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Dihya al-Kahina
Dihya al-Kahina was a Berber queen, religious and military leader who fought against Islamic expansion in Northwest Africa during the 7th century. Her name is recorded with a number of variations, including, Daya and Dahlia. 'al-Kahina', meaning 'sorceress', was a title given to her by her Muslim opponents because the defeats she inflicted on them were deemed the result of magic.
Dihya was raised in the Aures mountains in what is now modern-day Algeria. She was daughter to the chieftain of a Jewish Berber (Amazigh) tribe, however some sources suggest she also had some Greek heritage. Little of her childhood or private life is recorded, save for some accounts saying she had a passion for desert birds, her studies of which led to early advances in North African biological science.
In the early 7th century the Berbers of Northwestern Africa were under the control of the Exarchate of Carthage, itself a division of the Byzantine Empire. However after Egypt fell to Islamic conquest the Exarchate found itself in direct conflict with the Islamic Caliphates. The Byzantine capital of Carthage eventually fell to the armies of the Umayyad General Hasan ibn al-Nu'man, essentially wiping out Byzantine control of the area. However with their former rulers defeated, Dihya was able to rally all of the Berber tribes under her leadership and she became know as the 'Queen of the Berbers'. She mounted a campaign of resistance against the Ummayyad invaders, at first using guerrilla warfare but quickly escalating into outright conflict. Under her instruction the disorganised Berber forces quickly transitioned into a well-disciplined army.
Seeing Dihya as the most powerful opponent in the region, General Hasan marched south to engage her. Their armies met near Meskiana, where Dihya's forces defeated Hasan's so completely that he fled the area and retreated to Libya for the next few years. During this time Dihya came close to establishing a new nation state, setting up new administrative systems to support her army.
However the Berbers had become the only opponent to Islamic rule in Africa and the Caliphates devoted enormous resources toward their defeat. Hasan returned with fresh forces, this time allied with one of Dihya's own sons who had defected. The Berber forces were defeated and Dihya herself was killed in the ensuing battle. Some accounts say she poisoned herself when defeat became inevitable, while others say she died in combat with a sword in her hand. As the last voice of resistance to Islamic rule in Northwest Africa, Dihya's death marked the end of an era for the region.
Tags: Dihya al-Kahina, female soldiers, female rulers, women in war, history, women's history, Berber history, North African history, Berbers, Byzantine Empire, Islamic Caliphates, Meskiana, Aures Mountain, North Africa
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Home / Fall 2011 / 2011-12-01 / SpecTech: Microsoft scams and freemium fun
SpecTech: Microsoft scams and freemium fun
December 1, 2011 2011-12-01, Campus Life, Fall 2011, SpecTech, Top Headlines Leave a comment 3,021 Views
I hope everyone had a fun Thanksgiving and a safe Black Friday. In this issue, announcements from Microsoft, EA wants to give you free stuff and more iPhone 5 and iPad 3 rumors.
Microsoft announced that thousands of users’ Xbox LIVE email accounts had been sent a scam email. The email promised free Microsoft Points for a small survey; those who entered their information included their bank account information.
The people who sent out the scam gathered an estimated $155 from each person, taken in small amounts. Microsoft wanted to ensure its users that Xbox had not been hacked like Sony, but that it was directly by email, not the network.
As an update to a pervious story of mine and an update from Microsoft, the new Xbox Dashboard update will be coming out Dec. 6. The update will come out with the new Dashboard interface, Bing search, Facebook integration and the option for cloud storage. They announced that all of their new streaming services will be released later in the season.
Microsoft also wants to know if you want a table-top PC. They have released their pre-orders for their newest table-top tablet PC for $8,400 that will release in the spring of 2012. The tablet PC is designed to be for large companies but is available to the people who want it. It seems to be running Windows 7 Operating System.
If you really love all the Droid phones, then get ready; just six months after the Droid 3, it seems that the Droid 4 is coming out Dec. 8 on Verizon’s 4G LTE network. The phone will have a slide-out keyboard with a 4 inch touch screen. It might be running on Android 4.0: Ice-cream Sandwich, but that is not clear. It will have 1 GB of RAM, an 8 megapixel rear camera, and a 1.2GHz dual-core possessor.
EA wants to give you games for free, but they still want your money. EA is jumping on the “freemium” bandwagon. What this means is that they give you a game for free, but you pay extra for more maps, weapons, skills, ect.
EA currently has four apps for free on the Apple App store, but wants to make it fourteen by March. Barry Cottle, executive vice president and general manager of EA, says that this is the way of the future. We will no longer have Apps above 99 cents because they do not sell very well. Items that are purchased in the game enhance the experience, so you pay as you go. EA is currently developing a freemium version of Battlefield 3 for iOS.
Until the next Apple devices arrive we will be hearing rumors until they debut. The latest rumor for the iPad 3 is that it will be slightly thinker that the iPad 2 so that it can incorporate a dual-light bar backlighting system to have a higher revolution display.
The next iPhone rumor is that it will have a 4 inch screen. In a strange rumor they claim that the entire body of the phone will be made of metal, not glass. Also, it is slated to release in the summer of 2012.
I hope that everyone has enjoyed the addition of Spec Tech to The Spectator. If you would like to see improvements to this section, please email me at smsetser@valdosta.edu. Also if you get any cool tech for Christmas and would like to share your opinion with me please email me.
I wish everyone good luck on your finals and have a great winter vacation. Hope to see you back here next semester!
All sources from Cnet.com, IGN.com, and Xbox.com
Steven Setser 2011-12-01
Rebecca McAleer
Tags Steven Setser
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Highlights: Ananth Kumar accorded state funeral, Karnataka minister DK Shivakumar pays tribute
Ananth Kumar was accorded a state funeral with 21-gun salute and guard of honour on Tuesday. The Union minister for parliamentary affairs died on Monday at a private hospital in Bengaluru due to multiple organ failure.
A state funeral with 21-gun salute and guard of honour was accorded on Tuesday to the mortal remains of Union minister for parliamentary affairs Ananth Kumar, who died on Monday at a private hospital in Bengaluru due to multiple organ failure. The state funeral will be held at a crematorium in the city’s southwest suburb in accordance with Hindu rites.
The veteran BJP lawmaker died at Shankara Cancer Hospital due to multi-organ failure, three weeks after he was admitted on return from the US on October 21.
Prime minister Narendra Modi flew into the city on Monday night from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh and paid last respects to Kumar at his residence in the city’s southern suburb by laying a wreath on the tricolour-draped glass casket in which his body lay in waiting for public homage.
On Monday, the Karnataka government declared a three-day mourning across the state and one-day public holiday for Monday as a mark of respect to Kumar.
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Whackala | Day 22: a ray of light
04 Jan Day 22: a ray of light
We’re woken up by a call to Alicia’s cell at 5:30 am, excited that we’re going to be told to come along this morning. False alarm, it’s someone else asking her a favour. Later on, she tries to call Dionisio and then his wife Esperanza with no luck. We decide to carry on ahead with Jorge’s interview at the museum at 11. Alicia finally gets through to Dionisio and he tells her that we can come and talk to a media representative who was assigned at last night meeting before we can carry on filming. Right, Alicia tells us that we’ll need to stay another night, but Paul and I insist that we can do it all by 3, since she doesn’t want to hit the dangerous and foggy road any later, but Paul and I think we can do it all by then. She reminds us of the meetings, waitings and still uncertainty about being able to shoot in the mines again at all. We proceed with Jorge as planned not to shift him around anymore, and, as predicted, it is a long and very detailed interview about the whole amber “situation”.
The road to Pauchil
It’s after 1pm and we get ready to head to Pauchil. On the way, drizzle turns to full rain and we have to stop for works on the unpaved road, when one of the trucks breaks his gear stick on the muddy road doing a three-point turn. I’m starting to see that we may have to stay on another night. We have to go around the stuck truck and carry on. We park the car at the bottom of the hill where the village starts and make our way up to Dionisio’s passing quite a few men from the village at a football game in the school pitch. Alicia overhears, again for our benefit, “it’d better be for real this time”. We sit and chat with Esperanza while Dionisio changes their gas tank in the kitchen, but are unsure of whether he’s already called the media representative. She tells us that Dionisio gave up his role as director of the association at last night’s assembly, fed up with the other people’s suspicions and jealousies. After a while, Dionisio joins us and we chat some more about the whole affair. We eventually ask about the said media person but he tells us that there’s no problem, we can film.
Paul filming the mines’ entrances
Now the only problem is doing it all before 4pm, since Dionisio and his family need to get ready for church at 4:30 and Polo isn’t around today. All the tension since yesterday has built up and we’re being short amongst ourselves too, but we get some great shots on the way to the mine, and both Dionisio and the miners still working away in his second smaller mine agree to be filmed bringing out and dumping the rocks over the side of the mountain.
After we drive back and arrange one more night in the hotel, we can eat and rest and work away all the tensions caused by the situation.
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Home This Week's Edition From the Editor From the Editor: Support Israel Through Friends of the IDF
From the Editor: Support Israel Through Friends of the IDF
By Larry Gordon
The missile attacks and retaliatory strikes intensified in Israel last weekend before another temporary ceasefire took effect. Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government prefer not to enter Gaza. Rather, they work to keep the area isolated so it can ultimately self-destruct. Over last weekend alone, more than 700 missiles were fired and directed at Israeli cities, killing at four and injuring dozens more.
Sometimes it seems a majority of people who live in Brooklyn, Queens, or the Five Towns believe Netanyahu should send troops into Gaza, wipe out the terrorists, destroy their vast supply of arms, and retake Gaza. And the preference might be to do all this before dinner so that the movement does not interfere with anyone’s party plans here.
Fortunately, the Israel government is a bit more pragmatic and perceptive about what is actually at stake in this endless struggle.
Israeli tanks and armored vehicles crossing the Gaza border bearing vigorous and enthusiastic ground forces is probably what the terror leaders in Gaza deserve. And while victory, with G-d’s help, is militarily assured, the matter that needs to be considered is: at what cost?
Terrorists fight dirty wars. Of course, we can say there are no clean or good wars — not these days anyway. But terrorist forces are not armies; they are a ragtag group of violent zealots with no alternative objective but to kill. In Israel they target Jews, but if some of their own die along the way that does not concern them or their leaders.
The Israeli army presents a host of differences. What distinguishes them from their avowed enemies is that they are, first and foremost, a moral army that is forced to fight conventional battles.
When Jewish men and women in the IDF go to war, their objective is to eliminate the terrorist scourge that murders innocent people.
The “boots on the ground” some people wish to send into Gaza are from familiar families and communities. The Israeli military is a citizen army composed to a large extent of reservists who are called to duty in times of emergencies.
The young men are from Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. They are from Efrat and Tekoa, from Naharia and Neve Daniel, and so on. We know some of their families; if they made aliyah years ago we may have known these young people when they were children. Some of our children know them from yeshiva or a summer camps.
In Israel, everyone seems to have a personal connection to war. Soldiers are not just part of a faceless unit. They are our friends, cousins or former neighbors.
Considering this, one cannot help wonder what folks like us, thousands of miles away from the action, can do to assist in these efforts. Those of us who visit Israel, whether on occasion or frequently, have a special affinity and appreciation for Israel’s soldiers. There is no denying that Jews in Israel live in a dangerous part of the world. Israeli soldiers, whether on patrol or out with friends, provide a feeling of security. What is more important than feeling safe?
That is where Friends of the IDF comes into the picture. The decades-old organization ensures that those serving in the Israeli military enjoy some perks and even comforts that make their service a bit more comfortable and doable.
The annual Five Towns and Greater South Shore Community Event for Friends of the IDF will take place next week on Wednesday, May 15, at The Sands of Atlantic Beach. The honorees are Jay and Malky Spector and Zoltan and Judith Lefkovits.
For Jay Spector, involvement in the founding of a local chapter of FIDF is, he says, one of his great and important accomplishments. He said that his interest was piqued about nine or ten years ago when he attended the national FIDF event in the city, a large and impressive gala that features speakers from within the highest echelon of the military in Israel as well as important government officials.
Jay Spector says that at the dinner nearly a decade ago he heard a reference to a Long Island chapter of FIDF and became curious and wanted to learn more as well as get involved. After making additional inquiries, he learned that the LI Chapter of FIDF is on the North Shore of the island and is based in Great Neck.
It was just about that time when Jay decided to get to work and put together what has evolved into the South Shore and Five Towns division of Friends of the IDF. It has been eight years since the founding of this chapter, and this part of the organization has rapidly grown into one that is a vitally important cog in the organizational machinery that provides support and funding that benefits soldiers in Israel.
Next week’s dinner was moved to The Sands to accommodate the ever-growing demand of local residents to support FIDF efforts.
Pninet Kohl and Galit Brichta are the FIDF executives who put together this and numerous other fundraising events around the tri-state area.
They note that support for Israeli soldiers has never been more vital. It transcends the idea of defending the homeland, which would be sufficient motivation in and of itself. The often overlooked reality is that when there is an emergency anywhere in the world — whether it is in Mexico or Thailand — the IDF is there to provide their expertise and assistance that translates into saving lives.
“The IDF is indeed a global protector of sorts of Jewish communities wherever they are in the world,” said Kohl. This is something we all have to be aware of, especially in light of tragic events that took place in Pittsburgh and Poway, California.
“Israel has in its government a minister of diaspora affairs,” says Jay Spector. “And that means that when something happens in a Jewish community anywhere in the world, Israel, in one way or another, is there to lend support, advice, and help on whatever level is required.
Hopefully, the quiet at the Gaza border will be sustained. No one — on this side anyway — wants to see violence and the pain it causes. But just like last weekend’s conflagration popped out of virtually nowhere, the same thing can happen at any moment again.
Israel needs the men and women of the IDF to be ready. Next week at the FIDF South Shore event, we need to demonstrate that we appreciate that they are there for us — and that we are there for them as well.
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Larry Gordon
Heard in the Bagel Store: Getting Away
From the Editor: Jerusalem Diary
That’s A Lot Of Garbage
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Published on Whitehall-Coplay Press (http://whitehallcoplay.thelehighvalleypress.com)
Home > Happenings
Monday, April 15, 2019 [1] by The Press [2] in Columns [3]
• Beading Club meeting, 1:30 p.m., at Whitehall Township Public Library, 3700 Mechanicsville Road. Information: 610-432-4339
Comments (0) [4]
• Easter and make-a-bunny craft (for adults), 6 p.m., at Northampton Area Public Library, 1615 Laubach Ave. Information and registration (required): 610-262-7537
• Open mic and jam night, 6:30 p.m., in the community room of Whitehall Township Public Library, 3700 Mechanicsville Road. Information: 610-432-4339
• Coplay Lions Club meeting, 7:15 p.m., at Coplay Saengerbund, 205 S. Fifth St.
• Registration begins for the children’s book bingo (for children up to fifth grade), to be held 6 p.m. May 2 at Northampton Area Public Library, 1615 Laubach Ave. Information and registration (required): 610-262-7537
• Gentle chair yoga, 9:30-10:30 a.m., at Whitehall Active Community Center, 2301 Pine St., West Catasauqua. The class will continue Tuesdays and Thursdays until April 30. Information, registration and cost: 610-437-3700
• One Book, Every Young Child program (for babies and toddlers), 10 a.m., at Northampton Area Public Library, 1615 Laubach Ave. Information and registration (required): 610-262-7537
• Tai Chi exercise, 12:30-1:30 p.m., at Whitehall Active Community Center, 2301 Pine St., West Catasauqua. The class will continue 12:30-1:30 p.m. Tuesdays and 1-2 p.m. Fridays until April 26. Information and cost: 610-437-3700
• Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative free community meal, 4-6 p.m., at St. John’s United Church of Christ, 575 Grape St., Fullerton. Information: 610-264-8421
• Movie: “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald,” 6 p.m., in the community room of Whitehall Township Public Library, 3700 Mechanicsville Road. Information: 610-432-4339
• “The Ironmen of Catasauqua” program (organized by Historic Catasauqua Preservation Association), 7 p.m., at Public Library of Catasauqua, 302 Bridge St. Information: 610-266-0255
• One Book, Every Young Child program (for preschoolers), 10 a.m., at Northampton Area Public Library, 1615 Laubach Ave. Information and registration (required): 610-262-7537
• Strength training, 10:30-11:30 a.m., at Whitehall Active Community Center, 2301 Pine St., West Catasauqua. The class will continue Wednesdays and Fridays until April 26. Information, registration and cost: 610-437-3700
• Storytime (with Whitehall High School’s London Club), 7 p.m., in the community room of Whitehall Township Public Library, 3700 Mechanicsville Road. Information: 610-432-4339
• Easter pie, cake and filling sale, 8 a.m.-4 p.m., at Klecknersville Rangers Volunteer Fire Company, 2718 Mountain View Drive, Moore Township. Information: Stacy at 610-837-3465
• Storytime, 11 a.m., at Coplay Public Library, 49 S. Fifth St. Information: 610-262-7351
• Knitting guild meeting, 6 p.m., at Whitehall Township Public Library, 3700 Mechanicsville Road. Information: 610-432-4339
• “How to Sell Items on eBay” program (presented by Patty Vahey, Whitehall Township Public Library director), 6:30 p.m., at the library, 3700 Mechanicsville Road. Information: 610-432-4339
• Tenebrae service and Disciples Communion, 7:30 p.m., at St. John’s United Church of Christ, Mickley’s, 2918 MacArthur Road, Hokendauqua
• Strength training, 10:30-11:30 a.m., at Whitehall Active Community Center, 2301 Pine St., West Catasauqua. The class will continue April 24 and 26. Information, registration and cost: 610-437-3700
• Tai Chi exercise, 1-2 p.m., at Whitehall Active Community Center, 2301 Pine St., West Catasauqua. The class will continue 12:30-1:30 p.m. April 23 and 1-2 p.m. April 26. Information and cost: 610-437-3700
• Stories of Jesus’ last week from Mark’s Gospel (told by the Rev. Todd Fennell), 7:30 p.m., at St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, 19th Street and Lincoln Avenue, Northampton
• Bath Museum is open, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., at 121 S. Walnut St., Bath
• Easter egg hunt, 11 a.m., at Holy Cross Lutheran Church, 696 Johnson Road, Moore Township. Information: 610-759-7363
• Easter egg hunt (organized by Coplay Recreation & Welfare Association), 1 p.m., at St. Peter Roman Catholic Church, 4 S. Fifth St., Coplay. The various age groups — 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 and 7-8 — will line up on the southwest area of the lawn.
• Easter egg hunt (for ages 2-6) and decorating Easter gingerbread houses (for ages 7-10), 1 p.m., at Holy Trinity Memorial Lutheran Church, 604 Fourth St., Catasauqua. The egg hunt will be held outside in the grassy area; in case of rain, it will be held inside. The gingerbread decorating will be held inside. Information: 610-739-6006
• Movies: “The Croods” (11 a.m.) and “The Book Thief” (1 p.m.), at Coplay Public Library, 49 S. Fifth St. Information: 610-262-7351
• Governor Wolf Historical Society Museum is open, 1-3 p.m., at 6600 Jacksonville Road, East Allen Township. Information: govwolf.org
• Easter breakfast, 7:15 a.m. and 8:30 a.m., at Emmanuel’s Lutheran Church, 3175 Valley View Drive, Moore Township. Information and registration (preferred): 610-837-1741
• Easter egg hunt, 9 a.m., at Emmanuel’s Lutheran Church, 3175 Valley View Drive, Moore Township. Information: 610-837-1741
• “Conversation about Memory Loss” (presented by LifeSpring in Home Care of Eastern Pennsylvania), 4 p.m., at Northampton Area Public Library, 1615 Laubach Ave. Information: 610-262-7537
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Source URL: http://whitehallcoplay.thelehighvalleypress.com/2019/04/15/happenings
[1] http://whitehallcoplay.thelehighvalleypress.com/edition/2019-04-15
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Population: 2.97 million (2016 est.)
Languages: English, Creole
African 76.3%, Afro-European 15.1%, East Indian and Afro-East Indian 3%, white 3.2%, Chinese and Afro-Chinese 1.2%, other 1.2%
Net Migrants
-4.50 per 1,000 (2016 est.)
Growth rate: 0.714% (2012 est.)
Birth rate: 18.03 births/1,000 population (2016 est.)
Death rate: 6.74 deaths/1,000 population (July 2016 est.)
Fertility rate: 1.99 children born/woman (2012 est.)
Male life expectancy: 72 years
Female life expectancy: 75.32 years
Infant mortality rate: 13.1 deaths/1,000 live births
Economy: (dollars are in USD)
Unemployment rate: 13.7% (2016 est.)
Inflation rate CPI: 1.90% (2016)
GDP (official exchange rate): $14.01 billion (2015 est.)
Debt – external: 101% of GDP (2014)
Total value: $1.452 billion (2014)
Top Commodities: Aluminium oxide, petroleum oils (excluding crude), Aluminium ores and concentrates, rum, roots and tubers
Top Commodities: Petroleum oils (excluding crude), medicaments of mixed or unmixed products, automobiles, food items
Jamaica is a constitutional monarchy and as a member of the British Commonwealth, the Queen of England, Elizabeth II is the titular head of the country. A Governor General represents her in Jamaica. The Jamaican Parliament consists of two Houses, the Senate, also called the Upper House, and the House of Representatives, also known as the Lower House.
The members of the House of Representatives are elected under universal adult suffrage, with a maximum of five
years between elections. There are 60 constituencies, each represented by one Member of Parliament. The Senate comprises twenty-one members appointed by the Governor General, thirteen on the advice of the Prime Minister and eight on the advice of the Leader of the Opposition.
The Senate functions mainly as a review chamber and reviews legislation passed by the House of Representatives. The Cabinet is the principal instrument of government policy. It consists of the Prime Minister and minimum of thirteen other Ministers of Government, who must be members of one of the two Houses of Parliament. However, not more than four members of the Cabinet may be members of the Senate. The Minister of Finance must be an elected member of the House of Representatives. Local Government is organized on a parish basis, with two parishes, Kingston and St. Andrew, amalgamated and administered by the Kingston And St. Andrew Corporation (KSAC).
The island’s 60 constituencies are subdivided into 187 electoral divisions, each of which is represented by a Parish Councillor for Local Government.
Jamaica is the third largest of the Caribbean islands. Situated in the Caribbean Sea, it lies 965.4 km (600 miles) south of Florida, 160.9 km (100 miles) southwest of Haiti and 144.81 km (90 miles) south of Cuba.
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Spaulding Family Resource Center seeks to leave school site
The Spaulding Resource Center is seeking a conditional-use permit that would allow it to move from the former school campus where it's been located since the center began in the 1990s to the empty day care facility across town at the corner of Walnut and Nash streets in Spring Hope.
SouthernNashNews.com photo
By Ken Ripley
kripley.enterprise@wilsontimes.com
The Spaulding Family Resource Center, located in the former C.C. Spaulding School site on Pine Street since the 1990s, is seeking the town of Spring Hope’s approval for a new home.
Town Manager Jae Kim said Monday that the nonprofit center has applied for a conditional-use permit to move into the former day care center at the intersection of Nash and Walnut streets across from First Baptist Church.
The town’s Board of Commissioners, which earlier this year also became the Board of Adjustment, last week scheduled a meeting for 7 p.m. July 22 to hear the request at Town Hall. Though the property is within the central business district, the town’s zoning ordinance requires a conditional-use permit for community centers.
Kim said the center is seeking a new home because of the high cost of its lease at the school, whose almost 30 acres was purchased last year by S&J Holdings from the school system for $173,911.
The Spaulding Center, which at its inception occupied much more of the former Spaulding School than it does now, was allowed to remain at Spaulding for a year in June 2018 when Global Achievers Charter School took over the property.
But the charter school lost its license and closed last fall when it failed to meet its required attendance and other goals, leaving the Spaulding Center behind in an otherwise empty school property.
Kim said programs the center currently offers can fit within the smaller day care property if town commissioners approve the switch in their role as the adjustment board. They will have to determine whether the property meets any zoning requirements for a community center.
“They said there’s plenty of room there to do everything they’re doing now,” he said.
The move was originated by the Spaulding Center directors, Kim said, and the town is not financially involved, although he did not rule out the possibility the center will ask for the town’s financial assistance at another time. Commissioners last year told the center’s director they might provide some kind of assistance if it stayed within Spring Hope.
What will happen to the Spaulding School property has not been announced. Before it lost a year-long bidding war to S&J Holdings, the large and loyal C.C. Spaulding Alumni Association had attempted to purchase the property to maintain its existence and identity, but the buildings’ condition and the cost of renovating them has since made the school property problematic, Kim noted.
Spaulding was originally founded as a black high school. When the school system was integrated, the facility became a middle school and elementary school before it was closed.
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201819 Schedule & Results
Open Training Schedule
Player Partners
Perth Lynx Dunk Team
Halftime Basketballers
Layla the Lynx
The Perth Lynx Story
Complete Player List
Championship Teams
May 3, 2019 | Perth Lynx news
Lynx sign USA import Ariel Atkins
The Perth Lynx have signed elite American guard, Ariel Atkins for the 2019/20 WNBL season to fill one of two import spots.
Atkins is fresh off her first WNBA season where she started 24 of 29 regular season games for the Washington Mystics, and was named in the WNBA All-Defensive Second Team.
The 5’11” left-hander averaged 11.3 points, 2.4 rebounds and 2.1 assists on 43.2 percent over the regular season.
Her season-high on August 12 led the Mystics to victory over the Dallas Wings where she accumulated 26 points, five rebounds, and stayed perfect from behind the three point line from five attempts.
Atkins took her game to another level in the playoffs where she averaged 15.2 points, 3.7 rebounds and 1.9 assists on 48 percent shooting.
The Mystics reached the WNBA finals after finishing third on the ladder, but fell short in three games against the Seattle Storm.
Atkins was picked seventh overall in the WNBA draft, and set a record in the finals as the highest scoring rookie ever in a Game 1 with 23 points on 10-for-14 shooting.
Highlights of Atkins from Game 5 of the series that sent the Mystics to their first ever WNBA Finals can be found below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOkrCQ92euw
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Ed Westwick Height - How Tall
on Wednesday, August 07, 2013
How tall is Ed Westwick?
Here are some information about the height of Ed Westwick.
Name: Ed Westwick
About Ed Westwick.
Edward "Ed" Westwick is an English actor and musician who is best known for his role as Chuck Bass on The CW television drama Gossip Girl. He has also appeared in films such as S. Darko, Chalet Girl, and J. Edgar. The height of Ed Westwick is 5ft 9in, that makes him 175cm tall.
Ed Westwick Compared To My 5ft 10in (177cm) Height
Ed Westwick's height is 5ft 9in or 175cm while I am 5ft 10in or 177cm. I am taller compared to him. To find out how much taller I am, we would have to subtract Ed Westwick's height from mine. Therefore I am taller to him for about 2cm.
Ed Westwick: 175 cm
And see your physical height difference with Ed Westwick.
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Item Reviewed: Ed Westwick Height - How Tall Description: All About Ed Westwick Height - How Tall. How tall is Ed Westwick? Know the height of Ed Westwick here. What is his height in meters, feet, inches or in both inches & feet? Find it out here at All Height. Rating: 5 Reviewed By: Unknown
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Criterion Discovery: Sid and Nancy
Posted by Nathanael Hood | Sep 29, 2017 | Criterion Discovery | 0 |
Background: After a long hiatus of being out of print, Alex Cox’s punk-rock cult hit Sid & Nancy (Spine #20) returns to the Criterion Collection. The film was Cox’s first to be included in the main collection, preceding Walker (Spine #423) and Repo Man (Spine #654).
Story: After a fateful meeting, Sex Pistols bass player Sid Vicious (Gary Oldman) and American junkie Nancy Spungen (Chloe Webb) begin a star-crossed, mutually destructive romance. As the two plummet further and further into the grip of heroin addiction, Sid sets out with the Pistols on their disastrous American tour, becomes a solo act, and vanishes into pathetic semi-obscurity. Despite repeated attempts to get clean, Sid and Nancy plummet into a downward spiral of emotional abuse and self-destruction. Their story ends when Sid “accidentally” stabs Nancy to death while staying in New York City’s Hotel Chelsea.
The Film: “Remember: junkies don’t go to heaven.” That’s how director Alex Cox signs off from his commentary track on the new Criterion Blu-ray release of his widely despised, widely celebrated underground hit Sid & Nancy. This rather blunt dismissal comes during the film’s hallucinatory ending where a seemingly resurrected Nancy Spungen appears out of the ether in a yellow taxi cab to embrace her lover/killer Sid Vicious, the two cuddling in the backseat as the unseen driver sets off for parts unknown. Cox makes no secret of his disdain for the ending and the film’s reception by critics and audiences as some kind of tragic romance, admitting that in hindsight he wishes he had ended it with a shot of Sid lying in a pool of his own vomit dead of a heroin overdose. He’s adamant that the point of the film was that addiction—particularly heroin addiction what with its status as the narcotic of choice for celebrities and artists—wasn’t glamours or cool: it destroyed people. And in the case of Sid and Nancy, traitors to the political aspirations of the punk movement they swore allegiance to.
Of course, it’s difficult to glean this from the film itself. A kaleidoscopic fever dream of youthful anarchy, it sometimes seems like it’s glorifying their relationship, mostly because their antics seem like the natural extension of Cox’s depiction of the London punk scene. From the opening scene of Sid and Sex Pistols lead singer Johnny Rotten (Andrew Schofield) smashing up a nice car and threatening a small dog just because they’re there and they’re bored, it seems like nihilistic self-immolation is par for the course. There’s little difference between Sid’s onstage antics from when he’s playing with the Pistols in a London dive-bar—and assaulting one of the patrons with his bass guitar—and when he’s performing his infamous cover of Frank Sinatra’s My Way while stoned off his ass.
Much of this difficulty in separating Sid & Nancy from mistaken romanticization also comes from the constant pitch of Webb’s performance as the doomed Nancy, a performance which, in a universe of overused adjectives, actually deserves to be called legendary. From her very first few scenes she’s a shrill, bleating, magma-hot ball of misdirected fury and self-hatred. (During my research, I found that in real life Nancy was schizophrenic, a detail I’m astounded didn’t make it into the film.) If anything changes in her performance as the film continues, it’s the frequency in which she throws catastrophic fits. So it’s difficult not to infer that the film celebrates Nancy’s behavior as the very thing that drew Sid to her in the first place.
But I’m babbling. Misguided stabs at thematic clarity aside, Sid & Nancy is a brutal tour de force, pulling few punches in its depictions of drug addiction and the raucous punk scene that nearly split British culture apart in the 70s. Famed cinematographer Roger Deakins captured Cox’s innate energy and verve without sacrificing any of his indie-bred verisimilitude, somehow managing to make a film at once punishingly ugly and breath-catchingly beautiful, especially in the last act where they deliberately used only meticulously framed master shots to capture the mood of two young people co-signing each other to oblivion. What we have here is a scrappy indie with big studio production values. It’s a marvel it ever got made.
The Supplements: Perhaps sensing they had to make up for the film’s long absence from the Collection, the folks at Criterion outdid themselves in terms of supplements, jam-packing the release with multiple audio commentaries, short documentaries about the film’s production, interviews with the cast and crew, and archival footage of the original Sex Pistols themselves. But my favorite has to be the aforementioned audio commentary with Cox. What I didn’t mention beforehand was that he did the commentary alongside Schofield. The two together are an absolute delight; it’s a joy to listen to these two old friends reminisce over the production and bitch about how the film was misperceived. It also provided perhaps the biggest belly-laugh I’ve ever had listening to an audio commentary: an exasperated Cox deadpanning the advice “If you have a choice between heroin and sex, choose sex.”
Overall: You have few excuses not to pick this Blu-ray up. A stunning transfer of a flawed yet devastating film, this release of Sid & Nancy is a treasure trove for cinephiles and Criterion completionists alike.
Film Grade: B+
Criterion Grade: A
PreviousChristopher Nolan’s Long Infatuation with Time
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Nathanael Hood
Criterion Discovery: Mon Oncle
Criterion Discovery: 45 Years
Criterion Discovery: The Killing
Criterion Discovery: Scanners
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Showers expected in several areas across the country
Showers will occur at times in Sabaragamuwa and Central provinces and in Kalutara districts, the Department of Meteorology said.
Several spells of showers will occur in Western province and in Galle and Matara districts. Light showers will occur in North-western province and in Hambantota district.
Showers or thundershowers may occur at a few places in Uva province and in Batticaloa and Ampara districts after 2.00 p.m.
Fairly strong gusty winds up to 40-50 kmph are likely in Hambantota districts.
There may be temporary localized strong winds during thundershowers.
The Department of Meteorology requests the general public to take adequate precautions to minimize damages caused by lightning activity.
SEA AREAS:
Showers or thundershowers will occur at several places in the sea area off the coast extending from Puttalam to Hambantota via Colombo and Galle.
Winds will be South-westerly and speed will be 40-45 kmph in the sea areas off the coast extending from Matara to Pottuvil via Hambantota and 30-40 kmph in the other sea areas around the island
The sea area off the coast extending from Matara to Pottuvil via Hambantota will be rough to very rough at times as the wind speed can increase up to 70 kmph.
The sea areas extending from Trincomalee to Matara via Puttalam and Colombo can be fairly rough at times as the wind speed can increase up to 50 kmph
The naval and fishing communities are requested to be vigilant in this regards.
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At Bristol TV station, community is one long movie
By Christopher Ross
MARY ARBUCKLE, EXECUTIVE director of Northeast Addison Television, has overseen several broadcasting technology upgrades since she opened the station in 2002, but her community-minded commitment to filming remains the same. Independent photo/Trent Campbell
BRISTOL — Mary Arbuckle found her voice on the side of a Bristol mountain.
In the 1970s, after graduating from Boston University with a degree in philosophy and religion, she moved north to build a cabin in the woods. It wasn’t philosophizing from the dooryard of her new mountain home that changed her life, however — it was a simple gift.
“Someone gave me a camera for my birthday,” Arbuckle said. “When I started exploring with it, it was like a light bulb went off for me.”
By the time she completed the siding on her cabin, she knew what she wanted to do: make documentary films. She returned to Boston to study in a new film program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, moved back to Vermont and went on to make several documentaries, including “Where Is Stephanie?” (1998) and “Art & Soul” (2011).
Her latest documentary project, you might say, is “still in progress.” It’s called Northeast Addison Television (NEAT), a public access station that broadcasts to the 5-Towns and Huntington on Comcast Cable channel 16, and on the web.
Every time Arbuckle or her assistant, Shawn Kimball, point the NEAT camera and hit “record,” they’re adding another chapter to what Arbuckle likes to think of as one long documentary film about her community.
“I’ve been watching life behind the camera for more than 15 years,” Arbuckle said. “It’s like one big movie. When I’m filming selectboard meetings or school board meetings I get a front row seat to town government. It’s watching democracy at work.”
For Kimball, who has worked at NEAT for six years and has taken over much of the station’s camera operation, the work makes that democracy feel more personal.
“Being the designated camera operator for the district has made me a recognizable face to the public, making events covered by NEAT feel more like a ‘friend filming a backyard barbecue’ than (coverage by) a large news corporation,” he said.
And the filming is about more than just documenting meetings and events for the archive. By its very presence, NEAT serves as both a symbol of and the vehicle for the community’s access to its own government.
Arbuckle transitioned from big screen to small in 2002 when she was hired to set up the station from scratch.
“TV was definitely a new way of seeing things,” she said.
Right away Arbuckle reached out to Dick Thodal at Middlebury Community Television (MCTV).
“I would go to him and ask, ‘What do I do?’ or ‘How do I do this?’ Dick was really helpful,” Arbuckle recalled. “He really helped me get going in the beginning. MCTV was a partnering station.”
Since then, as NEAT’s executive director, Arbuckle has overseen transitions from VHS to DVD to the digital cloud, and added online streaming at neatbristol.com to give the station universal reach. Last year NEAT upgraded online streaming to bring it up to the capabilities of many other cable access stations.
But while broadcasting technology continues to evolve, the filming itself remains largely the same, both technologically and philosophically. After nearly two decades on the job, Arbuckle has developed a profound appreciation for her subjects.
“I have great respect for people on these boards,” she said. “So many different opinions. If you could see how hard they work and how much they talk about each issue.”
She recalled fondly the community’s response to a citizen who seemed to be constantly upset with the school district: Get involved.
“And they did,” Arbuckle said. “They joined the school board.”
Through her lens, Arbuckle watched them evolve over the years.
“I’ve watched so many people grow and change on these boards,” she said. “And the ‘personalities’ of the boards change, too. Things ebb and flow according to what’s happening.”
The town of Bristol and the Mount Abraham Unified School District board have recognized NEAT’s importance by appropriating funds for it every year. Other significant funding comes from Comcast Corp. and is based on the number of cable subscribers in the 5-Towns of Starksboro, Monkton, Lincoln, New Haven and Bristol plus Huntington (NEAT is the second-smallest public access television station in Vermont). Over the years NEAT has also won a number of grants from organizations like the Vermont Arts Council and the Vermont Community Foundation.
Within its budget, NEAT covers as much as it can of the community, but it does sometimes have to charge for production services and classes.
“We’re here as a community service, though,” Arbuckle said. “If something is really important we want to be able to cover it without necessarily sending an invoice for it.”
She’s never felt constrained by the budget, she added. “We always work with what we have.”
In addition to board meetings, NEAT has filmed poetry readings, musical performances and other cultural events around the 5-Towns.
Back at the station, which is located in Bristol’s Artists’ Alley, just off Main Street, Arbuckle sees herself not only as a director and editor, but also as a teacher.
“I have enjoyed and appreciated everything Mary and the studio have done for me,” said Kimball, who started at the station as an intern.
Kimball, in turn, has paid it forward.
“Since 2012, Mary has allowed me access to all of the NEAT equipment, giving me extended resources when teaching film to elementary school children, through Mary Johnson Children’s Center, the Bristol Recreation Department and Expanded Learning Programs,” he said.
What the future holds for the station depends, in some measure, on who walks through the door.
“NEAT is available for people who want to come and do TV shows or podcasts,” Arbuckle said. “And anyone who wants to learn more about film: Call the station. We’ll show you.”
For more information and to stream videos of democracy in action, visit neatbristol.com.
Reach Christopher Ross at [email protected]
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Finance and Operations Recruitment
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Call Ambit 416.703.5050
Finance Manager – Posting 1545
Posted:February 26, 2014
Location:Toronto, ON
Salary:$95,000-$105,000
At the beginning of 2014, Grey’s Anatomy fans breathed a sigh of relief when it was reported that Ellen Pompeo and Patrick Dempsey had signed new two-year contracts. Although the TV drama hasn’t officially been renewed for an 11th season, Pompeo and Dempsey’s new deals are a promising step in that direction. But while the personal lives of attractive surgical interns and residents at Seattle Grace continue to fascinate viewers around the world, our client finds another side of healthcare much more intriguing…
Effective disease screening and early detection; reasonable patient wait times; access to safe, high-quality healthcare: Healthcare providers strive to offer the best in patient care but it isn’t easy. Our client’s primary mandate is to drive quality and continuous improvement of healthcare services and they are seeking to add an integral member to their Finance team.
Reporting to the Director of Finance, the Finance Manager will oversee a staff of 4 analysts. In addition to cultivating his/her team, the Finance Manager will work closely with the Director of Finance to perform budgeting and forecasting and support VP level staff. Because this role has high visibility within the organization, our client is seeking a mature, seasoned professional who has very strong interpersonal skills.
The successful candidate will either be a Manager at a public accounting firm or someone with a few years of industry experience. Experience working in a healthcare or non-profit environment would be an asset.
If you are a designated CPA, CA seeking to join an organization that is not concerned with the McDreamys and McSteamys of the world but with making a real difference in the Ontario healthcare landscape, then we would like to hear from you.
Controller, Global Finance – Job Posting 1863
June 11, 2019 – Not since Henry Ford introduced the moving assembly line has there been such technological disruption in the automotive industry. Some of that new technology makes headlines – self-driving vehicles, engines powered by electricity or hydrogen. Other, less flashy technology such… Read more about Controller, Global Finance – Job Posting 1863
Controller – Job Posting 1859
March 28, 2019 – When it comes to business, they’re all business – offering a best in class product, customer service, and an emphasis on innovation. When it comes to culture, they’re not so rigid. It’s an energetic, outside-the-box environment with a diverse team… Read more about Controller – Job Posting 1859
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Ambit Search is a Toronto-based executive search firm specializing in mid to senior level roles in accounting & finance and operations. We provide highly personalized service working with Canada’s leading public and private corporations with an emphasis on mid-market companies.
© 2019 Ambit Search|150 York Street, Suite 1600, Toronto, ON M5H 3S5|416.703.5050
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CONSERVATORSHIP OF THE PERSON OF ROBERT WENDLAND, Appellant
ROSE WENDLAND, Appellant,
FLORENCE WENDLAND and REBEKAH VINSON, Respondents.
No. S087265
California Supreme Court Respondent's Brief.
Third Appellate District No. C029439
RESPONDENTS' OPENING BRIEF ON THE MERITS
JANIE HICKOK SIESS #166869
BROWN, HALL, SHORE & McKINLEY, LLP
3031 West March Lane, Suite 230 West
Stockton, California 95219
Attorney for Respondents FLORENCE WENDLAND and REBEKAH VINSON
*i TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of Authorities ... ii
I. Introduction ... 1
II. Factual Background ... 3
III. Procedural Background ... 10
IV. Legal Argument ... 11
A. The Decision-Making Standard Set Forth in California Probate Code § 2355 Fails to Provide Adequate Procedural and Substantive Protections to Conservatees Whose Lives May Be Ended as a Result of Medical Decisions Made for Them by Their Conservators ... 11
B. California Probate Code § 2355 Denies to a Conservator Whose Life May Be Ended as a Result of a Medical Decision Made on His Behalf by His Conservator Equal Protection of the Law and Violates His Liberty Interest. ... 23
C. California Probate Code § 2355 is Unconstitutionally Vague Because the Meaning of the Term "Medical Advice," as Used Therein, Requires Interested Parties and the Judiciary to Guess as to its Meaning and Application ... 31
D. There is No Precedent for and § 2355 May Not Be Interpreted to Allow the Termination of Life-Sustaining Nutrition and Hydration for Persons Who are Not an a Permanent Vegetative State, Permanently Unconscious Or Terminally Ill. ... 35
1. Michael Martin ... 36
2. Edna M.F. ... 38
3. Drabick ... 42
E. The Legislative History of § 2355 Fails to Support the Third District Court of Appeals' Conclusion that Application of the Statute is Not Limited or Constrained by the Conservatee's Medical Condition. ... 44
V. Conclusion ... 46
*ii TABLE OF AUTHORITIES
Bolling v. Sharpe (1954) 347 U.S. 497 ... 23
Colton v. Kentucky (1972) 407 U.S. 104 ... 32
Connally v. General Const. Co. (1926) 269 U.S. 385 ... 31, 33
Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health (1990) 497 U.S. 261 ... passim
Furman v. Georgia (1972) 408 U.S. 238 ... 15
Grayned v. City of Rockford (1972) 408 U.S. 104 ... 32
Johnson v. Zerbst (1939) 304 U.S. 458 ... 14, 15
Roe v. Wade (1973) 410 U.S. 113, 155 ... 23, 25, 28
Thompson v. Oklahoma (1988) 187 U.S. 815, 825 n.23 ... 14
United States v. Mazurie (1975) 419 U.S. 544, 550 ... 32
State Cases
Barber v. Superior Court (1983) 147 Cal.App.3d 1006 ... 18, 20, 21
Conservatorship of Angela D. (1999) 70 Cal.App.4th 1410 ... 27, 34, 33
Conservatorship of Drabick (1988) 200 Cal.App.3d, 200 ... passim
*iii Conservatorship of Morrison (1988) 206 Cal.App.3d 304 ... 42, 45
Conservatorship of Valerie N. (1985) 40 Cal.3d 143 ... 23, 25
Conservatorship of Wendland (2000) 78 Cal.App.4th 517 ... passim
Cranston v. City of Richmond (1985) 40 Cal.3d 755, 763 ... 31, 32, 31
Cruzan v. Harmon (Mo., 1988) 760 S.W.2d 408 ... 17
Guardianship of Hayes (1980) 93 Wn. 2d 228 ... 26, 28
In re Conroy (1985) 486 A.2d 1209 ... 16
In re Martin (1995) 450 Mich. 204 ... 36, 37
In re Westchester Co. Medical Center (1988) 72 N.Y. 2d 517 ... 15
In the Matter of Edna M.F., (Wis. 1997) 210 Wis.2d 557 ... 38, 39, 40, 41
Knight v. City of Capitola (1992) 4 Cal.App.4th 918 ... 21
Los Angeles v. Southern Calif. Tel. Co. (1948) 32 C.2d 378 ... 24
Matter of Quinlan (1976) 70 N.J. 10 ... 43, 44
Smith v. Peterson (1955) 131 Cal.App.2d 241 ... 32
Thor v. Superior Court (1993) 5 Cal.App.4th 725 ... 1, 2, 15, 19
*iv Wendland v. Superior Court (1996) 49 Cal.App.4th 44 ... 7
U.S. Const. Amend. XIV, Section 1 ... 12
California Constitution, Article 1, § 1 ... 13, 19
California Probate Code § 1800 ... 22
California Probate Code § 1958 ... 27, 30, 33
California Probate Code § 2355 ... passim
*1 I.
This is a matter of first impression in California, the importance of which cannot be overstated. This Honorable Court has previously established that a competent adult possesses a fundamental right to refuse life-sustaining medical treatment. [FN1] However, this Court has never explored the legal and constitutional standards which govern a conservator's decision to withhold life-sustaining food and fluids from a conservatee who has been adjudicated incompetent to make his/her own medical decision(s) and, more particularly, is conscious and interactive.
FN1. (See Thor v. Superior Court (1993) 5 Cal.App.4 725 [ ["Thor''].)
It is undisputed that the conservatee herein, ROBERT WENDLAND ("Robert"), is not in a persistent vegetative state ("PVS"), nor is he permanently comatose or terminally ill. He is conscious and has cognitive function. Robert is a disabled person. He receives life-sustaining food and fluids through a feeding tube. Robert will never fully recover from his injuries, will always be dependent upon others for his care, and will never again be competent to make decisions for himself about his care and treatment.
FLORENCE WENDLAND, Robert's mother, and his sister, REBEKAH VINSON (collectively, for the Court's convenience, "Florence") assert that San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Bob W. McNatt correctly prohibited Rose from ordering Robert's physicians to discontinue delivery of his food and fluids *2 via his feeding tube, an act which would certainly bring about his death by dehydration and starvation. Judge McNatt also rightly ruled that Rose must bear the burden of proving, by clear and convincing evidence, that it would be in Robert's best interests, taking into account certain subjective elements (including, but not limited to his previously expressed wishes, if any), to withdraw his life-sustaining treatment (food and fluids) and that, at the conclusion of the evidentiary hearing below, she had not sustained her burden. (R.T. 2506:28 - 2507:3.)
On February 16, 2000, the Third District Court of Appeal ("Third DCA") affirmed the probate court's determination that Rose bears the burden of proof in this proceeding, and affirmed that the appropriate evidentiary standard to be utilized is that of clear and convincing evidence.
However, the Third DCA erred when it ruled that "there is no constitutional impediment to application of [California Probate Code] section 2355 to the circumstances of this case." (Conservatorship of Wendland (2000) 78 Cal.App.4 517; 93 Cal.Rptr.2d 550, 567. ["Decision'']) That tribunal also wrongly concluded that, when reviewing a conservator's decision to terminate a conscious, interactive conservatee's life-sustaining food and fluids, a California probate court need only satisfy itself that
"the conservator has acted in 'good faith' and decided 'based upon medical advice,' that treatment is 'necessary,' after consideration of the conservatee's prior wishes and best interests. Thus, the conservator is not required to prove that the conservatee, while competent, expressed a desire to die in these circumstances. Moreover, it is not for the court to decide independently whether the conservator's decision is in the conservatee's best interests; the court is merely to satisfy itself that the conservator has considered *3 the conservatee's best interests in good faith and met the other requirements of section 2355."
Moreover, the Third DCA wrongly held that the application of § 2355 to a conservator's decision to take action which will bring about the conservator's death is not limited to patients who are in a PVS. (Decision at 565.)
It is from those portions of the Decision that Florence sought review by this Court.
FACTUAL BACKGROUND
Prior to sustaining life-altering injuries in a September 1993 motor vehicle accident, Robert lived with Rose and their three children in Stockton. Rose provided daycare services in their home, while Robert was employed by Rettig Brothers as an auto parts salesman. (R.T. 28:7-10, Supp. R.T. 56:28-57:1; 84:15-17.) Robert is the second eldest of Florence's eight (8) children. There had been difficulties between Rose and Robert's family members over the years and, to the best of Rose's knowledge, Robert no longer maintained contact with his mother. [FN2] (J.A. 465, 482.)
FN2. Rose contends that Florence was estranged from Robert. Florence never presented her case-in-chief since the probate court granted her motion for judgment pursuant in accordance Code of Civil Procedure § 631.8. Thus, the fact that she enjoyed an ongoing relationship with Robert, unbeknownst to Rose, was not heard by the probate court.
On that fateful September 1993 evening, Robert had been drinking prior to driving to Lodi, where his pickup flipped off the on-ramp to Interstate 5. *4 (Appellant's Joint Appendix 461. ["J.A."]) He was found unresponsive by medical emergency personnel who transported him, unconscious, to San Joaquin General Hospital. He remained there until November 8, 1993 when he was transferred to Lodi Memorial Hospital -- West's Sub-Acute Unit, where he still resides. (J.A. 461-462.)
Robert remained comatose for approximately sixteen months. (J.A. 462.) Then he awoke and became gradually more responsive to his environment. (J.A. 462.) Upon regaining consciousness, Robert began receiving various therapies (speech, physical) and continued to receive food and water through a feeding tube. (J.A. 462.)
In early July 1995, Rose and Robert's treatment team agreed that Robert would participate in a three month program of intense therapies, designed to maximize his rehabilitative progress and abilities. (Supplement to R.T. 25:22-26:7.)
Shortly thereafter, the jejunostomy tube through which Robert received food and fluids became dislodged, as it had on three previous occasions. (Supplement to R.T. 27:4-22.) Rose determined that the feeding tube should not be reinserted, a decision that, if carried out, would cause Robert's death by dehydration. (Supplement to R.T. 71:16-25, 73:14-28.)
*5 Rose's decision was presented to and scrutinized by a medical ethics committee assembled at Lodi Memorial Hospital. [FN3] (Supplement to R.T. 31:23- 33:5; 74:1-18.) Florence was not aware that Rose had decided to end Robert's life, nor was she apprised that the Ethics Committee was convening or given an opportunity to present her contrary views. (Supplement to R.T. 78:20-79-2; 82:25-83:4.) Indeed, although Florence was visiting Robert at Lodi Memorial Hospital on a regular basis, she was utterly unaware of the fate that awaited Robert. (J.A. 016.) [FN4]
FN3. Both Rose and Robert relied upon the ethics committee's purportedly unanimous endorsement of Rose's decision to terminate her husband's treatment to bolster the correctness of Rose's decision to end Robert's life. (See Robert's Opening Brief, page 7; Rose's Opening Brief, pages 36, 41.) The probate court, in reliance upon Evidence Code § 1157, granted Lodi Memorial Hospital's Motion to Quash Respondent's subpoena commanding the appearance at trial of all members of that committee who participated in the committee's deliberations, and the production of all related documents. Florence argued to the Third DCA that, since she was denied the right to explore the deliberations of that group, it was wholly improper and manifestly unjust to allow the decision of that committee to bear any weight whatsoever in its decision. The Third DCA dismissed Florence's argument, stating, without citation to any authority, "[W]e see no basis for rejecting the evidence on this issue adduced at trial." (Decision at 555, fn. 8.)
FN4. In her testimony, Rose acknowledged her awareness of Florence's visits to Robert in the hospital:
Q. During the first 12 months at Lodi Memorial Hospital, would other members of his family, Robert's family, come to visit him from time to time?
A. Mike and his family went quite a bit. I understand that his mom came once a week with his Aunt Lila. One of the family members would bring her and Aunt Lila to the hospital, usually on a Saturday.
Q. Would you on occasion see them there on a Saturday?
A. For awhile there I would, but then -- and it was too stressful for the kids to go while they were there because I felt his mother had the right to see him alone since we go all the time. I come and go whenever I please. That that [sic] was her time with her son. That I let that be. And I don't -- try not to go to interfere in that time.
(Supplement to R.T. 54:4-17.)
At the time of trial, Florence was visiting her son approximately three times per week. (J.A. 477.)
*6 Were it not for an anonymous telephone call from (presumably) a member of the staff of Lodi Memorial Hospital, alerting Florence that Rose had directed Robert's feeding tube to be removed, thereby bringing about this death, Robert would have died in August 1995. (Wendland v. Superior Court (1996) 49 Cal.App.4 44, 47.) When Florence finally did learn of Robert's fate, she immediately sought the intervention of the San Joaquin County Superior Court and obtained a Temporary Restraining Order on August 3, 1995, prohibiting removal of Robert's feeding tube, pending further proceedings. (J.A. 013.)
After determining to discontinue delivery of Robert's life-sustaining food and fluids, and initiating this proceeding, Rose dramatically decreased the frequency of her visits with him. At the time of trial, Rose admitted that her only visits with Robert coincided with her appearances at the hospital for meetings with Robert's treatment team every four - six weeks. That pattern had been, by that time, in place for at least a year. (R.T. 138:11-139:14.)
Robert's daughter, Katie, admitted that she had not seen her father perform any tasks "that impressed me." (R.T. 1563:7.) In fact, on the day she testified, November 7, 1997, she learned for the first time that her father was able to propel *7 a wheelchair with his foot (R.T. 1563:28), and admitted under cross-examination that she wasn't interested in Robert's capabilities:
Q. Do you have any specific understanding of what things he is able to do?
A. No, and I don't care. He's not living the way he wants to live. So I don't care if he pushes a wheelchair or he lifts a peg or whatever because it's not going to change the whole scheme of things. He's not living the way he wants to live.
(R.T. 1577:4-10.)
Katie also testified that she had not visited her father since the summer of 1996 (R.T. 1555:27-1556:1), because "it was very painful for me to see him because it wasn't him any more. To me it was a shell of a person, and in my mind he's really gone." (R.T. 1554:24-27.) Rose and her children insist that Robert does not recognize them. (Rose's Opening Brief, page 10.) Florence is confident that he does recognize her. (J.A. 470.)
The undisputed evidence and testimony introduced at trial by Rose and Robert's own witnesses conclusively demonstrated that, following his injuries, Robert progressed substantially in his recovery, from total unconsciousness to the point that he could perform a number of neurologically complex tasks: [FN5]
FN5. Robert's ability to perform the enumerated tasks is admittedly inconsistent, secondary to, inter alias, medical and behavioral issues. (J.A. 463, 477, 518.)
*8 1) Operating a manual wheelchair (using his left hand or foot) or an electric wheelchair with the use of a joystick; (J.A. 464, 492, 499, 518, Videotapes); [FN6]
FN6. References here are to the videotapes of Robert's therapy sessions which were lodged with the Third DCA in accordance with the probate court's Order and Stipulation Regarding Videotaping of Robert Wendland. (See J.A. 587-604.)
2) Throwing and catching a ball with his hand; (J.A. 462, Videotapes);
3) Kicking and stopping a ball with his foot; (Videotapes);
4) Working in a standing frame during which time he views himself in a mirror and is able to balance and right himself (with cues) for short periods of time, reaches for/grabs there-putty in response to cueing, etc. (J.A. 425, 428, 430, Videotapes);
5) Operating an augmentative communication device to give "yes" or "no" responses to questions; (J.A. 463, 467-468, 476, 518, 519);
6) Blinking with his eyes to respond to questions such as those listed above; (J.A. 462, 518);
7) Picking up brightly colored pegs or blocks and replacing them in a tray or handing them to a therapy assistant; (J.A. 462, 518, Videotapes);
9) Picking up specific numbers and handing them to a therapy assistant; (Videotapes);
*9 10) Turning pages, drawing circles and writing the letter "R" with his left (no dominant) hand, sometimes without assistance; (J.A. 444, 449, 450, 451, 457, 518);
11) Responding to verbal requests that he open his mouth and hold it open to allow oral care and hygiene; (J.A. 463, 477, Videotapes); and
12) Responding to verbal commands directed toward behavior management; (Videotapes).
In shockingly dehumanizing and demeaning terms, perhaps reflecting their own value judgments, but clearly not reflecting the law of this state, Rose's retained experts minimized and dismissed Robert's accomplishments, likening him to a "trained animal." (Robert is "being trained like an animal," [R.T. 792:27]; Robert is "being used like a trained animal ...'' [R.T. 793:2]; Robert interacted with his environment less than "some animals that I have a close friendship with." [R.T. 917:21-22.]) Equally disturbing was the Third Dacca’s adoption and tacit approval of those terms to describe Robert's abilities. ("Robert's activities constitute "a 'very low-level cognitive response' -- like a trained response where an animal or child is trained on a primitive level to perform an action in response to a direct specific stimulus." (Decision at 557 [[Emphasis added]).
*10 III.
PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
By stipulation of the parties, the probate court proceeding was bifurcated. After extensive briefing and oral argument, Judge Bob W. McNatt made three legal rulings which formed the background for the second phase of the trial:
"1) The evidentiary standard in situations involving withdrawal of medical treatment from conscious but cognitively impaired persons should appropriately be "clear and convincing" evidence...
2) Where the incompetent person has left no explicit pre-incapacity instructions to handle such situations, and in the absence of unanimity of the family members, it seems appropriate to place the burden of producing evidence justifying the proposed actions on the party seeking to terminate the life of a patient who is not in a persistent vegetative state...
3) Previous California cases, while not exactly on point, give at lease some guidance in determining the appropriate standards for surrogate decision-makers in these matters. Both Drabick and Barber refer to a "best interests" standard to be applied but both also suggest that certain subjective elements, e.g., previously expressed wishes of the patient, etc., may be included in the decision-making process. That is the standard to be applied here."
(J.A. 152; see also Decision at 556.)
The second phase evidentiary hearing commenced on October 17, 1997. At the conclusion of Rose's case-in-chief, Florence brought a motion for judgment, pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure § 631.8, arguing that Rose had not sustained her burden of proof. The motion was denied without prejudice, subject to Florence's right to renew her request for judgment after Robert's court- appointed public defender concluded her case-in-chief. (R.T. 1954:3-17.)
*11 Upon the conclusion of the presentation of evidence by Robert's court- appointed counsel, Florence renewed her motion, asserting that, even taking into account the evidence presented by Robert's counsel, Rose had not sustained her burden of proof and judgment should be had in her favor. (R.T. 2452:25 - 2505:24.) The probate court agreed, granting Florence's motion and concluding the hearing on December 9, 1997. (R.T. 2506:6 - 2509:11.)
LEGAL ARGUMENT
A. THE DECISION-MAKING STANDARD SET FORTH IN CALIFORNIA PROBATE CODE § 2355 FAILS TO PROVIDE ADEQUATE PROCEDURAL AND SUBSTANTIVE PROTECTIONS TO CONSERVATEES WHOSE LIVES MAY BE ENDED AS A RESULT OF MEDICAL DECISIONS MADE FOR THEM BY THEIR CONSERVATORS.
This case is literally a matter of life and death. Because of the ultimate and irreversible potential consequences for Robert, this proceeding raises crucial constitutional issues.
Florence maintains that the Court's analysis must, in accordance with controlling constitutional principles and in consideration of the grave consequences which are not susceptible of correction in the event of an erroneous decision, begin with a presumption in favor of the conservatee's right to continued life. Shockingly, the Third DCA did not agree with Florence, announcing three times within its Decision that it was not constrained to begin its analysis with a presumption in favor of life. "We thus conclude there should be no presumption *12 in favor of continued existence." (Decision at 577.) [FN7] The Third DCA also criticized Florence's posture in this proceeding, stating, "Florence's position ... assumes Robert wants to stay alive, an assumption we cannot share." (Decision at 565.)
7. In placing the burden of proof upon the conservator, the Third DCA stated that it did so "not because of any presumption favoring life,...'' (Decision at 577.)
Florence does not contend that a conservator may never vicariously exercise a conservatee's right to refuse medical treatment, thereby bringing about the conservatee's death. Rather, the decision-making standard for conservators enunciated by the Third DCA, applying § 2355, fails to assure to conservatees the adequate procedural and substantive safeguards mandated by both the United States and California constitutions. Constitutionally-decreed checks and balances dictate that, absent the conservator meeting his/her burden of proof, by clear and convincing evidence, the conservatee's right to life must supercede the conservatee's right to have a surrogate decision-maker vicariously exercise his/her right to make treatment decisions -- if that vicarious exercise would result in the conservatee's death. In other words, under the facts of this case, Robert's right to autonomy cannot be exalted over his right to life. The probate court correctly concluded that Rose had not met her burden of proof to show that her decision to terminate Robert's life- sustaining food and fluids was appropriate. [FN8]
8. And, under a decision-making standard which withstands constitutional scrutiny, she can never meet her burden.
Robert is protected by the substantive due process guarantees of the U.S. and California Constitutions. (U.S. Const. Amend. XIV, Section 1; California *13 Const. Art. 1, § 7.) These guarantees protect Robert's right to life, liberty, and property, and impose substantive limitations on their deprivation.
In Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health (1990) 497 U.S. 261 ("Cruzan''), the U.S. Supreme Court recognized that competent adult individuals have a Fourteenth Amendment "liberty interest" in refusing unwanted medical treatment. The Court stopped short of declaring that right "fundamental."
This Court has expressly declared that right to be fundamental, ruling that in California a "competent, informed adult, in the exercise of self-determination and control of bodily integrity, has the right to direct the withholding or withdrawal of life-sustaining medical treatment, even at the risk of death, ...'' (Thor at 744.) In the case of a competent adult, the right does not depend upon the nature of the treatment contemplated and is not "reserved to those suffering from terminal conditions." (Ibid.) In California, the right to determine the scope of one's own medical treatment is derived from privacy guarantees. [FN9] This court has not heretofore, however, as noted supra, confronted the questions posed in this proceeding concerning decision-making by a surrogate on behalf of a conscious, cognitively disabled individual. (Conservatorship of Drabick (1988) 200 Cal.App.3d, 200, 205 ["Drabick'']) held that "incompetent patients retain the *14 right to have appropriate medical decision made on their behalf." The Drabick court also recognized, however, that "to claim that [a conservatee's] 'right to choose' survives incompetence is a legal fiction at best." (Id. at 208.)
9. California Constitution, article 1, section 1 states: "All people are by nature free and independent and have inalienable rights. Among those are enjoying and defending life and liberty, acquiring, possessing, and protecting property, and pursuing and obtaining safety, happiness, and privacy." The Third DCA concluded that "the circumstances of this case also fall within the provision's right to enjoy and defend life." (Decision at 569, fn. 35.)
The Cruzan court cautioned that "we do not think the Due Process Clause requires the State to repose judgment on these matters with anyone but the patient herself." (Cruzan at 286.) A conservator or other surrogate does not possess any liberty interest either on their own or on the conservatee's behalf. Nor does a California conservator, in fulfilling his/her duties, possess privacy rights flowing therefrom which are independent of or separate from the rights of the conservatee which the conservator exercises vicariously. (See Drabick at 211-212.)
An individual's Fourteenth Amendment right to life is indisputably fundamental and "the State needs a compelling interest to justify" depriving an individual of that right. (See Johnson v. Zerbst, 304 U.S. 458, 462 (1939); Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238, 359 n.141 (1972) (Brennan, J., dissenting)). The right to life is composed of both substantive and procedural components. Moreover, the State has a constitutionally-cognizable responsibility to act in accordance with an incompetent individual's best interests. (See Thompson v. Oklahoma (1988) 187 U.S. 815, 825 n.23 [Emphasis added].) Because, as noted supra, a court-appointed conservator's decision concerning termination of a conservatee's life-sustaining food and fluids implicates the conservatee's constitutional rights, the conservatee cannot be deprived of his/her right to life absent the strongest form of protections.
*15 Indeed, the exercise of the right to refuse life-sustaining treatment must be closely scrutinized and narrowly interpreted because, by rejecting the circumstances of living in a disabled condition, an individual choosing to die by starvation and dehydration rejects life itself. That choice constitutes a waiver of the fundamental right to life. (In re Westchester Co. Medical Center (1988) 72 N.Y. 2d 517, 614 n. 4 ["Westchester''].)
The Westchester court emphasized that "[w]aivers of constitutional rights are always carefully scrutinized by the court[.]'' Ibid. Indeed, according to the U.S. Supreme Court, "Courts indulge every reasonable presumption against waivers of fundamental constitutional rights." (Johnson v. Zerbst, supra, 304 U.S. 464 [emphasis added].)
And heightened scrutiny is particularly crucial when a surrogate raises the uncorroborated and contested claim of waiver on behalf of an incapacitated individual. The Cruzan court observed that the "differences between the choice made by a competent person to refuse medical treatment, and the choice made for an incompetent person by someone else to refuse medical treatment, are so obviously different that the State is warranted in establishing rigorous procedures for the latter class of cases which do not apply to the former class." (Cruzan at 287, fn. 12.)
The right to refuse medical treatment is not without limitation. This Court has also made clear that, "while fundamentally compelling, the right to be free from nonconsensual invasions of bodily integrity is not absolute." (Thor at 738; *16 see also In re Conroy (1985) 486 A.2d 1209, 1233. ["Whether based on common-law doctrines or on constitutional theory, the right to decline life-sustaining medical treatment is not absolute. In some cases, it may yield to countervailing societal interests in sustaining the person's life."].)
The state's countervailing interests are traditionally identified as 1) the preservation of life; 2) the prevention of suicide; 3) the interests of third parties, usually family members; and 4) the integrity of the medical profession. Thor at 738. Of those interests, "[t]he state's paramount concern is the preservation of life, which embraces two separate but related aspects: an interest in preserving the life of the particular patient and an interest in preserving the sanctity of all life." Ibid. [Emphasis added]. As noted supra, the Third DCA disregarded this principle and, in doing so, through its approval and application of § 2355 to the facts of this case, removed and circumvented the crucially important systems of checks and balances mandated by the federal and California constitutions, as will be demonstrated more particularly infra. In keeping with the state's "paramount" interest in preserving both the life of a specific conservatee and the sanctity of life as a whole, when a conservator makes a medical decision on behalf of the conservatee which will deprive that conservatee of his/her life, a decision for which, if incorrect, no remedial measure are available, heightened scrutiny of that decision and the process by which it was made must be undertaken by the judiciary.
*17 When an incompetent person's life-sustaining food and fluids are at issue, the state also a strong interest in protecting the incompetent person from potential conflicts of interest, protecting the individual's right to procedural due process, and in fulfilling its parens patriae duty to safeguard incompetent persons from abuse. When a conservator is vicariously exercising the incompetent's decision-making power, the interests of the state and individual are clearly complementary. In considering the state's role as protector, the Missouri Supreme Court observed that the informed consent doctrine
[a]llows the truly involuntary to be declared voluntary, thus bypassing constitutional, ethical and moral questions, and avoiding the violation of taboos. Third party consent is a miraculous creation of the law -- adroit, flexible and useful in covering the unseemly reality of conflict with the patina of cooperation.
(Cruzan v. Harmon (Mo., 1988) 760 S.W.2d 408, 426.)
Section 2355 provides that a conservator may consent to the administration or withholding of medical treatment for his/her conservatee as the "conservator in good faith based on medical advice determines to be necessary ...'' [FN10] (Indeed, Conservatorship of Drabick (1988) 200 Cal.App.3d 185 [["Drabick'']) held, and the Third DCA agreed that, in making a decision as to what course of action the conservator feels is appropriate for his/her conservatee, and to fulfill his/her duty to act "in good faith," the conservator need only "consider the available information relevant to the conservatee's best interests ...'' *18 (Decision at 563, citing Drabick at 216-218 [Emphasis added].) [FN11] This approach fails to adequately protect helpless and vulnerable conservatees such as Robert.
10. This portion of the statute remains unchanged under the 1999 re-enactment.
11. The 1999 revision of § 2355 provides that the conservator shall render "a decision in accordance with the conservator's determination of the conservatee's best interest." [Emphasis added]
Section 2355 is a highly unusual and unorthodox statute, a fact recognized and acknowledged by the Third DCA, which observed that
"the California standard articulated in Drabick is unconventional in its elevation of the of the objective best interests standard over the subjective wishes of the patient: 'The most unconventional approach taken to describe how the best interests standard should be applied to a particular case is that contained in the opinion of the California Court of Appeals in Drabick... The conservator is to be guided by his own conception of what is in the ward's best interests...'''
(Decision at 564, fn. 27, citing 1 Meisel, The Right to Die, (2d. ed. 1995) § 7.25, pg. 431, fns. omitted. [Emphasis added])
The Third DCA also recognized that Drabick, and its endorsement thereof, constitute a departure from the decision-making standard enunciated in Barber v. Superior Court (1983) 147 Cal.App.3d 1006 ("Barber"), i.e. that a surrogate decision-maker should, at the outset, be guided by "his knowledge of the patient's own desires and feelings, . ." (Barber at 1021.) Only if it is not possible to ascertain the choice that the conservatee would have him/herself made if competent to do so should the surrogate then make a decision based upon the conservatee's best interests. [FN12]
12. In the probate court, Florence urged the adoption of the purely subjective ""substituted judgment" decision-making standard. (See Florence's Appendix in Lieu of Clerk's Transcript, 32.) According to Meisel, the purely subjective standard requires "proof that the patient, if he were competent, would have made the same decision as the surrogate under the circumstances." (Decision at 564, fn 28.) The purely subjective standard was adopted by the Martin court. Florence did not argue in the Third DCA for adoption of the purely subjective standard. Rather, she asserted that, even under the decision- making standard enunciated by Judge McNatt, Rose clearly did not meet her burden to establish that Robert's best interests would be served by terminating delivery of his life-sustaining food and fluids. Additionally, Florence contended before the Third DCA, and reasserts herein, that Rose's decision was not and could not be founded upon "medical advice." (See further discussion infra.)
*19 A surrogate decision-maker, in choosing life over death, also waives, on behalf of his/her conservatee, the conservatee's fundamental right to refuse medical treatment, i.e. the conservator vicariously exercises the conservatee's right to autonomy. The Third DCA embraced Drabick's finding that, in order to preserve the individual's right to refuse treatment, the surrogate must be permitted to make a choice on behalf of the conservatee. (See Decision at 570, citing Drabick at 209, fn. omitted.) "We believe that having the choice made in her behalf produces a more just and compassionate result than leaving her with no way of exercising a constitutional right. [Citation.]'' (Ibid., citing Drabick at 209.)
Florence does not dispute this point. However, the decision-making standard of Drabick, as adopted by the Third DCA, fails to provide the strong protections mandated by both the federal and California constitutions, irrespective of whether the court's analysis is focused upon the conservatee's Fourteenth Amendment liberty interest (Cruzan) or the right to privacy embodied in both the U.S. and California constitutions (Art. 1, § 1; see also Thor and Decision).
*20 Inarguably, as demonstrated supra, a conservatee's decision to terminate his/her conservatee's life-sustaining food and fluids, thereby assuring the conservatee's death, constitutes a waiver of the conservatee's rights, whether analyzed and viewed as liberty, privacy, equal protection and/or due process rights. § 2355 does not provide for that rigorous scrutiny which must be correspondingly heightened as the conservatee's condition, under the unique circumstances of each individual case, moves farther and farther down a continuum away from the threshold status of a PVS, permanent unconsciousness or terminal illness. Indeed, once a court has appointed a conservator, the protective function of the judiciary is effectively removed. (See Drabick at 194, 195, fn. 7.) The conservator's Decision is reviewed only in the event of a dispute between interested parties concerning the appropriateness thereof or if the conservator seeks judicial review of the Decision. (Id. at 204.)
Under the standard enunciated in § 2355, when the probate court is drawn into a dispute among interested parties, such as the instant proceeding, or asked by a conservator to review the correctness of his/her decision, the entire thrust of the probate court's inquiries are shifted away from the conservatee's rights and interests, which is where the focus is constitutionally required, to the subjective, essentially unknowable, and ultimately undiscoverable motives of the conservator. Under § 2355, the conservator need not show that his/her decision is consistent with the conservatee's actual best interests. On the contrary, the crux of a probate court's inquiry and analysis will be the conservator's subjective *21 mental state. As the Third DCA observed: "Good faith, or its absence, involves a factual inquiry into the [conservator's] subjective state of mind." (Decision at 562, fn. 24, citing Knight v. City of Capitola (1992) 4 Cal.App.4 superth 918, 932.)
The Third DCA admitted the danger of this approach, even while approving it: "A subjective state of mind will rarely be susceptible of direct proof; usually the trial court will e required to infer it from circumstantial evidence." (Ibid., citing Knight v. City of Capitola, supra, 4 Cal.App.4 superth 918, 943.)
To repeat, the probate court's inquiry will be focused not on the fundamental rights and interests of conservatee whose life is at stake, but on the conservator and the conservator's subjective assessment of the conservatee's quality of life, the conservator's values-laden judgments about whether or not the conservatee's life is worth living, the conservator's motives in making the decision to bring about the conservatee's death, the conservator's decision- making process and avenues of inquiry, etc.
Indeed, an interested party who opposes the conservator's proposed course of action to adduce evidence not about the conservatee's medical condition, prognosis, previously expressed wishes or desires in the event of incompetency, or what course of action comports with the conservatee's actual best interests. Rather, any person who disagrees with the conservator's decision will be forced to literally put the conservator on trial.
*22 This is precisely the result which Florence warned the Third DCA against. Such litigation will waste precious judicial resources and be ugly, intrusive, demeaning, emotionally charged and excruciatingly trying for the litigants. Moreover, interested parties opposing proposed action by a conservator would be required to demonstrate that the conservator was not acting in "good faith," a nebulous standard, at best. Thus, examples of evidence which would have to be adduced include, inter alia, the financial consequences associated with the conservatee's death such as the existence, value of and beneficiaries of the conservatee's assets (e.g., life insurance policies), a conservator-spouse's reasoning for not simply divorcing the conservatee, rather than ordering the termination of treatment, and the participation by a conservator-spouse in extramarital relationships which might serve as motivation to terminate treatment.
The Third DCA brushed aside Florence's due process concerns, noting that "due process is accorded through the statutory procedures for appointment of a guardian and determination of incompetency." (Decision at 571; [Referencing Wisconsin's statutory scheme, the Third DCA stated, "[t]he same applies here."].) Plainly, the adjudication of a disabled individual as incompetent to make medical decisions for himself and the appointment of a conservator constitute the beginning, not the end, of the process of a surrogate's decision-making power and the concomitant potential for abuse of that power. [FN13]
13. Probate Code § 1800 governs the establishment of a conservatorship, while § 1801 pertains to the selection of a conservator. The Third DCA also overlooked the fact that § 1812 embodies a statutory preference for the appointment of a spouse to serve as an incompetent's conservator.
*23 The practical effect of the decision-making standard enunciated in § 2355 is that it will have a chilling effect on interested parties' willingness to step forward to challenge the proposed actions of conservators, thereby creating an avenue for abuse by conservators. Even though the burden of proof is ultimately upon the conservator, as drafted, § 2355 creates enormous evidentiary hurdles upon the party who is opposed to the conservator's decision, including the cost of marshalling the evidence and engaging in protracted, unsavory, and intrusive litigation, as well as the polarizing effect cases such as this have on families.
B. CALIFORNIA PROBATE CODE § 2355 DENIES TO A CONSERVATOR WHOSE LIFE MAY BE ENDED AS A RESULT OF A MEDICAL DECISION MADE ON HIS BEHALF BY HIS CONSERVATOR EQUAL PROTECTION OF THE LAW AND VIOLATES HIS LIBERTY INTEREST.
As interpreted by the Third DCA, § 2355 indisputably denies to persons such as Robert the liberty afforded them against arbitrary restrictions, as guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. That liberty interest means more than "mere freedom from bodily restraint. Liberty under law extends to the full range of conduct which the individual is free to pursue, and it cannot be restricted except for a proper governmental objective." (Conservatorship of Valerie N. (1985) 40 Cal.3d 143, 162 ("Valerie N.''), citing Bolling v. Sharpe (1954) 347 U.S. 497, 499-500.) The permissibility of the restriction must be justified by a "compelling state interest," and may be no broader than necessary to protect that interest. (Roe v. Wade (1973) 410 U.S. 113, 155.)
*24 Indeed, each individual is guaranteed the "personal liberty to develop, whether by education, training, labor, or simply fortuity, to his or her maximum economic, intellectual, and social level. That all persons may not seek to exercise this right in no way diminishes its importance...'' (Id. at 163.)
In operation, § 2355 results in a denial of equal protection to persons adjudicated incompetent to make their own medical treatment decisions. The equal protection clause of the U.S. constitution "requires that persons under like circumstances be given equal protection and security in the enjoyment of personal and civil rights... [The Clause] does not guarantee any minimum of protection, but merely requires that persons similarly situated receive equal treatment." (8 Witkin, Summary of Cal. Law (9 superth ed. 1988) Const. Law, § 593, pg. 44.) Article I, § 7(a) of the California Constitution prohibits the denial of equal protection of the laws.
The effect of both constitutions is the same. "[T]he test for determining the validity of a statute where a claim is made that it unlawfully discriminates against any class is substantially the same under the state prohibitions against special legislation and the equal protection clause of the federal constitution." (Los Angeles v. Southern Calif. Tel. Co. (1948) 32 C.2d 378, 389.)
Under the Third DCA's ruling, the conservator of a conscious, cognitively disabled conservatee may effectuate the termination of the conservatee's life- sustaining food and fluids merely upon a showing that the conservator considered "the conservatee's prior wishes and best wishes... [T]he court is merely to satisfy *25 itself that the conservator has considered the conservatee's best interests in good faith and has met the other requirements of section 2355." (Decision at 567 [Emphasis added].) The conservator is not required to establish, by clear and convincing evidence, that his/her decision to take steps to bring about the conservatee's death is consistent with the conservatee's actual best interests.
This Court ruled in Valerie N. (1985) 40 Cal.3d 143 ("Valerie N.'') that former Probate Code § 2356(d), absolutely prohibiting the sterilization of conservatees, "denie[d] incompetent developmentally disabled individuals rights which are accorded all other persons in violation of state and federal constitutional guarantees of privacy." (Id. at 148.) That denial was also deemed violative of "liberty interests protected by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution,...'' (Id. at 160-161.) This Court found that competent individuals had a fundamental right to make procreative choices, including elective sterilization, which incompetent developmentally disabled persons were precluded from having made on their behalf by their surrogates decision-makers.
The Valerie decision noted that the rights implicated were indeed fundamental, therefore, "the permissibility of the restriction must be justified by a 'compelling state interest,' and may be no broader than necessary to protect that interest." (Valerie N. at 163, citing Roe v. Wade (1973) 410 U.S. 113, 155.) This Court explained that a conservator is permitted to exercise his/her own judgment as to the best interests of the developmentally disabled conservatee, with the exception of electing voluntary sterilization, but that the right of the conservatee *26 therein to choose to bear children had been taken from her "both by nature which has rendered her incapable of making a voluntary choice, and by the state through the powers already conferred upon the conservator." (Ibid.)
This Court adopted the standard set forth in Guardianship of Hayes (1980) 93 Wn. 2d 228, ruling that a conservator who advocates for sterilization of his/her conservatee bears the burden of demonstrating by clear, cogent and convincing evidence that sterilization is consistent with the conservatee's best interests. (Id. at 165.) The individual's right to privacy must not be needlessly invaded. "Substantial medical evidence must be adduced, and the burden on the proponent of sterilization will be to show by clear, cogent and convincing evidence that such a procedure is in the best interest of the retarded person." (Ibid.)
Note that this Court did not rule that the proper inquiry was whether or not a surrogate decision-maker had "considered'' the best interests of the retarded person, nor was sterilization allowed to take place in accordance with the best interests as perceived by a surrogate or in conjunction with the surrogate's subjective mental state. Rather, an actual showing of the conservatee's best interests was required under that decision, taking into account a variety of enumerated factors. (See Id. at 165-166.)
This Court challenged the Legislature to take action "to establish criteria and procedural protections" governing applications for authority to order that sterilization be performed and ordered that, in the interim, the procedures set forth in Probate Code § 2357 should be utilized." (Id. at 168.)
*27 Heeding this Court's advice in Valerie N., the Legislature boldly enacted Probate Code § 1950, et. seq. which not only codified the guidelines set forth in Valerie N., but, indeed, went much further: "The court may authorize the conservator to consent to sterilization only if the court finds that the petitioner has established, beyond a reasonable doubt, the existence of the facts set forth in section 1958." (Conservatorship of Angela D. (1999) 70 Cal.App.4th 1410, 1418, rehearing denied [Emphasis added].) The Fourth District Court of Appeal upheld the strict guidelines established in § 1958, even though that statute incorporates an evidentiary burden more stringent than that required by the Valerie N. court, as well as significant evidentiary hurdles such as a demonstration that the proposed method of sterilization is the least invasive available. "It is not the state's interest being protected here, but rather the interests of the disabled individual... [U]ltimately it is the conservatee who must be served by the statutes.'' (Id. at 423 [Emphasis added].)
This Court faces the same sort of dilemma it did when deciding Valerie N., but far more is at stake. The constitutional standards and considerations which applied to conservatees facing sterilization at the behest of their conservators is precisely the same issue the Court confronts herein. As in Valerie N., this Court must rule that § 2355 does not adequately protect conservatees threatened with death, based upon decisions made by their conservators, and fashion the appropriate remedy: The Court can and must declare § 2355 unconstitutional and leave to the Legislature the task of drafting a statute which conforms with both *28 federal and California constitutional requirements.
In light of the Third DCA's Decision, § 2355 is irrefutably unconstitutional because, in light of that ruling, a California conservatee's life may be ended merely by a clear and convincing showing that his/her conservator "considered" the conservatee's best interests, and in reliance upon the conservator's subjective mental state, rather than upon evidence that ending the conservatee's life is consistent with the conservatee's actual best interests. But an incompetent conservatee's ability to procreate may not be terminated except upon a showing that such action is, beyond a reasonable doubt, necessary and appropriate under the circumstances.
Additionally, Probate Code § 1954 requires that counsel representing a conservatee who may be sterilized "shall undertake the representation with the presumption that the individual opposed the petition." This standard must be compared with § 2355 which is silent as to the provision of counsel for a conservatee whose life may be ended at the direction of his/her conservator and Drabick's interpretation of § 2355. (Drabick 212-213. ["There is no authority in California law for requiring a permanently unconscious conservatee's attorney to oppose a petition that the attorney believes to be in the conservatee's best interests."].) [FN14] If counsel for a conservatee threatened with sterilization must *29 vigorously represent his/her client under a presumption that the conservatee opposes the procedure, a conservatee threatened with the deprivation of his/her fundamental right to life is entitled to no less zealous advocacy for that right. Of the two similarly situated conservatees, the individual facing sterilization is the recipient of greater protections and safeguards than is the conservatee whose life might be terminated as a result of a subjective decision to bring about that result.
14. Note the limitation placed upon counsel under the Drabick court's analysis -- counsel for a "permanently unconscious" conservatee is not required to oppose the petition of a conservator for approval of his/her decision to withhold the conservatee's life-sustaining food and fluids. "When the client is permanently unconscious, ... the attorney must be guided by his own understanding of the client's best interests. There is simply nothing else the attorney can do." (Drabick at 212.) The court left open the question of whether or not an attorney has an obligation to advocate for his/her client's stated preferences when the conservatee is able to communicate with counsel -- ""or independently determine and advocate the client's best interests. [[Citation.]'' (Ibid.) Also unanswered is the question of whether an attorney in a proceeding such as this, where Robert cannot speak but is irrefutably not ""permanently unconscious" or in a PVS, must advocate for his/her client's fundamental right to life or form his/her own opinion as to what course of action is consistent his/her client's best interests. Since learning that Robert's court-appointed counsel would advocate in this proceeding for his death, Florence has not challenged the appropriateness of his counsel's stance, but does wish to call this Court's attention to the fact that the issue has never been conclusively resolved in this state.
To provide greater legal protections against sterilization than death is to turn the overarching purposes of constitutional safeguards upside down. Moreover, the result infringes upon the liberty and privacy interests of California conservatees whose lives may be ended on a lesser showing than is required to sterilize other persons who have been adjudicated to make their own medical decisions.
This Court must ask itself which of two fundamental rights is more important: the right to life or the right to procreate. Florence asserts that, at a minimum, the right to life must certainly be equally as important as the right to *30 procreate. If so, the same constitutional safeguards which are afforded conservatees facing possible deprivation of the right to procreate, through sterilization techniques, inarguably must be available to conservatees facing possible deprivation of their right to life. Any other result would reduce the right to life from a fundamentally "paramount" state interest to a matter of near neutrality, thereby placing at grave risk, and discriminating against, those vulnerable citizens who most need constitutionally-based protections.
The Third DCA rejected Florence's argument on the ground that the heightened standard was codified in § 1958 because "the power to sterilize is subject to abuse and, historically, has been abused." (Decision at 574-5.) The Third DCA opined that the California "Legislature has not declared any particular potential for abuse in connection with a conservator's decision to withhold life-sustaining treatment from a conservatee." (Id. at 575.)
The Third DCA's dismissal of Florence's concern is not only shortsighted, it is incredibly naive. In cases such as this, in light of § 2355 and the Third DCA's failure to strike it as constitutionally unsound, the potential for abuse by conservators is clear, palpable and readily apparent. Because the Third DCA refused to declare § 2355 unconstitutional, this Court must and take a proactive stance before a pattern of abuse, documented through conservatees' gravestones, is allowed to be established.
*31 C. CALIFORNIA PROBATE CODE § 2355 IS UNCONSTITUTIONALLY VAGUE BECAUSE THE MEANING OF THE TERM "MEDICAL ADVICE," AS USED THEREIN, REQUIRES INTERESTED PARTIES AND THE JUDICIARY TO GUESS AS TO ITS MEANING AND APPLICATION.
"Medical advice" is not defined in § 2355. Florence has not located a concise, cogent definition of that term in any controlling case law. Accordingly, Florence contends that the term is unconstitutionally vague. A conservator must make medical decisions for his/her conservatee which are "based upon medical advice," thus, "medical advice" is a critical component of the conservator's decision-making standard and process.
The concept of vagueness is most often discussed within the context of criminal statutes, however, it is equally applicable in a noncriminal setting. "It is a well-settled principle of constitutional law that 'a statute which either forbids or requires the doing of an act in terms so vague that men of common intelligence must necessarily guess at its meaning and differ as to its application, violates the first essential of due process of law." (Cranston v. City of Richmond (1985) 40 Cal.3d 755, 763, citing Connally v. General Const. Co. (1926) 269 U.S. 385, 391.)
In addition to putting citizens on notice as to what standards of behavior are lawful so that they may conduct themselves accordingly,
"laws must provide explicit standards for those who apply them. A vague law impermissibly delegates basic policy matters to policemen, judges, and juries for resolution on an ad hoc and subjective basis, with the attendant dangers of arbitrary and discriminatory application."
*32 (Ibid., citing Grayned v. City of Rockford (1972) 408 U.S. 104, 108- 109, fns. omitted.)
The "root of the vagueness doctrine is a rough idea of fairness." (Ibid., citing Colton v. Kentucky (1972) 407 U.S. 104, 110.)
"All presumptions and intendments favor the validity of a statute and mere doubt does not afford sufficient reason for a judicial declaration of invalidity. Statutes must be upheld unless their unconstitutionality clearly, positively and unmistakably appears." (Smith v. Peterson (1955) 131 Cal.App.2d 241, 248.) Indeed, the court is not obligated to
"'consider every conceivable situation which might arise under the language of the statute... ,' so long as that language may be given '... a reasonable and practical construction in accordance with the probable intent of the Legislature': and encompassing the conduct of the defendants."
(Cranston v. City of Richmond, supra, 40 Cal.3d 755, 764.)
The United States Supreme Court has made clear that when a statute is challenged as being impermissibly vague with no First Amendment implications, that challenge "must be examined in the light of the facts of the case at hand." (Ibid. at 764, citing United States v. Mazurie (1975) 419 U.S. 544, 550.)
The Drabick court stated that "[t]he medical advice that will support a conservator's decision to forego life-sustaining treatment must include the prognosis that there is no reasonable possibility of return to cognitive and sapient life" (Drabick at 216 [Emphasis added].) The Third DCA rejected Drabick's reasoning in favor of questioning whether or not the conservatee will ever again be competent to make his/her own medical decisions. (Decision at 563, fn. 25.)
*33 Under the facts of this matter, that interpretation of "medical advice" places Robert at grave risk of being deprived of his constitutionally guaranteed rights and subject to an abuse of power by his conservator. Robert has no obligation to regain an ability to make his own medical decisions in order to continue exercising his fundamental right to life. Any conclusion to the contrary constitutes an abuse of power by his conservator and a denial of the protections afforded Robert under both the federal and California constitutions.
Robert's rights are also jeopardized by the fact that his conservator, under § 2355 and the Third DCA's interpretation thereof, is not bound to follow the ""medical advice" she receives. (See Decision at 560.) This also serves to deprive Robert and other conservatees the equal protection of the law because Probate Code § 1958, et. seq. requires the introduction of significant medical evidence before a conservatee may be sterilized, including, inter alia, that the conservatee is fertile and capable of procreation, (Conservatorship Angela D., supra, 70 Cal.App.4 superth 1420), and that the method of sterilization is the least invasive available. (Id. 1421.) That medical evidence not only must inform the conservator's decision to proceed with sterilization, but must be proven, as noted supra, beyond a reasonable doubt in a statutorily-mandated review hearing. (See Probate Code § 1958.) No such safeguards are afforded a conservatee whose conservator has made a subjective decision to bring about that conservatee's death "based upon medical advice," which the conservator has no obligation to follow.
Neither the Drabick nor Third DCA decision, nor § 2355, articulate the *34 parameters of and precise manner in which a conservator may satisfy his/her burden to demonstrate to the probate court that the medical decision reached on behalf of the conservatee was "based upon medical advice." [FN15] Both of those decisions, as well as the language of § 2355 fail to provide adequate guidance for probate courts faced with this issue, and leave troubling questions unanswered.
15. The Third DCA notes that "the purpose of seeking advice is to obtain information enabling the conservator to formulate a judgment about what is in the patient's best interest.'' (Decision at 560, citing Conservatorship of Morrison (1988) 206 Cal.App.3d 304, 309-310 [emphasis added].)
As discussed supra, in adopting the "good faith" decision-making standard, the Third DCA has alarmingly shifted the emphasis away from an analysis of what course of medical treatment is appropriate for and consistent with protection of the conservatee's rights and interests and toward judicial inquiry into the subjective mindset of the conservator in procuring, evaluating and, ultimately, accepting or rejecting "medical advice.''
Consistent with the Third DCA's ruling, is Robert's conservator required to rely upon advice from the medical community as to generally accepted treatment options? Or will the receipt of any "medical advice," however rogue, experimental or untested, be sufficient evidence that Rose has fulfilled her duty to terminate his life-sustaining medical treatment "in good faith"?
Florence contends that the "medical advice" component of the conservator's decision-making model should be viewed on a continuum much as are threatened deprivations of constitutional rights, i.e. the further away from the threshold condition of PVS, permanent unconsciousness or terminal illness the *35 conservator's is, more stringent and rigorous should be the scrutiny of the purported "medical advice" asserted by the conservator to have formed the basis for his/her medical decision.
The importance of this inquiry and the need for clarification, guidance and a workable definition of the term "medical advice" in this proceeding cannot be overemphasized. There do not exist today, nor did there exist in July 1995, when this proceeding was commenced, or at the time of the evidentiary hearing (1997) any medical guidelines, criteria, protocol or authority governing the withdrawal of life-sustaining food and fluids from a cognitively impaired, disabled patient such as Robert, i.e. a patient who is not in a PVS, permanently comatose or terminally ill. Thus, Florence maintains, as she did before the Third DCA, that Rose cannot meet her burden to demonstrate that she based her decision to order the cessation of Robert's life-sustaining food and fluids upon appropriate or proper "medical advice." Accordingly, the probate court's finding that Rose's decision was "based on medical evidence" was patently erroneous. (See J.A. 623.)
D. THERE IS NO PRECEDENT FOR AND § 2355 MAY NOT BE INTERPRETED TO ALLOW THE TERMINATION OF LIFE-SUSTAINING NUTRITION AND HYDRATION FOR PERSONS WHO ARE NOT IN A PVS, PERMANENTLY UNCONSCIOUS OR TERMINALLY ILL.
This is a matter of first impression in California, implicating the fundamental rights of California conservatees.
*36 The Third DCA, construing § 2355, found that statute lacks any "limitation on the type of treatment or on the medical condition of the conservatee (beyond the qualification that the conservatee must have been adjudicated to lack capacity to make his own decision). (Decision at 565.)
Given that this Court has not previously considered the questions raised in this proceeding, it is appropriate and proper for the Court to consider decisions rendered in by other High Courts which have grappled with the same issues. Moreover, due to the grievous harm which will result from an erroneous decision, there is a manifest need for this Court to follow the wise examples set by the Supreme Courts of other states.
While the statutory schemes of other jurisdictions may differ from California's, the rationales and public policy arguments offered by other tribunals for refusing to permit the withdrawal of life-sustaining food and fluids from conscious, interactive individuals are applicable in California and, specifically, to this proceeding.
1. MICHAEL MARTIN
The Michigan Supreme Court was among the first called upon to consider whether life-sustaining nutrition and hydration delivered via a feeding tube could be withheld from a conscious patent who was not in a PVS, but suffered from " a mixture of cognitive function and communication impairments that make it impossible to evaluate the extent of his cognitive deficits." (*37In re Martin (1995) 450 Mich. 204, 207 ["Martin''].) Michael Martin's condition was significantly similar to Robert's:
"... Michael sustained debilitating injuries in an automobile accident, with the most serious being a closed head injury affecting the bilateral hemisphere of his brain. The injuries significantly impaired his physical and cognitive abilities, left him unable to walk or talk, and rendered him dependent on a colostomy for defecation and a gastrostomy tube for nutrition."
(Martin at 208.) [FN16]
16. The two cases bear other striking factual similarities, as well, including the fact that the decision made by Mr. Martin's wife was challenged by his mother and sister. (See Martin at 208.)
The Michigan Supreme Court refused to his wife's request to terminate Michael's care, ruling that a surrogate decision maker may not authorize the removal of life-sustaining food and fluids from a conscious but incompetent patient absent clear and convincing evidence of the incompetent's preinjury statement(s) expressing a decision to refuse treatment under the present circumstances. (Martin at 233-234.)
The Third DCA did not consider Martin "helpful" to this case because no statute granting exclusive decision-making authority to a surrogate was in effect at the time Mr. Martin sustained injuries. Additionally, the statute later enacted allowed a surrogate to enact a decision which would bring about a patient's death only if the patient had expressed "in a clear and convincing manner that the patient advocate is authorized to make such a decision, that the patient acknowledges that such a decision could or would allow the patient's death." (Decision at 566-567, citing M.C.L. § 700.496, subd. (d).)
*38 The Third DCA relied upon the fact that "[n]o such qualification appears in the California statute under consideration (§ 2355) or any other California statute cited by the parties in the appeal before us." Id.
The Third DCA missed the point by focusing not upon constitutional requirements and the public policy considerations underlying the Martin, but, rather, upon the lack of statutory authority at the time Mr. Martin was hurt and Michigan's subsequently-enacted legislation.
2. EDNA M.F.
On June 12, 1997, the Wisconsin Supreme Court joined the ranks of state high courts which have considered the question of whether nutrition and hydration may be withheld from an incompetent patient who is not in a persistent vegetative state and did not, while competent, execute an advance directive. Like the other jurisdictions faced with this dilemma, responded with a resounding "no.''
In the Matter of Edna M.F., (Wis. 1997) 210 Wis.2d 557, 561 ("Edna") dealt with a 71-year old woman suffering from dementia caused by Alzheimer's disease. Although she was not in a persistent vegetative state, her condition was "not likely to improve." The Court described her as bedridden, but able to respond to stimulation from voice and movement, including "mildly noxious stimuli." She appeared alert at times, with her eyes open, and breathed without a respirator. (Id. at 560-561.) Edna's guardian sought permission to direct Edna's *39 physicians to withhold food and fluids, contending that her sister would not want to live in her current condition. (Id. at 562.)
The court held that "a guardian may only direct the withdrawal of life- sustaining medical treatment, including nutrition and hydration, if the incompetent ward is in a persistent vegetative state and the decision to withdraw is in the best interest of the ward.'' (Id. at 572 [Emphasis added].) Relying upon its earlier decision in In re Guardianship of L.W. (1992) 167 Wis.2d 53, in which the court required a threshold determination that the incompetent patient was in a persistent vegetative state before a guardian could be permitted to direct the termination of treatment. [FN17]
17. "...this court stressed the fact that the opinion in L.W. 'is limited in scope to persons in a persistent vegetative state."D' (Id. at 566.)
One of the main reasons noted by the court for refusing the guardian's request was
"the fact that the American Academy of Neurology explains that people in a persistent vegetative state do not feel the pain or discomfort. (Citation omitted.) In the case at bar, Edna M.F. is not in a persistent vegetative state and could therefore likely feel the pain and discomfort of starving to death."
(Id. at 568 [Emphasis added].)
The court declined the invitation of Edna's guardian to abandon its bright- line rule and expand the authority granted to surrogate decision-makers to include incompetent patients
*40 "who are afflicted with incurable or irreversible conditions of health. We decline to go down this slippery slope, for the consequences and the confusion may be great."
(Id. at 568-569.)
Once again, the Third DCA imprudently rejected the wisdom of the Wisconsin court's ruling, finding the case "distinguishable" because "a Wisconsin statute prohibited withdrawal of nutrition/hydration if it would cause pain or discomfort, unless the pain and discomfort could be alleviated." (Decision at 567, citing Edna at 570, fn. 7.)
The Third DCA's dismissal of the sound reasoning of both the Michigan and Wisconsin courts is unfortunate and erroneous. There is a critical, fundamental and, indeed, crucial distinction between patients such as Robert, who are disabled, but conscious, able to interact with their environment and respond even inconsistently, to commands, and capable of volitional action, [FN18] versus patients in a PVS. The Third DCA even noted the difference:
18. Consider the testimony of Donald Kobrin, M.D., Robert's treating neurologist, noted by the Third DCA, that 'Robert does have a level of functioning that allows him to decide whether to follow commands, because he cooperates more frequently with some caregivers than with others." (Decision at 556.) Additionally, Rose herself, as noted supra, has contended since the inception of this proceeding that Robert deliberately dislodged his own feeding tube in an effort to communicate his desire to die. Assuming, arguendo, that Rose's assertion is accurate, Robert is not only capable of volitional action, he is capable of forming and expressing desires, wants and needs.
"A PVS patient has no mental functions. The eyes may be open at times, but the patient is 'completely unconscious, i.e., unaware of him[self] or herself or the surrounding environment. Voluntary reactions or behavioral responses reflection consciousness, volition, or emotion at the cerebral cortical level are absent.' [Citation.] The patient is incapable of experiencing pain and *41 suffering. [Citation.] PVS has been described as 'amentia, an absence of everything for which people value existence."D'
(Decision at 555, citing Conservatorship of Morrison (1988) 206 Cal.App.3d 304, 307.)
However, the key difference between conservatees such as Robert and those who are in a PVS is the ability to feel pain and to suffer. The Third DCA gave Florence's consternation about the manner in which Robert will die if Rose is allowed to direct that his life-sustaining food and fluids be withheld short shrift, choosing to focus upon "evidence the doctors could control the pain with medication." (Decision at 558, fn. 12.)
That evidence is extremely disturbing and alarming. Rose's retained expert, Dr. Ronald Cranford, insisted that the process of dying by dehydration and starvation is not "gruesome." (R.T. 542:13.) [FN19] However, by Dr. Cranford's own admission, there is no guarantee that Robert's pain and suffering as he dies by dehydration and starvation can be alleviated, stating that "it would be hard to know whether he's suffering or not" while dying." (R.T. 730:21-22.) Thus, Dr. Cranford testified that he would give Robert an "arbitrary dose of morphine, Ativan or Valium to keep him comfortable. And you have no way of knowing because you don't know how much he's suffering.'' (R.T. 731:2-4 [[Emphasis added.].) He also admitted that in the last few days, as Robert approached death, "I would probably put him into a coma." (R.T. 731:10-11.) Ironically then, in order to bring about Robert's death, Dr. Cranford would place him back into the *42 comatose state from which Robert emerged sixteen months after sustaining his injuries.
19. Dr. Cranford's graphic and disquieting description of the process of dying may be found at R.T. 542:18-544:15.
The Third DCA apparently failed to recognize or appreciate that this the ""slippery slope" in action which the Wisconsin Supreme Court warned about and the major reason why, in its Edna decision, that court emphatically reiterated its previously established bright-line rule. [FN20]
20. The Wisconsin court tacitly, if not expressly, gave its approval to that state's statutory scheme referenced by the Third DCA. (See Decision at 567.)
3. DRABICK
In concluding that application of § 2355 is "not limited to PVS patients," Decision at 565, the Third DCA adopted the "thoughtful analysis," Decision at 561, of the Sixth District Court of Appeal in Drabick, even though, at the time of trial, Mr. Drabick had remained in a PVS for five years with no hope of regaining consciousness. (Id. at 191.)
The Drabick decision was, as the Third DCA observed, limited by its factual underpinning and "expressly qualified in a footnote." (Decision at 565.)
"This opinion's reasoning is predicated upon it subject being a patient for whom there is no reasonable hope of a return to cognitive life. We have not considered any other case, and this opinion would not support a decision to forego treatment if this factual predicate could not be satisfied."
(Decision at 565, citing Drabick at 217, fn. 36.) [FN21]
21. The Drabick court observed that health care providers rely upon Barber "presumably every day -- in deciding together with families to forego treatment for persistently vegetative patients ... '' (Drabick at 198 [[Emphasis added.].)
*43 Until the Third DCA rendered its Decision, no California court has ever ruled that a conservator may, consistent with § 2355, direct the cessation of his/her incompetent conservatee's food and fluids unless the conservatee were in a PVS or terminally ill. Florence contends that the reason why prior decisions emphasized the importance of the patient's PVS status is deceptively simple: They could not have predicted or foreseen cases such as Martin, Edna or the instant proceeding.
The point was obviously lost on the Third DCA, which rejected Florence's argument out of hand, stating that "[c]ase law reflects that the current situation (medicine maintaining life with artificial means) was not beyond the ken of the Legislature when it enacted section 2355 in 1979. (E.g., Matter of Quinlan (1976) 70 N.J. 10, 355 A.2d 647 [respirator and feeding tube].)" [FN22] The issue is not whether or not prior courts were aware of medical science to "maintain[] life with artificial means." The issue is whether or not the courts could have seen the population of patients whose lives are being ""maintain[ed] with artificial means ''expanded to include cognitively disabled patients who are not in a PVS or terminally ill.
22. The issue in the Quinlan case was not, of course, whether or not Karen Ann Quinlan's feeding tube could be removed but, rather, whether or not her respirator could be removed. (Cruzan at 270.)
Cruzan was decided on June 25, 1990, some two years after Drabick. The language of that decision contains no hint or suggestion that the Court foresaw the attempted withdrawal of life-sustaining food and fluids from an incompetent *44 patient not in a PVS by his/her surrogate decision-maker. Indeed, each and every case decided in California between the 1976 Quinlan case and the instant proceeding is silent as to the possibility of withdrawing life- sustaining food and fluids from a conscious, cognitively disabled conservatee such as Robert. The only mention of the concept of starving and dehydrating persons other than those who possess no cognitive function at all is found in Drabick's footnote 36, cited supra. Did the Drabick court consider the journey down the "slippery slope" that this case represents and the Martin and Edna courts cautioned against? Or did the Drabick court simply wish to emphasize that it was Mr. Drabick's permanent state of unconsciousness and ""absence of everything for which people value existence" which compelled that court's conclusion? (Conservatorship of Morrison, supra, 206 Cal.App.3d 304, 307.) The answer to that question will most likely never be forthcoming.
E. THE LEGISLATIVE HISTORY OF § 2355 FAILS TO SUPPORT THE THIRD DISTRICT COURT OF APPEALS' CONCLUSION THAT APPLICATION OF THE STATUTE IS NOT LIMITED OR CONSTRAINED BY THE CONSERVATEE'S MEDICAL CONDITION.
The Third DCA concluded that the language of § 2355 "contains no limitation on the type of treatment or on the medical condition of the conservatee." (Decision at 565.)
The revised § 2355 "specifies that 'health care decision' includes the withholding or withdrawal of artificial hydration and nutrition. (Stats. 1999, ch. 658, § § 12, 39 § 4617.)" (Decision at 578.) Prior enactment's of the statute were *45 silent on this point. The Third DCA interpreted this as an absence of any indication in the Legislative History of an intent to change, "rather than clarify the law as it had already been judicially construed." (Decision at 579.)
The 1999 re-enactment makes clear that the Legislature specifically intended to codify Drabick. (See Law Revision Commission Comment. ["As amended, subdivision (a) is consistent with...'' Drabick.].) And Drabick is explicitly limited by its factual underpinning, as expressed in fn. 36 of that decision: "This opinion's reasoning is predicated upon it subject being a patient for whom there is no reasonable hope of a return to cognitive life. We have not considered any other case, and this opinion would not support a decision to forego treatment if this factual predicate could not be satisfied."
The Legislature's codification of Drabick constitutes a deliberate acceptance of that decision's limited applicability. If the Third DCA's analysis of the Legislative history is accurate, it is patently clear that the court overstepped the bounds of the Legislature's purpose for re-enacting § 2355 in 1999 when it ruled that the statute places no limitations upon the type of treatment envisioned by the Legislature. The Legislative History lodged by Rose and Robert confirms this by the absence of any reference, hint, suggestion or assertion that § 2355 was ever envisioned, drafted, intended or enacted with the Legislature's understanding that it might someday be invoked to bring about the death by dehydration and starvation of a conscious, interactive, cognitively disabled conservatee such as *46 Robert. Any other interpretation of that Legislative History is patently lacking foundation.
The Third DCA correctly affirmed the probate court's ruling that a conservator may not direct that his/her conservatee's life-sustaining food and fluids be withheld, thereby surely bringing about the conservatee's death, unless the conservator satisfied his/her burden of proof by clear and convincing evidence.
However, the Third DCA erroneously concluded that the decision-making standard set forth in § 2355 provides adequate constitutional safeguards, checks and balances, and protection to conservatees such as Robert. The decision-making standard enunciated in § 2355 focuses not upon the best interests of the conservatee but, rather, concerns itself with the subjective mental state of the conservator. Thus, when an interested party objects to the conservator's proposed course of action, the interested party will be forced to essentially put the conservator on trial in order to explore the conservator's subjective state of mind and motivations for the decision he/she has made.
The U.S. and state constitutions dictate a different result. While a competent adult's right to refuse medical treatment has been declared fundamental in California, and that right presumably survives incompetence, that right must be weighed against the conservatee's fundamental right to life. The conservatee may not suffer a deprivation of his/her fundamental right to life, nor may the right to *47 refuse medical treatment be exalted over the competing right to life, absent the strictest and most rigorous scrutiny. The procedures and guidelines assuring that scrutiny are conspicuously absent from § 2355.
Moreover, in light of the Third DCA's decision in this proceeding, and the existing statutory framework governing conservatorships, a conservatee facing the possible deprivation of his/her fundamental right of procreative choice receives greater protection under the law than does a conservatee such as Robert threatened with the deprivation of his fundamental right to life. Robert's liberty interest is also infringed as a result of the Probate Code's contradictory and inconsistent provisions pertaining to sterilization and medical decision-making by conservators, as is his right to both substantive and procedural due process. A demonstrated history of past abuses do not justify such inequities, particularly when the risk to conservatees such as Robert is the gravest imaginable and an erroneous decision can never be remedied or rectified.
Given the lack of precedential authority in California for the proposition that § 2355 is not limited to patients in a particular medication condition, e.g. a PVS, it is necessary and appropriate to consider decisions from the highest courts of other jurisdictions and to look to those tribunals for guidance. Other states, faced with the issues this proceeding presents, have declined to start down the "slippery slope" by allowing a conservator to direct the cessation of life-sustaining food and fluids for a conservatee who is not, as a threshold determination, in a PVS, permanent state of unconsciousness, or terminally ill. Over and above the *48 fact that those state's statutory schemes differed significantly from California's this Court must take into account overriding public policy considerations, as well as critical medical distinction between a conscious, interactive person such as Robert who is inarguably capable of cognitive function as compared with a person in a PVS who cannot feel the pain and suffering associated with death by dehydration and starvation. Nothing in the Legislative History of this state supports an inference or conclusion that the Legislature ever intended § 2355 to be invoked in support of starving and dehydrating a disabled person such as Robert.
Finally, § 2355 fails to define or elucidate the term "medical advice" and, as used in that statute is, therefore, unconstitutionally vague.
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Interview: Scott Wilson of SAVING ABEL
Scott Martin August 13, 2017
A Conversation with Scott Wilson of Saving Abel
Photo: Forever Exhilarated Photography
ANTIHERO: So, you recently left Tantric to join Saving Abel? Could you tell me about how that happened?
Scott Wilson: Sure, so, Saving Abel and Tantric, we were on the “Make America Rock Again Tour” last year for over 6 months. So, we all had kind of cultivated our relationships, became good buddies. And this year we were out with Tantric, Saving Abel, and Puddle of Mudd was with us. And Saving Abel’s talking to me, and they said, “Hey, you know we’re writing some music, why don’t you come on the bus and hang out and grab your guitars and who knows what we’re going to come up with. Who knows, let’s just start doing some writing”. So, that kind of started the thing. And then Eric Taylor, Saving Abel’s bass player that’s been with them since the beginning of the band, came to the band and said, “hey, I think I need to leave and just give up on the music thing for a while and stay home and just kind of retire essentially”. And the band talked to me about it and we all agreed that I would fill in for 2 months and see if Eric really wants to stick with his decision and he did. So, Eric calls me and said, “look, I’m going to stay home and you’re the guy I want in this position.” So, you know I had some soul-searching to do and eventually came to the decision to jump ship and hop in with the Abel boys.
ANTIHERO: I’m not terribly familiar with Saving Abel as much as I am with Tantric. It’s kind of a launch from Days of The New, right?
Scott Wilson: Yeah, Tantric was Days of The New originally.
ANTIHERO: So, as I see there’s only one member still, now in Tantric?
Scott Wilson: Yeah, Hugo is the only member in Tantric from the original band. Hugo and I have been together for almost 7 years now, so there were a lot of people that came in and out of the band during that time.
ANTIHERO: Can you tell me a little bit about Saving Abel?
Scott Wilson: Sure, well Saving Abel, I like to say it this way, our singer Scotty Austin every night says Saving Abel is an American Rock Band, and that is essentially what it is. It’s Southern Rock, but very cultivated Southern Rock. So, if you like Blackberry Smoke, Black Stone Cherry, you’re going to like Saving Abel. It’s Southern Rock and Roll music, but also in line with Radio Rock.
ANTIHERO: What is Saving Abel working on right now?
Scott Wilson: Well, we’ve got some tour dates coming up. We are getting ready to go out with the band Soil, on a tour called “The Redneck Revolution Tour”. So, it’s Soil and Saving Abel for September and October. And we’re going to go out and have a great time. And then, in November and December we are actually going to be recording a new record. So, for those of you not familiar with the band we haven’t released one in a few years.
ANTIHERO: Can you tell me about the songwriting process with Saving Abel?
Scott Wilson: Yeah, the great thing about this particular record is everybody in the band, all five members, are writers and singers. Like everybody in this band is super musical, and has created a lot of new and well, actually everybody in this band has had a bunch of songs on the radio. So, if that tells you anything as far as writers go, amazing group of dudes. So, we have all got together and talked. And we’re like, “if anybody has ideas for a song that for some reason didn’t work or something before, let’s put them all out on the table.” So, we, we’ve all sat around with guitars and then traded recordings and emailed and texted each other songs and song ideas. So, everybody is eclectically throwing music together so, when that happens with a group of great songwriters, you wind up with some amazing music. And that’s what’s going on, we’ve we just started tracking the ideas and putting them all together as a group, so it’s cool and super fun.
ANTIHERO: So, was the songwriting process different with Tantric, was it not a band effort?
Scott Wilson: Pretty much with Tantric we rarely got together and played. Most times everything was emailed to each other. We would come up with music and send it to our singer; he would come up with some stuff and then send it back. And we would talk about it and change things and do things. And then you get in the studio, the producer gets his hands on it and starts twisting the ideas around a little bit too, to mold them to be the best they can be. So, that’s kind of how Tantric wrote, there were a few jam sessions here and there where something cool would come out. But very rare did that happen, most times it was just, “hey, I got this whole music idea” and then Hugo works his magic with it.
ANTIHERO: Yeah, I guess it’s kind of hard to bond as a band when you’re not actually playing together. I assume you’re all living in different areas, that’s why you had to send it up?
Scott Wilson: Yeah, originally the band… everybody was in Louisville, Kentucky, or right across the river in Indiana. And then as time went on and members change, our last lineup was all over the US. For the guys, we tour so much and have home lives and things that we got to take care of. So, it’s just tough. The thing with Saving Abel is we write on the road. This band still loves music. So, a lot of musicians and bands that tour so much and as heavy as these two bands, have kind of lost being in love with music, you know? And Saving Abel is still in love with music; they love to sit around with guitars write and have a few and kick back and talk about the good times, and then write about them. So, it never stops.
ANTIHERO: You’re going to be recording on the new Saving Abel, and I see that Tantric is either coming out with a new album or it has come out. Did you play on that one?
Scott Wilson: Yeah and sing, and wrote a lot of the stuff. So, Tantric’s album is about halfway done. I don’t know when or if this album will see the light of day. But it’s a great record, it’s one of the best ones, if not the best one in my opinion, that the band has ever done and you know we were super pumped to make that happen. But yeah, it just wasn’t in the cards for me personally to be there doing that. However, Saving Abel, we’re doing this new one and I’ll be a part of all that and help them with production and everything. So, it’s going to be fun man, lots of good music.
ANTIHERO: So, who are some of your influences?
Scott Wilson: Musically, I grew up… this is going to be odd sounding… But, I love everything from The Cars. I’m also a huge Sting fan. And then of course, Rock and Roll man, you got Guns N’ Roses and Metallica. And I’m a huge Linkin Park. Chris Cornell was one of my favorite songwriters in rock, and Jani Lane from Warrant. So, these are people that I’ve modeled myself over.
ANTIHERO: Well, that’s quite diverse to go from Jani Lane to Chris Cornell.
Scott Wilson: They’re actually very similar writers if you take out the hits and you listen to actual works of their stuff that are B-sides and things. They were very relatable as writers, not performers, not vocally but their melodies, and you know… the melodic-ness of what they created, it was very similar.
ANTIHERO: So, you’re still working on a new Saving Abel album. When do you think that album will be out?
Scott Wilson: I think we’re looking at a single in early 2018. And then we’ll see how far we are on the record. If it’s completed by December than the whole record may be out in the spring, but either way I feel strong that we’ll have a single out early 2018.
ANTIHERO: Do you feel it’s important to step out of your comfort zone when it comes to writing music?
Scott Wilson: Absolutely, everybody has a certain forte that they’re good at musically, so we as people tend to write in the comfort zone so that it’s easy. This is what comes natural so, that’s where producers come in. And they try to make you step out of that comfort zone and push you to do things a little bit different but that’s what growing is all about. And if you’re not growing as a musician and try new things then you’re going to become stale pretty quick. So, yes, I think it’s very important.
ANTIHERO: So, is there anything else you would like to add?
Scott Wilson: Just if you haven’t come to a Saving Abel show, everybody jump out there and check us out on the road. We’ve got a lot of dates coming up and hope to make new fans and make the old ones super happy.
interview SavingAbel ScottWilson
Scott Martin
Photographer - California - Bay area
Interview: Steve Merry of BE’LAKOR
Interview: Mike Spreitzer from DEVILDRIVER
Interview: Joakim Brodén of SABATON
Interview: Charles Gama of PROJECT BLACK PANTERA
Interview: Herman Rarebell and Francis Buchholz of TEMPLE OF ROCK
Interview: ADELITAS WAY
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Home | Dealers | Dail, Catherine Fine Art | Two Owls at Sunset
Martin Johnson Heade American 1819 - 1904
Two Owls at Sunset 1859-1860
26 x 36 inches, framed
Category: Paintings - American
Subject: Animal / Wildlife
Style: Luminism
MARTIN JOHNSON HEADE (1819-1904)
"Two Owls at Sunset," c. 1859-60
14.75 x 24.5 inches
26 x 36 inches with frame
Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr.
[Vose Galleries, Boston]
Lisa and Leonard Baskin, 1975
[Kennedy Galleries, New York]
The DuPont Family, Delaware
Private collection, Florida
Boston, Massachusetts, Museum of Fine Arts, "Martin Johnson Heade," no. 8, July 9- August 24, 1969.
College Park, Maryland, University of Maryland Art Gallery, "Martin Johnson Heade," September 14-October 23, 1969.
New York, New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, "Martin Johnson Heade," November 10-December 21, 1969.
Lincoln, Massachusetts, DeCordova Museum, "Henry David Thoreau as a Source for Artistic Inspiration," no. 42, June 6-September 9, 1984.
Orlando, Florida, Orlando Museum of Art, "Landscapes from the Hudson River School Tradition," December-February, 1994.
New York, New York, Kennedy Galleries, Inc., "American Masters from Copley to Hopper," no. 6, November 13, 1999- January 15, 2000.
Stebbins, Theodore E., Jr., Martin Johnson Heade, (1969, University of Maryland; College Park,) no. 8, illustrated.
Stebbins, Theodore E., Jr., "Introducing Martin Johnson Heade," (Dec. 1969, Art News, vol. 68,) p. 53, illustrated.
Bennett, Ian, A History of American Painting, (1973, Hamlyn, London,) p. 92.
Stebbins, Theodore E., Jr., The Life and Works of Martin Johnson Heade, (1975, Yale
University Press; New Haven and London,) p. 34-35, illustrated, p. 219, no. 38, illustrated.
"Henry David Thoreau as a Source for Artistic Inspiration," (1984, DeCordova Museum; Lincoln,
Mass.,) no. 42, illustrated.
"American Masters from Copley to Hopper," (1999, Kennedy Galleries, New York,) no. 6, illustrated.
Stebbins, Theodore E., Jr., Comey, Quinn, The Life and Work of Martin Johnson Heade: A
Critical Analysis and Catalogue Raisonne, (2000, Yale University Press; New Haven and
London,) no. 68, illustrated.
Glueck, Grace, "A Rich Mix of Styles and Simulations Under One Roof," (February 25, 2000, New York Times; New York,) p. E39.
For your reference, here are Ted Stebbins' comments about this groundbreaking, Luminist
"'Two Owls at Sunset' is unmistakably Heade. The pair of owls sit just as hummingbirds would; the flat horizon, the brushwork (each stroke like a thick comma,) the view of nature- all would become his trademarks. Heade had gone to the marsh and painted the wilderness for the first time. The foreground is very dark, and the sky goes from the red band of the horizon through yellow, to a dark acid green and blue above. This kind of painting had just become possible in America, for the sharp reds, yellows, and purples which Church taught the others to use had been introduced only in the late fifties."
Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., from the catalogue accompanying the exhibition Martin Johnson Heade (1969; University of Maryland, College Park,) illustrated, no. 8; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; University of Maryland Art Gallery, College Park; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
The painting is in excellent condition. All of Heade's original delicate glazes are intact. The canvas is healthy and remains unlined. There is some natural craquelure that has been succinctly and successfully filled and the tacking edges have been reinforced. The painting has been lightly cleaned, freshly varnished and re-stretched by Heade expert conservator, Jim Wright of Boston. "Two Owls at Sunset" presents magnificently in an 1860 profile frame by Eli Wilner & Co. This rare, unlined, and important canvas by this master of American Luminism should be hung as is.
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In 1976, through friends in common, Giancarlo Bigazzi met a young man from Turin, Umberto Tozzi. He wrote for him some masterpieces of Italian light music, which were recognised as such and awarded prizes all over the world. It began with the album “Donna amante mia” and the success of the title song. It was an extremely happy moment in Giancarlo and Gianna’s relationship; they had been living together since ’75 and Gianna was expecting a child…it was one big crescendo and….the moment of “Io camminerò”. This was followed by the LPs “E’ nell’aria…” “Ti amo” , “Tu” , “Gloria….”.
“Ti amo... un soldo, ti amo… in aria, ti amo.” Gianna tells a story about this song: after he saw the great De Simone’s musical comedy “La Gatta Cenerentola” at the theatre, the music had stuck particularly in Giancarlo’s mind. Going home from the theatre at one o’clock in the morning, he sat down straightaway at the piano…and, having spent the night there, the music of TI AMO! was born at nine o’clock in the morning…and in the late evening we already had a third of the text: a great song, exceptional for its composition, where the listener has the sensation of hearing “TI AMO TI” .“Tu pesi poco di più di una gomma piuma”, “Tu”. With “Tu”, the birth of a new artist in Italian Pop music was confirmed and you can still hear it today in all the Italian discos….
“Gloria… Manchi tu nell’aria… manchi ad una mano… che lavora piano…” A song which is less the fruit of inspiration and more “deliberately thought out”, as Giancarlo used to say; he spent months butting his head against the piano and straining with all his creativity and ability to create a song which would establish Tozzi at world level…after “Ti amo” and “Tu” which had already been great successes in Europe…..
Once Von Karajan, considered one of the greatest orchestra conductors of all time, interrupted an interview with the famous journalist Luzzato Fegiz from the Corriere della Sera newspaper, because at that very moment they were broadcasting “Gloria” from the Royal Albert Hall on TV. He said: “Sorry, but I have to listen to a masterpiece…”. Not everyone knows that “Gloria” is the song which reached number one in the American hit parade, a thing which only one other Italian song had succeeded in doing (“Nel blu dipinto di blu” [“Volare”]) by the great Domenico Modugno). “Gloria” is also present in the soundtrack of the film “Flashdance”, thanks to Laura Branigan who made a cover in English. One hundred and ten covers have been made of this song in various languages all over the world.
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The Yankees' next big fish: The Bryce Harper and Manny Machado question
By maxx - October 22, 2018
The scene was set for the young budding Bomber squad last fall after finishing their season a game away from a World Series berth. They were the team that arrived a year too early, and another deep playoff run would be the goal, but then an old friend threw a wrench in those plans. Derek Jeter put gargantuan slugger Giancarlo Stanton on the market, and Stanton dictated his transfer with a full no-trade clause. The Giants and Cardinals among others threw their name into the ring, but who did he choose? The Yankees and Dodgers, it seemed to be a battle of baseballs powerhouses, but the Yankees had an advantage over their former neighbors, payroll flexibility. They were able to use this into an absolute steal of the reigning NL MVP, and the Yankees were thrust into a world series or bust year. The season was historic, they set the season home run record without Gary Sanchez, Didi Gregorius, Greg Bird, and Aaron Judge for most if not all of the year, but it ended in a bust at the hands of…
Three things the Yankees need to acquire in the offseason that aren’t Manny Machado
By Mary Grace Donaldson - October 21, 2018
The speculation started during the regular season, even prior to his trade from the Baltimore Orioles to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Where would Manny Machado go upon his free agency at the end of the 2018 regular season? And, with that, which teams would be knocking on his door?
No sooner did the Yankees’ regular season come to a close after their fated ending in the American League Division Series, the talks of Machado coming to the Bronx took off as though pushed by a speeding 4 Train behind Yankee Stadium. The truth of the matter is that the rumors started even prior to Machado’s free agency being on the horizon -- they started at the trade deadline.
BBB Reacts: Yankees' disappointing end to the 2018 season
By Andrew Natalizio - October 17, 2018
Well, it's been just about a week now since the Boston Red Sox eliminated the Yankees from playoff contention and we've all had some time to stew on it. Obviously not the ending any of us wanted and made even more painful due to the fact that it was our arch-rivals who put the nail in the coffin.Some of our contributors weigh in below about how this season ended, what to make of it all, and where the Yankees go from here heading into 2019.
RIP 2018 Yankees; Cheers to 2019
By Ryan Thoms - October 10, 2018
They Can Do It: How the Yankees can make ALDS Game 4 one of the most storied comebacks in MLB Postseason History
They say you shouldn’t go to bed angry.
But last night, I did. I went to bed angry with a laundry list of people, including Aaron Boone, Luis Severino (especially after I apologized for trashing him before the Wild Card game), Lance Lynn, Giancarlo Stanton and, of course, umpire Angel Hernandez. Funny enough -- not Austin Romine; he’s a catcher, and he truly did the best he could given the dire situation.
What the hell was Aaron Boone thinking?
By Jake Graziano - October 08, 2018
Let’s get one thing straight: tonight was the most mismanaged postseason game in New York Yankees history. Was Joe Girardi’s non-challenge in Cleveland horrible last year? Yes. Was this worse? Absolutely. Girardi’s decision cost his team four runs, Boone’s decision to leave Luis Severino in two innings too long cost his team upwards of nine runs. Boone has often been unfairly criticized in his first year at the helm of the Yankees, but he deserves everything he is going to get for this atrocity. His team got embarrassed tonight, and he was the central cause.
Gary Sánchez is the X-factor for the Yankees to win the ALDS
As the Yankees’ regular season drew to a close, Gary Sanchez wasn’t living up to his home run call made famous by WFAN announcer John Sterling. That Gary wasn’t scary at all, whether he was in the batter’s box, or behind the plate.
ALDS Preview: Five keys for the Yankees to advance
For the first time in 14 years, the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox are facing off in a postseason series. The anticipation for this matchup is at an all-time high, and for good reason. 2018 marked the first time that these ancient rivals each won 100 or more games in the same season. And with both teams at relatively full strength, this has the chance to be an instant classic. For the Yankees to pull off the moderate upset, and knock off their 108-win nemesis, these are their five keys to victory:
The often scrutinized, over-analytical Aaron Boone earned his pinstripes following the Wild Card Game
The Yankees had their fair share of superstar performances in Wednesday’s Wild Card matchup. Judge, Stanton, Voit, Severino, Betances, and company were all key contributors and played their part in last night’s victory. However, the man who wrote out the lineup card, chose the starting pitcher, maneuvered the bullpen, and made late-game substitutions deserves just as much credit for the victory. Boone was often said to be out of his element as a first-year manager and last night proved otherwise.
A formal apology to Luis Severino, who defied the odds in the AL Wild Card Game
It wasn’t too long ago that Luis Severino heard the cries of skeptics prior to the A.L. Wild Card game -- myself included.
Five keys to victory for the Yankees in the Wild Card game
By Shane Black - October 03, 2018
The New York Yankees and the Oakland Athletics square off Wednesday night at 8:00 EST for a win or go home game more commonly referred to as the Wild Card game. The previous 162 games have built up to these mere nine innings. If the Yankees want to come out as victors, they must strive to do these five things.
Yankees announce that Luis Severino will start the Wild Card Game
After much debate and speculation from fans and writers, the Yankees have officially announced their ace, Luis Severino, will be starting Wednesday’s American League Wild Card matchup between New York and Oakland.
Why the Yankees can’t seem to avoid the A.L. Wild Card game, and why that fact will be helpful on game day
It kind of feels like déjà vu, doesn’t it?
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Home > General > Reggie Miller
May 4, 2019 Comments Off on Reggie Miller
Career: 1988-2005 Games Played: 1389 Minutes per game: 34.3 two-point shots (attempts per game): 7.9 three-point shots (attempts per game): 4.7 Free throws (attempts per game): 5.1 two-point shots: 51.6% three-point shots: 39.5 % Free throws: 88.8% Points in the average Game: 18.2 Reggie Miller is considered the most brilliant sniper, whose leg had ever set foot on the basketball court. His composure and nerves of steel fascinated. His incredible shots in the last seconds were NBA classics. Miller held the Indiana 18-year career. During this time the Pacers went to the playoffs 15 times, six of them when they went to the finals of the conference. It was not as popular as say Michael Jordan.
It was not as tough as Karl Malone was not dominant and versatile player like Hakim Oladzhuvon. He was a shooter, jump shooter. For 18 years, playing an average of 77.2 games per season, Miller has spent more on the court 34 minutes in every game, running … running … and running from his counsel, opening out of the barriers to get the ball. Each of the custody of his defenders must have known that the transfer was followed by him and how, but irst dealt with this. Not for nothing analysts NBA with one voice called him the best in motion without the ball. Visit amazing restaurateur for more clarity on the issue.
And then, suddenly make a breakthrough, when the defender was literally in a nanosecond behind, Miller gets the transfer, grouped and shoots. All efforts guardian cover shot prove futile. It's his game. Miller Time! It is not possible to stop. He paid no attention to fatigue and injuries did not stop to catch his breath. It was for him a luxury. He seemed to be trying to to drive his defender before his death. Are you familiar with the statistics of TSP (True Shooting Percentage)? It is used to measure the effectiveness of throws. This points scored in a time of possession. In NBA history to average 25 minutes per game and 8 attempts throws, only Dentli Adrian, Artis Gilmore and Jeff Miller Raland are higher. The latter two have been post, but Dentli almost no further shots. Meanwhile, Reggie Miller is the leader in three-point field throws executed (6486). In other words, a player who performed the most shots, also is the most effective sniper. Unbelievable. Ray Allen, who next season will break its record for most three-point shots, going 50-m After Miller's interest rate. Since the days of Reggie Miller's debut season in 1988, only Michael Jordan, Karl Malone, Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant scored more points in his career (25 279). In the history of the league, only 16 players have more. When we are talking about the final throws, Reggie competes only with Michael, Larry Bird and Jerry West. Remember that unforgettable first game of the series with New York in the Eastern Conference finals in 1995, when Miller has done the impossible? And this crazy shot from nearly 13 feet in the fifth match series against the New Jersey Nets in 2002? A three for 2.9 seconds before the end of the fourth game with the Chicago Bulls in 1998, when he broke away from Jordan? The list goes on and on. The greatest sniper in the history of the game, Reggie Miller will be inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2011, the year.
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KILLSWITCH ENGAGE Singer On 'Atonement' Album: 'It's Musically The Most Diverse Record We've Done As A Band'
KILLSWITCH ENGAGE vocalist Jesse Leach recently spoke with United Rock Nations. The full conversation can be streamed below. A few excerpts follow (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).
On the group's forthcoming album, "Atonement":
Jesse: "I think it's musically the most diverse record we've done as a band, and lyrically, I feel like I really captured different moments in time through my life and the way I see the world. I wouldn't change a thing, which is a really great feeling. I'm very proud of it."
On the album's title:
Jesse: "I think that can apply to you as an individual — like, a re-evaluation of yourself, holding yourself accountable for past actions or current actions and desiring change. I think it can be applied to other people as well. If you have been wronged in your heart and in your mind, someone has done you harm, there's a certain amount of redemption or revenge even that I believe is in order. Forgiveness is a beautiful thing, but some deeds and some actions should not go unpunished. To me, part of the whole idea of atoning for one's deeds is applying that to somebody else as well."
On resuming singing after having surgery on his vocal cords in the spring of 2018:
Jesse: "Mentally, it was very taxing, and I went through a bit of a dark period wondering whether or not I would be able to continue doing what I'm doing. At first, it was very difficult, and then [after] I had the surgery [and] got into my vocal training and was able to see that the surgery was a success and to be able to sing like I have never sang before and then get the training that I so desperately needed, it became quite liberating. I wouldn't say easy, but it got easier as time went on. I'm very happy. I think the surgery was an absolute blessing in disguise."
On the surgery's impact:
Jesse: "It changed everything. I was singing on a broken instrument, a damaged instrument for the majority of my return with KILLSWITCH. I'd get off stage some nights after too many shows in a row, and I'd be spitting blood into the sink. I was fatigued; I was getting sick; and it's just because of number one, a lack of proper technique — not really knowing how to use my voice, but also not sleeping well, going out late to a bar after a show and talking and yelling in a bar. Little things that you need to care of of yourself as a vocalist. You need to stay hydrated, and I wasn't doing a lot of that. I was doing it here and there, but definitely partying a little too much and not realizing that I needed to slow down and take care of myself in order for me to have any sort of longevity with this. I changed everything — my lifestyle, the way that I am, the way that I sleep, everything. It's been incredible. It's been a game-changer for me."
On how his surgery affected the recording timeline:
Jesse: "The music was done before the surgery. I actually recorded about five or six songs prior to the surgery. It was pumping the brakes in the middle of our recording process, and in the middle of our touring schedule. It was a good two-month period where I couldn't even speak. I was on complete vocal rest. Through that time, I definitely experienced a bit of writer's block and depression, and coming out on the other side of it and having my voice back, opening up for IRON MAIDEN all summer just after my surgery, that really helped with my state of mind and my motivation. I believe it all happened for a reason."
On his relationship with former KILLSWITCH ENGAGE vocalist Howard Jones, who guests on the "Atonement" track "The Signal Fire":
Jesse: "Long story short, we became very fast friends recently — I want to say about two years ago, in Canada. He came out to one of our shows, and just being in the room together, all six of us, it was a pretty great energy, and I realized that I had a lot in common with Howard. That evening, we were on the bus and he was showing me tracks off his record from his band LIGHT THE TORCH before it came out, and I was inspired. I was like, 'This is great — it's so nice that he's moving on and writing good music.' The title of the band really stuck with me, and that's where the idea of 'Signal Fire' came from. The song itself is about unity; it's about solidarity; it's about standing with each other and calling out for help and fighting the fight side by side. Once the song was done, the lyrics were written and I'd listened to it, I was just thinking, 'Wow, what a great opportunity. Since the song was inspired by LIGHT THE TORCH, why don't we have Howard come on and actually hear him sing this so there is solidarity and we're showing the fans and we're showing everybody out there that KILLSWITCH is a brotherhood and a family, and there's no division, there's no awkwardness."
On TESTAMENT vocalist Chuck Billy, who also guests on the album:
Jesse: "We've toured in the past with TESTAMENT, and we're all really big fans. Those guys are not only just incredible musicians and legends in metal, but really good dudes. The song was written, and as I heard the demo, I was like, 'This is a thrasher. This one's going to rip.' I wrote the lyrics; we tracked it; and Joel [Stroetzel], our guitar player, was listening to it and says, 'This kind of reminds me a little bit of TESTAMENT. What if we just asked Chuck to do vocals on this? I think it would make the song that much better.' Sure enough, Chuck said yes, did the vocals and just blew us all away. We're so honored to have a legendary vocalist on that track."
"Atonement" will be released on August 16 via Metal Blade Records in the U.S. and Sony Music Entertainment in the rest of the world. The disc's first single, "Unleashed", can be streamed below.
KILLSWITCH ENGAGE's last release was the "Beyond The Flames: Home Video Part II" two-disc, Blu-ray and CD package.
Tags: killswitch engage
METALLICA's KIRK HAMMETT On Collecting Vintage Horror Movie Posters: 'It's Like Hunting For Gold'
IRON MAIDEN's ADRIAN SMITH Says 'It's Great Fun' Performing With SPITFIRE Plane Replica
Watch KISS Perform In London
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Charlize Theron >
Charlize Theron says Time's Up movement is an 'incredible...
Charlize Theron says Time's Up movement is an 'incredible moment'
By Bang Showbiz in Lifestyle / Showbiz on 06 April 2018
Follow Charlize Theron
Charlize Theron says the stand made by actresses in Hollywood right now is an ''incredible moment'' which must continue.
Charlize Theron believes that Hollywood is experiencing an ''incredible moment'' in the wake of the #MeToo and Time's Up movements.
The movie business in the US was rocked in 2017 when numerous actresses, including Rose McGowan, Cara Delevingne and Angelina Jolie, and female employees of The Weinstein Company publicly accused mogul Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment or assault.
Those allegations were followed by numerous men coming forward with claims of sexual misconduct by Kevin Spacey and the revelations spawned the movements which were created to give ladies the bravery to share their own stories of abuse.
Charlize, 42, is so proud of all the women who have come forward with stories and she hopes the changes sweeping Tinsel Town will carry on.
When asked about the changes occurring in Hollywood in an interview with Italian publication IO Donna, she said: ''We are experiencing an incredible moment, we expected it. It is a wave that grows and gains strength, but we must be careful that one day we do not suddenly disassemble. But, right now, I am more than happy.''
Charlize - who is from South Africa - can recall having to fight for every opportunity she got in Hollywood when she first moved to Los Angeles whilst also working other jobs to make ends meet.
The screen star admits she felt a huge sense of relief when earned universal critical acclaim for her portrayal of real-life serial killer Aileen Wuornos in 2003 movie 'Monster', a performance which earned her the Best Actress Oscar, because she knew her status in the A-list was secure.
Charlize - who has son two children, son Jackson, six, and two-year-old daughter August - shared: ''When I was younger it was difficult for me to work in different genres, I only dreamed of being able to act without having to be a waitress to make ends meet. When I think back to those years - before Monster 's success - and I read the interviews from back then, I say, 'You can finally breathe a sigh of relief, Charlize!'
''When you're a young actress you always have to defend yourself, it's a difficult rite of passage, which I hope women can leave behind. I don't want my children to grow up that way, having to prove a thousand times what they are worth. I just want them to express themselves.''
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From Laika (The Boxtrolls), this is one of the most beautiful, sophisticated animated films in...
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Actors Index: 0 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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Eminem >
Eminem 's most 'diverse' album
By Bang Showbiz in Music / Festivals on 08 December 2017
Follow Eminem
Eminem Elton John
Eminem has revealed he spent more than a year working on his new album 'Revival' and explained his main goal was to make a record anyone could enjoy.
Eminem says his new album 'Revival' is diverse enough to appeal to all.
The 'Not Afraid' hitmaker spent over a year writing and working on the highly-anticipated LP - including scrapping earlier material to make way for fresher songs - and he feels it is a fair representation of himself as a person at the moment.
Speaking to Sir Elton John for Interview Magazine, he said: ''I've been working on it for over a year. You know how it is - you make songs, and as you make the new ones, the old ones get old and you throw them out.
''The album is called 'Revival'. It's a reflection of where I'm at right now, but also I feel like what I tried to do was diversify. I've tried to make a little something for everyone.''
Opening up candidly about his process as a songwriter, Slim Shady - whose real name is Marshall Mathers III - admitted some of his albums and songs in the past have left a bit to be desired, compared to some of his stronger material.
However, he suggested that's simply part of what drives him, revealing he works on almost 50 tracks for each album, and makes sure each one is better than the previous to earn its keep on the finished product.
He explained: ''You're not going to hit it every single time, and that's why, when I record an album, I do probably close to 50 songs.
''Each song I record has to get better. If it's not better than the last song that I made, it'll usually linger for a couple of months, and then it'll be put on the backburner, and then there'll be another song that I do, and then it often doesn't make it on the album.''
'Revival' is released on December 15.
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Musician Index: 0 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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← Hillary Faces Questions About Cash Donations to Clinton Foundation
Clinton Cash – do you trust Bill and Hillary Clinton in positions of power →
Accountants CPA Hartford Connecticut LLC: This is a rush transcript for April 26, 2015. It may contain errors.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, HOST: And the author of “Clinton Clash,” Peter Schweizer, joins us now.
Thank you for joining us this morning, Peter.
You know, I was looking at the book jacket right here and you say that, here in the book jacket that your reporting raises serious and alarming questions about judgment of possible indebtedness to an array of foreign interests and ultimately, a fitness for high public office.
So how does your reporting show that Hillary Clinton may be unfit for the presidency?
PETER SCHWEIZER, AUTHOR, “CLINTON CLASH”: Well, I think the real question here, George, is when you ever have an issue of the flow of funds to political candidates, whether that’s to their campaigns, whether that’s to private foundations, whether that’s to their spouse, is there evidence of a pattern of — of favorable decisions being made for those individuals?
And I think the — the point that we make in the book is that there is a troubling pattern.
There are dozens of examples of that occurring.
Some people, I think particularly the Clinton camp, would say that these are all coincidence. I don’t think, when you’re talking about 12 instances, you’re talking coincidence. I think you’re talking trend.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But you take it pretty far. You write that, “The pattern of behavior is troubling enough to warrant further investigation by law enforcement (INAUDIBLE).”..
SCHWEIZER: Correct.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Do you have any evidence that a crime may have been committed?
SCHWEIZER: Well, I think it’s — if you look at a couple of recent examples. For example, Governor McConnell down in Virginia, or you look at Senator Menendez, in these cases, you didn’t have evidence of a quid pro quo. What you had was funds flowing to elected officials, some of them gifts, some of them campaign contributions and actions that were being taken by those public officials that seemed to benefit the contributors.
Certainly, I think it warrants investigation. What that investigation will reveal, we’ll see.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But a criminal investigation?
SCHWEIZER: Well, we’ll see. I mean that’s what the Governor McConnell has faced and that’s what Menendez has faced.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But the…
SCHWEIZER: And I think the evidence here is far more widespread in terms of repeated action than there were in those two instances.
STEPHANOPOULOS: As you know, the Clinton campaign says you haven’t produced a shred of evidence that there was any official action as secretary that — that supported the interests of donors.
SCHWEIZER: Well…
STEPHANOPOULOS: We’ve done investigative work here at ABC News, found no proof of any kind of direct action. And an independent government ethics expert, Bill Allison, of the Sunline Foundation (ph), wrote this. He said, “There’s no smoking gun, no evidence that she changed the policy based on donations to the foundation.”
No smoking gun.
Is there a smoking gun?
SCHWEIZER: Yes. The smoking gun is in the pattern of behavior. And here’s the analogy I would give you. It’s a little bit like insider trading. I wrote a book on Congressional insider trading a couple of years ago and talked with prosecutors.
Most people that engage in criminal insider trading don’t send an e-mail that says I’ve got inside information, buy this stock.
The way they look at it, they look at a pattern of stock trades. If the person has access to that information and then they do a series of well-timed trades. That warrants investigation.
I think the same thing applies here.
By the way, what’s important to note is it was confirmed on Thursday, both by “The New York Times” and “The Wall Street Journal,” that there are multi-million dollar, non-disclosed donations that were made to the Clinton Foundation that were never disclosed by the Clintons.
This is a direct breach of an agreement they suggested with the White House.
STEPHANOPOULOS: That — that is an issue for them, but it’s not a criminal — it’s nothing that would warrant a cmii.
So let’s look at some of the specifics behind your pattern.
SCHWEIZER: Sure.
STEPHANOPOULOS: A lot of focus on the sale of a company, Uranium One, to a — to a Russian company. Of course, Frank Drisdra (ph), who had committed, what, a $130 million, a pledge to the Clinton Foundation back in 2006, had had an interest in this company.
But he actually sold it.
SCHWEIZER: Well, he sold his stock, but his firm, Endeavor Financial, continued to do finance deals well after that. And the individuals involved in the book, as you probably read, there are nine — count them, nine major contributors to the Clinton Foundation who were involved in that nuclear deal.
The two individuals who were the financial advisers on the deal of the sale to the Russians, they’re both major Clinton Foundation supporters. The chairman of that Foundation, Ian Telfer, whose donations were not disclosed, campaign — and sorry, Clinton Foundation contributor. And there are others.
So this is not just about Frank Giustra. This is multiple layers (INAUDIBLE)…
STEPHANOPOULOS: OK, but you didn’t disclose in your book that he had sold the interest.
SCHWEIZER: Yes.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Beyond that, this deal was approved by a — a board of the government called the CFIUS Board.
STEPHANOPOULOS: This actually chaired by the secretary of the Treasury…
STEPHANOPOULOS: — not the secretary of State.
SCHWEIZER: Right.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Eight other agencies on board, the secretary of State, Homeland Security, Defense, Commerce…
STEPHANOPOULOS: — Energy, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission…
STEPHANOPOULOS: — signed off on it. And even though the State Department was one of nine agencies to sign off on it, there’s no evidence at all that Hillary Clinton got directly involved in this decision.
SCHWEIZER: Well, I think it warrants further investigation. And there’s a couple of things that need to be clarified.
Number one, she was one vote — or the State Department was one vote on CFIUS. But any agency has veto power. So it needs to be unanimous. So they had to support this agreement.
The second thing that I would say is that in the midst of all of this, Hillary Clinton was in charge of the Russian reset. She was in charge of — in — of the A123 nuclear agreements with the Russians. She was the one that was meeting with Lavrov. There were four senior congressmen on national security issues that raised concerns about this issue…
STEPHANOPOULOS: But wait a second. There were nine different agencies…
STEPHANOPOULOS: — who approved it.
Doesn’t that suggest that that was because there was no national security concern, not because of some nefarious influence by Hillary Clinton?
SCHWEIZER: But — but look at the nine individuals that were on the CFIUS committee, the nine agencies represented.
Who was, by far, the most hawkish on CFIUS issues in the past?
Hillary Clinton. She was big on rejecting the Dubai ports deal. She was big on other issues. She sponsored legislation when she was in the Senate to straighten CFIUS.
This was a signature issue for her and this is totally out of character…
STEPHANOPOULOS: But the assistant secretary who sat — the assistant secretary of State who sat on the committee said she never intervened on any CFIUS issue at all.
SCHWEIZER: Well, I think that deserves further scrutiny. I would question that.
To argue that (INAUDIBLE)…
STEPHANOPOULOS: But based on what?
Based on what?
SCHWEIZER: Well, I think based on her (INAUDIBLE)…
STEPHANOPOULOS: Do you have any evidence that she actually intervened in this issue?
SCHWEIZER: No, we don’t have direct evidence. But it warrants further investigation because, again, George, this is part of the broader pattern. You either have to come to the conclusion that these are all coincidences or something else is afoot.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And that — that is that — the Clintons do say it’s a coincidence. As they say, you have produced no evidence. And I still haven’t heard any direct evidence and you just said you had no evidence that she intervened here.
But I do want to ask a broader question.
It’s been reported that you — you briefed several Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, including the chairman, Bob Corker.
Did you offer any briefings for Democrats?
SCHWEIZER: No, but I’d be glad to give them before the book is released. This was a — a friend that asked me. He thought it would be a good idea to talk to these individuals. This was the committee that confirmed her.
And I was glad to meet with them. They did not get copies of the book. They did not get any material. It was simply a verbal briefing.
And I’d be glad to brief any Democrats before May 5th, when the book comes out.
STEPHANOPOULOS: As you know, the Democrats have said this is — this is an indication of your partisan interest. They say…
STEPHANOPOULOS: — you used to work for President — President Bush as a speechwriter. You’re funded by the Koch brothers.
How do you respond to that?
SCHWEIZER: Well, George, what did I do when this book was completed?
I went to the investigative unit at “The New York Times,” the investigative unit here at ABC. I went to the investigative unit at “The Washington Post.” And I shared with them my findings, OK. These are not cupcakes. These are serious researchers and investigators.
And they are confirming what I’ve reported. So people can look at the facts and…
STEPHANOPOULOS: They haven’t come — they haven’t confirmed any evidence of any crime.
SCHWEIZER: Well, but — but it’s not up to an author to prove crime. I mean do you think that when people first started looking at Governor McConnell or they started looking at Menendez, that they immediately had evidence?
You need subpoena power. You need access to records and information. You need access to e-mails.
There’s all sorts of things that you can do. You can’t leave it up to an author to say that an author has to prove a criminal case.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Finally, Bloomberg News is reporting that you’re going to be looking into Jeb Bush’s business dealings, as well.
Is that true?
What have you found?
Where and when will you publish?
SCHWEIZER: We’ve been working on it for about four months. We’ve been looking at land deals. We’ve been looking at an airport deal. We’ve been looking at some financial transactions involving hedge funds based out of the UK.
We have already reached out to several media outlets and we’re going to adopt a similar model that we have here, which is to share that information with investigative journalists at established news outlets, share with them that information.
And I think that people will find it very, very interesting and compelling.
Peter Schweizer, thanks very much.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Thanks for having me, George.
Accountants CPA Hartford Connecticut LLC: Please be advised that Peter Schweizer advised Sarah Palin on foreign policy, while George Stephanopoulos was communications director for the 1992 U.S. presidential campaign of Bill Clinton, and subsequently became Clinton’s White House Communications Director then Senior Advisor for Policy and Strategy.
This entry was posted in Accountants CPA Hartford, Articles and tagged ABC News, April 26 2015 interview, Clinton Cash, George, Hillary Faces Questions About Cash Donations to Clinton Foundation, Interview of Peter Schweizer, Peter Schweizer, transcript, video. Bookmark the permalink.
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Maasai Age
August 18, 2017 at 9:02 amCategory:General
Concorde home entertainment released on November 26, 2009 the unabridged original version of the fascinating adventure film in Hamburg (October 27, 2009) – in his Oscar and Cesar-winning work allows Jean-Jacques Annaud (the name of the rose, seven years in Tibet) resurrect the stone age. Oriented history and evolution research the perilous journey of the three main actors offers a remarkably authentic insight at a time barely been touched by the fictional film. For the unique film project, author and linguist Anthony Burgess created a primeval language consisting of one hundred lute specifically. Facial expressions, gestures and behavior rehearsed the actors for months, where in addition to Burgess of the Ethologist Desmond Morris advice was them to the page. Double DVD and Blu-ray cover about sixty minutes bonus material and an audio comment of directed by the extraordinary circumstances of the shooting.
The two DVD set also contains a 20-seitiges booklet with a dictionary of the language of the Ulam. The Blu-ray includes a 4 booklet with a Excerpt from the dictionary. Content: Before 80,000 three men are sent from the Ulam tribe, to find fire. Because the flame provided warmth and protection from wild animals, is extinguished. NOH, Amoukar and GAW are threatened in their search of saber tooth Tigers, mammoths and foreign tribes.
To save the young woman Ika from the hands of cannibals. The new partner is acquainted with the art of fire-making and eventually develops a deeper bond between NOH and IKA. Background: As Jean-Jacques Annaud the idea first expressed to an authentic stone film, he was simply for crazy and explained the project not feasible. Finally succeeded, to 20th Century Fox for his film, see Helen became a co-production involving Canada, France and the United States. It lasted a total of five years before the funding allowed for the start of the film project. The stone age brought special challenges, especially to the production aiming had to resurrect the world of the prehistoric man as faithfully. Was shot “In the beginning was the fire” in Canada, it is Scotland and Kenya only to outdoor locations. The conditions were not very comfortable, not to say repugnant. To the extent each other take was C in the bog would be so cold that many scenes once only could be turned at a water temperature of 0 an imposition. Took a whole year to develop of the elaborate masks, the transformation of each individual actor in a stone age people lasted a total of five hours, after spinning in turn two hours used, again to return to the present. The actors had to get used to running without shoes and ran for weeks criss -cross with shoes without soles through New York. The Mammoths were represented by elephants, which were used previously for months slowly because, to be hung with skins. For the saber-toothed Tiger Special bits were made, which were adapted to the Lions, they also had to be made familiar by animal tamers in a lengthy process with the Panel. Finally, the art of fire-making turned out to be not so easy.
Raul Midon On Tour!
August 9, 2017 at 2:02 pmCategory:General
In November the exceptional musicians for four concerts comes again to Germany as highly appreciate the talent of Raul Midon is a single sequence of events makes it clear in his biography: Arif Mardin (Norah Jones, Diana Ross, Phil Collins) personally took the artist from New Mexico, living in New York City since 2002 under contract. For the legendary producer and arranger who has worked in his long career with almost any heavyweight of the music scene together, it was the last artistic decision before his demise. \”\” \”A legacy, the Midon singer, songwriter and guitarist with his 2005, critically lauded debut State of mind\” worthy managed, with the successor of A World Within A world \”confirmed and with synthesis\” now independently continuing. In November, comes the recording artist for four concerts after Germany and will once again prove his skills in Munich, Hamburg, Cologne and Berlin. Could to Mardin \”Midon found a further major supporters: his new album synthesis\”, he produced already on works by Joni which will be released on October 16, together with Larry Klein, Mitchell, Herbie Hancock and Peter Gabriel his tracks left behind. At NY museums you will find additional information.
I wanted to someone working together, the musicians really understands, that has the same background and speaks the same language, especially in harmonies. \”, he says. Larry is exactly the kind of producer I was looking for.\” \”In June 2009, it was with synthesis\” created an album that illuminates the artist from a different perspective: the mix of soul, pop, jazz, folk and Latin elements complemented by more critical texts, which prove that life () not only from black and white is \”. It is complex. \”know he brings Midon and exactly this complexity on his new album in harmony. Raul Midon, born 1967 blind musicians like Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles sees a deeper meaning in the form of musical expression.
Sonar Music Festival
February 28, 2017 at 8:18 amCategory:General
a Barcelona event of the top class in the heart of Catalonia in the last 15 years was always the best music, film on the sonar Music Festival and art presented. This year, the sonar Festival in Barcelona with security among the most important musical events of the year. The Festival welcomes many new talents of the music and art industry every year, who present their arts. Every year many record labels, music producers, world visit BBs and of course a wide variety of music fans the sonar in Barcelona known DJ. On the official Internet site of the sonar 2008 interested can check the activities and concerts around the music festival. Detailed overview of concerts, film screenings and art performances is his personal sonar put together events. Current changes in the program are posted on the page. Tickets to the sonar 2008 if you want to travel to the sonar Barcelona or between which are 19 and 21 June in Barcelona and even tickets for the sonar Music Festival need you online or by telephone hotline order these.
The tickets are already scarce and you should hurry to some to snag the coveted tickets to the sonar. Here you have the possibility to buy General passports for day and evening events. Who could visit only a specific concert or the sonar only in one day, you can buy also a special ticket for this. Many of the sonar held events at the fairground Gran via M2. You can easily reach this site upon arrival at the airport of Barcelona. Those who wish to purchase their tickets directly in Barcelona or spontaneously for a concert on the sonar 2008 decide, can visit, for example, of the Centre d’Art Santa Monica ticket office.
What visitors of the sonar 2008 expected those who love experimental music, electronic beats and club music, the visit of the sonar in Barcelona won’t regret. Here they met BBs internationally renowned DJ and can enjoy the latest dance hits. Because imagine many newcomers on the sonar, you can in the individual events, new music highlights from first-hand experience. In addition to musical events, also film screenings of and international producers belong to the sonar. The sonar as a platform for multimedia art and live performances internationally renowned and time each year is highest level the best acts. “” Nach Lust und Laune can put together their personal sonar Festival visitors program and visit individual events or tickets for the sonar by day “or the sonar by night” purchase. About 100,000 visitors are expected this year. Contact: BarcelonPoint.com Avenida de Madrid, 95-97, 3-3, 08028 Barcelona, Spain E-Mail: Tel.: + 34 933 30 78 61
Kevin Bacon (‘Footloose’, ‘Apollo 13’, etc.) inspired as a singer and guitarist with soul-rock-folk-mix he is famous as an actor from films as footloose (thk) international”, flatliners, JFK crime scene of Dallas”a matter of honor “, Apollo 13″, Mystic River”or frost/Nixon”: Kevin Bacon. Their compatriot know and appreciate many Americans but also as a versatile professional in a completely different genre: the musical! As a singer/guitarist and composer/lyricist, the Golden Globe winner forms together with his oldest brother Michael, a successful film and television composers, the bacon brothers. The pair, who is touring with the Quartet in may by Germany, has released five studio albums since 1997. Now, a CD of the group appears for the first time in this country. “New year’s day” (release date: May 21, 2010, label: hypertension music, distribution: soul food) includes a melodic mix of folk, rock and pop with echoes of the soul in her hometown of Philadelphia.
Have played the two to her current album with a top-notch band, whose line-up the guitarist IRA Siegel (Steve Winwood, Whitney Houston, Cher), bass/vocalist Paul Guzzone, Keyboarder Charles Giordano (Bruce Springsteen the Street band) and drummer Frank Vilardi (Suzanne Vega, Curtis Stigers, Rod Stewart) include. Eleven songs in a multifaceted, sometimes semi acoustic sound with descriptive texts have been out. The result differs from the works”that actor, the mine, they should try once as instrumentalists/vocalists. Here, however, is skillfully and plays with much heart and that for more than one and a half decades. Best conditions for Kevin Bacon to make a name outside of the United States in a very different role than the well-known actor/director/producer: the lanky dark-haired embodies the talented singer-songwriter (* 8.7.1958) is not only highly professional with the distinctive facial features, but also absolute convincing. I get like risks”, stresses Kevin Bacon.
It is finally highly risky to be a well known actor and then to join a rock band.” This problem is also the renowned US magazine the New Yorker, attests the bacon brothers, however, that they easily shake off the burden of Fame since her straightforward, down-to-Earth sound for talking and convinced all along the line!” “The album artist: the bacon Brothers featuring Kevin & Michael Bacon CD title: new year’s day” label: hypertension music 10273 sales: Soulfood music distribution format: single CD release-album: 21.
December 31, 2016 at 12:49 amCategory:General
Already for the second time to present the ‘Abu Dhabi Classics’ stars of the international classical music scene between October and may stars of classical music back the Emirate to center of the international music scene, because on 23 October Abu Dhabi classics in the second round start. The concert series will be opened by the New York Philharmonic performs for the first time in the United Arab Emirates. Also play the world stars such as Anne-Sophie Mutter, Seiji Ozawa, Lorin Maazel and Orchestra like the Vienna Philharmonic, the Saxon State Chapel of Dresden and the Bavarian State Orchestra. The concerts are called City and the traditional Al Jahili in exceptional surroundings venues instead of the Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi Fort in the OASIS city of Al Ain, also Garden City. Surprisingly, you’ll find very little mention of NYC Mayor on most websites. Almost all guest artists to participate in a future-oriented education programme of Abu Dhabi Classics Academy. Workshops, public rehearsals, children’s and family concerts build bridges between generations and cultures. As played in the first season Members of the Vienna Philharmonic with children, this season will find young people’s concerts with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as with members of the New York Philharmonic took place. There are more details about dates and artists under, information about Abu Dhabi General under. Images and press learn more about Abu Dhabi under. How to contact with consumer: Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority Bayerstrasse Street 27 60313 Frankfurt phone: 069 / 29 92 53 920 E-Mail:
Berlin Maxxim Club
November 2, 2016 at 4:11 pmCategory:General
Tune brothers (Housesession/Stuttgart) premiere at the Berlin Maxxim Club presented by the unlimited Music Selection & the Warsteiner liquid cube tour brothers (Housesession/Stuttgart) together with the Maxxim will take on November 20, 2009 at 22:00 that tune resident DJ Ismael Nagera her audience with a combination of innovative house sounds, movements and emotions in a dramatic sound world. In doing so, the internationally acclaimed DJs create complex House-set such as a cast of vocal to electro, deep to tech up to important emitters. The tune nightlife Award 2000 in the category of best DJ”brothers, makers of the Prince, are at home in the Club hotspots of international cities such as London, Moscow, Ibiza, Miami, Caracas and Berlin. In the Munich hotspot Pacha are residents and fixed the cult party series in bed with space Ibiza DJ pool & play in clubs such as space, amnesia or Bora Bora. Click NY Restaurateur to learn more. “” With singles like Mr.
Roboto”(2003) or releases, such as Serenata”, I like it “, dirty, nasty” or make “Your body pop”, including cooperation with Tyree Cooper and MC flipside, or remix Craig David, Crystal Method, Funkerman, Armand van Helden, John Dahlback, Eddie Thoneick, Michael Gray and DJ Sneak, they occupy top positions in the international dance charts and also top DJs such as David Guetta, laidback Luke, DJ Chus, Markus Schulz, Aaron Ross and Syke ‘n’ N’sugarstarr fall back on their tracks for his own compositions. Musically supported be the tune brothers DJ Nagera, even successfully acting are a fixed size in the Berlin Club life, participates with the other residents of Maxxim Buzz Dee instrumental in the establishment of Maxxim clubs as a hotspot for innovative House – and Electrosounds in a refined ambience, Calvin Bosco, DJ scream. The Maxxim is a fixed point of the international DJ-avant-garde in the field of electronic music and welcomed at the turntables numerous artists such as plastic radio, Voodoo, kid Chris, Fedde le Grand, milk & sugar, Tony Humphries, Victor Simonelli, Eddie Amador, Simone Anes, Tom Novy, future Funk, Micha Moor, POTBELLEEZ (live), Toni Varga, Axwell, Lenny Fontana u.v..
American Journal Billboard
October 6, 2016 at 5:18 pmCategory:General
According to established tradition, not so long ago, we are glad to present you with the best selection of albums in 2009. And this time we prepared you a selection of the best albums of 2009 in the genre of Blues, Country. Background: The rhythm and blues (also rhythm and blues) (English Rhythm and blues, abbreviated as R & B, or R'n'B) – a genre of popular music, originally performed African-American musicians have integrated the combination of blues, jazz and gospel. The term was coined in 1949 by the compilers of the charts American Journal Billboard instead of the expression "racial Music (race music), common before. With the easing of racial segregation in the U.S., the term "rhythm and blues" evolved toward a wide range of music notation "soul" and "Funk" performed by musicians of all races and nationalities. Not taken to include in the rhythm & blues rock, hip-hop and reggae, established as independent lines in a later period. It has now been distinguished modern rhythm and blues from the classic rhythm and blues.
Under modern R'n'B implied musical direction, originating from the symbiosis of blues, soul and other "racial" genres. Rhythm and blues music is considered to be on the basis of a pronounced blues. Many people relate the music of classic rhythm & blues to rock, and under the very notion of "rhythm and blues" refer to modern R'n'B. This is a very common misconception. Many critics still been debated – whether classified work rhythm and blues to rock groups, and assign it to the very notion of 'popular meaning. " Some people believe – it is easier and, therefore, correct.
Some say that the genre should be considered, based on the qualities and characteristics of music. American Academy of Recording annually presents the award "Grammy" in the category "Best male vocal in the style of rhythm and blues," "Best Female Vocalist in the style of rhythm and blues", "Best vocal performance in the style of rhythm and blues in a duo or group, "" Best Song in the style of rhythm and blues "and" Best album of contemporary rhythm & blues, "" Best Performance in a traditional style of rhythm & blues " and "Best instrumental performance in the style of rhythm and blues. " 1. Taylor Swift Fearless album in 2009 2. Sugarland album 2009 Live on the Inside 3. Seasick Steve album 2009 Man From Another Time 4. Reba McEntire album in 2009 Keep on Loving You 5. Keith Urban Album 2009 Defying Gravity 6. Jim Byrnes 2009 album My Walking Stick 7. George Strait album Twang 2009 8. Carrie Underwood album, 2009 Play On PS All the songs you can download for free, without registration, without SMS. R. PS All files stored on the share, posted for informational purposes only. After listening or viewing you need to remove them from your media. R.R.S. View and download all the songs may be going the link
About Moxie
August 16, 2016 at 1:26 pmCategory:General
A countdown to the US premiere the film culminates in a special revelation of 1212 top rated things the world on MySpace.com/earthvitallist.com (on the 12.12.08). “The campaign was developed with the aim to involve communities and the movie the day the Earth stood still” by word of mouth to help raise the public awareness. The program includes the user through a creative application, which will quite inevitably lead to discussions, in the film”, said Kris Zagoria, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Moxie interactive. “This is the first time that making a digital campaign in multiple social networks and this creates a truly interactive tool of global dimension.” the rescue list “of the Earth an activity that makes them fun and fully involved it offers users. There are no restrictions on the kind of things that can be stored, what the fantasy from the destruction and encouraging the sharing. I intend to put Macaroni and cheese at the top on my list”, said Hilary Hattenbach, Vice President for domestic digital marketing at 20th Century Fox. We knew that we had a groundbreaking campaign that would provide the film fans all over the world to deal with the themes of the film,”Bettina Sherick, Vice President for international digital marketing at 20th Century Fox reported.
We use the most popular social networks all over the world, to ask a question which will be well received everywhere. I’m very interested to see what the fans decide on the emergency list”the Earth to put.” To the rescue list”of the Earth by the day the Earth stood still to see,. About 20th Century Fox Fox produced one of the world’s largest producer and distributor of movies, filmed entertainment (FFE), buys and distributes films in the world. These films are from one of the following Subsidiary of FFE produced or purchased at: Twentieth Century Fox, Fox 2000 pictures, Fox Searchlight Pictures, Fox Atomic, and Twentieth Century Fox animation.
About Moxie interactive Moxie interactive is, simply put, brilliant marketing, digitally enhanced. As one of the largest interactive full-service marketing agencies in the United States, Moxie offers including communication planning, media planning and purchasing, search marketing, branded entertainment, digital advertising, ECRM, experience marketing and sponsor services and campaign management. The core element of the Agency is its proprietary Sunao offer. The Japanese name means”open, prospective spirit. Sunao is a group of experts tasked with it is the customers through the detection of trends, consumer insights and analysis of innovative services to deliver. Moxies award-winning digital team focuses on bringing together people and brands at the digital level. Among its clients such as Coca-Cola, Hewlett-Packard, Garnier, Maybelline New York, Nestle, Puma, the Home Depot, Verizon, and 20th Century Fox. Moxie’s located in Atlanta, Georgia, formed in the year 2000, company was acquired in 2006 by Zenith Media Services, a company of the Publicis Groupe. It was expanded to additional locations in New York and Los Angeles. To learn more about Moxie, please visit. Press contact: Franziska Buchholz way to blue Germany Tel. + 49 30 80 20 20 111.
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The Measure of Empire
Europe's Colonial Encounter
The Caribbean, 1492-1700
The Atlantic Slave Trade
The Modern Caribbean: Emancipation to the present
Modern Britain: 1688 to the present
Slavery and Emancipation in the Americas
Christienna D. Fryar
Duke University, Fall 2012
The largest forced migration in human history, the transatlantic slave trade is one of the most significant transformations in global history. The shipment of over 12 million Africans—10.8 million of which survived the journey to the Americas—fundamentally transformed the culture, demographic makeup, economics, and political histories of at least four continents: Africa, Europe, and the Americas. The Western world gained much of its wealth and advantage from slave labor. Moreover, although slavery and the slave trade were abolished in the nineteenth century, their legacies—especially racism—still shape our societies. This course will first examine the development of the transatlantic slave trade and systems of slavery in the Americas. We will then look at the ways enslaved people challenged the slave trade and slavery, followed by the successful campaigns to abolish the British and American slave trades in the early 1800s. During the last part of the semester, we will consider different ways to write about and commemorate the slave trade and the enslaved.
Select Readings
Robert W. Harms, The Diligent: A Voyage through the Worlds of the Slave Trade
C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution
Lisa A. Lindsay, Captives as Commodities: The Transatlantic Slave Trade
Edmund S. Morgan, American Slavery, American Freedom
Marcus Rediker, The Slave Ship: A Human History
Barry Unsworth, Sacred Hunger
Eric Williams, Capitalism and Slavery
Copyright © 2012-2016, Christienna Fryar. All rights reserved. Last updated: April 9, 2016.
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The Distant Horns of Summer
Salon Privé is a delightful affair, relaxed, stylish, just the right way to round off the summer and prepare for the long nights to come. Fabulous cars, gourmet grub and some very pleasant company, what more could you ask for? I even got to ride in an Alfa Romeo 8C courtesy of Dirk, thanks old boy.
So here is a gallery from Wednesday……………..
John Brooks, September 2013
This entry was posted in Cool Stuff, Nostalgia, Notes from the Cellar and tagged Salon Privé on September 11, 2013 by John Brooks.
Chapeau Porsche!
Press releases rarely excite me enough to read, let alone post on DDC, but news from the Nürburgring that Porsche has broken the production car lap record is truly worthy of comment. Actually not breaking the record but smashing it. All round good egg Marc Lieb was at the wheel of the Porsche 918 Spyder which lapped the Nordschleife in 6:57.00 taking 14 seconds off the previous best.
So salut Marc and Porsche!
This entry was posted in Notes from the Cellar, Real Men, The Blink of An Eye and tagged Marc Lieb, Porsche 918 Spyder on September 10, 2013 by John Brooks.
Woke up, it was a Chelsea Morning
It has been a week of automotive sensory overload in and around London, Goodwood Test, Salon Privé Tour and Concours, St. James’s Concours of Elegance and today the perfect conclusion, the Grand Chelsea Rendezvous. I need a rest………………
For reasons that are not clear, but almost certainly financial, the Chelsea Auto Legends Show has slipped into history. So here today, as a substitute, is a kind of Cars and Coffee for the Embankment. An interesting selection of cars showed up, some with real history, even the replicas had patina.
There is something comforting about this kind of informal gathering of petrolheads, I hope that it will become even more common in and around the capital..
Here is a small gallery of the participants.
This entry was posted in Cool Stuff, Nostalgia, Notes from the Cellar and tagged Chelsea Rendezvous on September 8, 2013 by John Brooks.
Finding Places
The Sage of Charlotte is back, considering the the 911’s early years and the dilemmas faced by those crafting the rules for the USCR.
When Porsche’s 911 made its public debut at Frankfurt’s 1963 Auto Show its promise as the foundation for a new era in the economic fortunes of Zuffenhausen were obvious. Less obvious though was its motorsport future, for while the era of Ferdinand Piech would not arrive for another two years, the factory’s engineers were already gearing up for a new generation of sports racing prototypes; an effort that precluded the necessary transformation of the new six-cylinder coupé into a serious GT racer.
Not until 1969, and after the aborted lightweight 911R program had been consigned to the dustbin, did Porsche start the at first slow progression of making the 911 into the dominant player it would become in the production-based side of the sport. The delay in the acknowledgement of the 911’s competition potential centered around two words, “mission statements.”
Arguably, in the latter part of the 1960’s the mission statement for Zuffenhausen’s motorsport program focused on developing and building ever better prototypes that would transform the company from a supporting role on the sports car scene into its headlining star, and with it Piech to the overall industry leader he has become today as the chairman of Volkswagen AG.
Indeed, the 911 played little or no role in the Piech’s ego-centric universe because fundamentally he had virtually nothing to do with its conception. Put another way, it wasn’t his “baby,” and in those days he had little interest in other people’s offspring. For him, his mission statement was one of self aggrandizement. So while he pursued his own objectives, the 911 languished in motorsport hell; not released from its purgatory until Ernst Fuhrmann took the company’s reigns in the beginning of the 1970s, when, as its new President, he pushed the prototypes aside for the firm’s long neglected marketplace best seller.
On its 50th birthday year, the story of finding a mission motorsport statement for 911 resonates in the upcoming debut of the NASCAR-owned United Sports Car road course tour that will open its doors with the Daytona 24 Hours next winter. Created from the amalgamation of the Grand Am Rolex and American Le Mans Series championships, their new replacement has, as yet, to release its details of its technical regulations, even though testing is little more than three months away as this is being written.The problem, like that of the 911 is in defining its “mission statement.”
For the Grand-Am’s Rolex tour, even though everybody on the NASCAR side will deny it, the mission statement was pretty clear: coral the pool of “gentleman” drivers so necessary to the success of any North American road racing series in order to put the ALMS out of business. Given that essentially the NASCAR folks bought out the Don-Panoz title chase, it was a strategy that worked. But now, having “won the war,” what does NASCAR do with the peace? More specifically, what does it do with the Rolex Daytona Prototypes?
Given the hundreds of millions it takes to field a headlining sports racer these days, the Grand-Am emasculated their prototypes in terms of the technology, thus cutting cost to the point where the rich gentlemen participants could come and play without worrying about their financial security. Ironically this approach has since its 2003 introduction produced some of the best, closest racing in the sport’s history. On the other hand, it has drawn little more than collective yawns from its audience base: the world inhabited by sports car enthusiasts.
Collectively, unlike their stock car counterparts, they prefer high technology overt tight, equalized competition, and so far, to a huge extent, they have eschewed the Grand Am and the Rolex series. Up to now, their lack of enthusiasm has not been that much of a problem, given that the ultimate Rolex consumers weren’t the fans, but the participants. Now, however, if new championship is to prosper, the mission statement will have to be refocused on the techno savvy audience which up to now the NASCAR camp has ignored.
In light of the fact that NASCAR wants to keep the Daytona Prototypes as the foundation for its top ranked category, there are some hard, but simple choices to be made. Do those behind the new championship dumb down the performance potential of the present LM P2 prototypes and possibly of the Le Mans GTE production contingent scheduled to race next year far enough so as not to overshadow the DP community? Or, do they bring the DP’s performance up to a level where they’re not embarrassed by those surrounding them on the grid?
The first will please the “rich kid” gene pool, the second will satisfy United Sports Car Racing’s larger, and perhaps more necessary, audience base. At this point the time to make the decisions is growing ever smaller. And, while someone is going to be disappointed, there will be chaos and true disappointment if something isn’t do soon. In the end, like the case of the 911, it’s all about the necessity for mission statements.
Bill Oursler, September 2013
This entry was posted in From A Continental Correspondent and tagged ALMS, Ferdinand Piech, Grand-Am, Porsche 911, USCR on September 4, 2013 by John Brooks.
Classics on the Green
The “Classics on the Green” at Croxley Green near Rickmansworth invariably turns up some unexpected gems.
1993 Tatra 613. Having used the Tatra 603 since 1957 the Czechoslovakian Communist officials wanted a new flagship – the result was the 613, styled by the Italian Carrosserie Vignale, the first Tatra not to be styled in-house.
In the best tradition of the distinguished former Tatra designer Hans Ledwinka, the engine is a rear-mounted air-cooled V8 of 3.5-litres.
1934 Riley Imp. This car was delivered to Freddie Clifford in August 1934 and was immediately entered for the Tourist Trophy on the Ards circuit. The car was flagged off after 30 laps and was sold shortly afterwards to South Africa.
1931 Buick 8 – it has an 8-cylinder o.h.v. 5.6-litre engine. The parts for this right-hand drive car were made in Canada and the car was finally assembled at the General Motors factory at Hendon in northern London.
1935 Triumph Gloria Vitesse. A lovely example of the typical offerings from this Coventry manufacturer. The Gloria line marked a change of direction as Donald Healey became Technical Director. Power came from a 6-cylinder Coventry-Climax engine.
1954 Frazer-Nash Le Mans Coupé. Only eight of these attractive cars were made after Wharton/Mitchell won the 2-litre class at Le Mans in 1953.
This car differed from the others by being supplied from the factory with wire wheels.
Question – what is the link between this rare American Indian motor-cycle and the Le Mans Cunninghams? Answer – G. Briggs Cleaver who designed the American cars was, before the war, the Chief Engineer of the famous motor-cycle manufacturer.
David Blumlein, September 2013
This entry was posted in From A Special Correspondent, Rare and Interesting and tagged Buick 8, Croxley Green, Frazer-Nash Le Mans Coupé, Riley Imp, Tatra 613, Triumph Gloria Vitesse on September 1, 2013 by John Brooks.
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Oh Dear…..
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The Big Figure
The Golden State Correspondent
The Social Pages
Trumpet Blowing
Vue de l'autre côté de la Manche
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Crypto Currency News
Home BITCOIN The interior is considering bringing the police into schools
The interior is considering bringing the police into schools
Will there soon police officers in residence in schools ? The minister of the interior, Christophe Castaner, does not prohibit to consider. At the end of a strategic committee, Friday 26 October, bringing together Jean-Michel Blanquer, the minister of national education, Nicole Belloubet, the minister of justice, and Lawrence Nuñez, secretary of State for the interior, it has advanced the idea of bringing the police into the schools, among other measures to try to placate the crisis that has befallen the educational community for a week.
The video of a teacher, trained with a weapon dummy by his student, at a secondary school in Créteil, has triggered a wave of testimonies of teachers who are victims of violence. A plan of action to combat violence in schools must be presented on Tuesday 30 by the council of ministers.
The form that could take the police presence is still unclear. Mr. Castaner was referred to two cases separate : a “permanence” in institutions who wish to make the link between the different institutions, and on the other hand it is possible to have periods of ” tension, police officers inside an establishment.
” It is original !, quips a senior college under the guise of anonymity. In a twenty-year career in education a priority, I’ve never seen a single place where the principal did not have a direct number to contact the gendarmerie or the police. “
Read also : the Face of school violence, teachers feel isolated
not to mention that an experiment of this type has already seen the light of day, in 2006, and that it has fizzled, remember Anne Wuilleumier, a sociologist at the national Institute of higher studies of security and justice and the author, in 2016, a report on the interventions of police officers and gendarmes in middle school.
The presence of a “policeman referent” has been experienced in fifty-three institutions priority of the Hauts-de-Seine in 2006, under the impetus of the general council, then led by Nicolas Sarkozy. But she stopped after a few years : “there were moments where the police had nothing to do and at the same time the incidents occurred outside of their hours,” says the sociologist. The idea of the coming of the forces of law and order in a preventive aim, therefore, is not new.
” The school is not a home recovery, but a place of learning, has also responded to the CIPF. This is not putting a policeman behind each of the teachers that we will pay an increasing problem, “said the federation of pupils’ parents.
Read also : Violence in school, no miracle solution
Mistrust of young people
other countries have chosen to “résidentialiser” police in the school premises. In the United States, we observe a surprising phenomenon : the officer, who is not called upon to respond every morning to ” serious misconduct “, becomes conveniently an extra adult, employable by the institution for tasks unrelated to its function.
The distrust of young people vis-à-vis the police can be a hindrance to the effectiveness of such devices. “Our students have a report to the police a little complicated,” euphémise Fabienne Giuliani, teacher at the lycée Utrillo in Stains (Seine-Saint-Denis). Indeed, it is the one of the nodes of the problem : the police presence intended to resolve “tensions” will be reserved for significant establishments. But they are also the ones where the distrust of the forces of the order is the highest, according to several studies, including one conducted in 2014 on a panel of college of the Bouches-du-Rhône, which was attended by the sociologist Sebastian Roché. “In a place where the police are poorly accepted, which is the case in the majority of institutions disadvantaged, the intervention of a police officer is going to cause other problems,” he predicts.
And these additional problems, specifically, the teachers do not want one. At the lycée Utrillo, where a new assistant principal as “former policeman” is expected to take up his duties on 5 November, a strike is scheduled on that day. In the spring, a student was attacked with blows of the hammer on the square. “It is necessary to work on the school climate, argues Fabienne Giuliani, with educational means “, that is to say, of the superintendents and of the principal educational advisers (CPE), but also teams to be more stable.
At the collège Pablo-Neruda of Pierrefitte-sur-Seine (Seine-Saint-Denis), the teachers have called for more resources after the assault of a CPE in 2017. They got a half-position of CPE. “But more importantly, the team is less renewed than usual, highlights Camille Moro, a professor of history and geography. With a turnover less important, we can breathe a little.” The situations seem to improve when it is on the part of the collective life.
Read also : “teachers often believe that they are not supported by their hierarchy”
Why not give the taste of the day, the mediators, these people paid by the municipality, who were the parents of dropouts and could feel it rise, when it arrived, the next brawl ? Was Utrillo, Fabienne Giuliani has known a until 2014. The principal of the college who wished to remain anonymous, had his own also when he was heading an institution sensitive to Beaucaire (Gard). “She saved the day when a parent came to fight with us,” he remembers. They knew each other from the neighborhood, the voltage fell immediately. “
The municipalities have stopped funding these positions are associated, according to the main, to the failure of a policy of ” big brothers “, which was to focus on the people of the district to make social mediation. “Of course, he had to choose his mediator, just as he must choose his or her supervisor today, annoys there. Nothing is simple when one wants to tackle sincerely to a complex problem. “Too complex, no doubt to be resolved by the simple effect of the uniform.
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Engineer develops solar-powered buggies on the DIT Grangegorman campus
PhD student Ayda Esfandyari has designed a charging station for solar-powered buggies on DIT's 73-acre Grangegorman campus. She now plans to add more buggies to the system in the future, and to use the charging station for electric bikes
Ayda Esfandyari and the solar buggies
Finding sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels, reducing greenhouse emissions and producing new forms of home-grown energy are all on the national agenda in Ireland and beyond.
Ayda Esfandyari is determined to help meet some of these targets. Her enthusiasm for finding renewable energy sources is infectious. Originally from Iran, Esfandyari has been living in Ireland since her teen years. She became interested in renewable energy while studying for her master’s degree in energy engineering at University College Dublin.
In 2014, she jumped at the opportunity to do a doctorate in energy at Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) under the supervision of Prof Brian Norton, president of DIT and a specialist in the area of solar energy.
Esfandyari is working on designing a photovoltaic (PV) solar charging station for battery electric vehicles (BEVs). The charging station currently powers two lightweight electric vehicles, which are used daily by the estates staff on the DIT Grangegorman campus for a variety of tasks: to transport goods from building to building, to patrol the campus at night, and to respond to accidents quickly. With 1,200 students and 200 staff on a campus spanning 73 acres and bustling with events, conferences and day-to-day educational activities, the buggies are in constant use.
The past three years have been successively the hottest on record since modern record-keeping began in 1880, according to NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil provide more than 80 per cent of the world’s energy.
There is a general consensus among the scientific community that to stop global warming and reduce emissions, we need to transform our energy systems by using more low-carbon sources such as wind, solar and geothermal.
“Battery electric vehicles have been recognised as the ideal solution for lowering the CO2 emissions in the transport sector and helping to achieve a sustainable future,” explained Esfandyari.
Self-consumption and solar energy
The testbed of PV solar panels for the vehicles, installed on one of the rooftop buildings in DIT Grangegorman
EU and government policies around solar energy are moving towards the idea of ‘self-consumption’, encouraging individuals and businesses to generate solar energy to meet the demands of their own electricity and heating needs. To increase the level of self-consumption, DIT purchased a cutting-edge battery energy storage system (BESS) as part of the charging station design.
“This is where Europe is going,” said Esfandyari. “This is where the targets are pushing towards. We generate the solar energy from the panels and store it in an optimal manner in this unit and then we use that energy when we need it. We have periods where there is less demand so we’re over-generating, or my storage is full because it’s been a very sunny day, and then we feed that energy into other buildings on campus. The energy never goes to waste.”
The energy demand for the buggies is served by a combination of direct solar energy, the PV stored solar energy from the BESS unit, and energy from the main electricity grid. In order to prioritise the optimal energy flow, an energy manager device and a battery energy manager is incorporated into the system. The goal is to utilise the solar-generated electricity as much as possible and switch back to the main grid as little as possible.
Esfandyari hopes that this charging station will help fulfil some of the national and international targets for renewable energy. “This charging station has zero emissions on the solar generation side and the electric vehicles have nearly zero emissions on the demand side. That’s amazing. If you look back 15 years, these panels were very expensive, but now they’re more affordable. The price of electricity that you purchase from the grid is going up each year. It makes sense to deploy these panels.”
The project has a lot of scope for development. Esfandyari is working on optimising the charging station and solar generation as much as possible with a view to adapting the prototype to different contexts. The plan is to add more buggies to the system in the future, and to use the charging station for electric bikes, so that students and staff can park and charge. The charging station could also be used in commercial companies or in developing countries.
“A lot of people in developing countries are depending on a charging point for mobile phones and electronic goods,” she said. “They experience many day-to-day issues with faults and system unreliability. We are working on finding the best way to operate a system like this in a cost effective manner.”
This project is the future. Tesla, the world leader in electric cars, has vehicles on the road in 30 countries at the time of writing and aims to migrate the entire automobile industry to sustainable energy. People can charge up their Tesla car batteries for less than €10 using a plug at home, or for free at a public supercharging station.
In the United States, big companies such as Walmart, Target, Costco and Apple now have large rooftop solar installations to help power their buildings. PV solar power is also on the rise in Ireland. In 2017, Electric Ireland became the first energy supplier to provide solar power in the Irish residential market, offering customers the option to install PV panels in their homes.
Ayda Esfandyari with some of the DIT Grangegorman estates team: Terry Maher (estates manager and chartered engineer) and Himzo Kacar
DIT is working hard to make the Grangegorman campus as sustainable as possible. “Green thinking permeates the planning of the whole campus,” said Prof Brian Norton, president of DIT.
Along with the creation of solar electrical energy, the Institute also has solar water heating in the Greenway Hub, the first newly built facility on campus. They plan to include solar panels on all new buildings for generating electricity and heat. The buildings are designed to be naturally ventilated and make optimal use of natural light, so that less electric lighting is needed. DIT is dedicated to sustainable transport. Grangegorman is a city campus, which is serviced well by public transport, including the new Luas line and Dublin Bus, and there are new Dublin Bike stations on the way.
Esfandyari’s research falls under the aegis of the Dublin Energy Lab (DEL), an interdisciplinary research centre at DIT that is one of the leaders in science and engineering energy research in Ireland.
Prof Aidan Duffy, manager of DEL, explained: “Energy is one of those areas that is fundamental to every aspect of our daily lives. Dublin Energy Lab has people working in the areas of economics, business, physics, water, architecture and from all the fields of engineering. We’re using the combined strength of 90 researchers from across DIT to make an impact in the areas of electrical power, solar energy, energy policy, zero emissions buildings and lighting.”
It is a team effort, Esfandyari was keen to stress, as Dr Sarah McCormack (associate professor in civil and structural engineering at TCD) and Prof Michael Conlon (head of electrical and electronic engineering at DIT) are also on the project’s supervisory team.
She is grateful for the opportunities she has been given to collaborate with researchers in DEL and to study at DIT, a college she feels is “so open to new horizons, new technologies and new approaches”. She concluded: “Research gives me a pulse. It challenges me; it makes me feel alive. I feel like I’m young and I’m contributing to finding renewable energy sources and hopefully making the world a better place. That’s everyone’s dream, isn’t it?”
http://www.engineersjournal.ie/2017/07/04/solar-powered-buggies-dit-grangegorman-campus/http://www.engineersjournal.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Lead-Photo-WEB.jpghttp://www.engineersjournal.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Lead-Photo-WEB-300x300.jpg 2017-07-06T15:23:51+00:00 David O'RiordanElecDIT,electric vehicles,solar,transport
Finding sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels, reducing greenhouse emissions and producing new forms of home-grown energy are all on the national agenda in Ireland and beyond. Ayda Esfandyari is determined to help meet some of these targets. Her enthusiasm for finding renewable energy sources is infectious. Originally from Iran, Esfandyari...
David O'Riordandoriordan@engineersireland.ieAdministratorEngineers Journal
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TagsDIT electric vehicles solar transport
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Procedure : 2011/2042(BUD)
Document selected : A7-0058/2011
Explanations of votes
Texts adopted
Thursday, 24 March 2011 - Brussels Final edition
Preparation of 2012 budget
P7_TA(2011)0114 A7-0058/2011
European Parliament resolution of 24 March 2011 on general guidelines for the preparation of the 2012 budget (2011/2042(BUD))
The European Parliament ,
– having regard to Articles 313 and 314 TFEU,
– having regard to the Interinstitutional Agreement (IIA) of 17 May 2006 between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on budgetary discipline and sound financial management(1) ,
– having regard to its resolution of 17 February 2011 on Europe 2020(2) ,
– having regard to its resolution of 15 December 2010 on the Communication from the Commission on the Commission Work Programme 2011(3) ,
– having regard to its resolution of 20 October 2010 on ‘the financial, economic and social crisis: recommendations concerning measures and initiatives to be taken (mid-term report)’(4) ,
– having regard to its resolution of 16 June 2010 on economic governance(5) ,
– having regard to the Commission's updated financial programming for 2007-2013, submitted in accordance with Point 46 of the aforementioned IIA of 17 May 2006,
– having regard to the European Union's general budget for the 2011 financial year,
– having regard to the Council conclusions of 15 February 2011 on the budget guidelines for 2012,
– having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgets (A7-0058/2011),
A 2012 budget under the auspices of enhanced European economic governance, the European Semester mechanism and Europe 2020 objectives to boost growth and employment
1. Takes the view that the Europe 2020 strategy should help Europe recover from the crisis and come out stronger, through smart, sustainable and inclusive growth based on the five EU headline targets, namely promoting employment, improving the conditions for – and public spending on – innovation, research and development, meeting our climate change and energy objectives, improving education levels and promoting social inclusion, in particular through the reduction of poverty; recalls that the Member States themselves have fully endorsed these five targets;
2. Points out that some consistency must be ensured between achieving these objectives and the funding allocated to them at European and national level; insists that EU budgetary policy must be in line with this principle; takes the view that the European Semester, as a new mechanism for enhanced European economic governance, should afford an opportunity to consider how best to deliver on these five headline targets;
3. Strongly believes that the European Semester should aim at improving the coordination and consistency of national and European economic and budgetary policies; takes the view that it should focus on improving synergies between European and national public investments in order better to achieve the EU's overall political objectives; notes the fundamental differences between the structure of the EU budget and that of national budgets; believes, however, that aggregate EU and national public expenditure on common political objectives should be determined as soon as possible;
4. Acknowledges the Council's concern about economic and budgetary constraints at national level, but recalls, first and foremost, that under Treaty provisions the EU budget can not run a public deficit; recalls that, in 2009, the accumulated public deficit in the EU as a whole amounted to EUR 801 billion, and that the EU budget represents a mere 2% of total public spending in the EU;
5. Takes the view, however, that the difficult economic situation across the Union makes it more important than ever to ensure proper implementation of the EU budget, quality of spending and optimal use of existing Community financing; suggests that a thorough review should be undertaken of those lines which have a history of low outturn or where problems have arisen in implementation;
6. Is of the opinion that the EU budget brings added value to national public expenditure when initiating, supporting and complementing investments in those policy areas which are at the core of Europe 2020; believes, moreover, that the EU budget has an instrumental role to play in helping the EU to exit the current economic and financial crisis through its capacity as a catalyst to boost investment, growth and jobs in Europe; takes the view that the EU budget could at least mitigate the effects of current restrictive national budgetary policies while supporting the efforts of national governments; stresses also that, given its redistributive nature, lowering the level of the EU budget may harm European solidarity and have an adverse impact on the pace of economic development in many Member States; believes that a purely ‘net contributor’/‘net beneficiary’ approach does not take due account of spill-over effects between EU countries and therefore undermines common EU policy goals;
7. Recalls that delivering on the Europe 2020 strategy's seven flagship initiatives will require a huge amount of future-oriented investment, estimated at no less than EUR 1 800 billion until 2020 by the Commission in its communication entitled ‘The EU Budget Review’ (COM(2010)0700); stresses that one of the main objectives of the Europe 2020 strategy – namely, to promote jobs and high-quality employment for all Europeans – will be achieved only if the necessary investments in education, in favour of a knowledge society, research and development, innovation, SMEs and green and new technologies are made now and not delayed any longer; calls for a renewed political compromise combining the reduction of public deficits and debt with the promotion of such investments; expresses its willingness, with a view to magnifying the impact of the EU budget and contributing to the EU's response to the economic crisis, to explore possible ways to widen existing instruments enhancing the synergy between the EU budget and EIB actions, in order to support long-term investments; welcomes, moreover, the Commission's launch of public consultation on the ‘Europe 2020 Project Bond Initiative’;
8. Opposes, therefore, attempts to limit or reduce budget appropriations linked to the delivery of the Europe 2020 strategy's headline targets and seven flagship initiatives; notes that any such attempt would be counter-productive, most likely resulting in the failure of Europe 2020, as was the case for the Lisbon Strategy; takes the view that the Europe 2020 strategy can be credible only if adequately funded, and recalls that the EP has on numerous occasions raised this serious political concern; reiterates its strong request for the Commission to clarify the budgetary dimension of the flagship initiatives, and to inform Parliament of the budgetary means needed for the implementation of the Europe 2020 strategy;
9. Highlights the fact that budgetary measures are not the only factor in achieving the Europe 2020 strategy's targets, but that budgetary efforts must be supplemented by concrete proposals for simplification in order to create the environment needed in order to achieve our goals in the fields of employment, research and innovation, including green and energy technologies; is equally convinced that achieving the Europe 2020 objectives, including the creation of new green jobs, is a question not only of increased budgetary means, but also of a qualitative refocusing of existing EU policies, including the CAP, by taking due account of sustainability criteria;
10. Takes the view, moreover, that 2012 budget appropriations, including in those areas not directly linked to the achievement of the Europe 2020 strategy, need to be kept at an appropriate level to ensure the continuation of EU policies and the achievement of EU objectives well beyond the duration of the current economic crisis;
11. Calls for greater coherence between external and internal EU policies, bearing in mind the major impact of global developments on the EU's economic, natural and industrial environment, competitiveness and employment; underlines, therefore, the need to endow the EU with the necessary financial means to be able to respond adequately to growing global challenges and to defend and promote its common interests and core values – like human rights, democracy, the rule of law, fundamental freedoms and environmental protection – effectively; recalls that moderate additional expenditure at EU level can often generate proportionately higher savings at Member State level;
12. Believes that the EU has an important role to play in assisting and financially supporting Arab countries at this historical point in their democratic development and economic and social transformation; welcomes, in this connection, the Commission communication entitled ‘A partnership for democracy and shared prosperity with the southern Mediterranean’ (COM(2011)0200));
13. Deplores the absence of any parliamentary dimension to the first European Semester exercise, despite the role that the European Parliament and the 27 national parliaments play in their respective budgetary procedures; is, instead, firmly convinced that stronger parliamentary involvement would significantly improve the democratic nature and transparency of such an exercise; supports the initiative of its Committee on Budgets to organise, as a first step, a meeting with national parliaments in order to discuss the general outline of the 2012 budgets of the Member States and of the EU;
14. Welcomes the Hungarian and Polish presidencies' public commitments to enter into an open and constructive dialogue with the EP on budget matters in 2011; reaffirms its willingness to work in close cooperation with the Council and the Commission in full accordance with the provisions of the Lisbon Treaty; expects that the present guidelines will be taken into account fully during the 2012 budgetary procedure;
Sustainability and responsibility at the heart of the 2012 EU budget
15. Notes that, for 2012, the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2007-2013 provides for an overall level of commitment appropriations (CA) of EUR 147.55 billion and an overall ceiling for payment appropriations (PA) of EUR 141.36 billion; recalls that these amounts are in any case considerably lower (by around EUR 25 billion in the case of CA, and around EUR 22 billion in the case of PA) than the ceiling specified in the current Own Resources Decision;
16. Stresses that the financial programming presented by the Commission on 31 January 2011 represents an indicative reference envelope for commitment appropriations for each of the existing EU programmes and actions; takes note that the overall level of commitment appropriations may be set at EUR 147.88 billion;
17. Underlines that these figures constitute a yearly breakdown of multiannual global amounts agreed upon by both Parliament and the Council when these programmes and actions were adopted; stresses that the annual amounts programmed represent appropriations which allow for achieving EU objectives and priorities, notably in the context of Europe 2020; acknowledges, however, that some room for manoeuvre may appear under certain headings of the MFF, given the very provisional indicative figures (in particular under Heading 2) put forward by the Commission at that point in the year;
18. Points out that the 2012 budget is the sixth of seven under the current MFF; believes that the two arms of the budgetary authority now have, therefore, a clearer view of the shortfalls and positive developments associated with existing multiannual programmes; notes that the mid-term reviews of most co-decided programmes have already taken place, and calls on the Commission to present any budgetary implications resulting from this exercise; emphasises, in this connection, that the EP is determined – should it prove necessary in order to support and enhance EU political priorities as well as to address new political needs and in close cooperation with its specialised committees – to make full use of, inter alia, Point 37 of the IIA (allowing a 5% margin of legislative flexibility);
19. Highlights the fact that leaving sufficient margins below all MFF headings is not the only solution in order to address unforeseen circumstances; points out the recurrent under-financing of certain headings of the MFF, in particular Headings 1a, 3b and 4, as compared to the needs and EU political priorities endorsed by the Member States; finds that the approach underpinning the Council's budget guidelines for 2012 does not reflect a long-term perspective and could put existing actions and programmes at risk, should unforeseen events or new political priorities arise; stresses that recent events in several North African countries are already pointing in that direction, and invites the Commission to asses how the EU's existing financial instruments could be used to support aspirations to democracy;
20. Believes, on the contrary, that the various flexibility mechanisms foreseen by the IIA (such as shifting expenditure between headings or mobilising the flexibility instrument) are tools to be used fully; recalls that they have had to be used every year since 2007 in response to various challenges that have arisen; expects the Council's to give its full cooperation in using them, and to enter into such discussions at an early stage in order to avoid disproportionately long and difficult negotiations on their mobilisation;
21. Stresses, in this connection, that keeping commitment appropriations under strict control would require not only significant redeployments and reprioritisation, but also the joint identification of possible negative priorities and savings by the institutions; strongly urges its specialised committees seriously to embark on the process of determining clear political priorities in all EU policy fields; highlights, however, the fact that, to this end, greater budgetary flexibility is needed, and that a revision of the MFF (for example, offsetting between headings of the current MFF) may be a necessity for the Union's ability to function, not only in terms of facing the new challenges but also with a view to facilitating the decision-making process within the institutions in order to align budgetary resources with evolving circumstances and priorities; emphasises that this process must be fully transparent;
22. Emphasises that the strengthening of a number of policies and the new competences established at EU level following the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty should logically imply additional financial capacity for the EU, which was hardly the case for 2011, the first year after its entry into force; reminds the Council and the Commission of the political declaration annexed to the 2011 budget, whereby the Commission undertakes to consider ways to strengthen the Lisbon Treaty priority areas and thoroughly to assess the needs when preparing the draft budget for 2012; expects the Commission to follow suit by, for example, proposing to turn successful Lisbon-related pilot projects or preparatory actions into multiannual programmes;
23. Considers the Commission's approach to determining EU decentralised agencies' subsidies from the EU budget to be reliable and to provide the right incentives; stresses that EU agencies' budget allocations are far from being confined to administrative expenditure alone, but instead contribute to achieving the Europe 2020 goals and EU objectives in general, as decided by the legislative authority; reaffirms the need to examine requests for new posts carefully in relation to newly assigned tasks; underlines, however, the importance of adequate funding for those agencies whose tasks have been increased, so as not to hinder their performance; calls for a specific approach in respect of the recruitment of specialised scientific staff with professional experience, especially when these posts are financed exclusively by fees and are thus budget-neutral for the EU budget; supports the work carried out by the interinstitutional working group on the future of agencies, which was set up in early 2009, and looks forward to its conclusions, notably on the above mentioned points;
Level of payments, RAL and financing of the EU budget
24. Notes that the 2012 level of payments will result directly from previous years' legal and political commitments; believes that an increase compared to the 2011 budget level is foreseeable and in line with the general profile of payments over the 2007-2013 programming period (see tables in annex);
25. Emphasises the urgent need to address the issue of the growing level of outstanding commitments (RAL) at the end of 2010 (EUR 194 billion, see table in annex); regrets the attitude adopted by the Council in deciding on the level of payments a priori , without taking into account an accurate assessment of the actual needs; highlights the fact that the level of RAL is particularly high under Heading 1b; does not consider the Council's option of reducing EU budget commitments in order to decrease the level of RAL to be a sustainable solution, since this would be detrimental to the achievement of previously agreed EU objectives and priorities; underlines, in this connection, the Council's commitment to a joint declaration with Parliament on the possibility of resolving needs in payments which arise in the course of 2011 by means of an amending budget;
26. Emphasises that a certain level of RAL is unavoidable when multiannual programmes are implemented, and that the existence of outstanding commitments by definition requires corresponding payments to be made; requests, therefore, that an orderly relationship between commitments and payments be maintained, and will do its utmost throughout the budgetary procedure to reduce the discrepancy between commitment and payment appropriations;
27. Shares the Council's view that realistic budgeting should be promoted; calls on the Commission to ensure that its draft budget is based on this principle; notes, however, that past implementation, which has improved in recent years, may not constitute a very accurate indicator of 2012 needs in some cases, since the implementation of some programmes could speed up in 2012, and payment needs increase accordingly; endorses the Council's call for the Member States to provide better implementation forecasts, notably with a view to avoiding under-implementation, and takes the view that the bulk of the effort in this respect should be undertaken by the Member States themselves, since the level of the Commission's draft budget is determined mainly by their own forecasts (particularly under Heading 2) and their implementation capacity; recalls that the Member States co-manage, together with the Commission, more than 80% of EU funding; reminds the Member States of their legal responsibility in defining and enforcing financial rules applicable to the recipients of EU funding;
28. Points out that, since the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, the protection of financial interests has also been the responsibility of the Member States; emphasises the European Court of Auditors' finding that the management and control systems in some of the Member States are not fully effective; recalls furthermore, that wrongly spent structural funding amounting to billions of euros has not yet been recovered; notes that DG REGIO's current annual report cannot declare the legality and regularity of the Member States' expenditure, because some Member States have not complied with their obligation to submit their reports on time; points out that, as a result of the Member States' ongoing under-financing of the EU budget, Parliament may be forced to identify negative priorities among EU projects, and subsequently to cut their budgets;
29. Is aware that the level of payments finally implemented every year sometimes entails a significant so-called ‘surplus’ compared with the level of payments originally agreed by the budget authority, meaning that Member States' national contributions to the EU budget are therefore decreased accordingly, and their fiscal positions improved; does not consider the Council's concerns as to the level and timing of this ‘return’ relevant in addressing the sensitive underlying political issue of the financing of the EU budget; is, rather, of the opinion that unspent payments from year ‘n’ should be carried over to the following budget year (‘n+1’) rather than being deducted from the calculation of Member States' national contributions; strongly urges the Commission, therefore, to make ambitious proposals for the establishment of new and genuine own resources, so as fully to provide the EU with real and autonomous financial resources; insists, moreover, that any new own resources should be based on a comprehensive impact assessment, and aimed at developing ways to strengthen the EU's competitiveness and economic growth; asks the Council to cooperate constructively in the debate on fair and new own resources for the EU;
Administrative expenditure under Section III of the EU budget
30. Takes due account of the letter dated 3 February 2011 from the Commissioner for Financial Programming and Budget, reaffirming the Commission's commitment to zero staff increase as well as its endeavour to limit the nominal increase (as compared with 2011) in administrative appropriations under Heading 5; is aware, however, that while EU competences keep on increasing, this trend may not be sustainable in the long term and may have an adverse impact on the swift and effective implementation of EU actions;
31. Calls on the Commission to consider the long-term impact of its outsourcing policy, and of its approach of employing a growing number of contract agents, on the quality and independence of the European civil service; underlines that although this generates savings on salaries and pensions, it leads to a situation whereby an increasing number of staff employed by the Commission are not included in its establishment plan; recalls that pension and salary levels are determined by legally binding agreements with which the Commission has to comply in their entirety;
32. Highlights the fact that, in the case of multi-annual programmes, some specific administrative expenditure (including that of executive agencies) is included in the programmes' overall financial envelope along with so-called ‘operational expenditure’; points out that the Council's habit of cutting these budget lines horizontally with the aim of reducing administrative expenditure would inevitably end up modifying the entire co-decided envelope for these programmes, and risk affecting the swiftness and quality of their implementation;
33. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council and the Court of Auditors.
(1) OJ C 139, 14.6.2006, p. 1.
(2) Texts adopted, P7_TA(2011)0068.
Last updated: 6 May 2013 Legal notice
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Music Lust
Welcome to EvilTapo
EvilTapo
Homepage and index of recent blog posts, music reviews, concerts, bands, articles and music festivals.
Arcade Fire's New Signs of Life on "Everything Now"
August 4, 2017 E.
I wasn’t going to write anything about Arcade Fire’s Everything Now, and with good reason: with such an omnipresent marketing (and faux-marketing) campaign, Arcade Fire has stormed the barricades of conventional music releases with their latest record, leaving nary a stone unturned. Not merely content with appealing to their hardcore indie fan base, their brilliant social media schemes, memes and always-earnest/leave-it-all-on-the-stage shows have attracted a wider net of mainstream audiences. By skewering the absurdity of consumerist, capitalist, narcissistic America where it lives and breathes – the internet – AF is now in the same arena as big corporations shilling their wares… and by expertly borrowing the language and graphics long used by ad hacks, AF (under the guise of its fake parent company The Everything Now Corporation) seems to be beating them at their own game.
But all of this has been said, more or less, in recent reviews of the band’s exploits and excellent new album “Everything Now.” So rather than regurgitate the obvious (with the exception of the paragraph above) I’ve been diving into the album alone, bobbing my head to the beats, enjoying the treasure hunt of inspired not-so-hidden musical treats the band has left for its fans throughout the record in the form of derivative rhythms, chimes, vocal theatrics, lyrical nods to AF’s own musical heroes. As I’ve listened, I’ve been revisiting my own journey with AF, which began after “The Suburbs,” and which has taken me to Coachella, Haiti, Montreal, New Orleans, and other, more spiritual and introspective aural and aortic landscapes.
Then M. called, wondering when I’d write about it. I explained my reasons for wanting to let this one pass. “I’m too close to it,” I said. “I couldn’t be objective if I tried.”
But that’s the point, he insisted. If you’re lucky as a music fan, your favorite band will put out five, six albums in your lifetime. And when it happens, it’s an event. That’s why you need to write something.
As I mulled this over, he added, with typical reverse-psychology intentions, But you can do what you want.
And here we are.
What sent me over the edge? All the negative “reviews” of this latest AF project. When my kids’ friends tell me that they love the album but ask, “Why did Pitchfork only give it a 5.6?” and wonder if there’s something wrong with them because they like it, it makes me think that the music zine wunderkinds are just a bit too full of themselves. As a culture, we’ve historically given too much power to critics, as though they know more than we do. The deal with reviewing art is: you can only like what you like based on what you’ve liked in the past and the sounds/beats/lyrics that you are (literally) genetically predisposed to like. And even if an influential magazine claims that Beyonce’s latest album is the aural equivalent of the second coming of Christ, I can’t guarantee I’ll even check it out. I know she’s a big deal, I like what she stands for, etc., but it’s her sister Solange who makes music that speaks directly to me.
So reading the Pitchfork review, with a subheadline that declares “The Montreal band’s fifth album finds them in musical and lyrical stasis. The pale, joyless songs don’t transcend their social critique – they succumb to it,” I guess I had to laugh at the arrogance of rock critics who consider themselves and their opinions to be the nexus of good taste.
But, as the poet Mary Oliver says in her poem Wild Geese, “You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.” And I love Arcade Fire, with its supposed fifth-album warts, disco beats and all. I couldn’t write an objective review if I tried. I’m in too deep, as M. might say. So, with that disclaimer, here are my thoughts on Everything Now:
Arcade Fire knows what they’re doing. They’re no longer striving to be the cool kids who mask their naivete with denim jackets and Doc Martens (although their current tour get-ups are plenty cool with exactly those items). They no longer need to shout their lyrics to be heard; people are listening. In this go-round, AF presents a post-Reflektor account of what happens when our society ignores its reflection in the mirror and snaps a selfie instead. Lyrics about our consumer-driven lives are tempered by bouts of all-out dance music. I mean, how best to remedy the fucked-up reality of our 1984/Big Brother political landscape than with Studio 54-style disco? And then I ask you, is it any wonder that LCD Soundsystem (with frontman James Murphy, who produced tracks on Reflektor) is back from the dead?
I love the intro/outro/transitional elements of Everything Now, using sirens and cash register beeps and windchimes. I also love the way that songs bleed into each other (like old vinyl or cassettes, in the days before playlists and tracks) and rhythms and lyrics are repeated throughout the album for different effects. The best example of this are the twin tracks “Infinite Content” and “Infinite_Content.” Both songs share the lyrics
Infinite content
we’re infinitely content
all your money is already spent on it
all your money is already spent
— Infinite Content / Infinite_Content
The first song (no underscore) could be the pop-punk theme song of a Dan Schneider/Nickelodeon show (cue the montage of kids dancing in hallways and pulling pranks, or cutting to a bubble gum or breakfast cereal commercial). Then the frenzy gives way to a lush alt-country ballad that recalls both AF’s “Wasted Hours” and any Neil Young love song. The “gimme gimme/I want it NOW” feeling of “Infinite Content” gleans new meaning with its side-by-side juxtaposition with the sorrowful emotional delivery of the lyrics in “Infinite_Content,” in which the narrator may have sold his soul (and last dollar) for something that ultimately didn’t change his life. Left holding the pieces of a life unchanged, the line “we’re infinitely content” feels more like magical thinking, a falsely positive affirmation in the face of bleak reality.
I love the dark and fuzzy “Creature Comfort,” which Salon.com claimed as evidence that AF is “thumbing its nose” at us. But (as you can imagine), I don’t agree. This song, which recalls the driving electronic distortion of “Ghost Rider” by Suicide, balances its dark lyrics (about the inner critic and painful humanity) and deep bass line with a shimmering synth melody and an overlay of Regine’s lovely fairy-sprite voice. For me, the song is about grappling with the desire for instant gratification in body image, sex, “likes” and clicks online, etc. And when none of those things work, there’s always suicide as a “painless” antidote to living. But then there’s the bridge: It’s not painless/she was a friend of mine… Between the lines, the message is, for better or worse, there is no pain-free alternative to life and humanity. The best we can do is live our truth. The most beautiful part of the song, lost on the radio edit, is the faint windchime melody at the end in the tune of “Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels).” The connection is made between this sense of innocence lost and the idea that if the snow buries my neighborhood/then I’ll dig a tunnel/from my window to yours. There is another way out, not past the pain but through it.
In Pitchfork, the songs “Peter Pan” and “Chemistry” were passed off as throw-away tracks, but I hear the Haitian rara beat and the messy horns and it transports me to the wild, tangled streets of Port-au-Prince and New Orleans. There is voodoo in the mix, and I can see a band of kids on Royal Street with hand-me-down brass, clapping their hands and stomping as the kid blowing the tuba sways in the sticky late evening breeze. The words don’t matter here. This is Win Butler standing in a circle of musicians, clanging a drumstick on a bottle of Prestige and spouting whatever lyrics come to mind, everything to keep the beat and jam going. It’s an electronic reggae mash-up dance party with electric guitars a NoLa second line.
“Good God Damn” revisits the girl facing suicide in “Creature Comforts,” wondering “Maybe there’s a good God… damn…” over and over, as though working out whether or not suicide is the answer. “Put Your Money On Me” has been hailed as a second coming of Abba, but you can also hear an undercurrent of Donna Summer’s disco manifesto “I Feel Love” in the beginning and on the fringes.
I could go on and on about the title track and “Electric Blue” (a true-to-the-Tom-Tom-Club cocaine hangover sparkler), but those songs can speak for themselves. Instead, let’s talk about the final songs, which bring the finger pointing of the early tracks to a screeching halt. On “We Don’t Deserve Love,” we’re reminded why we have bought into the consumerism culture in the first place: we think we must do/think/act/look like the most popular celebrities and buy what they do in order to feel worthy, rather than focus on our inner lives. And then the sleepy, strings-laden “Everything Now (continued),” with its lyrical echoes from the rest of the album, brings us back around to where we began (if you listen to it on a loop, it transitions perfectly into “Everything_Now (continued)”).
Was it all a just a dream – the consumerism, the rush to be seen and known, our little lives on earth?
More importantly, can we make it back again?
To recap: yes, I love Everything Now. And even if you don’t, it’s worth a second listen. Like the ambitious albums of the Beatles, I think the layers of this album will only be revealed over a lifetime of coming back to it. Don’t rush it. There’s infinite content, and you’ve got the time.
An extra treat: ^ this video of Win Butler describing his songwriting process.
Photo of Arcade Fire at Voodoo Fest, New Orleans, October 30, 2016 by M.
categories albums, bands, E., music lust, reviews
tags Arcade Fire, Everything Now, indie rock, review, albums, pitchfork, win butler
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© EvilTapo and www.eviltapo.com, 2016. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to EvilTapo and www.eviltapo.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
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PM Dancila: We must show greater responsibility and come up with projects for this country
Prime Minister Viorica Dancila declared on Thursday in Targu Mures that politicians must show greater responsibility and come up with projects for Romania and that she called on the representatives of all parties to pay close attention to what they state in the political debates, because "there is life beyond the electoral campaign".
The prime minister referred to the statements of National Liberal Party (PNL) candidate to the European Parliament elections Rares Bogdan, according to whom the US press reports on the construction of Cernavoda reactors 3 and 4 would indicate the Romanian government as playing "China's games" to the detriment of US companies.
"Sometimes such statements are not worth commenting on. It is obvious that they are only thinking in terms of the electoral campaign, and that such statements can do harm to Romania. I have asked everyone from all the political parties to be very careful about what they state because there is life beyond the campaign and Romania's image and Romanians are the important ones. Of course, this is not the case, of course we have a very good relationship with the United States and I think these statements are just in relation to the campaign. I think we have to show more responsibility and come up with projects for this country if we really want to have a constructive approach, not with statements that actually raise questions about the country's image," said Viorica Dancila.
The premier has stated that Romania's path is one in favour of the North Atlantic Alliance and in favour of the European Union and that our country has demonstrated this.
"It is clear that our path is pro-Atlantic, pro-European, and through everything we have done, we have demonstrated this, either through the way we are valued in NATO or through the way that all member states and not only appreciate the Rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union," said Viorica Dancila.
Premier Viorica Dancila was in Targu Mures on Thursday alongside Health Minister Sorina Pintea on a working visit to the County Emergency Clinical Hospital where she had a series of meetings with county officials and medical doctors.
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My 2014 in Review
So, 2014 has come and gone. Wow. Time flies, huh?
Looking back, 2014 was a much better year than I realised. Even though I only had one story published, there were a number of significant milestones that are well worth celebrating.
But, first, let me get the negatives out of the way.
We lost some good people last year, and some people I care about had some tough times. That puts my problems into perspective, in the scheme of things I was very fortunate. So, I don’t really want to go into details as so many others have it so much worse, but during 2014 I struggled with some medical issues and, when added to my talent for taking too much on, I had a bit of a meltdown. The medical stuff is nothing life threatening, or anything for anyone to worry about, but enough to cause some issues. It’s not an excuse, but this did contribute to me messing up a couple of deadlines and letting some people down. You know who you are and, again, I apologise. It’s something I am very disappointed with myself in, and I hope that 2015 will be a much better year for that!
Looking back at the goals that I had set myself, I am disappointed to note that I still haven’t caught up on Doctor Who! Hopefully I can remedy that before Easter for reasons that will become clear later in this post.
I also haven’t made that first pro rate sale, though I do feel that I am getting closer and closer, and I might have another announcement to make soon..
But, on to the good things! There really were some wonderful moments, and I have a lot to be thankful for. And, it’s been great to feel like I am actually making some progress with my writing.
Unfortunately, I can’t share my biggest piece of news yet, but stay tuned as it will be announced around February.
Amongst the things I can talk about are:
After an eighteen year career in the field (pretty much straight out of Year 11), I left IT. I was seconded to our Editorial Department for 6 months in the position of Deputy Editor of one of our magazines (though I was essentially doing the Editor’s job). I can now announce that last week I signed a contract extending my contract and naming me Editor. So, I guess I can say that I am a full time editor and writer now! There are not many people who get the chance to make a living from writing, so I feel incredibly blessed to have this opportunity– it really has changed my life. And, this has been so beneficial to my own writing, both in what I am learning from editing, and because I am excited to be at work everyday instead being stressed and frustrated all the time. (which I know makes me very fortunate). I also think it has made me more productive, too, if there is a writing muscle, the more you use it the stronger it gets
From a fiction writing POV, one of the highlights of 2014 was being shortlisted for the WSFA Small Press Award. As I said at the time, seeing my name alongside all the past nominees and winners was a huge thrill and I was gobsmacked when I found out. I never expected to be nominated, let alone win, so I wasn’t that disappointed to lose–especially to a great story.
After two previous nominations, winning a William J. Atheling Jr Award for the New Who reviews. I have felt very privileged to get to work with Tehani and Tansy, and humbled to tie with Galactic Suburbia, one of my biggest influences. Hopefully I can catch up on the latest seasons soon!
The Ditmar for Galactic Chat. A huge amount of the credit for this needs to go to Sean Wright, our podcast overlord, and it was great to see him recognised for his hard work. It felt a bit weird winning an award for having the opportunity to get to talk to some of my writing heroes. Seems like a bit of a rort, really! lol
Which leads on to the interviews with Ken Liu and Kameron Hurley. Wow, talk about gushing fanboy moments. Just a hint: next year wills ee even more fanboying! I have a few more writing superstars lined up for you.
Being asked to return as part of the Aussie Snapshot team. This one was even bigger than the last one, and we managed to cover a huge cross section of the Aussie Spec Fic scene. If you haven’t read it yet, you are really missing out!
Even though I had a quiet year in publications, I managed to sell some stories and I have already have three new stories confirmed for 2015 (including a sale to Fablecroft and coeur de lion) as well as something a bit longer which I can’t talk about yet (and that is killing me).
The release of a bundle of my short stories from Clan Destine Press, including a brand new story that I am rather proud of, and am very glad to see find a home. It already has a great review!
Managing to make a good start on the collaborative young adult novel I am working on, It’s definitely starting to take shape now and has gotten to that point where it has developed some momentum, and the process that we decided to use seems to be working (big thanks to Amie Kaufman for her generosity with her time and advice. I am very excited about where it is heading, and you can expect to hear more about it in 2015
Helping my good friend, Laura Goodin, perform a radio play at Conflux. Hopefully there will be a version available for your listening pleasure soon
Beating “Hold Over Funds” to become the FFANZ delegate. I am really excited about heading over tot New Zealand in 2015, i am sure that it is going to be a blast. It looks like I need to be caught up on Doctor Who by then, though!
Amazing fun at Continuum X and Conflux 10
Aside from all these, there is something even more important to mention. I got to spend time with existing friends, made a number of new friends and, most of all, was continually reminded of what an amazing community we have in Australia. A number of my friends had some great moments of their own, and I was delighted to see their successes (and quite often got to help celebrate them, which is always fun).
The big goals for 2015:
Get that elusive pro sale!
Finish the YA novel and get it off for submission.
Catch up with Doctor Who.
Get my solo novel done.
Start another conversational review series about a series of books that are very dear to my heart
Try and get involved in some sort of news/discussion podcast
And, that’s probably enough for now!
Hopefully I will be at a few cons in 2015. I always try and get to Continuum, and I have brought my membership and booked my hotel for the Worldcon on in Spokane. And, of course, I will be in NZ for their Natcon.
I am looking forward to 2015, which I think might be my biggest yet, and I will be hoping for the same for you!
This entry was posted in Writing and tagged 2014snapshot, anthologies, awards, community, conflux, continuum, conventions, Ditmar Awards, Doctor Who, Fablecroft, podcasts, reviews, sales, writing on December 31, 2014 by David.
The march to global domination continues!
Some more Aussie Snapshot news!
The collated list of interviews is up on SF Signal. Thanks to the team there for hosting us, and hopefully it will mean more international exposure for our snapshotees.
There is also a nice article on Yahoo, via the West Australian
And, last but not least, the ever industrious Tehani and Katharine have started archiving all the old snapshots on a dedicated site. Eventually the new interviews will go there, too. Check it out for a glimpse of the scope of the project, and of the awesomeness of the Aussie scene.
This entry was posted in Writing and tagged 2014snapshot, community on August 19, 2014 by David.
The Australian Spec Fic Snapshot 2014 – Ambelin Kwaymullina
Ambelin Kwaymullina is an Aboriginal writer and illustrator from the Palyku people. The homeland of her people is located in the dry, vivid beauty of the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Ambelin has written and illustrated a number of award winning picture books as well as writing a dystopian series – ‘the Tribe’ – for Young Adults. When not writing or illustrating, Ambelin teaches law and spends time with her family and her dogs.
You are halfway though a Young Adult series (the Tribe) that mixes dystopian and post apocalyptic themes with social commentary, to critical acclaim. What is it that attracted you to YA? Do you think that there are themes or concepts that YA can explore differently than other genres?
Why do I write for the young? We owe them something, those of us who are older – at the very least, we owe them a world that is a little better than the one we inherited. And it only takes the briefest glance at the situations in which many young people across the globe are living to know that we adults are collectively doing a very poor job of providing such a place. I’ve said before that I don’t invent worlds where the young are at risk; I just write about how to defy that reality. And YA explores those issues differently because it does so from the perspective of the young and not the old. I think we become far too accepting of the many injustices of this planet as we grow older; we can even come to believe that great inequities are inevitabilities rather than things created and perpetuated by human beings and human societies. But what we as a species have done we can also challenge, defy and undo – and the young understand this far better than the old.
Recently, you were the Guest of Honour at the Australian National Convention, Continuum X, which I believe was your first time as a GOH. How did you find the experience? Was it what you expected?
I loved it! And I did approach it with a degree of trepidation because I knew I would be speaking to issues that some people find confronting, including the appropriation of Indigenous culture. And, okay, yes, a few people did come up to me and say things that were not very nice. But the vast majority came seeking to improve their understanding and to engage with what I was talking about. In the end, I think what I had fulfilled at Continuum X was not an expectation but a hope – because I hoped, at a spec fic convention, to find people who seemed like they came from a better time and place. I hoped to meet people who valued the great diversity of human existence and who were doing their level best to make their corner of the world just a little bit brighter for those around them. And I did.
While at Continuum, you continued the tradition of marvellous GoH speeches (you can read an abridged and edited version of the speech here), and it has attracted a great deal of comment on the internet. Were you surprised by the reception your speech received? What results or changes would you like to see come out of your speech?
I was surprised, in a good way, at the level of attention the speech received. And if there is a change I’d like to see people make, it’s this: pay attention. Start noticing when small acts of exclusion occur around you. And start speaking out or intervening (if it is safe to do so, and get help if it isn’t). I think people are too often susceptible to believing it’s big, grand gestures that truly matter. But like water running over rock, it is our everyday behaviour that shapes who we are and the world in which we live. Besides which, as someone who has had the ugliness of racism and sexism directed at them, I can tell you this: for someone else to speak up is a grand gesture, and a profoundly important one. We are all more powerful together than alone.
What Australian works have you loved recently?
I’ve been revisiting Isobelle Carmody’s Obernewtyn series recently. This was one of the first spec fic series I ever read, and it retains its magic for me through many re-readings; I never get tired of it.
Have recent changes in the publishing industry influenced the way you work? What do you think you will be publishing/writing/reading in five years from now?
I try to write the best story I can; I can’t say I pay that much attention to changes in the industry (aside from anything else I just don’t have the time to keep up, any ‘spare’ time is devoted to writing). I do pay attention to writers, and I read as much as I can, most especially Indigenous writers both from Australia and elsewhere. And I will, of course, perpetually be reading and writing speculative fiction. I have a new three book series in my head right now, and a different, longer series after that. I’m not short on material. Just time.
This interview was conducted as part of the 2014 Aussie Spec Fic Snapshot. In the lead up to the World Science Fiction Convention in London, we will be blogging interviews for Snapshot 2014 conducted by Tsana Dolichva, Nick Evans, Stephanie Gunn, Kathryn Linge, Elanor Matton-Johnson, David McDonald, Helen Merrick, Jason Nahrung, Ben Payne, Alex Pierce, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Helen Stubbs, Katharine Stubbs, Tehani Wessely and Sean Wright.
To read the interviews hot off the press, check out these blogs daily from July 28 to August 10, 2014, or look for the round up on SF Signal when it’s all done. You can find the past Snapshots at the following links: 2005, 2007, 2010 and 2012.
This entry was posted in Writing and tagged 2014snapshot, Ambelin Kwaymullina, interviews on August 10, 2014 by David.
The Australian Spec Fic Snapshot 2014 – Karen Wyld
Karen Wyld lives by the sea, nestled between scrub, hills and vineyards. She’s had an eclectic working life, and currently works in Aboriginal workforce development. From dabbling with poetry as a soppy adolescent, to editor of a pre-internet alternative magazine, Karen now uses social media to procrastinate.
Never content with taking the easy path in life, Karen independently published her first novel. With sights on becoming a hybrid author, she is working concurrently on four genre-confused manuscripts.
Visit Karen’s website to find out about her first novel ‘When Rosa Came Home’. While there, read some short stories and blog-posts.
You live in an incredibly beautiful corner of Australia, and some of the shots on your blog are stunning. You also get to do a fair bit of travel around the place. When it comes to your writing, how much of an influence are your surroundings? How big a part does a sense of place play in your stories?
Over the last five years, my day-jobs have involved a fair bit of travelling through country South Australia, and more recently around Australia. Recent business trips involved airports and motel rooms in capital cities. It’s surprising how much writing can be done in a motel room, especially if it doesn’t have free Wi-Fi. However, I’m a country-girl at heart, and need to occasionally get out on the open road.
Travel inspires me on many levels. I’ve just returned from a two-week road trip from coastal South Australia to Uluru, Northern Territory. Finding myself suddenly in-between work (my job was a victim of the recent federal budget cuts to Aboriginal services), I ended up doing this trip on the cheap. This meant days of driving (window down, belting out songs) and then sleeping in my car at night (it was too windy for the tent). Might sound awful to some, but this mode of travel gave me a much better perspective of the country I was travelling through than the usual plane plus motel combo.
Photo by Darren De Silva
I started a new job this week, so I’m now looking at how to keep travelling as a writer. The dream of the moment is to hunt down a vintage caravan, renovate it, and hit the road on week-ends. I can imagine travelling to new places, writing, speaking at writers festivals; and then coming home to the beautiful Fleurieu Peninsula. Home is important to me.
I’ve always felt a strong connection to my surroundings, and I think that comes out clearly in both my fiction and non-fiction writing. Done right, place becomes another character in a novel. A reader should be able to not only see the setting of the story, but to smell, feel, hear and taste. What better way to evoke all senses then through place?
There is a beautiful tribute to Doris Nugi Garimara Pilkington AM on your blog. Could you tell us a little about her influence on you, and your writing? Are there other writers who have influenced you, or in whose footsteps you wish to follow?
Aunty Doris, who passed away earlier this year, is on my list of inspiring authors for two reasons. Firstly, because of her courage to write about issues many would have preferred stayed secret. And secondly, being related to a fearless female author inspires me to use my own writer-voice.
Some people label me as ‘political’, as I have a strong sense of social justice, and I’m very vocal about rights for humans, animals and the environment. Naturally I gravitate to writers who tell brave stories, and touch on enviro-socio-political issues. Which is probably why I mostly read, and write, magic realism. It’s a genre that is rich in place, and gives a voice to the oppressed. Magic realism is strongest when used by First Nation peoples that are grappling with the aftermath of colonisation, and other power-based atrocities.
Many Australian First Nation writers, past and present, are labelled as political. Mostly published by universities and small publishing houses, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers have been sharing brave stories for decades, especially using autobiographical and historical styles. This is changing as new Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers find their own voices, and explore other genres, putting pressure on publishers to accept a broader range of work. We shouldn’t be expected to fit in a certain literary box, or always create main characters who are Aboriginal, or story-lines that involve Aboriginal issues, culture or histories.
Still, we need to honour the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers who have paved the way for us, and brought important issues to the attention of mainstream Australia, as well as internationally. Aunty Doris will always be remembered as having a pivotal role in raising awareness of darker times in Australian history. A time not so long ago, when many children were forcibly removed from family and community, through polices founded on cultural bias and xenophobia. By writing of these times, her words have helped progress healing and social justice. I believe that to constructively influence peoples’ worldviews through writing, to bring about much needed change, is the pinnacle of writing.
You’ve talked on your blog about coming to writing later in life. Can you tell us a little about the road to publication, and what the future holds? What are you working on?
To clarify, I’ve been writing both fiction and non-fiction from a young age, but only just published my first novel. In the 80s, I volunteered for an alternative magazine. I eventually became the editor and main contributor, until it got too much juggling the challenges of micro-publishing in the pre-internet days, and being the sole provider of a young family. I finished my first full-length manuscript about 20 years ago, but I put it in a drawer after being disheartened by the messages I was hearing from the publishing industry. However, like the banks’ opposition to women seeking mortgages, it was just a matter of waiting until attitudes changed. Decades later, having obtained the qualifications to get an acceptable income to buy a house, I felt it was time to publish a book.
The timing was perfect. Advances in technology, and the way people use new technology and social media as a source of information and entertainment, has had a positive impact on publishing. Control is slowly shifting from the gate-keepers to the innovators, and this has opened the flood gates for aspiring writers. Diving into this on-line world enabled me to connect with supportive writers from around the world, and given me the means to learn both the art and business of writing. Going indie is not easy, and it’s extremely time consuming, but I’m glad I’ve taken that pathway. I’ve had to build a wide range of capabilities, and master elements that traditionally published writers wouldn’t even know existed. I’ve also had to toughen up; to not let the creative side take over, and instead make decisions based on good practice. Publishing independently does not mean that quality should be compromised, nor does it mean doing it alone. So for my first novel, I outsourced key elements of the publishing process, such as editing and cover design.
As an emerging writer, I’m not confined to any particular genre, and like to create hybrids. So far, my work fits within magic realism, literary fiction, indigenous literature, speculative fiction, or contemporary fiction with a dash of the absurd. Over the past few years, I have developed a number of manuscripts, which are in differing pre-published stages. The next one off the rank, which I will venture down the traditional publishing path for, is a politically-charged magic realism novel, set in the 60/70s. Through the lives of non-identical Aboriginal sisters, and their mother, the book explores themes such as identity, diaspora, racism, country and belonging. The characters travel through Country, from coast to desert, so place will be a key element of this story.
I don’t recall the last time I read a book by an Australian author. Writing on a daily basis changes the way you read. I still read daily, but the way I read has changed. For me, writing involves a rhythm, both when stringing words together on screen and when reading. I find too many recently published novels lack a rhythm I can relate to, so I don’t often read for pure enjoyment anymore.
Because I needed to pack lighter when travelling, I went over to the dark side and am now an avid reader of e-books. I read a lot of e-books by other indie authors. Some as research into this emerging side of publishing, but mostly to support writers I’ve met through social media. There is a strong sense of community and playing-it-forward amongst indie writers. If there is a traditionally published book I really want to read, then I’ll look for it at the local library. The big publishing houses don’t seem to understand, or are resistant to, new ways of reading. They often overlook e-books, or overprice their books on-line, and basically make it more difficult for readers to access commercially published books.
When I do read for enjoyment, I usually find myself returning to my collection of books with dog-eared pages. My favourites have rhythm, they are rich in descriptive prose, evoke emotions, and touch upon important issues. So I re-read books such as Beloved (Toni Morrison), One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez) or Marie Laveau (Francine Prose). At the moment, I am not connecting to fantasy or sci fi novels. However, a new Pratchett novel will always get my attention.
We live in exciting times and, for writers who are able to adapt, it’s only going to get more interesting. Writers finally have choices, and are no longer kept out of the game by conservative guardians. These changes will be of particular benefit to writers who may have been pushed aside in the past, such as indigenous writers, and for those who creatively explore genres that are not considered profitable by industry.
It’s not only writers that are benefiting from a transforming industry. We now have more choices of reading material, at prices that suit all incomes, and buying methods that are more consumer-driven. And the breadth of available storytelling formats is amazing. The way we tell and absorb stories will keep on changing at such a rapid pace that it is almost impossible to predict the next five years.
Hopefully, changes will include the actual bones of story, and not just how they are published and consumed. Personally, I think many novels have become stripped of descriptive prose. Writers are being told to be concise with dialogue and scarce on adverbs. Verbs and adjectives have also become victims of the prevalence of action-packed books. Reading should be challenging, it should expand both our vocabularies and capacity to think and feel. We might be at risk of losing the beauty, and profound messages, which can be found within books.
My first novel was driven by a dissatisfaction with contemporary novels; those with a pace that is much too quick and prose too thin. I purposely slowed down, filled the pages with uncommon words and enhanced the role of setting. I also experimented with how far I could push an allegorical style of writing. What resulted was a warm tale for adults, reminiscent of fairy tales but without fairies and similar folk. Now that I’ve had my fun, the next few novels will be in a more serious vein. However, if I can continue to fuse magic realism, gothic tales, speculative fiction and other non-commercial genres, I’m sure I will still writing far beyond the next five years.
This entry was posted in Writing and tagged 2014snapshot, interviews, Karen Wyld on August 10, 2014 by David.
The Australian Spec Fic Snapshot 2014 – Raymond Gates
Raymond Gates is an Aboriginal Australian writer based on the Gold Coast, whose childhood crush on reading everything dark and disturbing evolved into an adult love affair with writing horror. He has published a number of short stories, several of which have been nominated for the Australian Shadows Awards. With the help of his muse, he plans to drag the novel that lurks within him into the light. Delve into his mind at: http://www.raymondgates.com. You can aslo find him on Facebook and Twitter.
You¹ve built up a strong list of short fiction sales, appearing in some great anthologies, and storming the Australian Shadows Awards! What is it about short fiction that appeals to you?
I think all would-be writers can benefit from cutting their teeth on short fiction. It’s a great way to practice getting the elements of writing – characterisation, storyline, voice, etc. – just right for the story you want to tell. It’s also a good way of getting ideas out of your head and onto the
page. Not every story is novel-length, however that doesn’t mean it’s any less of a story. It still deserves to be told. When I write, I don’t start with a word count in mind. I just write and the story is as long as it needs to be. I think short fiction works well for many readers as well,
particularly those reading digital formats and reading between activities. If a novel opens a window to another world, short fiction allows you to peek through the curtain, and sometimes that’s all you want to do.
Recently, you did a radio interview where you talked about, amongst other things, issues relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander writers in genre fiction. How do you feel the Australian spec fic community is doing when it comes to welcoming indigenous writers What are some of the challenges? Are there any writers we should be keeping an eye out for?
I think the Rhianna Patrick’s Beyond Unaipon series showed that Indigenous spec fic writers are starting to make inroads into the Australian community, and I think the community is ready to embrace this. Part of this is that, as other writers interviewed in the series stated, the development of the indie market and relative ease of self-publishing has given Indigenous writers unprecedented opportunities to get their work into the public arena. Traditional or ‘mainstream’ publishers seem to have been reluctant to run with anything Indigenous that was not biographical, historic, or about social issues. The feedback I’ve had in the past indicates this is primarily based on fear: fear of getting the cultural sensitivity issues right, so as not to receive any backlash – real or perceived – from Indigenous communities, and fear that the Australian public won’t support spec fic with Indigenous overtones, or grounded in Indigenous culture.
Yet I think writers such as Ambelin Kwaymullina, Teagan Chilcott, and Tristan Savage are demonstrating that not only is the spec fic community ready to hear stories told by Indigenous writers, they’re finding that Indigenous writers bring something unique to the spec fic world through their culture and background. Publishers need to start working with Indigenous writers not only to bring out great stories, but to understand how to incorporate Indigenous culture and ideas into spec fic while maintaining cultural safety. That will get us past these fears, and once that happens, I think you’ll witness an explosion of Indigenous writers and stories into the spec fic market.
What’ s on the horizon for Raymond Gates? I believe there might be a novel lurking, and even some game development?
I have produced some short fiction for an Australian table-top miniatures game developer, Demigod Games, as part of the background to their historical-fantasy setting of their game, Conquest of the Gods, and there may be more opportunities to work with them on similar projects in the future. I have been forever threatening to produce a novel, and have spent the last several months engaged in some serious research with Brisbane’s Goth community and the Carpathian Magistratus Vampire Society to help make sure I get things right (there’s a hint as to what it might be about!).
I’ve also been approached by a small television and film production studio to discuss the possibility of adapting some of my short fiction to the screen, which is very exciting – I’d love to see some of my work brought to life in a Tales from the Crypt type of show, or as part of a short film festival!
Beyond that, I just keep writing, and looking for and welcoming opportunities to share my imagination with others.
Sadly, I haven’t had the opportunity lately to spend any time with fiction. The last Australian writer I read was Ruby Langford Ginibi’s account of her life through her first book, Don’t Take Your Love to Town. It was especially important to me because not only is it a poignant and moving insight into the life of an extraordinary Aboriginal woman, and life for many Aboriginal people over the last half-century, but as Ruby and I are related it gave me an insight into a side of my family that I’ve never known.
There’s no question the rise of self-publishing and the indie market has changed the publishing industry forever. That alone is not only influencing what and how people write, but how people read and access works. I don’t believe we’ll ever see the predicted demise of the paperback though, because reading is more than just ingesting words, it’s an experience. Those dog-eared, creased, coffee-stained, slightly torn pages are far more intimate that the cold glare of a screen will ever be. As for how it influences my work over the next five years; I’m still keen to adhere to the traditional publishing route for now, because I believe this is more likely to keep challenging and developing me as a writer and (hopefully) move me into the upper echelons of the spec fic world. My next goals are to crack the professional markets and see at least one novel of mine on the shelves.
I would like to see the horror genre – my genre – return to its former glory days when horror meant exploring the deep, dark recesses of the imagination and unknown, rather than piggybacking onto the latest trends. And if I can be part of, or even instrumental, in that process, all the better.
This entry was posted in Writing and tagged 2014snapshot, interviews, Raymond Gates on August 10, 2014 by David.
The Australian Spec Fic Snapshot 2014 – Holly Kench
Holly Kench is a writer and a feminist, with a classics degree and a fear of spiders. She lives in Tasmania, Australia, where a lack of sun provides ample opportunity for hiding indoors and writing off-kilter stories. Holly writes about her life as a stuffed olive on her blog Confessions of a Stuffed Olive and manages the website Visibility Fiction, promoting and publishing inclusive young adult fiction.
I am a huge fan of your cartoons! When did you first start creating them, and can you tell us a bit about the process involved?
Thank you, David!
I started creating my cartoons nearly three years ago when I first decided to start taking my writing seriously (more than writing only for myself and friends). I wrote a few stories and put them on my blog, but they seemed really boring without pictures (because I have the maturity of a 3 year old and the attention span of a dead goldfish) so I decided to illustrate them with stick figures, and it snowballed from there. At some point the illustrations kind of took over…
My process? You make it sound like these things are the result of some kind of forethought. Typically each comic or story begins with me experiencing some socially awkward event, or remembering some mortifying childhood experience. Then I write. All my posts begin as text – usually long rambles written at 3am. Often by the time I finish writing, I realise I can say the same thing with more punch if I delete all the words and just draw a few sad looking stick figures. Of course, words are my enduring love, so a lot of the time the fun for me comes from crafting those rambles. The luxury of my Olive cartoons is that I can pick and choose whether I want to create a short comic or a short story, and can use supplementary stick figures to give my stories another dimension.
I create all my Olive pictures in MS Paint and maintain that it is the best graphics program since, well, MacPaint. Once I’ve added in the pictures, I hit ‘publish’ before I can think about it too long and chicken out.
You have a story in the upcoming YA anthology from Twelfth Planet Press, Kaleidoscope, alongside an amazing range of YA authors. What inspired you to write your story, and why did that anthology in particular appeal?
I was so excited when I first heard about Kaleidoscope. I’ve been a fan of Julia Rios, via The Outer Alliance Podcast, and Alisa Krasnostein, via the Galactic Suburbia Podcast and Twelfth Planet Press, for quite a while. Both their podcasts are on my must-listen list. So when I heard they had teamed up to create an anthology with a theme that basically summarised everything I was dying to see in fiction… well, I happy-freaked out.
I didn’t have to read the planned table of contents to know this was going to be a fantastic anthology. Then when I did discover the amazing authors they had included… I mean, what can I say? I just feel so lucky to be involved.
My fan-girling for Alisa, Julia and the rest of the Kaleidoscope authors aside, the theme of Kaleidoscope is something I feel very passionately about. I’ve written quite a bit in the past about the need for more diversity in fiction and it was clear from Alisa and Julia’s initial posts about the anthology that they were coming from a very similar perspective to my reasons behind starting Visibility Fiction.
My story “Every Little Thing” was loosely inspired by a novel I wrote (but never quite finished) a few years ago. Even though I eventually put that novel in the drawer-of-doomed-manuscripts, one of the secondary characters really stuck with me. When I read the submission call for Kaleidoscope, that character came straight to mind and I knew I had to tell a story from her perspective – though Mandy ended up being significantly modified from her original being. I can’t tell you how happy I am to have her story included in Kaleidoscope. I hope people like it.
You manage the site visibilityfiction.com. What is the site’s mission, and where do you see it going in the future?
As I mentioned, Visibility Fiction’s mission coincides a lot with that of the Kaleidoscope anthology. We publish and promote young adult fiction with protagonists from diverse backgrounds. Our aim is to create a space where people can access free, positive stories about diverse characters, and to address the imbalance of representation in fiction, which tends to focus on straight, white, cis, able (etc) characters.
When I first started the site, I had just finished some university work focusing on LGBT representations in teen culture (comparing the representation of the closet in Buffy and Pretty Little Liars – heh), but I soon realised that the lack of LGBT characters in TV, film and fiction was only the tip of the iceberg when it came to missing representations.
I also realised that no matter how much I wrote about the current imbalances in character representations, if I wanted to really commit to seeing change, I needed to actively address the problem from within fiction. I began writing more diverse stories, but I also realised there were so many experiences that I could not even fathom. I decided there needed to be more spaces where people could access diverse stories from diverse voices, and spaces that promoted inclusive fiction in all its forms. So I made one.
My dream for the future is to be able to offer pro-payments to authors. I want to see more stories and a wider range of authors on the site. I’m very fussy about the stories we publish, in terms of the writing and the nature of the diversity presented. We have some fantastic stories up there and I’d like to see more. A pro-payment would help with this, but I also think it’s only fair for authors to receive that kind of compensation for their work. We run on donations, though, so our budget is fairly restricted.
Looking even further down the track than that, I’d love for the site to eventually become obsolete. I want to get to the point where diversity in fiction isn’t something we have to search for and actively promote, but where diversity in fiction goes hand in hand with fiction itself. I think that would be amazing.
I fell into a steampunk spiral a little while ago and haven’t quite managed to pull myself out. There’s a lot more of it out there this year than in the past, both adult and YA, and this is both good and bad – good because it feeds my obsession, and bad because it’s beginning to get to that point where finding the good stuff amongst the rubbish can be a bit of a chore. That said, Australian author Bec McMaster totally brings the good stuff. I’m currently reading My Lady Quicksilver, which is the third in her London Steampunk series. These are some of the most addictive books I’ve read in a while, but a word of warning, they are VERY high on the steam scale of romance, so not for those who squirm at a bit of sexy times in their fiction. There’s a great overarching intrigue plot as well, and some of the best steampunk world building I’ve read.
Getting away from steampunk for a bit, I’ve also just started Nina D’Aleo’s The Whitelist. Last year I really enjoyed Nina D’Aleo’s The Last City, which was all fabulous characters and an amazing world. She has a very unique way of writing that really appeals to me and is very captivating, so I’m excited to be starting another of her novels.
I only read digital content these days, so the increase in the availability of digital content has hugely influenced my access to reading material. I love ebooks and I’m also a complete audiobook addict. I don’t remember how I functioned before audiobooks. I don’t even want to think about it. I’m also a big fan of libraries, and despite what some of the end-is-nigh paper book fanatics might say, the wonderful thing about libraries these days is the way they are adapting to provide more and more digital content (including audiobooks). Libraries are a good example of how previous models of book consumption can be adapted to make the most of the digital world, while still providing spaces that are all about book love. Seriously, guys, hug your librarian!
I think outlets for digital publications have also made it possible for more diverse and interesting fiction to be published. Stories that previously might have failed to find a path to publication through traditional models now have more opportunity to find an audience, not only via self-publishing, but also through digital first publishers which seem to be more willing to take risks with less mainstream content. For example, I’ve been reading a few female superhero novels lately (The Masked Songbird by Emmie Mears, Sidekick by Auralee Wallace and Scorched by Erica Hayes), all of which were released by digital first publishers, and I honestly have my doubts about whether some of these novels would have seen the light of day in the past.
As you can tell, I’m pretty positive about the way things are moving. There are definitely scary factors, but that’s the nature of transition, and I can see more good results from the new world of publishing than bad.
I have no idea what I’ll be publishing/writing/reading five years from now. Probably fiction, maybe some non-fiction. I can’t really say more than that.
This entry was posted in Writing and tagged 2014snapshot, Holly Kench, interviews on August 9, 2014 by David.
The Australian Spec Fic Snapshot 2014 – Lewis Morley
Lewis has a Bachelor of the Arts in Interior design from Sydney College of the Arts, and a Certificate in Art Direction from the Australian Film, TV and Radio School. He has worked for almost 30 years in the Australian film & TV industries. His specialities are miniatures and visual effects, special props, concept modelmaking and illustration. He has also won the “Ditmar” award for best Australian Science Fiction Artist. You can find out more here.
In the past you have worked for WETA on some incredible movies. What was your favourite project, and why?
Being asked to work at WETA was one of the high points of my film career. The Workshop is like Mount Olympus, everyone there is the best, working at the peak of their abilities. My traditional work method is to be involved in all aspects of the design, construction, finishing and filming of my projects. WETA is organised on a much more partitioned operation, with work often shared around to give everyone a go. I worked on Weta Collectables, both Lord of the Rings and Dr. Grodbort’s blasters as well as the films “The Hobbit” and “Elysium”. The Hobbit workload was Goblin weapon finishing, Azog costume development and constructing a lightweight Gandalf dummy for the final battle. Elysium tasks included sculpting a maquette of the robot suit (my personal favourite), building a mock-up robot suit and developing an on-set disintegrating Chem-Rail gun effect.
The guitar that you made for Richard Harland is one of the coolest things I have ever seen. Can you tell us how that project came about? Have you made any other custom projects based on objects from books? If you could pick any object from any book to make, what would it be?
I was asked by Richard to create something impressive on a budget (which is my natural comfort zone!). I have a laser cutter/etcher which was perfect to produce the engraved brass and inlaid marble components that change the look of the guitar but still allow it to be played. There are some antique style brass handles over the strings which look great but may cramp his style a little! I’m also indebted to Eric Lindsay who bought a lightning-effect display which he generously gave to me because he felt I could make better use of it. Concealed beneath a clear plastic hemisphere filled with crystal shred, it gives the perfect illusion of a pulsating power crystal.
In the past, I’ve made faux tin-toys based on stories by Ray Bradbury.
As for other book inspired works, I’d love to do the Martian machines from War of the Worlds. Warwick Goble, Frank Paul, Mike Trim and Roger Dean have all done distinctive versions, but with my laser cutter, I think I could do something interesting with Well’s description of the Martian pivot-less sliding knee joint…
What projects are you currently working on? Where can we see more of your work?
I have many uncompleted projects, two that I really want to get back to are short films that have already had pre-viz animatics completed, so I know how long they run and what needs to be filmed to complete them.
One is “March of Progress” a faux 1960’s style documentary about a veteran flyer of the Inner World War who used his magnetic powered aircraft to vanquish inter-dimensional bio weapons.
The other is “Your standard day on the Nets” a claymation short featuring my comic character “Peregrine Besset” dealing with inter-dimensional junk falling into her world…
I created this character almost 15 years ago and am currently developing a rebooted version with a more considered world view. I take the writing workshops at Continuum very seriously and am attempting to integrate the insights I’ve learned there into a more holistic narrative.
The existing 7 issues I have written, drawn or produced are archived in the comics page at www.redworldstories.com but I feel they are a very crude version of the story I now want to tell.
A more complete overview of my various works can be seen at www.morleypride.com
My most recent film was “Infini” which had an ambitious high concept “Outland meets 28 Days later” vibe. I haven’t seen the final cut, so I don’t know if they’ve successfully pulled off the story structure, but I had a great opportunity to inject some interesting design work into the hand guns and helmets. In a world clogged with spacey combat helmets, I was able to give the final look a slightly different feel.
With Australian stuff that I’ve had nothing to do with, the writings of Anna Tambour are a firm favourite, not just her stories like “Crandolin” but also her blog “Medlar Comfits“.
Have recent changes in the film industry influenced the way you work? What do you think you will be publishing/writing/reading in five years from now?
The basic structure for film production has changed in the last 15 years, moving away from a reliance on multi-skilled individuals and towards more ordered workers within highly compartmentalized skill sets. This makes it a lot harder to learn different skills, move between departments or progress beyond a defined pay scale. The simplest example is Ray Harryhausen doing most of the effects for “Earth Vs the Flying Saucers” by himself versus the 15,000 people employed in the latest “Planet of the Apes” film. The increased sophistication and demands of modern big budget production means it is almost impossible for one person (no matter how skilled) to produce a finished work. I have found my options within big productions shrinking and I am moving towards independent productions that still allow me some creative freedom.
I think the only way forward for my own comic story is as a web comic. This imposes a three-panel episode structure, but also allows for full colour in the final images (something beyond the economics of photocopied comics) Chopping the story into smaller instalments may also allow for more regular delivery.
The only thing I can’t solve is how to get any sort of return on the effort expended. Maybe some kind of micro-payment might give some incentive, but as it exists the project is purely a labour of love. I have dreams of some kind of animated version, but as yet, no practical way of achieving it…
This entry was posted in Writing and tagged 2014snapshot, interviews, Lewis Morley on August 9, 2014 by David.
The Australian Spec Fic Snapshot 2014 – Amanda J Spedding
Amanda J Spedding is an award-winning author, editor and proofreader. Her stories have been published in local and international markets earning honourable mentions and recommended reads. She won the 2011 Australian Shadows Award (short fiction) for her steampunk-horror, ‘Shovel-Man Joe’.
Amanda is the owner of Phoenix Editing and Proofreading, and between bouts of editing, is currently writing the first draft of her novel.
Amanda lives in Sydney with her sarcastically-gifted husband and two very cool kids.
You’ve been a big contributor to the growth of the Australian Horror Writers Association. What are some of the AHWA’s achievements that you are most proud of? Where do you see it heading, and what challenges does it face?
Thanks, but it’s more being one of the many volunteers who’ve worked together to provide a home and voice for Australian writers and publishers. What achievements stand out for me? I’d have to say Midnight Echo and the Mentor Program. I’ve been lucky enough to be involved with both. It was the Mentor Program that drew me to the AHWA, and getting mentored by the extraordinary Kaaron Warren gave me incredible insight into my writing and the publishing industry. It also made me want to give back, so I became a committee member and held the position for three years – I hope the AHWA goes on to do more great things.
As for Midnight Echo, just holding a copy in your hands, with its horrifically beautiful covers and insanely good stories speaks for itself. As co-editor of issue 8 (with Marty Young and Mark Farrugia), getting to shape an issue and work with fantastic authors from both here and overseas was definitely a highlight.
You also run an editing and proofreading business. How does working on the other side of the desk influence your own writing?
As an editor, I have an innate understanding of grammar, story structure and elements – all the things I work with authors on achieving in their work. ‘Write tight’, I tell them, and it’s something I definitely take on with my own work. Words have to fight for their right in the story.
However, as a writer, being an editor can have its drawbacks, especially when it comes to unrealistic expectations of perfection (I’m anything if not self-aware) – I’m an editor, I should be getting everything right. It does help, though, when sending off a story submission, that I’ve got the grammar, syntax and tense issues right. Being able to look at a story from both sides of the desk is a definite plus, but it’s no guarantee.
You’ve been very successful with your short fiction, with award recognition and appearances on an international RRL. What is it you enjoy about writing short stories? Are there any longer works in the pipeline?
Short stories are a blast to write. Being able to tell a fully-rounded story within a limited word-count is part of what has always drawn me to the short form. Writing horror allows me to reach into the worst time of a character’s life and… exploit it. Be it one hellish scene, or a drawn-out tortuous series of events, a short story forces you to really focus the horror and the effect of this on the character. Like I said, a blast!
I have two projects in the works at the moment. I’m currently writing the draft of my first novel – an apocalypse story that doesn’t shy from the horrors (inflicted on and by the characters in this world) that come with extinction-events. Creating on such a big scale – geography, faith-systems, inter-connectivity… it’s been a steep learning curve, and I’m loving it.
The other project is a comic based on my short story ‘The Road’ (Midnight Echo #9). The short story was ripe with imagery that really suited this medium. The script is now with illustrator Montgomery Borror, who is doing an incredible job bringing it to life. I’m very excited about both projects.
I’ve been reading a lot of Aussie pieces of late. I’ve just finished reading Carnies by Martin Livings, and that was a great tale – it really dragged me into the story, and I was more than happy to spend time in his old-world carnival. I’m currently reading Davey Ribbon by Matthew Tait, and am really enjoying its supernatural flavour. Alan Baxter’s Bound, and Andrew McKeirnan’s short story collection, Last Year, When We Were Young, are next on my ‘to read’ list.
In regard to writing, no – I don’t think the changes affect the way anyone writes. Sweeping statement aside, it’s more how a writer decides they wish to publish – a choice many writers didn’t have ten, fifteen, twenty years ago. Anything other than traditional publishing was looked down upon. That stigma is almost gone now, and with a lot of author-published books being on par, or even better than traditionally published books, it definitely is a viable option for many authors. With my editing business, I’m seeing a lot more writers wanting to take the author-publishing route; wanting control of the final finished product and how it’s presented and marketed.
Five years from now? I’ll still be writing horror – I have a passion for the genre and its many sub-genres. I fell in love with steampunk when I wrote ‘Shovel-Man Joe’, which won the Australian Shadows Award for short fiction in 2011, so there’s definitely a steampunk/horror novel in my future. Reading? Any great story with a dark bent, and hopefully many great stories from Australian authors. I couldn’t even begin to predict what will be ‘on trend’ in five years. Publishing? I hope to be publishing novels and comics that leave readers reeling and have them thinking ‘what would I do?’
This entry was posted in Writing and tagged 2014snapshot, Amanda J Spedding, interviews on August 9, 2014 by David.
The Australian Spec Fic Snapshot 2014 – Kimberley Gaal
Kimberley Gaal is a 29-year-old speculative fiction writer who lives in Canberra, ACT. She was accepted into the 2012 JUMP National Mentoring Program for Young and Emerging Artists and was mentored by award-winning horror and speculative fiction writer Kaaron Warren. Her first novel, Dark Soul, is the product of that mentorship. Kimberley is on the committee of the Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild and has participated in panels on the place of mentorship in your writing at the speculative fiction conferences Conflux and Natcon, as well as appearing on less formal panels discussing the general awesomeness of zombies.
A few years ago, you went through the JUMP National Mentoring Program for Emerging Artists, and were mentored by the amazing Kaaron Warren! Looking back, what did you get from the mentor program? Did it have an impact on your writing, and its direction?
Absolutely – it had a huge impact. Kaaron is perfect parts art and business when it comes to writing. She is committed to her work and won’t compromise when it comes to quality or style, but also recognises the realities of the industry and is completely professional about it all. Working with her helped me cultivate that balance in my own practice.
I write very different content to Kaaron, in a very different style; it was never a case of trying to emulate her results, but rather to learn from her methods and experience. The JUMP Program encourages participants to choose mentors that can help you grow in areas that you know you are lacking in. Since I’m still in the early days of my writing career, I have a lot of those areas (I’m one big ball of lack, really) but Kaaron has an excellent way of drawing out my strengths while forcing me to face my weaknesses instead of hiding from them like a big scaredy runaway. She taught me to commit to my projects, to finish them even when I’m not ‘feeling the vibe’, and to look at the results from two very different angles: objectively, in terms of how good a product it is on its own, and subjectively, in terms of how well does it tell the story I want to tell, the way I want to tell it.
I learned a lot during the JUMP program, but I think that lesson – about the importance of recognising both the artistic side of writing and the ‘get down and get on with it’ side – was the most important. I don’t view writing as something I only do when the muse hits me anymore. I don’t quite buy into the ‘view it like you view your job’ idea, because to me a job is something you do for a guaranteed result, and it’s very hard to guarantee the result of your writing. I certainly treat it with more dedication and perseverance than I used to, though. Stories are like wombats trying to cross a highway (work with me here). On one side of the highway they’re just ideas. On the other side of the highway they’re finished works. You want to get them from one side to the other, and the only way to do that is by building those little underground tunnel things and hoping they go through them.
Each time I sit at my keyboard and put in some writing time, I’m building another tunnel. Sometimes I can work for hours and nothing happens – no wombats like my tunnel, and the things coming through that I think are wombats are just fat dogs in wombat suits. Sometimes I sit down and find six wombats waiting to get through at once. Sometimes I think, ‘Kim, it’s time to come up with a better metaphor for this writing thing’ but then the wombats get jack of waiting for me, and if there’s one thing you don’t want, it’s a jacked-off wombat. In the end, the more time you put in, the more tunnels you can make and the better your chances of the right wombats being on the right side of the highway at the right time. Kaaron taught me that. But she did it without wombats, because she’s a lot classier than me.
Your manuscript has been accepted by the Cooke Literary Agency – congratulations! How has it been working with an agent?
I love my agent, Rachel Letofsky. I went into my working relationship with her in a very serious fashion – agents are business people, and I had to be very business-y in my dealings with them. That ended when Rachel sent me a photo of a duck statue she has on her mantelpiece and I made up a story about how its unfortunate wing-to-body-size crushed its hopes of a musical career and forced it into a seedy life as a Duck of the Night. She’s brilliant, and the rest of the team at Cooke seem pretty great as well.
She’s also been surprisingly helpful in terms of manuscript development. I say surprising because I didn’t think agents did all that much work with their authors in that regard. Working with Rachel has been a lot like working with an editor. My novel, Dark Soul, is miles better as a result, and much more marketable too. I’m excited, and nervous, and very busy picturing best and worse case scenarios, because I like to think if I can imagine every possible outcome I can somehow be prepared for stuff. In 29 years of living that has never worked, but I’m nothing if not consistent.
I’m making steady progress on the second novel in my series, Old Soul. My protagonist, Mae, spent the first book building a family for herself and working out who she was when she wasn’t a rage-blind monster. Now that she’s got that sorted, I thought I’d break her family apart and shatter her beliefs. Just for fun. She gets to travel though, so she can’t complain too much.
I’ve also been making headway in short story writing, and my first substantial publication will happen in a few months. Shorts have never been a strength of mine, but working with Kaaron and getting more involved with the Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild’s short story crit circle has given me a much better understanding of how they work. I discovered a secret: when you’re just getting into short stories, don’t start by reading all the massively award winning stuff. Those stories were selected by other writers who recognise the skills and techniques involved, and who have read so many stories they are often drawn to unusual, cutting-edge stuff that can be difficult to appreciate when all you want is a good, fun read. Instead, find a genre you like and look for collections in that genre. My favourites so far have been the “Zombies vs Robots” stuff (zombies are my favourite, closely followed by robots) and some of the Twelfth Planet Press collections. They are quality works that are still accessible enough to read and enjoy before bed.
After she kicked butt at the Aurealis Awards I got Allyse Near’s novel “Fairytales for Wilde Girls” and pretty much loved it. I hope she keeps doing great things. I’m also a fan of Craig Cormick and he seems to spit books out like Yoshi shoots eggs, so there’s always something new to read. The CSFG is full of writers that have kicked a lot of goals lately. And Kaaron, naturally.
I think I’m too new to the game to really have an established ‘way that I work.’ I do follow all the industry talk with interest, but things are changing so rapidly that my personal, very inexperienced opinion is that it would be stupid to spend too much time trying to catch the waves that are forming, because by the time you’re on one it’s broken and the next is already half-formed. If you find yourself on a good wave, ride it and enjoy, but don’t go out of your way to follow someone else’s example just because it worked for them, because that’s no guarantee it will work for you. There are successes and failures in every area of publishing: for every person screaming ‘traditional publishing is dead, long live self-publishing’ there’s another person bemoaning how self-publishing has gotten so out-of-hand that it’s impossible to find good work amidst the sea of dross. I think both are probably true, and neither are probably true, and maybe nothing is true at all and we’re all figments of George R.R. Martin’s imagination and he’s just looking for ways to kill us all off. I swear I saw a white walker the other day. He was riding a Vespa.
I do think you need to be smart – or at least, as smart as you can. If you want a writing career, by all means take your shot. Work hard, learn constantly, be nice to those around you whether they’re ahead of you in the game or not. Be professional, be brave, do your research and try your best. But be willing to accept that it might not happen regardless, and that’s ok. If you want to be a successful author because that’s the only way you think you can feel special, or worthwhile, then you’re setting yourself up for major pain, because no matter how good you are there will always be factors you just can’t control, and they could be the deciding ones. My writing career, such as it is and such as it might be, only really started when I accepted that, and I’ve never enjoyed writing as much as I’m enjoying it now. I hope I make it. I really do. But I’ll be ok if I don’t.
In five years I think I’ll be reading the same stuff I read now, but maybe in different formats. I already write all across the board, so I don’t think that will change except that hopefully I’ll be better. Getting better is the one goal I think every writer should have, all the time, no matter how good they already are. If you don’t want to get better at anything you’re doing, or do it in new ways, stop doing it. You don’t love it anymore and you only get one shot at life, so you shouldn’t waste it.
This entry was posted in Writing and tagged 2014snapshot, interviews, Kimberley Gaal on August 8, 2014 by David.
The Australian Spec Fic Snapshot 2014 – Aidan Doyle
Aidan Doyle is a Melbourne based writer and computer programmer. His first short story was published in Aurealis in 1993. He attended Clarion South in 2009 and has since been published in places such as Lightspeed, Strange Horizons and Fantasy. He has visited more than 80 countries and his experiences include teaching English in Japan, interviewing ninjas in Bolivia and going ten-pin bowling in North Korea.
You’ve found success in writing for both children (including an Aurealis nomination), and for adults (with numerous pro sales and mentions on international RRLs). Do many of the same skills and methods translate between the age groups, or is there a big adjustment in mindset required?
My natural writing style – lean, and with an emphasis on plot and humour is suited to writing for children. The main adjustment for me when writing for different age groups is subject material. Some of my stories for adults revolve around the regret of the passing of time, which is a theme that doesn’t have as strong an appeal for children.
You are a bit of a citizen of the world, regularly travelling to some amazing destinations! Do the different locations bleed into your writing, or inspire you?
For me travel is one of the best ways to get ideas. The people you meet and the history you learn. Worldbuilding is important in speculative fiction and it helps to have seen a bit of our world. I lived in Japan for 4 years and many of my stories are set in Japan. Last year I did a trip from Svalbard to Antarctica and I have a few ideas for stories set in those locations. Lots of markets these days like stories set somewhere other than a generic New York style big city.
I am a big fan of your writing goal tracker Planet Bingo (in fact it is my desktop screen saver on my writing machine). How important is the setting of goals to your writing process?
Jeff VanderMeer was one of my tutors at Clarion South and stressed the importance of setting goals. His Booklife writing guide has lots of useful information on the topic. I’m a big fan of checklists and to do lists. It is easier to achieve your goals if you know what they are! I use Workflowy (http://workflowy.com/) to keep a list of current activities. I also use Trello (http://trello.com/) with a small group of other writers to compare our weekly or monthly writing goals and encourage each other.
Jeff stressed the importance of setting concrete goals (I’m going to write 10 short stories this year versus I want to write more) and goals that are within your control (I’m going to submit 5 stories to Clarkesworld this year versus I want to be published in Clarkesworld). That being said, it’s nice to record your achievements. Christie Yant created a writing career bingo spreadsheet and I adapted the idea and made a program (http://www.aidandoyle.net/2013/08/21/writing-career-bingo/) that spits out an image with planets when I achieve a goal. Taking over the galaxy one planet at a time.
The amount of historical detail in Hannah Kents’ Burial Rites is amazing. Jason Franks’ Sixsmiths is very funny. Cat Sparks’ collection, The Bride Price, is packed full of short story goodness.
The main thing for me is that it’s now much easier to submit to overseas markets. Email is much quicker and cheaper than overseas postage and international reply coupons. I have a young adult novel out on submission now and I’m close to finishing a middle grade novel based on my Aurealis nominated story. After that I have plans for some young adult novels and a novel based on my swordwriter stories.
This entry was posted in Writing and tagged 2014snapshot, Aidan Doyle, interviews on August 8, 2014 by David.
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Home » Uncategorized » Pakistan outperforms India in controlling Tobacco:WHO
Pakistan outperforms India in controlling Tobacco:WHO
By Our Staff Reporter
According to a recent statement by the World Health Organization; Pakistan has outperformed India in controlling tobacco use. Recent media reports stated that; Pakistan along with Bangladesh and Sri Lanka has implemented superior strategies to curb deaths caused by tobacco in comparison with India, according to a World Health Organisation (WHO) report.
The report released recently, revealed that in Pakistan and Bangladesh cigarettes became less affordable between 2008 and 2014, while India remained one of the few countries where more people can afford to buy cigarettes.
Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are one of the few countries that have raised taxes on the retail price of a single pack of cigarette with Bangladesh being one of the only seven countries that have raised taxes to over 75 per cent, whereas in India the tax rate is just 60 per cent.
According to the WHO report taxing is the most effective method to discourage smoking but majority of Indian tobacco industry remains untaxed.
“In India, taxes are levied on bidis made by larger producers but not by small producers; as a result, bidi production in India has largely remained a small-scale cottage industry,” the 2015 WHO report stated.
“The governments need to tax all tobacco products in a manner that people do not opt out of one expensive product to a less expensive one. Currently, governments are levying much less tax on smokeless tobacco and regulations do not cover all aspects of smokeless tobacco, which is the main cause of oral cancer in the region,” the report further said.
Pakistan now follows a two-tier specific cigarette excise tax system which replaced a more intricate three-tier tax system in 2013. The WHO report also observed the common man’s purchasing power when determining the affordability of cigarettes in the region. Cigarettes are less affordable in Pakistan, Turkey, Poland, Russia, Ukraine and Brazil and more affordable in India, China, Indonesia and Vietnam.
HEC gets extension for plagiarism prevention service
Training sessions at public hospitals must be recognized by PMDC
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Dunfermline – Quadrophenia (31st August)
Produced by Concept Concerts this production, acclaimed by a Sunday Times journalist as “Mighty, moving and unstoppable,” sees 8-piece band, The Goldhawks, deliver a stunning live performance of The Who’s smash hit concept album, Quadrophenia. From the very first show it has received standing ovations.
Released over 40 years ago in October 1973, The Who’s second rock opera ‘Quadrophenia’ was Pete Townsend’s homage to a pivotal moment in British youth culture. The album tells the story of Jimmy, a Mod by chronicling his dissatisfaction with life, work, love, home and family life. It served as an ode to teenage angst and counterculture rebellion, as well as a criticism of the British class, economic and educational systems but you don’t need to be clued up on the history of the Mods and Rockers to enjoy this show because at its core, Quadrophenia, which peaked at No. 2 on the UK and USA charts, is just about teenage confusion, conflict and frustration.
Backed with exciting, and sometimes heart-wrenching, large-screen projection of archival footage, the emotions, tension and raw power that the music demands is delivered masterfully by the fabulous, charismatic band, The Goldhawks, with amazing replication of The Who’s sound.
The venue has a Euans Guide rating of 4* with wheelchair access and large toilets. Check out the guide for more information.
https://www.alhambradunfermline.com/listings_detail/566
https://www.visitscotland.com/destinations-maps/kingdom-fife/
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The President stated that a supplementary budget will be sent to the National Assembly in order to rectify most critical of the issues in the 2018 budget.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari
President Muhammadu Buhari, on Wednesday, signed the 2018 appropriation bill, and plans to forward the borrowing plan to finance the budget deficit to the National Assembly (NASS).
The bill, presented to the joint-sitting of the parliament on November 7, 2017, was ratified on May 16 and transmitted to the President for assent on May 25, 2018.
The total budget is N9.12 trillion, up from the N8.612 trillion estimates presented to the parliament, representing 22 percent increase over the 2017 Appropriation.
“We intend to use the 2018 Budget to consolidate the achievements of previous budgets and deliver on Nigeria’s Economic Recovery and growth Plan (ERGP) 2017-2020,” President Buhari reiterated while signing the budget at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
The President, however, expressed concern about some of the changes made by the lawmakers. “The National Assembly made cuts amounting to N347 billion in the allocations to 4,700 projects submitted to them for consideration and introduced 6,403 projects of their own amounting to N578 billion,” Buhari said.
“Many of the projects cut are critical and may be difficult, if not impossible, to implement with the reduced allocation. Some of the new projects inserted by the National Assembly have not been properly conceptualised, designed and costed and will therefore be difficult to execute,” he added.
According to the signed budget relative to the appropriation bill, the projects from which cuts were made include national/regional strategic infrastructure projects such as counterpart funding for the Mambilla Power Plant, the 2nd Niger Bridge/ancillary roads, the East-West Road, Bonny-Bodo Road, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and Itakpe-Ajaokuta Rail Project were cut by an aggregate of N11.5 billion.
Provisions for some ongoing infrastructure projects in the FCT, including arterial roads and the mass transit rail project, were cut by a total of N7.5 billion; provision for rehabilitation and additional security measures for the United Nations building in the FCT was cut by N3.9 billion from N4 billion to N100 million; provisions for various strategic interventions in the health sector such as the upgrade of some tertiary health institutions, transport and storage of vaccines through the cold chain supply system, provision of anti-retroviral drugs for persons on treatment, establishment of chemotherapy centres and procurement of dialysis consumables were cut by an aggregate of N7.45 billion.
The provision for security infrastructure in the 104 Unity Schools across the country were cut by N3 billion; provision for the Federal Government’s National Housing Programme was cut by N8.7 billion; and the provisions for Export Expansion Grant (EEG) and Special Economic Zones/Industrial Parks were cut by a total of N14.5 billion.
The provision for construction of the terminal building at Enugu Airport was cut from N2 billion to N500 million; the take-off grant for the Maritime University in Delta State was cut from N5 billion to N3.4 billion; and a total N5 billion was cut from the provisions for Pension Redemption Fund and Public Service Wage Adjustment.
Another area of concern stated by the President is the increase of the provisions for statutory transfers by an aggregate of N73.96 billion.
“Most of these increases are for recurrent expenditure,” he said.
The budget of the National Assembly was increased by N14.5 billion from N125 billion to N139.5 billion, and about 70 new road projects have been inserted into the budget of the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing.
The President stated that a supplementary budget will be sent to the National Assembly in order to rectify most critical of the issues in the
2018 budget.
And to achieve the objectives of the 2018 Budget he said, “We will work very hard to generate the revenues required to finance our projects and programmes. The positive global oil market outlook, as well as continuing improvement in non-oil revenues, make us optimistic about our ability to finance the budget.”
However, being a deficit budget, the Borrowing Plan will be forwarded to the National Assembly shortly, he added.
According to the President, a total sum of N1.580 trillion has been released for the implementation of capital projects during the 2017 fiscal year. He said: “I am pleased with the success recorded in the implementation of the 2017 Budget.”
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Jeremy Renner couldn’t convince Mark Ruffalo to get an Avengers tattoo
Mark Ruffalo “chickened out” of getting an Avengers tattoo despite Jeremy Renner’s best efforts to convince him to go through with it.
The actor plays Hawkeye in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films, and celebrated the success of Avengers: Infinity War earlier this year (18) by getting a version of the Avengers’ logo inked on his skin.
Jeremy was joined by his co-stars Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson and Chris Evans at East Side Ink Tattoo in New York in May, but during an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Tuesday night (12Jun18) he divulged that he couldn’t get Hulk actor Mark on board with the idea.
“The original six got a tattoo because we’ve all been together over the last decade, spent a lot of time together and have a lot of similar shared experiences in life,” he said. “So, we got this symbol that this artist, Josh Lord, designed for us. Ruffalo’s the only one that kinda chickened out at the last minute, I’m not sure why. He just didn’t want do it. So, I was like, ‘Get some henna, get something? It’s not really about the tattoo, it’s about the celebration of our friendship.'”
Jeremy went on to share that he attempted to change Mark’s mind by sharing a number of messages in a group chat he’s involved in with the other castmembers. But even the threat of inviting other actors who’ve played Hulk, such as Eric Bana and Edward Norton, couldn’t persuade him.
“I’m on this group text and I was like, ‘You know guys, I have Eric Bana’s number, let me give him a call. Or Edward Norton, got his number, (should) we see if he wants to get in on it?'” the 47-year-old recalled, adding that tattoo artist Josh allowed him to ink the Avengers’ symbol on him too. “He’s way too brave, he allowed us to tattoo on him after he did us. I did it, it was really quite terrifying.”
During the interview, Jeremy also chatted about the struggles he had in shooting new movie Tag, about a small group of former classmates who organise an annual game of tag, as he injured both arms on the second day of filming.
While he insisted on going back to set after his arm was placed in a cast, he regretted his decision when he attempted to use the bathroom.
“I got locked in the dang bathroom because it had a round knob (on the door). I couldn’t use my elbow. By the way, my pants were down, I couldn’t pull them up. Humiliating,” he laughed.
#ChrisHemsworth
#JeremyRenner
#MarkRuffalo
#RobertDowneyJr.
#ScarlettJohansson
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. IPCC - Special Report on Aviation and the Global Atmosphere., 2000.
(2000). IPCC - Special Report on Aviation and the Global Atmosphere.
, 2000. IPCC - Special Report on Aviation and the Global Atmosphere.
. IPCC - Special Report on Aviation and the Global Atmosphere. 2000 Nov 04.
Publications IPCC - Special Report on Aviation and the Global Atmosphere
IPCC - Special Report on Aviation and the Global Atmosphere
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was jointly established by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 1988 to: (i) assess available information on the science, the impacts, and the economics of, and the options for mitigating and/or adapting to, climate change and (ii) provide, on request, scientific/technical/socio-economic advice to the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Since then the IPCC has produced a series of Assessment Reports, Special Reports, Technical Papers, methodologies, and other products that have become standard works of reference, widely used by policymakers, scientists, and other experts.
This Special Report was prepared following a request from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the Parties to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. The state of understanding of the relevant science of the atmosphere, aviation technology, and socio-economic issues associated with mitigation options is assessed and reported for both subsonic and supersonic fleets. The potential effects that aviation has had in the past and may have in the future on both stratospheric ozone depletion and global climate change are covered; environmental impacts of aviation at the local scale, however, are not addressed. The report synthesizes the findings to identify and characterize options for mitigating future impacts.
As is usual in the IPCC, success in producing this report has depended first and foremost on the enthusiasm and cooperation of experts worldwide in many related but different disciplines. We would like to express our gratitude to all the Coordinating Lead Authors, Lead Authors, Contributing Authors, Review Editors, and Expert Reviewers. These individuals have devoted enormous time and effort to produce this report and we are extremely grateful for their commitment to the IPCC process.
We would also like to express our sincere thanks to:
Robert Watson, the Chairman of the IPCC and Co-Chair of the Scientific Assessment Panel to the Montreal Protocol
John Houghton, Ding Yihui, Bert Metz, and Ogunlade Davidson-the Co-Chairs of IPCC Working Groups I and III
Daniel Albritton, Co-Chair of the Scientific Assessment Panel to the Montreal Protocol
David Lister and Joyce Penner, the Coordinators of this Special Report
Daniel Albritton, John Crayston, Ogunlade Davidson, David Griggs, Neil Harris, John Houghton, Mack McFarland, Bert Metz, Nelson Sabogal, N. Sundararaman, Robert Watson, and Howard Wesoky-the Science Steering Committee for this Special Report
David Griggs, David Dokken, and all the staff of the Working Group I and II Technical Support Units, including Mack McFarland, Richard Moss, Anne Murrill, Sandy MacCracken, Maria Noguer, Laura Van Wie McGrory, Neil Leary, Paul van der Linden, and Flo Ormond, and Neil Harris who provided additional help
N. Sundararaman, the Secretary of the IPCC, and his staff, Rudie Bourgeois, Cecilia Tanikie, and Chantal Ettori.
http://www.grida.no/publications/other/ipcc_sr?src=/climate/ipcc/aviation
Type: Web Solutions & Apps
Tags: IPCC
Open Report
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Drama and Film
Alex Hicks
Linnéa Lundgren
Paola Serna
Seph Hamilton
Stephanie Welton
Zev Burrows: Film Talk
Berklee Teachers on Teaching
Berklee Community
Celtic FUSION: The Scottish Feature
Download the Issue
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Celtic FUSION
Celtic FUSION 2012
Deaf Date
Paul Hostovsky
Creative Nonfiction Guest Artists
She was my sign language teacher. It wasn’t until the end of the semester that I’d finally learned enough signs to ask her out. And even then I wasn’t sure if I’d asked her out on a DATE or on a DESSERT. Because they’re homonyms, two signs that look the same but have different meanings. There are lots of these homonyms in sign language: SOCKS/STARS, EXPERT/BALLSY, HATE/GREAT, LOYAL/LAZY, the number 9 and the letter F. It’s a foreign language. Except that it’s domestic. American Sign Language–ASL. As it turned out, it was both a date and a dessert. We went to a coffee place that served pastries. She drove.
I didn’t even know that Deaf people were allowed to drive. I would have thought it was illegal. Which it was, she said, up until the 1940s when the National Association of the Deaf convinced lawmakers that Deaf drivers posed no threat to public safety. Driving is essentially a visual act, she said as we got into her Toyota, and according to statistics, Deaf people make better drivers than hearing people. At least that’s what I think she said. I nodded and smiled a lot without entirely understanding her. There is a sign in ASL for nodding and smiling without understanding: DINOSAUR-NOD. It means to feign understanding. I did a lot of that. Putting the car in drive, she asked if I’d like to listen to the radio.
It seemed rude to listen to the radio while sitting there next to her. Sort of like watching a strip-tease while sitting next to a blind person. So I said NO THANKS, which looks the same as NO GOOD. The sign for NO GOOD can also be done in shorthand with just the letters NG, like that Chinese surname, Ng, which I never know how to pronounce. The grammar of ASL is closer to Chinese than English, say the linguists. And pronunciation, in ASL, is all about the four parameters: handshape, movement, location, palm orientation. A slight mispronunciation, with the wrong palm orientation, can mean the difference between GRAD SCHOOL and SEXUAL INTERCOURSE.
You can’t learn ASL from a book, she had told our class. You have to learn it from Deaf people. Because it belongs to Deaf people. And it belongs with Deaf people. Hearing people think they can go out, buy a book, and learn sign language on their own, apart from Deaf people. But they can’t. If you try to learn from a book, she said, you end up signing like a book: stiff, flat, square. And who wants to be a square? Deaf people won’t understand you. And you won’t understand them.
The best way to learn ASL, she said, is to MIX with Deaf people. You have to FRATERNIZE with Deaf people. The sign for FRATERNIZE is a thumbs-up and a thumbs-down, mixing. And so I took her injunction to heart: I asked her out on a date. I wanted to mix with her, to fraternize with her. The date, as it turned out, was both thumbs-up and thumbs-down.
The thumbs-up part was having her all to myself for a whole hour. She was hot. She was no longer the teacher, standing in front of the class, her butt singing to me when she turned to write on the blackboard. Now it was just the two of us, sitting across from each other, nibbling our pastries, sipping our coffees.
It’s HOT, she signed above the cup. I nodded. And smiled. She pursed her lips and blew a ripple across the tiny pond of her latte. I knew the sign for HOT. I wondered if there was another, separate sign for HOT in the sensual sense, the sexual sense. I wanted to ask her about that, but she was doing most of the talking–most of the signing–and I couldn’t get a word in edgewise, except for my old standby, the DINOSAUR-NOD.
She was very animated. Her face was more alive than any face I had ever seen. Her eyes, her eyebrows, her mouth, the tilt of her head. All the tiny muscles in her face. They were all so expressive. I wanted to tell her how animated she was, but I didn’t know the sign for ANIMATED. I knew only, that in English, it comes from the Latin anima, which means soul, or life force. I knew also, that when conversing with a Deaf person in sign language, you look at their face, which holds most of the meaning, only taking their hands in peripherally.
The thumbs-down part was, while watching her face for meaning, I kept thinking how animated and hot she was, and how distracting it all was–how it distracted me from what she was saying. So I did a lot of smiling and nodding, and feigned my understanding. And when she caught me doing it, she accused me, right on the spot: YOU DINOSAUR-NOD ME. It was an indictment. And I was guilty as charged.
Guilty as charged, I wanted to tell her, but I didn’t know how to sign AS CHARGED. I only knew GUILTY. So I signed it. I confessed, smiling sheepishly. But she said I shouldn’t feel guilty. I just shouldn’t do it anymore. She told me to speak up, interrupt her, tell her when I didn’t understand. Because, she said, saying you understand when you don’t, is rude in Deaf culture. It’s dishonest. It’s the cardinal sin. And Deaf people can tell when you’ve committed it.
And for a while I did speak up. I interrupted her a few times to ask: WHO? And more often than not, she answered: ME! Because although the objects and verbs of her sentences were plain enough, it was often the subjects that gave me the most trouble. They were elusive, especially when she herself was the subject. She seemed to omit the first person, as though it were understood. Maybe for Deaf people it is understood. But for me, it wasn’t.
I had always been good at languages. I had studied French and German in high school and college. I think this gave me an advantage when I began learning ASL because, as it turns out, French and ASL are related, historically speaking, etymologically speaking. For example, they both use the verb HAVE to express being (il y’a). And being with her now, I realized I wanted to have her. I also vaguely wanted to be her. Being and having became conflated.
I wasn’t interested in getting an A. And I wasn’t interested in being an interpreter–she had told me once, with more study, I might become an interpreter. But what I really wanted, I began to see, looking her full in the face and taking in all the grammar there, all the anima there, and taking her hands in peripherally, fluent as chopsticks, was this: I wanted to be Deaf.
Capital D Deaf. Which had nothing to do with not hearing. And everything to do with seeing. Above all else, I wanted to see. And to belong. To be a citizen of the Deaf world, that vast network of cousins-once-removed that was the Deaf community; that warm, hugging, concrete, candid physicality that was the Deaf culture. I didn’t want to be just a visitor or a guest anymore, a tourist, an interloper, an anthropologist. I wanted to belong there, to share that connection I knew she had with her Deaf friends, the ones I saw her chatting with after class in the cafeteria, their hands flitting, darting, flying, their faces alive, their signs as noiseless as their laughter was loud.
Watching them, it occurred to me that ASL in the hands of Deaf people was–there’s no other word for it–symphonic: the hands, face, eyebrows, eye-gaze, lips, tongue, head-tilt, shoulder-turn–all the various “sections” of the body’s orchestra–simultaneously creating meaning. A visual-gestural music rising up, all at once, like a controlled explosion.
To me, it wasn’t linear, not the way English is–one discrete word following on the heels of the next, like a line of ponderous elephants trudging along. I wanted to be Deaf, which meant I didn’t want to be ponderous and discrete anymore. I wanted to fly. To blend. I wanted to see and be and create the music, the explosion, the way only Deaf people could do.
She’d told the class it was considered a great compliment when a Deaf person says, YOU SIGN LIKE DEAF. And if they mistake you for a Deaf person, that was the greatest compliment of all. Yes, I wanted to be Deaf. And across the table, at that small coffee shop in the midst of that moment, that’s what I confessed: ME WISH DEAF ME.
She smiled at that. It was a big, sad, beautiful smile. She was hot, and sweet and animated, and I had been emboldened to tell her, to confide in her, that I wished I could be like her; that somewhere deep inside me, I wished I were Deaf. She looked right at me then, long and hard, as though searching my face for something–something pure, simple, limpid, liquid, fragile, perishable, maybe even hazardous–and not finding it there, wrapped a delicate hand around her latte, which had surely grown cold, raised the half-empty cup into the air, and, as if toasting me, said: JUST BE YOURSELF.
Paul Hostovsky is the author of eight books of poetry, most recently The Bad Guys, which won the FutureCycle Poetry Book Prize for 2015. His work has won a Pushcart Prize, two Best of the Net awards, the Muriel Craft Bailey Award from the Comstock Review, and chapbook contests from Grayson Books, Riverstone Press, Frank Cat Press, and Split Oak Press. He has been featured on Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, and NPR’s The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor. He makes his living in Boston as a sign language interpreter. To read more of his work, visit him at paulhostovsky.com.
phostovsky@gmail.com
Featured Artwork:
Tlusťa. “Sign language S”. Wikimedia, 25 October 2016, https://commons.wikimedia.org.
Cans and Cant’s
My Debut
FUSION, Berklee’s global arts magazine, publishes art, photography, writing in all genres, video, and music by students, faculty, staff, and alumni from across the U.S. and our international communities. We also feature distinguished guest artists, many of whom have received NEA, NEH, and Guggenheim fellowships, among other major awards.
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Everfound's "Take This City" Will Be Featured on ESPN's Monday Night Football
By Timothy Yap Nov 01, 2014 06:21 AM EDT
Contemporary Christian rock and pop band Everfound's brand new single "Take this City" (featuring Joel of for KING & COUNTRY) will be featured on ESPN's Monday Night Football on Monday, November 3rd during the matchup between the Indianapolis Colts and the New York Giants. Game time is 8:30 PM ET on ESPN.
"We are very honored and excited to have our song featured during one of the most watched nights of television! We can't wait for our family, friends and fans to tune in and experience this with us," says lead singer, Nikita Odnoralov.
Everfound is based in Denver, Colorado, consisting of the 3 Russian Odnoralov brothers (Ruslan, Nikita, and Yan.). Their family moved to Colorado in 1996 from Russia. Since their formation, they have independently released three EPs and one full length independent album, Colorful Alibis and Scandalous Smiles. They released their national debut, major-label, self-titled album on July 16, 2013, as well as a remix of several songs released exclusively on spotify, August 5, 2014.
Tags : Everfound Everfound everfound take this city FOR KING AND COUNTRY everfound news everfound new song espn football
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Winter Jam 2014
Everfound Releases Their Debut Christmas EP "Resolution"
Everfound Releases New Single "What Love Means"
Francesca Battistelli, Blanca, Big Daddy Weave & Others Contribute to the Soundtrack of "Captive"
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From 50 States — Collaborations by Denise Duhamel & Julie Marie Wade
We embarked on a series of numbered essays a while ago. We started small with numbers like 13, 21, and 10. Then, we decided to go for 50 sections and write about each of these United States. It feels important to say that we wrote these before the 2016 presidential election.
The entire piece is both collaborative and call and response. We started out with a list of our states and each picked one, one at a time, wrote, and then sent our writing to each other. We used a word limit so that all our “states” would get equal time. We wove the piece back together alphabetically, starting with “Alabama” and ending with “Wyoming.” We have purposely not attributed any of the states to one of us or the other in the spirit of collaboration. You can read some of our other “states” on the Best American Poetry Blog.
When I think of North Dakota, I think of Fargo — the movie, the TV series, then the city itself. This is the same way the Wikipedia pages are set up. The Coen brothers based their dark comedy on actual crimes but invented new characters to commit them. For example, Richard Helle, from Connecticut, was the real person who put his wife’s body through a wood chipper. The whole country loved Frances McDormand, a pregnant police chief investigating murders. Life and death and a crazy accent all mixed into one. Before Fargo, all I knew of North Dakota was Lawrence Welk and his “champagne” music. His TV show was my grandmother’s favorite. We’d hear it in the background when we called her on the phone. I loved the “bubble machine” and asked to watch a wholesome episode whenever my sister and I had sleepovers. But now North Dakota is loaded with fracking and “fraccidents.” In 2015, three million gallons of fracking wastewater gushed from a leaking pipeline. It’s hard to make a comedy about that, even a dark one. Many North Dakota boomtowns have popped up where blue-collar men can make over $100,000 a year. Some fracking companies will even hire felons. Long gone are so many little sleepy towns with accordions. The new crime waves make Fargo, the movie and TV show, seem quaint. “There used to be a saying that 40 below keeps out the riff-raff,” one sheriff said. “That’s not true anymore.” The oil companies commit the real crimes but get men desperate for work to commit them.
How all we knew when we moved there, at twenty-three and twenty-five, respectively, was the meaning of the word—Penn’s Woods. How William Penn had been one of the good guys, hadn’t he, kind and Quaker with a vision of brotherly love? As it happened, there was no shortage of busybodies in Penn’s Woods, hoping to fix us up with one of the good guys, always wanting to know “Are you sisters?” and “Where is your family?” How to explain — that we weren’t sisters but we were family, that we had never lived anywhere so cold. The man at the hardware store: “Whaddya mean you don’t have a snow shovel? That kind is for digging graves.” The woman at the temp agency: “Whaddya mean you have a partner? What kinda business are you in?” How we never got the hang of the blue belt or the green belt, the highway system color-coded with bright dots that bade us follow. How we saw Fallingwater once in the autumn, because the guidebook said we should, and on the way home, we passed a hand-scrawled sign the size of a billboard: Please stop setting fire to our trailers in Normalville! In Pittsburgh, all the steel mills had closed. The pollution cleared up, but the people were weary, for the most part, bleary from generations of progressive loss. Maybe time would heal all wounds. The gas company was called Equitable after all, and they claimed to own the largest clock in the world.
As we drank our coffee at the bed and breakfast, a man tried to explain to me that slavery was about states’ rights. His wife pulled his sleeve. I joked, “Don’t tell me you are one of those quacks who...?” In my defense, I really thought he was kidding. He was younger than I—maybe only in his mid-thirties. The host, sensing trouble, came to say, “Who wants more pancakes?” The man glared at me, then left. The wife said that Yankees didn’t understand and folded her napkin, following him. We all had white skin in the living room of that inn. People in the north benefited from slavery, too. This I knew—cheap cotton for the mills. That’s what I would have said if the man had stayed, the blood of slaves on our whole nation’s hands. I was in South Carolina to do a poetry reading, to visit classes and read some student work. One young white woman had used the word “Mammy,” lovingly, in a tribute to the woman who took care of her grandmother. I cringed, telling her how today’s readership hears that word. She was defensive. But everyone loved Mammy. She was part of the family. I looked at my bacon strip and dipped it in maple syrup. As I ate it, I imagined a reader fifty years from now saying, “How could all those people have eaten meat? Even some of the enlightened ones didn’t seem to get it.”
Years before 9/11, I was invited to a poetry festival in Virginia. I was on a panel about censorship with two other poets who had much bigger careers. I was only included because one of my early small press books had been banned in Canada. I’d written a fifteen-minute talk about Andrea Dworkin and Catharine MacKinnon. I delivered my remarks about the Supreme Court of Canada’s ruling in R vs. Butler and the irony that it was enforced on a feminist writer’s work, i.e. mine. There was even an urban myth that Dworkin’s book wasn’t allowed past the Canadian border. I thought I would rile up the audience, and there would be questions. Instead, the other two poets, personal enemies — which I didn’t know at the time—began a debate about Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses. I was out of my league and knew almost nothing about Islam, though the assistant the conference assigned me was telling me about Allah, how he had to pray at certain times of the day which we’d have to work around for pickups from the hotel to the venue. I’m ashamed to this day that I said, “You aren’t one of those fanatics, are you?” Later, he told me he had been abused in a jail in Israel during his teenage years, accused of throwing a rock. Years before “Je suis Charlie,” years before the bombings in Paris and Brussels, I sat between a debate I didn’t understand. The poet to my right thought Rushdie was a genius, the fatwa primitive. The poet to my left said, “One billion Muslims can’t be wrong.”
Photo of Denise Duhamel & Juie Marie Wade
Denise Duhamel and Julie Marie Wade have published collaborative essays in Arts & Letters, Bellingham Review, Cincinnati Review, Connotation Press, Green Mountains Review, Nimrod, No Tokens, Passages North, poemmemoirstory, Quarter After Eight, The St. Ann’s Review and StoryQuarterly. Their first collaborative book The Unrhymables will be published in 2018 by Wild Patience Books. They both teach in the MFA program at Florida International University in Miami.
Denise Duhamel is the author, most recently, of Scald (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2017). Blowout (Pittsburgh, 2013) was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her other books include Ka-Ching! (Pittsburgh, 2009), Two and Two (Pittsburgh, 2005), Mille et un Sentiments (Firewheel, 2005) and Queen for a Day: Selected and New Poems (Pittsburgh, 2001.) Her work has been anthologized widely and appeared in literary magazines such as American Poetry Review, Barrow Street and New Ohio Review. She was the guest editor is for The Best American Poetry 2013.
Julie Marie Wade is the author, most recently, of SIX: Poems (Red Hen Press, 2016), selected by C.D. Wright at the winner of the AROHO/To the Lighthouse Poetry Prize. Her other books include Wishbone: A Memoir in Fractures (Bywater Books, 2014; Colgate University Press, 2010), winner of the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Memoir, Small Fires: Essays (Sarabande Books, 2011), When I Was Straight: Poems (A Midsummer Night's Press, 2014), selected for ALA's "Over the Rainbow" reading list, and the lyric essay collection, Catechism: A Love Story (Noctuary Press, 2016). She reviews regularly for Lambda Literary Review and The Rumpus.
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Arts, Books, Entertainment, Film, Music Cobell Lawsuit & Settlement Education in Indian Country Federal Recognition Database Health, Indian Health Service Indian Law, Tribal Law Politics and Policy Ho-Chunk Inc.
URL: https://www.indianz.com/News/archive/001738.asp
Indian housing funds face cuts in Bush budget
Indian Country is in need of at least 200,000 homes but tribes have seen their share of federal resources dry up under the Bush administration.
Despite pledging to increase home ownership rates for all Americans, President Bush has slashed housing funds for American Indians and Alaska Natives. The budget he laid out in February includes a $7.1 million cut for Indian housing programs, a $4.3 million cut for Indian home loans and a reduction of $21 million for other tribal loan guarantees.
The proposal has tribal leaders worried about their efforts to combat overcrowding, which is six times the national average, and inadequate housing conditions, including unsafe water and sewer systems. They say the funding levels aren't keeping up with inflation.
"The administration tells us about the sad state of infrastructure in Iraq because it has been ignored for so long, and uses that to justify increased foreign aid," Russell Sossamon, chairman of the National American Indian Housing Council, said in Senate testimony this February. "Tribes can identify with the conditions the Iraqi people live with and yet their need here at home continues to be ignored."
The largest portion of Indian housing funds comes from the Native American Housing Housing Block Grant program. NAIHC says the program needs at least $1 billion per year. In fiscal year 2005, Bush is requesting $647 million, a cut of $7.1 million from the current level.
The program, operated by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, has come under scrutiny in recent years. HUD officials say their records show about $1 billion in unspent housing funds. Tribes dispute the department's figure and have launched their own initiative to get a more accurate picture.
And the White House Office of Management and Budget gave the program a "results not demonstrated" rating this year. The assessment cited problems with the program's purpose, management, planning and results.
Another key funding source is the Indian Community Development Block Grant program, a set-aside that Bush is proposing to eliminate altogether in 2005. Tribes say the program needs to be doubled to $150 million a year. The White House gave the overall Community Development Block Grant program an "ineffective" rating.
Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) supports increases for these programs. In a letter to the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that controls housing funds, he called on Congress to help provide "safe, clean, healthy and adequate housing" for Indian Country.
"Financing for housing is a cornerstone for all community development, and serves as an important economic stimulus for tribes," Daschle wrote on Monday. "Providing Native Americans with the funding levels necessary to make sound investments in their communities will pay off in quality housing, and in stronger, healthier communities."
In the meantime, tribal and Indian leaders are focusing on other ways to boost housing resources. In February, NAIHC launched an initiative to raise $10 million for the "Housing First for First Americans" campaign. Fannie Mae, a private company that provided $290 million in financing last year to help Indian families become homeowners, donated $1 million to kickstart the effort.
Composed of 19 separate initiatives, the campaign will help tribal housing staff expand their training, communications, research and assistance; promote homeownership and reputable lenders; fight predatory lending; develop partnerships; and establish national and regional Indian housing centers. A web site for Native homebuyers is also in the works.
According to government statistics, only 33 percent of Native Americans own homes, less than half the national rate and far lower than homeownership rates for other minority groups.
Get the Letter:
Daschle On Housing Funds (April 12, 2004)
Budget Documents:
Housing and Urban Development | OMB Ratings of HUD Programs
National American Indian Housing Council - http://naihc.net
Tribes tackle budget woes under Bush administration (4/14)
Budget resolution barely clears House vote (03/26)
Tribal leaders denounce BIA budget plans as reckless (03/24)
Cuts run deep for tribal programs at BIA (03/09)
Housing campaign seeks to build 100,000 homes (02/27)
Senate panel shares criticism of Bush budget (02/12)
Tribal leaders pressing Congress on funding (02/11)
Native American Bank offers new mortgage program (01/21)
Indians fight discrimination when renting homes (11/21)
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Google Hangout with photographer, Bruce Smith
Our second Google+ Hangout featured a conversation with fashion/fine art photographer, Bruce Smith. It revoles around a collection of his best and favorite work over the span of his thirty plus year career.
You can find out more about Bruce Smith's work by visiting his website or purchasing his book thru Blurb.
You can also listen to his first and second Candid Frame interviews.
We are envisioning this videos as an extension of the show, which provides us the opportunity share not only our conversation with photographers but also their images. If you like what you see please subscribe to the YouTube channel to be automatically updated on all new releases.
In "Blurb", "British", "Bruce Smith", "book", "books", "fashion", "fine-art", "models", "nudes", "portrait", "workshops"
The Candid Frame #132 - Martin Bailey
Ibarionex Perello March 11, 2012
Martin Bailey is a Tokyo based nature, wildlife and portrait photographer. He is the host and producer of the Martin Bailey Photography podcast, which supports a popular blog and forum. He also conducts workshops and photographic tours in Japan and abroad.
Born in London, England he immigrated to Japan and in 2010 became a Japanese citizen.
His journey to becoming a full-time working professional photographer was chronicled through his podcast as was his recent health challenges. His professional and personal journey as well as his beautiful and stunning photographs are a source of great inspiration to photographers from all over the world. You can find out more about Martin and his work by visiting his website.
Martin Bailey recommends the work of Michio Hoshino.
In "Bailey", "British", "English", "Japan", "Martin", "nature", "photographer", "photography", "podcast", "portrait", "printer", "professional", "top podcast", "top podcasts", "travel", "wildlife"
The Candid Frame #124 - Michael Freeman
Ibarionex Perello October 31, 2011
Michael Freeman is an editorial and commercial photographer as well as an author of numerous photographic books. He has traveled around the world making images, which he has shared with his clients and the many readers of his titles, which include The Photographer's Vision. The Photographer's Eye and Top Digital Photography Tips. His latest large-format reportage book is the Tea Horse Road, the result of a two-year exploration of one of the longest trade routes in the ancient world, between China and Tibet. You can discover more about him and his work by visiting his website and his blog.
Michael Freeman recommends the work of Martin Munkácsi
In "Asia", "British", "author", "commercial", "documentary", "editorial", "educator", "international", "travel", "writer"
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Air Arabia Approves Distribution Of 10pc Cash Dividend
Air Arabia, the first and biggest low cost carrier in the Middle East and North Africa, announced its general assembly has approved the distribution of a 10pc cash dividend of the company’s share of capital. Air Arabia chairman Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohammad Al-Thani said “We are glad to share Air Arabia’s success with our shareholders by distributing a 10 percent cash dividend of the company’s share capital for the second consecutive year.”
Air Arabia’s net profit for the 12 months ending on December 31st, 2009 was 452 million dirhams, continuing its strong performance in 2008 when net profits were 454 million dirhams, excluding exceptional items.
The airline’s turnover for the full year 2009 was 2 billion dirhams, 4.5 percent lower than the 2.066 billion dirhams recorded in 2008. Air Arabia carried 4.1 million passengers in 2009, 14.2 percent higher than the 3.6 million passengers it served in 2008. The carrier’s seat load factor, or passengers carried as a percent of available seats, was 80 percent for the 12 months ending on December 31, 2009.
The monastery at Glendalough was founded at the start of the sixth century by Saint Kevin, a descendant of one of Ireland's ruling families. Kevin wanted to live the life of an ascetic and commune with nature. Soon enough, Glendalough, meaning Valley of the Two Lakes, became a thriving monastery and town, attracting students from all over Ireland. Unfortunately, that attracted th...
Malay Salambigar
Brunei Darussalam, Brunei
This mosque can accommodate up to 1,000 people and the language of the services is Malay. There is a separate women’s room, parking and wheelchair access. Address: Kg Salambigar, Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam ...
Similar in feel to the London docklands, Puerto Madero has a ghostly beauty to it. The antique port of Buenos Aires has been renewed however and now represents the latest architectural and entertainment trends of the city. The old red-brick warehouses now contain galleries, bars and restaurants (ranging from high end eateries to Franchises such as Hooters and TGIF). Old docking cranes and ships si...
Helsinki Zoo
Helsinki Zoo is famous for its exotic collection of European and Asian animals and birds that are kept in spacious natural environments so that they can be nurtured properly. The Zoo is located on Korkeasaari Island and is reachable by Water transport easily. The zoo also houses a green house with rare species of plants and flowers and a café nearby serves good snacks to refresh the tourists. It i...
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Amadeus Provides Travel Itinerary Via SMS
Amadeus just launched a new SMS solution that will become the industry’s first web based tool allowing travel agents to provide their customers with an update of their travel details via SMS. Amadeus provides technology and distribution solutions for the travel and tourism industry. The new web based tool will allow travel agents to alert travelers about important travel details including travel itineraries, e-tickets, flight information, passenger name record data, and any changes to the ticketing time limit.
Ghulam Al Baloushi, Managing Director for Amadeus, Gulf, said “With air travel becoming more affordable and convenient, people today travel more often than they did five years ago.”
Astor Street
Astor Street is located in the heart of Chicago's Gold Coast district, the city's most opulent neighborhood. It is one of the most expensive addresses in the United States outside New York City. Most of the buildings were built during a sixty year period beginning in the 1880s. Astor Street was named a historic landmark in 1975 for its magnificent architecture. Highlights in...
Shakir Ali Museum
This museum was established in the memory of Shakir Ali, an art professor who taught at the prestigious National College of Art. Apart from his personal belongings which are on display, his paintings and drawings are also showcased in a gallery. In addition to his work, the art of other contemporary artists are also on display. A research library containing a wide collection of art books is locate...
Palm Tree Island
This is arguably Doha’s most well known and definitely the most popular attraction. Located in Doha Bay, the wonderful beaches are worth a visit. Children are able to enjoy in a shallow pool as well as on some fun fair rides. The dhow rides are also worth going on. Camel rides and water sports for the more adventurous are also available here. Timings: Daily 12 – 9: 30pm Admission: 20...
Theemuge (Former Presidential Palace)
Maldives, Maldives
Theemuge is the site of the Supreme Court of the Maldives as well as the former official residence of the President of the Maldives. The building was designed by a Malaysian architect and was named after some of the first Muslim rulers of the Maldives, who reigned during the late Lunar Dynasty (1411 to 1388). In 1998 it became the official residence of the president and served as such ...
3 places to explore with your family this summer...
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The authoritative source of information for breeders and owners of Kerries
The New Obedience Rules
Lisa Frankland
Shows & Activities
Current: The New Obedience Rules
No portion of this article may be reproduced without permission of the copyright holder. Reprinted with permission from .
In response to letters from obedience exhibitors and on the advice of an obedience advisory committee, the AKC has made the following changes in the Obedience Regulations, effective February 1, 1998.
Collars (Chapter 2, section 17):
The rules regarding collars have been loosened somewhat to allow "fancy" collars (i.e. bright colors or patterns) as well as the increasingly popular nylon snap collars. Prong collars, electronic collars, and any other special training collars (such as haltis) are still prohibited. As before, collars must be properly fitted and have nothing hanging from them. All collars are subject to approval of the judge.
Training and Warm Up on the Grounds (Chapter 2, section 26):
Once upon a time, I am told, there were no rules regarding this, and warm-up rings were even provided at many shows. Unfortunately a few inconsiderate people went too far, monopolizing the practice rings, relentlessly drilling, and harshly disciplining or even abusing their dogs. Rather than deal with the few stinkers, the AKC banned all training on the grounds of a show, only permitting a brief warmup shortly before showing, with heeling and a couple of fronts and finishes. Now the AKC has amended its rules to permit warm ups to include any exercise seen in the obedience rings (such as retrieving, stand for exam, or even jumps). However, the dog must still be on lead, the handler cannot use any physical or verbal corrections, and the warm-ups cannot interfere with any dog in the rings.
Novice A class (Chapter 3, section 1):
Under the old rules, anybody who had ever coowned a dog with somebody else who had put an AKC obedience title on a dog was not eligible for this class. Now they are (though they still have to be the owner of the dog they are showing, or a member of the owner's immediate family)! The rules have also been amended to allow people to show more than one dog at a time in Novice A, and to allow the owner to recruit an additional handler, if needed, for the long sit and down. It concludes by saying that no dog may be entered in both Novice A and Novice B at the same trial.
There was another proposed change to allow dogs with a CD to continue competing in Novice B until they earned their first Open leg; however, this did not go through. You may still only compete in Novice A or B for 60 days after your dog has earned its CD.
Open A class (Chapter 4, section 1):
The Regulations now specify that a dog may not be entered in both Open A and Open B at the same trial.
Retrieve Over High Jump (Chapter 4, section 10):
If you have been privy to conversations in training classes, at dog shows, in obedience publications, or on the internet, you know that the debate over jump heights has been raging back and forth for ages. It used to be that all breeds of dogs were required to jump 1 1/2 times their height at the withers, except for a few giant or short-legged breeds, which were eventually allowed to jump once their height. Then it was lowered to 1 1/4 times. Then the parent Clubs of some more breeds, including Chows and Rottweilers petitioned the AKC to have the jumps lowered to once their height for their breeds as well. Then the AKC recently lowered the jumps to 3/4 height for seven of the massive breeds. This latest change lowers the jumps to once their height for all those breeds that are still jumping 1 1/4. People in favor of this change say that it will bring the heights in line with other registries, such as the CKC and the UKC, encourage more people to show their dogs, and prevent jumping injuries. Those who are opposed argue that it will encourage people to show unsound dogs that shouldn't be jumping at any height, and that it is cheapening the sport by making the jumping exercises easier. To pacify the latter group, the AKC has said that one time the height at the shoulders is the minimum height, and that people can jump their dogs higher if they wish. However, higher jumping dogs will receive no extra consideration from the judge.
Another change to this section is that automatic measuring by the judge in Open and Utility has been eliminated. From now on the judge will only measure a dog if he doesn't think the jumps are set at at least the minimum height.
To obtain the full text of these changes or a copy of the Regulations with these amendments, contact the AKC or visit their website at http://www.akc.org/ Remember, as an exhibitor you are expected to know and obey the rules. If you are currently showing in obedience or are planning to start, get a current copy of the AKC Obedience Regulations, keep them in your training bag, and read them!
Martha Stewart and Home Depot came out with a paint color called "Kerry Blue Terrier".
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Todestage
Lennie Hayton
Composer - USA
Born February 13, 1908 in New York, NY, US
Died April 24, 1971 in Palm Springs, CA, USA
Lennie Hayton was born on February 13, 1908 in New York, NY, US. He was an American Composer, known for Eyes in the night (1942), Battle circus (1952), Nazi Agent (1942), Lennie Hayton's first movie on record is from 1941. Lennie Hayton died on April 24, 1971 in Palm Springs, CA, USA. His last motion picture on file dates from 1952.
Lennie Hayton Filmography [Auszug]
1952: Battle circus (Arzt im Fegefeuer) (Composer), Directed by Richard Brooks, with June Allyson, , Perry Sheehan,
1949: Side Street (Composer), Directed by Anthony Mann, with Harry Antrim, Adele Jergens, Edwin Maxwell,
1948: Any number can play (Composer), Directed by Mervyn Le Roy, with Audrey Totter, Caleb Peterson, Frank Morgan,
1948: The Pirate (Composer), Directed by Vincente Minnelli, with Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Walter Slezak,
1947: Living in a big way (Composer), Directed by Gregory La Cava, with Jean Adair, Charles Winninger, John Warburton,
1946: The Harvey Girls (Composer), Directed by George Sidney, with Edward Earle, Selena Royle, Kenny Baker,
1944: Meet the People (Composer), Directed by Charles F. Reisner, with Lucille Ball, Dick Powell, Virginia O'Brien,
1942: Eyes in the night (Composer), Directed by Fred Zinnemann, with Edward Arnold, Reginald Denny, John Emery,
1942: Whistling in Dixie (Composer), Directed by S. Sylvan Simon, with George Bancroft, , ,
1942: Nazi Agent (Salute to Courage) (Composer), Directed by Jules Dassin, with Conrad Veidt, Anne Ayars, Frank Reicher,
1941: Your last act (Composer), Directed by Fred Zinnemann,
The copyright lies with the authors of these quotes - Lennie Hayton - Biography KinoTV Movie Database (M)
More on Lennie Hayton
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New Zealand Score At The Death To Book A Place In The 2013 World Cup Final
Nov 24, 2013 League Freak World Cup News 0
The World Champion New Zealand Kiwi’s will contest their third straight Rugby League World Cup final after a thrilling 20-18 win over England at Wembley Stadium.
England played well in the first half while New Zealand just didn’t look themselves. The loss of Frank Pritchard to injury was a big blow to the New Zealand pack and England came out breathing fire. Gareth Widdop played very well in his return to the English lineup as a starter, something that left many English fans wondering why he had been held back until so late in the tournament.
Sam Burgess in particular was great in the first half. He really set a good platform for England and helped them skip away to an early 8-0 lead. The Kiwi’s managed to fight their way back into the match however and tied the game up at 8-all going into the half time break.
The first half was punctuated by a brilliant try by New Zealand. The ball went from one side of the field to the other, and then, Dean Whare added this piece of magic to the contest:
The second half was a similar affair with New Zealand looking slightly off their game while England looked to stick to the basics.
Both teams had their chances in a contest that went back and forth. Just when it looked like New Zealand were going to kick on and get an easy win, England would come fighting back and take the lead once more.
One crucial moment in the match saw New Zealand attacking the English line. As the ball went out to the right hand side New Zealand looked certain to score. English winger Ryan Hall took what looked to be a great intercept, but dropped it cold almost immediately. In the context of the moment, and with the game on a knife edge, a run away intercept try could very well have seen a different result in this game.
There were a few crucial moments towards the end of the match that really hurt England…
A missed conversion by Kevin Sinfield left the door open for the New Zealand comeback. Sinfields kicking game late was very poor. As England needed to shut down the match, slow the game down and make New Zealand work the ball out from their own half of the field, Sinfield kept kicking the ball straight down the throat of Kevin Locke instead of looking for touch. It allowed New Zealand to keep their momentum and kept England on the back foot late in the match.
Then, the crucial moments…
A high tackle on Sonny Bill Williams by George Burgess allowed New Zealand brilliant field position with just a minute left on the clock. Down 14-18, a try was the only result New Zealand could go for.
On the English line the Kiwi’s got close to the line but couldn’t break it. Then, a long pass out to the left hand side saw Kevin Sinfield run out of the defensive line at New Zealand halfback Shaun Johnson. Johnson put a step on Sinfield, accelerated through the hole in the defense he had left, and score the most important and memorable try of his career to level the scores up at 18-all.
It was all left to Johnson once again to nail the relatively easy conversion and book New Zealand’s place in the final at Old Trafford.
A few thoughts coming out of this contest…
New Zealand looked like a team that has not played a close game in some time. Their softer run through the World Cup could have easily come back to bite them.
New Zealand didn’t play smart in defense. They kept biting hard on decoy runners and it allowed England to find them short on the edges. Australia will have taken note of this and I would expect that next weekend the Kangaroo’s will throw a thousand decoy runners at the Kiwi’s and hoping for similar results.
Sam Burgess was named Man of the Match, once again about 7 minutes before full time, although I felt that once again Issac Luke was sensational in this game. Late in the contest he was the difference between both teams. Both Luke and Greg Inglis have been the standout players at this World Cup. Its daylight after those two.
The Kiwi’s need to improve heading into the final, but I am still tipping them to win it all.
Now onto England..
England put so much into this match and the World Cup in general. While they played well, I don’t think we will see England build on this result. When you consider that the next World Cup will be held in Australia and New Zealand, and that England haven’t turned up for a contest down under in a generation, its safe to say the the next time England consider themselves to be any hope of even being competitive in a World Cup will be with a very different looking lineup.
This is surely the end of Kevin Sinfields international career. He was poor throughout the World Cup, at times he was nothing short of a liability, and with his advanced age and his complete collapse in the dying moments of this contest, it is time for England to do the right thing and tap him on the shoulder.
I’ll write more about Englands over all effort in the World Cup but needless to say it didn’t work out the way the RFL intended.
So, New Zealand are into the final, they will face Australia. It will be another epic World Cup final!
England, George Burgess, Kevin Sinfield, New Zealand, Ryan Hall, Sam Burgess, Shaun Johnson, Wembley Stadium, World Cup
Australia Destroys Fiji in World Cup Semi Final What Shall We Do With The London Broncos?
Podcast: Fergo and The Freak –...
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HIPAA and Social Media
In today’s social media era, companies all over the world benefit from the ease of using social networks to communicate quickly and efficiently with their customers. Although slower to adopt, the healthcare industry has also joined the social media craze.
National Safety Month: Part 2
20 statistics that stress the importance of safety awareness and prevention at home and in the workplace.
AMCA Data Breach Effects Over 20 million Patients
American Medical Collections Agency (AMCA), a company that provides billing collection services to healthcare organizations, confirmed that sometime between August 2018 and March 2019, an unauthorized user accessed its web payment system which included several healthcare clients and held millions of patient’s information.
June is National Safety Month, join MedSafe in bringing awareness to the importance of ensuring healthcare safety in the workplace!
Tips for Ensuring Your Remote Employees are HIPAA Compliant
In today’s digital age, it should come as no surprise that the number of employees working from home has been steadily increasing over the past decade. In fact, in the last 15 years, telecommuting positions have grown by a whopping 140%. (1) While new technologies have made telecommuting more possible through easier and more efficient ways of transmitting data, it has also created increased risk of loss and disclosure of sensitive information.
Is Constant Contact HIPAA Compliant?
Constant Contact, Inc. is an online marketing company, headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts that provides an email marketing solution which makes it easy for companies to stay in contact with their customers through sending newsletters, updates, and email marketing messages. Many medical offices and healthcare facilities utilize constant contact to keep in touch with their patients.
However, one common question that is often asked, is whether or not Constant Contact is HIPAA Compliant?
Patient Safety Awareness Week 2019
Research suggests that medical errors are now the third leading cause of death in the United States, totalling over 250,000 deaths per year. (3) In addition, The Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine estimates that every nine minutes, someone in a U.S. hospital dies due to a wrong or delayed medical diagnosis. (5) From a global perspective, The World Health Organization has estimated that 1 in 10 patients of high-income countries have been harmed while receiving care in a hospital, of which 50% of these incidents considered preventable. (1)
“The Right to Know the Price”
Imagine going to the grocery store, getting your weekly groceries, but not knowing how much it would be until you receive a bill in the mail weeks later. Imagine getting an oil-change or going on vacation and not knowing the cost. This is exactly what happens to millions of patients each and every day, and a big part of what is broken in our healthcare system. In fact, the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 67 percent of individuals are concerned about unexpected medical bills. (1)
2017 National Health Expenditures Highlights
CMS released the 2017 National Health Expenditures, and overall health spending saw growth, however, less than 2016. National health spending increased by 3.9% reaching $3.5 trillion, or $10,739 per person and accounted for 17.9% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Below are some of the highlights from the report:
We Have Just Experienced a Cyber Attack, What Do We Need to Do Now?
Have you just experienced a ransomware attack or other cybersecurity incident, you may be wondering what to do next? Fortunately, the HHS, Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has provided a quick response checklist that explains step by step what a HIPAA covered entity or its business associate should do in response to an incident.
In the event of a cyber-attack or similar emergency an entity should:
A Holiday wish to all of our clients!
As we embark upon the holidays, the team at MedSafe would like to take a moment to thank all of our clients who have dedicated their lives to making a difference. While the majority of us will be enjoying holiday festivities with family and friends, many of you will forego time with your families to care for patients.
It’s Flu Season! Are you Ready?
It’s no secret that we are in the peak of flu season! Whether you are a nurse, primary care physician, or healthcare professional you are not only susceptible to the virus itself, but you also play a significant role in helping to protect patients against influenza. The CDC recommends that all healthcare workers get vaccinated annually against influenza, as it is the best way to prevent the flu. They also recommend a yearly flu vaccine for all individuals ages 6 months and older.
Breach Notification- What Do Practices Need to Know?
According to the HIPAA Breach Notification Rule, all covered entities and their business associates are required to report any breach of protected health information. It is essential to understand and implement all breach notification requirements or risk incurring financial penalties as high as $1,500,000 from state attorneys general and the HHS’ Office for Civil Rights.
What is a Breach?
HIPAA and MACRA/MIPS 2018- What You Need To Know
As we move towards the end of the year, many practices and physicians are starting to consider the data they will need to submit under the MACRA/MIPS program. The MACRA/MIPS rules change slightly every year, and this year is no exception. Even though the rules have been adjusted, a basic requirement remains in place:
What is a Security Risk Assessment and Why Does My Practice Need One?
According to the Health Insurance Portability and Accounting Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Security Rule covered entities (CEs) and business associates (Bas) that have access to electronic personal health information (EPHI) are required to implement safeguards necessary to protect it.
OCR Guidance on Software Vulnerabilities and Patching
Under the HIPAA security rule, HIPAA covered entities (CEs) and business associates (BAs) are required to protect their electronic personal health information (ePHI), which typically involves identifying and mitigating software vulnerabilities that could put (ePHI) at risk. It also includes conducting a risk analysis, and implementing actions that will reduce these risks.
New York State Passes Sexual Harassment Law with Training and Policy Requirements
The State of New York has signed into law a bill designed to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. The sweeping new legislation includes the requirement of sexual harassment policies and sexual harassment training for New York State employers. Those organizations who do not have prevention guidelines, anti-harassment policies, and training programs in place should develop and implement them immediately.
Patch Management- What is Patch Management and Why Should You Care?
Healthcare organizations nationwide remain focused on their IT security, as more and more cyberattacks wreak havoc across the industry. Within the last two years, nearly 50% of companies have experienced a data breach, and the severity of these attacks appear to be getting worse.
Business E-mail Compromise: How to Protect Your Organization
In 2016, the FBI released a public service announcement warning that “business email compromise (BEC) scams have increased by 1,300% since 2015 and have cost businesses more than $3 billion. Making it a significant threat that businesses should be aware of to reduce the likelihood of becoming a victim.
Orangeworm is Wreaking Havoc on the Healthcare Sector
According to a recent report by Symantec security firm, a cyber group called Orangeworm has targeted the healthcare industry and is wreaking its havoc across the sector worldwide. The group has been unleashing a malware known as Trojan.Kwampirs to gain remote access and compromise the computer systems of firms in the United States, Europe, and Asia. The purpose of the attacks is believed to be corporate espionage; their victims include healthcare providers, pharmaceutical firms, IT solution providers, and healthcare equipment manufacturers among others. (1)
Billing and Coding Compliance
Dental OSHA Compliance
HIPAA Online Training
HIPAA Onsite Training
ICD-10 Compliance
OSHA Compliance
OSHA Online Training
OSHA Onsite Training
Veterinary OSHA Compliance
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Did a Group Financed by Exxon Prompt IRS to Audit Greenpeace?
Posted in the database on Tuesday, March 21st, 2006 @ 13:38:15 MST (2406 views)
by Steve Stecklow The Wall Street Journal
Two and a half years ago, Public Interest Watch, a self-described watchdog of nonprofit groups, wrote to the Internal Revenue Service urging the agency to audit Greenpeace and accusing the environmental group of money laundering and other crimes.
Last September, the IRS began a months-long audit of the U.S. arm of Greenpeace, known for steering its boats in the way of whaling ships and oil tankers. This month, Greenpeace says, it received notice from the IRS that the group "continues to qualify for exemption from federal income tax" as a nonprofit entity.
Greenpeace says an IRS auditor told it that the PIW letter triggered the audit. The IRS won't say how it decided to audit Greenpeace.
What is clear is where PIW has gotten a lot of its funding: Exxon Mobil Corp., the giant oil company that has long been a target of Greenpeace protests.
"I believe organizations should be scrutinized and audited, but I just don't believe you should get targeted because ... you're a critic of Exxon Mobil," said John Passacantando, executive director of Greenpeace USA, the U.S. affiliate of Amsterdam-based Greenpeace International.
Exxon Mobil confirmed that it has provided funds to PIW, but said that it wasn't aware of the IRS audit and that it played no role in initiating the audit. In an email, company spokesman Mark D. Boudreaux said: "PIW's stated mission of ensuring that charitable organizations spend donations in accordance with their charitable tax status is a laudable public policy goal."
Another spokesman, Russ Roberts, added: "It's hard for us to have sympathy for an organization that would complain that the IRS audited them." Exxon Mobil said it funds think tanks and other groups that agree with its positions on global warming and other issues.
Eric L. Smith, an IRS spokesman, said that under federal law, he can't discuss the Greenpeace case. He said a nonpartisan IRS panel of career professionals reviews allegations against nonprofit groups to determine whether an audit is warranted. Reviews of the agency's decision-making process, he said, "have tended to find as a general rule that we are fair and even-handed."
According to its Web site, PIW was founded in 2002 "in response to the growing misuse of charitable funds by nonprofit organizations and the lack of effort by government agencies to deal with the problem." Its motto: "Keeping an Eye on the Self-Appointed Guardians of the Public Interest."
It was founded by Michael J. Hardiman, a Washington-based lobbyist and public-relations consultant who previously worked for a Republican congressman. As a lobbyist, he has represented the American Conservative Union and the American Trucking Association, among other groups.
The PIW Web site says the group's initial funding came from "business organizations." In an interview, Mr. Hardiman declined to name any of those sources. He said he left PIW in February 2004 to work in Iraq as a civilian employee of the Defense Department. His successor at PIW, Lewis Fein, who serves as interim executive director, also declined to name any of the group's funders.
PIW's most recent federal tax filing, covering August 2003 to July 2004, states that $120,000 of the $124,094 the group received in contributions during that period came from Exxon Mobil. The company wouldn't say whether it provided funds to PIW at other times, but said it no longer gives money to the group. The previous year, PIW reported donations totaling $49,600, but didn't identify sources.
PIW has criticized several nonprofit groups for alleged misdeeds, including the American Heart Association, which it accused of allowing its logo to be used to endorse Subway sandwiches in exchange for donations -- a charge the AHA denies. It also wrote to the IRS in August 2003 to urge an audit of Dogwood Alliance, an Asheville, N.C., forest-protection group that has campaigned against office-supply chains Staples Inc. and OfficeMax Inc.
Sarah Hodgdon, executive director of Dogwood Alliance, said the IRS audited the group in 2004 but didn't revoke its tax-exempt status. "I suspected that the audit followed the letter that Public Interest Watch sent," she says.
She said the group has never targeted Exxon Mobil; the company said it isn't familiar with Dogwood Alliance.
Messrs. Hardiman and Fein said PIW hasn't specifically targeted groups of a particular political bent. "We went after conservative and some of the more lefty groups," Mr. Hardiman said. "We tried to throw our net rather wide."
Since 2003, one of PIW's biggest targets has been Greenpeace. In its signed application that year for tax-exempt status from the IRS, PIW named only one nonprofit on which it was focusing -- Greenpeace -- and noted that it "has launched an indepth investigation of" the group. While PIW is exempt from paying federal taxes, contributions to the group aren't tax-deductible.
Greenpeace has labeled Exxon Mobil the "No. 1 climate criminal" and taken particular exception to the oil company's insistence that fossil fuels aren't the main cause of global warming. Greenpeace protesters spilled red wine on tables at an oil-industry meeting in London in February 2003 where Lee Raymond, Exxon Mobil's chief executive officer at the time, was the guest of honor. In May that year, activists chained themselves to the main gate of Exxon Mobil's headquarters in Irving, Texas, where executives were gathering for the company's annual meeting.
In September 2003, PIW wrote to the head of the IRS urging the agency to audit Greenpeace and to challenge its tax-exempt status. PIW attached a report it published in which it accused Greenpeace of "blatant self-dealing," money laundering and other illegal activities. The letter accused Greenpeace of "laundering" more than $24 million in tax-deductible contributions by diverting them to a related entity that had held protests against the Iraq war, an oil tanker and a nuclear-power station.
Greenpeace officials said an IRS auditor showed up at their Washington office Sept. 12, 2005. Mr. Passacantando said that when the auditor, Charles Walker, arrived, he pointed to a picture of an activist chained to an Exxon Mobil gas pump and said, "You guys are engaged in illegal activity and this stuff has got to stop." Mr. Walker later said the audit had been triggered by the PIW complaint, according to Mr. Passacantando.
Mr. Walker didn't return a telephone call seeking comment. Mr. Smith, the IRS spokesman, said he couldn't comment on Mr. Walker's alleged remarks.
Greenpeace officials said the audit lasted nearly three months; they had a closing conference with the IRS on Dec. 8. The group received letters from the IRS dated March 1 that said both arms of the U.S. organization -- Greenpeace Fund Inc. and Greenpeace Inc. -- still qualified for tax-exempt status.
The letters did note nine "deficiencies" uncovered during the audit, including Greenpeace's recordkeeping. The agency also found that while the activist group had been engaged in unspecified unlawful activities, they weren't Greenpeace's primary purpose and therefore don't affect its tax status.
Write to Steve Stecklow at steve.stecklow@wsj.com
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Home > Opinion > Is this the age of women?
Is this the age of women?
Far from the glitz and glamour of GES 2017 is the real India where women are either threatened to be beheaded or are placed on a pedestal; this gap must bridged first.
Shutapa Paul1 Dec 2017 3:17 PM GMT
Discussions surrounding women empowerment and increasing their participation in the labour force has been gaining momentum, and with the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) organised jointly by India and US in Hyderabad this week, the need for more women entrepreneurs has been the talk of the town. With the Global Gender Gap Report 2017 by the World Economic Forum (WEF) placing India firmly at the 108th position out of 144 nations, the GES' focus on women was welcome. The summit's theme of 'Women First, Prosperity for All' resonated all the way from Hyderabad to the rest of the world.
As a fledgeling woman entrepreneur, I felt hopeful listening to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement of an impending basket of goodies aimed at a helping hand towards us women folk. PM Modi said that in the coming days there would be a special initiative to promote entrepreneurship skills among women and foster mentorship to provide a fillip to economic growth. There are indeed lessons to be learnt from the US where the number of firms owned by women has increased by 45 per cent in the last 10 years, while 8 in 10 new women-owned businesses have been started by minority women. Over 11 million American women own businesses and contribute over $1 trillion in revenue, and provide almost 9 million jobs. However, in developing nations, 70 per cent of women bosses of small and medium-sized businesses have been denied access to capital, with almost $300 billion annual credit deficit for women entrepreneurs.
We do need all the support that we can muster to break the glass ceiling, push open the boardroom doors and take our rightful place in the world. Greater participation from women would mean providing equitable opportunities to all. It would also mean enabling increased penetration of education and making available vocational training to Indian women. A safe and gender-conducive work environment would also boost the number of women who step out of their homes to earn a livelihood. Working graveyard shifts or remaining in a job even after having children should be facilitated. Most importantly, it is time to bid adieu to regressive mindsets.
In a recent column, I had mentioned that it is imperative that we shatter all stereotypes in order to bridge the gaping gender divide in India, and that this onslaught would have to be led both by men and women. It is heartening, therefore, to see the PM leading the way and hopefully, others will also take up the cudgels to encourage their mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters to work, build, and create. India sent a strong, progressive message to the world as PM Modi spoke of the intrinsic role played by women in India. He invoked Shakti, the goddess of power, spoke of Gargi, the ancient philosopher, mentioned the valour of warrior queens, Rani Lakshmibai and Rani Ahilyabai Holkar, and hailed the achievements of Kalpana Chawla, Sunita Williams, PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, and Sania Mirza.
It all looked so peachy at GES 2017; timed perfectly with Ivanka Trump's changing ensembles. But I wonder if Trump Junior had a chance to hear about the otherwise crappy week that women in India have had. We have very few 'good' days, but the irony of this week was startling. While women were being encouraged at GES 2017 with the PM himself showing the way, every kind of right and freedom awarded to Indian women was grotesquely flouted in the country in the same week.
While India's first female Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Union Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj waxed eloquent about the confident strides taken by the nation, and PM Modi spoke of the eminence of women in India, protests against actor Deepika Padukone and her film, Padmavati continued. The BJP's Haryana leader Suraj Pal Amu had earlier thought nothing of announcing a Rs 10 crore bounty to be presented to anyone who would behead Padmavati's leading actor, Deepika Padukone. This week, the Supreme Court freed Hadiya from her parents' custody, only to send her off to study, completely disregarding an adult woman's wish to be with her husband. Also in the same week, a news report said that rape videos in Uttar Pradesh continue to be circulated unabated; louder the screams, more the price of the videos.
Maybe Trump Junior did not hear of these cases that shows either the dichotomy or hypocrisy of India or perhaps both. This too is India; far from the glitz and glamour of the stage, the real India is where filth gathers and festers, proving to be obstacles to a woman's progress. The nation is caught between threatening to behead us and putting us on a pedestal; this is the chasm that we must bridge first.
(The writer is a journalist and media entrepreneur)
Shutapa Paul
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Stories from Friday, November 23, 2007
NAIA Championship Series (College Sports ~ 11/23/07)
Depth Chart Offense Defense...
Valley's Singletary finds strength in families (College Sports ~ 11/23/07)
For Missouri Valley College's Reggie Singletary, it's all about family. By that, the fifth-year senior linebacker from Kansas City North doesn't just mean the family in which he was raised, but also the Vikings football family and the family he created by the son and daughter which arrived this summer. Fatherhood has engendered a different outlook on life...
Vikes eye high-flying Ohioans (College Sports ~ 11/23/07)
While digital reproductions don't flicker light in the dark as did film, the eyes of Monty Roe, Charlie McFail and the rest of the Missouri Valley College defensive staff are reddened by wear. These defensive gurus have been swelling MMU's coffers by the megakilowatt hour in dissecting the potent passing attack of Ohio Dominican and its record-setting quarterback, junior Cris Reisert -- whose numbers are, in the approving view of Vikings head coach Paul Troth, "ridiculous."...
Janette Trimble (Obituary ~ 11/23/07)
Janette Trimble, 85, of Gilliam, died Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2007, at Fitzgibbon Hospital in Marshall. Funeral services will be Saturday, Nov. 24, 2007, at 10 a.m. at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Marshall. Rev. Douglas A. Dubisar will officiate. A short reception will follow the services at the church, with private family burial in Gilliam Cemetery immediately following. ...
Joyce Johnston McRoberts (Obituary ~ 11/23/07)
Joyce Johnston McRoberts, 88, of Malta Bend, died Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2007, at Mar-Saline Manor in Marshall. Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Monday, Nov. 26, 2007, at Campbell-Lewis Chapel in Marshall, with William W. Harlow officiating. Visitation will be held from 1 to 2 p.m. Monday at the funeral home. Burial will be held in Malta Bend Cemetery. Memorials may be made to Fitzgibbon Cancer Center. Online condolences may be sent to www.campbell-lewis.com...
Jo Ann Twilling Graham (Obituary ~ 11/23/07)
Jo Ann Twilling Graham, 48, of Marshall, died Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2007, at her home. Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 24, 2007, at Campbell-Lewis Chapel in Marshall, with Fr. Kevin Gormley officiating. Visitation will be held from 10 to 11 a.m. Saturday at the funeral home. Memorials may be made to Fitzgibbon-Mary Montgomery Hospice. Online condolences may be sent to www.campbell-lewis.com...
Myra Pauline Day (Obituary ~ 11/23/07)
Myra Pauline Day, 74, of Marshall, died Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2007, at The Living Center in Marshall. Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m. Monday, Nov. 26, 2007, at Campbell-Lewis Chapel in Marshall. Visitation will be held from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. Monday at the funeral home. Burial will be in Shiloh Cemetery near Marshall. Memorials may be made to family choice or Fitzgibbon Cancer Center. Online condolences may be sent to www.campbell-lewis.com...
Newscope/LaMonte teen sustains minor injuries in 1-car accident on Highway 240 Nov. 21 (Local News ~ 11/23/07)
Brittany F. Porter, 15, of LaMonte, sustained minor injuries in an early-morning accident Nov. 21, on Missouri Highway 240 at County Road 126, according to a report from Missouri State Highway Patrol. The 2006 Ford, driven by Patricia M. Butler, 36, of Salisbury, in which Porter was a passenger, ran off the right side of the roadway and struck a ditch. Damage to the car was extensive...
Marshall council sets April election, amends park tax election ordinance (Local News ~ 11/23/07)
The Marshall city council heard two votes of 'no' on amending the park sales tax ordinance on Monday, Nov. 19. Barbara Utlaut, Ward 1, and Vince Lutterbie, Ward 2, voted no to amending the ordinance authorizing the enactment of a one-quarter of 1 percent sales tax to be used for the operation of Marshall Municipal Parks...
Marshall Tourism Commission, mayor discuss fund's status (Local News ~ 11/23/07)
The Marshall Tourism Commission met on Wednesday, Nov. 7, to hear comments from Mayor Connie Latimer and to begin the review process for grant applications of tourism funds. Latimer addressed the commission about the audit it is wanting to conduct of funds that the city oversees for the commission and stressed that their approach was unnecessary...
First big question: How to fund courthouse fix-up?/Saline County Preservation Committee begins discussing various funding, scope-of-work options (Local News ~ 11/23/07)
One thing is clear -- the tasks of restoring the Saline County Courthouse, figuring out how to fund the project and maintaining the building into the future are three distinct and complex issues. The Saline County Preservation Committee and the county commissioners have a big job ahead of them as they approach the restoration of the 125-year-old grande dame of Saline County on the square in Marshall...
Mobile home fire Thanksgiving night leaves 5 homeless (Local News ~ 11/23/07)
A Thursday night, Nov. 22, fire left a Marshall family of five without a home the day after Thanksgiving. The cause of the fire was undetermined Friday, Nov. 23, but fire officials said it probably was electrical. The fire caught the underside of the family's mobile home on fire with flames and a lot of smoke peeking out of the skirting...
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2017 Silver Anniversary Award: Tommy Vardell
Former Stanford standout smoothly transitions to career in venture capital
December 8, 2016 2:00pm Kristina Stockburger
In 2000, Tommy Vardell peeled off an NFL jersey for the final time, marking the end of his distinguished college and pro football career. But, only 30 years old, the former Stanford University running back was far from ready to retire. Later that year, Vardell and his former NFL teammates Brent Jones and Mark Harris, cofounded Northgate Capital, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm.
For Vardell, the transition from the NFL to the business world was daunting, but invigorating. While he initially received some skepticism as he acclimated to a new field, Vardell appreciated the challenge that starting his own business created.
Vardell will receive an NCAA Silver Anniversary Award at the NCAA Honors Celebration on Wednesday, Jan. 18, in Nashville, Tennessee. The annual award recognizes six distinguished former student-athletes on the 25th anniversary of the end of their intercollegiate athletics eligibility.
“The new environment I found myself in – it was very comparable to my time as an athlete,” Vardell said. “The high-risk, high-reward atmosphere was familiar to me. I knew how to navigate that path effectively.”
At Stanford, Vardell was a two-time team captain, 1991 Academic All-American of the Year, and studied at the university’s demanding engineering school. In 1992, Vardell graduated from Stanford with a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering and was selected in the first round of the NFL Draft by the Cleveland Browns.
For the next eight years, Vardell competed in the NFL for the Browns, Detroit Lions and San Francisco 49ers. Meanwhile, he utilized his free time during the offseason to learn about the venture capital sector and develop investment strategies.
After meeting in 1996 as teammates in San Francisco, Vardell and Jones connected with partners at Sequoia Capital, which allowed them to learn the business from experienced industry insiders and network with potential future partners.
Even with a degree from one of the top universities in the country and a burgeoning familiarity of the industry, Vardell felt behind the curve after leaving football and entering the business world. While he was pushing weights and eluding tacklers, his new peers had been honing their craft and developing their skills. However, Vardell eventually realized that his football career provided a sturdy foundation for his future.
“The NFL locker room was great entrepreneurial training ground for me,” Vardell said. “You’re forced to adapt to a wide spectrum of personalities, develop emotional intelligence and critique yourself on a daily basis. Exposure to such a competitive environment demands accountability, attention to detail and self-assessment.”
Vardell, Jones and Harris created Northgate and worked on establishing a business model. The former teammates found their sweet spot by sponsoring other venture capital firms’ investments. In 2008, Northgate was one of 15 companies based in the United States named a World Economic Forum Global Growth Company. Currently, Northgate managers almost $5 billion in assets with established offices in the United States, United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Mexico City.
Content with his accomplishments in two competitive fields, Vardell is in the process of selling his remaining shares in Northgate. He hopes to focus more time on his positions as president of the Brotherbird Foundation – a charitable organization that provides enrichment services to disadvantaged youth – and as a board member for the Stanford Alumni Association, for which he serves on the finance committee and alumni business and services committee. He also plans to spend some of his hard-earned free time with his family.
Silver Anniversary Award
2017 NCAA Convention
2017 Silver Anniversary Award
2017 Silver Anniversary Award: Alonzo Mourning
After a decorated career, Mourning’s advice to his son has remained consistent: “I stress education.”
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2017 Silver Anniversary Award: Susan Robinson Fruchtl
Susan Robinson Fruchtl, in her first year as athletics director at Saint Francis University (Pennsylvania), is now coaching her coaches and enjoying their successes with them.
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2017 Silver Anniversary Award: Ty Detmer
Former Heisman Trophy winner and NFL quarterback Ty Detmer has returned to Brigham Young as the offensive coordinator.
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2017 Silver Anniversary Award: Troy Vincent
Former Wisconsin standout learned at a young age that it is better to give than to receive.
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2017 Silver Anniversary Award: Heather Taggart
Heather Taggart has built a career around helping others: both her patients and young doctors who hope to follow in her footsteps.
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The Eucharist draws many people home to the Church. (Catholics Come Home ad video still)
Culture of Life | Jul. 2, 2019
‘Catholics Come Home’ Continues to Aid the Searching 20 Years Later
Apostolate reaches two decades of bringing the faithful home.
Patty Knap
Christine McRory was doing housework three years ago when she heard a commercial in the background.
“It really called out to me. I was in tears, and I really wasn’t sure why,” McRory told the Register. “It was the nudge I needed to go back to church. It was the purpose and truth of the faith that I missed."
The “evangomercial” was one of a series from Catholics Come Home (CCH).
“Our family is made up of every race; rich and poor; sinners and saints. With God’s grace, we’re the largest charitable organization on the planet. We educate more children than any other institution. We defend the dignity of all human life, uphold marriage and family. Guided by the Holy Spirit, we compiled the New Testament. We pray for you and our world whenever we celebrate Mass. Jesus laid the foundation for our faith when he said to Peter, the first pope, ‘You are rock, and upon this rock I will build my Church,’” the ad states. “For 2,000 years, we’ve had an unbroken line of shepherds guiding the Catholic Church with love and truth. We invite you to take another look.”
After 20 years, CCH’s track record is what Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York has called “a statistically verifiable program of bringing people back to the Church.”
Pitch for Faith
With years of prior professional media experience in advertising, CCH founder Tom Peterson prayed, “How do you want to use my life, God?” He believes God prepared him to evangelize to people, but not in the pews. So he produced a media program for the Diocese of Phoenix, resulting in 92,000 people coming to, or back to, the Church.
Over two decades, CCH has helped 500,000-plus people return home to the Church, with millions of viewers in the U.S. and foreign countries. As Peterson said, “Jesus the Good Shepherd cares about each individual soul. He invites us to help ‘love somebody to heaven.’”
Ryan Hanning piloted CCH in Phoenix, telling the Register via email, “It’s a personal invitation to encounter Christ through his Church. ... We saw increases in Mass attendance and RCIA. What was important was a warm, sincere invite."
CCH’s website launched in 2006 and is now available in eight languages.
Video testimonies of Catholics who’ve been away from the Church and returned, or converts from other faiths or no faith at all, reveal a hunger for the truth.
The apostolate is the only faith group to air on national networks and during football games. One evangomercial features Coach Lou Holtz of Notre Dame football fame: “The key to winning in this life is choosing to do God’s will and loving others with all you’ve got. If you haven’t been going to Mass weekly, get back in the game. We’re saving your seat on the starting bench this Sunday.”
Overall, the ads air on hundreds of channels, including national networks, like CBS, NBC, ESPN, HGTV, TBS and WGN, as well as smaller local ones.
Bishops have taken note, as the CCH website relates.
In St. Louis, Archbishop Robert Carlson, credits CCH with “37,000 souls who returned to the faith. It was wonderful to receive calls from people who said they used this as an invitation from the Holy Spirit to return to the Catholic faith.”
Bishop Jaime Soto of the Diocese of Sacramento noted an increase of 16% in Mass attendance and confessions. “Among returning Catholics, the phrase ‘hit home’ was heard time and again in reference to the TV ads.”
As Seen on TV!
One powerful evangomercial is a rewind of life, eliciting reflection over mistakes and sins, as well as joy in reliving good moments.
“God wants us to be with him in heaven forever, and he wants us to bring as many people as possible,” Peterson shares in the ad.
Gloria Sampson was raised Catholic, but fell away in college and was an atheist for 50 years. After a divorce, she thought, “I’ve been without God for so long, I guess I don’t need God.” One night, as she shared in a CCH episode on EWTN, she saw a “very unusual ad. It said Catholics Come Home. I’d never heard it that way: Come home!” She visited the website and realized she still believed after all those years. She was then invited by a neighbor to a parish seminar.
“I know God exists. I searched for the truth as an academic all my life, but there was one truth I was missing — and that was God. When we sing the Our Father, that is the most beautiful thing in the world. I have no will of my own left. It’s all God's will, the way it should be. All I want to do now is evangelize!”
Michael Mark shared his conversion on a CCH episode, too. “I lived a life of drugs, sex, stealing. It really strained not only my relationship with my dad, but with God,” he shared with the Register in an email. “I got clean ... but something was missing. I came upon EWTN and a CCH testimony from a Catholic who had a similar situation. ... I went to Mass and ... I was welcomed with open arms. When I started going to church, my dad would accompany me, and it was such a blessing ... like the Parable of the Prodigal Son.”
He added, “The last week I was with my dad … he told me he loved me ... and like God the Father has forgiven me. I owe CCH a sincere thank you for helping me come home.”
Another CCH episode features Tom Henderson, an agnostic. “I thought I could take care of myself,” he recalled on an episode. After a parish educational program, he heard a CCH evangomercial, and he related: “I learned from that commercial — that with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the Church had compiled the Bible long ago. ... The need for authority became self-evident to me.” He found faith and reason together in the Church: “Jesus delivered a hard teaching around the Body and Blood of Christ. I’d never heard the part in John before so clearly: This was a hard teaching, and many turned away — but Jesus didn’t stop them. The Catholic Church has this exact teaching on the Eucharist.” He joined RCIA and now attends Mass with his wife.
Raised Buddhist, Daniel Bui later attended a Christian church with his parents but had thought about Christ’s hope for Christian unity and differing beliefs on the Eucharist. He came upon a pamphlet, “How to Stay Christian in College,” and contacted the author, who introduced him to natural law and the early Church Fathers. He read Benedict XVI’s Jesus of Nazareth, “and the first chapter just blew me away,” he told the Register. A young practicing Catholic then shared a CCH evangomerical with him. All these nudges led him to an RCIA program. Daniel is now an active Catholic, who also told the Register, “Life is a lot deeper now.”
Thomas Manns shared his journey on a CCH episode, too. After years as an agnostic, a severe injury left him depressed. “I cursed God for keeping me alive. Satan wanted me to think about suicide. Then I saw a CCH commercial. Something snapped. I read, Catholics Come Home: God’s Extraordinary Plan for Your Life. So many points were just dead-on. I walked into a church and thought, ‘This is where I’m supposed to be. This is home.’ Coming back to the Church is the first step to healing; I went from being desperate to finding hope. CCH helped save my life and take the path [God] planned.”
Remington Stewart shared his journey on the show, as well. He “didn’t think it was possible to have a relationship with” God and became involved with pornography and then lost someone he’d loved. “What did it mean to ‘come home?’ I didn’t know the Catholic Church goes back to the beginning.” He watched every CCH episode, attracted by the mercy of Jesus Christ. “Who wouldn’t want to ask for it? Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
Raised by culturally Jewish parents, Beth Kuklinski suffered a difficult childhood. With no faith, she became depressed. Divorced, she tried counseling and medication, but nothing helped. “I saw a CCH evangomercial and couldn’t get it out of my head,” she told the Register. “I started going to Mass, attracted to the Eucharist even before I became Catholic. I wanted to be in a loving place and work toward eternal life. I became Catholic and sat for 40 minutes in my first confession. It was a wonderful experience. I’m a changed person! God is a loving God, and he asks us to share that love with our neighbor.”
Register correspondent Patty Knap writes from Long Island, New York.
CatholicsComeHome.org
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Jennifer Gunter King named new director of Emory's Rose Library
By Maureen McGavin | Sept. 18, 2018
Holly Crenshaw
holly.crenshaw@emory.edu
Jennifer Gunter King will serve as the new director of Emory’s world-renowned Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library, starting Oct. 15.
Emory's African American collections, and curator's keen eye, celebrated in new exhibition Aug. 22, 2018
Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library
University Announcements, Community, Libraries, MARBL
Emory’s Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library has named Jennifer Gunter King as its new director. She will start Oct. 15.
“Jennifer brings a wealth of experience and an expansive view of libraries, not only from a special collections aspect but from a broader organizational understanding,” says University Librarian Yolanda Cooper. “She will work collaboratively to take a fresh look at operations, relationships, and programs to further advance our world-renowned Rose Library and fully engage in the future strategic goals of the Libraries and the University.”
King is currently the director of the Library and Knowledge Commons at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. Prior to joining Hampshire, King was director of Archives and Special Collections at Mount Holyoke College, where she initiated programs including an online digital archive, electronic records archiving and campus-wide exhibitions and programming. She previously held positions in special collections at Virginia Tech University Libraries and the University of Virginia.
“I am very excited to join Emory University as director of the Rose Library. The extraordinary staff and collections play a vital role in advancing Emory’s mission ‘to create, preserve, teach and apply knowledge in the service of humanity,’” King says.
“Emory’s special collections are a direct link to the past, providing access to literary, political and personal histories, all critical to supporting scholarship, civic engagement and, not least, democracy,” she explains. “I cannot imagine a more worthwhile calling or a more welcoming community.”
King earned her BA in history from the University of Maryland Baltimore County, and her MA in history and MLS with an archives concentration from the University of Maryland. Her interests include 21st century library design, advancing the accessibility of archival resources and pursuing opportunities for collaboration between libraries, archives and museums.
About the Rose Library
The Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library collects and connects stories of human experience, promotes access and learning, and offers opportunities for dialogue for all wise hearts who seek knowledge.
At the Rose Library, located in the Woodruff Library building of Emory University, students, scholars and other visitors can browse rare books, read original letters and manuscripts, and listen to rare recordings.
The Rose Library’s renowned collections span more than 800 years of human history — with particular depth in modern literature, African American history, Emory University history and the history of Georgia and the South. To learn more, visit rose.library.emory.edu.
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26 worshippers killed in Texas church shooting (Night Lead)
Posted by: Admin November 6, 2017 in PR
Washington, Nov 6 (IANS) At least 26 persons were killed when a lone gunman carrying a military-style rifle opened fire on worshippers at a Baptist church in Texas in one of the deadliest mass shooting in the US state’s history. The killer himself died later.
The attack took place on Sunday morning in Sutherland Springs, a small town some 45 km southeast of San Antonio city. Investigators on Monday scoured the background of the gunman, Devin Patrick Kelley, searching for answers on a possible motive, the US media reported.
Kelley started firing at the First Baptist Church shortly after the morning service began at 11, the police said. He was armed with a Ruger AR-556 rifle, and within minutes, many of those inside the small church were dead or injured.
The gunman — described as a former member of the Air Force — fired upon the services before he came under fire from a local man. As the killer escaped in a car, the other man chased him, firing away. The attacker eventually ran off the roadway and apparently took his own life.
Freeman Martin of the Texas Department of Public Safety told the Washington Post: “We don’t know if it was a self-inflicted gunshot wound or if he was shot by our local resident who engaged him in a gunfight.”
The motive for the attack remains unknown. At least 20 persons were injured in the attack.
The victims ranged between the age of five and 72 years and included at least eight members of a family, a pregnant woman and three of her children along with the 14-year-old daughter of the church’s pastor, Martin added.
Kelley, 26, was court-martialled in 2012 and sentenced to a year in military prison for assaulting his spouse and child, making him the latest mass attacker or suspect with domestic violence in his past.
He served a year in confinement. He was reduced in rank and released with a bad-conduct discharge in 2014.
Over 100 residents of Sutherland Springs town held a moment’s silence on Sunday night. A candlelight vigil was also held.
Among those present was Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who hours earlier had called the attack the “largest mass shooting in our state’s history”.
President Donald Trump said on Monday in Tokyo that guns were not to blame for the shooting.
“We have a lot of mental health problems in our country, but this isn’t a guns situation,” he said.
“Based on preliminary reports,” he said, the shooter was “a very deranged individual, a lot of problems for a long period of time”.
Trump did not provide the basis for his statement, saying “it’s a little bit soon to go into it.
“This isn’t a guns situation… Fortunately someone else had a gun that was shooting in the opposite direction” or it “would have been much worse”.
Sunday’s massacre unfolded on the eighth anniversary of the attack in 2009 on Fort Hood in Texas when an Army psychiatrist, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, killed 13 people in one of the deadliest mass shootings at an American military base.
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Don't know anything about IFFI protests, 'Padmavati' stir: Muzaffar Ali
Posted by: Admin November 21, 2017 in PR
By Sugandha Rawal
Panaji, Nov 21 (IANS) There are calls to boycott the 48th International Film Festival of India over the stir around “Padmavati” release and the exclusion of “S Durga” and “Nude” from IFFI’s Indian Panorama section. But filmmaker Muzaffar Ali doesn’t want to comment about it and says that he has no idea about the controversy.
Asked about his stance on all the debates, Muzaffar Ali told IANS: “I don’t know anything about that. It is a full different story… I have no experience or idea about it.”
“Padmavati”, featuring Deepika Padukone as Rani Padmavati, has been mired in controversy over conjectures that it “distorts history” regarding Rajput queen Padmavati, a contention that Bhansali has repeatedly denied.
The release date of the film has been pushed, but some fringes are demanding ban on the movie. Many film stars have come forward to condemn this and call it an act of bullying.
On the hand, filmmaker Sujoy Ghosh resigned as the head of the jury of the Indian Panorama Section of the 48th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) when “S Durga” and “Nude” didn’t made it to the list. Scriptwriter Apurva Asrani and filmmaker Gyan Correa also resigned.
Muzaffar Ali is the director of the classic Bollywood movie “Umrao Jaan”, and his last directorial “Jaanisaar” released in 2015. At IFFI, he heads the International Competition jury.
He might not be willing to talk about the controversy, but Muzaffar Ali did share his vision for the future of Indian cinema.
The filmmaker said: “It depends on makers. We need to create breed of makers who look at cinema in its biggest avatar, in its most sacred form. All this will make a lot of difference to the future of Indian cinema.”
“There is a need to evolve and arrive…A kind of wisdom in cinema is very important.. It has to prevail,” he added.
Is it happening at the moment?
“It should happen…The world is moving ahead, we can’t afford to be isolated,” said Muzaffar Ali.
(Sugandha Rawal’s trip to Goa is at the invitation of the organisers. She can be contacted at [email protected])
sug/nv/vm
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Lai Mohammed reveals how Buhari reduced killings
September 11th, 2018 News, Nigerian comments
Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture, stated that President Muhammadu Buhari’s government has “drastically” reduced killings resulting from farmers and herdsmen crisis, across the country.
Mohammed has made this known during a Special Town Hall meeting on security in Gusau, Zamfara State, on Monday.
In a statement sent to DAILY POST, Mohammed said the, “drastic fall in the killings resulted from concerted and committed actions by the Federal Government to curtail the farmers-herders clashes, cattle rustling and other acts of banditry.
“Let me say straight away that the killings, resulting from farmers-herders clashes, cattle rustling, trans-border crimes and banditry, among others, have fallen drastically. Unfortunately, this has not received the kind of media coverage that was given to the killings. I appeal to the media to correct this.”
He added: “Deployment of a Joint Military Intervention Force (JMIF), comprising Regular and Special Forces personnel from the Army, Air Force and Navy, and working in collaboration with the Nigeria Police Force, Department of State Security (DSS), and Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC).
“I have no doubt that the good people of Zamfara can testify to the drastic reduction in the activities of cattle rustlers and other bandits in the state since the Federal Government deployed a 1000-strong military force, comprising the army, air force, police and the civil defence, to launch fierce attacks on the bandits terrorising the villages and towns of Zamfara State.
“Those who are bent on exploiting our national fault lines have distorted the narrative to give the killings ethnic and religious colouration, and this has aggravated the killings. We must repudiate them, even as the Federal Government continues to consolidate on the successful efforts to end the killings.”
Lai Mohammed
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Gemma Rosefield - Cello
“Gemma Rosefield obviously has technique to burn and is sensitive to mood and atmosphere.” Classic FM Magazine
Winner of the prestigious Pierre Fournier Award at Wigmore Hall in 2007, Gemma made her concerto debut at the age of sixteen, when she won First Prize in the European Music for Youth Competition in Oslo, Norway, playing a televised performance of the Saint-Saëns Concerto with the Norwegian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Other numerous awards and prizes include the Premier Prix Maurice Ravel in France.
Gemma studied with David Strange at the Royal Academy of Music, where she gained the Vice-Principal’s Special Prize, and then with Ralph Kirshbaum at the Royal Northern College of Music, where she won the coveted Gold Medal. She has also studied with Johannes Goritzki, Gary Hoffman, Bernard Greenhouse and Zara Nelsova, and has participated in masterclasses with Frans Helmerson, Steven Isserlis and Yo-Yo Ma. Gemma has performed with eminent musicians such as György Pauk, Menahem Pressler and Stephen Kovacevich. Gemma has a deep interest in contemporary music – works have been written for her by David Matthews, Cecilia McDowall, James Francis Brown, Julian Dawes, Rhian Samuel and David Knotts.
Described by The Strad on her 2003 Wigmore Hall debut as “a mesmerising musical treasure”, by the London Evening Standard in 2005 as “a phenomenal talent”, and featured in BBC Music Magazine as “one to watch” in 2007, Gemma has made her solo debut in the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam and in the Diligentia, The Hague, in the New Masters International Recital Series. She gave the highly successful Pierre Fournier Award recital in September 2008 at Wigmore Hall, and also the 2008 and 2009 Jacqueline du Pré Memorial Concerts at the same venue. She has recently performed Michael Ellison’s Concerto for Cello, Turkish instruments and orchestra with the BBC Symphony Orchestra on BBC Radio 3. Following a Wigmore Hall Sunday Morning Coffee Concert with Ashley Wass in April 2009, Gemma played a very well received ten-concert series in Japan, and subsequently toured Mexico, giving six concerts, one televised live, with Morgan Szymanski, her cello/guitar duo partner, and Machaca, their Latin American group. In January 2011, Gemma joined the dynamic chamber group Ensemble 360, with whom she enjoys a residency at Music in the Round in Sheffield. She is a founding member of the Leonore Piano Trio who have recently recorded their first CD for Hyperion of Arensky Trios due for release in February 2014.
Future and recent recital and chamber engagements include Wigmore Hall, Aldeburgh Festival, Leamington Hastings, Lakeside Arts Nottingham, Kings Place and a tour of New Zealand and performances with Carducci String Quartet, Fidelio Piano Quartet and La Linea Festival at the Southbank Centre with Morgan Szymanski. In Europe, performances in Belgium (Brussels), the Czech Republic (Prague and Litomyšl), France (Paris, Orpheus and Bacchus Festival Bordeaux, Obernai Festival, Strasbourg and Marseilles), Italy (La Mortella Festival, Ischia), the Netherlands (Hilversum), Germany (Nürnberg) and in Sweden.
Gemma’s latest recording with Hyperion (of Stanford’s cello music, with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Andrew Manze) was released in Autumn 2011. Recent invitations include concert performances with the BBC SSO, the BBC Symphony Chorus at Maida Vale Studios, and a recording with the BBC Concert Orchestra. She performed the Saint-Saëns Concerto with the Brighton Philharmonic and Barry Wordsworth to close their 12/13 season. In November 2013 she performed the première of a new work by Cecilia McDowell at Westminster Abbey.
You can find Gemma's website here.
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Monroe Circuit Court Judge-Division 1 Candidate: Alphonso Manns
Circuit Court Judge, Division 1 Candidate
Alphonso Manns
I graduated from Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee with a Bachelor of Science degree (1964). Upon the persuasive influence of Diane Nash, John Lewis, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Rev. James Woodruff I participated in the sit-ins and the civil rights movement. Fisk University awarded me the Men’s Senate Man of the Year Award “for outstanding citizenship, scholarship, and moral fibre” and The Fisk University General Alumni Association Leadership Honor “for his contribution to Fisk through enthusiastic participation in academic, social, and religious activities and who has been most influential in fostering and promoting the aims and objectives of Fisk University.” I graduated from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Bloomington, Indiana with a Doctor of Jurisprudence (1972) and during my studies there I was declared a Martin Luther King, Jr. Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship Foundation . I founded the I.U. Chapter of Black American Law Student Association, f/n/a the Black Student Lawyers Association who assisted with recruitment of students and faculty of the law school. I graduated from the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs with a Master of Public Affairs (1975). I have done further graduate studies in the Department of Political Science at Indiana University, Bloomington, and was affiliated with the Vincent and Elinor Ostrom Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis. My research in 1975 for Director Gary Hart and Utility Board of the City of Bloomington headed by Bill Cook during the administration of Mayor Frank McCloskey at the time led to the discovery of PCBs having been deposited in Monroe County through effluents processed through the wastewater treatment system from a local manufacturing plant, creating a community health hazard, and requiring area-wide cleanup.
I am married to Dollie Stafford Manns having celebrated our 48th wedding anniversary. A preacher’s daughter with a pure heart to serve the poor, children, senior citizens, and animals, she is the absolute love of my life in every way. She is an excellent mother and grandmother to our children. We raised five (5) children who all attended and graduated from Bloomington High School North. James, Senghor, Sojourner, Suzanne, and Shawn were all excellent high school athletes. James, an avid fisherman who knows and has fished probably every pond and lake in Southern Indiana, is an assembly line inspector. Senghor, Sojourner, and Suzanne are graduates of Indiana University. Senghor went on to graduate with a law degree from I.U. McKinley School of Law and now serves as President and CEO of the City of Harrisburg, PA, Public Housing Authority. Sojourner went on to earn another degree from Ivy Tech Community College and now works as a senior military engineer designer. Shawn is a graduate of Miami University (Oxford, Ohio) and along with a B.A. she has a Master of Arts and works as a vice-president for a prominent national bank. Suzanne is a licensed real estate broker and works as a social worker for a state agency. We have eleven (11) grandchildren and two (2) great grandchildren. I have served on the Board of Directors of Girls, Inc., coached Babe Ruth League baseball, and participated in Booster Club activities at Bloomington High School, as well as coached girls’ and boys’ basketball at the Twin Lakes Sportsplex. I have also participated in the Franklin Initiative sponsored by the Bloomington Chamber of Commerce to educate middle school students about professional careers and other activities across the state to educate students about the legal system. Furthermore, I have served as a judge in the moot court competitions at the I.U. Maurer School of Law and I.U. McKinley School of Law.
During my lifetime I have worked as a newspaper carrier, a butcher’s helper and clerk, a truck driver’s helper, librarian assistant, security guard, laboratory assistant, legal aide for the Legal Aid Society and field examiner for the National Labor Relations Board, Region 8, in the State of Indiana. During the period of 1966 - 1969 I served in the U.S. Army and commissioned as an officer. I served as a platoon leader, battalion intelligence officer and executive officer. I received letters of commendation from my superiors. Upon graduation from law school I accepted a position offered by Vice-Chancellor Herman C. Hudson to serve as Director of Human Relations for the Bloomington Campus and part-time assistant professor at Indiana University, 1972 – 1974. Part of my responsibilities was to serve as Secretary to the Equal Educational Opportunity Committee for the Bloomington Campus. Upon the conclusion of my tenure, after having studied the contributions of President Herman B. Wells, Professor Martha Dawson in regard to multicultural education, and Special Assistant to the President George Taliaferro in regard to development of the affirmative action program at I.U., I authored and recommended to Indiana University to acknowledge and accept the legal concept of diversity as a public education philosophy. Later the U.S. Supreme Court held that the idea of diversity, narrowly tailored, serves as a permissible constitutional educational purpose . A more and in depth study of institutional diversity has been done by Nobel Laureate Professor Elinor Ostrom. During my service at Indiana University, I was also commissioned the rank of lieutenant commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve for recruitment of potential officers for the U.S. Navy. I was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy.
Upon the offer of James Regester, formerly city attorney for the City of Bloomington whom I met in 1975, I joined him as an associate in 1980. I have served as a general and appellate practitioner of law throughout Indiana for the last thirty-five (35) years with consistent professional distinction as declared upon the invitation and admission as a Fellow by the Indiana Bar Foundation. I serve as counsel and board member to the Monroe County NAACP, Cry of the Children Incorporated, and Bertha Missions, Inc. I have served in the District 10 Pro Bono Project to Counselor to the Court, Indiana Foreclosure Prevention Network, and provided representation for indigent citizens. I have served on the Monroe-Bloomington Domestic Violence Task Force of the City of Bloomington for five (5) years and assisted with the organization of the local conference on domestic violence and sexual assault held in October, 2015 procuring seven and half (7.5) hours of continuing education credits for attending lawyers, including ethics. I serve as a counselor to interns from the I.U. Maurer School of Law in the Protective Order Project. I have served on four (4) occasions as an election polling site inspector. I have engaged or argued, civil and criminal, including the death penalty, before many county courts, the Indiana Court of Appeals, Indiana Supreme Court, U.S. District Court of Southern District of Indiana, U.S. Bankruptcy Court of Southern Indiana, and Seventh Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals. I am also a member of the bars of the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of California, Fifth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals, and U.S. Supreme Court. My membership also includes the Monroe County Bar Association, where I serve on the Board of Directors, Indiana Bar Association, American Bar Association, Phi Alpha Delta Law Fraternity, and the Southern Law Poverty Law Center.
I am a person who believes that diversity, education, and hard work are the keys to generate new ideas to build a better, prosperous, and just society for us all. For other examples than those already mentioned above, and having been trained as a Guardian Ad Litem for children, I proposed several years ago that our community set up a similar guardian program for senior citizens who no longer have living relatives who are available to look after them. This year Judge Stephen Galvin and Prosecuting Attorney Chris Gaal announced to the public the development of such a program.
I invite you to meet and chat with me to share your ideas at my non-fund raising activities at the Bloomington Farmers’ Market on Saturday morning between 8:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon and the Gourmet Garden, 300 E. 3rd Street, Bloomington, on Friday evenings between 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. I love this community and I want to meet and talk directly with you. Of course, I seek your support and vote for me to the office of Monroe Circuit Judge, Seat 1, in the Democratic Party Election on Tuesday, May 3, 2016.
“I respect and honor the judicial office as a public trust. I will strive to enhance and maintain public confidence in the administration of justice.”
-Alphonso (Al) Manns
Additional candidate information:
Candidate website
Democracy for Monroe County Candidate Questionnaire
Herald Times Monroe County Circuit Court Race Coverage
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Daily Meditations Published by IT Fellowship of North America & Europe Diocese of Mar Thoma Church
Word for the day by Christian Education Forum
He Watches Me
Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.(Matthew 10:31)
One Sunday morning at church, we sang “His Eye Is on the Sparrow” as a congregational hymn. It was a rare opportunity to give voice to a song usually performed by a soloist.
During the first chorus, I noticed a friend who was weeping so hard that he couldn’t sing. Knowing a bit of what he had been through recently, I recognized his tears as ones of joy at realizing that, no matter what our situation, God sees, knows, and cares for us.
Jesus said, “Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows” (Matt. 10:29-31). The Lord spoke these words to His 12 disciples as He sent them out to teach, heal, and bear witness of Him to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (v.6). He told them that even though they would face persecution for His sake, they should not be afraid, even of death (vv.22-26).
When threatening circumstances press us to lose hope, we can find encouragement in the words of this song: “I sing because I’m happy, I sing because I’m free. For His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.” We are under His watchful care.
Dear Lord, help me to trust in you blindly cos if you are able to feed the sparrows. I know you are able to feed me.Amen.
When you put your cares in God’s hands, He puts His peace in your heart.
Christian Education Forum, Diocese of NAE of the Mar Thoma Church
Revelation for Liberation Acts 27:18-26
Sherine Thomas Long Island MTC, NY
20 When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and no small tempest raged, all hope of our being saved was at last abandoned.
“After winter comes the summer. After night comes the dawn. And after every storm, there comes clear open skies” so said a Scottish clergyman from the 1600s. It’s been said, that hope can sometimes be the most dangerous weapon. However, it’s sometimes the hardest weapon to carry when you’re living with the loss of a loved one, something that almost feels like a terrible nightmare that’ll never go away. It’s a weapon difficult to carry when day in and day out no one seems to hear or see those tears that are shed or silent cries that are made during a heartfelt prayer. It’s a weapon difficult to carry as you see your loved one lying on that hospital bed. It’s a weapon difficult to carry as you search and seek out answers to tell a child as to why they’ve been abused, abandoned, and …
Community Formation Around Resurrection Experience Acts 23:1-10
Vinod Johnson Carmel MTC, Boston, MA 6 When Paul noticed that some were Sadducees and others were Pharisees, he called out in the council, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. I am on trial concerning the hope of the resurrection of the dead.”
Sometimes, the only thing that keeps you going through a brutal winter is the hope for the spring. It may have been a hard hope to hold on to this particular year in New England - a year in which Boston considered dumping not tea, but the ever growing mounds of snow into its harbor. And yet, the waist deep snow has dissolved away. White desolation has given way to increasingly visible green shoots of spring. A resurrection is at hand!
In this passage, Paul tries to defend himself before the Sanhedrin Council. He seeks to drive a wedge between the Pharisees who believed in resurrection and the Sadducees who did not; even though neither believed in the resurrection of Jesus.
PRIESTHOOD: THE ANOINTED MINISTRY
Exodus 40:12-16
Bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting... wash them with water. Then dress Aaron in the sacred garments, anoint him and consecrate him so he may serve me as priest (Exodus 40: 12-13). Priesthood among the people of God was a divine command and initiation. God wanted some people to be separated for the special ministry among his people. God appointed Aaron and his descendants to take up this kind of ministry among the people of God. Priests are always separated and appointed as channels that connect God with his people. All throughout the history of Israel, priests played an important role in connecting people with God and to lead and guide them in the statutes of God. But there are incidents in the Bible where the priests failed in their duties and that led the people to go away from God. So the priests have a special and significant ministry to perform in this world among his people. Two important things from thi…
Theme images by konradlew
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Weekend Planner: Your complete guide to area fun through Dec. 27, with holiday happenings, live music & more
Last Updated by Chip Chandler on
Amarillo native Travis Warren (of Blind Melon) will perform Dec. 21.
By Chip Chandler — Producer
Roll into Christmas with our all-inclusive entertainment guide, with all of your fun options through Dec. 27!
Dec. 19
Emily Blunt stars in "Mary Poppins Returns," opening Dec. 19.
Courtesy Disney
Mary Poppins Returns: The no-nonsense magical nanny flies back into the lives of the Banks family in this new sequel. (Opens Dec. 19. United Artists Amarillo Star 14, 8275 W. Amarillo Blvd.; Cinergy Amarillo, 9201 Cinergy Square; and Cinemark Hollywood 16, 9100 Canyon Drive. Others may follow.)
La Traviata: The Met: Live in HD series continues with Verdi's iconic opera in a production starring soprano Diana Damrau and tenor Juan Diego Flórez. (1 and 6:30 p.m. Dec. 19, Cinemark Hollywood 16, 9100 Canyon Drive)
Vibrant Vocab: This biweekly storytime focuses on building vocabularies. (3:30 p.m. Dec. 19, Amarillo Public Library Downtown Branch, 413 S.E. Fourth Ave. Free. 806-378-3054)
Puppy Tales: Kids can practice their skills by reading aloud to therapy dogs. (4 p.m. Dec. 19, Amarillo Public Library Northwest Branch, 6100 W. Ninth Ave. Free. 806-359-2035)
Pampa Celebration of Lights: The city of Pampa's recently revived holiday lights tour is open nightly through Dec. 31, with sleigh rides (weather permitting) Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. (6 to 10 p.m. Dec. 19; continues through Dec. 31. Recreation Park, east of Pampa on Texas Highway 60. Free; donations accepted. 806-669-5750)
Waterfield Christmas Walk: The Citadelle Gardens Christmas-lights exhibition celebrates the season nightly through Jan. 1. (6 p.m. to midnight Dec. 19; continues through Jan. 1. Citadelle Gardens, 520 Nelson St. in Canadian. Free. 806-323-8899)
Bishop Hills lights: The annual holiday display is on view nightly through Christmas. (6:30 to 10 p.m. Dec. 19; continues through Dec. 25. Northwest of Amarillo on Tascosa Road. Free; donations of cash and used eyeglasses will be accepted for Amarillo Downtown Lions Club. 806-418-4192)
Tangled Light Show: This new holiday light show features dancing lights and the Christmas story; tune in to 104.7 FM. (7 p.m. to midnight Dec. 19; continues through Jan. 6. 11816 Flying W Trail. Free; donations accepted.)
Comedy Open Mic: Try your hand alongside comics from Yellow City Comedy & Productions. (9 p.m. Dec. 19, The 806 Coffee + Lounge, 2812 S.W. Sixth Ave. No cover; donations accepted. 806-322-1806)
Jason Momoa stars in "Aquaman," which will preview Dec. 20 and open Dec. 21.
Courtesy Warner Bros.
Aquaman: The underwater avenger hits the big screen. Here's my review. (Previews Dec. 20; opens Dec. 21. United Artists Amarillo Star 14, 8275 W. Amarillo Blvd., and Cinemark Hollywood 16, 9100 Canyon Drive. Others may follow.)
Bumblebee: Hailee Steinfeld stars as a plucky young woman in this 1987-set Transformers prequel. (Previews Dec. 20; opens Dec. 21. United Artists Amarillo Star 14, 8275 W. Amarillo Blvd., and Cinemark Hollywood 16, 9100 Canyon Drive. Others may follow.)
Second Act: Jennifer Lopez stars as an older woman seeking a new start in life in this new romantic comedy. (Previews Dec. 20; opens Dec. 21. United Artists Amarillo Star 14, 8275 W. Amarillo Blvd., and Cinemark Hollywood 16, 9100 Canyon Drive. Others may follow.)
Welcome to Marwen: Steve Carell stars in this fanciful drama about a wounded man finding new life in elaborate dioramas. (Previews Dec. 20; opens Dec. 21. United Artists Amarillo Star 14, 8275 W. Amarillo Blvd., and Cinemark Hollywood 16, 9100 Canyon Drive. Others may follow.)
Downtown Lunchtime Book Club: The club will meet a week early to discuss any beloved holiday books. (12:15 p.m. Dec. 20, Amarillo Public Library Downtown Branch, 413 S.E. Fourth Ave. Free. 806-378-3054)
Discovery Center Holiday Hours: Enjoy extended hours and the season light show Let it Snow at 6, 6:45 and 7:30 p.m. (5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Dec. 20; continues through Dec. 22. Don Harrington Discovery Center, 1200 Streit Drive. Admission $5; free for members. 806-355-9547)
La Bella's on Olsen Live: Amarillo singer Amy Hart will perform a Christmas special for the concert series. (5:30 p.m. Dec. 20, La Bella's, 3801 S. Olsen Blvd. No cover. 806-352-5050)
Christmas in the Gardens: The Amarillo Botanical Gardens' annual holiday display, featuring more than 350,000 lights, will greet visitors Thursdays through Sundays. (6 to 8 p.m. Dec. 20; continues Thursdays through Sundays through Dec. 23. Amarillo Botanical Gardens, 1400 Streit Drive. Admission $5 adults, $2 children ages 6 to 12. 806-352-6513)
Zoo Lights Safari: The Amarillo Zoo's annual holiday celebration returns Thursdays through Sundays through Dec. 23, with events every Friday and Saturday. Weekend special activities include costumed animal Santa characters, kids games and activities and more. (6 to 8 p.m. Dec. 20; continues through Dec. 23. Amarillo Zoo, 700 Comanchero Trail. Admission $4 adults, $3 seniors, $2 children ages 3 to 12. 806-381-7911)
Eddie Esler: The Amarillo singer-songwriter will perform. (6:30 p.m. Dec. 20, Pescaraz, 3415 S. Bell St., Suite K. No cover. 806-350-5430)
Sunset & Songwriters: The monthly potluck dinner and concert will feature Yvonne Perea. (6:30 p.m. Dec. 20, Wildcat Bluff Nature Center, 2301 N. Soncy Road. Cover $5; BYOB and snacks. 806-352-6007)
Hilary Marie: The Amarillo singer-songwriter will perform. (7 p.m. Dec. 20, Off the Hook Seafood, 626 S. Polk St., Suite 200. No cover. 806-350-1400)
Shelton Rohlings: The Lubbock musician will perform. (7:30 p.m. Dec. 20, The Drunken Oyster, 7606 S.W. 45th Ave. No cover. 806-418-6668)
DJ Javier Chaparro: The Amarillo DJ will spin for Salsa Night. (8 p.m. Dec. 20, Esquire Jazz Club, 626 S. Polk St. 806-584-9571)
Upsetting: The Dallas pop-punk band will perform. (9 p.m. Dec. 20, The 806 Coffee + Lounge, 2812 S.W. Sixth Ave. No cover. 806-322-1806)
Johnny Chops will perform Dec. 21 at Hoot's Pub.
Cookies with Santa: The Starlight Canyon Bed & Breakfast will offer a dozen chances to hang with Kris Kringle and enjoy cookies, hot chocolate and Christmas lights. (5 to 8 p.m. Dec. 21; continues weekends through Dec. 23. Starlight Canyon Bed & Breakfast, 100 Brentwood Road. Admission $10 per car. 806-622-2382)
Christmas Costume Barrel Race: Riders will don their holiday race for this competition. (5:30 p.m. Dec. 21, Arena of Life Church, 8827 S. Washington St. Free. 310-347-7796)
Sabotage at the Christmas Shindig Mystery Dinner: Attempt to solve a conundrum at this holiday-themed Amarillo Escape and Mystery dinner party. Guests are encouraged to wear tacky Christmas attire. (6 p.m. Dec. 21; continues through Dec. 22. Wolflin House, 11925 S. Western St. Tickets $45; must book four days in advance. 806-414-2382)
Bishop Hills lights: The annual holiday display is on view nightly through Christmas. (6:30 p.m. to midnight Dec. 21; continues through Dec. 25. Northwest of Amarillo on Tascosa Road. Free; donations of cash and used eyeglasses will be accepted for Amarillo Downtown Lions Club. 806-418-4192)
Tennessee Tuckness: The Amarillo folk singer-songwriter will perform. (6:30 p.m. Dec. 21, Pescaraz, 3415 S. Bell St., Suite K. No cover. 806-350-5430)
Jonathan Guidi: The Amarillo rocker will give a solo show. (7 p.m. Dec. 21, Moondoggy's Pizza & Pub, 626 S. Polk St. No cover. 806-350-1400)
The Solano Project: The Amarillo rock band will perform. (7 p.m. Dec. 21, I Don't Know Sports Bar & Grill, 1301 S.W. Sixth Ave. No cover. 806-331-7985)
The Andy Dalman Trio: The jazz combo will perform. (7:30 p.m. Dec. 21, The Drunken Oyster, 7606 S.W. 45th Ave. No cover. 806-418-6668)
Amy Coffman: The Amarillo folk singer-songwriter will perform. (8 p.m. Dec. 21, Metropolitan — A Speakeasy, 9181 Town Square Blvd. No cover. 806-242-0117)
Boss 420: The Amarillo rock band will perform. (8 p.m. Dec. 21, Smokey Joe's, 2903 S.W. Sixth Ave. No cover. 806-331-6698)
Love Session: The Amarillo soul band will perform. (8 p.m. Dec. 21, Off the Hook Seafood, 626 S. Polk St., Suite 200. No cover. 806-350-1400)
Moon Dog: The Amarillo rock band will perform. (8 p.m. Dec. 21, Joe Daddy's, 2108 Paramount Blvd. No cover. 806-463-7900)
Willgood's Christmas Spectacular: The annual ugly-sweater party organized by Amarillo native & promoter Will Krause will feature Oklahoma jam band MONTU, Austin-based blues-rockers Johnny Chops & The Razors and Amarillo-based acts like singer-songwriter Eddie Esler, DJ Rupert the Duke, rapper UglyChulo and experimental musicians Corbin Cary and Koty Potts. (8 p.m. Dec. 21, Hoots Pub, 2424 Hobbs Road. Cover.)
Cody Canada: The Red Dirt musician will give an acoustic show in Shamrock. (8:30 p.m. Dec. 21, Spinning Jenny's House of Music, 21 E. 12th St. in Shamrock. Tickets $50, including free drinks. 806-334-1100)
Chad Miller & The Good Fortune: The West Texas country band will perform. (9 p.m. Dec. 21, Zombiez Bar & Grill, 711 S.W. 10th Ave. Cover $5. 806-331-7305)
Esquire Jazz Band: The house band will perform. (9 p.m. Dec. 21, Esquire Jazz Club, 626 S. Polk St. Cover $10 from 7 to 11 p.m. 806-584-9571)
Tommy Davis & Panhandle Wind: The Amarillo country band will perform. (9 p.m. Dec. 21, 6th Street Saloon, 609 S. Independence St. Cover $5 for guys and free for women. 806-356-0873)
J Trial Band: The Amarillo rockers will perform. (10 p.m. Dec. 21, Leftwood's, 2511 S.W. Sixth Ave. Cover. 806-367-9840)
Travis Warren and Tennessee Tuckness: The Blind Melon lead singer — an Amarillo native — and his singer-songwriter mother will give a benefit concert for Amarillo Wildlife Refuge. (10 p.m. Dec. 21, Golden Light Cantina, 2908 S.W. Sixth Ave. Cover $15; $35 VIP; $100 table of four. 806-374-9237)
Jam Session: Sit in for a late-night sesh. (12:30 a.m. Dec. 22, Esquire Jazz Club, 626 S. Polk St. Cover $10 from 7 to 11 p.m. 806-584-9571)
The Tommy Gallagher Band will reunite for a Dec. 22 show at Whiskey River.
Bazaar on 58th: Shop among local vendors at this new weekly marketplace. (9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Dec. 22, 3723 S.W. 58th Ave. 806-342-9555)
Dutch Oven Demo: Learn about outdoor Dutch oven cooking at Palo Duro Canyon State Park. Meet at Lone Star Interpretive Theater. (2 p.m. Dec. 22, Palo Duro Canyon State Park, 12 miles east of Canyon on Texas Highway 217. Free with park admission of $5. 806-488-2227)
Discovery Center Holiday Hours: Enjoy extended hours and the season light show Let it Snow at 6, 6:45 and 7:30 p.m. (5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Dec. 22, Don Harrington Discovery Center, 1200 Streit Drive. Admission $5; free for members. 806-355-9547)
Full Moon Hike: Dress warmly and wear hiking shoes for this two-mile, easy hike at Palo Duro Canyon State Park. Meet at Wolfberry Day Use Area, and bring a flashlight. (5:30 p.m. Dec. 22, Palo Duro Canyon State Park, 12 miles east of Canyon on Texas Highway 217. Free with park admission of $5. 806-488-2227)
Live Music at Bar Z: Amarillo musicians Mary Lyn Halley and Dean Yates of Insufficient Funds will perform, and Coast to Coast food truck will be on site. (6 to 9 p.m. Dec. 22, Bar Z Winery, 19290 Farm-to-Market Road 1541. Cover $10. 806-488-2214)
Lone Star Scales and Tails Christmas Celebration: Enjoy animal encounters, kids' activities and an ugly sweater competition. (6 to 9 p.m. Dec. 22, Lone Star Scales and Tails, 1008 S. Adams St. Admission $8; free for children 2 and younger. 806-418-3570)
Sabotage at the Christmas Shindig Mystery Dinner: Attempt to solve a conundrum at this holiday-themed Amarillo Escape and Mystery dinner party. Guests are encouraged to wear tacky Christmas attire. (6 p.m. Dec. 22, Wolflin House, 11925 S. Western St. Tickets $45; must book four days in advance. 806-414-2382)
Yvonne Perea: The Amarillo folk singer-songwriter will perform. (6:30 p.m. Dec. 22, Pescaraz, 3415 S. Bell St., Suite K. No cover. 806-350-5430)
Jonathan Guidi & Touching Voodoo: The Amarillo rock band will perform. (7 p.m. Dec. 22, I Don't Know Sports Bar & Grill, 1301 S.W. Sixth Ave. No cover. 806-331-7985)
J Trial Band: The Amarillo rockers will perform. (7 p.m. Dec. 22, Moondoggy's Pizza & Pub, 626 S. Polk St. No cover. 806-350-1400)
Mike Fuller & The Repeat Offenders: The Amarillo folk-rock band will perform. (7:30 p.m. Dec. 22, The Drunken Oyster, 7606 S.W. 45th Ave. No cover. 806-418-6668)
The Fwoops: The Amarillo jazz combo will play. (8 p.m. Dec. 22, Off the Hook Seafood, 626 S. Polk St., Suite 200. No cover. 806-350-1400)
Mind Plays: The Amarillo rock band will perform. (8 p.m. Dec. 22, Smokey Joe's, 2903 S.W. Sixth Ave. No cover. 806-331-6698)
Devlon Jones and KT Butler: The Amarillo soul singers will perform. (9 p.m. Dec. 22, Esquire Jazz Club, 626 S. Polk St. Cover $10 from 7 to 11 p.m. 806-584-9571)
Moon Dog: The Amarillo rock band will perform. (9 p.m. Dec. 22, Broken Spoke Lounge, 3101 S.W. Sixth Ave. No cover. 806-373-9149)
The Buster Bledsoe Band: The Amarillo country act will perform. (9:30 p.m. Dec. 22, Rounders Club, 2801 Virginia Circle. No cover. 806-352-3317)
Jason Hodges & The Panhandle Playboys: The Amarillo blues-rock band will perform for the bar's annual Ugly Christmas Sweater party. (10 p.m. Dec. 22, Leftwood's, 2511 S.W. Sixth Ave. Cover. 806-367-9840)
Rodney Branigan: The Amarillo-born international guitar star will perform. (10 p.m. Dec. 22, Golden Light Cantina, 2908 S.W. Sixth Ave. Cover. 806-374-9237)
Santa's Wookshop Wonderland: Amarillo and Lubbock DJs will spin for this electronic dance event. (10 p.m. Dec. 22, Austin's Texas Pub, 3121 S.W. Sixth Ave. Cover $10. 806-803-9063)
Shotgun Rider: The Amarillo-born, Fort Worth-based country band will return. (10 p.m. Dec. 22, Hoots Pub, 2424 Hobbs Road. Cover.)
Dos SeXXy Pajama Christmas Party: Tell Santa if you've been naughty or nice at this party featuring Dos XX drink specials. (10 p.m. Dec. 22, MJ's Saloon, 3705 Olsen Blvd., Suite A. 806-398-0634)
The Tommy Gallagher Band: The Amarillo country band will come out of retirement for a special show. Canyon's RagTown Chiefs will open. (10 p.m. Dec. 22, Whiskey River, 4001 S.W. 51st Ave. No cover. 806-367-6163)
Ying Yang Twins: The hip-hop act will perform. (midnight Dec. 23; doors open at 8 p.m. Bodega's, 709 S. Polk St. Cover $10 until 10 p.m.; increases afterwards. 806-378-5790)
Christmas in the Gardens will run through Dec. 23 at Amarillo Botanical Gardens.
Moses Morin: The Amarillo guitarist will perform for the brunch crowd. (11 a.m. Dec. 23, The Drunken Oyster, 7606 S.W. 45th Ave. No cover. 806-418-6668)
Cookies with Santa: The Starlight Canyon Bed & Breakfast will offer a dozen chances to hang with Kris Kringle and enjoy cookies, hot chocolate and Christmas lights. (5 to 8 p.m. Dec. 23, Starlight Canyon Bed & Breakfast, 100 Brentwood Road. Admission $10 per car. 806-622-2382)
Christmas in the Gardens: The Amarillo Botanical Gardens' annual holiday display, featuring more than 350,000 lights, will greet visitors Thursdays through Sundays. (6 to 8 p.m. Dec. 23. Amarillo Botanical Gardens, 1400 Streit Drive. Admission $5 adults, $2 children ages 6 to 12. 806-352-6513)
Paws & Claus: Dogs and cats can get photos with Santa at Westgate Mall. Pets should be leashed or in a crate. (6 to 8 p.m. Dec. 23, Westgate Mall, 7701 W. Interstate 40. 806-358-7221)
Zoo Lights Safari: The Amarillo Zoo's annual holiday celebration returns Thursdays through Sundays through Dec. 23, with events every Friday and Saturday. Weekend special activities include costumed animal Santa characters, kids games and activities and more. (6 to 8 p.m. Dec. 23, Amarillo Zoo, 700 Comanchero Trail. Admission $4 adults, $3 seniors, $2 children ages 3 to 12. 806-381-7911)
Bishop Hills will be decked out in Christmas lights through Dec. 25.
Vice: Christian Bale completely transforms himself to play Dick Cheney in this satirical biopic. (Previews Dec. 24, opens Dec. 25. United Artists Amarillo Star 14, 8275 W. Amarillo Blvd. Others may follow.)
"Holmes & Watson" is scheduled to open Dec. 25.
Courtesy Columbia Pictures
Holmes & Watson: Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly re-team as the titular detectives in this new comedy. (Opens Dec. 25. United Artists Amarillo Star 14, 8275 W. Amarillo Blvd., and Cinemark Hollywood 16, 9100 Canyon Drive. Others may follow.)
Bishop Hills lights: The annual holiday display is on view nightly through Christmas. (6:30 to 10 p.m. Dec. 25. Northwest of Amarillo on Tascosa Road. Free; donations of cash and used eyeglasses will be accepted for Amarillo Downtown Lions Club. 806-418-4192)
The Waterfield Christmas walk will be on view through Jan. 1 at The Citadelle in Canadian.
Rodney Branigan will perform Dec. 27 at Esquire Jazz Club.
They Shall Not Grow Old: Director Peter Jackson uses restored and colorized archival footage to explore the soldiers and events of World War I. (1 p.m. Dec. 27, United Artists Amarillo Star 14, 8275 W. Amarillo Blvd., and Cinemark Hollywood 16, 9100 Canyon Drive)
La Bella's on Olsen Live: Amarillo singer Hilary Marie will perform for the concert series. (5:30 p.m. Dec. 27, La Bella's, 3801 S. Olsen Blvd. No cover. 806-352-5050)
Rodney Branigan: The Amarillo-born international guitar star will perform. (7 p.m. Dec. 27, Esquire Jazz Club, 626 S. Polk St. Cover $10 from 7 to 11 p.m. 806-584-9571)
Weekly entertainment (Call ahead for holiday hours)
Ace Rodriguez: The Amarillo rocker performs. (3 p.m., Smokey Joe's, 2903 S.W. Sixth Ave. No cover. 806-331-6698)
Stew Moss: The Amarillo bluesman performs. (6 p.m., The Big Texan Steak Ranch, 7701 E. Interstate 40. No cover. 806-372-6000)
Kilo Road: The Amarillo band hosts an open-mic session. (7 p.m., Zombiez Bar & Grill, 711 S.W. 10th Ave. Cover. 806-331-7305)
B-Man's Karaoke at 6th Street Saloon: Sing along. (9 p.m., 6th Street Saloon, 609 S. Independence St. No cover. 806-356-0873)
Tejano Sundays: Amarillo DJ Bert Zuniga hosts this weekly showcase. (9 p.m., Western Horseman Club, 2501 E. Interstate 40. Cover $5 for men, free for women. 806-379-6555, ext. 2999)
Tuesday Trivia: Weekly contests will test your knowledge in a variety of subjects. (6 p.m.; sign-up at 5 p.m., Recreation, 1512 Fifth Ave., Suite 103 in Canyon. Free. 806-656-0665)
El Trio Cortez: The Amarillo mariachi band performs weekly. (6 p.m., Acapulco Mexican Restaurant, 727 S. Polk St. No cover. 806-373-8889)
Andy Chase: The Amarillo folk singer-songwriter performs weekly. (6:30 p.m., 575 Pizzeria, 2803 Civic Circle. No cover. 806-322-5575)
Colten Wilcher: The Amarillo musician performs weekly. (7 p.m., Smokey Joe's, 2903 S.W. Sixth Ave. No cover. 806-331-6698)
Jason Hodges: The Amarillo singer-songwriter performs weekly. (7 p.m., Bar 3 at Preston West Golf Course, 9101 S. Coulter St. No cover. 806-353-7003)
Trivial Tuesday: Compete in different theme nights weekly. (7 p.m., The Gem, 2203 S. Austin St. Team entry fee $5. 806-355-7838)
B-Man's Karaoke at Buffalo Wild Wings: Sing along weekly. (9 p.m., Buffalo Wild Wings, 5416 S. Coulter Road. No cover. 806-359-4386)
DJ Grice: The Amarillo DJ spins weekly. (9 p.m., Whiskey River, 4001 S.W. 51st Ave. No cover. 806-367-6163)
Love Shine: The Amarillo band hosts a weekly open-mic night. (9 p.m., 6th Street Saloon, 609 S. Independence St. No cover. 806-356-0873)
#TakeMeBack Tuesdays: Amarillo's DJ Element hosts this weekly event. (10 p.m., Hoots Pub, 2424 Hobbs Road. No cover.)
Andy Chase: The Amarillo singer-songwriter performs weekly. (6 p.m., Spicy Mike's Bar-B-Q Haven, 6723 S. Western St. No cover. 806-358-855)
The Solano Project: The Amarillo classic rock band performs at happy hour. (6 p.m., Smokey Joe's, 2903 S.W. Sixth Ave. No cover. 806-331-6698)
Jackie Haney: The Amarillo classic rock singer performs. (6:30 p.m., Bracero's Mexican Bar & Grill, 2822 S.W. Sixth Ave. No cover. 806-220-2395)
Buster Bledsoe: The Amarillo country singer host a weekly open-mic night. (7 p.m., Rounders Club, 2801 Virginia Circle. No cover. 806-352-3317)
Dana Hubbard: The Amarillo singer-songwriter performs for a weekly blues night. (7 p.m., Esquire Jazz Club, 626 S. Polk St. Cover $10 after 7 p.m. 806-584-9571)
Yvonne Perea: The Amarillo folk singer-songwriter performs. (7 p.m., Cask & Cork, 5461 McKenna Square, Suite 101. No cover. 806-410-1113)
The Chino Show: The Amarillo musician hosts a weekly karaoke and open jam session. (8 p.m., Throwbacks Sports Bar, 7150 S. Bell St. 806-418-4482)
Wicked Wednesdays: Amarillo DJs Frenzy and Sonny B spin. (8 p.m., Bodegas, 709 S. Polk St. Cover $2 after 11 p.m. 806-378-5790)
Old-School Jam Nights: DJ James Erik McMurry spins. (9 p.m., House Bar, 1219 S.W. 10th Ave. No cover. 806-677-6450)
DJ Element: The Amarillo DJ spins. (9 p.m., Guitars & Cadillacs, 3601 Olsen Blvd. No cover. 806-322-7979)
Duke Tracy's Karaoke: Sing your favorites. (9 p.m., Duke Tracy's, 3101 S.W. 26th Ave. No cover. 806-351-0757)
Lil T Karaoke: Belt it out. (Plus 212 Club, 212 S.W. Sixth Ave., on the last Wednesday of every month.) (9 p.m., Austin's Texas Pub, 3121 S.W. Sixth Ave. No cover. 806-803-9063)
Open Mic Night: Thomas Thompson hosts this (mostly) weekly showcase. (9 p.m., The 806 Coffee + Lounge, 2812 S.W. Sixth Ave. No cover. 806-322-1806)
DJ Grice: The Amarillo DJ spins most weeks. (Amarillo country singers Lee Scheetz and Eddie Siegel host occasional open mic nights.) (9 p.m., Whiskey River, 4001 S.W. 51st Ave. No cover. 806-367-6163)
Sticks and Picks: Amarillo musicians Andrew Fox and Jordon McClain host this open jam. (9 p.m., Hoots Pub, 2424 Hobbs Road. No cover.)
Ace & Andy: The Solano Project members perform. (6 p.m., Smokey Joe's, 2903 S.W. Sixth Ave. No cover. 806-331-6698)
Andy Chase: The Amarillo folk singer-songwriter performs. (6 p.m., Leal's, 1619 S. Kentucky St. No cover. 806-359-5959)
Tommy the Hacker: The Amarillo DJ spins. (6 p.m., Tacos Garcia, 1100 S. Ross St. No cover. 806-371-0477)
Buster Bledsoe: The Amarillo country singer hosts open-mic night. (7 p.m., Wild Bill's Fillin' Station, 3811 S.W. Sixth Ave. No cover. 806-372-4500)
Kickshikers: The Amarillo country band performs. (7 p.m., Western Horseman Club, 2501 E. Interstate 40. Cover $5 for men, free for women. 806-379-6555, ext. 2999)
Bowling Night: Amarillo's DJ RoRo spins. (8 p.m., Eastridge Lanes, 5405 E. Amarillo Blvd. Cover $10. 806-383-9531)
College Night: Amarillo's DJ Oni spins; people with college IDs get in free. (8 p.m., Bodegas, 709 S. Polk St. Cover. 806-378-5790)
Bert Zuniga: The Amarillo DJ spins. (9 p.m., Old Buster's Lounge, 2204 S.E. 24th Ave. No cover. 806-379-8100)
B-Man's Karaoke at Moondoggy's: Sing along. (9 p.m., Moondoggy's Pizza & Pub, 626 S. Polk St. No cover. 806-350-1400)
Karaoke Joe: Sing along. (9 p.m., Whiskey River, 4001 S.W. 51st Ave. No cover. 806-367-6163)
Open Mic: Amarillo country singer Tommy Davis hosts this event. (9 p.m., 6th Street Saloon, 609 S. Independence St. No cover. 806-356-0873)
Tejano Thursday: Dance to your favorite cumbia, norteño and other beats. (10 p.m., Throwbacks Sports Bar, 7150 S. Bell St. 806-418-4482)
Pete Y Los Releros: The mariachi band performs. (6:30 p.m., Bracero's Mexican Bar & Grill, 2822 S.W. Sixth Ave. No cover. 806-220-2395)
Andy Chase: The Amarillo singer-songwriter performs. (7 p.m., Napoli's Italian Restaurant, 700 S. Taylor St. No cover. 806-220-2588)
El Trio Cortez: The Amarillo mariachi band performs. (7 p.m., Acapulco Mexican Restaurant, 727 S. Polk St. No cover. 806-373-8889)
John Tice and Eddie C.: The Amarillo musicians perform. (7 p.m., Georgia Street Taphouse, 2001 S. Georgia St. No cover. 806-803-7000)
B-Man's Karaoke at Broken Spoke: Sing along with the Amarillo karaoke service. (9 p.m., Broken Spoke Lounge, 3101 S.W. Sixth Ave. No cover. 806-373-9149)
B-Man's Karaoke at Buckles Lounge: The popular Amarillo karaoke service also is featured here. (9 p.m., Buckles Lounge, 6800 E. Interstate 40. No cover. 806-379-8064)
DE Entertainment Karaoke: Sing to your heart's content. (9 p.m., The Handle Bar & Grill, 3415 S.W. Sixth Ave. No cover. 806-803-9538)
DJ Chancho: The Amarillo DJ spins every other week for Ladies Night. (9 p.m., Mulligan's Pub, 2511 Paramount Blvd. Cover $5. 806-367-8428)
DJ RoRo: The Amarillo DJ spins. (9 p.m., Kicked Back, 521 S.E. 10th Ave. No cover. 806-418-8917)
DJ Noah: The Amarillo DJ spins. (9 p.m., The Gem, 2203 S. Austin St. No cover. 806-355-7838)
DJ Ted: The Amarillo DJ spins. (9 p.m., Western Horseman Club, 2501 E. Interstate 40. Cover $5 for men, free for women. 806-379-6555, ext. 2999)
DJ Tino D: The Amarillo DJ spins. (9 p.m., Lupita's Bar & Grill, 316 S.W. Sixth Ave. No cover. 806-350-7705)
Lil T Karaoke at House Bar: Sing along. (9 p.m., House Bar, 1219 S.W. 10th Ave. No cover. 806-677-6450)
Noche Urbana: DJs Tino D and G will spin reggaeton, cumbia, hip hop and more. (9 p.m. Tejano Wild West, 1200 S.E. 10th Ave. No cover. 806-340-3313)
Pine Shed Karaoke: Sing along. (9 p.m., The Pine Shed, 5342 Canyon Dr. No cover. 806-352-2446)
All About Music: The DJ service spins. (10 p.m., Fast Eddie's, 1619 S. Kentucky St. No cover. 806-590-7235)
DJs: Dance to favorite tunes. (10 p.m., Throwbacks Sports Bar, 7150 S. Bell St. 806-418-4482)
James Owens: The Amarillo singer-songwriter performs. (7 p.m., Napoli's Italian Restaurant, 700 S. Taylor St. No cover. 806-220-2588)
B-Man's Karaoke at Buckles Lounge: The popular service offers a variety of songs. (9 p.m., Buckles Lounge, 6800 E. Interstate 40. No cover. 806-379-8064)
B-Man's Karaoke at Mudd Rack: The popular service offers a variety of songs here, too. (9 p.m., The Mudd Rack, 500 E. Hastings Ave. No cover. 806-381-2599)
Ongoing (Call ahead for holiday hours)
Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument: The monument, about 35 miles north of Amarillo near Lake Meredith National Recreation Area, is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Daily hikes with rangers are offered from 10 a.m. to noon; reservations requested. Admission is free. Call 806-857-6680.
Amarillo Botanical Gardens: The gardens, 1400 Streit Drive, are open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays through September, including Memorial Day, July 4 and Labor Day. Admission is $5 adults, $4 seniors, $2 children through eighth grade. Call 806-352-6513.
Amarillo Escape and Mystery: Attempt to escape a variety of themed locked rooms in 60 minutes at this attraction, 12208 Canyon Drive. It's open daily by reservation; games must be booked two hours in advance. Cost is $20, plus tax. Call 806-414-2382.
Amarillo Museum of Art: The museum, 2200 S. Van Buren St., will feature Border Cantos | Sonic Border through Dec. 9 and Burning Ring of Fire through Dec. 30. It's open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays and 1 to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Admission is free. Call 806-371-5050.
Amarillo Public Library: Look for daily events for children (and book clubs for adults) throughout the month at all branches. Call 806-378-3051.
Amarillo Railroad Museum: The museum, 3160 I Ave., is open 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Thursdays and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. the second and fourth Saturdays of the month. Call 806-335-3333.
Amarillo Rock Climbing House: The attraction, 500 S. Fannin St., is open 2 to 9 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 2 to 10 p.m. Fridays, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturdays and 1 to 8 p.m. Sundays. Call 806-418-2431.
Amarillo Suite Escape: Visitors can attempt to escape from three rooms with rotating themes at this attraction, 715 S. Lamar St. Hours are noon to 9:30 p.m. Thursdays and noon to 11 p.m. Fridays through Sundays, plus by appointment. Cost is $20, plus tax. Call 806-640-3831.
Amarillo Zoo: The zoo, 700 Comanchero Trail, is open 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, except for Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Day, and Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Admission is $4 adults, $3 seniors and $2 children ages 3-12, and free on Monday. Call 806-381-7911.
American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame & Museum: The facility, 2601 E. Interstate 40, is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays (closed holidays). Admission is $7 adults, $5 seniors, $4 veterans, $3 children ages 6 to 18 and free for active-duty military and children 5 and younger. Call 806-376-4811.
Arts in the Sunset: The galleries, 3701 Plains Blvd., are generally open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. Admission is free. Call 806-353-5700.
Bill’s Backyard Classics: The classic car and truck museum, 5309 S. Washington St., is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays. Admission is $10 for ages 13 and older. Call 806-373-8194.
Caprock Canyons State Park: The canyon, 850 Caprock Canyons State Park Road near Quitaque, is open daily. Park admission of $4 adults, $2 seniors. Call 806-455-1492.
Cerulean Gallery: The gallery, 814 S. Taylor St., is open 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and by appointment Saturdays. Call 806-576-0063.
The Citadelle Art Museum: The Canadian art museum will feature Sordid & Sacred: The Beggars in Rembrandt's Etchings through Dec. 22. The museum is located at 520 Nelson Ave. in Canadian. Hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. Admission is $10 adults, $8 seniors and free children 17 and younger. Call 806-323-8899.
Don Harrington Discovery Center: The center currently features Rescue. Located at 1200 Streit Drive, it's is open 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and noon to 4:30 p.m. Sundays throughout the summer. Admission is $11 adults, $8 children and students (to age 22), military and seniors. Call 806-355-9547.
Escape the Trap House: This escape-room attraction, 12851 Interstate 27, features rotating rooms in the old home of Chainsaw Massacre haunted house. It's open 5 to 11 p.m. Fridays, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturdays and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays. Admission is $25. Call 806-337-0749.
Extreme Laser Tag: Take aim at this indoor attraction, 2503 S.W. 45th Ave. Hours are 6 to 9 p.m. Thursdays, 6 to 10 p.m. Fridays, 2 to 10 p.m. Saturdays and 2 to 7 p.m. Sundays, or by appointment. Admission is $6, plus tax, per person per game; group rates available. Call 806-367-8954.
Harrington House: The historic home, 1600 S. Polk St., will feature its holiday exhibition through Dec. 18. Free tours are conducted on the half hour from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays. Call 806-374-5490.
Kwahadi Indian Museum: Celebrate the legacy of the Native American population on the Plains and the Kwahadi Dancers at this museum, 9151 E. Interstate 40. Admission $5 adults, $3 children. Hours are noon to 5 pm. Thursdays through Saturdays and 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays in June, July and August, and 1 to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays from September through May. Call 806-335-3175.
Lake Meredith National Recreation Area: The park, located 50 miles northeast of Amarillo near Fritch, is open 24 hours a day. The area also includes Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument. Admission is free. Call 806-857-3151.
Palo Duro Canyon State Park: The canyon, 12 miles east of Canyon on Texas Highway 217, is open daily from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Admission $5. Call 806-488-2227.
Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum: The museum, 2503 Fourth Ave. in Canyon, features Pop Culture through Dec. 31 and Native Lifeways of the Plains through May 2019. It's open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays and 1 to 6 p.m. Sundays from June through August. Admission is $10 adults, $9 seniors, $5 children and free for members and children younger than 4. Call 806-651-2244.
River Breaks Ranch: This attraction, 7802 Durrett Drive, offers sporting clays, team roping, horse racing and more. Call 806-374-0357.
Southern Light Gallery: The art gallery, located on the first floor of Ware Student Commons on Amarillo College's Washington Street campus, features Joann Pruitt's Looking Down through Jan. 9. It's open 7:30 a.m. to 8:50 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 7:30 a.m. to 4:50 p.m. Fridays and 2 to 5:50 p.m. Sundays. Call 806-345-5654.
Sports World: This attraction, 9400 Canyon Drive, offers miniature golf and a go-kart track. Hours are 5 to 10 p.m. Fridays, noon to 10 p.m. Saturdays and 1 to 9 p.m. Sundays. Call 806-331-7223.
Starlight Ranch Event Center: The event center's zip lines, a 10,000-square-foot maze, miniature golf and more are open 6 to 10 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays. It's located at 1415 Sunrise Drive. Zip line prices are $25 for first ride, $7 for additional rides. Maze price is $5 per walkthrough. Day passes are $50; night passes (7 p.m. to midnight) are $40. Call 806-683-7883.
Texas Air & Space Museum: The museum, 10001 American Drive, is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays. Admission is free; donations accepted. Call 806-335-9159.
Texas Panhandle War Memorial: The memorial, 4101 S. Georgia St., is open 24 hours a day year-round. Admission is free. Call 806-353-3300 or 806-674-0495.
Wildcat Bluff Nature Center: The center, 2301 N. Soncy Road, is open daily from sunrise to sunset. Admission $4 adults, $3 seniors and children. Call 806-352-6007.
Xcape Room Warehouse: The escape room attraction, 714 S.E. 10th Ave., is open from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursdays, 6 to 11 p.m. Fridays, noon to 11 p.m. Saturdays and noon to 8 p.m. Sundays; other times available by appointment. Admission $25. Call 806-353-6353.
Chip Chandler is a producer for Panhandle PBS. He can be contacted at Chip.Chandler@actx.edu, at @chipchandler1 on Twitter and on Facebook.
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New Year's 2019 Roundup: Your guide to parties, activities and ...
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Whatever Happened To 5 Time Grammy Winner Christopher Cross? (written late 2007)
Posted by timroxborogh on October 24, 2010 January 16, 2017
Holmsey is back, all is forgiven at TVNZ and now that we’ve found out the Bay City Rollers never made any money and that the David Cassidy of 2007 owns an unusually tight forehead, it’s time to turn our attention to another potential Whatever Happened To… guest star.
He is a man who won five Grammys all on the one night and will be touching down in New Zealand for his first concert tour in November. One of the biggest soft-rock stars of the early 80s, Christopher Cross has the three prerequisites a “whatever happened to?” kind of celebrity needs: he was massively famous and then wasn’t and has now reemerged with story to tell of fitting “I was never really away” proportions.
So how come he did just disappear? What was it like writing with Burt Bacharach? Why is he so keen to drink beer with New Zealanders? In a half hour chat the affable Cross was to tell me more than enough to consider flicking Paul Holmes a transcript.
Touring with the Beach Boys in November for two New Zealand dates (New Plymouth November 17, Auckland November 18), it turns out Cross is long time family friends with the group who refuse to call him their “opening act.” Beach Boy Bruce Johnston told me a week earlier that this was an equal double-bill, a comment which draws a humble and embarrassed response. “Well that’s very kind of him, I wouldn’t say that’s true, but Bruce is a gentleman,” says Cross. He regards it as a thrill to be sharing the stage with his heroes the Beach Boys, especially because it honours his late buddy Carl Wilson.
“I was very, very close friends with Carl, rest his soul, and I think he was really one of the most real, unassuming people I’ve met in this business,” says Cross before declaring Wilson as his single biggest vocal influence. Like his friends Robert Lamm from Chicago and Gerry Beckley from America, Cross feels a large hole in his life ever since their great mate died nearly ten years ago. Fresh listenings to Cross songs like Arthur’s Theme and Never Be The Same in particular reveal a definite homage to Carl Wilson and the double bill, equal or not, will be particularly fitting.
Another close friend and huge musical influence is the former Steely Dan and Doobie Brothers alumna Michael McDonald. Like Wilson and Cross, McDonald is the owner of one of the best blue-eyed soul voices in the business and will forever be linked with Cross in the way helped kick start his career more than 25 years ago. “He always says that Ride Like The Wind is the most applause he gets for the least amount of work,” explains Cross of the regular joint live performances he and his famous backing vocalist recreate of his debut hit. While McDonald only has to sing the lines “and I’ve got such a long way to go, to make it to the border of Mexico,” many critics argue it was the presence of an established star like McDonald that forced the song onto radio playlists across the globe.
Tripping back into his glory years, Cross correctly points out Ride Like The Wind ultimately peaked at US #2 on the Billboard charts, a fantastic first up position for a new artist. “McDonald was friends with my producer Michael Omartian and we invited him down to hear what we were doing and he liked it enough to say if we needed some backgrounds to let him know. We stuck a mic in his face,” says Cross in mock-casual tone. That incident of mic-sticking undoubtedly changed his life and set him on a path of chart domination that led to number one hits Sailing and Arthur’s Theme (a collaboration with Burt Bacharach), top 10 smashes like Think Of Laura and unprecedented Grammy night domination. So why didn’t it last?
It was a question I put to Burt Bacharach on the eve of his New Zealand concert in July earlier this year. “Christopher Cross was ready,” says Bacharach. “I liken it to horses and not being willing to run the horse,” he explains. Bacharach was thrilled to write with Cross following the success of the first album, but felt his young protégé was unjustly nervous to follow-up his record-breaking debut: “He was ready, but didn’t want to run the horse. In music that may mean you don’t necessarily lose, but it also means you don’t win.” Cross’ second album sold a fraction of its predecessor, a fact Bacharach attributes to a too long a gap between releases (exactly three years). After eight top 40 hits, Cross would never hit the top 100 on the album or singles charts post 1985.
Bacharach’s comments belie the fact his co-write with Cross, Arthur’s Theme, soared to US number one and provided them both with one of the definitive ballads of the 80s. Recalling the night he wrote with the man he regards as “beyond genius”, it’s the nerves more than anything that come to mind for Cross: “I just remember being very, very nervous! I got invited up to his beautiful home in Beverly Hills, he was married to Carole Bayer Sager at the time and I was just incredibly intimidated to be in his presence.” Mentioning again how nervous he was, Cross says he was constantly “pinching myself the whole time, but when you’re writing songs I think you kind of get into a space where it’s working and we got there about midnight and about 5am we’d written the song.”
In truth, the lack of lasting chart success for Cross may have as much to do with Bacharach’s “running the horse” analogy as it does with the obvious chasm between who and what he is and our established ideals of celebrity. His was a chubby, balding face that couldn’t have been further removed from the pinup looks of other 80s stars like Wham and Duran Duran. But nor was he massively overweight like a Meatloaf or oddly charismatic like a Joe Cocker. His complete lack of headlining-grabbing scandal didn’t help either. He was nice man singing nice songs in a nice voice in an era that celebrated the gentle, polished pop song-craft of himself, Air Supply and Lionel Richie. And while Richie had a decade of hits behind him and many more years of hits ahead, like Air Supply, Cross never recaptured the appeal he had with those early 80s ballads.
Cross’ website tells a slightly different story. According to the suitably praise-filled web bio, it wasn’t Cross who deserted radio but radio who deserted him. His post-glory days albums would explore other musical genres, including an allegedly non-soft version of rock, but would not garner the support his die-hard fans felt he deserved. “While my early records are the most well known, I’ve made seven over the years, so I continue to tour the world and try and promote my overall discography and I love doing it,” he says, adding he performs up to 100 concert dates every year. While still busy in the recording studio, he’s also spent the last couple of decades raising his three children, the eldest being a son of 30 and two younger kids from his more recent marriage (a son of 18 and a daughter who’s 15). Album number eight will be a Christmas recording out in the next few weeks.
So with proof enough Christopher Cross was never really away, I turn attention back to his days as a chart regular and ask him about a story I’d heard years before: he never wanted Sailing to be released as a single. Refreshingly, Cross isn’t too cool to admit Sailing is his best song. The handful of fanatics who visit his website daily for updates may nominate obscure album tracks, but the man himself appears quietly proud of the song he knows to be his finest artistic achievement. The only catch is he is still mystified it was such a commercial success.
“I would have never picked it,” says Cross revisiting his disbelief. Conscious that Ride Like The Wind had been an uptempo hit, he feared Sailing was “way too introspective and dark.” It was only at the insistence of Warner Brothers chairman Michael Ostin that the song was released – a move Cross felt certain was career suicide. Ostin turned out to be on the money in more ways than one and Cross knows he wouldn’t be finding himself in places like New Zealand all these years later if his timeless, introspective, dark piece had stayed hidden as an album track midway through the original vinyl’s side two.
He also knows he wouldn’t have swept the board at the Grammy’s in 1981 if Sailing had stayed unreleased. Recalling the night he won all five of his Grammy’s, Cross is typically humble. He explains the night:
“Well I think that ‘Best New Artist’ was an award that people had kind of convinced me I would probably have a pretty good shot at winning, so I guess in my heart I was probably I hoping I would win that. When I won that award I was very satisfied, I felt it was a tremendous honour to be voted best new artist by my peers and so I sat down and was perfectly happy. And then when I went up to play Sailing and we were standing backstage as the bigger awards were announced we were just completely in shock. As they went on and we won album and song and all that stuff, I was in just an out of body experience because in my wildest dreams I would never imagined we’d win all of that.”
For the shy boy from Texas who suddenly found himself in the presence of the music legends he was still yet to meet in person, one legend in particular stood out. Cross can remember seeing faces like Diana Ross and Aretha Franklin and just being in awe, but it was Billy Joel who defined the night for him. “The last award I think I got was ‘Album of the Year’ and when I walked out on stage to get it I saw Billy Joel was in the front row. He stood up and started applauding and then the entire audience stood up and gave me a standing ovation. I think that was the moment I remember most: Billy Joel standing up and applauding for me and my music, that’s a life changing thing right there.”
With our allotted interview time over 20 minutes ago I quickly shift things into the present and Cross shocks me with a confession: he’s a passionate scuba-diver and can’t wait to dive a couple of sites if there’s time while in New Zealand. Much less shocking for my preconceived notions of Cross’ pastimes is his desire to “tip a few with the locals.” Portly photos suggest he’s not adverse to “tipping a few” and thankfully for his fans it’s not cooped up in a hotel room where he likes to do it but down at the local pub.
“We really want to try and get out and see as much as we can and meet as many people as we can,” says Cross. This is no prima-donna stuck in the past of his former glories, more-so a musician acutely aware how fortunate he is that his former glories are glorious enough to still fill auditoriums. And any thoughts his lines about meeting the people are hollow throwaways are well and truly put to bed when he goes on to say, “the people who come to my shows, they’re the people who make you who you are. Without them you’re really nothing.” Cross sounds entirely genuine when he speaks of relishing the “opportunity” to shake hands with the people who’ve sustained a career for him. And no doubt if Paul Holmes and his camera crew ask nicely, he’ll be willing to shake hands with them too.
Christopher CrossMusic
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i miss him. julia
Met him when he lived in Santa Barbara…what a nice guy and he didn't display a pretentious, self absorbed attitude…He lived across from our famous Old Mission Santa Barbara…just a regular guy who writes music…
dude has a beautiful voice…too bad we don’t hear it enough.
Jo-Anne Flagg says:
Thank-you…you have always been part of my magical life…
your words calm me…after this weekend in Charlottesville, Va. ,I just needed to remind myself that there is a need and a place for you and your music!!!
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Racially Diverse Casting Featured in World Premiere by Ann Tracy
Not only will Sacramento get a world premiere, audiences will also see their racially diverse neighborhoods better reflected on stage when Beyond the Proscenium Productions (BPP) presents Hecuba & Dido: Love Gone Wrong by Ann Tracy, a mash-up of both modern and ancient history and popular culture exploring the devastation of war, sex, class and gender.
Sacramento, CA (PRWEB) November 5, 2007
This adaptation of Charles Mee's Trojan Women 2.0 plays Thursday, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. to November 24, at the Space, 2509 R St, Sacramento. There will be one Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. on November 25. There will not be a show on November 3 (BPP Fundraising Gala) or November 22 (Thanksgiving). Tickets are $15 general and $12 for seniors, students and SARTA members. To reserve tickets please call 916-456-1600 or e-mail beyondpro@sbcglobal.net. More information can be found at the BPP web site: Beyond-Pro.org.
"I've always been a proponent of non-traditional casting," said Hecuba & Dido director Ann Tracy. "In one of my first productions in Sacramento back in the early 90s, The Atelier by Kate Maney, I cast an African-American woman as the Italian painter Artemisia Gentileschi and have continued the practice in just about all the BPP shows I directed from 1994 to the present day. In this production we have actors of color in five parts that could have gone to white actors, but these actors were the best for the parts!"
The storyline of Hecuba & Dido focuses first on Hecuba, the Queen of Troy until the Greeks destroyed the city. She councils against revenge until the Greeks demand too much and she sends her son Aeneas off to do her bidding. When Aeneas reaches Carthage, he falls in love with Queen Dido, who has created what some may say is a feminist utopia. Will love keep them together or will Aeneas leave? Hecuba & Dido: Love Gone Wrong is a very modern mash-up of classical and modern source texts exploring the aftermath of war and the relationships between men and women, based on Charles Mee's Trojan Women 2.0.
Beyond the Proscenium Productions (BPP) is a nonprofit theatre company that has consistently brought a maverick approach to making theatre in Sacramento producing over 30 regional premieres and over 17 new works of theatre since 1994.
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Are You Looking for a Floor Sanding Company in Surbiton?
The area became known as Kingston by the Railway when the station was built in 1840. Although Surbiton is now archetypal suburbia, traditional building still survives inside local pubs, bars, restaurants, offices, homes and schools. In the form of one of England’s most loved and enduring features: the natural wooden floor.
A natural product requires regular maintenance? Has your floor fallen below the required standard? If so, and the marks and scratches dominate the grain, delay no longer. The answer lies in wood floor repair and restoration - from a specialist floor sanding company.
Sanding Wood Floros is your choice for floor renovation and polishing services in Surbiton.
Whatever your floor type: from soft or hardwood boards to parquet blocks, we’ll bring it back to life. After sanding away old layers of sealant and paint, the smooth bare wood may then be stained - and given the fresh protection of hard wax, natural oil or lacquer.
Sanding is no longer a dusty and messy job to be feared - as our cylinder machines have a unique collection system whereby sanding is virtually dustfree. As for potential loss of business, our flexible working – at weekends or even overnight – will keep any disruption and closure to a minimum.
Your period floors - as in wood floor sanding parquet - will compare with the original. We replace damaged blocks with reclaimed materials. Sanding and sealing will then create a beautiful new yet authentic finish.
So call us today for a free assessment of your floors. After twenty years of restoring floors, we will give the best advice on the treatment your floor requires, including repairs and gaps filled to prevent draughts.
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For a truly professional job in Surbiton - contact us today!
Did you know about Surbiton?
Surbiton, is a suburban area of south-west London within the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames. It is situated next to the River Thames, 11.0 miles south west of central London (12 miles by rail from London Waterloo). Surbiton was formerly within the County of Surrey, but became part of Greater London in 1965 following the London Government Act 1963, together with many areas including neighbouring Kingston and Richmond. Surbiton possesses a mixture of Art-Deco courts, more recent residential blocks and grand 19th century townhouses blending into a sea of semi-detached 20th century housing estates.
The present-day town came into existence after a plan to build a London-Portsmouth railway line through nearby Kingston was rejected by Kingston Council, who feared that it would be detrimental to the coaching trade. This resulted in the line being routed further south, through a cutting in the hill south of Surbiton. Surbiton railway station opened in 1838, and was originally named Kingston-upon-Railway. It was only renamed Surbiton to distinguish it from the new Kingston railway station on the Shepperton branch line, which opened on 1 January 1869. The present station has a fine art deco façade.
In the mid-1870s the novelist Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) lived in a house called 'St. David's Villa' in Hook Road, Surbiton for a year after his marriage to Emma Gifford. H.G.Wells, in his comic novel The Wheels of Chance, describes the cycle collision of 'Mr Hoopdriver' and a 'Young Lady in Grey'; the young lady approaching 'along an affluent from the villas of Surbiton'. The writer Enid Blyton (1897–1968) was governess to a Surbiton family for four years from 1920, at a house called 'Southernhay', also on the Hook Road. C.H. Middelton (1886-1945), who broadcast on gardening during the Second World War, lived in Surbiton, where he died suddenly outside his home.
Floor Sanding in Surbiton
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‘FABERGÉ – A LIFE OF ITS OWN’ RELEASES LOCALLY AT CINEMA NOUVEAU
The Editor · July 24, 2015
A captivating new film tells the fascinating story behind the most prestigious name in luxury: Fabergé.
Enjoying unprecedented access to Faberge‘s greatest creations, insights from leading experts and interviews with descendants of the Fabergé family, Fabergé – A Life of its Own is an award-winning documentary, written and directed by Patrick Mark and charts the rich history behind the iconic luxury brand and offers the chance to experience exquisite Fabergé pieces in intricate detail on the big screen.
The documentary follows the story of Fabergé from Imperial Russia to the present-day, spanning one hundred and fifty years of turbulent history, romance and artistic development.
From the bejewelled Easter eggs of the Romanov Tsarinas to the 1970s allure of ‘Brut by Fabergé‘ aftershave, and from the Russian revolution to today’s high-fashion glitz in New York and London, the film explores a multi-faceted world that began with one man: the prodigiously talented Peter Carl Fabergé, Court Jeweller of St Petersburg.
The allure of Fabergé‘s infamous Imperial Eggs lies as much in their fabled history as it does the precious objets they house. Created by Carl Fabergé for the Russian Imperial family between 1885 and 1916, the precious eggs were seized during the Russian revolution and later sold or destroyed. Of the 50 known Imperial eggs, seven remain lost – with the remaining 43 held in private, Royal or museum collections around the world.
During the film, Fabergé – A Life of its Own, cinema audiences will see the unveiling of two historic pieces:
the first ‘Imperial Class’ Fabergé Egg to be produced in almost 100 years, the Pearl Egg was commissioned to mark 100 years since the production of the last Imperial Egg for Tsar Nicolas II, and will be unveiled to audiences in exquisite close-up detail. A spectacular objet d’art, it features over 3 000 diamonds and natural pearls;
the remarkable story of the long-lost 1887 Imperial Egg, rediscovered last year by a scrap metal dealer and sold to a private collector for a reported US$30 million. The egg was one of 50 created by Fabergé for the Russian Royal family. Measuring 8.2cm high, it was given by Tsar Alexander III to the Tsarina for Easter 1887, and was last seen in public in March 1902, as part of an exhibition of Imperial treasures in St Petersburg.
This cinematic event offers the public a rare opportunity to experience the wonder of Fabergé‘s exquisite objects in stunning detail on the big screen, before they are returned to the secrecy of their private collections.
Shot at locations across Russia, Europe and USA (including the collection of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II), the film features interview contributions from the world’s foremost Fabergé authorities, as well as personal reminiscences from Fabergé family members.
FABERGÉ – A LIFE OF ITS OWN releases locally at Cinema Nouveau theatres on Saturday, July 25 for limited screenings.
For more information and to make bookings, visit www.cinemanouveau.co.za
Tags:Cinema NouveauFabergéFabergé – A Life of its OwnPatrick MarkQueen Elizabeth II
BAKGATLA-BA-KGAFELA PARTNERS WITH THE ALL AFRICA BUSINESS LEADERS AWARDS
JAGUAR LAND ROVER JOINS THE AABLA 2015 AS OFFICIAL VEHICLE PARTNER
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Career @ SCBE
Nanyang Technological University (NTU) is an internationally renowned tertiary education institution. NTU, together with its predecessor, Nanyang University, has offered university education in Singapore since 1955. NTU boasts a strong engineering college that is ranked among the best globally. Committed to our mission of educating leaders and advancing knowledge for Singapore and beyond, we have built global programmed and established strong links with leading institutions around the world. NTU’s 200-hectare campus is among the most advanced in the academic world. The campus now houses 33,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students, and 3,300 teaching and research staff.
ADMIN & TECHNICAL
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The Great Songs: The Delfonics – Didn't I (Blow Your Mind This Time)
by Eric Melin on November 10, 2010
Maybe the first time you heard this song was in the 1997 Quentin Tarantino film “Jackie Brown.”
QT used The Delfonics not just as background music but to illustrate the budding romance between bail bondsman Max Cherry (Robert Forster) and stewardess Jackie Brown (Pam Grier). After hearing the song “Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time)” on a vinyl record at Jackie’s apartment, Max goes to a record store (remember those?) and picks up The Delfonics on cassette.
Tarantino does something most movies would never even consider next: He lets the song play out and the next one start up. It’s “La-La (Means I Love You),” also by The Delfonics, and also another downright classic.
Listening to The Delfonics while he’s driving makes Max think of Jackie–and that feels good. Tarantino is one of the rare filmmakers around today who has the patience to show how pop songs affect people emotionally.
“Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time)” is nothing if not emotional. The song was from The Delfonics fourth record (which was self-titled) and was released as a single on the Philadelphia-based Bell (Philly Groove) label run by super producer Thom Bell. It was a big hit, charting at number-three on the Billboard R&B singles chart and number 10 on the Billboard pop chart in 1970.
Co-written by Bell and Delfonics singer William Hart, “Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time)” features all the signatures of the Philly soul sound: layered horns, lush string arrangements, heartfelt vocals, and a sublime melody. The production is perfect; even with all that instrumentation going on, it never overpowers the Hart’s lovely falsetto. (Click here to hear/read about another Philly classic profiled on an earlier post of The Great Songs.)
I wish music still sounded this rich and warm. The embed above is from the mono mix on vinyl. Below I’ve embedded the scene from “Jackie Brown.” Enjoy!
The song is also the inspiration for the 20-volume Rhino soul music compilation Soul Hits of the 70s: Didn’t It Blow Your Mind, which is a MUST HAVE if you love the 70s soul sound as much as I do (even if it does get a little too disco by the end of the decade).
The Great Songs: Thin Lizzy – The Cowboy Song
Tagged as: 1970, delfonics, Didn't I (Blow Your Mind This Time), didn't i blow your mind, jackie brown, la-la means i love you, philadelphia, philly soul, philly sound, tarantino, The Great Songs, thom bell
1 Reed November 11, 2010 at 12:45 pm
Fantastic choice! Indeed, this is the place where I first heard this song. Like Tarantino had given me a gift that I should have already had.
2 Eric Melin November 11, 2010 at 1:26 pm
Glad you dug it, Reed. I’ll tell ya what: I mentioned Tarantino taking the time to show characters enjoying music in other movies in this article, but have since come up with more (besides “Death Proof”):
– Ear scene in “Reservoir Dogs;” he turns up the music (Stealers Wheel) and dances to it
Mia Wallace puts on “Girl You’ll Be a Woman Soon” in “Pulp Fiction”
Any more?
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Schumy Critically Ill
Thread: Schumy Critically Ill
Michael Schumacher 'could recover in three years'
A French doctor who treated Formula One star after ski accident says driver is out of a coma but faces a long road to recovery
A French doctor who treated Michael Schumacher after a skiing accident that nearly killed him has said the Formula One star may recover within three years.
In his first public comments since the accident, Dr Jean-Francois Payen confirmed that Schumacher is out of a coma and has made "some progress", but said the driver faces a long road to recovery.
"I have seen some progress but I would say give him time. It's like other patients, we are in a timescale that ranges from one year to three years, so it takes patience," Dr Payen said.
Dr Payen, the head of Anesthesiology at Grenoble University Hospital where Schumacher was rushed after his accident last December, spoke about his celebrity patient in two interviews, with Le Parisien newspaper and RTL radio.
"Life after a brain injury is littered with stages," he said. "It must progress, we hope, but we must give him time."
Although Schumacher was moved from Grenoble to Lausanne in June, and has since returned to his family home in Switzerland to recuperate, Dr Payen remains in close touch with the family and has visited Schumacher at his home.
"I kept seeing him, first at the University Hospital of Lausanne, and now at home. It's to see how he progresses and tell his wife and children what changes I observed," Dr Payen said.
"He's in very favourable conditions. This plays a big role. The family environment is anyway best for the patient. His wife is surrounded by excellent advice and has implemented all it takes for it to move forward."
Schumacher was in a "critical condition" when he was first brought to hospital, Dr Payen said. He is still alive today "because there were decisions that were taken in a timely manner".
The anaesthesiologist spoke out in praise of Schumacher's wife, Corinna. She has "in every respect an extraordinary willpower," he said.
"Immediately she understood the seriousness of the situation and the long journey that lay before them. She sees things very clearly and will do anything and give everything to improve the condition of her husband."
Dr Payen also spoke for the first time about the media storm in which he was engulfed when he took on his celebrity patient.
"Nobody is willing to undergo such a flood of media [attention]," he told Le Parisien. "We quickly got organised by creating a sort of 'medical bubble' to protect us from the outside world, from the media pressure, in order to work properly."
At one point a journalist reportedly disguised himself as a priest to gain access to Schumacher's bedside, and some of his medical records were later stolen. Dr Payen told how he and his colleagues had to give up their mobile phones, and could only go to and from work via an enclosed car park.
From: The Telegraph
Last edited by Perdita; 23-10-2014 at 16:44.
Best Mod 2013
Grossmaischeid, Germany
It is quite tragic. He is awake and out of coma but not moving or speaking. I can't imagine what sort of life that is for him as he was always so active. I am happy for his family that he is recovering slowing. it must be really tough on all of them. Very little news about Jules Bianchi. Hope he recovers too
The Following User Says Thank You to Siobhan For This Useful Post:
It must also be quite difficult for his wife and kids ... he is not the same man they have known and he will probably never be again...
Siobhan (25-10-2014)
FORMULA One ace Michael Schumacher is "making progress" as he continues to recover from a near-fatal skiing crash in the French Alps, his manager has said.
Michael Schumacher won seven world champion titles
Speaking last night, his manager Sabine Kehm said the F1 star was “making progress” but added that people “must always keep the seriousness of his injuries in mind”.
The German driver suffered severe head injuries after an accident in Meribel in December 2013.
Schumacher spent several months fighting for his life in a coma following the crash, but last June was transferred from a hospital in the French town of Grenoble to a Swiss hospital after regaining consciousness.
His family have imposed a near-total news blackout on the care he is receiving at his Swiss mansion.
Yet in February he was understood to be mute with "limited awareness" of his environment and is also still unable to walk.
Schumacher was crowned the wealthiest driver ever to have raced in F1, with a fortune in excess of £520million.
But the seven-time world champion’s family is facing spiralling care costs with the current spending on his rehabilitation estimated at over £10million.
His family is said to be spending around £100,000-a-week looking after him.
Glen1 (02-06-2015)
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/sport/moto...id=mailsignout
Schumi 50 years old now ... Happy Birthday Michael
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The Bodyguard The Musical
The Cliffs Pavilion - 15th - 26th September 2015
The Bodyguard Musical is touring the UK after a successful West End run and Zoe Birkett leads this two week Southend run as if she were born for the part of Rachel Marron.
Bursting on to the stage with the energetic “Queen of the Night” number you realise instantly that Zoe has this role completely under control. Her characterisation is spot on in a part that takes on a rollercoaster of emotions and with a voice that has the power to give goosebumps in one moment and have you up on your feet dancing the next.
The Bodyguard tells the story of diva, Rachel Marron, a successful American singing sensation, who finds herself in the fearful situation of realising that she has a stalker. The experienced Frank Farmer, played by the extremely handsome Stuart Reid, is brought in by Rachel's people to protect her and her family; her son, Fletcher, played beautifully by Seito Smith and her sister Nicki, played on the night I was there by the understudy, Lydia Fraser.
Things don’t start off well for the singer and the bodyguard but, after a night out together in a Karaoke bar, things start to hot up between the two and romance ensues. With Nicki, the sister that never quite had it, also falling for Frank, the sibling rivalry that has always been underlying between the sisters comes to the fore, giving Lydia Fraser some wonderful moments to shine. I especially enjoyed “Run to You”.
This show rolls along much like the 1992 Houston and Costner film version although there are some more up to date references now, including a witty nod to Gordon Ramsey in one scene. A few more witty moments would have been nice in a somewhat serious play; the audience were in stitches in the Karaoke scene with laugh out loud moments from Frank’s rendition of “I Will Always Love You”.
Thanks to Mark Henderson’s fabulous lighting and Richard Brooker’s sound design, the atmospherics of this production really help to produce some real tension within the scenes. There is one scene in particular that really delivers where Rachel insists on singing at a club and the stalker finds out, which really sends tingles up the spine! The use of video was also put to good effect and the set design was impressive and cleverly creative.
Ultimately, this show no matter how good the storyline may be, is about the music and songs of Whitney Houston - there are 16 of her hits in this production. Zoe Birkett carried the show with every rendition. By the time the closing number, “I Will Always Love You” came to an end, I don’t think that one member of the audience was left in their seat and the standing ovation at the end really said it all.
If you love the songs of Whitney Houston and enjoy a bit of drama and suspense thrown in for good measure, get yourself to The Cliffs Pavilion in the next couple of weeks. You won’t be disappointed.
What the audience thought
Pat, South Woodham Ferrers
“Rachel (Zoe) and Nicki (Lydia) really stood out for me. The dancing was great. I’ve seen it in the West End and I actually preferred it here. I really believed it, I was sobbing at the end!”
Twink, Leigh on Sea
“Absolutely brilliant. It’s just as good as the West End. Zoe was brilliant - her voice is just mesmerising.”
Jos, Southend on Sea
I really love Whitney Houston and I really think that Zoe did it justice, in fact I think she held the whole show together. I really liked the sister (Nicki) she was very good.”
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Sarajevo Information Centre
Sarajevo Information Centre . "MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING between THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIBUNAL FOR THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA and THE CITY OF SARAJEVO." Spirit of Bosnia Volume 13 No. 3 (2018):July -- http://www.spiritofbosnia.org/volume-13-no-3-2018july/memorandum-of-understanding-between-the-international-criminal-tribunal-for-the-former-yugoslavia-and-the-city-of-sarajevo/
MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING between THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIBUNAL FOR THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA and THE CITY OF SARAJEVO
The Sarajevo Information Centre on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was recently opened at the City Hall by the Mayor of Sarajevo Abdulah Skaka and Gabrielle McIntyre and the former judge at the ICTY Fausto Pocar.
The establishment of the Information Centre on the International Criminal Tribunal and promotion of their legacy is a project of historic significance for the City of Sarajevo and the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Centre is a one more step closer towards truth and justice; confronting the past; developing peace and reconciliation“, stressed Mayor Skaka.
The mandate of the Information Centre Sarajevo is to provide updated, direct and secure electronic access to the public documents of the International Criminal Tribunal and archive material contained in ICTY’s online databases. The Centre is located in the City Hall and it will operate as a separate organisational unit within the Sarajevo City Administration. The public, researchers, students, the academic community, media and all interested citizens will be able to search the entire ICTY’s electronic archive with the assistance of the Sarajevo City Administration’s expert personnel, using modern IT equipment.
What is more, from now on the visitors at the City Hall will be able to visit the permanent exhibition of the original courtroom of the ICTY. The courtroom which the Mechanism, as the legal successor of the ICTY, has donated to the City of Sarajevo, will also be used by law students during practical lessons.
The audience was addressed by Ivo Komšić, Chairman of the Mayor’s Council for the Information Centre, who said that the Centre should serve as a unique place in this part of Europe where academic research of war crimes will be done from the legal, historical, sociological, philosophical, and psychological aspects.
The ICTY was a pioneering institution and the first international criminal tribunal of the modern age, which showed that accountability for the tragic events and horrendous crimes committed in the territory of the former Yugoslavia in the nineties is possible” stressed Gabrielle McIntyre in her address.
On this occasion, Mayor Skaka presented the recognitions for special contribution to the establishment of the Information Centre to the former mayors of Sarajevo Semiha Borovac and Ivo Komšić, former judge of the ICTY Fausto Pocar and the current President of the Mechanism for the International Criminal Tribunals judge Theodor Meron. The recognitions were also awarded to the Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia to BiH H.E. Amelia Achmad Yani, heads of Sarajevo municipalities Centar and Novi Grad: Nedžad Ajnadžić and Semir Efendić and president of the Unicredit Bank Administration Dalibor Ćubela.
The Information Centre opening ceremony, which was held simultaneously with the exhibition “The Siege of Sarajevo as Seen through the Rulings of the ICTY”, was attended by a high delegation of the Mechanism for the International Criminal Tribunals, the legal successor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), as well as the representatives of the executive, legal and judicial government in BiH, the international community, and the association of war crimes victims.
This memorandum of understanding (hereinafter referred to as “MOU”) is entered into by and between the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (“ICTY“), an international organisation established by the United Nations Security Council, and having its Headquarters located at Churchillplein 1, 2517JW The Hague, Netherlands, and the City of Sarajevo, Hamdije Kresevljakovica 3, 71 000 Sarajevo, BiH (“City of Sarajevo“). The ICTY and the City of Sarajevo are collectively referred to herein as the “Parties” and each individually as a “Party”.
WHEREAS, the ICTY’s judicial records and its evidence collection contain an enormous quantity. of information about the violations of the international humanitarian law committed during the wars in the territories of the former Yugoslavia during the 1990s;
WHEREAS, these records are of tremendous value to victims and their families, as well as to legal professionals, academics, historians, journalists, and the national authorities in the former Yugoslavia and other civil society actors working in the field of transitional justice;
WHEREAS, as part of its legacy, the ICTY must ensure that its public judicial records can be effectively accessed and utilised by a wide range of parties in the former Yugoslavia;
WHEREAS, the United Nations Secretary-General stated in his report of 21 May 2009 that the creation of information centres in the former Yugoslavia would serve the purpose of ensuring access to ICTY‘s public judicial records and would also contribute to informing and sensitising those living in the countries of the former Yugoslavia;
WHEREAS, the United Nations Security Council requested the ICTY to cooperate with the countries of the former Yugoslavia in order to facilitate the establishment of the information and records centres by enabling access to the copies of the judicial records from the archive of the ICTY.2
WHEREAS, the ICTY has facilitated regional consultation on the establishment of Information Centres in the former Yugoslavia and the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina agreed to the establishment of an information centre in Sarajevo (“Sarajevo Information Centre” or the “Project“);
WHEREAS, the development and establishment of the Sarajevo Information Centre depends on the availability of external funding;
NOW, THEREFORE, and in consideration of the mutual covenants and agreements contained herein it is agreed by the Parties as follows:
1 THE SARAJEVO INFORMATION CENTRE
1.1. The purpose of this MOU is to regulate the establishment of the Sarajevo Information Centre and the cooperation of the Parties in providing assistance to the Centre.
Location and mandate
1.2. The Headquarters of the Sarajevo Information Centre shall be allocated space at the Sarajevo City Hall, Obala Kulina bana 1.
1.3. The main mandate of the Sarajevo Information Centre shall be to provide the public with up–to-date direct and secure electronic access to all publicly available ICTY‘s records and archival material contained in ICTY‘s online databases;
1.4. Depending on the availability of financial funds and resources, the Sarajevo Information Centre may invest efforts with the aim to inform the public on the war crimes issues, contributing to the process of transitional justice and strengthening the rule of law in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region by establishing a strong outreach components, including:
1.4.1. the component of transitional justice – contribution to the processes of transitional justice and dealing with the past by organizing various informative and educational public events;
1.4.2. the component of support to legal professionals and civil society – capacity building activities targeting legal professionals and civil societies groups handling war crimes cases before domestic courts in Bosnia and Herzegovina; and
1.4.3. the exhibition component – showcasing the work of the ICTY and courts in Bosnia and Herzegovina in adjudicating war crimes cases.
1.5. The Sarajevo Information Centre will be administered by the Mayor.
1.6. The Mayor‘s Council for Sarajevo Information Centre (hereinafter referred to as “Council“) shall be set up in accordance with the City of Sarajevo‘s procedures and shall be responsible for:
1.6.1. Preparing documents, annual plan of activities and budget of the Sarajevo Information Centre
1.6.2. Development of activities of Sarajevo Information Centre
1.6.3. Development and implementation of the plan for fundraising; and
1.6.4. Cooperation with representatives of ICTY in order to ensure constant access to the ICTY’s public archives.
1.7. The Advisory Committee shall be established by the ICTY and shall be made up of representatives selected by the ICTY, and may include Judges and staff members of the ICTY and representatives of institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina selected by the ICTY.
1.8. The Advisory Committee shall assist the Council in performing its duties, particularly with respect to public activities of the Sarajevo Information Centre and fundraising – related activities.
1.9. There shall not be overlap in membership between the Mayor‘s Council and Advisory Committee.
1.10. The Council shall consult with the Advisory Committee about the following issues related to the work of the Sarajevo Information centre:
1.10.1. Changes to the mandate of the Sarajevo Information Centre
1.10.2. Relocation of headquarters of the Sarajevo Information Centre
1.10.3. External action of the Sarajevo Information Centre, including, but not limited to, the activities stated under Article 1.4 above; and
1.10.4. Preparation and submission of proposals for collecting funds to potential donors.
1.11. The Council can, if deemed appropriate, consult the Advisory Committee on any other issues.
1.12. All administrative costs of the Sarajevo Information Centre, including the costs of equipment and personnel, shall be covered by voluntary contributions from donors in the initial period of five (5) years (hereinafter referred to as “Initial Period”). Upon expiry of the Initial Period, the City of Sarajevo shall take over the responsibility for financing the Sarajevo Information Centre and all of its activities. The Initial Period can be extended by written agreement of the Parties.
2 OBLIGATIONS OF THE CITY OF SARAJEVO
2.1. Within six (6) months from the effective date of this MOU, as defined in Article 9.1 below, the following requirements shall be completed:
2.1.1. Prior to commencement of operation of the Sarajevo Information Centre, the City of Sarajevo shall implement all the changes to the general acts and be granted all necessary permits from the Sarajevo City Council;
2.1.2. The City of Sarajevo shall allocate necessary space to the Sarajevo Information Centre in the Sarajevo City Hall;
2.1.3. A bank account number in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the name of the City of Sarajevo shall be set up by the City of Sarajevo with the aim to collect funds for the establishment of the Sarajevo Information Centre.
2.2. The City of Sarajevo shall, with Advisory Committee’s assistance, actively seek external funding for the Information Centre, identifying and approaching potential donors.
2.3. The City of Sarajevo shall enter into contribution agreements with selected donors, to secure the necessary funds for the establishment and operation of the Sarajevo Information Centre. ICTY shall not be a party to these agreements.
3 OBLIGATIONS OF THE ICTY
3.1. The ICTY shall establish the Advisory Committee and appoint its representatives.
3.2. ICTY will, through the Advisory Committee, and to the extent possible, provide support to the City of Sarajevo in approaching potential donors for purposes of securing funds for the establishment of the Sarajevo Information Centre. The ICTY shall not be responsible for providing funds or administering funds for the Sarajevo Information Centre.
3.3. Through the Advisory Committee, the ICTY shall provide support to the City of Sarajevo in planning and implementing external action of the Sarajevo Information Centre, including, but not limited to, the activities stated under article 1.4 above.
3.4. The ICTY shall provide the City of Sarajevo with a direct and secure access to publicly available records and archival material contained in its databases upon the establishment of the Information Centre Sarajevo and as soon as there are sufficient funds for procuring the necessary equipment . . . .
Amendment 1
THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIBUNAL FOR THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA
THE CITY OF SARAJEVO
for the development of the Sarajevo Information Centre
This Amendment (“Amendment 1”) effective as of the date of the last signature, is entered into by and between the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, an international intergovernmental organisation and a legal successor to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (“ICTY”), having its Headquarters located at Churchillplein 1, 2517JW The Hague, Netherlands (“Mechanism”), and the City of Sarajevo, Hamdije Kregevljakoviea 3, 71 000 Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (“City of Sarajevo”), and modifies and amends the existing Memorandum of Understanding by and between the ICTY and the City of Sarajevo. The Mechanism and the City of Sarajevo are collectively referred to herein as the “Parties” and each individually as a “Party”.
WHEREAS, the ICTY and the City of Sarajevo entered into a Memorandum of Understanding for the development of the Sarajevo Information Centre dated 29 November 2016 (“MOU”);
WHEREAS, pursuant to Resolution 1966 (2010), the United Nations Security Council established the Mechanism, a legal successor to the ICTY and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, with branches located in The Hague (The Netherlands) and in Arusha (United Republic of Tanzania);
WHEREAS, the ICTY’ s mandate came to its end on 31 December 2017; WHEREAS, the Mechanism and the City of Sarajevo now wish to amend the MOU,
NOW, THEREFORE, in consideration of the mutual covenants and agreement provided for, the Parties hereto agree as follows:
The following shall be added to Article 6.2 of the MOU:
“As of 1 January 2018:
To the United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals Attention:
Nenad Gol6evski, External Relations Officer
Churchillplein 1
2517 JW, The Hague
With a copy to:
Kevin Prendergast, Personal Assistant to the Registrar Churchillplein 1
To the City of Sarajevo:
Attention: Mayor Abdulah Skaka Hamdije Kregevljakoviea 3,
71 000 Sarajevo,
A new Article 9.1.1 shall be added to Section 9 of the MOU and shall read as follows:
“9.1.1 Subsequent to the closure of the ICTY on 31 December 2017, all of the ICTY’ s rights and obligations under this MOU shall be assumed by the United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (“Mechanism”), as of 1 January 2018. Following the succession, the MOU shall remain in force for the duration of the Mechanism’s mandate, unless earlier terminated in accordance with the terms of this MOU.”
This Amendment No. 1 represents the entire understanding of the Parties concerning the subject matter hereof and supersedes all prior representations, contracts and proposals, whether written or oral, by and between the Parties with regard to same.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the Mechanism and the City of Sarajevo have, through their authorized representatives, subscribed to this Amendment No. 1 on the date herein below written.
Done at the City of Sarajevo and at The Hague in two originals in the English language.
For and on behalf of the City of Sarajevo,
Abdulah Skaka, Mayor of Sarajevo
For and on behalf of the United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals,
Olufemi Elias, Registrar
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“And one was there, a stripling on a small and weedy beast; He was something like a racehorse undersized, With a touch of Timor pony – three parts thoroughbred at least – and such as are by mountain horsemen prized. He was hard & tough and wiry – just the sort that won’t say die- There was courage in his quick impatient tread; And he bore the badge of gameness in his bright and fiery eye, And the proud and lofty carriage of his head.” Excerpt from The Man From Snowy River a poem by Banjo Paterson
This verse from The Man from Snowy River, was written by famous Australian poet Banjo Paterson who had his first book of ballads published in 1895. History shows the Timor pony to be a very apt metaphor for the identity of the Timorese and their Australian friends who worked at the grass roots for East Timor’s liberation until 1999 and continue to struggle for peace and good health in East Timor. There are eleven people in Port Phillip. who have worked for East Timor as far back as 1975.Who are they and why? How did they do it when successive Australian Governments were denying the reality. How did they work with the Timorese people when their country was closed to outsiders? Find out here through stories from each of them. ______________________________________________________________________________________________
In 2005 David published his memoirs in a book titled Last Flight Out of Dili – Memoirs of an Accidental Activist. Two chapters that are historically important to debate about the history of East Timor, the timing and rationale for Australia being there, were not published. David has provided them to Suai Media Space and they have been translated by Alarico da Sena into Tetun. ‘All They Got was Misery’ and ‘Japan the Reluctant Invaders.’ Tetun links: Timor-oan Hetan Terus and Japaun-relatante-Invasores. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ “I was never going to play the weeping widow! I never did any more than demand whatis the right of every Australian citizen”. “I don’t care what people think about me – when the leaders of this country defamed me my friends would reassure that I must be doing something right”! Interview with Shirley Shackleton about her struggle for justice for the Timorese and her husband together with the other four journalists killed by Indonesian military in Balibo on the 16th October, 1975. Here is one tenacious woman – an inspiration to all Australians. _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Bill Armstrong became involved with East Timor’s journey into independence in 1975 when he was working for Action for World Development. The Timor Information Service became a part of AWD after it had been set up in the Australian Council of Churches by John Waddingham and Mary Considine.In the 70’s and early 80’s while working with the Ecumenical Centre for Migration he worked closely with Joaol Gonsalves trying to help Timorese fleeing from Timor into Australia. More … Bill joined other people he knew when he became Chairman of the Friends of Suai in 2004. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Paul’s brother Tony Stewart was killed by the invading Indonesian military in Balibo when he was only a young journalist. He was 21. Paul first became famous as a member of the Painters and Dockers a popular Melbourne band. He became a founding member of the Dili Allstars who kept the music going in the independence movement in Australia. See his band still hard at it at the launch of their CD ‘Increase the Peace’ in 2006 when East Timor’s dreams of independence and futures for the young was threatened by political violence and singing with Timorese friends at the launch of the Friends of Suai in March, 2000 ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Jean McLean was a Labour politician during East Timor’s struggle for independence and was one of the few who kept the ‘flag flying’ for independence withinthe Australian Labour Party. Jean continues to work for East Timor . _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Patsy Thatcher is an anthropologist. Patsy interviewed all the men of the 2/2nd Company and researched World War 2 for a book about this chapter in the history of East Timor. Patsy has also extensively researched the Timorese in the diaspora in Melbourne and continues to work for East Timor on Boards and Committees. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Louise Byrne began working with East Timorese people living in Melbourne in 1991. Louise’s knowledge of Timorese culture stems from her study and her work and friendship with Timorese people. When East Timor won the ballot for independence in 1999, Louise had Jacob Rumbiak living with her working for West Papua’s self-determination. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Carmela bought a second hand camera in early 1999 and went to East Timor to find out what was happening there. Her footage ‘Scenes of Independence’ became the programs we saw on SBS television that showed Indonesian military intimidation mounting through out the year. More …
Graham Pitts is a playright and resident of Port Phillip who has been involved with East Timor since 1991. He wrote and directed the play ‘Tour of Duty’ in Theatreworks in St Kilda. in 2001. ‘Tour of Duty’ is a play about the relationship between Australians and Timorese in WW2. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Port Phillip resident and community artist Julie Shiels, has worked with the Timorese Community since 1991. In 2000 along with Michael Buckley Julie published a CD ROM titled ‘ Dreams of Return’ which was developed in collaboration with a community theatre project with the Timorese community in Melbourne.
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Gwynfor v Margaret
Labels: Gwynfor Evans, Language, S4C
I've just enjoyed listening to Rob Gittins' radio drama on iPlayer, and would like to recommend it to everyone else.
Click to play or download the mp3.
One moral man standing up for something important enough to give his life for
... and winning!
Owen Smith's absurdity
Labels: Economy, Labour, Owen Smith, Tax
On The Wales Report last night Owen Smith said that the Welsh government should not have power to vary the rate of income tax,
" ... because we don't have the relative tax base in order to provide Wales with the volume of money that our needs requires."
This is an absurd line of argument. If not having enough of a tax base to provide you with "the volume of money that your needs require" was a valid reason not to have any major tax-setting powers, then the United Kingdom government should not have the power to set a rate of income tax either, or have any other macro-economic powers.
The "volume" of money it raises from taxation fell short of the money it needs to meet its spending needs by a massive £14bn in August alone. This is from a ConDem coalition government whose primary aim was to cut the UK's deficit, not increase it ... but the deficit would be even higher under Labour, because their main line of argument is that they would not cut it by as much.
And over the years, the tax base of the UK has been so inadequate to meet its spending needs that its national debt surpassed £1,000bn at the beginning of this year ... and it's getting bigger all the time.
What he went on to say in the interview was equally ridiculous. Immediately following the section I quoted above, he said that our low relative tax base was "why we've had Barnett".
No it isn't. The Barnett Formula merely ensures that any decisions which the UK government makes on spending in England require a proportionate amount to be given to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland as well. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the relative tax base of Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland being inadequate. In fact Scotland's tax base is more healthy than the tax base of the UK as a whole; yet the Barnett Formula treats Scotland far more generously than it treats Wales.
Owen really hasn't thought things through. It's obvious that he doesn't want Wales to have any major tax-varying powers, and equally obvious that he and others in the Labour Party in Wales will therefore put all sorts of bogus arguments and unnecessary obstacles in our path to stop us getting them. But how else is Wales going to get the tools we need to do something to improve the state of our economy?
It seems that Labour see Wales as no more than a child. It's as if they see the money the Welsh government gets as pocket money given to us by Westminster, and the limit of their ambition is to let us supplement it with control of a few minor taxes ... the equivalent of doing a paper round. Big deal. Wales needs a government that is eager to take at least some responsibility for our economic performance. We won't make any real progress until we start to take this responsibility for ourselves.
The Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon
Labels: Energy, Environment, Swansea
In the news last week was the story that a scoping document has been submitted to National Infrastructure Planning as a first step in the process of getting permission to construct a tidal lagoon at Swansea Bay.
Multi-million pound tidal lagoon could power all of Swansea
Swansea Bay tidal power could 'supply 100,000 homes'
As someone who has been quite unequivocal in support of the need for Wales to invest in tidal power, and particularly to invest in tidal lagoons rather than a barrage (here, for example) I decided to look at this proposal in more detail. The scoping document is here:
Tidal Power Swansea Bay Scoping Document
The first thing to note is that this project is not the same as the previous proposal from Tidal Electric Limited (TEL), details here, which I fully support. It is in roughly the same position, but instead of being an offshore structure built away from the shoreline, it has been modified to become an "attached" tidal lagoon. I've produced this map showing the new proposal from Tidal Power Swansea Bay (TPSB) in blue and the TEL scheme in yellow.
In general terms, attached tidal lagoons are not a good idea. The point of building tidal lagoons offshore rather than against the shoreline is to minimize any ecological damage to both the sea shore and inter-tidal area. By building the sea wall facing the shore just beyond the lowest low tide line, the inter-tidal marine life is untouched, and the natural tidal flow parallel to the shoreline is not completely blocked, meaning that sand and silt can move normally. In contrast, an attached tidal lagoon will cause exactly the same sort of damage to inter-tidal marine and bird life as a barrage will, and it is for this for this reason I am opposed to the attached tidal lagoons that have been proposed further east, as shown on this map.
However in this particular case the damage will be less pronounced. As we can see from the map, the new sea wall enclosing the lagoon is not built against a stretch of natural shoreline, but against the man-made wall of Swansea docks. This means there will be that much less wildlife to damage ... or at least it won't be any more damaged than it was when the docks were built in the first place. But I'd still be concerned about the triangle between the eastern sea wall, Crymlyn Burrows and the Neath navigation channel.
The second thing to note is that the construction of the sea wall in the TPSB scheme is more massive—and therefore more expensive—than that proposed in the TEL scheme. TEL envisaged the sea wall as a minimal structure designed only to retain water. It therefore only extended marginally above the height of the highest tide, and didn't have a vehicle roadway on top of it. It simply wouldn't matter if waves broke over the top of it in storm conditions. As it happened, this was one of the reasons why the DTI rubbished the TEL scheme (in this report) which contributed to it not going ahead. The DTI made a number of very odd assumptions, one of which was that a more massive sea wall was required, in order to claim that TEL had underestimated the cost. The sea wall accounts for the major part of the overall cost of the project, and because the only practical way of constructing it is by piling up material on the sea bed, any increase in height results in an exponential increase in cost.
But although a sea wall with a roadway on top would not be needed for an offshore tidal lagoon, it actually makes some sense for an attached lagoon. In addition to making maintenance easier, the public can use it as a walkway. It therefore has the potential to become a tourist attraction, the twenty-first century equivalent of a Victorian or Edwardian pier. This is what TPSB are proposing:
The presence of a permanent connection to the shore would also open up tourism, recreation or educational opportunities for the Lagoon during its lifetime.
In addition to this, located adjacent to the O&M facilities it is proposed that there will be visitors’ facilities. The exact details of these will be determined during the EIA process and could include:
• Watersports and activities facilities – potentially incorporating a clubhouse, toilets/changing facilities, café, boat or equipment storage units, additional slipways – one inside and one outside the lagoon;
• Cycle hire points for public equipment use;
• Parking provision, public transport pick-up/drop-off and landscaped circulation space suitable for 70-100k visitors per year; and
• Safe, secure visitor access between the two seawall landfall points so a complete circuit can be made.
... it is proposed to have a visitor centre building offshore, located near and integrated with the turbine housing area approximately 5km out along the lagoon wall. The exact appearance and facilities within this building are still to be determined but they are likely to include:
• Architecturally significant design/appearance, with the objective of creating an iconic building
• Lobby;
• Café/restaurant/toilets;
• Permanent renewable energy exhibition space(s);
• Interactive physical exhibitions for education and interest;
• Multi-use exhibition/function space; and
• Navigational lighting as required.
Scoping Document – Pages 8 and 9
For me, the important thing is for a tidal lagoon to produce electricity. If that is the "cake", then the visitor attraction aspects of the scheme are the "icing" put on top of it. But if designed well, I think it could be an exciting part of an expanding and vibrant city, and this could help justify the additional cost of the more massive structure. But we need to be clear that the difference in cost is quite considerable. TEL estimated the cost of their sea wall at just under £50m, the DTI's roadway version cost £137m.
It might also be worth saying that at 9.3km, the round trip will be quite a long walk or cycle ride. To give some idea how big it is, both the maps below are to the same scale. The breakwater at Holyhead is only 2.5km long.
One thing that I found rather odd about the TPSB scheme is that the turbines will have an installed capacity of 250-350 MW, but that the TEL scheme had an installed capacity of 60 MW.
Although there is a big difference in installed capacity, it isn't all that significant. The amount of electricity that can be generated from a lagoon depends on the area of impounded water and the height difference between low and high tides. Having more (or bigger) turbines produces more electricity, but over a shorter period, by filling or emptying the lagoon more quickly. In overall terms the total electricity produced is going to be the almost same.
The area of the TPSB scheme is just short of double the area of the TEL scheme, and the tidal range is obviously the same, so it should generate about twice the electricity. But it is harder to figure out why the installed capacity of the TPSB scheme should be so much greater. My best guess is that TPSB are proposing two separate sets of turbines, one set to generate on the ebb tide and one set to generate on the flow. TEL's scheme envisaged bi-directional turbines, and uni-directional turbines might well be more efficient. The question is whether the greater efficiency of two sets of turbines would justify doubling the cost of the turbines and turbine house. It might do, for these are much less significant elements of the overall cost than the sea wall.
TEL estimated the output of their scheme at 187 GWh/yr. So with just under double the area of impounded water but more efficient turbines, TPSB's claim of 400 GWh/yr is probably justified. This equates to about 2% of the 20 TWh of electricity Wales needs to produce each year to meet our current needs. It would be the equivalent of a 130 MW offshore wind farm ... say 36 turbines rated at 3.6 MW each, which is the size of the turbines proposed for Gwynt y Môr.
When I first saw looked at TPSB's scheme in detail, I was disappointed to see that the TEL concept had been abandoned. Yet although I have grave reservations about attached tidal lagoons in general, I think that this scheme probably can be justified because no natural stretch of coastline is affected.
In terms of its contribution to our energy needs I have no doubt whatsoever that a lagoon of this sort, generating some 400 GWh of renewable energy a year, is exactly what we need. Given the fact that we are blessed with the second or third largest tidal range on the planet, not to make use of it would be recklessly irresponsible. I would hope that this is the first of many tidal lagoons.
I am a little less convinced by what I described as the "icing" on the cake. Not because I don't like icing, but because a project in which the sea wall is built high enough and strong enough to take a roadway and be safe as a visitor attraction for the public is going to be very much more expensive than a project that is only designed to produce electricity. But if someone can put together a business plan to justify it, why not? It will certainly put Swansea on the map.
I think we should have built the scheme proposed by TEL, and I can't think of any good reason why their offer was refused. But this scheme is an opportunity to build something that, at least in terms of generating electricity, is substantially similar. We must grasp this opportunity.
Light Relief
Labels: Architecture, BBC
I don't want to detract from more serious discussion on the other threads, but I couldn't help but notice this amazing revelation about Ysgol Hendre in Caernarfon.
I wonder if it's the only school building in Wales that makes use of natural light.
The stand-off continues
Labels: Economy, Tax
The fiscal stand-off between Labour in Wales and the ConDem coalition in Westminster has always been about one thing. Labour wants to get borrowing powers, but does not want the responsibility of figuring out how to pay back the money it wants to borrow.
Labour in Wales has had an easy ride since the Assembly was established. Apart from some very limited control over non-domestic rates and council tax levels, it has only had to decide how to spend the money it has been given. For the first ten years, when there were large increases in public spending, it was easy to keep a lot of people relatively happy. And now, when there is rather less money to spend, they seem to be able to get away with pointing the finger at Westminster and saying it's all "their fault". Either way, they get to smell of roses and reap the rewards at the ballot box.
So the very last thing Labour in Wales wants is for that cozy arrangement to come to an end. They know that if they gain any meaningful control over taxes they will have to answer to voters not just for how wisely they spend money, but for the much more difficult question how much they have to spend ... for a good part of it will come from our wallets and purses in tax.
So today's announcement that the Welsh Government is going to be given limited borrowing powers is actually no more than spin. Nothing more is on the table than has been on the table for the last couple of years. But it is a very clever piece of spin. There's a world of difference between saying, "We won't give you borrowing powers ... because you need to be able to pay back what you borrow" and, "We will give you borrowing powers ... if and when you figure out how to pay the money back." It's always better to say a positive "Yes we will (if)" than a negative "No we won't (unless)" ... even though they are two ways of saying exactly the same thing.
This is going to leave Labour with a bit of a headache. I expect them to try and come up with a package of minor taxes and charges, but nothing that will have to be paid for directly by voters, because that will have an effect on how they vote. In particular they won't want to touch income tax. But without the big taxes, I'm not sure that will get anywhere near enough to pay for the investment that Wales desperately needs.
My advice to Labour is this. Accept the responsibility of being able to vary the rate of income tax, but make it conditional on being able to vary the rates of other taxes too, especially business taxes.
As I see it, the idea of being able to improve our economic performance by varying income tax but none of the other big taxes (which is in essence what the Calman Commission recommended for Scotland and what the Holtham Commission recommended for Wales) is fundamentally flawed. We can't have any real control over our economy with just that. It is like thinking we can drive a car using only the steering wheel, ignoring the fact that we also need to be able to use the accelerator and brakes, to change gear and, occasionally, to reverse.
The Treasury will be reluctant to give up their total control of these other big taxes to Wales, but up the ante. They have made you a conditional offer, so say yes, but make it conditional on having the ability to vary (even if only slightly) a wider range of the taxes that really matter. Don't be over-concerned about minor taxes. Aggregate tax, air passenger tax, landfill tax and the like are the equivalent of the switches that open the car windows or adjust the ventilation ... useful, but not enough to move our economy in the right direction.
The election in Euskadi
Labels: Catalunya, Euskadi, Jill Evans
A good number of people have reminded me that I haven't written anything about the election in Euskadi last weekend. But GlynBeddau has, and the article on Nationalia is very helpful too.
In this interview, Jill Evans talks about the result with José-Luis Linazasoro from Euskadi and Jordi Bacardit from Catalunya.
Adding to our democratic deficit
Labels: BBC, Broadcasting
This is what Huw Edwards said at the beginning of the first edition of The Wales Report last night:
"We'll be looking at Welsh life in all its diversity and asking searching questions about our future. We'll be talking to those making decisions and the people whose lives are affected by them.
"And yes, that does mean politics, that's essential – but the Wales Report is about more than that. It has to be or you won't be getting the big picture that we've been promising you."
Cutting through the euphemisms, this means the BBC will have ditched Dragon's Eye, a programme devoted to Welsh Politics, and replaced it with a programme in which the focus will be on other things in addition to politics.
So at a time when our political institutions have gained more power over our lives, and are set to gain even more as a result of the Silk Commission, the BBC has decided to give less attention to politics in Wales.
In addition to this, it appears that the Wales Report is aiming to be a more populist programme, with more emphasis on what viewers have to say through tweets and emails. Of course there's nothing at all wrong with such an approach, but moving in that direction is bound to be detrimental to more specialist in-depth coverage. So we've been hit with a double whammy.
I'm well aware that the BBC has to cope with cuts and something has to give. But the BBC is not treating Wales in the same way as it treats Scotland. For those who aren't aware of it, Scotland has two significant political opt outs from the BBC's standard UK-wide political coverage:
The typical format of the Sunday Politics is for the first 30 minutes to
come from London, then for a 20 minute regional slot, then a return to
London for the last 10 minutes. Scotland, however, does not take the
final ten minute slot, but instead continues with Scottish politics for 60
minutes, so that the total programme length is 90 minutes. The
additional 30 minutes makes up for the fact that Scotland does not
have an equivalent to Dragon's Eye/The Wales Report, which is fair and
equal. But Scotland does get 10 minutes more dedicated political
reporting than anywhere else in the UK by not taking the final 10
minute slot from London.
For most of the UK Newsnight is a 50 minute programme between
Monday and Thursday. But Scotland only takes the first 30 minutes of
it, with the remaining 20 minutes of the slot replaced by Newsnight
Taken together, this means that in a typical week Scotland has exactly the same overall amount of political programming as any other part of the UK. But by opting out of some UK-wide coverage, it has 90 minutes more time devoted specifically to Scottish politics and current affairs than Wales used to get ... and even more than Wales will now receive because the Wales Report will only be partly dedicated to politics. This is grossly unfair to Wales and can only add to our democratic deficit.
So I would like to renew my call for the BBC to give Wales the same opt outs from UK-wide political programming as they have given Scotland. Why should we be treated so differently? Establishing a Newsnight Wales would be particularly appropriate because the format is geared towards more specialist, in-depth coverage; and this would help to balance the more populist, but equally valid, format of the Wales Report.
As seen in Scotland
Labels: Independence, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Simon Thomas
I thought people might be interested in this clip from the BBC's Sunday Politics Scotland:
Comments welcome. To pick up on just one point, I was amazed at the blinkered attitude of the DUP's Ian Paisley Jnr. He talks about his "Scottish kith and kin" becoming foreigners to him if Scotland becomes independent, but did the kith and kin of probably half the families in the six counties suddenly become "foreigners" when Ireland was partitioned? And does anybody in Wales regard family members we might have in the republic of Ireland as more "foreign" to us than family members we might have in Scotland or England?
The right decision on NATO
Labels: Defence, NATO, Scotland, SNP
The Scottish National Party's conference is taking place this weekend, and it has proved to be quite significant. The big issue to be decided was the SNP's position on NATO, and I was very impressed with Friday's debate about it. The end result was quite close, and it was political drama of the highest order. The full debate is here, though it was rather spoilt at the beginning by the BBC's comments drowning out what Angus Robertson had to say. For those with less time, the report is here.
The resolution delegates were asked to vote in favour of was:
"On independence, Scotland will inherit its treaty obligations with NATO. An SNP government will maintain NATO membership subject to an agreement that Scotland will not host nuclear weapons and NATO continues to respect the right of members to only take part in UN-sanctioned operations."
Although this was amended (amendment B) to:
"On independence, Scotland will inherit its treaty obligations with NATO. An SNP government will maintain NATO membership subject to an agreement that Scotland will not host nuclear weapons and NATO takes all possible steps to bring about nuclear disarmament as required by the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty of which all its members are signatories, and further that NATO continues to respect the right of members to only take part in UN-sanctioned operations."
Two other amendments were rejected, as was a vote to remit the motion for further consideration. Sadly that's a device that Plaid Cymru have used rather too often for my liking in the past few years, and as events unfolded (I was watching it as it happened) I began to think it likely that the SNP would do the same. But I'm very pleased that they came to a firm decision ... though no-one could be quite as pleased, or relieved, as Angus Robertson was.
I think what the SNP have decided substantially answers the concerns I raised about NATO membership in this post in August. If I were nit-picking, the only problem I have with the resolution is that it might, in very rare circumstances, be right to make a military intervention that is not sanctioned by the UN; for example when there is widespread consensus that action needs to be taken, but one permanent member of the UN Security Council has exercised their veto.
That all took place on Friday, leaving Saturday free for hard-hitting, rousing speeches in the style we would expect from a televised party conference. Alex Salmond is a master of that art, and once again lived up to expectations. Enjoy.
A written version of the speech is here.
Two faced about our two languages
Labels: BYIG, Language, Lottery
Although not reported anywhere in English, both Golwg and the BBC's Newyddion carried a story about an application for funding from the Big Lottery Fund being refused to one of the Papurau Bro on the grounds that the paper is in Welsh only, rather than bilingual.
Apparently the Welsh Language Scheme agreed between the Big Lottery Fund and the former Bwrdd yr Iaith stipulates that lottery funds should only be granted for bilingual projects. This is the translation of what Fflur Lawton said in the interview:
"The terms and conditions of every grant that we give out ask for [the applicants] to make provision for their projects to be in Welsh and English.
"So if they have things like websites or send things out to people, we ask for them to be bilingual; and this is part of the terms and conditions of their grants."
The new Language Commissioner's reaction was to say that they had given advice that it was appropriate to give grants to bodies that work entirely in Welsh if it was to promote or facilitate the use of Welsh. However this advice seems to have been given a couple of years before the WLS was agreed, and not to have been reflected in the final agreement.
It's very easy to say the BLF should make an exception in this case, especially as it would appear that the amount involved is relatively small (for publishing software). But I'm not sure that's the right way of looking at it. Wouldn't it be much better to get the BLF to stick to what they actually agreed, and insist that they do in fact only give grants to projects in Wales that are delivered bilingually?
I don't want to pick on any one organization that has received lottery funding from the BLF, but the first thing that came up when I Googled "Projects in Wales, National Lottery" was FareShare North Wales. As we can read here, Crest Co-operative recently received £246,926 to help set up the first ever FareShare project in Wales to provide free meals for vulnerable members of the community.
The aims of the project are of course thoroughly praiseworthy. But if we look at their website we can see that it certainly isn't bilingual, nor is the specific page of the project they received funding for. So it appears that Fflur Lawton was being disingenuous; the Big Lottery Fund is being two faced when it comes to treating our two languages equally.
It would be well worth checking whether the BLF actually pays any more than token lip service to what it claims is part of the terms and conditions of every grant it makes in Wales. Some £75m of lottery money will be distributed in Wales each year by the BLF and other distributors. To my mind it is better that none of this money is given to any project that is only going to be delivered in one language, whether that language is English or Welsh. Sticking to that principle would make much more of a difference in overall terms than if we asked the BLF to make a one-off exception for a few hundred pounds of software.
Still British
Labels: Independence, Scotland
I particularly liked one of the comments that happened to appear on the BBC website regarding Scotland's referendum on independence.
Steve, Glasgow texts: I'm proud to be English born and bred – but I live in Scotland and will vote yes. This isn't about being anti-English – it's about the people of Scotland deciding what is best for Scotland. I will still be English. I will still be British. But Scotland will run its own affairs.
None of the people of this island will be any less British when Scotland and Wales become independent. It's a false choice. We won't have to throw away any of the history, culture or family ties we might share any more than we did when our neighbours in Ireland gained their independence less than a century ago.
Three independent voices in Europe and the world will always be more effective than one lone voice.
Cymru Rydd
Labels: Cilmeri, Vaughan Gething
From this story in yesterday's Western Mail, it would appear that Vaughan Gething still hasn't got over the shock of finding out that quite a few people—including, believe it or not, elected politicians—are proud to honour the memory of Llewelyn Ein Llyw Olaf and commit themselves to push forward with the roller coaster of constitutional change that Wales needs in order to take its rightful place among the nations of the world.
But just in case Vaughan is not the only one with such a narrow, restricted view of what people in Wales do, I thought I'd re-post the video along with a couple of others.
Yes, Roger Williams (he's the LibDem MP for Brecon and Radnorshire, for those who don't recognize him) was speaking in front of the very same Free Wales Army banner that caused Vaughan to get so apoplectic only a few weeks ago when he belatedly found out that Jill Evans had spoken at the event.
After these eye-openers, we can only hope that he and his Labour colleagues will try to get out a bit more often.
Carl Sargeant leak inquiry minutes fail to satisfy demands for full disclosure
Driving up standards in public services
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Attack on Church in India: Human Rights Office Questions Government
February 3, 2015 February 5, 2015 RMN News 0 Comment Attack, Church, Human Rights, India, New Delhi, NHRC
Attack on Church
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in India has issued notices to the Secretary, Union Home Ministry, Chief Secretary, Government of NCT of Delhi and the Commissioner of Police, Delhi calling for detailed reports including the status of investigation into allegations of desecration of the sanctity of the St. Alphonsa’s Church, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi in the early hours of the 2nd February, 2015. They have been given ten days time to respond.
The Commission intervened in the matter after taking suo motu cognizance of electronic media reports regarding the incident of breaking open the doors of St. Alphonsa’s Church and defiling of the place of worship and the objects held sacred.
It also received a telephonic information from Manoj V. George, Advocate alleging that in spite of a formal written complaint by Fr. Vincent Salvatore, Parish Priest, the police was not taking necessary and appropriate action by registering a proper report and commencing effective investigation.
[ Also Read: India Ignores Barack Obama’s Advice. Church Attacked Again ]
The Commission has observed in its notice that “since the incident involves breaking open the door of a Christian Church and defiling of the place of worship and the objects held sacred by the faithful of the Church and since the intention of the offenders appears to be to insult a particular religion and to outrage the religious feelings and to insult their religious beliefs and since the incident is likely to promote disharmony, enmity, hatred and ill-will on the ground of religion, the matter involves serious issues relating to violation of human rights and requires the intervention of the Commission to ensure that prompt, efficient and impartial investigation is conducted by the police and the culprits are booked at the earliest to restore the confidence and sense of security of the religious minority and to protect their freedom of religion.”
[ Also Read: What Is the Future of Muslims in India? ]
Earlier, the NHRC Member, Justice Cyriac Joseph, accompanied by some officers, visited the Church on Monday. Fr. Vincent explained to the NHRC team, the nature and the extent of damage caused to the Church.
According to him, the miscreants entered the Church by breaking open the front main door. The tabernacle on the main altar directly below the main crucifix was opened and the Chalice and the Monstrance were removed from the tabernacle and the Holy Communion Hosts were thrown around the place. The adjacent room called the Sacristy in which vestements / clothing and valuable articles like Chalice were kept was ransacked.
[ No Nation Is Free of Human Rights Violations: Meenakshi Ganguly ]
He alleged that the intention of the miscreants was not to commit theft or burglary, as neither the money kept in three offering boxes nor any valuable objects were taken away, but to desecrate the sanctity of the Church and to create a sense of insecurity in the minds of religious minority.
He also expressed the apprehension that there was an attempt to downplay the incident as mere a theft or a burglary.
However, the police officers, present on the spot, during the visit of the Member, denied the allegation and said that the report had already been registered showing the offence as theft or burglary.
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July 12, 2015 RMN News 0
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Europe Political Issues Politics Recent World
U.S. Willing to Work with Russia to End Civil War in Syria
October 3, 2015 October 6, 2015 RMN News 0 Comment Barack Obama, Civil War, ISIL, Russia, Syria, Vladimir Putin
The United States is willing to work with Russia to end the civil war in Syria and the threat posed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
The condition: Only when Russian President Vladimir Putin agrees that the country needs a political transition to an inclusive government without Bashar Assad, President Barack Obama said Friday.
Obama said during a White House news conference that he told Putin during discussions in New York that the only way to solve the problem in Syria is to have a political transition that not only keeps the state and military intact, but also is inclusive.
But Assad must go, the president said, because the vast majority of Syrians want him gone.
[ Emails Scandal – Is Hillary Clinton Telling the Truth? ]
“I said to Mr. Putin that I’d be prepared to work with him if he is willing to broker with his partners, Mr. Assad and Iran, a political transition – we can bring the rest of the world community to a brokered solution,” the president said, “but that a military solution alone – an attempt by Russia and Iran to prop up Assad and try to pacify the population – is just going to get them stuck in a quagmire, and it won’t work.”
The entire world has a common interest in destroying ISIL Obama said he told Putin. “But what was very clear, and regardless of what Mr. Putin said, was that he doesn’t distinguish between ISIL and a moderate Sunni opposition that wants to see Mr. Assad go,” he added. “From [the Russian and Syrian] perspective, they’re all terrorists, and that’s a recipe for disaster. And it’s one that I reject.”
[ Over 4,000 Attacks on Schools in Syria ]
Since the meeting in New York, Russian aircraft have started bombing targets in Syria in support of the Assad regime. Coalition and Russian military officials are holding technical talks to “de-conflict” the airspace over Syria. Neither Russia nor the United States wants to see dogfights between their aircraft over the country, the president said.
“We’re very clear in sticking to our belief and our policy that the problem here is Assad and the brutality that he’s inflicted on the Syrian people, and that it has to stop,” the president said. “In order for it to stop, we’re prepared to work with all the parties concerned. But we are not going to cooperate with a Russian campaign to simply try to destroy anybody who is disgusted and fed up with Mr. Assad’s behavior.”
Putin had to go into Syria, “not out of strength, but out of weakness” because Assad – the Russian client – was crumbling, Obama said. ”We’re prepared to work with the Russians and the Iranians, as well as our partners who are part of the anti-ISIL coalition, to come up with that political transition,” Obama said. “And nobody pretends that it’s going to be easy, but I think it is still possible.”
The president said lines of communication will remain open. “But we are not going to able to get those negotiations going if there’s not a recognition that there’s got a be a change in government,” the president continued. “We’re not going to back to the status quo ante.”
Photo courtesy: White House
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President Obama Expands Access to Education
May 3, 2015 RMN News 0
Islamic State Will Continue to Target Russia: Dabiq
November 21, 2015 RMN News 0
What President Obama Says on ISIL Terrorism
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Adopt-A-Disaster
In light of the budget cuts to the charedi community in Israel, a new initiative has been launched: Adopt-a-Kollel! This enterprise seeks to raise funds for kollels in Israel; specifically, to pair every kollel in Israel with a shul in the Diaspora that will fund it. To many, it sounds like a wonderful idea. In fact, it is a disastrous proposal, as well as being extraordinarily offensive in its execution.
First, some background. Facing government expenditure that was much greater than government income, the Bank of Israel, in its Monetary Policy Report for January-June 2012, insisted that a massive cut was necessary for the 2013-2014 state budget. Accordingly, a whopping three billion shekels was cut from the defense budget, alongside various cuts to other ministries, and VAT and corporate taxes were increased. Alongside all these cuts, 350 million shekels was cut from yeshivos and kollels. For families in kollel, receiving 279 shekels per month instead of 856 shekels per month is very difficult. Accordingly, many people in kollel are in dire straits. Hence, the Adopt-a-Kollel initiative.
The first advertisement that came to my attention was printed in the US edition of Yated and HaModia (and I think also in Mishpacha). It prominently quoted (part of) the famous and much-abused Rambam in Hilchos Shmittah about honorary members of the Tribe of Levi:
Not only the Tribe of Levi, but each and every individual human being, whose spirit moves him and whose knowledge gives him understanding to set himself apart in order to stand before the Lord, to serve Him, to worship Him, and to know Him, who walks upright as God created him to do, and releases himself from the yoke of the many foolish considerations which trouble people - such an individual is as consecrated as the Holy of Holies -
- and here the quote ended. It failed to quote the last part, in which Rambam states that:
and his portion and inheritance shall be in the Lord forever and ever. The Lord will grant him adequate sustenance in this world, just as He granted to the priests and to the Levites. Thus did David, peace upon him, say, "O Lord, the portion of my inheritance and of my cup, You maintain my lot."
Radvaz explains this to mean that the person manages to get by with his own efforts and reliance on God; he notes that it does not mean that he casts himself upon the community for support.
Insofar as Rambam does equate Torah scholars with the tribe of Levi with regard to material sustenance, he makes the meaning of this clear elsewhere:
...the Torah permits scholars to give their money to others to invest in profitable businesses (on their behalf)... and to receive priority in buying and selling merchandise in the marketplace. These are benefits that God granted them, just as He granted the offering to the Kohanim and the tithes to the Levite... for merchants occasionally do such things for each other as a courtesy, even if there is no Torah scholarship to warrant it. A Torah scholar should certainly be treated at least as well as a respectable ignoramus. (Commentary to the Mishnah, Avos 4:7)
In Rambam's view, Torah scholars, like Kohanim and Leviim, receive benefits, but the benefits are of a different nature. They involve the investment of funds, and assistance in business, rather than financial gifts. (This is similar to the Yissacher-Zevulun relationship, which, according to Chazal, was nothing at all like it is popularized today; rather, it involved Zevulun marketing the produce that Yissacher farmed.)
Rambam clearly would not have been in favor, to put it mildly, of the modern phenomenon of mass kollel. He makes this clear elsewhere:
One who makes up his mind to involve himself with Torah and not to work, and to support himself from charity, has profaned God’s Name and brought the Torah into contempt, extinguished the light of religion, brought evil upon himself, and has taken away his life from the World-to-Come... (Hilchos Talmud Torah 3:10)
This quote from Rambam did not appear in the Adopt-a-Kollel advertisement. I guess that "Adopt-a-Profanation-of-God's-Name-and-Bringing-of-Torah-into-Contempt-and-Extinguishing-the-Light-of-Religion-and-Bringing-Evil" doesn't have quite the same ring to it.
The second advertisement for "Adopt-a-Kollel" is downright offensive. It includes the following line from the Haggadah:
"In every generation, they stand against us to exterminate us..."
They are comparing the Government of Israel, making vital budget cutbacks, to the enemies of the Jewish People who tried to annihilate us?!
It's not as though the cuts are not a singular measure directed at the charedi world by evil Torah-haters. They are part of a general cutback in the national budget. The defense budget, which is understandably of much greater concern to the State, was cut by ten times as much. How dare Adopt-a-Kollel speak of this as an attempt at extermination?!
But let's leave aside the perversion of Rambam and the offensiveness of the advertising. Let's not even dwell upon the fact that mass kollel is a modern innovation that goes entirely against the position of Chazal and the Rishonim with regard to taking money for Torah study.
Let's simply instead point out the following: The modern kollel system is a disaster. It is a disaster for the State of Israel, with only 40% of charedi men being employed. This is part of the very cause of the Government budget crisis in the first place!
And the modern kollel system is a disaster for the charedi community. Institutionalized poverty causes myriads of problems, from health to shalom bayis. And it's a problem that constantly gets worse; people in kollel don't just make a personal choice for their own lifestyle, they raise their children with no secular education and no desire to work.
Unfortunately, the charedi world has shown little interest in breaking out of this disastrous system. They have fought secular education tooth and nail. A new charedi school that offered full matriculation exams was unable to locate itself in Ramat Beit Shemesh (thank God, my children attend one of the many non-charedi schools). And Rav Steinman visited and gave a speech in which he condemned secular studies in schools.
Tragically, the only thing that really seems to work is hitting rock-bottom. According to a report in The Times of Israel, as a result of the budget cuts, "for the first time in years, the number of Haredi students enrolling full-time in yeshiva study dropped by a whopping 4,400." Far from trying to "exterminate" charedim, the goal of the government is to encourage charedim to work for a living and to follow Chazal's eminently sensible directive that a person should teach his child a profession.
Asking shuls in the US to help perpetuate the cycle of enforced poverty is not a solution. Instead, we need to help people help themselves, as per Rambam's highest level of charity - perhaps by supporting Kemach, a foundation that helps train charedim to enter the professional workforce. Adopt-a-Kollel is simply Adopt-a-Disaster.
(See too this post: The Charedi Tragedy of Ignoring Chazal)
at March 31, 2014 70 comments:
Torah for the Nation
Recently there was an appalling report about the principal of Lustig girl's school in Ramat Gan, who told his students that Religious Zionism is nationalism and is therefore idolatry. Twenty years ago, when I was a loyal charedi yeshiva bochur on track to become Jonathan Rosenblum's successor, my Rosh Yeshivah succinctly explained why religious Zionism was wrong: "The Zionists want to create a new type of Jew, but we believe that the old type of Jew was good enough." In my monographs on The Novelty of Orthodoxy and The Making of Haredim, I discussed several ways in which charedi Judaism is actually very, very different from traditional Judaism. In this post, I would like to explain why Religious Zionism is a crucial application of traditional Judaism to modern realities and reflects the original purpose of the Torah.
For various reasons, largely relating to the history of Jews in Europe (where the State was the enemy) and the reaction to modernity and secular Zionism, charedi Judaism has evolved into a way of life where the focus is very much on the individual. This has disconcerting results, aside from the major concerns relating to the economy and the military. I remember being in a car with a charedi yeshivah rebbe when we passed by a new recycling bin, and he dismissed it as "Zionist nonsense"; and I once raised a concern about pollution with another charedi yeshivah rebbe, who was mystified at my concern, and said "What do I care?"
During the many years that I spent in charedi yeshivos, I was given a very strong message that the very best thing to do in life is to be isolated and insulated in yeshivah, learning Torah, as an end unto itself. If someone is called away from yeshivah on a mission of communal importance, he has tragically "lost his license to learn." Someone once claimed to me that "a charedi avreich sitting in kollel is obviously acting much more closely in accordance with Hashem's will than a typical religious Zionist who is not as meticulous in his observation of halachah." I disagreed, and I felt that he was missing the wood for the trees.
Many people feel that being a good Jew is about ticking off a checklist of mitzvos (with Torah having the biggest checkbox). But they are mistaken. It's possible to be a naval b'rshus haTorah - somebody who is technically fulfilling all the requirements, but utterly going against the spirit of the law. There are certain values and actions that are fundamental to Judaism. Some of them are encoded in halachah. Others are the values that underpin many mitzvos, such as being a person who is a "giver" rather than a "taker." Still others were historically such a basic part of being part of society that there was no need to codify them - but modern society has enabled people to avoid them and eventually not even realize their fundamental importance. Historically, in order to survive, you had to work, which meant that you were contributing to the economy. Today, thanks to affluent benefactors and the welfare state, an entire culture has sprouted that encourages kollel, which drains from the economy rather than contributing to it, as being the preferred choice for most of its rapidly growing population.
Let's go back to the Chasam Sofer, who says that the mitzvah of settling the Land of Israel includes developing its economy in all kinds of ways, and that one must even stop learning Torah in order to do this. What were his grounds for saying this? He points to v'asefta es deganecha, but it's hard to see that as being a clear directive for Israel to have all kinds of industry. Instead, it would appear that he is simply presenting a basic understanding of what nationhood is about. The Torah - you know, that thing we read every week and that charedim talk about all the time - is all about creating a nation in the Land of Israel, with agriculture/industry and a justice system and an army and all the other ingredients that make up nationhood, all run in the most ethical way.
If you live on a desert island, you only need to think about yourself. If you are part of a community, you need to think about the community. If you are part of a nation, you need to think about the nation. A nation needs an economy, with people in all kinds of different professions, as well as an army and other such institutions. On an individual level, people need to balance their own needs, desires and personal growth, with the needs of the nation. On a communal level, leaders need to think about how their communities are contributing to the needs of the nation.
Charedim have developed a mystical approach to Judaism whereby learning Gemara is the greatest thing that a person can do. They feel that secular education and the army is a serious threat to their way of life. And indeed it is. But there are bigger issues to consider, like the fundamental values of Judaism, the collapse of a exponentially growing community that is underemployed, and the needs of the entire country. 32% of first-graders in Israel are on an educational track that disdains secular education, professional employment, and military service, and the proportion is set to increase! How on earth do they think that the country can survive?
Charedi Judaism in Israel is simply utterly failing to address its responsibilities to itself and to the nation. Rabbi Wein said it well in a recent column:
Dealing with the State of Israel is an even more vexing issue for much of Orthodoxy. The creation of the Jewish state, mainly by secular and nonobservant Jews, and by political and military means was not part of the traditional Jewish view of how the Land of Israel would again fall under Jewish rule.
Since it occurred in the “wrong” way and was being led by the “wrong” people it again shook the mindset of much of Orthodoxy... the whole attitude of much of the Orthodox world is one of denial of the present fact that the state exists, prospers and is the largest supporter of Torah and Jewish traditional religious lifestyle in the world.
It is again too painful to admit that our past mindset regarding the State of Israel is no longer relevant. As long as large sections of Orthodoxy continue to live in an imaginary past and deny the realities of the present, such issues as army or national service, core curriculums of essential general knowledge for all religious schools, entering the workforce and decreasing the debilitating poverty and dysfunction of so many families, will never be able to be addressed properly.
And with regard to leaders of Torah Judaism needing to focus not on the Gemara-growth of people in their narrow communities, but on issues of importance to the entire nation, Rav Eliezer Melamed explains why the so-called Gedolim of the charedi world are not true leaders:
Gadlut beTorah (Torah greatness, eminence) necessitates an all-embracing, fully accountable handling of serious issues facing the generation, including: the attitude towards Am Yisrael in all its diversity and various levels – both religious, and non-religious; the attitude towards mitzvoth of yishuv haaretz (settling the Land) and the on-going war which has surrounded it for over a century; the attitude towards science and work, and the contemporary social and economic questions.
The term "Torah Jew" is often bandied around, but with a tragically mistaken definition. It is used to mean "someone who places learning Torah as the ultimate goal." But it ought to be used for those who live Torah - those who are creating the nation as described in the Torah. Far from being "idolatry," it's the very essence of what Torah is about.
See too this post: Rosenblum Nails The Problem With Charedi Society
at March 28, 2014 103 comments:
The Bats, The Platypus, And The Echidna
In my post of last week, "That's Bats!", I discussed the Gemara's claim that "Everything that bears live young, nurses them, and everything that lays eggs, gathers food for its young, except for the atalef, which, even though it lays eggs, nurses its young." I observed that this reflects a widespread but erroneous belief that bats lay eggs. I also critiqued the view of Rabbi Moshe Meiselman, that the atalef of the Gemara refers to the platypus (which has the same name as the atalef of the Torah, which is the bat), on the grounds that (a) they would not have referred to the platypus with the entirely misleading name of a different creature that is popularly thought to lay eggs, and (b) they would not have known about the platypus, which lives in Australia.
Pursuant to publishing the post, I received a complaint that I did not properly explain Rabbi Meiselman's view. In this post, I will endeavor to do so more fully. But, as you will see, it merely makes his approach all the more problematic and downright bizarre.
Rabbi Meiselman does not claim that Chazal knew about the platypus per se. They had never been to Australia, nor had they received a vision of a platypus. Rather, he claims that they knew, "from their study of the blueprint of Creation," that there must be an animal, somewhere in the world, which lays eggs and nurses its young. He further seeks to explain why they would call the platypus atalef, which is the name of the bat in the Torah. Rabbi Meiselman explains that just as there is a bird called tinshemes and a sheretz called tinshemes, due to their sharing various characteristics, there is also a "bird" called atalef (the bat) and a quadruped called "atalef" (the platypus), which share significant characteristics. But what are these characteristics by which the platypus earns the same name that the bat earned as an ohf? Rabbi Meiselman first suggests that the platypus, like the bat, has characteristics of both mammals and birds - it is furry, yet possesses a bill and duck-like webbed feet. Alternately, he suggests, the platypus is like the bat in possessing special adaptations for maneuvering in the dark - the bat uses echolocation, and the platypus uses electroreception and mechanoreception (it has tens of thousands of tiny receptive organs on its bill).
That is Rabbi Meiselman's view. I will now present three reasons as to why it is unreasonable in the extreme and does not even assist in removing scientific error from this Gemara. Frankly, I don't really care if he, or anyone else, wants to believe that the atalef of the Gemara is the platypus. The problem is that he is using this in service of his claim that anyone who believes that the Gemara is making an erroneous statement about bats is an unsophisticated heretic.
I. Why Describe the Platypus as an Atalef?
First of all, as discussed at length in the previous post on this topic, if Chazal wanted to tell us about a creature that nobody (including themselves) had seen, the very last thing that they would have done is called it simply by the name of a known animal, the atalef. This is especially true in light of the fact that the term atalef already referred to the bat, which many people mistakenly believe to lay eggs, and would thus assume to be the animal that Chazal were describing.
Rabbi Meiselman seeks to explain why the platypus has significant similarities to the bat that earn it the name atalef. His first way of explaining this is that the platypus is intermediate between mammals and birds in not just one way, but a number of ways. The platypus is furry and nurses its young like other mammals, yet it possesses a bill and duck-like webbed feet as well as laying eggs like birds. Accordingly, the term atalef deservedly refers to the platypus. (In a footnote, Rabbi Meiselman adds that it is "interesting to note" that certain platypus genes resemble those of birds, though he admits that this is not of significance here, since halachah deals only with what can be perceived by the ordinary observer without special equipment.)
But it is very far-fetched to posit that the bat and platypus share the same name due to their both having characteristics of both mammals and birds, when the characteristics of birds that they have are fundamentally different! The platypus cannot fly; instead, it has completely different similarities to birds. Furthermore, webbed feet are not even particularly relevant to birds - some birds possess webbed feet and most do not, just as some mammals (beavers, otters, seals) possess webbed feet and most do not.
Furthermore, the bat's ability to fly is what classifies it in the Torah as a bird. It is what earns its position, not its name (just as the names of the other birds in the list do not reflect their ability to fly). Anything about the name and significance of the atalef would only reflect the ways in which it is different from other birds.
Now let's turn to Rabbi Meiselman's second proposal, that the platypus shares the same name as the bat because atalef is defined as a creature that has (either instead of, or in addition to, intermediate status between mammals and birds) a special adaptation to the dark. In the case of the bat, this is echolocation, and in the case of the platypus, he explains, this is electroreception. But this does not work and is silly for several reasons:
1) The echidna also has electroreceptors (albeit fewer than the platypus), which it uses for locating food in the undergrowth at night. (To this I presume Rabbi Meiselman would respond that it doesn't use them for maneuvering, only for locating food. This would appear to be just another contrivance.)
2) Why on earth would this random feature be a defining characteristic of the atalef? Rabbi Meiselman seeks to make a pattern by noting that the mole, which according to Rashi is also called the atalef, also has adaptations to maneuver in the dark. But aside from this being a view unique to Rashi, Rabbi Meiselman repeatedly states that the Rishonim did not have a clear mesorah regarding zoology and often misinterpreted Chazal's statements because of this. Suddenly Rashi is grounds to create a new definition of the atalef? Rabbi Meiselman himself freely rejected the mole as an atalef in his previous explanation, when he said that the atalef has to have birdlike characteristics!
3) And finally, the clincher. Echolocation and electroreceptors?! Echolocation in bats was only discovered in 1940, using modern scientific technology. Electroreceptors were only detected in the platypus in 1984 by special investigative techniques, 180 years after the platypus was discovered. Rabbi Meiselman himself admits that halachah deals only with what can be perceived by the ordinary observer without special equipment. Indeed, he uses this to claim that Chazal described lice as spontaneously generating for this reason. But he wants to argue that the term atalef is based on echolocation and electroreceptors?! And if we're just talking about an ability to maneuver in the dark - well, there's nothing novel in that, all kinds of nocturnal animals and birds can do that.
In summary, there is no reasonable basis for saying that the platypus should earn the name atalef. And even if there were, Chazal could and should still have referred to it as "another type" of atalef.
II. How Would Chazal Have Known About Such A Creature?
The assumptions being made by Rabbi Meiselman are astounding. Let's make a list of all the things that Rabbi Meiselman claims that Chazal knew "from their study of the blueprint of Creation":
1. The bat is not the only creature which shares characteristics of mammalian and non-mammalian species.
2. Other creatures that share characteristics of both groups, which are thus also called atalef, do so in ways that differ from the bat.
3. In the entire world, there is exactly one creature in this class that has the mammalian/non-mammalian features of milk-secreting and egg-laying.
Note that Rabbi Meiselman gives no explanation whatsoever as to how their study of Torah led to this presumed knowledge. And it's not as though there is a lot of material in the Torah about the atalef to work with. On the other hand, there is an enormous amount of material in the Torah about cosmology, and yet Chazal were not able to figure out that the sun goes on the other side of the world at night rather than behind the sky!
Let us also recall that no Torah scholar before Rabbi Meiselman ever thought that Chazal were talking about anything other than the atalef of the Torah.
III. The Problem with the Echidna
Meanwhile, Rabbi Meiselman is so focused on explaining why the word atalef can refer to both the bat and the platypus that he has apparently overlooked another very basic problem with his entire approach. Even supposing he is able to explain why the term atalef refers to the platypus, and to thereby claim that the Gemara is not making a mistaken statement about bats, the Gemara's rule would still be wrong! This is because the Gemara mentions the atalef as the sole exception to the principle that "every egg-laying animal does not nurse its young." But the echidna (of which there are two species) is another egg-laying animal that nurses its young!
One might think that a person who believes the atalef to refer to the platypus can say that it also refers to both the echidna. But Rabbi Meiselman cannot do this. He does not explicitly say why, but there are several good reasons.
First, in order not to have it look completely lame that Chazal would use the term atalef for the platypus, Rabbi Meiselman has already argued that there are several reasons for using this term. The reasons that he gives (a beak, webbed feet) do not apply to the echidna.
Second, the platypus and the echidna are very different animals. The platypus is a mostly aquatic animal that resembles a beaver. The echidna is terrestrial and looks like a porcupine. One cannot claim that two such different animals are the same min.
There is a third reason why it is problematic to say that the term atalef includes both the platypus and the echidna. If any creature can be called an atalef merely because it lays eggs and nurses its young, then the Gemara's entire rule becomes meaningless. Remember, too, that according to Rabbi Meiselman, Chazal did not know specifically about the platypus and echidna; thus there could be any number and variety of egg-laying lactating animals in the world. The Gemara said that there is a lone exception to the principle that "every egg-laying animal does not nurse its young" - but if atalef can include any number and variety of animals that are an exception to this rule, then the Gemara is merely saying that "every egg-laying animal does not nurse its young, except for all those that do," which would make no sense.
Thus, Rabbi Meiselman, by arguing that the atalef is a term that is well suited to the platypus, and thereby made the description of the atalef correct, has simply forced a different error into the Gemara's rule.
Again, I must stress that I don't really care less if Rabbi Meiselman, or anyone else, wants to believe that the atalef of the Gemara is the platypus. The problem is that he is using this in service of his claim that anyone who believes that the Gemara is making an erroneous statement about bats is an unsophisticated heretic.
Guest Post: The Virtues of Confronting Contrary Opinions
Copyright 2014 by David Ohsie. All rights reserved
In an otherwise reasonable post on Cross-Currents, Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblum makes the following astonishing statement:
In every chareidi history of American Jewry’s responses to the Holocaust, one event always merits special mention l’gnai (for criticism) – a mass protest called by secular Jewish organizations in the mid-1930s calling for a boycott of German products. Those histories cite credible reports that Hitler, ym”sh, was enraged by the protests and thereby strengthened in his determination to exterminate the Jewish people from the face of the earth. [Emphasis mine]
Rabbi Yaakov Menken writes similarly, in justifying rejection of comments protesting Rabbi Rosenblum's statement:
Is Rabbi Rosenblum really to be tasked with explaining, at a third-grade level, the difference between rallies and mock trials of Hitler in the early 1930s (which caused reprisals against Jews and Jewish businesses across Germany) and a march on Washington when the death camps were operating at their most brutal level? [Emphasis Mine]
The Reichstag Fire
It doesn't take a degree in history to understand that Nazis used a series of pretexts to justify their actions and defuse opposition to their monstrous policies. For example, on February 27th, 1933, the German Parliament building (the Reichstag) was burned in an act of arson. The Nazis falsely claimed that this was part of a Communist plot to overthrow the government and used this as a justification for the permanent suspension of civil liberties, giving themselves free reign to arrest their political opponents and take on absolute power.
Another infamous example was the German annexation of the so-called "Sudetenland" from Czechoslovakia, with the support of the other European powers in the Munich Agreement. Hitler justified this annexation as an expression of self-determination of the Sudeten ethnic German citizens of Czechoslovakia. However, it became clear from Hitler's subsequent march into Bohemia and Moravia that the the entire exercise was but a pretext for Germany's eastward expansion. In fact, Hitler had described his Lebensraum (living space) policy of eastern expansion and ethnic cleansing back in 1925 in Mein Kampf. As a result, the notion that protesting Jews caused Hitler to be "strengthened in his determination to exterminate the Jewish people" is repeating the same fallacy that the European powers made in Munich.
Chamberlain, Daladier, Hitler, Mussolini, and Ciano
pictured before signing the Munich Agreement
Courtesy of: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-R69173 / CC-BY-SA
But it is more than that. Those who recognized the true nature and threat of Hitler and the Nazis tried hard to get the rest of the world to pay attention, while the Nazis used their best efforts to suppress these efforts, sometimes succeeding even in America. For example, the film "Hitler’s Reign of Terror," characterized as "The First American Anti-Nazi Film" was actually successfully suppressed:
George Canty, the Berlin-based trade commissioner for the U.S. Department of Commerce, got wind of protests against the film by the German Ambassador in Washington, and concluded that "the film serves no good purpose." Across the country, censors took Canty’s view, and the film was denied a license, banned, and cut by New York City and State censor boards. In Chicago, the film passed the censors but was stopped when the city’s Nazi consul insisted that the footage was fake.
Hitler in "Homes and Gardens"
The Nazis were so successful that as late as November 1938, the British Magazine "Homes and Gardens" published an article entitled "Hitler's Mountain Home" with such gems as the following:
[A]s his famous book Mein Kampf ("My struggle") became a best-seller of astonishing power (4,500,000 millions copies of it have been sold), Hitler began to think of replacing that humble shack by a house and garden of suitable scope. In this matter he has throughout been his own architect.
To summarize: The Nazis had a deliberate strategy of defusing and suppressing anti-Nazi sentiment around the world. They successfully used this strategy to lead the Western powers on until 1938 when the invasion of Czechoslovakia brought the other European powers to their senses. As a result, those who tried to wake up the world were people with foresight who the Nazis themselves recognized as capable of obstructing their plans. Those, Jews and non-Jews alike, who had the clarity of mind and the opportunity to prod the powers that be into action deserve great credit for their actions. Had they been successful, France and England might have stopped Germany's remilitarization of the Rhineland, as Hitler himself admitted:
The forty-eight hours after the march into the Rhineland were the most nerve-racking in my life. If the French had then marched into the Rhineland we would have had to withdraw with our tails between our legs, for the military resources at our disposal would have been wholly inadequate for even a moderate resistance.
To blame those same people for causing Hitler to be "strengthened in his determination to exterminate the Jewish people" is to unwittingly reprise an anti-Semitic trope which blames the Jews for their own misfortune throughout the ages.
I want to emphasize that all of the above is not any kind of creative thesis on my part. I believe this to be a quite conventional view of history which you'll find repeated many times over (see, for example, William Shirer's "Berlin Diary"). I don't know whether or not Rabbi Rosenblum is correct in the contention that his view is conventional in Chareidi historical narratives, but it is certainly unconventional in the wider world and, unwittingly, uncomfortably close to anti-Semitic apologetics.
I sat down to write this piece for two purposes:
To clarify what I believe is the well-established and standard interpretation of history, in opposition to the claims of Rabbi Rosenblum and Rabbi Menken, and to praise those whom they condemn.
To serve as an example and a warning as to what happens when we shut ourselves off from debate.
We are all susceptible to biases. Rabbis Rosenblum and Menken (and Chareidi historical narrative, if Rabbi Rosenblum is correct) appear to me to have accepted an unconventional view of history due to a confirmation bias: what is done by Orthodox Jews must be superior to what is done by other Jews. Furthermore, this bias is reinforced by an unwillingness to even entertain an alternative interpretation, as evidenced by the fact that no critical comments have been allowed on this topic in their blog. [UPDATE: After this post was written, a comment by "Y. Ben-David of Rehovot" was admitted to this post that included a strong objection to Rabbi Rosenblum's original post. I think that this was a wise editorial decision.] I will admit here that perhaps it is me that is biased and that their view is really easily supportable; after all, my comments on their posts were rejected and I may be biased by that experience. What we can learn is not that "they" are wrong and "we" are right; that always appears to "us" to be the case, whoever "us" is. Rather, we have to learn to keep our minds appropriately open if we want to avoid being bound to our own preconceptions. This is the virtue of confronting contrary opinions.
My point here is not to demand that Cross-Currents ought to change their commenting policy, or even to criticize their commenting policy. I'm very happy that I've not had to try to make the editorial decisions needed to keep a blog comment section both open and appropriate. And I'm free to take my business elsewhere, as I've done here. However, I do believe that in this particular instance, editorial discretion reduced what could have been reasonable debate to an echo chamber, with less than desirable and, frankly, somewhat offensive results. And that everyday, we exercise a similar editorial policy for ourselves in what we read and discuss, and we can all profitably reconsider whether we are casting a wide enough net.
I'll conclude with an interesting quotation from a Haskama on L'shon Chaim, which is a commentary on the Gra's book on Hebrew grammar work Dikduk Eliyahu. L'shon Chaim was apparently self published by R. Chaim Hilel Krzepicki of Lodz in 1939! The Haskama was written by Rav Yehudah Leib Eisenberg of Lask who is reported to have been one of the many Rabbis who refused offers of freedom in order to stay with their communities (see "To Flee Or To Stay?"). He writes that while "many great Rabbis distanced themselves from the study of Hebrew grammar for the 'known reason'" [presumably its association with Zionism], since in his time the language was being revived as a spoken language, that it was important to study the language using a work written by a religious man (Ish Charud B'Yiras Hashem). Perhaps, this is my own bias, but I'd like to think that Rav Eisenberg was here disregarding "conventional wisdom" and considering new perspectives when he wrote the Haskama. Having gained from the commentary, I can hope that I can be considered a Talmid of R. Krzepicki and that my learning is a Z'chus for him.
The opinions expressed here are those of the author and may not represent those of the blog owner. Comments are welcomed and encouraged.
Belz Forgets Budapest
This week saw an extraordinary and tragic confluence of events relating to Belz, who recently threatened to leave Israel over the new draft law.
Last Shabbos, the fifth Belzer Rebbe, Rabbi Yissocher Dov Rokeach, spoke to thousands of his followers during the tisch. He said, “We don’t need the state or the government. We need batei medrashim and yeshivos to continue avodas Hashem and to educate the children in the derech of avodas Hashem and the responsibility of a life of Torah and kiyum mitzvos and anxiously awaiting the redemption by Moshiach.”
Yesterday, hundreds of rabbis gathered in Budapest for a memorial ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the destruction of Hungarian Jewry. They stood at the Danube River, where a memorial displays sixty pairs of iron shoes, in commemoration of victims who were forced by Arrow Cross militiamen to stand by the river's edge and take their shoes off before being shot into the river.
Seventy years ago, the fourth Belzer Rebbe, R. Aharon Rokeach, left Budapest, where he had been living after fleeing the Gestapo in Poland. His half-brother Mordechai read out his farewell speech to thousands of Jews. In this speech, he told the gathered crowds that the Rebbe assured them that they will enjoy good and tranquility in Hungary. The Rebbe was able to leave to Palestine, fulfilling a lifelong dream, due to the help of the Zionists, who obtained special travel certificates for him. Two months later, the Nazis arrived in Budapest, and deported all the Jews to Auschwitz.
This Chasam Sofer is Astounding!
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Rabbi Tzvi Liker sent me one of the most extraordinary Torah perspectives I have seen in a long time. It's all the more amazing because of who it comes from. Rav Moshe Sofer, a.k.a. Chasam Sofer (1762–1839), is widely considered to be the "father of Orthodoxy." He was the Rosh Yeshiva of Pressburg and a staunch opponent of any reformations of Judaism, leading to his famous saying, "That which is new, is forbidden by the Torah."
The discussion relates to the well-known dispute in the Gemara between Rabbi Yishmael and Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai about learning Torah versus working. Rabbi Yishmael teaches that the study of Torah is to be accompanied by earning a livelihood, as per the verse that we recite in Shema, "Ve'asafta deganecha - And you shall gather your grain." Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, on the other hand, says that one should devote oneself to Torah, and God will ensure that one's needs are provided for. Abaye observes that many followed the lead of Rabbi Yishmael and succeeded in both working and learning, while most of those who followed Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai did not succeed in either.
Enter Chasam Sofer. He cites a view that one should ideally follow Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and dedicate oneself solely to Torah, arguing that when Abaye observes that many people didn't do well in that path, this is because they didn't really devote themselves to it properly, but a special person who is truly dedicated to Torah will manage to succeed. Chasam Sofer himself says that "we" (it's not clear who he's referring to) follow Rabbi Nehorai, who argues with Rabbi Meir's instruction that one should teach his child a trade, and says that he will only teach his son Torah.
So far, this sounds very much in accord with someone representing the right wing of Orthodox Judaism. But now comes the "but." And it's the "but" to end all "buts"!
But, says Chasam Sofer, but, this is only true in the Diaspora. In the Diaspora, there is no reason to work at a trade except to earn a living; furthermore, enhancing the economy of one's host country accentuates the fact that the Jews are in exile. Accordingly, if one can truly dedicate oneself to Torah and succeed that way, there is no reason to work, and this is what Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai was referring to (and Chasam Sofer argues that even Rabbi Yishmael would agree).
In Israel, on the other hand, it's entirely different. Here, Chasam Sofer says, one does not only work the fields in order to make a living. There is also the mitzvah of yishuv ha'aretz, settling the land. In the same way as one stops learning Torah to put on tefillin, says Chasam Sofer, one stops learning Torah to farm the land, which is the mitzvah of yishuv ha'aretz. Chasam Sofer explains that yishuv ha'aretz does not just mean living in Israel; it means developing the country. He further says that not just farming, but all industries and professions, are part of settling the land and giving it honor. Chasam Sofer adds that it would be a deficiency in the honor of Israel if a certain profession does not exist there, requiring products to be imported from abroad.
This is staggering! According to Chasam Sofer, there is a mitzvah for people in Israel to leave yeshivah and learn a profession quite separate from the requirement to provide for one's family. It's important for Israel to have doctors and engineers and all the professionals that a country requires in order to have honor (and to counter the brain-drain that currently exists). Likewise, people who make aliyah to Israel and bring their professional skills are fulfilling the mitzvah of yishuv ha'aretz in a much more significant way than merely by living here. (Update - Someone at Machon Lev sent me a photo, at right, of a poster displaying Chasam Sofer's words, which is displayed outside the office of the president of Machon Lev!)
Chasam Sofer states this idea in two places. Don't take my word for it - below is a scan of both passages. Read and be amazed! And share it with those who believe that anyone encouraging people in Israel to leave yeshivah and enhance the workforce can only be a Torah-hating Amalekite!
That's Bats!
And now for something much lighter and completely different. If it isn't to your tastes, please skip to the note at the end of the post.
There are all kinds of intriguing zoological references in this week's parashah. One is our old friend the hyrax (and there is a free chapter on the hyrax from my forthcoming encyclopedia available at this link). Another is the atalef, listed at the very end of the list of non-kosher birds. The general consensus of both Jewish tradition and modern academic scholarship is that the atalef is the bat.
Some people get very worked up about the fact that the bat is a mammal rather than a bird, which they perceive as a conflict with the Torah's divine authority. Now, while various rabbinic authorities have pointed out that the Torah is not always scientifically accurate, this case does not fall into that category. There is no “right” or “wrong” method of classification. A system of classification has no independent reality. It is simply a means by which we measure and describes the animal kingdom, depending upon our purpose. For the purposes of science, the animal kingdom is evaluated on its own terms, based on anatomy. For the Torah’s system of classification, the animal kingdom is presented in terms the relationship between animals and human beings, and their perception by the common person. Neither system is more correct than the other; they are just serving different purposes. In the Torah, anything birdlike is classified as ohf - including bats. This is not a scientific error, just a different system of language.
The Gemara, on the other hand, is another matter. In a curious passage, with no apparent halachic or hashkafic significance, it states as follows:
Everything that bears live young, nurses them, and everything that lays eggs, gathers food for its young, except for the atalef, which, even though it lays eggs, nurses its young. (Bechoros 7b)
In contrast to the Talmud’s statement, modern zoology asserts that none of the 950 species of bats lay eggs, and further asserts that there was never an egg-laying bat. An egg-laying bat would be completely contradictory to the neat nested hierarchy of the animal kingdom - and amongst all the millions of known species, no such exceptions have ever been found.
Could the Gemara be referring to something other than a bat? Rabbi Joshua Waxman has presented a fascinating argument that the Gemara is referring instead to a species of owl known as the stryx, which does lay eggs, and was believed to nurse its young on milk. But, as Rabbi Waxman notes, this would still not make the Gemara scientifically accurate, since owls do not nurse their young.
Rabbi Moshe Meiselman, who insists in his book Torah, Chazal and Science that every definitive statement in the Talmud must be correct, and further insists that to say otherwise is heresy, takes a different approach regarding this statement about the atalef. Before the book was published, I predicted that Rabbi Meiselman would fail to address this Gemara. I was wrong - he addresses it at length (chapter 24). The reason why I did not think that he would discuss it is that I couldn't conceive of any way in which he could reasonably claim that the Gemara is scientifically correct. (See if you can spot the false assumption that I made.)
Rabbi Meiselman discusses this Gemara. And he argues that it does not present any scientific problem at all. He claims that the atalef is... the platypus.
No, I am not joking. Rabbi Meiselman claims that the atalef is the furry, mammalian, four-legged, web-footed, egg-laying, duck-billed platypus of Australia. He comments (p. 337) on the wonder of Chazal knowing about the duck-billed platypus: "In their day no one had ever seen one, nor could the Rishonim have imagined them; but Chazal knew that somewhere in the world they must exist."
Rabbi Meiselman acknowledges that this goes against the identification of the atalef given by the Rishonim. But he dismisses the Rishonim as having an inadequate mesorah and mistakenly understanding matters in light of the flawed science of their era. It is not clear to me why he considers this perfectly acceptable to state with regard to the Rishonim, but heretical to state with regard to Chazal.
To support his claim that the atalef is the platypus, Rabbi Meiselman argues that it doesn’t make sense to claim that the Gemara is repeating an erroneous belief that bats lay eggs, since this Aristotle and Pliny recognized that bats do not lay eggs. Yet this is hardly sufficient reason to prefer the platypus. Chazal were not always in sync with Greco-Roman views - unlike the Greeks, they did not know that the sun passes on the far side of the earth at night. A Google search for "do bats lay eggs" brings many thousands of results, revealing that even in the scientifically-literate 21st century, there is much popular confusion about this matter - certainly such a belief would have been vastly more widespread in antiquity. (Also, as noted above, the Gemara may have been referring to a bird that was believed by the Greeks to lactate, rather than to an egg-laying bat.)
Rabbi Meiselman further argues that Chazal not have mistakenly believed that bats lay eggs, if they observed them closely enough to know that they nurse their young. But even close observation of bats nursing would not lead to the conclusion that there are no eggs, just that one had not discovered them yet. Furthermore, in any case there is no need for close observation to conclude that bats nurse their young - one can just draw this conclusion from its generally mammalian physiology.
Positing that Chazal believed in egg-laying bats (as many people still do) or lactating owls (as was common in antiquity) is infinitely more reasonable than proposing that they knew of the duck-billed platypus! How could they have known of the existence of the platypus? Rabbi Meiselman vaguely asserts that they knew it from "their understanding of the spiritual underpinnings of the world." He does not explain how understanding the spiritual underpinnings of the world leads one to conclude that there is a duck-billed platypus. Additionally, as discussed at length in my monograph on Sod Hashem Liyreyav, there is scant traditional support for such a notion. Furthermore, if their understanding of the "spiritual underpinnings of the world" was not sufficient to enable them to realize that the sun passes on the other side of the world at night rather than doubling back behind the sky, it is rather unreasonable to propose that it was sufficient to enable them to decipher the existence of the duck-billed platypus.
(UPDATE: Note that Rabbi Meiselman does not claim that they knew specifically of the platypus. Rather, he claims that they knew that there must be another creature which, like the bat, has characteristics of both birds and non-birds. He also claims that they knew that this creature must have a different combination of those characteristics than bats do. Rabbi Meiselman provides no support for either of these two extraordinary assertions. Furthermore, if they knew that there must be other animals with other combinations of bird/non-bird characteristics, why limit it to a mammal that lays eggs? By this logic, there must also be a fish with feathers and an amphibian with a beak!)
But there is another powerful reason why Rabbi Meiselman's case is absurd. He is not arguing that the atalef of Scripture is a platypus, because that is listed amongst the category of ohf. So he argues that Chazal used the same name as the atalef of Scripture, which he agrees is probably a bat, yet here referred to a different animal. But consider how astonishingly misleading this is making Chazal out to be. Instead of giving the platypus any kind of unique name or description and informing us that it lives in Australia, they chose instead to use a name that the Torah uses to refer to a creature that also has mixed characteristics of mammals and birds, the bat, thereby misleading every student of the Gemara for the last 1500 years to mistakenly believe that they were talking about the same creature!
(Furthermore, if Chazal knew of the exceptions to the rule that egg-laying animals don't lactate, why didn't they mention the echidna, pictured at right?)
So, Rabbi Meiselman prefers to posit that Chazal were able to figure out the existence of the duck-billed platypus, which they misleadingly referred to with the same name as the bat, rather than positing that just as Chazal subscribed to the ancient belief that the sun travels behind the sky at night, they likewise subscribed to the widespread belief that bats lay eggs.
In perhaps the most remarkable twist of logic, Rabbi Meiselman concludes that “the very case that people cite as a challenge to Chazal is actually another demonstration that their knowledge was derived not from contemporary wisdom but from Torah itself.” But Rabbi Meiselman has not in any way proved that they actually derived this view from Torah. Furthermore, the issue is whether their knowledge is divinely correct, not where they derived it from. Chazal derived aspects of their understanding of the heavens being solid from Scripture, but this does not mean that it was correct!
Personally, I think that Rav Hirsch's approach, which is very well-founded in Chazal, the Geonim, the Rishonim, and the Acharonim, is the only reasonable explanation. According to this approach, there is no "problem" here, per se. "Chazal were the sages of God's law - the receivers, transmitters and teachers of His toros, His mitzvos, and His interpersonal laws. They did not especially master the natural sciences, geometry, astronomy, or medicine... we do not find that this knowledge was transmitted to them from Sinai." Thus, Chazal were simply relating an ancient and erroneous belief that bats lay eggs (or that owls nurse their young). Presenting this approach to the Gemara does not diminish the honor of Chazal. And nor, unlike the platypus claim, does it diminish the honor of the one presenting it.
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What Is The Mechanism Via Which Torah Protects?
There is undeniably a traditional concept in Judaism that Torah provides protection from harm. Previously, I have noted that the extent and parameters of this protection are classically (and logically and practically) understood very differently from how contemporary charedi apologists explain it. However, in this post, I would like to discuss a different angle: the very mechanism understood to lie behind this protection. It turns out that this is yet another powerful example of the difference between rationalist and mystical schools of thought.
As we have discussed before, the mystical and rationalist schools of thought have very different ideas regarding what mitzvos actually do. According the rationalist approach, mitzvos improve our characters, our intellect, and society - and do nothing else. According to the mystical approach, on the other hand, mitzvos primarily serve to create and manipulate various metaphysical energies. To pick one example, according to the rationalist approach, mezuzah serves to remind us of our duties, whereas according to the mystical approach, mezuzos create a metaphysical force-field that protects our homes.
The same is true for Torah. According the rationalist approach, learning Torah imparts valuable knowledge, improves our character, and teaches us how to improve society (see my post on The Rishonim on Torah Study.) That is it, and that is all. Which is not, of course, to trivialize these functions - from a rationalist perspective, these are of immense importance! With the rise of mysticism, on the other hand, came a new and primary function of Torah study. As expressed by R. Chaim of Volozhin in Nefesh HaChaim, the primary function of Torah study was now seen as being to create spiritual energies and thereby metaphysically influence the universe. (See my post on The Goal of Torah Study.)
The notion of Torah providing protection is interpreted by mystically-inclined people in line with this. Learning Torah creates a metaphysical force-field around one's city, similar to that created by mezuzah around one's home. The more Torah that is learned, the more powerful the force-field. As one Beit Shemesh rabbi said when the Grodno yeshivah relocated to Beit Shemesh during Cast Lead, "the yeshivah is providing an 'Iron Dome' for Beit Shemesh."
The rationalist approach to the notion of Torah providing protection would be very different. (Note that I am not talking here about extreme rationalist interpretations of Maimonides, but rather about mainstream rationalist approaches that reflect Chazal's understanding in this area.) It would relate to the idea of the personal merit of the Torah scholar, rather than a metaphysical protection provided by the Torah study itself. Note that the Gemara's presentation of this concept is not phrased as "Torah study protects" but rather "Torah scholars are protected." It refers to the person who has performed the act rather than the act itself. Just as Sodom could have been saved in the merit of righteous people, so too righteous people can create a merit which leads to the machinations of enemy forces being divinely repressed.
(This is similar to the topic of benefiting someone who has passed away, discussed a few weeks ago. According to the mystical/ charedi approach, you can benefit anyone who has passed away, via learning Torah and transferring "spiritual currency." According to the classical/ rationalist approach, on the other hand, there is simply no mechanism for such a thing. Instead, only the descendants and disciples of the dead can benefit them, via creating a merit for them.)
One may wonder if there are any ramifications to this difference. In fact, the ramifications are very significant. Consider the following statement by Jonathan Rosenblum, in a criticism of Yesh Atid's plan to limit the number of yeshivah students receiving a full exemption from the draft: "I cannot understand how any believing Jew could ever think that we have enough Torah learning, and all the more so in the present security situation in which six million Jews in Eretz Yisrael find themselves." This reflects the mystical approach in which Torah study provides metaphysical protective energy, and thus the more Torah that is studied, the more protection is provided. With this perspective, it makes little difference as to whether the person should ideally be learning Torah or doing something else - the starting point is that Torah provides metaphysical protective energy.
According to the classical/ rationalist approach, on the other hand, protection is earned not by Torah study itself, but rather as a consequence of the merit of the person learning it. Accordingly, the first question to consider is whether it is indeed meritorious, i.e. whether it is indeed appropriate for the person to be learning Torah. If a community is inappropriately avoiding their share of the national burden, or displays no concern for the rest of the nation, then their Torah students will not necessarily be a source of merit. If so, they do not provide any protective benefits.
Aren't You Scared?
In an article by Eytan Kobre in last week's Mishpacha magazine entitled "Aren't You Scared?" there were some basic errors of logic, as others have already pointed out. I'd like to take issue with the title and final part of his article, which argued that in light of the nuclear threat from Iran, people should be scared to draft yeshivah students into the IDF. To quote Mr. Kobre:
Aren’t you scared to support tinkering with the single greatest protection there can possibly be against that threat?
Um, no. Charedim themselves, including Gedolim, didn't consider the Torah study of charedi yeshivos sufficient to provide protection against missiles from Gaza on par with Iron Dome. Whereas the residents of the South mostly stayed during Cast Lead (as did the hesder yeshivos), the charedi yeshivos - including Grodna, Petersburg, Belz and Ger - fled from the South. Aren't you scared to be trusting the Torah study of charedi yeshivos to provide meaningful protection from Iran, when the Gedolim don't even believe that it provides meaningful protection from Gaza?
Mr. Kobre concludes by arguing that we should also be scared to ignore the guidance of the "leaders of our generation" - by which he means the charedi Gedolim - in this area:
When all the smoke clears from the battlefield of rhetorical jousting and endless punditry, this really isn’t about the views of Yonoson Rosenblum or Eytan Kobre versus those of any other Jew of whatever stripe. It is about what maranan v’rabbanan, the leaders of our generation — those about whom we beseech Hashem with the words v’ruach kodshecha al tikach mimenu, please don’t remove ruach hakodesh from our midst — have said and done, versus what Lapid and Bennett and Netanyahu have said and done. And so, aren’t you scared, or at the least, a bit humbled? —
Mr. Kobre, I have a similar question for you. Aren't you scared to be putting national security decisions in the hands of the types of people that told their followers to ignore Jabotinsky and to stay in Europe in the 1930s, leading them be massacred by the Nazis? Aren't you scared to be taking direction from people whose interpretation of Torah leads them to deny factual reality, such as insisting that there was no age of the dinosaurs but there is such a thing as spontaneous generation? Aren't you scared to place your connection to God and Sinai with people who are so out of sync with the philosophy of the Rishonim that they take positions that are diametrically opposed to them, again and again and again and again? Aren't you scared to be putting your trust in a system of rabbinic authority which caused Gaza to be sold out for 290 million shekels, Leib Tropper to be given immense power, and the monster Elior Chen to be declared a righteous person?
I'd be scared. That's why I'd rather take guidance from the Torah, Chazal, the Rishonim, and Rabbanim with a rationalist outlook, and whose worldview has Klal Yisrael consciousness, relating to the concerns of the entire nation rather than to the narrow interests of a seceded sector of society.
UPDATE: See too this article by Rabbi Berel Wein
"Rabbis Do Not Need Protection"
The latest round in the debate about charedim and army has taken a fascinating twist.
In Rabbi Hoffman's original article arguing that yeshivah students should not serve in the army, he only referenced Gemaras that condemned the drafting of Torah scholars. Note that these Gemaras did not specify the reason why it is wrong to draft Torah scholars. Indeed, there are a number of possibilities.
When, however, it was pointed out that these Gemaras speak of talmidei chachamim, and thus presumably refer to talmidei chachamim, Rabbi Hoffman switched to a different Gemara, which was eagerly taken up by Rabbi Menken. The Gemara that they switched to was one stating that "The rabbis do not need protection" (and they argue that Rav Moshe Feinstein used this to demonstrate that yeshivah students should categorically not go to the army - later we shall see that this is far from clear).
At first, I didn't realize that there had been a switch. But as soon as I realized, I submitted the following comment to Cross-Currents:
It is surely obvious that the Gemara does not mean that yeshivah students or even rabbis are immune from harm against the Arab threat. (I hope that pointing out this obvious fact will not mean that you will accuse me of saying that Torah=chess.) Do I need to remind you of the massacres at Chevron and at Mercaz HaRav? How about the fact that Beitar and Kiryat Sefer, towns that are full of Bnei Torah, need and request army protection? Obviously, then, in the face of the Arab threat, the yeshivah students and rabbis DO need protection. In which case, we are back to the issue of why it is fair for them to demand that only other people provide it.
Rabbi Menken, however, refused to post the comment, as he told me in an e-mail. His reason was extraordinary - he claimed that it was "not sufficiently germane" to the discussion!
I wrote back to him expressing my astonishment that he described this comment as "not germane." Rabbi Hoffman and Rabbi Menken cited this Gemara in support of the claim that yeshivah students should not be enlisted, because they "don't need protection." Yet the obvious reality, accepted by Charedim, is that yeshivah students and rabbis do need protection. There could hardly be a more germane comment than this!
Rabbi Menken responded that I "do not understand the Gemara." To this I responded:
Oh, for Heaven's sake. You yourself obviously do not believe that rabbis do not need protection from Arabs. So you have no idea why this Gemara would prove that yeshivah students should not serve in the army. You're just trying to hide behind Rav Moshe Feinstein.
Rabbi Menken responded by explaining the Gemara's statement that "the rabbis do not need protection" to mean that "that the rabbis offer protection from Arabs, they don't merely need it" (emphasis his). I fail to understand how inserting the word "merely" in the Gemara, and thereby totally inverting its meaning, is a valid approach to learning Gemara. I also fail to understand how explaining the Gemara to mean that "rabbis don't merely need protection" satisfactorily explains why they should not be drafted.
Still, Rabbi Menken steadfastly refused to print my comment. This makes a mockery of the claim that Cross-Currents makes about its comments policy:
The moderation of comments is not intended to stifle debate, but to keep it constructive. Comments entirely critical of positions taken by our contributors and of the Orthodox center to right-of-center ideologies we represent will be published. We believe in a way of life that can survive scrutiny and critique. It will be our job to respond.
It's a pity that, unlike other writers at Cross-Currents, Rabbi Menken does not live up to its stated approach. But meanwhile, what of the Gemara's claim that "Rabbis do not need protection," and what of Rav Moshe Feinstein? Even if Rabbi Menken is not going to reconcile this with reality, the rest of us would like to!
Regarding the Gemara, as I have noted in the past, Radvaz 2:752 greatly restricts the extent of the Gemara's ruling. This includes stating that it does not apply in cases where the rabbis consider themselves in need of protection. Chasam Sofer says that it only refers to exemptions from city taxes that are placed upon Jews in exile, not for defense against genuine military threats. Radvaz and Chasam Sofer thus accept the obvious truth that in the threat posed to Israel by its Arab neighbors, rabbis do very much need protection.
What, then, are we to make of the ruling of Rav Moshe Feinstein? First of all, it should be noted that Rav Moshe is arguing with the Rama (YD 243:2). Rav Moshe expands the Gemara to refer to yeshivah students. Rama says that it refers only to those who are fluent in most of the Talmud, commentaries and rulings of the Geonim.
Furthermore, David Ohsie pointed out that the responsum does not at all seem to mean what Rabbis Hoffman and Menken are taking it to mean:
The Teshuvah seems to be addressed to someone who was questioning the propriety of taking advantage of the draft exemption for those that learn in a Yeshiva instead of serving in the IDF. Rav Moshe appears to allow this exemption for two reasons:
A) We see from the Gemara in בבא בתרא that learning can take precedence over protecting the city.
B) Israel has recognized the importance of learning Torah, and thus exempted those that learn in a Yeshiva.
The Teshuvah does not address the following issues:
1) The Teshuvah does not imply that the learning provides protection for others. Nor does it claim that learning in a Yeshiva is enough to protect oneself from the threats facing Israel at any given time. It merely asserts that while protecting the country is a very important matter, learning Torah is even more important, so that taking advantage of a draft exemption is a moral choice. The evidence is that one may exempt oneself from sharing in payment for the protection of the city. Presumably, this would not be a valid choice for someone who merely had enough money to pay for private protection. He mentions at the end of the Teshuvah his desire that the action should be a Berachah and Haganah for Israel, but this is not the basis for the p'sak.
The Teshuvah doesn't even imply that those learning in a Yeshiva are providing protection for themselves; it is hard to imagine the country being threatened militarily or with terrorism and those who learn being automatically protected, as could be the case with burglars in a city. As has been pointed out by others, even those who learn, rationally vacate vulnerable areas when they are under active attack, and so admit that this protection does not apply even to themselves in this instance.
2) The Teshuvah does not address itself to the question of what level of exemption should be provided by the country. It is addressed to the morality of even accepting an exemption given that the country permits it. It makes no claim that the existing level of exemption must remain static forever. It also does not address evasion of the draft in opposition to the laws of the country.
3) The Teshuvah is not completely silent on the level of dedication or achievement needed to justify an exemption. It actually mentions that one can accept an exemption to become גדול בתורה ובהוראה וביראת שמים. Note the reference to becoming a Posek, not merely someone that learns. Presumably, not everyone who learns in a Yeshiva is material for becoming a Posek.
Thus, not only is the Gemara not saying that yeshivah students should automatically be exempt from the draft, and not only does Rama make it clear that there is no reference here to yeshivah students - even Rav Moshe Feinstein is not necessarily saying that yeshivah students should automatically be exempt from the draft.
Rabbis do need protection from the Arab threat. (Similar to how Rabbi Menken needs protection from comments that undermine his argument.) It is unfair (as well as lacking any clear source in Chazal or the Rishonim) to demand that this protection be provided solely from people outside the charedi community. Indeed, this point is made explicitly in an early responsum from an early Rav Moshe: "Shall your brothers go to war, while you remain here?"
The Ultimate Irony
At the end of the charedi anti-draft rally in New York, the organizers offered effusive thanks and praise to the New York City Police Department for ensuring the safety and security of everyone present.
They can thank the NYPD, but not the IDF?!
And why did all these Torah scholars need protection anyway?
Torah, Army, and the Bizarre Chess Analogy
Rabbi Yair Hoffman has written a response to my critique of his article regarding Torah Study and the IDF, and posted it at Cross-Currents. Unfortunately, it seems that Cross-Currents does not permit me to post a response, and not even to post a comment linking to a response, so I can only hope that readers of Rabbi Hoffman's piece will somehow find their way here.
I. Torah = Chess?!
Rabbi Hoffman's primary counter-argument is simply... strange. In Rabbi Hoffman's original article, he referred to a number of statements in the Gemara that condemn the drafting of talmidei chachamim into the army. In my critique, amongst other objections, I pointed out that these statements specifically mention talmidei chachamim, and are not applicable to yeshivah students. I also pointed out that based on the actions of charedim themselves, it is apparent that they do not actually believe that yeshivah students provide protection. Here is Rabbi Hoffman's response:
Torah sources from the TaNach, through the Gemorah, the Rishonim, Acharonim, to the Gedolei Torah of the past generation all speak of the protective power of Torah. There are essentially two types of people. There are those who disagree with these sources (or try to minimize them by claiming that it is all Agaddatah, or only applies to great Torah scholars, or who try to point out that we don’t see it practically) – we will call these people “Torah = Chess” believers. In other words they think that studying chess and studying Torah are equal in terms of their protective powers.
According to Rabbi Hoffman, if you do not say that the Gemara's references to talmidei chachamim also apply to people who are not talmidei chachamim, then you are saying that Torah=chess. How on earth does that make any sense? If you learn Chazal's words carefully, then you are saying that Torah=chess?! There are many halachos in the Gemara about talmidei chachamim. Nobody claims that they are all equally applicable to yeshivah students. There are even sources which state that nobody today rates as a talmid chacham by the Gemara's definition!
Rav Hershel Schechter addressed these sources in the context of addressing a question about charedim not going to the army, which he describes as "scandalous." Rav Schachter says as follows: "The Gemara says you don't draft talmidei chachamim. Every bochur in yeshiva is a talmid chacham?! It's not so." (You can listen to Rav Schachter at this link, starting at about 40:00 in the streaming version and 51:20 in the download.)
It is clearly absurd for Rabbi Hoffman to claim that Rav Schachter believes that "Torah=chess." I don't know whether Rav Schachter believes that the Torah study of a yeshivah student has protective powers or not, but it's irrelevant. Even if one believes that Torah study has some sort of protective power, this by no means necessarily translates into an exemption from army service!
Rav Schachter also quotes Rav Yaakov Kamenetzky as telling his grandson that if he lives in Israel, he has to go to the army. So Rabbi Hoffman is positing that according to Rav Yaakov, "Torah=chess"?
Or how about Rav Elyashiv, who also minimized a source in Chazal about the protective merits of Torah scholars? This was with regard to a wave of burglaries in a particular Charedi neighborhood. Rav Elyashiv stated that "The principle of תלמידי חכמים אינם צריכים שמירה only applies in a normal situation, before there is a rash of burglaries. However, now that there already was a rash of burglaries it would be considered a miracle for the talmid chacham not to be harmed. Therefore the principle of תלמידי חכמים אינם צריכים שמירה does not apply and everyone has to pay equally for the security company." So Rabbi Hoffman is positing that according to Rav Elyashiv, "Torah=chess"?
Or how about Radvaz? Responsa Radvaz 2:752 greatly restricts the extent of the Gemara's ruling about Torah scholars being exempt from contributing towards security, including stating that it does not apply in cases where the rabbis consider themselves in need of protection. So Rabbi Hoffman is positing that according to Radvaz, "Torah=chess"?
It should further be noted that Rabbi Hoffman's blanket statement that "Gedolei HaPoskim" believe that these sources exempt yeshivah students from IDF service is simply not true. Aside from all the Israeli Religious Zionist Gedolei HaPoskim who clearly hold that at least most yeshivah students should serve in the army, here we have Rav Yaakov ztz"l and Rav Schachter shlita who clearly disagree with Rabbi Hoffman.
When Rabbi Hoffman states that "The Gemorah, the Midrashim, and contemporary Gedolei Torah both from the Zionist world and the Chareidi world all say that Torah protects," this is deeply misleading. Saying "Torah scholars protect" or even "Torah protects" does not equal "all yeshivah students should be exempt from the army."
II. Geographic Concentration
In my critique, I noted that the concept of Torah providing protection is that it is concentrated in the area where the Torah scholar actually is. Rabbi Hoffman claims that I "made this up." Really? Let's see. The Yerushalmi, Chagigah 1:7, speaks about teachers of Torah being the protectors of the city. In general, reason indicates that if one accepts the concept of zechus - merits created by good deeds - that they spread outwards, decreasing in intensity with distance. A person's merits are strongest for his immediate family, and for those in his town. For righteous people to have saved Sodom, they would have had to have been living in Sodom.
And the charedi world agrees. The Chazon Ish, and, yibedal lechaim, Rav Chaim Kanievsky, said that Bnei Brak is safe from missiles. The Torah study of that town apparently protects it, and it alone. Likewise, when the 300-strong Grodno yeshivah relocated from Ashdod to Bet Shemesh due to the war in the South, a prominent Torah scholar in Bet Shemesh was quoted in the Chadash weekly as stating that "We have no doubt that the efforts of the residents of Bet Shemesh, such that the sound of Torah should not cease from one yeshivah, is the 'iron dome' of the city; it is the true protection, and the cause that our residents have not been part of the bloodshed." The merits of those facilitating Torah study provide protection that is greatest in its immediate locale.
Yet the charedi Gedolim ordered the charedi yeshivos to flee from Ashdod. Why? There are two possibilities, and neither look good. One possibility is that they don't really believe that the Torah study of yeshivah students protects to the degree that soldiers are able to provide protection (which, according to Rabbi Hoffman, means that the Gedolim believe that Torah=chess). The other possibility is that they do believe that the Torah study of yeshivah students protects to the degree that soldiers are able to provide protection, but they also feel that the remaining risk is still one that yeshivah students should not take. But if soldiers are risking their lives to provide protection for others, why shouldn't yeshivah students do the same, if they are claiming an exemption from the army due to providing equivalent protection?
III. Protection from Economic and Health Problems
In my critique, I noted that the statements in the Gemara about the protective value of Torah scholars refer to protection from all kinds of harm – economic harm and disease as well as military threats. Yet one never sees that the charedi world considers themselves less requiring of help in these areas; if anything, the opposite is true! Rabbi Hoffman responds as follows:
Not sure what the point here is exactly. Is Rabbi Slifkin attempting to disprove the statements in Chazal that Torah affords protection? And aside from pandering to some stereotyped notions, how is he proving this exactly? Because Chareidim recognize the need to go to top doctors? Actually, Rabbi Slifkin is no longer minimizing “Torah > Chess.” Here his point here is to show that “Torah = Chess.” There is no other way of reading his challenge.
It is curious that Rabbi Hoffman claims that there is "no other way" of reading my challenge, because he has apparently failed to understand the plain meaning of my words. I was not attempting to disprove the statements in Chazal that Torah affords protection. Rather, I was demonstrating that Charedim themselves do not believe that their Torah study protects from economic and health problems such that they do not need to do their practical hishtadlus. In Rabbi Hoffman's world, this means that charedim believe that Torah=chess. For the rest of us, this means that charedim do not believe that aggadic statements about the protective benefits of a Torah scholar can be applied in a practical way today to the Torah study of the masses.
IV. Is There Really A Danger?
In my critique, I observed that it's just plain silly to claim that we would lose "crucial protection" if some (and not all) yeshivah students spend some time in the army. Yeshivos give their students a month off in Nissan, three weeks off in Tishrei, and three weeks off in the summer – and did so even during the war in the North. If that’s good enough for a fifth of the year, it’s hard to believe that a couple of thousand young men in the army at any given time, while there are tens of thousands still in yeshivah, can cause a crucial security problem. To this, Rabbi Hoffman responded that "Yeshiva students still study during Bein HaZmanim." Indeed, some study to a large degree. But most are learning only a small amount, which apparently is not a grave threat to national security. Indeed, as pointed out, they even did this during the war in the North. If it's safe to have such a decline in Torah study for a fifth of the year, why can't they spend some time in the army?
V. Gedolei Torah from the Zionist World
In Rabbi Hoffman's original article, he attempted to argue that Religious Zionist Gedolei Torah believed that yeshivah students should be exempt from army service. Rabbi Hoffman quoted a story about Rav Kook, and I pointed out that he neglected to mention that the incident concerned the British army in WWI, not the Israeli army defending Israel! Rabbi Hoffman claims that this omission is irrelevant, since "Rav Kook was arguing for a release based upon studying Torah." But it makes all the difference in the world when this is being weighed up against the small importance of helping England, versus the tremendous importance of defending the Jewish People and Israel (not to mention the fact that it was virtually impossible to eat kosher food and keep Shabbos in the British army).
It is none other than Rav Kook's son, Rav Tzvi Yehudah Kook, who described such misappropriations of Rav Kook's position as “a distortion and utter falsehood.” He explained that "whereas in England, the demand was that the yeshiva students fight for a foreign army, here we are fighting for our hold on the land of Israel and the holy city of Jerusalem. This is undoubtedly a milchemet mitzvah." Would Rabbi Hoffman have us believe that he understands Rav Kook's position better than Rav Kook's own son?!
I further pointed out that Rabbi Hoffman's attempts to recruit Rav Tzvi Yehudah Kook and Rav Shaul Yisraeli in support of his thesis were a distortion of their views. Rabbi Hoffman does not argue with my correction - he simply says that others disagree. Indeed they do. But this does not mean that it was legitimate to misrepresent their view. Furthermore, here again we have Rabbi Hoffman effectively saying that according to Rav Tzvi Yehudah Kook and Rav Shaul Yisraeli, Torah=chess!
VI. No Halachic Exemption for Torah Students
A crucial point that I stressed is that there is simply no traditional halachic exemption for yeshivah students. There are exemptions - in the case of milchemes reshus, but not for milchemes mitzvah - for people who are newly married, who have built houses, and who have planted vineyards. The precise details of these categories are discussed in halachic literature - does it apply to someone who has re-married? How many trees is considered a vineyard? There is no discussion in halachic literature of the details of the exemption for a yeshivah student, however. The reason is that there is no such exemption.
Rabbi Hoffman, however, claims that there is such an exemption in traditional halachic literature:
In Hilchos Shmitah v’Yovel 13:10 we learn of Shaivet Levi’s special status and treatment. Three Halachos later (13:13) the Rambam says that anyone who wishes to devote himself to full time Torah study can share the status of Shaivet Levi.
I've addressed this much-abused Rambam in a dedicated post, but here is a brief summary. First of all, Rambam is not making a halachic statement here at all. As is common with the closing paragraphs of the different sections of the Mishneh Torah, Rambam here is presenting mussar rather than halachah.
Second, it stretches credulity to posit that Rambam, in discussing the halachos regarding going to the army in Hilchos Melachim u'Milchamos chapter 7, entirely omitted an extremely significant category of exemption, and simply obliquely hints at it elsewhere.
Third, Rambam is clearly not making a full comparison of Torah students to the tribe of Levi. The special status and treatment of Levi mentioned by Rambam includes that Levi does not gain a inheritance in the land of Israel. This did not and does not apply to Torah students!
Fourth, even if one wishes to claim that Rambam neglected to mention an exemption in Hilchos Melachim, and implies it here, what kind of person is Rambam talking about? Here is a quote from Rav Aharon Lichtenstein:
...Even if we grant that the Rambam's statement does imply a categorical dispensation in purely halachic terms, it remains of little practical significance. We have yet to examine just to whom it applies. A levi [sic] is defined genealogically. Those who are equated with him, however, literally or symbolically, are defined by spiritual qualities; and for these the Rambam sets a very high standard indeed. He present an idealized portrait of a selfless, atemporal, almost ethereal person - one whose spirit and intelligence have led him to divest himself of all worldly concerns and who has devoted himself "to stand before God, to serve Him, to worship Him, to know God; and he walks aright as the Lord has made him and he has cast off from his neck the yoke of the many considerations which men have sought." To how large a segment of the Torah community - or, a fortiori, of any community - does this lofty typology apply? To two percent? Five Percent? Can anyone... confront a mirror and tell himself that he ought not to go to the army because he is kodesh kodashim, sanctum sanctorum, in the Rambam's terms?
Again, however, the most straightforward understanding of Rambam is that there is no comparison of spiritual elites to the tribe of Levi vis-a-vis a halachic exemption from army service. Rav Asher Tanenbaum, who was the secretary of the Va'ad Ha-Yeshivot in Israel, heard from Ha-Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer that it is a falsification to claim based on this Rambam that yeshiva students are exempt from military service.
VII. The Issue of Fairness
In my critique, I noted that even if the current security situation does not require everyone to be drafted, it certainly requires a lot of people to be drafted. It is unacceptable for the charedi community to declare that this manpower should only be drawn from other communities and not from its own. Rabbi Hoffman quotes an assessment from the top IDF experts that there is no manpower shortage. Well, there is also no shortage of dollars in the Jewish people, but that doesn’t mean that when someone comes collecting, you can simply avoid doing your part and rely on the dollars coming from others. The IDF has to recruit a certain number of people every year. Why should only non-charedim make up this manpower? Let us return to Moshe Rabbeinu’s words, “Shall your brothers go out to war, while you remain here?” He does not allow for these tribes to stay beyond the Jordan and learn Torah. And nor does he say that the extra manpower is needed. Rather, Moshe Rabbeinu makes a simple argument from fairness.
In response, Rabbi Hoffman states that the request is only to exempt those studying Torah, not the entire charedi community. He agrees that that the chareidi community should also participate if they are not learning Torah: "Rav Shteinman agreed as well, and was the driving force behind Nachal Chareidi. Unfortunately, the Yesh Atid initiative destroyed the growth opportunity for the recruitment of Nachal Chareidi."
Unfortunately, Rabbi Hoffman has matters exactly backwards. Had the charedi community been serious about sending non-Torah learners to the army, then the Yesh Atid initiative would never have gotten off the ground. Nachal Charedi only has around 1000 soldiers, which are actually mostly from the Zionist community. The Charedi community was never remotely interested in identifying which boys are not seriously learning in yeshivah and sending them to the army. The idea that a few hundred charedim in the army represents a fair sharing of the burden by the charedi community - a community that claims 66,000 draft exemptions - is absurd and offensive.
VIII. The Issue of Concern and Gratitude
The problem of charedim not serving in the army is compounded by their lack of concern and gratitude for those who do serve. Rabbi Hoffman agreed that it is important to express our sincere hakaras haTov and pray for the welfare and well-being of the IDF, and lamented that it is "unfortunate that some do not." To this, I objected that he is vastly downplaying the extent of the problem. It’s not “some” who do not. It’s the entire charedi world.
Rabbi Hoffman responded that "it is a significant amount, but it is not the entire Chareidi world.... There are many, many Chareidim who dedicate their learning and Tefilos to ensure the safety of soldiers and the populace. It is dishonest, and wrong to spew such hate speech."
Obviously I did not mean that there is not a single charedi person who davvens for the welfare of the IDF. But, as a general pattern, it is absolutely true to say that the charedim do not express hakaras hatov or pray for the safety of the soldiers, and absolutely false to say that only "some" do not. Of the hundreds of thousands of charedim in the rallies last week, how many express hakaras hatov or pray for the safety of the soldiers? How many charedi shuls and yeshivos say the Misheberach for the IDF, or recite Tehillim for their welfare? How many charedi yeshivos dedicate their study sessions to the IDF? Does Mir? Ponovezh? Lakewood? Chevron? Kol Torah? Ateres Yisrael?
IX. The Issue of Unity
In the concluding part of my critique, I objected to Rabbi Hoffman's calls for unity. Rabbi Hoffman expresses surprise at this. But the reason for my objection is not that I am against unity. Rather, I strongly feel that unity does not mean refraining from criticizing the wrongdoing of others, and nor does it mean talking about love and peace. Unity is when everyone shares the responsibilities and concerns of the entire nation.
Virtually no charedim serve in the army. The entire charedi community just demonstrated against efforts to enforce army service for a relatively small number of charedim. Rabbi Hoffman wrote a very lengthy article which attempted to justify the charedi stance. It included just two sentences about how everyone should show concern and appreciation for those who serve, and it severely minimized the extent of the problem with those who do not. It also severely minimized the problem with charedim who, according to Rabbi Hoffman's own thesis, should serve in the army but do not. Rabbi Hoffman has not written an article for the charedi press about how they should show concern and appreciation for those who serve. Nor has he written an article for the charedi press about how they should identify who is not really learning in yeshivah and send them to the army. Yes, he wrote an article criticizing Ami magazine for stripping Rabbi Dov Lipman of his semicha and comparing him to a Nazi, and I commend him for this. But this is hardly sufficient.
So, yes, I repeat: Rabbi Hoffman, please spare us your calls for unity on this issue. If you are concerned about real unity, then please work to address the problem that charedim do not share the burden of army service. And if you are concerned about expressions of unity, then please work to address the problem that charedim do not express concern or gratitude for people in the army. In the meanwhile, please understand that many people, following the views of Gedolei Torah, differ with your understanding of the issue, and are severely disappointed and hurt by the charedi world. Like Rav Schachter, we consider it scandalous. This does not mean that we are "spewing hatred" or out to "bash charedim." Such condemnation of our perspective is not conducive to love, peace or unity.
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A Time To Weep, A Time To Smile
Layabouts or Heroes?
Rav Steinman: Learning Torah is "Cruelty"
The Rally: Kiddush Hashem or Chillul Hashem?
Rosenblum Nails The Problem With Charedi Society
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Emile Hirsch, Anton Yelchin, Justin Timberlake, Sharon Stone, Ben Foster, Bruce Willis, Shawn Hatosy, Dominique Swain, Lukas Haas, Olivia Wilde
When a young drug dealer by the name of Johnny Truelove (Emile Hirsch) kidnaps Zack Mazurka (Anton Yelchin), the 15-year-old brother of a man in debt to him, things don’t go according to plan. As he desperately tries to get the money owed to him, Johnny’s crew looks after Zack. Though a hostage, Zack is enjoying the excitement of his situation, blissfully unaware of the despair of his parents and his brother’s rage.
Production Status: In Production/Awaiting Release
Logline: Story based on the life of Jesse James Hollywood, the youngest man to ever be on the F.B.I.’s most wanted list.
Genres: Drama and Crime/Gangster
Release Date: January 12th, 2007
MPAA Rating: R for pervasive drug use and language, strong violence, sexuality and nudity.
Distributors: Universal Pictures Distribution, Universal Pictures
Production Co.: A-Mark Entertainment, Sidney Kimmel Entertainment
Studios: New Line Cinema
Filming Locations: Los Angeles, California, USA, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, Palm Springs, California, USA
Produced in: United States
Volver Trailer (2006)
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You are at:Home»Breaking News»The Hon Prime Minister’s first official visit to New Zealand
Tonga's Prime Minister official visit to NZ
The Hon Prime Minister’s first official visit to New Zealand
By admin on Jul 26, 2016 Breaking News, Foreign Affairs, Government, Latest News, Parliament, Public Notices, Tonga
The Prime Minister of Tonga, Hon Samuela ‘Akilisi Pohiva will depart Tonga tomorrow Wednesday 27th of July 2016, on his first official visit to New Zealand. The highlight of this visit will be a bilateral meeting with The Prime Minister of New Zealand, Rt Hon John Key on the 28th of July, 2016, after a Welcoming Ceremony. During the visit, Prime Minister Pohiva will also attend a Wreath Laying Ceremony at the Auckland War Memorial Museum and will meet in Auckland with some of the New Zealand Cabinet Ministers and Government Officials.
Prime Minister Pohiva said, ‘I am deeply grateful for the invitation from the Hon Prime Minister of New Zealand to visit New Zealand and to officially meet with him. This is an important visit for the Government and the people of Tonga as it demonstrates the close and strong relationship and friendship shared by the two countries.’
‘The visit will also provide invaluable opportunities to discuss with the New Zealand leaders areas of shared interests to Tonga and New Zealand for future collaboration and cooperation. New Zealand has been one of the major development partners for Tonga in many ways for many years, and this is evident throughout Tonga, so this visit will build on that partnership and to the future.’
The Hon Prime Minister will be accompanied by the Minister for Public Enterprises, Hon Poasi Tei; the Minister for Revenue and Customs, Hon Tevita Lavemaau; the Number One Nobles Representative to Parliament from Tongatapu, Lord Vaea, Chief Secretary and Secretary to Cabinet, Dr. Palenitina Langa’oi, Secretary for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Mr. Va’inga Tone.
The official visit will take place from 27th to 30th July 2016. The official visit will be followed by a meeting with the Tonga Community in Auckland before the Hon Prime Minister and delegation return to Tonga.
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Paul Adelstein
4/29/1969 , Chicago, Illinois, USA
Paul Adelstein is an American television and film actor who currently (2008) plays pediatrician Cooper Freedman in the hit TV series Private Practice.
Paul Adelstein attended Bowdoin College where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude with a degree in English.
He later came on to acting.
To date, he has made several acting appearances in TV shows such as, starting with the least recent working up to the most recent as of 2008: (starting from 1998 onwards): Cubid, Turks, E.R., Breaking News, Hack, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, The Lyon's Den, Without a Trace, Las Vegas, Medium, Harvey Birdman - Attorney at Law, Nobodys Watching and Scrubs.
He has also made appearences in a few movies, which include, starting with the least recent working up to the most recent as of 2007: (starting from 1990 onwards): The Griffers, Peoria Babylon, Bedazzled, Intolerable Cruelty, Lawrence Melm, Bandwagon, Collateral, Memoirs of a Geisha and Be Cool.
He is married to actress Liza Weil, who plays Paris Gellar on Gilmore Girls. They married in November 2006.
When not acting, Paul songwrites and fronts for his Los Angeles-based band, Doris.
Paul Adelstein on Private Practice seaso...
© 2012 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.
Paul Adelstein as Dr. Cooper Freedman on...
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Sweden makes first step for new international agreement on air pollution to enter into force
Sweden has become the first Party to accept the 2012 amendments to the 1999 Protocol to Abate Acidification, Eutrophication and Ground-level Ozone (Gothenburg Protocol) under the UNECE Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (Air Convention). The Gothenburg Protocol deals with multiple pollutants and their effects at the same time and has thus been referred to as multi-pollutant and multi-effect protocol.
The amended Gothenburg Protocol includes national emission reduction commitments for main air pollutants to be achieved in 2020 and beyond. It is the first legally binding agreement containing obligations to reduce the broader spectrum of so-called short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs), notably fine particulate matter (PM2.5), including black carbon and ground-level ozone precursors: nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds. Tackling these target substances that have an effect on the climate and air quality, the Gothenburg Protocol is an example of how air pollution and climate change policies can be addressed in an integrated manner.
Less than two weeks before the climate change negotiations in Paris (COP 21) start, Sweden’s acceptance of the amendments is an important step on the way to reducing air pollution and mitigating climate change. It will also pave the way for other Parties to the Air Convention to follow suit. The 2012 amendments to the Gothenburg Protocol will enter into force once two thirds of the Parties to the original Protocol have accepted them.
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Public will lose from Northern Beaches privatisation
The public will be shortchanged with inferior health outcomes, thanks to the NSW Government’s decision to privatise the new Northern Beaches Hospital at Frenchs Forest.
Unions NSW has slammed the decision to award a contract to run the hospital to the private operator, Healthscope.
“Healthcare is one area that must remain in public hands,” Unions NSW Secretary, Mark Lennon said.
“Nothing is more important than health and wellbeing. The market has been a proven failure when it comes to health and hospitals.
“It’s mystifying that the Government is proceeding with such a wrong headed strategy. Clearly, the Liberals are more interested in looking after the business community than they are in looking after patients.”
“The last time a NSW Government experimented with privatising a hospital at Port Macquarie it was an abject failure.
“Clearly this Government has not learned from history.”
Further comment: Mark Lennon 0427 231 800
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Wednesday 24 April 2019 (other days)
Easter Wednesday
The Lord has truly risen, alleluia.
In other years: St Fidelis of Sigmaringen (1578 - 1622)
He was born in Sigmaringen in Germany. He joined the Capuchin Friars at the age of 35 and led a harsh life of prayer and vigils. An assiduous preacher, he was ordered by the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith to preach orthodox doctrine in the Grisons (part of Switzerland). He was murdered by a Calvinist mob at Seewis on 24 April 1622. See the articles in the Catholic Encyclopaedia and Wikipedia.
Other saints: St Erkenwald (- 693)
Brentwood, Westminster
Saint Erconwald [or Erkenwald] was born at “Stallyngeton in Lindsey” (possibly Stallingborough, near Grimsby) in the early seventh century. His father is variously described as Anna or Offa, king of East Anglia, and a pagan. Erconwald was converted to Christianity at an early age by St Mellitus, the companion of Augustine and first Bishop of London. He then converted his younger sister Ethelburga and baptised her, much to the fury of their father. Ethelburga eventually fled her parents’ home with one servant to escape being forced into marriage with a pagan.
In the year 666 Erconwald founded the monastery of Chertsey, on an island in the Thames, apparently at the junction of several kingdoms. It is described as being founded in the reign of King Egbert, King of Kent; the foundation was confirmed, and richly endowed, by Frithwald, viceroy of Surrey, under Wulfhere King of Mercia. The Viceroy put himself and his son under obedience to Erconwald in return for prayers. Wulfhere confirmed this endowment. There is a further charter of Frithwald and Erconwald, to increase the lands of the monastery: the “Limites Terrarum” describes lands in Chertsey, Thorpe, Egham and adjacent parishes now attached to the monastery.
Shortly after this Erconwald founded a convent at Barking in Essex, intended to be a refuge for his sister Ethelburga. The foundation charter, countersigned by Hodilred, King of Essex, provides us with a specimen of the saint’s handwriting. In the course of building the house at Barking one beam was found to be too short, and was pulled out to the correct length by Erconwald and his sister.
Erconwald remained as Abbot of Chertsey until 675 when he was consecrated third Bishop of London by St Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury. St Erconwald appears to have been the first resident bishop, and probably began the building of St Paul’s, although traditionally this was adapted from a pagan temple of old Londinium. In 677 he visited Rome, and obtained a number of privileges for his diocese and monastery from Pope Agatho I.
During his time as Bishop, Erconwald became noted for miracles and for evangelization. He instructed St Neot, afterwards of Crowland Abbey, and the two Kings of Essex, Sebbi and Sigheri, the former of whom afterwards became a hermit in St Paul’s under Erconwald’s successor Waldhere.
In 690 Erconwald was summoned, together with St Wilfrid, to the deathbed of St Theodore. Both ministered to him, but Theodore was more concerned to speak to Wilfrid, whom he wished to succeed him. In 692 King Ine of Wessex mentions his “father Erconwald” who assisted him in codifying the Laws of Wessex.
Thus Erconwald is associated with the Kings of East Anglia, Mercia, Essex, Wessex and Kent, all of whom seem to have had interests centering in the Chertsey area. The King of Sussex, Æthelwealh, was godson to Wulfhere of Mercia, so six of the Seven Kingdoms are involved in his story.
Towards the end of his life Erconwald was confined to a wheelchair, about which many stories are told. On one occasion a raging river parted to allow the Saint to cross in his chair; on another one wheel fell off but the chair miraculously did not upset. After his death many miracles of healing were worked by the same wheelchair.
In 693 Brithwald, Archbishop of Canterbury, consecrated Waldhere as fourth Bishop of London, so it seems likely that Erconwald died in that year, on 30th April. He died while on retreat at Barking Abbey, and there was the usual unseemly dispute over who should have the burying of him, between Barking, Chertsey and London. The Canons of St Paul’s prevailed, and despite a last-ditch attempt by the nuns of Barking, succeeded in capping their miracle with a greater. (The nuns prayed for rain to swell the river at Ilford to make it impossible for the cortege to cross, and to extinguish the candles, but the men of London persuaded the candles to relight, and the river to part again so that they crossed dry-shod.) Despite all this he was buried in a common earthen grave where he remained until 1087 when a fire destroyed the cathedral and everything in it except the coffin containing his remains. These were then translated to a splendid new shrine behind the high altar, where they remained right up to the Great Fire of 1666, despite the depredations of the Reformation. He was venerated throughout the Middle Ages.
Other saints: Saint Egbert (639-729)
Argyll & the Isles
Ecgberht was an Anglo-Saxon nobleman, probably from Northumbria. In his youth he travelled to Ireland in 664, to study. One of his acquaintances at this time was Chad. He settled at the monastery of Rathelmigisi (Rathmelsigi). His Northumbrian traveling companions, including Æthelhun, died of the plague, and he contracted it as well. He vowed that if he recovered he would become a peregrinus, on perpetual pilgrimage from his homeland of Britain, and would lead a life of penitential prayer and fasting. He was then 25, and when he recovered he kept his vow until his death at the age of 90.
He began to organize monks in Ireland to proselytize in Frisia, in what is now north-western Germany. Many other high-born notables were associated with his work: Saint Adalbert, Saint Swithbert, and Saint Chad.
He had influential contacts with the kings of Northumbria and of the Picts, as well as with Iona, which he persuaded to adopt the Roman dating of Easter. He became bishop of Lindisfarne. He died on the first day that the Easter feast was observed on this date in his monastery, on 24 April 729.
(Romans 4:24-25) ©
We believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, Jesus who was put to death for our sins and raised to life to justify us.
1 John 5:5-6 ©
Who can overcome the world? Only the man who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus Christ came by water and blood: not with water only, but with water and blood.
(Ephesians 4:23-24) ©
Let your spirits be renewed so that you can put on the new self that has been created in God’s way, in the goodness and holiness of the truth.
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Content tagged with UNICEF
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CEB: Capacity Building in Adaptation 23.02.2017
Providing advisory services on how to mainstream climate change considerations into development decision-making, including for the achievement of the MDGs in the LDCs and other countries of Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America;
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Scaling up sustainable land management in Sub-Saharan Africa within the TerrAfrica framework; Pan-African Land Policy Framework; MENARID umbrella programme for sustainable management of the drylands of the Middle East and North Africa region; decreasing vulnerability to climate variability in African river basins;
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Assistance to Least Developed Countries with National Adaptation Programmes of Action (NAPAs); assistance to African countries in launching integrated and comprehensive approaches to adaptation; studies on the socioeconomic and demographic impact of climate change on countries and cities;
CEB: Box 2.13: Reducing child mortality through immunization 23.02.2017
Outstanding progress has been made towards eradicating polio, reducing measles mortality and eliminating maternal and neo-natal tetanus, through such innovative partnerships as the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, the Measles Initiative and the Global Partnership for Eliminating Maternal and Neonatal Tetanus.
CEB: Ms. Henrietta Fore 03.01.2018
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appointed Ms. Henrietta Fore as UNICEF Executive Director after consultation with UNICEF’s governing board.
Open Executive Bio view
HLCP: Humanitarian, security and social stability 23.02.2017
The initiative aims at drawing the attention of decision-makers to the short, medium and long-term impact of the ongoing crisis on the world’s humanitarian security and social stability through a holistic approach.
Documents tagged with UNICEF
CEB: United Nations Children's Fund 23.02.2017
PN: Report of 2nd Session (September 2007, Copenhagen) 23.02.2017
Conclusions of the Second Session of the High Level Committee on Management’s Procurement Network (HLCM PN), Copenhagen, 27-28 September 2007. The Session included updates from the Working Groups on Supplier Access, Procurement Reform in the UN System, Professionalisation, and Vendor Management (UNGM). Other topics discussed were Competition Between Agencies/Organisations and Integrating Procurement and Programmes.
Document reference: CEB/2007/HLCM_PN/2
PN: Report of 6th Session (September 2009, Paris) 23.02.2017
Conclusions of the Sixth Session of the High Level Committee on Management’s Procurement Network (HLCM PN), Paris, 2-4 September 2009. The Session included updates from the Working Groups on Harmonisation, Professionalisation, Supplier Access, Sustainable Procurement and Vendor Management (UNGM and UNCCS).
PN: Report of 10th Session (September 2011, Rome) 23.02.2017
Conclusions of the Tenth Session of the High Level Committee on Management’s Procurement Network (HLCM PN), Rome, 28-30 September 2011. The Session included updates from the Working Groups on Harmonisation, Professional Development, Supplier Access, Sustainable Procurement and Vendor Management as well as status reports on the projects on Vendor Eligibility, Collaborative Procurement, and Harmonisation.
CEB: Humanitarian security and social stability 23.02.2017
Although not necessarily obvious at first sight, with a crisis now hitting the real economy and virtually all spheres of society, the world as a whole could rapidly become a much more dangerous place to live in. This, in turn, could exacerbate the overall impact of the crisis and hamper recovery plans, feeding back more humanitarian, security and social instability and leading the world into a worrying vicious circle.
CEB: Social services, empowerment and protection of people 23.02.2017
Social protection is in urgent need. The economic downturn is already having several implications in the provision of social services and social protection programmes, particularly in developing countries. Fiscal tightness arising from the need for economic stimulus packages to counterbalance the negative effects of financial constraints are already affecting the possibility of weak public structures to face the growing needs for safety nets, and ways of protecting the population from the effects of the major meltdown.
CEB: Foreword by the UN Secretary-General 23.02.2017
At the 13th session of the Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC in Bali, Indonesia, we met to initiate an ambitious new phase of international cooperation on climate change in the light of compelling scientific evidence. At that time, I spoke of climate change as the “defining challenge of our time”.
HLCP: CEB Issue Paper: The Global Financial Crisis and its Impact on the Work of the UN System 15.06.2016
At its meeting in Geneva on 26-27 February 2009, the HLCP discussed extensively a preliminary version of this paper, submitted by the Chair, on the basis of a very rich set of contributions by all agencies. The CEB Paris meeting resulted in a robust exchange of views during which CEB members endorsed the course of action proposed by the HLCP and supported the various initiatives for joint action contained in the Issue Paper prepared by the Chair of the HLCP.
HLCP: Acting on Climate Change: The UN Delivering as One 15.06.2016
Under the leadership of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB) has initiated a process of aligning its strengths to achieve a coordinated action-oriented approach to the global and multifaceted challenge of climate change. This document brings together information on activities undertaken throughout the United Nations system, including its agencies, funds and programmes, as contributed by the respective entities.
CEB: One United Nations: Catalyst for Progress and Change 15.06.2016
CEB’s contribution to the preparatory process of the 2005 World Summit culminated in the publication of "One United Nations: Catalyst for Progress and Change — How the Millennium Declaration is Changing the Way the United Nations System Works", which was launched at the July 2005 session of the Economic and Social Council and was commended by the President of the Economic and Social Council to the Summit.
Bookmarks tagged with UNICEF
The State of the World's Children 2013 15.06.2016
The State of the World’s Children 2013: Children with Disabilities examines the barriers – from inaccessible buildings to dismissive attitudes, from invisibility in official statistics to vicious discrimination – that deprive children with disabilities of their rights and keep them from participating fully in society. The report also lays out some of the key elements of inclusive societies that respect and protect the rights of all children, regardless of disability, and progress in helping all children to flourish and make their contribution to the world.
Direct access: The State of the World's Children 2013
UNICEF publications 15.06.2016
Search our database of publications
Direct access: UNICEF publications
European research network children in armed conflict 15.06.2016
This section contains research documents on children and armed conflict including the research outputs of Network partners.
Direct access: Children in armed conflict
UNICEF child trafficking research hub 15.06.2016
This sections contains a database of documents on child trafficking. Users can research by title, author, editor/organization, topic, keywords, geographic descriptors and year of publication.
Direct access: Child trafficking
World Summit for Children (September 1990) 23.02.2017
On 29-30 September 1990 the largest gathering of world leaders in history assembled at the United Nations to attend the World Summit for Children. Led by 71 heads of State and Government and 88 other senior officials, mostly at the ministerial level, the World Summit adopted a Declaration on the Survival, Protection and Development of Children and a Plan of Action for implementing the Declaration in the 1990s.
Direct access: World Summit for Children (September 1990)
UNICEF Situation of Children and Women's Statistics 15.06.2016
UNICEF supports countries to collect data on the situation of children and women through the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) programme.
Direct access: Situation of children and women
UNICEF News page 23.02.2017
Direct access: UNICEF News page
UNICEF Podcast 15.06.2016
Direct access: UNICEF Podcast
UNICEF TV 15.06.2016
Direct access: UNICEF TV
UNICEF Radio 15.06.2016
Direct access: UNICEF Radio
PN: UN Global Marketplace 15.06.2016
The United Nations Global Marketplace - UNGM - is the procurement portal of the UN System. It brings together UN procurement staff and the supplier community. The United Nations represents a global market of over USD 14 billion annually for all types of goods and services.
Direct access: Global Marketplace
UNICEF on Google+ 23.02.2017
Direct access: UNICEF on Google+
UNICEF on Pinterest 23.02.2017
Direct access: UNICEF on Pinterest
Task Force on Children and Armed Conflict 23.02.2017
The Task Force on Children and Armed Conflict is an inter-agency mechanism that fosters discussion, collaboration and cooperation to advance the children and armed conflict agenda.
Direct access: Task Force on Children and Armed Conflict
UN Plans on Delivering as One in More Ways than One 23.02.2017
Executive Heads of UN funds and programs underscored the imperative of a UN System-wide approach for coherence and delivery, where the UN and partners deliver action and results on the ground within country-specific contexts-- during the Economic and Social Council's 2012 Operational Activities Segment, honing in on "delivering as one".
Direct access: UN Plans on Delivering as One in More Ways than One
UNICEF Vacancies 15.06.2016
Direct access: UNICEF Vacancies
UNICEF on Twitter 15.06.2016
Direct access: UNICEF on Twitter
UNICEF on Facebook 15.06.2016
Direct access: UNICEF on Facebook
UNICEF on YouTube 15.06.2016
Direct access: UNICEF on YouTube
CEB: The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) 15.06.2016
Direct access: The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
UNDG: Results-based Management Handbook 18.04.2013
This handbook development exercise was spearheaded by the Results-based Management (RBM) Task Team of the United Nations Development Group working group on programming issues.
Direct access: Results-based Management Handbook
UNICEF Annual Report 20.03.2017
UNICEF Annual Report 2014 highlights UNICEF’s continued commitment to achieving greater results for children through its programmes in more than 150 countries and territories.
Direct access: UNICEF Annual Report
Agencies tagged with UNICEF
The UN International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) was established by the General Assembly (GA res. 57 (I) (1946) to provide emergency assistance to children in war-ravaged countries following World War II. By GA res. 417 (V) (1950), the UN General Assembly charged it with addressing the needs of children in developing countries. GA res. 802 (VIII) (1953) extended UNICEF'S mandate indefinitely, with an emphasis on programmes giving long-term benefits to children everywhere, particularly those in developing countries, and changed the organization's name to the United Nations Children's Fund but retained the UNICEF acronym.
Statistics tagged with UNICEF
Inter-agency Coordination Mechanisms tagged with UNICEF
CEB: United Nations System Standing Committee on Nutrition (UNSCN) 23.02.2017
The United Nations System Standing Committee on Nutrition (UNSCN) is the food and nutrition policy harmonization forum of the United Nations.
HLCP: United Nations Non-Governmental Liaison Service (NGLS) 23.02.2017
The United Nations Non-Governmental Liaison Service (NGLS) was established in 1975 by several UN agencies to serve as a UN System-civil society interface. Since its creation, the UN General Assembly has recognized the value of NGLS’ work on several occasions, in 1982 and again, in 1993.
HLCP: United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG) 23.02.2017
UNEG was established in January 1984 as the Inter-Agency Working Group on Evaluation (IAWG). It is a professional network that brings together the units responsible for evaluation in the UN system including the specialized agencies, funds, programmes and affiliated organisations. UNEG currently has 45 such members.
HLCP: UN Action Network Against Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict (UN ACTION) 23.02.2017
UN Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict (UN Action) unites the work of 13 UN entities with the goal of ending sexual violence in conflict. It is a concerted effort by the UN system to improve coordination and accountability, amplify programming and advocacy, and support national efforts to prevent sexual violence and respond effectively to the needs of survivors.
HLCP: Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality (IANWGE) 23.02.2017
The Inter-Agency Network on Women and Gender Equality (IANWGE) is a network of Gender Focal Points in United Nations offices, specialized agencies, funds and programmes and is chaired by UN Women. UN Women also serves as the Secretariat for the Network. The Network has played a central role in promoting gender equality throughout the United Nations system and in follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 and the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly (Beijing +5) in 2000.
HLCP: Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) 23.02.2017
The Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) is a unique inter-agency forum for coordination, policy development and decision-making involving the key UN and non-UN humanitarian partners. The IASC was established in June 1992 in response to United Nations General Assembly Resolution 46/182 on the strengthening of humanitarian assistance.
HLCP: The Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) 23.02.2017
The Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) is an open global network of representatives from NGOs, UN agencies, donor agencies, governments, academic institutions, schools and affected populations working together to ensure all persons the right to quality and safe education in emergencies and post-crisis recovery.
HLCP: Inter-Agency Network on Youth Development (IANYD) 23.02.2017
The Inter-Agency Network on Youth Development is a network consisting of UN entities, represented at the headquarters level, whose work is relevant to youth.
HLCP: Inter-agency Standing Committee Taskforce on HIV in Humanitarian Situations 23.02.2017
The IASC Taskforce on HIV in Humanitarian Situations was established in March 2007. The Task Force is composed of UN agencies, NGOs consortia, IOM and the IFRC and meets on a quarterly basis. It is co-chaired by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and a rotating representative of the non-UN membership.
CEB: UN System Network on Rural Development and Food Security 23.02.2017
The UN System Network on Rural Development and Food Security is a global partnership approach towards tackling rural development challenges at the country level. Established in 1997 by the UN Administrative Committee on Coordination (today UN System Chief Executives Board for Coordination).
Executive Bios tagged with UNICEF
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: : SKIN : : Friday December 5th, 8pm-1am at VIVO
Nine Vancouver artists will be exhibiting a one evening media art and live electronic performance, curated and produced by students from VIVO Media Arts Centre’s Career Development Mentorship with media artist, Wynne Palmer. This event is hosted and supported by VIVO Media Arts Centre, made possible by a BC Arts Council Youth Engagement Grant.
‘SKIN’ addresses abstract concepts, derived from the material form of the physical body as a point of departure. The exhibition explores concepts including body architecture, gender, body shame, the remediated body, body as machine, collective health and spatial interactions. The famous Protagorean statement, “man is the measure of all things . . .” (aside from relativism) is an inspiration for using the human structure as a referencing unit of infinite things.
Photo documentation
** Event is free to enter**
Exhibiting/Performing Artists:
Crista Dahl is a senior artist and archivist originating from Seattle, Washington. After moving to Vancouver, Crista joined Intermedia in 1970 and later in 1973 Crista joined the Satellite Video Exchange Society, now VIVO Media Arts Centre. She is the senior advisor, archivist and volunteer coordinator for the media library and archive, which now bears her name.
Zandi Dandizette is a Vancouver transplant from Portland, Oregon and is a recent Emily Carr graduate with a BMA in animation. As an interdisciplinary artist, they try to embody their work whether in design, performance, animation, or curation. Their focus is on colour, gender, shape, and line in accordance to movement.
Alanna Ho is an interdisciplinary artist and composer based in Vancouver, working primarily in the mediums of performance art and installation. She earned a BFA in Contemporary Music Composition and Theory from UVIC, and is an active art educator for youth. Ho’s research currently focuses on body in flux, memory, and long durational compositions.
Anchi Lin is an interdisciplinary artist currently pursuing her Visual Art degree at Simon Fraser University. Her work has manifested within the realm of performance and video art. Negotiating and interfacing with concepts such as language, identity, gender and cultural norms have significantly informed her practice.
Marchien Veen is an interdisciplinary artist with a prime interest in conceptual art and theory. She has received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from UBC with a major in Visual Art. Her work focuses on the manifestation of dissociative disorders through futile labour, repetitive tasks, and illuminating the glitches of the human-machine.
Wynne Palmer is a Vancouver-based interdisciplinary artist, curator and producer. She holds a BFA (Graphic Design + Photography) from U of A and BFA Visual Arts from ECUAD. Her practice focuses on the liminal space where the natural world and technology converge, bringing into question identity, concepts of location and the philosophy of language.
Vincent Parker is an artist and musician working in Vancouver, BC (BFA ECUAD 2009). He has his own instantly recognizable brand of original electronic music that is informed by east van bass music culture and the psychedelic roots of the Pacific Northwest. Everything Vincent does is entirely performed and conducted Live P.A.
Matt Troy is a media and event curator, promoter and producer. Graduating in 2012 from ECUAD and interning for media artist Paul Wong, Matt is now the Director of Vancouver Art & Leisure, hosting live media shows, performances and events.
Corie Waugh is an interdisciplinary artist based in Vancouver, with a focus on process-based projects. Corie has earned her BFA in Visual Arts from UBC Okanagan. Waugh explores the unsaid; her focus is on physical interaction and experience.
Lead Curator/Producer: Wynne Palmer
Curators/Producers: Zandi Dandizette, Alanna Ho, Anchi Lin, Marchien Veen, Corie Waugh.
ABOUT Education & Workshops
Pietro Sammarco is the Education Coordinator at VIVO. Talk to him if you want to host or attend a workshop, or want to get involved in a special project. In addition to running the education department at VIVO, he also teaches audio production, records bands, does music and sound for film, DJ's karaoke, and performs music with several groups.
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Confusion surrounding Raphael’s Portrait of a Young Man in the Czartoryski Collection
Raphaël (1483-1520)
Portrait of a Young Man, c. 1511
Oil on Panel - 72 x 56 cm
Formerly Cracow, Czartoryski Muzeum
Painting disappeared during the Second World War
1/8/12 - Restitution - Cracow, Czartoryski Muzeum - In 2007 we had published an interview with Prince Czartoryski who directs the foundation of the same name and which manages the Czartoryski Museum in Cracow. The prince had explained how he attempted, at times successfully, to recover paintings belonging to the collection which resurfaced after having been looted during the Second World War.
This museum, which holds Leonardo’s Lady with an Ermine, also owned a painting on panel by Raphael representing the portrait of a young man (ill.), a self-portrait according to some. Prince Czartoryski had told us at the time that he did not know its whereabouts.
However, today certain Polish newspapers announced that the representative for the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the restitution of cultural assets had evidence showing that this painting had not been destroyed and that its whereabouts had been determined, in a country where "the law favors its restitution" [1]. But it seems that this is not quite exact. Since then, the Ministry has explained that its words had been misinterpreted : it is true that the work has not been destroyed (a fact established several years ago already), but there is still no indication of where it is located [2].
There is thus no proof that this major work for art history will return anytime soon to its rightful museum, alas.
Didier Rykner, lundi 13 août 2012
[1] The information was published in The Art Newspaper.
[2] According to an article on the website Money.pl.
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Next article in News Items : A Special Study Exhibition on Auguste Morisot at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon
Raffaello Sanzio, called Raphaël (1483-1520)
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Lin-Manuel Miranda receives Hollywood star
Posted on December 4, 2018 by Cristal Rincon in Entertainment
Cristal Rincon
Award-winning composer, lyricist, and playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda left his legacy on Hollywood Boulevard after receiving a star on the Walk of Fame on Friday Nov. 30.
Miranda is best known for creating and starring in the groundbreaking Broadway musicals “Hamilton” and “In the Heights”, along with various TV and film credits, the most recent being “Mary Poppins Returns.” Not only is he an active voice in the entertainment community, but also as an activist.
The work he’s done over the span of his career has impacted many, which was evident by the crowds of people who attended in the audience. Fans lined the street in anticipation as they waited, some having gotten there as early as 3 a.m. Many wore costumes and merchandise from his work, and even engaged in a “Hamilton” sing along as they waited for the ceremony to begin.
The ceremony itself took place outside the Pantages Theatre, a historic spot both in Los Angeles and for Lin-Manuel Miranda, who recalled having performed there for his first musical “In the Heights”, and which is now the home to his star. “It means the world to me that my star is outside this theatre because I love it so much,” Miranda commented during his speech.
Also in attendance to Friday’s ceremony was actress Rita Moreno and singer-songwriter “Weird Al” Yankovic, both of whom also spoke and helped unveil the star. “You have earned this honor—especially because you made a choice to focus the brilliance of your star power for the good of others,” said Moreno. Yankovic added on by describing Miranda as “gifted beyond words,” “absolutely fearless” and “the best human I know”.
The magnitude of the ceremony and the words spoken there prompted many who were watching to shed a few tears, including Miranda himself. It was an emotional day all around.
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Idris Elba to play Quasimodo
A few days ago it was announced that Idris Elba is going to direct, star, and produce, and create the music for an upcoming version of Hunchback. I want to make a joke about him catering the project too but only because The Critic TV show.
This version will be a Netflix original and will be a modern version, so akin to Quasimodo d’el Paris though I doubt it will be a comedy BUT it was the last movie version to be made. However according the vulture and THR articles it will be a “sonic and musical experience,” so a musical.
This will not be Elba’s first foray in directing, producing, or music. He has directed Yardie and the Netflix comedy series Turn up Charlie. He has a music credit on Jay-Z’s American Gangster soundtrack album back in 2007 as well as other credits. He is also a DJ and a musician. Elba is producing the film alongside his producing partner Ana Garanito, Fred Berger (La La Land), and Brian Kavanaugh-Jones (Midnight Special).
The project is also being written by Michael Mitnick, who has written screenplay for The Giver, The Current War and The American.
While this is exciting, I would like to see a release date before I get too hyped.
What are your thoughts on this project? A Modern Musical of Hunchback on Netflix? Or are you more hyped to find what what Josh Brolin means by “Jazzy”? Or making sense of the roles in the Max Ryan version?
(Sources)
http://www.vulture.com/2018/05/idris-elba-playing-hunchback-of-notre-dame-for-netflix.html
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/idris-elba-star-hunchback-notre-dame-netflix-1111638
http://collider.com/idris-elba-hunchback-of-notre-dame-netflix/
Posted in: News ⋅ Tagged: Idris Elba, Michael Mitnick, Netflix
4 Thoughts on “Idris Elba to play Quasimodo”
Jeanne on 05/31/2018 at 10:46 am said:
I tought this was a hypotetycal casting post lol.
Well, I’d like a new version, a modern setting would be interesting.
What about now, where France is against Romani people and persecuting them again?
Adèle Exarchopoulos would make a pretty Esmeralda, she has a raw beauty that is nice, plus she is baby faced and young looking.
Perhaps Marine Vacth? I think she is really gorgeous, but she doesn’t looks very Esmeralda for me, more Fleur.
I would love a casting with french actors (since I’m half french and the story is full french ;) ), Gaspard Ulliel would be a hot Phoebus.
Those are great suggestions I will have to make posts for all three!
Thanks for the suggestions. ^^
Esmee on 05/29/2018 at 8:49 am said:
While I am interested in a new, modernized musical adaptation…my big question is why Netflix did just take the French musical and place it in a modern setting; the music, lyrics…etc. are already done. But, then again, I guess having big names and “A” listers helps both the adaptation and Netflix. If they’re going with a modernization, I do have to wonder, which storyline they’ll go with…especially, if it is a musical. I still want to know what Brolin meant by, “jazzy” and the Max Ryan adaptation would be…interesting. I think the roles need some explanation-who/what are The Giant and The Figment? It’s been roughly twenty years, so I’d be happy with just about anything at this point. And something everyone seems to be good at: announcing a new adaptation without any kind of release date…or in Brolin’s case, changing the release date constantly.
While I would love to a movie adaptation of Notre Dame de Paris, I don’t see it ever being done. Making a musical for a film media might just be easier to make plus it seems like this is a passion project to Elba so I can him making his own songs/music for it.
I do wonder if the reason Brolin mentioned his version of Hunchback a week before Elba’s version was an attempt to get ahead of the news story, but I don’t know.
We’ll just have to wait and see which version gets out first but I hope they all get made and released because the Giant and Figment confuse me as does the word “jazzy.” ^_~
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Writings of note
Strolls through time
For the curious
Musings & trifles
Before becoming a writer, I did jobs as varied as selling Christmas cards in Harrods, playing guitar in a blues band that toured Europe, and making radio programmes for the BBC. Wherever I went, though, I found it was always the trivia that excited me most. The intriguing stuff, the little facts that slip down the back of life's sofa. So I've ended up as the sort of guy who knows that Harrods dropped their apostrophe in 1921 (Sainsbury's still haven't) ... that Istanbul is the only city in the world to straddle two continents ... that The Archers theme tune was produced by a young George Martin ... It's an attitude that keeps life interesting, I find, whatever you're up to at any particular point in time, whether you're living in the West End of London (as I used to), or a village in Suffolk (as I do now).
A Rubik’s cube has more combinations than light travels inches in a century. This is my favourite illustration of how a very small number of factors can produce an absurdly complicated situation. A silly little toy, with only three squares in each of its three dimensions. How can that get complicated? Well, as anyone who's ever tried to solve one just by guessing will tell you, it gets very complicated. The number of possible combinations is 43,252,003,274,489,856,000. Forget billions - that's 43 quintillion and change. (In fact the cube's manufacturers just said ‘billions' in their advertising, figuring that no one would know what a quintillion was. It's a billion billion.) The number of inches light travels in a century, meanwhile, is a mere 37,165,049,856,000,000,000. Or thereabouts.
The Importance of Being Trivial
Copyright © 2009–2019 by The Importance of Being Trivial. All rights reserved.
Website by Chris Fickling Design, Nottingham
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Home Spain Headline Requests for euthanasia increasing in Alicante Province
Requests for euthanasia increasing in Alicante Province
The provincial representatives of political groups, apart from the Partido Popular, who continue to oppose the proposal, have once again defended the right for terminally ill and irreversible patients to have the right to die without suffering where, in the Valencian Community, about a thousand people ask annually for doctors to end their lives.
However, in the Spanish congress, Spain’s Popular Party (PP) has decided to unblock a bill to regulate euthanasia that was introduced by the Socialist Party (PSOE) last spring.
Although it is impossible to know for sure how many people would request euthanasia if it was legalised, according to the approximate estimates of the Right to Dignify Dignity association, the figure approaches 2% of deaths. If we take into account that in 2017 there were 44,800 deaths in the Valencian Community and some 16,000 in the province of Alicante, nearly a thousand Valencians, 350 from the area surrounding Alicante, died wishing that they would have liked someone to alleviate their pain.
The debate on euthanasia was reactivated last week. While the PP presented an amendment to the PSOE bill, and Ciudadanos said that they will give their support, in the PSOE bill, euthanasia would be available both through public and private healthcare, although doctors could declare themselves conscientious objectors. There would be changes to the criminal code, which currently makes euthanasia and physician-assisted death a crime.
The proposal of rights and guarantees of the dignity of the person before the final process of his life, better known as the law of dignified death, defends that there are situations that affect people who, without being at the end of their days, suffer from serious irreversible diseases or disabilities, many of which are progressive, that produce such a level of physical or mental suffering that is considered incompatible with their dignity.
By regulating euthanasia, these patients would not have to suffer the progressive deterioration of their conditions to limits incompatible with their physical and moral integrity. It would be, then, an individual option, which the person could exercise or not according to their own moral values.
According to the president of the right to die rightfully in the Valencian Community, Javier Velasco, “the dignity of the person is based on individual freedom. Just as we have the right to marry or have children, we must also have the right to live our final hour freely.”
The political groups maintain similar positions with regard to euthanasia, except the PP, which strongly opposes its regularization, however, those in favour of regulating euthanasia disagree on the practicalities of the new law. The biggest stumbling block is the proposed creation of control committees charged with authorising euthanasia when two doctors have agreed that a specific case meets the legal criteria.
The PSOE and the PNV feel that these committees would mean “greater security for doctors and patients.” But Podemos and ERC feel that such control is unnecessary and restrictive, and point to countries like Belgium and the Netherlands, which don’t feel they are necessary.
In a study published this year by the Spanish Magazine for Sociology Studies, Serrano-del-Rosal says that 58% of Spaniards answered “yes” to the question of whether they support regulating euthanasia, compared with 10% who said they opposed it “with certainty.” Other respondents chose in-between options, with 15% saying “I think so, but I am not completely sure.” As for assisted suicide, 39% were in favour, 19% against and 14% were mostly favourable but had doubts.
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Jason Dixon 24/10/2018 at 14:43
It’s a difficult subject to talk about and one most people avoid, but I think people should be allowed the means to end their lives in a dignified way if that’s what they want.
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Torrevieja prostitute’s price of silence
National Elections – Big week with 38% of voters still undecided
easyjet agrees £40 million deal with Air Berlin
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Our Great Political Alumni
Memo to Jeb Bush, Allen West, and Jackson Defenders: YOU ARE DUMB.
Today's recurring theme for SPASTIC TOPIC MONKEY FRIDAY is former politicians. Three of them, in fact. One of fairly recent vintage, one from about a decade ago trying to get back up on the old horse, and one from previous centuries. Oh, they're also all horrible people and have horrible people defending them, but that's a given, really.
First and foremost, an update on the rapidly shifting Jeb Bush Iraq clusterfuck, which is very different from the slow-shifting George W. Bush Iraq clusterfuck. When last we left Jeb, he'd tried explaining how hypothetical answers to hypothetical questions about his hypothetical invasion of Iraq given current knowledge was in fact a gross insult and denigration of all the troops who served there.
Yesterday, Jeb Bush decided he loved his career more than he loves the troops, and denigrated the shit out of them by agreeing with the weird new Republican orthodoxy that invading Iraq was a horrible mistake now that we know there weren't any WMDs there. It's weird because not only is it correct (well, mostly), but also because a couple of years ago, nobody was saying it. For fuck's sake, Marco Rubio was saying Iraq was worth it two months ago. Now, not so much. So Jeb's on the right side of history, and it only took him four fumbling days to get there!
Let's check in with Allen West, everyone's favorite prisoner-abusing ex-Congresscritter. What's he up to these days? Apparently saving us all from Sharia law by reading nametags at Wal-Mart. On Monday, West claimed to be in a line at Wal-Mart, because let's face it, he's not earning Target-level speaking fees these days. Anyway, the lane he was in had a sign saying you couldn't buy alcohol in that lane, and because the employee's nametag was, in West's words, "not Steve", he assumed the guy was a Muslim refusing to sell alcohol. Sharia law! Christians don't get to do that! Unfair!
Of course, like every other decision he's made in his life, West was wrong. The clerk couldn't legally sell alcohol because he was underage. His possible Muslim faith based on his foreign-sounding name had nothing to do with it. When he found this out, West immediately retracted the post, apologized for making an unfair and stupid assumption, and realized that maybe his warped worldview wasn't so valid after all. Oh, wait, no, he just buried his mistake in other alleged examples of Christian persecution because he's a fucking coward.
And finally, an online vote selected Harriet Tubman as the top vote-getter in a list of women who could replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill. The poll was non-binding, and no plans are in place to change the $20, but reaction the news story provides a very useful litmus test, because the list of people more deserving to be on the $20 than Jackson is a very large subset of "damn near everyone".
The only reason Jackson's on the $20 in the first place is that when we put him on the bill in the 1920s, we were a lot more comfortable with genocide than we are now. But Jackson wasn't just awful to Native Americans. He was awful across the board. Objections to replacing him stem from a knee-jerk reaction to anything hinting at diversity, "the left", or a break from tradition. You can safely disregard anything anyone defending the Andrew Jackson $20 has to say in the future.
Spastic Topic Monkey Friday
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» Investor Alert
» Are We Nearing the End of the EU Experiment?
Are We Nearing the End of the EU Experiment?
Please note: The articles listed below contain historical material. The data provided was current at the time of publication. For current information regarding any of the funds mentioned in these presentations, please visit the appropriate fund performance page.
By Frank Holmes
CEO and Chief Investment Officer
U.S. Global Investors
Right out of the gate, I want to thank everyone who took time out of their busy schedules to tune in to our gold webcast on Wednesday. I also want to thank Aram Shishmanian, CEO of the World Gold Council, for joining me as our special guest. His deep insights into gold investing were well articulated and highly appreciated. If you happened to miss it live, I urge you to catch the replay, which we’ll be posting on usfunds.com soon. Look for it!
If you’re a serious investor—and because you’re reading this, I have to assume that you are—gold is looking more and more like a crucial trade. Only two weeks remain before United Kingdom voters decide on whether the country will continue to be a member of the European Union (EU) or become the first-ever to leave it. The “Brexit,” as it’s come to be known, is arguably the most consequential political event of 2016—perhaps even more so than the U.S. presidential election in November—with far-reaching implications.
Should the U.K. leave, it will certainly underline the question many people have about the EU’s viability. And remember, this is a group of countries that collectively has the world’s second largest gross national product (GDP), followed by China.
But whatever happens, “the European Union is not going to remain the same,” as Aram put it during the webcast. “The euro is still very unstable, and I think we could easily see an environment in which trade barriers will increase and currency wars will increase. Regrettably, we could have a weaker global economy.”
With this as the threat, “gold’s role is one of wealth protection,” Aram said.
Taking Precautions Against an Unknowable Future
Even Europeans are beginning to lose confidence in the European experiment. The Pew Research Center recently polled nearly 10,500 Europeans from 10 separate EU countries on their favorability of the 28-member bloc. Nearly half of all respondents—47 percent—had an unfavorable view.
What this highlights is the perennial struggle between collectivism and individualism, seen last year in Scotland’s vote on whether to stay in the U.K. (they did), and now this summer’s Brexit referendum. Citizens in both cases—and, indeed, elsewhere—are angered by a small group of socialists who want to dictate many aspects of their daily lives.
Other countries are likewise expressing a need for autonomous rule. Following the attack in Brussels, Poland chose to defy the EU by refusing to accept any more Syrian refugees.
Here in the U.S., Donald Trump’s rise to become the Republican Party’s presumptive presidential nominee underscores the disenfranchisement many Americans feel toward their government and the groupthink of political correctness.
Trust in the European Central Bank (ECB) continues to falter as well. In a blistering note titled “The ECB must change course,” Deutsche Bank called out the central bank for “threatening the European project as a whole for the sake of short-term financial stability.” The ECB’s actions have “allowed politicians to sit on their hands with regard to growth-enhancing reforms.” The longer the bank persists with a negative interest rate policy, the more damage it will inflict upon Europe, Deutsche added.
Meanwhile, Frankfurt-based Commerzbank is considering stashing physical cash in pricey vaults instead of keeping it with the ECB, whose policies are cutting into bank profitability.
Speaking to the World Gold Council’s Gold Investor newsletter this month, former Governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King criticized the ECB’s negative rate policy, saying: “If you repeatedly bring down interest rates to try and persuade people to spend today rather than tomorrow, it works for a while. But they become increasingly resistant to being asked to spend their resources now rather than save for the future.”
Like Aram and others, Governor King sees gold as a likely solution. “There is clearly a need to take some precautions against an unknowable future,” he said, which is the same argument for having health insurance.
Negative rate policies are having a huge effect on bond yields, as you can see below. Over $10 trillion worth of government debt across the globe carried a negative yield as of the end of April. (In a tweet yesterday, legendary bond guru Bill Gross called it “a supernova that will explode one day.”) In Switzerland, three quarters of all government bonds right now actually charge investors interest. Real harm is being done to retirees, who have had to pick up part-time work at Walmart or become Uber drivers to offset lost interest on their savings and pensions.
This is prompting investors to look elsewhere, including the U.S. municipal bond market, which has attracted $632 billion in assets this year alone as of June 1. Of that amount, more than $22 billion has flowed into muni mutual funds, the best start to a year since 2009. Between that year and the end of 2015, the amount of U.S. municipal debt held by foreign investors climbed 44 percent, validating its appeal as an investment with a history of little to no drama, even during times of economic turmoil and periods of rising and lowering interest rates.
$1,400 Gold this Summer?
Joining Aram in seeing the Brexit as further proof of impeding economic troubles is billionaire investor George Soros. After a hiatus of conducting any personal trading, the 85-year-old is back in the game—this time with some bearish investments. In the first quarter, he purchased a $264 million stake in Barrick Gold, the world’s largest gold producer, and a million shares in precious metals streaming company Silver Wheaton. It appears he’s added to both positions, indicating a bet against the broader equity market.
Now, with a Federal Reserve rate hike looking more and more unlikely this month, gold is expected to resume its bull run, according to Australia and New Zealand Bank Group (ANZ) commodity strategist Daniel Hynes. This, along with a possible Brexit, could push the yellow metal to $1,400, a price we haven’t seen in three years this month.
Paradigm Capital also sees the rally picking up where it left off in May, noting that gold’s trajectory so far this year resembles the one it took in 2002, the first full year of the last bull market, which carried the metal to $1,900 in 2011. “The resemblance is rather striking,” Paradigm writes.
The investment dealer forecasts gold to reach nearly $1,400 by year-end after a dip in October. It also maintains its position that this particular bull run will peak at $1,800 sometime during the next three to four years.
Whether or not this turns out to be the case is beside the point. Savvy investors—not to mention central banks and governments—recognize gold’s historical role in minimizing the impact of inflation, negative rates and currency depreciation. This is what I call the Fear Trade, and I always advocate up to a 10 percent weighting in gold that includes gold stocks as well as bullion, coins and jewelry.
Catching Up with Sectors and Industries
Because we’re near the halfway mark of 2016, I thought you’d be interested to see what the top performing sectors and industries were for the year so far.
As for sectors, utilities is on top, delivering more than 15 percent so far. Jittery investors, worried about slow global growth and geopolitical threats, have moved into defensive stocks such as water and electricity providers and telecommunications companies, many of which offer steady dividends in a low-yield world. Financials, as you might imagine, have been hurt by interest rate uncertainty.
Below I’ve highlighted the 10 best performing industries for the year, and interestingly enough, metals and mining companies, particularly those involved in the gold space, lead all others. Spot gold is up 20 percent so far, but amazingly gold miners have doubled investors’ money. Metals and mining companies have rallied more than 53 percent.
Many of the top-performing companies this year had some of the biggest declines last year because of impaired balance sheets. To maintain their performance long-term, they will need to show earnings.
Index Summary
The major market indices finished mixed this week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.33 percent. The S&P 500 Stock Index finished down -0.15 percent, while the Nasdaq Composite fell -0.97 percent. The Russell 2000 small capitalization index lost -0.02 percent this week.
The Hang Seng Composite fell -0.04 percent this week; while Taiwan was up 1.49 percent and the KOSPI rose 1.60 percent.
The 10-year Treasury bond yield fell 6 basis points to 1.64 percent.
Domestic Equity Market
Telecommunications was the best performing sector for the week, increasing by 2.78 percent vs an overall decrease of -0.15 percent for the S&P 500.
H&R Block was the best performing stock for the week, increasing 11.87 percent. The tax-preparation firm reported adjusted quarterly profits that beat estimates, as well as a 10 percent dividend increase.
Amazon, the online retailer and cloud services provider, announced that it will increase investment in India to $5 billion from a previously announced $2 billion. Investment in both retail and cloud operations will be expanded, the company announced.
Financials was the worst performing sector for the week, decreasing by -1.55 percent vs an overall decrease of -0.15 percent for the S&P 500.
Biogen was the worst performing stock for the week, falling -15.19 percent. The biotech giant reported disappointing trial results with one of its more promising treatments. The phase two trial of multiple sclerosis treatment opicinumab produced data that failed to support either the primary or secondary endpoints of the study.
After a long hiatus, George Soros has returned to trading, lured by opportunities to profit from what he sees as coming economic troubles. Worried about the outlook for the global economy and concerned that large market shifts may be at hand, the billionaire hedge-fund founder and philanthropist recently directed a series of big, bearish investments, according to people close to the matter.
The relentless decline in global bond yields argues that underinvestment and excess savings continue to suppress global GDP growth relative to its potential. As a result, demand for long duration equities and fixed income proxies should stay elevated.
The latest FDIC Quarterly Banking Profile made for grim reading. Credit losses are on the rise and loan-loss provisions are following suit. Thus, underweighting banks could prove akin to avoiding land mines.
Raw food prices continue to grind higher, and are likely to receive an assist from a weaker U.S. dollar now that the market is pushing out the imminence of future Fed rate hikes. That should continue to breathe life into agricultural chemicals companies.
Stock valuations are close to multi-decade highs compared to any period outside of the equity bubble in the late 1990s. Furthermore a downward adjustment should be made to the fair value of P/E multiples today due to lower quality earnings as a result of a larger percentage of non-cash based accruals.
The S&P technology sector has been drifting lower in relative performance terms, which is notable given that the broad market has made a charge toward the top end of its trading range. The lack of leadership from this traditionally high beta sector reflects ongoing deterioration in earnings drivers.
Continued weakness in global PMI’s is a result of inventory liquidation that are not fast enough to avoid piling up relative to shipments in many key manufacturing centers. Until demand picks up, this remains a headwind to companies in cyclically sensitive sectors.
The Economy and Bond Market
Bank of America’s analysis of the Census Bureau's Quarterly Services Survey suggests that services spending was stronger than previously estimatedd.
Economic growth in the eurozone was revised higher in the first quarter, clocking in at 0.6 percent, up from the prior 0.5 percent reading. On an annualized basis, growth grew by 1.7 percent. That's the fastest rate in 12 months. Inflation, however, remains far below the ECB's target of near 2 percent.
Based on Bank of America’s aggregated card data, May retail sales ex-autos increased 0.5 percent month-over-month seasonally adjusted, continuing the strength from April.
New questions about the economic outlook have been raised by recent labor data, Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen said in a speech on Monday, just days after a disappointing employment report. Monetary policy is not on a preset course, she said, adding that the Federal Open Market Committee will respond to new data and reassess risks to achieve its goals. Markets give a June rate hike exceptionally low odds, and a July hike is now also seen as unlikely.
Hardly a week goes by without a major international organization cutting its global GDP forecast. This week's downgrade comes via the World Bank, which now sees a 2016 growth rate of just 2.4 percent, down from its 2.9 percent January forecast. Its 2017 growth outlook was trimmed to 2.8 percent from 3.1 percent.
University of Michigan consumer sentiment inched down to 94.3 in the preliminary June release, from 94.7 in May. Notably, long-run (5-10 year) inflation expectations fell back down to its historic low of 2.3 percent from 2.5 percent last month.
Record low 10-year bond yields were recorded this week in Germany and Japan as the Fed backed away from an expected summer rate hike. This week saw the launch of the European Central Bank's corporate bond-buying program, which helped push corporate yields to record lows. The average yield on European investment-grade corporate bonds is now below 1 percent while some issues trade with negative yields. This has caused foreign investors to flock to the much more attractive U.S. rates, providing a source of demand that could keep U.S. government bonds well bid.
U.S. retail sales data are reported on Tuesday. This will provide a gauge on consumer spending as we kickoff the summer shopping season.
The Empire Manufacturing survey released Wednesday is expected to improve from -9 to -4. This would ease concerns about the recent slump in manufacturing data.
Hillary Clinton secured the required delegates to assure her nomination as the Democratic candidate for U.S. president this fall. She will take on presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump and Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson. In recent polling, Johnson is close to the 15 percent threshold required to necessitate his inclusion in debates ahead of the November election. The outcome of the U.S. election is a major source of uncertainty for market participants.
China reports direct foreign investment, retail sales and industrial production figures on Monday. Investors are increasingly concerned about the state of the Chinese economy, especially the amount of bad loans in the system.
The National Federation of Independent Business’s (NFIB) survey released on Tuesday could provide information on the extent of the current slowdown in job creation.
This week spot gold closed at $1,273.92, up $29.72 per ounce, or 2.39 percent. Gold stocks, as measured by the NYSE Arca Gold Miners Index, climbed 3.55 percent. Junior miners underperformed seniors for the week as the S&P/TSX Venture Index traded up 3.15 percent. The U.S. Trade-Weighted Dollar Index clawed back some of the prior week’s losses with a 0.67 percent gain.
Jun-9
U.S. Initial Jobless Claims
Jun-10
Germany CPI YoY
China Retail Sales YoY
U.S. PPI Final Demand YoY
FOMC Rate Decision (Upper Bound)
Eurozone CPI Core YoY
U.S. CPI YoY
U.S. Housing Starts
The best performing precious metal for the week was silver with a strong lift of 5.57 percent. Silver holdings in exchange traded funds are edging toward a record high, sending the metal for its biggest weekly gain since April, reports Bloomberg. Silver buying also increased to an 11-month high, according to BullionVault’s Gold Investor Index which measures a balance of client buyers against sellers. Gold buying rose to a three-month high, with its buyer/seller balance rising to 55.8 in May versus 53.5 in April.
Citizens in the United Kingdom will now be able to buy Royal Mint gold bullion to hold in pension funds, reports Chris Howard, the Royal Mint’s director of bullion this week. Products offered include 100g, 1kg bars, along with a service that allows customers to buy a share of 400 ounce gold bars.
Billionaire George Soros’ bet on gold miners during the first quarter have played out well, reports Bloomberg. Soros Fund Management cut its U.S. stock holdings by 37 percent in the first quarter and bought shares of gold miners along with an ETF tracking the price of gold. Soros made the move in anticipation of weakness in various global markets
The worst performing precious metal for the week was palladium, suffering a loss of 1.78 percent with the majority of the losses coming late in the week. Bloomberg’s industry analyst Eily Ong noted that Norilsk, Russia’s largest nickel and palladium producer, is boosting capital spending by 21 percent in 2016 to accelerate higher production volumes for these metals.
India’s inbound shipments of gold during the month of May are said to have dropped 51 percent from a year earlier. The provisional import numbers show that May shipments declined to around 31 metric tons from 63 metric tons during the prior year. According to a Bloomberg article, gold imports tumbled for a fourth-straight month “as a 16 percent increase in domestic prices since the start of the year kept buyers away.”
Chinese jeweler Chow Tai Fook saw its profit for fiscal year 2016 dive 46 percent, reports Bloomberg. However, as spot gold reached a new high earlier in the week, the company’s shares rose as much as 7 percent to December highs. According to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Catherine Lim, higher gold prices can help reduce the company’s hedging losses, helping to narrow net income declines this year. She added that margins likely reached new lows in fiscal year 2016 given the rise of less-profitable gold jewelry sales and hedging losses.
ANZ Research believes that gold is set to resume its bull cycle, citing last week’s weak jobs data, a subsequent cautious tone by Janet Yellen, along with Brexit worries. Paul Crone, founder of Citrine Capital Management, agrees. “We’re bullish overall on gold because the global economy is pretty poor with China as an issue,” Crone said. “Gold could go as high as $1,400 an ounce.” Lastly, the ECB is also said to be driving gold higher, according to Tai Wong of BMO Capital Markets. “The ECB’s monetary amphetamine has driven gold above the key $1,250 level,” Wong said. “Draghi’s determination to drive rates ever lower fires up investors’ appetite for gold.”.
According to a survey done by Macquarie, mining M&A is set to pick up, with a focus on producing copper assets and pre-production projects in gold, reports Bloomberg. The survey points to organic growth and debt reduction as the sector’s top capital allocation priorities.
Jaguar Mining is the focus of a recent report from PI Financial, which reviews the company’s turnaround since a spiraling downfall forced it into bankruptcy protection in 2013. As the report points out, Jaguar is now under new management, with Rodney Lamond, who has a track record in turning around troubled assets, stepping in as the new CEO earlier in the year. Jaguar is having some very promising exploration results that should help to drive down cost. The company is trading at just 3.6x 2016 Price/Free Cash Flow while compared to its peer average of 12.2x, the company is set up for a significant rerate.
Following a surge in the gold price, China took a breather from adding to its gold reserves in May, reports Bloomberg. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) kept assets unchanged after adding to them for 10 straight months. Last week gold traders cut their gold net long positions by a third, missing out on last Friday’s spike in the metal. In a similar note for gold, the Managing Director at Goldman Sachs has come out saying, “With the S&P 500 close to all-time highs, stretched valuations and a lack of growth, drawdown risk appears elevated.”
Philippines’ new president-elect Rodrigo Duerte has come out warning mining companies to “shape up,” reports Business Insider. Duerte stated that his incoming government might rewrite laws to limit environmental degradation as a result of mining, continues the article. “I have a big problem with mining companies,” he said. “They are destroying the soil of our country.
This week Centerra Gold provided an update regarding its legal proceedings within the Kyrgyz Republic, reporting that its Kumtor gold mine subsidiary is now part of a lengthy criminal investigation. With instruction from the Kyrgyz, several of Kumtor’s senior managers have been advised that they will not be allowed to leave the country. In a statement from Centerra, the company says a Kyrgyz agency for environmental protection has alleged that Kumtor owes an additional $220 million in fees. Both Centerra and Kumtor Gold “strongly dispute” that any actions from their senior management were improper. The positive highlight is that Centerra has three other projects outside of the region which should be funded internally from cash and will potentially double their production.
Energy and Natural Resources Market
Commodities break into a bull market, according to ISI Strategist Ed Hyman. The Goldman Sachs Commodity Index is up about 39 percent from its low, while the CRB Index is up about 21 percent. Similarly, the Bloomberg Commodity Index is up about 20 percent, a dynamic not seen since the rebound of 2009 and 2010.
The best performing sector for the week was the Philadelphia Oil Services Sector Index. The index of service companies rose 6.1 percent for the week as the U.S. oil rig count rose for the first time in 3-months, suggesting that demand for service companies is recovering.
Newcrest Mining, an Australian major gold producer, was the best performing stock in the broader natural resource space after rallying 13.6 percent for the week. The stock benefited from a strong rally in gold prices, leading it to post a fresh 52-week high by the end of the week.
Moody's downgraded 31 of the 58 mining companies placed on review while upgrading only one. A total $165 billion of mining bonds were downgraded, which mainly affected major companies such as BHP, Rio Tinto, Vale, Anglo American and Freeport-McMoRan. Vale, Anglo and Freeport were downgraded to junk.
The worst performing sector for the week was the S&P 500 Supercomposite Trucking Sub Index. The index dropped 2.1 percent for the week as reports showed that truck orders have collapsed to a six-year low, suggesting the activity decline may be worse than feared.
The worst performing stock for the week in the S&P Global Natural Resources Index was Sasol LTD. The South African integrated oil producer dropped 14.4 percent for the week after warning that full year profits may drop by as much as 30 percent, and disclosing impairments for about $770 million.
Plains All American, a leading MLP, reiterated its call for stronger oil prices. A year ago the company called for significant near term risk to crude prices, which materialized through the second half of the year. In Plains’ view, U.S. oil inventories will disappear by year end 2016, allowing for a meaningful recovery in crude oil prices in the second half of this year.
Gold’s rally appears set to continue as Negative Interest Rate Policies (NIRP) backfire. A Reuters report showed that Commerzbank, one of Germany’s largest banks, is considering the possibility of storing billions of euros in vaults, as negative interest rates erode the value of their reserves. The move may be followed by other banks and pensions funds that may seek refuge in gold from the growing NIRP environment in Japan and Europe.
Tom Lee, former Chief Equity Strategist at JP Morgan, thinks oil prices will continue to rise. In a TV interview earlier in the week, Lee argued that the wide spot discount to the futures market of oil at the bottom in February suggests we are entering a long period of recovery that should continue even after the near-doubling of WTI prices.
China is sick and the massive rise of copper inventories is the symptom. This week, the London Metals Exchange warehouses in Asia saw an unprecedented surge in copper inventories, likely as a result of China’s fading appetite for the metal. With China’s Caixin Manufacturing PMI remaining in contraction for the 15th month in May, it is becoming evident that the fiscal and monetary stimulus continues to fall short of expectations.
The performance of commodities may deteriorate as China continues to reduce its stimulus. Total Social Financing in China declined to RMB756 billion in April, from RMB1781 billion in March and consensus forecasts a further decline to RMB300-350 billion in May, according to Deutsche Bank. As monetary policy transitions from loosening to neutral, it is likely that demand for commodities will continue to suffer.
Negative sentiment in China is also becoming visible in the steel market, according to BMO analysts. The most widely used sentiment gauge has collapsed to a 16-month low, with most market participants expecting new steel orders and prices to weaken further over the next month, according to the latest Platts China Steel Sentiment Index (CSSI). The most recent June reading showed a headline of just 15.92 out of a possible 100 points, having dropped by 31.06 points from May, and posting the weakest reading since February 2015.
China Region
Korea’s KOSPI Index was a top performer for the week, rising 1.49 percent.
China passenger vehicle retail sales numbers came in strongly this week, up 14.5 percent year-over-year, up from gains of only 8.1 percent in the April period.
Relatedly, Chinese trade data were slightly better than expected, with exports down 4.1 percent year-over-year (but better than anticipated given the weaker yuan in May), while imports were down only 0.4 percent year-over-year, perhaps signaling improving demand,
Industrials and services names were some of the weakest in the Hang Seng Composite Index over the last week.
Unemployment in the Philippines, which recently held presidential elections, ticked up slightly for the April period to 6.1 percent from 5.8 percent in March, though it remains near multi-year lows.
Industrial Production in Malaysia came in weaker year-over-year than analysts’ expectations, rising only 3.0 percent rather than 3.5 percent.
The Bank of Korea surprised this week with a 25 basis point rate cut, bringing the benchmark rate down to 1.25 percent, as Central Bank Governor Lee Ju-Yeol suggested that additional cuts may be possible if necessary.
This week the Hang Seng Composite Index rose to its 200-day moving average for the first time since last summer’s selloff, though the index has yet to surpass its recent multi-month highs set in April.
After mainland China’s holiday closure this week (Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday) for the Dragon Boat Festival, we get a slew of data from the Asian nation, including FDI, Money Supply, Aggregate Financing and New Yuan Loans in addition to Industrial Production numbers, Retail Sales, Fixed Assets Investment, and May Property Prices, providing investors with more information and insight to the Chinese economy. We’ll also hear next week on the MSCI decision with respect to A-share inclusion in its global emerging market index.
The bilateral U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue summit in Beijing earlier this week continued a now-annual summit first begun under the George W. Bush administration. On a positive note China’s President Xi Jinping opened the talks by stressing extensive common interests, though he acknowledged unnamed “disagreements” that should not lead to “confrontation,” surely referring at least in part to ongoing debate over the South China Sea.
Fears about global growth and politics, including the so-called Brexit and Grexit scenarios and their varying implications, may continue to play outsized roles in global equities markets in coming weeks.
At a press briefing during this week’s U.S.-China Strategive and Economic Dialogue summit in Beijing, China’s finance minister Lou Jiwei made the case that the state can only do so much to confront obvious overcapacity in industrial areas like steel and coal production, since some 52 percent of the steel sector, for example, are private companies.
Emerging Europe
Russia was the best performing country this week, gaining 90 basis points. Brent crude oil gained 1.6 percent and closed above $50 per barrel. Central Bank of Russia cut its main interest rate from 11 percent to 10.5 percent. The decision could mark the start of the new policy easing cycle if annual inflation keeps declining in line with forecasts (5-6 percent by the end of 2016; below 5 percent by May 2017; 4 percent by the end of 2017).
The Russian ruble was the best performing currency this week, gaining 60 basis points against the U.S. dollar. Credit Suisse economist Alexy Pogorelov upgraded Russia’s GDP outlook for the next few years on the back of higher oil prices. He revised the full year GDP forecast for 2016 to -0.3 percent from -1.5 percent, and 2017 GDP was revised up from 1 percent to 1.7 percent.
Energy sector was the best performing sector among Eastern European markets this week.
Greece was the worst performing market this week, losing 4.6 percent. Germany failed to recommend the release of the next loan tranche to Greece. Committee Chairman Eckhardt Rehberg said that the next payment was not disbursed due to outstanding measures that need to be applied by Greece. The disbursement will be discussed again next week.
The euro was the worst performing currency this week, losing 1 percent against the U.S. dollar. Brexit talks are intensifying as the U.K. prepares to vote on June 23. Polls suggest the outcome of the referendum is too close to call, but if U.K. votes to exit the eurozone, other countries may follow.
The health care sector was the worst performing sector among Eastern European markets this week.
Commodities entered a bull market this week as oil traded near its highest close in 10 months. The commodities rally has given a boost to investor sentiment and emerging markets could continue their climb higher with commodities.
The euro-area economy grew faster than previously estimated at the start of the year, driven by investment and a pickup in consumer spending. GDP rose 0.6 percent in the first quarter, slightly higher than the 0.5 percent previously announced. Year-over-year GDP rose 1.7 percent. European Central Bank (ECB) officials have signaled that the bank likely will not need to boost its EUR1.8 trillion stimulus again, despite forecasts showing it would miss its inflation target for at least two years.
Eurozone industrial production (IP) will be released next week and most Bloomberg analysts predict a stronger reading, suggesting a pick up in the industrial sector of the economy. IP is an important tool for forecasting GDP and economic performance.
A survey of more than 10,000 people across Europe shows that more voters are losing faith in the eurozone, suggesting that anti-European Union (EU) sentiment is much wider than Britain. In France, the proportion of people with a favorable view of the EU has plummeted to 38 percent this year, from 69 percent in 2004. A similar drop has been observed in Spain, with the support for EU falling to 47 percent from 80 percent. Countries are dissatisfied with the bloc’s handling of the migration crisis. In Greece, 94 percent of citizens disapprove of the EU’s management of the refugee crisis. Sweden has an 88 percent disapproval rate and Hungary has a 70 percent disapproval rate.
Yields on the 10-year government debt of Germany and the U.K. have hit an all-time low, with the German yield closing at .049 percent on Tuesday and the U.K. yield closing at 1.263 percent. German lender Commerzbank estimates that almost two-thirds of all German sovereign debt outstanding now yields below -0.4 percent, making it ineligible for central bank purchases. As the world’s debt falls into negative territory investors have been pushed into markets that still offer positive returns… U.S. Treasuries.
Poland’s new FX loan plan to tackle issues with the country’s Swiss franc loan problem left bank investors concerned on the potential impact to the financial sector. The new plan estimates banks’ cost to stand at 30 billion zloty in the next 30 years, capping the annual cost at 1 billion per year. An earlier proposal would have cost the industry between 44.6 billion zloty to 67.2 billion zloty, but even with the lower cost (and spreading it over the next 30 years) bank lending could be negatively affected. Most Swiss franc loans opened in 2008 when the zloty was stronger and the Swiss franc was weaker, as the chart below illustrates.
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Leaders and Laggards
Weekly Performance
Change($)
Change(%)
DJIA 17,865.34 +58.28 +0.33%
S&P 500 2,096.07 -3.06 -0.15%
S&P Energy 501.15 +6.84 +1.38%
S&P Basic Materials 299.21 +0.65 +0.22%
Nasdaq 4,894.55 -47.97 -0.97%
Russell 2000 1,163.93 -0.20 -0.02%
Hang Seng Composite Index 2,839.48 -1.11 -0.04%
Korean KOSPI Index 2,017.63 +31.79 +1.60%
S&P/TSX Canadian Gold Index 231.88 +1.84 +0.80%
XAU 90.39 +1.33 +1.49%
Gold Futures 1,277.90 +35.00 +2.82%
Oil Futures 48.95 +0.33 +0.68%
Natural Gas Futures 2.57 +0.17 +7.26%
10-Yr Treasury Bond 1.64 -0.06 -3.53%
DJIA 17,865.34 +154.22 +0.87%
S&P 500 2,096.07 +31.61 +1.53%
S&P Energy 501.15 +11.85 +2.42%
Nasdaq 4,894.55 +133.86 +2.81%
Russell 2000 1,163.93 +49.19 +4.41%
Hang Seng Composite Index 2,839.48 +98.98 +3.61%
Gold Futures 1,277.90 -0.20 -0.02%
Natural Gas Futures 2.57 +0.40 +18.36%
Quarterly Performance
S&P Basic Materials 299.21 +20.73 +7.44%
S&P/TSX Canadian Gold Index 231.88 +47.01 +25.43%
XAU 90.39 +22.30 +32.75%
Oil Futures 48.95 +10.45 +27.14%
10-Yr Treasury Bond 1.64 -0.34 -17.33%
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Centerra Gold Inc.
Jaguar Mining Inc.
Silver Wheaton
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The NYSE Arca Gold Miners Index is a modified market capitalization weighted index comprised of publicly traded companies involved primarily in the mining for gold and silver.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is one of the most widely recognized price measures for tracking the price of a market basket of goods and services purchased by individuals. The weights of components are based on consumer spending patterns.
The Purchasing Manager’s Index is an indicator of the economic health of the manufacturing sector. The PMI index is based on five major indicators: new orders, inventory levels, production, supplier deliveries and the employment environment.
The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index is a broad market indicator for the Canadian venture capital market. The index is market capitalization weighted and, at its inception, included 531 companies. A quarterly revision process is used to remove companies that comprise less than 0.05% of the weight of the index, and add companies whose weight, when included, will be greater than 0.05% of the index.
There is no guarantee that the issuers of any securities will declare dividends in the future or that, if declared, will remain at current levels or increase over time. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index is a free float-adjusted market capitalization index that is designed to measure equity market performance in the global emerging markets. The Thomson Reuters Core Commodity CRB Index is designed to provide timely and accurate representation of a long-only, broadly diversified investment in commodities through a transparent and disciplined calculation methodology. The Hang Seng Composite Index is a market-cap weighted index that covers about 95% of the total market capitalization of companies listed on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
The BullionVault Gold Investor Index tracks monthly private-investor sentiment towards physical gold based on actual trading on BullionVault.
The University of Michigan Confidence Index is a survey of consumer confidence conducted by the University of Michigan. The report, released on the tenth of each month, gives a snapshot of whether or not consumers are willing to spend money.
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The National Federation of Independent Business’s (NFIB) Index of business optimism is based on responses from 1221 member firms.
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The Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index is an unweighted geometric average of commodity price levels relative to the base year average price.
The Bloomberg Commodity Index is made up of 22 exchange-traded futures on physical commodities. The index represents 20 commodities, which are weighted to account for economic significance and market liquidity.
The Philadelphia Oil Service Sector Index (OSX) is price-weighted index composed of 15 companies that provide oil drilling and production services, oil field equipment, support services and geophysical/reservoir services. The OSX Index was set to an initial value of 75 on December 31, 1996.
The S&P Supercomposite Trucking Index is a capitalization-weighted index. The index is comprised of the stocks in the trucking sub-industry.
The S&P Global Natural Resources Index includes 90 of the largest publicly-traded companies in natural resources and commodities businesses that meet specific investability requirements, offering investors diversified, liquid and investable equity exposure across 3 primary commodity-related sectors: Agribusiness, Energy, and Metals & Mining.
The monthly Platts China Steel Sentiment Index is based on a survey, conducted during the last full working week of each month, of approximately 50 to 75 China-based market participants including traders, stockists and steel mill operators.
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U.S. Global Investors, Inc. is a boutique investment advisor specializing in emerging markets and natural resources. Our portfolio managers travel the earth researching opportunities and evaluating risk, all in the pursuit of exceptional performance for our funds.
Explore our no-load mutual funds, ranging from natural resources, emerging markets and infrastructure, to money market, bond and domestic funds. We believe that we are specially qualified to be an integral part of your investment strategy.
The Global Resources Fund takes a multi-faceted approach to the natural resources sector by investing in energy and basic materials. The fund invests in companies involved in the exploration, production and processing of petroleum, natural gas, coal, alternative energies, chemicals, mining, iron and steel, and paper and forest products, and can invest in any part of the world.
The Gold and Precious Metals Fund is the first-no load gold fund in the U.S. We have a history as pioneers in portfolio management in this specialized sector. Our team brings valuable background in geology and mining finance, important to understanding the technical side of the business.
The fund focuses on producers, companies currently pulling gold or other precious minerals out of the ground. These companies, often called “seniors,” generally have the largest market caps in the mining sector.
The World Precious Minerals Fund complements our Gold and Precious Metals Fund by giving investors increased exposure to junior and intermediate mining companies for added growth potential. With a high level of expertise in this specialized sector, our portfolio management team includes professionals with experience in geology, mineral resources and mining finance.
The China Region Fund invests in one of the world’s fastest-growing regions. The China region has experienced many changes since the fund opened in 1994 but we believe the region continues to hold further investment opportunities.
Many countries in the region possess characteristics similar to the United States prior to the industrial revolution: a thriving, young workforce, migration from rural to urban areas and shifting sentiment toward consumption.
The Emerging Europe Fund focuses on a region that shares the same continent as the established economies of western Europe, but has more in common with other emerging markets around the world. Many countries across emerging Europe are rich in resources, have strong banking sectors, healthy economies and lower debt levels than their western neighbors. The fund pursues opportunities tied to the economic growth of these countries, as many are making great strides toward meeting the European Union’s standards. Turkey presents a growth opportunity, with its young, growing population, entrepreneurial mindset and pro-business policies. Several countries in emerging Europe, such as Greece, also stand to benefit from the European economic recovery.
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>> Homepage >> Features >> Opinion
What The Papers Say Apr-May 2014
(No.3, Vol.4, Apr-May 2014 Vietnam Heritage Magazine)
Russia to help with new
www.thanhniennews.com, 31 March
Deputy Prime Minister Vu Van Ninh has asked central authorities to consider Lam Dong Province’s proposal to relocate the site of a future nuclear reactor outside the resort town of Dalat, following years of protest by local agencies.
The National Atomic Energy Institute currently plans to build the new reactor – 30 times larger than Dalat’s current reactor – and a new ‘nuclear centre’ near the Dalat Nuclear Research Centre, which is home to the old reactor inside the city limits of Dalat.
Since the central government announced the plan in 2012, the province has repeatedly asked that the location of the newer, larger reactor be moved to a different location 27 kilometers from Dalat.
Russia will provide $500 million in aid to build the new centre in Dalat and a theory research establishment in Hanoi. The new centre in Dalat is scheduled to break ground in 2015 and complete in 2020.
Corruption in railway project
vietnamnews.vn, 27 March
The Ministry of Transport has decided to launch inspections into railway projects contracted to Japan Transportation Consultants, Inc (JTC) following alleged misuse of Japanese government aid.
Bidding for the projects was organised by the Vietnam Railway Corporation and the Vietnam Railway Authority.
The move follows a report in Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun , which said that JTC had admitted to paying about $780,000 to win a $41 million railway project in Vietnam funded by Japanese official development assistance (ODA).
The accused firm was involved in the ongoing Hanoi City Urban Railway Construction Project (Line 1).
Stricter controls on media
The government has ordered the Ministry of Information and Communications to stop issuing new media licenses and revoke the licenses of those found flouting media regulations.
Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Bac Son said that his ministry is working on a media master plan for the period until 2020, which would be submitted to the Politburo for approval next month.
There are 838 media agencies, including 199 printed newspapers and 67 TV and radio agencies in the country.
A project approved by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung will see upgrades to more than 70 traditional medicine hospitals across the country, from now until 2020.
The project aims to deliver a nationwide upgrade in hospital infrastructure and ensure the use of modern medical equipment. The project would also see oriental and western methodologies combined to enhance treatments and reduce overcrowding.
A child’s garden of English
The Ministry of Education and Training has allowed standard kindergartens to teach foreign languages, based on demands from parents.
The move was made following public concern with the ministry's decision last month to ban nursery schools nationwide from teaching foreign languages.
Small workers
Vietnam had 1.75 million child labourers aged between five and 17, equal to 9.6 per cent of that age group in the country, according to the first National Child Labour Survey.
The survey said that two out of every five of them were under 15 and worked in bars, construction sites, workshops and quarries.
Findings from the survey showed that about one-third of child labourers had to work an average of more than 42 hours per week. This meant most of them did not attend school.
US-VN casino project
Vietnam’s leading asset management group, VinaCapital, said it has made the Iowa-based Pacific Peninsula Group its new partner for a $4-billion casino project near the historic town of Hoi An.
Work at the South Hoi An casino had been delayed after Malaysia’s hospitality investor Genting backed out in September 2012.
Bad news for business
As many as 16,745 businesses have closed down or suspended operations in the first quarter of this year, a 9.6 percent increase over lasr year, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment.
» Badger fights back at buffet breakfast
» Imagining Vietnam
» What The Papers Say July 2013
» What if you were asked to go to spa
» Decompression in the office
» The Shrinking Violet Hotel
» Children in rural poverty
» A way of life that we lose at our peril
» What The Papers Say May 2013
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At Least Seventy One Killed In Myanmar
Posted by Women Against Shariah on Friday, August 25, 2017
Labels: Attack, Killings, Myanmar
From Reuters:
Muslim militants in Myanmar staged a coordinated attack on 30 police posts and an army base in Rakhine state on Friday, and at least 59 of the insurgents and 12 members of the security forces were killed, the army and government said.
The fighting - still going on in some areas - marked a major escalation in a simmering conflict in the northwestern state since last October, when similar attacks prompted a big military sweep beset by allegations of serious human rights abuses.
The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), a group previously known as Harakah al-Yaqin, which instigated the October attacks, claimed responsibility for the early morning offensive, and warned of more.
The treatment of approximately 1.1 million Muslim Rohingya has emerged as majority Buddhist Myanmar’s most contentious human rights issue as it makes a transition from decades of harsh military rule.
It now appears to have spawned a potent insurgency which has grown in size, observers say.
They worry that the attacks - much larger and better organized than those in October - will spark an even more aggressive army response and trigger communal clashes between Muslims and Buddhist ethnic Rakhines.
A news team affiliated with the office of national leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, said that one soldier, one immigration officer, 10 policemen and 59 insurgents had been killed in the fighting.
“In the early morning at 1 a.m., the extremist Bengali insurgents started their attack on the police post ... with the man-made bombs and small weapons,” said the army in a separate statement, referring to the Rohingya by a derogatory term implying they are interlopers from Bangladesh.
The militants also used sticks and swords and destroyed bridges with explosives, the army said.
The Rohingya are denied citizenship and are seen by many in Myanmar as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, despite claiming roots in the region that go back centuries, with communities marginalized and occasionally subjected to communal violence.
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Home → current affairs → Environment and Biodiversity → Science and Technology → Water → Desalinating seawater can ensure water security
Desalinating seawater can ensure water security
current affairs, Environment and Biodiversity, Science and Technology, Water
India has been witnessing severe erosion of its water table. Increasing extraction of groundwater has also affected its quality. Back to back monsoon failure in parts of India has led to great hardship and drinking water had to be transported by rail to Latur in Maharashtra last summer. We are fortunate that India is endowed with vast seawater resources spanning over a dozen states and union territories. Ensuring supply of purified sea water through dedicated network in the region would help people immensely. However, there is no mention of harnessing sea water resources in the draft National Water Policy framework bill, 2016. It is a common perception that conversion of sea water is costly, but this is changing with advancement of technology in the field. Thrust on research and technology upgradation has helped in reducing cost.
Water from the desalination process is suitable for most domestic, industrial and agricultural uses. Seawater desalination is increasingly becoming a vital option for alleviating severe water shortage around the world. Israel now gets 55 per cent of its domestic water from desalination and that has helped turn one of the driest countries into the unlikeliest of water giants (Scientific American: "Israel proves the desalination era is here" by Rowan Jacobsen July 29, 2016). Australia, North Africa, Caribbean Islands, Middle East, South Africa and USA are some of the other countries that have established desalination plans for domestic use. According to UN World Water Development Report, 2014 more than 17,000 desalination plants are now operating in 150 countries worldwide, and capacity can double by 2020. International Desalination Association claims that desalination produces 21 billion gallons of water per day supplying water in arid regions.
In India, a number of desalination plants have been established in states like Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Andhra Pradesh. The largest seawater desalination plant through reverse osmosis (RO) process supplying 100 million litres of fresh water to Chennai has been established. As per Desalination Association of India, there are more than 1,000 membrane-based desalination plants of various capacities ranging from 20 cubic metre (cm) per day to 10,000 cm/day in the country.
Examples of technology across the world
Desalination technologies are advancing rapidly and sea water can now be reclaimed by passing it through RO membranes. In reverse osmonsis, water is singled from a saline solution with dissolved salts by flowing it through a water permeable membrane. The permeate (liquid flowing through water-permeable membrane) is encouraged to flow through the membrane by the pressure differential created between pressurised feed water and the product water. The major energy requirement is for the initial pressurisation of the feed water. Nanotechnology based solutions, especially nano-metal catalysts, are gaining prominence in providing solutions to alleviate water quality problems. Israel has come out with several state-of-the-art technologies. In the US, the largest plant in the Western Hemisphere with state-of-the-art RO facility has been built near San Diego. Researchers of Israel’s Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research have made breakthroughs in membrane technology making desalination much more efficient(Scientific American:ibid). India’s Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) has developed indigenous desalination and water purification technologies. The country’s RO desalination plants primarily intend to meet industrial and potable drinking water requirements.
Is it economically viable?
The costs for desalination have decreased over the years. Water produced by desalination cost just a third of what it did in the 1990s. Israel’s Sorek plant, which is the largest in the world, can produce a thousand litres of drinking water for 58 cents (Scientific American:Ibid). According to Desalination Association of India's estimate, production cost for sea water desalination plant varies between Rs 40 to 50 per cubic metre and the production cost of desalted water from effluent varies from Rs 15 to 50 per cubic metre. Similarly, the production cost of a brackish water desalination plant ranges between Rs 10 to 15 per cubic metre. According to DAE, on an average, the cost of conversion of sea water into desalinated water is about 10 paise per litre water produce. (Source: Reply given by Minister of Science and Technology in Rajya Sabha 23.7.2015). The energy cost which is a major component could be brought down further if solar, wind or tidal wave are utilised.
National water policy should include utilisation of sea water resources for holistic development of country's water resources. The cost of sea water conversion plants may be shared by Centre, states, local bodies and private companies. Under the government’s Sagarmala project where setting up of major development projects have been contemplated in coastal states, groundwater based development should be discouraged. Instead, treated sea water should be used. Ministry of Urban Development plans to develop 100 smart cities in the country. Desalination plants can be crucial for ensuring regular water supply. Thane Municipal Corporation, which has been selected for the smart city project, has proposed to desalinate creek water and use it for drinking purposes. The desalination plant is reported to be established during the year 2017 and on public private partnership mode. This will ensure water security to the people on a long term basis.
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February 12 - Gerald Gardner, founder of the Gardnerian tradition, born June 13, 1884 dies of heart failure, 1964.
The occult tradition of Crowley merged with the spurious fertility-cult anthropology of the followers of Margaret Murray during the 1940's and 1950's to produce a new phenomenon. Around the time that the famous litterateur Robert Graves was writing his imaginative and wholly unreliable White Goddess (1948) about an alleged worldwide cult of the earth and moon goddess, modern witchcraft was being created in the mind of an Englishman named Gerald Gardner. According to his followers, Gardner, who was born in 1884, was initiated into the ancient religion in 1939 by a witch of the New Forest named Old Dorthy Clutterbuck. In fact, Gardner had invented the religion on the basis of his readings of the Murrayites and Aleister Crowley, and his experiences in occult organizations such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and Crowley's Order of the Temple of the Orient. Gardner claim to be the mediator of an ancient religion was spurious, but he launched a growing religious movement that has gained many adherents, especially in Anglo-Saxon countries. Whatever its origins, it has become a small religious movement in its own right.
Gardner's works were very influential in British occult circles, and many contemporary witches, sometimes called Gardnerites, received their credentials through Gardner's Witchcraft Museum on the Isle of Man. The question of legitimacy among British witches is still raging, each accusing the other of concocting his own rituals.
Gardner's reputation suffered somewhat after his death when it emerged that he probably fabricated his academic qualifications. In addition, some people claimed that, contrary to his own declarations, he had invented rather than rediscovered the mystic and ancient religion that came to be called Wicca.
http://GeraldGardner.com
The overall world numbers of the witches must be fewer than a hundred thousand. There are a numerous schismatic ( tending to, or of the nature of) groups. The tenets of witchcraft as it has evolved include a reverence for nature expressed in the worship of a fertility goddess and (sometimes) a god; a restrained hedonism (ethics, the doctrine that pleasure in the highest good) that advocates indulgence in sexual pleasures so long as advocates indulgence hurts no one; the practice of group magic aimed (usually) at healing or other positive ends; colorful rituals; and release from guilt and sexual inhibitions. It rejects diabolism and even the belief in the devil on the grounds that the existence of the Devil is a Christian, not a pagan, doctrine. It offers a sense of the feminine principle in the godhead, a principle almost entirely forgotten in the masculine symbolism of the great monotheistic religions. And its eclectic paganism promotes a sense of the variety and diversity of the godhead.
http://thewica.co.uk/Gerald%20Gardner.htm
Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion An Anthropological Study of the Supernatural Third Edition
Publisher Mayfield
Cassell Dictionary of Witchcraft David Pickering
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Home » Guest Writer » Crossing the Water
Crossing the Water
Most of the years I have let the lights
and miles amaze me, let the lips and hair send
me over the oceans and back, let the legislators
of intelligence publish excuses for my repeated
seductions; for the graves in the war zone,
for the balcony and gazebo, the vine and venom
I could not climb any mountains because
the smoke in my lungs, and the glasses clinking
the eyes on me; the dim, velvety
conversations kept me bound
to the leather wingback, the fire ablaze and young,
no reason to be other than young until
years pressed seed from blossom
and mother enjoyed fulfillment in flower
and flower to be.
This is how the glass reaches the lips
and the liquor courses. This, in every direction
goes as Holiness in sinner and holiness
as Savior. It is that which makes the gods
muscular with goodness, and the devils geniuses
of evil. It is that which maintains what comes
and must go, that change that keeps the world
the same people, the same gods and lack of gods,
the same fugitives and saints
I am no thief. Nothing is, nor ever can be,
~ Seido Ray Ronci
From “The Skeleton of the Crow”
Teaching Moments
MU assistant Professor Seido Ray Ronci, a Buddhist monk, poet, jazz musician and painter, finds delight in frankness.
By Lindsey Howald
Seido Ray Ronci strides into his English 4320 classroom on the first day of the semester, whistling airily. He pulls open a shade to let the winter sunlight in, turns to face his new students, and grins.
Ronci hates this room. He hates this building, this big modernist-architecture block called, with almost unbearable rationality, Arts & Science. “That’s why it’s been marked for destruction,” he tells the postmodern poetry class, all 30 of them who have packed into the cramped-but-functional Room 200. His smile widens. “Because it’s ugly.”
This candor, about a building actually tagged for renovation, is the mark of Ronci’s teaching style. It makes him cool. He stands in front of the class, hands in pockets, building rapport with the artfully placed swear word and a quick, biting sense of humor.
Seido Ray Ronci will give a reading 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the Green Chapel at Memorial Union on the University of Missouri campus, as a part of the Center for the Literary Arts reading series. The event is free and open to the public.
Ronci’s new book of poetry, “The Skeleton of the Crow” (Ausable Press, 2008), spans over 30 years of work.
“You can see that the early poems are really under the influence of poetry, whereas the latter poems are more under the influence of Zen,” Ronci said. “So the early poems tend to be more imagistic. There’s more angst in them; there’s more introspection in them. They’re intense in their own way, whereas the later poems, they’re less poetic; they’re more straightforward; they’re simpler; they’re sparser; and some of them are actually funny. I think it’s an interesting narrative arc.”
Ronci always tells this class, which he has taught at the University of Missouri for nine years, that there are two words that define postmodernism: “Yes, but.” But if we were to add another, it might be “and.” The students sitting in front of Ronci have jazz and hip-hop and indie and vintage country on their iPods. They can watch television and talk on the phone and surf the Internet, all at the same time. They are the type of people who equally enjoy a visit to an art museum and Gap in the same day.
“Postmodernism is about eclecticism,” he tells them.
If this is true, then Ronci is his own subject. He is an assistant professor of English, published poet, half-Italian, ordained Zen monk, amateur painter and jazz musician. His students all like him immediately, and why wouldn’t they? He’s accessible. He’s flexible. He just stands there in jeans and a gray pullover, eyes magnified just slightly behind his glasses, with his knowledge of Charles Baudelaire melding with George Carlin, here to tell you it’s OK to like both, and, especially this, that one is not inherently better than the other.
“I feel so comfortable speaking in his class because, as he told us, there was no right or wrong answer,” said Brianne Garcia, who took the course during the fall semester. “He is so much more laid-back and open-minded than any other English professor I’ve had.”
EDUCATION AND ITS IMPACT
“I know what it’s like to have a good teacher — I had some really great teachers — so I try to be a good teacher,” Ronci said simply, leaning back in a chair in his office. He cleared his throat with a low rumble. He came to MU after earning a Ph.D. in English from the University of Nebraska, where he met his wife, Marly Swick. Swick got a job offer in MU’s English department, Ronci came along as her spouse, and the pair now share a cozy and colorful office on the second floor of Tate Hall.
Ronci grew up believing, above all else, that education was key. His father, a loud, lively Italian, died when Ronci was 14. At the time an altar boy in a nearby Catholic church, Ronci helped the priest administer the last rites. And the last thing his father told him was, “Do well in school.”
Now, Ronci jokes, that’s the one thing he’s continued to do.
“I’ve been in education my whole adult life,” Ronci said. “So I’m still trying to do well in school, you know.”
In context, he meant to use his father’s death as a way to explain how humans can craft meaning out of any of life’s events. But there is something to that. Ronci’s most crucial moments are marked by life-changing educational experiences, beginning in an all-boys Catholic high school in Rhode Island, where he grew up.
“My freshman year, my first day of religion class, my religion teacher came in and wrote, “Religion is shit” on the blackboard and walked out,” Ronci said with a laugh. “And here we are, a room full of Catholic boys in their shirts and ties and jackets, with our hands folded on our desks, and we’re all sitting there in disbelief. … The next day he came back, and … he said, ‘I want you to forget everything you’ve learned about religion until now, OK?’ Then for the rest of the year we studied comparative religion. And it was one of the most profound experiences I ever had.”
Raised by a devoutly Catholic mother, Ronci had never been exposed to any other options.
“It was in that class I was introduced to Buddhism, particularly to Zen, and it resonated with me immediately,” he said. “This made perfect sense to me, … and I continued to read it and study about it through college.”
Unfortunately, in Buddhism, intellectual knowledge of the practice is worthless if you can’t learn to sit still. Ronci could talk ideas but couldn’t nail down the essential and foundational practice of silent meditation. So he went looking for another great teacher. A poster in Boulder, Colo., announcing a talk by Kyozan Joshu Sasaki Roshi caught his eye one day about 30 years ago. After hearing the Japanese Rinzai Zen master speak, Ronci headed for the San Gabriel Mountains in California, where Joshu Sasaki ran a monastery, and signed up for a three-month stay.
“The first week was the most difficult week of my life,” he said. It was physically torturous, for one; he woke up at 3 a.m. to sit for 15 hours a day with few creature comforts, sweating in his robes, his muscles aching.
MONK AS AN ATTITUDE
But the monastery was difficult for Ronci in another way. He had always relied on his ability to express himself, whether in ideological debate or subtle poetry. Language was his weapon. It was his protection. It was what connected him to the world. So when he came to the monastery, this was precisely the first thing his Zen master took away.
“The very first interview I had, he said, ‘What do you do?’ ” Ronci said. “I said, ‘I’m a poet,’ and he laughed at me and said, ‘You will never be a poet.’ And he rang his bell and threw me out. And that was that. … Whenever I would open my mouth, he rang his bell to throw me out. I mean, I couldn’t even say anything. … But the great thing about that was, he robbed me of the very thing I depended most on, which was my intellect and language.”
Ronci was ordained as a Rinzai Zen monk in 1999 and returns to California for annual retreats with his great teacher, who is now 101 years old. In turn, he runs Hokoku-an Zendo, a Zen meditation practice center in Columbia, and acts as faculty adviser for the student-run MU Buddhist Association.
He challenges the stereotype that a monk ought to be a soft, quiet, old man spouting off sound-bytes about loving and kindness. His attitude, like his poetry, is frank and often leaves little regard for delicacy.
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Pieces of a Cloud
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Florence: Uffizi Tickets and Audio Guide
4.0 / 5 43 Reviews
Skip the lines at the Uffizi Gallery, diving straight into a comprehensive, 2-hour audio guide tour of Florence's artistic highlights. The magnificent collection boasts masterworks by Botticelli, Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, and many more.
Spanish, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian
Avoid queuing to Florence's world-famous Uffizi Gallery
Tour the gallery's masterpieces with an audio guide recorded by an expert art historian
See Botticelli's Birth of Venus, as well as other renowned works by Italian greats
Avoid the queues into Florence's renowned Uffizi Gallery and enjoy an enlightening audio guide tour around one of the world's most celebrated collections of art.
The handsome, 16th-century building, just a stone's throw from the banks of the River Arno, boasts some of Italy's most recognisable masterpieces. Originally designed by Giorgio Vasari, the gallery initially served as the offices for the Florentine magistrates, hence the name Uffizi, meaning “offices” in Italian. It now home to works by Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Giotto, Cimabue, Masaccio, and many more.
Amongst the highlights are Botticelli's famous Primavera and Birth of Venus. The latter, depicting the goddess of love's emergence from the sea, is a national treasure and the museum's icon – a crowning example of the Renaissance's masterful expression of beauty and spiritual purity.
Uffizi skip-the-line tickets
Tour staff assistance
Uffizi Gallery, Door 1 - entrance reserved for advanced bookings. A tour assistant will be waiting for you with a yellow "Caf Tour & Travel" sign.
Passport or ID card
• It is recommended to wear comfortable shoes.
Florence: Timed Entrance Ticket to the Uffizi Gallery
Florence: Fast Track Uffizi Gallery Tickets
Ultimate Uffizi: Priority Entrance Small-Group Tour
Florence: Small-Group Uffizi Early Entrance Tour
CAF Tour & Travel
San Diego Cruises & Water Tours
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Working, Stiffed
Tracie McMillan
It's difficult to imagine a more sympathetic figure than Barbara Brooks. A full-time child care supervisor and part-time college student, Brooks is raising five kids on her own in a downmarket Long Island town. In the entire 90 minutes of Roger Weisberg's Waging a Living, a documentary about the working poor set to air on PBS on August 29, few moments resonate more than when Brooks wipes away tears to explain, “The harder I work, the harder it gets.”
Premiering a week after the tenth anniversary of welfare reform, Brooks' on-screen debut also happens to fall precisely one year after Hurricane Katrina thrust poverty back into the national consciousness. This is all the more resonant when one considers the fact that only about 13 percent of Katrina's evacuees were unemployed, according to a Washington Post survey conducted of the storm's refugees in Houston shelters last September. Nonetheless, 60 percent had family incomes under $20,000 a year.
Still, as Weisberg spins a tale of struggling workers, it's really the aftermath of welfare reform, not Katrina, that he is chronicling. Though Weisberg does little to place his work in that context -- a decision that severely diminishes its prospects for political resonance -- the film nonetheless offers a compelling portrait of the working poor.
We meet all four of our protagonists in the film's early minutes. There is Jean Reynolds, 51, leading a household of eight while working as a nursing assistant and serving actively in her SEIU local in northern New Jersey. Next up is Jerry Longoria, a recovering alcoholic who works as a security guard in San Francisco, and who's also an SEIU activist. Mary Venitelli is a recently divorced New Jersey mother of three waiting tables. And then there's Barbara Brooks, whose struggle to get ahead provides the film with its emotional center.
Covering three full years, Weisberg cuts between the subjects' stories throughout the film, with the unfortunate effect of making it difficult to keep each narrative straight. But the chaotic structure actually makes it easier to convey the central lesson: Working poverty isn't just about a lack of money; it's about being trapped in a high-wire act with only the most tenuous of safety nets below.
Indeed, though none of the film's subjects meets with abject destitution, every one of them is no more than a stroke of bad luck away from it. Reynolds only avoids homelessness once she takes a camera crew with her to the local social services office; Venitelli's salvation comes in the shape of a good-hearted boyfriend who already has an SUV big enough to tote her and her kids around. Longoria's status drops a bit when he changes jobs after an argument with his boss -- the film never reveals greater detail than that -- but he continues to plug along. Brooks even manages to convince her employer to let her drop to part-time so that she can return to school, a request she successfully makes with the camera crew present.
The film is a compelling documentary, and those already interested in the plight of the poor will find ample inspiration for outrage. But Waging isn't intended to be just another bit of preaching to the choir; as part of PBS's P.O.V. series, it's being shown in community forums and policy offices. A screening in New York City drew advocates and local officials; one in D.C. drew in federal policymakers and experts; others around the country are being run more as community forums. Apart from simply putting a human face on the problem of poverty, Waging is clearly intended to help foster a call for change, and it's here that it falters badly.
Heart-wrenching as the tales told may be, the filmmakers do little more than tell them. Conveyed with little context beyond intermittent statistics, the stories in Waging do woefully little to counter dominant conservative arguments about poverty. The most glaring omission comes in using three single mothers as subjects without providing any substantive counter to the perennial conservative argument that the solution to poverty is marriage. (Indeed, at a post-screening panel in New York City, conservative Lawrence Mead, a local workfare proponent, raised marriage immediately as an obvious solution to the subjects' problems.) Progressives may reject the idea that marriage is centrally relevant to the issues at hand, but they concede far too much ground to conservatives when they fail to actually articulate a case against that notion.
The film suffers from a similar lack of context concerning the role of welfare reform in creating a series of vicious catch-22s -- even as it fostered a dramatic expansion of programs to help the working poor. For example, Brooks receives a raise from $8.25 an hour to $11. She already depends on a series of government programs designed to support work -- much of which are, in fact, funded with federal welfare money -- but her higher income pushes her over the income limits for child care and medical insurance, and requires her to pay more towards her rent; Brooks estimates that she loses $600 a month in benefits because of her $450 increase in income.
Discussing her prospects, Brooks unabashedly wipes away tears. “I feel like I'm hustling backwards,” she says again and again. But the film doesn't expend much effort connecting the dots between policy decisions and personal experience, leaving the viewer with the same feeling of helpless despair as Brooks. Waging tells the personal stories beautifully -- but does little that will help keep them from being repeated further down the line.
Tracie McMillan frequently writes about poverty, child care, and issues of food access and nutrition education. A Brooklyn-based freelance writer, she has won several national awards for her work in City Limits, a local urban affairs news magazine where she is currently a contributing editor.
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As Common As Dirt
In the fields of California, wage theft is how agribusiness is done.
Tracie McMillan is the author of The New York Times best-seller The American Way of Eating. McMillan is currently a Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan and a senior fellow at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism. You can contact her by visiting her website at http://www.traciemcmillan.com.
Articles By Tracie McMillan
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John Russo & Sherry Linkon
John Russo is the former co-director of the Center for Working-Class Studies and coordinator of the Labor Studies Program at Youngstown State University. Currently, he is a visiting scholar at the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and Working Poor at Georgetown University. He is also managing editor of the blog Working-Class Perspectives.
Sherry Linkon is a professor of English at Georgetown University and a faculty affiliate of the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. Her book, The Half-Life of Deindustrialization, will be published by the University of Michigan Press in 2018. She is the editor of Working-Class Perspectives.
Everybody Knows About Alabama
Doug Jones’s victory and a new play drawing on Nina Simone’s songs illustrate the opportunities and challenges we face in 2018.
John Russo & Sherry LinkonJan 08, 2018
You don't have to live next to me Just give me my equality Everybody knows about Mississippi Everybody knows about Alabama Everybody knows about Mississippi goddam, that's it —“Mississippi Goddam,” Nina Simone We saw Nina Simone: Four Women , a play with music, on the same day Simone was named as an inductee to Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. That alone gave the play extra meaning. But the experience was made even richer by an unusual convergence of culture and politics: The day before, Doug Jones won a special election in Alabama to become that state’s first Democratic senator in several decades. While Jones’s prosecution of two of the KKK members responsible for the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham helped him win support in this year’s election, the bombing also had a profound effect on Simone. Along with the murder of Medgar Evers, it inspired her to begin writing protest songs, including what she called her first civil...
Youngstown, Economic Nationalism, and the Half-Life of Deindustrialization
The closure of an Ohio steel mill sent thousands into low-wage jobs and kicked off a politics of resentment that powers left- and right-wing populist movements today.
John Russo & Sherry LinkonSep 19, 2017
AP Photo/Harvey Georges
In his 60 Minutes interview , Steve Bannon touted his form of economic nationalism and suggested that even Democrats like Senator Sherrod Brown and Representative Tim Ryan, both of Ohio, understood his economic vision, even if they didn’t agree with him. It was fitting that he name-checked Brown and Ryan, as both come from the northeast area of the state, where the history of deindustrialization began 40 years ago. On September 19, 1977—known locally as “Black Monday”—Youngstown Sheet and Tube announced that it was shutting down, kicking off a wave of steel mill closings that would displace more than 40,000 area workers in basic steel and steel-related industries. In the 1970s, deindustrialization was often explained away as part of the “natural economic order.” Borrowing the term from Joseph Schumpeter , economist and business leaders saw the closings as part of an evolutionary process—sometimes called “creative destruction...
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