclosures is going to affect many voluntary organisations seriously, so where is the consultation coming in? Although Liberal Democrats are often criticised for such questions, I am sure that most Members would say that that is pretty reasonable in the circumstances. The NCVO has suggested that a fee freeze could be considered for voluntary and community organisations until the end of 2003. If
the regulations were annulled today and a consultation period was set up, albeit for a couple of months, those important issues could be considered carefully. All Governments, after all, want to be seen as listening Governments. I further understand that although the CRB checks for child care agencies were free in 2002 and 2003, they are to be brought not only into the network of the charges this financial year, but straight into such high levels. Can the Minister give that some consideration?
It seems quite likely that there will be further fee increases in the future, given the stated objectives of the Government and the CRB that there is to be a balance by 2007 between income and expenditure. Further figures obtained in a parliamentary answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Sutton and Cheam showed that in 2002�03 it cost �36 to produce a standard check using the paper application and �31 by phone, whereas it cost �41 for an enhanced check by paper and �36 by phone. The Minister could therefore say, ''Well, this is a generous subsidy to all these people.'' One could say that, but are further fee increases anticipated before next April? Are further increases anticipated by 2007? Given the issue of high costs, what are the plans for management of costs in future? Will the Government be forced to accept a further lowering of standards and performance? These important considerations would benefit from further consultation.
We are talking about the voluntary, private and public sectors. I have said much about the voluntary sector, but I do not want to forget, for example, care homes that are in the private sector and, in particular, schools in the public sector, which is one of my great hobbyhorses. I want the Minister to say what will happen if the possible fee increases take place. Would he then commit himself to holding proper and full consultation?
©Parliamentary copyright 2003
Prepared 9 July 2003
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Man United headed in right direction under Mourinho, insists Schmeichel
Manchester United are heading in the right direction under Jose Mourinho, insists the club’s legendary former goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel despite two early-season defeats.
United bounced back from losing to Brighton and Tottenham with a comfortable 2-0 victory at Burnley on Sunday to quell some of the mounting tension at Old Trafford.
READ ALSO: Family beats, chops man’s hand for asking whereabouts of missing cow
Mourinho has routinely clashed with the media in recent weeks, demanding more respect for his managerial record, and his superiors at the club over a lack of transfer activity.
However, Schmeichel cited the two trophies won by the Portuguese during his first season in charge in 2016/17 and a second-place finish behind Manchester City last season — United’s highest league finish since Alex Ferguson’s retirement in 2013 — as signs of progress.
“We are progressing, we’ve had a really tough awakening since Sir Alex and (former chief executive) David Gill left at the same time. It left the club without a certain type of experience that the biggest club in the world needs,” said Schmeichel on Monday.
“We’re getting there, we can talk about mistakes but we’ve got Jose Mourinho, a proven winner… he’s won the Europa League, won the League Cup, been in an FA Cup final, we are doing really well and on the way to do doing better.”
Mourinho has been criticised for not getting the best out of star signings Paul Pogba and Alexis Sanchez, and a negative style of play not in keeping with the club’s traditions under Ferguson.
But Schmeichel, who won five Premier League titles during the Scot’s time in charge at Old Trafford, believes there is still enough for the fans to be excited by.
“We’ve got players in the squad that are inspirational, that you want to go to Old Trafford to watch. It all just needs to come together and that takes time.
“I’m like any other United fan. I want us to win everything, but I’m also a realist and I know other clubs have made incredible moves.
“I’m very patient, I know it is going to take time for Manchester United to get back to the level we used to be at, but I’m absolutely convinced that we will get there.”
Man United Mourinho
Man United ignite title race
Mourinho, Guardiola launch Premier League title pursuit
Manchester derby: Five best Mourinho vs. Guardiola moments
Man United VAR penalty correct – UEFA
Mourinho waves off Real return, focuses on Ronaldo
Mourinho ‘in the dark’ over Raiola’s plans for Pogba
Emotional Mourinho hails United’s Wembley glory
Mourinho eyes national team job
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Quiz: Can You Recognize These Famous NHL Players from Their Smiles?
Can You Recognize These Famous NHL Players from Their Smiles?
By: J.P. Naomi
Image: Veronica Varos / Moment / Getty Images
Did you know that the average hockey player loses several teeth throughout his career? Well, look no further than the NHL for some of the greatest examples! It's time to see how well you recognize these smiles with a few, or shall we say a lot of, missing teeth!
Whether it'a puck, a stick, a fall to the ice or a check into the boards, NHL players know fully well how easy it can be to lose teeth on the job. But boy, do they love their jobs! Could we venture to say that the team dentists love their jobs even more? Though it wasn't always the case, today's teams have actually installed dental chairs in their arenas! They have dentists on hand at each game, but avoiding a trip to them? Well, that's another story! You see, players have the choice to wear helmets with varying degrees of facial protection. The less protection? You got it...the more teeth they'll lose!
So what do you say, are you ready to "grin and bear it"? Will you make your way out of the arena unscathed, or will you score a front row seat in the dentist's chair? Good luck and remember to keep your eye on the puck!
Whose smile is seen here?
Drew Doughty
Dustin Brown
Did you know that Gordie Howe was nicknamed "Mr. Hockey"? He played a record 26 seasons in the NHL and was the inaugural recipient of the NHL Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008.
Can you name this NHL player?
Sean Couturier
Shean Donovan
Standing 6 feet 3 inches tall, Shean Donovan was a right wing who played for seven different teams throughout his career. His beautiful new smile comes after playing 951 games in the NHL.
Recognize this smile?
Craig Berube
Craig Berube played in the NHL from 1986 to 2004. Not even losing several teeth could keep him away though. He later became the head coach of the Chicago Wolves of the American Hockey League!
Do you know which NHL player this is?
Ken Daneyko
Patrick Wellar
Known as Ovi, and the Great Eight, Alex Ovechkin is considered one of the greatest current players in the NHL. Born in Russia, he was selected as the 1st overall pick in the 2004 draft by the Washington Capitals.
Which player's smile is seen here?
1067TheFan
Bryan Bickell
John Erskine's smile is attributed to his 14-year career in the NHL. He was drafted 29th overall in the 1998 NHL Draft, selected by the Dallas Stars.
NHL Retro
Bobby Clarke
Don Ashby
Bobby Clarke may just have one of the most iconic smiles of NHL history! A 15-year veteran of the league, he now serves as an executive with the Philadelphia Flyers.
Do you know this NHL player?
Cody McLeod
Teemu Selanne was nicknamed "The Finnish Flash" and had a 21-season career in the NHL. His number 8 jersey was retired by the Anaheim Ducks in 2015.
Can you name this player?
THOMAS SABO Ice Tigers
Ryan O'Reilly
Stan Mikita
Did you know that Dany Heatley won the Calder Memorial Trophy as the top NHL rookie in 2002? During his 15 years in the league, he earned the nickname "Heater" because of his name and ability to score.
Which NHL star is this?
Born in Edmonton, Alberta in 1961, Mark Messier played 25 seasons in the NHL. He is considered one of the greatest players of all time and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2007.
Whose smile do you see here?
Tony Androck
Jay Rosehill
Theoren Fleury
At just 5 feet, 8 inches tall, Chris Conner has been a winger in the NHL since 2006. He has played for five different teams and is currently a member of the Washington Capitals.
Can you name this smile?
FOXSportsMidwest
John Tavares
Keith Tkachuk
Zack Stortini
Keith Tkachuk played in the NHL for 19 years. He spent his career with the Winnipeg Jets, Phoenix Coyotes, St. Louis Blues and Atlanta Thrashers, and retired in 2010.
And this one?
NHL/arktoshorse
Did you know that Doug Risebrough was the 7th overall pick in the 1974 NHL Draft? He played in the league from 1974 to 1987, later becoming a coach and general manager as well!
How about his?
Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Dave Scatchard
Did you know that Theoren Fleury was just 5 feet 6 inches tall?! As a right wing, he played more than 1,000 games in the NHL between 1989 and 2003 with four different teams.
You're doing great... now, who is this?
The Biography Channel
Daniel Carcillo
Chris Neil
Did you know that Bobby Hull was nicknamed "The Golden Jet"? He had the ability to shoot the puck at very high speeds across the ice, which he did for 23 years!
Here's the smile... who's the player?
Jon Sim
At the age of 27, Ryan O'Reilly currently plays center for the St. Louis Blues. He was drafted 33rd overall in the 2009 NHL Draft by the Colorado Avalanche.
Candice Henry
Born in Alberta, Canada, Jay Rosehill currently plays for the Manchester Storm within the Elite Ice Hockey League. He was originally selected by the Tampa Bay Lighting in the 2003 NHL Draft. He is highly regarded as an enforcer in the league!
Bryan Bickell is a retired NHL left wing who played in the league from 2006 to 2017. He was unfortunately diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and left the sport to focus on his health.
Which player is seen here?
Stan Mikita was born Stanislav Gvoth in the Slovak Republic. He is regarded as the best center of the 1960s and one of the greatest NHL players of all time... and he has (no) teeth to show for it!
Can you name this NHL star?
Gordon Ramsey
Did you know Duncan Keith was named one of the 100 Greatest NHL Players in history in 2017? In 2002, he was drafted by, and still plays, with the Chicago Blackhawks.
Whose smile is this?
Mike Ricci
Mike Ricci played 16 seasons as a center in the NHL. He played for the Philadelphia Flyers, Quebec Nordiques, Colorado Avalanche, San Jose Sharks and Phoenix Coyotes between 1990 and 2007.
And how about this one?
Brent Burns is a defenseman who currently plays for the San Jose Sharks and shoots right. Did you know that he was the 20th overall pick of the 2003 NHL Draft?
Recognize these teeth? (or lack there of?!)
Hit The Ice
Wesley Cody McLeod was born in Manitoba, Canada, and is currently a left winger for the New York Rangers. He has also played for the Colorado Avalanche and the Nashville Predators.
Standing 6 feet 1 inch tall, Drew Doughty plays defense in the NHL. He was selected 2nd overall in the 2008 draft by the Los Angeles Kings who he still plays with today!
John Tavares was selected 1st overall by the New York Islanders in the 2009 NHL Draft. Did you know he went on to serve as captain for the Islanders for five seasons after that? Today he plays with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Which player is this?
CharlotteCheckers
All Zack Stortini wants for Christmas is his two front teeth! It's no wonder he is missing them; he is known for his physical prowess on the ice and is known as an enforcer.
Which NHL player is seen here?
Ryan Boulding
Paul Stastny
Paul Stastny was born on December 27, 1985 in Quebec City. Like many for many players, hockey is in his blood. His father is a Hockey Hall of Famer Peter Stastny.
Do you know whose smile this is?
jimchab vlogs
Claude Giroux was drafted 22nd overall by the Philadelphia Flyers in 2006. He has played with them ever since, even being named team captain on January 13, 2013.
Who does this smile belong to?
Alex Burrows played left wing for the Ottawa Senators and Vancouver Canucks between 2002 and 2018. He is remembered on the ice as being an 'agitator'... which could explain his dental situation!
cyclonesHockey
Patrick Wellar was selected by the Washington Capitals in the 3rd round of the 2002 NHL Draft. Did you know that he is a forward who shoots left?
Did you know that Chris Neil played 17 seasons in the NHL? Not bad for a player selected in the 6th round of the draft!
Which NHL star is seen here?
Dustin Brown was selected 13th overall by the LA Kings in the 2003 NHL Draft. He is known for his physical playing style and is an NHL leader in hits and penalties!
Recognize these (missing) teeth?
ADKPhantoms
Did you know that Sean Couturier received three awards in 2018? They were the Pelle Lindbergh Memorial Trophy, the Yanick Dupre Class Guy Memorial Award, and the Gene Hart Memorial Award!
Who is this NHL player?
Did you know that Ken Daneyko played his entire 20-year career with the New Jersey Devils? What's more is that he is ranked number 22 of NHL players who have the most career penalty minutes!
This smile belongs to...
Jon Sim played in the NHL for 16 seasons with 8 different teams! He helped the Dallas Stars win the Stanley Cup in 1999.
Drafted 42nd overall by the Vancouver Canucks, Dave Scatchard played in the NHL from 1996 to 2011. Unfortunately, his career was ended rather quickly when doctors told him it would not be safe to continue playing - he had concussion-related injuries.
Almost there, can you name this player?
Born in Nova Scotia, Colin White played 15 seasons in the NHL with the New Jersey Devils and San Jose Sharks. He is remembered for being a physical and defensive player, often leading his team in penalty minutes!
A left wing, Matt Cooke played 16 seasons and a total of 1,046 games during his NHL career. He played for the Canucks, Capitals, Penguins and Wild.
SPORTSTALKNY
Daniel Carcillo was known as somewhat of a reckless player on the ice, at one point earning himself the nickname "Car Bomb." Upon his retirement from the NHL, he started a non-profit that helps former NHL-players who suffer from post-concussion syndrome and mental health issues.
Dustin Byfuglien was drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks in 2005 and currently plays for the Winnipeg Jets. He is a defenseman who once clocked a slap shot at 102.5 miles per hour!
Can You Recognize These Famous Football Players From Black and White Photos?
Sports 6 Minute Quiz 6 Min
Can You Name All These Famous NBA Players From the ’80s?
Can You Identify These MLB Players from Two Photos?
Show Us Your Hockey Smarts by Acing This NHL Quiz!
Can You Identify These NBA Players Who Scored 50+ Points in a Game?
Can You Recognize These Star Athletes in Their Street Clothes?
MLB Players Identification Quiz
Can You Identify the Greatest NBA Players of All Time From an Image?
Can You Name These NFL Players From an Image?
Can You Get More Than 11 Right on This NHL Quiz?
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Digital Subscriptions > Women's Interest > Lifestyle & Fashion > The Lady Magazine > 3rd March
The Lady Magazine
(0 Customer Reviews) | Write Review 24 issues per year The Lady has always set the benchmark for quality reading and is fast becoming one of Britain’s most talked-about women’s magazines. Packed with news, features, comment, fashion, reviews, recipes, gardening tips and puzzles, tens of thousands of readers already look to The Lady for their weekly dose of inspiration, entertainment and culture.
The Lady has been in continuous publication since 1885 and is widely respected as England’s longest-running weekly magazine for women, celebrated both for the quality of its colourful editorial and its essential classified advertisement section.
Single Digital Issue - 3rd March
The Lady | 3rd March
This week we celebrate two quite distinct anniversaries. It is now 70 years since the Partition of India, and the impact it had on that great continent and its people is the subject of a glamorous new film, The Viceroy’s House,
with the 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma and his family centre stage.
True, Hugh Bonneville does cut a dashing figure as the Last
Viceroy, but as he told the Earl’s daughter, Lady Pamela Hicks:
‘I have to apologise because your father looked like a movie star
and I’m afraid I don’t.’
It is also the centenery of the birth of Lucienne Day, who designed the fabric
that graces this week’s cover for the 1951 Festival of Britain – a culture-changing event many still remember. It was a burst of bright energy on a battered war-torn landscape. Day’s radical new fabric design, Calyx, which still seems so modern now, allowed ordinary people to bring colour into
their homes. Day became the lead designer for Heal’s and, crucially, for dear old John Lewis. For those of us who can’t resist a trip to soft furnishings, there are some lovely new cushions available in her fabrics. Just the thing to prop your feet up on while you flick through this week’s stunning Scottish travel pages.
The Lady has always set the benchmark for quality reading and is fast becoming one of Britain’s most talked-about women’s magazines. Packed with news, features, comment, fashion, reviews, recipes, gardening tips and puzzles, tens of thousands of readers already look to The Lady for their weekly dose of inspiration, entertainment and culture.
You'll receive 24 issues during a 1 year The Lady magazine subscription.
Many thanks for taking time to review The Lady
You'll receive 24 issues during a 1 year The Lady magazine print subscription.
3rd March
l'Orafo Italiano
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CHILDREN'S ADVENTURE AND MYSTERY AUTHOR MAX ELIOT ANDERSON SERVES AS A MOTIVATOR TO RELUCTANT READERS. AS WE MOVE INTO A NEW YEAR, HE OFFERS GREAT ADVICE TO PARENTS ON HOW TO MAKE SOME CHANGES THAT WILL AFFECT THEIR CHILDREN FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES.
So, you’re at the start of a new year. If it’s anything like last year, after Christmas break is over, your kids will fall farther and farther behind others in their classes unless they’ve already discovered a most amazing secret.
Recently I heard a speaker who talked about the negative effects of television viewing on children. My own father used to call our TV the “idiot box.” But this speaker went a step further by calling it, “…hellevision.”
Here's why.
He said that the average child in America today, watches between 5 and 7 hours of TV every...single...day! That number continues to increase.
If most adults tried to do that, just for a couple of days, they'd be shocked at some of the content. And when they realized what their children were watching, hour after hour, they’d do something about it. These same children spend only minutes a day interacting with their parents. The balance of their time is spent on video games, computers, cell phones, homework, and if they have the time...reading.
I’ve set out to try to change that, by writing the kinds of action-adventures and mysteries that readers 8 and up would enjoy. Even though I sometimes speak of them as books for boys, they are still equally enjoyed by girls. Many report that reading one is like being in an exciting movie.
Parents, if you doubt the positive effect you will see, in your own home, by turning off the TV and giving children interesting or exciting books to read, let me relate a true story in an attempt to change your mind. And if there is a TV in your child’s bedroom today, I hope you’ll be encouraged to remove it.
A couple of years ago, I had the opportunity to speak to a group of children in the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago. These kids need all the help they can get in order to break out of the cycle of poverty all around. I told them about this same story.
Gifted Hands is the true story of a child who felt he was the dumbest student in his fifth grade class. Through the demands of his single, working mother, who didn’t know how to read herself, he discovered the value of the library and learned to read. To his surprise, he found that he enjoyed learning
Benjamin Carson, M.D., started life on the mean streets of Detroit. His mother knew he had it in him to get out of the Detroit ghetto where they lived. She believed he could make something of himself. His mother demanded that Ben and his older brother turn off the TV and begin bringing home books from the library. Their TV viewing was cut to one hour per week. Can you imagine? Even though she could not read herself, Ben’s mother required her sons to read their books and write book reports which they had to read to her out loud.
But Ben's beginnings were certainly not easy. Signs of determination showed as young as the age of 10. He started out as the "class dummy" in school, frequently getting every single question on his math tests wrong. But then, through hard work and a lot of reading from the local library, he expanded his knowledge in every subject. Soon, "good" wasn't good enough. Ben was driven to be the best. In fact, he was so driven that he won a full scholarship to Yale University.
Ben Carson should be regarded as a role model for kids today. Those not on the right path to a successful future could especially benefit; as a story like this could assist in a serious straightening out of priorities.
He is an inspiration to all because the life he began with wasn't as easy as many other families who have attended good colleges for generations. Ben and his older brother, Curtis, were the first in the family to ever attend college. Curtis went to the University of Michigan, and Ben enrolled at Yale University.
In the last chapter, Dr. Carson gives recommendations to students on ways to live and to achieve. Students might like to read his book, Gifted Hands, and write a book report.
Parents, you can also look for the feature film, “Gifted Hands,” on DVD wherever you get your videos. I would encourage you to rent it, sit down and watch it together on a family video night. You might even go a step further by watching it first. Then write out a few questions. Turning off the TV in your own home and requiring more reading could be the difference in your child’s success or failure in the future. This video might also help get that message across:
Expect a lot of yelling at first when you restrict that TV. But in the long run, it'll be worth the struggle. Next time, turn it off...and turn your kids on to reading!
Max Elliot Anderson grew up as a struggling, reluctant reader. Using a lifetime of experience in dramatic film, video, and TV commercial production, he brings that same visual excitement to his adventures & mysteries for readers 8 and up. 10 books are published, and 10 more are contracted. Be sure to visit Max's blog.
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“A Million Pieces of Me to Give and Share,…”
April 12, 2012 | Posted by Kim Covello
Kim Covello is a volunteer for Project HOME and an occasional contributor to the HOME Word blog. Her last post was about the 100,000 Homes Campaign.
Instead of dealing drugs in the streets of Boston, Esterlina Fernandez now rises at 4 am on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday every week in her apartment at Project HOME’s new James Widener Ray Homes, so she can catch the bus to meet her friends from Back On My Feet for their 5:30 am run. Not many people with normal lives adhere to such an exercise routine, let alone a formerly displaced, homeless woman who only moved to Philadelphia a little over a year ago.
At that time, Esterlina was living in Boston, alone, her relationship with her children severed due to her drug dealing and eventual eleven years spent in jail. Esterlina was dejected, depressed, full of rage, and suicidal. One day, she was at the end of her rope, when she saw Will Smith on TV performing one of his first hits, “Summertime.” Through her tears, she watched Will rapping those lyrics about summertime in Philly: “Back in Philly we'd be out in the park, a place called Plateau, is where everybody'd go…” Esterlina said to no one there, “That's it! That's what I'll do; I'll go to Philly and start over. I'm comingggg, Will!!”
So she sold her belongings and took a Greyhound bus to Philadelphia. It was April 3, 2011. She arrived and went straight to the hospital for her diabetic condition. Esterlina spent those first nights in the overnight cafés for persons who are homeless on the streets – places that have some tables and chairs (no beds) and stay open all night. Esterlina was horrified by the things that went on in the cafés. She would just go there to rest at night, but she always had a pen in one hand and a pencil in the other, ready in her own way, to defend herself. At first, people told her to go back to Boston; that Philly had too many people in shelters already.
But there was no going back for Esterlina. She was determined that Philadelphia was going to be her salvation. An angel arrived soon by the name of Edna. Edna sent her to Eliza at the Sheila Dennis House, a women's shelter on North Broad Street. Every day, Esterlina would walk from Broad and Lehigh to Center City to look for people to talk to, who could help her, anything. Many days, Esterlina would visit Love Park, a place that still holds warm memories in her heart.
One day, as she journeyed to Center City, she watched the Broad Street Run, one of the largest ten-mile races in the country, with over 30,000 people running down Broad Street. She thought it was the most amazing thing she had ever seen. “Beautiful!” she thought.
Soon after, Esterlina met Kate, who was giving sneakers and socks to Esterlina's friend, Wilma, fellow resident at the Sheila Dennis house. Kate worked with Back On My Feet, an organization dedicated to creating independence and self-sufficiency by first engaging homeless people in the world of running, to build confidence, strength, and self-esteem. Members can advance to the “next steps” program by adhering to a strict running schedule and other requirements. The organization has impressive results, with 75 percent of members, like Esterlina, maintaining attendance at 90 percent of their morning training runs.
So Esterlina started running in the early mornings with Back On My Feet. Soon after, she enrolled in Self, Inc. to address leftover alcohol and drug abuse issues still clinging to her. Esterlina completed the program and has been clean for over a year.
Esterlina started looking for more… more people to meet, more work to do, more ways to get involved and give back. She got involved in advocating for the rights and dignity of persons who were homeless: During the “Sidewalks Not Solutions” campaign, which Project HOME spearheaded, she marched on City Hall in a self-made costume: She was a queen in a box, with the message “I want to think outside the box, instead of living in it.”
In fact, costume design is one of her amazing talents. Volunteering to hand out water at one of the Back On My Feet races, Esterlina dressed in a “foot costume” that she made out of cardboard and paper. For the Back On My Feet Christmas party, she dressed as a Christmas tree and had more sparkle than the real one. Esterlina has a gift with cardboard and paper, and people started noticing. A community partner of the Leeway Foundation helped Esterlina, who has less than an eighth-grade education, write a grant request.
The Leeway Foundation awarded Esterlina $2,400 to organize costume workshops for homeless women at the Sheila Dennis House. The grant specified that Esterlina “teach people to make costumes for public demonstrations ... to challenge the stigma surrounding homelessness.”
Esterlina didn't rest on her laurels. She treaded new paths. She took a construction course at opportUNITY, learning from her instructors, Steve Pettiway and William Webb, how to lay floors, put up drywall, install windows and doors, and build a roof. Graduation is on April 20. Esterlina, also working to rebuild a relationship with her children and grandchildren, enrolled in a 12-week parenting class.
Recently, one of Esterlina's dreams came true: She moved into her own apartment at James Widner Ray Homes. At the March 5 formal opening of the apartment project, Esterlina stood at the podium, in front of over 150 people, and eloquently told her Philadelphia Story. Edna, Eliza, Kate, and all who knew her, felt a sense of pride and inspiration as she candidly recounted her move from Boston, and then cut the ribbon with Mayor Nutter.
Permanent housing wasn't Esterlina's only dream. She has lots of dreams, and her determination is palpable, which is no surprise. While in prison, she saw her “auntie on TV with Oprah” holding a photo of Esterlina's mother as a baby. Oprah had invited her auntie on the show because Esterlina's family are believed to be sixth-generation descendents of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings, one of Jefferson’s slaves at Monticello.
Esterlina is determined to have gastric bypass surgery. She believes it will end her diabetes and save her life. She wants it so she can move better, do MORE, and end her last-place finishes of all the races she's done in Philadelphia with Back On My Feet. “I'm so tired of being last,” she cries into her tissue. But her tears are always mixed with hope “I know I'm going to get it [the surgery], I just know it.”
Esterlina dreams of having a home for seniors, where she can help the elderly with the obstacles of their everyday lives. Esterlina continues to go to Love Park, visiting with her old friends, the homeless men and women there, bringing them sandwiches and candy. “There are a million pieces of me,” she says, “to give and to share with every person [out there] who's not having a good day…”
Esterlina and her friends at the Sheila Dennis House have been working long hours with pieces of fabric, cardboard, paper and other materials to make life-size costumes for the Walk Against Hunger, a walkathon that raises money to support more than 100 food pantries, soup kitchens, and hunger relief agencies in southeastern Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey. This Saturday, April 14, you can catch Esterlina and her friends dressed as a life-size chicken leg, broccoli bunch, oatmeal bowl, banana, can of soup and a cookie. If you want to find Esterlina, just look for the sweet face in the middle of the chicken leg, leading her bunch of foodie friends down the center of Martin Luther King Jr., Drive.
Advocacy / Residents
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Salazar Stuns ElShorbagy In Detroit
It was a wild night at The Motor City Open presented by the Suburban Collection. The world's top-ranked player, Mohamed El Shorbagy, bid a quick adieu to the tournament after falling to Mexico's Cesar Salazar in the Round of 16.
That wasn't all the night had in store for the capacity crowd at the Birmingham Athletic Club, as a five-game match ended in thrilling fashion, and another grueling matchup ended on a somber note.
Salazar put the two-time MCO Champion on notice early on when he took the first game in dominating fashion, 11-2. El Shorbagy bounced back from a 3-0 deficit in the second game to earn two game balls, but Salazar wasn't having it. He hit a pair of winners and stole the second game, 13-11.
After El Shorbagy cruised to an 11-6 third-game win, it looked as though he had found his form and may take control of the match. The #26 player in the world had other plans, however, going toe-to-toe with his opponent and earning a 12-10 win after El Shorbagy hit the tin.
Salazar was visibly emotional after the victory.
“My best win ever, for sure,” he said. “I tried to stay very focused and play long rallies because he loves to play quick points. My strategy was perfect in the first two games.
He played better in the third, but in the fourth, I kept fighting, he made some mistakes, and I tried to push him knowing I had a chance.”
Salazar moves on to face Stephen Coppinger in the Quarterfinals after the South African pulled off an impressive comeback against 2009 MCO Champion Borja Golan.
Golan got off to a 2-0 lead over Coppinger and looked like he was ready to seal the deal with a 9-7 advantage in the third.
That's when things took a turn.
Coppinger caught Golan in the nose on his backswing and bloodied the Spaniard, causing a delay that lasted nearly half an hour. Upon his return, Golan earned a match ball at 10-9, but Coppinger found a way to steal the game, 12-10.
Golan wouldn't recover.
Coppinger got off to a 5-1 start in the fourth game and was able to use that to power his way to an 11-7 win. In the fifth, the two went back-and-forth as Golan regained a bit of his earlier form. With the game tied at 8-8, Coppinger hit a masterful drop shot to get back out in front. The world's 24th-ranked player would earn two game balls, using the second one to finish the deal, 11-9.
“The first two (games) I tried to play really controlled, but I wasn't letting myself go,” Coppinger said. “He was able to do that better than me. I got fired up after the interval, though.
I was staring down the barrel of the gun, but I'm really happy how I was able to come through in those last games.”
While Coppinger and Golan had the longest match of the night, it may not have been the most entertaining battle, as 2015 MCO Champion Miguel Angel Rodriguez duked it out with Egypt's Zahed Mohamed in a back-and-forth affair that captured the attention of everyone in attendance.
Despite dropping the first game, 13-11, Rodriguez would emerge victorious in four games after Mohamed cramped up in the fourth and was forced to retire.
Rodriguez took the second game, 11-9, before fighting off a game point in the third and pulling off a 13-11 escape act. The two competitors really put on a show for the crowd, with long rallies and impressive winners becoming the norm by the time the fourth game rolled around.
In the fourth, it was neck-and-neck. With the game tied at 8-8, Mohamed's leg tightened up, but he still managed to hit a beautiful drop shot to take a 9-8 lead. That would be his last point, however, as he was writhing on the ground in pain following the point. When he stood and tried to move around, it became evident that he wouldn't be able to play through and had to retire.
“That's not the best way to win,” Rodriguez said. “These kinds of matches are pretty intense. He's a tough player. He was giving it his best and I had to play my best to beat him.
All the credit to him for playing so hard, but I think he just ran out of fuel.”
Rodriguez moves on to the Quarterfinals where he will meet Ali Farag in a matchup of the last two champions at the MCO.
Farag dismantled Gregoire Marche of France in three games: 12-10, 11-6, 11-7.
In the night's first match, fourth-seeded Omar Mosaad bounced back from a first game defeat at the hands of Abdullah Al Tamimi. Mosaad would cruise through the final three games en route to a 12-14, 11-2, 11-3, 11-9 win.
Mosaad will meet Ryan Cuskelly of Australia in the Quarterfinals.
Cuskelly took care of business against Campbell Grayson: 11-8, 11-6, 11-6.
Diego Elias and Marwan El Shorbagy also reeled off three-game victories to set up a showdown in the Quarterfinals.
Elias defeated Raphael Kandra of Germany: 12-10, 11-7, 11-2.
The younger El Shorbagy cruised in 25 minutes to a win over Ivan Yuen: 11-8, 11-3, 11-3.
FRIDAY'S RESULTS
Cesar Salazar (Mexico) def (1) Mohamed El Shorbagy (Egypt) 11-2, 13-11, 6-11, 12-10 (59 minutes)
Stephen Coppinger (South Africa) def (6) Borja Golan (Spain) 8-11, 5-11, 12-10, 11-7, 11-9 (84 minutes…w/delay 102 minutes)
(7) Ryan Cuskelly (Australia) def Campbell Grayson (New Zealand) 11-8, 11-6, 11-6 (62 minutes)
(4) Omar Mosaad (Egypt) def Abdullah Al Tamimi (Qatar) 12-14, 11-2, 11-3, 11-9 (50 minutes)
(3) Ali Farag (Egypt) def Gregoire Marche (France) 12-10, 11-6, 11-7 (41 minutes)
(5) Miguel Angel Rodriguez (Columbia) def Zahed Mohamed (Egypt) 11-13, 11-9, 13-11, 8-9 (ret) (94 minutes)
(8) Diego Elias (Peru) def Raphael Kandra (Germany) 12-10, 11-7, 11-2 (37 minutes)
(2) Marwan El Shorbagy (Egypt) def Ivan Yuen (Malaysia) 11-8, 11-3, 11-3 (25 minutes)
FRIDAY'S MATCHES, QUARTERFINALS
Salazar vs. Coppinger
Cuskelly vs. Mosaad
Farag vs. Rodriguez
Elias vs. El Shorbagy
Rachael Grinham ‘Proud’ To Stay In Top 30 At The Age Of 42
World Junior Championships To Be Shown Free On SquashTV
2018-2019 Season Review - Breakthrough Stars: Part Two
Weekend Round-Up: Crouin Keeps Momentum Going in Tasmania
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Home > ARRA Stories > New Magnet To Sharpen Imaging Capabilities at Vanderbilt University
New Magnet To Sharpen Imaging Capabilities at Vanderbilt University
By Bill Snyder
John Gore, Ph.D.
The Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science has received a $3.45 million federal stimulus grant to purchase one of the world's strongest magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners.
The 15 Tesla scanner will be used in studies of genetically engineered mice and other small animal models to further understanding of cancer, diabetes and brain disorders in humans.
One Tesla is roughly 20,000 times the strength of the magnetic field of the earth. Because the 15 Tesla scanner is so mighty, it can generate exquisitely detailed images of the brain and other body structures, and measure minute levels of key compounds, including cancer “biomarkers.”
Since these imaging methods are non-invasive, they can be conducted repeatedly in living animals.
For these reasons, “magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy have become very powerful tools for studying … animal models of disease and effects of genetic manipulations,” said institute director John Gore, Ph.D.
The one-year stimulus grant to purchase the scanner was awarded through the National Center for Research Resources, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
It is the sixth largest grant awarded to Vanderbilt University by the NIH under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. To date, the NIH has provided nearly $90 million to support 186 different stimulus grants led by 165 Vanderbilt scientists.
The new Varian scanner is smaller than scanners used in human studies, and will be installed in renovated space in Medical Center North, Gore said.
Here are some of the ways the instrument will be used:
Eduard Chekmenev, Ph.D., who came to Vanderbilt last year from the California Institute of Technology, and Kevin Waddell, Ph.D., are developing a way to “hyperpolarize” carbon-13, a stable isotope of carbon, so that it can be used as a novel imaging biomarker for cancer. One day it could help doctors monitor the response of tumors to drug treatment.
The scanner also will be used to study the effects of specific genetic modifications and novel drugs on brain structure and function, including the development of the important signaling systems involving the neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine. Such studies could lead to new, more effective treatments for disorders as wide-ranging as depression and Parkinson's disease.
The scanner will enable researchers to study leptin and melanocortin receptor signaling in the mouse brain. These compounds are involved in feeding behavior and the regulation of body weight. The research has implications for better understanding the development of obesity and diabetes, and could lead to better ways to treat and prevent these all-too-common human conditions.
Other researchers will investigate and develop new imaging methods such as diffusion tensor imaging, a non-invasive technique for studying the “white matter,” bundles of long fibers (axons) that transmit signals between different parts of the brain.
The stimulus grant is the latest in a series of investments by the National Center for Research Resources. Since 2004, the center has provided nearly $14 million in equipment and infrastructure grants to the Institute of Imaging Science, Gore said.
The institute's $20 million building at the corner of Medical Center Drive and 21st Avenue South, dedicated in 2006, includes four floors of research, office and classroom space, four powerful magnets for conducting studies in animals, and a 7 Tesla scanner for use in humans.
“We probably have the single largest, most comprehensive center in the country,” said Gore, who was recruited from Yale University in 2002 to establish the institute. “Size isn't everything, but there are not many areas in which we're not considered to be major players.”
This article originally appeared on the Vanderbilt University website. Reposted with permission.
National Center for Research Resources
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Home — Evil People in Modernist Homes in Popular Films
Evil People in Modernist Homes in Popular Films
Vol. 1, MMX.
E.P.i.M.H.i.P.F. offers a serious but lighthearted investigation of the representation of modernist architecture in popular film, reflecting on the convention of associating evil characters and events with modern buildings, and also, more generally, on the relation between cinema and architecture. A series of film stills, quotes and accompanying texts point to examples in The Damned Don't Cry (1950), Diamonds are Forever (1971), Blade Runner (1982), Body Double (1984), Lethal Weapon 2 (1989), L.A. Confidential (1997), The Big Lebowski (1998), and Twilight (2008). Includes essays by Steve Rose, Jon Yoder, and Joseph Rosa.
Designed by Benjamin Critton
Published by Draw Down
Printed in an edition of 1,000
24 pages, 2-color offset, 11.5 × 15 in.
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The RSC “Reading Room” contains a regularly updated electronic library of reports, documents and other research resources. The RSC collects and compiles this set of electronic material and research resources in order to provide access to a wider body of work for researchers and analysts. Most notably, the RSC “Reading Room” is a key element of our efforts in the areas of public education and research and analysis, as we construct and expand a virtual “knowledge base” of resources covering a wide range of topical issues and geographical areas, many of which are neither widely known nor available in Armenia or the South Caucasus region.
Azerbaijan's Foreign Policy: Between East and West
Category: RSC Reading Room
Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI)
IAI Working Paper 1305
Kamal Makili-Aliyev
Summary: Azerbaijan is at the crossroads between East and West. Its geopolitical location is both its challenge and its major asset. This paper analyses the general state of relations of Azerbaijan with its largest and geopolitically most important neighbours as well as with other international players in order to see how Azerbaijan is able to maintain a balanced approach in foreign policy, maneuvering politically between the clashing geopolitical interests and ambitions of the different states in the South Caucasus. It is argued that due to its choices in foreign policy and strong focus on the effective development of its economy, Azerbaijan vies to maintain an independent course.
“Thinking the Unthinkable: The Gulf States and the Prospect of a Nuclear Iran”
Saban Center at Brookings
Middle East Memo, No. 27
Suzanne Maloney
Summary: The issue of Iran has become a central preoccupation for the international community in recent months, thanks to the intersection of the historic changes in the region, an American presidential election, sharpening rhetoric from Israel, and Tehran’s relentless determination to advance its nuclear capabilities. The focus of policymakers in Washington and around the world remains fixed on the options for forestalling Iran’s determined march toward a nuclear weapons capability. This is the appropriate objective; the best possible outcome for maintaining peace and security in the Gulf and avoiding a deeply destabilizing nuclear arms race remains a credible, durable solution that curtails Iran’s nuclear ambitions. And while achieving such an outcome remains profoundly problematic, largely as a result of Tehran’s intransigence, preventing Iran from crossing the nuclear weapons threshold—either through persuasion, coercion, or some combination of the two—remains fully and unambiguously within the capabilities of the international community.
“Human Rights and Democracy: The UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) Annual Report”
Summary: The UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) released its annual “Human Rights and Democracy Report” highlighting the UK’s human rights policies and concerns on key issues, and features 28 Countries of Concern where the FCO has the most serious wide-ranging human rights concerns.
ICG Report: “Syria’s Kurds: A Struggle within a Struggle”
Summary: Syria’s conflict gives its Kurdish population an opening to rectify historic wrongs and push for more autonomy, but facing internal divisions, poor ties with the non-Kurdish opposition and regional rivalries, its challenge is to articulate clear, unified and achievable demands. Syria’s Kurds: A Struggle within a Struggle, the latest International Crisis Group report, examines the growing influence of Kurdish factions in Syria while warning against entanglement in the broader regional battle over Kurdish independence.
“Syria’s Kurds: A Struggle within a Struggle”
“An Opportunity for Ambition: Ukraine’s OSCE Chairmanship”
Matthew Rojansky
Carnegie Endowment
Summary: Ukraine’s 2013 chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) presents Kyiv with a major opportunity to advance an agenda that benefits the entire Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian security community. Ukraine must make the most of this unparalleled opportunity and demonstrate its ability to lead and inspire others to achieve real progress on difficult problems.
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The English Ghost – Peter Ackroyd
January 30, 2011 November 7, 2016 / preferreading / 3 Comments
I love a good ghost story. Especially what I would call “true” ghost stories as opposed to fictional ones. Now, there would be many people who would say all ghost stories are fiction but I’ve always liked to think of those monks, cavaliers, grey ladies & sad lovers drifting through the stately homes of England, reliving some dramatic moment of their lives for all eternity. Part of the attraction for me is the historical aspect & also the fact that often the most believable ghost sightings are, well, so believable. The person who sees the ghost is often not aware that they’ve seen one until after the fact. The ghost often takes a path that was there in its lifetime but has since gone & the witness doesn’t know this. There are often multiple sightings of the same ghost & the witness doesn’t know of the other sightings until afterwards. These are the stories that seem inexplicable to me unless there is something uncanny about certain places & some people are able to tune in to the atmosphere.
Peter Ackroyd’s new book, The English Ghost, is full of stories of ghosts, spirits, poltergeists & uncanny experiences. Ackroyd makes a very bold claim in his Introduction, that England is a haunted country. He believes that ghost sightings are so frequent in England because it’s a country bordered by Celtic countries & also has German & Nordic ancestry, all cultures steeped in ghostly lore,
The English are also in many respects obsessed with the past, with ruins, with ancient volumes. It is the country where archaeology is placed on national television, and where every town and village has its own local historian. Ghosts therefore may be seen as a bridge of light between the past and the present, or between the living and the dead. They represent continuity, albeit of a spectral kind.
(The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall)
Ackroyd has collected stories of ghosts mostly from the 17th century to the present day. They range from the traditional monks & white ladies to spectral animals. One of the most touching stories is of the dachshund that accompanied a woman on her way to her husband’s surgery, looking at her with such an imploring expression, until it reached a certain house when it disappeared down the area steps. Not long after, another woman also saw the little dog, which she recognized as her own missing pet & she followed him to the same house. On investigation, the house was discovered to belong to a mysterious German doctor who specialized in vivisection… Both women were surprised to see that, although it was a very hot day, the little dog was dripping wet & muddy.
(The Tulip Staircase ghost at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich)
Royal palaces are often the scene of ghostly goings-on. Hampton Court has several famous ghosts, including poor Catherine Howard, who is said to be heard screaming outside the Chapel Royal as she begs to be allowed to see Henry VIII after her affair with Thomas Culpeper has been discovered. In February 1907, a police officer on duty at the Palace saw a group of people returning, he thought, from a party, across the grounds. Imagine his surprise when the whole party, eight or nine people, vanished into thin air, only a few yards from where he stood. It was only then that he realised that they had made no sound at all.
Then there are the more modern stories of ghostly hitch hikers & people who throw themselves in front of cars. When the driver stops to investigate, there’s no one there. Some of the most uncanny stories are of the spirits of the recently dead who appear to their loved ones at the moment of their death, when the witness has no idea that they’re in any danger. These stories are often well-documented because the witness writes down what has happened in their diary or tells a friend & then, when the letter or telegram arrives with the sad news, they can verify their vision.
These are only a few of the dozens of stories in The English Ghost. Anyone interested in ghost stories – believer or sceptic – would enjoy this book, although you may not want to read it last thing at night!
Abby’s Sunday morning
Hot today & hot tomorrow. Summer has arrived with a vengeance. It’s predicted that Melbourne will get to 40 degrees today & tomorrow so Abby & I are prepared for a quiet Sunday staying as cool as possible. We were up early, watering the garden before breakfast, Abby keeping an eye on any birds that stopped for a rest & a drink.
We’ve been lucky this year as the weather has been pretty benign. A few hot days & a patch of humidity but also a fair bit of rain (too much for the flooded areas of northern Victoria, unfortunately) so the garden hasn’t suffered much at all.
The catmint I planted especially for Abby is thriving. Of course, she hasn’t even given it a sniff, she’s completely uninterested. Maybe when it’s big enough for her to sleep under…
We’ll be spending the afternoon in the cool living room with books & iced tea at hand. I hope your Sunday is calm, peaceful & full of good reading.
Virago Reading Week – the pictures
I’m afraid my entry for the Virago photo competition can’t compete with the delightful photos of Viragos with cat models at Rochester Reader or the delightful pinny-wearing dog with Viragos at Roses Over a Cottage Door. I’m afraid Abby isn’t really amenable to posing on a pile of books. She’s asleep in the shrubbery at the moment, anyway. So, I’m going to pinch a couple of photos from an earlier post I wrote about Virago Modern Classics back in November.
It was a post about my love for the original green Viragos & the gorgeous artwork they used. The photo at the top of the post shows the Viragos I still have on the tbr shelves. As I’ve read a couple of Viragos this week, thanks to Rachel & Carolyn, the pile has been lessened by two! I have no idea which Virago will be next. I love the look of Mary Lavelle by Kate O’Brien or one of the Daphne Du Mauriers or Rose Macaulay’s The World My Wilderness.I want to read them all at once but, apart from being greedy – & impossible – it would leave me nothing to anticipate. I love knowing that I have a handy little cache of Viragos ready when I read an enthusiastic review or someone in my online book group says Have you read…? I can say, Yes, it’s on the tbr & race over to find it. That’s what my tbr shelves are for, after all.
The Squire – Enid Bagnold
After reading Vita Sackville-West’s No Signposts in the Sea, about a man at the end of his life, I turned to Enid Bagnold’s The Squire, which is about the beginning of life. The squire of the title is a woman about to give birth to her fifth child. It’s summer, she lives in an English country house (not too grand) with her other children, her husband is a Bombay merchant, away on a trip to India & it’s the late 1930s. This is a book about women & children, the relationships between them. The only men are the doctor & the butler, Pratt. Neither is important. The doctor is almost superfluous, popping in & out for the odd visit. Pratt is a surly, untidy man. He has a love/hate relationship with the squire & a combative attitude to the other staff.
The core of the book is the squire, her thoughts, feelings, memories & sensations. She’s almost completely self-absorbed in the first part of the book as she waits for the baby’s birth. She’s withdrawn from the running of the household as much as she can (although when the cook leaves abruptly, she has to phone agencies & employ a temporary cook who turns out to be a mistake). She’s a loving mother, aware of her other children but for this little space in time, her new baby & the sensations of her own body are paramount. She’s detached from events outside herself. Her friend, Caroline, with her love affairs & her emotional upheavals, seems very far away although she lives virtually next door.
The squire’s most intense relationship is with her midwife who is due to arrive at any time. The midwife has been there for the births of all the other children & she will stay for a month after the birth to give mother & child a good start together. The squire & the midwife have a comfortable, friendly relationship. They talk about other women the midwife has attended & about the nursing home the midwife would love to run where she could create the perfect conditions for childbirth, calm & peaceful. The midwife is in a privileged, all-powerful position, at this moment of birth when a mother looks for reassurance & calm,
There were long silences and the curious medieval picture remained posed. The woman about to go into labour lay, clothed, but her belly exposed, thrilled, and silent, holding in her silence the very centre of a lively stage. The other actor, with her centuries of tradition, on her knees, listening with her slender hands for the creak of the gates that would open to let out her charge.
The baby is safely born & the squire spends a precious week bonding with the baby, the other children allowed in to visit briefly. Gradually, her total absorption in her new son recedes as she enters daily life again. She emerges from her room & takes up the reins of her life & the baby settles into his place in the family,
The squire took up a book at the breast-feed for the first time and began to read over the baby’s head. He stared at the shadow, and when he was older he learnt to kick it down, but from now on the milk came mechanically and the squire’s mind could range separately as it chose. From habit, as the days went by, like a cottage woman she grew bolder at her breast-feeds, and would walk from room to room, or give orders to Pratt over the baby’s working head. She nursed him in the morning-room or in the garden, the children were allowed with her, the baby watched them out of one eye as he fed. He was unpacked now from his mystery and put into his family life.
Like No Signposts in the Sea, this is a book in which very little happens. It’s a very sensual book. The squire’s feelings & emotions are very close to the surface & the descriptions of labour & breast feeding are very intimate & immediate. The book was controversial for this reason when it was published in 1938. Maybe it was also controversial because the men are ineffectual or absent & the role of the mother is supreme. In some ways, it’s more a documentary or a slice of life than a novel. The squire & the midwife aren’t named & their relationship is the emotional centre of the book. Anne Sebba’s Introduction fills in the background of Enid Bagnold. I only knew her as the author of National Velvet although I’ve also read her Diary Without Dates about her experience of nursing in WWI & I have another of her novels, The Happy Foreigner (VMC) on the tbr shelves. Enid Bagnold worked on the book for over 15 years as she had four children of her own. She was determined to express in fiction this most important side to a woman’s life.
This is a book completely centred on a woman’s life & I can see why it was such a natural fit for Virago with their emphasis on the importance of women’s experience. I read The Squire as part of Virago Reading Week, kindly hosted by Rachel at BookSnob & Carolyn at A Few of my Favourite Books. I’ve loved being a part of VRW, it’s been a great chance to read Viragos & visit other blogs, reading reviews of other Viragos I want to read & reliving fond memories of favourite VMCs like South Riding & the Elizabeth Von Arnims, Elizabeth Taylors & all the fascinating stories of how fellow Virago lovers first discovered the imprint. Lives have been changed by these little green books. There are a lot of Virago lovers out there!
No Signposts in the Sea – Vita Sackville-West
January 26, 2011 November 7, 2016 / preferreading / 13 Comments
It’s Virago Reading Week, hosted by BookSnob & A Few of my Favourite Books. It was a good opportunity to have a look at the Virago Modern Classics on the tbr shelves & I chose Vita Sackville-West’s last novel, No Signposts in the Sea. Sackville-West is probably best known as a writer for her beautifully elegiac novel, All Passion Spent (also a VMC), & as a woman, as the lover of Virginia Woolf & the inspiration for her novel, Orlando.
No Signposts in the Sea is the story of Edmund Carr, a political journalist, who is told that he only has a few months to live. Edmund has been quite a solitary man. He has worked his way up from humble beginnings to a position of some power & influence. He has never married & has had fleeting, almost impersonal affairs with women who were never allowed to get too close. At the time that he discovers he is ill, he realises that he is in love with Laura Drysdale, a widow in her late 30s. Edmund & Laura move in the same social circles but have never been close. When Edmund discovers that Laura is about to take a Pacific cruise, he decided to spend his last months on the same cruise, as close to Laura as possible.
Edmund & Laura’s relationship grows closer as they spend time together on the ship & on various excursions at the ports they visit. They discuss their different ideas of marriage. Edmund learns a lot about Laura’s marriage & her ideas about the perfect relationship, but gives little away himself. He becomes intensely jealous of another passenger, Colonel Dalrymple, who is interested in Laura. Edmund & Laura go to a native market & are nearly caught up in a riot. The highlight of the trip is their overnight stay in a villa loaned to them by a stranger they meet in a port city,
I suppose I anticipated a luxurious villa with a cocktail bar in the drawing-room and carved wooden figures of Negroes holding electric lights. It was, on the contrary, simple to the point of austerity, with white-washed walls, red-tiled floors, large arm-chairs of rattan, and plain serviceable furniture of a peasant type. From the entrance hall and up the staircase drifted the scent of burning joss-sticks and that was the Orient, but in the same hall a door stood open on to a purely Spanish patio with pots of camellias standing about, and a little fountain splashing into a basin.
Edmund’s thoughts & feelings swing from intense happiness & contentment in his love for Laura & equally intense misery & jealousy. Laura is more enigmatic and, of course, we don’t hear her thoughts as we do Edmund’s. The book is an interior monologue & the reader becomes quite as involved in Edmund’s feelings as he is himself.
The Introduction to this edition by Victoria Glendinning was very interesting. As usual, I read the Introduction after I’d read the book. Sackville-West was very ill herself when she wrote the book although her illness had not been diagnosed. She loved cruises & spent several months every year with her husband, Harold Nicolson, cruising the Mediterranean, the Pacific or the West Indies. The cruise in the novel is based on one Sackville-West took in 1959 to India, Ceylon, Singapore, Manila, Saigon & Yokohama. Glendinning sees the book as an expression of Vita’s opinions & thoughts about love, marriage & relationships. Vita & Harold had an open marriage, both had heterosexual & homosexual affairs. Through Edmund & Laura, Vita described her idea of an ideal relationship. Mutual respect, independence, separate bedrooms & the same sense of values. Fidelity is important but it’s more important to avoid hurting the other person. Anyone who knows about Vita’s life & her own marriage can see that these are very close to her own views.
When I started the book, I found it hard to work out when it was set. It felt like the 1920s, I suppose the cruise ship setting made it feel very Twenties, until I came across references to WWII. It was written in the early 60s. In a way, it’s quite timeless. It could just as easily take place in the 19th century or the Edwardian period because it’s a book about emotions & the interior life more than events & the outside world. No Signposts in the Sea is a book where very little happens but it’s an absorbing study of emotions sharpened by the knowledge that life is finite. Edmund has to decide in the end whether he should take the risk of telling Laura of his love.
The Highland Lady in Ireland – Eliza Grant
The Highland Lady in Ireland takes up the story of Eliza Grant’s life ten years after the end of her Memoirs. At the end of the Memoirs, Eliza & her husband, Colonel Smith (Hal) have left India, where they met & married, & have sailed for Ireland. Col Smith had inherited a family estate, Baltiboys, near Dublin, after the death of his brother, and Ireland will be Eliza’s home for the rest of her long life. The Diary was written during the 1840s & the dominating theme is the dreadful potato famine that devastated Ireland during this decade.
The Smiths had spent the past ten years building up the estate, helping their tenants to improve their farms, building a school & doing all they could to create a happy, prosperous estate. In all this work, Eliza’s hand is evident. Growing up at Rothiemurchus in Scotland she had seen how important it was to have the owner living on the estate. Absentee landlords were a problem everywhere & in Ireland during the famine, it was the estates where the owners lived & took an interest in their property & their tenants that fared best.
Eliza’s world is a very patriarchal one. She treats her tenants & employees somewhere between recalcitrant children & rational beings but her motives are good. The Smiths were not rich. They often borrow from their land agent to tide them over until the next rents are due. Eliza often writes that only the Colonel’s army pension & her own literary efforts are keeping them afloat. During the hard years, the family retrenched, doing without many little luxuries that other landowners would take for granted,
Wretched land, what sufferings the most meritorious of its inhabitants are undergoing, all more or less stricken and no prudence on the part of the wiser able to secure them against the pressure of the evils resulting from the want of principle of the improvident… I often pray that my senses may be preserved to me, and that my health of mind and body may stand this struggle, and aid me to preserve an invalid husband and our dear children from much of the real poverty round them – they miss their luxuries – necessaries they still have and will have… but the want of enough to help to relieve others is a painful part of these unhappy times. To keep our own people from starving absorbs all there is to spare.
Eliza’s marriage was very happy. She mentions her invalid husband above, and Hal was quite a bit older than Eliza, but asthma is his main complaint & generally he lived a very active, outdoor life. I love this comment she makes about Jane Austen’s Emma,
John (Robinson, Agent for the estate) sent me Emma which delights me more than ever. Mr Knightley is more charming than I even used to think him for he is exactly Hal – and I was alas! always reckoned like Emma.
Eliza & Hal’s three children, Annie, Janie & Jack, are the much loved focus of her life. The girls are 10 and 8 at the beginning of the Diary & by the end of it Eliza is worrying about the intentions of a young Mr King who is paying Annie conspicuous attention. She has become a complete Irishwoman through her marriage & her love & pride in Baltiboys & she takes Ireland’s part in all the political discussions of the day about the famine & what Britain should do to help. She has very strong opinions about politicians & a pretty poor opinion of young Queen Victoria.
Her Scottish family cause her a lot of anxiety nevertheless. Her father & brothers, William & John, are ruined by the collapse of the Union Bank of Calcutta. They had invested in it heavily (William was a Director) but, even worse, had speculated with other people’s money & when the bank collapsed, their careless if not fraudulent activities were revealed. Eliza’s father is on his way back to England from India to live out the rest of his life dodging creditors when his health gives way & he dies at sea. Eliza is staying with her mother in Edinburgh when the news arrives,
Who was to tell my mother, Jane (sister) was totally unfit, even James (brother-in-law) shirked it. I came in and kneeling down beside her took her hands. ‘Mother’ said I very sorrowfully, ‘Jane and James have come.’ ‘Who have come’ said she quickly. ‘Jane and James’ I said again clasping her hands and kissing her, ‘and no one with them, and the Hardwicke has come.’ She looked at me for one moment, such a look, paused. ‘My child’, she said very low and very slowly, ‘I never expected him.’ Old highland days came back upon her and she wept for the first time abundantly.
By the end of the 1840s, Eliza hopes that the worst of the famine is over and that she and her family can look forward to some years of less worry & more prosperity. The Diary, like the Memoirs, was written for her children but Eliza is a natural writer & can’t help putting her life down on paper. Her sense of duty, her humour & her trenchant opinions make this a fascinating look at life in Ireland in the mid 19th century.
So I Have Thought Of You – the letters of Penelope Fitzgerald
After reading Penelope Fitzgerald’s novel, The Bookshop, last weekend, I picked up this volume of her letters that had been sitting on the tbr shelves since it was published over two years ago. I’ve spent the last week equally fascinated & frustrated by it. Fascinated because I enjoyed listening to Penelope Fitzgerald’s voice. Her dry humour & wit, so much a part of her voice as a novelist, is no less evident in these letters. Frustrated because of the way the letters have been edited.
The editor is Fitzgerald’s son-in-law, Terence Dooley. The letters have been arranged by correspondent, rather than chronologically. So, all the letters to her eldest daughter, Tina, are followed by all the letters to her daughter, Maria. The reader jumps from the 1960s to the 1990s, with stories retold in slightly different ways, according to the correspondent, every 50 pages. There is no timeline to get a grip on where we are in Fitzgerald’s life or what was happening or even which book she was working on. A timeline might not have mattered if there had been adequate footnotes.
This is my main problem with the book. The footnotes are scarce, erratic & completely arbitrary. A footnote at the beginning of each chapter identifies the correspondent & their relationship to Fitzgerald. Then, you’re on your own. I suppose you wouldn’t be reading this book if you weren’t already a fan of Fitzgerald’s work. But, sometimes the only clues to the novel referred to is the mention of the setting – Italy (Innocence), Russia (The Beginning of Spring) etc. Many events & people are passed over in silence but some people always rate a footnote. Colin Haycraft, Penelope’s publisher at Duckworths, always rates a footnote, even though, after the first few mentions, we could probably have worked it out for ourselves. However, the lack of footnotes, while irritating, didn’t stop me reading the letters.
There are several significant gaps. All Fitzgerald’s papers, including letters to & from her husband, Desmond, were lost when the houseboat the family lived on sank in 1963. There are no letters to her son, Valpy. Still, there are enough family letters to get a sense of her love of family life & the sometimes desperate poverty she struggled with.
I especially loved the letters written to publishers & editors. Fitzgerald spent years working on the research for a biography of the novelist L P Hartley, best known for The Go Between. She knew Hartley & wanted to write the biography before everyone who knew him was gone. However, the more she talked to people, especially Hartley’s sister, Norah, the more she realised that she could never write the book in Norah’s lifetime. The things she found out about him would have hurt his sister too much. She was also politely obstructed by other friends, including Lord David Cecil, who didn’t want Hartley’s passion for him to be exposed,
And then Lord D insists that Leslie’s life was completely happy. He added that his life was completely happy, and that he can’t remember ever being unhappy. I asked him whether LPH wasn’t heartbroken when he got married and he said, well he did seem upset, but I asked him to be best man – as though that made up for it! But he’d never seen Leslie unhappy, he repeated. I said, has it struck you that Leslie was happy when you were there, and not when you weren’t, like sunshine and shadow? Lord D looked rather taken aback. (To Francis King 29 October 1979)
Fitzgerald eventually gave up on the idea of the biography. She also had to give up on the idea of writing about Harold Monro’s Poetry Bookshop, because no publisher was interested. The Bookshop encouraged & published the work of several early 20th century poets. It was a minor but important part of the literary scene of the period. Fitzgerald was persistent in her approaches to any publisher she knew but to no avail. She didn’t waste the research as she wrote a wonderful biography of one of the poets, Charlotte Mew and Her Friends. Charlotte Mew was a minor poet, a lesbian who had some very tortured relationships & whose career spanned the late 19th century until the 1920s,
…worse still, I’ve just sent you another letter about Charlotte Mew – I can’t help it, it keeps coming over me as they say, I still feel her life is interesting in its way – and she did write at least one good poem, how many of us can say that? (To Richard Ollard 16 July 1982)
Fitzgerald won the Booker Prize for her novel Offshore & she was also a judge on several occasions. I can’t resist quoting this as I have the same feeling about so much modern fiction,
I certainly wish I hadn’t taken on the Booker judging this year. I thought it would be a nice sedentary occupation, and after all I have done it before, but I’ve definitely gone downhill since then and I think books have got longer – I’ve only done 35 so far (I keep counting them) so 100 more to come, and already there’s hardly any floor space left in my little room. Also, I drop off to sleep almost immediately when I start to read them – it’s becoming an automatic reaction. (To Maryllis Conder 7 May 1998)
Listening to Fitzgerald’s voice as I read the letters sent me back to the collected essays & reviews, A House of Air, published in 2003. This is my favourite of all her books, which probably isn’t the best thing to say about a novelist. Like Virginia Woolf, I prefer the essays & letters to the fiction. Fitzgerald reviewed widely & she wrote introductions to many novels, including J L Carr’s A Month in the Country & the Virago reprints of Margaret Oliphant’s novels. Looking through the index of A House of Air, there are also chapters on Barbara Pym, Sylvia Townsend Warner, Edward Thomas, Evelyn Waugh, Charlotte Mew, William Morris, Rose Macaulay & M R James. I’m looking forward to Hermione Lee’s biography even more after reading the letters.
The Bookshop – Penelope Fitzgerald
January 16, 2011 November 7, 2016 / preferreading / 1 Comment
Penelope Fitzgerald’s novel, The Bookshop, is being read around the blogosphere at the moment. As I mentioned yesterday, Cornflower has chosen it for her bookgroup & Dovegreyreader has just reread it as well. Darlene at Roses over a Cottage Door has also reviewed it. The Bookshop is a novel about injustice & unfairness.
Florence Green, a middle-aged widow living in Hardborough, a seaside town on the East Anglian coast, decided to open a bookshop. She has bought the Old House, a 16th century property that has been left to slowly decay for some years. Hardborough is an unfriendly, unhelpful place. The polar opposite of Miss Read’s Fairacre & Thrush Green. This is a very bleak, if blackly comic, view of small town life. Everyone knows everything you do or are planning to do & they usually have some mean spirited reason for hoping that your plans fail. Local bigwig, Violet Gamert, has other plans for the Old House that don’t include Florence’s bookshop. She wants to have an Arts Centre hosting music festivals like Glyndebourne. She puts pressure on Florence to sell the House before the bookshop has even opened but Florence refuses to change her mind. Florence has made a formidable & determined enemy.
The bookshop opens to modest but steady sales & Florence even starts up a lending library. Unfortunately the company she rents the library books from sends a lot of dross for every bestseller & all her patrons only want to read the latest life of Queen Mary which is on loan to the slowest reader in the community. I found this painfully funny as I thought about the number of copies of the Twilight books & Stieg Larsson thrillers I buy to satisfy the never-ending reservation queues. Florence hires an assistant, 11 year old Christine Gipping, who works after school. Christine is very organised, opinionated & quite blunt about where Florence is going wrong. The House also has a poltergeist, the locals call it the rapper, whose ominous taps, raps & crashes reach a crescendo in a terrifying scene when Christine & Florence are powerless against its force,
The battering at the window died to a hiss; then gathered itself together and rose to a long animal scream, again and again.
‘Don’t mind it, Christine,’ Florence called out with sudden energy. ‘We know what it can’t do.’
‘That doesn’t want us to go,’ Christine muttered. ‘That wants us to stay and be tormented.’
They were besieged. The siege lasted for just over ten minutes, during which time the cold was so intense that Florence could not feel the girl’s hand lying in hers, or even her own fingertips. After ten minutes, Christine fell asleep.
When Florence asks advice of the town recluse, Mr Brundish, about the literary merit of a new book, Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov, he advises her to stock it & she buys a huge quantity. In any other book, the local moral arbiters would have been shocked by the contents of the book & wanted it banned. In Hardborough, the local shopkeepers are angry because Florence’s shop is now so busy with eager readers coming from far & wide to buy Lolita that their shops are suffering & the pavement is blocked by queues of shoppers. Gradually, Mrs Gamert’s subtle campaign, backed by her power in the community, has its effect on Florence. It culminates in a ridiculous exchange of letters combining legalese with absurdity when the local Schools Inspector has been informed that Christine is working illegally,
To: Mrs Florence Green. The Old House Bookshop
The Education Authority’s Inspectors have examined Christine Gipping and have required her to sign a declaration of truth of the matters respecting which she was examined. Although there is no suggestion of irregularity in her school attendance, it appears that consequent to the arrival of a best-selling book she worked more than 44 hours in your establishment during one week of her holidays. Furthermore her health safety and welfare are at risk in your premises which are haunted in an objectionable manner. I quote from a deposition by Christine Gipping to the effect that ‘the rapper doesn’t come on so loud now, but we can’t get rid of him altogether’. I am advised that under the provisions of the Act the supernatural would be classed with bacon-slicers and other machinery through which young persons must not be exposed to the risk of injury.
This book made me angry & despairing at the petty-minded nastiness of this small community. There’s no graffiti on windows or fire-bombing the premises or nasty things pushed through the letterbox. Just a continuous campaign of persecution by a powerful woman against a powerless woman who wanted to do something as harmless as open a bookshop, a symbol of enlightenment desperately needed in Hardborough. Not that Florence ever saw her bookshop that way. Penelope Fitzgerald is such a powerful writer. She sets up the community in the first couple of chapters & paints a picture of the inhabitants in just a few words or one scene. She never lets sentimentality get a look-in. Christine is as mercenary a child as you’ll ever meet & Florence herself is honest & straight with no self-pity.
All Penelope Fitzgerald’s novels are short, compact & complete, whether she’s writing about early 20th century Russia in The Beginning of Spring or WWII London in Human Voices. I still have a couple of her novels unread & in a way I don’t want to read them because I don’t want to get to the end of her books. I also have her letters, So I Have Thought Of You, & I think I’ll be reading them sooner rather than later to get some insight into the woman she was. Hermione Lee is writing her biography (there’s a wonderful article by Lee about her research here) & that will be a biography to savour.
My Reading Week
Well, I’m back at work (although not in the British Library like the librarian above from Getty Images), the weather has been hot & humid & I feel as though I’ve hardly read a word all week. I have though, I’m halfway through The Highland Lady in Ireland. I’m enjoying Eliza’s Irish adventures but I may take a break from her over the weekend & pick up something else. I’ve also been listening to The Secret of Father Brown by G K Chesterton on the way to work. I read some of the Father Brown stories eons ago but I’ve never gone back to them. After listening to the first two stories in this collection, I’m still a bit lukewarm about them. Father Brown is such a gentle, unobtrusive character that I’m finding it a bit hard to get excited about the mysteries he solves. The narrator of this collection is a bit somnolent too. Still, I’ll persevere.
You may have seen the devastating floods in Queensland on the news. The same unusual weather pattern has brought lots of warm, moist air down to Victoria from the north & it’s been very humid all week. We’ve had over 70mm of rain as well. The rain has stopped in Queensland & has cleared here as well & the humidity should be gone by Monday. This weather is making it hard for me to settle & I suppose getting back into the routine of work isn’t helping either!
Then, Abby surprised me by killing a bird & bringing the body into the house for me to find. She’s 16 years old & hasn’t caught a bird for a very long time. She’s lived with me 5 years & before that she lived with my Dad & she hadn’t caught a bird since she was a very young cat. My sister says she’s going through her second childhood & reliving past glories but I hope this was just an isolated incident.
I have been enjoying playing with my e-reader though. Elaine’s post on Random Jottings expresses my feelings exactly. I will never abandon the physical book (or codex as it’s now being called) but, to be able to download out of print books by Elizabeth Von Arnim, E M Delafield, Wilkie Collins & Arnold Bennett FOR FREE is such a luxury. I’ve downloaded over 30 books in the last couple of weeks. I don’t know when I’ll get around to reading them but, with groaning tbr shelves like mine, what’s a few more unread books? I’ll get to them one day.
Last night I started reading The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald. It’s really a reread as it was the first Penelope Fitzgerald I read many years ago. Cornflower has chosen it for her next bookgroup so it was a good opportunity to read it again. Dovegreyreader is also embarking on a reread of all Fitzgerald’s novels this year & she started with The Bookshop as well. I’m enjoying it very much so it may be the right book to cure my reading restlessness.
Memoirs of a Highland Lady – Elizabeth Grant
January 8, 2011 November 7, 2016 / preferreading / 9 Comments
Memoirs of a Highland Lady is the story of Eliza Grant’s life as a member of a Scottish family of landowners with a much-loved estate at Rothiemurchus. Eliza’s memoirs were written to amuse her children in the mid 19th century & she often addresses them directly while telling her stories. The Memoirs were not published until the 1890s when they were an immediate success. The book has never been out of print but this edition by Andrew Tod is the first complete edition running to nearly 700pp.
Eliza was born in 1797. Her childhood was spent between Rothiemurchus, Edinburgh & London. Her father, Sir John Peter Grant, was a lawyer & politician, loving to his family but wildly extravagant & pretty useless with money. Eliza adored her father but, in her middle age, she was quite aware of his failings. Her mother, Jane, is a sterner figure. She seems to have kept herself fairly aloof from her children & Eliza was never a favourite. Eliza loved her brothers William & Johnny & her sisters, Jane & Mary & the book is a very complete account of their childhood. The excitement of being at Rothiemurchus, the awful nurses & governesses they endured, the games they played & the servants & neighbours they loved or loathed. Eliza’s recall is amazing as she had no diaries to refer to. Her love of Scotland is obvious in every word she writes & the book has the feel of direct speech that’s been recorded by someone sitting beside her,
In after years I did not fail in admiration of our northern Capital, but at this period (1809) I can’t remember any feeling about Inverness except the pleasure of getting out of it, while at Forres all the impressions were vivid because agreeable; that is I, the perceiver, was in a fitter frame of mind for perceiving. How many travellers, ay, thinkers, judges, should we sift in this way, to get at the truth of their relations. On a bilious day, Authours must write very tragically.
Eliza’s spelling has been left intact when it doesn’t interfere with the sense & that’s part of the charm of the narrative. So she writes of arithmetick, puritanick, bachelours, burthens & skreens. Her neighbours & family are legion & I soon gave up the attempt to work out which Grant was which, apart from the immediate family. One of the most moving scenes is the funeral of old Captain Grant when every custom was scrupulously observed,
A great crowd was gathered in and about the house; the name of each new arrival was carried in immediately to Mrs Grant, who bowed her head in approbation; the more that came the higher the compliment. She said nothing, however, she had a serious part to play – the highland Widow, and most decorously she went through it… She sat on the Captain’s cornered arm chair in a spare bedroom, dressed in a black gown… Motionless the Widow sat during the whole length of the day, silent and motionless. If addressed she either slowly nodded or waved her head, or, if an answer were indispensible, whispered it… They passed along the passage to the death chamber, where on trestles stood the Coffin, uncovered as yet, and with the face exposed. The Widow took her calm last look, she then raised a small square bit of linen, probably put there by herself for the purpose, and dropping it over the countenance, turned and walked away.
When Eliza was 17, her first love affair ended sadly. Her coming out had been a time of great excitement for her. She loved the new dresses, the dances & the feeling that she was quite a success, to her own surprise as she suffered greatly from shyness. She had become friendly with a young man (he’s never named), a friend of her brother’s & his sisters. Eliza’s parents had no idea how far their friendship had grown & were horrified when they announced that they were in love. The match should have been unexceptionable, they were well-matched socially & financially. But, the fathers had a mysterious long-standing feud & neither would accept the other’s child into their family. The lovers held out for some time, corresponding in secret & trying to convince their parents that they would wait forever to be together. Eventually, Eliza is convinced by his mother that she would never be accepted into the family & she agrees to give up the attachment. The young man continues to write & try to see her but she refuses to see him & eventually he gives up. The regret with which she writes of this nearly 40 years later shows what an effect it had on her,
It is with pain, the most extreme pain, that I even now in my old age revert to this unhappy passage of my youth. I was wrong; my own version of my tale will prove my errours; but at the same time I was wronged –ay, and more sinned against than sinning… Therefore, with as much fairness as can be expected from feelings deeply wounded and ill understood, I will recall the short romance which changed all things in life to me.
There are also passages that wouldn’t be out of place in a novel by Jane Austen such as this account of a visit by the Goodchild family when the Grants were living in Edinburgh,
Still we were not prepared for the storming party by which we were assaulted; six daughters, I think, the father, mother, and two sons. The girls, all in coloured cotton frocks, close coarse cottage bonnets, thick shoes, talking loud in sharp Durham voices, chose to walk about to see the town… They were quite at their ease in the streets, gloves off or on, bonnets untied for the heat, shop windows inspected, remarks of all sorts made, George Carr perpetrating his usual series of misdemeanours with a gay effrontery unparalleled. Jane and I deputed to escort the assemblage, rejoiced we had so few acquaintances left in town, the lawyers only remaining for the summer.
As the family financial situation grows more precarious they spend more & more time at Rothiemurchus to economise. Brother William takes over the running of the estate & Eliza & her sister, Mary, do the housekeeping & sell stories to magazines. Their fortunes are saved by Eliza’s father being offered a Judgeship in India & the family set sail.
Eliza’s descriptions of the voyage & Bombay society are wonderful. She is interested in everything & everyone & her descriptions of the scenery & climate are vivid. There she meets Colonel Smith who all her acquaintance have decided will be just the man for her. Unusually this turns out to be nothing less than the truth. They marry in India & Eliza blossoms into a loving & industrious wife & housekeeper, free at last to run her own house. The Colonel’s health is not good & on advice from his doctors, they reluctantly decide that they must leave India. The Colonel has recently inherited an Irish estate, Baltiboys, from a bachelor brother & the Smiths set sail for their new life.
I enjoyed Eliza’s Memoirs so much that I’m tempted to go straight on to The Highland Lady in Ireland, the journal Eliza kept from her arrival in Ireland in 1840. I’m not quite ready to stop listening to her enchanting voice.
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Woodford Stephens
Born Woodford Cefis Stephens in Stanton, Ky., “Woody” was a jockey at age 16 and began working on the backstretch for trainer John Ward. Stephens ran a public stable in the 1940s and 1950s until Harry Guggenheim convinced him to take over Cain Hoy Stable in the late 1950s.
With Stephens’ help, Cain Hoy unseated Calumet as the leading stable of the period. His best horse and first champion during this period was Bald Eagle, winner of the 1959 Suburban and two consecutive Washington, D.C. Internationals. Stephens remained with Cain Hoy until 1966 when he reopened his public stable.
Stephens is best known for winning a record five consecutive Belmont Stakes from 1982-86 with Conquistador Cielo, Caveat, Swale, Creme Fraiche, and Danzig Connection. He has also won two editions of the Kentucky Derby with Cannonade (1974) and Swale (1984), and the Preakness with Blue Man (1952).
Along with his victories in the classics, Stephens won the Travers, Haskell, Jockey Club Gold Cup (2), Pennsylvania Derby (3), Wood Memorial, Alabama, Saranac (5), Spinaway (3), Florida Derby (2), Hopeful, Jim Dandy (3), Saratoga Special (3), Kentucky Oaks (5), Sanford Stakes (3), and Blue Grass Stakes (3).
Stephens’ 11 champions have earned honors in nearly every category of racing, particularly the 2-year-old championship. He won the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Trainer in 1982. Stephens had 1,937 winners and purses totaling $53 million for his career.
Stephens died on Aug. 22, 1998, eight days shy of his 85th birthday.
Woody Stephens was inducted into the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame in 1976.
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America’s Fastest Growing Music Service Is…
By Sean Ross On Mar 12, 2018
There’s good news for Amazon Music in “The Infinite Dial 2018,” just released by Edison Research.
Monthly usage of the subscription service, flat a year ago, was up 6% to 9% in 2018. Those saying they used the service in the previous week were also up, 4% to 6%.
Amazon Music’s usage is a fraction of the listening to either Pandora (31% last month) or Spotify (20%), but it’s the biggest gain of any of the music services. Among 25-54-year-olds, Amazon Music is up 10%-13%.
The news is most dramatic among owners of smart speakers. Among all users, Amazon Music is the fifth audio brand used most often (8%), but among smart speaker owners, jumps to third place (15%) behind Pandora (34%) and Spotify (23%).
So what does Alexa’s in-house music service sound like? Here’s a recent listen to five of the service’s pre-programmed stations and playlists. I listened at the tier available to Amazon Prime users, not to the Amazon Music Unlimited service, although that’s the difference between a library of 2 miillion songs and tens of millions.
Even for Amazon Prime users, the channels were not just commercial free, but jockless and entirely unproduced. Both playlists and pre-programmed stations had the effective ability to not just skip songs but to fast forward or rewind by dragging and dropping the cursor within a song. Stations allowed you to thumb songs up-and-down; playlists did not.
All-‘80s Station
Like Pandora’s All-‘80s station when last monitored, Amazon Music’s all-‘80s station was ultra-tight, at least in its first hour: not just songs you would hear on a major-market Classic Hits FM, but for most of the first 45 minutes, all songs that would likely be powers for those stations. The relative eccentricities come later in the hour. I went back to the station later and came across Stevie Wonder’s rarely heard “Master Blaster (Jammin’),” but that was unlike the rest of my experience.
Michael Jackson, “Thriller”
Tom Petty, “Runnin’ Down A Dream”
Bon Jovi, “You Give Love A Bad Name”
Guns N’ Roses, “Sweet Child O’ Mine”
Wham! “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go”
Kenny Loggins, “Footloose”
Phil Collins, “In The Air Tonight”
John Mellencamp, “Jack And Diane”
Outfield, “Your Love”
Bruce Springsteen, “I’m On Fire”
Tom Petty, “Free Fallin’”
Foreigner, “I Want To Know What Love Is”
Thomas Dolby, “She Blinded Me With Science”
Billy Joel, “Uptown Girl”
Cure, “Pictures Of You”
Romantics, “What I Like About You”
Starship, “We Built This City”
50 Most Played Pop
My first intent was to listen to Amazon’s Top Pop station, but the first three songs I got were older titles, and I was looking for something more akin to Mainstream CHR. Even by going to the “50 Most Played Pop” playlist, what I got was heavily recurrent: CHR in texture, but Hot AC in timing.
Imagine Dragons, “Believer”
Ed Sheeran, “Perfect”
Chainsmokers & Coldplay, “Something Just Like This”
Demi Lovato, “Sorry Not Sorry”
NF, “Let You Down”
Halsey, “Bad At Love”
Dua Lipa, “New Rules”
Taylor Swift, “Look What You Made Me Do”
Kesha, “Praying”
Shawn Mendes, “There’s Nothing Holding Me Back”
Justin Timberlake, “Filthy”
James Arthur, “Say You Won’t Let Go”
Sir Roosevelt, “Something ‘Bout You”—the first jolt so far; Zac Brown’s “pop” side project
Ed Sheeran, “Shape Of You”
Khalid, “Young Dumb & Broke”
Calvin Harris f/Pharrell Williams, Katy Perry & Big Sean, “Feels”
Logic f/Alessia Cara & Khalid, “1-800-273-8255”
Yacht Rock
The Yacht Rock station was interesting because there was more of an R&B component than most of the comparable playlists/channels I’ve heard elsewhere. (That makes sense, “Yacht Rock” is heavily comprised of music that also became part of the Smooth Jazz canon. So why play Christopher Cross and not George Benson or Earth, Wind & Fire?)
Toto, “Africa”
Steely Dan, “Black Cow”
Daryl Hall & John Oates, “Sara Smile”
Doobie Brothers, “Takin’ It To the Streets”
Christopher Cross, “Sailing”
Lionel Richie, “All Night Long (All Night)”
Earth, Wind & Fire, “Reasons”
Luther Vandross, “Never Too Much”
George Benson, “This Masquerade”
Michael McDonald, “I Keep Forgettin’ (Every Time You’re Near)”
Barbra Streisand & Barry Gibb, “Guilty”
Boz Scaggs, “Lido Shuffle”
Paul Davis, “Cool Night”
Grover Washington, Jr., “Just the Two Of Us”
Bertie Higgins, “Key Largo”
Carly Simon, “You Belong To Me”
Seals & Crofts, “We May Never Pass This Way Again”
Chaka Khan, “Through The Fire”
Top Country
The channel launched with the first true discovery of my listening, and an Amazon original. Top Country also featured Chris Stapleton’s “Tennessee Whiskey” within its first few songs. Stapleton finally has an undeniable Country radio hit with “Broken Halos,” but “Whiskey” is an example of a song that looms larger in the public consciousness with streaming’s help, despite peaking at No. 57 on the Country Airplay Chart.
Morgan Evans, “Truly Madly Deeply (Amazon Original)”—the Australian Country artist’s remake of countrymen Savage Garden
Keith Urban, “Blue Ain’t Your Color”
Chris Stapleton, “Tennessee Whiskey”
Garth Brooks, “Ask Me How I Know”
Jon Pardi, “Dirt On My Boots”
Eric Church, “Record Year”
Brett Young, “In Case You Didn’t Know”
Old Dominion, “Written In The Sand”
Sam Hunt, “House Party”
Kane Brown f/Lauren Alaina, “What If”
Florida-Georgia Line, “H.O.L.Y.”
Tim McGraw, “Humble And Kind”
Luke Combs, “Hurricane”
Walker Hayes, “You Broke Up With Me”
Maren Morris, “My Church”
Bebe Rexha f/Florida-Georgia Line, “Meant To Be”
Thomas Rhett f/Maren Morris, “Craving You”
‘90s Hip-Hop
All anthems and, with the exception of the Wu Tang Clan song at the end, all songs that have become mainstays of Throwback Hip-Hop formats.
Dr. Dre f/Snoop Dogg, “The Next Episode”
2pac, “Dear Mama”
Salt-n-Pepa, “Shoop”
Coolio f/L.V., “Gangsta’s Paradise”
Notorious B.I.G., “Juicy”
Vanilla Ice, “Ice Ice Baby”
House of Pain, “Jump Around”
Snoop Dogg, “Gin And Juice”
Digital Underground, “The Humpty Dance”
Warren G. & Nate Dogg, “Regulate”
DMX, “Ruff Ryder’s Anthem”
Lil Troy, “Wanna Be A Baller”
Cypress Hill, “Insane in the Brain”
Naughty By Nature, “O.P.P.”
Luniz, “I Got 5 On It”
Wu-Tang Clan, “C.R.E.A.M.”
One other note. I took two shorter listens to the Classic R&B Station. The first time, it was very heavy on crossover megahits—“Brick House,” “Let’s Stay Together,” “Midnight Train to Georgia,” “Respect.” But I inadvertently clicked the player off. When I came back, the mix was a little different: “A Change Is Gonna Come”; Otis Redding’s “These Arms of Mine”; Al Green’s “God Blessed Our Love” all in between the massive hits.
Since the first time this column compared Pandora to mainstream FM music radio nearly a decade ago, there’s been a thru-line. Often because of the rules governing programming of online music stations, audio channels are often more recurrent and gold-based than their broadcast counterparts, driven as much by the combination of megahits and the skip button (for those you truly can’t listen to again) than by music discovery.
Stories abound of songs with major streaming stories eons before radio acknowledges them. The tightening of almost every music radio format in recent years is often thought to be an almost existential response to the erosion of FM radio’s music discovery franchise—a figure not even included in The Infinite Dial this year. But maybe the issue is that with a significant amount of listening going to streaming services, there is effectively less exposure to new music, not more. The new music is there to be sought out, but what is the typical usage?
Alexa is mostly playing the hits. She’s playing them commercial free. And like Pandora on smartphones a decade ago, she has ease of use on her side for Amazon device owners. Broadcast stations are ramping up the promos that sometimes model a listening command for listeners, but usually encourage them to enable a skill, or even go to the station website to learn how to enable a skill. For subscribers, Amazon Music is the default unless a user sets another.
Broadcasters are correctly viewing smart speakers as an opportunity to reclaim listening at home, but that effort is still nascent. Amazon Music is already showing tangible results. It’s one more reason, as if one were needed, to address spotload and fix the streaming experience. And in these early days, asking for the order on smart speakers needs to be simplified and sold more often.
Sean Ross is author of the Ross on Radio newsletter and VP of music and programming of Edison Research.
frankieagogo says 1 year ago
Alexa is everything radio will never be. For $29 I purchased an echo dot, it is the most impressive piece of equipment I have ever owned. “Alexa, play WLNI.” Alexa responds, “WLNI from Tunein radio.” Any station, any time is not at my command. But more importantly, most any song, and hundreds of commercial free audio streams are at my command. “Alexa, play Brazilian Bossa Nova music.” And instantaneously my home is filled with great music. Millions of people now have Alexa, and soon everyone will have this technology at their command. Radio is toast.
Brett says 1 year ago
As much as i see this becoming the norm for radio i still prefer the traditional way of listening to radio. I prefer having local people play the music i love. Have local weather and news. Plus with data expensive in Canada traditional radio is a must for me.
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Reuniting
Memoirs published by AV Publishing
← My Book
Our Wedding Day →
Update on Publication and a Chapter to Share
Posted on January 20, 2013 by AV Publishing
I am putting the finishing touches on my memoir manuscript and getting a cover designed. Hoping that publication will actually be sometime next month.
I am posting the chapter in the book entitled “Italy”. Alan and I have made two trips to Italy since we reunited in 2009. It is our desire to spend a good deal more time there and perhaps even live in Italy (in the south, of course) at some point. Hope you like it.
Italy and our Italian heritage have come to play a major part in our lives, giving us an antidote to the more negative aspects, opening up new vistas, and providing us with another monumental and exciting milestone. Because of our Italian heritage and direct line from our grandfathers, we have become Italian citizens!
I had been to Italy several times over the years, but Alan had never travelled there. In fact, one of his first thoughts after his wife passed away and he was free to do what he wanted, was to take a trip to Italy and visit the town of his grandfather’s birth, Venafro. He had applied for his first passport and was thinking about taking that trip just before we reunited. In our initial discussions and emails, we talked about Italy and the hometowns of our grandparents. We discovered that Alan’s grandfather and my grandparents were both from the Molize region and had left the towns of Venafro and Montelongo, respectively (a forty minute drive apart—a mind-boggling thought considering the size of the country—destiny!), to emigrate to America in the early 1900’s. We jokingly have said that it is probably a good thing that we didn’t marry and have children together when we were young because we may be related! When Alan’s grandfather left Venafro, he went first to Glasgow, Scotland and married Mary Gillespie before bringing his new wife to Yonkers, NY. My grandparents, on the other hand, went to Mount Vernon, NY and that is where my parents were born.
Alan and I began talking a great deal about Italy and knew from the beginning of our new relationship that we would be traveling there as soon as we could.
We started reading about Italy and Alan was introduced to several books about living in Italy to set the stage for what we/he might expect. I had already been convinced that I wanted to spend some extended time in the country of my ancestors, but I needed to have Alan understand that as well. We also began to communicate more with my Italian cousin Piera who lives in Torino, Italy. Alan had the opportunity to speak with her on the phone several times and he soon learned what fun she is. She is an amazing individual and I couldn’t wait until Alan met her. At the same time my daughter, Leigh, began to seriously consider what it would take to live and work in Italy: something she had discussed with my father before he passed away, and after she and I had taken a trip together to Italy in 2002.
Leigh had been to Italy several times—the first time with me when she was 13 years old. (When our children were young my first husband and I usually did things a little out of the norm. Special trips became a sort of ‘rite of passage’ for our non-Jewish children who found all of their friends having bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs. His father took David to Africa and I took Leigh to Italy. In retrospect, I guess Italy was a good idea for Leigh and it had a major impact on her. Little did I know that then, though). She went to Italy a few times on her own which were work-related trips, and the story I have included in the ‘Afterward’ of this book will show how the visit we made together to the town where my grandmother was born laid the foundation for our dream that living in Italy could become reality for all of us. Leigh is the real writer in the family and I am very proud of her accomplishments. She wrote the Montelongo story after our trip taken in March of 2002. She never published it thinking that it “wasn’t her best work”; but I have continued to share it with many people because I think it is so good. I have her permission to share it here. I feel it tells a lot about our family, our interest in Italy, her love for her grandfather, and about the very special bond she and I have with one another.
That trip to Italy with Leigh in 2002 was my fifth trip to that country. My first experience in Italy was in 1967 when I first met my mother’s relatives in Torino. I was able to bring greetings from my grandfather to his sister whom he hadn’t seen in fifty years. It was a very moving experience for all of us. My parents had also taken two trips to Italy during the 80’s and had visited those relatives as well as other relatives of my mother’s in Naples. Cousin Piera came to the U.S. and my sister and nephews met all of them on different occasions in Italy. Leigh has spent considerable time with Piera in Italy as well. We consider Piera a very important part of our very close extended family.
In preparation for an extended time in Italy on a WOOF program (Willing Workers on Organic Farms), Leigh decided to try to find out more about where her grandfather’s forbears derived from. We didn’t know much about that history and Leigh started digging around. By searching on the internet she found Marco Micone (Micone was my grandmother’s maiden name) who was originally from Montelongo, Italy, the town we knew to be where my grandmother was born. Marco lives in Canada and is a playwright and translator. Leigh contacted him and they determined that we indeed are related. He invited Leigh to stay at the family homestead, which he still maintained in Montelongo. At the same time I was planning a trip to England for an antique shopping spree. I became intrigued with it all and decided to meet Leigh in Italy and accompany her to Montelongo. Leigh’s story in the Afterward will give you the rest of the details of that trip.
Sharing all of this with Alan made the desire to go to his grandfather’s birthplace even stronger for him, and that’s when he began reading books about Italy and consuming all he could get his hands on about the Italian way of life. Leigh had been living in Marblehead, Massachusetts and working in public relations in the food and restaurant industry. But she was seriously thinking about taking the huge leap of leaving the U.S. and living in Italy for a time. She knew she needed to give it a go. She had been studying Italian for a few years; taking courses as well as individual lessons with an Italian tutor. She also started researching the process of applying for dual citizenship and she connected with Peter Farina of ItalyMondo, a company in the business of helping Americans secure their Italian passports and dual citizenship. The three of us then decided to contract with Peter and really get the ball rolling to become official citizens of Italia.
After Alan and I connected with the process too (a process that became much more involved as time wore on), we made the decision to take a trip ourselves—our honeymoon. Leigh was ready in November and so were we. We flew together to Rome and we lived in an apartment together in Termoli, Italy, where we established residency, a necessary step to expedite the dual citizenship process. Leigh had then planned to take up residence in Florence and we spent some time there too. We spent a little more than a month in Italy and terminated the trip in Milan so that we could spend some time with Piera in Torino. We were also able to see Piera’s brother, Tony, and mother, Yolanda, too. Sadly, both of them passed away the following year in 2011. We left Leigh living in Florence where she remained until she secured employment in the south of Italy, Puglia; the heel of the boot, which is ironic because although she expected to make a life for herself in Florence, she wound up back in the south, the area where we started our trip. Leigh then began working for a company called Southern Visions Travel as a marketing consultant. In the spring of 2011 the SV team opened La Cucina at Gelso Bianco, a villa and cooking school, which, of course, fit in with Leigh’s culinary background. Leigh then moved from Monopoli to Ostuni. It was all very exciting. It is the region of Italy to which we would ultimately like to move, because we loved it so when we spent only a few days there on our first trip. Just prior to our second visit, Leigh was contacted by House Hunters International, and they filmed an episode about her and her life in Ostuni, which ultimately aired on HGTV in the states. Embarking on a new venture; i.e. Leigh Vincola, Wellnes Coaching and Personal Cartography, she now spends part of the year in the states and part in Italy conducting retreats for her clients.
We love the south of Italy, particularly the region of Puglia. While we were in Italy the first time, we visited a few towns in Puglia, but didn’t spend as much time there as we would have liked. Then when Leigh lived and worked in Ostuni and the surrounding area of the south, and we were able to more fully appreciate life in Puglia, we became convinced that spending part of our lives there, too, would be our ultimate desire. If we are able to sell real estate in the U.S., we feel that we could then either rent or buy property in Italy. We have thoughts of perhaps doing a home exchange at first and spending about six months in Puglia to determine if we would really like it. I have been trying to learn Italian and have finally become serious about that challenge. I have taken a few courses and I am using Rosetta Stone. I realize how very difficult it is to learn another language at this age, but I am approaching it with new vigor. Alan, on the other hand, has no patience for it. He believes that when he gets to Italy and immerses himself in life there, he will learn eventually. You should see him conversing with Italians in his made-up Italiano. It is pure Alan. Somehow they know what he is saying all the time with his abundant gestures and many hugs and kisses.
What we both do know, however, is that the Italian way of life is totally compatible with our way of thinking. We love the style, the slower pace of life, and the FOOD! We believe that we can be happy there and that we can meld into Italian life. And, of course, with my daughter spending time there as well, it makes it all the more compelling.
Our papers finally came through and we officially became Italian citizens. After a trip to Miami to the Italian Consulate, we then had our Italian passports in hand. We embarked on our second trip to Italy in July of 2012. We stayed with Leigh in her Ostuni apartment and had an absolutely fabulous time reaffirming our desire to spend more time there.
Both of our trips were incredible experiences. We loved every second. We drove over 3600 kilometers through the regions we visited on the first trip and felt very at home wherever we were. Since we had rented an apartment, we lived as Italians and not as tourists. I still would like Alan to see other parts of Italy and see some of the major sights of the country, but he doesn’t feel so inclined. He feels very comfortable with what he has already experienced and we both essentially feel at home in the region of our ancestors. We love our heritage and we are certain that our parents and grandparents appreciate that it all has become an important aspect of our life together.
The opportunity to wax more eloquently about Italy and our relationship to it will be the subject of another book.
About AV Publishing
I am an indie publisher with two books currently published; "Reunited: When the Past Becomes a Present", and "From Italy and Back: Coming Full Circle." The first book was published in July, 2013 and the second in October, 2018. My past professional life has been in education, consulting, coaching, and retail. I am currently focusing on memoir and travel writing.
View all posts by AV Publishing →
From Italy and Back
From Italy and Back: Coming Full Circle
AV Publishing
This morning's visitor in our front yard.
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Somebody Needs to Tell Betsy Devos:
The Struggle Against Denying Black People Education Wasn’t a Fight For School Choice
by Carl Dix
February 28, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Carl Dix is a courageous freedom fighter from the 1960s who went on to become a revolutionary fighter and a communist. Dix spent two years in military prison for refusing to fight in the unjust Vietnam War. He emerged unrepentant and went on to become a founding member of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP), USA, dedicating his life to the emancipation of all humanity. Today, Carl is a follower of and advocate for Bob Avakian, his leadership and his visionary new synthesis of communism. Carl is a co-initiator of Refuse Fascism. Carl Dix and Cornel West co-founded the Stop Mass Incarceration Network (SMIN), and Rise Up October that brought thousands into the streets in New York City demanding a stop to police terror.
So Trump’s secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, thinks Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) were pioneers in school choice in that they saw that the system wasn’t providing educational opportunities to Black students, so they took it upon themselves to provide the solution. No, Ms. DeVos, you got it twisted here; maybe out of your own ignorance, or because you thought people reading your statement were ignorant. Or maybe it’s some of both.
The HBCUs were created out of the fight to end the denial of any educational opportunities to Black people. First under the slave system, which made it a crime to teach Black people to read! And then under the separate and unequal policies of Jim Crow segregation, Black students were barred from attending whites-only schools from elementary school thru college. Part of keeping Black people in the U.S. subjugated has been keeping them shrouded in ignorance. And part of the struggle against that subjugation has been fighting to break out of that enforced ignorance. It was in the face of this complete denial of educational opportunities that HBCUs grew and developed. In the 1950s and 1960s, the National Guard and U.S. troops needed to be mobilized to beat back white mobs who attempted to keep Black students from attending public schools.
DeVos and those who back her “school choice” agenda are taking up the legacy of those white mobs who fought to keep Black students out of their schools. In fact, after the Supreme Court ruled Jim Crow schools to be unconstitutional, whites in many Southern states used public funds to start all-white private schools to keep segregation in effect under the banner of school choice.
Her vision, and the vision of the Trump/Pence regime, is of an educational system where the public schools are gutted and students are funneled into schools that train them as Christian fundamentalist robots, unable to think critically or resist. This is a key part of the overall fascist agenda the Trump/Pence regime is working to enforce.
Finally, a word to the officials from the HBCUs who crowded into the White House to get into the photo opportunity with Trump. Undoubtedly, the motivation for the way you all were “skinning and grinning” was a desire for more federal funding to help your schools survive and thrive. But think about the deal you were being offered—the promise of increased funding in exchange for creating favorable public opinion for a fascist regime that will greatly intensify the horrors the system enforces and eventually clamp down on all resistance and remake the law. This amounts to being an American version of the Judenrat, the Jewish councils that the Nazis used in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s to help them segregate, subjugate, and finally try to exterminate the Jewish people. Do you want to play that kind of role today?
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What To Expect From 13 Reasons Why Season 3
by Becky Fuller
in SR Originals
13 Reasons Why Season 3 feels all but inevitable after Season 2's finale was so open-ended, but what exactly can you expect from the third visit to Liberty High School?
Although source material Jay Asher's YA novel of the same name was just one book and used for Season 1, 13 Reasons Why has become one of Netflix's biggest shows and so grown beyond the basic story of Hannah Baker's suicide, with Season 2 arriving in May 2018
Related: 13 Reasons Why Season 2's Shocking Finale Explained
The season has been the subject of mixed reviews; many rightly feel that Hannah Baker's story had been told in Season 1 and that it didn't need to be seen played out again from other angles. That said, 13 Reasons Why Season 2 also took a more in-depth look at other characters, such as Jessica, who managed to find the courage to speak out about Bryce raping her, and Tyler, who suffered a brutal sexual assault in the season finale, leading him to attempt a mass shooting during the spring dance. And, clearly, there's a lot of threads left for 13 Reasons Why Season 4 to pick up.
Hannah Baker Shouldn't Come Back For 13 Reasons Why Season 3
The story of Hannah Baker's suicide were told, fully and completely in Season 1. Perhaps afraid to let go of such a central character, showrunner Brian Yorkey decided that Season 2 would focus on the court case brought against Liberty High School by Hannah's parents. That meant that the viewers saw Hannah (Katherine Langford) again, through the eyes of her peers, and especially from Clay's point of view. In fact, he became so obsessed with getting justice for Hannah that he started seeing and talking to her ghost all the time. This impacted upon his relationships with Skye, his parents, and his friends.
It got to the point where Hannah's continual influence over 13 Reasons Why had become a huge drag. In the finale, when Clay (Dylan Minnette) gives a eulogy at her memorial service, we see Hannah walking out into a bright light. While you're probably supposed to feel a little wistful and sad, the moment plays with more a sense of relief. Regardless of impact, the moment makes it feel like 13 Reasons Why Season 3 simply cannot bring Hannah back again; in order for a third season to succeed, the showrunners have to shift the focus and put Hannah's story firmly behind them.
Bryce Also Needs To Stay Away In Season 3
It took long enough, but Bryce Walker (Justin Prentice) was eventually convicted of rape. The judge only handed down a three-month probation order, but Jessica still felt stronger at the end of it all. By the end of 13 Reasons Why Season 2, she was beginning to build a relationship with Justin again, forming solid friendships, and getting back on track at school. Bryce, meanwhile, had lost all of his college scholarship prospects and was transferring to another school where he had to start as a Junior.
Related: 13 Reasons Why Season 2's Polaroids Make It Harder For The Guilty
For viewers who have been waiting to see justice served, it was a satisfactory outcome, and although Prentice has given an exceptional performance, it seemed like the right time for Bryce to exit the show. That said, in the season finale, it's revealed that his girlfriend Chloe, is pregnant. 13 Reasons Why Season 3 will surely pick up with her as she decides whether to keep the baby and if she does, that means Bryce could well come back.
Clay Should Be Given A Chance To Move On
Dylan Minnette gave an outstanding performance in 13 Reasons Why Season 2 as Clay Jensen, the troubled teenager trying to decide his future while still grieving his past. He was haunted (literally) by Hannah, and his constant feeling of inadequacy surrounding her death. At such a crucial time in his life, the last thing Clay really needed was Hannah's story being played out in court and, subsequently, the media. It all took its toll on Clay, who made some poor choices during Season 2. That said, he came good in the finale when he gave a calm but impassioned speech to Tyler and managed to talk him out of carrying out a school shooting. To the sound of distant sirens, Clay got Tyler safely into Tony's car, and consequently, he was left holding the gun.
The implication is that Clay will now end up having to convince everyone that he was not about to carry out a school shooting, and also attempting to explain how and why he came to be in possession of an assault rifle. Given that Clay has always tried to do his best by others, despite often being naive, it would be good to finally see things going right for him in Season 3.
Justin Needs A Happy Ending
Justin's arc during 13 Reasons Why Season 2 was pretty heartbreaking to watch. During the first season, we knew he had an unsettled and turbulent home life, and that his mom had a boyfriend whom she much preferred to her own son. In the end, Justin skipped town, but was found living rough an using heroin in Season 2. Clay secreted him away in his bedroom in order that he could get clean and then testify in the Baker's trial, with Clay's hope being that he would pin Hannah's rape on Bryce. Clay's parents discovered Justin and made him welcome, but he found it hard to quit the heroin altogether. That was seemingly no matter to the Jensen's, though, who decided to adopt him into their family.
Related: 13 Reasons Why Season 2 Review
Just when we thought things were looking good, however, we got a shot of Justin's mother and boyfriend lurking ominously. Now, at the end of Season 2, Justin is standing alongside Clay, who is armed, and it looks as though his mom won't let him become part of the Jensen family without a fight. In Season 3, what's really needed is for life to finally be kind to Justin. He deserves it.
Page 2 of 2: Zach, Jessica, Tyler, and New 13 Reasons Why Characters
Tags: 13 reasons why
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Denver Medical Center Improves Security With Avigilon Technology
Avigilon recently announced that Exempla Good Samaritan Medical Center (EGSMC), a 500,000 square feet health care facility that is connected to two independent facilities, has deployed the Avigilon High Definition (HD) surveillance system to monitor both the interior and exterior of the facility, the parking lot, entrances and other high-risk areas to help protect patients, visitors and staff.
At 500,000 square feet, EGSMC faces the same level of security risk as a small municipality. EGSMC also faces another key challenge: it is connected to two separate facilities that are monitored by independent security systems, making access control and patron monitoring particularly difficult.
To monitor both the interior and exterior of the facility, the parking lot, entrances, and other high-risk areas, EGSMC installed 48 Avigilon cameras ranging from one to five megapixels and eight Avigilon analog video encoders to leverage the existing assets and improve performance of its legacy analog cameras.
With one workstation and two monitors located in the security office, security officers manage the system using Avigilon Control Center software with HD Stream Management and store five terabytes of surveillance data on each of its three Avigilon NVRs for 30 to 60 days of continuous footage.
“We need a surveillance system that is cost-effective, scalable, high performing, user-friendly, and well supported,” said Eric Rowland, security program manager at Exempla Good Samaritan Medical Center. “Avigilon easily delivers on all fronts.”
By improving the image quality of existing analog cameras, Avigilon analog video encoders have enabled EGSMC to leverage the investment in its existing surveillance system. EGSMC can also now monitor multiple cameras at once, and playback and review footage while maintaining a live view from the same camera, resulting in a 75 percent reduction in investigation times.
The EGSMC also has been able to double productivity and reduce frustration levels due to Avigilon’s ease-of-use. The Avigilon solution has also resulted in a 20 percent savings in up-front costs compared to other vendors.
“Healthcare providers across the country are stepping up security efforts to help ensure the safety of patients, visitors, and staff,” said Dave Tynan, vice president of global sales at Avigilon. “By implementing an advanced, high definition surveillance system, healthcare providers at Exempla Good Samaritan Medical Center are illustrating their commitment to caring for patients like they would their own family members and measuring their success by their ability to provide safe, timely, and accurate care.”
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Biopharmaceuticals Drug Delivery Venture Capital
DURECT Announces $15 Million Registered Direct Offering
CUPERTINO, Calif., June 20, 2019 -- (Healthcare Sales & Marketing Network) -- DURECT Corporation ("DURECT" or the "Company") (Nasdaq: DRRX) today announced that it has entered into a securities purchase agreement with certain investors pursuant to which, subject to the terms and conditions expressed therein, the Company agreed to sell and the investors agreed to purchase 29,000,000 shares of common stock of the Company at a price per share of $0.52. The net proceeds, after estimated expenses of the offering payable by the Company, will be approximately $15.0 million. No placement agent or broker dealer was used or participated in the offering. The offering is expected to close on or about June 24, 2019, subject to customary closing conditions.
A registration statement on Form S-3 (File No. 333-226518) relating to the shares of common stock to be issued in this offering was declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission on October 9, 2018. The offering of these securities is being made only by means of a prospectus, including a prospectus supplement, forming a part of the effective registration statement, copies of which can be obtained on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov.
This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell, or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sales of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.
About DURECT Corporation
DURECT is a biopharmaceutical company actively developing therapeutics based on its Epigenetic Regulator Program and proprietary drug delivery platforms. DUR-928, a new chemical entity in Phase 2 development, is the lead candidate in DURECT's Epigenetic Regulator Program. An endogenous, orally bioavailable small molecule, DUR-928 has been shown in preclinical studies to play an important regulatory role in lipid homeostasis, inflammation, and cell survival. Human applications may include acute organ injury such as Alcoholic Hepatitis (AH) and acute kidney injury (AKI), chronic hepatic diseases such as nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), and inflammatory skin conditions such as psoriasis and atopic dermatitis. DURECT's advanced oral and injectable delivery technologies are designed to enable new indications and enhanced attributes for small-molecule and biologic drugs. Late stage product candidates in this category include POSIMIR® (bupivacaine extended-release solution), an investigational locally-acting, non-opioid analgesic intended to provide up to 3 days of continuous pain relief after surgery, and ORADUR™ -Methylphenidate ER Capsules, approved in Taiwan as Methydur Sustained Release Capsules, where it is indicated for the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In addition, for the assignment of certain patent rights, DURECT receives single digit sales-based earn-out payments from U.S. net sales of Indivior's PERSERIS™ (risperidone) drug for schizophrenia, which was commercially launched in February 2019. For more information about DURECT, please visit www.durect.com.
DURECT Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including statements related to the Company's registered direct offering of common stock, the closing of the offering, the clinical trials of DUR-928 in AH patients and the potential use of DUR-928 to treat AH, AKI, chronic hepatic diseases such as NASH, and inflammatory skin disorders such as psoriasis and atopic dermatitis. These forward-looking statements are based upon the Company's current expectations. Actual results and the timing of events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements as a result of risks and uncertainties, which include, without limitation, risks and uncertainties associated with market conditions and the satisfaction of customary closing conditions related to the proposed offering and other risks such as the risk of delays in the enrollment of the ongoing clinical trials of DUR-928 in AH, NASH and psoriasis, potential adverse effects arising from the testing or use of DUR-928, the risk that the FDA may not approve the POSIMIR NDA detailed in DURECT's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including DURECT's Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2019. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. There can be no assurance that DURECT will close the offering of shares of common stock. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of this date, and DURECT undertakes no duty to update such information except as required under applicable law.
NOTE: ORADUR™, POSIMIR® and SABER® are trademarks of DURECT Corporation. Other referenced trademarks belong to their respective owners. DUR-928, ORADUR-Methylphenidate ER Capsules and POSIMIR are drug candidates under development and have not been approved for commercialization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or other health authorities. Full prescribing information for PERSERIS, including BOXED WARNING, and Medication Guide can be found at www.perseris.com.
Source: DURECT
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DURECT Announces Submission to FDA of a Full Response to the POSIMIR(R) Complete Response Letter
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Healthcare Industry NewsFeed More Venture Capital
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Tag: Togo
Launch of the High Council of Togolese Abroad: Speech by Minister Robert Dussey
Posted on 3 July 2019 | by Prof. Robert Dussey | Leave a Comment on Launch of the High Council of Togolese Abroad: Speech by Minister Robert Dussey
Ladies and Gentlemen Ambassadors,
Ladies and Gentlemen, Representatives of International Organizations and Organizations of Civil Society,
Mr. Secretary General,
Ladies and Gentlemen Directors,
Ladies and Gentlemen Division Chiefs,
Dear friends of the press,
Distinguished guests,
The Greek philosopher Epicurus said about friendship: “It is not so much the intervention of our friends that helps us but the fact that we can always count on them. The dimension of his thought that interests me is the fact that Epicure has the confidence and the guarantee of being able to always count friends as the base of friendship. Your presence on this day here is reiterative and convinces us that Togo can always count on you dear partners.
The ceremony that brings us together today is indeed a culmination since it announces the realization of a project whose beginnings date back to 2014. The establishment of the High Council of Togolese Abroad (HCTE) translates ambition clearly displayed the President of the Republic and the Government to raise the level of involvement of the Togolese diaspora in our national development effort and march towards collective prosperity.
It will be remembered that on April 1, we were here on the occasion of the launch of the Togolese Roadmap from the outside. The creation of the High Council of Togolese Abroad will materialize one of the essential axes of this Roadmap. By taking the decision to create the Togolese High Council, the Government intends to federate our diaspora to make its contribution to the development of our country even more significant.
The Togolese diaspora is a diaspora crumbled into several associations with difficulties to regroup and organize themselves in a way that ensures its representativeness. It is therefore essential to unite these different associations in order to increase their capacity for action in the direction and service of the country. The initiative for the creation of the Togolese High Council for Foreign Affairs (HCTE) is partly a response of the Government to a request from the diaspora itself.
The High Council of Togolese Abroad will include all Togolese and Togolese residing outside the national territory. It will be the framework par excellence for exchange and mutual trust between the Togolese diaspora and the Government on all issues of common interest. The HCTE will also be responsible for monitoring and coordinating the development activities of the Togolese diaspora, promoting everywhere the defense of the rights and interests of Togolese abroad and supporting them whenever the circumstances so require and making periodic consultations. with the Togolese and Togolese host countries of the diaspora.
The High Council of Togolese Abroad will be a consultative body of non-partisan, non-partisan and non-profit, and will not be affiliated with any confessional, ideological or political obedience. The challenge is to bring everyone together, make the plural diaspora of Togo a unique platform in the service of the prosperity of the nation, reconcile the logic of plurality and that of unity. Blaise Pascal said well in his book Thoughts that “the multitude that is not reduced to unity is confusion; the unity that does not depend on the multitude is tyranny “. Our differences are an asset for the country.
Finally, once again, I would like to take this opportunity to renew to you, dear friends, the gratitude of the Government for your presence at this ceremony, which shows your unwavering support when it comes to initiatives for the cause. of our country’s development. You are, to paraphrase a thought of Pythagoras, companions who help Togo to move on the path of prosperity.
I thank you for your kind attention !
Posted in Diaspora, News | Tagged HCTE, Robert Dussey, Togo
Diplomag 18th is available to download!
Posted on 8 March 2019 | by Prof. Robert Dussey | Leave a Comment on Diplomag 18th is available to download!
The year 2018 is a thing of the past, the new one has only just begun, the one to come is already on our heels. Vladimir Jankélévitch once asked himself: «How can such short years be made with such long days? Time is flight and place of deployment of human existence. The human being is born in time, lives in time, acts in time and dies in time. The dimension of temporality linked to action is very essential in what the philosopher Hannah Arendt calls the «domain of human affairs». Through our actions, wherever we are, whoever we are, whatever we want, we impact the world in a variety of ways.
The history of the world in a not insignificant proportion is that of man and his action. That of Togo is that of his sons, their actions and interactions, commitments and expectations. At the diplomatic level, the year 2018 is marked in Togo by a series of actions carried out under the impetus of the President of the Republic, His Excellency Faure Essozimna GNASSINGBE, whose vision and spirit of anticipation allowed to improve the international influence of the country.
Togo has not only put its leadership at the service of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) over the past year, but also organized and hosted major international meetings, and currently chairs the Central Negotiating Group of the ACP Group for the post-Cotonou, the Cotonou Agreement coming to an end in February 2020. This issue of DIPLOMAG looks back on some strong sequences of the Togolese diplomacy during the year 2018. This is for the Togolese diplomacy of an opportunity to write oneself in a retrospective perspective. This editorial highlights in a synthetic approach two key moments of the diplomatic action of Togo in 2018 and the perspectives for this new year.
Posted in Diplomag, News | Tagged ACP, diplomag, EU, Togo
ECOWAS / ECCAS Summit: “Everything is ready”, According to Minister Robert Dussey
Posted on 26 July 2018 | by Prof. Robert Dussey | Leave a Comment on ECOWAS / ECCAS Summit: “Everything is ready”, According to Minister Robert Dussey
Lome will be in the limelight in a few days. And for good reason, the Togolese capital houses the joint summit of ECOWAS Heads of State and those of ECCAS and the meeting of ECOWAS Heads of State respectively on July 30th and 31st. In an interview given to our colleagues from the Agence Savoir News, the head of the Togolese diplomacy, Prof. Robert Dussey returned mainly to the organization of the ECOWAS / ECCAS summit. The Minister of Foreign Affairs for African Cooperation and Integration insists that everything is ready for this high-level meeting.
Read below the entire interview.
Savoir News: Minister, everything is ready for this great meeting? If not, what are the last settings?
Robert Dussey: Lome, the Togolese capital is historically known to all, to be the crossroads of major international conferences. This year, we hosted about ten sub-regional and international meetings, including those of the ACP-EU, the 79
of the ACP and the 28 of the EU, and those of two important bodies of ECOWAS, namely the Council of Europe. Mediation and Security, and the Council of Foreign Ministers. The President of the Republic Faure Gnassingbé and his government work to ensure a perfect organization of all major meetings that Lome hosts, and to the satisfaction of all Togolese. At the time I am speaking to you, we are totally ready, and on all levels.
Two meetings took place in recent days in Lomé as a prelude to this summit? Can you come back to these two meetings for our readers? And what did the participants discuss?
As elsewhere, all summits of Heads of State and Government are preceded by several preparatory sessions, including those of experts and ministers. This was the case a few days ago, that is to say on July 10, 11, 2018 in Lomé, where experts from ECOWAS and ECCAS discussed peace, security, stability, the fight against against terrorism and violent extremism, the theme that will be at the heart of the unprecedented Summit of Heads of State and Government of the two Community spaces. Of course, the reflection on this theme has made it possible to scrutinize the security situation in the two Community spaces, but also the national strategies for the fight against terrorism, as well as the legal instruments in this area and the final declaration.
Approximately how many Heads of State and Government are expected at this Summit, as Togo has a strong tradition of mobilizing Heads of State for these major meetings .
A small calculation of the member countries of ECOWAS and ECCAS, and you will know it (laughter)! We are expecting about twenty heads of state and government.
An ECOWAS-ECCAS Summit …. What will be the main topics on the menu?
As I said, debates will focus on peace, security, stability, the fight against terrorism and violent extremism. It will be for ECOWAS and ECCAS to have a strong involvement in securing the two spaces, pledge of all growth prospects or development of our nations. END
Interview by Junior AUREL (Savoir News)
Posted in Diplomacy, Interviews, News | Tagged CEEAC, ECOWAS, Lomé, Summit, Togo
[Interview] Robert Dussey : “Togo and Israel have very good bilateral cooperation”
Posted on 27 June 2018 | by Prof. Robert Dussey | Leave a Comment on [Interview] Robert Dussey : “Togo and Israel have very good bilateral cooperation”
Most Israelis would have trouble finding Togo on a map or name one significant fact about it. It’s a tiny country that rarely features in the Israeli headlines. And yet, it is one of the most pro-Israel places in the African continent. It is no wonder then that Togolese Foreign Minister Professor Robert Dussey begins his interview with the declaration that “I came here to reassure [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu that Togo will support Israel. Our support for Israel is constant.”
Officially the minister of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and African Integration, Dussey is one of the strongest political figures in his country (and the entire continent). He thinks of Israel as his second home, both spiritually and politically. So much so, in fact, that he can’t even remember how many times he has visited Israel.
The reason for this deep connection with the people of Zion may lie in the fact that before he was appointed minister, for 10 years, Dussey served in a number of different roles in the Community of the Beatitudes. For this Catholic group, the welfare of Israel and the Jewish people is a top priority. Ever since he was a Catholic monk and to this day, Dussey recites daily prayers in Hebrew, maintaining a strong spiritual bond with Israel.
Dussey is 46 years old. He began his career in the academic world (he still works as a professor of political philosophy). During our interview, he spontaneously begins to sing the Shema Yisrael prayer in his community’s special tune. At another point during the interview, he mentioned Psalms 137:5: “If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill.”
“I have a personal link with Israel,” he says. “I was a monk and I was a member of Community of Beatitudes that prays every day for the Jewish people. Every day we pray for peace for Israel and particularly peace in Jerusalem. On the weekend we celebrate Shabbat together, and after the prayer we share the Shabbat bread and sing Shabbat songs in Hebrew. If you have this spiritual link with the Jewish people and with Israel and you have to protect the Israeli people.”
“For me, the Israeli people and the Jewish people are, first and foremost, the people of God. It is a personal decision, it is my own conviction, and I will do everything for this conviction. I spent more than 10 years of my life praying for peace in Jerusalem, praying for the Jewish people and for Israel. For me, Israel is very important and I need to defend Israel and the people of Israel.”
The timing of Israel Hayom’s interview with Dussey was particularly relevant in underscoring Togo’s uncompromising support for Israel – it took place a day before the U.N. General Assembly voted on a resolution condemning Israel, but not Hamas, for Gaza border clashes. Dussey made it clear that the Togolese representative at the U.N. would go against the grain and, once again, be among the only envoys to vote against the resolution with the U.S. and Israel.
“I know in Togo we are courageous,” he says. “Everybody knows that Togo supports Israel every time. It is not the first time that we voted for Israel in international forums. In Geneva for example, at the Human Rights Council, Togo votes for Israel, it defends Israel’s position. It is our position, we defend it.”
Q: Where does this deep connection to Israel come from?
“Togo and Israel have very good bilateral cooperation and of course, it is growing stronger and stronger. Last year, we were supposed to host a summit, the first Israeli-African summit. Unfortunately, the summit was postponed. Togo received a lot of pressure from a lot of Arabic countries, and some African countries too. But I hope we will do it in the future.”
Togo was the only African country to vote with Israel and the U.S. to block a U.N. resolution condemning U.S. President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December. Generally speaking, despite the fact that Togo has no embassy in Jerusalem, the country’s pro-Israel stance has significantly intensified in recent years.
But at the same time, Togo wants to retain its status in Africa (Togo heads the important regional body ECOWAS, which comprises 15 African countries, for example), so it makes sure to maintain good relations with its neighbors.
Q: Was there a strong backlash in Africa when Togo voted with Israel on Jerusalem at the U.N.?
“Of course, you know we received a lot of calls from different capitals in the world. They condemned our decision, but we this was the decision we made.”
Q: Do you think Togo has the power to influence other countries to support Israel in the same way?
“I think it is possible, but our vision is dialogue with all African countries, to know exactly what is happening in this region. What we need is peace in the Middle East and in Israel and everywhere in the world.
“Some African countries don’t know what is happening really in this region, but we are talking with them, we are trying to explain to our interlocutors and let them make their own decisions. We believe we will find peace when God decides.”
Q: Other countries often want to make use of Israeli expertise in defense, in the war on terror and in agriculture. Does Togo share that desire?
“Of course, we share a lot of things with Israel. We have good cooperation in our health sector and our agriculture sector. For example, just for our health sector, we inaugurated three weeks ago the first trauma center in Togo, one of the best in the West African region. … Our bilateral cooperation is very good.
“In Africa, and in Togo, we have enormous resources, but unfortunately we don’t have the expertise to exploit our resources. Israel has expertise, we have a lot of engineers and we need your expertise to come to Africa to help us with our resources.”
Q: The president of Togo has said that you want Israel to return to Africa and that African returns to Israel. What does he mean by that?
“I support my president. If I am here it is because he is one of the best friends of Israel. His vision about the cooperation between Israel and Africa is very good. For him it is very simple, we need the Israeli people to come back to Africa. Before 1980, Israel was in Africa, Israel had a lot of embassies in Africa, in Togo … but we need Israel to come back to Africa, Israeli businessman have to come back to Africa, Israeli business people have to invest there.”
Q: So how is it that despite the close bilateral relations, most Israelis don’t really know Togo all that well?
“Togo is a West African country; it is just one country among 54 African countries. We want to present Togo to everyone in the world, particularly in Israel. Maybe you can come, if you want to know Africa, it is a door to West Africa.”
Q: You are probably the only professor who is also a minister in the government. Does that put you in a better position to solve the problems, considering that you are a political theorist? Have you ever tried to implement academic theories in politics?
“I try to do my best. When you are in politics you need to shift from theory to practice. It is not easy when you have to work or take a position to defend Israel. But that is our decision.”
Q: Do you have an example of a theory you tried to implement?
“You know, my favorite philosopher is Emmanuel Kant – I did my Ph.D. on him, I teach him. One of the best books he wrote was ‘Perpetual Peace.'”
Q: Is it applicable here in this region?
“I think it is possible if you have the will to do something…”
Posted in Cooperation, Interviews | Tagged Israel, Togo
Press Release : Official visit of Minister Robert DUSSEY to Jerusalem
Posted on 12 June 2018 | by Prof. Robert Dussey | Leave a Comment on Press Release : Official visit of Minister Robert DUSSEY to Jerusalem
Statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and African Integration
Jerusalem on June 12, 2018.
1- At the invitation of the Prime Minister of Israel, HE Mr. Benyamin NETANYAHOU, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and African Integration HE Prof. Robert DUSSEY paid an official visit to Jerusalem on June 11 and 12, 2018;
2- This visit follows the visit by HE Faure Essozimna GNASSINGBE, President of the Togolese Republic, President-in-Office of ECOWAS from 7 to 11 August 2016 in Israel;
3- It should be recalled that during this visit, the Togolese Head of State and the Prime Minister of Israel agreed, in accordance with the so-called principle of “privileged relations”, to increase their mutual trust and to broaden their cooperation in other areas;
4- The exchanges between the Minister DUSSEY and the Prime Minister NETANYAHOU focused on issues of common interest of a bilateral and multilateral nature;
5- Addressing bilateral issues, Minister DUSSEY and Prime Minister NETANYAHOU welcomed the dynamism of the cooperation between their two countries and reviewed the great achievements of the decisions of the first major joint commission of cooperation;
6- In this regard, they welcomed the concrete and fruitful actions of the Israeli Agency for International Development Cooperation (MASHAV) in the development process of Togo, particularly in the health and agriculture sectors, and agreed to continue its efforts;
With Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovich, Rabbi of the Wailing Wall and Holy Places
7- They also noted the need to relaunch the work of the second major joint commission for cooperation between the two countries and to support the actions of the two governments in the fields of rural development, education, science and technology, community development, social protection and promotion, and the integration of women in the development process;
8- During this visit, HE Prof. Robert DUSSEY and his delegation had working sessions with the Director General of the Israel Agency for International Development Cooperation (MASHAV);
9- At the end of the exchanges, the two parties agreed on the upcoming visit to Lome of a delegation of Israeli experts for discussions with the technical ministries to better take into account the priorities of the Togolese government in accordance with the axes the National Development Program (PND);
10- Talking about the situation at the multilateral level, the Togolese Foreign Minister and the Israeli Prime Minister addressed issues related to the Syrian and Middle East crises, deploring the situations in this part of the world and calling on all stakeholders dialogue and restraint to preserve peace;
11. Concerning the resurgence of terrorism and acts of maritime piracy, they reaffirmed their strong condemnation and called for the pooling of efforts as well as the continuation of international cooperation with a view to their eradication;
12- At the end of his visit, the Head of Togolese diplomacy reassured the Israeli government that Togo is at its side and will always support it in the international bodies to which their two countries are members.
Posted in Cooperation, News | Tagged NETANYAHOU, Prof. Robert Dussey, Togo
Visit of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Gabon to Togo
Posted on 20 April 2018 | by Prof. Robert Dussey | Leave a Comment on Visit of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Gabon to Togo
JOINT COMMUNIQUE SANCTIONING THE VISIT TO TOGO OF HIS EXCELLENCY NOEL NELSON MESSONE, MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS, COOPERATION, FRANCOPHONIA AND REGIONAL INTEGRATION, IN CHARGE OF THE GABONES OF ABROAD OF THE REPUBLIC OF GABON
Lome, 21 April 218
1- At the invitation of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and African Integration of the Togolese Republic, HE Prof. Robert DUSSEY, His Excellency Noël Noël MESSONE, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation, Francophonie and Regional Integration, in charge of Gabonese Abroad of the Gabonese Republic, carried out a friendly and working visit to Lomé on 19 and 20 April 2018.
2-During this visit, the two Ministers exchanged views on issues of common interest of a bilateral, regional and international nature.
3-Addressing bilateral issues, Ministers MESSONE and DUSSEY welcomed the excellent relations of friendship and cooperation that unite the two countries and pledged to work towards their strengthening, particularly in the political fields economic, scientific and cultural. To this end, they agreed on the need to relaunch the activities of the Togo-Gabon Joint Cooperation Commission and the forthcoming signature of a visa waiver agreement for the holders of diplomatic and service passports of the two countries. States.
4-Recalling the need for the exchange of opinions and the organization of permanent consultations in various fields related to issues of common interest, they signed a Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the two (02) countries.
5- Considering the issues of cooperation on migration, the two Ministers agreed on a concerted management of cases of Togolese living in an irregular situation in Gabon including through a system of sharing of prior information and a concerted organization of repatriation operations with respect for the rights of migrants.
6-In this regard, HE Prof. Robert DUSSEY stressed the need for an incentive for the voluntary return of Togolese migrants in an irregular situation, in particular by reducing or canceling the visa fees for final exit from Gabonese territory and recalled the urgency of the revision of the agreement on free movement of persons and goods, employment and establishment of 21 March 1975 between Togo and Gabon.
7-The Ministers DUSSEY and MESSONE also welcomed the work undertaken by experts from both countries to prevent and punish child trafficking through effective cooperation between the two (02) States. To this end, the two Ministers agreed on the forthcoming signature of the agreement on the fight against child trafficking in order to facilitate cooperation and collaboration in the investigation, arrest, prosecution and extradition of children. guilty through the competent authorities of each State.
8. With regard to the political situation in Togo, the Minister DUSSEY informed his Gabonese counterpart of the progress of the political dialogue under way and under the facilitation of the Presidents of Ghana and Guinea, their Excellencies Mr. Nana Addo Dankwa AKUFO-ADDO and Professor Alpha CONDE.
9- Minister MESSONE, in turn, warmly congratulated the highest Togolese authorities for the efforts that Togo continues to deploy, especially during its current chairmanship of ECOWAS, in order to preserve peace and security in the country. region, in Africa and in the world.
10- Speaking of regional integration, Ministers MESSONE and DUSSEY welcomed the proactive actions deployed within the framework of ECOWAS and ECCAS which made it possible to stem the crises that are developing and open in their respective community areas and reaffirmed their determination to work together to achieve the desired integration through the implementation of the provisions of the framework agreement of the Continental Free Trade Area signed in March 2018 in Kigali.
13- Referring to international issues including the serious issue of organized cross-border crime, maritime piracy and terrorism, the two heads of diplomacy expressed their deep concern at the resurgence of these various acts, reaffirmed their firm condemnation and called for the pooling of efforts and the pursuit of international cooperation to overcome them.
14. On the sidelines of the official visit, the Head of Gabonese Diplomacy paid a courtesy visit to His Excellency Faure Essozimna GNASSINGBE, President of the Republic, President of the Conference of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS.
15- On this occasion, Mr. MESSONE congratulated the Head of State for his commitment, alongside the mediator, His Excellency Professor Alpha Condé, which allowed the resolution of the crisis in Guinea Bissau.
16- At the end of his visit, His Excellency Noël Noël MESSONE, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation, Francophonie and Regional Integration, in charge of Gabonese Abroad of the Republic of Gabon, expressed his his Togolese counterpart, the Togolese Government and people, his heartfelt thanks and deep gratitude for the warm and fraternal welcome extended to him and his delegation.
17- The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Gabon invited Professor Robert DUSSEY to pay an official visit to Gabon.
18- His Excellency Prof. Robert DUSSEY accepted this invitation with good grace. The date of this visit will be fixed later through the diplomatic channel.
Posted in News | Tagged Gabon, Togo
Guinea-Bissau: “We are thinking of getting out of this crisis by the end of the year”
Posted on 14 April 2018 | by Prof. Robert Dussey | Leave a Comment on Guinea-Bissau: “We are thinking of getting out of this crisis by the end of the year”
A prime minister appointed since April 17, the reopening of Parliament and legislative elections in November, after 3 years of crisis, Guinea Bissau can finally see a better future.
Since his arrival at the head of ECOWAS in June 2017, President Faure Gnassingbé has spared no time and effort in trying to unblock the situation. The previous mediations had given nothing.
He made a personal commitment, sometimes banging his fist on the table, to convince political parties in Guinea-Bissau to find the way out of the crisis.
The announcements made Saturday at the extraordinary ECOWAS summit in Lome by President José Mario Vaz are the result of long negotiations led by Togolese diplomacy with all the protagonists in Bissau.
Robert Dussey, the Togolese Minister of Foreign Affairs, has expressed confidence in a return to normalcy.
‘The monitoring committee set up by ECOWAS will accompany step by step the standardization process in Guinea Bissau. There is a road map that is like an amendment to the Conakry agreement. We expect to get out of this crisis by the end of the year and as efforts on the ground are made, the sanctions will be lifted, “he said.
President Faure Gnassingbé is one of the members of this monitoring committee.
The Lomé summit, which also discussed the situation in Sierra Leone and Togo, the fight against terrorism and the problems related to food insecurity, saw the presence of 10 heads of state from the region. A meaningful participation for an extraordinary session.
A sign of the diplomatic weight and influence of Togo in West Africa. And a head of state who comes out strengthened.
Posted in News | Tagged Guinea-Bissau, Togo
Signature of an OpenSky Agreement between Togo and Mauritania
Posted on 28 October 2017 | by Prof. Robert Dussey
An OpenSky agreement was signed Friday in Nouakchott between Mauritania and Togo.
Specifically, Mauritania Airlines may provide direct links to Lomé and Asky by reciprocity to serve Mauritania.
Mauritania Airlines is expected to open a representation agency very soon in the Togolese capital.
The agreement was signed by Togolese Foreign Minister Robert Dussey and the Mauritanian Ministers of Transport and Trade. Mauritanian Foreign Minister Isselkou Ould Ahmed Izid Bih attended the ceremony.
This agreement is in line with the Yamoussoukro agreement on the liberalization of air transport in Africa.
The future Nouakchott-Lomé links will allow the development of bilateral exchanges to offer Mauritania a springboard for integration into ‘Espace Cédéao’. The country is an associate member of the West African organization.
Mauritania Airlines has a fleet of single aisle Boeing 737-800, 700 and 500. It serves Nouadhibou, Zouerate, Abidjan, Bamako, Casablanca, Conakry, Dakar, Las Palmas and Tunis.
Posted in Cooperation, News | Tagged Asky, Mauritania, opensky, Robert Dussey, Togo
CDL: German diplomacy, centerpiece of the new Europe
Posted on 5 October 2017 | by Prof. Robert Dussey
Christoph Sander, Germany’s ambassador to Togo, was the guest of the Lomé Diplomatic Club (CDL) on Friday, September 29th to discuss German diplomacy at the heart of Europe.
He recalled in a preamble the foundations of his country’s foreign policy: to avoid the mistakes of our grandfathers, to work for peace in Europe (Deutsche AußenpolitikisteuropäischeFriedenspolitik).
Mr. Sander then returned to the history of his country, Bismarck, the First World War, that of 39-45 with the Nazi regime and its horrors, the division of Germany with the Cold War and then the fall of the wall of Berlin.
Germany is now the main European economic power in the Union, but the diplomat stressed that it must also face new challenges. First of all, there is the Russian threat to a possible violation of the sovereignty of a European State; secondly, the need for the European institutions to respond to the economic and financial crisis. Although the situation has improved since 2008, the EU is not immune from a relapse.
Christoph Sander has drawn up a rather pessimistic picture of the situation in Europe. Great Britain is emerging from the Union, Poland and Hungary defy European constitutional consensus, Scots and Catalans demand their independence, and finally the migratory crisis is problematic.
In Germany itself, and for the first time since 1945, a far-right party entered the Bundestag.
‘The new German government must face the challenges I have just described. (…) I am sure that we will be able to resolve the great questions of our time if our politicians are guided by the same principles as Schumann, Monet and Adenauer, Mitterrand, Kohl and Genscher ‘, the ambassador concluded.
Initiated by Robert Dussey, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Lomé Diplomatic Club is an apolitical reflection group that receives regular Togolese and foreign personalities from diplomatic, political and international organizations.
Posted in Lomé diplomatic Club | Tagged CDL, Christoph Sander, German Diplomacy, Togo
AIPAC 2017: Togo draws the outlines of a new axis of cooperation
Posted on 27 March 2017 | by Prof. Robert Dussey
AIPAC’s annual conference, The American Israel Public Committee, opened in Washington on Sunday with 16 000 participants from across the country.
US Vice President Mike Pence will speak in the evening. On Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Nikki Haley, United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Paul Ryan, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Nancy Pelosi, leader of the Democrats in the Senate, will be in attendance.
All the upper hand of American politics attends this convention and not only. Former British Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Canada’s Stephen Harper made the trip to Washington.
On Sunday afternoon, the Togolese foreign minister spoke to an audience of more than 6,000 enthusiastic people.
Questioned by journalist Frank Sesno (CNN, PBS), he recalled the commitment of his country alongside Israel. Support is manifested, in particular, through courageous initiatives in hostile votes in international organizations such as the United Nations.
Mr. Dussey seized the opportunity of his visit to AIPAC to clarify the objectives of the next Africa-Israel Summit to be held in Lomé from 23 to 27 October 2017.
‘The Togolese president used to say that Africa has problems and that Israel has the solution. The purpose of the Summit is to strengthen the links between Africa and Israel at the political, diplomatic and economic levels. The African continent is in full development and Israel has the solutions to accompany it in the sector of new technologies, education, health, agriculture, to name only these areas, ‘he said Explain.
Questioned by Franck Sesno on the role that the United States could play, Robert Dussey said that the ambition was to set up a new axis of cooperation between Africa, Israel and the United States.
Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame, who spoke on Sunday at the AIPAC forum, said the Africa-Israel Summit was an opportunity for the continent to broaden the circle of partners in a vision of shared prosperity.
The AIPAC convention will end on Tuesday.
Posted in Cooperation, International, News | Tagged AIPAC, Faure Gnassingbe, Israel, Togo
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Posts Tagged ‘horror films’
The Last Temptation of Bonkers
Tags: clown, clowns, horror, horror films, horror writer, Michael LaPointe, novelist, prose, short story, thriller, thriller writer, writing
It was doomed from the start, man. There had been six of us, and we were the masters of the universe, bulletproof and straight up gangster. You know the names already. What matters, what you have to understand, is that when we started that thing, we meant to do good. To be good, and to inspire others to do good, too.
We wanted what everyone else wants: respect, friends, love. We wanted to take the love to the people, to show them that there was nothing to fear, no reason to hide, that we weren’t the monsters so many of them thought we were. And for a while, it worked.
I was the face of the movement. I never bought into the whole ‘Sad Clown’ mindset; I felt that this life of mine should reflect the joy, the gleeful chaos that ensued whenever I walked into the tent. That’s what I was all about. Fucking joy, even if I wasn’t always feeling it. So there’s my mug, all happy smiles and arched eyebrows, bald cap over a bright green monk’s cowl. You know me. You’ve seen the posters and I know you watch the news.
So we would assemble, faces already in place, and we’d go in to the hospitals. Find the terminal kids and give them some laughs. That’s what most of us did, anyway. Captain Fancypants and Sparkles would slip away and find the place where they kept the good drugs, the serious narcotics, locked up. It’s not like it is now; in those days, it was just a closet, sometimes marked, sometimes not. Moe had huge pockets inside those baggy pants of his, and that son of a bitch could empty a pharmacy in seconds flat. By the time the pharmacist realized they’d been hit, we were already down the road and besides, who’d suspect a clown?
Then, and this is the important part, we’d take the drugs to the people who needed it. Not the junkies or the dealers, but the good people who were in serious pain and couldn’t afford a hospital visit or a costly prescription. Yes, we stole, but we did good with it. So much good. The problem is that the more we saw of the people in need, the angrier we got with those who held the purse strings, who kept the stuff out of the hands of the needy and in the hands of the entitled. We were like Robin Hood, but with rubber chickens instead of bow and arrow.
We eventually came to realize that the hospitals were small potatoes, that if we really wanted to make a difference, we’d have to hit the manufacturing facilities where the meds were made. So that’s what we did. I won’t bore you with the details of the plan, but it was brilliant. I thought it was, at least.
We hit the plant at midnight, figuring no one would be there. We were clowns, for Christ’s sake; what did we know about security at major pharmaceutical companies? Basic tools, nothing else, aside from the duffel bags. I had no idea that Twitch brought explosives, or why. What the fuck, why bring bangers on a night raid? I thought he’d left that behind in favor of Clown Life. Twitch always had that nervous energy about him, even when he was in makeup. Edgy, like an electrical current was running through him. So we break in through a side door, find our way to manufacturing and holy shit, there are mountains of boxes of pills, everything you could imagine, and a ton more that you couldn’t. I head straight for the antibiotics, knowing that there were folks up in the hills who needed them badly, so badly.
Working quickly, we filled our pockets and bags while Bananahead kept a lookout. The thing was, we didn’t know there was a night watchman. It wasn’t his fault. I didn’t think it was our fault either, but I know better now. These guys come through the door with flashlights in hand, maybe with guns drawn or maybe not, and the whole damn thing went sideways. Bananahead loses his shit and starts yelling about power to the people and fuck the system, like we’re the goddamn Weathermen or something, despite us all being in our goddamn clown suits. The guards didn’t know what the hell to do. They were laughing, but at the same time they knew something was wrong because it’s the middle of the damn night in a drug company warehouse and there’s five goddamn clowns screaming at him, screaming at each other, and then one of the clowns pulls a giant lighter out of his pants and sparks the fuse on a stick of dynamite and next thing you know, there’s blood all over the place and the night is wrecked, just fucking wrecked. It’s gone to shit, like Reservoir Dogs in greasepaint.
We’re standing there in a daze, and the poor security guards are dead, so obviously and violently dead, and scattered all over the place, Bananahead is covered in blood and gore, and Captain Fancypants is sitting on the floor, head in hands, weeping and sobbing like a baby and next thing I know, the night is filled with the screaming of sirens. The door is kicked in and suddenly Twitch is just gone, his head explodes in a spray of pink and red, and Sparkles is thrown backward by the force of a shotgun blast and then it’s just me, all the rest are dead, and all the guns are pointed at me, and they’re all shouting and all I can do is stand there, shit-the-pants terrified, but this goddamn smile painted on my face makes them think I’m getting off on this and I’m shouting and they’re shouting, and when I try to take a step my shoe squeaks and I slip in a puddle of someone’s blood and land on my ass, which sets off the whoopee cushion and I realize then that it’s all over, that my life’s work is ended, my passion dead, because of this.This hopeless, stupid mess.
I wanted to help people. I wanted to spread laughter and hope. I’m lost. My friends are dead, and I’m going to prison for a long time, the big vacation, and for a moment, everything stops and I’m reminded what my old friend and mentor, Dingles, told me, so many years ago.
“Kid, no matter what you do,” he said, dead serious with the stink of grain alcohol on his breath. “Don’t ever do no shit that’ll end you up behind bars. Bad things happen to a clown in jail. Permanent things, awful things. Trust me, I know.” He had shivered at the recollection, and a silent tear had slid down his painted face. He didn’t think people could see when he cried, and most couldn’t. But I could, every goddamn time. No one hurts quite like a clown.
I can’t go to prison, I know I won’t survive, that no mercy is shown for Red Nosers like me. I have no choice, this is my destiny, right here, right now. I say when is when and enough is enough. Looking back, I never had a chance; this life, clown life, chose me from the very start. This is who I am, what I am. I pull my knife and slash my own throat, real fast. The spray erupts from me like seltzer from a bottle. As the life drains out of me, I hear the cops laughing.
Tags: 1970s, author, Bay Area, Bob Wilkins, Carol Doda, Channel 36, Charley and Humphrey, Creature Features, Gary Ferry, horror fiction, horror films, horror writer, KGSC, KICU, KTVU, Local television, Marx Brothers, novel, novelist, Oakland, Pat McCormick, rant, regional television, San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Clara Valley, television, writing
I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1970s. As far back as I can remember, I always loved movies, of which there was never a shortage back then, even though there was just a wee handful of channels. True, there are still movies on television today, but it’s different. Back in that time, much of entertainment programming was devoted to old movies; the studios rented their catalogs for pennies, and a great number of films were public domain, meaning no one owned the title and it cost the station nothing to broadcast it. To simply run a movie, or even a string of movies, however, often wasn’t enough. In the old days (because I realize I’m starting to sound like one of those old guys who sits forlornly on a park bench, pulling a bag of bread crumbs from my Members Only jacket and feeding the pigeons that aren’t even there anymore, but in the old days there were lots of pigeons, and those pigeons were badasses, I tell you what), we had regional television, meaning that we had the Big Three (DuMont was gone by that point), and then a bunch of local stations and, come to think of it, the Big Three were really only the Big Three during prime time. The rest of the time, they were just local stations. And with those local stations came the local personalities.
I am totally not making this up.
Arguably the more bizarre station of the era was Channel 36 (originally KGSC, Stockton, now KICU, San Jose), whose on-air spokesperson was Carol Doda, the spectacularly knockered stripper whose home was the famous Condor Club in San Francisco’s infamous North Beach district. Dressed provocatively, her breathless declaration that we were watching “The Perfect 36” without a trace of irony remains a punchline well-remembered by all who lived in the Valley at the time, albeit usually in the form of “That really happened, right?” -type conversations, within the framework of the type of fuzzy nostalgia usually brought on by beers with old friends. That’s Santa Clara Valley, by the way, not Silicon Valley. That mess came later.
Just in case there was anyone left who wasn’t offended by the stripper, the bullfights, and the Mexican wrestling.
Steadfastly politically incorrect, Channel 36 featured bullfights from Mexico City on Saturdays, usually followed by the unbridled awesomeness of Mexican wrestling. And if all that weren’t enough, there was Gary Ferry, a mainstay of local television, whose niche was hosting movies, first on The Old Sourdough and Wachikanoka where, dressed in Indian attire, he would host old westerns with Andy Moore and enjoyed a degree of cult celebrity. A later show, called Race Street and Bascom Avenue featured Gary playing Race, and Andy playing Bascom, which was and, to the best of my knowledge, still is, an actual intersection in San Jose. So the gag works on two levels. The format for these hosted movie shows was that of similar shows across the country: a little banter to open the show, a few segments during the movie, and then a wrap-up at the end. Later, Gary would host Movies All Night, this time as himself, the spokesman for MMM Carpet in San Jose. A personal high-water mark for this writer would be getting permission from Mom and Dad to actually stay up all night for a Marx Brothers marathon at the tender age of ten, and a feat I came very close to pulling off, having fallen asleep around dawn during the final movie, the lamentable The Big Store. Sadly, we lost Gary back in 2009, although I did have the good fortune to have met him in the mid 1980s, and thanked him for his years of entertaining service.
You have no idea how close to tears this photo brings me.
As much fun as Channel 36 was, we had another channel, KTVU Channel 2 from Oakland, which had the twin powers of broadcasting giants Pat McCormick and Bob Wilkins. McCormick was the host of the local Dialing For Dollars show, which ran on weekday mornings, first with a movie and later with a two-hour block of sitcom repeats. Pat was a local television mainstay, and his greatest contribution, by his own admission, was in a series of short videos starring his puppets Charley and Humphrey, with quick lessons on such varied subjects as kittens, hostility, and boating safety. Pat also hosted the local (Oakland / San Francisco) portions of the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Labor Day Telethon, while Channel 36 handled the San Jose segments which were predictably surreal, known to feature appearances by octogenarian tap dancers and Elvis fan clubs. These were interesting times.
At the top of the regional television pantheon, however, stood a broadcasting legend, the host of KTVU’s Creature Features, Bob Wilkins. Bob, unlike virtually every other horror movie host, did not dress in costume, wore no strange makeup, and for the most part played it straight. With his yellow rocking chair and ever-present cigar, Bob’s non-terrifying appearance and gentle ribbing of the often terrible films he presented endeared him to every horror nerd, young and old, who watched the show. And we watched religiously, because Creature Features was also our primary source for nerd info in a pre-internets world. When Dad was working the night shift, Mom and I would stay up and wait for him, watching Creature Features to pass the time; this was when I learned that being scared can sometimes be a lot of fun. The first time I saw Night of the Living Dead, the movie that had actually freaked out my un-freakoutable father, was on Creature Features. The first time I saw clips of a new movie called Star Wars, was on Creature Features. No form of media had a greater impact on my love of horror and science fiction movies than Creature Features.
So okay, nice trip down Memory Lane, but what does it mean? I don’t know, maybe nothing. Then again, maybe something. What we have now is nice, be it satellite or cable, but what we’re missing is a sense of community identity, an interconnectedness that was part and parcel of growing up in a time and a place that was different than others. Not better – not by a far shot – just different. A feeling that there were other movie nerds up late watching along with you, separated physically but connected through the shared experience. Moreover, the people we watched on TV weren’t necessarily professionals; the shows were extremely low-budget, the camera work was questionable, and the jokes as stale as Bob Wilkins’ cigar smoke as Saturday night became Sunday morning. These endearing qualities connected us with the hosts, like we were sitting in our weird uncle’s converted garage/rumpus room. I realize now, years later, that the late-night and all-night movie shows weren’t live, that they were recorded during the day and broadcast later, but that really doesn’t diminish the effect. None of us were in possession of VCRs yet, so even though the shows weren’t broadcast live, the audience was watching live. When I left the Bay Area, nearly twenty years ago, KTVU was showing Will & Grace reruns in the old Creature Features time slot. Channel 36 has since merged with KTVU and both run paid programming commercials all night. Bob Wilkins and Gary Ferry both passed away in 2009, and Pat McCormick has retired, and those of us who grew up then, who came of age then, we have lost a bit of that small-town feeling we once had when life was simpler.
And that, I guess, concludes our broadcast day.
Giant Flying Aztec Gods!
Tags: Aztec, David Carradine, film essay, film writing, horror films, horror writer, Larry Cohen, Michael Moriarty, movie review, Quetzalcoatl, Richard Roundtree, Scream Factory, Shout Factory, zombie hamster
I have to admit, I’d never heard of this movie until it landed in my mailbox; that said, I can’t believe something so undeniably awesome totally flew under my radar for thirty years. Yes, it’s schlock, but it’s old school schlock, and isn’t that really the best kind? Give me stop-motion and process shots any day, because at least they’re organic and we know someone was actually putting hands on the props to make them work.
Q – The Winged Serpent at Zombie Hamster
Further, marvel at the aerobatics involved in the final action sequence, and understand that the stuff they’re doing is no longer allowed. I could rant for hours, but you get the idea. This movie was more fun than it had any right to be. Super big thanks to Larry Cohen for making such a great movie. Also, a big shout out to Shout Factory for their spankin’ new Blu-Ray release of Q – The Winged Serpent!
A Double Dose of Carpenter
Tags: film essay, film writing, Halloween, horror, horror films, horror writer, John Carpenter, movie review, Prince of Darkness, Scream Factory, The Fog, writing, zombie hamster
It’s been a rotten week. I don’t even want to get into what made it bad, so I’ll just leave it at that.
Moving forward, I took a recent look at a couple of John Carpenter’s classics, and gave them a few scribbles.
With regard to Prince of Darkness, I’m going to take the soapbox for a moment, because I think way too many ‘fans’ claim disappointment with this film, and they seriously need to re-examine their reasons for liking his films. Carpenter is a goddamn visionary whose career is made up of more than just Halloween. Granted, Halloween is an excellent film and, for my money, the only slasher film worth a damn. Because it was the first, and not part of the crapalanche of ripoffs that followed it. He followed Halloween with The Fog, which is a traditional ghost story, and a damn good one. He’s done fantasy adventure (Big Trouble in Little China), romance (Starman), urban paranoia / class warfare (They Live), and so many others that are all different, all unique. Prince of Darkness attempts, and to my eye succeeds, in looking at theology from a scientific viewpoint, and does so quite intelligently. It is very much a Big Picture film, is worthy of repeat viewings, and will long be considered one of the great films in Carpenter’s oeuvre. So there.
Death by Gene Shalit
Tags: film essay, film writing, Gene Shalit, horror, horror films, horror writer, movie review, Roger Spottiswoode, Scream Factory, Shout Factory, Terror Train, writing, zombie hamster
1980’s Terror Train. No matter how you slice it, it’s just not a great movie. Cheesy and wildly predictable, it was a quickie cash-in on the unfortunate ‘slasher film’ era. That said, for those of us coming of age during that time, the movies were simple fun, offering distraction without much thought; only with age do I realize that the Reagan-esque moralizing was so heavy handed, and that a jump-scare isn’t really a scare at all. It’s a startle at best, immediately recognized and quickly forgotten. For the viewer, there’s no terror on this train, but what the hell – at least we’re enjoying the ride.
Terror Train at Zombie Hamster
“And that’s the Critic’s Corner for this morning. Now please slow down, so that I may murder you in a creative fashion with my giant mustache.”
Scream Factory gave this 80’s flashback a nice Blu-Ray release and for that, I thank them. It’s great to showcase the smaller films, once considered throw-aways, because one never knows how they might age and, for we who are aging, they’re oftentimes accompanied by a flood of nostalgia.
And yes, the movie had me reduced to giggles most of the way through because, although they kept referring to the killer’s costume as Groucho Marx, I could not stop seeing his uncanny resemblance to beloved film critic Gene Shalit, and the notion of Gene running around a train causing mayhem just ruined me. I freely admit that this is my fault, as I’m fairly certain that the filmmakers didn’t do this intentionally. Unless they did, in which case, congratulations – you are now epic.
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What Are the Tactical Advantages of a Trebuchet Over a Catapult?
By Quora Contributor
July 21, 20167:05 AM
A Roman catapult.
Fae/Wikimedia Commons
This question originally appeared on Quora, the knowledge-sharing network where compelling questions are answered by people with unique insights. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus.
Answer by Eric Lowe, classics major and historical European martial arts instructor:
A trebuchet is a device for attacking fortifications. Roughly speaking, a trebuchet has a few advantages over a catapult. First, it can handle heavier projectiles. A catapult’s maximum weight tops out at about 180 pounds; trebuchets top out at about 350. Second, compared with a torsion engine, it’s a fairly robust machine. Lastly, for a given weight of stone, the trebuchet has a longer range. The big ones there, of course, are the maximum projectile weight and range. When your objective is to smash stone fortifications, being able to throw bigger stones from farther away is certainly a desirable trait.
A catapult—well, we need to sort of redefine your idea of what a catapult is.
“Catapult” itself means shield-piercer. The things were originally designed to project darts of a size that no bow could shoot, with a range that no bow could match. The common thread among the three engines I illustrated is what’s called the “torsion spring,” the twisted skein of animal sinew that you see the arms stuck into. You can get a low-power demonstration of the idea by placing a pencil into the loop of a rubber band and then twisting the rubber band; when you let go, the twisted skein of rubber band makes the pencil whip around. That principle, writ large, is how a catapult works.
It’s important to note, therefore, that catapults do more things than trebuchets do. They were frighteningly accurate, as both ancient sources and modern reconstructions attest. Dart-throwing catapults were, I kid you not, used to snipe individual soldiers off of fortification walls from far beyond bowshot (the longest range attested for a dart-thrower is 700 yards; the longest achieved by modern reconstructions something like 400—still way beyond the effective range of any bow ever made). You can imagine how accurate, long-range anti-personnel fire could be quite useful in a siege, both to suppress defenders and simply to demoralize them. This is a capability that a trebuchet simply does not have. This is also why I list range as only a half advantage of a catapult. Because “catapult” covers a fairly wide range of machines, it’s accurate to say that trebuchets have a longer range than a catapult when projecting stones at fortifications. When it comes to the maximum range of any catapult, ever, catapults definitely have trebuchets beat. Then again, trebuchets don’t shoot darts, so the whole comparison is kind of wonky.
Now, when it comes to stone-throwing catapults, whether of the two-armed or one-armed variety, those are basically inferior to trebuchets. The one real advantage that they have is not tactical but strategic: Trebuchets require an incredible amount of wood. You just can’t take trebuchets with you on campaign, even disassembled, without the most extraordinary feats of logistics. Catapults, by comparison, are relatively portable (emphasis on the “by comparison”; a stone-throwing catapult can easily weigh upward of 2 tons). On the other hand, trebuchets only really require wood. The real guts of a catapult—the torsion springs—require the deaths of a great many cattle to provide the necessary sinew. In that sense, trebuchets are fairly cheap (assuming you’re campaigning in a part of the world where wood is abundant). On top of that, because the springiness of the torsion springs is highly sensitive to factors such as humidity, the springs require constant adjustment to maintain performance. You can imagine what it would do to accuracy if the right spring is ever so slightly looser than the left spring, and even if you’re using a one-armed catapult, you need to pay close attention to whether the spring needs to be wound tighter or looser to maintain the same point of aim. The things are heavy; you can’t just pick them up and move them if you find out that you’re hitting 50 yards short because it rained yesterday.
Speaking of movement: You can’t put one-armed catapults on wheels. I mean, you can, but if the machine has any power at all, the recoil will cause the whole frame to jump into the air a bit when it shoots, and then slam down (and remember, these things weigh thousands of pounds). That will quickly smash your wheels to bits. The normal thing to do was to place them on bales of hay to act as shock absorbers. The hay bales would themselves be pounded to bits eventually, but you can re-bale the hay a lot more easily than you can fix a cracked catapult frame.
Two-armed catapults could be put on wheels, sort of. Dart-throwers were put on carts, and evidently shot from carts, in various cultures and times. And it was also fairly common to place them in siege towers. Likewise, stone-throwing catapults were not infrequently placed in siege towers. Now, a siege tower is not a small structure. But they are technically mobile.
Trebuchets, because they don’t recoil in the same way as catapults, can be put on wheels. In fact, doing so is advantageous for their accuracy, as I understand it, because of the way it lets the whole machine absorb some of the forces involved. On the other hand, owing to how incredibly large trebuchets were, you still couldn’t pre-assemble them and take them with you on campaign.
What are the tactical advantages of a trebuchet over a catapult and vice versa? originally appeared on Quora. More questions on Quora:
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Home » People » Local People » Janie Culbreth
Janie Culbreth
January 15, 1940 – July 30, 2017
Raised in Dougherty County, Georgia
“Often students are not given credit for the things they started and the sacrifices they made in the movement.” – Janie Culbreth
Janie Culbreth’s understanding of the harsh local history of Jim Crow brought her into the Movement well before SNCC arrived in Southwest Georgia. As the daughter of sharecroppers, Culbreth was told by her parents of the threats and harassment they received when they left the plantation for town in the 1930s. “When Black people moved off the plantation,” she remembered, “white landowners considered it an act of defiance and often falsified documents or made unfounded accusations to force their laborers to remain.”
Civil rights protest march in Southwest Georgia, undated, Digital Library of Georgia
By the end of the 1950s, Black struggle intensified and became increasingly militant. In Albany, Georgia, high school and college students (many of whom were young women) stood at the forefront of organizing efforts. When Culbreth entered Albany State College, she decided that she would no longer tolerate the blatant disregard for African American life and was determined to do something about it.
She attended mass meetings where she remembered Charles Sherrod and others in SNCC discussing all of the things “we couldn’t do because Albany was so staunchly segregated.” She joined others and marched in the first large Albany demonstration in December of 1961. Culbreth described the scene as, “several hundred people–old and young–marched down Jackson Street toward the jail, singing, ‘We shall overcome.’” Culbreth and the other protesters were arrested by the Police Chief Laurie Pritchett.
While she was in jail, she learned that Martin Luther King Jr. was coming to Albany. His presence accelerated protests. Once she was released from prison, Culbreth was expelled from Albany State College because of her participation in the Movement. Following her expulsion, she turned her attention to voter registration and worked for the Movement full-time.
Martin Luther King considered the Albany Movement as one of his earliest failures. However, SNCC activists and local people disagreed. Reflecting on the movement, Bernice Reagon said it “gave me the power to challenge any line that limits me.” Or, as A.C. Searles, founder and editor of the weekly African American newspaper, The Southwest Georgian, put it, “What did we win? We won our self-respect. It changed my attitudes. The Movement made me demand a semblance of first-class citizenship.” For SNCC, the Albany Movement was an early example highlighting the ability for thousands of local people to organize, march, and protest without being led by an external group. It helped teach that there was real power at the grassroots, and Janie Culbreth was one of those teachers.
Anglea Boswell and Judith N. McArthur, Women Shaping the South: Creating and Confronting Change (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2006).
Charles E. Cobb, Jr., This Nonviolent Stuff’ll Get You Killed: How Guns Made the Civil Rights Movement Possible (New York: Basic Books, 2014).
Janie Culbreth Rambeau, “Ripe for the Picking,” Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC, edited by Faith Holsaert, et al. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2010), 91-100.
Frances V. Moulder, Exiting the Extraordinary: Returning to the Ordinary World after War, Prison, and Other Extraordinary Experiences (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2015).
Janie Culbreth Rambeau describes being arrested during the Movement, Our Voices: Strong People, snccdigital.org
Proposal for SNCC’s Program in Southwest Georgia, November 15, 1961, crmvet.org
Albany Movement Flyer, undated, crmvet.org
A narrative of voter registration in Southwest Georgia, undated, Faith S. Holsaert Papers, Duke University
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WIW 2019: About Pneumonia
There are vaccines for pneumococcal disease, an umbrella phrase that encompasses any disease caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria. This bacteria is one of the leading sources of illness among children globally, as it can cause pneumonia, meningitis, inner ear infections, and many other illnesses. Collectively such conditions can be referred to as pneumococcal disease, the single largest infectious cause of death in children worldwide. Symptoms of pneumococcal pneumonia include cough, shortness of breath, fever, and chest pain. Symptoms of meningitis include headaches, muscle stiffness, and disorientation, among others. However, many people can have the Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria in their systems without falling ill, but such carriers can spread the disease to others via coughing and sneezing. As with many health conditions, people who are immunocompromised remain at increased risk of infection. Antibiotics are used to treat pneumonia, but certain strains of the bacteria have evolved resistance to these drugs, and antibiotic resistance represents a serious and growing public health threat.
On the bright side, pneumococcal diseases can be prevented with vaccines. The first pneumococcal vaccine, manufactured by Merck, was licensed in 1977 and protected against 14 strains of the bacteria; a second, which protected against 23 strains, was launched in 1983. An additional vaccine targeted to children was pioneered in 2000. The polysaccharide vaccine is developed from the outer coatings of the bacteria. Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, has been critical in getting the pneumococcal vaccine to low-resource settings, helping introduce the vaccine to routine immunization programs in more than 60 countries. This support has helped immunize more than 143 million children around the world. However, as of 2017, the global average for pneumococcal vaccine coverage was 44%, so there is much work yet to do.
Check out this blog from our Executive Director Martha Rebour on last year’s World Pneumonia Day, in which she discusses scaling up pneumonia prevention efforts worldwide!
Vaccines and SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
Vaccines and Quality Education
Vaccines and Gender Equality
Mother’s Day Spotlight: Emily Cheptoek
A Mother’s Day Message from Zoe Saldana
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Bush Walks & Hikes
Game Drives
Horseback Safaris
Swim & Braai
We are situated in the Hartbeespoort Dam area, which uses the slogan ‘’Close to the City, Out of this World’’ for many reasons. There is no other place in South Africa where you can find such a variety of top quality activities, accommodations and restaurants.
At only 45 minutes from Johannesburg and Pretoria, Hartbeespoort (or Harties) is the true Adventure Capital of the North West with the Harties Cableway, Ziplining, Quadbiking, Boat Cruises (including the unique AirBoat Afrika!), Hot Air Ballooning, Monkey Sanctuary, the world-famous Ann van Dyk Cheetah Centre, Arts & Craft Markets, Snake Park and many more. After a fun (and adrenaline?) filled day, there is a wide range of venues to choose from for a few drinks and something to eat. Whether you like top class fine dining, the always popular Burger & Chips or anything in between, Harties is the place to be!
Hartbeespoort is also the home of Tourism Friendly, a company that is Putting The Smile Back Into Tourism. Be on the lookout for their Smiley Face logo, because at the Tourism Friendly establishments you are guaranteed to experience true hospitality!
Visit www.tourismfriendly.co.za for more information.
Silkaatsnek is a proud member of the Hartbeespoort Tourism Association (Harties Tourism). It is an association of members of the tourism industry working together to ensure quality and service for visitors to Hartbeespoort. It also serves as the tourism industry voice and interacts with government and other tourism associations on behalf of its members’ interests.
Visit www.hartiestourism.co.za for more information.
The Magaliesberg Biosphere
Silkaatsnek Nature Reserve lies on the foothills of the oldest visible mountains in the world; the Magaliesberg. This mountain range is approximately 100 km long between Pretoria in the east and Rustenburg in the west. It has such an incredibly rich biodiversity because it lies at the interface of the Highveld Grassland and the Savannah Bushveld, which are two of South Africa’s largest biomes. The Magaliesberg area draws plant and animal species from both and remnants of even a third biome, the Afrotemperate Forest, add another dimension.
Because of all the different habitats in the Magaliesberg, no less than 443 bird species have been recorded, which is 46% of all birds in southern Africa. One of the most impressive birds is the endangered Cape Vulture () that nests in colonies on the cliffs on the southern side of the mountain range. The sight of wheeling flocks of vultures is one of the grand spectacles of the Magaliesberg.
There are also 18 indigenous fish, 17 frogs, 19 lizards, 30 snakes, 111 mammals and 121 species of indigenous trees and shrubs in the area.
You will be able to find a wide variety of beautiful flowers as well, but two of them are even endemic to the Magaliesberg. The Fairy Elephant’s Feet (Frithia pulchra) is a tiny succulent that grows only in the quartzite pebbles of the upper slopes. Another endemic is Turk’s Cap (Aloe peglerae), a small aloe that has evolved a leaf structure that protects its winter flower from drought, heat and fire. Recent research shows that it is pollinated by birds more than by insects.
Ancestors of humanity have evolved in the area from the earliest beginnings before hominids spread and prospered on other continents. Stone implements and rock engravings tell of ancient peoples who once hunted and gathered in these mountains tens of thousands of years ago.
Maropeng – Cradle of Humankind is less than an hour’s drive from Silkaatsnek Nature Reserve and well worth a visit. Recently the area made it into the international news again because of the findings of National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Professor Lee Berger and his team. They have discovered Home naledi, a previously unknown hominin species, at the Rising Star Cave.
In the early 19th century the prosperity of Batswana society in the Magaliesberg was shattered by invasions. First by the BaPedi and then by the Ndebele under the formidable leadership of Mzilikazi. For a decade he conquered and ruled the people all the way from the Vaal to the Limpopo rivers. Robert Moffat, a famous missionary, visited Mzilikazi’s kingdom and became the leader’s close friend and ally and through his good offices came early explorers and naturalists from Europe.
Mzilikazi was himself evicted from the Magaliesberg region by Dutch trekkers seeking new lands away from the British-ruled Cape. Conflict between Dutch (the Boers) and British eventually escalated into war and fortifications in the Magaliesberg are reminders of violent engagements during the Transvaal War of 1880 – 1881, the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902 and the 1914 Rebellion.
In June 2015 the Magaliesberg has been declared a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO, in which stakeholders voluntarily pursue three goals:
1) the conservation of landscapes, ecosystems and cultures
2) the development of a sustainable economy
3) the exchange of information, research and education
It is not just another bureaucratic layer, but a ‘’tool’’ to motivate people and nature living in harmony together.
Vist www.magaliesbergbiosphere.org.za for more information.
Send us a general mail
© Copyright 2017 – Silkaatsnek Nature Reserve
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Posted in Confirming Two Type Taxonomy by Kay Brown on November 4, 2010
In one of the most misunderstood of Blanchard’s papers, he and his colleagues, Clemmensen and Steiner, explored the likelihood and areas in which MTF transsexuals might selectively ‘color’ their presentation of their sexual and gendered behavior history. Many people on both sides of the debate have assumed that Blanchard was making a judgment upon “non-homosexual” transsexuals, saying that they were more prone to lying than “homosexual” transsexuals. Actually, the data says just the opposite, that neither group is more naturally inclined to such distortion, generally. However, the data does say that the more an individual is inclined to color their responses to questionnaires in such a way as to present as more socially desirable, the more likely that they will answer questions regarding sexual history and gendered behavior is such a way as to increase the likelihood of being accepted for SRS. Is that so shocking? That ‘trannies’ might ‘enhance’ their chances of getting past the gate keepers? (Gasp!)
But there is more detail to the study, that is important to note; While both AGP and androphilic transsexuals were just as likely to color and shade their history, the AGP transsexuals did so along all eight of the study’s scales, while trankids did it only on one of the scales.
But, before we get to that, I think we need to explore how we know this, how Blanchard, et al. determined this. They sought correlations between their sexological scales and the Crowne-Marlow Social Desirability Scale.
The Crowne-Marlow scale is a set of 32 statements that are answered true or false for one’s self. Each statement is scored with either a zero or a plus one, depending if the answer indicates a tendency to color one’s socially desired behaviors. Thus, the scale goes from zero to thirty-two (0-32). The statements are very clever in that each statement, if answered in the non-socially desirable fashion, would still not be indicative of any pathology, and in fact might indicate self-honesty. For example, one of the statements reads, “I have never intensely disliked anyone.” If one answers “true” this is a socially desirable answer, most saintly indeed. However, how many of us can honestly answer that there has never been someone, some time, that pissed us off so badly, that we still hold an intense and personal hatred for them? (I can think of several such individuals instantly.) The statements are also chosen to be “graded” from not likely to be that good, to likely to be that good, in that some statements might be honestly answered in the socially desirable manner by many, if not most people, for example, “I would never think of letting someone else be punished for my wrongdoings.”
Thus, the Crowne-Marlow scale has the unusual property that an honest saint may give the same high score as a dishonest sociopath. So, a high score in no way indicates that one is a liar per se. In fact, the scale is nearly useless as an individual test. It is only in groups, large groups can we use the scale to look for meaningful inferences, in either the mean scores or in the correlations with other scales.
In his chapter comparing various scales of social desirability Paulhus noted that:
Crowne and Marlowe (1964) reported a mean of 15.5 (s.d. = 4.4) in a sample of 300
college students. In a more recent study of 100 students, Paulhus (1984) reported means of 13.3 (s.d. = 4.3) and 15.5 (s.d. = 4.6) in anonymous and public disclosure conditions, respectively. In a sample of 503 students, Tanaka-Matsumi and Kameoka (1986) reported means of l4.0 and 12.3 for normal and depressed respondents, respectively. In a sample of 650 Peace Corps volunteers (90% college graduates), Fisher (1967) found means of 16.1 (s.d. = 6.8) and 16.4 (s.d. = 6.5) for males and females, respectively.
Thus, we see that Peace Corps volunteers, probably the closest sample that we will ever find to saintly people, give scores in the range of 16.1-16.4. But, Paulhus found that college students gave mean scores of 13.3 in an anonymous situation and 15.5 when they knew that someone they knew would be reading their answers. So, folks tend to ‘color’ their answers when they feel that they might be judged in some manner by their answers? Not much surprise there!
Compare these scores to the mean scores of the two types of transsexuals in Blanchard’s study of 17.68 for the “heterosexual” (non-homosexual) and 20.02 for the “homosexual” transsexuals. Given that the scores for female Peace Corps volunteers was only 16.4, do we really believe that these transsexuals were more saintly? Are we surprised that these transsexuals would be assuming that their answers to the other eight scales would be used to judge them, possibly used to deny them essential medical services, that they might wish to color their responses? Also, please note, as did Blanchard, that if anything, the HSTS group was more likely to color their answers than the non-hsts group.
It is in the correlations with the individual scores on the Crowne-Marlow scale and the scores on the other eight scales used in the study that we learn something really interesting about each group (taken verbatim from the paper):
Correlations of Demographic Variables and Questionnaire Measures with
Social Desirability Scale ~
– All Hetero Homo
Variable r p r p r p
Age -.04 NS -.13 NS .23 NS
Education .01 NS -.04 NS .18 NS
Item: Felt like a woman .30 .001 .29 .011 .26 .034
Item: Rather live as female .27 .002 .34 .003 .01 NS
Feminine Gender Identity Scale .35 .001 .37 .001 .16 NS
Modified Androphilia Scale .28 .001 .25 .022 .02 NS
Modified Gynephilia Scale -.30 .001 -.38 .001 .18 NS
Cross-Gender Fetishism Scale -.35 .001 -.48 .001 .08 NS
Item: Aroused by cross-dressing -.29 .001 -.34 .003 .02 NS
Item: Masturbated cross-dressed -.27 .002 -.34 .003 .06 NS
~The abbreviations Hetero and Homo refer to heterosexual and homosexual subjects.
Columns headed r are correlation coefficients; columns headed p are their associated one-tailed probabilities. The abbreviation NS means that the associated correlation coefficient was not statistically significant at the 0.05 level. (The smaller the number, the more “statistically significant; that is to say, that it is more likely to be “real” and not just chance.)
Looking at the two groups and correlations, one notices that on all eight of the sexualogical scales, for the “heterosexual” group the correlations are all statistically significant. Further, the single highest correlation was on the Cross-Gender Fetishism Scale (a measure of autogynephilia) at -0.48. For those familiar with psychological research and statistics, this number screams! (No correlation would be 0.00 and perfect, one to one, correlation would be 1.00; so this number is half way between.) That is a very high correlation telling us that this group, as a group, would like to color this scale. That is, that the more likely that an individual is to have a high score on the Crowne-Marlow scale, the more likely they will have a low score on this autogynephilia scale! Ok, this can be interpreted that individuals who wish others to see them as having socially desirable traits are more likely to minimize or deny experiencing autogynephilia.
Similarly, scores for gynephila and androphilia are colored to minimize their attraction to women, while maximizing their attraction to men, and so on down the line, to seem more “classically” transsexual (more like transkids) perhaps?
In contrast, for the “homosexual” transsexual group, there was only one scale that has a statistically significant correlation, “Felt like a woman”, and only just barely “significant”. This was a scale from one to three that indicates under what state of dress that they felt like a woman, with three being dressed as either a man or a woman, to never, which excluded the subject as not being “transsexual”:
Item: Have you ever felt like a woman?
a. Only if you were wearing at least one piece of female underwear or clothing (1)
b. While wearing at least one piece of female underwear or clothing and only occasionally at other times as well (2)
c. At all times and for at least one year (3)
d. Never felt like a woman (exclude subject)
But… BUT… do the math… there were only fifty-one “homosexual” subjects (N=51) which gave a mean score of 2.96 on this scale. That would come from two subjects giving a score of 2, while the rest, all forty-nine of the others, scored 3. Also note that that one other correlation almost reached the threshold for statistical significance: age, at 0.23. That is to say, that a weak correlation was found with older subjects being more likely to have a higher score on the Crowne-Marlow scale. This suggests to me that age will have a weak correlation with higher scores on the “felt like a woman scale”… thus… we might guess that those two subjects that answered “2” instead of “3” were younger than the average of the “homosexual” group… perhaps they were more tentative in their answers? Overall, this isn’t much of a strong signal. In spite of the higher mean score on the Crowne-Marlow scale, there doesn’t seem to be much evidence for coloring their answers. Perhaps that’s because they didn’t feel that they needed to?
Addendum 1/15/2018:
Study after study has shown that around 80% to 85% of “non-homosexual” transwomen readily acknowledge experiencing sexual arousal to cross-dressing, at least in adolescence. This leaves 15% or so who say that they didn’t. As we’ve seen, social desirability bias is strongly operating. At least some percentage of the population is not being honest. Interestingly, there is a new study exploring the subject of honesty and dishonesty. It was discovered that there are three types of people that I shall paraphrase as “always honest”, “mostly honest”, and the “never honest”.
Guess what the percentages were?
“always honest” = 50%
“mostly honest” = 35%
“never honest” = 15%.
Wow, what an interesting coincidence.
Many transwomen who are critical of the two type taxonomy have specifically called out Blanchard and any who accept and advocate the taxonomy as being ugly transphobes for having called transwomen liars. But are we to suppose that transwomen, as a population, are somehow more saintly and honest than the general population? Phhfft !
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/609924/a-field-guide-to-deception/
I found another paper dealing with dishonesty in research studies that showed that around 10% to 20% of people were willing to lie in a survey just to make a few bucks, even as little as $5. Wow, that’s an interesting coincidence; around an average of 15% of people are willing to lie for so small an incentive. Can we really believe that transwomen, as a population, are somehow more saintly and honest than the general population?
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2722570
Ray Blanchard, Leonard H. Clemmensen, Betty W. Steiner, “Social Desirability Response Set and Systematic Distortion in the Self-Report of Adult Male Gender Patients
http://www.springerlink.com/content/h155l12m870u11n6/
Douglas P. Crowne, David Marlowe, “A New Scale of Social Desirability Independent of Psychopathology”
http://home.iprimus.com.au/burgess1/mc.html
Delroy L. Paulhus, Chapter 2: “Measurement and Control of Response Bias”
J. P. Robinson, P. R. Shaver & L. Wrightsman (Eds), Measures of personality and social psychological attitudes (pp. 17-59)., Academic Press, Inc.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:PAZgP5x1Z0IJ:pubpages.unh.edu/~mas2/Chapter2-Paulhus.pdf+marlow-crowne+social+normalized+score&cd=14&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a
Tagged with: Autogynephilia, Blanchard, transsexual, Transsexual Taxonomy
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Virgin Money’s SME savings franchise on track to deliver £500m of new deposits
Theo Osborn | 13:30 Thursday 26th July 2018 | 0
Virgin Money is on track to deliver £500m of new SME deposits by the end of the year through its SME savings franchise, according to its H1 2018 results.
The challenger bank has announced that its underlying pre-tax profit increased by 10% to £141.6m in the first half of 2018 (H1 2017: £128.6m).
Underlying total income for the bank grew by 5% to £343m, up from £327.2m in H1 2017.
Jayne-Anne Gadhia, CEO at Virgin Money, said: “I am delighted to report that our customer-focused strategy of growth, quality and returns continued to drive strong financial and operational performance during the first half of the year.
“We continue to maintain a strong balance sheet, as shown in our common equity tier 1 ratio of 16.3%.
“This benefited from recent changes to our capital models to ensure they fully reflected the excellent credit quality of our lending portfolios.
Virgin Money introduces portfolio BTL lending
CYBG and Virgin Money agree takeover offer
Metro Bank posts 55% lending surge
“Our partnership with Virgin Atlantic has got off to a flying start and the development of our digital banking platform is progressing well.”
The news follows the announcement in June that CYBG and Virgin Money have agreed the terms of a recommended takeover offer worth around £1.7bn.
The recommended all-share offer by CYBG will bring together the strengths of both challenger banks.
“The recommended offer made by CYBG for Virgin Money in June reflects confidence in our strategy, our track record of delivery and the complementary models of the two businesses and will accelerate the delivery of our strategic objectives,” added Jayne-Anne.
Virgin Money is a signatory of the Women in Finance Charter, and Jayne-Anne believed it was making strides to meet the charter’s requirements.
“I am delighted that we have continued to improve our gender pay gap, which reduced by a further 9% over the last year,” said Jayne-Anne.
“We remain committed to achieving 50:50 gender balance throughout the company by the end of 2020.”
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spinninghugo
Assisting Crime
February 18, 2016 February 19, 2016 / spinninghugo
The Supreme Court has just given judgment in an appeal concerning the principles of so-called accessory liability in the criminal law. The typical case is of the person who acts as look-out during an armed robbery, but who does not himself fire the shots that kill or injure the victims. The court unanimously cut back the criminal culpability of accessory defendants. They were clearly right to do so. The principles that they set down are appropriate in cases of murder, and the result reached although radical on the basis of the law as previously understood, is right in principle. However, I will argue that in laying down the law for subsequent decisions, the court crucially failed to adequately distinguish the questions of whether the actus reus of an offence can be attributed to a person other than the one physically carrying it out, and the mens rea required to convict the accessory.
Actus Reus and Mens Rea
To be guilty of a crime it must be my doing. So for murder, the action is the killing of another. Theft the appropriation of property belonging to another. Battery the unlawful use of force upon another. And so on. The actus reus of the offence does not concern the state of the defendant’s mind. [In some extreme cases, although the defendant’s body may have caused the outcome that constitutes the offence it may not be the defendant’s doing, as where I grab your hand and strike another with it, or where I am drugged and in an unconscious state cause the victim to be shot.]
Most offences also require some mental element, which is roughly synonymous with blameworthiness. So, murder requires an intention to kill or cause serious injury. Theft dishonesty and an intention to permanently deprive. Battery the intention to apply immediate force, or the foresight that such force may be applied by the action being done.
Accessories: the Actus Reus
Qui facit per alium facit per se: he who acts through another does the act himself. Although this is a legal principle, it is also a principle of personal responsibility that we recognise in every day life. Corporations, governments, football teams all act through real world human agents, and their agents’ actions are attributed to them. One difficult question (which we do not need to take further) is the kind of participation that is sufficient to attribute one person’s actions to another. The language of the law is that D2 must “aid, abet, counsel or procure” D1’s actions. [The rules on conspiracy are, today in England, seen as separate. This is in my opinion an historical aberration. Conspiracy is simply another method by which one person’s actions may be attributed to another.]
If therefore D1’s actions are attributed to D2, and D2 has the requisite blameworthiness for the offence, D2 is guilty of the offence. Notice that D2 is guilty of the principal offence. If the action procured is the killing of another, and D2 has the mental blameworthiness sufficient for the offence, D2 is a murderer (see s 8 of the Accessories and Abettors Act 1861). D2 is not guilty of any separate offence of “procuring murder”. Further, D1 may not be guilty of the principal offence as lacking the necessary mens rea. This should not prevent D2’s conviction if it can be proven that he had the requisite blameworthiness. As in morality generally, D2’s guilt or innocence should not turn upon the state of D1’s mind.
Accessories: the Mens Rea
Should a lower level of blameworthiness suffice in order to convict the accessory than is required for the principal? If, for example, the look-out intends the shop to be robbed and foresees that it is possible that the principal may lose his head and kill someone, should that suffice for murder if the principal does in fact kill a bystander?
In principle the answer is clearly no. Any legal system that says that the level of blameworthiness for crime X is Y, but that we will convict you of crime X when your degree of blameworthiness is less than Y when you have assisted another, has got itself into a mess. And a mess is what English law has been in this field, for at least 32 years.
In Chan Wing-Siu the Privy Council had held that where in the course of a joint enterprise to commit an offence (such as robbery) D1 commits another offence (such as murder), D2 is also guilty of that other offence as an accessory if he could foresee that D1 might act as he did. This had been confirmed by the House of Lords in R v Powell and R v English. This made no sense at all. It meant that you could be convicted of murder despite lacking the degree of blameworthiness required for murder. Rightly, and predictably, the Supreme Court overturned this line of authority.
The opportunity was there to align the mens rea required for the accessory with that required for the principal offence. This would mean that the mens rea requirement for the accessory would vary according to the offence charged, just as it does for the principal. The degree of blameworthiness required should be exactly congruent with that required for the offence. Unfortunately this step was not taken, and the Supreme Court has left the law in an unsatisfactory state. Why?
For crimes of intent the court state
If the crime requires a particular intent, D2 must intend to assist or encourage D1 to act with such intent
This is wrong. It is too narrow. For purposes of D2’s conviction, D1’s blameworthiness is neither here nor there. For D2 to be convicted of a crime of intent it should not matter what D1’s intentions were, nor what D2 intends about those intentions. If D1’s actions are attributed to D2 and D2 himself has the requisite intent of the principal offence, D2 should be capable of conviction. For purposes of convicting D2, if he procures the killing of V by D1, intending that V should be killed, why should it matter that he doesn’t intend D1 to act with the intent to kill or cause serious injury?
The court continue
[T]here can be cases where D2 gives intentional assistance or encouragement to D1 to commit an offence and to act with the mental element required of him, but without D2 having a positive intent that the particular offence will be committed. That may be so, for example, where at the time that encouragement is given it remains uncertain what D1 might do; an arms supplier might be such a case.
This is also wrong. It is too broad. If the crime of murder requires an intent to kill or cause serious injury, a defendant who lacks the intent that another should be killed or seriously injured should not be guilty of it. If they can foresee death or serious injury they may be guilty of another lesser offence (here manslaughter). An intent to assist someone who may or may not kill should not be enough. Their blameworthiness is very high, equivalent to the bomber who plants a bomb knowing it may or may not go off, but indifferent as to whether it does. But it is not murder.
Further the court adopts the position that it is always necessary to intend to assist the perpetrator to do the prohibited act. So we are told [99]
Where the offence charged does not require mens rea, the only mens rea required of the secondary party is that he intended to encourage or assist the perpetrator to do the prohibited act, with knowledge of any facts and circumstances necessary for it to be a prohibited act:
This is wrong, and is again too narrow. If, for example, the look-out intends a theft, but foresees that it may be necessary to use physical force, he should be convicted as an accomplice to robbery. It should not be necessary to intend to assist the use of force (which is part of the actus reus for robbery) as an intention to use force is not a constitutive element of the offence. Similarly, if you procure an offence of strict liability, if the actions of the principal are attributed to you, the intention with which you acted should be irrelevant (the ratio of NCB v Gamble does not contradict this).
If the proposed principle represented the law in relation to offences of strict liability then, a fortiori, the same should apply in relation to offences requiring recklessness or gross negligence. Is it really the case that to find someone liable as an accessory to manslaughter that it be proven that they intended to encourage or assist the killing? Are defendants such as these not clearly guilty of at least manslaughter, given their degree of blameworthiness? Clearly the Supreme Court do not think that is the law, and concluded that the submission that the defendant Jogee was not at least guilty of manslaughter was ‘hopeless.’ However, what they consider to be the appropriate mens rea test in cases of manslaughter is, to me, hopelessly obscure (see [107]).
The Supreme Court are correct that there would be a ‘striking’ anomaly if there were a lower mental threshold for guilt in the case of the accessory than in the case of the principal for conviction of the same offence [85].
The correct solution to this ‘striking’ anomaly ought to have been to align the mental threshold for guilt in the case of the accessory with that of the principal. Such a move would have been a bold one, but no less bold than the step taken of overturning over thirty years of authority. The court failed adequately to distinguish between rules for the attribution of action, and the necessary mental element constitutive of the offence.
The problem of accessories in cases of murder has now been solved in a generally satisfactory way: because it is a crime of intent and the mental elements for principal and accessory have been nearly aligned. The problem has not been solved for other offences, and we will in my view be back before the Supreme Court in quick order in relation to other offences to require the court to review what it has done.
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10 thoughts on “Assisting Crime”
You misunderstand the judgment, and, it appears, basic principles of the criminal law. You need to understand [107] by reading it in conjunction with [96].
And how do you square the rule on manslaughter with the rule on strict liability?
Why do you think intent to encourage or assist the prohibited act is necessary for crimes of strict liability, but that is not required for crimes requiring gross negligence (ie manslaughter)?
If it is unjust that the mental threshold for guilt in the case of an accessory should be lower than in the case of an accessory, why do the rules set out in [107] differ from those for the mens rea for manslaughter?
Do, please, explain where and how I am misunderstanding either the judgment or basic principles of criminal law.
Conrad Mc Carthy
Very interesting article and an audacious conclusion on your part, I think.
A hate-filled, but silent, accessory essentially ‘upgrades’ the culpability of the D1? I hope I am not misrepresenting your conclusion but it seems to me that this is all a very murky business for any jury to have to tackle. I can hardly see how a test of reasonable doubt could be applied in a case like this, particularly if the two defendants were separated during the commission of the offence.
I must confess I harbour deep misgivings about the whole business of ”joint enterprise’, which I believe has been used by police and prosecuting authorities to paper over the cracks of failed investigations. The case of Derek Bentley is very much to the front of my mind. I understand that his case is unaffected by any change in the courts’ interpretation of the law -nhis being a pre-1984 case – but I think it illustrates the dynamics of an essentially vindictive prosecution and the dangers of the whole ‘joint enterprise’ enterprise.
A starting point about your misunderstanding is that you seem to rationalise the punishment of the accessory (who is liable to be punished in the same way as the principal) in terms of agency. Latin maxims are all very well, but the accessory is not punished on the basis that the principal’s acts are his own. His participation in the crime is a distinct source of liability, for all sorts of good policy reasons.
The mens rea for unlawful act manslaughter is simply that of the unlawful act. The judgment’s views on the manslaughter conviction are underpinned by those principles, and as applied in [107] it is very clear that the submission that there was no murder or manslaughter was hopeless.
Ok, so now we can see the source of where I think you are mistaken. I do not agree with that at all.
First, I think section 8 of the Accessories and Abettors Act means what it says.
“Whosoever shall aid, abet, counsel or procure the commission
of any indictable offence … shall be liable to be tried, indicted
and punished as a principal offender.”
The person who aids, abets etc is convicted as principal. They are not convicted of an ancillary offence for (unarticulated) policy reasons.
Second, if we were to accept your proposition, the moral force behind the result in Jogee disappears. if we are not convicting the defendants for *murder* but for some kind of different ancillary offence justified for policy reasons, there is no necessary reason why the mens rea requirement should be as strict as it is for the principal offence. That was precisely the error that had been made by the earlier cases. You are repeating it.
As for unlawful act manslaughter, that is fine. If we can satisfy the mens rea requirement against the accessory for that form of offence, they should be convicted.
The problem with the UKSC is that they don’t follow through on the logic of why it made sense to overturn Chan Wing-Siu. The blameworthy mental state of the accessory should be the same, for all offences, as is required for the principal. Because they are being convicted as principal. this has implications for, say, accessories to robberies or batteries that will have to be resolved subsequently.
The person who ‘aids, abets etc’ is convicted as *an accessory* and punished as a principal offender. They are guilty of the same offence (ie where the principal committed murder, the accessory is not convicted of, for example, an offence under the Salmon Act 1986). To use any language of agency is completely wrong.
I think the overturning of Chan Wing-Siu was inadequately reasoned and I do not mean to support the full reasoning in Jogee. I do not, however, quibble with the basic rationale underpinning ordinary accessorial liability (which I understand you do). Being free from any attachment to an artificial notion of agency, I am attracted by the morality of convicting the accessory where they intend to assist or encourage the crime. After all, in accessorial liability, which is not the law of conspiracy or inchoate offences, the harm is the commission of the offence; the culpability lies in the intention to encourage or assist a crime which actually happened with that encouragement or assistance.
I am interested by what implications will need to be worked through in robberies and batteries..
I am afraid you are confusing the facts that must be proven, and the offence of which they are convicted. There is no such offence as “accessory to [water pollution]” (or whatever). There are offences, such as murder, and different ways of being liable for those offences.
Just asserting “to use any language of agency is completely wrong” is not an argument. It is an assertion.
I don’t at all quibble with accessorial liability. I was explaining how it works, and why it justifies the result in Jogee.
Your freestanding policy rationales neither explain the result, nor explain why accessories who do not have an intention to assist that offence can be guilty of it.
Or, perhaps put more shortly, I think R v Millward is clearly correct, and that appeals to ‘policy’ to explain how an accessory is liable for the principal offence when there is no other offender are wrong.
Take the example of the robbery. You say:
‘If, for example, the look-out intends a theft, but foresees that it may be necessary to use physical force, he should be convicted as an accomplice to robbery. It should not be necessary to intend to assist the use of force (which is part of the actus reus for robbery) as an intention to use force is not a constitutive element of the offence.’
The law does allow the look-out to be convicted as accomplice to robbery. It just depends on whether the foresight that it may be necessary to use physical force is sufficient evidence for a jury to infer that the look-out conditionally intended to assist the commission of robbery (including as it does the use of force).
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Atmosphere (including climate change)
Coasts (2011)
2.1.1 Air quality
For further information, see Chapter 3: Atmosphere.
Australia’s coasts are where most of the nation’s people live, where the major cities and urban areas exist and, therefore, where the effects of human activities on local air quality are most felt.
Air quality in Australia’s major urban centres is generally good. This is due to the progressive tightening of national vehicle emission and fuel standards over the past 20 years and actions by state and territory environment protection agencies to substantially control industrial, commercial and domestic sources of air pollution. Maintenance of past gains in air quality, especially with respect to peak levels of particles and ozone, will be influenced by technological advances (such as improvements in propulsion systems for motor vehicles and clean forms of production), changes in climate and planning issues (such as transport and urban sprawl). Coastal councils around Australia are concerned about how they can manage these issues when demands on their land-rates base are rising but per capita rates are falling.
National health-based standards are rarely exceeded for prolonged periods, and very high levels of pollution are usually associated with short-lived extreme events such as bushfires and dust storms that generate very high levels of particle pollution.
2.1.2 Climate change and variability
Climate change is emerging as a major driver of change for Australian coasts and marine areas in the next few decades and beyond (see also Section 4 of this chapter and Chapter 6: Marine environment). Although the extent to which long-term climate change has driven pressures on coasts over the past decade is still being debated, the variability of climate (whatever its cause) has led to many incidents of inundation, erosion of coastline and damage to human lives and property. Of particular significance are sea temperature increases in the south-west, east and south-east regions, which are among the largest in the world (see Section 2.4.2). This is likely to affect commercial and recreational fishing and aquaculture, and could potentially have wider impacts on a range of coastal activities that are part of the social and economic fabric of coastal communities.
Sea level rise is emerging as a major future impact of climate change (see Section 4), but the processes affecting it have been active for some time (Figure 11.1). Over the past 25 years, the rate of sea level rise has been an order of magnitude greater than the average for several previous decades—an average rise of 3.1 millimetres per year occurred between 1993 and 2003, compared with 1.8 millimetres per year between 1961 and 2003, and 1.2 millimetres per year during the 20th century as a whole.2
Figure 11.1
Figure 11.1 Local sea level rise (millimetres per year) from the early 1990s to June 2010
Future direct and indirect impacts of climatic events and climate variability on Australia’s coasts are discussed in Section 4.
Many of the management responses to pressures on Australian coasts, especially in the past six years, have been in response to concerns about future impacts of climate in combination with other drivers and pressures (see Section 3).
2.1.3 Responses
Roles for governments in adapting to climate change include:
supporting scientific studies that are unlikely to be undertaken by the private sector (particularly relevant at the national government level) and providing information to the private sector and the community to encourage and assist adaptation (relevant to all tiers of government, but especially state and local governments)
adopting policies that facilitate adaptation and a regulatory framework that supports, rather than distorts, effective market signals (a critical role for the national government, but one that state governments can significantly reinforce)
using policy mechanisms such as land-use planning, building codes and product standards to deal with situations where short-term market responses may act to restrict longer term adaptive action (mainly relevant to state governments, but local government also plays an important role in on-ground implementation)
fully factoring climate change into planning, resourcing and managing the provision of public goods and services, such as public health and safety; emergency services; flood and coastal protection; water supply, drainage and sewerage services; protection of public lands, parks and reserves; fisheries; and other natural resources (relevant to all tiers of government, but especially state and local governments).
The role of governments is particularly challenging for coastal communities and environments because of the complex interactions and divided responsibilities between the different levels of government and the currently limited mechanisms for coordinated and strategic action (see Section 3).
Cork S (2011). Coasts: Atmosphere (including climate change). In: Australia state of the environment 2011, Australian Government Department of the Environment and Energy, Canberra, https://soe.environment.gov.au/science/soe/2011-report/11-coasts/2-major-issues/2-1-atmosphere, DOI 10.4226/94/58b659bdc758b
Pressures - Coasts
Population growth and urban development: Population growth
Population growth and urban development: Coastal development and land use
Population growth and urban development: Tourism and recreation
Energy and resource extraction and processing
Coastal land
Land–water interface
Coastal waters
Coastal marine waters
Coastal heritage
Dr Steven Cork
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Subtitles » "The Librarians" And the Trial of the One S04E11
"The Librarians" S04E11 And the Trial of the One subtitles
season 4 - episode 11 all seasons of The Librarians
Cast: Rebecca Romijn, Christian Kane, Lindy Booth, John Harlan Kim, John Larroquette
Indonesian (2) Persian (2) English (1) Italian (1) French (1)
"The Librarians" And the Trial of the One 22 Anonymous
"The Librarians" And the Trial of the One 3 Anonymous
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MacGyver S06E10
Nae ireumeun Kim Sam-soon 6/1/05
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The Creep Keeper
Blood-curdling reviews that go bump in the night.
Creepy News and Events
Sometimes, the original is better…
PET SEMATARY, from Paramount Pictures.
Stephen King’s 2019 remake of his cult classic Pet Sematary might just test the theory that the originals are always better…
First, I just wanna emphasize, it is in no way shape or form fair to say that I’m a Stephen King fan. Although, his plots are absolutely fantastic. What really gets to me is probably the fact that he puts too much fluff in his narrative. If it wasn’t going to take me 3 hours to get through one chapter of Duma Key, I would have finished it already. It came out 11 years ago. I put it down after 3 weeks. But, I’ll give him credit for his film adaptations. Visually, they are spectacular, they’re undeniably disturbing, and in some cases, just dumb sad.
Being the horror fan that I am though, naturally I was pretty psyched about the Pet Sematary remake. King had already revamped IT in 2017, which gave us more of a storyline with “The Losers Club”. I liked it. It was good. It wasn’t as good as the original, but how many remakes are?
IT, Alamo Dafthouse Cinema
The original Pet Sematary came out in 1989. It was pretty somber. I mean, you had Gage, a bright-eyed little kid who had to be no older than 2 years-old, get hit by a damn truck on the highway, at full speed. We sort of saw that coming. They drove past like bats out of hell.
King has 3 children of his own, two sons and a daughter. He’s never lost them, but he sure captured what it was like to lose them. I don’t have any kinds of my own, but I could feel the pain of losing a kid like Gage. He was a baby more appropriately. His little “uh-oh,” and “I love you daddy,” moments were so precious. For a character that said so few words, he punched you in the heart pretty hard.
So the remake still has Gage and all, but now you have Ellie and she’s more of a driving force in the film. It’s not to say that Ellie wasn’t a person in the original Pet Sematary, but it was pretty obvious that King wanted us to focus on Gage. She is a predictable, mature for her age, a unique child. But, the directors didn’t go about this in a unique way. Of course she is outgoing and bonds with Jud. Maybe I’m speaking from a deep seeded experience, but I see highly intellectual kid characters always befriending adults. She’s smart, everyone loves her, and she’s so peculiar to her parents. Her loss would have to be a tragedy right (spoiler alert)? It’s built up to make it sad, a loss to the world. Sorry Ellie, but you’re a pretty common archetype. Her innocence was stripped long before death took it.
1989 Ellie
Stephen King has always been good for going where he shouldn’t go. He killed Gage, Georgie, that kid from Stand by Me, and let’s not forget Salem’s Lot with poor old Danny Glick and his kid brother Ralphie. You just can’t mess with Kurt Bartlow. Anyway, King doesn’t care if you’re a cute little pumpkin patch kid. This movie sure cared though, and quite honestly, don’t bother showing us Ellie’s corpse if you’re gonna imprecisely portray what someone looks like after getting hit by a truck at full speed. They didn’t show Gage. We saw him after he came back as a little demon monster. But at that point, the mortician fixed him up for sure. No, I didn’t want to see that. But don’t paint an unreal picture and glamorize death. You know damn well she probably wouldn’t even have a recognizable face. Her death came off as super theatrical, not really giving us enough time to say “wow that’s just horrible. My goodness that poor girl…guess it’ll be a closed casket funeral.”
It’s harder when you have a more grown up character. Gage didn’t have to work hard to win the hearts of viewers. Ellie was already approaching adolescents. The original Ellie was way younger in more than one way. Her mentality screamed childhood, even while dealing with night terrors from the death of her brother. I suppose the idea of killing a young child doesn’t fit the bill in 2019 like it did in 1989. Ellie was at best, a young adult in a child’s body.
Jud Crandall served his original purpose. He showed Louis Creed (played by Jason Clarke) the Indian burial ground that’s far beyond the Pet Sematary. Fred Gwynne played the original Jud who offered a father voice to the film, even to Dr. Creed. Though his insights into burying things in the sour ground was a bad judgement call, he cared for this family,and he did so selflessly.
But something irked me intensely this time. Jud just didn’t seem very… mysterious, and for the love of God, he was missing his prolific North Eastern accent. We knew very little of the original Jud. He only told us that he buried a long lost pup in the burial grounds, only for it to come back and attack his mother. Other than that, he was an old timer that lived in the house he was born. But he wasn’t dry. He was awesome. You knew this man to be wise, tough, but he seemed almost too caring to me. Usually, anyone who comes off wise and, fatherly, yet somewhat distant deserves a papa in front of their name. Not this Jud.
John Lithgow as Jud, Slash Film
Crandall is played by John Lithgow (you might remember him from the 90’s sitcom 3rd Rock From the Sun) in the remake. And no offense to Lithgow, but there was no cool accent. “Sometimes, dead is BETTUH.” But it’ll suffice. To what little we know, Jud had a wife who died of an unnamed illness. She eventually comes back as an apparition that’s really Gage, and kills him. She blames Jud for her death which is left unexplained. The approach at extending Jud’s story was very shallow, and they should have just stuck to the basics. Don’t write a story if it’s going to be half-assed. Keep it mysterious or make it known.
Even with that unintentionally minute detail to the character, we still knew more than we needed to ,and because of that, Jud became vulnerable far too soon in the film, even falling victim to a sedative slipped to him by Dr. Creed. With death as an underlying (though very strongly represented) theme in the film, Jud’s death is supposed to show that even he, a strong wise old man, is not safe from death.
The original Crandstall knew who was in his house, not possessing a visible amount of fear on his face. He walked through his wooden house calling out Gage’s name, while branding a weapon. New Jud showed less resilience, giving into his ghost wife’s (or Gage’s rather) gimmicks.
Gage from 1989 Pet Sematary, Medium
I figured the directors, producers, and whoever were trying to win everyone over with a spin on an original. But the attempts to stab at it’s viewers emotions fell flat. It’s always sad when a young child dies in a movie, but why should we care? Her character too felt incredibly underdeveloped.
That was the major plot change, to kill Ellie instead of Gage, and it was incredibly ineffective. The rest of the movie attempted to stay true to the original film with more twists and turns. Even the song at the end was a cover of the Ramones Pet Sematary played at the end of the 1989 film.
Gage was actually the last to survive and whether his dead wendigo family ever put him in their ranks will forever be left untold, unless they make a sequel. Instead of a broken and defeated Dr. Creed at the end, it was a happy dead family, including Church who was euthanized in the first film, slowly approaching poor Gage who was locked in the family sedan.
I’m expecting more Stephen King remakes, but hopefully, they’ll take better care if they’re going to remake the best of his collection. It’s a shame that this one fell flat. They took an already disturbing, morbid, sad story, and turned it into a skeleton. I needed more from the characters, the ambiance, everything. 5/10. Prove me wrong. Most of the time, the original is better.
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Can Dealing With Grief in Games Help Prepare Us For Real Life Loss?
All the way back to the Oregon Trail in 1971, video games have been used as an educational tool. From Typing of The Dead to Mario is Missing, game developers have attempted to broach a wide manner of subjects to educate. Can games help us deal with our own real-world emotions though? More specifically grief.
Child psychologist and Bounce Works co-founder Louis Weinstock certainly believes so. In fact, he used it as the basis for the indie studio’s upcoming game Apart of Me. Weinstock hopes Apart of Me will provide an engaging tool for future psychologists when helping a child cope with grief.
“Death is a very real, sad, tragic, difficult, and somehow normal part of living. For some, the game might not resonate with their experience, but seeing another version of grief can help them.” – Zak Garriss, writer of Life Is Strange.
So can dealing with grief in video games really help us cope with loss in real life?
Cinematic Depictions of Grief
In the modern world of gaming, a good story and cinematics are almost as important as the gameplay itself. With that in mind, there’s one series that springs to mind when dealing with grief, Life Is Strange.
Grief is an overriding theme throughout the interactive episodic adventure series. In the first instalment, the protagonist Max develops time-bending powers in an attempt to save her friend Chloe’s life. The prequel Life Is Strange: Before The Storm focuses more on Chloe who is dealing with the premature loss of her father.
The sequel Life Is Strange 2 is currently in the middle of its episodic release with just one episode out so far. Moving away from the protagonists of the first two, the story centres on two brothers who are also coping with the loss of their father. Without spoilers, it’s a distinctly different story but it comes back to the same themes.
Players can choose whether or not to engage with options to help the lead character cope with their grief. There are close bonds with friends written into the game that can either be embraced or ignored. The choice-based gameplay with the game allows the player to deal with the protagonist’s grief in their own way.
“I hope players can see how important it is for Chloe to meet Rachel – and in that, maybe remember a person in their own lives.” – Zak Garriss, writer of Life Is Strange.
Lead writer Zak Garriss believes this can help develop coping mechanisms for their own grief. He emphasised the importance of friendship and relying on others in times of hardship. Although the game centres around grief, Garriss hopes the overall message is one more of hope than despair.
The Empathetic Approach
Apart Of Me isn’t the first indie game to attempt to teach other about the grief. In 2016 Ryan and Amy Green released That Dragon, Cancer, a game about the loss of their own five-year-old.
The couple found a cathartic experience in retelling their tragic tale through the medium of gaming. They hoped to reach others and help anyone coping with similar circumstances as a legacy for their late child.
That Dragon, Cancer present players with various choices based on Joel’s real life. The end result is always the same though, ending with Joel sadly passing away at the age of 5. By inverting the conventions of a branching narrative, the Greens presented a metaphor for the inevitability of death.
“We’d all prefer to win, but when you discover that you can’t win, what do you value instead? When our hearts break, they heal a little differently.” – Amy Green co-creator That Dragon, Cancer.
That Dragon, Cancer was highly-acclaimed in the indie community receiving multiple awards for its tragic but realistic depictions of grief.
Zak Garriss confirmed he’s received messages from players who claim they connected with Chloe’s story in a personal way. In itself, it’s proof that these stories can certainly help people who’ve been through similar circumstances. Maybe there is something in Weinstock’s theory after all.
Apart Of Me is currently in development and will feature players collecting memories and sharing in others experiences. All stories featured in the game will be real-life case files that Garriss has personally dealt with in his career. If Apart Of Me can prove successful it could open up and whole new, positive way we view gaming.
“A game is a very good way of spending time with yourself. You can lose yourself in a game, but you can also find yourself. It gives you a space to think things over.” – Ben Page, Bounce Works technical director.
Games are already making strides in helping people cope with stress and anxiety, perhaps we will continue to see more medical applications in the future.
I was born in the wagon of a travelling show in the heart of the Midlands. At the age of 18, I moved to the big city to be somebody. Today I exist as a freelance writer and I'm pretty sure my parents think I'm unemployed.
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Lil Uzi Vert Starts Foundation to Support XXXTentacion’s Family; Celebs Volunteer Support
Montana Couser
Filed to: XXXTentacionFiled to: XXXTentacion
XXXTentacion Foundation
Lil Uzi Vert at the 2018 BET Awards at Microsoft Theater on June 24, 2018, in Los Angeles
Photo: Johnny Nunez (Getty Images)
Since the death of XXXTentacion, supporters of the rapper have been looking for ways to honor and remember him.
Lil Uzi Vert announced on Twitter that he plans to launch a foundation to support XXXTentacion’s family during this difficult time. He called on the help of celebrities to make this possible, and he’s already receiving support.
Nicki Minaj, K Camp, Lil Yachty, Ski Mask the Slump God and A Boogie Wit da Hoodie are a few stars who have volunteered to support the foundation on Twitter.
Since the shooting that killed XXXTentacion on June 18, one suspect has been arrested and charged with first-degree murder. Police have reportedly also issued two more warrants for other suspects, but no arrests have been made.
Montana Couser is a recent Howard University grad and Philly native.
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THE HONEYBALL BUZZ
London MEP European Parliament
Author: maryhoneyballmep
Government must ban the selling of sex through online adverts
I have worked for many years campaigning to ban in the UK websites and newspapers which sell advert space to those offering sexual services.
The online growth of such advertising over the last five years is staggering. What concerns me is that legislation covering websites which advertise the selling of sexual services is woefully inadequate in the UK. It’s appalling that sex work is procured in such a seemingly accessible way, especially online online.
There is greater protection in the United States where legislation is much tougher and unambiguous. Web companies are civilly and criminally held responsible if they knowingly facilitate sex trafficking, for example. France is also cracking down on this form of online exploitation.
The sexual abuse that currently takes place in brothels across the UK is astonishing. Last month a criminal gang of six men and a woman were found guilty of exploiting women from Romania who were sent to work in Brothels across the UK. The gang had openly used the online service Viva Street.
The Government must act NOW before more of these online web sites pop up and compete for business which will only make matters worse for those women who services are advertised.
July 12, 2018 maryhoneyballmep Tagged sexual abuse, sexual violence
Theresa May’s new brexit Ministers have hard line Brexit records
Theresa May’s week began in the worst possible way following resignations from her Brexit ministers and Boris Johnson.
The cabinet was hastily shuffled, but the replacements have raised eyebrows among commentators today. They remind us that the new Brexit Secretary, Dominic Raab, has previously called for Britain to use negotiations with the EU to scrap workers’ rights.
It has also emerged that he was responsible for drafting a white paper which called for opt-outs from EU employment regulations, including those that guarantee employees time off and limit the number of hours staff can be made to work.
The Independent also report that he is opposed to giving agency workers the same rights enjoyed by full time workers.
And the replacement junior minister, Chris Heaton- Harris, is the politician who just a few months ago, appallingly wrote to universities across the country demanding to know the names of all lecturers teaching European studies.
He was accused of “McCarthyite” behaviour, following the letter sent to all universities asking them to declare “what they are teaching their students about Brexit and to provide a list of teachers’ names.”
He went on to ask for each universities syllabus and any online lectures on Brexit. This was disgraceful behaviour, but less than a year on from the incident Theresa May has made him her junior minister.
It is a measure of a Prime Minister who offers promotion to someone who displays such shockingly bad political acumen.
Heaton- Harris is a former MEP despite being a Brexiter will have some knowledge of Brussels. Meanwhile Raab who has worked as a lawyer in the Foreign Office has had less direct association with the EU. He is a staunch Brexiter too. Worryingly he is known to be relaxed in the scenario of a ‘no deal’ Brexit.
Raab was criticised by Theresa May in 2011 following an article in which he described some feminists as “obnoxious bigots”, claimed “men were getting a raw deal” and attacked the “equality bandwagon”. Rebuking him at the time Theresa May who was the then Home Secretary and equalities minister accused him of fuelling “gender warfare”.
July 10, 2018 maryhoneyballmep Tagged Boris Johnson, Brexit, Chris Heaton-Harris, Dominic Raab, Theresa May
David Davis’ resignation is a total catastrophe for Theresa May
David Davis’ resignation is an absolute disaster for Theresa May’s Brexit plans. The Brexit secretary accusing the PM of subverting the peoples will certainly makes May’s position going forward untenable. Her plans have been two years in the making but have been scuppered in just 48 hours.
I cannot imagine ever being in a position where I would ever agree with the arch Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg but his statement on the Brexit Shambles this morning resonates nonetheless. He said that “Davis’ resignation raises serious questions about the PM’s ideas. Id the Brexit Secretary cannot support them then they cannot be good proposals.”
With such ardent Brexiteers within the party how can Theresa May maintain her authority going forward? Clearly there is no way to keep the Tory Party together on the issue and previous leaders have suffered consequently. How the Government can move on from this is anybody’s guess. Her premiership, and obviously Brexit is in jeopardy.
Two years ago, David Davis was buoyant and full of confidence about being able to deliver a Brexit policy that would be a win win for the UK. “There is no reason whatsoever to expect that most countries in the world would not actively want a free trade agreement with eh UK”. Two years later he has come the realisation that such an agreement is essentially impossible.
The Government’s Brexit plans are in absolute chaos, voters have been misled on all areas of Brexit and specifically on the ease with which it can be achieved (see Davis’ tweet’s above). It was unfair to present it as an easy plan to negotiate.
As the new Brexit minister is announced, Dominic Raab, it is worth noting that he has been described before as a hard Brexiter.
So now, the only fair and sensible solution is to have a people’s vote. Today with May’s Brexit plan in tatters there is no other feasible way forward.
July 9, 2018 maryhoneyballmep Tagged Brexit, David Davis, Dominic Raab, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Theresa May
UK’s biggest union open to possibility of second Brexit referendum
Trade Union, Unite has voted overwhelmingly to “keep the door open” on a public vote. Although the words were chosen carefully, and it did not specifically back a second referendum it nevertheless endorsed the possibility of a further vote.
At the union’s policy conference in Brighton it was also agreed that most of its members believe it is highly unlikely the final Brexit deal would satisfy the Union’s criteria.
Unite is one of the Labour Party’s closest allies and the party’s biggest funder and the adoption of the executive motion may go some way to persuading the Labour leadership that a further referendum is in fact in the interests of voters who have been misled over Brexit.
Furthermore, it is now official that the three biggest unions, Unite, the GMB and Unison are clearly opposed to a hard Brexit. With this in mind The People’s Vote, the organisation calling for a second referendum, must mobilise members of these unions and garner their support.
Time is short and the consequences of such a shambolic and catastrophic ‘deal’ will have a devastating effect on the very people the unions seek to support.
July 4, 2018 maryhoneyballmep Tagged Brexit, The People's Vote, Unite
Trafficking victims traumatised following Home Office delays on their status
A Guardian investigation has found that victims of modern slavery are being further traumatised caused by Home Office delays to confirm their status.
While the Government has stated that decisions on the legal status of such victims should be made within a 45-day recovery period under its programme, the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) the time guideline is not being met, the newspaper claims. However, The Guardian has learnt of people waiting more than six months for the visa and immigration authorities to process their cases. In one incident six West African men who were rescued by British trawlers in 2017 were still waiting to find out their fate in 2018. Interestingly, shortly following the Guardian had begun to make inquiries on the reason for the delay all six men were granted leave to remain.
This sort of delay is unacceptable and a period of limbo of this length while living, often in emergency accommodation, will inevitably increase anxiety for those who are in an already traumatic situation. We know delays in processes are common, a fact highlighted last year by report from the National Audit Office which was highly critical of the time it was taking to process victims.
Theresa May has stated that eradicating modern slavery and trafficking was a priority as both home secretary and prime minister. However, despite introducing legislation, the Modern Slavery Act 2015, the modern slavery strategy which supports it cannot be fulfilling one of its key obligations as highlighted in its 2104 report.
The report clearly states one of its key components as “Protect: strengthening safeguards against modern slavery by protecting vulnerable people from exploitation and increasing awareness and resilience against this crime.” Protecting victims is a priority and yet delays in processing their status is doing the complete opposite to its promise of protecting victims.
Slavery and trafficking victims need protection and support and not lengthy, complicated and drawn out processes which leave them in limbo for an unsatisfactory length of time. It is not acceptable and Theresa May who has extensive experience of the Home Office should address the issue immediately.
July 3, 2018 maryhoneyballmep Tagged Home Office, National Audit Office, The Guardian, Trafficking
Brexit deadlock causing uncertainty in financial services industry
Yet again the business industry is reporting an uncertain future post Brexit.
A report published by the CBI and PwC has found that growth in the UK financial services has stagnated and, they say, this is directly related to the uncertainty over Brexit.
Furthermore, growth in other areas such as investment management and general insurance grew at what the report termed a “tepid” rate.
The other attributable factor is the slow rise in wages, which it is stated is holding back the economy.
However, the head of financial services for PwC stated that Brexit is driving uncertainty within the financial services industry.
The survey also revealed the level of concern within the sector surrounding Brexit and the specific concern within the banking sector. There is a level of apprehension in the banks’ ability to implement plans in time for Brexit; in fact a third of banks said they were “not so confident” of implementing Brexit plans by March.
Further concerns revealed that many companies are worried about the status of cross border contracts.
While the Bank of England (BoE) has put in place billions of pounds in cross border derivatives contracts to avoid market disruption, the BoE is still awaiting confirmation from the EU that it will reciprocate this plan.
Calls from within the financial services industry are clear – the Government must develop a specific strategy for the financial services industry in the scenario whereby Brexit does go ahead. The industry expects the Government to find an agreement with the EU which will continue to attract investment, jobs and develops the sector generally following Brexit.
However, Brexit is far from straight forward and the Government has still not significantly progressed talks on other matters which have been before it for many months. With just a matter of weeks until an agreement is expected it doesn’t seem hopeful that the Government will have the capacity to even get close to carrying out such talks.
July 2, 2018 maryhoneyballmep Tagged Bank of England, Brexit, CBI, PwC
Time is running out and Theresa May must listen to business leaders concerns over Brexit
Theresa May says she will listen to business leaders following a fall out from parts of the business community and her foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, after several companies warned of their fears following Brexit.
Johnson reportedly swore and was dismissive following reports from Airbus and BMW after they raised concern over the effect Brexit will have on their businesses. The two companies are among several multinationals who have warned that the disruption to customs after Brexit may well have an impact on their ability to invest and manufacture in the UK.
A day ago, the motor industry lobby group also warned that investment in the UK car industry has fallen dramatically – with their estimates suggesting it has been cut by half which is a direct result of the UK’S uncertain future relationship with the EU.
Furthermore, Japanese car manufacturers which account for around half of all cars made in the UK have been explicit in their concerns about how Brexit will affect future business relations with the UK. Koji Tsuruoka, Japan’s Ambassador to the UK, said Honda, Toyota and Nissan, who account for around half of the cars made in Britain each year, need access to the EU.
“Already 80-90 per cent of their production is going to EU market, if there are tariffs, if there are procedures, that certainly will be in jeopardy,” he said. While none of the companies are actively looking to leave Britain, they may have no choice if their ability to access the EU market is impeded.
There have been further warnings from the City. The Bank of America announced it has moved its senior London trading trio to Paris. Merrill Lynch will move three of its most senior sales and trading executives in the City to the French capital, Paris.
This comes as other investment banks begin the process of enacting their Brexit plans, not least because uncertainty remains following the insignificant progress towards any Brexit deal. Merrill Lynch is also set to move hundreds of posts to Ireland and other posts across Europe.
Another international company- Heathrow operator Ferrovial- will move its international HQ to Amsterdam.
I could continue – it’s almost an endless list of relocations for both UK and international businesses which are currently based in the UK but feel forced to move to other parts of the EU so that their business activity is not interrupted.
If Theresa May is ready to listen to the fears business leaders are bringing to her door then I should hope she will give the same level of attention to the (more than) a hundred thousand citizens who marched through the streets of London at the weekend to demand she gives UK voters a final say on Brexit.
Just looking at the concerns of business leaders alone shows what a grave situation we are in. Voters have a right to a final say on any deal she may finally reach with the EU.
June 27, 2018 maryhoneyballmep Tagged Boris Johnson, Brexit, Business leaders, Theresa May
The People’s Vote March through the Streets of London
On Saturday we took to the streets, over 100,000 of us marching in central London to demand a final vote on any UK Brexit deal. It was also the second anniversary of the Brexit referendum.
Speakers called on Theresa May to do the right thing – “demand a people’s vote”.
Young and old travelled the length and breadth of the country to protest- Wiltshire, Liverpool, Kent, Nottingham, Suffolk are just a few of the places I heard people say they had travelled from that morning.
It was fantastic to see such a mix and varied group of people united in a common cause.
The march is so important – I hope it will help to shape how the next stage develops.
There is no agreement on what Brexit could look like so it’s only right that we have a second vote to canvass opinion.
Further marches are planned for the autumn. I hope you will join us. More information on the People’s Vote and how you can join in the campaign is available here.
June 25, 2018 maryhoneyballmep Tagged Brexit, Stop Brexit, The People's Vote
Leaving the European Arrest Warrant is a huge mistake and will have significant operation consequences for law enforcement
The UK will be kicked out of the European Arrest Warrant if the government’s Brexit strategy goes ahead, the EU chief negotiator has warned.
Incredibly the Government wants to remain part of the system but has not yet grasped that to remain part of it, it cannot leave the European Court of Justice or the free movement scheme.
It’s astonishing that while on the one hand the Government recognises the importance of staying within it meanwhile it is doing everything it possibly can to sabotage our ability to remain part of it.
The European Arrest Warrant (EAW) is a hugely important mechanism whereby EU member states can request the detention of criminals and is able to do so without having to apply for extradition which s a lengthy and bureaucratic process.
Instead of the UK being part of the EAW Barnier has suggested that the UK and the EU may be able to establish a streamlined extradition process. But this is reliant on several factors including agreement from all 27 EU member states, and it won’t be nearly as effective as remaining part of the EAW which is an efficient and effective system.
This is an incredibly serious situation which inevitably will have operational consequences for UK law enforcement. The UK will only have very limited access to analysis and to data produced by Europol relating to live criminal investigations. However, it would not be able to shape the direction of the enforcement agency or have any further input.
The BBC reported: “Successive UK governments have remained strong supporters of the European Arrest Warrant – which came into force in 2004 – despite calls from some Tory MPs for it to be renegotiated or reformed.
“According to the National Crime Agency, other EU members requested the arrest of 14,279 UK-based suspects in 2015-6, up from 1,865 in 2004. The UK made 241 such requests in 2015-6, leading to 150 arrests.”
Being forced to leave the European Arrest Warrant will only serve to make the UK increasingly vulnerable.
June 20, 2018 maryhoneyballmep Tagged Brexit, European Arrest Warrant, Europol, Michel Barnier, National Crime Agency
MPs must pass the ‘meaningful vote’ amendment
The House of Lords has voted in favour of an amendment which will give Parliament a meaningful vote if the Government fails to reach a Brexit deal.
The House of Lords voted through the amendment and it was supported by Tory Peers including Michael Heseltine, Chris Patten and Syeeda Warsi who rebelled against their government to vote Dominic Grieve MP amendment through.
The amendment was tabled following news that the Government had reportedly reneged on an agreed compromise made with Grieve in which he was promised a meaningful vote.
It’s disgraceful that the Government knowingly misled one of its own MPs by not only failing to deliver the promised meaningful vote if Brexit fails, but worse still the Government went onto adopt a position which it knew made it impossible to have such a vote. The Government knew this wouldn’t be possible!
The revised amendment will be voted on in the Commons this Wednesday. Currently sources say the Government is confident that the Tory rebels don’t have enough support for it to pass. Once again, I urge all MP’s to search their moral compass and do the right thing and vote in favour of the amendment, so that Parliament is able to play a proper role.
The new amendment stipulates that “ministers must update parliament by 21 January 2019 if there is no prospect of a deal with the EU and then have two weeks to return to the House of Commons with a statement on how the government plans to proceed. MPs would then be given a vote on whether to approve the action in statement.”
If the proposals are so deeply flawed and unworkable then it is only right that Parliament can provide additional scrutiny; it has a duty to resolve the stalemate.
June 19, 2018 maryhoneyballmep Tagged Brexit
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Tag: Corbin On Contracts
There is a class of Americans (by some accounts 40 % of the population) that just plain doesn’t give a damn that a president of the United States would pay off a porn star to conceal the fact of a philandering liaison―an encounter that took place shortly after his wife gave birth to the couple’s only son. This is hardly a surprising development when one considers the fact that Donald Trump took his first wife to a ski resort for the purpose of continuing an affair with his second wife, Marla Maples. Nevertheless, Rudy Giuliani confirmed what most people suspected when he appeared on Fox News and admitted that Trump lied to the American public when he denied knowledge of a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels to buy her silence prior to the 2016 presidential election. The Trump base of supporters―racists, fascists, Republicans and Evangelicals―could care less.
First, it should be noted that the contract signed by Stormy Daniels, a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) which underlies the payment, is probably void. Agreements for using corrupt influence in procuring government jobs, titles or honors fly in the face of public policy. The leading authority on contracts, former Yale law professor Arthur Linton Corbin, informs through his treatises that contracts against public policy are unlawful, and therefore not enforceable.
Donald Trump exposed again his long-standing attitude of racial animus―utter contempt for all people of color―in the aftermath of Charlottesville. His “good people on both sides” declaration earned the adulation of the likes of David Duke, former self-appointed Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. Following the Central Park Five debacle in which Trump demanded the death penalty for people of color who had been proven innocent, one has to wonder why Trump did not send HUD Secretary Ben Carson a DVD copy of “Chattanooga Shoe-Shine Boy” as a shithole Christmas present.
In addition, it should not be forgotten that the Chairperson of the Republican National Committee (RNC), Ronna Romney McDaniel, gave a scandalous endorsement and financial support to credibly alleged pedophile Roy Moore in the recent Alabama U.S. Senate race. The party of Lincoln is no longer the Republican Party…it is the party of Trump and his Russian allies; the sooner it is put out of business, the better for the American people.
Indeed, self-styled “Republican” members of the United States House of Representatives are carrying water for Russians and for the fascists who marched at Charlottesville. Working on behalf of fascists, Russia and Donald Trump, House Freedom Caucus members Mark Meadows and Jim Jordan drafted an impeachment article against Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein because he refused to reveal redacted contents of an ongoing FBI investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Meadows and Jordan are bound by oath to oversee the conduct of the Executive Department of government, but Rosenstein and others have determined that the information sought after by the wayward legislators would be delivered to the targets of the investigation. If and when Democrats take over the House, Meadows and Jordan would be proper subjects for subpoenas to explain their treasonous conduct.
Finally, we are witness to self-righteous Evangelicals wallowing in, and justifying the utter filth indulged by Donald Trump. There are the “dossier” claims of Trump arranging “golden showers” by prostitutes at the Moscow Ritz-Carlton―allegations which become more believable with each passing day. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders knowingly spews forth a litany of falsehoods each time she appears. One Evangelical claims that it is her “faith in God” which gives her confidence to stand before a crowd of reporters and lie. Moreover, the so-called “Family Research Council,” headed by conservative Evangelical Tony Perkins claims that Donald Trump deserves a “mulligan” on his sordid sex life and Stormy Daniels because he is delivering what Evangelicals want. In other words, the end justifies the means.
Now that lying, pedophilia and golden showers have been revealed as Christian values…what next? It appears that Evangelicals are doing their best to resurrect values that brought extinction to the Roman Empire. In any event, a church pew is the very last place to bring your children on a Sunday morning.
Author topdog41Posted on May 4, 2018 Categories Donald Trump, Stormy DanielsTags Corbin On Contracts, Evangelicals, fascists, Jim Jordan, Mark Meadows, Republicans, Rod Rosenstein, Ronna Romney McDaniels, Roy Moore, Rudy GiulianiLeave a comment on Tainted Apathy
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On the Run from the Unequal City — and Academic Stardom
by Jacob A. Bruggeman
Of all the disciplines in the humanities, sociology is particularly well-poised to provide the academy and policy makers with appropriately timed, persuasively human, and powerful scholarship that can carve out space for informed debate in the public square. Sociologists thus occupy a special place in shaping and reshaping the nature of public debate. Alice Goffman, an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and daughter of sociologists Erving Goffman and Gillian Sankoff, takes up her discipline’s special role of informing Americans in her book, On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City, the culmination of six years the author spent studying a poor, predominately African American community in Philadelphia.
In On the Run, Goffman does not just recount the stories of men and women that were at one point ‘on the run’ from the law enforcement officials in Philadelphia. Rather, she uses the lives of her subjects to lift American debates about mass incarceration, police practices and brutality, and racial biases out of the relatively inconsequential realm of political posturing and punditry and place them, rightfully, in the gritty realm of human experience. In so doing, Goffman goes beyond the barriers that typically constrain the debates and conversations centered around these issues, namely: social scientists’ dissimilar datasets, drastically different interpretations of the war on crime and the causes of the prison population boom that began in the 1970s, and, most importantly, the otherworldly distance between the narratives in these debates and the lived experiences of those most affected by them. Such is the special power of good sociological scholarship.
Through dedication and goodwill, Goffman’s presence in her subjects’ lives is refined from that of an odd researcher into that of a reliable friend. More than her dedication to scholarship, Goffman’s dedication to stewarding her relationships with her subjects, the “6th Street Boys,” as she calls them, is responsible for the tour de force that is On the Run. Indeed, Goffman’s dedication to individuals and relationships defines the study. Building these relationships was neither easy nor the product of some serendipitous encounter with eager subjects, and the barriers between Goffman and her subjects resurface throughout the study.
Race was one such barrier. The sight of Goffman, a white academic, hanging around a predominately black neighborhood in Philadelphia produced and revealed tensions within the community of study and with the police. The latter reared its ugly face many a time in the form of Philadelphia police insulting and sexually harassing Goffman for spending her time with black men. Nevertheless, Goffman is nuanced in her analysis of the police: a group of often well-meaning individuals she proclaims to be in the “impossible position” of being “essentially the only governmental body charged with addressing the significant social problems of able-bodied men in the jobless ghetto, and with only the power of intimidation and arrest to do so” (203).
Written for both academic and popular audiences, On the Run is appealing because Goffman does not just present her own research as irrefutable fact—she seamlessly blends other sources of quantitative and qualitative data into the stories of her subjects, her friends. From the opening lines of On the Run, which point out the increase in imprisoned Americans from an early and mid-twentieth century rate of one in every thousand (1/1,000) to an early 2000s rate of 1 in every 107 (1/107) (xiii), to its interpretation of vagrancy statues and systems of oppression such as Jim Crow, Goffman’s arguments avoid self-reinforcement and tautology. This strategy transforms On the Run from a well-researched study of fugitive life in Philadelphia into a compelling indictment of America’s prison system, its strategies for policing criminal activity, and the cycles of poverty and oppression produced therefrom.
The circuitous, confusing barrage of court hearings, prison sentences, and petty fines that follow from police involvement is explained in great deal by Goffman, and this labyrinth of legal traumas is reconstructed for readers through the experiences of the book’s subjects. So common in the lives of those “on the run,” Goffman reminds her readers, quoting Howard Becker, that “it’s virtually impossible for people to take special notice of something or someone they see day in and day out” (235). Goffman’s work sheds light on these issues.
Academia and the public saw On the Run in these terms, and they praised it and the author. Goffman’s book was featured in an episode of NPR’s “Here & Now,” reviewed positively in many prominent outlets like The Washington Post. It brought Goffman academic acclaim and public fame, leading to a both a university lecture series and a popular TED talk.
Soon enough, though, the headlines turned against Goffman. In 2015, The New Republic ran an article entitled “Did This Acclaimed Sociologist Drive the Getaway Car in a Murder Plot?” Many critics found certain episodes in Goffman’s study implausible, but many more found this searing question—the possibility that the author was an accomplice to a serious felony—to be devastating.
This was a big deal. Though I was only a lowly first-year history student at the time this controversy erupted, I clearly remember “The Trials of Alice Goffman,” as The New York Times put it, creeping into university classrooms and discussions I had with professors during office hours. The question of her complicity in a felony aside (and that’s a big thing to put aside), students at Pomona College alleged and grumbled that Goffman’s book was guilty of “hypercriminaliz[ing]” black men and “hypersexualize[ing]” black women. Coupled with her odd, intensely personal research methods, Goffman’s destruction of records central to the study allow it to dodge what is perhaps the most demanding of the standards in sociology: the author’s honesty. Critics cried “urban legend” at Goffman’s depiction of some police activity; in The Atlantic, a law professor at Yale wrote that he was “astonished” by Goffman’s claim that Philly police patrolled maternity wards looking for parole violators, and politely questioning this claim in the statement, “I had never heard of such a thing.”
These criticisms are concerning. Yet, one cannot ignore the possibility that sociology itself—a discipline whose conventions entail anonymizing subjects and changing any detail that could lead back to them—produces complicated, cloudy studies. More importantly, Goffman has faced-off with some serious sexism. Most notably, professors at her institution insinuated that she was sleeping with her subjects; police, Goffman notes at various points in On the Run, did the same.
All this is to say that On the Run and its author, initially received like royalty, were later defenestrated from the castle window. The criticisms of Goffman and her first book, many of which were hardly resolved, will likely haunt her for the remainder of her career, lingering in colleagues’ minds, reemerging at crucial moments in committees considering applications and proposals from Goffman. On the Run will cast a shadow on up-and-coming academics, serving as an example of innovative but treacherous research; it will roam universities as a ghost whose silhouette, barely noticeable, will frighten scholars and students enough by conveying the thought of “academic misconduct.” Whether or not this is fair, it is true. This truth should be punishment enough for Goffman, who will certainly have a long career ahead of her—there is no need to further degrade On the Run, a valuable book criticisms withstanding, and its author.
Indeed, On the Run is ultimately a remarkable and important book, a damning tract that is also a call-to-action. “‘On the Run’ is, first and foremost, a remarkable feat of reporting,” wrote Alex Kotlowitz’s in The New York Times, and it is. Despite some discrepancies and factual errors, Goffman’s book is a cogent, informative, and worthwhile read. It draws from a rich and heady intellectual tradition—that of sociology—but often it reads like long-form reportage and is notable for its measured tone and clear language, both of which broaden the table and pull up a seat for lay readers.
Finally, Goffman’s is a book that refuses to simple sit on the stacks, collecting dust in the shelves of academe, asking only for scholarly critique and engagement. On the Run was written about an issue of importance to the public—the people that far too often are seen as the subjects, rather than the benefactors of, scholarship—not a solely a select group of specialists. Messy as this kind of scholarship is, as the critics of Goffman can attest, it is worthwhile.
Jacob Bruggeman is an honors student in his fourth year at Miami University with majors in history and political science, and a combined BA–MA program in political science. Jacob was recently honored for his research as one of fifteen national recipients of the Gilder Lehrman History Scholar award, and he is one of two Joanna Jackson Goldman Scholars at Miami. Next Fall he will begin coursework for a MPhil in Economic and Social History at Cambridge University.
Posted in cities, crime, inequality, Philadelphia, raceTagged Alice Goffman, ethnography, inequality, Philadelphia, race, sociology
Author: Jacob A. Bruggeman
Jacob Bruggeman is an honors student in his fourth year at Miami University with majors in history and political science, and a combined BA–MA program in political science. Jacob was recently honored for his research as one of fifteen national recipients of the Gilder Lehrman History Scholar award, and he is one of two Joanna Jackson Goldman Scholars at Miami. Next fall he will begin coursework for a MPhil in Economic and Social History at Cambridge University. He is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of The New Herald, a journal of political and cultural commentary. View all posts by Jacob A. Bruggeman
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Tag Archives: Joan Champernon
Ladies-in-Waiting: Joan, Lady Denny
Posted on December 28, 2018 by tudorqueen6
Joan Champernoune [Champernon], daughter of Sir Philip Champernoune [Champernon] of Modbury, Devon, and wife of Sir Anthony Denny (d.1549) | V&A Collections
Joan Denny, Lady Denny (d.10 September 1553) was the daughter of Sir Philip and Katherine Carew, daughter of Sir Edmund Carew, Lord Carew. The Carews were close to the Parr family since the early reign of King Henry VIII and Queen Katherine probably remembered that when she picked Lady Denny to be in her household.[1]
Joan was described by a writer as “a lady of great beauty and parts, a favourer of the Reformed religion when the times were most dangerous.”[1]
Joan came to court and joined the household of Katherine of Aragon as a maid-of-honor. Joan was sponsored by her uncle, Sir Gawin Carew. This same Gawin may have been the husband of another lady in Katherine of Aragon’s household, the former Mary Wotton, widow of Sir Henry Guildford. It was also in the household of Katherine of Aragon that Joan met Lady Maud Parr, mother of the future queen. Joan would go on to serve Lady Parr’s daughter, Katherine.
Joan was married to Anthony Denny, privy councillor and royal favourite of Henry VIII, in 1538. A grant had been made that year, in February, to Sir Anthony of the site of the former priory of St. Mary’s, near Hertford. He was also granted the manors of Hertford Priory. Their marriage took place between February and June of that year as Privy Purse expenses included “item, given to Mistress Denny’s servant for bringing sturgeons 2/-“.[1]
In 1539, Anthony and Joan were part of the welcoming party that met Anne of Cleves.[1]
In 1542, Denny was appointed Keeper of the royal Mansion of Hatfield.[1]
Joan Denny held a position at court in the household of Queen Katherine Parr. Joan was a Protestant and is said to have protected persecuted reformers in Devon. In 1546, she was one of the women who was implicated in the persecutions at court by the Catholic faction. Most of the ladies of Queen Katherine Parr were interrogated and mistreated by those wanting to get rid of the queen due to her religious beliefs and practices. The Queen was never tried, but an arrest warrant was drawn up. Luckily for Katherine, she talked her way out of it. Henry accepted Katherine’s pleas and the two made up.
After the death of King Henry, Joan retired from court service. She would, however, have a special guest join her and her husband early on in the reign of King Edward VI. Princess Elizabeth was sent away from the Dowager Queen Katherine’s household after she was caught in an embrace between her and Admiral Seymour by the Queen. She joined the household of Sir Anthony and Joan Denny for some time.
Joan Champernoune [Champernon], daughter of Sir Philip Champernoune [Champernon] of Modbury, Devon, and wife of Sir Anthony Denny (d.1549) (Oil painting) | V&A Search the Collections
Carlile, James William. Archaeological Studies on the Two Manors of Ponsbourne & Newgate Street in the Parish of Bishop’s Hatfield, Co. Herts, Simson and Company, 1906. Google eBook
Posted in Life as Queen (1543-1547), The Queen's Households | Tagged Joan Champernon, Joan Champernoune, Joan Denny, Joan Lady Denny, Ladies In Waiting, Ladies in Waiting to Catherine Parr, Ladies in Waiting to Katherine Parr, Sir Anthony Denny | Leave a reply
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Tag Archives: Violet Lane-Fox
The Herbert’s: Lady Violet Herbert, Countess of Powis
Posted on November 17, 2012 by tudorqueen6
Violet, Countess of Powis, by Ellis Roberts. ca,1887 ©NTPL/John Hammond/Powis Estate Trustees
Violet Ida Eveline Herbert, Countess of Powis and 16th Baroness Darcy de Knayth (1 June 1865 – 29 April 1929) was a British peeress.
Hon. Violet Lane-Fox was the youngest child of the Sackville George Lane-Fox, 12th Baron Conyers, 15th Baron Darcy de Knayth, and his wife, Mary Curteis.[1] Her sister, Hon. Marcia Lane-Fox, became the Countess of Yarborough, and her brother, Hon. Sackville Fitzroy Henry Lane-Fox, died at age 18 at Durban, South Africa, unmarried.[1] Her paternal grandparents were Sackville Walter Lane-Fox and Lady Charlotte Mary Anne Georgiana Osborne (daughter of George Osborne, 6th Duke of Leeds).[1]
Lady Powis
The Countess of Powis at the coronation of Edward VII in 1902.
On 21 August 1890, she married George Herbert (who succeeded his uncle as Earl of Powis six months later) at St George’s, Hanover Square, London, England.[1] As the wife of the 4th Earl of Powis, Violet persuaded her husband to entrust the entire management of the deteriorating gardens at Powis Castle to her in 1911. Over the next 18 years, she effectively recreated the gardens of Powis into the internationally renowned form that they have today.[2]
The Edwardian Bodley Gate at Powis Castle commissioned by Lady Violet; photo by Andrew Butler
Powis Castle Gardens by Andrew Lawson.
The Earl and Countess of Powis had three children:
Percy Robert Herbert, Viscount Clive (1892–1916), killed at the Somme.[3]
Hon. Hermione Gwladys (1900 – 1995), married Roberto Lucchesi-Palli, 11th Duke della Grazia and 13th Prince di Campofranco. They had one daughter.[3]
Hon. Mervyn Horatio Herbert, Viscount Clive, 17th Baron Darcy de Knayth (1904–1943), father of Davina Ingrams, 18th Baroness Darcy de Knayth.[3]
Barony of Darcy de Knayth
Violet Ida Eveline Herbert nee Lane-Fox, arms as suo jure 16th Baroness Darcy de Knayth http://www.europeanheraldry.org/house_of__darcy.html
In 1888, the countess’s father died and the Baronies of Darcy de Knayth and Conyers fell into abeyance between his two daughters. On 8 June 1892, the abeyance of the Barony of Conyers was terminated in favour of Violet’s elder sister, the Countess of Yarborough. Eleven years later, on 29 September 1903, the Barony of Fauconberg (a title which had been in abeyance since the death of the last holder, the 6th Baroness Fauconberg in 1490), was also granted to the Countess. On the same date, The House of Lords also agreed that their father had held the barony of Darcy de Knayth, which was granted to Violet in her own right.[5]
The countess died in 1929, aged 63, in a motorcar accient, and was buried in the churchyard of Christ Church, Welshpool. Her title passed to her eldest surviving son, Mervyn.
Lady Violet Ida Evelyn Lane-Fox, 16th Baroness Darcy of Nayth, Countess of Powis (1865-1929) by Mabel Emily Hankey (d.1943), National Trust Inventory Number 1180763
Ancestry of her father:
From Hon. Maud Vaux, daughter of Sir Nicholas Vaux, 1st Baron Vaux of Harrowden and his second wife, Anne Green; maternal aunt of Queen Katherine Parr and thus Lady Anne Herbert, Countess of Pembroke from which Lady Powis’s husband descended.
Lady Powis also descended several times from Edward III via his sons Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence and John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster.
She even descended from Katherine Parr’s step-son, John, 4th Lord Latimer and his wife Lady Lucy Somerset.
She descended from Katherine Parr’s friend and guardian of her daughter, Lady Katherine Willoughby, the Dowager Duchess of Suffolk by her second husband.
From her ancestor Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness she was a descendant of Princess Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia; daughter of King James I of England and wife Anne of Denmark [and thus a descendant of Henry VII by his eldest daughter Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scots].
Lady Powis also descended from Lady Henrietta Churchill, 2nd Duchess of Marlborough, niece of Arabella Churchill, Royal Mistress to James II of Great Britain.
Herbert, Violet Ida Eveline, Countess of Powis (1865 – 1929) (Stamp 1) University of Toronto; British Armorial Bindings
^ a b College of Arms. Visitation of England and Wales, Volume 13, 1905. pg 110. Google eBook
^ “The Art Fund” is the operating name of the National Art Collections Fund, a charity registered in England and Wales (209174) and Scotland (SC038331). Violet Lane-Fox, Baroness Darcy
^ a b c Charles Mosley, editor, Burke’s Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke’s Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 1, page 1029.
^ The National Trust. National Trust Images, LADY VIOLET IDA EVELYN LANE-FOX, 16TH BARONESS DARCY OF NAYTH, COUNTESS OF POWIS, (1865-1929)
^ Henry Robert Addison, Charles Henry Oakes, William John Lawson, Douglas Brooke Wheelton Sladen. Who’s Who,” A. & C. Black, 1907.
The National Trust: Powis Castle
Posted in The Family of Katherine Parr | Tagged 16th Baroness Darcy, 4th Earl of Powis, Countess of Powis, Herbert of Powis, Lady Darcy, Lady Powis, Lord Powis, Violet Herbert, Violet Lane-Fox | Leave a reply
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How to Watch Anthony Joshua vs. Jarrell Miller Live Online
Mark | No Comments
Ever since September, we’ve been waiting to see who Anthony Joshua’s next opponent will be. Well, the wait is over. Anthony Joshua will defend his WBA, WBO, IBF, and IBO titles against none other than Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller at the world-famous Madison Square Garden in New York City on June 1st. As we wait, here’s all you need to know about Joshua vs. Miller.
How to Watch Joshua vs. Miller Live Online
Watch Anthony Joshua vs. Jarrell Miller Live in the US
Boxing has a home in the US in the form of DAZN. Ever since it debuted in the US a while back, it has become the number one go-to channels for boxing fans in the United States. One of the reasons this platform is very popular is that it doesn’t cost much. If you want to watch Joshua vs. Jarrell, all you need to do is sign up with DAZN.
Being a new subscriber has its privileges. You get a free one-month trial to stream the match without even paying for it. After that, you’ll be required to pay a 9.99$ monthly fee, which is pretty cheap compared to what you’ll be getting from the channel in return.
Furthermore, DAZN’s app is available on most major devices. You can watch boxing matches on PC, Mac, Apple TV, FireStick, Android TV, Xbox One, PS4, Chromecast, iOS, Android, and Smart TVs.
Stream AJ vs. Big Baby in the UK
Fans in the UK also have a way to stream boxing matches, Sky Sports Box Office. You’ll be able to join in on the fight on June 1st without having a problem.
Due to time differences, UK viewers may be watching in the early hours of Sunday, June 2nd. The price of the fight is not known yet, but it might be £19.95 with an additional £5 fee for telephone bookings as it was when Joshua took on Povetkin.
When you purchase the fight, you can stream it on PC, Mac, Android, iOS, Xbox, PlayStation, Apple TV, Now TV, and Roku.
Joshua vs. Miller – What’s Going on?
Miller has been victorious in his recent matches including two knockouts over Tomasz Adamek and Bogdan Dinu. He has quite a streak and no losses, only one draw. Ok, Miller is unbeaten. But has he faced an opponent with the pedigree of Joshua? The 30-year old does have the size and strength that could prove a challenge for the undisputed champ.
I’m not being biased, but Miller talks a lot. However, he hasn’t yet been afforded the opportunity to prove that he fights the same level he talks. Miller trash-talked Joshua saying that he’s untested. He then added:
“We’ve seen it in the Joseph Parker fight. He was not aggressive. After the Klitschko fight, that was his best performance against an older guy who had had two years off and lost the fight before to Tyson Fury. If you look at the guys he’s fought they don’t really have an amateur background. He didn’t look that great against them either.”
Wait, there’s more. Oh god, I loved this response. Here’s what Joshua had to say:
“You’re like a broken record. We’ve heard your story a thousand times. Tyson Fury knocked you out seven times in sparring. You’re a fat fool. I’m the champion. I’m deadly serious. Jarrell can’t beat me. Not even on his best day. Look at his face, I am going to reconstruct his face on June 1.”
“I’m really looking forward to the challenge. I’ll do the job, I’m a good boxer, a heavy-handed boxer and I’m going to reconstruct his face and body. I am going to be your surgeon and give him a new makeover. I am going to knock him clean out, 100 percent.”
Here’s how both boxers stand before the match.
Anthony Joshua vs. Jarrell Miller
We will get to see a host of British stars and top US names in the event. Hearn wants the fight to be a battle between fighters from both sides of the Atlantic.
Regarding specifically who will be on the show, it’s not confirmed yet. But I’ll be updating this article every time an official announcement comes out. As for possibilities, Hean has stated that he likes to see a lot of matches happen in the undercard.
For example, Katie Taylor is currently in possession of two of the four major world titles, which means that AJ is not the only undisputed champion in the promotion. The top female boxer has it all. Hearn wants to see her get through Rose Volante. After that, he’ll schedule a unification match against Delfine Persoon for all the belts.
Back to our main event of the evening, Anthony Joshua is set to make his US debut when he faces off against Jarrell Miller. Miller has beaten four former world title challengers in Gerald Washington, Mariusz Wach, Johann Duhaupas and Tomasz Adamek. Nonetheless, he’s now facing a holder of four championships at once, someone who’s made a name for himself in the boxing industry.
Heavyweights are always exciting, as all it takes is one big punch and asleep goes the opponent. There are so many questions that need answers. How real is Big Baby? What would Miller do when he comes face to face with AJ? Will Anthony lose on his US debut? Only June 1st can give us the proper answers we’re looking for. As for the time being, here’s all we know about the event and the possible undercard:
When: Saturday, June 1st, 2019.
Where: Madison Square Garden, New York City.
TV Channels: Sky Box Office (UK), DAZN (USA).
Hearn hasn’t made it clear about who’s going to be included on the card. However, he hinted out a few. Here’s what we have so far.
Tommy Coyle vs Chris Algieri
Ricky Burns vs Ray Beltran
Katie Taylor vs. Delfine Persoon
Josh Kelly vs. TBA
Joseph Buatsi vs. TBA
How to Watch Anthony Joshua vs. Jarrell Miller – Summing Up
The event will most likely be British vs. American talent. This will make Joshua vs. Miller the biggest event of the year. You have what’s out there and nothing less. The fight is upcoming and we can’t wait to witness what happens between these two boxers. Will Miller walk the walk instead of talking the talk? How will Joshua’s US debut be like? Tune in on June 1st and find out.
How to Watch USA Comedy Central abroad – VPN or DNS Proxy
How to Watch World Series 2018 Live Stream Online
How to Get a Bulgarian IP Address Abroad
How to Watch Scotland vs Sri Lanka Cricket Live Online
Tech-guru, avid streamer, and an expert in all kinds of devices and how to set them up. Mark has written numerous guides on how to set up a VPN and proxies on all kinds of devices.
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Bill Shorten’s tax ‘un-reform’ shows Labor is thinking short-term pain for long-term gain
Mark RileyThe West Australian
Saturday, 17 March 2018 2:00AM
The defining battle over income tax cuts at the next election is shaping up like the knife fight from Crocodile Dundee.
That’s not a tax cut. This is a tax cut!
And it seems Labor will be the side wielding the bowie knife.
That is what the bold and risky move this week to abolish cash payments for dividend imputation credits is all about.
The toughest question for any political leader to answer on policy is: “where is the money coming from?”
Bill Shorten can now answer that when he unsheathes his income tax cuts in coming months. That will be some time after the Government rolls its version out in the May Budget, and ministers are already worried.
The Budget plan is to use the so-called “growth dividend” to fund their tax package. But that dividend is yet to materialise.
That means whatever they announce will have to be heavily back-ended. It’s most likely to be a small cut, if any, in the first year with the bigger tax breaks promised in the out years.
The ministers’ greatest fear is that the $60 billion war chest Shorten will amass from his assault on dividend imputation will allow him to offer much bigger cuts up front and still have plenty of money left over for increased funding on health, aged-care, schools and universities.
Add to that the new commitment for a 20 per cent instant deduction on business investment in plant and equipment and you’ve got a broad suite of policies that hits the key political targets.
That is why Labor frontbenchers are looking so relaxed in the teeth of the outrage coming from the conservative forces this week.
They’ll take the short-term pain as an investment in what they believe will be long-term political gain.
Shorten calls his plan a tax reform. But its chief objective is unravelling an unsustainable reform instituted by John Howard and Peter Costello in 2000. It is, essentially, un-reform.
Most Budget economists say it has to happen. The cost of the cash-back component, what Shorten calls tax returns for people who don’t pay taxes, is blowing out from the original $500 million a year to a projected $8 billion. That is way too steep.
But doing it was always going to attract a blizzard of anger.
Especially from those self-funded retirees and part-pensioners who had quite sensibly arranged their affairs to take advantage of the system.
Shorten is casting himself as Robin Hood, taking from the rich and giving to the poor. Although the Government was quick to substitute “taking” with “stealing”.
Treasurer Scott Morrison accuses Shorten of “theft”, a “crime” and a “brutal tax grab”, among other things.
And for those who lose the money, that is the way it is going to feel. Many self-funded retirees have carefully calibrated their investment portfolios to take advantage of the highest yielding dividend funds and maximise their tax credits. Why wouldn’t they?
The equality arguments for changing the system are loud and clear for those super superannuants singled out by Labor this week, who are raking in $2.5 million a year and more in tax credits. There aren’t a lot of retired working class people with the $100 million in super needed to produce that sort of return.
But the virtue of abolishing the benefit for people who’ve worked their entire lives, then downsized the family home to scrape together a sustainable existence on super is less arguable.
A couple with a well-managed portfolio of around $600,000 can earn dividends of $30,000 a year, with imputation credits of about $9,000 paid in cash by the Tax Office.
That’s $39,000 a year tax free, supplemented with a bit of money from part pension payments and seniors cards.
It is enough to get by on, but hardly a king’s ransom. Under Labor, it will be $30,000. These are the people the Government is talking about when it says the changes will smack those on low to middle incomes.
But Labor maintains that these retirees aren’t paying tax, so why should they get a tax break funded by working people who are paying tax?
The answer, of course, is because the Government said they could. So they designed their lives in retirement based on that belief and now Labor is taking it from them.
And that is where the real “brutality” of this policy comes into play. It is in its cold, clinical political calculation.
Shorten knows he will lose support among those older voters affected by the changes.
But he also knows the bulk of wealthier retirees who’ll take the biggest hit wouldn’t vote Labor in a pink fit anyway.
His brutal assessment is that what he loses in the older demographics he will pick up with interest among voters of working age on low and middle incomes who will benefit most from his redistribution of those tens of billions of dollars towards incomes tax cuts.
What he loses on the swings, he’ll pick up in spades on the roundabouts. The vast majority of the Australian workforce earns below the $87,000 tax bracket. They are the people Howard called the “battlers” and Kevin Rudd called “working families”. They are the voters who ultimately decide who wins government.
And they are the people Shorten wants to lock away for Labor, confident he’s taking the biggest weapon into the approaching electoral knife fight.
Reserve Bank to reveal rate cut thinking
Mark RileyFederal PoliticsPolitics
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REVIEW: Erykah Badu’s “New Amerykah Part Two: Return Of The Ankh”
The buzz for the new album by Erykah Badu has worked its magic, with a good amount of that magic stirred up by Badu herself with her Twitter account. From the fact that this is the second installment of a planned trilogy, to Badu looking to find a way to clear a Paul McCartney sample and obtaining it in 9 hours time (because 3 + 3 + 3 = 9, more on that later), and the perception and misinterpretation/misunderstanding of the video made for “Window Seat”. If anything, New Amerykah Part Two: Return Of The Ankh (Motown Universal) has gained attention from the hype machine of Badu herself and her music, at a time when some artists rely too much on outside influences to create perceived magic. It’s genuine, it’s true, it’s Badu. However, you didn’t want to read about the buzz, you want to know about the music. Consider this a preamble.
One common thing that seemed to come from New Amerykah Part One: 4th World War is that a lot of people didn’t get it. The first single from the album, “Honey”, made many think that the album would be similar to that, but it was anything but. In my review of the album two years ago, I felt that the running theme of the album made it sound very claustrophobic, and that when you entered the album, you were entering her world. When one states “I’m going to make a trilogy”, one expects for things to be thematic. Not a pure concept, but something holds it together. Many fans felt the music was too heady, lacked any hits, sounded awkward, and I felt people were unwilling to not only hear her make this kind of music, but for a woman to make this kind of music. It’s as if people collectively said “I want her to make me dance, I want her to sing me a happy or sad love song, I don’t want to sit and think.” New Amerykah Part One: 4th World War was very much a sit and think album. Fans loved it, others felt Badu had abandoned her sound, not realizing that what she makes are elements of her sound.
Now here’s Part Two of the trilogy. When the artwork was revealed for the new album, I immediately noticed one thing: the background color. Part One was black, total darkness, suited for the overall tone of the album. Part Two was now purple, and I felt it looked like as if sunlight was coming into the picture, or her morning/mourning. Sunrise and sunset can lead to the skies revealing unique colors, so I thought “well, that could be interpreted as the coming of the sun”. Does that mean optimism? The album is brighter, and if so, does that mean the album is more accessible than Part One?
New Amerykah Part Two: Return Of The Ankh is an album that will be easy to digest, and to me covers the range of styles and themes that she has covered over the years. The first single, “Window Seat”, shows that she has not forgotten how to be cool, calm, and collected while at the same time revealing a sense of wonder in her musical poetry. As she looks at the world and her time in it, it’s as if she briefly shares the persona of the character of Enid in Ghost World:
so, presently I’m standing here right now
you’re so demanding
tell me what you want from me… concluding
concentrating on my music, lover and my babies
makes me wanna ask the lady for a ticket outta town
It’s as if the sorrows of the past are “of the past”, but still longs for happiness and sadness while looking for a place to clear her mind and perhaps someone to embrace her consciousness.
She throws back to simpler times by touching on Sylvia Striplin‘s “You Can’t Turn Me Away” and interpolating the song that sampled it, Junior M.A.F.I.A.‘s “Get Money”, and one can easily see this becoming a hit for her. “Umm Hmm” is complimented with a background featuring luxurious strings, immediately reminding the listener of a time (mid to late 70’s) when soul orchestras were once a part of the norm. It brings back a feeling when an arrangement could make or break a song, and with lyrics such as
“I love how you make me feel/let’s jump off into your world”, it’s as if she’s not only speaking to a man of interest, but to the music who help carry her to accomplish her emotional mission. Love is very much in the air for her, and “Love” sounds like she came across some fine weed and is sharing it with anyone who wishes to share themselves with her. It’s loose and (cue Biz Markie sample) “fonkay”, the guitars are kind of on the Johnny “Guitar” Watson vibe, and if you listen deep enough, you may sense and smell the right smoke coming out of the speakers. “Fall In Love (Your Funeral)” could be about the death of someone, but since Badu has always shared her love and admiration of hip-hop over the years, it’s almost as if she’s communicating with the lyrics of Jane Child‘s “Don’t Wanna Fall In Love” to say that the death of whatever entity she speaks about is hard, but she’ll fight it until the end. Perhaps Badu is also saying that she used to love H.E.R. too, and doesn’t wish to see it put to rest just yet. Maybe.
What I’ve liked about Badu in the past is that she is more than willing to explore a theme in a song that’s five minutes or more. On this album, “Out My Mind, Just In Time” goes for a little over ten minutes, and it goes through different movements in order for her to get to its core in an imaginative way. She has never hesitated to share her Dallas, Texas upbringing, and for a brief second she shows love to her city by offering an audio salute to the late DJ Screw (she honored DJ Screw in “Love Of My Life“). Anyone who has ever loved it when Badu seems to get lost in song but is very much in control will love it as the song just gets deeper into the smooth and soothing groove. It’s sensual, it’s sexy, it’s fearful, it’s beauty, it’s the 3am eternal vibe that only leads to the point of no return, and she knows you’re under her spell, the reason why you listen in the first place.
As for that McCartney sample, the use of Wings‘ “Arrow Through Me” in “Gone Baby, Don’t Be Long” keeps her desiring that certain man of interest, knowing that he has to do what he has to do to make a living (“I know you got to get your hustle on”), but tells him “gone baby, gone baby, don’t be long”. It’s as if Badu is speaking to McCartney’s original song, so we’re now hearing her sing as if she has an arrow through her, but she deals with the pain until her man returns. The way she created this song, one could easily see her incorporating Bobby Brown‘s “Rock Witcha” since the melody of the first verse would fit in perfectly.
While you go into the album expecting anything and everything, you then realize that the running theme is a bit more comprehendable. What also works about New Amerykah Part Two: Return Of The Ankh is that what you end up hearing is one hell of a solid album, not just an album of random songs that were slapped together just because she has new songs to share. While you will definitely pick out favorite songs, it feels like a proper album, you want to hear it from start to finish, you want to take on the excursion she has created only because it sounds… welcoming. That’s what an album is about, the knowledge of the musical excursion and feeling/sensing that the ride will lead to something pleasurable, wanting you to want. It’s very cohesive, the flow is incredible, and it’s something you’ll want to tell everyone about, even though you’re not quite sure how to describe it. Just tell them “this is what an album is about” or “this is what soul music is”. You can point the finger and maybe not know how to describe it. Just tell them Badu soul is from the soul, and this fact you can’t deny. Badu probably would smirk and say “yes, this album is very much from me, myself and I.”
Short version: it’s a musical kiss that two can share. Get some lip balm.
(SIDE NOTE
The mathematical sequence of 3 + 3 + 3 mentioned in this review has to do with how Badu has announced the release date for the album: 3/3/3. One can interpret this as referring to 3 (March) + 3 (30th = 3 + 0) + 3 (2010 = 2 + 0 + 1 + 0). Seeing as this is a trilogy, the symbolism of 3 is there, and a few have looked to the cover to find “clues” that are in triplicate.)
This entry was posted in Music Reviews and tagged ?uestlove, Erykah Badu, Madlib, soul. Bookmark the permalink.
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A Response to the Question: "Why Aren’t Muslims Condemning Boko Haram?"
By Sohaib N. Sultan
As a leader in the Muslim community, just about every time a crazy Muslim or group of Muslims do something insane in the world, I am asked or prominently hear this question being asked, “Why aren’t Muslims condemning this?!” The latest example of this is calls to condemn the cult known as “Boko Haram” in Nigeria who have kidnapped 300 girls.
Well, there are two problems with the questions itself – and both are based on false premises. First is the assumption that Muslims have not, in fact, condemned other violent extremist Muslims. This is simply untrue. Muslim religious scholars, intellectuals, activists, organizations, and countries have all condemned Boko Haram and the kidnappings in unison. All you have to do to know this is type in google search “Muslims condemn Boko Haram” and articles will abound.
The second problem with the question of why Muslims, supposedly, don’t condemn evil actions from other Muslims requires a bit more explanation. The problem with it is this inherent assumption that somehow radical violent extremist cults can legitimately speak for Islam – one of the great world religions whose contributions to civilization over the course of fourteen-hundred plus years speaks for itself (Just browse through 1001 Muslim Inventions online if you have your doubts). And, that if Muslims don’t come out and spend all of their remaining days on earth condemning evil at the hand of other Muslims, then somehow this inherent assumption becomes true.
It’s true that Muslims today suffer from a crisis of authority and the question of who speaks for Islam is not an easy question to answer. But, rest assured that this does not mean that Muslims are operating under some sort of Wild, Wild West where everything and anything goes. Muslims have a divinely revealed scripture, established teachings from the Prophet Muhammad, and a system of morals and ethics that have guided the majority of Muslims to live purposefully and righteously in the world.
Now, the problem with the second problematic assumption is that in the West, today, we continue to grapple with age old misinformation and biases about Islam and Muslims that have resulted in deep seated fear and mistrust. This began way before the travesty and tragedy of 9/11. It begins centuries earlier when Muslims and Christians were engaged in bloody wars and competition for power. The rallying cries for war were couched, naturally, in propaganda against Islam’s prophet, scripture, and way of life as just evil and worthy of destruction. Even though we would like to think of ourselves as much more educated and enlightened today – and, I think we are, in some ways – the impact of old propaganda cannot be wished away. Indeed, much of this propaganda is to be found in a lot of works by Orientalists up to the present time – albeit, often, in much subtler ways. It takes intellectual courage and independent thinking to think about Islam and Muslim history through new lenses.
This historic bias has too often led to Muslims simply being written out of the books across academic disciplines in the West – unless it reinforces the bias. Even in universities when we study science, philosophy, law and ethics, and even world history – Islam and the contributions of Muslims rarely gets much attention. Muslim intellectual history and discourse is just assumed to be irrelevant. Some of this is just the problem of an ethno-centric educational system and worldview, but a lot of it is deeper than that.
All of this, then, results in seeing Muslims as exotic, as the other, as belonging to a different civilization and ethos. Thus, Muslim Americans, for example, are always asked about condemning evil in some foreign land which is largely beyond their control and sphere of influence, but rarely thought of as equal partners for building coalitions against injustices right here at home.
A lot of this is the fault of Muslims. We constantly buy into the narrative rather than producing our own narrative. And, we are often quick to condemn injustice “over there” and act like we don’t give a damn care in the world when injustices happen at home. Just think of the Trayvon Martin tragedy and the painful silence of too many Muslim organizations and public figures. Think of the gross injustices of the prison industrial complex and how rarely that becomes a point of concern in Muslim circles. And, the list can go on. Too many Muslims have accepted their social categorization as the “other” despite a lot of talk about being American and proud of it. It’s time for us to own issues domestically as much as we do internationally if we are serious and want to be taken seriously.
The Prophet Muhammad said that when you encounter an injustice you must try to prevent it with your own actions; if you cannot, then with your words; and if you cannot, then to at least to hate it within your heart.
In part, when Muslims are asked to constantly condemn or do something about what’s happening abroad, it is an attempt, consciously or subconsciously, for us as a society to shift our focus from some of the ugliness we have to confront when we look into our own mirror. It’s much easier, especially in this age of globalization, to spend our waking hours following the latest news on the kidnapped girls in Nigeria than it is to confront our own problems with sex slavery, rape, and pornofication of women right here at home. It’s more convenient to ask why Muslims are killing each other in places like Iraq and Afghanistan than to admit that we’ve completely failed generations of young Americans whose lives are scarred by inner-city gang violence everyday in this country. And, it’s more comforting to shake our heads at terrorists who kill at random than to condemn our own government for the use of drones that have killed innocents – including children – and have taken it in their own hands to be judge, jury, and executioner in this elusive war on terrorism.
So, let’s remember, the next time we want to point our finger and ask why someone else isn’t doing something to condemn or stop evil in the world, there are four fingers pointing right back at us. And, the next time we want to shake our head and condemn Muslims for not condemning other Muslims, let’s pause and ask a different question: “What can I do to work with Muslims against all of the injustices in the world I live in?”
Sohaib Sultan is the Muslim chaplain at Princeton University and directs the university’s Muslim Life Program in the Office of Religious Life. He is the author of The Koran for Dummies (Wiley, 2004) and The Qur’an and Sayings of the Prophet Muhammad: Selections Annotated and Explained (Skylight Paths, 2007).
Write to Sohaib N. Sultan at ssultan@princeton.edu.
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TV ReviewsLuciferSeason 2
On Lucifer, a “Trip To Stabby Town” is a lot more poignant than it sounds
Tom Ellis (left), Aimee Garcia
LuciferSeason 2
"Trip To Stabby Town"
Lucifer’s second season has reached a point where it almost feels like a different show from its first season at times: To call it one of television’s “most-improved” shows would be quite the understatement. As I unfortunately have to mention regularly, the procedural element of the series—which basically got it on the air—is still the weakest part, but Lucifer is no longer at a point where that weighs it down tremendously, especially not when every other aspect of the show is so good. At the same time, the current quality level of Lucifer is very much informed by the rockier times of its first season; things like evil paparazzo and the Palmetto saga had to happen in order to get to this point. As a result, it’s become far less necessary to grade the series on a curve or give caveats when explaining its charm to the uninitiated. The series has finally caught up to the cast’s already stellar chemistry, providing the type of writing and character development that they all deserve, to the point where Dan “Detective Douche” Espinoza has quickly become one of the best parts.
Literally no one could have predicted that during the first season, especially when you factor in how important pudding is to his role in this particular episode.
Despite its implications and role in light of some pretty heavy material, “Trip To Stabby Town” is quite the fun episode of Lucifer and one that maintains the show’s current hot streak. While there was clearly some semblance of growth and understanding in “My Little Monkey,” Lucifer’s role as Chloe’s “eccentric” partner continues to be tested and stretched toward its breaking point here, as the case-of-the-week is again deeply tied to his own family drama. It’s here, with a case-of-the-week fueled by the “accidental” use of a celestial weapon, that the topic of humanity and what that means to these divine beings becomes a major point of discussion, as well as dissension.
For better of worse, Lucifer is attracted and attached to humanity. As he confirms in this episode, Earth has been the only place an outsider like him feels at home.
The same can’t be said for Amenadiel, and it’s certainly not the case for “Charlotte.” Even Maze, who is rather blasé about the fact that humans kill each other all the time (Azrael’s blade or not), has made an effort to figure out who she is and who she considers worth caring about in this human world. Amenadiel, on the other hand, may dress the part of someone who’s perfectly assimilated into humanity, but for him it truly is all just an act to try to keep going. Lucifer and Maze have jobs; Amenadiel pretended to be a therapist last season but only for information to use against Lucifer. Lucifer and Maze have humans they care about; Amenadiel may have patched things up with Dr. Linda in “Liar, Liar, Slutty Dress On Fire,” but their friendship certainly isn’t the strongest on this series. Meanwhile, Lucifer and Amenadiel’s mother only sees humans in terms of her use for them, whether that’s on a physical level or as unknowing death messengers to her ex-husband. Her alleged indifference towards humans is clearly more like disdain, which is in direct conflict with the life Lucifer’s made for himself and intends to continue living.
So as much as Lucifer would like to be able to have both his human relationships and his familial ones, “Trip To Stabby Town” does well to explain why that’s not exactly possible, at least not right now. To Lucifer, so many things are black and white, like parenting or punishment—that’s what he learned growing up and running Hell—and he constantly has to learn that they’re not. It’s Chloe, it’s Dr. Linda, it’s humanity in general that constantly show him things aren’t always so cut and dry, as much as he would like them to be. Amenadiel, on the other hand, can’t handle any of that, which is why he goes to extremes, whether it’s in reaction to losing his wings or in aligning with his mother over his father. It’s this or that, with no in between. (Uriel certainly didn’t see things in shades of grey, as he had even less exposure to humanity than his brothers.) Amenadiel sees himself as an “other” in this world, while “Charlotte” simply sees herself as a superior and hates that she already lost her husband to his fascination with humans. Meanwhile, Lucifer may also see himself as above humans, but he still finds himself in awe of and even entertained by them. He sees himself as being at home and the closest thing to “at peace,” for the first time ever. Amenadiel and their mother simply don’t feel that way at all, and it’s not in their nature to.
It also can’t be stressed enough that the major argument against humans in this episode (them always killing each other) is one that isn’t truly deserved in this particular case. There is a lot of blood shed and quite the body count in “Trip To Stabby Town,” but it’s the result of a celestial being (“Charlotte”) causing a celestial weapon (Azrael’s blade) to be used by humans—just to get her ex’s attention—and it’s a very human acceptance of responsibility that saves the day. None of this is to say “humanity’s always the best,” because Lucifer regularly makes it clear how far that is from the truth. But as Amenadiel and “Charlotte” share a belief that detaching themselves from humanity is for the best, it’s easy to understand why Lucifer and even Maze, who still regularly insults humans, are drawn to it.
Despite Lucifer essentially going to bat for humanity by the end of this episode, he’s still stuck with the unfortunate dilemma of having to hide his true self—because no matter how many times he says who he is, none of it really counts until he shows his true face—from Chloe in order for things to function smoothly enough. For all of his, well, devilry, Lucifer remains awful at lying, and he’s even worse at attempting to deflect when it comes to his own independent investigation of the case-of-the-week (with Ella’s help). So after last week’s reconnection of sorts, Chloe and Lucifer’s return to trust and friendship is immediately stunted by Lucifer doing his best to keep his family’s name and weapon out of the murder conversation.
The bright side is that Tom Ellis can sell just about any version of Lucifer, and flustered, secret-keeping Lucifer is one he can obviously play in his sleep by now. Lucifer then makes an even better choice by having Lauren German play her own version of this with Chloe’s belief that Lucifer is having a secret relationship with Ella. Wide-eyed incredulity—and let’s be honest, jealousy—is another good look for Chloe, though it’s one that is most likely good in small doses. Luckily, this episode is that dose and it goes down just right. Lucifer’s relationship with Dr. Linda also leads to some good reaction work, as the return to “normal” in this situation involves a readjustment period full of many questions about the ins and outs of Hell. Unsurprisingly, Rachael Harris remains an absolute delight as she sells Dr. Linda’s transition from the stage of absolute fear to one of being totally overwhelmed.
“Trip To Stabby Town” really is a fun episode of Lucifer—which is much needed after “My Little Monkey”—as well as a solid set-up episode and template for how celestial weapons function in the show’s greater mythology. Plus, it’s kind of refreshing to take a break from the emotionally-draining heartbreak that’s fueled this season so far. At the same time, as intense as the actual case-of-the-week is, given the circumstances, this episode is far less heavy than expected. The show does well to figure a way out of having the blade end up with an innocent person (and the memory loss is a very good touch), but while Amenadiel brings up how human interaction with celestial relics is a recipe for disaster, that doesn’t completely come across here. And it’s not just because “Charlotte” is responsible for this: The episode opens with a brutal killing which falls in line with this, but there’s also a massacre crime scene that becomes an afterthought to a (great) comedic bit. And with the exception of the last victim, plenty of innocent people die in this episode. Yet there’s a detachment from this case that comes across like a trade-off for the ability to have that much death, which doesn’t quite fit Lucifer’s typical approach to the subject. It’s not as though Lucifer can’t pull off a trivialization of this type of thing, but it’s not it’s usual style.
But Lucifer has quickly become the type of show where even a slightly off aspect of an episode does no true harm to a winner on the levels that truly count, and “Trip To Stabby Town” maintains that distinction. There’s simply too much to enjoy in this episode, all dead human things considered: Maze and Amenadiel’s crime team-up (and Amenadiel’s subsequent poor trash-talking), Lucifer’s amazingly uncomfortable sex talk with his mother, Dan’s very existence at this point of the series, the nonexistent Chloe/Lucifer/Ella triangle. It’s still somewhat hard to believe that a show about a “Devil Cop” is getting so many things right and doing so while also remaining a perfect hour-long break from the world, but that’s where we’re at with Lucifer right now. It’s been one hell of a ride, and based on how “Trip To Stabby Town” ends, it’s only just begun. Not bad for an episode of television titled “Trip To Stabby Town.”
Early on, Lucifer looks for meaning in the sandwich Chloe made for him at the end of last week’s episode. The sandwich even gets “previously on” time dedicated to it. Lucifer can be a difficult show to explain.
Without the context of the blade’s function, the opening teaser with the victim and the killer is an aggressively violent start for Lucifer. I’d compare it to Scream in terms of tone, specifically the Stab movie franchise within Scream. It’s even written (“It’s you? You’re kidding me, right?”) and directed (the lack of truly helpful passersby in the chase) as such. Though it’s done very well, especially with the happy music playing at the beginning and end of the scene, it’s also the beginning of the tonal incongruity in this plot. It makes more sense in hindsight, but at the same time, the selfie showing the murder is absolute nonsense.
Speaking of writing and directing choices, the scene where characters continuously come and go from Lucifer’s place is a standout of the episode, even as it leads to the expected beat of Chloe walking in on Lucifer and Ella. Pop-Tarts have never been so cool; sorry, Gilmore Girls.
Lucifer: “Sis is no sweet peach, is she?” They don’t talk too much about Azrael, but after all this, one can assume she has to show up sooner rather than later. Surely she must be looking for her blade. Despite his selective hearing, God listens, and him knowing where Azrael’s blade is should eventually lead her to it.
Amenadiel’s loyalty to his mother is admirable on a certain level, but it’s also clearly a result of how he just can’t be his own person. Amenadiel is a follower. He follows his dad, he even follows Lucifer, and based on this episode, he also apparently follows style trends. Now, he’s following his mom, even though there’s no way that doesn’t spell the type of trouble cheesy noodles can’t fix.
Speaking of mommy dearest, I’d never been speechless during a Lucifer scene… until this episode. Every single thing “Charlotte” said to Lucifer about sex (particularly the “reverse cowgirl”) and the Ella/Lucifer reenactment scene had me at a loss for words. So if “Stabby Town” is really a Lucifer writers room inside joke about penises, I’m not surprised.
You know who else lived in Hell and only found his true self when he came to Los Angeles, just like Lucifer? Krevlornswath of the Deathwok Clan, Lorne from Angel. That’s some good company to be in.
Dan being an adult who takes responsibility for his own actions (despite being under the thrall of a magic blade) is the best thing to happen to a character who’s been having a string of episodes that have all been the best thing to happen to him. Plus, this version of Dan can apparently have a healthy, teasing conversation with his ex-wife without it getting weird. His blade attack has him blaming Lucifer for the dissolution of his marriage and the disappearance of his precinct pudding, but ultimately, he’s able to acknowledge that none of that is actually true. Except for the pudding thing, that is. Is it magic or just will power? That’s yet to be seen. But it works, because Dan works now.
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VOLUNTEER OF THE SPOTLIGHT: Delia McGinnis
Our amazing Volunteer is Delia McGinnis. Delia is always willing to help to do what needs to be done. When TWAA needed a new Treasurer after Molly Swensen retired from that position, there was no one prepared to step in. The Board had downsized to 4 very busy members, in preparation for some reorganization. It was Delia who stepped up to the plate and took on the responsibilities as Interim Treasurer – for art’s sake!Delia first became interested in art in high school, but it wasn’t until college that she began sketching to take a break from science and pharmacology classes. Once she graduated with her degree in nursing and became an Army nurse, her focus turned to her work as an Emergency Room and Intensive Care nurse. Artistic pursuits had to wait.
Once out of the Army, Delia took classes in art appreciation and art history at the local college and was filled with awe at the art and artists she studied, especially Monet, Van Gogh and the Italian artists. She continued painting and taking art classes when she moved to Seattle, where she also was able to pursue the love of opera that she acquired when listening to her godfather’s opera records. Finally, she could enjoy live performances! But, as before, her work took precedence. She traveled for work and taught in a military equivalent of an LPN program through her Army Reserve unit.
When Delia retired and moved to the KP full time she decided to try watercolor. She started going to Artists Blend, a group of artists loosely affiliated with TWAA. Inspired by so many talented and multi-faceted artists, she took some water color classes and now has a group that she paints with on a regular basis.
Delia joined Two Waters in 2016 and became a board member in 2017. She is currently the chair of the membership committee and also volunteered to be the interim treasurer while we recruit a full time one, despite her lack of experience and comfort in that area. Why? Delia says, “I believe in Two Waters and its mission so I am dedicated to helping to make it a dynamic organization that serves its members and the youth of the KP.”
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Read Next: Leonardo DiCaprio-Produced Doc 'Sea of Shadows' Takes on Mexican Cartels
December 10, 1995 11:00PM PT
Helmer Noyce hits Hill to lobby for artists’ rights
By Dennis Wharton
Dennis Wharton
Computer Reps Rap Digital Plan
Hundt Calls For Political Ad Fund
D.C. Court Upholds Must-Carry Rule
Phillip Noyce – the helmer of “Clear and Present Danger,” who was furious when key footage from his film was “borrowed” for use in the Paramount TV show “JAG” – was on Capitol Hill Dec. 8 to lobby for tougher film labeling legislation.
Noyce was joined by representatives from the Directors Guild of America, which has relentlessly pursued strong moral rights legislation. At issue is a bill backed by the DGA, screenwriters and cinematographers requiring films altered or colorized for TV, airplanes or homevideo to carry disclaimers listing the objections of the pic’s creative artists.
Though for years the Motion Picture Assn. of America has successfully fought to keep the film labeling bill bottled up in congressional committees, DGA representatives think Paramount’s use of “Clear and Present Danger” footage in “JAG” could bolster their support in Congress.
The Nov. 11 segment of “JAG” included the memorable “kill zone” scene from the film, in which Jack Ryan, played by actor Harrison Ford, attempts to maneuver his van through a small street to avoid being shot by terrorists. Paramount later apologized for using the scene, saying it “may have gone too far” in an effort “to make the best television show possible.”
Paramount was legally permitted to use the “kill zone” scene because the studio owns the copyright to both the film and the TV show. But Noyce claims the studio’s use of the scene exposes a weakness in U.S. copyright law, and makes it all the more necessary for Congress to pass a law giving more intellectual property protection to creative authors of films.
“In a digital world, the chances for distortion of film are increasing exponentially,” said Noyce.
Noyce aired his copyright gripes before a group of lawmakers including Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Robert Bennett (R-Utah).
More Scene
Dwyane Wade, Megan Rapinoe Win Big at 2019 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Sports Awards
The 2019 Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Sports Awards was filled with incredible athletes, inspiring moments and — of course — a massive amount of slime. “I love the kids. I love the slime. I loved the games. I love seeing celebrities and athletes like become kids again. And it’s like my favorite thing,” Michael Strahan told [...]
Dave Bautista Talks Representation in Hollywood and Defying Stereotypes with 'Stuber'
Dave Bautista and Kumail Nanjiani make an unlikely duo in “Stuber,” an R-rated comedy about a police officer and his Uber driver. But the two connected over the rare chance to star in the film as actors of Asian descent (Baustia is half-Filipino and Nanjiani is Pakistani). “I’ve been stereotyped for a couple different reasons [...]
How Jamie Bell Transformed Into a Neo-Nazi for 'Skin'
Anyone who still associates British actor Jamie Bell with his breakout role as a young boy who dreams of becoming a ballet dancer will quickly forget all about “Billy Elliot” after seeing “Skin,” which screened at ArcLight Hollywood on Thursday night. “I was shocked,” the film’s writer-director, Guy Nattiv, told Variety of his leading man’s [...]
Michael Strahan Throws Support Behind U.S. Women's Soccer Team's Call for Equal Pay
The U.S. Women’s national soccer team can count Michael Strahan as a supporter — and not just because of their World Cup win on Sunday. “I think it’s amazing. I think they should enjoy it. I think they should soak it all in because they deserve every bit of it,” Strahan told Variety on the [...]
Leonardo DiCaprio-Produced Doc 'Sea of Shadows' Takes on Mexican Cartels
Leonardo DiCaprio‘s latest eco-documentary “Sea of Shadows” doesn’t shy away from taking on Mexican cartels. “For some of the guys there, he is state enemy number one at the moment,” said producer Wolfgang Knöpfler at the documentary’s premiere on Wednesday night at Neuehouse in Los Angeles. “The cartels don’t like him.” Appian Way and DiCaprio [...]
ESPY Awards 2019: What You Didn’t See on TV
The ESPYs’ television broadcast only paints so much of the picture of what went down at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles from sports’ biggest award ceremony. Viewers at home saw Tracy Morgan host, celebrities like Sandra Bullock present and athletes including Drew Brees, Alex Morgan and Giannis Antetokounmpo receive awards, but they didn’t quite [...]
'Queen & Slim' First Look, Motown Panel With Valerie Jarrett Highlight Essence Festival Events
Universal Pictures hosted an exclusive preview event at Essence Festival Saturday to screen the first twelve minutes of “Queen & Slim,” the hotly anticipated film written by Lena Waithe and directed by Melina Matsoukas, known for her visionary work with Beyoncé (“Lemonade,” “Formation”) and “Insecure.” Held at the historic Gallier Hall in New Orleans, the [...]
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January 18, 2010 7:08PM PT
Film distrib Area23a opens its doors
Company will focus on social issue and music pics
Indie vets Richard Abramowitz and Kirt Eftekhar are launching specialized film distributor Area23a to focus on event driven films with a special emphasis on social issue and music performance pics.
First films are Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman’s “Soundtrack for a Revolution,” which tells the story of the American civil rights movement through music of the time, and Sandi Cioffi’s “Sweet Crude,” a documentary on the fight for oil control in the Niger Delta. “Soundtrack” is one of the 15 finalists for the Oscar documentary award.
Eftekhar said, “We are going to produce thematic, movie-based events focused on well-defined audiences that we plan to nurture and cultivate. It’s experiential entertainment.”
Area23a has also signed a home entertainment output deal with New Video, which will handle physical goods and digital distribution.
Abramowitz has been involved with performance-related films dating back to Jonathan Demme’s “Stop Making Sense” in 1984. Through his Abramorama shingle, which will continue operating, he’s handled Sacha Gervasi’s “Anvil! The Story of Anvil,” John Turturro’s “Romance and Cigarettes,” Neil Young’s “Greendale,” and the upcoming Demme film “Neil Young Trunk Show.”
Eftekhar has produced and distributed “Big Rig” directed by Doug Pray, “Porn Star: The Legend of Ron Jeremy” directed by Scott Gill, and the upcoming documentary “Wild in the Streets” directed by Peter Baxter.
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List of Organizations Working on Income Inequality
Inequality-Related Organizations and Institutions
Flickr/creative commons
We’ve spent the last few days tweeting and writing on this website to draw more people’s attention to the scourge of income inequality. There’s really no time to spare. Rectifying income inequality is the one and only solution to rescuing our failing economy, but it is also a matter of life and death.
We published a list of wealthy and powerful folks who understand the problem and what needs to be done who can be tapped as resources, sponsors, and donors. Today, we are publishing this list of organizations compiled by inequality.org, which you can join and/or work in coalition with, or consult as a guides to your own activism.
New Economy Working Group An informal think tank-media-business network alliance working to distribute and root economic power in people and communities, support the cooperative sharing of resources, and give priority to building the community wealth essential to the health and well-being of all.
Other 98 Percent A grassroots network of concerned citizens fed up with the status quo in Washington that’s seeking practical solutions to help Americans stand against the bankers, CEOs, and lobbyists who’ve hijacked our democracy to serve themselves at the expense of everyone else.
US UNCUT. A national grassroots movement drawing attention through direct action to unnecessary state and federal budget cuts in light of billions of dollars in unpaid taxes by corporate tax dodgers.
Common Security Club A network of locally based groups, situated in communities and congregations, that help participants learn more about today’s economic and ecological challenges, undertake mutual aid and shared action, and become part of a larger effort to create a fair and healthy economy that works for everyone.
Mind the Gap. An educational effort, sponsored by NETWORK, the national Catholic social justice lobby, that aims to help build understanding “about the causes and consequences of this huge wealth gap.”
Wealth for Common Good A network of business leaders and high-income Americans working together to promote shared prosperity and fair taxation, with members who range from entrepreneurs and doctors to elected officials of all backgrounds and political stripes.
Business for Shared Prosperity Business owners, executives, and investors who support public policies and business practices that expand economic opportunity, reduce inequality, promote innovation, and rebuild our nation’s infrastructure for long-term success.
United for a Fair Economy A national group working to raise awareness about how concentrated wealth and power undermine the economy, corrupt democracy, deepen the racial divide, and tear communities apart.
On the Commons. A national network working to protect the commons and our commonwealth in ways that promote equity and sustainability.
Economic Policy Institute This Washington D.C. center has been broadening the discussion about economic policy to cover the interests of low- and middle-income workers since 1986.
Demos A New York City-based nonpartisan public policy research and advocacy organization working for a more equitable economy with widely shared prosperity and opportunity, among other goals.
Institute for Policy Studies A Washington, D.C. and Boston-based community of public scholars and organizers working with social movements to promote true democracy and challenge concentrated wealth, corporate influence, and military power.
Center for Economic and Policy Research. A national research organization working to promote democratic debate on the most important economic and social issues that affect people’s lives.
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities A Washington, D.C.-based policy organization working at the federal and state levels on policies and programs that impact low- and moderate-income families and individuals.
Institute for Women’s Policy Research. A rigorous research group that explores how poverty and inequality affect women and also examines pay inequality between women and men.
INEQUALITY ANALYSIS
The Equality Trust A London-based effort, founded in 2009, that aims to reduce income inequality through a public and political education designed to widen understanding of the harm that income inequality inflicts on our modern societies.
Citizens for Tax Justice A Washington, D.C.-based public interest research and advocacy organization that seeks to give ordinary people a greater voice in tax policy, against the armies of special interest lobbyists for corporations and the wealthy.
Luxembourg Income Study A cross-national data archive and research institute based in Luxembourg that offers scholars and the general public alike access to comparative inequality indicators and commentary.
The Gini Project An interdisciplinary effort that draws on economics, sociology, political science, and health studies to examine the social impact of growing inequality.
Population Health Forum A Seattle-based initiative designed to raise awareness and initiate dialogue about how political, economic, and social inequalities interact to affect the overall health status of our society.
Cornell University Center for the Study of Inequality Endeavors to foster basic and applied research on social and economic inequalities, as well as the processes by which such inequalities change and persist.
Columbia University Center for the Study of Wealth and Inequality Takes as its mission the investigation of income and wealth, along with exploring the dimensions of societal inequality in these household resources.
Stanford Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality Works to orient social policy to increasing economic output while restraining the rise of debilitating and counterproductive forms of inequality.
University of California at Berkeley Center for Equitable Growth Focuses on the linkages between inequality and economic growth, the impact of government policies on the distribution of economic well-being, and how public attitudes on equity and fairness affect the policy process. Led by economist Emmanuel Saez.
University of Texas Inequality Project Aims to measure and explain movements of inequality in wages and earnings and patterns of industrial change around the world.
Egalitarian World Initiative/University College Dublin Networks over 100 scholars working on social justice issues.
See also: Income Inequality Dampens Economic Growth for Rich and Poor Alike, and The Wealthy and Powerful Aid Social and Economic Justice Activists.
in Grassroots / Key Issues / News of Note / Op-Ed / Public Information / Uncategorized by Alison Gardner 10 Aug 2014 10 Aug 2014 0 comments
Post tagsEconomygrassrootsincome inequalitypoorrichwealthy
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Tim Gillette
Tim is the Firm’s Managing Partner, and is also in charge of the Firm’s audit and accounting practice and the Firm’s designated Quality Control Partner. He is a licensed CPA in Oregon, Washington and Idaho, a licensed municipal auditor in Oregon, and a Certified Fraud Examiner. Tim is a member of the Oregon Society of Certified Public Accountants (OSCPA), the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE).
Tim joined TKW in 2001. Previously he worked for “Big 4” public accounting firms in Amsterdam, Honolulu, Portland, and Omaha. Tim has led training in US GAAP & GAAS at local, national and international levels. He previously served on the Oregon Board of Accountancy’s Peer Review Task Force. Tim’s varied career of over 40 years in public accounting and private industry includes stints as an analyst for a mining company, as a home builder, as vice president finance of a developer/operator in the hospitality industry, and as general manager of a manufacturer of truck parts.
Tim has a Masters in Business Administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Arkansas. He is president of the Wharton Alumni Club of Portland and was active previously in the Multnomah Athletic Club, where he is the past chair of the Karate Committee, the Budget Subcommittee, the Membership Committee, and on the House Committee, and served on the Audit Committee.
Send an email to Tim.
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It's September, and for a moviegoing audience, you know what that means. It's that time of the year in between the summer blockbuster and the award season. Translated? Time to dump the crappy movies in theaters that don't fit anywhere else. Thin pickings in other words, but if you're looking for a worthwhile venture, try 2012's The Words.
With several years of struggles and rejection letters to show for his work, Rory Jansen (Bradley Cooper) is at a career crossroads of sorts as an aspiring writer. He lives in NYC with his wife, Dora (Zoe Saldana), hoping to write the novel that will put his name on the literary map. Finally, Rory gets his chance. In a hidden panel of a briefcase he carries, Rory finds an unpublished story that is profound and perfect in its message. Wanting nothing more than to become a respected writer, Rory turns in the transcript as his own and fame and accolades follow. "His" novel opens all sorts of doors until one day, an old man (Jeremy Irons) confronts him, claiming the story is his own. What should, or can Rory do?
That's the most streamlined plot description I can come up with because for lack of a better description....this is a gimmick movie. It is actually a story within a story within a story. Confused much? Don't be, I'm making it more complicated than necessary. Rory's story though is actually that of a novel written by acclaimed novelist Clay Hammond (Dennis Quaid), doing a reading of the story for a captive audience. As Clay reads the story, we see the story of Rory, Dora and the plagiarized novel. On top of that, we also get the Old Man's background, Irons explaining to Rory how his story came to be. Maybe gimmick isn't an appropriate description, but it's not enough you see a story like this. Confusing? No, not once you get in rhythm. A little odd? Yes, but acceptable as long as I kept reminding myself what was going on.
So with that gimmick, your enjoyment will come from how much you're willing to go along with that twisting story. The Quaid portion was the least interesting for me. His Hammond must deal with an adoring fan (Olivia Wilde) who knows everything about him, bordering on stalker territory. A minor issue here; Hammond's novel he reads from has the simplicity of a Dick and Jane story. 'Rory likes Dora...Rory and Dora move in together...Rory and Dora get married.' The Rory and Dora relationship is some familiar territory if predictable, but it's interesting to watch the moral dilemma develop in Rory's eyes. The highlight though in a too short late 1940s post WWII Paris is Irons' story of how he originally wrote his novel that Rory claims as his own.
Across the three stories though, the casting is solid to above average. Cooper is showing he can do a wide variety of roles -- drama, action, comedy -- and doesn't disappoint as the aspiring writer. What he does through his actions are despicable, but his head and heart start tearing away at him almost immediately. Saldana as the loving wife who wants what's best for her husband is well-cast as well. Quaid is acceptable in a workmanlike role that doesn't give him much to do while Wilde is subtle but more than a little creepy. Jeremy Irons as the unnamed Old Man is the highlight though, his deep, scratchy voice bringing the movie up a notch. Also look for J.K. Simmons as Rory's dad, Zeljko Ivanek as Rory's publisher/editor, Ben Barnes as Irons as a young man, and Nora Arnezeder as his wife, Celia.
Where 'Words' struggles some is the end. In a story about personal integrity, morals and ethics, how one bad decision can derail the lives of so many, of paying for that mistake or skating by, 'Words' doesn't how to end. It doesn't always know how to get there either. At just 96 minutes, the last 30 minutes drags as Rory decides what to do about his dilemma. There's also some twists and turns in the Quaid storyline, but it's an open-ended finale. Now all that said I enjoyed this movie, the story and the performances. It's refreshing to see a story-driven movie without a ton of sex, violence, drugs and explosions. Gotta take your chances when you can get them.
The Words <---trailer (2012): ***/****
Posted by Tim at 12:15 PM
Labels: 2010s, Bradley Cooper, Dennis Quaid, Jeremy Irons, JK Simmons, Olivia Wilde, Zoe Saldana
Cry of Battle
Charro!
The Unholy Four
Morning Departure
The Mechanic (2011)
Reign of Fire
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Tom Grimes Photography
Portfolio/Interiors 1 Portfolio/Interiors 2 Portfolio/Retail Display Bio Client List Contact Special Projects/Williams College Special Projects/Drone Images Portfolio/Exteriors
Tom Grimes began his career as a photographer after graduating from Kenyon College where he received a degree in Fine Arts. He moved to New York City and started as a photography assistant to fashion photographers Mike Reinhardt, Gordon Munro and Michael O’Brien. He traveled the world working on fashion shoots and major advertising campaigns. Going out on his own, Tom’s early career stayed true to his fashion roots, shooting for W, Seventeen Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, Bill Blass and others. His assignments also included black and white printing for Richard Avedon. Tom’s love for architecture eventually led him in that direction and that is now the focus of his work. In addition to his work with interior designers, architects and design studios he photographs editorial pieces for The New York Times, Chanel, House Beautiful, Design NJ and Princeton Magazine.
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Professor Falsely Accused of Murdering Own Parents Insists Adnan Syed Be Granted New Trial
News By TooFab Staff | April 19, 2019 2:14 PM
Speaking to TooFab, law professor Colin Miller, who also has a podcast examining the case, confirmed that the latest denial of a new trial for Adnan was based on a technicality, and nothing else.
Adnan Syed deserves a new trial, according to a man who was wrongly convicted of murdering his own parents.
Marty Tankleff, who was jailed for 17 years as a 17 year old, wrote an op-ed for the Baltimore Sun detailing why Syed's case must be re-examined.
The article had the backing of 41 other falsely convicted exonerees.
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"As a victim of a wrongful murder conviction that was finally overturned after nearly 18 years, I know firsthand how difficult it is to get a wrongful conviction reversed, even when there is evidence of your innocence," he wrote.
He described how at just 17-years-old his parents were killed at their Long Island Home. "Police questioned me for hours with no attorney present, insisted I was guilty and falsely claimed both that my father had implicated me before dying and that my hair had been found in my mother’s hands," he recalled.
"I was finally exonerated and released after new evidence and witnesses established others were responsible for the crime and disproved the story that had been fed to me during my interrogation. But it took years and countless petitions and appeals in both state and federal courts to finally get the opportunity to even have this new evidence considered."
Syed's case, which has received worldwide attention thanks to the Serial podcast, has been involved in a back and forth throughout the appeals courts over whether or not he deserves a new trial.
Like Tankleff, Adnan was aged 17 when he was convicted of murder, of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee.
Global attention has intensified scrutiny on the case and has highlighted inconsistencies with the evidence against him; his defense team have honed in on two points specifically that his original (now deceased) lawyer Christina Gutierrez never picked up on, in the attempt to grant him a new trial.
One involves a friend of Adnan's and potential alibi Asia McClain, who claimed she was with Adnan at the school library at the time Hae was supposedly killed.
Lisa Rinna's Mom Was the Infamous Trailside Killer's First Victim
The second involves the fact that the prosecution relied heavily on the testimony of an AT&T cellphone tower expert who verified evidence that Adnan was in Leakin Park where Hae's body was buried — evidence that was later discovered to be completely unreliable.
A judge had initially granted a new trial based on the second point, arguing that while Gutierrez had messed up by not interviewing the potential alibi, it would not have swayed the jury because the time of Hae's death could have come afterward.
However the prosecution argued that because Adnan's lawyer Justin Brown only included the alibi point on his petition for a new trial (and not the unreliable cell tower evidence, having not been aware of it at the time), and the appeals court overturned the decision. So despite a judge agreeing the new cell tower evidence could have swayed a jury, an administrative technicality barred its inclusion.
Professor Miller believes Adnan will eventually be granted a new trial, but that the latest snafu will set him back another 1-2 years, on top of the 20 he has already served for a crime he insists he did not commit.
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"This comes at a time when we are more aware than ever of the inadequacies of our criminal justice system," Tankleff said, pointing out that according to the National Registry of Exonerations, 2018 was a record year for wrongful conviction cases: 151 exonerations of individuals who have spent a collective 1,639 years in prison.
Official misconduct was uncovered in at least 107 exoneration cases, and 31 individuals who had been framed by police were exonerated in one city alone — Chicago.
"This data suggest that, rather than looking for ways to deny relief, courts and prosecutors alike should be even more willing to taking a second look in cases where errors were undeniably committed," he said.
"What really haunts me about Mr. Syed’s case is how it parallels so many other wrongful convictions, in that he hasn’t been given his rightful opportunity to have all of the evidence heard. Our stories should make anyone with a conscience scream out loud. Have we learned nothing?"
He concluded: "Courts need to start taking a fresh approach when reviewing claims of wrongful convictions — precedence shows us that we, as a society and a court system, have been wrong way too many times to let another potentially innocent person fall through the cracks again."
In 2014 Tankleff was awarded $3.4 million from the state for settling his wrongful conviction lawsuit. He went on to study law himself, and is now an Innocence Project Exoneree advisory board member.
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[Docs] [txt|pdf] [Tracker] [WG] [Email] [Diff1] [Diff2] [Nits]
Versions: 00 01 02 03 04 RFC 6094
Internet Draft October 2010
Network Working Group Manav Bhatia
Internet Draft Alcatel-Lucent
Expires: April 2011 Vishwas Manral
Intended Status: Informational IP Infusion
Cryptographic Authentication Algorithm Implementation
Requirements for Routing Protocols
draft-ietf-opsec-igp-crypto-requirements-02.txt
This Internet-Draft is submitted to IETF in full conformance with
the provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.
Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that
http://www.ietf.org/1id-abstracts.html
This Internet-Draft will expire on March 28, 2011.
publication of this document. Please review these documents
to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must
Bhatia and Manral [Page 1]
The routing protocols Open Shortest Path First version 2 (OSPFv2),
Intermediate System to Intermediate System (IS-IS) and Routing
Information Protocol (RIP) currently define Clear Text and MD5
(Message Digest 5) methods for authenticating protocol packets.
Recently effort has been made to add support for the SHA (Secure Hash
Algorithm) family of hash functions for the purpose of authenticating
routing protocol packets for RIP, IS-IS and OSPF.
To encourage interoperability between disparate implementations, it
is imperative that we specify the expected minimal set of algorithms
thereby ensuring that there is at least one algorithm that all
implementations will have in common.
This document examines the current set of available algorithms with
interoperability and effective cryptographic authentication
protection being the principle considerations. Cryptographic
authentication of these routing protocols requires the availability
of the same algorithms in disparate implementations. It is desirable
that newly specified algorithms should be implemented and available
in routing protocol implementations because they may be promoted to
requirements at some future time.
1. Introduction...................................................3
2. Intermediate System to Intermediate System (IS-IS).............4
2.1 Authentication Scheme Selection............................4
2.2 Authentication Algorithm Selection.........................5
3. Open Shortest Path First Version 2(OSPFv2).....................5
4. Open Shortest Path First Version 3 (OSPFv3)....................6
5. Routing Information Protocol Version 2 (RIPv2).................6
6. Routing Information Protocol for IPv6 (RIPng)..................8
7. Security Considerations........................................8
8. Acknowledgements...............................................9
9. IANA Considerations............................................9
10. References....................................................9
10.1 Normative References......................................9
10.2 Informative References...................................10
Author's Addresses...............................................10
Most routing protocols include three different types of
authentication schemes: Null authentication, Clear Text Password and
a Cryptographic Authentication scheme. Null authentication is
equivalent to having no authentication scheme at all.
In a clear text scheme, also known as, simple password scheme, the
password is exchanged in the clear on the network and anyone with
physical access to the network can learn the password and compromise
the integrity of the routing domain. While the Password scheme
protects from accidental establishment of routing session in a given
domain, it offers little additional protection.
In a cryptographic authentication scheme, routers share a secret key
which is used to generate a message authentication code for each of
the protocol packets. Today, message authentication codes often use
a keyed MD5 digest. The recent escalating series of attacks on MD5
raise concerns about its remaining useful lifetime. These attacks may
not necessarily result in direct vulnerabilities for keyed MD5
digests as message authentication codes because the colliding message
may not correspond to a syntactically correct protocol packet. There
is a however a need felt to deprecate MD5 [RFC1321] in favor of
stronger message authentication code algorithms.
In light of these considerations there have been proposals for adding
support of the SHA [SHS] family of hash algorithms for authenticating
routing protocol packets in RIP [RFC2453], IS-IS [ISO] [RFC1195] and
OSPF [RFC2328].
However, the nature of cryptography is that algorithmic
improvement is an ongoing process and as is the exploration and
refinement of attack vectors. An algorithm believed to be strong
today may be demonstrated to be weak tomorrow. Given this, the choice
of preferred algorithm should favor the minimization of the
likelihood of it being compromised quickly.
It should be recognized that preferred algorithm(s) will change over
time to adapt to the evolving threats. The selection of preferred
algorithms may well not be reflected in the base protocol
specification. As protocols are extended the preference for presently
stronger algorithms presents a problem both on the question of
interoperability of existing and future implementations with respect
to standards and operational preference for the configuration as
deployed. This document intends to provide guidance to implementers
in anticipation of operational preference.
It is expected an implementation should support changing of Security
(Authentication) Keys. Changing Keys periodically is a good security
Implementations can support in-service key change so that no control
packets are lost. During such Key change more than one key can be
active for receiving packets for a session. Some protocols support
Key ID which allows the two ends of a session to have multiple keys
simultaneously for a session. Key change however is managed outside
the scope of the protocols themselves and can be done manually via
operator intervention, or dynamically based on some timer or a
security protocol.
Intermediate System to Intermediate System (IS-IS)
The IS-IS specification allows for authentication of its Protocol
Data Units (PDUs) via the authentication TLV (TLV 10) in the PDU. The
base specification had provisions only for clear text passwords. RFC
5304 [RFC5304] extends the authentication capabilities by providing
HMAC-MD5 authentication for IS-IS PDUs.
RFC 5310 [RFC5310] adds support for the use of the SHA family of hash
algorithms for authenticating IS-IS PDUs.
Authentication Scheme Selection
In order for IS-IS implementations to interoperate with the use of
security, they must support one or more authentication schemes in
common. This section specifies the preference for standards
conformant IS-IS implementations, which desire to utilize the
security feature.
The earliest interoperability requirement for authentication as
stated by [ISO] [RFC1195] required all implementations to support
Clear Text Password. This authentication scheme's utility is limited
to precluding the accidental introduction of a new IS into a
broadcast domain. We believe that operators should not use this
scheme as it provides no protection against an attacker with access
to the broadcast domain as anyone can determine the secret password
through inspection of the PDU. This mechanism does not provide any
significant level of security and should be avoided.
[RFC5304] mandates the use of HMAC-MD5 for cryptographically
authenticating the IS-IS PDUs. It is likely that this may get
deprecated in favor of the generic cryptographic authentication
scheme defined in [RFC5310] in the future deployments, so new
implementations should support this scheme.
2.2 Authentication Algorithm Selection
For IS-IS implementations to interoperate with the use of security,
they must have support for one or more authentication algorithms in
common.
This section details the authentication algorithm requirements for
standards conformant IS-IS implementations.
deprecated in favor of HMAC-SHA-1 as defined in [RFC5310] in the
future deployments, so new implementations should support this
algorithm.
Implementations may start providing support for HMAC-SHA-256/HMAC-
SHA-384/HMAC-SHA-512 as these algorithms may be necessary in the
Open Shortest Path First Version 2(OSPFv2)
OSPFv2 as defined in [RFC2328] includes three different types of
authentication schemes: Null authentication, simple password and
cryptographic authentication. Null authentication is semantically
equivalent to no authentication. In the simple password scheme of
authentication, the passwords are exchanged in the clear on the
network. Anyone with physical access to the network can learn the
password and compromise the security of the OSPFv2 domain.
In the cryptographic authentication scheme, the OSPFv2 routers on a
common network/subnet are configured with a shared secret which is
used to generate a keyed MD5 digest for each packet. A monotonically
increasing sequence number scheme is used to protect against replay
attacks.
algorithms for authentication of OSPFv2 packets.
3.1 Authentication Scheme Selection
For OSPF implementations to interoperate with the use of security,
they must have one or more authentication schemes in common. This
section specifies the preference for standards conformant OSPFv2
implementations, which desire to utilize the security feature.
While all implementations will have NULL auth since it's mandated by
[RFC2328], its use is not appropriate in any context where the
operator wishes to authenticate OSPFv2 packets in their network.
Similarly Simple Password, also mandatory per [RFC2328], should be
used when the operator only wants to preclude the accidental
introduction of a router into the domain. This scheme is not useful
when the operator wants to authenticate the OSPFv2 packets.
Cryptographic Authentication is a mandatory scheme as defined in
[RFC2328] and all conformant implementations must support this.
Authentication Algorithm Selection
For OSPFv2 implementations to interoperate with the use of security,
they must support one or more cryptographic authentication algorithms
in common.
[RFC2328] states that implementations must offer keyed MD5
authentication. It is likely that this will be deprecated in favor of
HMAC-SHA-1 and HMAC-SHA-256 [RFC5709] in future deployments, so new
implementations should support these algorithms.
Operators should consider migration to HMAC-SHA-256 if they desire a
stronger cryptographic algorithm for authentication of OSPFv2
packets.
Implementations may start providing support for HMAC-SHA-1/HMAC-SHA-
384/HMAC-SHA-512 [RFC5709] as these algorithms may be preferred in
Open Shortest Path First Version 3 (OSPFv3)
OSPFv3 [RFC5340] relies on the IPv6 Authentication Header (AH)
[RFC4302] and IPv6 Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP) [RFC4303] in
order to provide integrity, authentication, and/or confidentiality.
[RFC4522] mandates the use of ESP for authenticating OSPFv3 packets.
The implementations could also provide support for using AH to
protect these packets.
The algorithm requirements for AH and ESP are described in [RFC4835]
and are not discussed here.
Routing Information Protocol Version 2 (RIPv2)
RIPv2, originally specified in [RFC1388], then [RFC1723], has been
updated and published as STD56 [RFC2453]. If the Address Family
Identifier of the first (and only the first) entry in the RIPv2
message is 0xFFFF, then the remainder of the entry contains the
authentication information. The [RFC2453] version of the protocol
provides for authenticating packets using a simple password of not
more than 16 octets, in which the password is sent in clear.
"RIP-2 MD5 Authentication" [RFC2082] added support for Keyed-MD5
authentication, where a digest is appended to the end of the RIP
packet. "RIPv2 Cryptographic Authentication" [RFC4822] obsoleted
[RFC2082] and added the SHA family of hash algorithms to the list of
cryptographic authentications that can be used to protect RIPv2,
whereas [RFC2082] previously specified only the use of Keyed MD5.
For RIPv2 implementations to interoperate with the use of security,
one or more authentication schemes must be supported in common. This
section specifies the preference for standards conformant RIPv2
Simple Password is a mandatory to implement scheme as defined in
[RFC2453] and should only be used when the operator wishes to
preclude the accidental introduction of a RIP router into the domain.
This authentication scheme is useful, but not when the operator wants
to protect RIPv2 message exchange in a potentially hostile
[RFC2082] mandates the use of Keyed-MD5. However, [RFC2082] has been
obsoleted by [RFC4822] Cryptographic Authentication. Compliant
implementations must provide support for Keyed-MD5 but should
recognize that this is superseded by Cryptographic Authentication as
Implementations should provide support for [RFC4822] Cryptographic
Authentication as it will likely be the preferred authentication
method in the future.
one or more authentication algorithms must be supported in common
that can be used for authentication.
The keyed MD5 algorithm in [RFC2082] and [RFC4822] must be
implemented. It is our belief that it will be superseded by HMAC-SHA-
1 also available in [RFC4822]. Keyed MD5 must be implemented for
interoperability purposes, but its use may be deprecated in the
Implementations should provide support for HMAC-SHA-1 used in
preference to keyed MD5 the future.
Operators should consider migration to HMAC-SHA-1 if they want to use
stronger cryptographic algorithms for authenticating RIPv2 packets.
Implementations should consider providing support for HMAC-SHA-
256/HMAC-SHA-384/HMAC-SHA-512 as these algorithms may be preferred in
Routing Information Protocol for IPv6 (RIPng)
RIPng [RFC2080] relies on the IPv6 AH and IPv6 ESP to provide
integrity, authentication, and/or confidentiality.
The cryptographic mechanisms referenced in this document provide only
authentication algorithms. These algorithms do not provide
confidentiality. Encrypting the content of the packet and thereby
providing confidentiality is not considered in the definition of the
routing protocols.
The cryptographic strength of the HMAC depends upon the cryptographic
strength of the underlying hash function and on the size and quality
of the key. The feasibility of attacking the integrity of routing
protocol messages protected by Digests may be significantly more
limited than that of other data, however preference for one family of
algorithms over another may also change independently of the
perceived risk to a particular protocol.
To ensure greater security, the keys used should be changed
periodically and implementations must be able to store and use more
than one key at the same time. Operational experience suggests that
the lack of periodic rekeying is a source of significant exposure and
that the lifespan of shared keys in the network is frequently
measured in years.
While simple password schemes are well represented in the document
series and in conformant implementations of the protocols, the
inability to offer either integrity or identity protection are
sufficient reason to strongly discourage their use.
This document concerns itself with the selection of cryptographic
algorithms for use in the authentication of routing protocol packets
being exchanged between adjacent routing processes. The
cryptographic algorithms identified in this document are not known to
be broken at the current time, and ongoing cryptographic research so
far leads us to believe that they will likely remain secure in the
foreseeable future. We expect that new revisions of this document
will be issued in the future to reflect current thinking on the
algorithms various routing protocols should employ to ensure
interoperability between disparate implementations.
We would like to thank Joel Jaeggli for this comments and feedback on
this draft that resulted in significant improvement of the same.
9. IANA Considerations
This document places no requests to IANA.
[RFC2328] Moy, J., "OSPF Version 2", STD 54, RFC 2328, April 1998
[ISO] "Intermediate system to Intermediate system routeing
information exchange protocol for use in conjunction with
the Protocol for providing the Connectionless-mode
Network Service (ISO 8473) ", ISO/IEC 10589:1992
[RFC1195] Callon, R., "Use of OSI IS-IS for routing in TCP/IP and
dual environments", RFC 1195, December 1990.
[RFC2453] Malkin, G., "RIP Version 2", RFC 2453, November 1998
[RFC4822] R. Atkinson and M. Fanto, "RIPv2 Cryptographic
Authentication", RFC 4822, February 2007
[RFC5304] Li, T. and R. Atkinson, "Intermediate System to
Intermediate System (IS-IS) Cryptographic
Authentication", RFC 5304, October 2008
[RFC5340] Coltun, R., et. al, "OSPF for IPv6", RFC 5340, July
[RFC4835] Manral, V., "Cryptographic Algorithm Implementation
Requirements for Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP) and
Authentication Header (AH)", RFC 4835, April 2007
[RFC2080] Malkin, G. and Minnear, R., "RIPng for IPv6", RFC 2080,
[RFC5310] Bhatia, M., et. al., "IS-IS Generic
Cryptographic Authentication", RFC 5310, February 2009
[RFC5709] Bhatia, M., Manral, V., et al., "OSPF HMAC-SHA
Cryptographic Authentication", RFC 5709, October 2009
Informative References
[RFC1321] Rivest, R., "The MD5 Message-Digest Algorithm", RFC
1321, April 1992
[RFC4302] Kent, S., "IP Authentication Header", RFC 4302, December
[RFC4303] Kent, S., "IP Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP)", RFC
4303, December 2005.
[RFC4522] Gupta, M. and Melam, N.,"Authentication/Confidentiality
for OSPFv3", RFC 4522, June 2006
[RFC1388] Malkin, G., "RIP Version 2 Carrying Additional
Information", RFC 1388, January 1993.
[RFC1723] Malkin, G., "RIP Version 2 - Carrying Additional
Information", STD 56, RFC 1723, November 1994.
[RFC2082] Baker, F. and Atkinson, R., "RIP-2 MD5
Authentication", RFC 2082, January 1997
[SHS] National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST),
FIPS Publication 180-3: Secure Hash Standard, October
Author's Addresses
Manav Bhatia
Email: manav.bhatia@alcatel-lucent.com
Vishwas Manral
IP Infusion
Almora, Uttarakhand
Email: vishwas@ipinfusion.com
Bhatia and Manral [Page 10]
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Lagoon Amusement Park
The Book of Nolan
Nearly every society and culture on Earth has a creation story passed down from generation to generation to explain who we are and how we got here. The video game industry is no different. While the details may change based on which sources have been consulted by which authors at which times, here is how the creation story of the video game industry might be rendered:
In the late 1960s, a bright young engineering student named Nolan Bushnell attended college at the University of Utah, home of one of the finest computer science programs in the United States. At Utah, Bushnell became fascinated with computers, learned how to program, and created a few of his own primitive games on the mainframes at the University. He also became enamored with Spacewar!, which the computer science students at the school were constantly playing. After blowing his entire college tuition fund in a high stakes poker game, Bushnell took a job at a local amusement park, where he was soon placed in charge of the coin-operated games. Bushnell realized right away that Spacewar! would make a perfect arcade game, but computers were simply too expensive at the time. Fast forward to California, 1969, when Bushnell learns about the new minicomputers out in the world. Bushnell initially believes this technology will now be cheap enough to recreate the game as a commercial product, but this proves not to be the case. He therefore decides to do the game entirely through hard-wired logic, using integrated circuits to build a system dedicated solely to playing the game. He enlists the help of a fellow engineer to build the power supply and monitor interface and other analog components while he creates the core of the game in his daughter’s bedroom. Released through a local company in 1971 as Computer Space, the game does poorly because the controls are too complicated. Bushnell realizes that he requires a simple concept to introduce video games, so he and a partner chip in $250 each to found a company called Atari and build that simple game idea, a table tennis game called Pong. Pong takes the world by storm as video games quickly displace pinball and all other forms of arcade amusement to launch a new industry.
The above makes for a good story. Unfortunately, much of it is simply not true.
Now I want to be clear on one point: Nolan Bushnell was a visionary. He saw the future of interactive entertainment before practically anyone else and was the first person to create a successful company based solely around video games. Indeed, while an interactive entertainment industry would have formed eventually without his intervention, it is probably fair to say — as Bushnell himself has claimed — that without his insight, it would have developed several years later and in a very different manner (yes, Magnavox released the Odyssey in 1972 independent of Bushnell, but that system had its own problems and console gaming did not take root until several years later after advances in large-scale integration). For demonstrating that a company could thrive solely through creating video games and for choosing to manufacture and market his own products rather than licensing them to a pinball, television, toy, or consumer electronics company, he deserves the title “father of the video game industry” and stands as one of the true titans in the field.
Unfortunately, Mr. Bushnell’s role in the creation of Atari, Computer Space, and Pong, has oft times been exaggerated, while there have also been attempts to alter the timeline of certain events to give Atari primacy over other companies and individuals working on similar technology in parallel. Over time, Bushnell has more readily credited those individuals who helped build Atari’s earliest games and has done much to set the record straight on many aspects of the company’s history, but some questionable material still remains in these accounts. Furthermore, as our understanding of the history has changed over the years, not every publication has kept up with new revelations, meaning that books and articles continue to be written today that parrot outdated and inaccurate information that should have long since disappeared. As with any undertaking that relies primarily on the memories of the individuals involved — most of the documents that could shed light on the period from 1965-1972 having long since vanished — the full truth may never really be known, but in this blog post and those that follow I hope to construct as accurate a picture as possible of the early life and influences of Nolan Bushnell, the birth of Atari, the launch of Pong, and the first halting steps into a new interactive entertainment industry.
A teenage Nolan Bushnell (top row, third from right)
Nolan K. Bushnell was born on February 5, 1943. In a fitting twist considering how many facts surrounding Mr. Bushnell have become confused over the years, not even his place of birth is properly recorded. Most sources state that he was born in Clearfield, Utah, the hometown of his parents Clarence and Delma, but the birth announcement in the February 14, 1943, edition of the Ogden Standard clearly shows that he was actually born in nearby Ogden. Nolan became interested in science and electronics at an early age, crediting this interest in several interviews — including Robert Slater’s book of profiles on computer industry pioneers, Portraits in Silicon — to a third grade science assignment in which he had to teach a unit on electricity to the rest of the class. According to a profile by David Sheff in his book Game Over, Bushnell was also a dreamer from a young age, immersing himself in science fiction and imagining life on far off worlds. According to Sheff, Bushnell remembers building a mockup of a spaceship panel out of an orange crate when he was around six years old.
Both Sheff and Steven Kent in his Ultimate History of Video Games paint a portrait of a restless, creative young man of boundless energy and enthusiasm, a view readily supported by testimony from friends and co-workers over the years and indeed still evident when talking to him today. Sheff describes both Nolan’s electronics exploits — becoming a HAM radio operator at a young age — and his fondness for practical jokes — once staging a prank in which he drove up to a group of friends wearing a ski mask and fired two blank shotgun shells at one of them, who smashed some ketchup packets against his chest and pretended to be shot. He often combined these two interests as well, as both Sheff and Kent recount an incident where he attached a hundred-watt light bulb to a large kite and convinced the neighbors a UFO was hovering over Clearfield. In an interview with the Tech Museum of Innovation, Bushnell described his interest in rocketry and his time spent in a block house in his backyard building ignition systems. According to this interview, he once nearly set the family garage on fire when a liquid-fuel rocket mounted on a roller skate crashed into it. Thankfully, while the fuel canister cracked, the fuel was so volatile that it ignited in a flash and did no lasting damage.
Clearly, Nolan Bushnell knew how to have fun as a boy, but he also knew how to work. Born to Mormon parents — though he ultimately left their religion behind — he was raised on the importance of family and hard work. As Bushnell recounted to Sheff, in the summer of 1958 Clarence Bushnell, who worked as a cement contractor, died, and fifteen-year-old Nolan finished his father’s outstanding jobs himself. In speaking to Kent, Bushnell credited this experience with instilling a belief that he could do any task he set himself to. As he recounted in one of several depositions he gave during patent litigation with Magnavox, Bushnell also held a job with a local business called Barlow Furniture throughout high school in which he did appliance delivery and appliance and TV repair. He continued this job into his early college years as well.
As Bushnell’s early career has come under some scrutiny in recent years, some authors have come to doubt Bushnell’s claims that he was a TV repairman. The main source for this doubt is the recollections of Ted Dabney, co-founder of Atari, who believes this claim improbable based on his observations of Bushnell’s engineering skills and the difficulty involved in tinkering with 1950s televisions. While I am happy to note Dabney’s objection here, I personally give Bushnell the benefit of the doubt on this issue and am willing to believe he did, in fact, repair TVs and appliances in high school and college. He listed this job as part of his work experience in a sworn deposition given on January 13, 1976, and I can see no discernible advantage to lying about this under oath, as it is not a material fact upon which his defense hinged — unlike his University of Utah Spacewar! claims discussed below. Furthermore, in the same deposition, Bushnell claims he mainly “switched tubes around” and that other people did the “heavy repairing.” Finally, he states himself in the deposition that he was better with appliances than with televisions. Therefore, Dabney’s assessment does not necessarily contradict Bushnell, who never claimed under oath to be doing sophisticated TV repair work. On the other hand, in Gamers at Work Bushnell told Morgan Ramsay that he ran a television repair company as a teenager, while Scott Cohen in his history of Atari, Zap!, states that Bushnell ran a television-appliance-radio repair business. These accounts appear to be embellishments of his work at Barlow, as no independent repair operation is referenced in the 1976 deposition. Recently, Bushnell has also started claiming that he was running a TV repair business from the time he was ten years old (see, for example, his February 2013 interview at the Startup Grind conference), but again this appears to be embellishment. In his deposition, Bushnell does describe how he started by fixing neighborhood TVs before the Barlow job, but he never indicates that he had a business to do so and never indicates such a young, and highly improbable, age.
According to his 1976 deposition, Bushnell matriculated to Utah State University in 1961 to study engineering. When speaking to Kent, Bushnell described a paper he wrote during his freshman year in which he argued that a bright person should be able to master — that is be in the 90th percentile — any subject with three years of intensive study. Bushnell claimed that, based on this formulation, his goal was to constantly move from topic to topic, never focusing too long on any one area. This philosophy captures Bushnell perfectly. Growing up, he flitted between science fair projects, debate team, and basketball (having reached his final height of 6’4” by the seventh grade, but according to Cohen never achieving the coordination necessary to do much more than ride the bench) while reading philosophy as a hobby. According to his deposition, after high school Bushnell started at Utah State in engineering, switched to business, transferred to the University of Utah to major in economics in 1965, and finally graduated with an electrical engineering degree with a focus on computer design in December 1968. His entire professional life has been typified by moving from one new idea to the next while rarely sticking with one concept for too long. While this restless energy proved essential to establishing Atari and dreaming up some of the first commercial video games, however, it has also prevented him from effectively managing or sustaining a viable company in the long term. Bushnell has always been better at formulating ideas than at executing them.
There is a story about Nolan Bushnell’s college years that goes back at least as far as Zap! in 1984 and has been more recently parroted by Sheff, Kent, and Tristan Donovan in Replay that Nolan Bushnell blew his tuition money in a high stakes poker game, forcing him to take a job at a local amusement park to make ends meet. While it would not surprise me to learn that Bushnell played high stakes poker — his life is full of evidence of both his devout love of games and his penchant for risk taking — I believe this to be another embellishment. In truth, Bushnell worked throughout high school and college. According to his 1976 deposition, in addition to the Barlow Furniture delivery/repair job he worked for Litton Guidance Systems in the summer of 1962, served as a draftsman for a professor in the Utah State industrial engineering department planning irrigation systems in the Fall of 1962 or 1963, and also worked during the school year at Hadley Clothing. Both his deposition and his interview with Ramsay reference an advertising business he ran for a time in college as well. As Bushnell told Slater, he called this business the Campus Company and produced a blotter three times a year that he distributed free to four local universities. Included within was the calendar of events for the university, surrounded by advertising. Bushnell made his money — a claimed $3,000 per issue — by selling the advertising space. With a production cost of only $500, the blotter delivered Bushnell a tidy profit. In Slater’s book, Bushnell states he took the job at the amusement park to occupy his spare hours because he was afraid he would fritter away his earnings from the blotter if he did not have some other activity to keep him occupied. Perhaps he came to this realization due to losing at (or fearing to lose at) poker, but in Slater’s book he emphasizes a fear that he would spend the money, not gamble it away. In short, the sum of the evidence indicates that Bushnell needed to work his way through school regardless of his extracurricular activities and that it is highly unlikely he blew all his money gambling at any point. There is no question, however, that in the Summer of 1963, Nolan Bushnell began working at the Lagoon Amusement Park in Farmingham, Utah.
In many interviews, Bushnell has expressed the importance of his years at Lagoon, which have alternately been reported as two years (Cohen) or four years (Steven Bloom’s Video Invaders), but were in fact five years, as Bushnell himself related in his deposition. According to his testimony, Bushnell began his employment on the midway running a “spill the milk” game in which patrons tried to knock over milk bottles with a baseball. He subsequently rotated through several games including the “guess your weight” booth, “shooting waters,” “flip ’em over,” and coin-operated bowling and skee ball lanes. Working full time in the peak summer months and part time during the school year, Bushnell honed his sales skills as a carnival barker enticing visitors to spend their coins on his games. Bushnell has often been described as a natural showman, and he must have done well at this job, because in 1965 he became the manager for the amusement park penny arcade, sharing full profit and loss responsibilities for the division with a man named Steve Hyde while also taking responsibility for the maintenance of the equipment. He also claims in his deposition that he would take discarded arcade equipment off of Lagoon’s hands, repair it, and operate a coin-op route encompassing several University of Utah fraternity houses. He sold this route when he headed west after graduation to secure an engineering job in California. According to a 1982 profile printed in TWA Magazine as well as both Cohen’s and Slater’s books, Bushnell had hoped to work for Disney as an Imagineer — one of those engineers responsible for creating the rides and attractions at Disney theme parks — but the company did not hire fresh graduates. He therefore secured a job at tape recording pioneer Ampex Corporation.
Bruce Baumgart, winner of the Intergalactic Spacewar! Olympics, celebrates next to a terminal running Spacewar! at the Stanford AI Lab, where Nolan Bushnell first saw the game in 1969
Birthplace mixups, poker exploits, and TV repair questions aside, Nolan Bushnell’s early years do not engender controversy. Bushnell’s story gets much more complicated, however, when we approach the question of when and where he discovered the inspiration for Computer Space, the video arcade game he built with Ted Dabney (and which will be covered in more detail in a subsequent post). Now, there is no doubt that Computer Space and, by extension, the entire video arcade game industry was Bushnell’s idea (there was one other video arcade game concept active at roughly the same time, but it never entered mass production). There is also no doubt that Bushnell drew inspiration for the game from Spacewar!, a fact he has readily acknowledged in every interview he has ever given on the subject. Clearly, the combination of Bushnell’s experience as an operator of arcade games combined with his interest in Spacewar! and his entrepreneurial spirit provided the unique mix of ingredients required to introduce interactive entertainment to the general public. All of this has been claimed by Bushnell and his biographers, and rightly so. The problem arises from Bushnell’s claim — originally stated in a November 1973 article in Systems Engineering Today and subsequently parroted by every writer from Cohen to Sheff to Kent to Donovan — that he first saw Spacewar! in the late sixties at the University of Utah. In reality, this appears not to have been the case.
The best accounting of Bushnell’s exposure to Spacewar! comes from research collected by Marty Goldberg and Curt Vendel as part of writing their history, Atari, Inc.: Business is Fun. Basically, the question comes down to whether Spacewar! could have been played at the University of Utah between 1965 and 1968. In a blog post on the subject, Goldberg revealed his research, which involved actually contacting the university and working with a graduate student to go through the records of the nascent computer science department. In so doing, Goldberg noted that Utah never had a PDP-1, the original platform for Spacewar!, and that the only two computers theoretically capable of playing the game at the university during the relevant time frame, a PDP-8 and a UNIVAC 1108, were dedicated to highly specific functions and unlikely to be platforms for the game. Furthermore, the 1108 was equipped with a raster rather than a vector display, making it unsuitable for playing Spacewar!, while all evidence collected by Goldberg points to the PDP-8 version of the game being written after 1968.
Now, it is true that in his 1976 deposition in the Magnavox lawsuit, Nolan Bushnell did claim under oath that he had played Spacewar! at Utah, believing this to have occurred shortly after he arrived at the University in 1965 when a friend in the chess club invited him over to the computer center. When pressed for details, however, he could not recollect the exact time frame this occurred or even be certain of his friend’s name, first claiming it as Jim Davies and then claiming not to really remember the last name, but fairly certain it started with a “D.” He also could not remember if it was played on an IBM 7094 or a UNIVAC 1108 because Utah changed computers while he was there. This last claim actually demonstrates some familiarity with the Utah computer center, as Goldberg’s research did show that in 1966, Utah upgraded from an IBM 7044 (not 94) to an 1108. Bushnell then goes on to claim that a year or so later he became interested in programming some games and talked to a fraternity brother affiliated with the lab, one Randall Willey, who directed him to a student he could not recall the name of that gave him a printout of the Spacewar! code. When talking to Kent years later, Bushnell claimed that he subsequently programmed a few games — including a fox and geese game in which a player-controlled fox attempted to hunt down computer-controlled geese one by one without getting boxed in by them — but in his deposition he makes it clear that while he did take two computer courses and learned some FORTRAN and Algol, two early programming languages, he ultimately did not program any games at Utah himself. Furthermore, in his 1976 deposition he not only explicitly states that he was not interested in any games being played at Utah other than Spacewar!, but also that the “fox and geese” concept was actually something he recalled seeing at a computer conference circa 1969 as opposed to something he created himself. The closest he comes to claiming any game design at the university in his deposition is purportedly authoring a paper in 1967 outlining how certain game concepts, like baseball, might be implemented on a computer with a display. Once again, however, he was unable to provide any documentation or corroboration for this claim.
Why would Bushnell potentially be evasive under oath? Well, in April 1974 Atari was one of several companies sued over patents filed by Ralph Baer on early video game technology. Baer’s work, his patents, and this lawsuit will be discussed in more detail later, but for now its just important to know that Baer’s patents were filed in 1971, so one defense that Atari and other companies attempted to mount was that prior art existed that invalidated these patents. It was therefore important for Bushnell to establish that his own game technology had its roots in the mid 1960s, before Baer built his video game hardware. By placing his own knowledge of Spacewar! around 1965 and claiming to have written down some computer game ideas in 1967, Bushnell accomplishes just that. In addition to Goldberg’s research on the Utah computer center, I find it compelling that in his testimony Bushnell was as vague as possible regarding the people and technologies involved in the game he claimed to play in 1965, and that after the lawyers asked him to find material that could corroborate his assertions, he reported in a follow up deposition on March 2, 1976, (excerpted in Goldberg’s post) that he was unable to locate anyone or anything that could substantiate his story.
So when did Nolan Bushnell first see the Spacewar! game? According to my own interview with Bushnell, when he relocated to the San Francisco area, he began attending several go clubs, as he had recently become fascinated by the game in his later years at the University of Utah. At the Stanford University go club, Bushnell met Jim Stein, who worked at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. In both our interview and the book High Score, Bushnell recounted how one day in 1969 Stein told him about the cool games available at the lab, where as we saw previously, Spacewar! was an incredibly popular pastime. Bushnell states that he told his friend that he already knew of Spacewar!, but would love to play it again. Note how this recollection so closely mirrors the story in his deposition that a friend with the first name Jim with whom he played chess told him about all the cool games in the Utah computer center. I believe there is a high degree of likelihood that Bushnell took the true story of how he was introduced to the game at Stanford and tweaked it to take place earlier at Utah instead in order to show that his ideas predated those of Ralph Baer. This is the same basic conclusion drawn by Goldberg in his blog post, where as a final piece of evidence he presented an excerpt from a 1973 documentary, filmed before the Systems Engineering Today article and the Magnavox litigation, in which Bushnell claims as his inspiration the computer games played at Stanford and does not mention games at the University of Utah at all. In a later section of the documentary not available in Goldberg’s blog post, the narrator explicitly states that Bushnell first saw Spacewar! at Stanford.
So where does that leave the first portion of our video game creation story now? Well, I believe it goes something like this:
In 1969, a bright, enthusiastic engineering graduate from the University of Utah named Nolan Bushnell came to the state of California to work for Ampex Corporation. Possessed of an entrepreneurial spirit and experience working as an operator of arcade games, Bushnell was introduced to the landmark computer game Spacewar! by a friend who worked at the Stanford AI lab, became instantly hooked by the game, and pondered how to turn it into a commercial product. When he saw a sales flyer for the $3,995 Data General Nova, he thought he just might be able to run Spacewar! on a minicomputer hooked up to a brace of monitors and some coin slots and turn a profit. Bushnell therefore recruited some co-workers and took his first steps toward establishing a new industry, one that has grown to be worth over $50 billion today.
Thus begins the story of Nolan Bushnell, father of the video game industry.
Posted in Early Atari History and tagged Ampex, Computer Space, Data General, IBM 7044, Jim Stein, Lagoon Amusement Park, Magnavox, Nolan Bushnell, Nova, PDP-8, Ralph Baer, Spacewar!, Stanford AI Lab, Ted Dabney, UNIVAC 1108, University of Utah on December 19, 2014 by videogamehistorian. 5 Comments
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School of Information hosts ICPE 2010
Posted on November 1, 2010 by usfslisnews
On October 20th through October 22nd, 2010, faculty and students of the School of Information (SI) and University of South Florida administrators welcomed domestic and international presenters at the 2nd International Conference on Information Capital, Property, and Ethics (ICPE).
Presented by USF’s School of Information and Shih Hsin University – Taipei’s Department of Information and Communication, the conference was held at USF’s Gibbons Alumni Center and brought together scholars and professionals interested in intellectual property issues, information studies, and international politics. The theme of the conference was “Globalizing Intellectual Property: The Geopolitics and Ethics of Information Rights”, and served as part two of the same theme as the 1st Conference that was held in Shih Hsin University, Taipei in 2008. The conference’s ultimate objective was to strengthen international academic and cultural exchange in the information studies discipline, and to promote information ethics in the knowledge service profession.
At the conclusion of the conference, it was announced that the 3rd International Conference on ICPE will take place next year in mainland China.
Photo taken at the Opening Reception on Wendesday, October 20th.
When asked her opinion on the significance of having this conference at a location in the United States, Dr. Chihfeng P. Lin, Associate Professor in the Department of Information & Communications at Shih Hsin University –Taipei and Co-Convener of ICPE 2010, explained it was an example of sister-school relationships where faculty members of the two schools are given an opportunity to exchange and share their expertise. She further argued that interaction between the two schools provided an opportunity for faculty members and hopefully students “to learn from each other in culture, lifestyle, and language proficiency in additional to academic development.”
Additional comments about the conference:
“We cannot over-emphasize the significance of having the ICPE 2010 here at USF. Having a conference of this stature promotes not only the university, but the whole State of Florida as well. The Mayor of Tampa acknowledged as much, when she thanked USF for bringing the conference to Tampa.”
John N. Gathegi, Ph.D., J.D. – Conference Co-Convener
Professor, School of Information, University of South Florida
Co-Convener, ICPE 2010
“I think that the multifaceted nature of the topic and the intimate inherent structure of the venue (i.e. limited to 50 participants) attracted me to ICPE 2010. From the time that I first began communicating with Dr. Gathegi to when I was befriended and assisted by Yvette Harden – USF Alumni Center Reservations Manager — I felt as if I were sitting in the comfort of a good friend’s living room talking about important intellectual property/rights/ethics issues. In my nearly 20-year career as a librarian, I’ve never had such a rich conference experience.”
Tom Adamich – Presenter
MA LIS Alumnus, School of Information
Head of Metadata Services at Muskingum College
President at Visiting Librarian Service
Photo taken at conclusion of ICPE 2010 on Friday, October 22nd.
“I got a lot out of the conference. Meeting the visitors from Taiwan and talking with them about the state of libraries over there was fascinating. Conditions there are remarkably similar in some aspects, but quite different in others. Since it was my first time attending an academic conference, I was also surprised by the communal, friendly nature of the event. I was sad when it was over. During our coffee breaks and meals, I received lots of great informal advice and suggestions from fellow students, colleagues and presenters, and was also able to get a window into the world of current information policy discussions.”
Zachary English – Presenter
MA LIS Student, School of Information
“This conference was exceptionally well organized. I had the opportunity to network with upcoming and established Library and Information Science Professionals in the United States and also from other countries such as Taiwan. Presentations were captivating and enlightening because they were thought provoking especially findings of many of the empirical research papers that were presented and projects that some of the professionals were working on.”
Dr. Musa Wakhungu Olaka – Presenter
University of Missouri,
School of Information Science and Learning Technology
MA LIS Graduate Students Reema Mohini and Alive Graves welcome registrants for ICPE 2010.
– DVTZ
Filed under: Faculty, Global, Information Access, Information Policy, Intellectual Freedom, Networking, Professional, Student |
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Water fees to increase by $40
By Cheryl Hehl on August 25, 2013 Comments Off on Water fees to increase by $40
In Rahway, necessary upgrades to the town’s water delivery infrastructure will be raising the annual fees by $40 for the average homeowner, but officials say this is a small price to pay compared to surrounding communities
RAHWAY — Although many people think water is free, it’s not. For Rahway residents, the cost of upgrades to the local water-treatment plant is going to run $16 million, although the average homeowner will see an increase of only $40 per year.
It’s never easy for a governing body to hear its water-treatment facility is not able to meet peak daily demand, or that it is going to cost millions to bring the system up to New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection standards. What does help is that the city can access half the money for this project interest-free, while floating bonds for the remainder.
Last week representatives from Hatch Mott MacDonald, an engineering firm, attended a city council meeting to explain exactly why the water system needs updating and how the city is in a better position than most when it comes to the cost of supplying water to residents.
Mark Tompak of Hatch Mott MacDonald said the city’s water filtration is antiquated and cannot consistently meet today’s standards. Although United Water operates the treatment plant in Rahway, the city owns the facility and is therefore responsible for any required improvements to its infrastructure. The engineering firm looked at three options available to the city, two of which would be considerably more expensive in the long run.
One option is for Rahway to look at “interconnections” with Middlesex Water Company and purchase water from it, although even using a nearby facility would require considerable work to bring this water supply to the city. Tompak explained that an express interconnection would cost $12 million, plus an additional $2 million for connections. Further, it was found that an interconnection would not meet the city’s peak water demands, and the cost to purchase water would exceed $5 million a year.
The second option would be to tap into groundwater through wells, although the only wells available were sealed off years ago. In 2004, United Water undertook an evaluation of the feasibility of using groundwater as a water supply, but found there were limited locations where new wells could be constructed. In addition, contamination of the groundwater would require treatment, making this option not feasible.
The only remaining option left for the city to consider is a treatment-plant upgrade. The addition of a new, membrane treatment system, Tompak said, is the most cost-effective option. This will satisfy current and anticipated future DEP regulations and address capacity issues that currently plague the city.
Based on current estimates, the total cost to construct the proposed membrane treatment plant comes to $16.6 million, which includes the cost of financing the project over 20 years. For this, Rahway is able to tap into the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, a form of financing from the NJDEP that provides interest-free loans for municipal water-treatment improvements. However, the city can only borrow half, or approximately $8.1 million, of the funds actually needed. The remainder, or $8.5 million, will be financed through a market-rate interest loan.
Each year, the Rahway water utility generates about $5.6 million in revenue from residential customers. In order maintain the water utility on a self-liquidating basis, the city must generate $6.4 million annually, which it currently does not.
Dieper Lerch, the city auditor and financial advisor, explained how this expense relates to the average ratepayer in Rahway; he pointed out that because the city has reduced previous debt on the water-treatment facility to slightly more than $1 million, financing for the upgrades will not have a significant financial impact on local residents.
“The term utility means those who benefit from it should pay for it,” Lerch explained, adding that residents are being taxed on the assessed value of their property, not how much water they consume.
Previously, the money that residents paid for their water did not equal what it cost, so the outstanding debt came out of the city’s operating budget. That will no longer happen with the 10-percent increase in rates residents will experience.
“Actually this is really a minimal increase in rates,” the auditor noted, pointing out that Rahway residents pay the lowest water rates in the area.
“If the average resident is paying $108 a quarter for water now, that quarterly bill will increase to $118 a quarter,” Lerch said, or a $40 increase per year.
How does this compare with rates in surrounding towns? According to Lerch, nearby Clark and Linden pay $166 per quarter for their water, or $200 each year more than Rahway residents. On the other hand, residents in Woodbridge Township, which includes Iselin, Avenel, Colonia, Fords and others, pay $144 per quarter.
Council members had few questions about the new upgrades to the water-treatment plant; however, James Baker did ask about the impact on senior citizens. Lerch said seniors would receive a $5 discount each quarter on their bills, the same discount the city currently has in place.
The city council will hold a special public hearing on this issue Aug. 28 at 6:30 p.m. in Council Chambers.
Water fees to increase by $40 added by Cheryl Hehl on August 25, 2013
View all posts by Cheryl Hehl →
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The Pro-Liberty Message in Man of Steel
Sam Staley | The Beacon 1,607 views
I have pretty low expectations for Superman movies, so I was both impressed and pleasantly surprised to find myself entertained as well as see an important pro-liberty theme embedded in the movie Man of Steel. Leaving aside problems of excessively long special effects and a few plot holes, the 2013 version of the Superman franchise casts Kal-El, aka Superman, as the last hope for individualism on Krypton and his alter ego Clark Kent the embodiment of individualism’s future on Earth.
This was an unexpected benefit because the reviews have focused mainly on the action sequences and special effects. But the liberty theme is critical to the movie and the character, at least as it is conceived in Man of Steel. The essential plot is that the infant Kal-El is sent to Earth on his own by his father (Jor-El) and mother (Lara) as the last hope for Kryptonians after over mining of an essential mineral de-stabilizes their planet. Two essential elements necessitate this drastic decision, both of which elevate individualism and free will to a core value in the film.
First, Kryptonians have adopted population control (for unknown reasons), using genetic engineering to sculpt their society with scientific precision. Free will and individual diversity have been purged from Krypton society through Eugenics and scientific population control. The result became the seeds of Krypton’s own destruction. The master race was unable to avoid short-sighted decisions over energy and their environment that leads to the destruction of their planet. Jor-El and Lara see Krypton’s future as fundamentally tied to re-introducing organic genetic diversity through natural conception and, by implication, embracing free choice, tolerating diversity, and the absolute protection of individual human life.
In direct violation of Krypton’s rules and laws, Kal-El is the first natural birth in hundreds of years. Moreover, Kal-El’s father (Jor-El) is the lead scientist for Krypton, and the decision (with his wife Lara) is a direct statement about the importance of the intellectual diversity implicit in natural birth as an essential component of a successful and robust social system. The decision to use natural conception and childbirth thus elevates free will and the protection of individual life to a defining value worth protecting to ensure the future of the Krypton race. Indeed, this is so important that Jor-El and Lara are willing to sacrifice their own lives to preserve it (or give it a new start on Earth).
The second element is the fight against tyranny, manifested in the persona of General Zod. Zod has been eugenically bred to defend Krypton society by whatever means necessary. Defending Krypton means embracing eugenics and scientific population control and embracing repression of individual choice. (The intellectual link won’t be hard to understand for those who have studied American Progressivism, European fascism, or read Jonah Goldberg’s important book Liberal Fascism.) Thus, inevitably, Zod tracks down Kal-El to recapture the remaining DNA of the Kryptonian race and continue a society founded on rigid adherence to eugenics.
These elements lead to another value fundamental to this version of the movie (and in keeping with the original conception of Superman’s creators), that men are born free and should be treated as equals. The alien Kal-El sides with humans on Earth because they are united in the belief that all beings (or at least humanoids) should as a matter of principle have fundamental rights to life and free will, regardless of their race, background, or immigrant status. Moreover, in yet another twist in the screenplay and plot, Kal-El makes his decision to side with the human race based on faith, not science, reason, or, for that matter, trust.
All-in-all, not a bad showing for liberty and the objective value of human life in what may be one of the biggest block busters of the 2013 film season.
Filed under: Articles, News, Video
It is a characteristic of our times that the organizing of “spontaneous movements” has become a full-time profession.
—David J. Dallin, Soviet Espionage
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Home / Turkey
October 20th, 2016 / January 2nd, 2019
Author: Tugba Evrim Maden
Peer Reviewer: Fanack Editorial Team
Turkey has a total area of 78 million hectares. [1] It is bounded by the Black Sea to the north, Iran, Georgia and Armenia to the east, Syria and Iraq to the south-east, the Mediterranean and Aegean Sea to the south, and Bulgaria and Greece to the north-west. [2]
Cultivated land covers about 28 million hectares, equivalent to 35.8% of the country’s total area. Although 15.5 million hectares are irrigable, technical and economic constraints mean that only 8.5 million hectares can actually be irrigated. According to 2013 statistics, 5.42 million hectares of the irrigable land is under irrigation.[3]
Overall, Turkey’s climate is characterised as semi-arid, although nine types of climate can be distinguished: Mediterranean, wet Mediterranean, partially wet Mediterranean, Black Sea, partially wet Marmara, steppe, partially dry central Anatolian, partially dry south-east Anatolian and continental east Anatolian.[4]
Average annual rainfall is 643mm. Annual precipitation reaches 1,000-2,500mm in the mountainous coastal regions, with the highest rainfall (1,260-2,500mm per year) occurring in the Black Sea region. Central Anatolia has the lowest rainfall (200-600mm) which, combined with high temperatures and high evaporation rates, results in drought during the summer months. South-eastern Anatolia has precipitation of 350-500mm per year, and Marmara, the Aegean regions and the Eastern Anatolia plateaus 500-1,000mm.[5]
Map1: Rainfall Distribution in Turkey, (Source: Fanack)
Turkey’s population was 20.95 million in 1950.[6] By 2015, this number had risen to 78.74 million, of which around 30% is rural, and is predicted to reach 84.25 million in 2023 and up to 93.50 million in 2050.[7] After 2050, the population is expected to decline again, dropping to approximately 89.20 million in 2075.[8]
Gross domestic product (GDP) is $799.54 billion, making Turkey the 17th largest economy in the world. Per capita income exceeds $10,500. In 2014, the agricultural sector contributed around 8.03% to GDP, whereas 27.08% of the economic value added originated from industry and 64.89% from the service sector.[9] Agriculture’s contribution to GDP was 12% in 1995. The decline in the agricultural sector has affected the share of agriculture in total employment, which was 43% in 1995 but only 24% in 2010.[10]
[1] DSI, Water and DSI, 2013, Ankara, p.18.
[2] FAO, 2009, Irrigation in the Middle East Region in Figures, FAO, Rome, p.355.
[3] DSI, Water and DSi, 2013, Ankara, p.19; Aysegul Kibaroglu, Waltina Scheumann, Annika Kramers (ed.), 2011, Turkey’s Water Policy: National Frameworks and International Cooperation, Springer, p.96.
[4] Munir Ozturk, Salih Gucel, Mahir Kucuk and Serdal Sakcali, 2010, Forest diversity, climate change and forest fires in the Mediterranean region of Turkey, Journal of Environmental Biolog, 31, 1-9.
[5] FAO, 2009, Irrigation in the Middle East Region in Figures, FAO, Rome, p.355; DSI, Land and Water resources, http://en.dsi.gov.tr/land-water-resource.
[6] TUIK – Turkish Statistical Institute, 2016.
[8] http://www.tuik.gov.tr/PreHaberBultenleri.do?id=21507; https://populationpyramid.net/turkey/2050/
[9] http://www.statista.com/statistics/255494/share-of-economic-sectors-in-the-gross-domestic-product-in-turkey/
[10] Agriculture Policy Monitoring and Evaluation 2011, OECD Countries and Emerging Economies, OECD, OECD Publishing, 2011, p. 193.
1995 - 2011 - about - Aegean Sea - Agriculture - Agriculture Policy - Anatolia - Ankara - Black Sea - Bulgaria - Climate - Climate Change - Cultivated Land - Culture - Drought - DSİ - Economic Constraints - economy - Employment - Environment - Evaporation - Fanack - Georgia - Greece - Gross Domestic Product - Industry - International Cooperation - Iran - Iraq - Irrigation - King - Marmara - Middle East - Mountain - National Framework - Plateau - Policy - Population - Rainfall - Resources - sources - Syria - Turkey - Water - Water Resources
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REWIND: Thor (2011) – Movie Review
March 3, 2018 • Posted under: In Technicolor, Reviews, Rewind by Owen Butler
Tags: Anthony Hopkins, Chris Hemsworth, Colm Feore, Frigga, Heimdall, Idris Elba, Jaimie Alexander, Jane Foster, Kat Dennings, Kenneth Branagh, Lady Sif, Laufey, Loki, Marvel Cinematic Universe Reviews, Natalie Portman, Odin, Ray Stevenson, Rene Russo, Stellan Skarsgård, Thor, Tom Hiddleston, Volstagg
After the sort-of disaster that was Iron Man 2, Marvel released their fourth film in the MCU, which followed Thor (Chris Hemsworth), the God of Thunder. The film is not at all a masterpiece, but it is certainly better than many give it credit for. While I don’t believe it deserves to be among true Marvel hits, it is certainly entertaining and rewatchable. Despite its many flaws, there are a few great moments that make it a worthy inclusion in the franchise.
The best part about Thor is without a doubt Asgard. It’s fun learning about the lore. You want to explore every inch, find every detail and inspect it. It helps that the scenery is ridiculously majestic, giving it another layer of beauty too. The film is also genuinely more fun in this regard than when Thor is cast down to Earth. There are extra layers of depth, development, and general interest that is given to us throughout the course of the movie. The action sequences and set pieces are better crafted, the characters are more entertaining, and there’s a more grounded story.
Like said, when Thor is cast down to Earth and becomes mortal, the story begins to falter. It’s not necessarily horrible, but the plot doesn’t feel like a superhero film is supposed to. Characters pop up all over the place, and it switches back and forth between Earth and Asgard too fast, not giving the audience a chance to let things sink in. There’s some messy writing, which makes the new characters unlikable and boring. Jane Foster, her intern Darcy, and her mentor Erik Selvig are not intriguing. There’s no reason to feel any emotion when they’re onscreen, and the love story dynamic with Thor and Jane just doesn’t work, primarily because it’s focused on too much in the plot.
The best part of the film is by far Loki (Tom Hiddleston). He basically carries an entire subplot on his own, which ends up being the most interesting one. Loki is a hard character to put in a universe like this because of his differentiating personalities. He’s the God of Mischief, and yet he still has to walk an emotional line, learning more about what he is, where he came from, and what that means for the sake of Asgard. However, that makes him a terrific villain because of his struggle for control and power in a world where he isn’t sure where he belongs. Tom Hiddleston’s performance is also captivating and enjoyable.
The other major villain, Laufey, is the exact opposite of Loki. For one, he’s not any fun. While the action sequences set in Jotunheim are some of the better ones in the film, the leader of the Frost Giants is neither compelling nor any fun. He’s too serious, and he just relies on his minions to do all the work. While the backstory behind the Frost Giants is interesting, that makes it all the more maddening when you don’t get to see any emotional context.
Thor isn’t a good film, but it’s an entertaining one. It more or less serves a purpose in setting up the MCU, and that lifts up its status in the franchise a bit. The writing is campy for the most part, but Loki’s subplot is extraordinarily emotional and intriguing. The acting is primarily good, and the world-building is without a doubt well-done.
Thor stars Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgård, Colm Feore, Ray Stevenson, Idris Elba, Kat Dennings, Rene Russo, Anthony Hopkins, Jaimie Alexander. Directed by Kenneth Branagh.
Owen Butler
Born & raised in the Chicagoland area and have been watching movies for as long as I can remember. Lover of all things Wes Anderson (mainly Fantastic Mr. Fox), Brie Larson, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, and Parks and Recreation.
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS of the THIRD KIND 4K Restoration DETAILS
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Official Synopsis: Legion follows David Haller, a troubled young man who may be more than human. Diagnosed as …
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Tag Archives: Narrative
Narrative Meaning Under External Influence
June 19, 2019 by whimsyandmetaphor
I was at Continuum Convention all weekend, so I’ve been talking to people about all sorts of things literary and interpretation-related. And then I got home, had my traditional bout of con flu, and therefore played games for a couple of days. So hold onto your hats, kids, this is an esoteric one. Continue reading →
Posted in Blog Posts | Tagged Analysis, External Influence, Narrative, Narrative Meaning, Rants, Storytelling | Leave a comment |
Video Games for the Narrative
May 24, 2014 by whimsyandmetaphor
You guys, I get so excited about video games.
No, really, games are very exciting. I might not be one of those people who’s totally behind the gamification movement (I think a lot of it is really, really cool, except when it’s suddenly not), and I’m not convinced that the game will replace non-interactive media entirely (though I like the idea of transmedia storytelling), but I really do get excited over video games – how they work, how they integrate gameplay and narrative, how they allow the interactive elements to alter the experience from playthrough to playthrough … particularly how player choice and player input shapes the medium.
That’s the bit that really fascinates me – the player input. It’s alright to do in tabletop RPGs, but the Game Master is infinitely flexible, unlike the code on a computer. A player can really surprise me as a GM, and all I have to do is fix my notes and keep going, with maybe a slightly different plot.
A video game can’t do that – it can’t suddenly change the plot because a player never talked to a certain person, or killed someone they shouldn’t have, or just decided to go to the wrong town first. Unless, of course, this was written into the game to begin with.
But that’s an entirely different blog post, and one I’m definitely not yet qualified to write.
This blog post is about personal preference, and why I feel a little bad about my choice in video games.
I do consider myself a writer, even if I’m not published. I love the feeling of agency in games, the idea that I’m really affecting things in the game world as I play.
And yet, here’s a list of some of my favourite games:
Psychonauts.
Mass Effect.
King’s Quest series
Quest for Glory Series
Portals 1 and 2
I have played some Skyrim, but it doesn’t really make me stop everything and just play Skyrim like Mass Effect did.
I’ve also played FTL: Faster Than Light, and it didn’t really appeal to me, either.
I’ve been told by friends that they got really into their FTL characters, even though there are no real characters, no personality – it’s just a group of icons on a ship with stats. Though the characters themselves had no lines and no backstories, my friends assigned personalities and goals to them, and were genuinely sad when they were painfully suffocated aboard their own ships.
Same thing with a lot of those kinds of games, I find – I don’t assign personalities to icons on a ship. Skyrim is certainly easier – I am fairly able to care about the character I’m playing, generate motivations for them, all that sort of thing.
But I don’t get captivated by them. Particularly with Skyrim – it really does just put you in a world and tell you to go from there. I have a couple other issues with Skyrim, which I’ll address later (and for which you’ll have to bear with me, because I have only played for about an hour, total, and not very far into the game.
And I think it’s really a shame – I feel like I’m really missing out on a lot not liking some of these sandbox/open-world games. I watched a friend play Skyrim once, and he killed a wolf, then jumped into a river carrying it, and the game happened to process this in such a way that he was, suddenly, waltzing with the wolf through the river.
I’d like to see Commander Shepard waltz with a wolf just because the player happened to feel like it.
I feel like there is, objectively, a depth of experience that you wouldn’t get in a linear story. You certainly get the idea of a whole world, one that doesn’t all care about the plot of the game, and doesn’t entirely hinge on the protagonist. It’s a great thing, and really exciting for anyone interested in the worldbuilding aspects of story.
But like I said, it just didn’t grab me.
Is that a bad thing, I wonder? I’m an author, after all, isn’t creating stories what I’m supposed to be good at? Am I too lazy to make up a “proper story” in these games? Am I not willing to work for my fun?
Am I just unwilling to abandon my grounding in novels? Is my brain too feeble to comprehend media that fall outside my limited view?
I’d like to think not. So here’s how I justify this to myself.
First off, I like characters. I like getting to play with new people. I like getting inside their heads and meeting them over the course of a game. I just don’t get that same experience when I’m the one assigning personality traits. I can’t be surprised, for one, and one of my favourite experiences in a book or game is having my expectations subverted by a character.
Secondly, if there isn’t a true goal or a sense of character motivation, there’s no sense of urgency. I’m not saying that the universe has to be in grave danger before I start to care (and there are some issues with this description, since Chell in Portal 1 can’t be said to have much motivation – though the player has ‘find out what’s up with these tests). But mostly it holds – if Skyrim tells me there are dragons, but then leaves me alone in the mountains to do whatever, without ever giving me a reason that the dragons are my problem, or my issue – if FTL tells me “get a bigger ship” … well, sure, it’ll be diverting, but you’re never going to make me feel as hard as Mass Effect 2 made me feel when Joker did that thing that he did, or … “I am the very model …”. I’ve yet to, in my time watching Skyrim or Minecraft, or talking to people who have played those games, seen any talk or mention of a Bioshock-level kick in the teeth. They might have ups and downs, but impact in a narrative relies very heavily on timing, and removing the ability to time (and even the abillity to control what order a player receives information, in games like Skyrim) removes a whole lot of narrative tricks you can pull.
But here’s the main problem, for me. I often find that an open game world feels a lot less real to me, because of the concessions the developers are forced to make to keep it open. It’s just a matter of budget and time. The variation you get in a game like Skyrim is admirable – you can annoy groups of characters and ingratiate yourself to others. But it still feels very potted. All elves hate you, or all people of a certain town. You get a change of dialogue tree when you complete a person’s mission, but otherwise they offer you pretty much the same thing. You can talk to every NPC, but you can’t really get to know them beyond a few broad character brush strokes.
You also can’t let the world change too much. You can’t have a particular quest irrevocably change things on a grand scale, in case it’s one of the first ones the characters do, by accident, and they lose a lot of content.
Actually, that is entirely possible and pretty awesome, but it’s probably pretty bad design, and I’m too inexperienced to know why. I’ve not really seen it.
On the technical side, try developing a motif or symbolism without being able to control the order the player experiences something in, or while allowing that any part of the whole thing may be skipped. I’m sure it can be done (and I’d love to try someday), but you just can’t achieve the same effect.
I realise that, for all of the things I’ve said here, there are technicalities that can be argued. I’m sure that, in open world games, you could show me a whole bunch with a “point of no return” section where you complete a quest and everything is changed. I’m sure you could show me ones with intelligent NPC development, and a plot that holds up through any amount of faffing around between plot points. Unfortunately, it’s not really going to change my mind. There’s just something that doesn’t grab me so much about an open world to explore in as a really gripping, dense story with crafted characters and symbolism.
What about you fine folks? Any staunch open-world fans out there? Got one to recommend that’ll completely change my mind, make me see the potential of the medium? Anyone dislike open-world games, but for a completely different reason?
And yeah, I’m not going to even try and pretend that was all intelligent and objective. But hey, expressing personal preference is a difficult thing to articulate.
Posted in Blog Posts | Tagged Narrative, Personal, Rant, Video Games | 2 Comments |
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Idaho Steelheads Report: Growing Pains in Boise
Philippe Desrosiers in training camp (Credit: Christina Shapiro/Texas Stars)
John Mulhern returns with the monthly Idaho Steelheads Report...
To say it’s been a while since the last Idaho Steelheads update would be an understatement. It has been 18 games, over a month, and there is certainly a lot to talk about both positive and negative for the Steelheads as the team heads towards their December schedule. The Steelheads are going to be playing their first home game in over a month this week as they just embarked on a 19 day road trip. We’ll get to the results of the games later, but before that let’s take a look at the Steelheads over their first 20 games in some pieces and parts.
Special Teams:
Idaho is operating at 11% on the power play and 83.3% on the penalty kill. The numbers jump off the page for a couple of reasons. The immediate number that jumps in the 11% on the power play. Overall that works out to 9 for 82, which is nothing to write home about, but when compared to how the season started on the power play, these numbers are an improvement. The majority of those nine goals have come over the past nine games, so this is a unit which is trending upwards at the moment. Also it’s worth noting that the only team with more chances on the power play is Wheeling with 83 opportunities, so the chances are going to continue to come for Idaho, but sadly they worked themselves into such a huge hole early, the power play numbers will have to be looked at in chunks instead of the overall numbers.
The penalty kill on the other hand, has been working its way down from a top three position early in the year. Call it a regression to the mean, call it a slump, call it whatever you’d like. I’ll call it as it is, just too many penalties taken. The Steelheads have been shorthanded a total of 84 times and that trails only Norfolk (97), Florida (87), and Wichita (85) on the season. Combine that with 6 games against Florida (4th pp), Orlando (1st pp) and Atlanta (8th pp) you’re just setting yourself up for trouble. Add in some tired penalty killers, and you see where this is headed. Solution for this problem, start playing a more disciplined brand of hockey. A challenge, yes, but something we’ve seen from this team at times during the season.
Through 20 games this season, the Steelheads are averaging 2.55 goals per game, which is probably a little lower than they would like it to be. When you look at teams probably needing to score at least 3 to win on most nights, you can see where some of the losses are coming from. But before you immediately write off the offense for lack of production, I don’t see it as a huge concern at the moment. Looking up and down this roster, the Steelheads are on pace to have six players get close to our over the 20 goal plateau this season. This is good news considering six players is equal to two lines of scoring. Then you look at three more players that are angling for about 15 goals, and are maybe one good week or two away from pushing into the 20 goal range. Offense is not going to be a problem as long as it continues to consistently come from a couple different places. Of course where it stands right now, the lack of a high goals per game average is going to put pressure on the…
Defense and Goaltending:
Let’s first look at goaltending. The Steelheads have had three different netminders dress this season: Philippe Desrosiers, Maxime Legace and Eric Hartzell. As a team the Steelheads are allowing 3.2 goals against per game. Compared to the 2.55 they are scoring, not great. However, when you look at the last six total games against the Colorado Eagles (3 games) and the Rapid City Rush (3 games), the goals allowed is only 2.5 goals per game, which falls in nicely when compared to goals scored. (Full disclosure the Steelheads have only scored 1.88 per game over that same stretch. Bad timing for a scoring drought.) But looking at how the current average of goals against is coming down, it looks like some of the moves that Neil Graham has made in terms of player movement and pairings are starting to pay off in terms of consistency of defensive play. That level on consistency will also help the goaltenders. It should also be noted that as a team the Steelheads have allowed no more than 20 shots over their past four games.
Speaking more specifically on the goaltending, there have been times where some saves should have been made, but overall the goaltenders have been solid. The one unfortunate thing about the goaltending play at the moment is that no one was able to grab the number one position and run for it, for any real amount of time. With Legace up in the AHL with Texas for the short term and no back-up as it appears as if Hartzell is headed overseas, it’s going to be Desrosiers job to win over the next couple of games. If you’ve listened to the Idaho Steelheads Hockey Show on 1350 AM KTIK over the past couple of weeks, the prevailing thought is that the defense and goaltending is young but will only continue to improve as the season goes forward.
These are going to be in order based on the schedule.
@ Alaska Aces (Independent) 1-2
vs Utah Grizzlies (San Diego Gulls) 0-1
@ Grizzlies 2-0
vs Atlanta Gladiators (Providence Bruins) 0-2-1
@ Orlando Solar Bears (Toronto Marlies) 0-1
@ Florida Everblades (Charlotte Checkers) 0-1-1
@ Colorado Eagles (Independent) 1-1-1
@ Rapid City Rush (Springfield Falcons) 1-2
Overall Record: 6-10-4 (16 pts.) 4th Place in Western Division
The Idaho Steelheads start a three game set with the Florida Everblades in their first home games since November 7th. Games will be played on Dec 2, 4 and 5 this week before another road trip to play four more road games split between the Allen Americans (San Jose Baracuda) and the Tulsa Oilers (Manitoba Moose).
Stay tuned for an Idaho Steelheads update appendix coming in the next week with a few more notes as well as a look at player movement to and from the AHL.
Until then…
John Mulhern is the host of the Bud Light Idaho Steelheads Hockey show on 1350 AM KTIK in Boise. He is the home game ice-level color analyst for the Steelheads and also hosts his own Two Sports Nuts podcast. You can also follow John on Twitter @mulhern4.
Posted by Stephen Meserve at 1:09 PM
Labels: idaho steelheads, idaho steelheads report
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Most Legendary Australian Football Players of All Times
>> Feb 21, 2017
Out of every game, every league and every sport emerge some of the most legendary and distinguished players, who despite their retirement and even after passing away, leave behind the stories of their legendary feats for the world. Similarly, the Football Federation Australia did not leave its citizens deprived of such positivity either and allowed some of the most talented players to showcase their skills.
image:justfootballacademy.com.au
Australia is a nation that loves sports and are always involved in it one way or another. There are spectators, there are professional players, there are those aspiring to make it to the professional teams, and then there are training institutions like the Just Football Academy that train and coach them to make the cut.
The Australians’ love for football is inimitable; and it’s this love that has created some of the most legendary football players of all-time, some of them even got inducted in the Australian Football Hall of Fame. Let’s go back in history and take a look at these acclaimed football stars:
1. Harry Kewell:
Kewell played as the attacker and winger for various clubs over the course of his career and was specially known for his outstanding skills on the field alongside his ability to beat players. Kewell was an active part of 380 games and made 89 goals. Kewell also took part in international games where he made 19 goals with his flair. Kewell started out young and got his first breakthrough in Leeds. From then on, he quickly became known for his on-point goals. This legendary player won the Champions League crown.
2. Mark Bosnich:
Bosnich played as a goalkeeper who mostly played internationally and the world quickly got to know that it is nearly impossible to get any ball past his strong fort. He played 219 games in his career and was known as the world’s best keeper in the 90’s.
3. Joe Marston:
Matron was inducted in the Football Hall of Fame in 1988 for his unbeatable playing skills as a defender. He was one of the best tacklers and was the first Australian to play in the FA Cup Final.
4. Archie Thompson:
Thompson is a record breaking Australian Football player who made the most goals in a single international soccer game. His performance leads to the victory of his team. Thompson is known for his high speed, agility and crafty techniques.
5. Mark Viduka :
With his accurate techniques and stunning tricks, Mark Viduka was often at times unplayable. This Australian striker dominated the NSL, before going on to play for Scotland and Croatia where he stunned the world with his superb skills. Finishing off the English Premier League with 92 goals, Viduka left the likes of Fernando Torres and Dennis Bergkamp behind.
The Australian National Soccer League and Australia’s love for the soccer has given young men and women a fantastic opportunity to fulfil their dream and become part of the International soccer scene.
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ACTC » Info » What is a Classic Trial ?
Firstly, the point has to be made that classic trials are not just for classic cars or bikes, although many do take part. Classic trials are for all sorts of cars and motorbikes. What is “classic” about classic trials is the format of the events.
Today’s classic trials reflect the style that was prevalent in the 1930s when works teams from Ford, Austin, Singer, MG and others battled it out for advertising honours over long distances and the steep muddy slopes of the country. The route is used primarily to get from one slope to the next and the timing is used mainly to keep the whole event on some sort of schedule rather than as a way of penalising competitors. Many of the observed sections, which is the name given to the muddy slopes on which one’s performance is observed are the same ones which were used at that time and are still as capable of challenging modern vehicles as they were then.
The average modern classic trial runs to about 70-100 miles on roads in between the observed sections. There are usually 14-18 sections to each event with a variety of different surfaces to test your skills. The events are scored by markers by the side of the section, numbered from 12 at the bottom down to 1 at the top. Marks are scored by getting the front wheel(s) past the marker. At the end of the day the driver/rider with the lowest score is the winner. Sometimes sections will include a stop & restart test. If you remember the trauma of the hill start when you were learning to drive, this gives you some idea of this test, but now you are asked to do the same on a 1 in 4 hill on thick mud or greasy rock, without rolling back so much as an inch. In addition there is usually a tie deciding speed test to resolve competition between drivers/riders who have scored the same number of penalties.
Each year there are about 20-25 of these trials each organised by one of the member clubs that comprise The Association of Classic Trials Clubs (ACTC). Numbers are normally limited to between 60 and 100 competitors. About 16 of the events make up the ACTC annual championships, the two main awards for cars in this being the ‘Wheelspin Trophy’ with points awarded for overall position and the ‘Crackington Cup’ with points awarded based on position in class. There are two awards for motorcycles – the Pouncy League for solos and the Red Rose Bowl for 3-wheelers.
In addition to the ‘one day’ events described above are the three Motor Cycling Club (MCC) classics. The basic format is similar but with a number of significant differences: the penalties are not graded from 12 to 1, each section is either “cleaned” or “failed”; the road mileage may be anything up to 450 miles with several sections to be tackled at night; the events being run over Friday nights and Saturdays with a typical starting time being midnight and an expected finish of 5.00pm the following day. Whereas most ‘one day’ trials have a history of less than fifty years, the MCC classics date back to before the 1st World War and are still run over substantially the same routes. Awards are based on a simple system of a ‘Gold’ for climbing all the hills, a ‘Silver’ for failing one, and a ‘Bronze’ for failing two. Those gaining a ‘Gold’ in all three events in a season receive a ‘Triple’ – the triallist’s ultimate award.
One of the main appeals of the sport is that it can be competitive on what ever level you prefer. Because the events are run over the same or very similar courses every year, the driver/rider who does not aspire to outright victory can indulge in his or her own private battle with himself rather in the manner of reducing one’s golf handicap. I did not climb this one last year…. I can never get round that corner… I climbed that one for the first time this year…. All the observed sections have names which makes they easy to identify in the bar afterwards and to follow a sense of history. Books on pre-war motorsport talk with fascination about Simms, Beggars Roost and Nailsworth Ladder, all of which are still stopping cars and bikes today. Classic trials are one of the friendliest forms of motor sport and, as sponsorship and financial gain are non-existent, there tends to be only the best form of rivalry between competitors. It is very common to find a crew working on a vehicle with the assistance of someone with whom they are directly competing.
Want to come and have a go ? Here’s how.
Read Doug Hagerman’s article, which gives an excellent overview of our eccentric sport.
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(Re) Thinking
Originally titled 'The Seven-Day Weekend: Changing the Way Work Works '
The Seven-Day Weekend: Changing the Way Work Works
The Fourth Dimension in Additive Manufacturing
Ricardo Semler, based on some of his ideas, would probably be considered to be a “crackpot” (or something far less euphemistic) by “serious” business people. After all, here’s a man who has written a book, The Seven-Day Weekend: Changing the Way Work Works (Portfolio; $22.95), that includes observations like these:
“I believe the old way of doing business is dying, and the sooner it’s dead and buried the better off we all will be.”
“I believe the obsession with control is a delusion and, increasingly, a fatal business error.”
“People are considered adults in their private lives, at the bank, and their children’s schools, with family and among friends—so why are they suddenly treated like adolescents at work?”
“Why is growth necessary beyond the minimum natural expansion of the market being served?”
“. . .it is not about being virgins in a brothel. Rather, insistence on high ethical standards is simply good for business.”
“A five-year plan is ludicrous. We don’t want to follow a structure that might become nonsense in six months.”
Semler, in case you’re wondering, is the CEO of a Brazilian concern, Semco*, which his father founded in 1954. Although initially reluctant to follow in his father’s footsteps, he took over the company when he was still fresh in his 20s. “Within days of taking over, I fired two-thirds of my father’s most senior managers outright. A risky move that I felt was necessary to quickly implement reforms without foot dragging from the entrenched executives.” Semler doesn’t make this analogy, but “entrenched executives” sounds like a cadre with more than a foot each in the grave (trench), and that’s not conducive for moving forward. He continues, “I then spent the next two decades questioning, challenging, and dismantling the traditional business practices at Semco.” The questioning, challenging and dismantling serve as the basis of The Seven-Day Weekend.
“Serious” business people would undoubtedly choke out a gulp of coffee knowing that Semco “increased its annual revenue between 1994 and 2003 from $35 million a year to $212 million.” In other words, Semler is not some sort of management dilettante running a business out of his basement. (He’d probably argue with the point that he is, in fact, “running a business,” as his approach is one where the people who are involved in a business are the ones who are doing the running. He’s often off doing something else. Like thinking.) In the book, Semler examines what it is to be a person who works. He acknowledges that there are plenty of people for whom working in a factory or office is nothing more than something that’s done for the paycheck. But he also knows that there are people who have a true talent for things, and that they must be given the opportunity to discover those things if the organization is to prosper: “Our motives are purely selfish. Unless we click with a worker, unless he latches onto something he is passionate about, our productivity won’t be high.”
This book should be required reading for managers at all levels—of course, the trouble with this recommendation is that the physical book probably couldn’t withstand the numerous throwings against the wall that it would undoubtedly take from the aforementioned “serious” businesspeople.
* Semco, a privately held concern, is in a variety of businesses, from industrial machinery (which is where it began) to inventory control, from real estate to controls and facilities management (a joint venture with Johnson Controls). About the approach to which areas Semco will enter, Semler says that they must be sufficiently complex so that there are high barriers to entry; that they permit Semco to seize the premium position (“We want to offer a high-end product or service. That means we’re always more expensive because we provide the premium that stretches what the customer will pay.”); that Semco can be dominant within a niche and consequently nearly essential (“We want to be only in businesses where our disappearance would cause our disheartened customers to complain loudly.” He claims that 80% of the firm’s annual revenue are from repeat customers.).
The Seventh-Generation Toyota Camry
Will there be a more significant introduction this year? In a word, “No.” After all, even last year, when it seemed as though there was nothing but bad news and badder luck, Camry was the number-one selling car in the U.S. And now it is brand new.
Cars Then & Now & in Cuba
This is the very first Chevrolet Camaro: It has VIN #100001.
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S.G. Barapatre & Ors. Vs. Shri Ananta Gajanan Gaiki & Ors.
[Civil Appeal No(S). 10387-10388/2018 arising from SLP (C) Nos. 18555-18556/2018]
KURIAN, J.
2. Permission to file special leave petition(s) is granted.
3. The appellants are before this Court, aggrieved by the orders dated 13.04.2018 in Writ Petition No.6740/2016 and dated 4.5.2018 in Review Application No.491 of 2018 in W.P. No.6740 of 2016 passed by the High Court of Judicature at Bombay, Bench at Nagpur.
4. Some of the appellants are parties before the High Court. The appellants had declined to subject themselves to caste scrutiny and, therefore, pursuant to the directions of the High Court their services are to be discontinued and their payments or dues are not to be released. The High Court further directed to recover the payments already made. The relevant paragraphs are set out below:-
"65. The Food Corporation of India or the Reserve Bank of India shall forthwith discontinue and not release any payments or dues to the Respondent employees before this Court who have given up their castes and were/are still continued by them.
66. The Food Corporation of India or the Reserve Bank of India shall also initiate necessary steps within next two months to recover payments or dues released, from the Respondent employees before this Court who have given up caste claim."
5. However, we find that the very same issue was subject matter of consideration by the High Court leading to the judgment dated 1.11.2012 in Writ Petition No.5198/2009 and connected cases, in the case of appellants herein.
6. In paragraph 18 of the judgment, the Division Bench of the High Court held as under:-
"18. In that view of the matter, we find that the petitioners are entitled to limited relief, that they are praying for. In the result, the impugned show cause notices are quashed and set aside. It is declared that the petitioners would be entitled to protection of their appointments. It is further declared that if any benefits are granted after 28.11.2000 on the basis that they belong to Scheduled Tribes, the respondent Authorities are at liberty to withdraw the said benefits and restore the position as on 28.11.2000. The respondents to take further necessary steps in accordance therewith."
7. The Employer, namely, Food Corporation of India challenged that order and filed special leave petition(s) before this Court, which was dismissed by order dated 12.04.2013. Review Petition(s) was also attempted and the same was also dismissed by order dated 26.02.2014.
8. Therefore, the said judgment qua the employees, who were parties to those writ petitions have become final. The benefits which have been granted, as per the judgment specifically referred to in paragraph 18 of the judgment, which is extracted above, cannot be taken away in collateral proceedings.
9. We make it clear that the employees covered by the said judgment shall only be entitled to the benefits which have been granted specifically in paragraph 18 of the judgment referred to above. For all purposes, those people will get themselves arrayed in the general category as on 28.11.2000 and placed below the last of the general category candidate as on that date.
10. The impugned orders will stand modified to the above extent. The appeals are, accordingly, disposed of.
11. Pending applications, if any, shall stand disposed of.
12. There shall be no orders as to costs.
.......................J. [KURIAN JOSEPH]
.......................J. [S. ABDUL NAZEER]
OCTOBER 10, 2018.
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Neville fighting fit
Perth's Glory's Scott Neville is pulling out all the stops to ensure he's 100 percent fit for the rest of the season and many more to come.
Although the club enjoyed a rare week of light duties during the FIFA international break, Neville's been using the time to catch up on yoga and pilates classes in order to ensure his body remain at the top of its game.
The regime seems to be working as Neville blitzed the time trials at a light training session last week, easily lapping some of his more seasoned team-mates as he demonstrated he's well and truly over the pre-season groin injury that almost de-railed his second Hyundai A-League season.
"When I did have the groin problem, I was doing pilates and I went and saw the Western Force doctor, Mark DeCruz, and he was saying, 'even when you get over your groin problem, I still recommend doing pilates at least once a week'," Neville said.
"So I've just kind of taken it upon myself to keep doing 'cause the benefits from it are just unreal."
Neville said that chatting with experienced Glory team-mate Andy Todd had opened his eyes to the various techniques used by European players to maintain their fitness and longevity in the game.
"The goalkeeper at Aston Villa, Brad Friedel, he's been doing yoga for five, six years now every day and he's like 39 and apparently not even close to retirement," Neville said, saying Todd saw the results first-hand when both players were at Blackburn.
"(And Andy Todd), he's still looking like he's 25 when he's actually a little bit older which is unbelievable."
"It just proves to you that if you do the right things on and off the park, it only benefits you and the team."
Neville himself has endured a mixed season so far. Heavily hyped at the start of the year, the 20-year-old suffered a virus midway through the Round 5 clash with Central Coast and had to be substituted before being rested the following week.
As Jamie Coyne had recovered from an early-season knee injury and was able to return to his regular position at right back, it took Neville five weeks to return to the starting line-up for the clash with Gold Coast United.
That match proved a horror one for the youngster as a deflection off him in the first half saw United take the lead. But worse was to come as he and Jamie Coyne were responsible for Gold Coast taking the lead once more, just 11 seconds after Perth had equalised.
A collision between the pair saw Joel Porter easily take possession and cross for Shane Smeltz to score.
But in the face of such a widely-seen mistake, Neville said he was determined to learn from the error and still view the United game as a positive experience that will just see him get better with age.
"Straight after the game, I was a bit down but then straight away Kenny (assistant Kenny Lowe) and the coaching staff showed me the video," Neville said.
"They said, 'look, you actually played quite well apart from obviously an unfortunate own goal and the collision', so you have to take the positives over the negatives, I guess."
"The second goal was just a bit of miscommunication on mine and Jamie's part, but you've just got to learn from those couple of mistakes and hopefully it will never happen again," he said.
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Value-based management helps companies prosper in the fiercely competitive world
To succeed in business today, you must speak the language of finance, says Matti Suominen, Professor of Finance at Aalto University.
Annamari Typpö, 08.03.2018
In the increasingly competitive world, each corporate decision you take must make financial sense, says Matti Suominen, Professor of Finance at the Aalto University, Finland. During his 20-year career in academia, which has seen him teaching at INSEAD, Wharton, IESE, HEC, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and now Aalto University, Suominen has observed firsthand that organizations who consistently measure the value impact of their decisions achieve better results than those who do not.
Organizations can no longer make decisions lightly"
“Organizations can no longer make decisions lightly, as otherwise they are driven out by the efficiency-seeking private equity firms that leave nothing to chance,” Suominen says.
Value-based management means calling attention to capital efficiency: inventory management, the amount of accounts receivable, and the efficiency of the company’s billing process. It also means investing in sectors that create the most added value, and choosing low-cost financing options to fund the business. In other words, measuring economic value and recognizing it as the leading principle in running the company.
Small changes can make a big difference
The benefits of value-based management can be seen with the naked eye. They are also backed by academic research, says Suominen, who teaches in the Diploma in Corporate Financial Management program at Aalto EE.
According to Suominen, value-based management pushes up share price as it helps make sound decisions, secure company resources, and survive competition.
“I have come across companies who have spent billions of dollars without calculating the net present value of their investments. Needless to say, those investments backfired. One company at least did some calculations but still ended up investing six billion in a licence, only because they had a typo in their Excel sheet. This company also lost most of its market value as a result. There are still companies who don’t pay attention to cash flow or, say, capital tied up in receivables; they only look at profits,” Suominen says.
There are still companies who don’t pay attention to cash flow or, say, capital tied up in receivables; they only look at profits."
Suominen compares the situation to everyday life. We all know the benefits of a healthy lifestyle – it controls weight, improves mood, combats diseases, boosts energy, and improves longevity – yet for many it’s still hard to change habits and they need advice on what to eat and how to exercise.
“It’s the same in business. Looking at your business decisions from the point of view of economic value brings along a variety of benefits: even the smallest changes to how you operate your business can produce surprisingly good results.”
Private equity firms set the bar
The growing importance of value-based management is driven by two concurrent trends.
The first trend Suominen mentions is the emphasis on shareholder value. Whereas in the 1980s, it was common both in Europe and in the United States that executives considered other stakeholders more important than shareholders, now the situation is totally different.
“During the past ten years, we have found ourselves at the other extreme. Private equity firms have gained ground, and these are organizations that very effectively and aggressively drive shareholders’ interest only, and create value from increased efficiency: lower working capital, lower taxes, higher incentives, and a “pennies count” mentality,” Suominen explains.
To withstand competition, other companies must understand how private equity firms operate, and adopt their best practices.
The second trend behind value-based management is the growing volume of mergers and acquisitions. "
The second trend behind value-based management is the growing volume of mergers and acquisitions. The number of M&A transactions has increased both in the Nordic countries and worldwide in the past few years. Some 5–10 percent of assets change ownership every year, Suominen says. This is partly due to the proliferation of private equity firms, and partly because it has become a habit for many companies to buy out competitors to obtain access to new resources, markets, and technologies.
“The M&A process involves several parties, each with their own interests. Executives need to be aware of what is happening and why, and protect their own interests. Bankers and corporate M&A departments, for example, may be inclined to conclude more transactions than is reasonable,” Suominen says.
Do you know what creates and what destroys company value?
Combined with the ruthless competition, the business mechanic described above means that to succeed in this world, executives must master the key aspects of financial analysis and value based management.
“To have a positive impact in your organization, to be heard, and to understand what’s being discussed, you must know how to speak the language of finance. By being better informed, you can make better decisions and be fully aware of the consequences of your actions,” Suominen emphasizes.
You must know how to speak the language of finance."
Aalto EE’s Diploma in Corporate Financial Management program, directed at non-financial executives, CEOs, business unit heads, lawyers, bank relationship managers, board members, advisors, and consultants, provides participants with the opportunity to deepen their understanding of the main elements of corporate finance.
They learn how to read and analyze financial statements, how to assess the shareholder value impact of investments, mergers and acquisitions, and other corporate actions, and how to allocate resources in a value-based manner. They also learn to understand what drives the share price and how firms, including startups, should be financed.
“The program can be of tremendous benefit to someone who’s built their career in, say, engineering, marketing, or law, and then risen up to an executive position with a profit and loss responsibility. They need a fast path to financial literacy to talk to investors, other corporate executives, and the press, and to understand what really creates and what destroys company value,” Suominen concludes.
The 2017 Diploma in Corporate Financial Management program received excellent customer feedback. Instructor Matti Suominen's knowledge and expertise, suitability of content and teaching skills and methods all received a full 6.0/6.0. Read more!
Currently reading: Aalto Leaders' Insight: Value-based management helps companies prosper in the fiercely competitive world
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Jussi Rautiainen, Diploma in Corporate Financial Management
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contenu Home > Our work > International Action > Beijing+20 > EWL actions on Beijing+20 > Commit, Accelerate, Invest:
There is no more time to waste, no more negotiation to undertake. Women’s and girls’ rights are universal goals, which cannot tolerate any exception, justification or excuse. Peaceful and sustainable development cannot be achieved if half the planet’s population is not fully enjoying their human rights. CSW59 is a unique chance to deliver change for all women and girls on the planet, and for the human community as a whole.
This is why the EWL and its members call on all UN member states to Commit, Accelerate and Invest:
COMMIT to the realisation of the Beijing Platform for Action. Reaffirm your commitment to all interconnected and universal human rights, and systematically ensure a women’s rights perspective in your work, including in the adoption of the post-2015 agenda. Reaffirm your commitment to existing United Nations agreed language and instruments on women’s rights and equality between women and men, including the Cairo Programme of Action (on sexual and reproductive rights) and the 1949 UN Convention (on prostitution and trafficking).
ACCELERATE the implementation of all women’s rights instruments, especially the Beijing Platform for Action and CEDAW, and of existing regional and national laws and programmes on women’s and girls’ rights and gender equality. Keep women’s rights on the highest level of the political agenda, at all times, including by strengthening institutional mechanisms for women’s rights. Elaborate comprehensive and ambitious strategies to realise women’s and girls’ rights which should not only develop and implement legislation, but also make a concrete change in mentalities and values. Make sure that all policies are designed to not leave a single girl or woman behind. Reiterate your commitment to end all forms of violence against women and girls, in order to reach the highest level of equality, development and peace for all.
INVEST in women’s and girls’ rights, and in women’s organisations. Ensure that national budgets include increased dedicated investment to secure women’s rights: investment in women’s labour market participation, social services for women, sustainability of women’s organisations, etc. Equally include women’s organisations and experts in all global discussion on all issues, including on the post-2015 agenda, and in your national delegations to the UN meetings such as CSW. Abide by your duty to develop democratic societies and civil dialogue, and protect all human rights activists. Deliver a new model for development and peace, with women’s and girls’ rights, and feminist economics and values at its core.
The largest coalition for women’s rights and gender equality in Europe, the European Women’s Lobby has sent a letter to the Latvian Presidency of the European Union (UE) to express our expectation of a leadership role of the EU and its Member States in the adoption of an ambitious, serious and forward-looking declaration.
Our letter also includes recommendations on the new working methods for the Commission on the Status of Women. We ask UN member states to reaffirm the norm-setting role of CSW on gender equality and empowerment of women, and decide that the CSW will contribute to the follow-up of the post-2015 agenda and SDGs. The CSW has a critical role in accelerating the realisation of the Beijing Platform for Action and all women’s and girls’ human rights and instruments; it should also further enhance its catalytic role for gender mainstreaming in all UN entities and activities, including in support of the implementation of the post-2015 agenda and the SDGs.
Moreover, women’s organisations should be supported to participate in the work of the CSW and regional meetings on gender equality, including on the post-2015 agenda, due to their instrumental role in promoting women’s and girls’ rights. Women’s organisations and feminist groups should be systematically included in national delegations to the CSW, given access to negotiations, and be able to speak and intervene during general and panel discussion. The convening role of the CSW is a question of democracy and transparency.
Join our action!
Tweet your ministers with #CommitAccelerateInvest #Beijing20 #CSW59
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A crowd cheers on the Robinson's Racing Pigs during Snellville Days Saturday at Briscoe Park in Snellville, GA. STEVE SCHAEFER / SPECIAL TO THE AJC
Things to do in and around Atlanta: May 3-11
Shane Harrison
FAIRS, FESTIVALS, ETC.
“Cyclorama: The Big Picture.” Featuring the fully restored cyclorama painting “The Battle of Atlanta.” $9-$21.50. Atlanta History Center, 130 W. Paces Ferry Road NW, Atlanta. 404-814-4000, atlantahistorycenter.com.
»»RELATED: Check out our podcast on the restoration of the Cyclorama
“Barbecue Nation.” Through Sept. 29. $9-$21.50. Atlanta History Center, 130 W. Paces Ferry Road, Atlanta. 404-814-4000, atlantahistorycenter.com.
Georgia Renaissance Festival. 10:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturdays, Sundays and Memorial Day. Through June 2. $20-$24; $10-$12 ages 6-12, free for ages 5 and younger. 6905 Virlyn B. Smith Road, Fairburn. 770-964-8575, garenfest.com.
WHOlanta 2019. Annual sci-fi convention focusing on “Doctor Who” and British media and culture. May 3-5. $65 for the weekend; $25 Friday, $40 Saturday; $35 Sunday; ages 6-12 $20; under age 6 free with paid adult. Hilton Atlanta Airport, 1031 Virginia Ave., Atlanta. WHOlanta.com.
Swing Into Spring Festival. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. May 4. Starr Park, 803 Forest Parkway, Forest Park. 404-363-2908, forestparkga.org.
DATE CHANGE: Cars & ‘Q for the Cause. It’s the 10th year for this barbecue and auto show to benefit the Georgia Chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. 4-7 p.m. May 5 (moved from May 4). Tickets include dinner. $30-$50; under age 8 free. Choate Construction, 8200 Roberts Drive, Atlanta. www.carsnq.com.
Snellville Days Festival. May 4-5. Free. Briscoe Park, 2500 Sawyer Parkway, Snellville. 770-985-3535, snellvilledays.org.
Canton Festival of the Arts. May 4-5. Brown Park, 270 E. Marietta St., Canton. cantonartfestival.com.
May-retta Daze. 10 a.m.-9 p.m. May 4; 11 a.m.-5 p.m. May 5. Free. Glover Park at Historic Marietta Square, 50 N. Park Square NE, Marietta. 770-794-5601, mariettaga.gov.
Picnic in the Park. A benefit for Wholesome Wave Georgia. Get a picnic basket with dishes prepared by chefs at local restaurants including One Flew South, No. 246 and Muss and Turner’s, plus beverages, live music, farm booths and family-friendly activities. 1-4 p.m. May 5. $40 for a two-person picnic basket; $75 for a four-person basket. Adair Park I, 742 Catherine St. SW, Atlanta. www.wholesomewavegeorgia.org.
Harold is a curious young boy who discovers his power to create anything he can imagine in the Center for Puppetry Arts' "Harold and the Purple Crayon."
“Harold and the Purple Crayon.” Through May 26. $25. Center for Puppetry Arts, 1404 Spring St. NW, Atlanta. puppet.org.
“I Love to Eat.” William S. Murphey plays culinary expert James Beard in the one-man comedy. Through May 5. $15-$45. Theatrical Outfit, Balzer Theater at Herren’s, 84 Luckie St. NW, Atlanta. 678-528-1500, theatricaloutfit.org.
»»REVIEW: Get the verdict on Theatrical Outfit’s “I Love to Eat”
“Hamlet.” Through May 5. $15-$47. Atlanta Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare Tavern Playhouse, 499 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta. 404-874-5299, shakespearetavern.com.
“The Hero’s Wife.” Through May 5. $24-$38. Synchronicity Theatre, 1545 Peachtree St. (in the Peachtree Pointe complex), Atlanta. 404-484-8636, synchrotheatre.com.
Atlanta Opera: “La Traviata.” May 3 and 5. $38-$134. Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, 2800 Cobb Galleria Parkway, Atlanta. www.cobbenergycentre.com.
“Ride the Cyclone.” The Saint Cassian High School Chamber Choir’s ride on the Cyclone roller coaster ends with their tragic demise. A mechanical fortune teller invites each to tell the story of a life interrupted. Through May 26. $25-$85. Alliance Theatre at the Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. N.E., Atlanta. 404-733-4650, alliancetheatre.org.
“Love & Money.” Determined to donate almost everything she owns before her death, wealthy widow Cornelia Cunningham’s plan hits a snag when an ambitious young man arrives to claim his alleged inheritance. Through May 19. $25-$31. ART Station, 5384 Manor Drive, Stone Mountain. artstation.org.
“Native Gardens.” Neighbors clash in a dazzling new comedy about a battle for the backyard. Through June 2. $20-$50. Aurora Theatre, 128 E. Pike St., Lawrenceville. 678-226-6222, auroratheatre.com.
“Billy Elliot.” Tony Award-winning musical based on the hit film features a score by Elton John. May 3-12. City Springs Theatre at the Byers Theatre (at the Sandy Springs Performing Arts Center), 1 Galambos Way, Sandy Springs. 404-477-4365, cityspringstheatre.com.
“The Secretaries.” A new employee discovers that something is a little off about the members of the secretarial pool in this horror comedy, which explores the cultural expectations of femininity. Through May 26. $15-$25. Out Front Theatre, 999 Brady Ave., Atlanta. 404-448-2755, outfronttheatre.com.
“Amplifest.” A short play festival featuring the works of eight local playwrights opens the inaugural season for Merely Players Presents. Through May 12. $15-$20. Atlanta Cuban Club, 5797 New Peachtree Road, Doraville. www.merelyplayerspresents.com.
“Ragtime.” Tony Award-winning musical based on E.L. Doctorow’s acclaimed novel. May 8-June 9. Serenbe Playhouse, 10950 Hutchesons Ferry Road, Palmetto. 770-463-1110, serenbeplayhouse.com.
Tim Heidecker & Gregg Turkington. 8 p.m. May 11. $35. Variety Playhouse, 1099 Euclid Ave. NE, Atlanta. www.variety-playhouse.com.
Michelle Obama. 8 p.m. May 11. $29.50-$179.50. State Farm Arena, 1 State Farm Drive, Atlanta. statefarmarena.com, www.becomingmichelleobama.com.
Cage the Elephant performed during the Shaky Knees Music Festival in 2017 and will return this year. (DAVID BARNES / DAVID.BARNES@AJC.COM)
Shaky Knees Music Festival. May 3-5. Three-day general admission $189; single-day general admission $99; VIP tickets available. Central Park, 311 North Ave. NE, Atlanta. shakykneesfestival.com.
»»RELATED: Don’t miss our guide to navigating the Shaky Knees Fest
Yacht Rock Revue (“Purple Rain”). 8 p.m. May 3. $20-$55. Coca-Cola Roxy, 800 Battery Ave., Atlanta. 1-800-745-3000, www.cocacolaroxy.com.
Smino. 8 p.m. May 3. $25-$35. Buckhead Theatre, 3110 Roswell Road NE, Atlanta. www.thebuckheadtheatreatl.com.
Fidlar. 11 p.m. May 3. $24-$26. Variety Playhouse, 1099 Euclid Ave. NE, Atlanta. www.variety-playhouse.com.
Al Green. 8 p.m. May 3. $50.50-$130.50. Fox Theatre, 660 Peachtree St., Atlanta. 404-881-2100, foxtheatre.org.
Hillsong United. 7:30 p.m. May 3. $28.50-$78.50. State Farm Arena, 1 State Farm Drive, Atlanta. statefarmarena.com.
Riverside. 8 p.m. May 3. $22-$28. City Winery Atlanta, 650 North Ave., Ponce City Market, Atlanta. 404-946-3791, citywinery.com/atlanta.
India Arie. 8 p.m. May 3. $39.50-$95.50. Symphony Hall, 1280 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta. 404-733-5000, www.atlantasymphony.org.
Garbage. 8 p.m. May 3. $37-$67.50. Tabernacle, 152 Luckie St. NW, Atlanta. www.tabernacleatl.com.
Dublin's Fontaines D.C. open a late-night show at the Earl on May 3.
Photo: Partisan Records
Idles, Fontaines D.C. 11 p.m. May 3. Sold out. The EARL, 488 Flat Shoals Ave. SE, Atlanta. www.badearl.com.
Deerhunter. 11 p.m. May 4. Sold out. The EARL, 488 Flat Shoals Ave. SE, Atlanta. www.badearl.com.
Parkway Drive, Killswitch Engine. 6:30 p.m. May 4. $34.50-$49.50. Tabernacle, 152 Luckie St. NW, Atlanta. www.tabernacleatl.com.
Eric Roberson. 7 and 10 p.m. May 4; 7 p.m. May 5. $40-$50. City Winery Atlanta, 650 North Ave., Ponce City Market, Atlanta. 404-946-3791, citywinery.com/atlanta.
Tom Jones. 8 p.m. May 5. $59.50-$129.50. Symphony Hall, 1280 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta. 404-733-5000, www.atlantasymphony.org.
In This Moment, Sevendust, Light The Torch. 7 p.m. May 5. Tabernacle, 152 Luckie St. NW, Atlanta. www.tabernacleatl.com.
Blackpink. 8 p.m. May 5. $79-$279. Infinite Energy Arena, 6400 Sugarloaf Parkway, Duluth. 770-626-2464, www.infiniteenergycenter.com.
Franklin Pond Chamber Music and Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra’s Chamber Players: “Fall into Spring Concert.” 6 p.m. May 5. Free. Rich Auditorium, Woodruff Arts Center, 1280 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta. 404-252-3479, www.franklinpond.org.
Hands Like Houses. 7 p.m. May 5. $15. The Masquerade, 75 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive SW, Atlanta. www.masqueradeatlanta.com.
Uli Jon Roth. 7 p.m. May 6. $25-$30. City Winery Atlanta, 650 North Ave., Ponce City Market, Atlanta. 404-946-3791, citywinery.com/atlanta.
The Strumbellas. 8 p.m. May 6. $23-$26. Terminal West, 887 W. Marietta St. NW, Atlanta. 404-876-5566, terminalwestatl.com.
Meshuggah. 8 p.m. May 6. $36-$45. Buckhead Theatre, 3110 Roswell Road NE, Atlanta. www.thebuckheadtheatreatl.com.
Kali Uchis and Jorja Smith team up for a show at the Coca-Cola Roxy.
Jorja Smith, Kali Uchis. 7 p.m. May 6. $39.50-$79.50. Coca-Cola Roxy, 800 Battery Ave., Atlanta. 1-800-745-3000, www.cocacolaroxy.com.
DeKalb Symphony Orchestra. Violist Yinzi Kong is the featured soloist for a performance of Hindemith’s “Der Schwanendreher.” Also on the program is Mendelssohn’s Symphony No.5 (“Reformation”) and Bach’s Fantasia and Fugue, arranged by Elgar. 8 p.m. May 7. The public is invited to meet the conductor at the 7 p.m. pre-concert conversation. Marvin Cole Auditorium at Georgia State University, Clarkston Campus, 555 N Indian Creek Drive, Clarkston. 678-891-3565, www.dekalbsymphony.org.
Architects, Thy Art is Murder, While She Sleeps. 7:30 p.m. May 7. Buckhead Theatre, 3110 Roswell Road NE, Atlanta. www.thebuckheadtheatreatl.com.
Shy Girls. 7 p.m. May 7. $12. The Masquerade, 75 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive SW, Atlanta. www.masqueradeatlanta.com.
Mariza. 8 p.m. May 7. $50-$65. City Winery Atlanta, 650 North Ave., Ponce City Market, Atlanta. 404-946-3791, citywinery.com/atlanta.
Bea Miller. 9 p.m. May 7. Sold out. Terminal West, 887 W. Marietta St. NW, Atlanta. 404-876-5566, terminalwestatl.com.
Shinedown. 8:30 p.m. May 7-8. $52.50-$75.50. Coca-Cola Roxy, 800 Battery Ave., Atlanta. 1-800-745-3000, www.cocacolaroxy.com.
Judas Priest. 7:30 p.m. May 8. $35-$150. Fox Theatre, 660 Peachtree St., Atlanta. 404-881-2100, foxtheatre.org.
Herb Alpert and Lani Hall. 8 p.m. May 8. $55-$65. City Winery Atlanta, 650 North Ave., Ponce City Market, Atlanta. 404-946-3791, citywinery.com/atlanta.
Secrets. 7 p.m. May 9. $13.The Masquerade, 75 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive SW, Atlanta. www.masqueradeatlanta.com.
Evanescence. 8 p.m. May 9. $59.50-$125.50. Coca-Cola Roxy, 800 Battery Ave., Atlanta. 1-800-745-3000, www.cocacolaroxy.com.
Railroad Earth. 8 p.m. May 9. $27.50-$32. Variety Playhouse, 1099 Euclid Ave. NE, Atlanta. www.variety-playhouse.com.
Lizzo, seen here at the 2019 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on April 21, 2019, plays a sold-out show at the Tabernacle on May 9.
Photo: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for Coachella
Lizzo. 8 p.m. May 9. $29.50-$49.50. Tabernacle, 152 Luckie St. NW, Atlanta. www.tabernacleatl.com.
Black Stone Cherry, Tyler Bryant & the Shakedown. 8 p.m. May 9. $20-$25. Center Stage, 1374 W. Peachtree St., Atlanta. www.centerstage-atlanta.com.
Carol Albert. 8 p.m. May 9. $20-$26. City Winery Atlanta, 650 North Ave., Ponce City Market, Atlanta. 404-946-3791, citywinery.com/atlanta.
Bear’s Den. 8 p.m. May 10. $21. Variety Playhouse, 1099 Euclid Ave. NE, Atlanta. www.variety-playhouse.com.
lovelytheband. 8 p.m. May 10. $20-$25. Buckhead Theatre, 3110 Roswell Road NE, Atlanta. www.thebuckheadtheatreatl.com.
Johnnyswim. 8 p.m. May 11. $30-$35. Coca-Cola Roxy, 800 Battery Ave., Atlanta. 1-800-745-3000, www.cocacolaroxy.com.
Jessie James Decker. 8 p.m. May 11. $35-$40. Buckhead Theatre, 3110 Roswell Road NE, Atlanta. www.thebuckheadtheatreatl.com.
Thank You Scientist. 9 p.m. May 11. $16.50-$20. Aisle 5, 1123 Euclid Ave. NE, Atlanta. aisle5atl.com.
Blac Rabbit. 9:30 p.m. May 11. $10-$12. Drunken Unicorn, 736 Ponce de Leon Ave. NE, Atlanta. thedrunkenunicorn.net.
Rocktopia. 8 p.m. May 11. $35.50-$49.50. Tabernacle, 152 Luckie St. NW, Atlanta. www.tabernacleatl.com.
Bryan Adams. 8 p.m. May 11. $28.53-$405.50. Ameris Bank Amphitheatre, 2200 Encore Parkway, Alpharetta. livenation.com.
Anthony Hamilton. May 11. $64-$94. Wolf Creek Amphitheater, 3025 Merk Road SW, Atlanta. www.wolfcreekamphitheater.com.
Jagged Edge, 112, Avant. 8 p.m. May 11. $46-$76. Mable House Barnes Amphitheatre, 5239 Floyd Road, Mableton. mablehouse.org.
“European Masterworks: The Phillips Collection” at the High Museum of Art focuses on the fascinating juxtaposition of works from a variety of eras and artists drawn from Washington, D.C.’s Phillips Collection. Contributed by The Phillips Collection
Photo: For the AJC
“European Masterworks: The Phillips Collection.” Through July 14. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Thursdays and Saturdays; 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Fridays; noon-5 p.m. Sundays. $14.50 ages 6 and above; free for children 5 and younger and members. High Museum of Art, 1280 Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta. 404-733-4444, www.high.org
“Twilight Living.” Works by Atlanta photographer Sarah Hobbs. Through May 11. Free. Hathaway Gallery, 887 Howell Mill Road, NW, Suite 200, 470.428.2061, hathawaygallery.com.
“Louder than Words.” Works that focus on conveying ideas and meaning through nonverbal means. Through May 5. Free. Bernard A. Zuckerman Museum of Art, 492 Prillaman Way, Kennesaw. 470-578-3223, arts.kennesaw.edu/zuckerman.
Frank Sharp: “Australia & New Zealand.” Photos from down under by local photographer Frank Sharp. Through April 30. Tucker-Reid H. Cofer Library, 5234 Lavista Road, Tucker. dekalblibrary.org/branches/tuck.
Frank Sharp: “Panama Caribbean Trip.” Through June 6. Pinckneyville Park Community Center, 4650 Peachtree Industrial Boulevard, Berkeley Lake. bit.ly/PinckneyvilleRecCenter.
Fahamu Pecou: “Do or Die: Affect, Ritual, Resistance.” Through April 28. $6-$8. Michael C. Carlos Museum, 571 S. Kilgo Circle NE, Atlanta. carlos.emory.edu.
“Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal: World of Myth and Magic.” Explore how Jim Henson, Brian Froud, Frank Oz and others created “The Dark Crystal’s” mythical world of Thra. Museum admission is $12.50, but it’s free with a ticket to the Center’s Family Series shows. Center for Puppetry Arts, 1404 Spring St. NW, Atlanta. www.puppet.org.
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Israeli air force debates purchase of F-35 fighter planes
Ben Caspit February 17, 2016
As the Syrian, Lebanese and Turkish skies grow ever more crowded with Russian, American, British and Saudi fighter jets, Israel has decided to purchase more F-35s of its own.
REUTERS/Daniel Hughes/U.S. Air Force
The fourth US Air Force F-35A Lightning II aircraft arrives at the 422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, April 24, 2013. The Israeli air force is planning to acquire F-35 stealth fighter jets, facing increasingly crowded skies in Israel's neighborhood.
A complicated argument is underway in the innermost sanctum of Israel’s Security Cabinet. On one hand, several decision-makers are asking tough questions about Israel’s plans to purchase F-35 stealth fighter jets. Even some defense officials do not wholeheartedly support the size and scope of the deal. One the other hand, most of the military establishment, particularly the air force, supports the deal. These officials consider the purchase vital to maintaining Israel’s aerial superiority in the Middle East, a task that only gets tougher as the years go by.
If the third stage of Israel’s deal with Lockheed Martin is approved, the total number of stealth fighters in the Israeli air force will reach 50. Two squadrons have already been purchased, and Israel has the option to acquire 17 more.
While the next squadron of 17 jets has yet to be approved by the Cabinet, the government has already approved the purchase of all the ancillary equipment for them. Right now, the debate is over whether Israel should complete the purchase of the jets. The first delivery of stealth jets is scheduled to reach Israel by the end of this year.
In the course of the debate, various sources have been flooding Israeli decision-makers with presentations, statistics and analyses showing that the stealth fighter's performance is much lower than what one would expect from an aircraft that costs more than $100 million. According to these claims, the jet has a limited range of just 1,200 kilometers (746 miles), problems with its stealth capacity and a diminished weapons load. The biggest deficiency of all, however, is US insistence on keeping the jet’s source code to itself. It will not allow any of the countries that purchase the jet to know what really takes place in the aircraft’s impenetrable “brain,” or to control its operating system.
The Israeli air force rejects all of these allegations outright. The top pilots and experts in what is considered the best air force in the world have examined and tested the F-35’s performance and were satisfied with it. The commander of the Israeli air force, Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel, even spoke with his Italian counterparts, who took the jet on long flights (including from Italy to the United States) and reported that its range is significantly greater than what is now being claimed.
Given how complicated and sensitive Israel’s relationship with the United States has been over the past few years, Israel's air force has complete independence in all matters pertaining to the handling of the jet. A senior Israeli defense official told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, “The stealth fighter will not be leaving Israel except for operational strikes. We have no intention of sending it for maintenance in the US or Turkey, where its engines are manufactured. The Americans have come toward us in this respect, and we have no complaints against them.”
Another sensitive issue has been the installation of Israeli weapons and arms on the fighter jet, but this, too, has been resolved. As part of the understanding, the Americans agreed to include an F-35 “test jet” with the second squadron. It will have special equipment installed to allow Israel to run practice exercises and test all of the changes and additions it plans on incorporating into the stealth fighter, just as it does with all its other fighter jets.
Overall, the Israeli air force is pleased with the deal. Another senior source said, also on condition of anonymity, “There is no other way to maintain our qualitative advantage. This is undoubtedly the most advanced fighter jet in the world today. Given the current situation, Israel cannot allow itself not to acquire it.”
High-ranking sources in the defense establishment note that in the past four years alone, arms deals valued at $200 billion have been signed in the Middle East. “It is unlike anything we have ever seen before,” says one senior defense official on condition of anonymity. “And the deals include countries with whom we are not in a state of war, like Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The Egyptians purchased two MiG fighter squadrons, a Rafale squadron and a huge amount of Russian S-300 anti-aircraft missiles. The Saudis bought 154 new F-15s of the latest, most sophisticated model. The Gulf states are buying vast amounts of weapons with the most cutting-edge technological upgrades. What we are actually talking about is these countries upping their strategic positions. We may have peace with Egypt, but there is still no doubt that their reference point is Israel. The Egyptians aren’t buying these weapons because of Sudan or even the threat posed by the Islamic State in Sinai. We must be ready for every possible scenario and every radical strategic shift, because we have no other choice.”
Meanwhile, the Israeli air force is in the midst of a far-reaching strategic and operational shift of its own. As one senior air force official told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, “Over the past four years, we have increased the assault capacity of each of our jets fourfold. This figure may be hard to absorb, but it is a fact. It would now take us 36-48 hours to conduct the same number of attacks as in the entire Second Lebanon War.”
These figures are especially remarkable given that the number of fighter jets is decreasing steadily due to age. The same source explained, “Today, Israeli fighter jets can perform multiple operations more quickly and precisely than it could just a few years ago.”
The Israeli air force looks northward with serious consternation, noting that the skies above Syria, Lebanon and Turkey “are more crowded than they have ever been before,” said one senior air force official who asked not to be named. Until recently, only the Israeli air force allowed itself to stake out a massive presence over Syria and Lebanon. “Now the Russian air force is there in full force, along with American, British, French, Jordanian, Saudi and international coalition forces. Who isn’t there?”
It is only natural that what concerns Israel most are Russian fighter jets. Much has been written to date about the highly sensitive levels of cooperation between the Russian and Israeli air forces. Since then, the Russians have penetrated Israeli air space by mistake on two separate occasions. In both instances, Israel broke from habit, held back its missiles and allowed the Russian pilots to turn around, apologize and leave.
“Even if a Russian jet flies over Tel Aviv, we will not take it down,” said one high-ranking military source, talking on condition of anonymity. ''The Russians do not appear on our radar screens as ‘enemy’ or ‘predator.’ They appear as ‘neighbor.’ We coordinate with them, so there is no reason for us to have a run-in with them or for them to have a run-in with us. The Russian presence in the skies neither compromises nor restricts the Israeli air force’s maneuverability, and I believe that it will stay that way in the future.” Nevertheless, one gets the feeling that he isn’t completely convinced that this prediction will indeed bear out.
Found in: stealth, israeli security, israeli air force, israel defense forces, f-35, aircraft, air force
Ben Caspit is a columnist for Al-Monitor's Israel Pulse. He is also a senior columnist and political analyst for Israeli newspapers and has a daily radio show and regular TV shows on politics and Israel. On Twitter: @BenCaspit
Erdogan confident he can sway Trump to skip sanctions
Intel: Why Congress has five different bills banning F-35s for Turkey
G-20 summit could be last exit before all-out US-Turkey crisis
After 50 years, Israel opens up 'Land of the Monasteries’
Ankara plays down US ultimatum on S-400
US denies willingness to talk over S-400 concerns with Turkey
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All News Day
Wednesday and as far as my computer points out to me, my last journal was on the 7th or the 8th, in which I refrained from sending out any news clips. So, today, my Journal will be all news clips. Not only does this help you stay up with unique and often unreported world events, I also keep my own collection. Oh, yes...we had some snow last night, but it is already melting and I am hearing thunder over the mountains. Either that or its a North Korean weapons test.
Gatestone- Story reported on 3/7/16-Sweden: Public swimming pools have become "ordeals of rape and sexual assaults as migrants prey upon Swedish women and teens." Swedish politicians seemed convinced "education" is the answer, for men who've been taught since childhood that "it's the responsibility of women not to arouse them- and therefore the woman's fault if the man feels like raping her." Staff at Malmo's Hylliebadet Family Adventure Pool were given strict instructions not to report certain things, and above all, never to mention the ethnicity or religion of those who cause problems at the pool. Members of the so-called "Nordic Resistance Movement" are popping up to patrol public pools, but no word of confrontation as of yet.
Japan Times- Fukushima: A total of 32,760 workers at the Fukushima Plant Number One have received a high dosage of radiation- exceeding 5 millisieverts - according to Tokyo Electric Company- also known as TEPCO, owners of the Fukushima Plant that was destroyed 5 years ago during the 9.4 earthquake and tsunami. The workers have received it since the event of 5 years ago, doing repairs and major nuclear waste clean-up.
Washington Free Beacon- Washington D.C.: 3/7/16, U.S. Government audit exposes massive FRAUD in Social Security Administration, where Social Security approved benefits for children with fake disabilities. Investigation/audit showed parents were coaching sons and daughters how to fake ADD/ADHD. Also that field offices were not "flagging potential fraud cases" or performing periodic reviews of children to determine if they still qualified for the benefit. Some of these homes had six children on disability, and households where 5 such children on disability in the same home were approved on the same day. One household was found to be bringing in $77,000 in 2014 in SSI payments. The case found the vast majority of children receiving the reported $10 billion a year in disability payments are for Mental Impairments, with ADD/ ADHD being the ost common. Audit showing nearly 85,000 approved cases between 2011-2013, which were made up of 31,890 ADD/ADHD cases; 17,973 speech and language delays; 15,900 for Autism; 10,414 for Intellectual Disabilities; 8,816 for Mood Disorders. The agency's audit/investigation found field offices do not report their information 92% of the time.
(Nice to see our tax dollars at work, but what I'd like to know is how come it took so long before the investigation was requested?)
Catholic News: United States: New Federal Law enacted in Feb 2016- To Prohibit Importation of Goods Made With Forced Labor. This is a big boost in the fight against labor trafficking. There is an estimated 21 million people involved as victims of forced labor, with 19 million being exploited by private corporations. An estimated $150 billion in profit is made by using forced labor and child labor, in sweat shops, slave fishing fleets or working as slaves in mines. These adult slaves and children are used to bring in the raw materials for numerous U.S. factories, or work in hidden sweat shops to make shoes, clothing and illegal drugs. Thai fishing fleets, known to enslave people from 5 Southeast Asian countries, fishes for various fish and especially SHRIMP that finds it way into American markets ( chain stores and eateries).
Added to the story above- Guardian/Associated Press, working with the U.S. State Department, conducted their own investigations, which revealed- Thai, Burmese, Cambodian and Indonesian are subjected to "Forced labor on Thai fishing boats; where same men remain at sea for several years, paid very little or irregularly. Works as much as 18-20 hours per day for 7-days a week, or are threatened and physically beaten". Shrimp is a common goods that comes from these forced labor boats and ends up on U.S. dinner tables. Child labor picks the beautiful flowers of Ecuador, later to be sold in the United States for Valentines Day. Common usage of child labor is in diamond mines, later to adorn American jewelry.
( The list is long and how often do we think about it when we make a good buy on a pair of tennis shoes, was some 6 or 7 year old forced to work in inhumane conditions to make those shoes so the boy's owner can make a huge profit? Or the 10lb bag of shrimp going for a dollar less a pound-finally, do we think of the boat crew? Maybe its a 10 year old who hasn't seen land or his parents for two years, and his body is a mass of bruising and two bones haven't healed right so he'll never walk quite right again to make sure you've got 6 extra butterfly shrimp in your plastic bag. Tough to hear-right? But how tough is it for them? I've seen some of the conditions these people live in, on boats and on land during my stays in Thailand and Vietnam, and a couple other places. Our lower middle class would be considered royalty and that's why every GI going to war in these poor countries is considered a millionaire. That's what they really believe.)
Telegraph/Britain: Prime Minister Cameron says there is "No Prospect" of the UK joining the European Union's quota scheme to "Devy up migrants around the Bloc." UK announces it will send warships to stop migrant flow and turn them back, "Even if that puts lives at risk."
( I can just visualize a proper British warship commander blocking a floundering barge with 40-60 lives aboard, or a raft with 7-8 men, women and children, with the full might of the British navy, ordering them to turn back and drown. Afterward, that same officer, obeying his order to the last, will return to his cabin and very properly blow his brains out. You cannot order a navy officer to violate the basic rules of the sea- to provide care for those in need. Not to drown them. That was Hitler's rule when he ordered the killing of all enemy sailors adrift at sea. I'm sure that comparison was already brought to the Prime Minister's attention.)
Telegraph-Spain: "Society changes course as time moves on," says local mayor. A Spanish town now bans bizarre century-old tradition of "Duck Chasing" at their seaside festival. ( Now we know the world is assuredly coming to an end).
New Zealand Star: New drug to help stop to progression of Parkinson's Disease could be on the market next year, with provisional consent, its developers say. The drug is NTCELL. Another rival company is developing DIABECELL for the same purpose and they are currently running their trials with the usage of pigs as their test subject.
Jerusalem Post/United States: "More anti-Israel hate at Connecticut College; some faculty speak out". One professor tells his colleagues his school has grown so hostile towards Jews he can no longer recommend Jewish students or professors to come to his college. His comments were triggered a smear campaign waged successfully against a pro-Israel professor, which resulted in indefinite leave from campus. Anti-Israel and anti-Semitic campaigns are being waged by Connecticut College students who are in Solidarity with Palestine (CSSP), whose faculty supervisor, Eileen Kane, runs the college's "Global Islamic Studies". Vassar University is also seeing an upsurge in hate demonstrations against Israel and Jews, also the University of Chicago. Remarkably, the Connecticut College Administration hasn't taken any initiative to protect student and faculty brave enough to espouse unpopular views (including their support for Israel).
Gatestone- Oregon: The United Methodist Church gathered at the Oregon Convention Center, where thousands of leaders, delegates, and visitors attend this once every 4-year event for Policy Making Decisions, revising Church Law and Adopting Resolutions. This year, there are four new proposals being prepared for consideration and they all involve an Anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and sanctions.
Japan Times- U.S. Congress: U.S. Navy Seals appear before congress to complain of how they do not have enough combat rifles to go around, even as special forces units are being called upon to conduct more counter-terrorism operations.
(This report was seen all over the world by TV/Cable/Internet and read about through this newspaper in the Orient (Sorry, they're asking for the Orient word not to be used anymore-but hard to break the habit). It shows our allies and our enemies that our equipment may be in a short supply and none too healthy for our troops. But I find it odd how the M-4 Combat Rifle, and our new sniper rifles, are being provided to foreign armies. Is this part of Obama's plan? And where is all that .22 caliber ammo going to? Has Obama been developing his private army that he promised in 2008, after being elected...an army to be trained and to be equal to the U.S. Army, but loyal to him and not the country? He's been using his Emergency Orders to create such, Orders first created by President Roosevelt in a time of war and never rescinded. I've written about them before, but several of you thought I had landed on my head too many times or my old head wound was causing problems again. But Pres. Roosevelt's aides and his wife knew that with most of the army overseas, he might have need of an army right back here in the states. Mexico might present a problem, or Organized Crime. He already had a problem with the Mafia, when the sunk a boat at the docks in New Jersey because the military preferred to use sailors instead of dock workers, who had help the Mafia survive with Union dues. When Roosevelt refused to accept the Mafia's deal, the boat mysteriously sunk, with its whole load of supplies. Th next day the dock workers were back. But this original set of Executive Emergency Orders allowed the President to enter homes to seize all weapons, all food, privately owned vehicles, boats, planes and even company goods like trains. We saw a sample of this when the Police Chief in New Orleans suddenly went into a few neighborhoods and seized all the pistols/revolvers, shotguns and rifles...plus ammo. Was this a test? It was stopped, but to the best of my knowledge those weapons were never returned. How would you fight it, when 60 uniformed men suddenly appears, with a search warrant and they take all the items I listed above. Oh, they'll inform you of where the common aide center and kitchen is, but you'd better start now because you are now afoot- they took your 2015 Ford F-250. Things that can happen and those original orders were done in President Roosevelt's term, not Obama. He's simply brushing off the dust and cobwebs.)
Japan Times- France: French Government agrees with Germany and Switzerland to close down France's oldest nuclear plant.
RT NEWS(Irish)-Turkey: Turkish Government has now seized its 2nd news agency by force. "Cihan" News Agency was seized just days after the Turkish Government had seized the "Zaman" News Agency, using tear gas to force the workers out of the building and disperse protesters outside. As with the Zaman's newspapers, Cihan's first stories after the takeover were pro-government pieces.
RT News(Irish)- Germany: Congo born German Priest resigns from his Diocese in upper Bavarian township, after receiving numerous death threats and racial insults. He reported things turned bitter when he spoke up for the refugees in Germany.
( In know, up here in Moose Pass, Alaska, we 're pretty much unaffected by the migrant crisis. But Alaska has its own way of creating life & death crisis and for every household here, there are relatives scattered about the world that we care about and pray for. Still, I am reminded of the scripture and now I must ask, where are the Christian brothers and sisters who once said they would indeed share their last cup or morsel with those who have nothing. But when this time of testing comes or is now here, if this is what it might be, I can only pray to the Lord for strength for so it seems so many who are showing signs of weakness. People will be tested and not only over the migrant issue. I'll admit I was just called this very moment by a child's agency in need of funds. I asked them to mail us their pamphlet. Courage, convictions and honor will be tested and how will we stand? Hey, me too! I can only imagine a lot of us will have some explaining to do. But for the moment, when we can, we should always remember our Lord's teachings. The thing that Mona and I really enjoy comes from the people who show up in the middle of the night, cold, hungry and in need of compassion, and for a sandwich and soup they'll gladly share a few moments of their story and what brought them down are darkened driveway. Our best compliment has come from complete strangers who were now friends...of how they enjoyed the warmth of the home. Not the house, but a home. Some have found their answers, their home and new life partners, while some have disappeared from us and we've turned them over to the Lord. Oh, if any of you wonder why I stay up to date, or try to, concerning the anti-Semitic movement, it is a heritage thing- I am one-eighth German-Jewish...enough to provide me with citizenship in Israel, if I decided to move over there. But I've had nearly 5 yrs of full-time Upper Mojave Desert life with the Air Force and spent a good part of every summer -8 yrs- growing up in Arizona. No more desert for me, unless God tells me otherwise. )
Egyptian News: Egypt- Egyptian lawmakers want a new law to ban Muslim women from covering their faces with the wearing of a Muslim "Niqab", which is a veil, most often a solid colored fabric, with black being the preference, that only reveals the eyes of the wearer. Many in the government feel this Niqab can be used to disguise a wanted woman or even a male terrorist.
Guardian News-United States: The gun industry is working to re-brand a pistol or rifle "silencer" as "Hearing- Protection accessories. (I'll take three hearing-aides)
Japan Times-Japan: Otsu District Court has issued a provisional injunction ordering Kansai Electric Power Co., to shut down (2) two nuclear reactors- # 3 & # 4 at its Takahama Facility. Experts and politicians expect this injunction is likely to delay efforts to restart other nuclear reactors nationwide.
Washington Free Beacon- United States: U.S./IRS audit/investigation has found that IRS has only answered 6.3 million calls of the 40.5 million calls it had received on its toll-free lines as of 2/27/16. This was according to the testimony of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. This means the IRS only answered 15.6% of the total calls. ( Must've been big days at the water cooler).
Is "Operation Choke Point" for real? ( Non- News Site). Reportedly this was earlier "Exposed by Wall Street Journal", (unknown date, the Department of Justice and Bank Regulators are "Preparing" to Refuse Banking Services to Perfectly Legal Industries, Under the Guise They Pose a "Reputation Risk" to the Bank. Two such industries are "guns" and "gold". It is reported this illegal program will effectively "choke" sellers of "guns" and "precious metal" What is the governments objective? to "cut-off" American Citizen's access to "guns" and "gold" completely.
China Daily-Beijing: China's state-run China Central Television recently aired a documentary that "Reveals The United States' Double Standards on Human Rights-Issues." (Might be time for old Mr. Kerry to go back to see his pal in China and discuss a comparison between USA and China in the double standards, especially after an investigation by Chinese authorities showed 75% of the large plus-sized corporations were in fact using slave labor for their overseas companies.)
China Daily- Beijing: Women now hold about 30% of the top positions in Chinese Mainland Businesses- based on recent survey.
China Daily- Fukushima: "A Disaster Area", 5 years later, as survivors exposed themselves to high levels of radiation to search for bodies of family members killed by the Fukushima meltdown, occurred following 9.4 earthquake and tsunami that swept over the community.
China Daily- Beijing: Researchers in China and the U.S., working together, have developed a new cataract treatment with stem cell that restored vision in infants and may eventually be used for adults.
China Daily-European Union: The E.U. reports the release of $11.01 million dollars for additional research on the Zika Virus.
Japan Times- United Nation: U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees says he will now be asking other countries to step forward and agree to take in another 400,000 Syrian Refugees.
Washington Free Beacon- United States: Top colleges throughout the United States experiencing unprecedented rise in anti-Semitic incidents and anti-Jewish behavior, being fueled by the rise in number of campus organizations promoting often-inflammatory anti-Israel Propaganda.
Catholic News- Rome: Mother Teresa is to be Canonized on Sept 4, 2016. Pope Francis was also given the privilege to announce a Palestinian school teacher has become the recipient of a $1 million dollar International Award. She was chosen for this due to her fine and constant work with children.
Beijing Globe-Jordan: Jordanian Authorities report the Syrian Refugee Influx has cost the country more than $7 Billion since 2011.
So, the odd, some religious and the occasional "WHAT!" story, added in with a bit of news. I will compare the former USSR and China stories with the former US Allies, to see if it made the news. I usually leave the big stories alone, you can read today's online paper for that. What I want are the ones not being reported, when they should. So, please keep your eyes open for anything to do with Fukushima. Eventually, someone will demand an investigation. Someone will want to know what is happening to the seabed. All that radioactive gunk is going down onto the seafloor. We need a map showing width of contamination. I earlier showed a story on Green Peace showing changes to the woods of Fukushima and whole DNA changing in the trees. They have roots going into the contaminated ground. So, how far out is the danger perimeter for the sea floor....5, 10, 100 miles. Try to imagine that beautiful shrimp on your plate, you just paid $19.95 at that favorite dive you take your girl for her third date. Without knowing it, you've just killed you both with an aggressive form of cancer. You actually thought it tasted a bit strange, but you paid good money for it. The shrimp had been moving along 7 miles off the Coast of Japan, well within view of Fukushima, but they're down 947 feet munching away. Lecture over, head for the hot tub.
God Bless. BILL
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Ex-rebels win Burundi election
A former rebel group in Burundi has won the majority of seats in the first parliamentary elections in the war-ravaged Central African nation in 12 years, the country's top election official says.
Full preliminary results of voting are expected later on Tuesday
Paul Ngarambe, the head of the Independent Electoral Commission, told state-run radio that the Forces for the Defence of Democracy had won between 60% and 80% of the vote in Monday's election.
Tuesday's results, combined with municipal elections last month, place the Hutu-led party clearly in power, replacing the previous dominant Hutu party, Front for Democracy in Burundi, which led the transitional government.
"The completed results from 80% of the polling stations nationwide gives the FDD between 60% and 80% of the vote," Ngarambe said.
"We are still waiting for results from the remaining polling stations, but partial results in those stations are the same, so we expect no major change."
Ngarambe said there were no significant reports of any problems during the voting and counting. The full preliminary results were expected to be announced later on Tuesday.
"For Burundi, this means change. The population has proved that it was thirsty for change," said Philippe Nzobariba, executive secretary of a smaller Hutu party, the Rally for Burundian People.
Democracy campaign
Voters cast ballots for the former main rebel group because they wanted to be led by "someone who showed he has physical capacity for change", he added.
How Burundi will deal with war
crimes has been a major issue
Alison de Forges, a Central Africa expert for New York-based Human Rights Watch, said the Forces for the Defence of Democracy staged a highly effective campaign.
"If you look at the preliminary results they have won a huge victory," de Forges said.
"Their discourse was a politically correct discourse, it was an inclusive discourse of openness. But what remains is how will they implement it, particularly when it comes to justice."
How Burundi will deal with accusations of war crimes against both the former government and rebel groups has been a huge issue during the peace process.
Carolyn McAskie, head of the United Nations Mission in Burundi, said about 63.8% of the 3.2 million registered voters turned out to cast their ballots in what was seen as another step towards ending the civil war between Hutu rebels and the former Tutsi-dominated army and government.
Voters intimidated
Voter turnout might have been affected by fear of holdout rebel attacks on polling stations. Rebels attacked voters and dozens of polling stations during local government elections last month, killing one person and wounding at least 10 others.
Holdout rebels were accused of stealing balloting material and intimidating voters in some parts of Burundi during the parliamentary elections that are part of efforts to end a devastating civil war.
Civil war began in 1993 after Burundi's first democratically elected president, a Hutu, was assassinated by Tutsi paratroopers. Some 250,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in the war.
A series of peace deals led to the creation of a transitional government in 2001, which most of the rebels have joined. Only one rebel group remains outside the peace process, but it has agreed to a ceasefire.
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SCHÜTZ is a registered trademark of SCHÜTZ GmbH & Co. KGaA.
A use of the internet pages of the SCHÜTZ GmbH & Co. KGaA is possible in principle without any indication of personal data. However, if an affected person wishes to use our company's special services through our website, personal data processing may be required. If the processing of personal data is required and there is no legal basis for such processing, we generally seek the consent of the data subject.
The processing of personal data, such as the name, address, e-mail address or telephone number of a data subject, always takes place in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation and in accordance with the country-specific data protection provisions applicable to SCHÜTZ GmbH & Co. KGaA. Through this privacy policy, our company seeks to inform the public about the nature, scope and purpose of the personal information we collect, use and process. Furthermore, data subjects are informed of their rights under this privacy policy.
SCHÜTZ GmbH & Co. KGaA, as the controller, has implemented numerous technical and organizational measures to ensure the most complete protection possible for personal data processed via this website. Nevertheless, Internet-based data transmissions can generally have security gaps so that absolute protection can not be guaranteed. For this reason, every person concerned is free to submit personal data to us in alternative ways, for example by telephone.
Name and address of the controller
The person responsible within the meaning of the EU General Data Protection Regulation, other data protection laws in the Member States of the European Union and other provisions with a data protection character is:
Schützstraße 12
D-56242 Selters
Telephone +49 (0) 2626 / 77-0
Fax +49 (0) 2626 / 77-532
info1@schuetz.net
Name and address of the data protection officer
The data protection officer of the controller is:
Christian Baier
datenschutz@schuetz.net
Any data subject can contact our data protection officer at any time with any questions or suggestions regarding data protection.
Collection of general data and information
The website of SCHÜTZ GmbH & Co. KGaA collects a series of general data and information every time the website is accessed by an affected person or an automated system. This general data and information is stored in the log files of the server. The (1) browser types and versions used, (2) the operating system used by the accessing system, (3) the website from which an accessing system accesses our website (so-called referrers), (4) the sub-web pages, which can be accessed via (5) the date and time of access to the website, (6) an Internet Protocol address (IP address), (7) the Internet service provider of the accessing system and (8) other similar data and information used in the event of attacks on our information technology systems.
When using this general data and information SCHÜTZ GmbH & Co. KGaA does not draw conclusions about the data subject. Rather, this information is required to (1) correctly deliver the contents of our website, (2) to optimize the content of our website and to advertise it, (3) to ensure the continued functioning of our information technology systems and the technology of our website, and (4) to provide law enforcement authorities with the necessary information for prosecution in the event of a cyberattack. These anonymously collected data and information are evaluated by the SCHÜTZ GmbH & Co. KGaA therefore on the one hand statistically and further with the goal of increasing the data protection and the data security in our Companies to ultimately ensure the best possible level of protection of the personal data we process. The anonymous data of the server log files are stored separately from all personal data provided by an affected person.
Routine deletion and blocking of personal data
The controller shall process and store the personal data of the data subject only for the period necessary to achieve the purpose of the storage or, as the case may be, by the European directives or regulations or by any other legislator in laws or regulations which the controller was provided for.
If the storage purpose is omitted or if a storage period prescribed by the European directives and regulations or any other relevant legislator expires, the personal data will be routinely blocked or deleted in accordance with the statutory provisions.
Your rights to information, correction, suspension, cancellation and opposition
You have the right to receive information about your personal data stored by us at any time. Likewise, you have the right to correction, blocking, or, apart from the prescribed data storage for business transactions, deletion of your personal data. Please contact our data protection officer. The contact details can be found at the bottom.
For a data lock to be taken into account at all times, these data must be stored in a lock file for control purposes. You can also request the deletion of the data, as long as there is no legal archiving obligation. As far as such an obligation exists, we lock your data on request.
You can make changes or revoke your consent by notifying us with effect for the future.
Note about using federated web services:
Using apps from the Apple App Store:
These websites offer apps from Apple. In connection with Apple's services, personal data relating to persons residing in a member state of the European Economic Area or in Switzerland is maintained by Apple Distribution in Ireland.
This information is processed by Apple Inc. on behalf of Apple Distribution International. For more information, see the Apple Inc. Privacy Notice, which you can access here:
https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/de-ww/
Privacy policy for use and use of etracker:
The controller has integrated components of the company etracker on this website. Etracker is a web analysis service. Web analysis is the generation, collection and analysis of data about the behavior of visitors to websites. Among other things, a web analysis service collects data on which website an affected person has come from to a website (so-called referrers), which subpages of the website were accessed or how often and for which length of stay a subpage was viewed. A web analysis is mainly used to optimize a website and for the cost-benefit analysis of Internet advertising.
The operating company of etracker is etracker GmbH, Erste Brunnenstraße 1, 20459 Hamburg, Germany.
Etracker sets a cookie on the information technology system of the person concerned. What cookies are, has already been explained above. Each time one of the individual pages on this website, which is operated by the controller and on which an etracker component has been integrated, the Internet browser on the information technology system of the person concerned is automatically caused by the respective etracker component to transfer marketing data – and to send to etracker for optimization purposes. In the context of this technical procedure, etracker obtains information about data that will subsequently be used to create pseudonymous usage profiles. The usage profiles obtained in this way are used to analyze the behavior of the data subject who has accessed the website of the controller and are evaluated with the aim of improving and optimizing the website. The data collected via the etracker component will not be used to identify the data subject without first obtaining the specific and explicit consent of the data subject. These data are not combined with personal data or other data containing the same pseudonym.
The affected person can prevent the setting of cookies through our website, as shown above, at any time by means of a corresponding setting of the Internet browser used and thus permanently contradict the setting of cookies. Such a setting of the Internet browser used would also prevent etracker setting a cookie on the information technology system of the person concerned. In addition, cookies already set by etracker can be deleted at any time via the Internet browser or other software programs.
Furthermore, the data subject has the possibility of objecting to a detection of the data generated by the etracker cookie and of processing this data by etracker and to prevent such data related to the use of this website. To do this, the person concerned must press the cookie-set button under the link http://www.etracker.de/privacy?et=V23Jbb, which sets an opt-out cookie. The opt-out cookie set against the objection will be placed on the information technology system used by the data subject. If the cookies on the affected person's system are deleted after an appeal, the data subject must revisit the link and set a new opt-out cookie.
By setting the opt-out cookie, however, it is possible that the website of the controller for the data subject is no longer fully usable.
The applicable data protection regulations of etracker can be found at https://www.etracker.com/de/datenschutz.html.
Using Google Webfonts:
On these websites external fonts, Google fonts are used. The integration of these web fonts is done by a server call, usually a Google server in the USA. It will be transmitted to the server, which of our websites you have visited. Also, the IP address of the browser of the terminal of the visitor of this website is stored by Google.
Using Google Maps
This website uses Google Maps API to visually display geographic information. When using Google Maps, Google also collects, processes and uses data about the use of map features by visitors.
For more information, see the Google Privacy Policy, which you can access here:
Our websites use social media plugins from the providers listed below. The plugins can be recognized by the fact that they are marked with the appropriate logo.
These plug-ins may be used to send information, which may include personal information, to the service provider and may be used by the service provider. We prevent the unconscious and unwanted collection and transmission of data to the service provider through a 2-click solution. To activate a desired social plugin, this must first be activated by clicking on the corresponding switch. Only through this activation of the plugin is the detection of information and its transmission to the service provider triggered. We do not collect personally identifiable information by means of social plugins or their use.
We have no control over what data an enabled plugin collects and how it is used by the provider. At present, it must be assumed that a direct connection to the services of the provider will be developed and at least the IP address and device-related information will be collected and used. It is also possible that the service providers try to save cookies on the computer used. Please refer to the privacy policy of the respective service provider to see which specific data is collected here and how it is used. Note: If you are logged in to Facebook at the same time, Facebook may identify you as a visitor to a particular page.
Facebook Inc. (1601 S. California Ave - Palo Alto - CA 94304 - USA)
Twitter Inc. (795 Folsom St. - Suite 600 - San Francisco - CA 94107 - USA)
Google Plus / Google Inc. (1600 Amphitheater Parkway - Mountain View - CA 94043 - USA)
XING AG (Gänsemarkt 43 - 20354 Hamburg - Germany)
LinkedIn Corporation (2029 Stierlin Court - Mountain View - CA 94043 - United States)
Art. 6 GDPR serves our company as the legal basis for processing operations in which we obtain consent for a specific processing purpose. If the processing of personal data is necessary for the performance of a contract to which the data subject is a party, as is the case, for example, in processing operations necessary for the supply of goods or the provision of any other service or consideration, processing shall be based on Art. 6 I lit. b GDPR. The same applies to processing operations that are necessary to carry out pre-contractual measures, for example in cases of inquiries regarding our products or services. If our company is subject to a legal obligation through which a processing of personal data is required, such as for the fulfillment of tax obligations, the processing is based on Art. 6 GDPR. In rare cases, the processing of personal data may be required to protect the vital interests of the data subject or another natural person. This would be the case, for example, if a visitor to our premises were injured and his or her name, age, health insurance or other vital information would have to be passed on to a doctor, hospital or other third party. In that case, the processing would be based on Art. 6 GDPR.
Ultimately, processing operations could be based on Art. 6 GDPR. On this legal basis, processing operations that are not covered by any of the above legal bases are required if processing is necessary to safeguard the legitimate interests of our company or a third party, unless the interests, fundamental rights and fundamental freedoms of the person concerned prevail. Such processing operations are particularly allowed to us because they have been specifically mentioned by the European legislator. In that regard, it considered that a legitimate interest could be assumed if the data subject is a customer of the controller (recital 47, second sentence, GDPR).
Authorized interests in the processing that are being pursued by the controller or a third party
If the processing of personal data is based on Article 6 of the GDPR, our legitimate interest is the performance of our business for the benefit of all of our employees and our shareholders.
Duration for which the personal data is stored
The criterion for the duration of the storage of personal data is the respective statutory retention period. After the deadline, the corresponding data will be routinely deleted, if they are no longer required to fulfill the contract or to initiate a contract.
Legal or contractual provisions for the provision of personal data; Necessity for the conclusion of the contract;
Obligation of the data subject to provide the personal data; possible consequences of non-provision
We clarify that the provision of personal information is in part required by law (such as tax regulations) or may result from contractual arrangements (such as details of the contractor).
Occasionally it may be necessary for a contract to be concluded that an affected person provides us with personal data that must subsequently be processed by us. For example, the data subject is required to provide us with personal information when our company enters into a contract with her. Failure to provide the personal data would mean that the contract with the person concerned could not be closed.
Prior to any personal data being provided by the person concerned, the person concerned must contact one of our employees. Our employee will inform the individual on a case-by-case basis whether the provision of the personal data is required by law or contract or required for the conclusion of the contract, whether there is an obligation to provide the personal data, and what would be the consequence of the non-provision of the personal data.
Existence of automated decision making
As a responsible company we refrain from automatic decision-making or profiling.
hospice dernbach (D)
Build type: New-build
Area: 740 m²
ORANge house bremen (d)
In 2017, the ORANGE HOUSE was opened by the Diakonische Jugendhilfe Bremen GmbH - a place where children, teenagers and families receive support in …
retirement home warin (d)
The residence was built in 2016 and offers 17 comfortable and barrier-free apartments for people over 55. With this exciting project, a former …
Münster Clinic (D)
During the course of an extension the new comfort station was equipped with AIRCONOMY®.
Care home TE Wehl (Wehl, NL)
The nursing home of Oldershove Te Wehl was the first senior citizen's hostel in the Netherlands where AIRCONOMY® was used. Work on the 87 flatlets and …
Care home Beth San (Aalter, NL)
Nursing homes have especially high demands regarding temperature and air hygiene. For that reason, several senior citizens' centres have been equipped …
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Heinze ArchitekTour06.06.2019 - München (Showpalast München)
Heinze ArchitekTour26.06.2019 - Hamburg (Automuseum PROTOTYP)
Heinze ArchitekTour04.07.2019 - Köln (MOTORWORLD Köln – Rheinland)
Heinze ArchitekTour14.11.2019 - Berlin (ARENA BERLIN)
The quality of
SCHÜTZ GmbH & Co. KGaA | Schützstraße 12 | 56242 Selters
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Team Gemini Mini
Busse Combat Knife Company
Get email notifications for Busse Combat Knife Company > Sign Up
This knife features a Desert Sage finished drop point blade, 1/4" blade stock and 1 1/2" blade depth, full tang construction. The handle has sculpted tan/black G-10 scales, and an extended tang with lanyard hole. Brand new from maker at the 2013 Blade Show. Blade Steel: INFI
From Maker
Full Tang
INFI
Blade Details
Drop Point
In the late 1970's Jerry Busse began making custom knives in a small 16' x 22' cabin with no insulation, heat, or running water. After completing his bachelor's degree in 1982, he became a full-time knife maker. Making knives on a full-time basis afforded him the time to continue his education and to complete two graduate degrees. He has taught at three different universities while continuing to make knives on a full-time basis.In 1991, Jerry met Jennifer while teaching at Michigan State University and they were married the following year. In 1992 they formed the Busse Combat Knife Company and decided to move away from doing only one-of-a-kind customs, and focus instead, on implementing the use of modern CNC machinery to help produce a few standard models at much more affordable prices. Their combined use of CNC technology and old world craftsmanship allowed Busse Combat to push the performance envelope to new heights and to experience dramatic growth.They now operate out of several new buildings and have grown from a one-man knife shop into a very modernized and highly automated production facility. As the company continues to grow and evolve, Jerry and Jennifer strive to find innovative ways to continue improving Busse Combat. Jennifer, who completed her bachelor's degree in Business, is currently working towards the completion of her M.B.A. while Jerry continues to explore the latest advancements in metallurgy and CNC technology."
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UPDATED: B.C. man, 20, dies of injuries in Canada Day shooting
GoFundMe page identifies victim as Tanner Henderson
Abbotsford News Staff
Jul. 1, 2018 10:33 p.m.
The 20-year-old man shot in Abbotsford on Canada Day has died of his injuries, and the case is now being handled by the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team (IHIT).
The victim has been identified as Tanner Henderson on a GoFundMe page set up by a family member to raise money to support his parents.
An email to Black Press stated that Henderson was accidentally shot by his friend.
“Tanner was shot in the head on (Sunday) evening, and he passed away the next day,” the GoFundMe page states.
“All of his organs have been donated so Tanner will live on through someone else’s life. He was way too young to be taken at the age of 20, and no parent should have to go through this.”
The page states that any funds not used by Henderson’s family will be donated to a cause that meant something to him.
The incident occurred at around 6:15 p.m. on Sunday, when the Abbotsford Police Department received a 911 hang-up callalerting them to a possible shooting at a residence in the 2500 block of Birch Street.
BC Ambulance Service arrived at the residence and located a man who was suffering from an apparent gunshot wound.
The man was taken to hospital in critical condition, and he died of his injuries on Monday afternoon.
RELATED: Man killed in Okanagan following Canada Day festivities
RELATED: B.C. man dies after falling from truck at Canada Day parade
Meanwhile, charges have not yet been laid against the 18-year-old who was arrested in connection with the incident. His name has not been released.
Anyone with information is asked to call the IHIT tip line at 1-877-551-4448 or Crime Stoppers.
Police were on the scene following a shooting Sunday night on Birch Street in Abbotsford. (Kevin MacDonald photo)
Thousands of B.C. parents missing out on $1,200 grants
B.C. parents request coroner’s inquest into overdose death of son
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Reny Kitto and Carlie Wilkinson
Everything is A “Arkay” in Nakusp
A new business has arrived in Nakusp, one the village has been in need of.
Jillian Trainor
Nov. 13, 2016 8:00 p.m.
If you haven’t heard by now, the vacant storefront next to Cut-Rite Deli is no longer vacant, and Nakusp now has something it has been in desperate need of: an electronics store.
Arkay Computers has been in town for several weeks now, both selling and repairing electronics.
Owners Reny Kitto and Carlie Wilkinson came to Nakusp from Virden, Manitoba with their family, though Kitto has strong ties to the Okanagan. He grew up in Vernon, going to school in Kelowna, where he first started learning about computers.
“They actually taught computers in Grade 11 and 12,” he said. “We actually learned to dismantle a computer, build a computer, and program a computer. It’s always been something I was naturally good at.”
After graduating, Kitto spent several years working for the company LedCorps, before deciding to break out on his own in 2001.
When Kitto and Wilkinson decided they needed a change of scenery, Nakusp was an obvious choice. Kitto lived here for several years in the early to mid 90s, and his two sons were both born at the Arrow Lakes Hospital.
After spending time in the village to see a friend’s art show over the summer, the pair decided to take the plunge and make the move west.
“We were having breakfast downtown at Jill’s (Cut-Rite Deli), and we noticed the empty space beside it and asked her if she would rent it, and how much,” said Kitto. “Here we are a month and a half later, and we have an active store.”
Residents’ reaction so far to Arkay has been very positive. Before their arrival, most people living in Nakusp would have to drive at least an hour and a half in order to purchase even a minor electronic device.
Video games are also sold at the store, and Kitto and Wilkinson plan on doing something a little extra for the youth who play them.
“The new consoles now require so much Internet,” said Kitto. “When you put in a game, it wants you to download between 40-50 gigs of data to update the game’s content. We have great Internet in the store, so we can offer that they can bring in their consoles and get them updated right at our store, no charge.”
While they haven’t been here for very long, the pair would definitely like to stay.
“I can’t do Manitoba anymore, I just need to be home now,” said Kitto. “My son, Jake, he wants to come back here too and spend quite a few years here. He’s only ever known flatland, so for him to come back here and be in awe of everything is nice.”
Social Media Ambassadors take Arrow Lakes living online
UPDATED: BCTF downplays anti-military lessons
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Silver Spring, MD – The Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) strongly supports legislation to create a recycling program for lithium-ion batteries in California under AB 1509, the Lithium-Ion Battery Fire Prevention Act. SWANA submitted a letter explaining the need for action to the State Senate Environmental Quality Committee ahead of its hearing on the proposed legislation on July 3, 2019.
The increasing frequency of fires caused by lithium-ion batteries have caused catastrophic damage to facilities, endangered the lives of workers and first responders, and are challenging the viability of waste and recycling operations due to financial pressures.
Lithium-ion batteries are already banned from disposal in California, but California residents must also have the knowledge and opportunity to properly recycle these batteries. This bill will address that critical need.
“We are very pleased to support our California chapters’ efforts to get AB 1509 passed. SWANA has been raising concerns about the dangers posed by the improper disposal of lithium-ion batteries for several years and supports common sense legislation and regulation to reduce the risks to our workers and facilities,” says David Biderman, SWANA CEO and Executive Director. “These batteries are causing fires at waste and recycling facilities that are disrupting operations and causing economic harm.”
The negative effects of lithium-ion batteries in the waste stream are already being felt throughout the state. Shoreway Recycling Center of San Mateo County, California suffered a massive fire in 2016, leading to millions of dollars in damage and a disruption to recycling in the community. But for every large fire that makes the news, there are many smaller fires occurring at these facilities. Even just the threat of fires has led to an unsustainable rise in insurance costs for recycling facilities in the state.
Though the benefits of these batteries are extensive, the burden of safely managing them when their useful life is over has fallen disproportionately and unfairly on the solid waste industry. The passage of AB 1509 will protect workers, support recycling infrastructure, and ensure that manufacturers and retailers share responsibility for the safe handling and recycling of their products. As this continues to be a national and international problem, SWANA will continue to work towards sensible solutions.
SWANA has programs to promote safety including training, tips, and events. Explore the state of solid waste industry safety, fatality data, and new initiatives this October at WASTECON®’s Safety Summit in Phoenix — a must-attend event for any solid waste and recycling professional looking to instill a positive safety culture at their company, learn new best practices, and above all, keep their workers safe.
If the media has any questions or need additional information, please contact David Biderman at dbiderman@swana.org or 240-494-2254.
For more information on SWANA, visit https://swana.org/.
About SWANA:
The Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA) is an organization of more than 10,000 public and private sector professionals committed to advancing from solid waste management to resource management through their shared emphasis on education, advocacy, and research. For more than 50 years, SWANA has been the leading association in the solid waste management field. SWANA serves industry professionals through technical conferences, certifications, publications, and a large offering of technical training courses. For more information, visit swana.org.
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« Bullfighters, not rodeo clowns | Why journalists are so liberal »
RNC will vote to exclude CNN, MSNBC from debates
By Rick Moran
The Republican National Commttee wil vote on Friday to exclude CNN and MSNBC from hosting GOP debates in 2016.
The stated reason is because those two networks are planning Hillary Clinton films. But the real reason is that the films give the RNC the excuse it needs to get a handle on the debates, of which there were 20 in 2012.
Politico:
The RNC's very vocal outrage over the projects gives party leaders a perfect excuse to do what they've long wanted to do anyway: get some control over a process that led to 20 grueling primary debates last cycle and gave Mitt Romney many chances to get himself into trouble with comments about self-deportation, contraception and the like.
In close contests, debates matter. The outcome of a broader RNC push, launched at this three-day meeting, may mean fewer of them -- starting nearer to the Iowa caucuses and featuring friendlier moderators and gentler questions.
RNC Chair Reince Priebus got a bonanza of free media by threatening to withhold sanctioned debates from NBC for its planned miniseries on Clinton starring Diane Lane and from CNN for working on a feature-length documentary about the former secretary of state's life.
"It's all related," Priebus said in an interview at the Westin here Thursday. "It's pretty clear that our primary system, both on the calendar side and the debate side, is a mess and it has to be fixed. This resolution is one small piece that people feel very strongly about, and it relates to the entire issue that we need to address."
Priebus and many of his friends on the 168-member governing body of the Republican Party have long been open about their desire to have more of a say over agendas, formats and moderators.
"There are practical, feasible ways for the RNC to control the debate schedule," said Jim Bopp of Indiana, a former chair of the party's committee on debates and now special counsel to the RNC. "The debates should be viewed as a job interview, not an opportunity to score political points. The problem is that liberals in the media simply have a different agenda than the Republican Party does in terms of selecting its nominee. They're not sympathetic to the candidates."
I understand the impetus to exclude people like Candy Crowley and Wolf Blitzer from participating, but won't hand picked moderators more favorable to the GOP create a reaction that the debates aren't "real" in the minds of some viewers? Also, if the GOP candidate is elected president, wouldn't it be valuable to see how he responds to the biased questions of reporters? Once in the White House, a president won't be able to avoid everyone but Fox News. Seeing how he deals with a true adverserial press might be important to voters' decisions.
But the idea that the RNC can now stipulate a certain number of debates and when they occur is a step forward. Now if they can only get the primary schedule under control.
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Free baseball!
T-Mobile again offers a free year of MLB.TV
Baseball streaming giveaway returns as part of T-Mobile Tuesdays promotion.
Roy Delgado
T-Mobile and Major League Baseball are teaming up again to continue one of their most popular promotions, and it's a great deal for both sports fans and CordCutters. T-Mobile customers can get a free full season of MLB.TV through their T-Mobile app through April 1.
The free MLB.TV subscription from T-Mobile is the All Teams plan, with access to hundreds of out-of-market baseball games. This would cost you $119 if you purchased it on your own, and it is one of the best options of the many ways to watch MLB if you've cut the cord. You can use the free account on up to 10 of your supported streaming devices, including smartphones, Android TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, Fire TV, Roku, Samsung smart TVs, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. This giveaway also includes access to MLB At Bat Premium which normally costs $20. At Bat Premium includes mobile access to the MLB.TV content, plus GameCasts, audio broadcast feeds, and support for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
MLB and T-Mobile have been long time partners, and are expected to stay BFFs. T-Mobile sponsorship of baseball has been going on for a while, and Business Wire reports that they're extending the deal for four more years. T-Mobile started MLB giveaways for customers back in 2013, with free MLB At Bat Premium access in the mobile app. In 2016, they upgraded the promotion to include free MLB.TV. T-Mobile also serves as the Official Wireless Carrier of MLB, and the title sponsor of the Home Run Derby during All Star Week in July.
If you want to get this deal, you'll need to use the T-Mobile Tuesdays app or website between March 26 and April 1. T-Mobile Tuesdays is how the Un-carrier rewards customers with discounts and freebies every Tuesday. There are a few restrictions for this particular giveaway. You have to be a regular monthly subscriber, so DIGITS, pay per day, pay as you go, data-only and voice-only plans aren't eligible. You can use your MLB.TV on multiple devices, but you can't use this MLB.TV or At Bat Premium access on devices from other wireless carriers. Plus MLB.TV is only for out-of-market games, so you won't be able to root for your home team this way. You can read about the local blackouts, and check if you are in a blackout area on the MLB TV Blackout Help Page
There are more MLB prizes and discounts available now and expected through the season on T-Mobile Tuesdays. This includes an all expenses paid trip to the All Star Game, with a contest running on March 26. They're also expected to offer deals on MLB tickets so keep an eye out for more baseball goodies from now until October.
Check out Free MLB.TV on T-Mobile
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