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Mid Ocean Ridge
Great Mountain Chain
The mid ocean ridge is a mountain range on the floor of the world's oceans. Rift valleys in the center of the mountain range runs down its spine. It sometimes reaches 3,128 (1000 m) above the seafloor.
Length of global mid-ocean ridge system
The entire global mid-ocean ridge system in the oceans is 49,700 miles (80,000 km) long. It has a continuous mountain system that is 40,400 miles (65,000 km) long making it the longest mountain range on Earth.
Section of the mid-ocean ridge system
on the ocean floor, NOAA
Rift valleys
The youngest rocks on the ocean floor are located in the rift valleys where magma pushes up the crust as it move from the upper mantle to vents on the ocean floor. The molten lava cools and forms parallel lines of basalt rocks on each side of the rift valley during an eruption.
Ocean floor movement
Each subsequent lava eruption causes the older rocks to move away from the spreading center. All across the ocean the seafloor moves from spreading ridges to subduction zones where the oceanic crust is recycled.
Worldwide mid-ocean ridges, NOAA
Surveying the ocean floors
Research ships began surveying the ocean floors in the 1950s using sonar as they traversed the oceans worldwide. A Columbia University ship, Vema, recorded information on the Atlantic Ocean seafloor. Prior surveys had shown a rise on the ocean floor but it was thought to be a small area.
Atlantic Ocean mountain range
The full extent of the mountain range in the Atlantic Ocean was discovered by researchers when the data from the ship was analyzed. The submarine mountain range was named the Mid Atlantic Ridge.
Global mid-ocean system
New surveys by other ships discovered that the Mid Atlantic Ridge was in fact just one segment of the global mid ocean ridge system that is found in all the oceans on Earth.
More Plate Tectonic Links
Earthquake Epicenter The epicenter of an earthquake is a point on the Earth's surface, not where the earthquake originates.
Caribbean Plate This plate is small but very complex. It has a subduction zone, transform fault, and triple junction.
What is an Earthquake Find out what causes the Earth to shake, rattle and roll during an earthquake.
Convergent Boundary There are two types of boundaries where plates converge. They produce great mountain ranges and large earthquakes.
Transform Boundary These boundaries are found all around our ocean floors where oceanic plates are separating.
Mid Ocean Ridge The global mid-ocean-ridge system is the longest chain of mountains on Earth and was not discovered until the 20th Century.
Plate Tectonics Find out lots of fascinating facts and interesting trivia on plate tectonics.
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The risks of deleting history
Home Insights News The risks of deleting history
Is the proposed six-year cut-off date for the deletion of data the correct way to approach the right to be forgotten, asks Mary Young.
Google users will have noticed the message at the foot of each results page that 'some results may have been removed under data protection law in Europe'. This is the consequence of the ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union in May 2014 in a case dealing with a privacy issue known as 'the right to be forgotten'.
The ruling allows users to ask for the removal of results involving their name which are inadequate, irrelevant, or excessive. The intention behind this ruling is to protect people from damage caused by reliance on outdated or incorrect data.However, this can potentially clash with principles of transparency and open data, which are being championed by the government in its bid to target fraud and corruption and reduce irresponsible corporate behaviour.
Companies House appears to have found itself in the middle of such a clash. According to its chairman and chief executive, the agency has received 2,151 complaints about the availability of data online (Companies House 2015/16 report).
The complaints, it appears, relate to the retention of records linking individuals with dissolved companies or failed ventures, the reputational damage that can cause, and whether that retention of records is consistent with data protection law. As a result, Companies House will be looking at how data relating to dissolved companies is handled, particularly where it comprises personal data.
Purpose of collection
Formal proposals do not yet appear to have been made, but according to the Times (2 August 2016), what is being considered is the disposal of all records for companies which went out of business more than six years previously. Currently, records of dissolved companies are retained by Companies House for 20 years. A spokesman at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (to which Companies House reports) was quoted saying that any proposed changes will be the subject of a public consultation.
The fifth data protection principle (paragraph 5 of schedule 1 of the Data Protection Act 1998) states that personal data processed for any purpose shall not be kept for longer than is necessary for that purpose. Any challenge to Companies House's data retention policy is therefore likely to be based on questions relating to the purpose of the initial collection of data and whether ongoing retention is necessary, particularly in circumstances in which a company has been dissolved.
A dissolved company is not the same as a failed company. Sometimes companies come to the end of their useful life for one reason or another and are wound up as they are no longer required. As such, a link to a dissolved company is not necessarily a black mark against a person's business acumen. Likewise, directors brought in to try to turn around the fortunes of a failing company are not always successful: some companies end up in insolvency and eventually dissolution. That doesn't mean that the directors have been up to anything untoward.
Nevertheless, histories of consecutive insolvencies, phoenix companies which then fail in similar circumstances, or repeat patterns of unpaid debts owed to HMRC can all be helpful indicators of a wider problem with a director. This sort of information can be invaluable for due diligence purposes and in respect of investigations into directors' disqualification proceedings.
Onerous due diligence
If data is no longer available on a Companies House service, the likelihood is that private companies will start to collect the data in order to provide the same service at a premium, making proper due diligence a more onerous and expensive process, which might deter smaller organisations from completing thorough checks before choosing who to go into business with. This can only benefit the unscrupulous.
Given the number of records held by Companies House (the 2015/16 annual report refers to 9,665,130 accepted transactions registered in that year alone), 2,151 does not seem to be an enormous number of complaints to be received in the course of a year. If data is incorrect, it should rightly be removed or amended, and Companies House has a process for this. However, it would surely make more sense to consider complaints on a case-by-case basis, applying data protection law to determine whether retention is necessary, instead of imposing a unilateral and arbitrary cut-off date after which all records are deleted.
Directors and shareholders are protected from personal liability for the debts of the company under the law. As Chris Taggart, the founder of OpenCorporates, the largest open database of companies in the world, says: 'the quid pro quo for that is transparency'.
This article first featured in The Solicitors Journal 7th September 2016
Mary Young
myoung@kingsleynapley.co.uk
Fraud - For Victims FAQs
Fraud - For Defendants FAQs
Civil Fraud and Investigations
Fraud - Civil vs. Criminal FAQs
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Sean Payton discusses Dez Bryant on media conference call
What is behind adding the former Cowboys WR to the roster?
Coach Payton and the Saints own a 6-game winning streak.
November 8, 2018 at 1:09 PM CST - Updated November 8 at 3:42 PM
NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - 30-year-old Dez Bryant caught 531 passes in eight seasons with Dallas, and went to three Pro Bowls. Saints coach Sean Payton discussed the new addition with the New Orleans media.
Q. What is behind adding Dez Bryant to the roster?
SP: “He’s someone I (have) visited with now for a stretch of time. Prior to the draft, we had a couple conversations. We weren’t going to do anything in the event we drafted a receiver and we did (Tre’Quan Smith) and so once that happened, we kind of slowed things up. We felt it was in our best interest this past week, to bring in a few receivers to work out. Cam Meredith today at some point is going to go to reserve/injured. He needs to have one additional scope to his knee. He was battling the swelling. So we felt that it was wise for us right now to take a look at a few of these players, (the guys (at the workout) did well. We signed Dez and we’re getting them ready to go.”
Q. For Meredith is it the same knee that he injured last year?
SP: “Yes, but I’m not going to get into the details, but it’s not bad news. He’s going to have a full recovery. It’s a scope that he’s having some cleanup work done. He kept having the swelling week in and week out and he really was pushing through it. Within the next few days I think we’ll have that done.”
Q. Is he a candidate to return this year?
SP: “They all are, (but) I don’t know that in his case there’ll be enough time.”
Q. How does Dez Bryant look physically?
SP: “His workout went well. He’s a little heavy and that’s pretty common. I think probably five pounds (heavier) without having gone through a training camp and we felt like he did a number of things that we liked in the workout. We’ll begin that process today.”
Q. What do the next couple of days look like for him in terms of integrating him into the team?
SP: “We’ll see how today goes, we’ll take it one day at a time and see how much he can digest and give him parts to the plan. There’s a third down element and a red zone element, a lot of different things that we think he provides versatility for.”
Q. Did he wow you on the workout as opposed to the other wide receivers that it was reported worked out for the team?
SP: “We have film study on all these players. We go in trying to keep an open mind and take a peek at what we see in the workout and then make a decision based on all those factors.”
Q. What was your conversation like with Dez in terms of this being his first time with a different team from the Cowboys and his first day of school so to say?
SP: “One of the things while he was here on the workout was, (we told him) we think that we have a special culture here and one in which you’ll appreciate. We think we have a system in place and we’ll work our tails off to to make it work in our place. You’re going to find that the players around you are guys that will help support you and so you get past that. Certainly it happens in this league. Here he comes in, he’s never tried out before (a workout), but I think once he got past that and went through the workout (it went well). He’s in meetings now. I think that can be like that for all of us really. Regardless, a new job somewhere a move to a new city, a new team. We’re all kind of to some degree creatures of habit and routine and when that’s broken that unsettles you for a little bit and then you grow a little bit when that happens.”
Q. Can he play on the inside, outside or both, given that he has spent the majority of his career on the outside?
SP: “Alright, so we’re going to do this, each of you has two Dez (question) coupons. Trip (Mike Triplett), you’re using your second one right now with that question. You know in our system that we’ll play guys outside. We’ll play guys inside. Mike Thomas is an X. He’s outside split end and then he will play in the slot and we will move guys around. The key is what they’re doing and what we’re asking them to do. You’ve seen that I think with him (primarily being on the outside in Dallas). We’re not going to move him all over the formation in the first three weeks, four weeks he’s here. We’ll build on that much like we’ve done with any player.”
Q. We asked the same questions with Eli Apple and then saw that he played right after the trade. Do you have any sense on how long it would take for him to learn the playbook and if he could play Sunday?
SP: “We’ll see. (It’ll) Be hard for me to comment not having had a practice yet (with him). But we’ll take a peek and see how he does today and tomorrow and then we will fill you in Sunday.”
Q. Are there similarities between Geno Atkins and Aaron Donald?
SP: “Non-Dez (question) noted (laughter). Yes, I think they provide similar challenges and I’m not making the comparison between the two players, but they get tremendous push. They’re active. They can get on the edge of a guard and watching the third down tape last night, you see disruption inside or inside push which is problematic for anybody relative to throwing the ball from the pocket. He’s done it a long time. He’s been very consistent and it’s impressive when you watch him.”
Q. What did Demario Davis show you would be a fit when you looked at signing him this offseason?
SP: You saw a physical tackler. We saw leadership in him. We felt he had position flexibility between WILL and MIKE. We felt there was a little bit more size with him, weight if you will and I think it was the combination of those two or three things. I think he’s pretty good in man coverage. I think in zone, we’re still working in some areas, but he’s a tremendous teammate and a very important part of our team.”
Q. Would you like to see Michael Thomas scale down some of the things that he does with things like the cell phone celebration and wearing a ski mask?
SP: “I like what he is doing right now. Obviously, any of the other stuff, Mike and I would talk about. I haven’t seen the ski mask yet.”
Q. I’m referring to when he ran out of the tunnel with a ski mask on at the Washington game?
SP: “(I) Got you. Yes. In 2009, it was Reggie Bush carrying a bat. I’ve seen the flowers with Pierre (Thomas) and Lance (Moore) with the Christmas tree shoes and socks. He is playing at a crazy elite level and each week it gets tough because of the coverages (that) he sees. He draws the best corners. He’s a very passionate player. You certainly don’t want 15-yard penalties and he understands that. So we’ll leave it at that.”
Q. Does Dez Bryant have the ability to take some pressure and coverage off of Michael Thomas?
SP: “It works together. If the safeties are lean to Mike (Thomas), then there’s going to be some opportunities for guys like Tre’quan (Smith). We have seen that now in the last three or four weeks. Tight ends (it helps). It’s just a matter of whether the lean’s going. The other day, the double came down on (Alvin) Kamara and Mike was left (open). Drew found him on that touchdown pass, the long one. So it’s just an option opposite of where you might line up Mike Thomas or opposite of where Kamara might be and it’s someone that you know can give you tough contested catches if you feel like that there is more tension to Mike’s side. I think it can be. Tre’quan is starting to see some of the benefits of that.”
Q. How has Tommylee Lewis been looking in practice?
SP: “He’s doing well. He is moving around well. His first game of eligibility would be Atlanta. I would say he’s close to 100 percent and he’s practicing.”
Information provided by New Orleans Saints Media Relations.
Copyright 2018 WVUE. All rights reserved.
Whitehouse native Pat Mahomes tops ratings of all NFL QBs in Madden NFL 20
It took Mahomes one full NFL season to earn a rating higher than even Tom Brady.
City of Tyler gets new skate park
A new skate park in Tyler opened Saturday morning.
Alex Leroux
ESPN: Westbrook traded to Houston for Paul
Caleb Beames
Published July 11, 2019 at 9:45 PM
Outlaw’s Hall of Honor induction overdue
Patrick Mahomes’ brother delivers donated Adidas sneakers to Whitehouse ISD students
Gary Bass
Published July 11, 2019 at 12:26 PM
Dave Campbell’s Texas Football see’s 2A DI Region III as one of the most compelling regions in all of high school football
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Minneapolis considers drive-thru window ban
May 17, 2019 at 9:17 AM CDT - Updated May 17 at 9:24 AM
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO/CNN) - Drive-thru windows are a speedy way to get food, coffee and prescriptions without leaving the comfort of your car. But they may soon be a thing of the past if city leaders have their way.
The city is in the initial stages of contemplating a ban on new drive-thrus.
“Having to use a drive thru is definitely a necessity‚” said one woman. “I mean it’s just easy to quickly run up, get what you need and get out.”
On Thursday afternoon, the planning commission met to discuss a proposed ban on any new drive-thru windows within city limits.
The ordinance would not impact any drive-thrus that are currently in the city. They would be grandfathered in under the proposal.
Sam Rockwell, Minneapolis Planning Commissioner, said the move would reduce carbon emissions made by idling cars and increase pedestrian safety.
“Drive thrus, traffic lanes, parking facilities, they all produce something called induced demand which is, if you build it, they will come,” Rockwell said.
When asked about the impact it would have on the elderly and the disabled who can't move from their cars quickly, Rockwell said building neighborhood communities could be a solution.
"You go to a city like London, Paris, New York or Boston, and neighbors help their elderly neighbors up the stairs with their groceries,” Rockwell said. “They know them, they help them, they run errands so creating that community can be a boost."
Jake Siefker uses drive-thrus a lot and he said he’s not convinced by Rockwell’s arguments.
"There's a lot of cars standing idly right here,” Siefker said. “A drive-thru is just another part of that."
This ban would have a relatively small impact on the current look of the city, but it could decades down the road.
Right now, drive-thrus are only allowed in six of the city's 23 zoning districts and only a couple are built each year.
The proposal will have a public hearing next month.
It will then be voted on by the city planning commission and, if passed, could be considered by the Minneapolis City Council.
Copyright 2019 WCCO via CNN. All rights reserved.
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Jamaica: Tenza Promotes Self Love With " African Empress"
Recording artiste Tenza is appalled that skin bleaching is increasing in popularity in Africa and Jamaica, especially since some agents of the music industry are promoting the practice.
According to the singer, artistes should use their musical gifts to inspire, rather than to lead fans of their music into a direction which may have dangerous repercussions.
Tenza, who sold more than 500,000 copies of the single Too Hot as a member the electric trio Fya, formerly signed to internationally renowned record label Def Jam, is now a solo act. The Jamaica-born singer is now gearing up to lend her voice for a positive cause by releasing a new single called African Empress.
According to the singer, the song is intended to resocialise persons who have been misguided into thinking that black is not beautiful; hence they resort to skin bleaching.
African Empress was produced by Suncycle Digital and TMD Records and is available for purchase on iTunes. All proceeds from the sales of the record will go towards Tenza's charity initiative called the 'BossLady Charity'. The initiative is geared towards assisting less fortunate parents with the financing of early-childhood education.
Tenza hopes African Empress will make a powerful impact and assist with breaking down the barriers of social stratification based on the colour of the skin.
"It's a taboo subject, but a cruel racial hierarchy still exists in today's society where the lighter-skinned persons are regarded as superior to the darker-skinned. Dark skin is sometimes seen as failure and light skin is seen by many as being beautiful and equates to success," said the gold-selling singer.
Tenza thought the skin bleaching practice in Jamaica as a fashion trend would have eventually disappeared. However, a recent visit to Africa revealed just how serious the issue of self-hate was among people of African decent.
"I noticed that a number of young, beautiful, black African girls were bleaching their skin and when I asked why did they do this, they explained that dark skin is not beautiful enough to present opportunities," she said.
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Home InDepth Analysis European Survey Results on anti-Semitism: “Frightening”
European Survey Results on anti-Semitism: “Frightening”
Tower Magazine
20 Kislev 5779 – November 28, 2018
Swastika on Jewish Grave in Europe
{Originally posted to the Tower Magazine website}
A leading scholar of the Holocaust termed the results of a recent survey of anti-Semitism in Europe “frightening,” CNN reported Tuesday.
Deborah Lipstadt, a professor of history at Emory University and author of numerous books on the Holocaust, assessed the results of the poll of more than 7,000 Europeans in seven nations conducted on behalf of CNN.
Reacting to findings from the survey showing that more than 25% of those surveyed from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Austria, and Sweden, believed that Jews had too much influence in business and that nearly one in four believed that Jews had too much influence in wars around the world, Lipstadt said, “it is imperative to note that anti-Semitism constitutes a conspiracy theory, i.e. an irrational evidence-free perspective that attributes to all Jews — irrespective of their location, status, age, nationality, world view — the same qualities and stereotypes.” She added, “Anti-Semitism makes as much sense as attributing to all left-handed people or all blonds similar attributes and behaviors.”
The poll also found that one-third of those surveyed said that they “knew just a little or nothing at all about the Holocaust,” according to CNN.
Lipstadt found this result disturbing, saying, “This is not something that should so easily be forgotten. It should be something about which Europeans should still be grappling. Not because of guilt — today’s Europeans are clearly not guilty of anything — but in terms of the society within which they live.”
Some European officials expressed an interest in fighting the scourge of anti-Semitism.
Felix Klein, who was appointed in April to be the first German official in charge of fighting anti-Semitism, responded to the survey by saying that he would recommend that other European nations establish a position similar to his. He added that the European Union has urged all member states to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of anti-Semitism as another step in fighting anti-Semitism.
Klein noted that Germany adopted the IHRA definition in 2017, but that “our biggest challenge, however, will be to change the views people hold about Jews.” He explained further, “This is a task for all of us, and for the sake of society as a whole — because anti-Semitism is a threat for any democratic, open society.”
Other findings of the survey include that one-third of those surveyed believed that criticism of Israel is often motivated by anti-Semitism, while one-fifth did not. On the other hand, one-third of those surveyed believed that Israel used the Holocaust to justify its behavior, with one-fifth of those surveyed disagreeing. In Poland, one half of those polled believed that Israel used the Holocaust to justify its actions.
Also, one-third of the Europeans said that the charge of anti-Semitism is used by Jews to shut down criticism of Israel. One in ten of those surveyed disagreed.
A spokesman for CRIF, a French Jewish communal organization, told CNN that the results of the poll demonstrated that anti-Semitism is “evolving as a multiform disease.”
According to the poll, while 48% of those surveyed believed that anti-Semitism is a growing problem in France, 29% know little or nothing about the Holocaust and 24% believe that Jews have too much influence over international affairs.
In response, the spokesman said, “It is astounding to read that substantial minorities blame Israel or Jews themselves for anti-Semitism.”
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Printed from: https://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/analysis/european-survey-results-on-anti-semitism-frightening/2018/11/28/
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Theory, Strategy and Practice
Written by John Curtis on July 22, 2013 . Posted in Conflict Resolution
Theories and strategies inspired by them for managing conflict are great starting points but the real magic flows from attitude. My sister and brother-in-law recently wrote a book together. Its called: THE STOP – How The Fight For Good Food Transformed A Community And Inspired A Movement. (to learn more visit: http://www.cfccanada.ca/book)
Celebrity chef and good food guru, Jamie Oliver describes the book as follows: “The Stop is an inspiring true story about how a low-income neighbourhood used good food to take charge of its community – It’s a great lesson for all of us.”
The book is the compellingly written story of how their journey and these lessons unfolded from the humble beginnings of The Stop as a simple food bank in Toronto that was struggling to survive and understand its purpose. What struck me most about the book is when Nick Saul, (my brother-in-law) explains how he studied many inspirational authors while earning his master’s degree in sociology. He writes: “Bookshelves groan with the theory behind this “community development approach” to supporting people to improve their lives.”
Nick goes on to describe that although much of this writing was inspirational “none of what we‘re trying to accomplish at The Stop is truly about theory or strategy; it’s more a way of being in the world. Listening to people- whether it’s in the garden, kitchen, food bank or classroom – is the root. It’s a glass-half-full approach that begins from the premise that people are experts on their own lives and, given the right support, have wise and intelligent ideas about how to improve them.
I can not think of a better way to describe my approach to my own work in Conflict Resolution. It begins and ends with optimism and the value of listening. This describes an attitude or “way of being in the world” as Nick would have it.
When I reflect on why there seems to be something fundamentally lacking in relying entirely on theories and the strategies they inform it seems to me that the problem with theories is that they strive to be timeless absolutes that produce certainty in prediction and problem solving. Actually being in the world is different because we are “in time” and excellence in the practice of any skill requires presence more than omniscience. Is this my “newest theory” or just an observation about what seems to work for me? You decide.
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Innovating mental health in the Chicago Jewish community
Jews around the Chicago area are working together to bring innovative mental health resources to the Jewish community and beyond.
by Michelle Cohen on June 26, 2019
No Shame On U volunteers carry a banner at a local parade to bring mental health to the forefront of conversation.
The sentiment of Kol yisrael arevim zeh lazeh --all of Israel are responsible for one another--inspires people to care for those living with a mental health condition, even in a world where stigma causes many people to shy away. These entrepreneurs of kindness hope to care for the Jewish community as a whole, including its most vulnerable members, with programming, resources, and more.
JCFS Chicago, a JUF partner, is one organization helping many people in the Chicago area experiencing mental health challenges. JCFS Chicago offers counseling, psychological testing, community education, and individualized support services to help empower children, teens, adults, and families to cope with mental health challenges. Through JCFS, people are connected to professional, peer, social, and community supports.
To learn more, visit jcfs.org
Sharing stories to smash stigma
While hospitalized for depression, Miriam Ament received a phone call from a close friend who said she only wanted to talk to her when she was happy--and never spoke to her again. "I kept my depression a secret for a long time" after that, Ament said.
An opportunity to eat lunch--and share her story--with actress Glenn Close changed everything. This encounter planted the seed for No Shame On U. A local Jewish mental health organization and JUF Breakthrough Fund grant recipient, it is dedicated to raising awareness of mental health conditions, and reducing the stigma of mental illness through community outreach programs, workshops, resources, and the power of stories.
One of these stories belongs to Ellie, a young adult diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. On a mission to "fight stigma on the front lines," she publishes weekly stories of her everyday experiences on No Shame On U's blog. Ellie explains, "Learning the facts about brain chemistry and acknowledging that mental illness exists are definitely important steps, but expressing this knowledge through compassion really changes things."
Learn more about No Shame On U at noshameonu.org or on Facebook.
Helping after the unthinkable
Six days after Stewart Dolin, a happily married father and senior partner at a law firm, was prescribed a medication for anxiety, he took his own life. For his widow, Wendy, this was incomprehensible.
"Nothing made sense," she says of the aftermath of her 57-year-old husband's sudden death. In her time of need, she approached several Jewish nonprofits, only to find a lack of resources for people whose family members died by suicide. Although she found meaningful programming at Catholic Charities, she "would have liked a Jewish perspective."
Wendy reached out to JUF's then-president Steven B. Nasatir, who suggested meeting with Miriam Ament from No Shame On U. The two presented their first joint event, "Shine A Light On Suicide," to Chicago in December.
To further her work, Dolin applied for and received a JUF Breakthrough Fund grant for her organization, Medication Induced Suicide Prevention and Education Foundation in Memory of Stewart Dolin (MISSD). She began with the goal of educating people about akathisia--a condition that contributed to Stewart Dolin's death, in which someone starting, stopping, or changing a medication experiences extreme inner restlessness and suicidal thoughts--and has grown from there to educate about other causes of suicide like mental illness, difficult life circumstances, and trauma.
Dolin stresses the importance of knowing you are not alone. Jews are "not immune to issues in the general world, and you shouldn't be ashamed."
For more information about MISSD, visit missd.co .
Bringing community to the marginalized
Some people living with a serious mental health condition feel isolated in their communities. The ARK, a partner of JUF, seeks to remedy this problem with its Intensive Day Program (IDP), led by clinical psychologist Na'ama Wasserman.
In addition to The ARK's counseling services, case management, referrals, and more, led by clinical director Vicki Hass, the IDP offers a day program that provides activities, support groups, classes, and therapy, all with a Jewish twist.
"There are so many people who have lost touch with their families and are isolated," said Hass, who is proud of the "sense of family and belonging that people have when they join the IDP program."
"For many members, Jewish identity is an important part of who they are," explained Wasserman. When participants celebrate Jewish holidays together, they receive social support from peers and counselors, which can make a huge difference.
"There's a tendency in the Jewish community to believe you have to pick yourself up from your bootstraps and as we move farther from our immigrant experience, everyone is well-off," Hass said. "It's uncomfortable and shaming for people to believe they haven't 'made it,' and they don't want their neighbors to know. But you have a right to come to the community for help and the community in turn has an obligation to perform acts of chesed (lovingkindness) and assist people in times of adversity."
Find more details about The ARK and the IDP program at arkchicago.org .
Saving lives with mental health first aid
Thanks to the widespread availability of CPR classes, many Americans can recognize signs of a heart attack. But what about signs of a mental health crisis?
Professionals like addiction specialist Nina Henry are teaching classes in Chicago called "mental health first aid," which began in Australia in the early 2000s and are now taught around the world. Like CPR classes, mental health first aid classes begin with the signs and symptoms of a mental health crisis. The next steps in the eight-hour program involve learning language and skills along with experiential exercises to help people intervene in these situations and potentially save a life. With tailored versions for adults, teenagers, older adults, people in the criminal justice system, and first responders, "people feel emboldened and confident that they have the tools to help."
Henry also developed her own program, Tikkun HaNefesh, which traces the history of Jewish perspectives on mental health from Biblical times onward. She also speaks of the phenomenon of residual trauma in descendants of Holocaust survivors, mapping the "fierce determination and resilience of the Jewish people who continue to flourish through trauma."
Sign up for a mental health first aid class at mentalhealthfirstaid.org .
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Letter to Sir Graham Brady MP Chairman 1922 Committee 8th April 2019
Thursday, 25 April, 2019
Text of letter to Sir Graham Brady MP Chairman of the 1922 Committee
Following my appearance at the 1922 committee on Wednesday last week, I committed to sending a letter setting out the issues around a customs union and trade policy.
Let me begin by repeating what I said at the meeting. Trade is not an end in itself but a means to an end. It is the way in which we spread prosperity more widely. That prosperity underpins social cohesion which in turn underpins political stability. That political stability is the building block of our collective security. Thus, a country that is unable to control its own trade policy will find itself not only less able to influence global developments but more likely to be shaped by them.
It has become clear to me in recent days that there is some confusion about what a customs union is, and how it works. A customs union comes about when a group of countries decide to abolish tariffs between them and to have a common external tariff. Importantly, a customs union covers only goods, it does not cover trade in services. The EU has full customs unions with San Marino and Andorra and a partial customs union with Turkey covering mainly industrial goods but excluding coal, steel and agriculture.
As there is a common external tariff among members of a customs union, countries cannot unilaterally lower tariffs for another country, they can only act as a bloc. This means that the UK is obliged to implement the EU’s Common Customs Tariff (CTT) which, according to EU Treaty law, is decided by the institutions of the European Union.
I pointed out to the meeting that a customs union between the UK (as a third country) and the EU is not a meeting of equals and is different from the customs union in which we currently participate – the latter being reserved for those countries in the EU only. A customs union, where the UK was obliged to implement the CTT would allow the European Union to negotiate access to UK markets as part of EU trade policy, irrespective of the interests or wishes of the United Kingdom i.e. it will be able to offer access to the world’s fifth biggest market as part of any EU offer, without the need to balance this access by negotiating on key UK offensive interests.
This is possible because the UK as a non-EU Member State would have no say under EU treaty law for the formation and agreement of EU trade policy. We would be stuck in the worst of both worlds, not only unable to set our own international trade policy, but subject, without representation, to the policy of an entity over which MPs would have no democratic control. This is something that Labour do not presently seem to understand. As I said at the meeting, in such a scenario the UK would have a new role in the global trading system – we ourselves would be traded. As the famous saying in Brussels goes, if you are not at the table, you are on the menu.
Some have argued that, irrespective of the democratic arguments that we would in a customs union with the EU still be able to negotiate ambitious deep and comprehensive free trade agreements with partners around the world. However, it is worth noting not only that we would have to apply the CCT with third countries, but that countries who negotiate free-trade agreements (FTAs) with the EU would have automatic access to the UK market with the UK having no reciprocal access, unless a new agreement was bilaterally negotiated. The key question is that if a trading partner already had access to the UK for no cost, why would it be interested in negotiating a further bilateral agreement?
I gave the example of Turkey as a country which has a partial customs union with the EU. Given that those countries with which the EU has a trade agreement, already have access to Turkey’s market for those goods covered by the customs union, there is little incentive for any third country to negotiate a trade agreement with Turkey. To date, Turkey’s trade agreements are largely with those countries where EU Association Agreements already exist. Moreover, given that Turkey is required to subscribe to the EU’s Common Commercial Policy – or the EU’s trade policy – this limits what, if anything, it can offer in return for preferential access to third country markets.
In the recent TTIP negotiations many in Turkey were outraged that the EU was able to negotiate access for US automobiles into the Turkish market, but Turkey was unable to gain reciprocal access to the US market. Compare this situation with the fact that the UK is the fifth biggest economy in the world.
Furthermore, a customs union will stymie the UK’s ability to open markets around the world to the UK’s services sectors – as an 80 per cent services economy, this is a huge area of comparative advantage to the UK. In fact, one of the main aims of UK trade policy is to achieve liberalisation in global services. As the current plurilateral agreement – the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) is stalled in Geneva, we are likely to have to increase service access by bilateral agreements. As the UK service sector is itself extremely open, the only way in which we are able to negotiate access to other countries services markets is by allowing increased access to our goods markets. An inability to set our own tariff rates would make this extremely difficult if not impossible, foreclosing opportunities for the UK’s world class services exporters to gain access to new and profitable markets.
Similarly, some have claimed that joining a customs union would gain automatic access to 87 EU agreements. Leaving aside the fact that I do not recognise the number of trade agreements mentioned, there would be no automatic continuity for EU trade agreements if we left the EU and join the customs union. Membership of EU trade agreements are part of being a member of the EU, subject to the Treaties of the Functioning of the European Union, outside of those treaties – therefore outside of the EU – but in a customs union, does not give you access to these agreements. In fact, all of these agreements would need to be negotiated again.
I have also heard colleagues and commentators suggest that Japan would be a great prize in a customs union. However, only EU Member States have access to EU trade agreements. So, if the UK were to join a customs union with the EU, we would still need to negotiate a bilateral agreement to secure UK access to the Japanese market. However, as already noted, given that the Japanese would already have secured goods access to the UK through its agreement with the EU, there is no guarantee that Japan would seek to negotiate such a new agreement with the UK.
A customs union would also potentially damage Britain in international trade disputes. For example, the EU produced countermeasures following the recent US application of steel and aluminium tariffs. This followed lengthy consultations with the Member States.
Were the UK to be a third country, outside the EU but in a customs union, it is entirely possible that the EU could apply tariffs on products important for the UK, but not for other EU Member States. As Britain would have to apply such tariffs as the price of its membership of a customs union, without a say in their formulation, British businesses and consumers could find themselves on the front line of trade disputes while EU members could be more protected.
I mentioned that the application of the CCT could have complications beyond trade policy itself. This Conservative government has been keen to look at ways of bringing our trade and development policies closer together and one of the ways in which we can do this is to use our new found tariff freedom, when we leave the EU, to stimulate trade with countries who currently face tariffs when they add value to their primary produce. A combination of outward direct investment and judicious tariff reduction would go a long way to securing our aim of helping countries to trade their way out of poverty. If we were to remain in a custom union, we would have to apply the EU’s trade policy for developing countries, without any say. This could have important implications for the UK’s relationship with developing countries, should the EU decide to take an action prejudicial to our interests.
Finally, it is worth saying a word about the government’s proposals contained in the Political Declaration. Essentially, the government is seeking to maintain the benefits of a customs union in terms of internal trade (tariffs, quotas and rules of origin) while being outside the EU’s common external tariff. This would allow the UK to have an independent trade policy. Such a proposal has never been implemented to my knowledge but being outside the CCT is an absolute prerequisite to Britain being able to benefit from ambitious UK trade and development policies.
Customs union letter for the 1922 committee.pdf 1.13 MB
News from the Constituency July 2019
Tuesday, 9 July, 2019
I had a busy schedule in North Somerset at the weekend, starting with a visit to Smart Systems in Yatton, a thriving business which is now employing over 500 people in local jobs. They are the UK’s leading supplier of architectural aluminium systems and have a very impressive setup.
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Marlin Wins the Pole for Pepsi 400 at Daytona
From Associated Press
For good and bad, Sterling Marlin always will claim a significant spot in the Daytona history books. He added another entry on the plus side Friday.
Marlin won the pole position for tonight's Pepsi 400 on the 10th anniversary of his first Winston Cup pole--also at Daytona--driving his Dodge around the famed 2 1/2-mile Daytona Beach, Fla., track at 183.778 mph.
Ward Burton qualified second at 183.072 mph, followed by Stacy Compton (182.678) and rookie Casey Atwood (182.597), as Dodges swept the top four spots and continued to dominate qualifying at NASCAR's fastest tracks. Winston Cup points leader Jeff Gordon (182.312) will start fifth in a Chevrolet.
Dodge also swept the top three spots in the Daytona 500 and the Talladega 500. Daytona and Talladega are the only two tracks that require carburetor restrictor plates to limit speeds.
The image of Marlin on the pole is fitting for this, NASCAR's somewhat uneasy return to Daytona for the first time since the death of Dale Earnhardt in the Daytona 500.
It was Marlin's car that made first contact with Earnhardt as a pack moved between Turns 3 and 4 on the final lap of the Feb. 18 race. Earnhardt slammed into the wall and was killed instantly.
In practice for the Ameristar Casinos Indy 200 at the new Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Eddie Cheever treated a small crowd sweltering in 95-degree heat to a blazing test drive.
The Indy Racing League owner-driver turned in a best speed of 216.973 mph on the 1 1/2-mile tri-oval.
Sunday's 200-lap, 300-mile race will go on without the Heritage Motorsports team, which announced that it is withdrawing from IRL competition until Aug. 26.
Dennis Setzer took the pole for the first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, turning a lap at 162.411 mph.
Dennis Setzer
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Glendale News-Press News
Glendale man admits to embezzling $2.8-million and filing fake tax returns
By Andy Nguyen
Sean Edin Talaee, a 62-year-old living in Glendale, pleaded guilty this week to embezzling $2.8-million from a Burbank business where he worked and for filing fraudulent tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service. (Zach Gibson / Getty Images)
A Glendale man faces 23 years in prison after pleading guilty on Monday to embezzling more than $2.8 million from his workplace in Burbank.
Sean Edin Talaee, 62, pleaded guilty to one count each of mail fraud and subscribing to a false income tax return.
Authorities said Talaee used his position as the controller of Printograph Inc., a commercial printing company, to steal money from the firm from October 2015 to June 2018 by falsifying checks to the Internal Revenue Service. As controller, Talaee oversaw Printograph’s accounting and tax payments.
The IRS said in a statement that Talaee would get tax payment checks signed off by the company’s president before they were sent to the federal agency. The checks would usually be for $200,000 or $400,000.
On at least eight occasions, he inserted his own taxpayer information on IRS voucher forms when sending out the payment checks.
The IRS said this allowed him to claim the tax payments for himself, leading the agency to credit the money to his bank account.
This won’t be the first time Talaee will serve time for an embezzlement scheme. He was accused by the California Franchise Tax Board in 2004 of embezzling $525,000 from a Covina-based aerospace subcontractor, where he was employed as a controller.
He served three years in prison after pleading no contest to charges of grand theft and filing a false state income tax return.
Besides misappropriating money from Printograph, Talaee underreported his own personal income on his tax returns by failing to report the embezzled money for 2015, 2016 and 2017, authorities said.
In addition to the prison sentence, he was hit with a $350,000 fine and may be required to pay $740,085 in restitution to the IRS.
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These Are the Best U.S. Cities for Working Women in 2018
Today's blog post comes from our friends Brittney Laryea & Kali McFadden at MagnifyMoney & Lending Tree. Their new study focuses on the best U.S. cities for working women in 2018. They used the 50 largest metros to figure out where the average working woman has the best (and worst) opportunity for equal pay and advancement in the workplace.
Do you live in one of these metro areas?
One could say today’s American woman is a working woman. In 2016, 57% of women participated in the workforce, up from 43.3% in 1970. Additionally, 42% of mothers were the primary breadwinners for their families, meaning they brought in at least half of their family’s earnings, according to a 2015 report from the Center for American Progress.
Although more women are in the workforce and supporting their families, women’s earnings have historically lagged against that of men. In 1987, the average working woman earned about 70% of a man’s income. In 2016, the gap narrowed, with women earning 82% of the average man’s earnings. But broad research doesn’t always paint the clearest picture. For example, more detailed wage gap analyses have found the wage gap is much worse among minority women, while the gap is slightly better for today’s younger women.
Despite these advances, women in the aggregate earn less money, cover more child care costs, hold fewer leadership positions and suffer more in earnings and work penalties related to maternity and parenthood than men do. Factors like median earnings and women in leadership contribute to a woman’s ability to progress in her earnings and career throughout her life.
With these factors in mind, MagnifyMoney analyzed and ranked the largest 50 U.S. metros to determine where the average working woman might have the best shot at equal pay and advancement in the workplace.
How we chose the best cities for working women
The best metros for working women
The worst metros for working women
To see where working women seem to fare better, we took the 50 biggest metros in America and graded them based on the following factors:
The rate of women who are unemployed.
The rate of businesses with employees that are owned, either equally or entirely, by women.
The rate of people in management occupations who are women.
The percentage gap between median earnings for women and men (i.e. the wage gap).
The rate of women between the ages of 18 and 64 who have employer-based health insurance.
The percentage of median income required to pay for day care, because access to child care is essential for the ability to work outside of the home.
The percentage of the state’s legislature (or the District Council, in the case of Washington, D.C.) who are women.
The protections offered by states to pregnant women and working parents, such as state-funded paid parental leave, protection for taking off time to attend school events and mandated accommodations for pregnant women.
See our full methodology below.
Washington, D.C., is the best metro for working women.
The nation’s capital earned the top spot in our ranking, with a final score of 72.8. It has a relatively narrow wage gap compared with the nation as a whole (15.4% vs. 20.4%), one-third of the district’s legislators are women and it ranked highest out of all 50 metros for the rate of women (43.6%) who hold management occupations in the workforce.
Detroit is the worst metro for working women.
Detroit scored a 33.9 on our index, indicating the metro isn’t the best place for a working woman’s earnings and career advancement. At 25.4%, Detroit ranks in 46th place in the rate of businesses owned by women and 46th place in the gender wage gap rankings. Detroit women earn at least 25% less than men on the dollar. However, the metro’s 6% unemployment rate for women is among the highest in our survey.
L.A. has the lowest wage gap. Los Angeles has the lowest wage gap of all 50 metros, at 10.1%. That’s compared to an average of 19.0% across all 50 metros. It’s followed by Tampa, Fla. (10.6%); Miami (12.7%); Denver (12.8%); and San Antonio (13.7%).
Seattle has the highest share of women-owned businesses, at 39.8%. It was followed behind by Phoenix (38.4%); Portland, Ore. (37.3%); Miami (36.2%) and Riverside, Calif. (35.4%). Across all 50 metros we studied, we found an average of just 31.2% of businesses are owned by women.
More women in management occupations may bode well for gender wage gaps.
Generally speaking, we found a metro’s earnings gap was narrower in metros with a relatively high number of women in management occupations. A good example of this phenomenon can be seen in our number one ranked city, Washington, D.C. We found 43.6% of managers in Washington are women, ranking it No. 1 in that category. And it scored the 10th lowest wage gap out of the 50 metros analyzed. Likewise, Sacramento (ranked No. 3 overall) had the 3rd highest proportion of women who are in management occupations, and the 7th lowest earnings gap, we found. Denver bucks the trend, however. It was among the worst ranking cities for women in management occupations (39 out of 50), but had the 4th smallest gender wage gap.
More than half of the states had no parental or pregnancy protections in place. We scored features like whether or not there was a law in place, the length of coverage the law allowed, if the law was limited by the size of the employer and if women had to jump through hoops like bring a doctor’s note to gain access to pregnancy protections. In addition to the four states that currently offer workers paid family leave, both Washington state and the District of Columbia enacted paid parental leave coverage in 2017, which will go into effect in 2020. Washington, D.C., will provide eight weeks of parental coverage and Washington state will offer 12, with up to an additional six weeks for a serious maternal health condition. New York state will also increase the length of their paid leave from the current eight weeks now, to 10 weeks in 2019, and 12 weeks in 2021.
California has the best parental and pregnancy protections. After evaluating all 50 largest metro areas, none of them scored a perfect 100, but California scored the highest at 57.
Download the complete findings here.
The 10 best U.S. metros for working women
(All metros were given a score out of 100)
1 — Washington, D.C.
The nation’s capital earned the top spot in the Best Cities for Working Women ranking, with a final score of 72.8. The capital ranks first out of all 50 cities when it comes to the percentage of managers who are women, with 43.6% of its management occupations filled by women.
What the Federal City does well
Overall, women earn about 15.4% less than men on the dollar, making the Federal City the 10th best in our wage gap rankings.
Health care for women in D.C. is comparatively better than in the majority of other major U.S. cities, too. Nearly seven in 10 women have employer-based health insurance — placing it 5th in that category overall — and the metro’s pregnancy and parental workplace protections earned it a score of 30. Overall, D.C. ranks 10th in pregnancy and parental workplace protections.
The district ranked 3rd in earnings for child care when compared with the other metro areas, as it takes one-fifth of a woman’s median earnings to cover day care costs.
D.C. ranks 24th overall in percentage of women who are unemployed. The Census Bureau’s 2016 American Community Survey reports a 4.9% unemployment rate for women in the District of Columbia, significantly lower than the national 2016 rate for all U.S. women, 6.7%.
Where D.C. could use some improvement
Those strong characteristics make D.C. the best city overall for the working woman, but the city has a shortfall. D.C. lands in the middle of the rankings in women-owned businesses at No. 24. Women own about 32.4% of businesses in the nation’s capital.
2 — Minneapolis
With an overall score of 66.4, the larger of the twin cities, Minneapolis, is the second-best metro area in the nation for working women.
What Minneapolis does well
The city’s health care climate for women and its unemployment rate helped pushed it to the top of our rankings. It also benefited from the fact that the state of Minnesota has a high rate of women legislators. Nearly one-third (32.8%) of state legislators are women.
Good news for the working woman who considers having children one day: Minneapolis placed 11th overall based on state legislation in place for parental and pregnancy protection. Falling just behind D.C., it earned a parental and pregnancy workplace protection score of 29. If a woman has a day care-aged child, it would take about 23.1% of her median earnings to pay for day care in Minneapolis (No. 29).
The Mill City also has the lowest unemployment figures for women. With 2.9% of women unemployed, Minneapolis ties with Buffalo, N.Y., for lowest unemployment among all cities in the analysis.
Where Minneapolis could use some improvement
The City of Lakes generally ranks in the middle for women in business leadership, as 31.5% of women own businesses (No. 28) and 40.8% of its managers are women (No. 17). Possibly a reflection of fewer women in leadership, Minneapolis has a 19.7% gender wage gap, placing it 31st out of the 50 metro areas in that particular category.
3 — Sacramento, Calif.
California currently has the best coverage laws for mothers and pregnant women, boosting the Sacramento, Calif., metro area up on our list to No. 3 overall.
What Sacramento does well
The city’s parental and pregnancy workplace protections earned it a score of 57 according to MagnifyMoney’s index, the best of all cities in the data set. No state had a program that scored a perfect 100. The city falls in the middle of the pack when it comes to day care costs. Women in Sacramento would need to spend about 22.2% of their median earnings to put children in day care so they can get to work.
The City of Trees ranked third in the percentage of managers who are women (43.4%) and 11th overall in the percentage of women-owned businesses. Generally on track with people in management occupations, the median earnings gender wage gap in Sacramento is 14.6%.
The unemployment rate for women in Sacramento is 5.7%, according to 2016 five-year ACS estimates. That’s an entire point lower than the nation’s 6.7% unemployment rate for women.
Where Sacramento could use some improvement
Sacramento lands in the middle of the index — No. 24 — in its rate of women legislators, 22.5% of whom are women.
The city landed on the lower end of the spectrum for the percentage of women with employer-provided health insurance. About 61.4% of women in Sacramento obtain health insurance through their workplace (No. 34), which is slightly less than the group average of 63.1%.
4 — Denver
What Denver does well
The city boasts the 4th lowest gender wage gap at 12.8%. That’s significantly lower than not just the national average (20.4%) but across the 50 metros we analyzed (19%).
Nearly 40% of state legislators in Colorado are women, helping boost Denver to No. 2 in that category. Denver ranks 10th for women-owned businesses, as about 35% of businesses are owned by women.
The unemployment rate for women in Denver is a low 3.6%, according to 2016 five-year ACS estimates, placing it third in the category’s rankings. The city lands in the center of the category’s rankings (24th out of 50) for the percentage of women with employer-based health insurance. Just under two-thirds (64.7%) of women in Denver have health insurance through an employer.
Denver isn’t a bad city for a working woman with children, compared with other metro areas in our data set. The city ranks 12th on our scale for parental and pregnancy protections.
Where Denver could use some improvement
On the flip side, 39% of managers in Denver are women, pushing it to 39th place in that category. Ironically, since wage gaps tend to narrow with a rise in women in management occupations, Denver has one of the lowest wage gaps. It ranks 37th when it comes to how much of a woman’s median earnings is required to afford day care at 24.4%.
5 — San Francisco, Calif.
What San Fran does well
As noted earlier when we discussed Sacramento, California is the best state for parental and pregnancy workplace protections. The state scored a 57 in that category — the highest among all metros in our analysis — out of a possible 100.
San Francisco benefited from that high score, ranking 12th in the rate of the city’s businesses owned by women (34.3%) and 8th in the percentage of managers who are women (41.8%).
San Francisco also has a relatively low unemployment rate for women compared with the other metros in the analysis, at 4.4%, landing it 12th place in that category.
Where San Fran could use improvement
Once children are of day care age, it would take about 25.1% of a woman’s median salary to afford day care in the metro area. That’s considerably higher than the 50-metro average of 23%.
San Francisco may be among the top 10 when it comes to having women in management occupations, but that doesn't translate into a narrower median earnings gender gap. The wage gap is in the middle of our pack in the analysis, landing it 21st out of 50 metro areas. Women in the area earn about 18.7% less than men, worse than the national wage gap of 20.4%.
6 — Seattle
What the Emerald City does well
Seattle is home the highest percentage of businesses owned by women of all the cities in our data set. Close to 40% of businesses in Seattle are equally or fully owned by women. Additionally, only 4.2% of women in Seattle are unemployed, placing it 8th among all metros in the category’s rankings.
The metro also benefits from Washington state’s comparatively high rate of women legislators — 37.4% — which is good enough to place it third overall in the category.
What could use improvement
The city ranks 19th for women in management with 40.7% of women in management occupations, and has one of the highest gender wage gaps in our analysis (ranked 44th) at 23.6%.
About 67% of women in Seattle get health insurance through an employer (15th overall). The city scored 18 in parental and pregnancy workplace protection, placing it in 16th place in the category overall. It takes nearly a quarter (24.8%) of women’s median earnings to pay for day care in Seattle, 38th in the category’s rankings.
7 — Baltimore
What Baltimore does well
The city scored strongly in its rate of women with employer-based health insurance, the rate of women in management positions and benefits from Maryland’s relatively high rate of female state legislators.
Most working women in Baltimore — about 68.2% — are on an employer-based health insurance plan. The comparatively high percentage of women on employer-based health plans places Baltimore 8th overall in the analysis of U.S. metros.
More than 42% of managers in Baltimore are women, placing the city in 7th place overall among the cities in our analysis.
The gender wage gap in Baltimore is slightly worse than the national average but slightly better than the average gap found among the 50 metros we analyzed. Compared with the national wage gap of about 20.4%, women in Baltimore earn 18.8% less than men in the metro area. Among all 50 metros, the wage gap was 19%.
Child care is slightly more affordable. It would take about 21% of a woman’s median earnings to pay for day care in the Baltimore metro area, compared with a 50-metro average of 23%. About 32% of Maryland’s state legislators are women, helping boost the Baltimore metro area to 11th overall in that category.
What needs improvement in Charm City
However, Baltimore ranked 19th among other metros in the quality of its parental and pregnancy workplace laws on the books. The city scored a 12 in the category compared with an average of 15 across all 50 metros.
About 30.8% of businesses in Baltimore are owned by women, lower than the 50-metro average of 31.2%.
8 — Providence, R.I.
What Providence does well
A good portion of management occupations in Providence are filled by women. The city is ranked fifth among the other metro areas in our analysis, with 42.8% of managers who are women. The state of Rhode Island has a good percentage of women in state legislature, which helped boost Providence’s score. It ranks 12th in the category, with about 31% of state legislators who are women.
Providence also ranks in the top 10 for its legal protections for expectant parents and those with day care-aged children. The metro was ranked 9th out of 50 metros with a score of 40 in parental and pregnancy workplace protections.
What could use improvement in Providence
Day care doesn’t come cheap. Providence has the 10th highest day care cost among metros. It costs a little more than a quarter of a woman’s median earnings to afford day care in Providence.
The metro falls in the middle of the pack when it comes to the rate of businesses owned by women. It ranked 29th place out of 50 with 30.8%, slightly lower than the metro average of 31.2%.
Providence’s gender wage gap also needs work. The metro is ranked 33rd when compared with other areas in our analysis as women earn 19.9% less than their male counterparts.
9 — St. Louis
What St. Louis does well
Almost a third of Missouri’s state lawmakers are women, pushing St. Louis to 8th place in this category, and 35.2% of businesses are owned, either fully or equally, by women, which is the 6th highest among the 50 metros. The unemployment rate for women in 2016 was also relatively low at 4.4% (12th lowest), which may have something to do with the high rate of employer-based insurance for women. St. Louis has the 10th highest rate of women with workplace insurance at about 68%.
St. Louis also does pretty well relative to other cities in day care costs, requiring 21.7% of the median earnings for women to pay the average costs. St. Louis is in middle of the pack when it comes to the number of women in management occupations (40.4%), ranking 23rd of the cities we reviewed.
Where St. Louis could use some improvements
Unfortunately, that good showing of women in leadership positions doesn’t translate to more equitable earnings for women. Median income for women was 22.5% lower than for men in 2016, and only six other metros in the data set has a larger wage gap. The state of Missouri scored a zero on our parental and pregnancy workplace protection index.
10 — Kansas City, Mo.
What Kansas City does well
The city’s ranking is largely helped by Missouri’s high rate of women in state legislature. In Missouri, nearly one in three members — 32.8% — of the state’s legislators are women.
About one-third (33.2%) of businesses in the metro area are owned by women, which is slightly better than other metros analyzed, which had an average of 31.2%.
The unemployment rate for women in Kansas City is lower compared with other metro areas in the data set. With an unemployment rate of 4.3%, the city ranks 10th in the rate of women who are unemployed.
Kansas City also has a decent rate of managers who are women. The metro area ranks 17th out of 50 for the percentage of managers who are women. About 40.8% of managers in Kansas City are women, right on par with a 40.2% average for all 50 metros.
Where Kansas City could use improvements
Kansas City is one of many cities that scored zero in parental and pregnancy workplace protections on the books in our analysis, thanks to a complete lack of state laws that provide these specific kinds of coverage.
Like in Seattle, ownership and workplace leadership do not seem to translate into higher wages for women in Kansas City, Mo.
The city ranks 43rd with a median earnings gender gap of 21.7%, higher than both the 50-metro average of 19% and national average of 20.4%.
Memphis, Tenn.
Charlotte, N.C.
Methodology:
Each of the 50 largest metropolitan statistical areas (“MSAs”) was ranked against each other, on a scale 100, on eight factors relevant to women’s ability to achieve financial and professional success in the workplace.
Each MSAs scaled result was derived from the following formula for each, individual factor: ((city result – minimum of all results) / (maximum of all results – minimum of all results)) x 100, and rounded to one decimal point).
The results for each factor were then added together, and the sum was divided by eight (rounded to one decimal point), for the highest possible score of 100 and the lowest possible score of 0. The actual highest score was 72.8 and the lowest 33.9.
The eight factors are:
Employment. The percent of women who are unemployed, as reported in the American Community Survey 2016 (five-year estimate) from the U.S. Census Bureau (“2016 ACS”).
Health care. The percent of women between the ages of 18 and 64 (inclusive) who have employer-based health insurance, as reported by 2016 ACS.
Business ownership. Percent of businesses with employees that are owned, either wholly or equally, by women, derived from the 2015 Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Management positions. Percent of people in management occupations who are women, derived from 2016 ACS.
Wage gap. Gap, as a percent, between median earnings of men and women, derived from 2016 ACS.
Child care. The average cost of in-center child care, as a percent of median earnings for women. Day care costs were reported in “The Care Index” from New America and Care.com, and median earnings were reported by 2016 ACS.
Representation. The percent of elected state (or district) legislators who are women, as reported by the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University’s Eagleton Institute of Politics, Council of District of Columbia, and the Tennessee General Assembly legislator web pages. Since we're working on the MSA level, which can cover multiple municipalities and counties, we opted to review women’s representation at the state level.
Workplace protections. State pregnancy and parental workplace protections were scored on the following bases. The highest possible score was 100 points and the lowest was zero. The highest actual score was 57 and the lowest actual score was zero.
Paid leave: the number of paid parental leave weeks covered by the state, divided by a maximum of 12 weeks, up to 50 points.
Pregnancy accommodation protections: each MSA was granted six points, for a possible total of 30 points, for the following:
the existence of such a law, 2) if the law covers both public and private employees,
if the covers all employers, regardless of size,
if the law doesn’t allow employers to require medical documentation for accommodations (three points were awarded if employers could not ask for documentation for some, but not all accommodations, such as bathroom and water breaks),
if the law doesn’t allow for an “undue hardship” exemption for employers (three points were awarded if the undue hardship exemption could not be applied to certain accommodations, such as bathroom and water breaks).
Allowable time off to attend school events: the number of hours spent at a child’s school, per year, for which a parent cannot be fired, divided by a maximum of 40 hours, up to 20 points.
For the sake of clarity, each metro name is the first city and state listed in the MSA title, which we understand to be the most populous component of each MSA. The Care Index (child care costs) refers Norfolk, Va., which we associate with the Virginia Beach MSA.
“Employment Status,” 2012-2016 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, U.S. Census Bureau (https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_16_5YR_S2301&prodType=table , last accessed Feb. 27, 2018)
“Occupation by Sex for the Civilian Employed Population 16 Years and Over,” 2012-2016 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, U.S. Census Bureau (https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_16_5YR_S2401&prodType=table, last accessed Feb. 27, 2018)
“Earnings in the Past 12 Months (in 2016 Inflation-Adjusted Dollars),” 2016 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, U.S. Census Bureau (https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_16_1YR_S2001&prodType=table, last accessed Feb. 27, 2018)
“Employer-Based Health Insurance by Sex and Age Universe: Civilian noninstitutionalized population,” 2011-2016 American Community Survey 3-Year Estimates, U.S. Census Bureau (https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_16_5YR_C27004&prodType=table , last accessed Feb. 27, 2018)
“The Care Index,” care.com and New America (https://www.care.com/care-index or https://www.newamerica.org/in-depth/care-report/explore-care-index/, last access Feb. 27, 2018)
State fact sheets, Center for American Women in Politics, Eagleton Institute of Politics, Rutgers University (http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/state-by-state, last accessed Feb. 27, 2018)
Council member web pages, Council of District of Columbia, (http://dccouncil.us/council, last accessed Feb. 27, 2018)
Legislator web pages, Tennessee General Assembly (http://www.capitol.tn.gov/legislators/, last accessed Feb. 27, 2018)
“State by State Fact Sheets: Child Care Assistance Policies 2016,” National Women’s Law Center (https://nwlc.org/resources/state-by-state-fact-sheets-child-care-assistance-policies-2016/, last accessed Feb. 28, 2018)
“State Paid Family Leave Insurance Laws,” National Partnership for Women & Families, July 2017 (http://www.nationalpartnership.org/research-library/work-family/paid-leave/state-paid-family-leave-laws.pdf, last accessed Feb. 28, 2018)
“State Family and Medical Leave Laws,” National Conference of State Legislatures, July 19, 2016 (http://www.ncsl.org/research/labor-and-employment/state-family-and-medical-leave-laws.aspx, last accessed Feb. 28, 2018)
Click the image for a text version.
Laryea, B. & McFadden , K. (2018, March 7). 'These Are the Best U.S. Cities for Working Women in 2018' [Blog post]. Retrieved from:
https://www.magnifymoney.com/blog/news/best-u-s-cities-for-working-women38134167/
Topics: Closing the Gender Gap
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Kelly Todd became an associate at Dolt, Thompson, Shepherd & Conway, PSC, in 2016. Prior to her involvement with the firm, Kelly practiced law in Michigan at Immigration Law, PLLC and Strategic Legal Solutions, where her practice primarily focused on Immigration matters and electronic discovery. Previously, Kelly completed an externship with the Wright-Patterson Air Force JAG office, where she worked alongside Capt. Lauren Rosenblatt in the Office of the Staff Judge Advocates on military law cases.
Kelly earned her Juris Doctorate degree from Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She received her undergraduate degree in Sociology from Southern Connecticut State University, where she graduated cum laude, and was a four-year member of the Women’s Gymnastics team.
Kelly is a member of both the Kentucky and Michigan Bar Associations and currently volunteers with the Legal Aid Society’s Domestic Violence Advocacy Program. Outside of the office, Kelly is a Level One Sports Performance Weightlifting coach, and enjoys competing in CrossFit and USA Weightlifting at the national level.
Kentucky Bar, 2016
Michigan Bar, 2013
The United States Court of Federal Claims
Thomas M. Cooley Law School, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Moot Court Top Ten Advocate (2011)
Honors Scholarship Recipient (2009-2012)
International Law Society, General Member (2010)
Animal Law Society, General Member (2011-2012)
Disaster Relief Legal Association, President (2011-2012)
Southern Connecticut State University, BS- Sociology
Minor: Psychology
NCAA All American Scholar Athlete (2005-2007)
USA Gymnastics Scholar Athlete (2006-2007)
Outstanding Female Scholar Athlete (2007)
Student Athlete Advisory Committee (2005-2007)
Sociology Club- Treasurer (2007)
Golden Key International Honor Society (2005-2007)
Member, Alpha Kappa Delta International Sociology Honor Society (2005-2007)
Kentucky Bar Association
Michigan Bar Association
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Short Notes
Home / Addison And Steele / Sir Roger at Church / Write a brief account of Sir Roger's love affair as described by Steele?
Write a brief account of Sir Roger's love affair as described by Steele?
by Green Land on 11:25 in Addison And Steele, Sir Roger at Church
In the essay Of the Club, Steele has given a brief description of the members of the club. Describing Sir Roger he says that the knight had been a dandy in his youth but had changed his ways; had become very sober and somewhat careless about dress after he had been thwarted in his love for a widow. The widow is throughout the essays referred to as the 'perverse widow'. In one of the later essays, His Account of his Disappointment in Love, we have the description of his first meeting with the widow. He was in his twenty-third year, young and proud of the handsome appearance he cut. He saw the widow first in the court over which he presides in his capacity of country magistrate. The case being tried was related to the widow's inheritance. The widow had many admirers and Sir Roger was added to these just as she cast a look upon him. She captivated his heart, and bewitched him and Sir Roger's love affair.
The visit to the widow's house : not successful
After losing his heart to the widow at the court, Sir Roger felt encouraged when he was told by someone that the widow considered Sir Roger to be "the tamest and most humane of all the brutes in the country", and decided to call upon her. He got new uniforms made for his servants, new matched the coach horses, sent them to town to learn to trot properly, and then ventured to visit the widow. On seeing her, however, Sir Roger was so overawed that he sat silently, unable to utter a word. Seeing the embarrassment of the knight, the widow started speaking on love and honour and false and true followers of these sentiments. Sir Roger was even more awe-struck and impressed. It did not help matters any more when the lady's 'confident' remarked that Sir Roger's silence showed that his reply, when it came, would be thoroughly exhaustive of the subject. Puzzled and embarrassed, Sir Roger took his leave after half an hour of silence in which he could not decide what to say.
Sir Roger's love is not reciprocated
After the unhappy experience of the visit to the widow's house, Sir Roger had often met the widow. On these chance meetings too the widow always made elaborate and involved discourses to Sir Roger which left him completely bewildered and awed. He found the widow rather cruel and hard hearted, even though he considered her also to be the most beautiful woman in the world. He knew that she had treated all her admirers rather shabbily but he could not help loving her. He had carved her name on the trees of one of the avenues on his estate to get some relief from his overw-helming and hopeless passion but this only served to enhance his unhappiness, for whenever he saw the avenue he was reminded of her. We read about the love affair in the essays, His Account of his Disappointment in Love and Sir Roger's Reflections on the Widow.
The effect of his disappointment in love
Sir Roger was shrewd enough to realise that the disappointment in love had left indelible scars on his mind. It was a disappointment which he would never be able to get over completely. He felt that the disappointment in love had made him somewhat careless in his speech and manner of thinking. It had given rise to a certain inconsistency of behaviour and speech which amused people. His mind had been slightly unbalanced so that often said something absurd or totally irrelevant in the middle of a serious conversation. But the love affair had also had a beneficial effect on him. It had taught him to become more gentle and patient and more lenient towards people, even towards his enemies. But the experience had left a lasting imprint on him; whenever he thought of the widow, he felt, that his youth had returned. He had often hoped that the widow would have some difficulty so that he could prove to be of help to her but soon afterwards felt that he did not want this to happen for he did not really want her to be burdened with an obligation to him. This shows the innate kindness and generosity of Sir Roger.
The role of the confidant
According to Sir Roger, the widow might just have learnt to return his love if it had not been for her confident. It was this female who was vicious enough to instigate the widow against Sir Roger. Sir Roger's views on confidants show a mixture of shrewdness and simple bitterness. The confidants prevent their mistresses from getting married by throwing in their faces the dictums the mistresses themselves had formulated against men and marriage. The confident acquires great power and influence over the mistress's mind and wields this power mercilessly. Sir Roger is of the firm opinion that it was the widow's companion who was instrumental in his disappointment in love.The picture of the widow .
The picture of the widow
Steele's art of characterisation comes out in these essays dealing with Sir Roger's affair of the heart. Though we never actually 'meet' the widow in person in the essays, we are given a vivid picture of her through the words of Sir Roger. She becomes a living character even though she is not presented directly. She is beautiful as well as intelligent. She is able to hold her own in debates and discussions, being well informed and widely read. But she is a strange creature who rejoices in the admiration of her various admirers but does not return any of their love. She has a poor opinion of the male sex in general. She inflames the hearts of men but never responds encouragingly to them. She combined charm with a certain dignity which kept her admirers at a distance even while-inflaming their hearts. Her voice was sweet and she could sing beautifully. She was so confident of her own qualities that she could not be offended by any of her rejected lovers. She knew all the arts of coquetry and used them to great extent without, however, involving her true feelings. She had extraordinary and intellectual interests like studying bees. She was always accompanied by her confident to whom she told all her secret observations on the male sex in general. She is apparently a woman of beauty and intellect but one without a soft heart.
Steele's ironic treatment of Sir Roger
There is a great deal of irony in the treatment of Sir Roger and his love affair. The picture of Sir Roger that emerges from these essays is that of a simple country gentleman of modest intellectual powers who is naturally overawed by any intellect slightly superior to his own. Though he aspires to be a gallant, he is not really one. He is not able to speak easily and lightly to ladies ; he does not have the ability of 'small-talk'. He is easily embarrassed by the widow. There is 'comic pathos' in the disappointment which is the natural outcome of his love for the widow. There is plenty of irony and banter in the treatment of the love affair of Sir Roger and yet we never lose our affection for this knight who is too generous to want the lady whom he loves to feel an obligation towards him.
Tags # Addison And Steele # Sir Roger at Church
About Green Land
When writing about his life is still to come!!!
Sir Roger at Church
By Green Land at 11:25
Labels: Addison And Steele, Sir Roger at Church
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Yvonne’s CHS food challenge
Student dietician, Yvonne Cassidy, has completed her very own “versus food” challenge to raise awareness of dysphagia and raise money for Northern Ireland Chest Heart and Stroke, the local health charity which provides support and rehab for stroke survivors.
Yvonne’s take on a “versus food” challenge was to follow a special diet of pureed food and thickened fluids for a week, replicating the diet that stroke survivors with dysphagia, which is difficulty in swallowing, often have to follow to reduce their risk of choking.
She decided to follow this diet for a week after her grandmother, Marie, was diagnosed with dysphagia following her stroke at the end of last year. Yvonne undertook the challenge while on a university placement at Altnagelvin Hospital earlier this year.
Yvonne explained: “As a student studying dietetics at Ulster University (Coleraine campus), the insight that this challenge has given me will also be invaluable in my future career.”
The food was provided free by Wiltshire Foods and the thickening agent and oral nutritional supplements by Nutricia.
Steph Ellis, from NICHS, said: “To date Yvonne has raised a fabulous £700 which will pay for one stroke survivor to attend a Stroke Activity Group for 15 months. NICHS support groups provide a safe environment for survivors to open up and talk to others.”
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Counseling (English)
Consejería (Español)
DV Statistics
DV Awareness
Lilliana R.
NOELLE CHIODO IS A SINGER & DV ADVOCATE
Noelle Chiodo is a talented singer and domestic violence advocate. Chiodo’s latest song, “Your Love’s Got Me Blinded” is about domestic violence and features survivors. The song isn’t only beautiful (we lost count as to how many times we replayed it), it is also empowering. We asked Chiodo for the story behind her song, and this is what she told us…
I wrote this song based on the feeling of being stuck in a relationship. It's hard loving someone that you know isn't good for you. When I played this song for a close one, she broke into tears and told me this reminded her of when she was in a domestically violent relationship. That's why I decided to dedicate this song to domestic violence.
We think is amazing that you featured survivors (instead of actors) to be part of the video.
All of the survivors were so strong and brave for being a part of this video! I think it was difficult for some, but I had given them the option of blurring their faces or not and the majority of them chose not to have their face hidden. I think that is such a statement.
Tell us more about your advocacy.
I'm continuing making a difference by sharing the music video with multiple domestic violence shelters and organizations. I also have visited a few local shelters to perform some live music and meet the survivors and plan on visiting more. It's an honor to be a voice for domestic violence.
Any advice you’d like to share with those who have suffered or are suffering from domestic violence?
I think the most important advice is to remember that you are not alone and you are soooo much stronger than you know.
Will you be releasing any more similar music?
I will definitely be writing and releasing more songs about empowerment and strength, it's part of my journey and everyone elses. I write my music based off my experiences, my friends and family's experiences, movies, books, anything that inspires me and then give it to people. When people hear my music, I want them to be able to relate to it and see their experiences when they hear my music.
And relate to it we do! Whether through her music or activism one thing is certain— NOELLE CHIODO is a name we will be hearing more from.
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LET'S DISCUSS: The Decoy Boy
Original image source
DECOY BOY
Definition: (also Decoy Girl) In a story, the other person the main character (MC) dates or flirts with that isn't her/his True Love Interest. Utilized a lot in contemporary YA romantic fiction, the addition of a Decoy Boy/Girl is different from a love triangle because this character doesn't last long as a love interest and the overall romantic tension in the story is not between this character and the MC. It's usually obvious that Decoy Boy is not the best match for the MC, and clear that he's not real competition for the True Love Interest. Sometimes, the True Love Interest has a decoy romance happening that parallels the one between the MC and Decoy Boy.
Reasons authors include a Decoy Boy/Girl in their stories:
1) Confusion and conflict - Decoy Boys are very good at causing confusion and tension between the Main Character and her True Love Interest. They are a way to add conflict to the overall plot, and obstacles between the couple that the story is really about.
2) Another Purpose - Sometimes this character will play a different more important role in the book, and his role as decoy romantic interest is just a smoke screen for his real purpose. When this happens, the decoy love interest plot is in itself a decoy for his bigger purpose in the story. (If I didn't explain that well, Blake in Onyx of the Lux series is a good example of this).
3) Jealousy and a wake up call - Decoy Boys are a great way to make the True Love Interest jealous, and a way for the MC to finally realize who she really wants, which is not Decoy Boy.
4) Filler - Gotta keep that tension high, and not let the real romance peak too soon. Throw in a decoy romance to fill some time!
My thoughts on this phenomenon:
It's probably not surprising that I'm not the biggest fan of decoy characters, though I find them much easier to handle than real love triangles. As mentioned above, it's usually very obvious that this guy is not the right match for the MC, and equally obvious that the MC isn't that into him. However, there's almost always a generous lag time between me thinking the Decoy Boy is getting in the way of the Main Love Story, the heroine fingering out that he's not who she wants, and then when she finally drops him. I'd rather save myself the trouble and cut him out completely, or shift his role in the book. There are only a few cases where I've appreciated his role in the romance. But considering the amount of times I've run across him recently, I have a feeling he's here to stay.
This boy is everywhere! Stories I've read recently featuring this concept:
Magnolia, On the Fence, Scarlet, Faking Normal, The Last Best Kiss, Rites of Passage
What do you think of the Decoy boy?
Love him, loathe him, indifferent? Is he a necessary evil?
Or should we rid the world of him? Thoughts?
Jen Ryland/YA Romantics May 12, 2014 at 10:06 AM
I like to think I can usually spot decoy guys. (I always thought of Jacob in Twilight as a total decoy.) Not crazy about "make him jealous" plots using decoys but I do like the idea of decoy who play an important role in the story...
Jen @ YA Romantics
yaescapefromreality May 12, 2014 at 10:57 AM
I figure that there's got to be some sort of obstacle that keeps the MC and her true love apart, and decoy boy is probably the lesser of the evils (although in dystopian, fantasy, and paranormal novels there's usually the overall evil that can take care of that. I think that's why you see them more in contemporary, but maybe I'm wrong about that). I don't mind decoy boy because the MC isn't usually waffling and sometimes the guy needs to be jealous and honestly, if not for decoy boy, it may be too easy and then it would just be boring (and maybe 100 pages shorter). And yes, I agree, I like when decoy boy plays a larger role, like Blake (oh, how I hated that guy). Great post! ~Pam
Mary @ BookSwarm May 12, 2014 at 11:16 AM
I usually feel sorry for the decoy boy (or girl). They're never gonna get that particular person so they may as well just give it up right now. I also get frustrated with the decoy, especially when they're used as filler. If your book doesn't have enough tension, find another way. Please. I'm begging here.
Monique Morris May 12, 2014 at 2:41 PM
I don't mind the decoy boy or girl, but I kind of feel a little bit bad for them. I prefer the decoy more than a straight-up intense love triangle. I would rather the decoy be evil so I don't have to feel bad for them, Haha! I know that's a cop-out, but I can't help myself. I want everyone to be happy...except the villains! Plus, in my defense, sometimes the guy or girl really needs a good wake-up call, so thank you to the decoy boys or girls that help put my favorite fictional couples together!
I really liked this post! :D Thank you for this discussion!
Danielle Cox May 12, 2014 at 6:33 PM
I think I get more annoyed than anything. It's easy to spot when they're decoys (as opposed to being part of a love triangle), so I try not to stress *too* much about them. I prefer if it doesn't take too long for them to be nixed, and that it's obvious the MC isn't really into him/her (pls, no kissing!). The Lux series (book 2 only) and The Distance Between Us came easily to mind - while I could get through them, I would probably given both books even higher ratings had they not been present at all. It's just not my favorite way to bring tension to the romance (unless the "decoy boy" and the girl don't even like each other, but the love interest gets worried/jealous... that's not too bad, because then her heart isn't torn in any way... it's all in the love interest's head).
To be honest i can usually stomach the whole "decoy boy" thing since its more realistic than a love triangle. I like to think i can spot them pretty well, usually and like the idea of them eventually playing an important role LATER on in the book/series. It just justifies their existance more than having them simply be a "decoy boy/girl" if that makes any sense...i don't know. Maybe i'm just rambling... LOL
Lily @ Lilysbookblog
Keertana May 12, 2014 at 7:31 PM
I absolutely hate The Decoy Boy when he's either used as a filler or as a potential love triangle interest who, let's be real, isn't a true contender at all, much like Gale from THG. I've found that the jealousy Decoy Boy gets used more in Adult Romances, which I don't mind if written well. (Sadly, that's not always the case and I become disappointed with quite a few romance which take this turn as they simply use and discard The Decoy Boy instead of treating him as a person.) I do, however, think it works really well in YA Contemporary for situations such as Faking Normal, Magnolia, and On the Fence. I find I enjoy the tension built and, what's more, I relish the self-growth that stems from the presence of The Decoy Boy. It's important for girls to identify what they want in a guy instead of merely settling or transforming themselves to cater to his wants/needs, so The Decoy Boy can be a surprisingly feminist technique when employed well. Even in Cruel Beauty, I didn't mind TDB too much but, admittedly, I enjoy the straight-forward romances between two individuals the best, like Stiefvater's Puck and Sean or Grace and Sam. It allows so much exploration of two characters on a different level than when TDB is introduced. Anyway, love this term Lauren -- I'll be using it all the time now! -- and adore the post! :)
The Bookish Manicurist May 12, 2014 at 9:31 PM
I don't mind him when it's obvious, unless like you say, the female MC takes forever to realise that she doesn't really like him. I do get why authors use him, but it's better when he has more purpose than just being the guy-with-no-chance!
Mands @ The Bookish Manicurist
Amanda May 12, 2014 at 10:18 PM
I love these discussions, Lauren! You're constantly introducing me to new vocabulary and concepts related to romance/love triangles that I've never even heard of before, much less have thought about in depth. I think I'd be a little more accepting of this plot device than a full-blown love triangle simply because this does sound much more plausible an occurrence in real life. Although, I can't say for sure as I haven't read any of those books you've mentioned above! I guess I'll have to read one (or more) and then reflect back on this topic.
fakesteph May 13, 2014 at 12:25 AM
Decoys never really bothered me, but it always depends on the story. When a character uses a decoy to try to convince themselves they aren't in love with the one I like it, it feels realistic to me. Then again,I don't hate love triangles in general.
Carina Olsen May 13, 2014 at 8:19 AM
Rid the world of the Decoy Boy! I do not approve. Anything that reminds of a love triangle.. no thank you, lol :) I just want the girl and the boy to only want each other. No other stupid person involved, hih ;p Anyway. Amazing post sweetie. <3 :) Thank you for sharing!
Jenny May 13, 2014 at 9:32 AM
Not a fan of the decoy boy Lauren! Like you, I'd rather just see his role shifted so he's not a romantic player at all, or is only a romantic player in his own mind. I'm thinking of Cole in Everneath. He was never a true threat, it was always Jack for Nikki, but Cole loved her in his own way and I really enjoyed the role he played. I think relationships are tricky enough between two people, especially at a young age, there's no need for the additional drama of a third person:)
In all honesty, I'm not a fan of any kind of "third person" in a love triangle, so I don't care much for the decoy boy either. It seems to be that most often the decoy guy is often "mistreated" in a way and everyone knows that he isn't going to end up with the girl. Plus, I hate it when the girl takes forever to realize that decoy boy isn't for her. I'm with Jenny here. Why include a third person if relationships are already complicated? There are more interesting ways to create drama!
Great post, Lauren.
Kel May 13, 2014 at 9:40 PM
I agree: decoy boys are less repugnant than love triangles, but still generally not a good practice.
starryeyedjen May 14, 2014 at 11:28 AM
I usually spot the decoy boy and fall for that character anyway. Even when I know it will never be. I don't mind them, so long as it's pretty obvious what their purpose is, and it's not really to form a full-on triangle. But even then I can appreciate his role, as long as it's done right. I'm so wishy-washy, huh? :P
Alexa S. May 16, 2014 at 3:37 PM
Excellent observation! I really do think the "decoy boy"/"decoy girl" exists in many stories, but I think my most recent read with it was actually the Lux series. I did not like Blake (at all), and I totally knew it would never happen between him + Katy. He was just a convenient decoy while she tried to deal with her feelings about Daemon! I do think decoys are better than actual love interests though, as there's less investment involved (for the character and for the reader).
Jennifer @ The Bawdy Book Blog May 18, 2014 at 1:55 PM
I'm crazy....I actually prefer triangles over decoys. Decoys don't serve much of a purpose to me, but I get liking two people at the same time.
A decoy won't make me hate a book, per se, but....yeah. Still annoying.
Jennifer @ The Bawdy Book Blog
I love this post! I never thought about this before, but boy, you've got me thinking about this. Personally, having a "decoy boy" or "decoy girl" in books might annoy me, but it does happen in real life. You know, never realizing you really like your best friend, who is always there for you, because you're busy being infatuated over some other guy until you realize the truth? So even though "decoy boys" and "decoy girls" will annoy me in books, I'll forgive it happening in the book since it does happen in real life.
BEA Here I Come!
The House of Hades by Rick Riordan or why I love P...
Series Review: Reboot and Rebel by Amy Tintera
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This One Summer Blog Tour + Giveaway
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Hobbs Municipal Special Service
1515 E Sanger St
Hobbs NM 88240
The Broadmoor third-grader is part of a 15-member class of gifted students receiving 90 minutes of private instruction each week at Will Rogers Elementary School. The fact that geniuses played the violin is worthy of note, said Southwest Symphony executive director, Geni Cavanaugh. Not only is music soothing, it also stimulates brain pathways that science has proven can lead to an increase in mental ability, particularly in logic subjects such as math. "There's no doubt that it develops part of the brain when you're playing an instrument, " Margaret Whitley, the students' teacher, agreed. "You're using both sides of your brain." Stine didn't know about all that as she struggled to hold a bow correctly and draw it across the neck of her child-sized violin during the first class on Wednesday morning. All she knew was that "the violin looks really easy to play, but it's really hard." Still, Stine and the rest of her class had the same response when polled about that first lesson. "I think it's fun, " Mills third grader Derek Warner said. "I'd like to take it home to show my mom." All in good time, said Yau Sun Wong, the instructor who introduced the basics of resin and responsibility to the students on Wednesday, and then explained they will be able to take the instruments home when they demonstrate a facility with both. Over the next three months, Wong, a New Mexico Junior College music instructor, will teach class twice a week as he prepares the students for a guest performance at the NMJC Band concert on Dec. 6. By the time the semester is complete, the students will be able to perform classics such as Jingle Bells and Twinkle Little Star, he promised. But more than those simple tunes, benefactors hope the students will have developed an appreciation of music while also picking up the side benefit of increased hand-to-eye coordination and intelligence that studies show come with musical exposure at a young age. "Music taps into emotion, " Cavanaugh said. "A lot of times it makes you feel good, perks you up. Or, if you want to relax, you'll listen. Music is an inspiration." Southwest Symphony sponsored violin summer camps in the past but instruction was sporadic because no instructor lived in the community. "The problem was finding a local teacher, " Joyce Walker, Southwest Symphony governing committee member, explained. "We had plenty of interest in the past but nobody local to teach classes." That changed when Wong, who has experience teaching school children in Florida, accepted a job at NMJC. While there is a difference between instructing college students and third graders, Wong said both share a common ingredient: "Patience is key, " he said. This semester's lessons are a pilot program and began with the gifted program because it was a small group, according to Tyson Ledgerwood, elementary fine arts coordinator for Hobbs Municipal Schools. The instruction supplements vocal music instruction that occurs in grades K-6 and will enhance a band program that begins in sixth grade. "This is a great opportunity for our students, " Ledgerwod said. Above and beyond the weekly instruction, Cavanaugh hopes that students will develop a broad interest in music and be inspired to attend Southwest Symphony performances (admission is free for children). Even better would be having their parents tag along for the musical fun. "This is a passion for us, " Cavanaugh said. "We want to better the quality of life here in Hobbs. That's our niche. It's our heart." Parents like Madelyn Stine's mother, Misty, are catching the passion. "I think music is a very important part of education and life and I think (the violin lessons) will help to make her more well rounded, " Stine said. "I think this is a good opportunity and will definitely help her to develop her artistic ability."
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Volver a:La Liga
En/football/real-madrid
The rules of Dupont: France's fitness coach now at Real Madrid's disposal
Real Madrid A World Cup winner who signed for Los Blancos
Miguel Ángel Lara
Adapted by Panos Kostopoulos
Real Madrid's 2018/19 season was plagued by injuries and Zinedine Zidane sought to find a solution to the team's issue by signing ex-France fitness coach Gregory Dupont.
The 47-year-old was part of Didier Deschamps' coaching staff at Les Blues, and helped the team win the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Dupont also worked at Lille for eight years between 2009 and 2017, which coincided with Eden Hazard's time at the club.
His research on football calendar and injuries
The Frenchman collaborates with UEFA, aiming to reduce the number of injuries in football. His studies revealed that the risk of picking up a knock is multiplied by six when games are played less than 72 hours apart.
Prefers cold baths to cryotherapy rooms
Dupont believes that a bath in cold water assists the player's recovery more than the modern technology of the cryotherapy rooms.
Explains his work to the players
He seeks to communicate with the players to offer them a thorough explanation as to why pre-season preparations are important in top flight football.
Nutrition is essential
He adjusts the players' diet depending on the training sessions they have to follow each day and his line of work is based on studies initiated by Jonas Bergstrom in 1967.
Analysis during the game
The Frenchman receives and breaks down information taken through new technological tools throughout the game to have the ability to intervene when needed.
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JEOL ReaLABS feature on Microtrace
Scientific instrument maker JEOL recently featured Microtrace in the “REALabs” section of their website. REALab stories provide a spotlight on researcher’s work using JEOL electron microscopes and how their scientific advances are impacting their field.
The article highlights the wide-range and diversity of projects that Microtrace has contributed to: from high-profile cases, such as the Steven Avery murder trial, to Renaissance paintings and more modern collectibles including a Joe DiMaggio baseball bat. In particular, it focuses on Microtrace’s unique applications of Field-Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (JEOL JSM 7100 FT FE-SEM) and Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (EDS) to the unusual problems we routinely encounter.
“Given the high-profile forensics cases handled by Microtrace, the company’s father-son team of Skip and Chris Palenik have achieved a kind of celebrity status. But more than accolades, they relish the challenges sent their way and the opportunity to summon their vast expertise to let science determine the answers to the questions posed. These questions sometimes put them in the public eye. In the fall of 2018, the second season of the popular Netflix documentary, “Making a Murderer,” aired on television, showing Chris using a JEOL Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope. In episode 7, he examined key evidence that might help the defense’s case for a mistrial. Could the lead bullet fragment found in the garage of the defendant have passed through the skull of the victim, and were the particles embedded in the bullet fragment actually bone? After six months of waiting for a court order to release it specifically for this purpose, the lawyer watched as the embedded particles in the bullet fragment were carefully examined in situ at Microtrace’s lab in Elgin, Illinois.
“Spoiler alert! Using SEM imaging and Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) analysis, Chris found the particles to be wood, not bone, supporting the defense’s position that this was not the bullet that had killed the victim. Chris says he isn’t really sure what the outcome will be in the case, he just gave his findings with the neutrality and careful consideration for which the lab is known. “We really work hard to provide answers that actually help somebody move an investigation along,” says Chris.”
We encourage you to read the whole article here.
JEOL
Since 1949, JEOL has been developing instruments used to advance scientific research and technology. JEOL has 60 years of expertise in the field of electron microscopy, more than 50 years in mass spectrometry and NMR spectrometry, and more than 40 years of e-beam lithography leadership.
JEOL USA, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of JEOL Ltd. Japan, was incorporated in the United States in 1962. The primary business of JEOL USA is sales of new instruments and peripherals and support of a vast installed base of instruments throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and South America.
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Mitchell Spearrin receives NSF CAREER Award for “Compressive Laser Absorption Spectroscopy for Supercritical Combustion Studies”
MAE Assistant Professor Mitchell Spearrin received an NSF CAREER Award for “Compressive Laser Absorption Spectroscopy for Supercritical Combustion Studies.” The grant is for five years and $549,892.
The next generation of ultra-clean, efficient combustion engines are expected to operate at much higher pressures than today’s engines. Unfortunately, combustion physics and chemistry are poorly understood at these high pressures, which has slowed the advancement of cleaner, more fuel-efficient engines (including automotive, diesel, jet, and rocket engines). Therefore, the overarching goal of this project is to better understand combustion at extreme pressures. A new laser diagnostic method is used to investigate fundamental chemistry and radiative properties of combustion at extreme pressures, targeting specific fuels and operating conditions relevant to current and future engine development. Successful completion of the project will yield (1) a novel, broadly-applicable diagnostic tool that will accelerate basic combustion research in a critically important, but largely unexplored high-pressure domain, and (2) new insights into the fundamental chemistry of ignition and pollutant formation at these conditions. Complementary educational activities will leverage modern media technologies to test the integration of laboratory research in the classroom and to engage broader groups outside the university in current scientific and engineering challenges related to energy and combustion.
A challenge and research focal point of this project is combustion at supercritical thermodynamic conditions, where the reacting fluid is neither liquid or gas and exhibits non-ideal behavior that is difficult to model. To study non-equilibrium processes in this regime, an experimental method is introduced that adapts advanced theories of signal compression to the wavelength domain in order to conduct laser absorption-based measurements of species and temperature at supercritical pressures. The proposed method can be used to perform broad spectral surveys of the mid- to far-infrared domain or ultra-fast sensing in a narrower wavelength range. Accordingly, this project involves a re-examination of the approaches to fundamental high-temperature spectroscopy studies and in situ species measurements in shock tubes, and enables new exploratory approaches that leverage the strengths of the novel measurement technique. It is envisioned that the compressive sensing method, when synergistically combined with a high-pressure, high repetition-rate shock tube, will (1) extend and/or allow the building of new spectroscopic databases to include extreme pressures, and (2) enable new combustion chemistry studies that isolate high-pressure reaction kinetics in the supercritical regime. A research plan is set forth to test variations of the compressive sensing technique, investigate spectroscopic properties of supercritical fluids, and examine chemical kinetics of high-pressure ignition and soot formation.
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UCLA establishes fund for family of slain faculty member William Klug: Click on story to donate now
CLICK HERE to support The Klug Family Support Fund
UCLA has established a fund to support the family of Professor William S. Klug, 39, who was slain in his office at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science on June 1.
Click here to make a contribution to The Klug Family Support Fund for Professor Klug’s wife, Mary Elise, and their two children, 7 and 9.
Donations to The Klug Family Support Fund will go directly to Professor Klug’s immediate family.
“Over the past few days, we have heard from countless faculty, students, staff and members of the community wanting to do something for the Klug family, to show their tremendous admiration and respect for a faculty member who inspired and was loved by so many,” Chancellor Gene Block said. “We hope this effort provides support and comfort to Professor Klug’s family at this very difficult time.”
“Bill Klug was revered by his UCLA Engineering colleagues and by students, and his career was on a very bright trajectory,” said UCLA Engineering Dean Jayathi Murthy. “Our loss is very significant, but his family’s loss is infinitely greater. We want to do everything we can to honor Bill’s life and legacy.”
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The Laws of Hammurabi Essay example
Submitted By jazzyw08
Rabbi J. H. Hertz, in his commentary on the Torah (second edition, p. 405) lists some basic differences between Hammurabi's civilization and laws on the one hand and the Torah's on the other. Perhaps most important is that there are no Babylonian loan-words in the Torah. The legal section has no Babylonian terminology at all. This alone is a key indicator that it is not based on Babylonian laws because, as a general rule, a higher culture forces its language on a primitive people that adopts its culture. If the Torah's laws were based on Hammurabi's, one would expect some of is legal terminology to be adopted as well.
Also, it cannot be minimized that the Babylonian and Jewish societies were extremely different. The Babylonians were industrialized and urbanized; they lived in cities and conducted international commerce. The Jews, however, were nomadic, rural, and primitive. Were they to adopt the laws of a culture that was so different, the laws would have no relevance to their daily lives.
The other differences that Rabbi Hertz lists can be analyzed further to uncover their underlying themes. By doing this, we can understand more than just the details of the laws. We can understand the reasons for the laws. This, Professor Moshe Greenberg has shown, demonstrates the stark differences between these legal codes (Yehezkel Kaufman Jubilee Volume, pp. 5-28). The following is based on Professor Greenberg's analysis.
The main difference between the two law systems can be found in the introductions and side comments of the codes. Hammurabi repeatedly refers to his code as "my words which I have inscribed on my monument." They are his words. In the Babylonian theology, the king was appointed by the gods to establish justice. The king was the source of the law.
In the Bible, this is not the case. G-d is the source of the laws. They are referred to as "words of G-d" and never of man. Indeed, violation of the law is seen as a religious sin. "He who acts wilfully [against the law] whether he belongs to the native-born…
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By Miko Peled
LONDON — “I came here hoping to see if the other side had any new arguments, any fresh things to say, but what I found out [is] that this gentleman has trotted out every single cliche the Zionists have in their bag and it is very depressing that this is all you have got.”
This short statement was made by Dr. Ghada Karmi, a Palestinian professor emeritus at Exeter University, at the end of a ninety-minute debate between myself and a member of a Zionist lobby group called the NW Friends of Israel. Here is an excerpt from that debate.
Zionist Hasbara oppose justice, oppose peace.
Posted by Miko Peled on Monday, December 17, 2018
Why debate?
When Israel’s ambassador to the U.K., Mark Regev, recently went on a speaking tour of U.K. universities, he was received with protests that made it clear he was not welcome. In some cases, university entrances were actually blocked by students protesting. The universities themselves, however, had no issues with having the ambassador visit their campuses and speak to students. In other words, generally speaking, Israel and its representatives are not unwelcome and the state of Israel and Zionist spokespersons are generally welcome everywhere.
Therein lies the problem. Whereas representatives of groups and organizations that preach racism and exercise violence — neo-Nazis, skinheads, proponents of apartheid, or any other supremacist group — would be less than welcome and it is not likely they would be allowed a platform, Zionism and the state of Israel are still viewed as legitimate and their point of view is still permitted a platform in academic institutions, in the media, and elsewhere.
Although it is commonly thought by people who support the causes of justice and freedom in Palestine that we must boycott representatives of Israel and Zionism, if we wish to delegitimize Zionism and its agents, exposing them through debate in a public forum may in fact be a useful approach. The objective must be to dispel the myth that was promoted by the 1960 movie Exodus, which portrays Zionism and Israel as heroic and even romantic, and clearly demonstrate that Zionism is in fact an ideology that is racist, violent and has been destroying Palestine for over seven decades. That Israel, which was founded on Zionist ideology has been for seven decades engaging in a well-planned campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide and has been imposing an apartheid regime on the indigenous people of Palestine.
It may well be that a face-to-face debate makes the difference between the two sides more evident. In what may seem to be a paradox, the face-to-face encounter demonstrates that there is no room for dialogue or normalization and that there is no way to build a bridge between a racist, settler-colonial ideology that calls for the removal of a native people from their land, and the call for freedom, justice and equality.
The arguments that support Zionism and seek to legitimize the state of Israel seem to rely heavily on talking points that are used over and over and which portray the oppressed and occupied people of Palestine as untrustworthy villains. It is followed by examples that demonstrate how incapable Palestinians are of governing themselves and that they are dedicated to murdering Jews. These are very obvious, inaccurate, broad-stroke, racist characterizations of an entire people and they are repeated at every opportunity. “Look at the Palestinians,” they say, and they point to the chaos in which they live, leaving out the root cause of the chaos, which is the state of Israel having destroyed their country.
The arguments that point out the racist nature of Zionism and Israel can be drawn from the very creation of the Zionist state and its definition as a Jewish state established on the ashes of Palestine. The fact is that Israel was able to establish itself only after an extensive campaign of ethnic cleansing — and the laws passed by the Israeli Knesset that made it impossible for the refugees to return and encouraged Jews from around the world to come and take their place.
There is a history now, which is more than seven decades long, that shows beyond any doubt that the state of Israel is a racist settler-colonial endeavor and that it resorts to violence at every opportunity, even though Palestinians have never had a military force, never had as much as a tank or a warplane. Israel has a history of violating international law on many levels, perhaps the most obvious being the abuses of Palestinian human rights. All of this is easy to demonstrate when placed face to face with the Zionists and their arguments.
While no dialogue and no normalization is acceptable with people who hold or represent a racist ideology, and while no platform should be provided to them, when faced with a well-oiled machine of public relations as is the case with Zionism, a public forum may well be the right place to expose them. A public forum can be an opportunity to show that the question of Palestine is about a choice between racism and those who stand in opposition to racism. It is between violence and those who stand in opposition to violence. And it is about justice and those who stand in opposition to justice.
The old bag of tricks that was brought by agents of the Zionist propaganda machine, when set against the arguments for justice, freedom and equality will fail every time. Repeating this failure may well be how we delegitimize Israel and the ideology behind it, Zionism.
Top Photo | A man wearing a yarmulke who said he was Jewish, left, confronts demonstrators protesting the U.S. moving its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, outside the Israeli consulate in Los Angeles, May 14, 2018. Reed Saxon | AP
Miko Peled is an author and human rights activist born in Jerusalem. He is the author of “The General’s Son. Journey of an Israeli in Palestine,” and “Injustice, the Story of the Holy Land Foundation Five.”
Miko Peled
zionists
The Book of Palestine: National Liberation vs Endless Negotiations
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Mets' Alonso, Gimenez collect first homers in AFL '18
By Drake Dunaway
MESA, Ariz. -- After a torrid season in the Minors, Peter Alonso, the Mets' No. 2 prospect and No. 58 overall, is off to a hot start in the Arizona Fall League.2018 Arizona Fall League rostersThe first baseman followed up a 2-for-4, two-RBI game on opening night with another impressive
MESA, Ariz. -- After a torrid season in the Minors, Peter Alonso, the Mets' No. 2 prospect and No. 58 overall, is off to a hot start in the Arizona Fall League.
2018 Arizona Fall League rosters
The first baseman followed up a 2-for-4, two-RBI game on opening night with another impressive performance Wednesday night when his Scottsdale Scorpions defeated the Mesa Solar Sox, 10-3.
The game was highlighted by Alonso's deep two-run blast to left field in the sixth inning that gave his team a 9-to-1 lead. Alonso finished the game 3-for-4 with a double, a home run, two RBIs and a walk. He also scored three runs and is now batting .625 through the first two Fall League games. His defensive ability was evident in a diving stop on a sharply hit grounder in the first inning.
• Gameday
"I'm just trying to play the best baseball I can," Alonso said.
Alonso played collegiately at the University of Florida and was drafted in the second round by the Mets in 2016. Last season, splitting time between Double-A Binghampton and Triple-A Las Vegas, he batted .285 with 36 home runs and 119 RBIs.
The 6-foot-3 first baseman is ready to get his shot in the Majors. A shot that is likely to come next season.
"It's what every baseball player dreams of. I'm working hard every day and I can't wait for that opportunity," Alonso said.
Alonso's fellow Scottsdale Scorpion and top Mets prospect is 20-year-old shortstop Andres Gimenez.
Gimenez, who ranks No. 55 overall, made his Fall League debut Wednesday against the Solar Sox and homered to right field in his first at-bat. His only hit of the night, Gimenez finished the game 1-for-4 with a walk.
With many of baseball's top prospects in Arizona, the Fall League provides a glimpse into what could be the future of the Mets' infield for years to come.
"This is a cool moment, not just getting to play with [Gimenez], but I mean guys that I've played with and against throughout my journey," said Alonso. "It's really cool that all of us are here. It's kind of like a six-week-long All-Star Game. I'm really enjoying myself."
Drake Dunaway is a senior journalism student at Arizona State University. This story is part of a partnership between MLB.com and ASU's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
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Home Perspectives The Greatest Show on Earth
To sum up the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in one word: kitsch.
To sum up the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in two words: wonderful kitsch.
HONEST DISCLOSURE: I am an Anglophile.
At the age of 15 I started working for an Oxford-educated lawyer. At the office only English was spoken. So I had to learn it, and immediately fell hopelessly in love with the English language and British culture in general.
Some may wonder at this, since at the same time I joined a terrorist organization whose aim was to fight the British and drive them out of Palestine.
Soon after my 15th birthday I faced the admission panel of the Irgun. I was asked if I hated the British. Facing the beam of a powerful projector, I answered: no. Sensing the consternation on the other side of the blinding light, I added that I wanted to liberate our country, and did not need to hate the British to do that.
Actually, I think that most Irgun fighters felt like that. The nominal Commander in Chief, Vladimir (Ze’ev) Jabotinsky, was an ardent anglophile and once wrote that the Englishman in the colonies was a brutal oppressor, but that the Englishman at home was a decent and likeable fellow. When Great Britain declared war on Nazi Germany, Jabotinsky ordered the immediate cessation of all Irgun actions. The Irgun’s military commander, David Raziel, was killed by a Nazi bomb while assisting the British in Iraq.
His successor, Menachem Begin, came to Palestine with the Polish exile army, in which he served as a Polish-English interpreter. In this capacity he was often in contact with the British authorities. He once told me how he brought documents to British officers in the King David hotel, the building which he later –” as Irgun commander – ordered to be bombed. Years later, the Queen graciously received him as Prime Minister of Israel.
Altogether, we had the feeling that we were lucky to be fighting the British, and not, say, a French or American (not to mention Israeli) occupation regime.
AFTER THIS confession, another one: I am not a sports enthusiast. Actually, I have no sense for sport at all.
Even as a child, I was the worst in gymnastics class. A good book always attracted me more than an exciting football game. My father treated sport as “goyim-naches” – Pleasure for Goyim. (Naches in Yiddish is derived from the Hebrew word Nakhat, pleasure or satisfaction.
BUT BACK to the Olympics. In the summer of their discontent, the British produced something unique: original, exciting, surprising, moving, humorous. I laughed when Her Majesty jumped out of the helicopter, I almost shed a tear when the handicapped children sang “God Save The Queen”.
But let us go beyond the pomp and circumstance. Do the Olympic games have a deeper significance? I think they do.
Konrad Lorenz, the Austrian professor who researched the behavior of animals as a basis for understanding human behavior, asserted that sports are a substitute for war.
Nature has equipped humans with aggressive instincts. They were an instrument for survival. When resources on earth were scarce, humans, like other animals, had to fight off intruders in order to stay alive.
This aggressiveness is so deeply imbedded in our biological heritage that it is quite useless to try to eliminate it. Instead, Lorenz thought, we must find harmless outlets for it. Sport is one answer.
And indeed, looking at the various manifestations of this human pastime, one cannot but notice the similarities with war. National flags are carried around by victory-crazy crowds. The defeated feel and behave like armies after a lost battle.
In ancient times, wars were often settled by duels. Each army would send forward a champion, and mortal combat between the two would decide the issue. Such was the legendary fight between David and Goliath. In today’s sports, a single champion often fights for his nation in the tennis court, the judo ring or the Olympic pool.
A national football (soccer) team certainly goes into battle for the honor of its country, borne on waves of patriotism. Each player is profoundly conscious of the huge responsibility resting on his shoulders (or in his feet). A beaten team often looks like the pitiful remnants of Napoleon’s Grand Army retreating from Russia.
In Europe, where national sovereignty is gradually losing its meaning, football has taken its place. When you see a crowd marching through the streets of any European city, shouting and waving the national flag, intoxicated with national pride (and alcohol), you know that an “important” match is taking place.
The much-condemned English football hooligans (named after a riotous Irish family in London) are not so far removed from the spirit of the game. Patriotism, war and violence all grow on the same tree.
For the Israeli team, the consciousness of National Duty is most pronounced. Israel’s sportsmen and sportswomen do not win for themselves, they win “for the Jewish People”. Every (scarce) victory is a national victory, every (alas, so frequent) defeat is a defeat for Israel. Thus it is represented in our media, thus the winners and losers themselves see it.
IN A WAY, sport is not only a substitute for war, but also for religion.
There is a religious fervor to sports. Enough to look at the faces of the football players before the beginning of a match, devoutly singing the national anthem, in order to become conscious of the sacredness of the occasion – though a British player may come from Jamaica and a French one from Algeria.
Even in the understated British opening ceremony, the religious undertones were obvious. The Torch, the Flag, the High Priests. Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war. Also Muslim soldiers. Also Jewish soldiers, and so on.
In Israel, Jewish sportsmen and sportswomen often invoke the Almighty in their matches. They clutch amulets blessed by Kabbalist rabbis, pray and ask for divine favor. (Which must be a headache for the Divine Referee when Jews play Jews.)
I suppose that in ancient Greece, where it all began, players invoked the various Gods and Goddesses, calling for the best God to win. In the wide-flung Byzantine Empire, two colors battled each other for generations.
Sport, as represented by the Olympic games, is now a world-wide cult, less harmful than most, without the mumbo jumbo of some, uniting rather than dividing. Altogether a good thing.
THE UNITING factor is, perhaps, the most outstanding characteristic of this event.
Hundreds of millions, perhaps a billion human beings watched it around the globe, each represented by his (or her) national champions.
That is more than a curiosity. Hopefully, it is a picture of the future.
Watching the entrance of the delegations was an uplifting experience. Almost all the nations on earth were represented, following each other in quick succession, waving their colorful flags. During the following days they competed with each other, met each other, respecting each other, all in a spirit of comradeship. Sportsmen and women from one nation admired the achievements of those from others, races mingled, prejudices evaporated.
It is interesting to compare this international meeting with another place where all the nations meet: the United Nations Organization. In the match between the two, the Olympics win hands down.
Can anyone imagine an Olympic meeting where some nations possess a formal veto and use it against another nation? Can one compare the inbuilt inactivity of the UN with the hyperactivity of the games?
For me, this is the main attraction of the event. I am a strong believer in world governance. I believe that it is an absolute necessity for the survival of the human race and the planet. Climate change, the proliferation of nuclear weapons, the global economy, world-wide communications –” all make global cooperation both necessary and possible.
I am fairly sure that by the end of the 21st century, some sort of global government, based on global democracy, will be in place. The Olympic Games are a good example for such a reality. All the nations are represented, all have equal rights, and, most importantly – all abide by the same rules. In principle, each champion has the same chance of winning a gold medal as anyone else; belonging to this or that big or small nation does not matter.
Wouldn’t it be great if the entire world were organized along the same lines?
FOR AN Israeli, the procession was a sobering experience.
We tend to see ourselves as the center of the world, a power well beyond our modest size. Yet here our delegation was marching, one among many, one of the smaller ones, without the glamor some of the others possess, without a single champion that all mankind recognizes.
A good reason for modesty –” a virtue we cannot usually boast of.
Previous articleThe Primacy of Human Development in the Arab Spring
Next articleHuman Migration – Causes and Effects
Uri Avnery is a journalist, peace activist, former member of the Knesset, and leader of Gush Shalom. He is a regular contributor to Media Monitors Network (MMN).
Washington’s ‘Janjaweed’ Problem
Arab & American Journalists: A Comparison
The Bundeswehr is back to the World Military Stage
Siege of Palestine continues as Zionist Fascists Kill and Plunder
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Report: Avaya negotiating possible buyout
BASKING RIDGE, N.J. – Telecommunications gear maker Avaya is negotiating with private equity and strategic bidders about selling all or part of the company, according to a media report.
The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, said would-be buyers include private equity firms attracted to the $6 billion company’s cash flow and low debt. There’s also interest from network makers Cisco Systems and Nortel Networks.
When contacted by The Associated Press on Monday, Avaya representatives declined to comment on the report, saying it’s company policy not to comment on “speculation and rumors.”
The Basking Ridge-based company went through tough times in 2002, but now appears to be trying to take advantage of a period of high-tech dealmaking.
Avaya has already postponed an analyst day meeting scheduled for May 31, and a new date for that session hasn’t been released, a signal to some analysts that it may be in buyout talks.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Avaya is discussing a leveraged buyout plan with the private equity firm Silver Lake.
Avaya also reportedly discussed a deal with Nortel earlier this month. Momentum slowed on the talks when the two companies couldn’t agree on a price or whether Nortel should pay with cash or stock, but a deal might still happen, people familiar with the situation told The Wall Street Journal.
Cisco, a giant in networking and telecom gear, has avoided buying much-smaller Avaya for years, but may now be interested in Avaya’s private phone switch unit that uses Internet protocol technology. The two companies have been competing in providing telephone switching technologies to businesses using servers for such operations.
One person familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal that Cisco might be interested in buying all of Avaya.
Avaya equipment helps direct voice and data traffic at almost all of the largest corporations in the U.S.
A former division of Lucent Technologies and its predecessor firm AT&T, Avaya also has patents and equipment for transforming traditional phone and data systems into integrated Internet Protocol-based networks.
More technology news and opinion at www.siliconvalley.com
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Robert Cray at the Sage Gateshead in Gateshead, UK
William Riddle
Blues, Concert Reviews, UK
A Saint Confesses His Sins - An Interview with Paul Ridley
The Lows Release Lyric Video For "Wake Up"
Music Videos, Rock, US
Exordium by Oblivious Signal
Cane Hill Drop Live Tracks Ahead of Headline Tour; Live Album Available Now
Artist Feature, Rock, US
Boots & Hearts Music Festival in Barrie Ontario August 10-13th
Country, Music News, US
Zappa plays Zappa in Honor of the 40th Anniversary of “ROXY & ELSEWHERE”
For any Frank Zappa fan, not much could get better than listening to Dweezil Zappa perform Roxy and Elsewhere to a sold out venue. Released in September of 1974, Â Roxy & Elsewhere is a live album performed by Frank Zappa and the Mothers, where most of the songs were recorded live at the Roxy Theatre in Hollywood, California on December 8th, 9th and 10th in ’73 and May 8th & 11th in ’74. The Roxy and Elsewhere album was released September 8th 1974. In honor of the 40th anniversary of this epic live album, Zappa plays Zappa played the the entire classic album in sequence.
With Dweezil on guitar, he along with Sheila Gonzalez (Sax, flute keyboards and vocals), along with Ben Thomas (vocals), Chris Norton (Keyboards), Kurt Morgan (bass), and Ryan Brown (percussion) had the audience hanging on every note.
Looking around the audience, I could see the faces baring emotion and the ages of these faces were from 12 to 70 and are some of the harshest music critics in the industry, musicians and Frank Zappa fans. Â The look of approval had been on each one I had glanced.
If you have experienced an evening with Dweezil and Zappa plays Zappa, good for you… be sure to see this show. If you haven’t, then I highly recommend getting to this event while you can. This is an experience for any musician or music aficionado to attend, be it a Zappa fan or not.
Here are some photos from the January 31st event at the ‘not a bad seat in the house’ Roseland Theater in Portland Oregon.
Dweezil ZappaFrank Zappa and the MothersOregonportlandRoseland TheaterRoxy and ElsewhereZappa plays Zappa
Interview: Going “Cowless” with Richie Onori
Tear Out the Heart at Fubar in St. Louis, MO on 01-Feb-2014
Born and raised in South Detroit, Michigan, William Riddle has been documenting national and local musicians across the United States through the lens. With a passion for the arts, he has produced contributions in support of musicians, artists and local art galleries across the country. William is currently residing in the Pacific North West bringing his audience the best captured moments in music.
Zappa Plays Zappa at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor, MI on 19-Feb-2014
Mushroomhead at The Hawthorne Theater in Portland, OR on 10-Dec-2015
Charla Stephenson
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Jane Maidment & Liz Beddoe (editors) (1)
Social Policy for Social Work and Human Services in Aotearoa New Zealand
Author: Jane Maidment & Liz Beddoe (editors) Publisher: Canterbury University Press
Social policy reflects the dominant social, economic and political discourses of a nation’s government and reveals how each country addresses the needs and we...
Social policy reflects the dominant social, economic and political discourses of a nation’s government and reveals how each country addresses the needs and wellbeing of its population. For practitioners in social work and human services, questions of human rights, citizenship, social justice and equity are ever-present in their day-to-day work with clients of all ages. As such, social policy plays a significant role in shaping the response to need in any community or population, through the provision of financial, physical or legislative protections or resources. The extent to which social policy offers security for the most vulnerable, while addressing economic and social inequality, signals the moral and ethical compass of those who govern. There are ways for practitioners and other advocates to influence, and resist where necessary, the direction of policy through community development, strategic change, research and social action. This volume provides examples of such initiatives and examines the making and shaping of contemporary social policy in Aotearoa New Zealand. The text covers a broad range of social policy topics from a critical perspective including fields of practice, current debates and case-study examples of social-change initiatives. Students, lecturers, researchers and people interested in New Zealand society in general will find a critical appraisal of current social policy within these pages.
Tags: January / February 2016 Health & Wellbeing New Zealand
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Recall Alert
Important News on Consumer Products That Can Keep You Safe
Pillsbury Best Flour Recalled in 10 States Over E. Coli Concerns
No illnesses have been reported in this particular case, but the CDC has tied it to a broader flour-linked outbreak blamed for 17 illnesses in eight states
Pillsbury Best Flour Recalled Over E. Coli Concerns
http://www.nbcboston.com/news/national-international/Pillsbury-Recalls-Flour-Because-of-Possible-E-Coli-511404602.html
The affected flour was sold in 10 states, including New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. (Published Monday, June 17, 2019)
Thousands of cases of Pillsbury Best flour are being recalled in 10 states, including New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, because of the possible presence of E. coli, the FDA announced.
Though no illnesses have been reported in this particular case, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has tied it to a broader flour-linked outbreak blamed for more than a dozen illnesses mainly in East Coast states.
Hometown Food Company, in cooperation with ADM Milling Co., initiated the voluntary recall of two specific lot codes of its Pillsbury Best 5 lb. Bread Flour due to a potential presence of the pathogenic.
The product was manufactured by ADM Milling Co., at the company’s mill in Buffalo, New York.
About 4,620 eight-count cases of impacted Pillsbury Best 5 lb. Bread Flour were distributed to a retailers and distributors across 10 states: Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
The affected products have the following UPC codes, lot codes and best-if-used-by dates:
Pillsbury Best Bread Flour: UPC Item Code: 0 5150020031 5; Lot Code: 8 342; Use-By Date: JUN 08 2020
The FDA says there have been no reports of any illnesses associated with these particular lots, and that the recall was issued out of an abundance of caution. It's actually part of a broader flour recall -- certain kinds of King Arthur and ALDI Baker's Corner flour were also pulled from shelves -- that the CDC says have sickened at least 17 people in eight states: New York (5), New Jersey (1), Connecticut (1), California (1), Missouri (1), Ohio (5), Pennsylvania (2), and Rhode Island (1). Three hospitalizations have been reported overall, the CDC said. Get more details on the broader recall here.
The severity of E. coli infections varies among individuals. Symptoms include severe stomach cramps, often bloody diarrhea and vomiting. People usually develop symptoms and get sick 3-4 days after ingesting the germ, and most recover within a week. In some cases, individuals may develop a serious illness called hemolytic uremic syndrome which can result in kidney failure, stroke, and even death. Young children, elderly individuals, pregnant women and those with compromised immune systems are more susceptible to foodborne illness.
If you have the affected product in your home or business, do not consume it. Please discard it immediately or return it to the retail location it was purchased from for a refund.
The FDA advises that if you feel ill or are concerned about illness, contact your physician.
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Twitter Cyberstalking Case Dismissed, a Free Speech Win
Judge: Offensive, uncomfortable tweets are protected by the First Amendment.
By Mike Anderson
Published Dec 17, 2011 at 10:37 AM | Updated at 4:35 PM PST on Dec 17, 2011
A California man wrote 8,000 "uncomfortable" tweets to a Buddhist leader in Maryland.
In a move that may influence future Internet law and online freedom of expression, a federal judge dismissed a criminal cyberstalking case involving Twitter this week.
William Lawrence Cassidy, a California man, was accused of cyberstalking Alyce Zeoli, a Buddhist leader based in Maryland. The government said Cassidy wrote 8,000 tweets about Zeoli, causing "substantial emotional distress."
Zeoli even feared for her life because most of Cassidy's tweets went something like this: "Do the world a favor and go kill yourself. P.S. Have a nice day," the New York Times reported.
But Judge Roger W. Titus dismissed the case Thursday, saying that unlike a telephone call or a letter, Twitter is more like a public bulletin board that can be ignored. Users have the option to filter messages in their feed.
"...The government’s indictment here is directed squarely at protected speech: anonymous, uncomfortable Internet speech addressing religious matters," Titus wrote in his 27-page order.
The San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation supported the decision to dismiss Cassidy's case. Zeoli's attorney said she was "appalled and frightened by the judge’s ruling."
Under the Tibetan Buddhist religious tradition, Zeoli is considered a reincarnated master and has more than 39,000 Twitter followers under her username @JALpalyul. Cassidy posted his comments under many different usernames.
Cassidy has a record of arson, assault and domestic violence, the Times reported. And in 1993, he was convicted of carrying a "dangerous weapon" onto a plane.
Cassidy's attorneys are working to get him released from jail in Maryland. It's unclear whether the government will appeal the judge's decision.
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In the Land Beyond Outrage
Go ahead, try to get worked up
By Roger Simon
Published Aug 25, 2009 at 5:36 AM | Updated at 6:00 AM PDT on Aug 25, 2009
There was a time when blowing up a plane and killing 270 people prompted outrage. What happened?
Ask Dr. Politics! You ask the questions; we lack the outrage.
Dear Dr. Politics: I am outraged by the release of the Lockerbie Bomber. This guy kills 270 people, including 189 Americans, and now goes free while cheering crowds in Libya strew flower petals in his path. Where is the outrage?
Reply: Unfortunately, outrage no longer exists. Maybe it all got used up. We all now live in the Land Beyond Outrage. Once upon a time, killing a lot of people was considered pretty serious. Now? Not so much.
In 2001, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi, a former Libyan intelligence agent, was convicted of 270 murders in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and was sentenced to life in prison. Now, just eight years later, he has been released because Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill says Megrahi has only weeks to live due to prostate cancer.
Dr. Politics is tempted to ask: If a mass murderer has only weeks to live, why not just let him die in prison? (And, by the way, Megrahi looked in very good health on TV after his release, walking around all by himself, no hospital gurneys, no wheelchairs.) But Kenny MacAskill — and we admit having difficulty taking seriously any official called “Kenny”— has a different view.
“In Scotland, we are a people who pride ourselves on our humanity,” Kenny says. “It is viewed as a defining characteristic.”
It is? Has this guy never seen the movie “Braveheart”? As we recall, the Scots chopped up an awful lot of people because they had it coming. In fact, the Scots chopped up an awful lot of people who didn’t have it coming. We don’t remember “humanity” being anybody’s defining characteristic.
But that was the 13th century and, besides, Kenny has another argument. “Mr. al-Megrahi faces a sentence imposed by a higher power,” Kenny says. “He is going to die.”
Well, heck, Kenny, we are all going to die. So why punish anybody?
Some suggest, however, that it was neither humanity nor fatalism that motivated Kenny. Some suggest the true motivation was the desire by powerful commercial and political interests in the United Kingdom to develop Libya’s vast oil reserves.
And some are now calling for a boycott of Scottish goods, especially of the $610 million in whiskey the Scots sell in this country every year.
Somehow, we think we are more likely to see a boycott of haggis.
Dear Dr. Politics: I forgave South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford when he “hiked the Appalachian Trail” with his Argentine mistress because he said he was doing it for love. But now I read that he has been using state aircraft for pleasure trips. Outrageous!
Reply: Dr. Politics thinks politicians work very, very hard and deserve a few perks.
So we were not outraged when we read an investigation by The Associated Press that revealed Sanford charged taxpayers more than $37,600 for overseas first-class and business-class flights even though state law requires him to fly on lowest-cost travel when he flies commercial.
“If you’re going to step straight into business meetings that have significant economic consequence for the people of our state, you need to have gotten some level of sleep the night before,” Sanford said, explaining why he could not fly in coach with the rest of us cattle.
We also were not outraged to learn in a separate AP investigation that Sanford spent $50,000 in taxpayer money to take his kids on state planes to sporting events and thousands more to fly himself to dentist appointments and a haircut.
Sanford, who became famous by making state employees use both sides of Post-it notes and also tried to block $700 million in federal stimulus money from reaching South Carolina, took a state plane on March 10, 2006, to fly from Myrtle Beach, S.C., to Columbia, S.C., to get a haircut.
The drive would have taken him three hours, so you can see why he needed a plane. He took off at 2:35 p.m. and made his haircut appointment at 3 p.m. He had no other appointments on his official schedule that day. And the flight cost taxpayers only $1,265.
John Edwards probably told him it was OK.
Dear Dr. Politics: According to The New York Times, the U.S. government hired a private contractor, Blackwater, to assassinate Al Qaeda leaders in 2004. Should I be outraged by this?
Reply: If we were still capable of outrage, we would be. In our opinion, we are never going to be able to bend the cost curve on assassination if we keep jobbing it out. We can remember an era when, if U.S. government agencies wanted to kill somebody, they did it themselves. All expenses over $20 required receipts, and the use of the minibar and movies in the room was strictly forbidden.
When Ronald Reagan got ticked off at Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi in 1986 —- the same Muammar Qadhafi who just greeted the Lockerbie Bomber with hugs and kisses, by the way — for bombing a Berlin discotheque frequented by U.S. troops, did Reagan take out a classified ad looking for private assassins to hit back?
He did not. Reagan sent 33 jets on a bombing raid over Libya, where they dropped 64,000 pounds of explosives on Qadhafi’s living quarters. They missed him, but, hey, not one of those pilots put in for extra expenses. It was their job.
But George W. Bush decided that “targeted killing programs”, as they were called, might best be left to private industry and so Blackwater, which now goes under the name Xe Services LLC, got the contract.
This was all kept secret from House and Senate leaders “in part because then-Vice President Richard B. Cheney had directed the CIA not to reveal the program to Congress,” according to the Washington Post.
But don’t get all outraged. According to a high-ranking intelligence official, the program cost “well under $20 million” and “we never actually did anything.”
Well, that’s a relief.
Copyright Politico
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Trump Now Says He Won in 2016 Because He Didn’t Release His Taxes
Surveys have repeatedly shown a majority of voters want to see the president’s returns.
Hannah Levintova
Dave Hedstrom/Zumapress
On Saturday, the president made his ire for the Democrats’ ramped up efforts to obtain his tax returns known on Twitter, where he claimed that he won the 2016 election in part because he did not release those records, and implied that the question of his taxes has already been litigated in the eyes of the public: “The voters didn’t care,” he wrote.
I won the 2016 Election partially based on no Tax Returns while I am under audit (which I still am), and the voters didn’t care. Now the Radical Left Democrats want to again relitigate this matter. Make it a part of the 2020 Election!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 11, 2019
Trump’s tweet reiterated, almost verbatim, a line his administration has repeated time and again to explain the president’s continued refusal to release his taxes. By voting him into office, the reasoning goes, voters actually signaled that they didn’t care they weren’t available, or perhaps even that they would prefer he keep them private. “Voters knew the president could have given his tax returns. They knew that he didn’t. And they elected him anyway,” Trump’s chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, said last month on Fox News. “That’s an issue that was already litigated during the election.”
Extensive polling, however, disputes this idea. Dozens of surveys have shown that a majority of Americans, across party lines, want to see Trump’s tax returns. Slate has a great roundup of relevant data from before and after the 2016 election: An August 2016 Quinnipiac University poll, for instance, found that more than a third of respondents who were inclined to vote for Trump also believed he should release his returns. In a Washington Post/ABC poll taken in January 2019, 60 percent of respondents agreed that House Democrats should “use their congressional authority to obtain and release Trump’s tax returns,” while only 35 percent disagreed.
A poll taken earlier this month found that 60 percent of Americans believe the public has a right to know about Trump’s finances.
Pure independents split 68-32 in favor of Dem argument on releasing Trump's tax returns. Reject argument that it's old news after he won in 2016 — it's about "knowing who he really is." https://t.co/yLfeVR9crc
— Will Jordan (@williamjordann) May 8, 2019
Democrats Just Ramped Up Their Fight for Trump’s Taxes
New York Lawmakers Advance Bill to Provide Congress With Trump’s Tax Returns
Russ Choma
California Just Moved One Step Closer to Forcing Trump to Release His Taxes
Abigail Weinberg
Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney Just Said You’ll “Never” See Trump’s Taxes
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MSNBC Hosts: Rep. Joe Wilson A White Southern Racist
By Kyle Drennen | September 11, 2009 6:05 PM EDT
According to MSNBC’s David Shuster on Friday, South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson shouting ‘you lie’ to President Obama was racism on display: “The fact that Joe Wilson is from South Carolina...it strikes a lot of people as awfully close to the idea that maybe there was some sort of racist or bigoted element there.”
Shuster went on to add: “And especially then when you look up at the picture and you see older white men, all Republicans, sitting there. Just it gives off a strange vibe.” On Thursday, Shuster claimed that Republicans were: “...all white males with short haircuts. They look sort of angry. No women, no minorities, and it looks like they’ve sort of become unhinged.”
During the segment late in the 3PM ET hour, Shuster spoke with Reverend Jesse Jackson, wondering: “What role, if any, do you believe that bigotry is playing in some of this venom toward President Obama?” Jackson seized on the opportunity to cry racism: “Well, substantial. There is a struggle between the hope of going forward and the fear of going backwards....the big C-word, conservative, for some that means fiscal, for some, it means religious ethics, for some it means a code word for race.”
Co-host Tamron Hall proclaimed: “...this yelling at the President during that address had never happened to any prior President...that was almost like the straw to break the camel’s back...to have that southern white male shout down the first black president, it seemed to really hit a nerve.” Jackson replied: “Well, it’s globally embarrassing.”
Hall went on to ask Jackson about a possible censure of Wilson: “There are many who are calling to censure Wilson. Is that what’s necessary to perhaps send a message that will trickle from the President on down?” Jackson agreed: “Well, censure may be a thing to do.”
Shuster concluded the segment by ranting: “I think the evidence is so overwhelming that there is an effort out there to demonize the first African-American president. I think that the question is, is there sort of an institutional bigotry in certain quarters of this country, or are these isolated instances? And I don’t know the answer to that, but it’s frightening either way.” Hall added: “...you can’t say what is in someone’s heart, but you can certainly judge by the actions. And if nothing else, that action taken by Wilson has been seen by so many Americans as disrespectful.”
Here is a full transcript of the segment:
TAMRON HALL: Welcome back. It is time for ‘Making Their Case.’ And today it’s all about what some are calling, David, the elephant in the room.
DAVID SHUSTER: That is right, Tamron. President Obama is the first ever African-American to hold the nation’s highest office and now he’s the first President to be openly heckled during an address to a joint session of Congress. Mr. Obama has been compared to Hitler at town hall meetings, where some people showed up with loaded guns. Conservative radio TV hosts have called him a racist with quote ‘a deep seeded hatred for white people’ the President had his birth in Hawaii and nationality questioned and he’s been called everything from a socialist to fascist who wants to empower the government to kill senior citizens. This week, Mr. Obama was criticized for a speech to school kids about staying in school and working hard. Every president faces scathing criticism from the fanatical fringe but this, at least, feels different. And even officials in the Secret Service acknowledge that threats to President Obama’s life have been coming in four times as often as they were for president George W. Bush. Reverend Jesse Jackson is the president and founder of the Rainbow Push Coalition and a former presidential candidate. Reverend Jackson, what role, if any, do you believe that bigotry is playing in some of this venom toward President Obama?
JESSE JACKSON: Well, substantial. There is a struggle between the hope of going forward and the fear of going backwards and the word – the atmosphere is loaded with coded words. Hitler, socialist, un-American, not born in America, even indoctrinate our children, these are very heavily coded words. And the elephant in the room really is the big ‘C’– behind the big C-word, conservative, for some that means fiscal, for some, it means religious ethics, for some it means a code word for race. And we would do well to try to keep fighting to relieve these [inaudible].
SHUSTER: I’ve heard from so many people the fact that Joe Wilson is from South Carolina – he was part of the Sons of the Confederacy or supported the group, he voted against removing the Confederate flag – that even though we don’t know what was, I suppose, in the heart of Joe Wilson, but it strikes a lot of people as awfully close to the idea that maybe there was some sort of racist or bigoted element there. And especially then when you look up at the picture and you see older white men, all Republicans, sitting there. Just it gives off a strange vibe.
JACKSON: You see, it’s not just that, it’s Amadou Diallo being shot in New York 41 times unarmed and the police walk free. It’s Rodney King being beaten in California with cameras on and a jury set the four of them free. It’s 2.3 million Americans in prison, a million are black, 500,000 are Latino. I mean the structural injustice, racial disparities, from birth to death is too real to ignore, so we must enforce EEOC, we must enforce contract compliance. We must urge people who have hope not to allow fear to overcome them.
HALL: Rev-
SHUSTER: But is there a special – oh, go ahead, Tamron, I’m sorry.
HALL: Reverend Jackson, I wanted to ask you, because a lot of the things that are being said about President Obama have been said about other leaders, such as communist or socialist, but this yelling at the President during that address had never happened to any prior President. And when you listen to a lot of African-Americans on the radio who are telling how they feel about it, there seemed to be – that was almost like the straw to break the camel’s back, and that other things certainly have been implied racist, the birth movement, so on and so forth, but to have that southern white male shout down the first black president, it seemed to really hit a nerve.
JACKSON: Well, it’s globally embarrassing. The whole world watched that display by the congressman from South Carolina. But it’s not just that. It’s the – we see patterns in the subprime lending scheme, predators targeting, steering, clustering blacks and browns by race. A man who won that suit here in Chicago, another suit in Baltimore, another one in Cleveland. The pervasiveness of this issue of race disparity is all too real for us to kind of try to put it under the rug any longer.
HALL: But does it hit extra – I mean, because people believe certainly that, obviously, these things happen and when you’re poor you feel like you’re helpless. But this is the President of the United States. Someone of power and prestige and the leader of our country. Black or white or whatever. But let me ask you, that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to move this forward. There are many who are calling to censure Wilson. Is that what’s necessary to perhaps send a message that will trickle from the President on down?
JACKSON: Well, censure may be a thing to do, but my concern is that there are those who think it was his being discourteous, not the content. Never mind his having said that in the cloak room. I mean in that same room they argued slavery was – was ordained by God. In that same room they argued segregation was ordained by God. So he said something that was embarrassing, but there have been other things said on that floor for a long time. I think we’re over it, we’re getting better. And I think when it raises up its ugly head, we should address it in a meaningful way. [inaudible] the venom of racism remains in America today.
SHUSTER: Reverend Jesse Jackson. Reverend, thanks so much coming on. We appreciate it.
JACKSON: Thank you.
SHUSTER: You know, Tamron, I do – I think the evidence is so overwhelming that there is an effort out there to demonize the first African-American president. I think that the question is, is there sort of an institutional bigotry in certain quarters of this country, or are these isolated instances? And I don’t know the answer to that, but it’s frightening either way.
HALL: I think, David, it was a great point that you made. You can never speak for someone’s heart and I think that’s what makes this such a complex and difficult debate. Because you can’t say what is in someone’s heart, but you can certainly judge by the actions. And if nothing else, that action taken by Wilson has been seen by so many Americans as disrespectful.
SHUSTER: Indeed.
Congress Political Groups Health Care Liberals & Democrats Conservatives & Republicans Medical Insurance MSNBC Live ObamaCare Tamron Hall Joe Wilson
Kyle Drennen is the Senior News Analyst for MRC
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Article ID: 687721
Ingredients for Life Revealed in Meteorites That Fell to Earth
Study, based in part at Berkeley Lab, also suggests dwarf planet in asteroid belt may be a source of rich organic matter
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Artist’s rendering of asteroids and space dust.
Credit: Queenie Chan/The Open University, U.K.
A blue crystal recovered from a meteorite that fell near Morocco in 1998. The scale bar represents 200 microns (millionths of a meter).
Ceres, a dwarf planet in the asteroid belt pictured here in this NASA-produced false-color image, may be the source of organic matter found on two meteorites that crashed to Earth in 1998.
Credit: Courtesy of Queenie Chan/The Open University, U.K.
Queenie Chan, a scientist at The Open University in the U.K., studies meteorite sample in a NASA clean room.
Two wayward space rocks, which separately crashed to Earth in 1998 after circulating in our solar system’s asteroid belt for billions of years, share something else in common: the ingredients for life. They are the first meteorites found to contain both liquid water and a mix of complex organic compounds such as hydrocarbons and amino acids.
A detailed study of the chemical makeup within tiny blue and purple salt crystals sampled from these meteorites, which included results from X-ray experiments at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), also found evidence for the pair’s past intermingling and likely parents. These include Ceres, a dwarf planet that is the largest object in the asteroid belt, and the asteroid Hebe, a major source of meteorites that fall on Earth.
The study, published Jan. 10 in the journal Science Advances, provides the first comprehensive chemical exploration of organic matter and liquid water in salt crystals found in Earth-impacting meteorites. The study treads new ground in the narrative of our solar system’s early history and asteroid geology while surfacing exciting possibilities for the existence of life elsewhere in Earth’s neighborhood.
“It’s like a fly in amber,” said David Kilcoyne, a scientist at Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source (ALS), which provided X-rays that were used to scan the samples’ organic chemical components, including carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen. Kilcoyne was part of the international research team that prepared the study.
While the rich deposits of organic remnants recovered from the meteorites don’t provide any proof of life outside of Earth, Kilcoyne said the meteorites’ encapsulation of rich chemistry is analogous to the preservation of prehistoric insects in solidified sap droplets.
Queenie Chan, a planetary scientist and postdoctoral research associate at The Open University in the U.K. who was the study’s lead author, said, “This is really the first time we have found abundant organic matter also associated with liquid water that is really crucial to the origin of life and the origin of complex organic compounds in space.”
She added, “We’re looking at the organic ingredients that can lead to the origin of life,” including the amino acids needed to form proteins.
If life did exist in some form in the early solar system, the study notes that these salt crystal-containing meteorites raise the “possibility of trapping life and/or biomolecules” within their salt crystals. The crystals carried microscopic traces of water that is believed to date back to the infancy of our solar system – about 4.5 billion years ago.
Chan said the similarity of the crystals found in the meteorites – one of which smashed into the ground near a children’s basketball game in Texas in March 1998 and the other which hit near Morocco in August 1998 – suggest that their asteroid hosts may have crossed paths and mixed materials.
There are also structural clues of an impact – perhaps by a small asteroid fragment impacting a larger asteroid, Chan said.
This opens up many possibilities for how organic matter may be passed from one host to another in space, and scientists may need to rethink the processes that led to the complex suite of organic compounds on these meteorites.
“Things are not as simple as we thought they were,” Chan said.
There are also clues, based on the organic chemistry and space observations, that the crystals may have originally been seeded by ice- or water-spewing volcanic activity on Ceres, she said.
“Everything leads to the conclusion that the origin of life is really possible elsewhere,” Chan said. “There is a great range of organic compounds within these meteorites, including a very primitive type of organics that likely represent the early solar system’s organic composition.”
Chan said the two meteorites that yielded the 2-millimeter-sized salt crystals were carefully preserved at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Texas, and the tiny crystals containing organic solids and water traces measure just a fraction of the width of a human hair. Chan meticulously collected these crystals in a dust-controlled room, splitting off tiny sample fragments with metal instruments resembling dental picks.
“What makes our analysis so special is that we combined a lot of different state-of-the-art techniques to comprehensively study the organic components of these tiny salt crystals,” Chan said.
Yoko Kebukawa, an associate professor of engineering at Yokohama National University in Japan, carried out experiments for the study at Berkeley Lab’s ALS in May 2016 with Aiko Nakato, a postdoctoral researcher at Kyoto University in Japan. Kilcoyne helped to train the researchers to use the ALS X-ray beamline and microscope.
The beamline equipped with this X-ray microscope (a scanning transmission X-ray microscope, or STXM) is used in combination with a technique known as XANES (X-ray absorption near edge structure spectroscopy) to measure the presence of specific elements with a precision of tens of nanometers (tens of billionths of a meter).
“We revealed that the organic matter was somewhat similar to that found in primitive meteorites, but contained more oxygen-bearing chemistry,” Kebukawa said. “Combined with other evidence, the results support the idea that the organic matter originated from a water-rich, or previously water-rich parent body – an ocean world in the early solar system, possibly Ceres.”
Kebukawa also used the same STXM technique to study samples at the Photon Factory, a research site in Japan. And the research team enlisted a variety of other chemical experimental techniques to explore the samples’ makeup in different ways and at different scales.
Chan noted that there are some other well-preserved crystals from the meteorites that haven’t yet been studied, and there are plans for follow-up studies to identify if any of those crystals may also contain water and complex organic molecules.
Kebukawa said she looks forward to continuing studies of these samples at the ALS and other sites: “We may find more variations in organic chemistry.”
The Advanced Light Source is a DOE Office of Science User Facility.
Scientists at NASA Johnson Space Center, Kochi Institute for Core Sample Research in Japan, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Hiroshima University, The University of Tokyo, the High-Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) in Japan, and The Graduate University for Advanced Studies (SOKENDAI) in Japan also participated in the study. The work was supported by the U.S. DOE Office of Science, the Universities Space Research Association, NASA, the National Institutes of Natural Sciences in Japan, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and The Mitsubishi Foundation.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory addresses the world’s most urgent scientific challenges by advancing sustainable energy, protecting human health, creating new materials, and revealing the origin and fate of the universe. Founded in 1931, Berkeley Lab’s scientific expertise has been recognized with 13 Nobel Prizes. The University of California manages Berkeley Lab for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. For more, visit www.lbl.gov.
DOE’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.
Glenn Roberts
geroberts@lbl.gov
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Scientists deepen understanding of the magnetic fields that surround the Earth and other planets
Now, a team of scientists has completed research into waves that travel through the magnetosphere, deepening understanding of the region and its interaction with our own planet, and opening up new ways to study other planets across the galaxy.
Light dark matter is a thousand times less likely to bump into regular matter than previous astrophysical analyses allowed
A team led by scientists from the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University has narrowed down how strongly dark matter particles might interact with normal matter. Based on the number and distribution of small satellite galaxies seen orbiting our Milky Way, the team found this interaction to be at least a thousand times weaker than the strongest interaction allowed by previous astrophysical analyses.
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Postcard from Europe
January 10, 2011 Issue
Why Belgium, home of the European Union, has never been more disunited.
By Ian Buruma
Bart De Wever, the head of Flanders’s biggest party, wants to split his nation in two.
Illustration by FLOC’H
Bart De Wever, the leader of the largest party in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking region of Belgium, is a unique figure among right-wing European populists. He is neither hostile to the European Union nor interested in the alleged threat of Islam to Western civilization. Instead, he is preoccupied with the prospective death of Belgium. “I think Belgium will be snuffed out slowly,” he told me in October. “Slowly, like a candle, barely noticed by anyone.”
We met at the headquarters of his New Flemish Alliance Party, in Brussels, the unofficial capital of the European Union. Like the E.U., Brussels is in a permanent state of identity crisis: it is at once the capital of Belgium, which hasn’t managed to form a government since federal elections were held in June, and the capital of Flanders, even though less than a tenth of its residents are native Dutch speakers. Most people in Brussels speak French, the language of Wallonia, the other main region of Belgium. De Wever’s Brussels headquarters, with its bare walls and cheap furniture, have the improvised feel of a campaign office in an unwinnable race, out of place in the grand Rue Royale, or, as Flemings like De Wever call it, Koningsstraat.
Known for his love of French fries— a truly pan-Belgian taste—De Wever has put on a lot of weight since he entered politics as a member of parliament, in 2004, and that, combined with his rosy cheeks, floppy dark hair, and open-necked shirt, gives him the look of an eager, plump schoolboy. He used to be a professor of Belgian history, and became a Flemish celebrity last year when he outshone his opponents on a popular TV quiz show called “The Smartest Person in the World.”
De Wever wasn’t contemplating Belgium’s death mournfully. The platform of his Flemish nationalist party calls for an independent Flanders. This would leave Wallonia high and dry, a rump state, with or without Brussels, and with or without the Belgian throne, whose current occupant is Albert II. The rise of De Wever’s party certainly suggests that Belgium’s always segmented sense of identity may be drifting toward a point of no return: a stress fracture threatens to become an outright break. Normally, after an election the winning parties of Flanders and Wallonia will agree, over much fine dining and good wine, to form a federal government together. This time, they are still quarrelling. Not a few Belgians are sounding the alarm. Belgium, in the words of Eric van Rompuy, a Flemish M.P., “is in coma.” Brussels, a Flemish writer told me, “is a powder keg waiting to go off.” A longtime American resident of Brussels even pressed on me that he didn’t “discount the possibility of real violence.”
The problem with Belgium is that its citizens have so little left in common. Of its 10.8 million inhabitants, about sixty per cent speak Dutch and live mostly in Flanders, while forty per cent speak French and live mostly in Wallonia. There is also a small number of German speakers, in East Flanders. The Flemings and the Walloons have their own political parties, newspapers, TV stations, novelists, and pop stars. But the issues dividing them are not just cultural or linguistic. Wallonia is controlled by the Francophone Socialist Party (Flanders has its own socialist party), which runs the region of Rust Belt industries like a baronial fiefdom, and resists any notion of secession, in part because it depends for its survival on large transfers of federal funds. Like the conservatives in northern Italy, who resent having to spend their taxes on the poorer south, De Wever’s Flemish voters, who have recently grown prosperous on multinational business and trade, would prefer to keep their money for themselves. Most of them may not actually want a divorce from Wallonia, just yet, but they would like a separation, with Brussels as the contested offspring.
Brussels is what complicates the secessionist dream. A Flemish journalist likened the two main regions of Belgium to Siamese twins with only one heart: divide them, and one of them would die. Would Brussels end up as part of Flanders? Wallonia? The European Union? Or as a city-state, perhaps?
De Wever nodded gravely when I raised the issue. “Yes, without Brussels it would already have happened,” he said. “You see, Brussels is the child of Belgium. It is Belgium, neither Walloon nor Flemish but Belgian. Brussels is fighting to preserve Belgium. Yet most people in Flanders, as well as in Wallonia, dislike it.” The Flemings, he explained, don’t feel at home there because Brussels has been, as he put it, “deculturalized.” Once a largely Dutch-speaking city, Brussels saw its Flemish citizens become mostly Francophone in the nineteenth century, because French was the language of high culture and social mobility, whereas Dutch, in an oft-quoted phrase, was “for domestics and animals.” And the Walloons resent Brussels, because it was always the city of fat cats who got rich off the mines and factories of the south, the Black Country, the Pays Noir.
If Brussels can be described as the child of Belgium, it was in some ways the parent as well. Belgium, as an independent state, was the creation of the Brussels élite, which, in 1830, decided that it no longer wished to be ruled by the Dutch king. French-speaking Flemings and Walloons, supported by the Catholic Church, broke away from the mostly Protestant Netherlands, and imported their own king, who, like most European kings, came from Germany. The Flemish region was poor and largely rural then. All the wealth came from the industrial south. Until the mid-twentieth century, many of the world’s railway and tram cars were made from Black Country steel. When the coal mines and steel plants started to shut down, in the nineteen-sixties, former Wallonian boomtowns such as Charleroi and La Louvière were left to rot, while Brussels got on with its European business.
Now that Flanders has become the wealthier region, and educated Dutch-speaking Flemings, such as De Wever, look to Britain and the United States for cultural sustenance rather than to France, there is no Brussels élite left to hold the nation together. The Flemish and the Walloon leaders barely know each other anymore. When De Wever wanted to congratulate the Socialist Party leader, Elio Di Rupo, on his election victory in Wallonia, he couldn’t even find his cell-phone number. And these are the men who have to form a government together.
That this is happening in the center of Europe is, to say the least, of symbolic importance. As De Wever put it, “The paradox of today is that, as Europe is growing together, the nation-state is falling apart.” That’s an exaggeration, but the idea of national sovereignty, and trust in the old political classes, has been weakened by economic globalization and by the transfer of authority from national to European institutions, often referred to simply, and rarely positively, as “Brussels.” Throughout Europe, a growing number of people, in some version of the Tea Party mantra, “want their country back”—from “Brussels,” or from overeducated technocrats, or from immigrants. The alienation among the Belgians is, in this respect, a typically European story.
This isn’t the way it was supposed to be. When the first steps toward European unity were made, in the nineteen-fifties and sixties, notably in the Brussels Treaty of 1965, Belgium, as a democratic, multilingual, multicultural state, served as a model for the pan-European ideal. One day, Euro-idealists thought, all Europeans would get on just as well as the Flemings and the Walloons did.
Belgium seemed destined to be the ideal center for the new Europe, not least because of its history: Charlemagne (742-814) is thought to have been born there, as was Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor (1500-58). And Belgium’s new dynamism was symbolized by the Brussels World’s Fair in 1958, with that great silvery monument to modernity the Atomium, built in the shape of a unit cell of an iron crystal. Here was the future of the united Europe, a continent of regions as much as nation-states.
In some respects, this wish came true. The trouble is that the diminishment of national sovereignty emboldened regional solidarity—among, for example, the Flemings, the Scots, the Catalonians, the Basques—without any compensating love for the European Union. Belgium gradually became a model of what can go wrong when the center starts to melt. And the other regions of Europe are watching carefully to see how this story will turn out.
That’s not to say that tensions between Dutch speakers and French speakers are a recent development. At the University of Ghent, in a lovely old Flemish city to the northwest of Brussels, I spoke with Bart De Wever’s elder brother, Bruno, who teaches Belgian history there, and who explained that the language divide was always a social divide, too. Ghent, as it happens, was the first Belgian university to teach only in Dutch. This right was granted in 1930, on the centenary of Belgian independence, and the words of the rector at that time, August Vermeylen, were pinned to the wall outside Bruno De Wever’s office: “We want to be Flemings, to become Europeans.” Professor De Wever, a much trimmer version of his more famous brother, told me about the “Flemish movement,” which called for equal rights, and was initially led, in the late nineteenth century, by professors and literary men. One of the sacred monuments of the Flemish movement is a huge tower in the shape of a cross on the River Yser, where, during the First World War, many Flemish soldiers died in battle, allegedly because they couldn’t understand the orders from their Francophone officers. The Yser monument bears the letters “AVV—VVK,” a Dutch abbreviation for “Everything for Flanders—Flanders for Christ.”
When Belgium was occupied by the Germans during the Second World War, Flemish nationalism took a fateful turn toward collaboration. Germanic brotherhood, many Flemish activists thought, would be the best way to advance their cause. De Wever’s grandfather, a schoolteacher, became a member of the Flemish Fascist party in 1943. “Not the best timing,” Bruno murmured.
After the war, their father, a railroad worker, joined the far-right Flemish Militant Order. “The Flemish movement emerged from the Second World War deeply tainted by collaboration, a trauma that is still kept alive by the Islamophobic Vlaams Belang,” Bruno explained. He was referring to the right-wing “Flemish Interest” party, which is anti-E.U. as well as anti-immigrant. In 2004, the V.B., with such slogans as “This is OUR country,” got twenty-four per cent of the votes in Flanders. In the last elections, it held onto more than ten per cent. The politicians of Wallonia have a habit of using the collaborationist legacy to discredit any form of Flemish activism. Recently, a Francophone TV station showed a documentary that featured the collaborationist past of the De Wevers’ grandfather. (Bart De Wever, responding in a newspaper article, pointed out that the most notorious Nazi collaborator was Léon Degrelle, a Walloon.)
“There is no question that there has been a continuity, in terms of people and ideas, of the collaborationist past,” Bruno De Wever said. “But there has also been a fresh wind blowing in Flanders. We have dealt with the past honestly, much more so than in Wallonia, where the history of Degrelle and his Wallonian Nazis is still passed over as an aberration.” Because Bart De Wever and his party pointedly avoid the xenophobic rhetoric that’s customary among right-wing populists, they have helped make Flemish nationalism respectable again, and his electoral gains in Flanders have come, in part, at the expense of the Vlaams Belang.
Others, on the Wallonian side, but also among the Flemish left, continue to see De Wever as a respectable front man for hard-line Flemish nationalism. But De Wever claims that his agenda has moved beyond any concern with linguistic or cultural conflicts. “We have achieved cultural emancipation,” he told me. “That is no longer part of our discourse. We’re interested in democracy and efficiency.”
A little more efficiency would certainly not go amiss in Belgium. Owing to compromises struck between the different language communities in the past, not only does the country have separate governments and prime ministers for Wallonia, Flanders, and the district of Brussels but Brussels itself is divided into nineteen municipal areas, each with its own mayor, and six police zones. And, apart from many local authorities to administer social affairs, there are also communal authorities, representing the various language groups, which have a say in education and cultural matters. Belgium “is a labyrinth of institutions,” Bart De Wever says. “If you were to ask the average member of the federal parliament to explain how the system works, and who has authority to do what, he would run away in a panic.”
“Can it wait—I’m in the middle of telling Daddy a long, boring realization.”
But “efficiency” is also a code word in the Franco-Dutch culture war, because Flemish nationalists—and not a few Walloons themselves—regard the socialist-governed Wallonia as a model of inefficiency. I had lunch in the European district of Brussels with Christian Laporte, a distinguished journalist for the Francophone newspaper La Libre Belgique. For lunch, he chose a steak tartare, which Belgians call a filet américain. French Belgium, he said, is “an oasis of socialism in Europe.” Where paternalistic industrialists once kept the region afloat, the Party now does the same—but with public money, the movement of which tends to be somewhat opaque. Hence Bart De Wever’s talk about the need for “transparency.” Not surprisingly, “the great Socialist Party machine doesn’t want to be held more responsible,” Laporte said. “It is afraid that its use of federal money will be questioned.”
The high price of administrative inefficiency became painfully clear in the notorious case of Marc Dutroux, a small-time gangster and pedophile pimp, who, in the mid-nineteen-nineties, kidnapped, molested, and tortured six young girls, only two of whom survived. A lack of coördination and coöperation among different local authorities delayed his apprehension. In October of 1996, three hundred thousand outraged Belgians marched in Brussels in protest—one of the few examples of Walloons and Flemings coming together in a common cause. Dutroux’s home town, where he committed his worst crimes, was Charleroi, one of the places where the Continental European industrial revolution began.
Charleroi is now a dilapidated, sooty town of boarded-up stores and broken glass in the streets, of strip joints, cheap Turkish kebab places, Eastern European gangsters, and middle-aged prostitutes strung out on heroin. I prowled around its crumbling industrial outskirts and grubby streets of small, blackened row houses with Pascal Verbeken, the author of a fine travel book about the region entitled “Poor Wallonia.” Verbeken, who, unusually for a Fleming, takes a deep, sympathetic interest in the French-speaking part of his country, pointed out the many Flemish names in the old cemetery outside Charleroi.
“People have forgotten that during the good years, between the eighteen-forties and the nineteen-fifties, more than half a million Flemings moved down here to work,” he said. “But this doesn’t fit our Flemish self-image anymore, our image of being top dogs.”
The largest café in the center of town is called La Maison de Huit Heures, for the old socialist demand for a working day of no longer than eight hours. In the bleakest, shabbiest corner of Charleroi, tucked away near the railway sidings, stands the two-story house that used to belong to Marc Dutroux, its façade plastered with a huge picture of a small child flying a kite, now daubed with graffiti.
Pascal Verbeken doesn’t like the way his country is going. “You know, everyone talks about the end of Belgium,” he said to me. “And they focus on Flemish nationalism, but Belgium is disappearing in so many different ways, day by day. It’s all very well for the former Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt to go on about being a model European, drinking Burgundy wine, listening to Sibelius, and reading Cavafy. But what about the degradation of our cities, swamped by immigrants from Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, who don’t share any memories of our Belgian past? Flemish nationalism is the reaction of a society that is changing too fast. Nobody knows where we’re heading anymore.”
If Brussels is Belgium, as Bart De Wever says, it is also the best example of the disappearing Belgium lamented by Pascal Verbeken. A third of the city’s population was born abroad, and the number is growing, even as Belgian-born citizens are moving out, mostly to plush suburbs. There are areas near the center of the city, not far from the splendid Grande Place (or Grote Markt), with its ornate seventeenth-century guildhalls, that are inhabited almost exclusively by immigrants from North Africa, Turkey, Congo, Rwanda, and elsewhere. Molenbeek, a traditional working-class area once known as Little Manchester, is now referred to as Little Marrakech. Bart De Wever avoids talking about such places. But the troubles of Little Marrakech have some relevance to the Franco-Dutch tensions that are pulling Belgium apart.
The most notorious immigrant area in central Brussels is called Cureghem, known for its high rates of crime and unemployment. In a spasm of “zero tolerance,” the police once staged a raid there with helicopters and riot squads. Part of Cureghem is sub-Saharan African. Young men hang around street corners waiting to buy old cars to ship off to Africa—no questions asked or documents required. Much of the rest is North African, mostly Moroccan. That’s where I met the owner of a grocery store, whom I’ll call Ahmed. He and his wife, a friendly woman in a head scarf, clutching an infant to her breast, were born in Belgium to Moroccan parents. Ahmed wore a neatly clipped beard and smiled often, even when he was voicing his despair at conditions in the neighborhood. He spoke French, as well as Arabic. French is the lingua franca of the streets, because, as Ahmed explained, Moroccans themselves don’t understand one another’s dialects.
“It used to be great here, when I grew up,” he said, smiling wistfully. “Mostly Belgians living here, a few other Europeans, not many immigrants. But now, well, you can see for yourself. Drugs, robberies, arson. They are Moroccan people like us, I know, but I don’t want my children to go out in the streets. The gangs are armed. They buy Kalashnikovs from the East Europeans. I worry about my boy. One bad friend, and he becomes a criminal, too.” Even though Ahmed and his wife are Francophone, they send their children to a Dutch school. “Better education,” he said. I’d been told the reason: Dutch-language schools have fewer pupils from immigrant families. If Ahmed could afford it, he’d move out to a suburb. “But I can’t. We’re stuck here.”
Vilvoorde, a genteel old town once known for its thriving horse market, is the kind of suburb that Ahmed would move to, if he could. It is also one of two small towns that Flemish and Walloon political parties are fighting over; the other is Halle. The dispute is a typically Belgian muddle. Vilvoorde and Halle—though Dutch-speaking and situated in Flemish Brabant, a province of Flanders—belong to the same electoral district as bilingual Brussels. This means that the tiny minority of French speakers can vote for French-speaking parties, whereas Dutch speakers in Wallonian Brabant can’t vote for Dutch-speaking Flemish parties. So the Flemish nationalists suddenly decided that Halle and Vilvoorde should be split off from Brussels and incorporated in Flanders for electoral purposes, causing a ruckus that is still going on.
A sign on the wall at the social-welfare office in Vilvoorde informed visitors in Dutch that only Dutch was spoken there. It was not clear what use this sign would be to a non-Dutch speaker. But in Belgium one ceases to wonder about such things. I had come to see Hans Bonte, a socialist town counsellor who also runs the welfare office. Round-faced and blunt-featured, with close-cropped sandy hair, Bonte exudes energy and good will, like a friendly sports coach. Before addressing the vexed matter of Belgian identity, he told me something about Vilvoorde identity: “From the perspective of the authentic Vilvoordener, this is a real Flemish town, with its own purely Flemish identity. From the perspective of Brussels, it is a multilingual Brussels suburb.”
The Dutch-speaking Flemings, he said, had no trouble accommodating the small, mostly wealthy Francophones in their midst. “I blame the Brussels politicians for radicalizing the communities, even as we try our best to get people to get along.”
I asked Bonte about the flow of non-European immigrants to the suburbs. Was this a problem? Bonte sighed. “Yes, it is,” he said. “You see, they are mostly French-speaking Moroccans, and this annoys the Flemings. For the immigrants make the community not only less white but also more French, more like Brussels.” He guessed that a fifth of Vilvoorde was now French-speaking. “People who used to call the Moroccans monkeys now use the same derogatory terms for all French speakers,” Bonte said. Meanwhile, the Francophone immigrants call the Dutch speakers _sals Flamands, “_dirty Flemings.” It comes as little surprise that xenophobia is growing in Vilvoorde.
Is there a way out of the perilous swamp of ethnic and linguistic identity politics? I was working on my notes one night in my hotel room, with one eye on the television. The Belgian soccer team was playing Ukraine. Soccer still holds many European nations together, and the so-called Red Devils were once the pride of all Belgians. I was watching the game on a Francophone channel, but the team’s coach is a Dutch-speaking Fleming, as are many of the players. I was wondering about the language in the locker room, when I was struck by a short message flashing on the TV screen extolling the achievements of the Red Devils: “Our Team,” it said, in English.
Many people in Brussels urged me to talk to Philippe Van Parijs, a Francophone philosopher and political economist. If anyone might be called the model Belgian, and indeed European, it would be Van Parijs, a tall, thin, bearded man. His father was Flemish, so he speaks fluent Dutch, but he was educated in French, and converses with his British wife in English and his children in Dutch and French.
Van Parijs has a fine town house on the Rue de Pavie (or Paviastraat). One end of the street lets onto the huge and hideous buildings of the European Union, including the Berlaymont, home of the European Commission, also known as the Berlaymonster. From the other end, it is a short walk to St. Joost-Ten-Node, a largely Turkish and Moroccan area, where you can make cheap phone calls to Anatolia, buy a cut-rate ticket to Istanbul, and eat kebabs with frites. Van Parijs’s house is where the so-called Pavia Group of Belgian intellectuals, Flemings and Walloons, meet to discuss the future of their country.
The Pavia Group’s most important idea is to create a federal constituency in the center of the Belgian confederation of Flanders, Wallonia, and Brussels. Instead of just pooling votes from the different regions, the group proposes that a tenth of the federal parliament would be elected directly by all Belgians. This means, Van Parijs said, warming to his subject, that French-speaking politicians will have to campaign in Dutch-speaking regions, and vice versa.
There are serious obstacles to the Pavia Group’s federalist dream. Too many interests are vested in communal politics. A thoughtful Flemish P.R. executive told me that a federal constituency would only strengthen the domination of the Flemings, given their greater numbers, and so would be rejected by the Walloons. Bart De Wever disagrees. He told me that “the protection of regional rights is so entrenched in Belgium that numerical superiority would not make the Flemings any more dominant.” But then he doesn’t believe in what he calls “state creation.” He has no interest in reviving the comatose Belgian nation.
Van Parijs is unmoved by the skeptics. In fact, he thinks that a similar scheme should be devised for the European Union, with a percentage of the seats in the E.U. parliament voted for by all E.U. citizens. “Of course, it is easier to achieve a sense of solidarity in a monolingual community,” he said, “but the problems in Belgium, and in Europe, can only be solved on a larger scale. Neither Brussels nor Belgium can be governed without federal authority. The same is true of Europe. So we are suggesting a solution, which Belgium has not yet found, but one that would serve as a model for Europe.”
When I asked Bart De Wever how the current political impasse would be resolved in Belgium, he gave a rather Gallic shrug. “The future? You might as well peer through thick coffee,” he said. When I asked a distinguished Flemish author, Geert van Istendael, whether he thought the Belgian nation would survive, he said that he had always believed so but was no longer so sure. I put the same question to the Francophone journalist Christian Laporte. He looked up from his filet américain and said, “Look, Belgians spill a great deal of ink, but very little blood.” The same might be said about the always confusing, usually contentious, seemingly hopeless patchwork called the European Union. And yet, as Europe’s bloody history shows, once nations, or empires, or unions fall apart, violence often follows. Bart De Wever, apparently the most benign of European nationalists, is leading his country to the brink of disintegration. A nation collapsing in the center of Europe would not bode well for the fragile state of the European Union. But then De Wever, as a historian, would be well aware of Belgium as the stage of shattered European dreams. Only ten miles from his office lies a town called Waterloo. ♦
This article appears in the print edition of the January 10, 2011, issue.
Ian Buruma is the author of, most recently, “Their Promised Land: My Grandparents in Love and War.”
The artist Françoise Gilot was Picasso’s lover, helpmate, and muse. Then she wanted more.
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Deputy Foreign Minister attends meeting on terrorism
Accra, May 30, GNA -- The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Akwasi Osei-Adjei has returned home after leading a four-member government delegation to Madrid, Spain, to attend the Ministerial Roundtable for West and Central African countries on strengthening the legal regime against terrorism in the Region.
A statement issued in Accra on Tuesday by the Ministry said the meeting was sponsored by Spain in collaboration with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
Other members of the delegation were Mrs Gertrude Aikins, Chief State Attorney and Mr Richard Dery, State Attorney, both of the Ministry of Justice and Mr E. Odoi-Anim, Acting Director, Legal and Consular Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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Paradigmatic Progress in Israel-Palestine?
Mouin Rabbani
This column was published by the International Relations and Security Network (ISN) in May 2009.
A look back at the 20 turbulent years that have characterized the roadmap to peace – culminating in the recent Israeli assault on Gaza – helps illuminate some potential new paths to the occupation’s end.
The Israeli-Palestinian peace process was inaugurated in the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War, with the US pressuring Israel to negotiate over the future dispensation of the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Israel’s initial strategy was to draw out the process interminably in order to avoid substantive agreements. Based on its understanding that it could not impose a unilateral capitulation on the Palestinians, Israel used the cover of diplomacy in order to consolidate control of strategic regions within the occupied territories through the expansion of its illegal settlement enterprise; prevent a further escalation of the Palestinian uprising that had erupted in 1987; drive a wedge between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the population of the occupied territories; and reverse the process of international ostracism that came in the wake of the June 1967 War and gained widespread traction after the 1973 October War.
The Oslo Accords
By 1993, Israel’s realization that the PLO leadership ensconced in Tunisia was prepared to offer Israel terms that approximated surrender led it to reverse its core policies of rejecting negotiations with the PLO and bilateral political agreements with Palestinians.
The negotiations resulted in the Oslo Accords, which won Israel formal Palestinian recognition without a reciprocal commitment to end the occupation, or even recognize its reality. The accords also introduced a limited Palestinian self-governing regime, while conceding continued Israeli control over most occupied territory without restrictions on further colonization. Finally, although they set forth a process for conflict resolution, this was devoid of instruments for enforcement or arbitration and omitted any reference to the ultimate dispensation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
A Palestinian commitment to ensure Israeli security despite continued occupation formed the core of Oslo. Textual realities aside, the Palestinian leadership interpreted Oslo as a deal whereby its maintenance of security within the occupied territories would lay the basis for a consistent expansion of self-government culminating in statehood and independence.
Where the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat perceived himself as defending a process (and thus used security as leverage to influence its development), his Israeli counterparts insisted that security was an absolute and unconditional commitment to be maintained irrespective of Israeli conduct – including a consistent refusal to respect either negotiated agreements or agreed timelines. For example, then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in December 1993 stated that “no dates are sacred,” while in 2000, Ehud Barak went so far as to brag – correctly – that he had implemented even fewer of these agreements than had Binyamin Netanyahu.
The failed 2000 Camp David summit, hastily convened by former US President Bill Clinton to end more than a century of conflict in less than a fortnight, produced Oslo’s inevitable collapse. Presented with the prospect of a fragmented entity under permanent Israeli control, Arafat became increasingly disengaged from fulfilling the security commitments outlined in Oslo.
Israeli unilateralism
Faced with the reality that the Palestinian leadership and security forces were in no position to protect Israeli domination ad infinitum, Barak and then Ariel Sharon replaced Oslo’s bilateral framework with unilateralism, whereby the Palestinian Authority (PA) was effectively dismantled and the Israeli military resumed direct responsibility for the security of the occupation. If the Palestinian leadership would not accept Israel’s version of conflict resolution, the military would impose it without an agreement, using extraordinary force and prolonged socioeconomic warfare to quash resistance and batter the captive population into submission.
The substance of Israel’s permanent settlement began to take concrete form – often rather literally – in 2002. Most prominently, the West Bank Wall extended well into occupied territory, enveloping major settlement blocs, devouring agricultural land and other natural resources, encircling towns like Qalqilya and Tulkarm and hermetically sealing off East Jerusalem.
In August 2005, Israel unilaterally ‘disengaged’ from the Gaza Strip, withdrawing its soldiers and settlers while retaining complete control over what had effectively been transformed into the world’s largest open-air prison. As Sharon and other Israeli leaders stated at the time, Gaza disengagement was intended to thwart the prospect of renewed international engagement while diverting attention from continued settlement expansion in the West Bank.
Disengagement had the additional benefit of further fragmenting the occupied territories, particularly after the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) won the 2006 PA legislative elections and in June 2007 seized power in the territory to preempt a US-sponsored coup to restore the hegemony of Arafat’s successor, Mahmoud Abbas.
Renewed engagement
Ironically, unilateralism had by this point created the conditions for renewed engagement.
On the one hand, Israel’s post-2000 policies outlined above and Washington’s active support facilitated the rise of Abbas, a stalwart opponent of armed resistance since the mid-1970s and devoted elitist who holds Hamas, the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah) he ostensibly leads and their combined constituencies in equal contempt.
At the same time, disengagement deprived his agenda of a negotiated partnership with Israel. This loss was significant for Abbas given his longstanding preparedness to reach a settlement that would run roughshod over Palestinian rights and aspiration. In 1995, for example, he affixed his name to a joint proposal with Yosi Beilin that would have inter alia rebranded the village of Abu Dis as Al-Quds (as Jerusalem is known in the Arabic language) and proclaimed it the united and eternal capital of the Palestinian people, thereby leaving Israel in sole control of the city known universally – including to Abbas’ own people - as Jerusalem.
Indeed, it was Hamas and resistance rather than Abbas and negotiation that claimed responsibility for Israel’s evacuation of the Gaza Strip. It was thus Arafat and Abbas’ strategic failure to negotiate an end to occupation, more than popular disenchantment with the corruption and mismanagement of their administrations, which primarily accounted for Hamas’ 2006 electoral sweep.
For nearly two decades, Israel has either used the peace process as diplomatic cover to consolidate occupation or brazenly ignored it to wage war. But could the international and intra-Palestinian political climate be nearly ripe for reengagement?
By Mouin Rabbani, published by the International Relations and Security Network (ISN)
Desperate to avoid a further strengthening of Hamas in the West Bank in the aftermath of its rout of Abbas’ forces in Gaza, Washington latched onto the idea of renewed Israeli-Palestinian partnership, including a resumption of peace negotiations, as a core component of its efforts to resuscitate Abbas’ ailing fortunes. His Israeli counterpart Ehud Olmert, sensing that he could succeed where Barak had failed and determined to oblige his American sponsors, discarded his electoral platform – West Bank disengagement – and started meeting regularly with Abbas.
If the possibility for a two-state settlement died with Rabin’s assassination and was buried with his Palestinian counterpart Arafat's passing, Olmert and Abbas sought to revive it in different form. Specifically, the two leaders were largely motivated by narrow factional considerations to shore up their increasingly tenuous domestic standing, and in both cases proved considerably more forthcoming than their predecessors at Camp David. Yet their joint effort to forge a peace treaty – one that would have made a complete mockery of a viable framework for Israeli-Palestinian coexistence – nevertheless failed.
At the end of the day, the maximum Israel was prepared to offer remained well short of the minimum that a highly accommodating Palestinian leader confronted with militant challenges to his legitimacy could accept.
The Gaza war
Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip was in large part fought to ensure that Abbas could make way for a highly attenuated form of Palestinian statehood. Remove Hamas from Gaza, the thinking goes, and he’ll effortlessly sprint to the finish line of statehood.
In this sense, the campaign was a complete failure. Hamas emerged from the ordeal significantly strengthened. Abbas, widely derided as at best a spineless spectator while his partner in peace, Olmert, was slaughtering his people by the hundreds, has been compelled to drop his array of preconditions for dialogue with the Islamists and currently engages them on a regular basis in Egyptian-sponsored talks.
Similarly, Abbas is under unprecedented strain from various Fatah quarters, for many of whom his conduct during Gaza’s ordeal underlined the need for the development of a meaningful strategy. For their part, the Islamists appear more determined than ever to claim their share of the Palestinian political system, and revise its political program to reflect the bankruptcy of the Oslo years.
That said, Abbas continues to conduct himself as if he emerged from the Gaza conflict as its only victor. To this day, and in a transparent attempt to extract political benefit from Israel’s recent onslaught – he continues to insist that Hamas accept the Quartet’s preconditions for engagement with any PA government as the price for reconciliation – this at a time when these conditions are rapidly losing popularity even among the ranks of its authors. (Russia already deals openly with Hamas, while key EU states have lowered the bar by their willingness to deal with any PA unity government that does not accept the Quartet conditions provided it does not explicitly reject them).
Likewise when it comes to the reform of the Palestinian security forces, Abbas insists that Fatah and Hamas should integrate only in the Gaza Strip, providing him a renewed foothold in territory controlled by Hamas while continuing to exclude Hamas from the West Bank.
Just as Abbas cannot accept an agreement with Hamas that legitimizes resistance to Israeli occupation, so the Islamists cannot acquiesce to a formula that endorses Oslo and Annapolis – whether in terms of open-ended diplomacy or continued security cooperation with Israel. Either would be an act of self-negation requiring too high a political price. Absent consensus on the big issues, meaningful agreement on interim measures seems equally unlikely because any equitable agreement will be seen as a mechanism for the other to gain traction in what has been hegemonic turf since the factional conflict of mid-2007.
Given that one issue the parties have agreed upon is the conduct of new presidential and legislative elections in early 2010, one might conclude that the only viable option is to grin and bear it until the electorate breaks the deadlock. Yet here again, the commitment to participate in these elections in the absence of national reconciliation in 2009 should not be taken for granted. Nor should the determination of the US, EU and Israel to sabotage Palestinian democracy be underestimated – including episodes like the US-sponsored coup preparations, the diplomatic boycott of the post-2006 PA government and the refusal to provide reconstruction assistance to Gaza after the war earlier this year.
Ultimately, Abbas’ confidence derives from his conviction that Obama will act where Bush failed and that active US engagement makes Israeli recalcitrance irrelevant and will enable him to outflank and marginalize Hamas – and, judging by his recent appointment of a government despite vehement opposition from within his own movement, Fatah as well.
While it stands to reason that Obama will seek to reinvigorate Bush’s framework for addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it is far from clear this will prove a boon to the intended beneficiary.
For one, the Islamists have sufficient power on the ground to deal effectively with any effort to strengthen their rival and cut them down to size. Perhaps more importantly, Palestinian popular opinion, while not necessarily supportive of Hamas’ own program, appears to be swinging decisively against any revival of a process that exists for its own sake rather than for an irreversible end to occupation.
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Yuri’s Night Greeting from Expedition 43 Commander Terry Virts
Expedition 43 commander Terry Virts of NASA took time to send a special message to celebrators around the globe recognizing the anniversary of the first human space flight. On April 12, 1961, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space, making a 108-minute orbital flight in his Vostok 1 spacecraft. Space cooperation has been a hallmark of U.S.-Russia relations, including during the height of the Cold War, and most notably, in the past 14 consecutive years of continuous human
Japanese Vocab Builder #5 - Too Cool For School? Top 15 Phrases for Bad Students!
Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com! Our Japanese vocabulary lists are listener favorites, and now we’ve made it even better! In each lesson, you’ll hear the Japanese words and phrases from the Japanese vocabulary lists. Join us for Japanese Vocab Builder! In this lesson, you’ll learn the words and phrases about bad students. Click here to make [...]
Author(s): JapanesePod101.com
11.601 Introduction to Environmental Policy and Planning (MIT)
This course is the first subject in the Environmental Policy and Planning sequence. It reviews philosophical debates including growth vs. deep ecology, "command-and-control" vs. market-oriented approaches to regulation, and the importance of expertise vs. indigenous knowledge. Its emphasis is placed on environmental planning techniques and strategies. Related topics include the management of sustainability, the politics of ecosystem management, environmental governance and the changing
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Les pompes à chaleur géothermique (Vidéo)
Dans cette vidéo, Sandrine Pincemin présente le fonctionnement, la performance et les différents types de pompes à chaleur, systèmes thermodynamiques permettant de prélever de l'énergie d'une source froide afin de la porter vers une source chaude.
Money talks: Tense trading
Soumaya Keynes, our economics correspondent, discusses whether President Trump's drastic proposals will break the NAFTA trade pact. Also: Why IBM’s recovery is incomplete and a rare glimpse into the HQ of the German retailer Aldi. Simon long hosts.
Harvard University: Year in Pictures 2013-2014
Try some yourself
What is 370.76 grams in kilograms? There are 1000 grams in a kilogram.
370.76 ÷ 1000 = 0.370 76.
So 370.76 g = 0.370
1.1 Declining fertility
In Britain, fertility decline occurred roughly between 1860 and 1930 – a span which includes the middle and end of the Victorian period (1860–1900), the Edwardian period (1900–1914), the First World War (1914–1918) and the 1920s. We will focus on the British experience, although a similar phenomenon has been noted in many other parts of the world. Fertility decline, also known as the demographic transition, is characterised by a shift from a ‘traditional’ norm of large families an
The week ahead: Runners and riders
Democrats prepare for their first primary debate in America, Egypt holds a round of parliamentary elections and the Man Booker Prize is awarded to the best English-language novel
SEMINAIRE DE CHIRURGIE GYNECOLOGIQUE: cancer de la vulve ( diagnostic et traitement)
SEMINAIRE DE CHIRURGIE GYNECOLOGIQUE
Oncologie mammaire et pelvienne
DAKAR - du 6 juin au 10 juin 2011
Faculté de médecine de Pharmacie et d'Odontologie
Université Cheikh Anta Diop
Hôpital de Pikine
Sous l'Egide
Ministère français des Affaires Etrangères et Européennes
Fonds de Solidarité Prioritaire - Mortalité et Morbidité de la Mère et de l'Enfant (http://www.mere-enfant.org)
UNF3S Université Numérique des Sciences de la
Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and conditions), this content is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Licence
Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources for permission to reproduce mater
Electric Eddy and the Return of the Prodigal Son
Eddy and Delta discover how energy inefficient a young student can be. But what would it takes to make him more environmentally aware? (02:13)
The Economist asks: How will worries over technology shape our digital future?
As gadgets become more intelligent, should we embrace smart devices or fear them? Thomas Rid, a professor at King's College and author of a new book, Rise of the Machines: A Cybernetic History, talks to our editors Kenneth Cukier and Edward Lucas
Drug Administration was developed by Chris Palmer
This content has the following license - Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike
Author(s): Palmer, Chris
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike
1.7.2 Summary
The EU is an economic, juridical and, to a certain extent, a political reality but a single European public space has not emerged yet.
The establishment of European citizenship could play a crucial part in fostering a common European public space.
European citizenship could encourage Europeans to play a more active role in EU affairs and participate in governance processes.
UNSPECIFIED - UNSPECIFIED Keywords:UNSPECIFIED
Melbourne Cup Live Streaming
Author(s): david.clayton220
Microsoft Visual Basic Queues
David Waldo
This module describes the very basics of Micorsoft Visual Basic queues and also the AutoResetEvent event.
The Future of Web Archiving
The web is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2014, and although more organizations than ever are preserving web content, preservation of and access to archived content remains challenging on many fronts. This panel provided an opportunity to reflect not only where we are today, but the future of web archiving, featuring brief presentations by experts working in the field. Presenters included Stephen Abrams (California Digital Library), Martin Klein (Los Alamos National Laboratory), Jimmy Lin (
Mathematical Methods II (2012)
This course consists of a introduction to linear algebra.
Author(s): MarÃa Barbero Liñán
Copyright 2009, by the Contributing Authors
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XXXTentacion sent directly to jail after being slapped with 7 new felony charges
By Caitlyn Hitt
Do not pass go, do not collect $200.
Rapper XXXTentacion, real name Jahseh Onfroy, was jailed Friday morning after prosecutors hit him with seven new felony charges. Each one is related to a 2016 domestic violence case against the Florida native.
Onfroy, 19, is facing charges that include witness tampering and witness harassment, online court records confirm.
According to TMZ, prosecutors believe he may have coerced the former girlfriend linked to the case, whom he's accused of brutalizing.
The additional charges come not long after Onfroy filed a document, which he alleged the victim signed, stating that she no longer wished to pursue legal action against him. This filing delayed his trial.
During Friday's hearing in Miami-Dade County, Judge Teresa Mary Pooler determined that Onfroy had violated his bond from his initial arrest.
As such, the musician was taken directly to jail where he's likely to remain until his next trial date.
XXXTentacion was sent directly to jail Friday morning after prosecutors added seven additional felonies to his case and the judge determined that he’d violated his bond from a previous arrest. (Florida Dept. of Corrections)
Onfroy is now facing decades behind bars.
In October 2016 he was charged with aggravated battery against his pregnant ex-girlfriend, false imprisonment, domestic battery by strangulation and witness tampering.
Excerpts from the victim's lengthy testimony, obtained by Pitchfork, suggest Onfroy had been regularly abusive toward his then-girlfriend.
The woman claimed she and Onfroy began living together in May 2016. She said two weeks later, he slapped her and damaged her iPhone after she complimented another man's jewelry.
According to the victim, that same day Onfroy ordered her to choose whether to have a "barbecue pitchfork" or a "barbecue cleaner" put inside her vagina.
She alleged, in her testimony, that her former boyfriend became increasingly violent following the two incidents, threatening her life "literally like every day." She added that he head-butted, punched, stomped, and kicked her once for humming along to a song and threatened to cut her tongue out.
entertainment gallery
Stars in trouble with the law
In August Onfroy was arrested for a separate incident where he was charged with aggravated battery with a firearm, armed home invasion and robbery. He later plead no contest to all charges and received 6 years of probation
After his release, she and Onfroy moved back in together in North Miami. She said in her testimony that after learning she had been intimate with another man, Onfroy became even more abusive.
He reportedly brandished a glass bottle at her while shouting that he was "going to f--- you up."
A week later they moved into an apartment together in Sweetwater, at which time Onfroy allegedly strangled the woman more than once. She said another resident intervened.
The victim learned she was pregnant this past October. That month she claims Onfroy made calls to the man whom she slept with while he was in jail, threatening to kill her and her unborn baby.
She also claimed he head-butted, punched, elbowed, strangled and threatened to kill her in the bathtub.
Onfroy pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.
celebrities busted
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Watch videos from the 2018 Summit
Welcome Remarks with A.G. Sulzberger, Publisher, The New York Times
DealBook 2018: Introductory Remarks
The Six-Trillion-Dollar Man and His Social Message
Laurence D. Fink, Chairman and C.E.O., BlackRock, Inc.
Ahead of the Midterms: A 10-K for America
Steve Ballmer, Founder, USAFacts and Former C.E.O., Microsoft
Media, Millennials and Our Cultural Vices
Nancy Dubuc, C.E.O., VICE Media
Task Force Report-Back: Ethical AI
Rebecca Blumenstein, Deputy Managing Editor, The New York Times
Screen Time: The Future of What We Watch
Lachlan Murdoch, Executive Chairman, 21st Century Fox
Searching for the Super Pill
Kenneth C. Frazier, Chairman and C.E.O., Merck & Co.
#Let'sTalk
Lisa Borders, President and C.E.O., TIME'S UP
Padma Lakshmi, Author, Host and Executive Producer of Bravo’s “Top Chef”
Task Force Report-Back: Workplace Diversity
David Gelles, Corner Office Columnist, The New York Times
The Future, Now.
Marc Raibert, Founder and C.E.O., Boston Dynamics
with SpotMini
The C.E.O. Selfie
Evan Spiegel, Co-Founder and C.E.O., Snap Inc
Trump, The Valley and What’s Next
Peter Thiel, Partner, Founders Fund
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N.Y. / Region|Doubts Rise on Bedbug-Sniffing Dogs
Doubts Rise on Bedbug-Sniffing Dogs
By CARA BUCKLEY NOV. 11, 2010
A vial of bedbugs was placed on a chair so Summer, a 4-year-old German shepherd, could demonstrate her sniffing skills. Credit Ruby Washington/The New York Times
If any heroes have emerged in the bedbug epidemic sweeping households, movie theaters, retailers, schools, offices, you-name-it nationwide, it is surely bedbug-sniffing dogs.
Cute, diligent and armed with highly sophisticated detection tools — their noses — these dogs are fast becoming the American equivalent of the St. Bernard rescuing the snowbound in the Alps. Commercials vaunt bedbug-sniffing dogs’ prowess and purport up to 98 percent accuracy. In New York, a bedbug-sniffing beagle named Roscoe has become so well known — he has a Facebook page and now an iPhone app — that fellow beagles often are mistaken for him on the street.
But as the number of reported infestations rises and the demand for the dogs soars, complaints from people who say dogs have inaccurately detected bedbugs are also climbing. And in the bedbug industry, where some dog trainers and sellers have back orders until spring despite the dogs’ $11,000 price tag, there are fears that a rise in so-called false positives by dogs will harm their credibility and business.
“Many pest control companies have the same frustration,” said Michael F. Potter, an entomology professor at the University of Kentucky, “that they often follow behind dogs that are indicating bedbugs, and they can’t find anything.”
In a co-op near Union Square in New York, a dog indicated bedbugs in a third of the 50-odd apartments, though physical traces of bedbugs were found in only five, according to one resident. He resisted pressure from the co-op board to get a $1,500 treatment because his family had not been bitten by or seen traces of bugs.
A designer on the Upper West Side said a dog brought in by her co-op to inspect every apartment had detected bedbugs in her home even though neither she nor her husband had been bitten. An inspection by a different exterminator revealed no bedbugs, but her building paid thousands of dollars for apartments to be treated, including those where bedbugs had not been found.
Jessica Silver and her husband paid $3,500 in extermination fees after a dog indicated there were bedbugs throughout their row house in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn. They got rid of 40 garbage bags full of clothes and baby toys that they feared were infested and their Pottery Barn queen-size bed. But Mrs. Silver continued to get bitten, and she called another exterminator, John Furman of Boot-a-Pest, based on Long Island, who spent two hours combing through her bedroom, where the biting was taking place, only to find no traces of bedbugs, alive or dead.
The culprits, she eventually discovered, were rodent mites. Mr. Furman said the antibedbug treatment probably killed some mites but failed to eradicate their breeding grounds in the walls.
Mrs. Silver did not want to name the bedbug-sniffing dog company she used. After she posted details of her case on an online bedbug forum, she said a company representative threatened to sue her for slander, and the moderator of the forum took her post down.
“Everyone’s getting sucked into the whole bedbug pandemonium,” Mrs. Silver said.
While many dog companies advertise an accuracy rate of 95 percent to 98 percent, that figure is taken from a 2008 clinical trial conducted under controlled conditions by an entomology team at the University of Florida. Their findings do not necessarily reflect the success rate of individual companies’ dogs, operating in the real world with a lot more variables.
Dog experts say false positives can result from the poor training of a dog or its handler. The dog might detect a different type of insect. Or the dog could be reacting to a cue from its handler, be it accidental, like reaching for a treat to reward the dog, or, more ominously, on purpose. Pepe Peruyero, a trainer who runs the J&K Canine Academy near Gainesville, Fla., said if a dog’s company also offered extermination treatment, it was “financially advantageous” to have a dog alert.
False alerts can also be made by well-trained, highly attuned dogs. Andrew Klein of Assured Environments, based in New York, said dogs might pick up on bedbug scents transmitted by clothes or wafting through ventilation from a neighboring apartment. “The dog can’t tell us gradations of intensity,” Mr. Klein said. “If there is no bug, if there is no bite, we monitor.”
The apartment in Union Square had bedbugs a year earlier; though the bugs were eradicated, it was possible their scent remained. The owner of that apartment, as well as the Upper West Side designer, spoke on condition of anonymity because they did not want their names associated with bedbugs, but others in their buildings also said that dogs had indicated bedbugs even though no physical evidence of the bugs was found.
Some also believed their co-op boards overreacted by paying to treat their apartments. “You’re under pressure to go the extra step even if you don’t think it’s warranted,” said a lawyer who lives in the same building as the designer, who also spoke on condition of anonymity. “It’s you against the dog.”
Bell Environmental Services, which performed the inspection in both buildings, said that just because bedbugs could not be found did not mean the dog was wrong. The bedbugs could move or be hidden, the company said, and up to 50 percent of people experience no reaction from bedbug bites.
Physical evidence is especially hard to see. A newly hatched bedbug is the size of a pen tip, and fecal droppings are the size of an ink dot.
“The search for a bedbug can be similar to trying to find a moving needle in a haystack,” the company said in a statement.
Bell, which is the owner of Roscoe, added that it explicitly warned customers when its technicians had not corroborated dog alerts with physical evidence, and that the decision to treat is made only by co-op boards or residents. If its findings are questioned, Bell offers to send in a second dog to inspect areas where dogs have detected but not found bedbugs, the company said, and uses dogs that are constantly trained to sniff out bedbugs and distinguish them from other insects.
It is unclear how often false positives occur or lead to expensive extermination treatments (there are also cases of false negatives, when bedbugs are present but not detected). The state consumer protection boards in New York and New Jersey said they had no records of complaints, including complaints of false positives, made against companies that use bedbug-sniffing dogs.
Mr. Peruyero, the dog trainer, is pushing for scent-detection dogs to be certified through an independent oversight board, the National Entomology Scent Detection Canine Association. But there is factionalism and fighting in the industry, said Philip G. Koehler, an entomologist at the University of Florida, over which association, if any, should certify the dogs.
“The bedbug thing has grown so rapidly that it’s grown ahead of the regulations,” Professor Koehler said.
A version of this article appears in print on November 12, 2010, on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: As the Dogs Sniff for Bedbugs, Some Homeowners Smell a Rat. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
TIMES TOPIC
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Asia Pacific|Treason Trial for Pakistani Journalist Signals New Pressure on Media
Treason Trial for Pakistani Journalist Signals New Pressure on Media
The Dawn newsroom in Karachi, Pakistan. Cyril Almeida, a columnist for the newspaper, has been summoned to appear before the High Court in Lahore on accusations of treason.CreditCreditThe New York Times
A prominent Pakistani journalist has been ordered to face a court hearing on accusations of treason next week, in a case the country’s press corps says is one of several recent attempts under the new government to intimidate the news media into silence.
The journalist, Cyril Almeida, a leading columnist for the newspaper Dawn, has been summoned to appear before the High Court in Lahore on Monday. The accusation stems from an article he wrote in May that featured an interview with former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who was at loggerheads with Pakistan’s powerful military until he was ousted last year.
In the interview, Mr. Sharif appeared to reinforce India’s accusation that Pakistan’s military aided the militants who carried out the 2008 Mumbai attacks, which killed more than 160 locals and foreign tourists.
Mr. Almeida’s summons to stand trial on a potentially capital offense for simply conducting an interview was instantly alarming to veteran Pakistani journalists, who were already worried that the country’s new government will continue the intimidation tactics favored by the military in the lead-up to the parliamentary election in July. Pakistan’s opposition and European observers said the military created an unlevel playing field before the polls, censoring the news media and pressuring candidates to secure a victory for Imran Khan, who became prime minister in August.
On Tuesday, journalists, editors and other civil society groups will stage a demonstration against the court’s action against Mr. Almeida and what they say is pressure on media organizations to stifle criticism of the government and military.
“This is the darkest period for journalism in the country’s history, no doubt about it,” said Afzal Butt, president of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists.
In the months before the election, several journalists were beaten or abducted, with only one thread tying them together: their criticism of the military.
In June, the columnist and political commentator Gul Bukhari was abducted in an army-controlled area of Lahore by unknown attackers, including men in military uniform. And Dawn, which Mr. Almeida works for, was prevented from being distributed in military cantonments, which make up large residential areas of most Pakistani cities.
Mr. Almeida and the editors at Dawn declined to comment for this article, citing the coming trial.
Before the election, while most parties decried the pressure on the news media, Mr. Khan was silent. In an interview with The New York Times weeks before the polls, he said that the pressure certain media outlets came under was deserved, as they supported Mr. Sharif, the ousted prime minister.
But in the same breath, Mr. Khan insisted that the news media was free.
“Pakistan’s media is one of the most vibrant medias in the world,” he said in the interview. “Watch the programs every evening. There are 10 current affairs programs going on; everyone expresses their views.”
Prime Minister Imran Khan, center, in Islamabad in August. Journalists say his hostility toward the news media is more dangerous than that of previous governments.CreditAnjum Naveed/Associated Press
Many journalists and editors say the current hostility is more dangerous than pressure seen under previous governments: They see it as coming from all pillars of the state, with Mr. Khan’s government considered closely in sync with the courts and the military. The military is accused of pressuring the courts to block any opposition — or even criticism — of Pakistan’s powerful army, and military pressure was seen as a factor in the court’s ruling last year removing Mr. Sharif from office on corruption charges.
Soon after the inauguration of Mr. Khan’s new government, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry raised hopes among the international news media when he said in an interview in August that he would ease visa restrictions for foreign journalists. But since then, editors and reporters have been on edge.
In mid-September, Mr. Khan created the Content Committee, a board to coordinate and oversee the distribution of state advertisements to local newspapers and electronic media. The government is the country’s largest media advertiser and has not paid its recent bills, several newspaper publishers said, leaving hundreds of journalists and other media employees without salaries for the past four months.
Editors and publishers fear that the Content Committee may favor media outlets deemed to be supportive of Mr. Khan’s government while indirectly punishing those that are critical by withholding needed advertising.
“We have to wait and see if this is a monitoring body to favor some groups and curtail advertisement for others that in the past or present were critical to government,” said Mazhar Abbas, the former secretary general of Pakistan’s journalist union.
“The tactics are now different, to financially cripple strong media houses, unlike before where they may ban a newspaper for some time. By crippling the media houses, newspapers are curbing their reporting, reducing their pages,” Mr. Abbas added.
Mr. Almeida is not the first journalist to be charged with treason, and Mr. Khan is certainly not the first Pakistani leader to be accused of hostility toward the news media. During Mr. Sharif’s second term as prime minister in 1999, Najam Sethi, a prominent journalist and editor, was beaten and arrested on suspicion of treason after he gave an inflammatory speech while visiting India. He was detained for several weeks, but the Supreme Court ordered the charges against him dropped.
But Mr. Abbas and others say Mr. Almeida’s case is unique because his treason charges stem directly from an interview he conducted.
“If an interview is now a crime, how can we do our jobs?” Mr. Abbas asked.
This month, the Ministry of Information started a Twitter account called Fake News Buster, supposedly to debunk social media rumors. The move was a chilling reminder of the army’s warning to journalists before the election that their social media accounts were being monitored, hinting that they would be punished for any posts that were unfavorable to Pakistan.
“This seems to be a well-thought, sinister move on the part of both government and military to remodel and regulate the country’s print and electronic media industry to strengthen the military’s narrative about politics and the economy at the cost of constitutionally guaranteed freedoms,” said Matiullah Jan, a prominent talk show host.
The tendency of officials to “paint critics as anti-state and traitors is pressurizing and endangering the lives of journalists,” Mr. Jan added.
A version of this article appears in print on , Section A, Page 6 of the New York edition with the headline: Pakistani Columnist Charged With Treason for Interview. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
In Pre-Election Pakistan, a Military Crackdown Is the Real Issue
Top Pakistani News Channel Is Forced Off Air, and Eyes Are on the Military
Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Is Toppled by Corruption Case
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Politics|Trump Issues First Veto After Congress Rejects Border Emergency
Trump Issues First Veto After Congress Rejects Border Emergency
President Trump rejected legislation on Friday that would have blocked his declaration of a national emergency to fund a wall along the southwestern border.CreditCreditSarah Silbiger/The New York Times
By Michael Tackett
WASHINGTON — President Trump on Friday issued his first veto, rejecting legislation to overturn his declaration of a national emergency to fund a wall along the southwestern border. The bill had attracted significant Republican support in Congress, a rare and notable departure from partisan solidarity.
“Today, I am vetoing this resolution,” Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “Congress has the freedom to pass this resolution, and I have the duty to veto it.” The president called the resolution “dangerous,” “reckless” and a “vote against reality.”
Mr. Trump was flanked by Vice President Mike Pence, Attorney General William P. Barr and Kirstjen Nielsen, the homeland security secretary. Mr. Barr said the president’s emergency order was “clearly authorized under the law” and “solidly grounded in law.”
The veto, which was expected, will send the legislation back to Congress, which almost certainly does not have enough votes for an override. That means Mr. Trump’s declaration will remain in effect.
Democrats were quick to condemn the president’s action.
“It is no surprise that the president holds the rule of law and our Constitution in minimal regard,” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, said in a statement. “There is no emergency; Congress has refused to fund his wall multiple times; Mexico won’t pay for it; and a bipartisan majority in both chambers just voted to terminate his fake emergency.”
To that, Speaker Nancy Pelosi added, “The House and Senate resoundingly rejected the president’s lawless power grab, yet the president has chosen to continue to defy the Constitution, the Congress and the will of the American people.”
Mr. Trump has long insisted that there was a security and humanitarian crisis at the border with Mexico, an assertion that was undercut by Mr. Trump himself when he acknowledged that he could have waited to issue a declaration. But on Friday, he offered a flurry of statistics to support his contention, though many were vague. He blurred numbers that reflected a humanitarian problem with those he said represented a security issue.
Democrats had seized on his earlier words and cited other government data that shows there has been no flood of criminal migrants coming into the United States. Some Republicans shared that view.
But others said they opposed the president on the grounds that it was the duty of Congress to appropriate taxpayer dollars and that Mr. Trump had exceeded his authority. On Thursday, a dozen Republicans joined Senate Democrats in voting to overturn Mr. Trump’s emergency declaration, 59 to 41.
“Never before has a president asked for funding, Congress has not provided it and the president then has used the National Emergencies Act of 1976 to spend the money anyway,” Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, said after the vote. Senator Jerry Moran, Republican of Kansas, said he thought Mr. Trump’s declaration was unconstitutional.
The president said on Friday that he understood why some Republicans believed he had overreached. “They’re doing what they have to do, and I put no pressure on anybody,” Mr. Trump said. “I actually said, ‘I could have gotten some of them to come along.’ I said: ‘I want you to vote your heart. Do what you want to do. I’m not putting any pressure.’”
“I’ll let them know when there’s pressure, O.K.?” he added. “And I told them that. I said, ‘When I need your vote, I’m going to let you know.’ I didn’t need the vote because we all knew it was going to be a veto, and they’re not going to be able to override. It’s going to go very quickly.”
Mr. Trump has held broad sway over congressional Republicans in his first two years in office. The decision by the dozen Senate Republicans to side with Democrats on an issue central to the president’s agenda was seen as a reclaiming of the role of Congress as a coequal branch of government.
Mr. Trump was undeterred by the Republican opposition and quickly signaled his next step when he tweeted “VETO!” not long after the vote. The president said on Friday that there was nothing less than an “invasion” of the United States by migrants, and he added that so many of them had been apprehended that there was “nowhere left to hold all of the people that we’re capturing.”
Even if Congress fails to override the veto, the emergency declaration is already drawing court challenges.
A coalition of 20 states, including California and New York, sued last month over Mr. Trump’s use of emergency powers, arguing that the president does not have the authority to divert funds for building a wall along the Mexican border because it is Congress that controls spending.
Xavier Becerra, the attorney general of California, said that Congress had sent a clear message that “your supposed ‘emergency’ isn’t one.”
He added, “We are determined to stop his fabricated emergency in its tracks.”
Anthony D. Romero, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement that “even members of President Trump’s own party are beginning to realize that he is a one-man constitutional crisis.”
“The president’s veto is as meaningless as his signature on the national emergency declaration,” he added. “Congress has rejected the president’s declaration, and now the courts will be the ultimate arbiter of its legality. We look forward to seeing him in court and to the shellacking that he will receive at the hands of an independent judiciary.”
A version of this article appears in print on , Section A, Page 15 of the New York edition with the headline: Trump Issues First Veto After Congress Blocks Border Wall Emergency. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
Senate Rejects Trump’s Border Emergency Declaration, Setting Up First Veto
Trump Proposes a Record $4.75 Trillion Budget
Trump Repeats Unfounded Arguments in New Appeal for a Border Wall
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Europe|European Heat Wave? It’s the New Normal.
European Heat Wave? It’s the New Normal.
Meteorologists say temperatures could climb above 40 degrees Celsius, or more than 104 degrees Fahrenheit, across large stretches of the continent.
A fountain on Wednesday in Lustgarten park in Berlin. This week’s heat is likely to set a record in Germany, meteorologists said.CreditCreditSean Gallup/Getty Images
By Megan Specia
Temperatures were set to soar across Europe beginning on Wednesday, with authorities from Paris to Warsaw issuing heat alerts, canceling events and bracing for potentially record heat across the region.
Meteorologists say the temperatures, a result of a warm air mass traveling north from Africa, could climb well above the typical June average to 40 degrees Celsius, or more than 104 degrees Fahrenheit, in large stretches of the continent.
Temperatures hit 98 degrees Fahrenheit in Berlin, 96 degrees in Vienna, 95 degrees in Warsaw and 92 degrees in Paris, and it was likely to get worse, not better, in many places.
Heat waves like these are becoming more frequent and prolonged, with hotter temperatures appearing earlier in the season, weather experts say. Here’s what to know as the mercury rises.
Exams will be postponed — and so will vacations.
Governments and residents were scrambling to make preparations for the worst of the weather, expected to peak on Friday afternoon before easing over the weekend.
“The whole government is mobilized,” President Emmanuel Macron told reporters on Monday as the heat wave made headlines and dominated television.
A beach in San Sebastián, Spain, on Wednesday. The national weather agency issued warnings for several parts of the country.CreditJavier Etxezarreta/EPA, via Shutterstock
In France, memories of a deadly 2003 heat wave that killed 15,000 people in the country and left much of Europe sweltering still loom large. Around the country, fans and air-conditioners flew off store shelves.
Because of the heat, the education ministry made a rare decision to postpone exams for middle school students that were scheduled for Thursday and Friday.
Karine Sabatier, 47, who was on her lunch break in the Tuileries gardens in Paris near her offices on Tuesday, said that one of her two children was taking the exam, and that her family was forced to delay vacation plans because of the change.
“It’s true that it’s a bit bothersome, but I understand the measure,” she said. “Some schools don’t have any air-conditioning at all.”
In Paris, older, sick and vulnerable people were encouraged to sign up for a service that provides regular check-ins by phone, and city authorities announced that some parks would be open overnight.
The temperatures held the potential to affect the quarterfinal stage of the Women’s World Cup, which is being played in France. Regulations call for water breaks if the weather surpasses 32 degrees Celsius, or nearly 90 degrees Fahrenheit.
In Spain, the national weather agency issued warnings for several parts of the country, with temperatures expected to climb by the weekend to above 40 degrees Celsius — or more than 104 degrees Fahrenheit — in Madrid and other inland areas.
Cardinals took shelter from the sun during the pope’s general audience on Wednesday in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City.CreditAngelo Carconi/EPA, via Shutterstock
As temperatures approached 100 degrees Fahrenheit in Vienna, the authorities rolled out a series of measures to help cool the streets down. The town hall installed mist showers in busy spots, sprayed the hot asphalt on main thoroughfares with water and opened up several swimming pools at no charge.
The city of Innsbruck in the Alps gave its carriage horses the day off as it prepared for the heat, and the Vienna Zoo helped its great apes cool off with buckets of fresh water.
The German meteorological service said this week’s heat would most likely exceed a June national record of 38.5 degrees Celsius, or 101.3 degrees Fahrenheit, set seven decades ago in the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg. Temperatures could also shatter an overall heat record for the country, the agency said.
As temperatures rose in Germany, some people struggled to keep their clothes on. In North Rhine-Westphalia, a man took his clothes off in the frozen foods section of a supermarket on Monday. The police in the state of Brandenburg, near Berlin, said a man rode a scooter in the nude on a public road on Wednesday. When stopped, the man said, “It’s just hot, what?”
The heat wave is Europe’s new normal.
While scientists have yet to draw a firm connection between this particular heat wave and global warming, it fits a clear overall trend. As the climate changes because of greenhouse gas emissions, heat waves around the world are occurring more often, and they are hotter and last longer.
Lemurs at a zoo in Erfurt, Germany, were given fruit-filled ice blocks on Wednesday.CreditJens Meyer/Associated Press
The jet stream and other circulation patterns are changing. This favors the buildup of hot and dry conditions over the continent, sometimes turning a few sunny days into dangerous heat waves, according to Dim Coumou, a researcher at the Institute for Environmental Studies at Vrije University in Amsterdam.
Isabelle Janin, 60, who works in Paris and was reading in the shade on Tuesday, said that while the temperatures shouldn’t be a cause for panic, it was worrying to see a heat wave so early in the summer.
“If it becomes a regular occurrence in 10 years, then I’ll really start worrying,” she said.
But France’s national weather agency said that heat waves were already on the rise. The number of heat waves in France has doubled in the past 34 years and is expected to double again by 2050, while their intensity has also increased.
The agency noted that temperatures this week were expected to reach a level not seen for the month of June since 1947, and could surpass that.
At the Lac de Neuchatel in Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland, on Tuesday.CreditLaurent Gillieron/Keystone, via Associated Press
In some parts of Europe, this isn’t even the first heat wave of the summer. In Poland, temperatures soared earlier this month and left the city of Skierniewice running out of water. The local government asked people to limit activities like watering lawns and washing cars. Alerts have been issued for nearly all provinces for the upcoming temperatures.
The heat in Hungary has already broken records this month, reaching 35.8 Celsius in Budapest on June 17, a new high for this time of year.
Ahead of the heat wave, torrential rains fell in parts of Europe, causing floods and disruption. It took two trains heading for the Black Sea coast in Romania over 24 hours to make the journey from the west of the country after departing on Monday evening, more than double the time scheduled, because the track was washed away by the flood.
The Swiss government’s meteorological agency, MeteoSwiss, issued a rare level 4 heat warning for some pockets of the country, its highest alert level. The city of Geneva sent out 13,000 brochures to people over age 75 with advice on how to keep safe during heat waves. A map showed parks and indoor spaces where people can cool off free.
Infrastructure could be damaged.
One of the biggest concerns across stretches of Europe is that transit infrastructure — like tram and train tracks — could buckle and cause accidents, and the imposition of speed limits to help increase safety could slow traffic.
Tourists filling water bottles at a public fountain in Rome on Tuesday.CreditAlberto Pizzoli/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Polish officials have also warned drivers of potential cracks on the road as the sun bakes the asphalt and possible train delays as the heat scorches the tracks.
Saxony-Anhalt, a state in the center of Germany, issued temporary speed limits on two sections of the country’s famous autobahn, as engineers fear the heat could lead to minor road damage as the asphalt expands and buckles.
On one section that usually does not have speed limits, drivers will have to slow down to 120 kilometers an hour, or roughly 75 miles an hour. On another stretch, drivers will be limited to 100 kilometers per hour, around 62 miles per hour.
Warnings about the rising risk of wildfires have also been issued in many of the affected countries, a cause for concern as there is already an increase in fires this year.
Sunbathing along the banks of the Seine river in Paris on Wednesday. The French government took steps to ensure the safety of people who are vulnerable to heat.CreditYoan Valat/EPA, via Shutterstock
By mid-June, the number of wildfires across Europe had already far exceeded those in the entire 2018 season, according to the Emergency Management Service of the European Union agency Copernicus.
Spain issued fire alerts for regions stretching from Extremadura, in the west, to Catalonia, in the northeast of the country, after a particularly dry winter and spring.
The German state of Brandenburg was on high alert for forest fires around Berlin. Authorities worry that the fires could lead to the detonation of buried and long-forgotten unexploded ordnance from World War II.
Reporting was contributed by Palko Karasz from London, Marc Santora from Warsaw, Aurelien Breeden and Constant Meheut from Paris, Raphael Minder from Madrid, and Christopher F. Schuetze from Berlin.
Megan Specia is a story editor on the International Desk, specializing in digital storytelling and breaking news. @meganspecia
A version of this article appears in print on , Section A, Page 6 of the New York edition with the headline: Nude in the Frozen Foods? Signs of Europe’s Heat Wave. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
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Ericsson Demonstrates LTE Advanced to Regulators
Using commercial hardware, telecommunications equipment vendor Ericsson demonstrated LTE Advanced to regulators in Stockholm on Tuesday.
The demonstration was the first time Ericsson has showcased key LTE Advanced functionality such as carrier aggregation over the air, using spectrum it had borrowed from the Swedish regulator PTS, in a mobile environment, the company said.
The easiest way to increase mobile broadband speeds is to use wider channels. But spectrum is a limited resource, so the telecom industry has had to come up with a solution that circumvents that reality, and that is carrier aggregation. The technology allows operators to bunch together spectrum in different bands and use them as one data link.
The Ericsson demonstration used three channels at 20MHz each and recorded download speeds at up to about 940M bps (bits per second). That is three times as much spectrum as the current generation of LTE needs to perform at its best, which is about 80M bps. A recent test of TeliaSonera's network in Stockholm topped out at 84.5M bps.
Ericsson invited regulators to show what is possible when enough spectrum is made available and also to highlight the need for spectrum harmonization, the company said.
Swedish regulator PTS wants to encourage local operators to use carrier aggregation, which it has done by making spectrum licenses neutral, according to Urban Landmark, head of its spectrum department and one of the attendees at Ericsson's demonstration. The Swedish government wants 85 percent to 90 percent of all households and businesses to have access to at least 100M bps by 2020 and that won't be possible unless operators can use technologies such as carrier aggregations, Landmark said.
However, just using carrier aggregation isn't enough to get mobile network download speeds close to 1,000M bps. The Ericsson demonstration also used multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) functionality, a technology that increases download speeds by sending data using multiple antenna -- in this case, eight antennas in both the base station and on the user equipment. To what extent vendors are able to implement that on devices remains to be seen, but it will be easier on tablets and laptops compared to smartphones because of the increased real estate.
Ericsson expects the first stages of LTE Advanced to be in commercial operation in 2013.
LTE is still very much in its infancy, but it is the fastest developing mobile system technology ever, according to industry organization GSA (Global mobile Suppliers Association). So far, commercial networks have been launched in Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Lithuania, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Sweden, the U.S. and Uzbekistan, it said in a report published last month. The GSA expects that at least 81 networks will be in service by the end of the year and 154 firm deployments are in progress or planned in 60 countries, it said.
Send news tips and comments to mikael_ricknas@idg.com
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Hope voters to consider powering municipal buildings with solar energy
Special Town Meeting March 26
Louis Bettcher
An array of signs promoting a switch to solar energy in Hope’s municipal buildings. Photo by Lindsay Pinchbeck.
An aerial view of a town-owned property in Hope where a solar array could be placed. Source: Town of Hope
563 West Washington Road
Washington Maine 04574
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Camden makes $1 offer on South Hope land, hopes to establish solar energy project there
Camden reimbursed $15,000 following credit errors with Central Maine Power
HOPE — At a March 26 Special Town Meeting, voters in Hope will be asked to allocate funds to conduct an energy audit of three of the municipality’s buildings for the potential installation of heat pump retrofits. If this measure passes, voters will also be asked to give authority to the Board of Selectmen and the Hope Solar Committee to review the audit alongside Hope Solar Committee to negotiate a potential Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with a solar power provider.
Click here for the warrant of the special town meeting, which also includes a proposal to spend up to $30,000 on emergency repairs to two of the town’s fire engines.
The energy audit will include the Hope Town Office, the Hope Corner Fire Station and the South Hope Fire Station.
The audit may cost up to $10,000, which would be paid from the town’s undesignated fund balance, and would include an engineering analysis of the potential heat pump retrofit.
In November 2018, the Board of Selectmen created what would become the Hope Solar Committee, an ad hoc group of citizens interested in finding alternative methods to offsetting the town’s energy costs.
Chaired by Chris Pinchbeck, the committee developed a RFP (Request for Proposals,) seeking bids from solar power providers for a photovoltaic solar array which would deliver energy to the aforementioned municipal buildings.
In addition to Pinchbeck, the committee consists of Rick Bresnahan, David Hall, Thomas Ingraham, Bill Jones, Ron Smith and Langley Willauer. Hope’s Tim Lock, an architect at GO Logic, acted as a consultant.
The RFP was then issued to potential bidders by the Board of Selectmen, which asked that respondents provide a variety of scenarios for the project, some of which would include the delivery of solar energy to additional facilities, such as the town’s salt shed and the Hope Elementary School.
The two companies to reply to the RFP were Sundog Solar and Revision Energy, and their proposals appear on the Town of Hope website. (Hope has set up a page dedicated to the solar proposal documents.)
Both proposals designate a site in town proposed by the Solar Committee for the photovoltaic array, which is a town-owned field adjacent to the True Park Playing Field, on Route 105 near Hope Corner and the Hope Town Office.
The RFP issued by the town states that approximately 60,000 kilowatt hours are used each year by the Town Office, the two fire stations and the salt shed combined; it estimates that alternately a 46 kilowatt solar array could provide 95 to 100 percent of this electricity.
The RFP sought estimates to also retrofit the heat pumps at the Hope Town Office and the Hope Corner Fire Station.
This story has been edited to reflect that the committee received four scenarios but chose to go with one, which is called Scenario No. 2.
What the Hope Solar Committee recommended was to purchase a system, as funded by a PPA via Revision Energy for Scenario 2 as outlined in the RFP, according Pinchbeck.
This scenario carries a purchase price at Year 6 of $68,789, “and acts to cover all the electrical needs, as well as supplement heating costs,” said Pinchbeck.
The companies estimated that after a 30-year period, cost savings to the town would amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
A March 18 press release distributed by the Hope Solar Committee said that a portion of the project’s cost would be paid for by monies pledged, and that additional expenses would be paid by a third party who would ultimately own the solar array and sell the electricity to the town at a discounted rate.
“Already, Hope citizens have pledged $41,000 to reduce the tax burden from the project’s initial costs,” the release said. “An outside investor will finance and own the solar part of the proposed system through a power purchase agreement. Energy produced will be sold to the town at a reduced rate for an agreed period (typically 6 years.) At the end of that time the Town will purchase the system for only 44 percent of the original cost.”
The Special Town Meeting will also ask Hope voters to authorize the Board of Selectmen to spend up to $30,000 on emergency repairs to two of the town’s fire engines. The meeting will be held Tuesday, March 26, at 6:30 p.m. at the Hope Elementary School.
Reach Louis Bettcher at new@penbaypilot.com
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National Clips
May 16, 2003 2:56 AM CDT
MIAMI, Florida –Save Our Kids from Gov. Bush
On Mother’s Day scores of elected officials, community and religious leaders launched a campaign defying Governor Jeb Bush’s Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test (FCAT). The group charges that the test discriminates against African-American and Hispanic students.
The Florida Department of Education has announced that 13,000 high school seniors – 5,900 in Miami – failed the test this month and will therefore not graduate.
If no corrective measures are taken by May 22, the group vows to launch a boycott of the state’s tourism, sugar and citrus industries.
Florida House Whip Frederica Wilson (D-Miami) said she could not understand how the governor could find funding for 4,000 new prison beds, but no money for education or social services.
“I am outraged. I am livid today … I am upset with the governor of the State of Florida because he knew from the beginning who was going to pass and who wasn’t going to pass,” she said. “You will not destroy my children. If you do not adjust FCAT, we are going to boycott this state in a way you’ve never seen.”
OMAHA, Nebraska –Captive meeting turns expensive
President Bush, on the stump to sell his tax plan, scheduled a photo-op at the non-union Airlite Plastics plant, a new facility employing 570 people. Plans for his visit called for closing the plant, stopping production for 12 hours, and paying only 15 workers to stand near the podium during his speech. The other 300 workers would not be paid.
Outraged workers said that Bush’s visit would cost them over $100 each in lost wages. Just four hours before the president’s plane landed, Brad Crosby, the plant’s chief executive, announced that all would be paid their regular wages during the visit.
Outside the plant, Secret Service staff herded protesters organized by the Fair Taxes for All Coalition out of sight of the presidential motorcade.
SACRAMENTO, California – Budget deficit axes healthcare, food and public safety
While the Laci Peterson story has dominated national headlines, many seniors here are wondering where their next meal is coming from.
Sacramento County faces a $101 million deficit in its budget. County officials are preparing to close meal centers that feed 500 retirees a day and to cut health services for 38,000 people. Staffing cuts at homeless shelters will reduce available beds by 40 percent. The Department of Human Assistance will lose 330 jobs and the Department of Health and Human Services will lose 223 jobs. Legal services, public safety personnel and the coroner’s staff will also be slashed.
“In my 15 years’ experience, we’ve never had to cut homeless programs,” said Cheryl Davis, director of the Department of Human Assistance. “We’ve cut out all the fat. We’ve cut the muscle. Now we’re cutting the bone.”
OLYMPIA, Washington –Stop AIDS, violence and poverty
In April, Lynn McMullen and Jodi Bernstein were part of a group of 34 women who traveled to South Africa. They came back and applied what they learned by organizing a Mother’s Day march calling for money to combat AIDS and appealing for an end to violence and poverty.
McMullen told a rally that 26,000 of the world’s children die each day. “If those 26,000 mothers could speak, they would tell you that the four biggest causes of death [of children] are AIDS, poverty, war and debt,” she said.
Cindy Corrie, whose daughter Rachel – a peace activist who was killed in March by an Israeli bulldozer while she was trying to block a house demolition in the Gaza Strip – said, “There are times when I stayed quiet because I thought others knew more. I am no longer intimidated by the experts and the critics. I believe I can speak out and I have the responsibility as a mother to speak out for peace.”
LANSING, Michigan – Governor to veto partial birth abortion bill
The state legislature has passed a bill barring partial birth abortion, even if it is the only way to save a mother’s life, by a vote of 74-29. Newly elected Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm has announced that she will veto the legislation as a threat to women’s health.
Previous bills banning partial birth abortion passed the legislature, were signed by then Republican Governor Engler, and then declared unconstitutional by state courts.
To counter the expected veto, Michigan Right to Life forces have threatened to organize a ballot initiative calling for the ban. The Michigan American Civil Liberties Union predicts that the courts will again throw out the ban should it pass.
National clips are compiled by Denise Winebrenner Edwards (dwinebr696@aol.com)
House to pass $15 minimum wage; studies debunk GOP job loss...
The truth about reparations: They’re a condemnation of U.S. capitalism
Trumka in Ohio: Fix trade pact
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One Love Dallas has seen the ravages of the sex trafficking industry globally, but there is far less awareness that it happens in our own backyard. For that reason, we are proud to be in collaboration with a local non-profits that work with women and children.
Mosaic Family Services is a safe haven for survivors of human rights abuses, including human trafficking and domestic violence. They are dedicated to serving survivors of human rights abuses from around the world and within our community, creating opportunities for clients, and empowering them toward independence.
Mosaic has worked with refugees and immigrants since its founding in 1993, and first served victims of domestic violence in 1997 with the inception of the Multicultural Family Violence Program. In 2001, the agency began its Services for Victims of Trafficking Program, which provides comprehensive services for victims of human trafficking. The same year, Mosaic House opened its doors as the region’s first multicultural housing for victimized immigrant women and their children.
We are very pleased that One Love Dallas sponsored an Emergency Taxi service in 2015-2016 which enabled women to be rescued at a moments notice and brought to a safe house. We also enabled a yoga program from 2015-2017 for the women at the Mosaic House to help them receive all the benefits of mindful breathing and stretching. One Love also supported and collaborated with The Prana Project's April 2015 project in the donation of much needed household supplies to the Mosaic House.
In 2017, we will be supporting Hanuman Homies, a 501c3 non-profit that provides opportunities to take yoga into the community, in their efforts to take yoga to the children of Jonathan's Place. Jonathan's Place is a non profit agency formed in in May of 1991 to provide housing and specialized services to needy children with an emphasis on under-served and “at-risk” populations. Hanuman Homies will take on the joy of bringing the benefits of yoga to children in need.
Prana Project's Thom Allen with supplies for Mosaic House.
Hanuman Homies at Girl's Inc.
Yoga Instructors at Mosaic House: Tiffany Kieran and Jennifer Usherr.
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OneTravel » Caribbean » Cheap St. Vincent and The Grenadines Flights
Book Cheap Flights to St. Vincent and The Grenadines
* All fares above were last found on: Jul 15, 2019 and 5:09:05 PM. Fares are round trip, Fares incl. all fuel surcharges, our service fees and taxes. Displayed fares are based on historical data, are subject to change and cannot be guaranteed at the time of booking. See all booking terms and conditions
Search Cheap Flights to St. Vincent and The Grenadines
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is a country in the Lesser Antilles island arc. The country is in the southern portion of the Windwards Islands, in the West Indies at the eastern border of the Caribbean Sea. The country is a haven for boaters and flaunts some of the most magnificent sceneries in the Caribbean. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is a string of 36 emerald volcanic islands that stretch southwards towards Grenada. The country is home to plenty of palm-lined bays and white-sand beaches, where mega yachts and sailboats are available. There are also lots of private islands here, among which many boast lush resorts. Adventure enthusiasts can enjoy excellent opportunities for diving here. Island lovers’ throng to these serenel and unpretentious islands to enjoy classic Caribbean scenery away from the cruise ship crowds of busier ports.
Popular Destinations in St. Vincent and the Grenadines
A volcanic island in the Caribbean, Saint Vincent is the largest island of the country Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. This island is located between Saint Lucia and Grenada. In this island, there are plenty of white sand beaches and palm line bays. Tourists can enjoy diving here. Coral reefs border many of the beaches on the island. The island also boasts colonial buildings and cobbled streets. Spiritual travelers can visit a plethora of spectacular churches here.
Bequia is the second largest island of the Grenadines. This charming island is a popular yachting spot with an affluent whaling history. The main commercial center of Bequia is Port Elizabeth on Admiralty Bay. History lovers can stop by the Bequia Maritime Museum to know about the rich history of the island.
A little patch of beauty, Palm Island is home to the Palm Island Resort & Spa and a potpourri of holiday villas. This beautiful island is named after the plentiful coconut palms found here. The coast of the island is fringed by five white-sand beaches offering excellent snorkeling opportunities just offshore in turquoise water. Palm Island has a small airport and can also be accessed by a short boat ride from Union Island.
Best Time to Visit St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Weather-wise, the best time to take St. Vincent and the Grenadines flights is from December through April. It is the dry season when the sightseeing can be comfortably done without worrying about the rain. It is also the peak tourist season in the country. It is advisable to book tickets in advance to get cheap flights to St. Vincent and the Grenadines as airfares tend to rise during peak season.
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Aug 03 2014 August 3, 2014 August 3, 2014 NoComment by Administrator
Sri Lanka illegally returning Pakistani asylum seekers – UN
Sri Lanka must stop deporting Pakistani asylum seekers, a practice banned under international law, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said on Saturday.
Sri Lanka began arresting asylum seekers and refugees on June 9 and has since detained 214 Pakistanis and Afghans in two asylum centres, UNHCR said.
Authorities in Colombo said the influx of illegal immigrants in the past year had become a burden on state resources and potentially compromised state and regional security.
The Sri Lankan government also blamed people trafficking networks for the recent rise in asylum seekers reaching its shores.
In the past two days, Sri Lanka had deported 18 people, with another 10 deportations expected on Sunday, UNHCR said in a statement, adding that the repatriations breached a “no forced return” principle.
“This principle is binding on all states and precludes them from sending asylum seekers and refugees to a country where their life or freedom would be threatened,” it said.
The Convention on Torture also forbids sending people back to places where they might be tortured, it added.
Sri Lanka’s Ministry of External Affairs said the number of refugees or asylum seekers had risen by 700 percent in the 2013-2014 period. By June 30 there were 1,562 asylum seekers and 308 refugees, it said.
“These asylum seekers are being encouraged to return, in the vital security interests of Sri Lanka and the region,” it said.
The increase in numbers was due to “people falling victim to commercially-driven human trafficking networks which abuse the liberal visa policy,” as well as a slowdown in the number of refugees resettled in other countries since 2012, it said.
The influx had resulted in serious problems for law and order, security and health, the Ministry said.
“In April 2014, 10 cases of malaria were detected among these asylum seekers. This detection was made at a time when Sri Lanka, having achieved zero indigenous cases of malaria for the past several years, was under consideration for obtaining WHO certification,” it said in a statement.
The Ministry also said the UNHCR had not helped Sri Lanka to speed up the process of dealing with refugees and asylum seekers, and had not provided financial help or housing.
Some applications for resettlement of refugees in third countries had been pending for five years, it said. – Reuters
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Oregon Experience
Searching for York
Broadcasts: August 19, 10:30 p.m. [OPB TV], August 21, 3:30 a.m. [OPB TV], October 20, 9:00 p.m. [OPB TV], October 22, 2:00 a.m. [OPB TV], February 23, 9:30 p.m. [OPB TV], February 25, 2:30 a.m. [OPB TV], February 29, 9:00 p.m. [OPB TV], March 2, 2:00 a.m. [OPB TV], February 20, 9:30 p.m. [OPB TV], February 22, 2:30 a.m. [OPB TV], February 12, 9:30 p.m. [OPB TV], February 14, 2:30 a.m. [OPB TV], February 25, 9:30 p.m. [OPB TV], February 27, 2:30 a.m. [OPB TV]
The Lewis & Clark Expedition - a pivotal moment in American history. But the story of York, a slave to William Clark and comrade on this journey, has been obscured by omission and stereotype. Learn about this unofficial member of the Corps of Discovery.
The Lewis & Clark Expedition was a pivotal moment in American history. But the story of York, a slave to William Clark and comrade on this journey, has been obscured by omission and stereotype. Searching for York paints a portrait of this unofficial member of the Corps of Discovery as it discusses the ways in which history is written.
Send Oregon Experience A Message
River They Saw an Oregon Experience, The River They Saw... (302)
Ken Kesey an Oregon Experience (803)
Broken Treaties an Oregon Experience (1103)
Vanport an Oregon Experience (1101)
August 12, 9 p.m. [OPB TV]
Cuisine of Our Own an Oregon Experience, A Cuisine of Our Own (307)
Oregon Experience: Episode #307
Most Recent Broadcast: June 17, 2013
Kam Wah Chung an Oregon Experience (306)
Most Recent Broadcast: August 5, 2013
Road to Statehood an Oregon Experience (305)
Most Recent Broadcast: July 7, 2014
Logger's Daughter an Oregon Experience (304)
Searching for York (303)
Most Recent Broadcast: August 19, 2013
Most Recent Broadcast: December 23, 2013
Civilian Conservation Corps an Oregon Experience (301)
Funding Currently Provided By:
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FHA'S ROLE MAY BE RECAST, FEDERAL OFFICIAL SAYS
Jack Snyder of The Sentinel StaffTHE ORLANDO SENTINEL
The battle over the Federal Housing Administration has shifted from the proposed abolishment of the agency to an examination of its scope, a Reagan administration official told a national home-builders' group Monday.
Speaking here at an industry conference sponsored by the National Association of Home Builders, Glenn R. Wilson Jr., president of the Government National Mortgage Association and chairman of the government commission studying the FHA's future, acknowledged that a sale of the agency is unlikely.
Several months ago, the administration created a furor in Congress and the housing industry when it said it might sell the FHA's mortgage-insurance operation to private insurers. The FHA, created in 1934, provides mortgage insurance for home loans with low down payments.
Wilson said he believes the FHA fulfills a need; the question, he said, is defining the agency's role.
That may well include eliminating FHA insurance for investor loans and setting income limits for applicants, Wilson said. He said the study commission has found that, while 12 percent of the FHA's insurance is being used to back mortgages on investor-owned properties, 30 percent of the loan defaults come from that group. The commission also found that one-third of FHA borrowers have family incomes of more than $40,000 a year.
David C. Smith, president of the builders group and a Washington, D.C., builder, agreed that the FHA's abolition was all but a moot point. "I happen to believe we have the clout up on the Hill to win that battle," he said.
Larry B. Simons, a Washington lawyer and former U.S. housing commissioner, acknowledged that there have been widespread abuses in the FHA mortgage program but noted that, over the years, the program had helped boost the number of U.S. homeowners from 40 percent of all households to 67 percent at its peak in the late 1970s.
Wilson's commission is supposed to finish its report by January. Congress could take up the FHA issue next spring, but any changes would probably not take effect until mid-1988 at the earliest, Simons said.
Steve Doehler, executive vice president of the Mortgage Insurance Companies of America, a trade association of private mortgage companies, said the FHA should help low-income people buy homes but should not compete with the private sector. Buyers with incomes of more than $40,000 a year can get financing from the private sector, he said.
The housing industry opposes limiting the FHA's scope. Builders, for instance, support FHA mortgage insurance for investor-owned properties because, they say, it helps increase the supply of rental housing.
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New England Patriots Canada Betting Guide
Home/NFL Odds: Find the Best NFL Betting Odds in Canada/New England Patriots Canada Betting Guide
New England Patriots Canada Betting Guide Agnes Jackson 2019-07-11T11:46:30+00:00
New England Patriots are one of the most successful teams in the history of the National Football League. This success is often credited to the arrival of renowned quarterback, Tom Brady, and Coach Bill Belichick. For our Canadian Punters looking to place wagers on the New England Patriots games, you are at the right place.
The New England Patriots have been the National Football League champions 6 times. In the NFL there are two divisions. These are; The American Football Conference and the National Football Conference. In each of these divisions, there are four other divisions, namely the North, South, East and West. The New England Patriots fall under the east division of the American football Conference. This team hold the record for the winning the most titles in the east division. They have won 10 division titles from 2009 to 2018. If you are looking for a team to bet on in the football league, this is it.
Tops Sports Betting Sites
When it comes to betting on the New England Patriots, we recommend you use any of these highly reputable sportsbooks. They are great because they are online therefore giving Canadian punters some convenience. You can bet on your favourite team during the NFL season with ease. There are some great promotions and bonuses that are available as well.
Available Betting Options
New England Patriots Betting Tips
Moneyline – this is the simplest betting line. You are required to pick a team that you think will win in a certain match. An underdog is selected and there are odds to consider but the final outcome of the game is what matters most.
Point Spread – in this case, you don’t just pick a winning team but you also look at the margin of victory. The sportsbook will select the favourite team and the underdog going into a match set up. These teams will be marked with odds indicating that they are the favourite (+) and the underdog (-). This means that the favourites have to win by a certain margin of points for winning bets to be successful. It could also mean that the underdogs would have to lose by a certain margin for ‘losing’ bets to be successful.
NFL Futures – this is a popular betting option in the NFL. This bet is based on the events in the distant future. If you think the England Patriots will win the super bowl then your job as a punter is to bet on a team that you think will win the super bowl. The trick is to place the bet before the first game of the NFL season kicks off.
Over/Under – Sportsbooks will have a number they select as the presumed total points of the game. your job as a bettor is to bet on whether you think the actual points of the game will be higher or lower than the number indicated by bookmakers. This betting option is also referred to as the Totals option.
Proposition Bets – prop bets are great because they add entertainment value to an already fun pastime. These cannot be boxed in terms of meaning. Prop bets are usually not dependent on the final outcome of the game. One example of a prop bet is placing a wager on which player you think will score the first touch of the game between the New England Patriots and the New York Jets. If your selected player does score the first touchdown then your bet is won.
If you are interested in placing wagers on games that include the New England Patriots then it is important to consider the following:
Look at the team’s track record. Are they worth your money?
Stay updated on all information and news pertaining to the team.
Know who the strong players in the team are and place prop bets on them.
Sign up with a sportsbook that offers competitive odds.
Make use of the promotions, bonuses and other great rewards offered by the sportsbook of your choice.
Placing wagers on the New England Patriots should be a walk in the park for our Canadian punters. We encourage you to sign up with the sportsbooks that we have listed above. Get started today!
Check Out Other AFC Betting Guides:
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Acts with the most Number 1 albums on the Official UK Chart
Who's scored the most Number 1 albums in the chart's 62-year history?
By Justin Myers
To get one chart-topper is any musician's dream, but just like making your way through a packet of chocolate biscuits, once you've had one, you're desperate for another...
Most Number 1s on the Official Albums Chart
It was always going to be the Fab Four top of the heap. Over the course of their career, and even beyond their split, John, Paul, George and Ringo have together amassed 15 chart-toppers. Kicking off with debut Please Please Me in 1963, and hitting the top spot 37 years later with hits collection 1 in 2000, the Beatles have spent an incredible 174 weeks at Number 1. Please Please Me was their longest run at the summit, racking up an incredible 30 consecutive weeks at Number 1. See all the Beatles' UK hit singles and albums
Before we move away from the Beatles entirely, let's take a moment to recognise the artist who's had the most Number 1 albums of all, when other work is included: Sir Paul McCartney. Macca's not only hit Number 1 15 times with his Beatles bandmates, he's also reached the top seven further times: six as a solo artist and again with Wings & Linda McCartney. If we were crowning anyone ruler of the Official Albums Chart, Sir Paul's record of 22 chart-toppers would be pretty much incontestable. And that's why we made him our latest Official Chart Record Breaker!
MORE: "It's a beautiful feeling" – Paul McCartney named the UK's most successful albums act of all time
In second place, the King of Rock n' Roll – Elvis Presley. His first Number 1 was his UK debut, fittingly titled Elvis Presley Rock n' Roll, which spent a week at the top in November 1956.
60 years later, Elvis swivelled his hips into the chart record books when The Wonder Of You hit the top spot. The album, which featured orchestral reworkings of some of his biggest hits, gave Elvis a 13th chart-topper, making him the male solo artist with the most Number 1s. He's spent 66 weeks at the top, second behind the Beatles on that tally too. Take a look at all Elvis Presley's complete Official UK Chart history
The solo acts with the most Number 1s on the Official UK Chart are...
RANK ARTIST NUMBER OF ALBUMS
1 ELVIS PRESLEY 13
2 ROBBIE WILLIAMS 12
2 MADONNA 12
4 DAVID BOWIE 11
4 BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN 11
6 MICHAEL JACKSON 10
7 EMINEM 9
7 ROD STEWART 9
8 BOB DYLAN 8
10 CLIFF RICHARD 7
10 ELTON JOHN 7
10 PAUL MCCARTNEY 7
10 GEORGE MICHAEL 7
10 KYLIE MINOGUE 7
10 BARBRA STREISAND 7*
©2019 Official Charts Company. All rights reserved.
Robbie Williams (12)
The charismatic breakout star has 12 chart-topping albums of his own, an impressive enough record, but if you include his Number 1s while part of Take That, he'd have another four to add to his tally. That would put him as third most successful UK albums act after Paul McCartney (22) and John Lennon (18).
As a solo artist, Robbie has spent 35 weeks at the top – yep, more than Madonna (more on her later!) – and his very first Number 1 was his debut Life Thru A Lens, which took 19 weeks to climb to the summit. He most recently made Number 1 at the very end of 2016 with The Heavy Entertainment Show.
With his second swing collection Swings Both Ways released in 2013, he scored the 1,000th Number 1 album of the Official Albums Chart since 1956 - impressive work! Take a look at Robbie's list of Number 1 albums
The female solo star with the most albums to hit the top, and in joint third place overall, is Madonna. She first hit the top in 1985, when sophomore album Like A Virgin finally reached Number 1 in its 44th week on the chart, and most recently found herself there in 2012, with MDNA, her 12th chart-topper (if you include the Evita soundtrack, which we do).
Madonna's scored 30 weeks at Number 1, and was recently overtaken by Adele as female artist with most weeks at the top. Her longest run was 1990's hits retrospective The Immaculate Collection, one of the biggest selling albums of all time, which notched up nine straight weeks. Madonna's full Official Chart history
With eleven Number 1 albums to their name (twelve including the reissue of Exile on Main Street titled as Exile on Main St), The Rolling Stone have definitely tasted their fare share of success. The four-piece scored their first Number 1 album with their self-titled debut in April 1964 and their latest was 2016's Blue & Lonesome. Look back at over 50 years of chart history on The Rolling Stones' chart archive
The Thin White Duke has 11 Number 1s to his name, the same amount of chart toppers as The Rolling Stones, but has spent less weeks on top. It wasn't until his fifth release Aladdin Sane that Bowie finally got a Number 1, with five straight weeks at the top, but once he started there was no stopping him.
Bowie's latest two Number 1s came after his death in January 2016, when final album Blackstar and hits collection Best of Bowie both hit the top. He's managed 27 weeks atop the Official Albums Chart altogether. See the full rundown of David Bowie's impressive 48 Top 40 albums.
The Boss was Born to Run wild on the Official Albums Chart, and has reached the pinnacle 11 times, some 35 years between his first Number 1 and his most recent. Bruce is now one behind Madonna, the woman he beat to the top spot in June 2019 with his 19th studio album Western Stars.
The full rundown of artists who've had five or more Number 1 albums, plus how many weeks they spent at the top.
ARTIST TOTAL NUMBER 1 ALBUMS WEEKS AT NUMBER 1
1 THE BEATLES 15 174
2 ELVIS PRESLEY 13 66
3 ROBBIE WILLIAMS 12 35
4 MADONNA 12 30
5 THE ROLLING STONES 11 46
6 DAVID BOWIE 11 27
7 BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN 11 17
8 MICHAEL JACKSON 10 31
9 U2 10 15
10 ABBA 9 57
11 ROD STEWART 9 29
12 EMINEM 9 26
13 QUEEN 9 21
14 BOB DYLAN 8 25
15 OASIS 8 21
16 LED ZEPPELIN 8 14
17 R.E.M. 8 13
18 CLIFF RICHARD 7 30
19 TAKE THAT 7 29
19 ELTON JOHN 7 29
21 BARBRA STREISAND 7* 20
22 PAUL MCCARTNEY 7 17
22 COLDPLAY 7 17
24 GEORGE MICHAEL 7 16
25 KYLIE MINOGUE 7 13
26 THE PRODIGY 7 11
27 WESTLIFE 7 7
25 PHIL COLLINS 6 26
28 BARBRA STREISAND 6 19
29 ARCTIC MONKEYS 6 13
30 GENESIS 6 12
31 PINK FLOYD 6 11
32 STEREOPHONICS 6 10
33 RADIOHEAD 6 9
34 BLUR 6 8
34 MUSE 6 8
34 CHEMICAL BROTHERS 6 8
37 SIMPLY RED 5 26
38 CELINE DION 5 18
39 BOYZONE 5 17
40 POLICE 5 15
41 BON JOVI 5 13
41 PAUL SIMON 5 13
43 KEANE 5 11
44 KINGS OF LEON 5 10
45 ERASURE 5 8
45 KILLERS 5 8
47 SIMPLE MINDS 5 7
48 IRON MAIDEN 5 6
48 KASABIAN 5 6
50 PRINCE 5 5
Most weeks at Number 1
As mentioned above, the Beatles and Elvis take the top two spots, but third are Abba, with 57 weeks over their nine chart-topping albums. Their 1976 Greatest Hits was their first chart-topper, while their most recent was another hits collection – Gold, which was last Number 1 in 2008.
Next up are veteran rockers Rolling Stones. Mick and the boys have spent 46 weeks at Number 1 since 1964 and their eponymous debut, right up until their latest Number 1, Blue and Lonesome, 52 years later.
Rounding off the top 5 of most weeks at Number 1 are Simon & Garfunkel, who've celebrated 40 weeks. Most remarkable is that this tally takes in just TWO albums. Bookends was their first in 1968, with a seven-week reign, while 1970's Bridge Over Troubled Water notched up 33 weeks at Number 1!
Take a look at the list of Number 1 artists with the most weeks at the top, who've scored 20 weeks or more:
ARTIST WEEKS AT TOP OVER HOW MANY ALBUMS?
1 BEATLES 174 15
3 ABBA 57 9
4 ROLLING STONES 46 11
5 SIMON & GARFUNKEL 40 2
6 ADELE 37 3
10 CLIFF RICHARD 30 7
11 TAKE THAT 29 8
12 CARPENTERS 29 3
13 ELTON JOHN 29 7
14 ROD STEWART 29 9
15 DAVID BOWIE 27 11
16 PHIL COLLINS 26 6
17 SIMPLY RED 26 5
18 BOB DYLAN 25 8
19 EMINEM 26 9
20 DIRE STRAITS 22 4
21 QUEEN 21 9
22 OASIS 21 8
23 THE SHADOWS 21 4
Article image: Press/Rex/Shutterstock
Artists with the most Top 10 singles in the UK
The female solo artists with the most Number 1 albums
The Beatles' Official Top 40 most streamed songs
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Original Archie Mini-Series TPB Announced
Toy News International is reporting tonight on a new trade paperback that will collect the three issues that comprised the original TMNT comic book mini-series from Archie comics.
The trade, featuring early Turtles work by TMNT master artist Michael Dooney, also features a brand new cover by Dooney. And, most impressively, the interior will be published in full color! Look for it at your local comic shop around May 13. Or - best news in a long time - pre-order it now on Amazon.com!!
Cowabunga!!
Thanks to Ectocooler for finding the link at TNI!
Labels: archie, art: michael dooney, comics, TPBs
The End of "Tales of the TMNT"?
It has been made widely known that the Tales of the TMNT comic book title exists on the whim of Peter Laird, who has continued to publish the book, for the most part out of his own pocket, even though it doesn't sell enough copies to support itself. As such, TMNT fans head toward each new year wondering if Tales will still be around. As of right now, there is no confirmation for Tales' existence--or non-existence--in 2010; however, it seems that Diamond Comic Distributors may have made that decision for Mirage already.
Newsarama is reporting today that Diamond has raised its purchase order minimum from $1,500 to $2,500. This means that in order for Diamond to list and distribute a title, it would need to generate $2,500 of revenue for Diamond (not total). The break down of this is basically that "a typical $3.00 comic would have to sell over 2,100 copies to meet the benchmark." Tales currently sells for $3.25/book.
The most recent sales data available, for November 2008, lists estimated sales of 2,381 for Tales. In comparison, the January 2008 estimated sales were 2,684. In the months in between, at least the ones where Tales was ranked in the top 300, a steady decline in sales can be seen. Thus, it can be concluded that Tales hangs dangerously close to being below Diamond's newly required threshold.
There are about three possibilities for titles that do not currently meet the new threshold:
Raise the cover price.
Find different means of distribution.
Cancel the title
Some titles are likely to move to Web-only, but as we've seen with TMNT Vol. 4, TMNT fans want their Turtles on paper, making that an unlikely option for Mirage. It appears that this new change is immediate, although a grace period to allow publishers to achieve the newly required numbers is likely. This will make it extremely difficult for Tales to even get to the end of 2009, and, given Mirage's publishing history, makes cancelation come 2010 nearly certain.
That said, nothing is set in stone. And if you don't pick it up already, now is the time to go to your comic book shop and let them know that you want Tales of the TMNT!
Posted by Roseangelo at 11:42 AM 7 comments
Labels: comics, mirage studios, tales
TMNT at the Dollar Store
It's been a long while since I've found any TMNT goodies at the dollar store, not to mention something actually worth purchasing. So imagine my surprise today as I'm wandering through and find a stack of these 2K3 kids' plates featuring the fantastic artwork of the one and only Michael Dooney.
I snatched up two. :)
Posted by Roseangelo at 5:45 PM 3 comments
Labels: art: michael dooney, merchandise
Mirage: Please do art for us, but we won't pay you
Jim Lawson updated his blog today with a new piece of art featuring all four Turtles looking down on New York from one of its many rooftops. This fantastic piece was done for a TMNT 25th anniversary project that 4Kids is working on. Jim and all of the Mirage artists were asked to contribute pieces of art; however, Mirage got these pieces of art as freebies and did not pay the artists for the time and talent put into them.
Needless to say, this is unacceptable. Unfortunately, this attitude is becoming more and more typical of Mirage, namely CEO Gary Richardson who also attempted to cancel all of the employees' life and disability insurance last week to save the company all of $9,500 a year. The only reason this didn't happen is apparently due to a technicality (not a sudden change of heart from Mr. Richardson).
With all of the writing that has been put on the wall concerning Richardson, the only question that can be asked is: Why does Peter Laird apparently sit back and do nothing while Mirage crashes and burns and his employees, who have given the last 20+ years of their lives to the company, as well as their entire professional careers, struggle to make ends meet while he and Gary Richardson are living free and easy?
You can see the new piece by Lawson in full here.
Addendum: It has been clarified to me that 4Kids, not Mirage, requested these pieces of art and as such, it was 4Kids, not Mirage, who did not pay for them. It still seems to me that Mirage could have found it in their hearts to pay the artists for the pieces anyways, and asking for art that you don't intend to pay for, no matter who the asking party is, is in poor taste no matter what the situation.
Posted by Roseangelo at 5:39 PM 11 comments
Labels: 25th anniversary, 4kids, art: jim lawson, mirage studios
Comic-Con International to Recognize TMNT 25th Anniversary
Today, Comic-Con International released the themes and anniversaries it will recognize and celebrate at this year's event in San Diego, July 23-26. And yes, the 25th anniversary of the TMNT is among the celebrations!
For information on how to submit art and/or articles for consideration for this year's souvenir book, click here.
Now that's some Turtle Power!
Labels: 25th anniversary, sdcc
First TMNT Movie Screening in LA January 23
The Nuart Theater in LA will be screening the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie Friday, January 23 at midnight (Saturday morning).
Thanks to Archon_Turtle for the heads-up!
Labels: live action movies, movies, new line cinema
T-Shirt: "The Epic Begins"
Shirt.Woot.com is currently selling the fantastic T-shirt at left. The original run, priced at just $10, sold out in just over two hours (check out all of the impressive sales stats!). The shirt is now available for a still-reasonable $15, and with the option of free shipping is still cheaper than anything at Hot Topic. While this is currently in no danger of selling out (again), it will only be available for a limited time, so it's in your best interest to order one ASAP!
Thanks to Cherubae for giving me the initial heads-up!
Labels: merchandise
Rewriting TMNT25.com: About Mirage Studios
Savvy TMNT fans were watching TMNT25.com on January 1, when the site relaunched itself with loads of new content. However, and rather sadly, the content on the site is poorly written, features bad grammar and punctuation, and, most unbelievably, is full of inaccurate information.
If the TMNT25 team doesn't believe in the use of editors or fact checkers, that's their choice to poorly represent the TMNT brand. As easily as I could, I'm not going to tear apart the site to show off its poor use of design, poor writing, inaccuracies, etc. However, there is one page so greatly misleading that I cannot ignore it.
You would think the "About Mirage Studios" page would be the easiest page for the TMNT25 team to write. But it only took a quick glance for me to find glaring errors. As such, I did a bit of digging into my personal TMNT archive to find references and do some fact checking. The result is what you find below. I realize that this is a lot more depth than the "About Mirage Studios" page was intended to have, but if you compare the two you'll see the conflict in information, especially with certain dates.
ABOUT MIRAGE STUDIOS
Steve Lavigne, high school classmate and friend of Kevin Eastman, as well as the real-life inspiration behind Michaelangelo, was Mirage's first employee, hired in 1985 to help with lettering duties beginning with issue #5 of the original TMNT comic book. His duties would expand to coloring comics and art and penciling licensing art that was used on thousands of TMNT products sold around the world. Lavigne left the studio in 1995 to return to his home state of Maine. He still does occasional freelance work for Mirage when asked.
After giving Eastman and Laird a piece of fan art at a comic convention in Detroit in 1985, Ryan Brown was asked to "get in touch" with the studio in the letters column of the 4th reprinting of TMNT #1, published in September 1985. He did so immediately, resulting in an inking tryout for a short comic titled "New York Ninja" that would later see print in the back of the TMNT RPG supplement book titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures!
Passing that test, Brown was then invited to join the studio, making the move to Northampton, MA in September 1986. He would eventually use his inking skills on most of the licensing art drawn by Lavigne, as well as some comic covers. A life-long love of toys made him a perfect match for the role of the in-studio Toy Coordinator after Playmates launched its line of highly successful TMNT toys and action figures. Brown left the studio in 1995 to return to his home state of Ohio. He still does occasional freelance work for Mirage when asked.
Around the same time Brown set foot in Massachusetts and after a successful portfolio presentation, Jim Lawson was invited to move up from his home in Connecticut to join Mirage. Lawson and Brown then teamed together to draw and ink, respectively, a new companion comic title, Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Lawson would also contribute to licensing art and penciling of the regular TMNT comic book series, becoming the main penciler starting with issue #48 of original series, a role that he maintains today with Volume 4 of the series.
Michael Dooney wrote a fan letter to Eastman and Laird after the original publication of the very first TMNT comic book. Dooney, an inspiring comic book creator in his own right, kept in touch with Mirage and would pencil issue #9 of the comic book, released in September 1986, while still living in New Jersey. After moving to the studio full-time, Dooney contributed art to more issues of the original comic book, full-color paintings for the official TMNT magazine, and some of the early issues of the Archie comics TMNT series among other things. Dooney remains with the studio today, contributing art for licensing, comic books, and toy design in collaboration with Playmates Toys.
In mid-1989, after the first few issues of the Archie comic series, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures, which were simply adaptations of the TMNT cartoon series, the book was horribly late and in danger of breach of contract. Seeing an opportunity, Brown asked his friend and roommate, Steve Murphy, to collaborate with him to create original stories for the comic series. Murphy, who was writing his own comic series, The Puma Blues, and doing proofreading and editing for Mirage, was hesitant to commit to the project, but finally agreed to take on the writing duties under the pen name Dean Clarrain. Murphy left Mirage with the end of the Adventures series in 1995, but would return in January 2002 as Creative Director of Licensing and Managing Editor of Tales of the TMNT Volume 2 when the title was established January 2004. Murphy resigned from his duties as Managing Editor in August 2007, but remains in the position of Creative Director of Licensing.
With Adventures back on track, Brown and Murphy needed a permanent inker for the book. Brown contacted his old roommate in Ohio, who had just graduated from art school, and asked him to join the team. Dan Berger came to Massachusetts in August 1989; his first Turtles work was TMNT Adventures #8, published in February 1990. He has also contributed to the original TMNT comic book, licensing art, and the daily TMNT newspaper comic strip. Berger has been the Webmaster of ninjaturtles.com since 1998 and Managing Editor of Tales of the TMNT Volume 2 since Murphy's resignation in 2007.
Like Lavigne, Eric Talbot was a high school buddy of Kevin Eastman. His first work with the TMNT came with issue #17 of the original TMNT comic book, published November 1988. He would continue to contribute to TMNT comics and various licensing endeavors throughout the duration of the TMNT's popularity in the 90s and continues working with Mirage to this day.
Riding on the success of the TMNT, Kevin Eastman bought Heavy Metal magazine in 1991. His last TMNT work was the comic Bodycount, published by Image in 1996. In 2000 he sold the creative rights of the TMNT to Laird so that he could focus completely on Heavy Metal. However, this separation was not the end of his involvement with the TMNT. In 2002 he published his TMNT "Artobiography" under the Heavy Metal label and in 2005 he gave Mirage the connection they needed, with Imagi Animation Studios, to make a new big-screen TMNT adventure a reality in 2007. In 2008 he sold his remaining TMNT holdings to Laird, but with plans to republish a handful of classic TMNT stories, the first of which, Bodycount, was released the same year.
Labels: 25th anniversary, archie, dan berger, eric talbot, jim lawson, kevin eastman, michael dooney, mirage studios, peter laird, ryan brown, steve lavigne, steve murphy, tales
Mirage: Please do art for us, but we won't pay you...
Comic-Con International to Recognize TMNT 25th Ann...
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Nissan India celebrates the #SpiritOfMotherhood
This year, Nissan has taken an unconventional approach to celebrate Mother’s Day.
With its new digital short film, Nissan’s #SpiritOfMotherhood expresses the emotions, sincerity, hard work, love, warmth and much more, that are associated with motherhood, transcends everything, and also defies gender.
Sharing his views on the film, Sanjay Gupta, vice president marketing, Nissan Motor India Pvt. Ltd., said, “Nissan salutes and respects the spirit of motherhood that defies gender in today’s day and age. On this Mother’s Day, this video captures and celebrates the spirit of motherhood in each one of us.”
To see the video, go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCPdVJJUeuA
About Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
Nissan is a global full-line vehicle manufacturer that sells more than 60 models under the Nissan, Infiniti and Datsun brands. In fiscal year 2015, the company sold more than 5.4 million vehicles globally, generating revenue of 12.19 trillion yen. Nissan engineers, manufactures and markets the world's best-selling all electric vehicle in history, the Nissan LEAF. Nissan’s global headquarters in Yokohama, Japan, manages operations in six regions: ASEAN & Oceania; Africa, Middle East & India; China; Europe; Latin America and North America. Nissan has a global workforce of 247,500, and has been partnered with French manufacturer Renault under the Renault-Nissan Alliance since March 1999.
Rahul Mathur
Email: rahul.mathur@email.nissan.in
Sheetal Jobanputra
20:20 MSL
Email:sheetal.jobanputra@2020msl.com
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Graduiertenprogramm
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Aktuelle Seite: Home >> Veranstaltungen >> Jahreskonferenzen >> Panel III – The Crisis of the ‘Liberal World Order‘
Crisis: Interdisciplinary Perspectives - 9th International Annual Conference
Friday, November 24th 2017, 1.30 pm - 3.30 pm
The panel deals with the question what the revival of the national and the reactionary mean for the concept of international order. Theories of not too distant a past described a “New World Order” as a system of closely co-operating, likeminded states acting in a globalised and cosmopolitan spirit. For such concepts, the outcome of some referenda and elections, a strengthened populist right in many states and enhanced national egotism in foreign relations during the past months have come as an existential threat to a peaceful order, even though antagonist descriptions and first indicators triggering dystopian visions date further back. The dominance of “the West” seems to be endangered and with it, it appears, the international rule of law. Contributions to this panel will address contradictions and self-deceptions in such a narrative, demonstrate that the “liberal world” has always been a fragile notion and that elements of the liberal construct of order have even been used to its disadvantage. The question will be what such analyses contribute to a better understanding of the present crisis and whether lessons can be learned.
Chair: Prof. Dr. Stefan Kadelbach (Goethe University)
Born 1959; 1979-84 studies of literature and law at Tuebingen and Frankfurt; 1986 studies at Academy of Administration in Speyer and Hague Academy of International Law, 1987/88 at University of Virginia; 1984-87 preparatory civil service; 1991 dissertation (Dr. jur.) on peremptory norms of public international law; 1996 PhD (habilitation) on administrative law under the influence of EU law; 1997-2004 professor (tenure) at the University of Muenster (Westphalia). Guest professor and lecturer at the University of Virginia (1999), the European University Institute (2000), the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences (2002/03) and at Chuo University Tokyo (2004). Since 2004 at Goethe University Frankfurt. Director of the Institute of Public Law, member of the Cluster of Excellence “The Formation of Normative Orders”. Since 2014 Rapporteur of the International Law Association’s Human Rights Committee. Working Fields: Constitutional law, public international law and EU law, with an emphasis on foreign relations powers, federalism, multi-level governance, human rights and theory of international law.
Lecture 1
Prof. Dr. Vivienne Jabri (King‘s College London)
Crisis and World Order: A Postcolonial Political Ontology
Liberal understandings of the international order are largely framed in terms of a universalist ontology, one that has no limits beyond those attributed to the constraints of an anarchical structure that is nevertheless historically tamed by the rules and norms of affiliation. The so-called ‘crisis’ is attributed to the emergence of political forces in the West deemed to have rejected globalisation in favour of a ‘return’ to nationalist or protectionist politics. Irrespective of the questionable assumptions related to the genesis of this crisis, what is evident is that the West remains the assumed self-inscribed author of the international and its discursive and institutional trajectories as we move further into our late modernity. The aim of this paper is not only to provide a critique of such a perspective, but to ask, as I have done in my writings, what does the international look like when seen from the vantage point of the postcolonial international? When seen thus, the liberal international order is complicit in the enactment of twenty-first century modes of colonisation the enabling conditions for which emerge precisely from the historical normative structuring of the international in hierarchically ordained terms that render the postcolonial vulnerable and always precarious. At the same time, the postcolonial international can be seen as struggling to re-instantiate the limits of the international, the recent transgressions of which, through militarised interventionism, have indeed generated the crisis of the present.
Vivienne Jabri is Professor of International Politics in the Department of War Studies, King’s College London, Coordinator of the Research Centre for International Relations, and Director of the ESRC London Interdisciplinary Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership. Her research draws on and develops critical, poststructural, and postcolonial social and political theory, with particular reference to international theory. Her current research and writing focus on war/violence and conceptions of political community and the limits of the international. She serves on the Editorial Boards of the journals International Political Sociology, Security Dialogue, and the ISA’s Journal of Global Security Studies. Her books include Postcolonial Subject: Claiming Politics/Governing Others in Late Modernity (Routledge, 2012), War and the Transformation of Global Politics (Palgrave Macmillan 2007 and 2010), Discourses on Violence (Manchester University Press 1996), and Mediating Conflict (Manchester University Press 1990). She has also published in leading International Relations journals, including the European Journal of International Relations, the Review of International Studies, International Political Sociology, Millennium: Journal of International Studies, Security Dialogue, Peacebuilding, and International Theory.
Prof. Dr. Christopher Daase (Goethe University)
The Contradictions of the Liberal World Order
For years the liberal international order was seen challenged by emerging authoritarian powers like China, India and Russia. Now it turns out that world order is rather undermined from within, i.e. by states which once championed the ideas of international liberalism: international institutions, free trade, human rights and democracy. But it would be shortsighted to blame only Trump and the Brexiteers for these developments. Rather we have to investigate more closely the inherent contraditions of liberal internationalism, its promises and lies, its benefits and faults to understand it’s current crisis.
Christopher Daase is Professor for International Organizations at Goethe University Frankfurt and Deputy Director of the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF). Previously he held the Chair in International Relations at the University of Munich and was Senior Lecturer at the University of Kent at Canterbury as well as Director of the Programme on International Conflict Analysis at the Brussels School of International Studies. Educated at Universities in Hamburg, Freiburg and Berlin, he became SSRC-MacArthur Fellow in International Peace and Security and was Research Fellow at Harvard University and the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, CA. His research centres on theories of international relations, security issues and international institutions. As member of theCluster of Excellence “The Formation of Normative Orders” at the University of Frankfurt he currently works on changing patterns of legitimacy with regard to the use of force, rule and resistance in international politics, and the informalization of international relations.
Dr. Stefan Kroll (Goethe University)
The Crisis of the Liberal World Order: And the Politics of its Defense
The debate on the liberal world order, and its crisis, is plagued by two big puzzles. The first is the issue of what are the values and expectations that make the liberal order. The second concerns the actors that constitute the liberal world. While the presentation will address both facets of the debate, the facet of norms as well as the facet of community, the vantage point will be the question of inclusion and exclusion. The crisis of theliberal order to a large degree is a crisis of the community of liberal states. While some important actors seem to distance themselves from this community, like the US under President Trump, other actors refer to elements of the liberal order from the outside, like for example China in the context of free trade. The aim of this presentation is to take a closer look at the defenses of elements of the liberal order. In many cases these defenses do not weaken the crisis but rather deepen the fragility of the liberal order as a formation of norms and collective identity. The aim of this presentation is to point out the risks but also the potentials of this fragility for the emergence and application of international norms.
Stefan Kroll is postdoctoral researcher at Goethe University Frankfurt and the Cluster of Excellence “The Formation of Normative Orders”. Prior to this appointment, Kroll worked at the LOEWE Research Focus “Extra-Judicial and Judicial Conflict Resolution” (Frankfurt), the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity (Göttingen), the Munk School of Global Affairs (Toronto), and the Max Planck Institute for European Legal History (Frankfurt). Trained in social sciences, Kroll studies norms in international relations, informality in law and international politics as well as the politics of international law. Stefan Kroll has published in edited volumes and international peer reviewed journals. He is co-editor of the special issue of the Politische Vierteljahresschrift 2017 entitled “Politik und Verantwortung”. Kroll received several grants and scholarships. In 2011, his work was awarded the Otto-Hahn-Medal of the Max Planck Society.
Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, Campus Westend
Max-Horkheimer-Str. 2
Gebäude "Normative Ordnungen", EG 01 und EG 02
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Cluster of Excellence "The Formation of Normative Orders"
15. Juli 2019, 14 Uhr
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The Time is Right for Europe to Take the Lead in Global Internet Governance. Normative Orders Working Paper 02/2018. Mehr...
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Key takeaways on Cleveland cops fired over…
Key takeaways on Cleveland cops fired over 137-shot barrage
By The Associated Press |
PUBLISHED: January 26, 2016 at 5:32 pm | UPDATED: May 18, 2018 at 1:59 am
Key takeaways on the decision by Cleveland officials to fire six police officers involved in a 137-shot barrage that killed two unarmed people after a 2012 high-speed chase:
Thirteen officers had been notified they faced administrative discipline, and one of them retired. Six of those officers face suspensions ranging from 21 to 30 days.
Those fired include Michael Brelo, the patrolman acquitted of manslaughter charges for having fired the last 15 shots of the barrage in East Cleveland.
The president of Cleveland’s largest police union, Steve Loomis, vowed to fight the discipline and said grievances appealing the firings were filed with the city. He described the firings as unprecedented and politically motivated action against officers who responded within their training to a tragic situation.
The shooting occurred after a high-speed chase that involved 62 police cruisers and over 100 officers. It helped prompt an agreement between the city and the U.S. Department of Justice that is aimed at making reforms in the troubled police department.
The chase began when officers standing outside police headquarters mistook the sound of a beat-up Chevrolet Malibu backfiring as a gunshot. Authorities never learned why the driver didn’t stop.
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The creation and tireless evolution of the GoldenEye: Source mod
By Joe Donnelly 2017-04-05T15:37:01.94Z
And how its creators strike a splendid balance between nostalgia and innovation.
"I finally got to a point where my skills don't match what the mod is anymore," Curtis, aka Enzo.Matrix, tells me. "To me that's insane."
The mod Enzo is referencing is one he co-founded in 2005: the Half-Life 2 modification and modern adaptation of Rare and Nintendo's first-person shooter GoldenEye 007—GoldenEye: Source. 12 years on, the mod that he and one-time partner Nicholas "Nickster" Bishop founded has been updated and reworked on several occasions, and is now almost unrecognisable in its current state. Nevertheless it continues to maintain and grow its thriving player base, and last year celebrated the launch of its most sophisticated and accomplished iteration yet in its 5.0 build.
"When we first started out, Nickster and I were working on a different mod that fell by the wayside called Project XX7," Enzo says. "When Nick came up to me and suggested we try something new, we decided to create something that was fun and enjoyable that you wanted to play with your friends. That's what the whole idea was: we wanted to recreate this experience that's enjoyable for everybody."
Enzo and Nickster chose to reimagine one of the most celebrated FPS games of a generation in N64's GoldenEye 007—and sought to capture the passion that'd elevated the '97 classic to cult status, without being hamstrung by the technical limitations the original faced eight years prior. Enzo recalls launching he and Nickster's Source variation into alpha on Christmas Eve, 2005 and quietly sneaking away from the family dinner table the following day to ensure everything was running smoothly. It was and people loved it. He was, in his own words, "utterly blown away."
As two hobbyists operating remotely in IRC rooms, Steam Chat, and on forum pages, development of GoldenEye: Source in the early days was slow but open, and as many as 20 people had volunteered their services within its first few months. Some folk dedicated more of their time, commitment and effort than others—Enzo highlights Killermonkey, Fourtecks and Luchador as three particular modders who "took things to the next level"—but, much similar to any part-time project that doesn't have the means to remunerate its contributors, this is perhaps to be expected. It was then Enzo was dealt a very personal blow, as he discovered in May of 2006 that co-founder Nickster had committed suicide.
"He was a very fun and pleasant guy," Enzo says. "It was just unfortunate that he went that route. He was a great friend that loved to chat." According to this archived thread featured on the mod's official site, Nickster, aged just 27, had spent some time in the lead up to his passing battling depression, and had shown a recent interest in the perceived concept of the afterlife. Despite the mod's fast-growing success at the time, GoldenEye: Source had lost one half of its pioneering founders, and his father paid tribute to the outpouring of well-wishes from his son's mod's community.
"I'm finding writing this message to be very helpful in helping me cope," his message concludes. "Nick twisted my arm for years to get me to play Half-Life. I've gotten to know and play with some great people. I can't tell you what it means to me to read all the wonderful things people have been writing about Nick. From the bottom of my heart I know Nick didn't want any of us to be sad."
The controls, for instance, can have such a big impact on how you play the game and without them the game is essentially entirely different. Nowadays, nobody wants to deal with all of that.
Noah, aka Entropy-Soldier
With this sentiment in mind, GoldenEye: Source soldiered on and spent the next several years growing and refining the GoldenEye experience. Its classic maps were reinterpreted and made less linear; its guns were modernised and mechanics such as invulnerability were removed; and stalwart settings such as You Only Live Twice and License to Kill were reintroduced on top of a number of altogether new modes.
When GoldenEye: Source launched into alpha, its inspiration was the best part of ten years old—an influence that celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. While it still enjoys a celebrated cult status today, though, it's easy to forget how much of it isn't worth saving. As Evan rightly noted in his review of Source's most recent 5.0 launch last year, the 64's four-player capacity, horrible controls, and slow turning speed, among others things, are best left behind thus reinterpreting something so highly regarded against modern hardware and, crucially, expectations is perhaps more complicated than it first seems.
"Recreating GoldenEye is a very interesting endeavour because there's a lot of stuff that people will remember from the original—specific weapons, characters, levels and all that—but there's also a lot of details that, as a result of the original's mechanics, the most people don't recall," says Noah, aka Entropy-Soldier, who became the mod's project lead ahead of build 5.0. "The controls, for instance, can have such a big impact on how you play the game and without them the game is essentially entirely different. Nowadays, nobody wants to deal with all of that, though. We definitely had to experiment with how much of the original game we wanted to port over to GoldenEye: Source, but I think we struck a pretty good balance of stuff that's essentially original content but heavily revamped for the modern gameplay environment."
Entropy-Soldier continues to say that simply recreating the old game within the Source engine is equivocal to copying someone's homework assignment, and that these bold sidesteps alongside the challenge of maintaining the mod's enduring appeal are what keeps everything interesting. He points to the original's infamous Dam map as a particularly relevant example of this.
"It is very difficult to strike the balance correctly where it's like: this shouldn't be as it was, but we don't want to just completely change everything," he says. "The Dam Map was a perfect example of that. Remaking the Dam from the original was tough because it's a very linear map and there really isn't a whole lot of leeway for layout changes. As such we had to change it quite a bit to make it feasible for multiplayer environments, while keeping its lineage intact."
And it's here where GoldenEye: Source thrives today. Whereas other prominent shooters operate automatic health regeneration mechanics, for example, GoldenEye: Source instead still relies on armour. There's also no crosshair by default, which encourages the fast and frantic twitch shooting the original executed so well—hitting shift pulls up an oversized reticule, but aiming comes at the expense of maneuverability and speed. Crouch dodging and crouch sliding return which, across its 20+ expanded maps, adds a whole other 'easy to learn/difficult to master'-type dynamic to combat should you desire. With that, there's enough here to draw the attention of new players, even if nostalgia plays a huge part in its overall appeal.
But nostalgia can surely only take players so far. An obvious question, then, is: what keeps players returning in their droves?
Back in the day it was like, we hit Slashdot and the site would almost be crippled. This time, the video went viral and we were second top trending on Facebook which was completely unexpected!
Curtis, aka Enzo Matrix
"I think there's always been a lot of people who've wanted to see a remake or remaster of the original game and there was a project in the works that was shut down," says Lewis, aka Mangly, the mod's lead artist. "It's a very memorable game and a lot of people want to experience it again but maybe not put up with all the notable constraints of '90s videogames."
"Yeah, we've added more modes, gun modes that's more relevant to the likes of Counter-Strike and what not, which has resonated pretty well with newcomers," Lyndon, otherwise known as Tweaklab, the mod's music composer interjects. "I've only been here for the past couple of years, but our organisation has also led to a more accomplished game in 5.0. Even as a newcomer it was making shift from Steam Chat then the forums, and then six months after that we moved to Discord and I noticed a huge change. It was really good getting frequent feedback and collaboration and even though I'm only doing music, there was no time wasted—the music was able to evolve naturally through the feedback.
"Before I joined the team I was making music just for fun, and I've been doing since around 2003. Since joining the team I'd say the quality of production has probably doubled, just because it's not just for fun. I mean, it is but it's more guaranteed that people are going to hear it now - that you're going to get feedback from others and not just your own. Even the stuff I make outside of GoldenEye now, I'm able to notice all the new techniques I've picked up and the extra attention to details and the layering—it's all come from the mod, it's really good."
With communication at the forefront of its 5.0 development, Entropy-Soldier reckons a smaller, more intimate team has allowed GoldenEye: Source to flourish into the focussed and polished article it's become today. The original GoldenEye 007 celebrates its 20th anniversary later this year and while the Source team don't have anything planned by way of celebration just yet, they do plan to maintain its latest build and grow it over time. It's unlikely we'll see such ambitious leap between 5.0 and its next step against what's come before the current build, however it's in a great place now to continue pushing itself into the future.
The team has set its bar high, but says it will never monetise its work—not least because so many faces have came and went along the way, and it'd hardly be appropriate for the current team to cash in on its predecessor's building blocks, some of whom have graduated to full-time employment with companies such as EA and Adobe. With this in mind, GoldenEye: Source is an archetypal labour of love, and a perfect example of hobbyist modders working with and for its community. Yet despite its most influx of players, the GoldenEye: Source team remains humble.
"We're always getting new people coming in and saying: 'my god, I've never heard of this project'," says Enzo, "and we've been around for such a long time, it's really interesting that's there's people that haven't heard of it. I love that, and it's always great to see new faces [getting] involved.
"It was pretty shocking when we hit the first big release like that. Back in the day it was like, we hit Slashdot and the site would almost be crippled. This time, the video went viral and we were second top trending on Facebook which was completely unexpected!"
You can download the GoldenEye: Source mod from ModDB.
GoldenEye: Source
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Breaking the Glass Ceiling Starts at the Ground Level
A gender training workshop in Rwanda works to ensure equity for women and men in PMI’s IRS country programs.
The PMI Africa Indoor Residual Spraying Project (AIRS) conducted a three-day gender training in Kigali, Rwanda, March 23-25, 2015, to help participants understand ways they can promote gender equity while implementing a large-scale delivery project, such as indoor residual spraying (IRS).
The percentage of women working in IRS has traditionally been small. Traditional barriers, such as the misperception that women are not interested in or strong enough to do the work required in spray operations and that IRS work is “men’s work”, have limited women from participating in the income-generating work of IRS.
The U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID’s) Senior Gender Advisor Niyati Shah and PMI’s IRS Lead Allison Belemvire co-led the training which included gender focal persons from 10 countries with PMI-supported spray operations.
Gender-focused issues, such as a sexual harassment policy, the role of the National Malaria Control Program (NMCP) in recruiting and hiring women, a pregnancy policy, and countries’ legal framework to protect women, were discussed. The training focused on how each country, given their specific country-context, can improve equity for women and men across their projects.
The project’s partners at Rwanda’s NMCP and other government officials who implement the project in country also participated in the training. Dr. Corine Karema, the head of Malaria and Other Parasitic Diseases Department at Rwanda Biomedical Centre opened the training.
Each gender focal person left the training with a gender Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis, a gender operational plan, and a presentation that they will present to their country office staff and implementing partners. The gender focal points will share the training with their country program staff to facilitate dialogue around gender issues and promote equal opportunity and respect for women in spray operations.
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PMScolorguide.com
Buy color fan deck
About PMS colors
Article 1: Definitions
Article 2: The Entrepreneur's identity
Article 3: Applicability
Article 4: The offer
Article 5: The agreement
Article 6: Right of withdrawal
Article 7: Consumer's obligations during the reflection period
Article 8: Exercising the Consumer's right of withdrawal and the costs
Article 9: Entrepreneur's obligation in case of withdrawal
Article 10: Exclusion of the right of withdrawal
Article 11: The price
Article 12: Compliance and extra guaranty
Article 13: Delivery and execution
Article 14: Continuing performance contract: duration, termination and extension
Article 15: Payment
Article 16: Complaints procedure
Article 17: Additional or varying provisions
Appendix I: Standard form for withdrawal
In these Terms and Conditions, the following terms shall have the following meanings:
Additional agreement: an agreement in which the Consumer acquires products, digital content and/or services with respect to a distance agreement and these goods, digital content and/or services are delivered by the Entrepreneur or a third party on the basis of an arrangement between this third party and the Entrepreneur.
Reflection period: the period during which the Consumer may use his right of withdrawal.
Consumer: the natural person who does not act for purposes related to his/her commercial, trade, craft or professional activities.
Day: calendar day.
Digital content: data produced and delivered in digital form.
Continuing performance contract: a contract serving to deliver goods, services and/or digital content in a given period.
Sustainable data carrier: any means, including email, that allow the Consumer or the Entrepreneur to store information directed to him/her personally in such a manner that makes future consultation and use possible during a period that matches the purpose for which the information is destined and which makes unaltered reproduction of the stored information possible.
Right of withdrawal: the Consumer's option not to proceed with the distance agreement within the cooling-off period.
Entrepreneur: the natural of legal person who provides products, (access to) digital content and or services to Consumers at a distance.
Distance contract: a contract concluded by the Entrepreneur and the Consumer within the scope of an organized system for distance selling products, digital content and/or services, whereby exclusive or additional use is made of one or more technologies of distance communication up to the conclusion of the contract.
Standard form for withdrawal: the European standard form for withdrawal included in Appendix 1.
Technology for distance communication: a means to be used for concluding an agreement without the Consumer and the Entrepreneur being together in the same place at the same time.
Name of Entrepreneur: Whirlwind Internet V.O.F.
Business address: Vluchtoord 7, 5406 XP Uden, Netherlands
Telephone number and the times at which the Entrepreneur can be reached by telephone: +31 (0)85 130 41 73
E-mail address: info@pmskleuren.com
Chamber of Commerce number: 17142434
VAT identification number: NL8104.86.830.B01
These General Terms and Conditions apply to any offer from the Entrepreneur and to any distance contract concluded by the Entrepreneur and the Consumer.
Before concluding a distance contract, the Entrepreneur shall make the text of these General Terms and Conditions available free of charge and as soon as possible. If this is reasonably impossible, the Entrepreneur shall indicate in what way the General Terms and conditions can be inspected and that they will be sent free of charge if so requested, before the distant contract is concluded.
If the distance contract is concluded electronically, the text of these General Terms and Conditions, in deviation from the previous section and before the distance contract is concluded, may also be supplied to the Consumer electronically in such a way that the Consumer can easily store it on a long- term data carrier. If this is reasonably impossible, it will be specified where the General Terms and Conditions can be viewed electronically and that they will be sent to at the Consumer's request free of charge, either via electronic means or otherwise, before concluding the distance contract.
In the event that specific product or service condition apply in addition to these General Terms and Conditions, the second and third paragraphs shall apply accordingly, and in the event of contradictory terms and conditions, the Consumer may always appeal to the applicable provision that is most favorable to him/her.
If an offer is of limited duration or if certain conditions apply, it shall be explicitly stated in the offer.
The offer contains a full and accurate description of the products, digital content and/or services offered. The description is suitably detailed to enable the Consumer to assess the products, or services and/or digital content adequately. If the Entrepreneur makes use of pictures, they are truthful images of the products and/or services provided. Obvious errors or mistakes in the offer do not bind the Entrepreneur.
All offers contain such information that it is clear to the Consumer what rights and obligations are attached to accepting the offer.
Subject to the provisions in paragraph 4, the contract becomes valid when the Consumer has accepted the offer and fulfilled the terms and conditions set.
If the Consumer accepted the offer via electronic means, the Entrepreneur shall promptly confirm receipt of having accepted the offer via electronic means. As long as the receipt of said acceptance has not been confirmed, the Consumer may repudiate the contract.
If the contract is concluded electronically, the Entrepreneur will take appropriate technical and organizational security measures for the electronic data transfer and ensure a safe web environment. If the Consumer can pay electronically, the Entrepreneur shall observe appropriate security measures.
The Entrepreneur may, within the limits of the law, gather information about Consumer’s ability to fulfill his payment obligations, and all facts and factors relevant to responsibly concluding the distance contract. If, acting on the results of this investigation, the Entrepreneur has sound reasons for not concluding the contract, he is lawfully entitled to refuse an order or request supported by reasons, or to attach special terms to the implementation.
Before delivering the product, the Entrepreneur shall send the following information along with the product, the service or the digital content in writing or in such manner that the Consumer can store it in an accessible manner on a long-term data carrier:
the visiting address of the Entrepreneur's business establishment where the Consumer may get into contact with any complaints.
the conditions on which and the manner in which the Consumer may exercise the right of withdrawal, or, as the case may be, clear information about his being exempted from the right of withdrawal.
the information corresponding to existing after-sales services and guarantees.
the price including all taxes of the product, service or digital content, where applicable the delivery costs and the way of payment, delivery or implementation of the distance contract.
the requirements for canceling the contract if the contract has a duration of more than one year or for an indefinite period of time.
the standard form for withdrawal if the Consumer has the right of withdrawal.
In case of a continuing performance contract, the stipulation in the previous paragraph only applies to the first delivery.
The Consumer can repudiate a purchase contract for a product without giving reasons for a period of reflection of at least 14 days. The Entrepreneur may ask the Consumer about the reason for the withdrawal but cannot force him to state his reason(s).
The reflection period referred to in sub-clause 1 starts on the day the product is received by the Consumer or by a third party appointed by him in advance and who is not the carrier, or
if the Consumer ordered several products in the same order: the day on which the Consumer or a third party appointed by him received the last product. The Entrepreneur may refuse an order of several products with different delivery dates provided that he clearly informs the Consumer prior to the order process.
in case the delivery of a product consists of several batches or parts: the day on which the Consumer or a third party appointed by him received the last batch or the last part.
in case of an agreement about regular delivery of products during a given period: the day on which the Consumer or a third party appointed by him received the first product.
If the Entrepreneur has not provided the Consumer with the legally required information about the right of withdrawal or has not provided the standard form for withdrawal, the reflection period expires twelve months after the end of the original reflection period in accordance with the reflection period determined in the previous sub-clauses of this Article.
If the Entrepreneur provided the Consumer with the information referred to in the previous article within twelve months after the starting day of the original period of reflection, the period of reflection expires 14 day after the day on which the Consumer received the information.
During this period, the Consumer shall handle the product and the packaging with care. The Consumer shall only unpack or use the product to the extent necessary for establishing the nature, the characteristics and the effect of the product. The guiding principle is that the Consumer may only handle and inspect the product in the manner in which one is allowed to handle a product in a shop.
The Consumer is only liable for the decrease in value of the product that is caused by the way of handling the product which went further than allowed in sub-section 1.
The Consumer is not liable for the decrease in value of the product if the Entrepreneur has not provided him with all legal information about the right of withdrawal before concluding the Agreement.
If the Consumer exercises his right of withdrawal he shall notify the Entrepreneur unambiguously with the standard form for withdrawal within the period of reflection.
The Consumer shall return the product or deliver it to (the authorized representative of) the Entrepreneur as soon as possible but within 14 days counting from the day following the notification referred to in sub-clause 1. This need not be done if the entrepreneur offered to collect the product himself. The Consumer observed the period of returning the product in any event if the product is returned before the expiration of the period of reflection.
The Consumer shall return the product with all delivered accessories and if reasonably possible in the original state and packing and in conformity with reasonable and clear instructions given by the Entrepreneur.
The risk and the burden of proof for the correct and timely exercise of the right of withdrawal fall on the Consumer.
The Consumer shall bear the direct costs of returning the product. If the Entrepreneur has not reported that the Consumer has to bear these costs or if the Entrepreneur pointed out that he will bear the costs himself, the Consumer need not pay the cost of returning the product.
If the Consumer withdraws after having first explicitly requested that the performance of a service or the supply of gas, water or electricity having not been made ready for sale not be started in a limited volume or given quantity during the period of reflection, the Consumer shall pay the Entrepreneur an amount that is equal to the part of the obligation already performed at the time of withdrawal as compared with the full compliance of the obligation.
The Consumer does not bear the costs for performing services for the supply of water, gas or electricity that had not been made ready for sale in a limited volume or quantity, or for the supply of district heating if
the Entrepreneur has not provided the Consumer with the statutorily required information about the right of withdrawal, the compensation of costs in case of withdrawal or the standard form for withdrawal, or
if the Consumer has not explicitly requested that the performance of the service or the supply of gas, water and electricity or district heating be started during the period of reflection.
The Consumer does not bear any cost for the full or partial delivery of digital content not stored on a physical carrier if
prior to the delivery, he has not explicitly consented to start performance of the agreement before the end of the period of reflection;
he did not acknowledge to lose his right of withdrawal when giving consent; or
the Entrepreneur failed to confirm the Consumer's statement.
If the Consumer exercises his right of withdrawal, all additional agreements end by operation of law.
Article 9: Entrepreneur's obligations in case of withdrawal
If the Entrepreneur makes the notification of withdrawal by electronic means possible, he shall promptly send a return receipt.
The Entrepreneur shall reimburse all payments made by the Consumer, including any delivery costs that the Consumer may charge for the returned product, as soon as possible but within 14 days following the day on which the Consumer notified him of the withdrawal. Unless the Entrepreneur offers to collect the product himself, he can wait with paying back until having received the product or until the Consumer proved that he returned the product, whichever occurs first.
The Entrepreneur shall make use of the same means of payment that the Consumer used, unless the Consumer consents to another method. The reimbursement is free of charge for the Consumer.
If the Consumer opted for a more expensive method of delivery instead of the cheapest standard delivery, the Entrepreneur need not reimburse the additional costs for the more expensive method.
The Entrepreneur can exclude the following products and services from the right of withdrawal but only if the Entrepreneur notified this clearly when making the offer or at any rate in good time before concluding the agreement:
Products or services with a price that is subject to fluctuations in the financial market on which the Entrepreneur has no influence and which may occur within the period of withdrawal;
Agreements that are concluded during a public auction. A public auction is defined as a selling method whereby the Entrepreneur offers products, digital content and/or services to the Consumer who is personally present or has the possibility to be personally present at the auction under the direction of an auctioneer and whereby the successful bidder is obliged to purchase the products, the digital content and/or the services.
Services agreements, after full performance of the service, but only if
the performance started with the Consumer's explicit prior consent; and
the Consumer stated that he will lose his right of withdrawal as soon as the Entrepreneur has fully performed the agreement.
Services agreements for making accommodation available when a certain period of implementation is provided and other than for residential purposes, goods transports, car rental services and catering;
Agreements related to leisure activities when a certain date or period of performance is arranged in the agreement;
Products manufactured in accordance with the Consumer's specifications which are not prefabricated and which are produced on the basis of a Consumer's individual choice or decision or which are intended for a specific person;
Perishable products or products with a limited durability.
Sealed products which are for health or hygiene reasons not suitable for being returned and of which the seal was broken;
Products which for their nature are irreversibly mixed with other products;
Alcoholic drinks of which the price has been agreed upon at the conclusion of the agreement but of which the delivery can take place only after 30 days, and whose real value depends on fluctuations in the market which the Entrepreneur cannot affect.
Sealed audio and video recordings and computer programs of which the seals were broken after delivery;
Newspapers, periodicals or magazines, with the exception of subscriptions to them;
The delivery of digital content other than on a physical carrier, but only if:
the performance was started with the Consumer's explicit prior consent;
the Consumer stated that he will lose his right of withdrawal by doing so.
The prices of the products and/or services provided shall not be raised during the validity period given in the offer, subject to changes in price due to changes in VAT rates.
Contrary to the previous paragraph, the Entrepreneur may offer products or services whose prices are subject to fluctuations in the financial market that are beyond the Entrepreneur's control, at variable prices. The offer will state the possibility of being subject to fluctuations and the fact that any indicated prices are target prices.
Price increases within 3 months after concluding the contract are permitted only if they are the result of new legislation.
Price increases from 3 months after concluding the contract are permitted only if the Entrepreneur has stipulated it and
they are the result of legal regulations or stipulations, or;
the Consumer has the authority to cancel the contract before the day on which the price increase starts.
All prices indicated in the provision of products or services are including VAT.
The Entrepreneur guarantees that the products and/or services comply with the contract, with the specifications listed in the offer, with reasonable requirements of usability and/or reliability and with the existing statutory provisions and/or government regulations on the day the contract was concluded. If agreed, the Entrepreneur also guarantees that the product is suitable for other than normal use.
An extra guarantee offered by the Entrepreneur, his Supplier, Manufacturer or Importer shall never affect the rights and claims the Consumer may exercise against the Entrepreneur about a failure in the fulfillment of the Entrepreneur's obligations if the Entrepreneur has failed in the fulfillment of his part of the agreement.
'Extra guarantee' is taken to mean each obligation by the Entrepreneur, his Supplier, Importer or Manufacturer in whom he assigns certain rights or claims to the Consumer that go further than he is legally required in case he fails in the compliance with his part of the agreement.
The Entrepreneur shall exercise the best possible care when booking orders and executing product orders and when assessing requests for the provision of services.
The place of delivery is at the address given by the Consumer to the Entrepreneur.
With due observance of the stipulations in Article 4 of these General Terms and Conditions, the Entrepreneur shall execute accepted orders with convenient speed but at least within 30 days, unless another delivery period was agreed on. If the delivery has been delayed, or if an order cannot be filled or can be filled only partially, the Consumer shall be informed about this within one month after ordering. In such cases, the Consumer is entitled to repudiate the contract free of charge and with the right to possible compensation.
After repudiation in conformity with the preceding paragraph, the Entrepreneur shall return the payment made by the Consumer promptly but at least within 30 days after repudiation.
The risk of loss and/or damage to products will be borne by the Entrepreneur until the time of delivery to the Consumer or a representative appointed in advance and made known to the Consumer, unless explicitly agreed otherwise.
The Consumer may at all times terminate a contract that was concluded for an indefinite time and which extends to the regular delivery of products (including electricity) or services, with due observance of the termination rules and subject to not more than one month's notice.
The Consumer may at all times terminate a contract that was concluded for a specific time and which extends to the regular delivery of products (including electricity) or services at the end of the specific period, with due observance of the termination rules and a subject to not more than one month's notice.
The Consumer can cancel the agreements mentioned in the preceding paragraphs:
at any time and not be limited to termination at a particular time or in a given period;
at least in the same way as they were concluded by him;
at all times with the same notice as the Entrepreneur stipulated for himself.
An agreement concluded for a definite period which extends to the regular delivery of products (including electricity) or services may not be automatically extended or renewed for a fixed period.
Notwithstanding the preceding paragraph, a contract for a definite period which extends to the regular delivery of dailies, newspapers, weekly newspapers and magazines, may tacitly be renewed for specific period of three months at the most if the Consumer can terminate this extended agreement towards the end of the extension with a notice of one month at the most.
An agreement concluded for a definite period and which extends to the regular delivery of products or services may only be extended tacitly for an indefinite period if the Consumer can cancel it at any time with a notice of one month. The notice is three months at the most in vase the contract is about a delivery of dailies, newspapers and weeklies and magazines occurring regularly but less than once a month.
An agreement with limited duration of regular delivery of trial dailies, newspapers, weeklies and magazines (trial or introductory subscription) is not renewed tacitly and ends automatically after the trial or introductory period.
If the duration of a contract is more than one year, the Consumer may terminate the contract at any time after one year with a notice of not more than one month, unless reasonableness and fairness resist the termination before the end of the agreed term.
Unless otherwise stipulated in the agreement or in the additional conditions, the amounts to be paid by the Consumer must be settled within 14 days after the period of reflection, or if there is no period of reflection within 14 days after concluding the agreement. In case of an agreement to provide a service, this period starts on the day that the Consumer received the confirmation of the agreement.
When selling products to Consumers, it is not permitted to negotiate an advance payment of more than 50% in the General Terms and Conditions. If an advance payment was agreed, the Consumer may not assert any right regarding the execution of the order in question or the service(s) in question before making the agreed advance payment.
The Consumer has the duty to inform the Entrepreneur promptly of possible inaccuracies in the payment details that were given or specified.
In case the Consumer has not complied with his payment obligation(s) in time, and the Entrepreneur has pointed out to him that the payment was late and allowed the Consumer a period of 14 days to comply with the payment obligations, the Consumer is to pay the statutory interest on the amount payable and the Entrepreneur is entitled to charge the Consumer with any extrajudicial collection costs. These extrajudicial collection costs amount to no more than 15% for outstanding amounts up to € 2,500, 10% for the following € 2,500 and 5% for the following € 5000, with a minimum of € 40. The Entrepreneur may deviate from the aforementioned amounts and percentages in favor of the Consumer.
The Entrepreneur shall have a sufficiently notified complaints procedure in place, and shall handle the complaint in accordance with this complaint procedure.
Complaints about the performance of the contract shall be submitted fully and clearly described to the Entrepreneur within a reasonable time after the Consumer discovered the defects.
The complaints submitted to the Entrepreneur shall be replied within a period of 14 days after the date of receipt. Should a complaint require a foreseeable longer time for handling, the Entrepreneur shall respond within 14 days with a notice of receipt and an indication when the Consumer can expect a more detailed reply.
If the complaint cannot be solved in joint consultation within a reasonable time or within 3 months after submitting the complaint, there will be a dispute that is open to the dispute settlement rules.
Additional provisions of and/or derogations from these General Terms and Conditions should not be to the Consumer's detriment and must be put in writing or recorded in such a way that the Consumer can store them in an accessible manner on a long-term data carrier.
If you want to revoke the agreement, please download the Form for withdrawal. After that complete the form, print it and send it together with the ordered product(s) to our address in Netherlands:
Whirlwind Internet
Vluchtoord 7
5406 XP Uden
Please see the page Returns for more information.
This website is not affiliated with Pantone LLC
Website by Whirlwind Internet
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Wisconsin Edition
The Wisconsin Truth-O-Meter
"The poverty rate for Wisconsin families has reached the lowest rate in 22 years."
— Donald Trump on Saturday, April 27th, 2019 in a speech in Green Bay, Wis.
Trump says Wisconsin poverty rate is lowest in 22 years. It’s not.
By Eric Litke on Tuesday, April 30th, 2019 at 5:55 p.m.
President Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Green Bay, Wis., on April 27, 2019 (Getty Images)
At a April 27, 2019 rally in Green Bay before 10,000 boisterous supporters, President Donald Trump blazed his way through a typical barrage of claims and statistics in a stump speech that stretched well over an hour.
After calling Wisconsin — a key state in his 2016 general election victory — a "special place," he threw out two rapid fire claims on the state’s poverty and unemployment levels. We’ll tackle the first of those here.
"The poverty rate for Wisconsin families has reached the lowest rate in 22 years," Trump said, a pronouncement greeted by cheers from the Resch Center crowd.
His claim is very precise — Wisconsin, families, 22 years.
Let’s see if the facts match up.
Census data shows poverty trending down
The White House did not provide any supporting evidence when asked for data to support the claim.
The U.S. Census Bureau, which tracks poverty through a variety of surveys, recommended using the Current Population Survey for state-level poverty estimates. It’s the only tool that goes back far enough to cover the period in Trump’s claim — 22 years.
The CPS family poverty measure shows a 6.1% poverty level for Wisconsin in 2017, the latest year for which data is available. That’s the lowest mark since 2002, a span of 15 years.
Going back 22 years from now, as Trump’s claim does, takes us to 1997. The state poverty rate was lower than the current 6.1% four times 1998 to 2002 — so Trump is not accurate by that measure.
Another Census dataset, the American Community Survey, tracks poverty by family and shows several more recent years with rates lower than 2017.
The community survey, which began in 2005, puts the 2017 family poverty rate at 7.1% in Wisconsin. The survey reported lower rates in 2005 and 2008.
Both surveys say poverty has declined by several percentage points since 2011.
Experts warn against income-only measures
That said, the state’s Institute for Research on Poverty warns against drawing conclusions on poverty from those traditional measures alone. The institute is an independent, multidisciplinary group within the University of Wisconsin.
The Census assessments compare pre-tax cash income to a set threshold that is adjusted for family size to determine if a family is in poverty.
"The trouble is if you look at the official poverty measure, it doesn’t cover things like the taxes they pay or the cost of going to work, and it doesn’t include the Earned Income Tax Credit or SNAP (food stamps) and other non-cash benefits," said Timothy Smeeding, professor of public affairs and economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and former director of the poverty institute.
To address that, the institute developed a Wisconsin Poverty Measure — similar to one used at the federal level — that takes into account government programs and subsidies that assist low-income people.
That shows poverty has changed little in Wisconsin since the metric was created in 2008. The Wisconsin Poverty Measure rate has ranged from a high of 11.2% in 2008 to a low of 9.7% in 2015.
The latest data, from 2016, actually showed an increase — from 9.7% to 10.8%.
"In other words, the idea that we’ve had some big drop in poverty? No," Smeeding said. "This doesn’t jibe with reality. We haven’t done that well in this state. We’re barely treading water … particularly in Milwaukee, which is in terrible shape."
Trump said Wisconsin’s poverty rate for families is at the lowest level in 22 years.
Three measurements used by experts say that’s not the case.
Indeed, the Census survey that goes back as far as Trump’s claim shows 2017 was just the fifth-lowest rate for individuals in the last 22 years.
And a Wisconsin-specific measure looking more comprehensively at poverty by factoring in government aid shows the most recent year of data — 2016 in that case — is right around the average from the last decade.
We rate Trump’s claim False.
Published: Tuesday, April 30th, 2019 at 5:55 p.m.
Researched by: Eric Litke
Edited by: Greg Borowski
Subjects: Poverty
YouTube.com, Donald J. Trump, LIVE: President Trump in Green Bay, WI
Email exchange with Daniel Velez, spokesman, U.S. Census Bureau, April 29-30, 2019
Institute for Research on Wisconsin Poverty, Wisconsin Poverty Report: Progress Against Poverty Stalls in 2016, June 2018
Interview with Timothy Smeeding, professor of public affairs and economics, University of Wisconsin Madison and Institute for Research on Wisconsin Poverty, April 30, 2019
U.S. Census Bureau, The Supplemental Poverty Measure: 2017, September 2018
We want to hear your suggestions and comments. Email the Truth-O-Meter with feedback and with claims you'd like to see checked. If you send us a comment, we'll assume you don't mind us publishing it unless you tell us otherwise.
Browse The Wisconsin Truth-O-Meter
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Keep up to date with PolitiFact Wisconsin
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2016 Prism Prize Recipients
PHILIP SPORTEL Director of Avalanche by Kalle Mattson WINS 2016 PRISM PRIZE For Best Canadian Music Video of the Year
Tagged: News
2016 Arthur Lipsett
PRISM PRIZE ANNOUNCES RECIPIENT OF THE ARTHUR LIPSETT AWARD KRISTOF BRANDL
Special Achievement 2016
The Prism Prize is proud to announce the recipient of the Special Achievement Award is Director X.
2016 Top Ten
The Prism Prize announces the Top Ten best Canadian music videos of the year, as voted by a jury of more than 120 Canadian music, film and media arts professionals.
2016 Prism Prize Top 20
The Prism Prize is thrilled to announce the Top 20 best Canadian music videos of the year, as voted by a jury of more than 120 Canadian music, film and media arts professionals.
PRISM PRIZE RETURNS FOR YEAR FOUR Introduces Top 20 • Grand Prize Doubled to $10,000
The Prism Prize returns for the fourth consecutive year to announce the Grand Prize for Best Canadian Music Video of the Year will be doubled to $10,000! Traditionally held in March, the Prism Prize Awards Presentation will move to Sunday, May 15, 2016 once again held at TIFF Bell Lightbox. This move is prompted by the introduction of the first-ever Prism Prize Top 20, which will allow for further recognition of deserving Canadian videos, filmmakers, and artists. "2015 has been the strongest year for Canadian music videos ever. We are happy to spotlight 20 amazing videos, before announcing our Top Ten,” says Louis Calabro, Prism Prize Director. "The support Prism Prize has received from industry partners and the public for the past four years is another sign of Canadians being at the top of their game in the music and media arts environment.” The Prism Prize will announce the Top 20 on Tuesday, February 9, 2016, while the Top Ten will be announced on Tuesday, March 22, 2016, followed by the Prism Prize Screening and Awards Presentation on Sunday, May 15, 2016 at TIFF Bell Lightbox. The Prism Prize Screening and Awards Presentation will include a screening of the Top Ten videos, and award presentations including: the Special Achievement Award (presented by NewCanadianMusic.ca) for artistic achievements and exceptional contribution to music video art; the Arthur Lipsett Award for innovative and unique approaches to music video art; the Audience Award (presented by Noisey Canada); and the Grand Prize for Best Canadian Music Video of the Year. All Prism Prize Award recipients, including the Grand Prize, Audience Award, Prism Prize Special Achievement Award and the Arthur Lipsett Award, will receive $2000 vouchers from William F. White for production equipment rentals, and an exclusive gift bag from MAC Cosmetics. The Grand Prize is decided by a jury of over 120 Canadian music, film and media arts professionals. Videos are judged on originality, creativity, style, innovation and effective execution. Any Canadian music video, as defined by the CRTC, released between January 1 and December 31, 2015 may be considered for entry. Past Prism Prize winners for Best Canadian Music Video of the Year include Noah Pink for Rich Aucoin’s Brian Wilson is A.L.i.V.E (2013), Emily Kai Bock for Arcade Fire's Afterlife (2014), and Chad VanGaalen for Timber Timbre's Beat The Drum Slowly (2015). Prism Prize is proud to host a comprehensive resource for music fans to watch the best Canadian music videos all in one place. Videos and news from Canada’s music video community are available throughout the year at www.prismprize.com.
DIRECTOR OF BEAT THE DRUM SLOWLY BY TIMBER TIMBRE CHAD VANGAALEN WINS 2015 PRISM PRIZE FOR BEST CANADIAN MUSIC VIDEO
Special Awards 2015
RISM PRIZE Announces Winners of Special Awards JARED RAAB and CHRISTOPHER MILLS
Top Ten Announcement
Short-List Announcement For Best Canadian Music Video of 2014 THE PRISM PRIZE TOP TEN
The Prism Prize is thrilled to announce the Top Ten Best Canadian Music Videos of 2014, as voted by a jury of more than 120 industry professionals from the worlds of music, film, broadcast and web media. After viewing hundreds of music videos released in 2014, jurors selected the Prism Prize Top Ten based on originality, creativity, style, innovation and effective execution.
The jury will vote once more to determine the Prism Prize winner, who will receive a $5,000 Grand Prize at the Awards Presentation on March 29, 2015 at TIFF Bell Lightbox. For the first time ever the Prism Prize Awards Presentation will be open to the public. Tickets are available at www.prismprize.com/tickets
In addition to the Grand Prize announcement, the Prism Prize Awards Presentation will include a screening of the Top Ten videos, sponsored by MuchFACT; and presentation of the Audience Choice Award, Presented by Noisey Canada; the Prism Prize Special Achievement Award for artistic achievements and exceptional contribution to music video art on a world stage; and the Arthur Lipsett Award, Presented by Art Works Art School, for innovative and unique approaches to music video art.
THE 2015 PRISM PRIZE TOP TEN (in alphabetical order, by director name):
The New Pornographers - Dancehall Domine (Directors: Scott Cudmore and Michael LeBlanc) PUP - Guilt Trip (Directors: Chandler Levack and Jeremy Schaulin-Rioux) Fur Trade - Same Temptation (Director: Kheaven Lewandowski) Rich Aucoin - Yelling in Sleep (Director: Joel Mackenzie) Ryan Hemsworth - Snow in Newark (Director: Martin C. Pariseau) Kandle - Not Up to Me (Director: Natalie Rae Robison) Kevin Drew - You in Your Were (Director: Samir Rehem) Odonis Odonis - Order in the Court (Director: Lee Stringle) Chad VanGaalen - Monster (Director: Chad VanGaalen) Timber Timbre - Beat the Drum Slowly (Director: Chad VanGaalen)
The Prism Prize Top Ten videos are live here at www.prismprize.com, where fans can watch and vote on who will take home this year’s Audience Award.
Past Prism Prize winners for Best Canadian Music Video of the Year include Noah Pink for Rich Aucoin’s Brian Wilson is A.L.i.V.E (2012) and Emily Kai Bock for Arcade Fire's Afterlife (2013).
www.prismprize.com • @prismprize • www.facebook.com/prismprize
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USDA Triticale Crop Insurance Program Coming
Lind, Wash., farmer James Wahl recently decided to grow triticale instead of wheat, so he’s interested in a federal crop insurance program for the crop, which is a cross between durum wheat and rye.
“It would take some of the stress of the risk out of it for us,” Wahl said.
The USDA Risk Management Agency will offer a pilot crop insurance program in several counties in Idaho, Oregon and Washington. The program will be publicly released in the next month. The sales closing date will be Sept. 30.
The program will cover yield for both fall-planted and spring-planted triticale grown for grain, not for forage or a cover crop, said Ben Thiel, director of the agency’s Spokane regional office.
Interested growers will need to contact their crop insurance agent, Thiel said.
“Certain select growers have been trying (triticale) out and I think have found favorable results,” he said. “It seems to be well-adapted for this area, and has good rotational purposes. (A crop insurance program) has been asked about and desired for some time.”
Some private insurance programs are also available, said Howard Nelson, manager of member and special services with Central Washington Grain Growers in Wilbur, Wash. The company doubled its acreage this year.
CWG prices triticale at $105 per ton. The cost of production is close to the cost of production for wheat, Nelson said.
“It’s hard to gauge what growers are thinking in today’s price environment,” he said. “They’re looking for the crop that will return a profit. It just depends on what they feel is the best crop for a particular field.”
Nelson advises farmers to make sure they have storage and marketing set up for triticale.
“It’s an easy crop to grow,” he said. “Really the last piece of getting triticale re-established as a crop was the crop insurance piece. From this point on, it’s just another cropping option for growers in the area.”
Wahl said affordable crop insurance would give him peace of mind raising triticale.
It could open the door for farmers working with banks that don’t allow them to raise a crop without insurance, he said.
Wahl expects to sell most of his triticale at local elevators, holding back 50 tons for value-added and malting purposes.
Source: Capital Press
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Procentrix Ranks 3066 on 2016 Inc. 5000 List of Fastest Growing Companies
We offer professional services and innovative solutions that streamline business and government. Learn what we could be doing for you!
HERNDON, VA - For the first time, Procentrix appeared on the Inc. 5000 list, ranking No. 3066 with a three-year sales growth of 110.97%. The list is the most prestigious ranking of the nation's fastest-growing private companies, and represents a unique look at the most successful companies within the American economy's most dynamic segment, its independent small businesses. Companies such as Microsoft, LinkedIn, Yelp, Dell, Zillow, and many other well-known names gained their first national exposure as honorees of the Inc. 5000.
"This achievement is a testament to our team's hard work and creativity in developing innovative solutions for the Federal Government," President and CEO Michael Hughes said. "We are so proud to be named with these other incredible companies. We are motivated to continue to provide the best value for our customers."
The 2016 Inc. 5000, unveiled online at Inc.com and with the top 500 companies featured in the September issue of Inc. (available on newsstands August 23) is the most competitive crop in the list's history. The average company on the list achieved a mind-boggling three-year growth of 433%. The Inc. 5000's aggregate revenue is $200 billion, and the companies on the list collectively generated 640,000 jobs over the past three years, or about 8% of all jobs created in the entire economy during that period. Complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, region, and other criteria, can be found at www.inc.com/inc5000.
"The Inc. 5000 list stands out where it really counts," says Inc. President and Editor-In-Chief Eric Schurenberg. “It honors real achievement by a founder or a team of them. No one makes the Inc. 5000 without building something great – usually from scratch. That's one of the hardest things to do in business, as every company founder knows. But without it, free enterprise fails."
The annual Inc. 5000 event honoring all the companies on the list will be held from October 18 through 20, in San Antonio, TX. Speakers include some of the greatest entrepreneurs of this and past generations, such as best-selling author and strategist Tony Robbins, SoulCycle co-founders Elizabeth Cutler and Julie Rice, Cornerstone OnDemand founder, president and CEO Adam Miller, Marvell Technology Group director and co-founder Weili Dai, and New Belgium Brewing co-founder and executive chair Kim Jordan.
The 2016 Inc. 5000 is ranked according to percentage revenue growth when comparing 2012 to 2015. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by March 31, 2012. They had to be U.S.-based, privately held, for profit, and independent—not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies—as of December 31, 2015. (Since then, a number of companies on the list have gone public or been acquired.) The minimum revenue required for 2012 is $100,000; the minimum for 2015 is $2 million. As always, Inc. reserves the right to decline applicants for subjective reasons. Companies on the Inc. 500 are featured in Inc.'s September issue. They represent the top tier of the Inc. 5000, which can be found at http://www.inc.com/inc5000.
About Inc. Media:
Founded in 1979 and acquired in 2005 by Mansueto Ventures, Inc. is the only major brand dedicated exclusively to owners and managers of growing private companies, with the aim to deliver real solutions for today's innovative company builders. Winner of the National Magazine Award for General Excellence in both 2014 and 2012. Total monthly audience reach for the brand has grown significantly from 2,000,000 in 2010 to over 15,000,000 today. For more information, visit www.inc.com.
The Inc. 5000 is a list of the fastest-growing private companies in the nation. Started in 1982, this prestigious list of the nation's most successful private companies has become the hallmark of entrepreneurial success. The Inc. 5000 Conference & Awards Ceremony is an annual event that celebrates their remarkable achievements. The event also offers informative workshops, celebrated keynote speakers, and evening functions.
About Procentrix
Procentrix provides expertise in implementing cloud, mobility, business intelligence, and collaboration and relationship management business solutions primarily to federal civilian, defense, and homeland agencies, as well as state and local governments. Based in Herndon, VA, we specialize in modernizing legacy lines of business systems and processes using Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS), cloud, and modern Web technologies. Our solution frameworks integrate leading COTS software products and cloud technologies to accelerate timely solution deployments, reduce costs, and minimize risk. To learn more, please visit www.procentrix.com.
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Features Home
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But Now They're Content to Wear Stars on Their Brows. The ultimate "hippy nonsense" album title, back when Marc Bolan was a flower child and not the world-conquering glam superstar he would later become.
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Kanye West’s Next Album Is Called ‘Turbo Grafx 16’
Less than two weeks after the release of The Life of Pablo, Kanye West has announced the tentative title of his next album, Turbo Grafx 16.
Yeezy took to Twitter to share the news on Friday (Feb. 26), noting that he was “just on some super nerd vibes” and that the Turbo Grafx 16 was one of his “favorite gaming systems” as a youth in the late ’80s and early ’90s.
My next album is titled "Turbo Grafx 16" as of now…
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) February 27, 2016
just on some super nerd vibes… one of my favorite gaming systems when I was a kid…
Following his announcement, Yeezus reflected on memories he had with the gaming system that inspired his album title.
My boy Mali that I spoke about on the song Drive Slow actually had a Neo Geo in real life bro…
We actually played Spy Hunter at my mom’s house!!!
correction, the name of the Neo Geo game I was referring to was The Super Spy
West’s admission that this is the album’s name “as of now” means that a change is possible. Of course, that’s precisely what happened with The Life of Pablo, which went through three titles before being finalized: So Help Me God, Swish, and Waves.
No official release date has been confirmed, but West previously announced that it would drop in the summer.
New album coming this summer
The news comes after Mr. West premiered his new song “Closest Thing to Einstein” at an L.A. nightclub earlier this week. Additionally, a snippet of a Kanye-Migos collaboration leaked, but it’s unclear where it will end up.
New Music: Kat DeLuna feat. Jeremih – ‘What a Night’
Oh, "What a Night!" Eight months after releasing the revealing "Bum Bum" video with Trey Songz, Kat DeLuna is back …
Report: Nicki Minaj and Meek Mill Have Dispute Over House Arrest
There may be trouble in paradise. Nicki Minaj and Meek Mill's relationship is reportedly on the rocks following an …
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Lenovo Teases A True All-Screen Smartphone
We all know very well that How innovative and bold the well-known giant Chinese electronic goods manufacturer, of course, I am talking about the Lenovo is. Hence, now according to the latest reports, the giant Chinese smartphone manufacturer, Lenovo just teased a true all-screen smartphone.
The well-known giant Chinese electronic goods manufacturer, of course, I am talking about the Lenovo who is also trying to maximize screen to use on their smartphones like other companies. The Lenovo Z5 promises a virtually borderless design with a screen-dominated front that lacks the horns of the iPhone X.
According to the giant Chinese smartphone manufacturer, Lenovo, the Z5 will have a body with rounded corners and a screen that occupies 95% of the front, above 84.2% of the Samsung Galaxy S9+, 82.9% of the iPhone X and 80.8% of the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2. This would be possible thanks to “four technological advances” and “18 patented technologies” by the Chinese manufacturer.
It was not clear how the front camera works, if the Lenovo Z5 has one. The Vivo Apex Fullview, which also has an almost borderless design, brings a fingerprint reader on the screen and an 8-megapixel retractable front camera which remains hidden inside the device.
We also do not know where the audio comes from. The first Xiaomi Mi Mix had a loudspeaker behind the screen that converted electrical audio signals into mechanical energy, making the shell vibrate with sound waves (successors brought more traditional technology).
Moreover, the well-known Chinese smartphone manufacturer, of course, Lenovo still does not say whether the Z5 is a product that will actually be released commercially or just a concept.
Lenovo Teases A True All-Screen Smartphone Reviewed by Chukwumah Rapheal on May 18, 2018 Rating: 5
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Home Profiles Documentary “Push” explores worldwide affordable housing crisis
By Diane Slawych
Canadian cities such as Vancouver and Toronto are not alone in experiencing a crisis in affordable housing. Many big cities around the world are facing a similar problem. It’s an issue that is explored in a new documentary called PUSH, by award-winning Swedish director Fredrik Gertten.
The film, which had its North American premiere at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival in Toronto this spring, follows Ottawa-based lawyer Leilani Farha, the current UN special rapporteur on the right to housing, as she travels to various cities where rents have increased three times (or more) than the rate of income.
In Harlem, New York, one man spends 90 per cent of his income on an apartment and his rent will increase to $3,600 a month when a private equity fund takes over the building. We also meet survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire in London and visit Toronto’s Parkdale neighbourhood, which has been the scene of rent strikes.
Of particular note is a new phenomenon identified in the film that began after the global financial crisis around 2008, when private equity firms and asset management firms started to buy new buildings or existing housing stock, and then evict tenants or increase rents.
Saskia Sassen, professor of sociology at Columbia University describes these new landlords as the “monster that nobody can see, that nobody really understands, whose language is incomprehensible.”
Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz, meanwhile, ponders how private equity firms have managed to become the biggest landlords in the world. “You can make more money not by making a better product and lowering the cost of production, which is the standard economic analysis, but by… looking for people you can take advantage of. They’re not creating wealth; they’re actually just taking wealth.”
The film asks who cities are for. “It’s increasingly for those with wealth,” said director Gertten, during a Q&A after one of the screenings. “We’re losing the diversity of cities.”
REM recently caught up with the main subject of the documentary, Leilana Farha whose mandate as special rapporteur continues until 2020, by which time she will have visited roughly a dozen countries.
Leilani Farha
REM: What is adequate housing exactly?
Farha: Under international law it’s defined and there are some key principles, one of which is affordability, defined by household income; security of tenure – you shouldn’t fear being evicted and you shouldn’t be evicted unnecessarily. Dignity is the key here.
REM: What insights have you gleaned so far from your travels?
Farha: There’s little doubt these days, and it doesn’t take me to say this, there’s a housing crisis on a global level. There isn’t a place I go to where affordability isn’t an issue, and there isn’t a place where adequacy and where homelessness isn’t an issue. If you look around the world, you see the same graph represented in PUSH where you see rising housing or rental costs and static or stagnant wages. It’s that gap I’m concerned about. In any city I go to I see homelessness and overwhelmed shelters… tent encampments, so there’s definitely a crisis.
REM: What is the cause of this problem?
Farha: I’ve identified a particular issue, but it’s not the only issue. We’ve identified financialization of housing as a major contributor. There are other contributors that have allowed financialization to happen, for example the deregulation of our economy and our financial sector, allowing financial (actors) to do what they’re doing, but also things like governments deciding to get out of the business of housing and not providing social protections for people any longer. So, on the one hand enabling investment in housing through de regulation, propping up that investment through legislation, policies and tax laws and then at the same time withdrawing from social housing, withdrawing from protections for tenants.
And that creates the perfect storm for what we’re seeing now, which is this global housing crisis.
REM: Can you elaborate more on this new phenomenon identified in the film, whereby asset management firms and private equity firms (like Blackstone) are buying up real estate and the effect that’s had on tenants? You say in Toronto, Blackstone, in conjunction with Starlight, an asset management firm, bought eight apartment buildings within the last few months.
Farha: Blackstone is the largest residential real estate private equity firm in the world. There are a lot of actors out there. It’s not just Blackstone, though they’re fairly traceable. There are others, large multi-billion dollar, multi-national asset management firms. I’ve come across one in Canada called Timbercreek, there are others in Sweden, Germany.
What’s interesting is that they all adopt the same model, and that is a business model, which is to find undervalued properties, buy, then wrest out of it more profits, and the way to do that is by increasing rents. That’s done (through) a variety of mechanisms, sometimes there’s renovations involved as a means of providing a legal basis to raise the rent, sometimes it doesn’t even involve renovation, it’s just a simple purchase and up goes the rent.
As I understand it, the income generated from the property as well as the value of the property itself helps to secure loans. So that you can leverage more money off of the property. And more money means more purchases and acquisitions so that’s the cycle.
REM: And you see this in several cities?
Farha: Yes. It’s happening in Copenhagen, in Germany, Sweden, Spain, Ireland, Canada, throughout the U.S.
REM: You’re working on something called The Shift. Can you tell me more?
Farha: The Shift came about because I recognized that in my role as rapporteur, though I have a lot of privileges and a lot of doors open, it would be a phenomenal task to make the kind of change that’s necessary all on my own. These are very big forces with a lot of power, they influence government and I thought maybe we need to form a global movement with different stakeholders, all of whom see housing as a human right, view the housing crisis as something that needs to be addressed urgently. So, I partnered with united cities and local governments…as well as the office of the high commissioner for human rights…and we just set out to show there’s a lot of activity and traction for housing as a human right.
It’s surprised me what’s happened actually because cities have come on board in numbers and have really taken the lead here. A huge number of cities have committed to implementing the right to housing at the local level. It doesn’t mean they’re all human rights stars right now but rather that they view what’s going on as hugely problematic and they want to address it using human rights values and principles. The cities include Barcelona, Mexico City, Amsterdam, Seoul, Geneva, London, New York, Paris.
Fredrik Gertten
Leilana Farha
Nuclear plant relocations may create a housing meltdown
https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/rent-control-old-bad-idea-wont-go-away Jun 29, 2019 at 11:35 am
Rent controls and direct govt investment…yeah, that’s never gone wrong…..ever… Oh, and you may want to look again at the “too many people” business, the “overpopulation” myth’s been debunked more times than I can remember. Come on guys, you can do better…
Nelson DeHoey Jun 25, 2019 at 1:28 pm
Rent Controls and Disallowing Renovictions should form the basis of any housing policy first and foremost.
Rent Controls establish a clear Profit Path for the Investor and a clear Shelter Expense for the tenant over decades of a relationship they will share.
Renovictions are a complicated topic because the housing stock does need to be continually upgraded to even maintain the quality it is at today. That said Flipping Purpose Built Rental Stock should be outlawed in Canada as only GREED and not just an awesome no risk return on your investment should not be tolerated by any society.
The ONLY solution to the Housing Problem is to Over Build through direct Government Investment into the Rental Housing Sector. This removes all the price pressures and manipulation of voters by the entire real estate stakeholder community.
Linda Thatcher Jun 25, 2019 at 8:02 am
It is the world’s population that is causing the problems. Too many people. We talked about this problem in the 1960’s! The pill became widely available and Canadians had less children, but many around the world did not. Today we are supplementing our population.
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Senate passes bill that preserves Downeaster funds
A pending transportation bill in the House still does not preserve the Downeaster funding, but the Senate bill is considered more likely to attract bipartisan support.
By Jonathan Riskind
WASHINGTON — The Senate passed legislation today that preserves a key federal funding source for the Downeaster train service between Portland and Boston.
A two-year transportation bill approved 74-22 allows Maine to keep relying on money from a federal program that supplies the Downeaster with as much as $6 million a year, more than a third of its annual operating budget of about $15.1 million.
An initial version of the bill eliminated Maine’s ability to use money from the federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality program to help run the Downeaster, which serves about a half-million riders a year.
But Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, got a provision included in the bill that keeps the funding source in place. Snowe and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who backed the Downeaster funding provision, both voted yes on the overall bill.
The Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority, which manages the Downeaster on behalf of Maine, brings in about $8 million a year from sources such as ticket sales and food concessions, leaving about a $7.1 million shortfall. The rail authority pays about $12 million a year to Amtrak to operate the Downeaster.
Depending on the year, the federal money is used to cover $5 million to $6 million of that shortfall. The rest comes from revenue raised by a state-imposed car rental sales tax.
In a five-year transportation bill passed in 2005, Maine won an exemption that allowed it to keep using the money for the life of the transportation bill.
Congress has not passed a new transportation bill since then, and the exemption has been retained in a series of temporary measures. The original version of this Senate transportation bill omitted the exemption.
When the Downeaster service began in 2001, it was allowed to use the air quality program money temporarily, on the theory that the train was keeping cars off the road and improving air quality.
A pending transportation bill in the House still does not contain the Downeaster funding exemption, but the Senate bill is considered more likely to attract bipartisan support.
It’s also possible the House won’t approve any bill before the current temporary transportation measure expires March 31. That likely would mean Congress approves another temporary transportation bill – which would keep the Downeaster funding source in place at least for the time being.
The Senate’s $109 billion transportation bill also includes a slight increase in the amount of federal road repair money Maine receives. Under the bill, Maine would get nearly $195 million this year and about $198 million in 2013, a hike over its 2011 allocation of $191.6 million, according to the office of Snowe, a member of two committees that helped craft the Senate bill — the finance committee and the commerce, science and transportation committee.
The entire Maine congressional delegation backed preserving the Downeaster’s federal funding source. Maine lawmakers have noted that Congress recently approved spending $38 million to extend Downeaster service north to Brunswick, and millions of dollars more to improve rail lines in Massachusetts.
Snowe won several other amendments to the transportation bill, including a provision that streamlines the process for veterans who already have the property military training to get a commercial driver’s license.
MaineToday Media Washington Bureau Chief Jonathan Riskind can be contacted at 791-6280 or at: [email protected] Twitter: Twitter.com/MaineTodayDC
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February 28, 2018 / 11:58 PM / a year ago
Best Buy plans to shut 250 small U.S. mobile phone stores
Nandita Bose
(Reuters) - Best Buy Co Inc (BBY.N), the No. 1 U.S. consumer electronics retailer, on Wednesday said it will shut 250 small mobile phone stores in U.S. malls as it looks for ways to operate more profitably and turn around its business amid intense competition.
FILE PHOTO: A Best Buy store is seen in Los Angeles, California, U.S., March 13, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson/File Photo
The stores, which contributed just over 1 percent to the company’s overall revenue and 1 percent to its overall square footage, will be shut effective May 31.
The mobile stores are each about 1,400 square feet (130 sq meters) while a typical Best Buy store occupies about 40,000 square feet (3,716 sq meters).
The Minneapolis-based retailer said it will continue to sell mobile phones through its 1,000 U.S. big box stores and online. The decision does not impact the company’s 52 mobile stores in Canada.
Best Buy began opening these stores more than a decade ago, before Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O) iPhone was launched and when margins in the business were high, Best Buy Chief Executive Hubert Joly told employees in a letter, a copy of which was seen by Reuters.
“Fast forward to 2018 and the mobile phone business has matured, margins have compressed and the cost of operations in our mobile standalone stores is higher than in our big box stores,” Joly said.
The company declined to disclose how many employees will be affected by the decision.
The letter said Best Buy will help employees look for other jobs within the company over three months. It will offer severance to those who leave after May 31 and help them with an external job search.
About six years ago, Best Buy struggled with plunging sales and shrinking profit as consumers browsed at brick-and-mortar stores but made purchases online, a practice called showrooming.
Since then the company has tried to turn itself around by closing underperforming stores, improving customer service and competing with Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) by matching the online retailer’s low prices.
Those efforts have helped Best Buy grow comparable sales at stores open at least a year in six of the past eight quarters. The company reports fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday.
Joly said in the letter he felt confident about retaining customers and transitioning them to the company’s larger stores and website, adding 85 percent of Best Buy’s mobile stores are within three miles (4.8 km) of one of its big box stores.
Reporting by Nandita Bose in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Sandra Maler
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June 17, 2019 / 5:46 PM / in a month
Insurance costs rocket for U.S. IPOs as twitchy investors take to courts
Suzanne Barlyn
(Reuters) - Companies going public in the United States face insurance costs that have increased as much as 200% in the last three years to cover their executives against lawsuits alleging they misled investors.
FILE PHOTO: Lyft President John Zimmer and CEO Logan Green applaud as Lyft lists on the Nasdaq at an IPO event in Los Angeles, California, U.S., March 29, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Blake
A rise in securities class-action cases involving initial public offerings is spurring IPO insurers to double and triple prices for directors and officers coverage, or “D&O” coverage, insurers and brokers told Reuters.
A $5 million policy that cost $200,000 in 2016 can now easily cost $500,000 to $600,000, said Paul Schiavone, head of North American Financial Lines for Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty, an Allianz SE unit.
“You want to be part of the market, but there are also lots of risks in IPOs,” said Schiavone. “If things don’t go well in a year, you have the investors saying, ‘I want my money back.’”
The tightening insurance market follows a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court decision that allows some securities lawsuits to proceed in state court in addition to federal court.
“Since then, the market has gotten absolutely more challenging,” said Jennifer Sharkey, President of the Northeast Management Liability Practice for insurance broker Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.
Investors who used to wait months to see how a new stock would perform now waste little time to see if promises made in offering documents come to fruition - and are swift to accuse the executives of misleading investors if they do not.
“You have a lot more aggressive lawyers and investors out there who are looking where the cash is,” said Jeff Lubitz, who heads Securities Class Action Services for Institutional Shareholder Services. “And now, it looks like they will have multiple choices on how to jump on this.”
The changes come amid a spate of mega-IPOs, including recent offerings by ride-sharing rivals Uber Technologies Inc and Lyft Inc. There were 205 IPOs in 2018, up 14% from 2017, according to accounting and consulting firm EY.
Many larger companies have ample funds to pay the premiums, but smaller companies that need the insurance in order to attract reputable board members may feel the strain, insurance brokers said.
There have been 25 lawsuits related to IPOs so far this year, against 19 companies. Six companies that launched IPOs face suits in both state and federal court, including Lyft, BrightView Holdings Inc, and US Xpress Enterprises.
Shareholders slapped Lyft with a lawsuit about three weeks after its stock began trading on March 28 and quickly tanked more than 20%. The suit alleges that Lyft misled investors by overstating its market share. A Lyft spokeswoman declined to comment.
As the pace quickens and litigation picks up in two court systems, insurers are on the line to pay tens of millions of dollars in defense costs and substantial settlements.
IPO-related settlements have totaled $929 million since 2017, including a $250 million settlement by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd in April, after an earlier $75 million state court settlement. Last year, LendingClub Corp settled a suit for $125 million, according to ISS.
About 25 insurers sell D&O coverage to companies going public, including American International Group Inc, Chubb Ltd, AXA XL, Beazley PLC, and Allianz SE. The insurers, collectively, can offer about $150 million coverage, according to broker Aon Plc.
Insurers are chopping coverage limits and requiring IPO clients to pick up more costs before a policy kicks in. And they are requiring companies to pay a percentage of the eventual loss, said Rachel Turk, D&O team leader for Beazley.
Reporting by Suzanne Barlyn in New York, Editing by Neal Templin and Rosalba O'Brien
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December 5, 2017 / 6:40 PM / 2 years ago
Jordan to convene Arab League, OIC meetings over Trump's Jerusalem moves: foreign minister
AMMAN (Reuters) - Jordan plans to convene emergency meetings of the Arab League and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation next Saturday and Sunday on how to face the “dangerous” consequences of U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to move Washington’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, the foreign minister said.
The kingdom is holding consultations with Arab League members in its capacity as president of the Arab summit and also with Turkey which holds the chairmanship of the OIC, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman al Safadi told Reuters.
“These meetings will coordinate Arab and Islamic stances toward the (Trump) decision.. Jerusalem is a Palestinian, Jordanian, Islamic, and Christian issue and any attempts to decide its fate unilaterally are null and void,” Safadi said.
Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; editing by Mark Heinrich
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>> News
>> Military
Leader of Nevada military unit describes soldiers’ lives in Afghanistan
In a collection of essays by Lt. Col. Scott Cunningham, the Review-Journal will follow him and the 700 soldiers he commands in the 1st Squadron, 221st Cavalry as they experience the largest overseas deployment of Nevada National Guard troops. The unit departed Las Vegas on April 18 and trained at Camp Atterbury, Ind. They were flown to Afghanistan at the end of June to conduct combat operations with NATO forces as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. Duty permitting, Cunningham will periodically report his impressions from the embattled country.
afghanistanmap080309
Editor’s note: In a collection of essays by Lt. Col. Scott Cunningham, we’ll follow him and the 700 soldiers he commands in the 1st Squadron, 221st Cavalry as they experience the largest overseas deployment of Nevada National Guard troops. The unit departed Las Vegas on April 18 and trained at Camp Atterbury, Ind. They were flown to Afghanistan at the end of June to conduct combat operations with NATO forces as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. Duty permitting, Cunningham will periodically report his impressions from the embattled country.
Laghman province, Afghanistan — The sun rises early in Afghanistan. By 5 a.m. it’s daytime. The heat soon follows and by the time the Wildhorse Squadron troopers of Nevada’s 1st Squadron, 221st Cavalry are moving to get breakfast, the temperature is approaching 100 degrees.
This is a typical day in a country 7,300 miles and 11 time zones away from our homes in Nevada.
The squadron’s first day in country began with us putting on our combat gear at the air base in Manas, Kyrgyzstan, and making the three-hour flight to Afghanistan.
We landed at the old Soviet air base at Bagram, now occupied, modernized, and expanded by the U.S. military. It’s the central hub of all U.S. operations in Afghanistan, and the typical point of entry or departure for soldiers coming and going. From Bagram, soldiers move to smaller modes of transportation (ground convoy, small plane, or helicopter) to get to their final destinations.
Upon exiting the aircraft, we are confronted by the sights, sounds, and smells of Afghanistan.
Like Nevada, Afghanistan is high desert. The only difference is that everything here is bigger and more grandiose. It’s Nevada on steroids. The mountains range from 6,000 to 14,000 feet, and many are snow-capped. It’s a beautiful, rugged landscape.
The sounds range from the roar of jets and helicopter engines winding up to the loudspeaker system known as the "Big Voice." The Big Voice alerts the vast base of incoming artillery, threats, or if U.S. aircraft are dropping bombs nearby.
The smells are the most memorable. There’s the unmistakable Third World smell of farm animals, hot desert dust, and burning trash. It’s not altogether unpleasant, but it is strong and inescapable.
Following our short stay in Bagram, we rapidly shuttled via helicopter to our operational sectors. The 11 platoons (42 troopers each) deployed into each of the provinces where they will be operating. The rest of the squadron (250 Cavalry troopers) flew into Mether Lam, located centrally in Laghman province.
Living conditions are sparse but tolerable. The structures range from tents to hardened concrete structures to "B Huts," which are prefabricated, plywood shelters akin to Quonset huts used in World War II.
All soldiers have a bed with a mattress to sleep on. There is food of varied quality, but always sufficient quantity, and all the bottled water, Gatorade, and shelf stable milk that you care to drink. This is life "inside the wire," or within the secure perimeter that’s the little slice of America we have established as our base of operations.
Afghanistan itself can best be described as a biblical-era civilization with cell phones. People live either in tents (used by the nomadic Kuchi tribes), stone-walled windowless buildings, or mud-brick compounds resembling medieval fortresses. There are numerous brick-and-mortar buildings as well as steel-concrete structures — usually no more than two- or three-stories tall — in the larger towns and cities.
The Afghans are Central Asians. It’s a tribal society based on various related, but distinguishable ethnic groups. The languages are typically Dari (a Persian-based tongue), or Pashtun, but other dialects are also common.
The women remain mostly indoors, although in the bazaars it is common to see them in burqas doing daily errands. Going through smaller villages, you might catch a glimpse of a veiled woman peering from a window or door, but never up close.
Almost all human interaction is with the men or the children. The only females you will see are girls up to about age 12, who up to that age lead lives similar to those of young boys. Children are everywhere, and it seems school hours are short and truancy is rampant.
Transportation is a challenge. The roads are poor but improving. Some asphalt roads are being constructed courtesy of U.S. development teams, but most are still dirt trails. Some routes are so poor that vehicles larger than a cart cannot hope to pass. With sheer cliffs on one side, and hundred-foot drops into chasms on the other, only the smallest of vehicles can hope to pass safely.
Automobiles are rare. Motorcycles, donkey carts, and small motorcycle-based taxis are the norm. Monstrous Soviet era trucks — known as "Jingle-trucks" for their colorful paint schemes and chain mounted decorations — are the exception. They haul anything of bulk, and their ability to navigate roads and passages that would have intimidated Marco Polo make them a transportation wonder.
Poverty is immediately evident. Most people have only one or two sets of clothing, and seeing naked children (up to 3 years old) playing by the sides of roads and trails is commonplace.
But trash is almost nonexistent. The Afghans reuse anything of value, and little goes to waste. Similarly, graffiti, which is so common in the poorer areas of most societies, is almost absent in Afghanistan. Most children are working by their early teens, and as spray paint costs money, there is little time, tolerance, or opportunity for juvenile delinquency.
The squadron has completed its relief of the outgoing infantry battalion and is fully engaged it its wartime role. The cavalry troopers have rapidly assumed the missions and daily rhythm: mounted and dismounted patrols, base defense, meetings and reconnaissance.
It’s all part of what will be going on for the next nine months throughout Afghanistan, as we try and take this nation that has suffered 30 years of warfare, insurrection and instability, and help turn it into a peaceful country with prospects for real economic, social, and governmental reform.
It’s a long road, but as the Chinese say, "Even a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."
Posted on: Military, News
By Robert Burns The Associated Press
The lack of stable leadership atop the Pentagon has raised questions in Congress at a time of heightened tensions with Iran.
US releases details of decorated soldier’s death in Afghanistan
James G. “Ryan” Sartor, 40, joined the Army in 2001 as an infantryman and had deployed numerous times to Iraq and Afghanistan.
US service member killed in action in Afghanistan
U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad has been holding talks with the Taliban in recent weeks to try and negotiate an end to the war in Afghanistan.
Nellis airman gets military honor for actions during Oct. 1 shooting
By Briana Erickson / RJ
Air Force Staff Sgt. Kenneth DeLongchamp received the Airman’s Medal on Friday, one of just a few to receive the award for nonservice-related action.
New leader takes controls of Warfare Center at Nellis Air Force Base
Maj. Gen. Charles Corcoran, who has served in senior posts in Washington and overseas, replaces Maj. Gen. Peter Gersten, who was relieved of duty last month.
Officer accuses Air Force general of sexual misconduct
By Lolita C. Baldor The Associated Press
The accusations against Gen. John Hyten come at a time when the Pentagon has had an unusual amount of turmoil in its senior ranks.
Creech Air Force Base warns against trespassing on firing range
Creech Air Force Base is warning the public not to trespass onto its firing range complex on Lee Canyon Road.
Nevada Guard buries soldier killed in tank rollover accident
July 2, 2019 - 5:27 pm July 2, 2019 - 7:32 pm
Guard staff Sgt. David W. Gallagher was buried Tuesday at Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery outside Las Vegas.
Military jury finds Navy SEAL not guilty of murder
Edward Gallagher was accused of fatally stabbing an Islamic State prisoner who had been wounded by an airstrike in Iraq in 2017 and other crimes.
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Gladys Cruz, Ph.D.
Harry Hadjioannou
Why BOCES
Gladys Cruz, Ph.D., District Superintendent
Over a 30-year span, Dr. Gladys I. Cruz has established a distinguished career in education as a teacher and leader at the local, regional and state levels.
As District Superintendent for Questar III, Cruz is responsible for overseeing day-to-day operations of the Castleton-based BOCES, reporting directly to the Board of Education. Along, with her leadership team, Cruz provides direction to 23 local school districts and oversees the delivery of more than 275 programs and services across New York State.
Since joining Questar III BOCES in 1998, Cruz has held a number of leadership positions including Chief Operating Officer/Deputy Superintendent, Assistant Superintendent, Director of School Improvement and BETAC Specialist.
Cruz began her career as a teacher in Puerto Rico and her education experience ranges from K-12 schools to universities in New York State and Puerto Rico. In addition, she worked briefly as director of curriculum services for the New York State Education Department.
Cruz holds a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction and a master’s degree in Curriculum Development and Instructional Technology from the State University of New York at Albany. In addition, she holds a master’s degree in Bilingual Education and a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education and English from La Universidad del Turabo in Puerto Rico.
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» 'Serious allegations of criminality with regard to certain police officers'
07 September 2015 - SACC
Sheku Bayoh's family and their lawyer Aamer Anwar today met for almost two hours with Chief Constable Stephen House. In a statement read out after the meeting, Aamer Anwar said:
"The Bayoh family welcomed the meeting today with Chief Constable Sir Stephen House. As expected it was a very robust and honest discussion of the serious concerns that the Bayoh family have over the death of Sheku Bayoh a few weeks ago.
The family appreciated the compassion that the chief constable showed them as well as the personal regret he expressed for their ordeal.
The Bayoh family understand the frustrations of the chief constable not being able to speak publicly because of an ongoing Pirc investigation.
The chief constable has assured the family that he would expect Police Scotland to learn any lessons following the completion of the investigation and all legal proceedings.
Today is an important step forward for the Bayoh family. They welcomed the Chief Constable's willingness to deal with the issues they raised despite Mr House having tendered his resignation.
However the Bayoh family wanted assurances from the Chief Constable that when he leaves the promises he made to them are kept by Police Scotland. To that end it was important that two Senior Officers in Police Scotland, Deputy Chief Constable Ian Livingstone and Assistant Chief Constable Ruaraidh Nicolson were also present who have the full confidence of the Bayoh family.
serious allegations of criminality with regard to certain police officers
At the meeting the family reiterated that they could never accept police officers lying to them with several versions of what happened to Sheku Bayoh in the hours following his death in custody. The first version told to Collette was that a member of the public had found Sheku’s body on the street.
The family also raised serious allegations of criminality with regard to certain police officers that cannot be disclosed publicly which we understand are the subject of an investigation.
The family also expressed concern of the right of police officers being able to resign whilst being under serious criminal investigation or misconduct issues.
We understand that last year the UK government introduced legislation in England and Wales that allows the police boards or Chief Constables to refuse the acceptance of such resignations, and the family believes that the Scottish Government should introduce similar legislation in Scotland and that they should liaise with the Chief Constable and Police Scotland to see how to take these issues forward.
It was clear from the meeting with the Chief Constable that it's time for clarity from the Lord Advocate and the Scottish Government on when police officers are required to provide statements, what they provide in their statements in serious issues such as deaths in custody.
serious failings that exist in our justice system
It is clear to the Bayoh family that the death of Sheku Bayoh in police custody has highlighted the serious gaps that are present in our laws dealing with investigations of police officers. It is a matter that Police Scotland are unable to deal with themselves but the time is ripe for the Scottish Government in partnership with all parties, including the Police Federation, to address the serious failings that exist in our justice system.
The Bayoh family accept the Chief Constable’s commitment to co-operate fully with the inquiry ordered by the Lord Advocate and he also confirmed that he will meet with the family again in due course.
The Bayoh family believe that Police Officers must always act as our public servants and not as our masters. They hope that Police Scotland and any successor to Stephen House will take heed of the lessons that need to be learned so that no other family is put through the ordeal that the Bayoh’s have had to endure."
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A Message from a Warrior About Protecting Our Sacred Lands: Why Standing Rock Matters
by smagni | Dec 3, 2016 | COMMENTARY | 0 comments
Liz Perez Halperin
As summer comes to a close, while BBQ’s are being flamed up one last time, the media wants many of us to get caught up on choosing sides about the appropriateness of athletes sitting down during the playing of the national anthem, or trading “worst-ever” conversations about the upcoming Presidential election. A topic few are being encouraged to discuss is the issue that inspired hundreds of Native American tribes across the USA to unite and take a stand: the building of the Dakota Access Pipeline. This is the first time since the Native American movement of the 70s that tribes have come together for a cause.
For those not following the protests, the Dakota Access Pipeline is a $3.7 billion project that would cross four states, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois, with 1,168 miles of oil pipeline. It would stretch from the oil-rich fields known as the Bakken Formation near Canada, and carry an estimated 470,000 barrels of crude oil a day.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approved the project, granting final permits this past July. But on July 27, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe sued the Corps, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief to stop construction. The lawsuit claims the Corps has violated federal law and that the pipeline “threatens the Tribe’s environmental and economic well-being, and would damage and destroy sites of great historic, religious, and cultural significance to the Tribe.” [Complaint here; Motion here; recent Declaration here].
There is no doubt that countless sites sacred to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, containing great spiritual, cultural and historic significance, are in dire threat of being destroyed. So why is this not receiving the attention it deserves?
This is not just another battle against big oil companies. We have waged the Keystone battle already on many of the same issues. It is because those affected this time are not just Native Americans, but some of the most persecuted and forgotten of the Native American tribes. It is not only an uncomfortable return to the horrors of Wounded Knee, but a “Native Lives Matter” reminder that the United States was built in large part on the genocide of Native Americans and the use of Natives as slave labor. This is the story you were not taught in grade school. It’s the story of our nation that many feel is taboo, and not open for discussion. But here it is. Again.
For years, I have maintained the silence and learned to keep my mouth shut about the true story of Native American history in America. I have loyally served our country as a U.S. Navy 9/11 Combat Veteran, but as a Native American from the North Fork Rancheria (Mono Indian) tribe located near Yosemite, I am well aware of our people’s generational struggle. (My Native American name is Pia (pronounced Pi-Ya), which means water). And, despite the harsh treatment of Natives for centuries, the U.S. Native American population claims the greatest number of people per capita who have served in uniform. We, yes, WE, stand when the national anthem is played and WE stand together at “Standing Rock” because this was our land before it was confiscated.
Why does it matter? Why are so many tribes coming together for this cause? One reason is because many tribes share the same issue regarding Native American land rights. These Native American land rights are tied into treaties that were signed over 100 years ago with the US government, treaties made with over 500 tribes. Within these treaties, the government set aside land for Native Americans to live on, known as “reservations.” In reality, the term “reservation” was just a fancy way of saying, “the least productive, least attractive piece of land we’re willing to give you.”
One of those treaties signed by the U.S. was the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, which is tied to “Standing Rock” reservation. It was signed with the Lakota, Dakota, Arapaho, and Cheyenne tribes. This treaty gave a permanent reservation for the Sioux in all of South Dakota west of the Missouri River, and the Indians in turn released all lands east of the Missouri River, except the Crow Creek, Sisseton, and Yankton Reservations. In this treaty, the government promised that “non-natives” would not enter the Sioux reservation without Sioux permission, and that further negotiations must be done with the approval of Sioux leadership. Yet, ever since the discovery of gold in 1874, that treaty has remained broken for decades.
Many of these sites that non-natives are destroying at Standing Rock are burial grounds and are sacred. These are places of prayer as well. Native American sacred land defines who we are as Native people today. In 1978, Congress passed the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA), in which Congress recognized its obligation to “protect and preserve for American Indians their inherent right of freedom to believe, express and exercise Native American traditional religions.” This would include preserving Native American sacred ground and allowing the right to practice prayer and Native American spirituality. This reversed the 1883 original government policy prohibiting the practice of Native American spirituality.
The reality is that Tribal Country (reservations) are far away from society, jobs, good healthcare and education. Also, in many cases, like my tribe, we have no access to electricity, sufficient plumbing and almost always no access to cell towers & Wi-Fi. We are completely isolated. So why would anyone want this undesirable land? The answer is, natural resources like gold, natural gas, oil and water. Simply, the U.S. government has broken treaties because of this, allowing oil companies to desecrate Native American burial sites across America.
This story is mirrored in the lives of many other Native Americans. This is why Natives are standing up for “Standing Rock”. This has been our story for centuries. We have fought and will continue to fight to protect our land. We will do this despite centuries of broken promises and lopsided treaties.
We Native Americans have suffered to protect the land the U.S. government and big oil is now trying to destroy. This land not only has cultural significance to us, it provides a lifeline to our people: clean drinking water. As we have seen time and time again, building any pipeline almost always means polluting clean drinking water. To name just a few recent catastrophes, the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, and the Yellowstone and Ventura County oil spills come to mind. Once that water is polluted, it will be gone forever. That water will not return, ever.
This is what’s happening at Standing Rock. Clean drinking water sources are being destroyed and we will never get those back. Sacred Native American burial grounds are also being destroyed at Standing Rock and throughout Native reservations across America. Without action, we will never get clean drinking water, or our sacred sites back. It’s a travesty and a tragedy.
Such great sacrifice begs us to ask ourselves, our friends, our families some hard questions:
Isn’t it way past the time we weaned ourselves off of fossil fuels? It’s 2016! Isn’t it time to stop thinking like a dinosaur?
Do you believe having clean drinking water is a basic human right?
Would you be okay with building a pipeline through national treasures, like one of the California Missions? How about a pipeline through the Ford Theater in Washington D.C.? Would pipeline construction right through the Alamo in San Antonio be okay with you?
Truly ask yourself these and many related questions.
So to me, this is personal. From the time I was a child, I was taught to protect and respect our precious Earth. It is difficult to explain to Non-Natives that I was actively taught as a child by my Mono grandmother and tribal elders to listen to Mother Earth because she does talk to you. I was taught how to see and listen to Mother Earth at an early age, similar to learning a second language as a child. I was taught to respect sacred land.
In 2013, I was honored by The White House as a Champion of Change (Veteran Advancing Clean Energy and Climate Security). I founded a veteran-run green energy company and have brought my childhood lessons to bear in the business world.
So I ask, respectfully, as a Native American, United States Veteran, clean energy advocate and business woman, for all of us to pay as much attention to this issue as we would a millionaire athlete, a Hollywood movie star, or the latest reality TV special. This is more than just a pipeline. This is about protecting clean water resources; building on sacred burial sites; centuries of broken promises. This is about caring for a truly important issue to all Americans, and about protecting this Earth that we all share.
Please read and follow the case and materials cited above, as well as planned rally information, and please spread the word.
Liz Perez-Halperin (Aviation Logistics Specialist, U.S. Navy) is a Senior Correspondent for Lima Charlie News. Liz served in the Navy for over eight years with several deployments in the 5th and 6th Fleet, before founding GC Green Incorporated, a veteran-owned “Green Build” general contracting and consulting firm. In 2013, Liz was honored by The White House as a Champion of Change – Veteran Advancing Clean Energy and Climate Security
Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2016/09/09/message-warrior-about-protecting-our-sacred-lands-why-standing-rock-matters
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Archaeology U.S. History World History Video Newsletter
“Hello Boys! Become an Erector Master Engineer!”
With no “hanky-panky gimcracks,” A. C. Gilbert’s Erector sets taught boys more than just the nuts and bolts
Print advertisement for Erector Set, circa 1922 (Wikimedia Commons)
By Bruce Watson
Smithsonian Magazine | Subscribe
Christmas of 1918 was just months away, and the United States — immersed in the war effort — was considering calling off Santa. Perhaps parents should invest in Liberty bonds rather than in toys, the powers-that-be reasoned. Why should toys be saved when so many other items were being sacrificed during wartime?
Addressing the Council of National Defense in a special meeting, an energetic businessman from New Haven, Connecticut, explained why. America, argued A. C. Gilbert, was the home of educational toys, toys that prepared our boys for adulthood. He also brought examples. Soon, the Secretaries of War, the Navy, Commerce and the Interior were playing with tiny submarines and engines, reading children's books and tinkering with A. C. Gilbert's own popular creation: the Erector set.
He was touted in the press that year as "The Man Who Saved Christmas," but as author Bruce Watson points out, A. C. Gilbert and his trusty Erector sets also saved "rainy afternoons from boredom" and "inquiring minds...from the tedium of science textbooks." From 1913, when he released his first boxes of steel girders, nuts and bolts, till his death in 1961, A. C. Gilbert was inseparable from the popular toy, and the toy was inseparable from American boyhood.
Whether as a champion pole-vaulter, a professional magician or a purveyor of constructive fun, A. C. Gilbert set out to be the very best — and encouraged the same drive in his young customers. Times and toys have changed, and Gilbert's Erector sets and science kits now sell only among collectors. But the fond memories of millions of grown-up "Erector Engineers" — including our author — live on.
Moving Down the Line
The Great Goddess Devi
There aren't many rumors that American socialite Wallis Simpson hasn't been subjected to. So here's how she actually infiltrated the British monarchy.
How Wallis Simpson Infiltrated British Royalty (4:18)
Despite its dry desert landscapes, Utah is a land of surprises, and Glen Canyon is one of them, rivaling Arizona's Grand Canyon for sheer majesty.
Utah's Otherworldly Landscapes (2:20)
A mongoose is lightning fast and has razor-sharp teeth. A black mamba can kill 15 grown men with just one bite. Which of these two mortal enemies will win?
A Mongoose and Black Mamba Fight to Death (2:33)
Eric Green, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, explains how genomics are revolutionizing medicine at Smithsonian's "The Future is Here" event
The Human Genome: Unlocking Life's Code (15:37)
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Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States
An independent, not-for-profit institution, Babson is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, and the EFMD Quality Improvement System (EQUIS). In the 2014–2015 academic year, more than 2,100 undergraduate and 900 graduate students are attending Babson, representing more than 80 countries.
Our Career Advisers are highly experienced professionals with a variety of backgrounds.
Any current student is welcome to drop by during these times for a brief meeting with an adviser or EIR, on a first-come, first-serve basis.
We are a dynamic learning laboratory, where clients, faculty staff, and partners work together to address real-world business challenges.
Certificate Analytics for Decision Making
Certificate Economics - Consumer Demand
Certificate Entrepreneurial Leadership Toolbox
Prof. Certificate Entrepreneurial Mindset and Leadership
Certificate Entrepreneurial Operations - Launching a Startup
Certificate Financial Accounting Made Fun - Eliminating Your Fears
Certificate Financial Analysis for Decision Making
Prof. Certificate Financial Decision - Making for Leaders
Certificate From Corporate Social Responsibility to Corporate Social Innovation
Certificate The Entrepreneurial Mindset
Applied Sciences & Professions (1)
On September 3, 1919, with an enrollment of 27 students, the Babson Institute held its first classes in the former home of Roger and Grace Babson on Abbott Road in Wellesley Hills.From the beginning, Roger Babson set out to distinguish the Babson Institute from colleges offering instruction in business.
Computational and Mathematical Finance
Global and Regional Studies
Global Business Management
Historical and Political Studies
International Business Environment
Justice, Citizenship, and Social Responsibility
Literary and Visual Arts
Planning, Analysis, and Control
Retail Supply Chain Management
Technology, Entrepreneurship, and Design
Research, both theoretical and practitioner focused, is the cornerstone of scholarly activities. Faculty members each develop, in conjunction with their division chairperson, a program of scholarly activity that relates to individual, division, and College needs. Expectations are that faculty members develop a research pipeline, that is, continuous scholarly work with projects in various stages of completion.
At Babson’s Graduate and Undergraduate Centers for Career Development (CCD), we provide you with the advice and resources to help you recognize and pursue career opportunities you’re passionate about.
The mission of Babson’s Office of Faith and Service is to inspire students to become entrepreneurial leaders with a global mindset who practice respect and empathy while seeking purpose through faith and service. Our vision is to create a conscious, connected community that pursues social justice.
Undergraduate students are housed in one of 18 residence halls on our campus, ranging from traditional residence halls to suite-style accommodations. Residence halls vary in appearance, amenities, room layouts, square footage, and population. Our smallest is home to three residents, while our largest is home to 215 residents.
Graduate housing, for both individuals and families, is available in one of seven residence halls, ranging from studio/hotel style rooms with shared kitchens to studio, one-bedroom, and large two-bedroom apartments.
Book Retrieval Service
Many of the library’s stacks are not wheelchair accessible. Staff members at the Information Desk are available to demonstrate how to “browse the stacks” using the online catalog and to retrieve books from the stacks when needed.
Study Room 211 is equipped with a table that is high enough to accommodate patrons in a wheelchair
As part of our Campus license agreement with Microsoft, Babson College is able to offer graduate students selected Microsoft titles, including Office 2013, for the cost of media and shipping and handling. Through the Kivuto site, students may purchase one copy of media (CD) for each of the available products.
A healthy community encompasses more than just physical and mental health. It is a community based in tolerance, inclusiveness, respect, and justice. Babson is committed to making our campus safe and welcoming to everyone, regardless of race, religion, gender, age, and sexual orientation.
Babson's three locations—Boston, San Francisco, and the main residential campus in Wellesley—make Babson a convenient and powerful destination for students, community members, and visitors from around the world who participate in forums and events taking place throughout the year. All of the locations take advantage of the metropolitan culture, energy, and business opportunities in Boston and San Francisco.
Babson offers 22 varsity programs at the NCAA Division III level, with the majority of its teams competing in the NEWMAC. Babson also competes in the ECAC East for men’s ice hockey, the NECC for men’s golf, and the MacConnell Division of the USCSA for alpine skiing.
With more than 100 student clubs and organizations on campus, Babson fosters a campus environment that empowers in you a desire to co-create experiences in partnership with others. By doing so, you will engage in a rich variety of opportunities to distinguish yourself while enjoying the camaraderie of fellow students who share your same passions and interests. Clubs offer a fun means of developing and honing leadership skills and the ability to work collaboratively on a common goal.
Get More Information About United States
9 Masters
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EU Business School
EU Business School (EU) is an international, high-ranking business school with campuses in Barcelona, Geneva, Montreux and Munich.
Private Institution Type
Programs within our network are consistently featured in the top tier of global and European rankings.
Our team is composed of academics, entrepreneurs, consultants and business leaders.
Case-study methods and a pragmatic approach are two of our most effective tools.
Certificate EU Business Summer School
Certificate EU Business Winter School 2019
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Established in 1973, EU Business School (EU) is an international, high-ranking business school with campuses in Barcelona, Geneva, Montreux and Munich.
EU Business School offers foundation, bachelor’s, master’s, MBA and doctoral programs with focuses in business administration, international business, marketing, finance and enterprise, among others. We provide small, dynamic classes in English, with the best of both North American and European academic curricula both on campus and online. Our pragmatic approach to business education, together with EU’s global network, prepares you for a career in today’s rapidly evolving and globalized business world.
The Career Services Department serves students, alumni and organizations by addressing individual development and employment needs. It regularly holds career workshops and will be able to provide students with assistance in formulating, exploring and implementing their career options.
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Barcelona Campus - The student library has key textbooks and periodicals for students’ reference
Montreux Campus - The library features key textbooks and periodicals for students’ reference, and the Wi-Fi enables access to the award-winning online learning resource ProQuest, which is also available remotely via the intranet
Barcelona Campus - The student library has key textbooks and periodicals for students’ reference, as well as Wi-Fi range.
Geneva Campus - SMARTboards and campus-wide Wi-Fi enables access to the learning resource ProQuest, which is also available via the intranet.
Montreux Campus - the Wi-Fi enables access to the learning resource ProQuest, which is also available remotely via the intranet.
The EU Group is comprised of four campuses located in Spain, Switzerland and Germany. EU campuses can be found on the sunny Mediterranean coastline, at the foot of the Swiss Alps and in the economic capital of Germany, offering students the opportunity to live in four distinct and enriching European cities.
EU holds annual tennis, paddle and beach volleyball tournaments, and encourages students to play soccer and basketball year round.
EU has a multicultural student body with more than 100 nationalities represented, coupled with our 26,000-strong alumni network.
The EU Group has successfully fulfilled the high-quality criteria of the following accreditation bodies:
ACBSP
IACBE
CEEMAN IQA
eduQua
Get More Information About Spain
15 Bachelors
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‘The Outpost’ Season 2 Episode 2 Photos: “This is One Strange Town” Preview
You are at:Home»Movies»‘Tolkien’ Trailer: Nicholas Hoult Stars as Author J.R.R. Tolkien
‘Tolkien’ Trailer: Nicholas Hoult Stars as Author J.R.R. Tolkien
By Rebecca Murray on February 12, 2019 Movies, New Movie Trailers
Fox Searchlight just unveiled the first trailer for Tolkien, a biopic about the author of the classic The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings novels. The film explores J.R.R. Tolkien’s creation of those iconic fantasies.
Nicholas Hoult (Warm Bodies, Mad Max: Fury Road) leads the cast as J.R.R. Tolkien and Lily Collins (The Last Tycoon, Rules Don’t Apply) plays his wife, Edith. Colm Meaney (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), Craig Roberts (Red Oaks), Anthony Boyle (The Lost City of Z), Patrick Gibson (The OA), Tom Glynn-Carney (Dunkirk), Genevieve O’Reilly (The Legend of Tarzan), Laura Donnelly (Outlander), Pam Ferris (Holmes and Watson), and Derek Jacobi (Murder on the Orient Express) also star in the 2019 drama.
Dome Karukoski (Tom of Finland) directed from a script by David Gleeson (The Front Line) and Stephen Beresford (Pride). Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping, David Ready, and Kris Thykier produced.
Tolkien‘s behind the scenes team includes director of photography Lasse Frank Johannessen, editor Harri Ylönen, production designer Grant Montgomery, and costume designer Colleen Kelsall.
Fox Searchlight will release Tolkien in theaters on May 10, 2019.
The Plot:
Tolkien explores the formative years of the orphaned author as he finds friendship, love and artistic inspiration among a group of fellow outcasts at school. This takes him into the outbreak of World War I, which threatens to tear the “fellowship” apart. All of these experiences would inspire Tolkien to write his famous Middle-Earth novels.
Nicholas Hoult and Lily Collins in ‘Tolkien’ (Photo Courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures © 2019 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation)
laura donnelly lily collins nicholas hoult tolkien trailer
Previous Article‘Yesterday’ First Trailer and Poster: A Bizarre World Without The Beatles
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Zlatan Ibrahimovic Reveals Why He Left Man United to Join LA Galaxy
Zlatan Ibrahimovic has revealed his reason to seek a termination of his Manchester United contract on Thursday and join MLS side LA Galaxy was due to his deep rooted desire to be fully immersed in football once again.
The Swedish star had signed a one-year extension at Old Trafford last summer following a cruciate ligament injury to his knee, and having made just seven appearances for United this season on his return from the potentially career threatening injury the 36-year-old was eager to seek pastures new.
“I decided to sign with Galaxy because I think it’s the right place for me. I have a lot to give, I can help them a lot, and they are the best team in the US," Ibrahimovic told the LA Galaxy website.
“There were no doubts. I have a lot of expectations, I put pressure on myself, I demand a lot in my game. I’m just looking forward to playing, I need to play.
“I’m like a little child who you give candy to for the first time and he’s looking for the candy all the time.
“That is what I need. I need to play and I want to play. I’m hungry to play because it’s gone too long now, I haven’t felt involved in the game and I need to feel involved. Because this is what I’ve been doing all my life,” he added.
Ibrahimovic netted 29 goals in 53 games for the Red Devils during his two seasons at the club following his move from Paris Saint-Germain, where he helped seal two major trophies in his debut year at Old Trafford.
The 36-year-old's move to the United States takes his career to a seventh league across seven countries having played in his native Sweden, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, France and England.
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Image: Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock
Diversity gets a serious boost if you tell jobseekers this one thing
by Eva Short
New research has found that female candidates are more likely to apply for a position when they know how many have already applied.
Telling jobseekers how many other people have applied for a job on LinkedIn could boost diversity, new research published by an academic at Tufts University has found.
The research, entitled ‘The More You Know: Information Effects on Job Application Rates in a Large Field Experiment’ was published in Management Science by economist Dr Laura Gee. It found that female candidates were more likely to apply for positions if the current number of applicants was advertised, which Gee suggests could “ameliorate the gender occupation gap”.
Gee’s findings were predicated on an experiment ran by LinkedIn over the course of 16 days in 2012. Gee analysed the anonymised dataset, which represented 2.3m registered users in 235 countries, and determined that telling jobseekers how many other people had applied for a position increased the likelihood that they would apply, by anything from 1.9pc to 3.6pc. Within the context of this research, it represented a potential 1,500 extra applications.
In addition to an increase in the number of women applying, the number of women who applied for ‘masculine jobs’ (advertised positions for which more than 80pc of those who started or completed an application were male) increased as well.
“Firms often talk about their desires to hire more diverse workforces, especially more women, to decrease the gender occupation gap,” said Gee, who is an assistant professor in the Department of Economics in the School of Arts and Sciences at Tufts University.
“Adding this small bit of information helps companies attract more applicants, which could increase the number of applicants from more diverse backgrounds. That could help a company begin to close diversity gaps.”
Diversity was recently deemed a top priority for recruiters and HR professionals. The benefits of having a more diverse workforce have been emphasised time and time again, with commentators arguing that doing so will encourage innovation and improve a company’s bottom line.
Related: jobseekers, diversity, equality, LinkedIn
Eva Short is a Journalist at Silicon Republic specialising in the areas of tech, data privacy, business, cybersecurity, AI, automation and future of work, among others.
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Why SimCorp
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Business transacted at the extraordinary general meeting held on 16 May 2012
May 15, 2012 Announcement
The extraordinary general meeting of SimCorp A/S was held on Wednesday 16 May 2012.
The shareholders passed with the requisite majority and quorum all below resolutions as proposed by the Board of Directors, and the company’s Articles of Association have been amended accordingly.
Proposals from the Board of Directors. At the annual general meeting held on 29 March 2012, the proposals were voted in favour for by a majority of more than two thirds of both the votes cast and the votes represented at the general meeting. Since, however, less than half of the voting share capital was represented at the general meeting the proposals were not adopted, and the Board of Directors therefore makes the proposals at the extraordinary general meeting.
Re 1A
The Board of Directors proposes to reduce the share capital of the Company by nominally DKK 1,000,000 from nominally DKK 46,000,000 to nominally DKK 45,000,000, equivalent to a reduction of the share capital by 1,000,000 shares of DKK 1 each by cancellation of own shares. The reduc-tion of the share capital is executed in pursuance of Section 188 (1)(2) of the Danish Companies Act, after which the reduction is effected by reduction of own shares which means that the purpose of the reduction is payment to the shareholders. The own shares in question were purchased by the Company in the period from 18 September 2008 until 15 September 2010 for a total purchase price of DKK 75,088,659.90. The purchase price is entered at DKK 0 in the accounts of the Company since the amount has been written off the equity capital. In consequence hereof, it is proposed to amend Article 3, first sentence, of the Articles of Association as follows:
"The share capital of the company is DKK 45,000,000, say forty-five million 00/100, divided into shares of DKK 1 each or any multiples thereof."
After the reduction there will be full coverage for the share capital and the deposits and capital reserves that are restricted pursuant to the law and the Articles of Association of the Company.
Before the reduction of the share capital is executed, the Company's creditors will be convened via the electronic information system of the Danish Business Authority in pursuance of section 192 of the Danish Companies Act. 4 weeks after the expiry of the notification period of section 192 of the Danish Companies Act the reduction of the share capital shall be finally executed and the following amendment of the Articles of Association if so will be deemed registered.
Re 1B
The employees and the management have decided to establish a voluntary scheme for the election of employee representatives to the Board of Directors under the rules governing repre-sentation at group level, whereby all employees in the group may vote at elections and are eli-gible for election to the Board of Directors as group representative or alternate. Consequently, the Board of Directors propose that the following wording is inserted as new article 15(3) of the Articles of Association:
“The Company has adopted a voluntary scheme for the election of employees to the Board of Directors pursuant to the rules on representation at group level. All employees in the SimCorp group of companies may vote at elections and are eligible to the Board of Directors. The voluntary scheme is further described in an election statute as approved by the Board of Directors. The number of employee elected Board members will correspond to the number mandated by the Danish legislation on company representation.”
Please find an updated set of articles of association at the company’s website.
Enquiries regarding this announcement should be addressed to:
Peter L. Ravn, CEO, SimCorp A/S, (+45 3544 8800, +45 4076 1841) or
Thomas Johansen, CFO, SimCorp A/S, (+45 3544 8800, +45 2092 7454)
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Speakers Details
Professor Tommy Koh
Ambassador-at-Large, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore, and Chair, Water Leaders Summit
Tommy KOH is currently Ambassador-At-Large at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Special Adviser to the Institute of Policy Studies; and Chairman of the Governing Board of the Centre for International Law at the National University of Singapore (NUS). He is the Chairman of the International Advisory Panel of the Asia Research Institute (NUS) and Chairman of the Advisory Committee of the Master’s Degree on Environmental Management (NUS). He is also the Co-chairman of the Asian Development Bank’s Advisory Committee on Water and Sanitation. He is Rector of the Tembusu College, at NUS, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the SymAsia Foundation of Credit Suisse.
He had served as Dean of the Faculty of Law of NUS, Singapore's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, Ambassador to the United States of America, High Commissioner to Canada and Ambassador to Mexico. He was President of the Third UN Conference on the Law of the Sea and the Chairman of the Preparatory Committee for and the Main Committee of the UN Conference on Environment and Development. He was the founding Chairman of the National Arts Council, founding Executive Director of the Asia-Europe Foundation and former Chairman of the National Heritage Board. He was also Singapore's Chief Negotiator for the US-Singapore Free Trade Agreement. He acted as Singapore's Agent in two legal disputes with Malaysia. He has chaired two dispute panels for the WTO. He is the Co‑Chairman of the China‑Singapore Forum, the Japan-Singapore Symposium and the India-Singapore Strategic Dialogue.
In 2006, Prof Koh received the Champion of the Earth Award from UNEP and the inaugural President's Award for the Environment from Singapore. He was conferred with honorary doctoral degrees in law by Yale and Monash Universities. Harvard University conferred on him the Great Negotiator Award in 2014.
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Mormons baptise Anne Frank–frankly, it’s disgusting
I lived in Utah during a couple of points in my life. It is a beautiful state, with numerous outdoor activities available like hiking, fishing, rock climbing, skiing, mountain biking…I’m not being funded by the Utah Chamber of Commerce, so you get the point. Living in Utah is an interesting proposition for someone like me who considers religion nothing more than myths carried from the Bronze Age (3000-500 BCE approximately), when human culture had barely left the last Glacial Maximum, and science was starting a fire. Utah is essentially a theocracy, where government is mostly run by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (known as LDS or Mormons). If you’re a non-Mormon (whom they call Gentiles) living in Utah, you sort of learn about the religion just by osmosis. And you mostly ignore them (there is a de facto segregation of neighborhoods between Mormons and non-Mormons for a lot of complex reasons).
Mormons have a lot of odd practices (all religions do) and beliefs (all religions do) including the fact that, they think that empires of Near East peoples (semitic tribes) were located in the Americas thousands of years ago. This belief is despite the total lack of linguistic, archeological, genetic and historical evidence. Oh well, hard to pick on them for strange beliefs, since all religions have the same.
But, there’s one practice I’ve always found to be a bit daft, baptism by proxy or baptism of the dead. It’s a very strange practice, but whatever Bronze Age belief is acceptable to the religion, as long as it doesn’t harm those of us who think it’s just a myth for ancient illiterate peoples. Essentially, baptism of the dead is just what it appears to be–living Mormons baptize dead family members (usually), or whomever they want. Honestly, most of us don’t care.
I always find it amusing that they have baptized Albert Einstein, a secular Jew, who by all accounts, writing, speeches, and general knowledge, was a devout atheist. Apparently, they’ve baptized over 200 million dead people. They must have a lot of time for this practice.
Sadly, this past week, some Mormon adherent decided to baptize Annelies Marie “Anne” Frank (see screenshot from the Mormon baptism registry), the young Dutch-Jewish girl who was famous for writing a wonderful diary of her life hiding in a wall, evading capture by Nazis during World War II. She lived Jewish, and died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp (just a few weeks before it was liberated by British soldiers). She died because she was Jewish, not because she decided suddenly to be a Mormon. She died because of the Nazi hatred of Jews, not as a religion (though I’m sure it was part of it), but because of Jewish ethnicity.
Anne Frank was a Jew who was one of six million who died at the hand of the Germans, and who represents all of the Jewish children who died because of their ethnicity, not because they were combatants, murdered Germans, or designed bad looking BMW’s or Mercedes. Again, ignoring all of the religious silliness, it is offensive and disgusting that Mormons, who had agreed not to baptize Holocaust victims, continue to do so.
Mass genocides, of which the Holocaust was one of the largest, become a part of the cultural DNA of a group. It matters at the deepest core level of the group, because of the shared pain. Jewish weddings and Bar Mitzvahs almost always include reverence to the Holocaust dead and survivors. Every Jewish family includes elderly survivors and swaths of missing relatives who died merely because they were Jews. The Mormons are always feigning insults to their religion, yet they haven’t got a clue as to how appalling it is for some clueless Mormon, who is so brainwashed by their religion, that they cannot see how painful it would be to Jews when they find out that Anne Frank got “baptized” for no logical reason whatsoever. Of course, we’re talking about religions.
I wonder how Mitt Romney’s Mormonism will mesh with Jews who make up a significant part of the vote in New York, California and Florida. Will he show some intestinal fortitude and say “this was a bad thing.” Doubtful, since Romney seems to float wherever the wind blows to get elected, and lacks any backbone whatsoever.
Since baptisms are quite silly, a Roman era practice that does nothing for humans, I could dismiss the whole baptism of the dead as another crazy practice of another crazy religion. It’s the symbolism that matters here.
via Mormon Baptism Targets Anne Frank — Again–Huffington Post
CategoriesAtheism, Religion TagsAnne Frank, baptism, Mitt Romney, Mormon, Nazi, Republicans, Utah
Previous PostPrevious Amy Farrah Fowler may believe in homeopathy, but Sheldon does not
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The Intricacies of a Chef’s Hat
It is not unusual to find people in a high position wearing uniforms that set them apart from all the rest. Certain accessories and embellishments are sometimes added to show where they are in a certain hierarchy as well. In some cases, badges and medals are worn to show that they are of a higher position over the rest of the people they are with. Yet in a lot of cases, it’s in the kind of headgear people wear that show their authority over the others. And when it comes to the kitchen, the hat says it all.
Why the Chef’s Hat was Invented
It’s clear who’s following orders, and who’s giving out the orders whenever you take a peek inside the kitchen. The chef’s hat has given the chef the authority over all the others in the kitchen for a long time, but there are quite a few stories going around as where it really came from and what main purpose it really served.
It is said that even before the 7th century, it was common for kings to be poisoned by the very people that cook their food. To effectively placate the chefs, they were made to wear special headgear to show that inside the kitchen, they ranked higher than everybody else.
It is also around this time that a lot of intellectuals were being persecuted. Being a chef meant that they had to learn how to read and write as they came up with new recipes and recorded them. This made them part of the groups of people being hunted down, which pushed them to run to the Greek Orthodox Church to seek refuge amongst the monks. To make it even easier to hide, they also wore the same thing that the monks were wearing, which included the monk’s cap. This eventually evolved to become one of the earliest versions of the chef’s hat.
Yet another story about King Henry finding hair in his soup has been going around for years, although it has not been proven to be fact or fiction. Because of this incident, it is said that the person responsible was executed, which paved the way for the chef to start wearing headgear that prevented their hair from falling into the food they were cooking.
What do the Aspects of the Chef’s Hat Stand For?
White is the color of choice when it comes to the chef’s hat simply because it is a clear symbol of cleanliness. This is, of course, a very important factor when it comes to the kitchen.
The height showed what the person’s rank in the kitchen is. Obviously, the chef had the highest headgear among all the people in the kitchen, followed by his assistant.
As for the pleats, these signify the amount of knowledge that a chef has. Every time a new learning or experience is added to a chef’s list of knowledge, another pleat is added. It is said that a certain chef even had a hundred pleats on his hat, just because he knew how to prepare eggs a hundred ways.
Are you a chef? I your own opinion, what does your hat represent?
By Rogue Star| 2015-07-02T11:00:32-06:00 July 2nd, 2015|Rogue Star Online|0 Comments
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The Leanne Benjamin Awards established
Former Royal Ballet Principal launches a scholarship scheme for young Australian dancers in collaboration with the Tait Memorial Trust.
By Rachel Beaumont (Product Manager)
1 May 2014 at 4.55pm | 1 Comment
Leanne Benjamin in Emeralds as part of Jewels © Johan Persson/ROH 2007
Former Royal Ballet Principal Leanne Benjamin is establishing a new scholarship for young Australian dancers, in collaboration with the Tait Memorial Trust.
The inaugural event of the Leanne Benjamin Awards will be held on 12 June 2014 at The Royal Ballet School. After a training masterclass with students currently supported by the Tait Memorial Trust, Leanne will coach a student of The Royal Ballet School in one of her favourite Classical solos in front of an audience. Proceeds from the event will go towards the support of the Leanne Benjamin Awards. Tickets can be bought through the Tait Memorial Trust website.
Leanne Benjamin OBE was born in Rockhampton, Australia, and trained at The Royal Ballet School. She joined the Company as a First Soloists in 1992 and was promoted to Principal the following year. After 20 years as a Principal with the Company she retired from dancing at the end of the 2012/13 Season, making her final performance as Mary Vetsera in Mayerling on 15 June 2013.
The Tait Memorial Trust supports young Australian musicians and dancers who are studying in the UK. The Trust was founded in 1992 by Isla Baring OAM in memory of Sir Frank Tait, Lady Viola Tait and the Tait brothers – key figures in the fostering of theatre and the performing arts in Australia.
Since its foundation the Trust has raised more than £250,000 through fund-raising events and concerts. It supports young Australian musicians and performing artists through awards and grants for postgraduate study, performance opportunities and further assistance. Dancers supported by the Trust include young Australian dancers studying at The Royal Ballet School, English National Ballet School and the Rambert Dance Company.
Current Royal Ballet dancers previously supported by the Tait Memorial Trust include Claudia Dean and Tristan Dyer.
1 May 2014 at 4.55pm
This article has been categorised Awards, Ballet and tagged Australia, Australian dancers, Leanne Benjamin, Leanne Benjamin Awards, Tait Memorial Trust, The Royal Ballet School
isla Baring responded on 8 May 2014 at 11:47am Reply
Thank you so much for the publicity for our Tait Trust event to raise funds for The Leanne Benjamin awards
it is going to be a wonderful evening and we are thrilled to be honouring the work of our Australian Former Principal dancer of the Royal Ballet Book through through our web site http://www.taitmemorialtrust.org
not to be missed !!
This article has 1 mention elsewhere
The Leanne Benjamin Awards established < News – Royal Opera House | Tait Memorial Trust: […] The Leanne Benjamin Awards established < News – Royal Opera House. […]
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FEMTECH’S BILLION-DOLLAR YEAR
Defined as any software, diagnostics, products and services that leverage technology to improve women’s health.
Greatly surpassing last year’s record of $650 million…brought in only $62 million in 2012, $225 million in 2014 and $231 million in 2016.
Way in which the VC world is structured…difficult to understand the value of a product you aren’t ever going to use or to understand a problem you aren’t ever going to have.
AMAZON’S FIRST HIPAA-COMPLIANT ALEXA
Use the voice assistant to take care of sensitive medical issues.
Making an “HIPAA eligible environment” available to Alexa developers…can expect other skills that transmit sensitive health data.
Major step for voice assistants, but not unexpected from a company that has been pushing aggressively into healthcare.
A RECORD $2.5B WENT TO U.S. INSURANCE STARTUP DEALS LAST YEAR, AND BIG INSURERS ARE IN ALL THE WAY
While other industries fall prey to the forces of creative disruption, giant insurers have largely managed to remain giant and profitable.
Surprisingly large portion of funding is coming from the corporate venture arms of the very same giant insurance companies startups are trying to disrupt.
As for M&A, we haven’t seen a lot of big insurance startup acquisitions.
3D PRINTING IS QUIETLY TRANSFORMING AN UNEXPECTED INDUSTRY: MUSEUMS
American Museum of Natural History has asked students to digitize, print, and assemble dinosaur bones and identify species like paleontologists do.
Enabling people to learn, enjoy, and better appreciate cultural heritage through multi-sensory experiences.
Power of digitally fabricated replicas also lies in their digital nature…can easily be stored, edited, and shared across the world.
JEFF BEZOS AND AMAZON PROPOSE SPACE-BASED INTERNET SERVICE TO COMPETE WITH SPACEX AND ONEWEB
Amazon filed with the International Telecommunications Union for permission to put 3,236 satellites in low Earth orbit.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX, for example, plans to put 12,000 satellites in low Earth orbit.
Amazon and most other new entrants plan to use orbits at low as 1,200 miles for satellites that are smaller than washing machines.
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Luke Combs Is the Newest Member of the Grand Ole Opry
“It’s the pinnacle of achievement in the genre,” says Combs, who was surprised by John Conlee, Craig Morgan and Chris Janson with the invitation
Luke Combs will become the newest member of the Grand Ole Opry.
Jason Kempin/Getty Images
Luke Combs will become the newest member of the Grand Ole Opry. The “Hurricane” singer was invited to join the venerable country-music institution following his performance on its famous stage on Tuesday night.
BREAKING: @lukecombs has just been invited by @cmorganmusic, @janson_chris, and John Conlee to become the newest member of the Grand Ole #Opry! pic.twitter.com/ua8FSTMPBD
— Grand Ole Opry (@opry) June 12, 2019
Combs delivered a three-song set before Opry members John Conlee, Craig Morgan and Chris Janson surprised the North Carolina native with the offer to become its newest member. Following a few tears, Combs said yes and delivered a triumphant reading of his latest single, “Beer Never Broke My Heart.”
It was a full circle moment for Combs, who, years before he moved to Nashville and became country music’s biggest new star, took a road trip from Boone, North Carolina, to Music City with his old college roommate. Both were eyeing careers in the industry and his friend wanted to surprise Combs with a special breakfast — at Cracker Barrel.
“I’m like, ‘That’s awesome. I love Cracker Barrel’ And he said, ‘But we’re going to eat Cracker Barrel with John Conlee,” says Combs, sitting backstage just a few moments after the surprise invitation and shaking his head at the memory of ordering chicken-fried steak with the Opry legend. “Now John Conlee just asked me to be a member of the Opry.”
CMA Fest 2019: 20 Best Artists and Shows We Saw
Song You Need to Know: Luke Combs, 'Beer Never Broke My Heart'
Since releasing his debut album This One’s for You in 2017, Combs has exploded. His upcoming Beer Never Broke My Heart Tour, which finds him headlining arenas, is sold out and he recently turned heads with the seven-week Number One “Beautiful Crazy,” which he performed on the Nissan Stadium main stage at CMA Fest this past weekend. But Combs says that Opry induction outshines all of that.
“To me, it’s the pinnacle of achievement in the genre. The sold-out shows are unbelievable and the Number One songs are unbelievable, but this is Number One career stuff — this and getting engaged are one and two,” he says, wondering if his fiancée Nicole Hocking knew what was about to happen when they arrived at the Opry after a stop at their favorite Mexican restaurant. (She didn’t.)
The 29-year-old Combs, who will be officially inducted at a later date, now becomes the youngest male member of the club, an honor previously held by Chris Janson. Kelsea Ballerini, who was inducted in April, is the youngest member at 25.
“I remember the first time I played,” Combs says of making his Opry debut in 2016. “That night I said, ‘That’s it, I’m becoming a part of this, whatever it takes.'”
Combs released the new EP The Prequel on Friday.
In This Article: Grand Ole Opry, Luke Combs
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Senegal starts counting of votes
Published time: 26 Feb, 2007 02:32 Edited time: 26 Feb, 2007 05:32
Counting is underway in Senegal where people have been voting to elect a president. Incumbent Abdoulaye Wade is seeking a second term in office, but he is up against 14 challengers for the post.
Early election results are putting Wade in the lead. The country's state news agency does not say how many votes have been counted so far, but the first official results aren't expected until later on Monday.
80-year-old Abdoulaye Wade faces competition from 14 other candidates for power in one of Africa's most stable democracies. Former Prime Minister Idrissa Seck is seen as one of his strongest opponents.
Hopefuls need 50 % of the votes plus one to win outright in the first round. Otherwise a run-off will be held on March 18.
‘It is obvious there will be no second round. I will win!’ Wade claims.
He became the president in a landslide victory in 2000, but has not escaped criticism during his term of office. Opponents say he has done little to fight corruption and curb the 50 % unemployment rate.
President Wade’s rivals have also accused him of ruling like a dictator.
‘I am a democrat and President Wade is not a democrat. President Wade is directly a dictator in his mind, in his work, in his behaviour. He doesn't want to talk. He is unable to share anything with anybody. He thinks that he is the highest intellectual on the continent,’ Moustapha Niasse, a presidential candidate, states.
It is the Senegal's first presidential election since 2001 when a new constitution was adopted. It reduced the presidential term from seven to five years and limited the number of consecutive terms to two.
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About Sepi Issues Endorsements Ways to Help Events Contact
About SepiIssuesEndorsementsWays to HelpEventsContact
Sepi’s Story
Sepi and her wife Ashlei!
As a lesbian, Iranian immigrant and woman of color, I was never supposed to run for office. I can count on my fingers the number of elected officials who talk like me, look like me, grew up like me, and yes, love like me. But at a time when our most basic rights are under attack and hateful legislators chip away at the foundation of our democracy, I am running.
As a Business Law attorney and small business owner, I know the importance of supporting our small businesses to build a thriving local economy with good, rent and mortgage-paying jobs and can easily understand government codes and ordinances.
I'm running because the rent is too high, and to expand protections for renters against unjust rent hikes and predatory evictions.
I'm running to deliver comprehensive solutions to our homeless crisis, by going right to the source: lack of affordable housing and good, mortgage and rent-paying jobs in West Hollywood.
I'm running to prevent climate disaster by making our city a model for the future, leading the way with green energy and green jobs while reducing traffic by taking cars off the road and adding mass transit opportunities.
I’m running because our residents need to age in place without the fear of not being supported or taken care of by the City we have lived in for decades.
I'm running because I believe in justice for all. Social justice, economic justice, and climate justice. Justice for our black and brown family, friends and neighbors. Justice for our transgender, non-binary and non-conforming family, who are disproportionately impacted by our lack of public health services and affordable housing. And justice for each and every one of you, because you deserve to be safe in the city you love, with the people you love. You deserve to live, work and age in place in the city you love. You deserve a better West Hollywood. We all do.
I’m running a people-powered campaign, without accepting a single penny from big developers. I’m proud to have the support of many leaders including, West Hollywood legend Ivy Bottini, Planning Commissioner John Erickson, Public Facilities Commission Chair Noemi Torres, Women's Advisory Board Members Carla Romo and Jenner Deal, Transgender Advisory Board Chair Alexis Sanchez, and Lesbian & Gay Advisory Board Co-chairs Lauren D. Costine and Jason Frazier. More endorsements can be found here: Endorsements.
I was born in Iran and spent the first few years of my life in fear of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard watching our every move. Women's rights were trampled on and we were not allowed to be in the streets with men or boys who were not our family. I cut my hair short and pretended to be a boy to play soccer with the neighborhood kids. I remember kicking the ball around under the hot Tehran sun just as vividly as I remember fleeing the country with my parents, escaping to the United States for a better life.
After I came out in High School during my junior year, I was bullied by other students and repeatedly called a dyke. The school counselor was no help and told me to go kiss a boy in the yard to prove them wrong. Instead, I chose to be more out and proud and came out to my family. It was hard for them at first, but with patience and my work of educating them, they grew to tolerate, then accept and now advocate for me.
During my second year of college, I was sitting with my girlfriend at the time in a coffee shop that was known to be “gay friendly”. We were getting rude looks from the new manager as we held hands. You know the look, you’ve seen it too. I had a bad feeling and the next thing I knew, a police officer and the manager were standing over us. We were shocked and frankly terrified when the police officer said, “The manager doesn’t want your kind in his establishment, you have to get up and leave” as he blew a kiss and winked at me.
We ran out in a hurry and drove around town in tears. We felt powerless. Powerless to protect ourselves, powerless to protect the people we love. We decided right then and there that we would never be powerless again and both decided to go to law school to learn the law and stop this from happening to others.
I have been an LGBTQ+ civil rights advocate ever since.
Shortly after my graduation from Golden Gate School of Law, I was elected to the board of Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom, where I worked to mentor and educate young LGBTQ+ law students and lawyers.
I moved to sunny Los Angeles in late 2006 and in 2007, was elected to the board of the LGBT Bar Association of Los Angeles, and then elected Co-president in 2008. This was a pivotal year for our community with the disastrous Prop 8 on the ballot. I was proud to help raise thousands of dollars to support the No On Prop 8 campaign.
Never one to stop fighting, the passage of Prop 8 didn’t dissuade me from advocacy. In 2009, I joined the Human Rights Campaign, one of the largest LGBTQ+ rights organizations in the world. In various leadership roles at Human Rights Campaign, including a term on the Board of Governors, I helped train and educate new and diverse leaders, developing the skills they need to advance our cause. I co-chaired the annual HRC Los Angeles Gala in 2012 and I’ve continued to serve with the Human Rights Campaign for the better part of a decade to advance the rights, representation, and visibility of LGBTQ+ people in Los Angeles and helped get LGBTQ+ candidates and allies elected to public office.
In addition to my advocacy work with the Human Rights Campaign, I was appointed to the City of West Hollywood’s Lesbian & Gay Advisory Board. As a member of this board, I helped organized the world's first city-sponsored Bisexual Pride event.
I am a renter and have lived in West Hollywood with my wife and furbabies for a decade. It is time for real solutions, not developer money in West Hollywood. West Hollywood is our city and deserves to be run by our voices.
My name is Sepi Shyne, I’m running for West Hollywood City Council, and I hope I can count on your vote on March 5th.
PAID FOR BY SEPI SHYNE FOR WEST HOLLYWOOD CITY COUNCIL FPPC ID #1414588
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Russian Olympic Committee approves athletes competing as neutrals
The Russian Olympic Committee formally gave its blessing on Tuesday for the country's athletes to compete under a neutral flag at the upcoming Pyeongchang Games.
The Russian Olympic Committee formally gave its blessing on Tuesday for the country's athletes to compete under a neutral flag at the upcoming Pyeongchang Winter Games.
Under International Olympic Committee sanctions announced last week in response to Russian doping at the 2014 Sochi Games, Russians will compete under the Olympic flag as "Olympic Athletes from Russia."
"The opinion of all taking part was united, and that was that our athletes need to go to South Korea, compete and win," ROC president Alexander Zhukov said after the organization held a closed congress on Tuesday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin gave his backing last week.
Some Russians will formally be invited by the IOC to compete as individual athletes, though the ROC will submit rosters of its preferred teams.
"I think the IOC will make sure that the strongest Russian athletes get the invitations, so that, for example, our hockey team consists of the best players," Zhukov said, adding that 200 athletes could end up competing in South Korea.
Russian athletes going to Pyeongchang still need to pass a screening from an IOC committee which will examine their history of drug testing.
Zhukov said Russia still denies operating a doping program at the 2014 Olympics and rejected any suggestion he had made a deal with the IOC to avoid harsher sanctions.
"It's unacceptable to take away an athlete's right to represent his country. In my view, it breaks not only the Olympic charter, but human rights," Zhukov said. "So you really can't talk about a deal here.
"Obviously we consider this ruling unfair, but at the same time we're in the situation where we had to make a decision even though we consider this ruling unfair."
The ROC's approval, however, doesn't mean Russia is abandoning legal challenges against the IOC sanctions, Zhukov said.
Twenty-five athletes have been banned for doping at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, all of whom have filed appeals to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. IOC rules bar Russians from Pyeongchang if they have previously served doping bans.
Russia will send a delegation to Switzerland on Friday to discuss details such as neutral uniforms and whether athletes can wear national colors.
Russia national hockey team captain Ilya Kovalchuk welcomed the ROC's approval, saying it would calm athletes after a period of turmoil.
"Thank God it's all behind us and we're going to the Olympics," Kovalchuk said.
Russian ice hockey player Ilya Kovalchuk attends a news conference following a Russian Olympic Committee meeting on the country's participation at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, in Moscow on December 12, 2017.
Source: AP Editor: Lancy
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Rose storms to Indonesian Masters lead
Rose has enjoyed a stellar end to the year, with back-to-back wins in China and Turkey in the past 2 months, and carried the same form into day one at the Royale Jakarta Golf Club.
England's Justin Rose fired a 10-under-par round on Thursday to take a two-shot lead after the first day of the Indonesian Masters in Jakarta.
Rose, who is ranked sixth in the world, notched up a bogey-free scorecard and bagged 10 birdies to take pole position in the Asian Tour's season-ending event.
Thailand's Gunn Charoenkul was two shots back on 64, one ahead of fellow Thai Phachara Khongwatmai — who eagled the 18th — and South Korea's Kim Gi-whan.
Rose has enjoyed a stellar end to the year, with back-to-back wins in China and Turkey in the past two months, and carried the same form into day one at the Royale Jakarta Golf Club.
The 2016 Olympics gold medalist parred the first before rattling off three birdies in a row. His round of 62 could have been a course record if not for the preferred lie ruling which was in force.
"That is a dream start to be honest with you," Rose said.
"I felt comfortable from the outset. I did all the right things today I suppose, I put the ball in play from the tee."
Playing alongside Rose, newly crowned Asian Tour champion Gavin Green shot an underwhelming 70 to finish 2 under.
The 23-year-old Malaysian, who holds an unassailable lead coming into the Indonesian Masters, will be officially crowned on the final day of the event.
Veteran American Brandt Snedeker scored an on-par 72, while defending champion Poom Saksansin, from Thailand, was 1 under for a share of 59th.
Indonesian Rinaldi Adiyandono was the best placed of the 26 locals in the field after a round of 68.
Justin Rose gestures during the first round of the Indonesian Masters at the Royale Jakarta Golf Club in Jakarta on December 14, 2017. The Englishman shot a 10-under-par 62 to take a 2-stroke lead.
Source: AFP Editor: Lancy
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Why SC
Buildings & Sites
Doing Business Here
South Carolina Office of Innovation announces grant awards
Monday, April 23, 2018 Nine organizations receive state funds as part of Startup Fuel Challenge
COLUMBIA, S.C. – The S.C. Department of Commerce Office of Innovation today announced more than $719,000 in grant awards to nine organizations as part of its Startup Fuel Challenge grant series. Tasked with advancing innovation, entrepreneurship and technology-based economic development, this grant program focuses on projects that are outcome-oriented and aim to build stronger entrepreneurs and companies.
“As South Carolina has become a leader in advanced manufacturing, an innovation economy has developed within our borders. To ensure that our industry partners have access to cutting-edge technology and a high-tech workforce, the continued growth of our innovation economy is critical,” said Secretary of Commerce Bobby Hitt. “I congratulate these nine awardees and look forward to all they’ll achieve in the years to come.”
Established in 2013, the Office of Innovation announced grant awards in 2014 and 2015. As a result, more than 25 entrepreneurship programs were supported, and more than 6,000 South Carolinians were educated in technology curriculum.
For this round of grant awards, applicants were allowed to request up to $100,000 with the goal of seeding programs and/or services that strategically focus on the technology startup community, a vital element of a healthy innovation ecosystem, as outlined in the South Carolina Innovation Plan. The Startup Fuel Challenge grant series represents one of several active initiatives of the Office of Innovation, including 3Phase, a new statewide resource aimed at assisting research-based companies successfully acquire Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) awards.
Please see below for the list of Startup Fuel Challenge grant awardees:
Charleston Digital Corridor Foundation – Flagship3 Incubator: $64,895
Flagship3 Incubator is an expansion of the Charleston Digital Corridor's technology hub, which serves high-growth firms. It will be the anchor of Charleston's new Innovation District. The grant will be utilized for the creation of CharlestonPros, a directory of recommended companies and resources providing valuable services specifically to tech companies.
The Fifth T Innovation Group – Conway Innovation Center: $70,000
The Conway Innovation Center is a technology incubator in downtown Conway, S.C. aimed at supporting high-growth companies; it is also part of the Clemson University Technology Villages program.
The Harbor Entrepreneur Center: $75,000
The Harbor Entrepreneur Center creates connections throughout the entrepreneurial community in Mount Pleasant, downtown Charleston and Summerville. Through programs and events, entrepreneurs and business founders are connected with mentors, experts, investors and a peer group of supportive founders.
McNair Center for Entrepreneurism at Columbia College South Carolina Women’s Business Center: $100,000
The South Carolina Women’s Business Center is a hub for catalyzing, wayfinding and growing women's entrepreneurship. The program is built on three main pillars: community, opportunity and knowledge. The approach to serving constituents is unique by reaching women business owners with growth potential.
NEXT Upstate, LLC – NEXT Entrepreneur Training & Skill Development: $60,000
NEXT Upstate, LLC (NEXT) was formed in 2006 as a part-time program at the Greenville Chamber of Commerce to establish high-impact entrepreneurship as a core economic development strategy. In the recent years, NEXT has opened two new facilities, launched MIT’s Venture Mentoring Service and hosted an annual Venture Pitch Conference. NEXT seeks to expand its service offerings to include a new entrepreneur training and a virtual and physical skill development program.
Rock Hill Economic Development Corporation – Knowledge Park Innovation Center, Phase III: $100,000
Phase III of the Knowledge Park Innovation Center (KPIC) is an initiative designed to attract and grow technology intensive businesses, as well as the technology workforce. Through the first two phases of the project, the Rock Hill Economic Development Corporation has deployed programs such as the Technology Incubator, the Talent Pipeline Apprenticeship Program, York Technical College’s FabLab and Winthrop University’s CreatorSpace. Phase III seeks to work closely with its partners to incorporate three-dimensional technology and expand its applicability to new products.
South Carolina State University – S.C. State Innovation and Entrepreneurship Hub: $50,000
The S.C. State Innovation and Entrepreneurship Hub seeks to advance technology in the food and fiber sectors of the agribusiness industry in South Carolina through the deployment of programs that focus on training the next generation of agri-entrepreneurs. The development and support of these entrepreneurs will encourage start-up and innovative activity, advancing the state’s already robust agribusiness industry.
Tri-County Technical College – INSPIRE Lab Project: $100,000
The Tri-County Technical College (TCTC) seeks to create an entrepreneurial education curriculum that supports the INSPIRE Lab project in cultivating a network of small businesses. TCTC will grow entrepreneurs by building the foundation of skills and interests that progresses into a business/idea creation startup program called the INSPIRE Lab. This project is mirrored after the LemonADE Stand program, which was piloted through e-Merge @ the Garage in Anderson.
Venture Carolina – Venture Carolina Center for Entrepreneur Education: $100,000
Venture Carolina educates first-time entrepreneurs and investors on the early-stage venture capital marketplace. By providing resources to entrepreneurs, investors and entrepreneurial support organizations, Venture Carolina helps build capacity in both the supply and demand sides of the marketplace, which accelerates the growth of innovative startups.
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Melita Hume Poetry Prize Shortlist Announced
FORWARD-WINNER EMILY BERRY SHORTLISTS 11 FOR THE £1,400 MELITA HUME POETRY PRIZE 2014
Faber award-winning poet Emily Berry (Dear Boy, 2013) – the 2014 judge for Eyewear’s Melita Hume Poetry Prize (now in its third year) – has dialled up the shortlist to 11, with debut poets from Scotland, Ireland and England.
The prize – the richest of its kind – also comes with guaranteed publication and launch in spring 2015 from the indie publisher known for its stylish hardcovers and international roster of talent. Any poet living in the UK or Ireland 35 years or under at time of entering is eligible – the prize is for the best full, original and unpublished collection of poetry submitted in that year. Previous winners include Granta-listed poet Caleb Klaces and Scotland’s Marion McCready.
Judge Berry said: ‘It turns out judging a competition is tough! There were a lot of strong contenders this year and I had a happy and occasionally challenging time selecting the final eleven. I’m pleased that the list includes poets from England, Scotland and Ireland (sorry Wales), and that women are particularly well represented. A difficult decision ahead…’
The eleven poets are:
AMY BLAKEMORE
BEN PARKER
BETHAN TICHBORNE
DAISY BEHAGG
JOANNE CLEMENT
RACHAEL M. NICHOLAS
SHELLEY ROCHE-JACQUES
SOHINI BASAK
THERESA MUÑOZ
TOM WEIR
VICTORIA KENNEFICK
The winner will be announced 7 May, and will be presented with their prize at the London Review Bookshop 21 may, at 7 pm.
Most of the Act of Union would survive Scottish “independence” by Jonathan Wills
Should Scotland be an independent country? Well, yes, of course it should. All countries, surely, should be independent. Otherwise they’re provinces, not countries. But many countries, by choice, are not fully independent, for example if they’re member states of the European Union (or, as Ukrainians are so well aware, part of the Russian customs union or the former Comecon and Warsaw Pact).
To join the European Union, all 27 member states agreed to pool some of their sovereignty. So asking people in the EU if they’d like their country to be independent is really quite a silly question because, unless we leave the European Union, the European Economic Area and NATO we cannot, by the traditional 19th century definition, ever be truly independent. That, of course, is why the Liblabourtories in Westminster connived to exclude from the referendum the obvious, alternative question: “Would you like Scotland to have Home Rule, short of outright independence?” The reason for this, despite the Liberals’ current posturing on their “century of commitment to Home Rule”, is that they ken fine the answer would have been an overwhelming “Yes”, and a fatal blow to Westminster’s hegemony.
Drifting apart
One of my sons once told me my views were of no account because I was “born in the first half of the last century”. He was jesting, but it’s true: I was born in 1947, to a Shetland mother and a London father. The birth took place in a private (i.e. commercial) nursing home at 148 Banbury Road, Oxford, one year before the first National Health Service maternity units opened, marking the birth of the Welfare State. Myparents’ native countries seem to have drifted rather a long way apart since their own union in 1946, at a time of national consensus and optimism following Clement Attlee’s 1945 landslide election victory. Until I was 15 I lived in England, where, despite Labour’s defeat in 1951, successive Conservative governments made sure I got my free orange juice, cod liver oil, school milk, primary education, health care and dental treatment. In due course there was a full grant to cover all my tuition fees and maintenance when, like thousands of others whose parents could not have afforded it otherwise, I became the first person on the English side of the family ever to go to university.
Since my days with the Broad Left in Edinburgh University’s student politics, in the late 1960s, England and Scotland have become politically very different indeed. More and more English MPs (and not a few lads o’ pairts who took the high road to Westminster) have steadily undermined the Welfare State and thesocial democratic policies agreed during and immediately after the Second World War, while their Scottish counterparts mostly still embrace that postwar social contract, to which all British political parties subscribed until the late 1970s. That is the cause of the present incompatibility between my countries, and nowhere is it more evident than in social policy, where welfare benefit cuts are dignified with the label of “reform” when in fact they are changes for the worse.
So how did we get here from there? What happens if there really are grounds for divorce? I thought I’d better check what it actually said in the Act of Union, passed by the Scottish Parliament on 16th January 1707, and consider the consequences of repealing it. For repeal, I assumed, would have to happen if the people’s answer to the silly question on 18th September were “Yes” (as I very much hope it will be, but I’ve seen enough turkeys vote for Christmas in my time not to be optimistic).
Never a proper union
There’s been a union of the crowns for 401 years now and of parliaments for 307 years. But we never had the full union envisaged by some of those early 18th century enthusiasts for UKGB, on both sides of the border. Despite sharing a sovereign (due to Good Queen Bess’s lack of issue) and a parliament (due to corrupt voting by MacBigwigs and their rentatoadies in 1706-7 – see below),my two countries have remained separate to a surprising degree, not least in matters legal, educational and religious. Imagine if Scotland now had the same legal and educational systems as England, like Wales does. That’s exactly what some of the movers and shakers in the 1706 Scottish Parliament had in mind when they proposed a proper, “incorporating” union, with the same laws about everything except Presbyterianism in the Scots Kirk. What happened instead was a compromise, but still a heist.
Religious bigotry the true foundation
There were twenty five Articles in the treaty that came into force with the Act of Union, with an added condition “for secureing of the Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Church Government … expressly declared to be a fundamentall and essentiall Condition of the said Treaty or Union in all time coming”. So, perpetuating religious bigotry was the foundation stone of union with theinhabitants of our southern peninsula (I can find no mention of Wales or Ireland in the treaty or the act).
Reading through all 25 articles, I was surprised to discover that at least 15 of them could stay in place. Here’s why:
Article 1 would certainly have to be repealed because it says “…the Two Kingdoms of Scotland and England, shall … forever after, be United into One Kingdom by the Name of GREAT BRITAIN…” In the event of Scottish “independence” this would just confuse people. Article One, with a fine and proper sense of priorities, also has a helpful word about flags: “… the Ensigns Armorial of the said United Kingdom be such as Her Majesty shall think fit, and used in all Flags, Banners, Standards and Ensigns both at Sea and Land.” On my boat we’ve already repealed that part of the Act, because we fly the Scottish Red Ensign, with the saltire in the top left corner, and very pretty it is too, although there’s a unionist taxi driver on our pier who gets very indignant about this. I’d better not say who sells us the ensigns because they’d probably be done for sedition.
Article 2 will also have to go, because here we’re back to religious bigotry:
“That the Succession to the Monarchy of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and of the Dominions thereunto belonging after Her Most Sacred Majesty, and in default of Issue of Her Majesty be, remain and continue to the Most Excellent Princess Sophia Electoress and Dutchess Dowager of Hanover, and the Heirs of Her body, being Protestants, upon whom the Crown of England is settled by an Act of Parliament made in England in the twelfth year of the Reign of His late Majesty King William the Third entituled An Act for the further Limitation of the Crown and better securing the Rights and Liberties of the Subject.”
If you were a Catholic subject, it seems, your rights and liberties were somewhat curtailed in the early 18th century. And for a while after that, indeed.
To make absolutely sure everyone understood exactly what the deal was, Article Two continued:
And that all Papists and persons marrying Papists, shall be excluded from and forever incapable to inherit possess or enjoy the Imperial Crown of Great Britain, and the Dominions thereunto belonging or any part thereof; And in every such case the Crown and Government shall from time to time descend to, and be enjoyed by such person being a Protestant as should have inherited and enjoyed the same, in case such Papists or person marrying a Papist was naturally dead, according to the provision for the Descent of the Crown of England…
To our disunited kingdoms’ shame, this bizarre, medieval prohibition on Catholics becoming head of state is still in force. To quote Her Majesty the Queen’s own website:
“Parliament, under the Bill of Rights (1689) and the Act of Settlement (1701) … laid down various conditions which the Sovereign must meet. A Roman Catholic is specifically excluded from succession to the throne; nor may the Sovereign marry a Roman Catholic.
“The Sovereign must, in addition, be in communion with the Church of England and must swear to preserve the established Church of England and the established Church of Scotland. The Sovereign must also promise to uphold the Protestant succession.”
To be fair, the Heid Yins now realise this situation is ridiculous, as the following exchange in the House of Lords in 2011 shows:
Lord Dubs: My Lords, does the Minister agree that, as a country, we oppose discrimination on grounds of gender or religion? It is curious, to say the least, that we allow such discrimination to continue in the succession to the Throne. Does he also agree that, given that there is a bar on Roman Catholics, it is odd that there is no bar against Jews, Muslims, Hindus or even atheists? Does he further agree that the matter is of some urgency? If His Royal Highness Prince William and his bride have children, it would be invidious to change the arrangements then. The time to do it is surely now.
Lord McNally: My Lords, I might agree with many of the propositions that the noble Lord has put forward, but as the previous Administration recognised, we are dealing with Acts of Parliament that govern not only us but a number of countries where the Queen is Head of State. For that reason, we have been proceeding with extreme caution.”
One of the attractions of voting Yes is that the Scottish Parliament would have the power to end this absurd discrimination immediately, at least as far as the crown of Scotland is concerned. But I don’t get too excited about it because I can’t imagine any self-respecting Catholic wanting the job, and, besides, I’m a republican and would like to sell the entire Royal Family to Disneyland for a new Balmoral theme park.
Another attraction is that, presumably, and depending upon the gumption of those elected to the Scottish Parliament, a self-governing Scotland could curb the Royal Family’s medieval veto on legislation, another shameful blot on ourunwritten constitution, recently highlighted by the media, even The Daily Telegraph.
Article 3, That the United Kingdom of Great Britain be Represented by one and the same Parliament, to be stiled the Parliament of Great Britain, is a simple anachronism if we say Yes and could be repealed without further debate, one hopes. Some Caledonian worthies, including a surprising number of superannuated Scottish Labour firebrands, might be left stranded in the House of Lords, but they would be England’s problem, not ours. We do not need, and would not have, a Hoose o’ Lairds.
The real breakers of Britain
With Article 4 there’s no need of repeal, because it simply states what’s already the case in the European Union, under various treaties to which Scotland would presumably wish to accede as a “successor state” to UKGB. The article says:
That the Subjects of the United Kingdom of Great Britain shall from and after the Union have full Freedom and Intercourse of Trade and Navigation to and from any port or place within the said United Kingdom and the Dominions and Plantations thereunto belonging. And that there be a Communication of all other Rights, Privileges and Advantages which do or may belong to the Subjects of either Kingdom except where it is otherwayes expressly agreed in these Articles.
This provision by now covers the various rights that citizens of Scotland have acquired by virtue of being citizens of the European Union. The EU is not all bad, after all, and these rights cannot easily be taken from us. Whether England would wish to remain in Europe with us is currently a moot point. The Anglo-xenophobes, if successful in their own independence referendum, might welltake the opportunity of “the end of Britain” to make an early escape from what they see as the alien yoke of Brussels. Because, of course, if there were no longer a United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the country that joined Europe in 1972 would no longer exist and both Scotland and therump GB, of England, Wales and Northern Ireland, would abecome “successor states” with the option to stay in or leave. In this regard, the real “breakers of Britain” are the Eurosceptic Tories, for it’s certain that Scotland, and probably Wales and Northern Ireland (even the Ulster Unionists), would reject leaving the EU and cutting themselves off from such a massive market and source of regional aid. Where would Mr Cameron’s belatedly beloved Union be then?
Article 5 takes us back to ships and flags, foreign ones. It ensured that Scottish ships would henceforth be treated as British, as long as none of the owners wereforeign (then, as now, there were 64 shares in a ship and the owners were quite often a mix of nationalities). Given the current multi-national ownership of the merchant marine, I think Article Five may be described as obsolete, so let’s do away with it, whichever way we vote on 18th September.
A customs union – except for the Irish
Article 6 established a customs union between the two countries, somethingsurely only the most vehement Braveheart separatist would wish to end, given that both are now in a customs union with most of Europe. So we should leave it be, apart from one long-abandoned clause forbidding the import of cereals from Ireland:
And in respect the Importation of Victual into Scotland from any place beyond Sea would prove a Discouragement to Tillage, Therefore that the Prohibition as now in force by the Law of Scotland against Importation of Victual from Ireland or any other place beyond Sea into Scotland, do after the Union remain in the same force as now it is until more proper and effectuall ways be provided by the Parliament of Great Britain for discouraging the Importation of the said Victual from beyond Sea.
Ireland was the prime target of that clause but it is clear that the Scots who signed the treaty had in mind to ban food imports from anywhere outside thenew United Kingdom, to protect the landed interest and their dependants. This now seems excessively protectionist to us, until we consider the practical effects of the European Union’s import duties on food producers in what we euphemistically describe as the “developing” world.
It is noteworthy that only the Little Englanders and their propagandists are talking about customs posts at the border. They ignore the fact that we’ve had a customs union with Ireland since 1922.
Article 7 is about taxes on booze. They were to be the same on both sides of the border, with some minor exceptions to stop English brewers being taxedunfairly. Given that taxes on alcohol are such an important source of government revenue, and controlling its price is seen by most European countries as a lever for improving public health, we may not need to repeal thisarticle, if the English will co-operate in targeting and taxing problem drinkers. Interestingly, it was the Government, not the brewers, who set the price of drink in 1707.
Too much salt
The immensely long Article 8 goes on and on (for almost 900 words) about salt. This is not surprising as, in the days before refrigeration, salting was the main way to preserve food and essential for fish exports and provisioning ships for long voyages. Domestic salt, produced by heating seawater in iron pans, using Scotland’s abundant coastal coal seams, was protected in the treaty from competition by cheaper salt evaporated by solar energy in the salt lagoons of France and the Iberian peninsula. The new salt laws included elaborate arrangements to prevent fraud, but the practical effect was to discourage and eventually forbid the import of salt in “foreign bottoms”. This was the final straw for the German Hansa merchants, whose ships were driven out of the Shetland salt fish trade by 1711, initiating an economic depression that afflictedthe islands for half a century. On the brighter side, the extremely detailed saltclauses in the Act of Union also provided a nice little state subsidy on Scottish exports of salt herring, white fish, beef and pork. The idea of the Export Credit Guarantee Department is not new. Even so, we could probably repeal ArticleEight on the grounds of anachronism.
Bring back the land tax
The Barnett Formula, which decides how much of UK taxation returns to Scotland, has been much criticised by both sides of the current argument. There were similar formulas in the Act of Union but the numbers were rather different from today’s. In 1707, under Article 9 of the treaty, impoverished Scotland was due to pay only £48,000 of the total tax raised in the newly united kingdoms. England’s share was £1.997 million. So Scotland picked up only 2.35% of the total UK tax bill. This sounds like a good deal, and who in Scotland would wish to repeal that?
It included a land tax, or ‘cess’, something accepted as normal in the 18th century but regarded with horror by the sado-monetarists in charge of our 21st century fiscal affairs. We might profitably re-introduce the cess, I think, as a corrective to the extraordinarily imbalanced land ownership pattern in Scotland, where the vast bulk of the country is owned by a tiny but very influential crew of billionaire rentiers (including the tobacco Willses, to whom I am not closely related, I hasten to assure readers).
The point of Article Nine as that it established a fiscal union, with the same taxes on both sides of the border. Taxes would probably be roughly the same in Scotland and England if Scotland became “independent”, but the UK Parliament has already agreed that the Scottish Parliament may vary some taxes, so the principle is not new. If the currency union remained, there would beobvious advantages in having similar fiscal regimes. So we could leave Article Nine in place.
There should be no enthusiasm for repealing Articles 10, 11, 12 and 13 either: these prevented the English from:
extending to Scotland their stamp duty on legal documents (but they did, anyway, and we’re still talking about doing away with it);
imposing their window tax north of the border (although it’s not stoppedWestminster taxing the bedrooms of the poor, something the most reactionary 18th century lairds would surely have balked at);
taxing coal (and cinders!) as they did in England;
not even thinking about levying the hated tax on malt north of Hadrian’s Wall.
We would need to keep Article 14 as well: it bolstered the fiscal union bypreventing the English from imposing upon the Scots any other arcane, southron taxes pre-dating the union. From 1707 onwards, fairness and equity would prevail in taxation. As the treaty put it:
… seeing that it cannot be supposed that the Parliament of Great Britain will ever lay any sorts of Burthens upon the United Kingdom, but what they shall find necessity at that time for the Preservation and Good of the whole, and with due regard to the Circumstances and Abilities of every part of the United Kingdom, Therefore it is agreed That there be no further Exemption insisted upon for any part of the United Kingdom, but that the consideration of any Exemption beyond that already agreed on in this Treaty, shall be left to the determination of the Parliament of Great Britain.
So everyone would be taxed at the same, UK, rate. This meant no return to punitive, medieval imposts such as the poll tax. Aye, right… Although at that time only lairds and some ministers and merchants had votes, the punters still had rights (the “liberties” referred to above) and no-one, in Scotland or England, would have dared do then what Thatcher attempted 282 years later. This is indeed a Treaty of Union sometimes more honoured in the breach, by the English.
The big bribe
With Article 15 the treaty got down to the serious business: big chunks of cash to bail out the Scots lairds and merchants who’d bankrupted themselves by investing in The African and Indian Company of Scotland. This was the first,only and wholly unsuccessful, attempt to build a Scottish Empire to rival the English and the Dutch. The so-called Darien Scheme on the Isthmus of Panama was a total disaster (partly because of sabotage by English agents) and a lot ofimportant Scots with votes lost their shirts. In return for their support in passing the Act of Union, England would pay off the massive private and public debts resulting from this catastrophe. It was bribery and jobbery on a grand, British Aerospace scale, dressed up to look like altruism.
Then, as now, England was also massively in debt (largely due to pointless foreign wars), although, being a bigger and more prosperous country, was better able to meet the interest and capital repayments. The argument ran that Scotland shouldn’t have to pay for debts that England had incurred before the Union. Does this sound familiar? Now we’re told that Scots ought not to have to pay their share of the UK’s debts following secession from the Union, unless the First Lord of the Treasury agrees to continue the currency union.
What the negotiators of the treaty brought home to Edinburgh was a sack of money, containing £398,085 10s, to be exact, which they called the“Equivalent”. This was paid before the deal was sealed and it effectively sealed the remaining arguments in that miserable and fractious last session of the Scottish Parliament before the Union. As the folk song of a later time had it:
We’re bought and sold for English gold –
Such a parcel of rogues in a nation.
The treaty was very specific about the uses of this slush fund. Firstly, it would compensate for any losses when the currency union kicked in and people changed their pounds Scots into pounds Sterling:
And as for the uses to which the said sum of £398,085 10s … are to be applied It is agreed That in the first place out of the foresaid sum what consideration shall be found necessary to be had for any Losses which privat persons may sustain by reducing the Coin of Scotland to the Standard and Value of the Coin of England may be made good.
Secondly, it would buy up all the bankrupt stock of The African and Indian Company of Scotland, in a sort of pilot scheme for quantitative easing and thestate “rescue” of the Royal Bank of Scotland 301 years later:
In the next place That the Capital Stock or fund of the African and Indian Company of Scotland advanced together with the interest for the said Capital Stock after the rate of 5% per annum from the respective times of the payment thereof shall be payed; Upon payment of which Capital Stock and Interest It is agreed The said Company be dissolved and cease And also that from the time of passing the Act of Parliament in Englandfor raising the said sum of £398,085 10s the said Company shall neither Trade nor Grant Licence to Trade.
Thus, in return for throwing in their lot with the burgeoning English (now British) Empire, the Scottish toffocracy turned a turkey into a nice little 5% p.a.earner after all, and were once more able to put claret on the table and silk and taffeta on their wives and daughters.
The deal, for them, was even better than that: for seven years after the Union there would be more Equivalents paid from Scotland’s increased revenue from customs duties and liquor taxes. Again the explanation was to avoid the Scots having to pay an unfair share of England’s debts. On top of that, there was a few grand for developing Scotland’s trade and industry, a precursor of the Highlands and Islands Development Board.
Scare stories
With bribes like these to be had, it’s hardly surprising that only principled lairds like Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun held out to the end against the Union. Many others acquiesced with heavy hearts, sincerely believing they did so to save their country from the ruin so loudly and confidently predicted by pamphleteers such as Daniel Defoe, the English spy whose inventive scare stories rivalled those now being put about by Unionist papers like The Scotsman, the AberdeenPress & Journal and that shameless rag, the Scottish Daily Mail. Otherpropagandists, far more entertaining than our own dour Alistair Darling,frightened Members of the Scottish Parliament with dire warnings that without the Union there would be religious civil war as Jacobites attempted to regain the crown (which happened anyway, as it turned out). It seems it was even easier to scare some of the people all of the time in the 18th century than it is now, and there are understandable reasons for this.
That being said, there seems little point now in repealing Article 15, as thestable door is swinging open and the old grey mare has well and truly bolted.
A currency union…
After several hundred words on the reasons for and uses of the big bribe, it took the MSPs of 1707 just 71 words to establish a currency union in Article 16:
That from and after the Union the Coin shall be of the same standard and value, throughout the United Kingdom, as now in England, And a Mint shall be continued in Scotland under the same Rules as the Mint in England And the present Officers of the Mint continued subject to such Regulations and Alterations as Her Majesty Her Heirs or Successors, or the Parliament of Great Britain shall think fit.
That was all. The currency union has now lasted 307 years and the Yes campaign has no proposals to end it. Someone else, does, of course, and for no discernible reason other than to intimidate and cajole. That is certainly a continuation of the style and spirit of the victorious side in the debates of 1706-7 but, given that a currency union could and should survive the transfer of other powers to a self-governing Scotland, Mr Osborne’s (not Mr Salmond’s, note)threat to destroy the currency union would actually appear to be (yet another) breach of the Act of Union by the Old Etonian side of the argument. “Share and share alike” is, of course, an alien concept to the British ruling class. They didn’t get where they are today by sharing.
Currency union or no, presumably the Scottish banks would continue to issue their own promisory notes – assuming they and their owners have not gone to the wall by 18th September – but the power to mint coins in Scotland should notbe needed, hopefully. If it ever is, then Article 16 could come in handy and that’s another good reason not to repeal it.
A currency union cannot work, of course, without common weights and measures, and these were established by Article 17:
That from and after the Union the same Weights and Measures shall be used throughout the United Kingdom as are now Established in England; And Standards of Weights and Measures shall be kept by those Burroughs in Scotland, to whom the keeping the Standards of Weights and Measures now in use there does of speciall Right belong; All which Standards shall be sent down to such respective Burroughs from the Standards kept in the Exchequer at Westminster, subject nevertheless to such Regulations as the Parliament of Great Britain shall think fit.
This was very necessary and long overdue because inflation is nothing new. For hundreds of years before the Union, people on both sides of the border had beencausing inflation by “clipping” coins and debasing the alloys of which they were made, in order to enrich themselves and cheat others. To complicate matters, in the absence of paper money foreign coins circulated freely in ports like Leith, Aberdeen, Kirkwall and Lerwick, where exchange rates were, literally, a matter of speculation.
Rascals messing about with the weights and measures made the situation even worse, particularly when rents, taxes and other imposts were paid in kind. In Shetland for example, the weight of a “lispund” of oatmeal was supposed to be 36 pounds “Amsterdam weight” in the 17th century. But the Scottish government and kirk, in the form of the rent farmers and tacksmen (often local lairds) appointed to collect rents, cess and teinds (tithes), deliberately caused inflation by tweaking the “bismers” (scales) used to weigh grains, butter and fish, and substituting marginally smaller cans for measuring the fish oil. Sopayments went up year by year, while notionally remaining the same in the ledgers.
The ending of this ancient racket was one of the main benefits of the Union, although it took many years for Shetland’s bigwigs to stop ripping off their tenants by adulterating the local weights and measures, which continued in unofficial use for a very long time. But there’s no need to repeal Article 17, as its provisions are now cemented in international as well as British law. A kilo is a kilo these days, for a mercy, even though the speculators still manipulate exchange rates to enrich themselves and impoverish the rest of us (to say nothing of Bitcoin, upon which the treaty is understandably silent).
…and a common market
With a currency union, a fiscal union, a customs union and standardized weights and measures, the next step was a free trade area. With Article 18, Scotland and England joined a common market for the first time:
That the Laws concerning Regulation of Trade, Customs, and such Excises, to which Scotland is by virtue of this Treaty to be liable, be the same in Scotland, from and after the Union as in England; and that all other Laws, in use within the Kingdom of Scotland do after the Union, and notwithstanding thereof, remain in the same force as before (except such as are contrary to or inconsistent with this Treaty) but alterable by the Parliament of Great Britain
Repealing this would cause no end of trouble because we’re both now in the much larger common market of the European Union, in which Scotland, if not England, would no doubt wish to remain, as mentioned above. As with the currency union, there is no proposal to dissolve the free trade area currently enjoyed in the British Isles (Ireland included) so no need to repeal Article 18. Of course, if England decided to leave the EU, that would be a different matter,and another very clear breach of those parts of the Act of Union that would, legally, survive Scotland’s departure from the UK.
The second half of Article18 is of particular interest to m’learned friends at the Scottish bar, being one of the justifications of their continuing licence to fleecethe rest of us:
… the Laws which concern publick right Policy and Civil Government may be made the same throughout the whole United Kingdom; but that no alteration be made in Laws which concern private Right, except for the evident utility of the subjects within Scotland.
A lawyers’ charter
This leads on to the main plank of the Scots lawyers’ charter, Article 19. Then as now, there were a great many lawyers in the Scottish Parliament, and it’s no surprise that Article 19 runs to over 700 words, a tenth of the total Act of Union text (although, admittedly, somewhat smaller than the section devoted to the all-important subject of salt):
That the Court of Session … do after the Union and notwithstanding thereof, remain in all time coming within Scotland as it is now constituted by the Laws of that Kingdom, and with the same Authority and Priviledges as before the Union; subject nevertheless to such Regulations for the better Administration of Justice as shall be made by the Parliament of Great Britain; … And that the Court of Justiciary [the High Court] do also after the Union, and notwithstanding thereof remain in all time coming within Scotland, as it is now constituted by the Laws of that Kingdom, and with the same Authority and Priviledges as before the Union;
In the incorporating union envisaged by some of Andrew Fletcher’s opponents in the Scottish Parliament of 1706, Scots Law would have ceased to exist.Courts north of the border would have followed English procedure and used English terms. Only a cynic would suggest that this accounts for the high proportion of Scots lawyers said to be intending to vote Yes. But, to be serious, there are many advantages in having our own legal system and it is in some respects superior to the English which, until recently, had no public prosecutors (our procurators fiscal) and allowed totally untrained (and often ignorant and bigoted) people to sit as lay magistrates, with much greater powers than Scotland’s honorary sheriffs and our now extinct baillies (some of whom, to be fair, could also be described as reactionary misanthropes).
The Treaty negotiators also insisted that no Scottish cases could ever be heard in English courts, a clause since repealed by the creation of the UK Supreme Court, so we may need to re-establish a supreme court in Scotland, preferably one not composed of members of the House of Lords. I think we can leave Article 19 in place.
Remarkably, in an age when the law allowed large landowners to dispensesometimes idiosyncratic justice to their tenants and others, the Treaty of Union insisted that judges in the higher courts be properly trained and examined. Thisprofessionalism did not extend to lower courts, for Article 20 of the Act of Union ensured that hereditary sheriffs, mostly landowners and clan chiefs,would survive until Article 20 was repealed by the abolition of “heritable jurisdictions” in 1748 – a consequence of the purges after the Jacobite rebellion of 1745.
All but one of the remaining five articles are irrelevant anachronisms. Article 21 protects the rights of the Royal Burghs. These rights then had considerable economic significance but today are mainly symbolic and ceremonial. Repeal would cause unnecessary offence to local worthies and antiquaries, so let’s leave Article 21 in force.
The English drove a hard bargain with Article 22, which severely limited Scotland’s representation at Westminster:
… Of the Peers of Scotland at the time of the Union 16 shall be the number to Sit and Vote in the House of Lords, and 45 the number of the Representatives of Scotland in the House of Commons of the Parliament of Great Britain;
They were all to take oaths abjuring the “Pretender” (Bonnie Prince Charlie)and, of course, no “papists” were allowed. This clause has long been overtaken by events and serves only to remind us of the unequal nature of the treaty and, yet again, of the pervasive religious intolerance of the time. In the absence of universal suffrage, or any notion that the punters, even the Protestant punters,had any right at all to a say in the nation’s affairs, it was the best deal on offer. As most of the lords and MPs were for rent anyway, this paltry Scots delegation to London probably made no difference to the subsequent political history of the United Kingdom.
Just to rub it in, Article 23, although declaring the Scottish peers to have equal rights in the House of Lords, made clear who were the masters now:
…And that all Peers of Scotland, and their successors to their Honours and Dignities, shall from and after the Union be Peers of Great Britain, and have Rank and Precedency next and immediately after the Peers of the like orders and degrees in England at the time of the Union…[emphasis added]
What about the seals?
Article 24 deals (at some length) with the Great Seal and its keeper. No, nothing to do with royal pinnipeds and their feeding arrangements, but withthose rings and things used to impress images on sealing wax, certifying that official documents were genuine. These were the 18th century equivalent of the passwords on modern computers’ virtual private networks, and a good deal more secure from the attentions of American and other spies. There would be a new seal for the United Kingdom but until it was designed and approved by Her Majesty, the Great Seal of England would be used … for Sealing Writs to Elect and Summon the Parliament of Great Britain and for sealing all Treaties with Forreign Princes and States, and all publick Acts Instruments and Orders of State which Concern the whole United Kingdom. The Great Seal of Scotland, on the other hand, would be used for purely domestic Scottish documents.
Although the Act was creating a union of parliaments, 104 years after the union of crowns, it provided for the Scottish Crown, Sceptre and Sword of State to stay in Scotland, along with the records of the Scottish Parliament and other public records. That was kind of them. But they kept the Stone of Scone for another couple of centuries.
Article 25 is one of the shortest:
That all Laws and Statutes in either Kingdom so far as they are contrary to, or inconsistent with the Terms of these Articles, or any of them, shall from and after the Union cease and become void, and shall be so declared to be by the respective Parliaments of the said Kingdoms.
Obviously, we’d have to repeal Article 25 (not least because it’s been repeatedly ignored by British governments), but it would appear from my brief survey of what the Treaty of Union actually said (as distinct from what romantic nationalists and choleric unionists imagine it said), that if Scotland votes Yes on18th September it will only be strictly necessary for the UK Parliament formally to repeal 10 of the 25 Articles of Union.
The bits we need to keep
Antiquarian amusement apart, the serious part of this is that the articles establishing freedom of trade and navigation (Article 4), equal rights of citizens (also Article 4), a customs union (6), a fiscal union (Articles 9 & 14), a currency union (16) and a free trade area (18) would not require repeal.
No-one in the Yes campaign is suggesting we end these essential components of a friendly co-existence with the other countries who share the British archipelago. Nor is the SNP. The people who do say they’d abrogate these parts of the Treaty and Act of Union, if we dared to vote Yes, are the Tory-Liberal Coalition and their Labour and UKIP supporters. If they did so they’d be in breach of several European Union treaties as well as the Treaty of Union. But, like the English negotiators in 1706-7, so Anglocentric is their thinking that it’s not yet occurred to them that they might actually be the problem.
Some of the more right-wing, Anglonat members of the No campaign are, of course, entirely happy with the prospect of breaching EU treaties. They want to leave the European Union altogether. So, it would appear, does a large minority of English voters, if not, indeed, a majority. At the very least, it’s likely that, following Mr Cameron’s own promised referendum, the United Kingdom’s status in Europe will be diluted to that of Norway or Switzerland (with some residual benefits but no voice in decisions) – or even a Ukrainian or Turkish relationship with the Continent. That, and not Scottish Home Rule, really willcause “the end of Britain” that’s currently giving Alistair Darling sleepless afternoons.
So, let’s try it and see: I’ll be voting Yes, not just to spoil his day but also in hopes of preserving the really useful bits of the Treaty of Union.
This article by Jonathan Wills was first published in Bella Caledonia
John Calder Festival Programme Announced
Gain a rare insight into the life and lore of one of the 20th century’s most distinguished English-language publishers, John Calder, when his achievements are celebrated at the Traverse Theatre this April.
John Calder, still writing at the age of 87 now divides his time between Edinburgh and Paris. A champion of radical and hugely influential writers such as Beckett, Miller, Burroughs, Marguerite Duras and Alexander Trocchi among many others, John was also a founding member of the Traverse Theatre in 1963.
The two-day festival (18-19 April) is a powerful and not-to-be-missed celebration for lovers of Samuel Beckett, admirers of John Calder or fans of Barry McGovern and Hebrides Ensemble.
On Friday 18th April, at the opening night concert, Scotland’s premier chamber music ensemble, Hebrides Ensemble, perform Arnold Schöenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire with brilliant young mezzo soprano Anna Huntley. For many years in the 1960s and 1970s John Calder presented Ledlanet Nights, regular festivals of opera, classical and folk music, theatre and literature. One of the outstanding performances marked the Scottish premiere of Pierrot Lunaire in 1964, performed by Pamela Smith with members of the Scottish Baroque Ensemble. This performance celebrates the many unforgettable festivals at Ledlanet and will be introduced by reminiscences from Patricia Hay and John Lawson Graham, two of Scotland’s most distinguished singers.
On Saturday, 19th April, the festival presents a once-in-a-lifetime chance to witness John Calder in conversation with Alan Taylor (Founder of the Scottish Review of Books and Deputy Editor of The Herald). This will encompass a wide ranging discussion on Calder’s life and work, writers, publishing, music, progressive art, freedom of speech and the avant garde.
The third event in the line-up, A Life in Books , showcases John Calder and Derek Watson reading a selection of prose and poetry from the authors Calder published during his renowned career.
Rounding off the festival, Ireland’s greatest Beckett interpreter, Barry McGovern, fresh from his acclaimed performances of I’ll Go On at the 2013 Edinburgh International Festival returns to Edinburgh for this special night to perform an homage to Beckett, Calder’s greatest writer and great friend, in Barry McGovern Read Beckett.
To end the celebration join John and friends at a glamorous fun-filled party in the Traverse Theatre Bar on Saturday night.
For full details on the four events browse our website now to learn more. Tickets go on sale at 12pm on Friday, 21 March from the Traverse Box Office.
THE SRB INTERVIEW: Carol Ann Duffy
MONEY WORRIES
A DEARTH OF JOIE DE VIVRE
ANYONE FOR TENNIS?
John B. Henderson on A Bargain
EIBF2014: Alasdair Gray - Writer Pictures on Early Days of a Better Nation
Mark Fisher on No Statues to Critics
Stewart Smith on Em Strang reviews new poetry pamphlets by Angela McSeveney, Donald Mackay and Alec Finlay
Prof Whitestick on Book Review: David Spaven: Waverley Route: the life, death and rebirth of the Borders Railway
Emerging Critics Podcast
From the National Library of Scotland
The Vaults – Featured Article
The Vaults – Sticky
Volume 10 Issue 1 2014
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Still ‘Yes’?
March 21, 2016 | by Jamie Maxwell
IN case you hadn’t noticed, Scots are struggling to find consensus on the origins of modern Scottish nationalism. Supporters of independence see the roots of their movement as essentially civic: a political response to the alienating effects of Westminster ‘misrule’. Unionists, meanwhile, advance a different narrative. They view separatism as an expression of provincial grievance or, worse, deep-seated anti-English bigotry. To be fair, this disagreement is not helped by the fact that Scottish nationalism has surfaced in a variety of forms since the Act of Union in 1707. In the nineteenth century, Walter Scott was instrumental in reviving aspects of Scottish culture now associated with the (rapidly fading) White Heather Club wing of the Scottish National Party. Likewise, when the SNP was first established in the 1930s, its goal was a fiscally autonomous Scottish Parliament within the context of an imperial British federation, not a fully independent Scottish state with a distinct Scottish foreign policy.
Independence or Union is the fortieth book written or edited by Tom Devine and the second he has published since being awarded a knighthood for ‘services to the study of Scottish history’ in 2014. Like much of Devine’s work, it is empirical, informative, and pleasingly easy to read. It is also flawed. Although Devine provides a clear account of Scotland’s constitutional trajectory over the last four centuries, his attempt to explain the current dominance of nationalism in Scottish public life is, at best, patchy and inconclusive.
The book follows a chronological arc. Devine begins with the 1603 Union of Crowns under James I and VI – whose efforts to forge a lasting political relationship between his two kingdoms collapsed ‘amid a welter of anti-Scottish abusive racism at Westminster’ – before addressing the embryonic 1707 settlement. The English agreed to union as a means of securing their northern border, while the Scots exchanged their sovereignty for access to England’s expanding domestic and international markets. Initially, the Treaty, struck by feudal elites, was deeply unpopular. The Kirk feared a loss of institutional autonomy and ordinary Scots faced a raft of new English taxes on basic goods such as salt, leather and ale. Ironically, however, the ongoing threat of Jacobite rebellion, which carried the prospect of a restored Catholic Stuart monarchy, reinforced unionist sentiment among Scotland’s Protestant majority. By the late eighteenth century, after the final defeat of Jacobite forces at the Battle of Culloden in 1745, the Union was, in Devine’s phrase, ‘embedded’.
In the decades that followed, Scotland reaped the rewards of its new strategic partnership. The lifting of trade embargoes and tariffs on the export of Scottish products to English colonies powered Scottish industrial development. Scottish linen flooded North American and Caribbean markets. Glasgow became the ‘tobacco metropolis of western Europe’. By the turn of the nineteenth century, Scotland was no longer a passive beneficiary of the British Empire, it was an enthusiastic participant in it. Professional Scots took administrative roles in India and East Asia. Poorer Scots, including large numbers of rural Highlanders, filled the ranks of the British army. Imperialism was the cement of the fledgling union state.
For the next hundred years, Scotland was staunchly British. In 1848, as a wave of liberal constitutional nationalisms swept the European continent, the Scots stuck loyally to Westminster. Scottish separatism had vanished from the political scene. In its place emerged a deeply romantic cultural identity, popularised by Scott and embraced by the British establishment, that drew on the myth of Scotland’s ‘ancient’ martial and clan traditions. ‘The sartorial nationalism of kilt and tartan provided a distinctive but inoffensive mode of differentiation from England’, Devine writes. ‘The link between tartanry, the Highland soldier, British patriotism and imperial service helped to lend a new emotional cohesion to union’. These were the first stirrings of what Tom Nairn later derisively called ‘The Great Tartan Monster’. During the first half of the twentieth century, demands were made, with varying degrees of emphasis, for Home Rule, but Scotland’s status as part of the United Kingdom was never seriously contested. The global instability of the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s had a consolidating effect on the Union. It was only in the latter half of the century that the cracks began to open up again.
Devine maps the uneven decline of Scottish unionism from the 1960s to the present day, working rather functionally through the major historical flash points: the end of Britain’s post-war economic ‘miracle’; the secularisation of Scottish society; deepening industrial unrest; the discovery of North Sea oil; Thatcherism; the Poll Tax; the Claim of Right; the creation of the Scottish Parliament; the collapse of Labour’s credibility at Holyrood; and the SNP’s landmark victories at successive elections in 2007, 2011, and 2015. Readers of Iain Macwhirter’s Disunited Kingdom: How Westminster Won A Referendum But Lost Scotland – or of other books on Scottish politics produced in the last few years – will find the material covered here familiar. Devine doesn’t claim to have unearthed any startling new facts but his treatment of the devolutionary era feels shopworn and, indeed, some of his observations about the period are incorrect. It is not true, for instance, that the Holyrood voting system was ‘carefully designed to ensure that nationalism could never threaten the Union’. As independence campaigner Isobel Lindsay acknowledged in a recent CommonSpace article, the SNP favoured the Additional Member System in the 1970s. Curiously, Devine also suggests that it was the SNP’s ‘good fortune’ not to have been blamed for rising levels of unemployment in the wake of the global financial crisis. But the SNP first assumed power in Edinburgh in May 2007, five months before the implosion of Northern Rock, and Holyrood’s control over Scottish economic policy was then (and remains) relatively limited. So the nationalists might have felt justifiably aggrieved if they had taken flack for the crisis.
Devine’s analysis of Scotland’s relationship with Margaret Thatcher is also problematic. His attitude is that of an exhausted social democrat wearily resigned to the logic of free market ‘realism’. ‘What was taking place [during the 1980s]’, he writes, ‘though very difficult to see at the time, was not terminal decline but a painful and compressed process of economic transformation … By the later 1990s, Scotland had a new economy … more varied, stable, and above all tuned to modern international markets’. Devine acknowledges the damage deindustrialisation caused to working class communities but seems oblivious to the wider critique of Thatcher’s economic policy. The Iron Lady failed on her own terms. When she left office in 1990, inflation was higher than it had been in 1980, growth was just as weak, and – despite massive annual North Sea windfalls – Britain’s current account deficit was significantly worse.
Moreover, the long credit-fuelled boom that stretched from 1993 to 2008 – and that is widely attributed to Thatcher’s deregulatory reforms – ended in an unprecedented crash, the consequences of which are still reverberating across Scotland today. Stability, however defined, was not one of Mrs Thatcher’s lasting achievements. Yet Devine barely mentions the Great Recession or, for that matter, the spending cuts implemented by the Conservative government after the 2010 general election. Both are almost entirely absent from his chapter on the independence referendum. Instead, he focuses on the media ‘air war’ fought between Yes Scotland and Better Together in the months leading up to September 18.
Of more interest is Devine’s breakdown of the referendum result. The data he amasses, much of it drawn from the respected Scottish Social Attitudes Survey, confirms a number of important trends. Large chunks of Scotland’s former industrial belt voted Yes. Edinburgh, which has ‘the highest gross average earnings of any city in the UK apart from London’, voted No. Left wing Scots leant towards Yes. Right wing Scots leant towards No. Voters who described themselves as strongly Scottish, together with Asian Scots and Irish Catholic Scots, were mostly Yes. Voters who described themselves as strongly British were mostly No. Scots at the bottom of the income scale, out of work, or without a mortgage backed independence. The most affluent Scots did not. Devine concludes that the Yes campaign wasn’t motivated exclusively by ‘demands for radical change [but] seems to have been driven both by identity politics and by radical ideologies’.
This is a reasonable assessment. However, it overlooks one crucial point: there is a clear link in Scotland between identity, class, and the constitutional question. In the 1979 devolution referendum, 57 per cent of working class Scots supported a Scottish assembly whereas 60 per cent of middle class Scots opposed it. Eighteen years later, 91 per cent of working class Scots endorsed the Scottish Parliament compared to 69 per cent of middle class Scots. Even in the early 1970s, when nationalists were regularly dismissed as ‘Tartan Tories’, the SNP’s voter base more closely resembled that of the Labour Party than it did the Conservatives. In other words, the dynamics that shaped the 2014 vote didn’t come from nowhere: modern Scottish nationalism is tied closely to the faultlines of Britain’s post-war economy.
In his concluding remarks, Devine speculates that, although Scotland’s future as part of the UK remains uncertain, the SNP’s 2015 tsunami ‘could well represent the high-water mark of nationalist popularity’. A second failed referendum, he says, would bury the prospects of independence for ‘many years to come’. He’s right. Without a realistic shot at securing independence, the nationalists’ current control of the Scottish political landscape would be difficult to maintain. Conversely, throughout Independence or Union, Devine argues that Scotland has traditionally viewed the ‘union project’ in contractual terms, as a marriage of convenience based on mutual pragmatic advantage, rather than as a lopsided alliance heavily weighted in England’s favour. Whether the SNP manages to engineer, and then win, a second referendum, that contract is now in an advanced state of disintegration.
Independence or Union: Scotland’s Past and Scotland’s Present
TM Devine
Allen Lane, £20, ISBN: 978-0-241-21587-6, PP306
Panama Hell
Oor Willie
by Zoë Strachan
Growing Up with Glasgow
by Harry McGrath
SRB Diary: In the Rhine Valley
by Iain Bamforth
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The SECURITY TODAY team comprises of professionals who have been associated with the Indian Security Industry for the last three decades. This team is led by Mr. GB Singh, the Group Editor and an acknowledged thought leader in the private security domain.
An Editorial Advisory Board comprising of experts who have gained many years of valuable global experience in the area of risk mitigation gives direction to the editorial team. This advisory board is led by Mr. GK Pillai, IAS (Retd.) the former Union Home Secretary of India.
Mr. GB Singh serves on the Private Security Committee of the Federation of the Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI). He sits on the Electronic Security Standards Committee of the Bureau of Indian Standards, Government of India and Chairs its Alarm Systems Panel. He also serves on the Board of Governors of the International Institute of Security & Safety Management (IISSM). He is a member of the Global Advisory Council of the Institute of Strategic Risk Management (ISRM), UK.
He is a member of ASIS International (USA) since 1990 and remained its Certification Representative, in India from 2005 to 2008. During this time he promoted the concept of education in security and was instrumental in establishing New Delhi as an examination center for the CPP, PSP and PCI qualifications. He remained Chairman of the New Delhi India Chapter 207 for the year 2009 and headed its Global Terrorism, Political Instability & International Crime Committees. He remained a Governing Council Member the Fire & Security Association of India (FSAI) from 2013-15. He is also the founder of the Asian Professional Security Association – India Chapter and remained its President from 1999 to 2005.
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