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Collection, 1978 results 1978
"King Taufa"
The Reverend Collocott (1886-1970) served as a Methodist missionary in Tonga from 1911 until 1924, initially at Ha'apai and from 1915 as Principal of Tupou College. He wrote numerous papers on Tongan myths, legends, history, language, custom...
Collocott Rev. Dr E.E.V.
'Notes ... sur sa vie'
Bishop Navarre (1836-1912) was ordained in 1872. He began a mission on New Britain in 1882. In 1884, he arrived at Thursday Island to establish headquarters and prepare for the expansion of the Catholic Mission to the mainland of New Guinea. In...
Navarre Bishop Louis-Andre
'Notes sur la mission' by Father Jean-Marie Bazin
The Catholic mission was established on Wallis Island by members of the Society of Mary in 1837. Father Bazin was superior of the mission from 1874 to 1896. He then returned to France where he died in 1947.A notebook of 136 pages, with table of ...
Catholic Mission, Wallis Island
A Days March Nearer Home, Vols. 5, 6 & 12: Presbyterian Teachers Training Institute (Tti), Tangoa, Vanuatu, 1947-1973.
Dr Graham Miller and his wife Flora were missionaries in Vanuatu for the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand. They were based on the island of Tongoa (Shepherd Group) from 1941-1947. Dr Miller was principal of the Tangoa Training Institute (TTI) fr...
Miller Rev. Dr J. Graham (1913-2008)
A History in diary form of Civil Aviation in Papua and New Guinea
AU PMB MS 7
Mr Ian Grabowsky, born in Finland in 1899, was actively associated with New Guinea aviation from 1931 to 1937 as a pilot and manager for Guinea Airways Ltd. Between 1962 and 1967, he compiled a history of civil aviation in New Guinea to the year ...
Grabowsky Ian
A History of Henderson and Macfarlane Ltd
AU PMB MS 62
Henderson and Macfarlane Ltd., one of New Zealand's best-known firms, was founded in Wellington (then called Port Nicholson) in 1840 by two Scottish immigrants, Thomas Henderson and John Macfarlane. The company exported timber, mainly kauri,...
Hallett L.
A History of Samoa
Completed in c.1935 - 1937
Brother Henry, a teacher at Leone Boys School, Tutuila, American Samoa, spent 25 years in Samoa.This history, a typescript of 127 pages, was apparently intended for the use of schools in Samoa. A statement on page 127 reads: '... as this out...
Henry Bro. Fred
A History of the Church in its Rotuman setting - an introductory outline
This document was a thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Pacific Theological College, Suva, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Divinity, October 1971.<I>A History of the Church in its Rotuman Setting - ...
Langi Jioni
A Rarotongan-English dictionary
Compiled 1918
Eastman (1881-1974) left England to go to Rarotonga as a missionary of the London Missionary Society in 1913. In 1918 he was transferred to the Gilbert Islands and was stationed at Beru. He was evacuated after the Japanese invasion in 1942 but r...
Eastman Rev. George Herbert
A Rarotongan—English dictionary
A note in the D.S. Marshall’s, Polynesian Journal 1951-1953, (p.183) states that Marshall borrowed the Dictionary from Rev. Murphy in May 1952. (PMB 1335)There is a Ms. note on the title page of the Dictionary as follows:“Note:– This MSS. is the p...
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Atlanta Spotlight | Carla J. Chaney
Carla J. Chaney as its new Chief Human Resources Officer for Equifax, replacing Coretha M. Rushing, who is retiring after 13 years with the company.
Chaney is a human resources leader with more than 20 years of experience and joins Equifax from Graphic Packaging International where she served as executive vice president of human resources and communications. In her role with Equifax, based at the company's Atlanta headquarters and reporting directly to the CEO, Chaney will have global responsibility for the human resources center of excellence, which includes human resources operations, talent management, total rewards and community affairs.
"Chaney brings valuable experience and a global mindset to Equifax. She has a successful history of designing, executing and aligning human resource programs and processes to support business objectives, and I know she'll be a dynamic and collaborative growth leader for this company," said Mark Begor, CEO of Equifax. "She has a history of business partnership and an ability to attract, retain, and motivate top talent. We are energized to have Carla joining our leadership team."
Rushing will spend the next several months working with Chaney in her transition to Equifax.
"Coretha leaves behind a strong legacy of attracting and retaining top talent. She has truly created an inclusive work environment, and Equifax and the HR profession have benefitted substantially from her strong leadership over the past 13 years," added Begor.
Chaney joined Graphic Packaging International in 2013, where she led HR programs and acquisition integrations across the globe, as well as driving improvements to its employee development programs. Prior to her work with Graphic Packaging International, Chaney held leadership positions with Exide Technologies, Newell Rubbermaid and Georgia-Pacific Corporation. She holds a bachelor's degree in industrial and labor relations from Cornell University.
Equifax is a global data, analytics, and technology company and believes knowledge drives progress. The Company blends unique data, analytics, and technology with a passion for serving customers globally, to create insights that power decisions to move people forward. Headquartered in Atlanta, Equifax operates or has investments in 24 countries in North America, Central and South America, Europe and the Asia Pacific region.
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Apple Issues $1 Billion Green Bond After Trump's Paris Climate Exit
Posted by News Fetcher on June 14 '17 at 10:03 AM
By msmash from Slashdot's for-green department:
An anonymous reader shares a report: Apple offered a $1 billion bond dedicated to financing clean energy and environmental projects on Tuesday, the first corporate green bond offered since President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris climate agreement. The offering comes over a year after Apple issued its first green bond of $1.5 billion -- the largest issued by a U.S. corporation -- as a response to the 2015 Paris agreement. Apple said its second green bond is meant to show that businesses are still committed to the goals of the 194-nation accord. "Leadership from the business community is essential to address the threat of climate change and protect our shared planet," said Lisa Jackson, Apple's vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives.
US Weighs Restricting Chinese Investment In Artificial Intelligence
By msmash from Slashdot's ongoing-tussle department:
An anonymous reader shares a Reuters report: The United States appears poised to heighten scrutiny of Chinese investment in Silicon Valley to better shield sensitive technologies seen as vital to U.S. national security, current and former U.S. officials tell Reuters. Of particular concern is China's interest in fields such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, which have increasingly attracted Chinese capital in recent years. The worry is that cutting-edge technologies developed in the United States could be used by China to bolster its military capabilities and perhaps even push it ahead in strategic industries. The U.S. government is now looking to strengthen the role of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), the inter-agency committee that reviews foreign acquisitions of U.S. companies on national security grounds. An unreleased Pentagon report, viewed by Reuters, warns that China is skirting U.S. oversight and gaining access to sensitive technology through transactions that currently don't trigger CFIUS review.
Congressman Steve Scalise Among 5 Shot at Baseball Field
By msmash from Slashdot's news department:
From a New York Times report: A lone gunman opened fire on Republican members of the congressional baseball team at a practice field in a Washington suburb Wednesday, using a rifle to shower the field with bullets that struck five people, including Steve Scalise, the majority whip of the House of Representatives. Two members of Mr. Scalise's protective police detail were wounded as they exchanged gunfire with the shooter in what other lawmakers described as a chaotic, terror-filled ten minutes that turned the baseball practice into an early-morning nightmare. Police said a total of five people were shot, two critically. Standing at second base, Mr. Scalise was struck, in the hip, according to witnesses, and collapsed as the shots rang out, one after another, from behind a chain-link fence near the third-base dugout. Witnesses said Mr. Scalise, of Louisiana, "army crawled" his way toward taller grass as the shooting continued. Alternative source: NBC News, CNN, BBC, NPR, WashingtonPost, and WSJ.
Marissa Mayer, Yahoo's Ex-CEO, Says She's Looking 'Forward To Using Gmail Again'
By msmash from Slashdot's moving-on department:
Former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, who resigned on Tuesday after running the company for about five years, appeared at a conference in London today. At the conference, Mayer said one of the things she was looking forward to in her post-Yahoo life was using Gmail again. "I am always faster when using a tool I designed myself," she added.
Indian Scientists Are Experimenting With Drone Seed-bombing To Plant a Forest
By msmash from Slashdot's making-an-effort department:
An anonymous reader shares an article: "I'm basically from that area (Gauribidanur in Indian state of Karnataka); son of a farmer, came to academia... keen to bring back my younger days, when the river used to flow for three to four months a year. I need to rejuvenate it," says professor KPJ Reddy over a phone conversation. It's quite apparent from his tone that this experiment means a lot to him. A day earlier, on June 5, World Environment Day, Reddy, in collaboration with two other scientists at the Department of Aerodynamics, Bangalore, Dr H N Science Centre, and the Department of Forest, collectively held their first ever drone-seeding trial on the banks of river Pinakini in the Gauribidanur area in Karnataka's Kolar district. "For that, the only way is to reach by air. Doing it with big aircraft is expensive, and take-offs and landings are a problem. So the only way to do it is through drones," he says, when we meet a few days later at the IISc Campus in Bangalore. Over tea with professor S N Omkar, chief research scientist at IISc, he further elaborates on their plans. "What we have in mind is to at least seed 10,000 acres, and we will be doing this every year, for three consecutive years," he says.
A 12-Month Campaign of Fake News To Influence Elections Costs $400K, Says Report
By BeauHD from Slashdot's money-is-power department:
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bleeping Computer: A 77-page report released today by cyber-security firm Trend Micro explores the underground landscape of fake news, where anyone can buy influence and create artificial trends to serve personal interests. An examination of Chinese, Russian, Middle Eastern, and English-based underground fake news marketplaces reveals a wide range of services available on these portals. The report explores several websites where customers can purchase services ranging from "discrediting journalists" to "promoting street protests," and from "stuffing online polls" to "manipulating a decisive course of action," such as an election. According to researchers, the typical clients of such services are interested in warping the way others perceive reality. These services are usually used for character assassination, swaying political trends, or creating fake celebrities. Trend Micro has compiled a "fake news" price catalog in its report, which is imbedded in Bleeping Computer's article. Some of the most expensive services include $200,000 for helping to instigate a street protest via fake news articles, $50,000 to discredit a journalist, and $400,000 to influence elections.
Roomba Inventor Launches 'Tertill', a Weed-Killing Robot For Your Garden
By BeauHD from Slashdot's couch-potato department:
mcpublic writes: iRobot veteran and Roomba co-inventor, Joe Jones is a modest man with a big mission: to create robots that make agriculture more efficient, less tedious, and yes, maybe even one day feed the world. After a decade at Harvest Automation building greenhouse robots, his new team at Franklin Robotics has developed Tertill, an affordable, waterproof, solar-powered robot that continuously whacks weeds around your yard. MIT Technology Review calls Tertill "a Roomba for your garden." Today the Kickstarter campaign went live and already they are well on the way to their goal. According to the Kickstarter campaign, Tertill is solar powered, chemical free, waterproof and Bluetooth compatible. It doesn't actually pull the weeds from your garden, instead it uses a "spinning string trimmer" to trim the weeds down to ground level. Since Tertill will be trimming weeds daily, the company says the weeds will eventually run out of nutrients to continue growing, and therefore will die and decompose. How does it know what's a weed and what's a plant? "A plant tall enough to touch the front of Tertill's shell activates a sensor that makes the robot turn away. A plant short enough to pass under Tertill's shell, though, activates a different sensor that turns on the weed cutter. Because Tertill's approach is height-based, put one of the provided plant collars around short plants until they are tall enough for Tertill to recognize. When Tertill approaches the collar, it will recognize it and turn away."
Multi-Million Dollar Upgrade Planned To Secure 'Failsafe' Arctic Seed Vault
Posted by News Fetcher on June 13 '17 at 11:21 PM
By BeauHD from Slashdot's rope-and-duct-tape department:
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: The Global Seed Vault, built in the Arctic as an impregnable deep freeze for the world's most precious food seeds, is to undergo a multi-million dollar upgrade after water from melting permafrost flooded its access tunnel. No seeds were damaged but the incident undermined the original belief that the vault would be a "failsafe" facility, securing the world's food supply forever. Now the Norwegian government, which owns the vault, has committed $4.4 million to improvements. [T]he vault's planners had not anticipated the extreme warm weather seen recently at the end of the world's hottest ever recorded year. "The background to the technical improvements is that the permafrost has not established itself as planned," said a government statement. "A group will investigate potential solutions to counter the increased water volumes resulting from a wetter and warmer climate on Svalbard." One option could be to replace the access tunnel, which slopes down towards the vault's main door, carrying water towards the seeds. A new upward sloping tunnel would take water away from the vault. An initial $1.6 million will be spent on investigating ways to improve the access tunnel, with the group's conclusions delivered in spring 2018. "They are going in with an open mind to find a good solution," said Aschim. "$4.4 million is for all the improvements we are doing now." The vault cost $9 million to build.
Google Searches Show That America Is Full of Racist and Selfish People
By BeauHD from Slashdot's national-psyche department:
gollum123 shares a report by Sean Illing via Vox: "Google is a digital truth serum," Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, author of Everybody Lies , told me in a recent interview. "People tell Google things that they don't tell to possibly anybody else, things they might not tell to family members, friends, anonymous surveys, or doctors." Stephens-Davidowitz was working on a PhD in economics at Harvard when he became obsessed with Google Trends, a tool that tracks how frequently searches are made in a given area over a given time period. As a barometer of our national consciousness, Google is as accurate (and predictive) as it gets. In 2016, when the Republican primaries were just beginning, most pundits and pollsters did not believe Trump could win. After all, he had insulted veterans, women, minorities, and countless other constituencies. But Stephens-Davidowitz saw clues in his Google research that suggested Trump was far more serious than many supposed. Searches containing racist epithets and jokes were spiking across the country during Trump's primary run, and not merely in the South but in upstate New York, Western Pennsylvania, Eastern Ohio, rural Illinois, West Virginia, and industrial Michigan.
HBO, Netflix, Other Hollywood Companies Join Forces To Fight Piracy
By BeauHD from Slashdot's powers-combined department:
New submitter stikves writes: It looks like media and technology companies are forming a group to "fight piracy." The Verge reports: "A group of 30 entertainment companies, including power players like Netflix, HBO, and NBCUniversal, have joined forces today in an effort to fight online piracy. The new group is called the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), and the partnership, while somewhat thin on specifics, will allow the content creators involved to pool resources to conduct research and work closely with law enforcement to find and stop pirates from stealing movies and TV shows. The first-of-its-kind alliance is composed of digital media players, networks, and Hollywood outfits, and all recognize how the internet has paved the way to an explosion in quality online content. However, piracy has boomed as a result: ACE says that last year saw 5.4 billion downloads of pirated films and TV shows." I'm not sure how these statistics hold against real revenue loss (or the imaginary one), however this might be a development to watch for.
Kim Dotcom Loses Latest Battle To Recover Seized Assets
By BeauHD from Slashdot's finders-keepers department:
The Justice Department wants to keep Kim Dotcom's millions of dollars worth of seized assets, citing the Megaupload founder's fugitive status. The department filed a brief on Friday, which cited his fugitive status as well as a lack of evidence supporting claims that poor health was preventing him from entering the U.S. CNET reports: Dotcom has been in the news since 2012, when the FBI and the US Department of Justice shut down file-sharing site Megaupload and charged the site's operators with the piracy-related offenses. The U.S. government also seized $42 million in assets. Dotcom, alongside Mathias Ortmann, Bram van der Kolk and Finn Batato, are wanted for trial in the U.S. on 13 counts, including copyright infringement, conspiracy to commit racketeering, money laundering and wire fraud. In February, the New Zealand High Court found that Dotcom, a New Zealand resident, and his co-accused were eligible for extradition to the United States.
11 States Sue Trump Administration's Energy Department After Weeks of No Movement On Efficiency Standards
By BeauHD from Slashdot's legally-enforceable department:
An anonymous reader quotes a report from ABC News: New York, California and nine other states sued the Trump administration Tuesday over its failure to finalize energy-use limits for portable air conditioners and other products. The new standards would reduce greenhouse gas emissions, save businesses and consumers billions of dollars, and conserve enough energy to power more than 19 million households for a year, but the U.S. Department of Energy has not met a requirement to publish them by now, according to attorneys general who filed the lawsuit (PDF) against the DOE in federal court in San Francisco. That means the standards are not legally enforceable. The other states in the lawsuit are: Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Vermont, Washington, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Oregon and Maryland. The City of New York is also a plaintiff. The energy efficiency standards at issue in the lawsuit also cover walk-in coolers and freezers, air compressors, commercial packaged boilers and uninterruptible power supplies. There is currently no federal energy standard for air compressors, uninterruptible power supplies or portable air conditioners, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit seeks a court order requiring the DOE to publish the new standards as final rules.
Play Store Downloads Show Google Pixel Sales Limited To 1 Million Units
By BeauHD from Slashdot's nothing-to-gloat-about department:
While Google has yet to release official sales numbers for its flagship Google Pixel smartphone, a Play Store app may shed some light on roughly how many units are in circulation. The Pixel Launcher, which is installed by default on the Pixel and Pixel XL, just crossed into the "1,000,000-5,000,000" install tier, leading us to assume that Google has finally sold 1,000,000 Google Pixel units. Ars Technica notes that "the Pixel is seen as Google's answer to the iPhone, but considering Apple sells 40 to 50 million iPhones in a quarter, Google has some catching up to do." From the report: This calculation is complicated by the fact that Google Play doesn't show exact install numbers; it shows installs in "tiers" like "100,000-500,000." So most of the time, we won't have an exact Pixel sales number -- except when the Pixel Launcher crosses from one download tier to another. So guess what just happened? The Pixel Launcher just crossed into the "1,000,000-5,000,000" install tier (you can see some third-party tracking sites, like AppBrain, still have it listed at 500,000). So for this one moment in history, eight months after launch, we can say Google finally sold a million Pixel phones. The Play Store device targeting ensures no one other than Pixel owners can download the Pixel Launcher, and the install count doesn't include sideloading. The most popular sideloading site, APKMirror, has more than 1.3 million downloads on just a single version of the Pixel Launcher, so we know that sideloaders actually outnumber legitimate Pixel Launcher users. There are some statistically insignificant root shenanigans you could pull to download the Pixel Launcher from the Play Store on a non-Pixel device, but there is no way the number of sold Pixels is higher than 1 million units at this point in time.
Ask Slashdot: What Are Some 'Best Practices' IT Should Avoid At All Costs?
By BeauHD from Slashdot's look-the-other-way department:
snydeq writes: From telling everyone they're your customer to establishing a cloud strategy, Bob Lewis outlines 12 "industry best practices" that are sure to sink your company's chances of IT success: "What makes IT organizations fail? Often, it's the adoption of what's described as 'industry best practices' by people who ought to know better but don't, probably because they've never had to do the job. From establishing internal customers to instituting charge-backs to insisting on ROI, a lot of this advice looks plausible when viewed from 50,000 feet or more. Scratch the surface, however, and you begin to find these surefire recipes for IT success are often formulas for failure." What "best practices" would you add?
Apple Mac Computers Are Being Targeted By Ransomware, Spyware
By BeauHD from Slashdot's sophisticated-attacks department:
If you are a Mac user, you should be aware of new variants of malware that have been created specifically to target Apple computers; one is ransomware and the other is spyware. "The two programs were uncovered by the security firms Fortinet and AlienVault, which found a portal on the Tor 'dark web' network that acted as a shopfront for both," reports BBC. "In a blog post, Fortinet said the site claimed that the creators behind it were professional software engineers with 'extensive experience' of creating working code." From the report: Those wishing to use either of the programs had been urged to get in touch and provide details of how they wanted the malware to be set up. The malware's creators had said that payments made by ransomware victims would be split between themselves and their customers. Researchers at Fortinet contacted the ransomware writers pretending they were interested in using the product and, soon afterwards, were sent a sample of the malware. Analysis revealed that it used much less sophisticated encryption than the many variants seen targeting Windows machines, said the firm. However, they added, any files scrambled with the ransomware would be completely lost because it did a very poor job of handling the decryption keys needed to restore data. The free Macspy spyware, offered via the same site, can log which keys are pressed, take screenshots and tap into a machine's microphone. In its analysis, AlienVault researcher Peter Ewane said the malicious code in the spyware tried hard to evade many of the standard ways security programs spot and stop such programs.
Tesla Model X the First SUV Ever To Achieve 5-Star Crash Rating in Every Category
By msmash from Slashdot's going-forward department:
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has awarded the 2017 Tesla Model X five-star crash safety ratings in every category. From the company's blog: More than just resulting in a 5-star rating, the data from NHTSA's testing shows that Model X has the lowest probability of injury of any SUV it has ever tested. In fact, of all the cars NHTSA has ever tested, Model X's overall probability of injury was second only to Model S. Model X performs so much better in a crash than gas-powered SUVs because of its all-electric architecture and powertrain design. The rigid, fortified battery pack that powers Model X is mounted beneath the floor of the vehicle creating a center of gravity so low that Model X has the lowest rollover probability of any SUV on the road. No other SUV has ever come close to meeting and exceeding this rollover requirement.
FCC Can't Cap the Cost of Cross-State Prison Phone Calls, Court Rules
By BeauHD from Slashdot's across-state-lines department:
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: The Federal Communications Commission does not have the authority to cap the cost of prison and jail phone calls within states, an appeals court ruled in a decision today, dealing a massive blow to inmates and their advocates who have spent years litigating caps on the cost of such calls. Over several years, the FCC, under Democratic leadership, moved to cap the cost of calls for inmates. Activists argued that prisoners were effectively being extorted by private companies charging exorbitant rates -- a move that benefited private prisons and the states that got cuts of the revenue. Some of those states joined with companies in appealing the FCC's rules. The agency first moved to cap rates across state lines, and then, later, within states. Today, the court ruled that the FCC had overstepped when it attempted to regulate the price of calls within states. In the majority opinion, the court left little wiggle room for advocates of price-capping, with the possible exception of the cross-state caps, which are a minority of calls made by inmates. The opinion vacated not only the agency's proposed caps for in-state calls, but said the agency also lacked justification to require reports on video calling services. It also vacated a provision that would ban site commission payments.
The New York Times Is Expanding Comments With the Help of Google's AI
By msmash from Slashdot's AI-to-rescue department:
An anonymous reader shares a Recode report: The New York Times says it is going to expand the availability of online comments from 10 percent of articles to 80 percent by the end of the year, without adding more moderators to its staff. How are they going to do this? With a machine-learning algorithm, of course. The Times today is rolling out a new structure of comment moderation using software from Google called Perspective, developed by the company's incubator, Jigsaw. The Moderator tool will automatically approve some comments and help moderators wade through others more quickly.
Hello's Sleep-tracking Kickstarter Hit, Which Raised Over $42M In Three Years, Collapses
By msmash from Slashdot's collapse department:
Reader AmiMoJo writes: A sleep-tracking tech start-up founded by a Briton, which was one of Kickstarter's biggest success stories, has collapsed. Hello raised more than $2.4m (1.9m pound) for its Sense bedroom monitor via the crowdfunding site in 2014, and went on to attract a further $40.5m. Private backers included Singapore's sovereign wealth fund Temasek and Facebook Messenger chief David Marcus. Hello confirmed it would "soon be shutting down", via Medium's news site. The equipment produced a unique score for the previous night's sleep and aimed to wake the owner up at the best point in their sleep cycle.
Google Hires Key Apple Chip Architect To Build Custom Chips For Pixel Phones
By msmash from Slashdot's musical-chair department:
A recent hire at Google indicates big changes are coming for future versions of the Google's Pixel phone. Manu Gulati, an Apple micro-architect who worked on the company's chip development for nearly eight years, has just joined Google. From a report: Gulati started working at Apple in 2009, and was instrumental to the company's efforts to build custom chips for the iPad, the iPhone and Apple TV. Apple began using its own chips in 2010, starting with the introduction of the iPad in 2010, which was powered by the company's A4 chip. To this day, the company uses custom-designed microchips for each of their devices, which make it possible to optimize processors both for performance and energy consumption. In the industry, these integrated chips for mobile devices are also known as SoCs, or "systems on a chip." In contrast, Google relied on a chip designed and manufactured by Qualcomm when it introduced its first Pixel phones last fall. The same chip is being used by a number of other Android phone manufacturers, including HTC, LG, Lenovo and Asus -- all of which goes to say that these phones all offer very similar performance specs. Qualcomm has become the de facto-manufacturer for higher-end Android phone chips, making it harder for the companies to differentiate their devices from one another.
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Truthers confronts civilians and soldiers in front of USS Midway - San Diego
Posted by Old Denmark on January 29, 2012 at 2:00am
San Diego AE911Truth Action Group Reaches Out to Military Community...
By Ann Capotosto, San Diegans for 9/11 Truth
On the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, many commemorations were being held across the nation. While an official ceremony to show support for the war in Afghanistan was taking place on the deck of the retired USS Midway in San Diego, a group of 9/11 activists was set up across the way with an impressive 40-foot-long display of photos and information on what really happened that fateful day.
Air Force Lt. Col. David Gapp (Ret.) educates passersby about 9/11 Truth in the same uniform he wore in the latest ad from the Remember Building 7 campaign
This is no ordinary band of street activists. San Diegans for 9/11 Truth includes an impressive group of experts who give one Sunday per month to freely share their collective knowledge on the subject. On hand were Dwain Deets, former NASA Chief of Aerospace Projects Director; Ret. Air Force Lt. Col. David Gapp, former crash site investigator; Ted Muga, former Naval aviator, retired Commander and retired Pan Am pilot; Jerry Bischoff, retired architect; and Ginger Gainer, retired American Airlines flight attendant and purser. Members of Veterans for Peace also provided support – including Vietnam and Iraq War vets.
The day started inauspiciously as the display was being set up. A couple walked by and the woman pointed to one of the banners with quotes from noted military officials. "Look, honey, Gen. Wesley Clark," she said. They stopped to read the banner and the expressions on their faces dropped as they realized the purpose of the display. The man turned in anger and yelled to us, "Cowards! None of you served!" Immediately Ted Muga pointed over to the USS Midway and replied, “I flew in Vietnam and served on that very vessel.”
We feared that was going to be the tone for the day – especially given the media hype to mark the anniversary – but the rest of the day was very smooth as servicemen and servicewomen, firemen, police, pilots and flight attendants all filed by on their way to the Midway. Many stopped to peruse the boards and ask questions.
On the east end of the display was a TV with a loop of the powerful 15-minute documentary from AE911Truth, Architects and Engineers: Solving the Mystery of Building 7 – narrated by Ed Asner. I was standing by the TV when a man riding by on his bicycle stopped to watch. I stood by silently letting him take it in, and witnessed utter shock come over him as he watched the footage of Bldg. 7 collapsing. "That’s a controlled demolition!” he exclaimed. “I know, I’m a demolition expert!" It turns out that he is a disabled retired Navy Seal. He had never seen this footage before.
I called Dwain Deets over and the two of them started talking. It was very evident that this man knew what he was talking about. It also turns out that he was making his way across the U.S. on his bicycle, living on the streets. His disability award is not enough to live on.
There were several New Yorkers who stopped by including a young woman who lost a relative in the towers and wanted to know what happened, a firefighter who was a first responder at Ground Zero who suffers yearly with pneumonia, and servicemen, active and retired, all asking questions. Some wanted to argue, but for the most part they left with a more open mind and many more questions than when they started.
Dwain Deets (right) built scale models to show the difference in size between San Diego’s tallest building and WTC 7, the third skyscraper to be destroyed on 9/11
Hundreds of free DVDs and flyers were given away, some subtitled in Spanish. Many foreign visitors stopped to chat. For the most part, they are far better informed than the average American. Late in the afternoon, an Air Force officer attached to the Department of Homeland Security stopped to question Dave Gapp about the appropriateness of wearing his uniform. Gapp replied that it was an official ceremony and he was allowed.
Then Dave told the gentleman point blank, "I used to believe the official story, and then woke up one day when things stopped making sense. You need to look into this." They shook hands and the officer went on to the Midway ceremony, but I did notice that he came back afterwards and hung back and watched. A seed had been planted.
A display dedicated to the casualties of the 9/11 wars attracted this disabled veteran
Late in the afternoon, a young wheelchair-bound veteran came by with his mother. Both of his legs were missing above the knees, and one hand was gone. The scars on his arms were still pink. He was locked onto a display dedicated to the disabled veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. He stared and stared at a photo of a Marine in dress blues with an artificial leg. The pain on his face was palpable and I had to walk away to compose myself. He was still there when I returned fifteen minutes later, this time further down the line looking at photos of the buildings in mid-collapse. His mother took a DVD and said he wanted to go to the showing of the new full-length AE911Truth documentary, 9/11: Explosive Evidence – Experts Speak Out, which the group was showing at a community center that evening. The Final Edition of this DVD will be available in early February.
My husband, Mike Chickey, and I make the drive from L.A. to San Diego once a month in order to be able to stand with this amazing group. The rules are simple, no shouting or bull-horning allowed. Each person is treated with respect and encouraged to investigate the trail of 9/11 Truth on their own. We supply the breadcrumbs for free!
Comment by Nikki on January 30, 2012 at 6:31pm
I applaud your efforts especially since the San Diego area has such a strong military mindset.
Comment by theGuild on January 29, 2012 at 3:25pm
Subtlety can sure make the "other side of the story" more attractive ... even to those who believe they're immune to it's influence , i also tend to employ this delicacy of approach when feel the need to enlighten others regarding 9/11... just that it's delivered in such a way as to make them feel blind not to have noticed it :)
Of course, if the truth gets too close .... the manipulators can easily create another fracture to buckle the truth - which is why the only way to truly end this "Evil Game" is to end their rule .
Comment by rtaylortitle on January 29, 2012 at 2:22pm
I greatly respect your efforts. We all try to remain positive, but I fear after the passage of NDAA the freedoms, liberties and natural rights we have are about to be removed. If Ron Paul is not nominated (or murdered in the process)...then, it's time for the guillotines.
Comment by DTOM on January 29, 2012 at 1:03pm
Speak softly and carry a big stack of DVD's; you will go far...
Comment by Tara on January 29, 2012 at 11:19am
Awesome!!!!
Comment by Marklar on January 29, 2012 at 5:57am
Totally sweet truth action. I love it.
Dr Yuri Zhivago posted a status
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www.officialpatriotslockerroom.com
Deutschsprachiges Forum des Deutschen Sport Tischfußball Bund e.V. » Turniere (International, national, regional) »
Antworten: 0 • Hits: 4
#1 von hong wei , 26.02.2019 07:42
Now that Kyler Murray has finally announced that he is choosing to continue forward with a career in professional football Eric Rowe Jersey , it’s hard not to wonder where he’s going to end up.A 21-year-old out of the University of Oklahoma, and a two-sport phenom who excelled in both football and baseball, Murray is arguably the most intriguing quarterback entering the 2019 NFL Draft. He capped off his junior year with the Sooners by throwing for over 4,300 yards with 42 touchdowns and just seven interceptions, leading them to a 12-2 season and winning the 2018 Heisman Trophy.Murray has franchise quarterback written all over him, and some NFL team will make him its quarterback of the future in April. Chances are it won’t be the New England Patriots. But, just for the sake of offseason discussion and entertainment, let’s imagine that it was.Let’s imagine that Bill Belichick has his sights set on Murray, and he trades up into the front half of the first round to ensure that he can take him. Or, perhaps due to his size, Murray slides down toward the bottom of the first round (or possibly even out of it — no quarterback under six feet tall has gone in the first round in over 60 years, and Murray is just a mere 5-foot-10), and Belichick is right there to scoop him up.Kyler Murray to the Patriots? Heck Mike Gillislee Jersey Salute to Service , it would be the most exciting thing to happen in New England since鈥?well, winning the Super Bowl in February. We would have a Heisman-winning quarterback, who made all kinds of headlines in college football last year, backing up Tom Brady in 2019. And whenever Brady does eventually decide to retire, we would already have a quarterback ready to take over who is just as intriguing as Brady himself. Forget Sam Darnold and Josh Allen, and whatever newbie replaces Ryan Tannehill in Miami. The Patriots would still have the most exciting quarterback in the AFC East. I don’t have a crystal ball or anything, so I can’t predict how Murray’s career would turn out. But working in New England under Belichick and/or Josh McDaniels, it’s hard to imagine that Murray wouldn’t at least be a pretty solid NFL quarterback. We’d be going from “Tom Brady and the New England Patriots” to “Kyler Murray and the New England Patriots.” Sounds kind of fun, doesn’t it?But don’t forget that we’re just using our imaginations here. It doesn’t seem likely that Belichick would target a quarterback like Murray in the draft; Murray is a big name prospect, and Belichick tends to lean toward the quarterbacks that fly under the radar. Hence, Tom Brady getting drafted in the sixth round in 2000.Also, with Brady still playing at a high enough level to win Super Bowls, the Patriots aren’t necessarily in the market for a successor just yet. It might be another year or two before a legitimate heir to the throne is chosen.But still James Develin Jersey , just imagine watching Roger Goodell stroll to the podium and announcing, “The New England Patriots select鈥?Kyler Murray, quarterback, Oklahoma.” You can’t look me in the eye and tell me that wouldn’t be a blast. If you’ve been a football fan for a while, then you’re plenty accustomed to seeing Tom Brady deliver clutch fourth quarter drives to win football games. It’s been his thing since 2001, and it has contributed heavily to his earning of “GOAT” status. Well, that and the six Super Bowl rings.But, a handful of Brady’s game-winning drives have happened in the Big Game itself. Even though the Patriots’ offense wasn’t much of a spectacle this past Sunday in Super Bowl 53, they were still tied 3-3 with the Rams in the fourth quarter, and Brady chose the perfect time to drive the Pats down the field and put Sony Michel in position to score the go-ahead touchdown.Brady has delivered a game-winning drive in five of New England’s six Super Bowl victories, with the exception being Super Bowl 39. Which drive was the best? Let’s give a quick rundown of each one.Super Bowl 36: Against the heavily-favored St. Louis Rams, Brady, at the time just an unknown 24-year-old backup quarterback Authentic LaAdrian Waddle Jersey , took the ball with a little over a minute left and the game tied 17-17. He drove the Patriots right down the field and put Adam Vinatieri in position for a game-winning field goal. Patriots 20, Rams 17.Super Bowl 38: Brady found himself in a very similar situation just two years later, as the Patriots and Carolina Panthers were tied 29-29 with a little over a minute left. Thanks to John Kasay’s kickoff landing out of bounds, the Patriots took the ball at their own 40-yard line. From there, it was basically a cakewalk for Brady to once again put Vinatieri in position for the winning field goal. Patriots 32, Panthers 29.Super Bowl 49: In this game, Brady engineered not one, but two touchdown drives to beat the Seattle Seahawks. Trailing 24-14 in the fourth quarter and going up against the “Legion of Boom” defense that Seattle boasted back in the day, Brady led a 68-yard drive culminating with a touchdown pass to Danny Amendola. Then on their next possession, Brady did it again, this time hitting Julian Edelman for the go-ahead score. And then, of course, Malcolm Butler came along to steal the show and clinch the victory. Patriots 28 Limited Shaq Mason Jersey , Seahawks 24.Super Bowl 51: Tom Brady led New England’s game-winning drive in overtime, which might have just seemed like any old game-winning overtime drive. But the Patriots only had the opportunity to play in overtime because Brady led them back from an incredible 25-point deficit against the Atlanta Falcons. We all know the story from there: Patriots win the overtime coin toss, Brady takes them down the field, and James White runs it in for the win. Patriots 34, Falcons 28.Super Bowl 53: After a defensive battle, Brady was finally able to get the edge on the Los Angeles Rams in the fourth quarter. On the most productive drive the Patriots had all game, Brady took them down the field, connecting with Rob Gronkowski on an incredible diving catch that brought them within the five-yard line, and then handed off to the rookie Michel for the go-ahead touchdown. On their next possession, Brady set up Stephen Gostkowski for a game-clinching field goal. Patriots 13, Rams 3.Brady has had so many clutch fourth quarter drives, it’s hard to keep count. But when it comes to my personal favorite, I always get pulled back to February of 2002 at the New Orleans Superdome. That field goal drive to win New England’s first ever Super Bowl was as clutch as any quarterback performance in NFL history Drew Bledsoe Jersey Salute to Service , and it’s typically something you would expect from an experienced veteran, an MVP-type quarterback. It’s certainly not something you would expect to see from a 24-year-old backup who hadn’t even started for a full season. It’s not like Brady had done anything in Super Bowl 36 that really made you jump out of your seat. He only threw for 145 yards in the game. His only touchdown was a result of Bill Belichick’s gritty defense forcing “The Greatest Show on Turf” to turn the ball over.But when the lights were at their brightest, and the Patriots needed him to come through against the best team in the NFL, the inexperienced kid from San Mateo, California took the keys and gave them an opportunity to win the game. It was at that moment when we realized that we might just have something special in Brady.Seventeen years and six rings later, we were certainly right. You might have your favorite Super Bowl-winning Brady drive, but mine will always be that first one in New Orleans. I doubt anything will ever top it for me.
hong wei
www.authenticsminnesotavikings.com
Sprung zu: Deutschsprachiges Forum des Deutsch... | - Turniere (International, national, ... | - Regeln und Regularien (Klären, was ... | - Material (Tipps und Tricks) | - Historie (Anekdoten von früher) | - Allgemeines
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Muslims Attack Christian Protesters in Egypt, Over 100 Injured
By Mary Abdelmassih
(AINA) -- Muslims attacked Coptic Christian protesters at Maspero thrice on Saturday, killing one and injuring over 100. The first attack occurred near midnight when two bearded Muslims wearing Salafist attire attempted to enter the rally via an entrance that was not guarded by security but by the Christian youth who were checking all persons at the entrance. One or both of the Muslims opened fire with guns. One escaped and the other was apprehended by the Christian youth and subsequently handed over to the police. His identity papers showed that he was called Ramadan Abdallah, graduate of al-Azhar high school.
At the same time another Muslim group was attacking the protesters from the bridge overlooking the site where the sit-in is staged. According to eyewitness Emad Abdelmalak from Assuit, who was also injured, a minibus stopped at the bridge overlooking the sit-in site, a dozen men came out of it carrying Molotov cocktails and stones. He said the Salafis were very organized, they came in minibus, attacked and disappeared.
Five Christians were shot, one seriously in the eye, in these two attacks, said Father Mettias Nasr, one of the Rally organizers, to Al Ahram newspaper.
The third attack occurred at nearly 1 AM when the Muslims of Boulak, a poor area near Maspero, came with guns and Molotov cocktails. They surrounded the Christians on all sides and fired guns and threw Molotov cocktails at them. Scores of Christians were severely injured and taken away to the Coptic Hospital. A boat in the Nile belonging to the TV authorities was completely torched (video).
Hannan, a Copt who was working at the rally canteen, told Coptic activist Mariam Ragy "We were shocked when we heard shots, and Molotov cocktails, empty bottles and stones were hurled at the crowds."
Samuel Sobhy, one of the rally organizers, said he was attacked by a man with a knife, who injured his leg and hand. The Muslim attacker was caught and turned over to the police. Sobhy said that Muslims came to disrupt the protest, but as soon as Copts heard of the attacks, they started to flock to Maspero .
Fearing that protesters may be killed, Father Filopateer Gameel read the absolution of sins for all Christians present.
Father Botros from Moqattam Church called Way TV, a US based television network, saying the same thing happened during the Muslim attack on them. "These are not thugs, they are criminals hired by Security authorities and the army to break up the Coptic sit-in. The army and the security should be held accountable. We have rights and we will take them." He said that his church as well as other churches will go to Maspero tomorrow after mass to join in the protest.
Father Filopateer Gameel said that he had received a threat last night from a number of Muslims that they will attack the protesters and subsequently informed the security authorities, who told him they could not do anything and he should call the army. He held the Interior Minister el-Essawy responsible for what happened and for failing to perform his duty. He said the minister said on TV that this sit-in has to end by any means, and therefore, he gave the "green light" to the Muslims to carry out their threat.
The Copts have held an open-ended sit-in in Maspero, in front of the State TV building, since May 7, demanding the release of seventeen Christians unjustly detained and sentenced by a military court for 3-years on March 16, as well as over 400 others detained unjustly. They are also demanding the Muslim perpetrators who torched the church in Soul, Moqattam, Abu Qorqas, Embaba and Alexandria on New Year's Eve be brought to justice.
Copts have called for a million-man rally on Sunday, May 15.
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Millions of Brits forced to survive on food donations
in Food Quality / News / UK News —
Nearly a million people have been forced to survive on donations from food banks, according to a new report.
A worrying 913,138 people sought emergency food supplies in the last year, due to poverty.
The report highlights the plight of the working poor – those people who are in full-time employment, but are unable to afford the essentials such as food, because of increasing bills and taxes.
This is a stark contrast to the numbers of people relying on food banks in the year before, as figures show that between 2013-14, just 346,992 sought emergency supplies from food banks.
And that figure only takes one food bank into consideration – meaning that the numbers are likely to be far higher.
The Trussell Trust said that rising living costs, low pay, underemployment and welfare cuts have led to an epidemic where people cannot afford to pay for food.
Its statistics showed that 83 per cent of Trussell Trust food banks reported that benefits sanctions have caused more people to be referred to them for emergency food.
Half of referrals to food banks in 2013-14 were a result of benefit delays or changes.
Chris Mould, chairman of the charity said that this is just the tip of the iceberg.
He added: “It doesn’t include those helped by other emergency food providers, those living in towns where there is no food bank, people who are too ashamed to seek help or the large number of people who are only just coping by eating less and buying cheap food.
“In the last year we’ve seen things get worse, rather than better, for many people on low-incomes. It’s been extremely tough for a lot of people, with parents not eating properly in order to feed their children and more people than ever experiencing seemingly unfair and harsh benefits sanctions.”
He added that the numbers are shocking in 21st century Britain, and are unlikely to get any better unless the government takes step to curb energy costs, reform the welfare system so that it helps the most impoverished people and introduces the living wage.
Sadly, such measures are unlikely under the current regime, and what’s more, those who are on the lowest incomes are often demonised by the mainstream media.
In fact, not only are those who are unemployed and forced to live on £64 JSA a week denounced as ‘scroungers’ by the media, but even people who have no choice but to live on donations from food banks are now being targeted.
A recent story which appeared in the Mail on Sunday launched an attack on the Trussell Trust foodbanks by sending an undercover journalist to receive donations.
The story which used loaded and emotive language claimed that the journalist was able to “stagger” away with bags of food, no questions asked. The implication of course being that people are taking advantage of the free donations.
But the newspaper prompted a backlash after claiming that no questions were asked, but later in the article, it stated that their undercover reporter was asked a series of questions about his unemployment status, including his name, address, date of birth, phone number and reasons for visiting.
And despite the ‘newspapers’ attempts to refuse to let the pesky facts get in the way of a rant, the attack on poor people failed miserably, as the Trussell Trust charity announced that donations had soared by 100 per cent after the Mail’s attempts to kick the the poor and its veiled suggestion to put desperate people through even more humiliating tests and checks backfired spectacularly.
Responding to the article, the charity said: “The Trussell Trust feels that these undercover methods, used by Daily Mail journalists, to enter the premises of our voluntarily run food banks is an unacceptable attempt to tarnish not only the name of the Trussell Trust, but also the valuable efforts of the 30,000 volunteers who selflessly give up their time to provide a valuable service to people in real need.”
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Tags: food, foodbank. food bank, hunger, starvation
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What is an Autism Spectrum Disorder?
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a condition that affects a person’s ability to interact with the world around them. ASD has wide-ranging levels of severity and varying characteristics. No two people on the autism spectrum are alike.
The term autism spectrum disorder includes autism, Asperger’s syndrome and pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PPD-NOS).
ASD is a neuro-developmental disability thought to have neurological or genetic causes (or both). However, the cause is not yet fully understood and there is no cure. A person on the autism spectrum has difficulties in some areas of their development, but other skills may develop typically.
ASD affects around 1 in 100 to 1 in 110 people of school age, with males being around four times more likely to be affected than females.
People on the autism spectrum have difficulties in the two main areas of:
social communication and interaction
restricted or repetitive behaviours, interests and activities.
Communication for people on the autism spectrum
People on the autism spectrum often have difficulty with communication. They may have difficulty expressing their needs. Some people on the autism spectrum never develop language, while others might have good verbal language skills.
For those who do develop language, they may have difficulties using appropriate grammar and vocabulary, and in constructing meaningful sentences. They may misunderstand words, interpret them literally or not understand them at all. Other people’s feelings and emotions can be difficult to understand.
Social interaction for people on the autism spectrum
People on the autism spectrum can find social skills and social communication very difficult.
This may mean that they appear disinterested in others, ‘aloof’ or unsure of how to engage in social interactions. They may have difficulty using or interpreting non-verbal communication such as eye contact, gestures and facial expressions, or appear disinterested in the experiences and emotions of others.
Establishing and maintaining friendships can be challenging for some people on the autism spectrum.
Some people on the autism spectrum appear to be withdrawn and can become isolated – others try very hard to be sociable, but may not seem to get it right. There is a range of help available, including assessment, education programs and family support.
Characteristics of ASD
There is a range of behaviours commonly linked with ASD. These may include:
language – absent, delayed or abnormal developmental patterns
play – isolated, repetitive, a preference for predictable play, difficulty with imaginative play, such as pretending that a box is a boat or a stick is a horse
body movements – stereotypical behaviour, such as flapping and toe walking, and other behaviours that may cause self-injury, such as hand biting
restricted or obsessive behaviour – with favourite topics, objects, places, people or activities
rituals and routines – these bring some order to chaos and confusion. A change to routine can result in the person displaying high levels of stress, anxiety or acting out
tantrums – can be a way to express extreme confusion, stress, anxiety, anger and frustration when unable to express their emotions in another way
sensory processing differences – difficulties processing certain sounds, colours, tastes, smells and textures. People may seek and avoid particular sensations. Some people will have difficulty with discriminating sensory information too, for example hot versus cold.
(Better Health Victoria)
Assessment for ASD
There is no medical test for diagnosing ASD. ASD is diagnosed through observation by a multidisciplinary team of health professionals. Health professionals use the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM, to diagnose autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The latest version of the Manual is DSM-5. It reflects the current understanding of ASD, based on research. The DSM-5 made some key changes to the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis. There’s now a single diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder which replaces the different subdivisions: autistic disorder, Asperger’s disorder and pervasive developmental disorder – not otherwise specified. There’s also a separate diagnosis of social communication disorder.
Click here for diagnosis information from – Raising Children Network
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Venetta Symonds
Chief Executive Officer and President
Mrs Symonds assumed the role of chief executive officer (CEO) and president for BHB in April 2012. She is responsible for the strategy and operations of the entire organisation, which encompasses medical, senior care, mental health services, a range of outpatient services and all support functions. Mrs Symonds also oversaw the Acute Care Wing construction project, which was completed in 2014. Prior to becoming CEO, she held the role of deputy CEO from November 2006, 26 years after first joining BHB as a radiographer. Mrs Symonds sits on the Bermuda Health Council, and is a member of the International Women’s Forum & Leadership Foundation Bermuda Chapter and the Bermuda College Nursing Education Strategic Team. She previously served on the Bermuda Employers’ Council.
Michael Richmond MD
Dr Richmond joined BHB as chief of staff in August 2017, assuming responsibility for clinical care and quality at the hospitals. He leads BHB’s team of medical and support personnel. All BHB medical chiefs and the vice president of Quality & Risk Management report to this position. Prior to joining BHB, Dr Richmond served as chief medical officer at Hamad Medical Corporation and chief executive officer of Hamad Medical Corporation’s Women’s Hospital in Qatar. He brings to BHB extensive knowledge of healthcare and hospital management. Dr Richmond obtained his medical degree from the University of Aberdeen and specialised in anaesthetics at the Royal College of Anaesthetists in the UK and College of Anaesthetists Ireland.
William Shields
Mr Shields joined BHB as chief financial officer in 2017, taking responsibility for financial strategy and reporting, and managing the Finance, Admitting, Materials Management, Procurement and IT departments. He reports to the chief executive officer and the Board. Prior to arriving in Bermuda, Mr Shields was executive director of EY, a health advisory practice in the UK. He worked in the UK National Health Service for almost three decades, most recently with the Imperial College NHS Trust, where he led a recovery of the Trust’s financial and operational performance and held subsequent positions of chief financial officer and chief executive.
R Scott Pearman
Mr Pearman was appointed as chief operating officer in 2011. He is currently responsible for Diagnostic Imaging, Pathology, Mental Health Services (adult, child and adolescent), Substance Abuse, Intellectual Disability, Human Resources, Food Services, Environmental Services, Laundry and Facilities Management. Having joined BHB as employee labour relations manager, Mr Pearman was appointed director of Human Resources in 2000 then vice president of physician relations in 2006. He was promoted to chief of business development in 2010. In 2017, the COO remit was expanded to include the Mid-Atlantic Wellness Institute. Mr Pearman serves on the Bermuda Government Labour Advisory Board and the Bermuda Employers’ Council Arbitration Committee.
Judy Richardson
Chief of Nursing
Ms Richardson assumed the newly created position of chief of Nursing, Quality and Risk Management in 2009, having worked at BHB for 25 years. She is responsible for BHB’s nursing and allied health professionals throughout the organisation. Having started her career as a registered nurse, Ms Richardson has almost 20 years’ experience in frontline nursing. She was appointed quality improvement coordinator in 1999 and took on the role of chief nursing administrator two years later. In 2003 Ms Richardson was promoted to the senior management position of director of Quality and Risk Management.
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Jean Moorcroft Wilson: A mixture of feelings in the poets’ verdict
'Even in more hard-headed military terms, it would be difficult to argue that the First World War was a positive venture'
08 November, 2018 — By Jean Moorcroft Wilson
A WRITING career devoted mainly to First World War poets has left me with an extremely divided view of that conflict.
There is no denying that the war called forth admirable qualities from those involved in it – courage, a far greater appreciation of comradeship and a less inflexible attitude towards class and gender divisions, among them.
In the words of Ezra Pound, there was: “Daring as never before … /Young blood and high blood,/Fair cheeks and fine bodies;//fortitude as never before//frankness as never before.”
Another unexpected benefit were the works of art which came out of it in music, painting and literature. For there was, as Pound’s poem Hugh Selwyn Mauberley shows, some poetry of great power, beauty and insight, inspired by extreme emotions and written under great pressure. Work by poets such as Siegfried Sassoon, Isaac Rosenberg, Charles Sorley, Edward Thomas and Robert Graves, as I discovered in writing about them, need no special pleading to be included among the finest verse of the early 20th century.
Wilfred Owen is almost universally acknowledged to be the greatest of them all.
Yet however wonderful Owen’s war poetry is, it quickly becomes clear that his greatest poems deal with the other, negative, side to events of 1914-1918 – the waste of the millions of (mainly young) participants, what Owen calls “The pity of war”. And, as he demonstrates time and again, “the poetry is in the pity”.
In a poem like Futility, for instance, which opens with the narrator instructing his fellow-soldiers to “move” the dead body of a simple country lad “into the sun” in a desperate hope that it might bring him back to life:
Always it woke him, even in France,
Until this morning and this snow.
If anything might wake him now
The kind old sun will know.
Think how it wakes the seeds –
Woke once the clays of a cold star.
Are limbs so dear-achieved, are sides
Full-nerved, still warm, too hard to stir?
Was it for this the clay grew tall?
As Pound again reminds, those who volunteered did so for a variety of reasons, “some from fear of weakness,/some from fear of censure”, some “from love of slaughter”, but all walked “eye-deep in hell”, from which, if they were lucky enough to survive, they rarely escaped.
Even in more hard-headed military terms, it would be difficult to argue that the First World War was a positive venture.
Yes, the Allies won, we all know, but as we also suspect, the punitive treatment of the Germans at the Treaty of Versailles contributed largely to the advent of the Second World War with its equally devastating loss of life and suffering. Let us not “celebrate” the First World War this weekend so much as acknowledge the sacrifice of those who participated in it.
Jean Moorcroft Wilson’s latest book, Robert Graves: From Great War Poet to Good-bye to All That (1895-1929), is published by Bloomsbury
Radio station could move into derelict Gospel Oak garages
15 July — By Samantha Booth
All I want is an oven to cook for myself, says Finsbury 103-year-old
Black Cap must be cabaret venue, council planners rule
Family unveils plaque to anti-fascist father in Dublin
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Relevant Court Cases
Relevant Business Valuation Articles
Kress v. U.S. U.S. District Court Eastern District of Wisconsin, Case No. 16-C-795 (3/25/19)
Oudheusen v. Oudheusen Court of Appeals of the State of Connecticut, AC41050 (5/21/19)
Robinson v. Perma-Jack et al. Missouri Court of Appeals Eastern District DIVISION THREE, No. ED106781, No. ED106804 (4/23/19)
Alkayali v. Boukhari et al. Court of Appeal of the State of California Fourth Appellate District Division Two, E066230 (4/5/19)
Parker v. Parker Superior Court of New Jersey Appellate Division, Docket No. A-2207-16T2 (3/18/19)
Marroquin v. Marroquin Utah Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, No. 20170454-CA (3/14/19)
Hultz v. Kuhn Court of Special Appeals of Maryland, Case No. 119882-FL (2/21/19)
Dieringer v. Commissioner U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, No. 16-72640 (3/12/19)
Kocmoud v. Kocmoud Appellate Court of Illinois Second District, No. 2-17-0654 (1/16/19)
Driss v. Driss Arizona Court of Appeals Division One, No. 1 CA-CV 18-0243 FC (2/12/19)
Berger v. Ecolab, Inc. Appellate Court of Illinois First District, No. 1-17-2450 (12/3/18)
Mathis v. Mathis Court of Appeals for the First District of Texas, No. 01-17-00449-CV (12/18/18)
Estate of Frank D. Streightoff et. al. v. Commissioner of IRS T.C. Memo. 2018-178 (10/24/18)
Estate of Harold E. Marvel Register of Wills Folio No. 152 Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware (9/28/18)
Marc Chrem v. Commissioner of IRS T.C. Memo. 2018-164 (9/26/18)
Durie v. Durie Court of Appeals No. 17CA1295 (9/20/18)
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Me2B
People vs. Adtech
You are currently browsing articles tagged Durham.
Building better markets. Not just better marketing.
December 16, 2009 in Business, Future, Journalism, VRM | 14 comments
The comment thread in my last post was lengthened by Seth Finkelstein‘s characterization of me as “basically a PR person”. I didn’t like that, and a helpful back-and-forth between the two of us (and others) followed. In the midst of the exchange I said I would unpack some of my points in a fresh post rather than branch off in the comment thread. So here we are.
We tend to be defined by what we do. Or, in some cases, what we’ve done. Many of our surnames describe the work of an ancestor. Carpenter. Baker. Weaver. Tanner. Of my own surname, it says here,
In his book, Surnames of the United Kingdom, Harrison writes that the surname Searle, Searls, Searles, Serle, Serles, Serrell, or Serrill is of Teutonic origin signifying “Armour or Arms”. It is derived from the Old Teutonic Serlo, Sarla, Sarl, Sarilo, Serilo. Serli ” and the Old English “Searo”, it is the equivalent of the Old High German “Saro” which is the same as the old Norse ” Sorus” meaning Armor arms, skill or device.”
A soldier, I guess. My father, Allen H. Searls, was a soldier, both before and during WWII (he re-enlisted at age 36). But basically he was a carpenter: a builder. So was his father, George William Searls. Also George’s father, Allen Searls. Also Allen’s father, Samuell Searls. I’m not, but my daugther Colette married Todd Carpenter. So my grandson is a Carpenter too.
By the time I knew him, my father was an insurance agent. But he saw himself more as an builder of useful stuff. Thus our basement was a workshop. Pop’s brother-in-law, Archie Apgar, was a banker by day and a builder the rest of the time. In the summer of 1949, the two of them together built our summer house in the woods of South Jersey. (In a paradise of pine, oak and blueberries, now home to a shopping center.) My father was also a longshoreman, a cable-rigger on the George Washington Bridge, and a builder of railroad trestles. He did that in Alaska, where he met my mother, a social worker who had grown up in North Dakota. They married after the War and moved to New Jersey, where Mom worked for many years as a teacher. Her maiden name was Oman, borrowed by a grandfather from a fellow Swede on the boat over from Malmö (or maybe it was Göteburg… someplace with an umlaut).
Mom was a good writer, and in that respect I took more after her than Pop. I started writing in high school, covered sports for my college paper, and the wrote for a variety of newspapers and magazines across the many years since.
But I’ve done lots of other stuff too. I was a moving man. I drove an ice cream truck. I worked in frozen produce wholesaling (which consisted of moving skids of goods with forklifts and carrying clipboards in and out of freezing warehouses, railroad cars and tractor trailers). I worked in the fronts and the backs of restaurant kitchens, and waiting tables. I flipped burgers and worked counters in fast food joints. I worked in the kitchen at a hospital, and delivering food to patients. I worked in retail, both in sales and management. I worked as a community organizer in a social welfare project (a job that later gave me respect for Barack Obama’s work at the same job, especially since he was good at it and I was not). I worked in radio, doing everything from selling ads to spinning records to engineering, including maintaining transmitters and tower-climbing to change bulbs. I did site studies for FM stations, and made new facility applications to the FCC. I worked in academic parapsychology, helping with research and editing publications. I worked in a landlord’s sawmill when I couldn’t make the rent. And I worked in advertising and PR. Next to writing, that’s the job I held longest.
In 1978 I co-founded Hodskins Simone & Searls, an advertising agency in Durham, North Carolina. By 1980 we came to specialize in what as then called “high tech”. We did well and opened a second office in Palo Alto, moving there completely in 1986. A couple years later we created a division called The Searls Group, which specialized in PR, and eventually spun off on its own as a marketing consultancy. Our clients included Farallon, Symantec, The Burton Group, pieces of Apple and Motorola, Sun Microsystems, Hitachi Semiconductor, Zenith Data Systems and many more.
I had mixed feelings about doing PR, because I was still a journalist at heart, even though I was only freelancing at it during that time. And, while being a journalist made me a better flack, it didn’t make me less of one. I also found that PR folk had little leverage on corporate strategy. Their function was output, not input. So, after awhile, I moved The Searls Group’s work up the client stack, to the point where we did consulting at the CXO level, helping clients understand and engage their markets, rather than in helping them craft and send messages to those markets. You might say our job was delivering (often unwelcome) clues to the places where those clues were needed most. This shift started in the early ’90s and was done by the time Chirs Locke, Rick Levine, David Weinberger and I wrote The Cluetrain Manifesto, in 1999.
Not long after Cluetrain came out as a book in early 2000, Jakob Nielsen noted the use of the first person plural voice in the original Manifesto. When we talked about “we”, as with this here…
… we were not speaking as marketers. We were speaking as human beings, out in the marketplace. What happened, Jakob said, was that “You guys defected from marketing, and sided with markets against marketing.”
The great irony that followed was that Cluetrain was generally classified as a marketing book, and its closest followers have been in marketing as well. Many marketers have been inspired by Cluetrain to improve marketing, including the practices of advertising and PR. Along those same lines, Cluetrain has also been credited with foreseeing the “social” movement in computing and communications, and with inspiring and guiding that movement as well. Look up Cluetrain+social on Google and see what comes up. (Here’s a Twitter search for the same.)
I’m not proud, or even happy, with either of those developments. Not long ago I even suggested that “social media” is a crock. My point was not to denigrate people doing good work in the social media space, but rather to point out that our collective vision of this space was wrongly limited to what could be done on Facebook, Twitter and other commercial “platforms”. Ignored was the freedom and independence granted by the Net’s own open and essentially ownerless platforms and protocols — and the need to equip individuals with their own instruments of independence and engagement: work that’s still mostly not done.
That’s why I welcomed the opportunity to add fresh chapters to Cluetrain for its 10th anniversary edition. For the last few years I’ve been working on Cluetrain’s unfinished (or unstarted) business, through ProjectVRM, at Harvard’s Berkman Center, and through its collection of allied efforts and volunteers, both around the Center and around the world. Thus my own chapter of the latest Cluetrain is titled Markets Are Relationships, and unpacks the ambitions behind VRM (which stands for Vendor Relationship Management):
Provide tools for individuals to manage relationships with organizations. These tools are personal. That is, they belong to the individual, in the sense that they are under the individual’s control. They can also be social, in the sense that they can connect with others and support group formation and action. But they need to be personal first.
Make individuals the collection centers for their own data, so that transaction histories, health records, membership details, service contracts, and other forms of personal data aren’t scattered throughout a forest of silos.
Give individuals the ability to share data selectively, without disclosing more personal information than the individual allows.
Give individuals the ability to control how their data is used by organizations, and for how long, including agreements requiring organizations to delete the individual’s data when the relationship ends.
Give individuals the ability to assert their own “terms of service,” obviating the need for organization-written terms of service that nobody reads and everybody has to “accept” anyway.
Give individuals means for expressing demand in the open market, outside any organizational silo, without disclosing any unnecessary personal information.
Make individuals platforms for business, by opening the market to many kinds of third party services that serve buyers as well as sellers.
Base relationship-managing tools on open standards, open APIs (application program interfaces) and open code. This will support a rising tide of activity that will lift an infinite variety of business boats, plus other social goods.
We don’t have those tools yet. When we do, they will change the way customers relate to companies, and therefore change the reverse as well. That will change the job of marketing, sales, and pretty much everything else a company does — so long as it responds to customers who are far better equipped to express demand, and otherwise relate, than they are today.
So, to sum up, there is a place where I stand in respect to all the above. That place is alongside customers, in the marketplace. Not alongside sellers, even when I’m consulting those sellers. My consulting hat is not a PR or a marketing one. It’s a customer hat. A user hat. (And, to the extent that I’m hired to help make sense of free and open source development, a geek hat.)
This is why I took offense to being labeled a “PR person.” I have no problem with good PR people. In fact I try to help them out, along with everybody else who’s interested in my input. But what makes me valuable, I believe, is where I stand in respect to customers. I’m on their side. I’m trying to help them out, and markets along with them. Maybe I’ll succeed, and maybe not. But I do believe that, in the long run, we will have VRM tools, and that these tools will make life better for everybody in the marketplace, including vendors.
Meanwhile, there is a temptation not only to confuse the past with the , but the present with the future. We tend to assume that, as John Updike once said (at a time when copiers, answer machines and faxes seemed miraculous), “we live in the age of full convenience”. We don’t. The present is just a draft for the future. Our conveniences are just prototypes.
I’m glad Seth and others (Dave Rogers, where are you?) are out there, calling bullshit on techno-utopians like me. A lot of what Seth and others on that thread had to say was sobering stuff. The flywheels of Old Skool industrial practices, and thinking, have not gone away. They even spin inside “good” companies like Google.
Markets are different now that the Net runs beneath them. There are fewer secrets, and both good ideas and bad can spread with alarming speed. Lately the split between the static and the live web (which most of us call “real-time” and some of us saw coming half a decade and more ago) has become dramatic and confusing. So has the split between fixed and mobile computing and communications. One can get lost through enthusiasm, despair, or both. Hey, the iPhone is a wonderful thing, but — what next? And why? And how?
Markets are no better than we make them. I’m not sure what one should call a person who works on tools to make markets better. But hey, that’s my job.
Guess I’m a builder after all.
Tags: "David Weinberger", advertising, Allen Searls, Berkman, Berkman Center, blueberries, Carpenter, Chris Locke, Colette Searls, CXO, Durham, Eleanor Searls, fcc, George Washington Bridge, google, Göteburg, Hodskins Simone & Searls, Malmö, marketing, Mom, Palo Alto, paradise, Pop, PR, projectvrm, restaurtants, Ricke Levine, Searls, Seth Finkelstein, The Searls Group, Todd Carpenter, twitter, Wanigan, WWII
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A Cool Million & The Dream Life of Balso Snell: Two Novels
by: Nathanael West (author)
Nathanael West was only thirty-seven when he died in 1940, but his depictions of the sometimes comic, sometimes horrifying aspects of the American scene rival those of William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor. A Cool Million, written in 1934, is a satiric Horatio Alger story set in the midst of the... show more
Nathanael West was only thirty-seven when he died in 1940, but his depictions of the sometimes comic, sometimes horrifying aspects of the American scene rival those of William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor. A Cool Million, written in 1934, is a satiric Horatio Alger story set in the midst of the Depression. The Dream Life of Balso Snell (1931) was described by one critic as "a fantasy about some rather scatological adventures of the hero in the innards of the Trojan horse."
ASIN: 374530270
Publish date: June 27th 2006
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Novels, Literature, American, 20th Century, Anthologies, Short Stories
Books by Nathanael West
The Ark Of God, The Safeguard Of The Nat...
http://booklikes.com/a-cool-million-the-dream-life-of-balso-snell-two-novels-nathanael-west/book,854118
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Candice Proctor, aka C.S. Harris and C.S. Graham, is the USA Today bestselling, award-winning author of more than two dozen novels including the Sebastian St. Cyr Regency mystery series written under the name C.S. Harris, the C.S. Graham thriller series co-written with Steven Harris, and seven historical romances. She is also the author of a nonfiction historical study of women in the French Revolution. Her books are available worldwide and have been translated into over twenty languages.
A former academic with a PhD in European history, Candice also worked as an archaeologist on a variety of sites including a Hudson's Bay Company Fort in San Juan Island, a Cherokee village in Tennessee, a prehistoric kill site in Victoria, Australia, and a Roman cemetery and medieval manor house in Winchester, England. She loves to travel and has spent much of her life abroad, living in Spain, Greece, England, France, Jordan, and Australia. She now makes her home in New Orleans, Louisiana, with her husband, retired Army officer Steve Harris, and an ever-expanding number of cats.
Fun Bio
Writing Honors and Awards
Complete Book List
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Lord of the Flies: Chapter Analysis
The conch is definitely a symbol of power and whoever has it gets the “right” to speak and the other boys must be quiet. The fire symbolizes the fire and hope within the boys not only to be rescued, but also to survive and be content on the island. The fires within them flare up the highest when the physical fire becomes huge and starts burning down the island. When the fire is high and active, the boys' hopes burn wildly as well. However, when it goes down, and PIggy says the hard truth of the situation, that the fire destroyed lots of resources and the little children, the flames of hope inside the boys also dies down as they realize the situation at hand. The death of the boy with the scar shows the severity of the consequences of their actions and births a new darkness in the boys' previous childish desires. They just want play and mess around, but their newly unrestricted actions can lead to darker outcomes, as shown with the death of children in the fire.
The symbolism of the conch is evolving from a mystic representation of rightful power to a more real-world way to apply that power and demand respect among the boys. However, Piggy doesn't get that same respect because he is regarded as an outsider because of his personality and appearance. The fire shows how youthful exuberance can get out of control and have disastrous results. The death of the little boy is a reality check that makes the boys realize that this is a life or death situation and they have a responsibility to keep each other safe.
The conch stands for power over the group. It determines who is able to speak, and symbolizes leadership. When the conch is blown, all of the boys meet up with each other, which makes the conch a symbol for unity. The fire symbolizes how something good can turn into something bad rather quickly. Even though fire can be used to make food or provide warmth, it can also destroy the island and ruin the chance of survival.
In the scene at the end of the chapter where Simon sneaks off into the jungle, the light is fading quickly and darkness is taking over. This symbolizes the transition from the fun, tropical vacation atmosphere present at the beginning of the novel to the more sinister things that are brewing. The boys are starting to realize that surviving and cooperating is harder work than they thought and that human nature can be dark. The scene emits a feeling of calmThe progression of the light is marking time passing by and shows that the evening is coming. This marks the end of a strenuous day in which not much progress was made, but still, Simon seems content.
Simon is shown to be the nicest and most helpful of the boys. He is shown aiding the little boys by getting them fruit. He also helps Ralph with the shelter while everyone else plays/disregards the work. While Jack believes the way to survive is by hunting, Ralph believes shelter is more important. Jack displays savageness, while Ralph represents order and civilization. Simon does not fall into either category. Rather, Simon takes refuge in the forest surrounded by nature. Simon then represents a middle character between Ralph and Jack. He can possibly represent hope or middle ground for the group. The progression of light represents that the fun possibilities of the island fade away. There is work and the idea of survival the group needs to be aware of.
Simon does not belong to any group of boys. There are the happy go lucky boys who just want to play, and then there are the more serious, wanting-to-save-everybody, boys consisting of Ralph, Piggy, and Jack. These three boys have conflicting opinions, but Simon does not take sides. Instead, he acts on kindness and common sense. In a way, he represents normality and calmness while the other boys are letting loose. The scene in the forest emphasizes his down-to-earth character and indifference to the conflicts going on around him. It is one of the few scenes where readers are stopped to enjoy the beauty and simplicity of nature. Simon's connection to nature allows him to be the only one to notice such beauty. As the sunlight temporarily goes away, so do all the problems the boys have (at least for readers and Simon). The “riotous colors died and the heat and urgency cooled away,” representing the cooling down of chaos for the moment.
When Simon sneaks off, light symbolizes the initial thrill of being on the island. When he goes into the jungle and needs to survive, there is no longer a thrill of being stranded on the island, and all of his effort is redirected into surviving. When the light slowly disappears, the struggle to survive is shown more than ever. The fun of the island fades away, and the scene takes on a sinister view of survival.
After Jack lets the fire go out, he justifies himself with the success of killing the pig. When Ralph rages at his ignorance, Jack defends himself by saying that “' the job was too much. We needed everyone,'” (64). When Piggy continued to point out his mistake, Jack takes advantage of his superior physical form and antagonizes Piggy: “he took a step, and able at last to hit someone, stuck his fist into Piggy's stomach. Piggy sat down with a grunt. Jack stood over him. His voice was vicious with humiliation,” (65). He shows his authority and masks his embarrassment by attacking Piggy. He understands that, without him, the boys would not have meat, so he demands respect and appraisal from the boys. Food is a necessity, and Jack provided that necessity. Although they were not rescued, they had food thanks to him. Even Ralph, who was fuming at Jack's insubordination, accepts Jack's meat. Jack enforces his dominance by neglecting to give Piggy any food. “Piggy spoke…. 'Aren't I having none?' Jack had meant to leave him in doubt, as an assertion of power; but Piggy by advertising his omission made more cruelty necessary. 'You didn't hunt,'” (67).
Jack told the group in a previous chapter that his choir group would be the hunters and take charge of the fire. The jobs he took on presented him as a hard worker and trustworthy. Jack originally tries to explain to Ralph that the pig was an important matter at that moment, even though the fire was a main priority. When Ralph does not acknowledge his actions, Jack simply apologizes. Golding writes, “Clearly they were of the opinion that Jack had done the decent thing, had put himself in the right by his generous apology and Ralph, obscurely, in the wrong,”(102). In front of the group, Ralph cannot say anything to Jack because of his apology. Nonetheless, it is clear that Jack should have been tending the fire at all times and that it is his fault that the group had not been rescued.
After the fire is lit, the boys are able to feast on the meat. It is clear that they are all tired of living on only fruit. The boys are in debt to Jack for providing them with food. Jack wields his power of food provider by offering none to Piggy. Jack wants more than respect from the boys. He says, “ 'I got you meat!'…. 'I painted my face—I stole up. Now you eat—all of you—and I—' Jack looked round for understanding but found only respect,”(104). He wants everyone to understand that he deserves to be recognized after all the work he had done. Although he was in the wrong, he believes that getting the meat was something that should be valued now that they can no longer do anything about the ship.
It is seen as Jack's fault that the group is not rescued since he is not able to keep the fire going. He says “We needed everyone” [71] and attempts to blame the rest of the group for not being there for help instead of accepting the responsibility himself. This indirectly shows how Jack isn't a great leader; when he can't handle his responsibility he blames others instead of taking the blame himself. He believes that having a meal is more important than a fire. He tries to cover up his embarrassment by attacking others in the way he blames them and soon attacks Piggy physically. However, everyone is still dependent on Jack since he provides food/meat. Even Ralph is dependent on Jack for food, even though he doesn't respect Jack.
When Jack says “Bollocks to the rules!” all hell breaks loose on the island. This shows how, without rules, people can become savages or beasts, as Simon was trying to point out. The boys are rabid, frenzied, looking only after their own interests. Jack and the boys imitate the bad parts of human kind that care only for themselves. They are no longer in tuned with their humanity; no one else's well being matters. With this, only the best will survive. The littleuns and some of the other boys (like Piggy, on account of his assmar) can't take care of themselves without the help of the others.
Ralph understands, even though he cannot express it clearly with words, that their life on the island is not going to last long. Without order and regulations, the group will spiral into a world of savages with the idea of play and freedom from adults more important than work, survival, and rescue. Becoming savages signifies a short-term plan of work to survive one day at a time versus organizing for survival. Mankind ceases to exist as the group focuses more on hunting pigs than keeping the fire going. The boys should not succumb to the idea of being savages, otherwise survival will be completely impossible.
Jack disregards all rules, and through this shows the “beastly” parts of human nature that want anarchy and society without rules. He promotes the self-serving idea of only working for oneself, and is very selfish in doing so. The boys start to only care about their own interests instead of the interests of others, and everyone forgets manners. However, the littuns can't live without the support of others.
Jack represents a heavy-handed, violent, and tyrannical form of leadership based on fear and the absolute power of one person. Ralph represents a more republican form of government where the leader is elected, takes the desires of others into account, and tries to create a community of responsibility and cooperation. Jack focuses on hunting and violence, which stem from man's desire to kill and exert dominance over others. Ralph clings to the hope of returning to civilization, which stems from man's desire to be part of a community. Jack refuses to see things Ralph's way because that would mean conceding control to another person and giving up the exciting, savage adventure.
Jack represents tyranny while Ralph recognizes the importance of letting the boys speak; he favors a democratic society. This reflects both their personalities: Jack is arrogant, incapable of accepting his faults, and an overtly dominant ruler while Ralph is more humble, able to understand and accept opinions, and not nearly as power hungry. Jake plans his actions to preserve his own power; Ralph acts for the benefit of the group.keeping the fire going represents a more civil aspect of human nature that relies on the help of other people. This symbolizes humility as well; they know they need outside help, they cannot rescue themselves, which is why Jack refuses to admit they need the fire. Jack doesn't like admitting his weaknesses; he does not have the modesty to accept his incapacities. The desire to hunt shows the self serving, savage part of human nature that values self preservation over all else.
Literature | Book Review
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Blog Feed Post
Logicalis Recognised For ‘Outstanding Performance’ in Managed Services by Leading Analyst Firm, Canalys
By RealWire News Distribution
October 16, 2012 11:42 AM EDT
SLOUGH, 16th October, 2012: Logicalis, the international IT solutions, managed services and cloud provider, has been named 'EMEA Channel Partner of the Year' for managed services by independent analyst firm Canalys, at its inaugural Candefero Channel Partner of the Year Awards. Designed to honour outstanding performance by EMEA channel partners, Logicalis was recognised for building a sustainable services practice that continually invests in new areas.
The awards were presented at the annual Canalys Channels Forum EMEA in Barcelona, the largest independent channel conference in the region, that recognises high performance in five specific areas - revenue growth, online sales, mobility, managed services and innovation. From the large number of nominations received by the panel of analysts, Logicalis were selected as winners of the managed services category, following an in-depth evaluation into its sustainable investments for the future, business performance, demonstrated expertise and the resulting business value generated for its customers.
Tom Kelly, Managing Director of Logicalis UK, commented, "This is a great accolade for Logicalis and vindicates the significant investment we've made in developing our Data Centre, Cloud and Managed Services offerings for the mid market. Furthermore, it bares testimony to our vision, innovation and unrelenting commitment in supporting our customers' IT strategies, enabling them to meet their business objectives today, tomorrow and into the future."
Steve Brazier, Canalys President and CEO said, "We were thrilled to be able to announce the winners at the Forum, and to present each of them with their award on stage in front of their peers and the vendors with whom they work so closely. EMEA's channel community plays a critical role in driving success, for their customers as well as for the vendors whose products and services they carry. They are crucial to helping businesses serve their customers, connect with partners and empower their employees by creating technology solutions that keep pace with the changing business environment."
About Logicalis
Logicalis is an international IT solutions and managed services provider with a breadth of knowledge and expertise in communications and collaboration; business analytics; data centre and cloud services; and managed services.
Logicalis employs almost 3,000 people worldwide, including highly trained service specialists who design, specify, deploy and manage complex ICT infrastructures to meet the needs of over 6,000 corporate and public sector customers. To achieve this, Logicalis maintains strong partnerships with technology leaders such as Cisco, HP, IBM, CA Technologies, NetApp, VMware and ServiceNow.
The Logicalis Group has annualised revenues of over $1.2 billion, from operations in the UK, US, Germany, South America and Asia Pacific, and is fast establishing itself as one of the leading IT and Communications solution integrators, specialising in the areas of advanced technologies and services. The Logicalis Group is a division of Datatec Limited, listed on the Johannesburg and London AIM Stock Exchanges, with revenues of over $5 billion.
For more information, visit www.logicalis.com
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The Norwegian Elite League, or Get Ligaen, is the highest tier of professional hockey in Norway and it is there that Knelsen will develop his professional hockey game throughout the 2010-11 season.
"I am thrilled to be playing with Sparta for the upcoming season,” said Knelsen. “I know they are an excellent organization, playing out of a passionate hockey-town in a competitive league. They are giving me a great opportunity early in my pro career, and I will do everything I can to help them win a championship. I am looking forward to learning the European game and having a very successful season with the Warriors."
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CAAEYC Conference
Honor an ECE Educator
Honor an Educator Information
2019 Honor an Educator Honorees
Conference Onsite Program
Schedule-at-a-Glance
Special Ticketed Events
Workshop Tracks
Become A NAEYC/CAEYC Member
Exhibitors/Sponsors
Expo Hall Floor Plan
GES Expresso Order
Kristi Almeida-Bowin
“Strong advocate”, “mentor”, “motivator”, “passionate”, “positive influence”, “she’s always got your back” – just some words from former students and colleagues when asked to describe Kristi. There are ECE professionals in Ventura County who made it a point to say that although they never had Kristi as an instructor, she knew about them and what they stood for in the field of early childhood education. This is a gift of hers. She could identify your strengths and help you to look beyond conventional roles in ECE to use those strengths to benefit children and families. She encourages everyone to do their best and inspires us to give back to the next generation of caregivers and educators.
Besides teaching at Oxnard and CSUN Kristi has been an ECE professor at Moorpark College since 2000. She will retire in June. As faculty advisor she was instrumental in the formation of the 1st Moorpark Child Development Club at the college. She is also the campus coordinator for the CA Early Childhood Mentor Program. She collaborated with VCAEYC on several professional development workshops. Kristi’s passion has always been infants and toddlers and children with special needs. Her love and respect for children and families spreads across our county like ripples in a pond. Her passion has served to make us all better. Kristi leaves an amazing legacy for us to build on.
Nominated by Ventura County AEYC
Yuju Patricia Chen
Yuju Chen was born in Taiwan in 1970 and raised by two art parents. She received a Master’s in Fine Art from Long Island University and had completed numerous exhibitions around the world. In 2009, Typhoon Marokot took the lives of more than 619 people and caused terrible damage in a total of $3.3 billion. Yuju worked with Jenny Yen and Shu-Nu Yen to create a social story to comfort the youngest victims. In 2013, when typhoon Yolanda struck the Philippines, Yuju’s work was translated into Tagalog and was able to use her pictures to reassure many young typhoon victims about their safety. Yuju was generous in her time and worked on the book with the authors in a timely manner. Yuju is to be commended for using her pictures to fulfill young children’s psychological needs.
Nominated by Yafen Lo
Oy Christian
Oy joined Immanuel CDC as Infant classroom assistant while taking Child Development Courses during the year 2004. Since then Oy developed a passion for young Infants care and development. Working in the same room as an assistant teacher, she finished her course work within a year to become an Infant Teacher. In 2006 was promoted as the Teacher for the Crib Infant classroom. She never moved out of that room as she felt it was her calling to be the young babies care provider. Oy completed 10 years as a young Infant Teacher. She has a very calm and gentle personality that perfectly suited the young infants. With her gentle personality and quality care she quickly bonds with the new Infants that get enrolled in her classroom. All the classroom families feel very secure to leave their young babies with Oy because their babies are left in safe, caring and loving hands. She keeps daily communication with the families and keeps them informed of their infant’s progress. As a lead teacher for her classroom, she pays personal attention to all the babies and ensures all the babies are well taken care of by all the staff in her classroom. She pays close attention to the infant’s growth and development and provides age appropriate activities that promote the whole child development. Oy also is a great mentor for the Associate and Assistant Teachers that are hired for the Infant classroom. When new staff for the infant program is hired, they get on-the-floor training with Oy in her classroom. Oy is a very valuable staff to our infant program who is very dedicated to caring for young infants. As she is a very dependable, hardworking, and conscientious staff who deserves appreciation, honor and recognition for her commitment to young children’s growth and development, we at Immanuel CDC – the Board members, Program Staff and families would like to honor Oy Christian with the “Early Childhood Educator Honor.”
Nominated by Hadassah Ratna Rajaratnam
When I first met Paula Cole, she was quiet, but always so nurturing towards the little ones at the Fullerton College Child Care Infant Room. The children always seem to gravitate towards her and seek her out when they would get hurt. She has a way of making children that enter the program feel comfortable, cared for and heard. She goes out of her way to understand the needs of the families and wants to get to know where they are coming from. These are all qualities I always admired of Paula.
Over the years we have been through many changes; directors, teachers, children in the program, even going from a Child Care Center to a Lab School. We never thought we would adjust, but look at us now. Our director who will not be able to attend, wanted to make sure I put in something on his behalf.
From Tom: Paula, I am so proud of you. You deserve this award and have worked so hard for it. Congratulations and this is only the beginning.
Paula, as your co-teachers, I know we are all so proud of you. It has been amazing to see Paula grow from a quiet, reserved teacher, to a strong, confident teacher. She provides experiences that the children can’t wait to explore and go home discussing their projects with Teacher Paula. She listens to their needs, and never hesitates to use her own money to provide the extras to make the children’s learning extra special.
I still strive to be the teacher that all the little ones run to when they are injured and gravitate towards when they need a little extra love, but I think that position at the Lab School will forever be taken by Paula. The little ones just love her as much as we do. Congratulations Paula!
Nominated by Veronica Hernandez and Tom Chiaromonte
Amber Daniels
Amber Daniels earned her Masters in Community Organizing Social Work from University of Michigan in 1995. She worked in Detroit, Mexico and California before she passed away in November, 2015 at the age of 45. At the celebration of her life, Amber’s friends spoke of her as mentor, model, being present to each person.
“Though the world is darker today, it’s by orders of magnitude a brighter place because Amber lived – and made a difference in it.” Kevin
“Thank you so much for all you gave to me and the world in your too-short-life. Adam (Angie’s husband) said to me that he could live another 43 years and still not touch a quarter of the lives you did, Amber. You drew people to you wherever you went and gave so much of yourself to them. I pray that we will work harder to learn from you and do the same.” Angie
“Everything good I do for a child is rooted somehow in what I learned from her. She is the first person who encouraged me to use strength-based views of children – and taught me through her actions what it meant to practice that view in a deep and loving way.” Gretchen
“Amber was one of those people who could draw you into a relationship so easily…she was engaging, funny and caring, but she also gave of herself and her time in ways that gave me the experience that she was truly present…she helped me through my social work degree.” Carla
“Amber was a connector. A string of spiritual energy. A constant reminder of the need to check one’s values and purpose…a woman whose light warmed those around her…welcoming and loving and a little crazy and vulnerable and devoid of BS…modeling for me and many others how to truly heal ourselves, individually and collectively, through compassionate, loving honesty…She Showed Up to give of herself, her time, her labor, her skills…over and over again…Someone who encouraged me to sing loudly and often…Her fingerprints are all over my soul.” Sarah
One colleague said what she heard from Amber over and over again, was, “What can I do for you?” We can learn a lot from that question.
Nominated by Marilyn Shelton
Angela Greathouse
I would like to nominate Angela Greathouse as Educator of the Year.
I have been fortunate to have had Ms. Angela as my mentor during my Child Development Practicum at Los Angeles Harbor College for the 2015/2016 school year. I love the way Ms. Angela always takes time out to help her student teachers. She offers her undivided attention as well as so many great ideas for DAP activities that she has gained over her years of experience in Child Development. Being her student-teacher has been a great experience and I’m inspired to see how she herself continues to pursue higher levels of professional development. Watching the students in her class grow and develop has been so rewarding, as has getting to know the families and community of the school.
I am so thankful to have worked in her classroom and with her staff. I know as I continue to study Child Development, I will feel more confident in my skills as an educator because of the hands-on experience and guidance I received from Ms. Angela.
Ms. Angela works extremely hard and is an inspiration. I believe she deserves to be honored as Educator of the Year.
Nominated by Christina Talleda
Melissa is an emergent leader in the early childhood field, even though she is only 17 years old. Melissa has done remarkable work serving preschool children in low-income neighborhoods in the USA, Mexico and Taiwan. She organizes the annual trip to schools and orphanages in Mexico. She creates lesson plans and travels to different elementary and middle schools in Orange County to teach children about recycling and the necessity of banning the use of plastic bags. In addition, when the deadliest typhoon hit Taiwan in 2010, she also travelled to the disaster area in Taiwan to help comfort the youngest typhoon victims. Melissa’s work already had a significant impact on underprivileged children; she has the greatest potential to be an excellent early childhood educator in the future and truly deserves the recognition.
Nominated by Jenny Yen
Heather Manchester
Mrs. Manchester is a teacher at Santiago Hills Elementary school, Irvine, CA. My son is fortunate to learn from her for one year, and she has prepared my son well for his life journey. Mrs. Manchester has fostered my son's love for writing, math, and technology. Most importantly, she has instilled in him a positive attitude toward learning. While serving as her room representative, I learned to appreciate her even more. She took the lead on many of the 6th-grade activities without complaining despite her hectic schedule. She is to be commended for her kindness toward the children in her class and people around her. She has inspired thousands of children, especially girls, to reach their greatest potential. She is one of the best teachers in the world!
Farbod Markazi
Farbod Markazi has been working to educate and support children's growth since he was a child himself. Starting as a Youth Leader for Orange County Peace Camp, his passion for creating change was evident from the beginning. Farbod played an integral role in re-building the Youth Leader program by helping to encourage his fellow leaders, taking initiative in planning and running community events, and by applying his critical thinking skills to improving the lives of children throughout Orange County.
As Peace Camp has grown and developed in the recent years, Farbod’s contributions have been crucial to our continued success. In leading the newly-created Intern program, Farbod has been helping to ensure the future of Orange County Peace Camp. In November 2015, Farbod travelled to Florida to present at the NAEYC Conference showcasing grassroots impacts on the lives of children. Farbod’s commitment and dedication to supporting young children has made a tremendous impact on their lives.
Nominated by Anna Page
Faraz Markazi
Much like his older brother, Faraz has been a peace activist since he was very young. As he has grown up at camp, we have all been able to see the special qualities that make Faraz a champion for children. We have seen his creativity flourish, as he helps create new ways to empower kids. We have seen his compassion as he cares for and comforts new campers who are nervous in a new place. We have seen his courage when he leads the entire camp in activities.
Faraz embodies the qualities and traits that we, as Early Childhood Educators, hope to find in all young people. He has taken the curricula and goals of Peace Camp and helped to expand them, to make them even more effective. His dedication is unmatched, and his focus unwavering. We have seen so many great things from Faraz in the last 9 years, but we know that the sky is the limit for this young man. While some people might believe that Faraz is far too young to be an educator, they clearly have not met him.
Marilyn McGrath
Marilyn McGrath served as the CAEYC President from 2009-2011. During her tenure, Marilyn attracted many excellent early childhood educators to the CAEYC board. As an early childhood professor, her genuine and caring teaching approach inspires and motivates many college students and emergent early childhood leaders. She brought her love of teaching to the CAEYC board and strengthen the caring atmosphere. She truly embraces diversity and has an "open door" policy to her students and board members. She is also fun to hang out with as she fosters relationships through a playful demeanor. I admire her leadership and interpersonal intelligence. She truly deserves the recognition.
Zahra Naseem
Zahra Naseem is an infant teacher since 2011 as result of a promotion with Grossmont College Child Development Center, El Cajon, California.
Her peers respect Zahra’s leadership. She is a problem solver and proactive when it comes to issues in the program. Zahra has grown professionally in many ways to support the children, families and her peers. She continues to use new information to support children’s daily learning experiences. Zahra is fully certified in the Program for Infant Toddler Care. She uses her creativity and resourcefulness, resulting in a rich experience for the infants and toddlers in her classroom.
Zahra is a dedicated, sincere, professional whose ability to be reflective, allows her to learn from her experiences, in turn providing solid mentorship to other’s in the field.
Nominated by Michelle Soltero
The Nest Master Teachers: Jesse Beltran, Paula Mei Fernandez, and Janet Dimas
As a new parent, we are nervous leaving our infant child to strangers. From the first day I brought Lily to her classroom, I felt at ease with these compassionate teachers. The Nest at Cal State Fullerton’s Children’s Center is Lily’s home away from home and Jesse, Paula and Janet are her adoptive mothers. They care for her just as if I were to be with her. They are attentive to all children through play, stories and music. The infants are smiling, laughing and having a great time learning how to sign, singing new songs, exploring new materials, or simply being silly.
Thanks to these wonderful teachers, I have been able to continue my education and work knowing that Lily is well cared for and happy. These infants will truly have a bright future thanks to these outstanding educators!
Nominated by Ana Page
Margot Palacios
It is my honor and privilege to recommend that we honor Margot Palacios as an educator here today. Originally from Bolivia, this wonderful woman began her career working with children and families as a family child care provider in Oxnard, California. Since then she has positively impacted students and families as a preschool teacher, as a home based educator and as an Assistant Manager for Early Head Start. While raising her own family, she completed her bachelor’s degree at Pacific Oaks College where she became even more passionate about the work she does with children and families. Daily she supports, trains, and inspires the work of others in the field of early care and education with her knowledge and great understanding of cultural competence. I am so blessed to work alongside her on a daily basis, and learn from her vision for improving the quality of child care for all children and well as the professional development for all family child care providers in our community. Please join me in honoring this educator, Margot Palacios from Child Development Resources Inc. of Ventura County.
Nominated by Cynthia Price
Jennifer Parker
“Be who you needed when you were younger.” For more than 22 years, Jennifer Parker has been that “who”. She taught parent/child classes at the Adult School in Simi Valley. Working with parents long before there was DAP she just had a feeling for what was “right”. Jennifer is the “who” for her college students, many of whom are not necessarily “younger” in age, but in experience in the field of early education. She reminds them they are the “stage managers” for the children; there to support the children’s experiences. She continues today to be the “who” inspiring us in Ventura County.
Jennifer always wanted to be a teacher. Her focus, High School Math, until as a parent she was introduced to the early childhood education field. She’s been involved in First 5, LCAP, and Ventura County T-K committee. She develops and presents math and science workshops in Ventura County, at NAEYC and at CAEYC Conference. She’s helped revise the draft for the Science Domain of the CA Preschool Learning Foundations. She’s co-authored a textbook, “Caring for School Age Children”. She’s been teaching college courses at Moorpark, Santa Monica, and Ventura College for the better part of 20 years. She will “officially” retire this June.
Jennifer’s influence in those early ECE classes inspires many incredible early childhood teachers. Not only in interactions with children and families – but also how we must take care of ourselves - “Take care of your knees!” We know that only so much teaching happens in the classroom. And because of that we know that her inspiration will remain with us even though she no longer uses a syllabus. She will always expect us to teach with intentionality, keep our eyes out of the “book” and on what’s happening right in front of us. We don’t want to miss anything!
Michelle Soltero
Michelle Soltero served as the CAEYC President from 2001-2003. During her tenure, Michelle led CAEYC and local affiliates through a challenging process of restructuring with NAEYC. After a decade, Michelle is once again serving on CAEYC's National Dialogue Committee leading California and local affiliates to a new restructuring process. She is to be commended for her leadership of California's early childhood educators. Michelle is also highly involved with her local AEYC and CAEYC's Public Policy Committee, and she has devoted her life advocating for infants, toddlers, and young children. She has inspired many young professionals in the early childhood field.
Veronica Sylvia
Veronica started working at Immanuel CDC since 2005 as a classroom Assistant. She quickly developed an interest in working with young children and started taking Early Care and Education courses. She attended school while working full time and within two years she completed course work to become a Teacher. She was promoted to the Teachers position as an Infant Teacher and continued with the same group of children until they left to the Kindergarten Program. Now Veronica is with the second set of students that started with her in the Infant program and are currently moving into the Pre-K program. Veronica is an asset to Immanuel CDC. She maintains a great relationship with families and provides excellent care and education to all the children in her care. She is very caring and affectionate towards each and every child in her care. She always finds a positive way to handle difficult, challenging children. Parents are always welcomed in her classroom and she gives them opportunities to plan and participate in the classroom activities. Veronica is hard working, dependable and can be counted on when a need arises at the center. She always looks for ways to provide high quality care and education for the children. When we went through our program NAEYC accreditation process, Veronica’s classroom was one of the classrooms inspected by the NAEYC Assessor. She scored 107/100 for her classroom, portfolio, activities she performed with the children and the Assessor made special commendations for her classroom in the report. She works tirelessly and puts her heart, mind and soul in all that she does for the children in her care. She is a great role model and mentor to the other staff in our program. She represents our program in the community activities and plans activities for the children’s fair every year. In view of her dedication to young children’s care and education and her service to Immanuel Child Development Program for the last 10 years all the Board members, Program Staff and families would like to Honor Veronica Sylvia for the “Early Childhood Educator Honor.”
Dayna Turner
When we honor Educators, we honor some for excellence in their work with children. We honor others for their achievements in Higher Education. Still others are honored for their ability to support the families in their communities, or for their advocacy efforts in our field. I am nominating Dayna Turner for “Honor an Educator” as I (along with the board of EBAEYC) believe she deserves recognition for her efforts in all of these areas.
Dayna is a well-respected Montessori teacher in the Bay Area. She is a Mentor Teacher with the CA Early Childhood Mentor Program and currently serves as a member of the Statewide Mentor Caucus Steering Committee. She holds a Masters of Arts in Early Childhood Education from St. Mary’s College.
As the grandmother of a special needs child, Dayna was inspired to create, as her Master’s Project, a “guidebook” for parents and caregivers of special needs children. She has made this resource available to the parents at her school as well as to other families in need of this information within her community.
Ms. Turner is a dedicated member of EBAEYC and a member of the EBAEYC board. She helped organize a “Special Needs” conference at Chabot College and has advocated for special needs children in presentations at the state as well as the local level.
Dayna already receives recognition in her community but I feel strongly that others in our field should know about her proficiency and dedication. I am proud to nominate Dayna for this state recognition through CAEYC.
Nominated by East Bay AEYC
Copyright © 2019 CAAEYC Conference
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Succeed by Cultivating a Growth Mindset
In order to succeed, learn, and make progress, you need to cultivate a growth mindset.
In her book “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success”, Carol Dweck, Ph.D.–a professor at Stanford University and a social psychologist– explains that there are two different kinds of mindsets: a “fixed mindset” and a “growth mindset”. One mindset leads to success, while the other leads to risk aversion and feelings of limitation.
People with a “fixed mindset” believe that intelligence and talent are fixed traits: they’re born with a certain amount and that’s that. People with a “growth mindset” believe that abilities and talents can be cultivated through instruction and practice. That is, they believe that throughout their lives they can get smarter and more talented.
The “fixed mindset” inhibits growth and learning. People with this mindset see obstacles and challenges as a threat to their sense of their ability. If they fail, that must mean that they’re not as smart or as talented as they previously thought. That is, failure equals a lack of ability. Even effort is a threat, because they believe that things should just come naturally if they have the necessary ability. People with a “fixed mindset” believe that if you have to exert effort at something, then you must not be very good at it. Stars are born, not made.
The second view–the “growth mindset”–promotes the taking on of challenges and resilience in the face of obstacles. People with this mindset believe that effort is what makes you smarter.
In addition, they believe that success comes from practice and hard work, and that their intelligence and their talent can be developed. People with a “growth mindset” chalk up their errors to insufficient effort, not to a lack of ability; this leads them to persist in the case of failure, until they succeed.
This post will go into greater detail on cultivating a “growth mindset”.
A Growth Mindset Encourages People to Grow and Learn New Things
One of the experiments which Dweck uses in order to prove her theory is to go to schools and give the kids an easy puzzle. Once they complete the puzzle, she tells half of them: “You did really well, you must be very smart”. She tells the other half: “You did very well; you must have put a lot of effort into this”.
Then she asks all of the students what they would like to work on next: more puzzles like the one they just did, or difficult puzzles which will teach them something new.
The kids who were told that they’re smart tend to want to continue doing the puzzles that are similar to the one they just did. They’re afraid that if they try the difficult puzzles, they won’t be able to solve them or it will take them a long time, and then they won’t look so smart any more.
On the other hand, most of the kids who were praised for their effort chose to do the more difficult puzzles. They saw the harder puzzles as an opportunity to grow. In addition, these kids reported having more fun solving the puzzles. They’re getting the message that the joy is in the process of learning, trying hard, and being challenged.
Kids with a fixed mindset go out into the world wanting to look smart. If you feel that your intelligence and talents are static things that live within you, then you feel like it’s something that you have to demonstrate over and over again.
Kids with a growth mindset go out into the world curious to learn. If you believe that intelligence and talents are dynamic and malleable, then you always want to be taking steps to increase your ability, even if this means taking risks and failing.
The Growth Mindset at Work
Dweck explains that the best managers have a growth mindset. They believe that all of their employees have the capacity to improve. If you’re a manager, you can promote a growth mindset among your employees by doing the following:
“Instead of just giving employees an award for the smartest idea or praise for a brilliant performance, they would get praise for taking initiative, for seeing a difficult task through, for struggling and learning something new, for being undaunted by a setback, or for being open to and acting on criticism.”
What About the Famous IQ Test?
Alfred Binet invented the IQ test, which lots of people believe was meant to summarize a child’s unchangeable intelligence. However, Dr. Dweck points out in her book that Binet designed this test to identify the children who were not profiting from the Paris public schools, so that new educational programs could be designed to put them back on track.
Although Binet did not deny individual differences in children’s intellect, he believed that education and practice could bring about fundamental changes in intelligences. Here’s a quote which Dweck cites from Binet’s book, “Modern Ideas About Children”:
“A few modern philosophers . . . assert that an individual’s intelligence is a fixed quantity, a quantity which cannot be increased. We must protest and react against this brutal pessimism . . . With practice, training, and above all, method, we manage to increase our attention, our memory, our judgment, and literally to become more intelligent than we were before.”
Dweck explains that the view that you adopt–the “fixed mindset” or the “growth mindset”–has a huge impact on whether or not you accomplish the goals that you set for yourself.
When a person with a “fixed mindset” fails at something, they feel like a failure and are likely to give up on that goal. After all, why bother trying again if they just don’t have what it takes?
If a person with a growth mindset fails, they decide to try harder the next time. They keep challenging themselves, they keep stretching, and they persist until they reach their goal.
Keep in mind that Dweck’s findings apply to everything: intelligence, athletic ability, artistic talent, sports ability, business skills, mathematical ability, emotional intelligence, and so on. Although people do differ in their initial talents and aptitudes, everyone can change and grow–in any area–through application and experience.
What do you think? Is it nature or nurture? Which of these two statements do you agree with:
Your intelligence, talents, and abilities are set in stone at birth. You either have it or you don’t.
You can become smarter and more talented through purposeful engagement. Abilities can be cultivated.
Five Mindsets that Will Transform Your Life
9 Things That Are Making You Dumber
Fourteen Ways to Increase Your IQ
16 Thinking Habits that Will Make Your Smarter
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You are here: Home / Archives for economic disruption from innovation
The Social Contract Around Our Work Is Broken
April 23, 2019 By David Griesing Leave a Comment
A growing part of the American economy—the part that’s harvesting and utilizing our personal data to drive what we consume—no longer depends on “the basic reciprocities” that once supported our social contract. In other segments of our economy, business is also profiting at worker’s expense and democratic capitalism’s promises to us about shared prosperity are regularly broken.
The mutual benefits of a capitalist economy were supposed to include our thriving as workers, being fairly compensated for our work and able to support our families and communities, while our employers also thrived when we used our paychecks to buy their goods and services. That virtuous circle has been the bedrock of capitalism’s social contract since Adam Smith first described it 300 years ago.
Today, its bonds are weakened, if not altogether broken.
A leading edge of the breakdown is tech platforms harvesting our personal data “for free” while selling it to others who use it to drive our decisions about what we consume. In what’s been called “surveillance capitalism,” we’re no longer valued at the front end of the exchange for what we provide (in this instance, our information). Instead our only value is at the back-end, determined by how much the companies that utilize our data can manipulate us into buying whatever they’re selling.
In this growing segment of our economy, largely exploitative exchanges have already replaced mutually beneficial ones. In addition to not paying us for our information, this economic model creates very few jobs in a departure from the consumer-oriented companies of the past. Its failure to value what we’re providing as workers and consumers relative to the enormous profits its trophy companies are reaping undermines both the health of the economy and the democratic institutions that depend on it.
In our economy’s more traditional jobs, we are also losing out today when it comes to the fair exchange of our work for its supposed benefits. A broader stagnation in the American economy results when the benefits that companies gain from pro-business policies fail to “trickle down” and benefit the vast majority of workers who lack the financial security to also be shareholders in these same companies. The result is a yawning wealth gap between the 1% (or, perhaps more accurately, the top 10%) and every other American.
Communities break down both economically and politically when we’re not compensated adequately for the work and information that we provide. What were supposed to be “a series of mutual benefit equations” between workers and employers, consumers and companies that sell us things, have become increasingly unbalanced.
The first discussion today looks at this breakdown in the social contract. The second part argues for a shift in priorities that can confront the perils of surveillance capitalism along with other distortions—like income inequality and stagnant growth—that harm all but a small percentage of those who participate in America’s economy today.
Instead of more failed attempts to increase economic opportunity through pro-business polices or to limit the harms of this approach with band aids for those it leaves behind, a far better alternative is promoting work for all who are willing to do it, while making the dignity of work (and the thriving families and communities that good work produces) our priorities. Rebalancing the economic equation for workers and consumers will enable the economy to benefit nearly everyone again while mending vital parts of America’s promise.
I took the pictures here in Germantown, a nearby “town” in Philadelphia where the Revolutionary War battle took place. Three centuries ago, America’s democratic capitalism began in places like Germantown. In the fabric of its old and repurposed buildings, it’s not difficult to find a metaphor when you’re looking for one.
In the side of one old factory, there is a bricked-in wall where there used to be a workroom. In the future of our work, I’d argue that bricked-over workrooms like this, where we used to benefit from our contributions as workers and consumers, need to be opened up and revitalized. We need to call out our increasingly feudal system for what it is, and reorient our priorities to restore basic economic relationships that are foundation stones for our way of life.
The Fundamental Breakdown
In a post from January, I discussed the arguments that Oren Cass makes in his new book The Once and Future Worker about how the mutually beneficial relationships between workers, consumers and businesses have broken down since the 1970s and our repeated failures to address the imbalance. As I said at the time:
[Cass] is concerned about the vast majority of urban, suburban and rural workers who are not sharing in America’s prosperity because of policy choices that have been made over the past 50 years by “the Left” (for more government spending on safety nets) and “the Right” (for its insistence on driving [business profits] over every other priority). Putting expensive band-aids on the victims of pro-growth government policies—when we could simply be making better choices—is hardly a sustainable way forward in Cass’s view.
Cass argues that propping up business to create a bigger pie for all has been a failure because those bigger slices are being eaten almost exclusively by business owners and their investors as opposed to their workers, their communities, or the economy at large. To counter this result, Cass wants policy makers to adopt entirely different priorities than the Right and Left have been embracing, namely, active, sustained promotion of “a labor market in which workers can support strong families and communities [as] the central determinant of long term prosperity.” Several of his proposals about how to do so, along with his views about the dignity of work and its importance to democracy, are set out in that earlier post.
Cass’s conclusion (and mine) is that America needs to change its economic priorities before the costs of failure get any worse.
In another new book, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, Shoshana Zuboff focuses on a leading edge of the current problem: the stark imbalance in “behavioral futures markets” where data about what we “are likely to want next” has tremendous value to companies selling us products and services but which no one has been paying us to provide. For Zuboff, these tech platforms, along with the marketers and sellers who buy our behavioral information, have created “a new economic order that claims human experience as free raw material” while implementing “a parasitic economic logic in which the production of goods and services is subordinated to a new global architecture of behavioral modification.” If the industry players can seduce you into giving enough information about your motivations and desires to your smart phones, smart speakers, social networks and search engines, they can persuade you to buy (or do) almost anything.
Zuboff discusses how economic theorists from Adam Smith to Friedrich Hayek legitimized capitalism as a system where workers needed to be paid well enough to provide for their families, be productive members of their communities, and have enough spending money left over to buy the products and services that companies like their employers were providing. In an essay that laid out her argument before Surveillance Capitalism was published, Zuboff cites economic historian Karl Polanyi for his views about how American companies after World War II were expected to offer a kind of communal reciprocity that involved hiring the available workers, hiking wages when possible, and sharing their prosperity rather than hoarding it.
Polanyi knew that capitalism was never self-regulating, could be profoundly destructive, and that its foreseeable human tolls needed to be minimized. To do so, “measures and policies” also had to be integrated “into powerful institutions [that were] designed to check the action of the market relative to labor, land and money.” Zuboff cites Polanyi’s post-War study of General Motors not only for for the ways that fair labor practices, unionization and collective bargaining preserved “the organic reciprocities” between its workers and owners but also for how much the public appreciated these shared benefits at the time.
In the 1950s, for example, 80 percent of [American] adults said that ‘big business’ was a good thing for the country, 66 percent believed that business required little or no change, and 60 percent agreed, ‘the profits of large companies help make things better for everyone who buys their products or services.’
It was a balance that persisted for almost 40 years until what Zuboff calls “the ascendancy of neoliberalism” promoted an extreme form of capitalism where owner profits and share price were paramount and a responsible commitment to workers and communities no longer held capitalism’s worst tendencies in check. Around 1980, Oren Cass notes a related shift. Instead of creating worker satisfaction through “the dignity of work,” there was an economic policy shift from promoting worker satisfaction through the quality of their jobs to keeping them happy as consumers by giving them more stuff to buy with their paychecks.
Zuboff argues that the surveillance capitalists stepped in once these established reciprocities were breached, with profound effects for individual Americans as workers and consumers, for communities whose vitality depends on them, and for our democratic way of life itself.
Instead of paying for the parts of us that they’re profiting from, the surveillance capitalists pay us nothing for our behavioral data. Given the enormous size and profitability of companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon, they also “give back” far fewer jobs to the employment market than a GM once did. Moreover, these companies feel that they owe us nothing in exchange for manipulating us into buying whatever they’re selling—what Zuboff calls a kind of “radical indifference.” Without so much as an afterthought, they take without giving much back to us individually, to the job market, or to the community at large. Capitalism’s ability to lift all boats was supposed to be a driving force for democracy and the genius of the American Dream.
The absence of organic reciprocities with people as sources of either consumers or employees is a matter of exceptional importance in light of the historical relationship between market capitalism and democracy. In fact, the origins of democracy in both Britain and America have been traced to these very reciprocities. [the citations I’ve omitted here are provided in her essay]
In The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, Zuboff describes the problem but doesn’t propose solutions. Cass, on the other hand, argues that capitalism remains the best hope for workers to reclaim their share of economic prosperity, but that we’ll have to change our public policies in order to restore the necessary reciprocities. As for surveillance capitalism, tech futurist Jaron Lanier made an early argument for countering tech company indifference and reclaiming the benefit of our personal data in his 2013 book Who Owns the Future? His proposals are even more feasible today.
The bricked-off memory of this old workroom seems more hopeful in the springtime.
Restoring the Balance
Cass’s Once and Future Worker is an important book because he backs up his ideological preferences with hard data. His solutions begin with the need for new government policies that aim to support thriving workers, families and communities by reinforcing the democratic give-and-take that is barely holding America together today. Along the way, Cass never loses sight of the real human impacts—for better and for worse—of economic forces and the policies that attempt to manage them.
For example, in his chapter “A Future for Work,” Cass argues that the workforce disruptions that will result from automation are a natural and positive effect of every innovation from the Industrial Revolution to the present. Learning how to do more with less is essential for economic growth. At the same time however, he argues strenuously that gains in economic productivity from new inventions and technologies (fewer workers producing the same amount) need to be matched by policy-driven gains in overall economic output (which will give displaced workers the ability to find new jobs as more wealth is created, living standards improve and consumer demand grows).
This is precisely what happened from 1947 to 1972, widely seen as the golden age of American manufacturing and the nation’s middle class. Economy-wide productivity increased by 99 percent; only fifty workers were needed by the end of the Vietnam War to do the work that one hundred could complete at the end of World War II. The result was not mass unemployment. Instead, America produced more stuff. The same share of the population was working in 1972 as in 1947, and men’s median income was 86 percent higher…[W]ith fewer workers required to produce the output of 1947, many could serve markets in 1972 that hadn’t existed a generation earlier or that had been much smaller.
Cass admits that these disruptions are hard for individual workers to weather but that expanding economic output always provides new jobs for displaced workers eventually. I’ve discussed the theory that at least some workers can prepare for disruptions like automation by developing skills “at the scalable edges” of their industries before their jobs disappear. But Cass also cites the introduction of ATM machines and fears about bank closures for an easier transition given the health of the economy at the time. In the years when ATM machines debuted, economic output (or an expanding economy) was matching productivity gains (and business profits). Since these ATMs lowered the banks’ cost of doing business, they repeatedly responded by opening more branches and creating new jobs.
Unfortunately, government statistics indicate that current productivity gains are not being matched by gains in overall economic output. It is a time when companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon are using their innovations to maximize corporate profits but provide relatively few jobs while exploiting free user data–giving back little (beyond convenience) that can enable workers, families and communities to thrive as well. So if you don’t feel like you’re “getting ahead” today, it’s not your imagination; the output economy that creates new economic opportunities and new jobs isn’t keeping up, and it hasn’t been doing so for years. Writes Cass:
From 1950 to 2000, while productivity in the manufacturing sector rose by 3.1 percent annually, value-added output grew by 3.6 percent—and employment increased, from 14 million to 17 million. During 2000-2016, productivity rose by a similar 3.3 percent annually. But output growth was only 1.1 percent—and employment fell, from 17 million to 12 million. Even with all of the technological advancement of the twenty-first century, had manufacturers continued to grow their businesses at the same rate as in the prior century, they would have needed more workers—a total of 18 million, by 2016 [if output had also been growing].
While he does not describe the problem in terms of “reciprocities” between workers, businesses and consumers like Zuboff, Cass would agree that the imbalances between them are at the heart of the problem and need to be corrected. Once again, several of the policy solutions he proposes are reviewed in my January post. All reject the failed economic policies of the Left and the Right in favor of new approaches that will help workers, families and communities to thrive even if we have to settle for making somewhat less money as an economy overall.
Long before Shoshana Zuboff was railing about “surveillance capitalism,” Jaron Lanier was arguing that our behavioral information has tremendous value to the tech platforms, marketers and sellers or what he calls the “Siren Servers” that are harvesting it, and that we should be putting a price tag on our personal data before they take any more of it for free.
Like both Zuboff and Cass, Lanier believes in an economy that is sustained by a thriving middle class with plenty of hard, fulfilling work. His quandary is finding a way that more livelihoods can be sustained “in a world in which information is king,” as his Guardian book reviewer put it.
To that end, Lanier fears that in the early days of the internet we spent too much time worrying about open access and too little, if any time worrying about the digital economy’s likely impacts on job security and the monetizing of user information. Lanier emphasizes the highly personal nature of this exploitation by arguing that our behavioral data “is people in disguise” and morally intertwined with the humans who supplied it.
Lanier’s corrective is to implement a system where we would each be given “nanopayments” for the use of our biometric property. In 2013, he envisioned more sophisticated archives to record where our data originates as well as what it should be worth. He takes over half of his book to describe this mechanism. For our purposes, what he envisioned five years ago can be reduced (although far too easily) to a series of blockchain-based payments for our provision of useful personal data, similar to the system discussed here in a post from last August. Lanier’s nanopayments to individuals whenever a company profits from their personal information would be daunting to implement but it would also go a long way towards restoring Zuboff’s “organic reciprocities” and bringing Cass’s broader economic growth into the business of surveillance capitalism.
The mutual benefits that we once enjoyed as workers, consumers and business owners in exchange for what we were providing is no longer a reality. The reasons for that loss and the blame for those responsible are just the front-end of our thinking about what we’re prepared to do about it.
In the election cycles ahead of us, it is hard to believe that our nation will have the kind of reasoned debate that we need to be having about the future of our work and its impact on our families, our local communities and our way of life itself. But maybe, hopefully, a conversation along the lines I am arguing for above will begin alongside the shouting matches we are already having about the need to abandon democratic capitalism altogether.
Cass, Zuboff and Lanier all begin with the proposition—and it’s where I start too—that our future needs to be built by human workers and that the work we’ll be doing needs to enable us, our loved ones, our neighbors, our shared economy, and not merely a protected few, to flourish.
We have managed to do this before.
Many of us have experienced its mutual benefit in our lifetimes, and we can experience it again.
But first, we’ll need to restore the social contract around our work.
This post was adapted from my April 21, 2019 newsletter. When you subscribe on this page, a new newsletter/post will be delivered to your inbox every Sunday morning.
Filed Under: *All Posts, Building Your Values into Your Work, Work & Life Rewards Tagged With: America's social contract is broken, automation, capitalism, democratic capitalism, economic disruption from innovation, economic output, ethics, future of work, Jaron Lanier, Oren Cass, productivity, Shoshana Zuboff, social contract, surveillance capitalism, The Once and Future Worker, Who Owns the Future?, work-based priorities
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Hybrid Electric Car: A Promising Technology for a Promising Future for the Environment
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A hybrid-electric vehicle, or HEV, combines an electrical energy storage system with an occupied means of generating electrical energy, usually through the consumption of some type of fuel. Each type of HEV has its own operating quality and chosen design practices, as well as advantages and disadvantages.
The development of interior ignition engine vehicles, especially in automobiles, is one of the supreme achievements of modern technology as a new rising energy saving and environment -friendly vehicle, that’s why the hybrid-electric vehicles were created to give convenience to every human.
In the process of creating the hybrid electric car, the most important is the energy saving and the environmental protection. Wherein nowadays this are the common problems faced by the society.
Having the hybrid-electric car evolved from the electric car. However, the main disadvantage of the electric car is that it is mainly dependent on the batteries. Therefore, has limited range.
First of all, the hybrid electric car was supposed to be an electric vehicle with batteries for power storage and is also equipped with an on-board heat engine-powered generator. This means that this type of hybrid has an extended range.
The heat engine power and the battery power are specifically intended as an important scheme that constantly modulates the excess between the heat engine and the battery power systems. This will also depend on the driving schedule.
Since the beginning of the use of automobiles, electric cars have been already recognized and conceptualized. Even though the electric power train is better in various aspects, as an energy source, the battery was unequal to the superior-energy content, easiness in terms of the handling, and inexpensive and profuse supplies of motor fuel.
Now, it has almost been a century since the electric car has been popularly discussed, but recent developments in the HEV technology and the growing concerns for the environment has revived the drive for an HEV and this has become a realization today.
We can consider the personal means of transportation as a very important bond in the economic chain of today’s modern societies and that a private vehicle appears to be the popular choice.
Electric vehicles are more energy efficient than the contemporary vehicles wherein the electric vehicles operates at approximately 46 percent of effectiveness, while a contemporary vehicle operates at about 18 percent only.
There are studies that generally concludes that electric cars with batteries are approximately 10 to 30 percent more efficient with energy than the usual gasoline cars, depending on the exact assumptions of the vehicles energy usage and energy chain efficiency.
Certainly, the comparisons of the electric vehicles and the conventional vehicles are comparisons between an extremely developed power system that is nearly in the end of its research and development, and the innovative power system in the beginning stages of the development wherein important development can be expected as the new technology evolves.
Furthermore, the advantages of electric powered modes of transportation extends beyond the true outlook of economizing energy. Electric generation plants can use substitute fuels that are not adaptable to portable power systems.
Electric vehicles are the definitive alternative fuel vehicles because their power is taken from the source fuels utilized to produce electricity. Aside from that, the flexibility of the fuel alone can offer important useful and economic advantages especially in relation to a variety of energy resources.
The electric car is truly a promising technology that could transform one’s means of transportation into a far more environmentally type of commodity. Through this innovation emission controls become more important, effective and economically beneficial.
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History Reversed – History Re-lived
May 13, 2014 May 22, 2014 researchforum
Bohdan Nahaylo
During the half-a-year since the courageous students in the Maidan dared to declare “enough!” and to sound the clarion call to national revolution, we have witnessed: the heroic resistance to, and overthrow of, a corrupt, cynical, and in essence anti-Ukrainian regime; the immediate back-lash from the ancient regime’s backers in the Kremlin aimed at denying Ukraine’s right as a sovereign nation to self-determination, both internally in terms of its democratic choice, and externally as regards self-identification and alignment with the Euro-Atlantic community of states and their values; and, annexation via brutal force, subterfuge and a pseudo-referendum of Crimea, and the replication of these vile methods, with a similar anti-Ukrainian aim, in the Donbas.
Poised as we are between what has already happened, the known, and the unknown – Putin’s further actions, the Ukrainian presidential and parliamentary elections being able to proceed and their results, the response of the outside world, and the mood and resolve of the people of Ukraine in these critical times – I want to draw attention to what I consider is the most important new element and challenge which has emerged and established itself as the new axiom in contemporary Ukrainian-Russian and regional relations, and which has major implications for peace and security in Europe, and for international affairs more broadly.
Ukraine, through its recent national revolution, has said yes to the family of free nations making up modern Europe and affirmed its identification with it, and its values; this means an emphatic “no thank you” to Russian-promoted Eurasian schemes, Russian tutelage, and the Putin model of governance, if that is the right term. Even more bluntly, this translates into the latest rejection in Ukraine’s history of Russian hegemony, of the Oriental despotic and imperialist model which Putin’s regime is merely the latest version, and affirmation of Ukraine’s enduring sense of being distinctive, European, and wanting to be free.
It is a continuation of Ukraine’s long struggle to be recognized as an independent state and secure conditions in which the simultaneous processes of state and nation-building could be completed. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union and achievement of independence in 1991 it seemed that the requisite situation had been achieved. But now, suddenly, all this has been placed in question and Ukraine has been confronted yet again with questions and challenges which it seemed had been resolved once and for all.
We are again confronted with unfinished business left over not so much from 1991 – when the transition from dependence to independence was achieved surprisingly painlessly because of the exceptional conditions prevailing at that time, but change in form was not accompanied by a thorough replacement of content – as from 1917-20.
Russia needed to come to terms with its new diminished status after the collapse of the Soviet Union and, despite friction with Moscow over Crimea and the future of the Black Sea Fleet, Kravchuk and Kuchma were able to lay the groundwork with Yeltsin for good-neighbourly bilateral relations based on pragmatism and mutual respect. Russia’s current leader, Vladimir Putin, however, has made no secret of his hostility towards a genuinely independent Ukraine. The former KGB officer made evident his abhorrence of the Orange Revolution and what it represented and subsequently even went as far as to question before US President George Bush Ukraine’s right to exist as a state.
Some see Stalin as Putin’s source of inspiration for restoring Russia’s greatness, but he himself has indicated that he is an admirer of Denikin, one of the leaders of the White movement, who had championed the cause of “Russia, one and indivisible” and had been an implacable foe of Ukrainian independence and of the non-Russian national movements generally. Whether or not, as some believe, Putin had plans years ago to partition Ukraine and use Russian-speakers in neighbouring states to restore a greater Russia, it is clear that the existence of a Ukrainian state which does not identify itself with Russia rankled him.
While Yanukovych was in control in Kyiv, Putin could live with a Ukraine slowly but surely being brought back into Russia’s political and cultural orbit. He also had a powerful lever at his disposal – Ukraine’s dependence on energy supplies from Russia. Although Yanukovych raised expectations among Ukraine’s hopeful population of developing a partnership with the EU, Putin was gratified to see concrete steps taken by the regime in Kyiv to undo what had been achieved during the years of independence and to dilute the state’s “Ukrainian” content, e.g. in the official policies regarding the treatment of Ukrainian history (the Holodomor, and approach to World War II), the status of the Ukrainian language, the de facto pre-eminence afforded the Moscow Patriarch, and drawing closer to membership in the Eurasian economic bloc.
But when the Maidan and Yanukovych’s heavy-handed response triggered a veritable national revolution in Ukraine which swept away the regime, Putin was faced with something even more inimical for him than the Orange Revolution – the emergence of a new, regenerated and self-cleansed Ukraine, democratic and western oriented – and in which the Ukrainian had finally overcome the Little Russian. It was not the fear of democratic contagion from Ukraine and challenge which this might have eventually created as regards his own power which spurred him to take drastic counter-measures – but the realization that the re-emergence of a genuinely independent Ukraine undermined his vision of things and schemes for a restoring a greater Russia and consolidating a Eurasian hegemony.
Thus, in defiance of the international order, Putin has not only effectively declared war on the new Ukraine, but also renewed the war of the tsars and the commissars against the very idea of an independent Ukraine. Just as the defenders of Ukraine’s liberties were in the past branded as traitors, foreign agents, extremists and criminals, be they Mazepists, Petliurites, national deviationists, Banderites, or dissidents, Putin has publicly demonized today’s Ukrainian patriots as extremist, fascists and agents of the West. Though his reckless historical revisionism, scarcely disguised chauvinism and aggression, he has sought to reverse history and is forcing us and others to relive it.
Just as in 1918 Ukrainians are again faced with the harsh truths about the nature of their “brotherly” neighbour and the cost of freedom, and in Russia Bulgakov’s crude depiction of the defenders of Ukrainian independence as neo-barbarian hordes which Russians, whether Red or White, must unite together to destroy, is once more being officially endorsed and projected in the state-controlled media. Issues and weaknesses that were apparent a century ago have re-emerged: weak central government; the lack of a strong army and reliance on improvised defence by patriotic volunteers, or Kruty syndrome; and, the persistence of a significantly large alienated segment of the population in the south-east which has still not been won over and where now, as then, local “independent republics” are being established “with Russian bayonets”.
But there are major differences, too, which brighten this gloomy picture. With the exception of mainly the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, loyalty to Ukraine is stronger today than at any time in the country’s history. Most importantly, this is evident among the young generation of Ukrainians for whom the Orange Revolution, and especially the Maidan, have been defining moments; in Kyiv, which has become a veritable capital of Ukrainian national life and a “hero city” of the Ukrainian Revolution; and in regions, such as Sumy, Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk and Odesa where there has been substantial support for Ukraine’s renewal. In fact, the dramatic events of the last months have galvanized the population of Ukraine and helped create a greater sense of unity transcending linguistic, ethnic and religious differences. It has united Ukrainians, Russians, Jews, Crimean Tatars and others on the basis of a shared commitment to the creation of a new Ukraine based on democracy, inclusive civic nationalism and a European orientation. And of course, unlike in 1918-19, Ukraine is not isolated internationally and has the strong backing of most of the key Euro-Atlantic powers and within the OSCE, NATO and the United Nations.
Even with the dubious trophies of Crimea and perhaps the Donbas exacted from a weakened post-revolutionary Ukraine, Putin is unlikely to be satisfied. He and his regime, and the latter-day Black Hundreds which they have regenerated and unleashed, make no effort to disguise their hostility towards an independent Ukraine and that they will use all their means to subvert and destroy it. This new reality – the restoration of a traditional feature of official Russian policy towards Ukraine which one had assumed had been overtaken by time – has grave longer-term implications, and not only for Ukraine, which even with the territorial losses it faces is likely eventually to emerge stronger and better able to defend itself.
The renewed battle for Ukraine along Europe’s geopolitical fault-line will remain a source of instability, insecurity and distrust. Ultimately, it also represents a struggle between competing value systems and political civilizations reminiscent of the old Cold War, though it is increasingly becoming a manifestation of a new one. The tectonic movements after the geo-political earthquake created by the collapse of the Soviet Union are still making themselves felt.
Opinions, Social and Political Sciences Euromaidan, European Union, Orange Revolution, Russian Federation, Soviet Union, Viktor Yanukovych Leave a comment
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Back-and-forth game ends with Blackhawks toppling Red Wings, 4-3
Alex DeBrincat & Dylan Sadowy/Photo by Sarah Avampato
Echoing a familar pattern from last year, the Blackhawks bounced back from a tough loss in the tournament opener to gain a win over the hometown favorite Detroit Red Wings. Unlike last year, however, this year’s game was much more tightly contested, which was a good thing for the overall watchability of the product on ice.
The first game of the tournament was all about the kids getting their legs back into skating. For most of them, this has been the first actual competitive hockey for them since their respective seasons ended. Based on their performance on Saturday afternoon, they caught on very quickly, peppering the Red Wings with 17 shots over the first period. Free agent invitee Michael Cramarossa opened up scoring in the first, carrying the puck into the zone himself and scoring off the rush.
Scoring in the second went back and forth, with Darren Raddysh scoring on a big shot to tie things back up. Detroit took the lead again near the end of the second after Graham Knott blatantly cross checked a player and sent the team on the penalty kill. The second ended with a surprise for anyone who didn’t actually watch any Erie Otters games — Alex DeBrincat dropping the gloves against the much larger Dylan Sadowy (6’1”). I didn’t see what sparked the fight, just gloves flying, but DeBrincat has always had some grit to his game, when he’s not busy scoring goals. He’s certainly not a player who you want to see fighting — anyone else remember that time Connor McDavid broke his hand — but DeBrincat is no stranger to fighting, or to standing up for his teammates.
The third period was all Chicago, with the team putting up 14 shots and Carl Dahlstrom and DeBrincat both scoring, for a final score of 4-3.
I was impressed with goalie Matt Tomkins in this game. Despite giving up the lead, he generally seemed more secure and confident in net. I’ve only seen him in prospect camp and scrimmages over the years, but have never been too impressed by his numbers, even playing behind a mediocre team at Ohio State. The Blackhawks seem to still want to see what they’ve got with him, signing him to an AHL contract so they can keep an eye on his development.
Anthony Louis, bumped up to the first line with David Kampf and Alex DeBrincat, had a much more noticeable game. His speed was on full display and he had several opportunities, including at least one breakaway, but wasn’t able to convert. I’m looking forward to watching him find his consistency.
Aside from his goal, Darren Raddysh had a great overall game, including one noticeable play where he hustled to disrupt a Red Wings breakaway attempt. The blue line in Rockford (and by extension the Indy Fuel) is getting a big crowded with “let’s see what happens” types of prospects, but Raddysh, who was one of junior hockey’s more sought after free agents, didn’t win OHL Defenseman of the Year for nothing. Keep an eye on him as he adjusts to pro hockey.
Alexandre Fortin sat the game out, as he’s still working his way back from surgery in the off-season. Nathan Noel left the game after an awkward hit sent him flying, and then limping off the ice. He’ll be evaluated but we may not see him again just as a precaution, even if the injury isn’t serious.
All of the teams have a rest day today; the Blackhawks return to action tomorrow to face off against the Carolina Hurricanes at 6:30 pm Eastern.
Stats and boxscore from this game can be found here.
Photo: Sarah Avampato
Related Items:Alex DeBrincat, Anthony Louis, Chicago Blackhawks, Darren Raddysh, Matt Tomkins, NHL, Top
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Georgia appeals ruling on immigration law | News
Georgia appeals ruling on immigration law
Submitted by Associated Press
Wednesday, July 6th, 2011, 2:19pm
Topics: News, Politics
ATLANTA -- A spokeswoman for the state attorney general says the state has filed a notice of appeal of a federal judge's ruling that blocked parts of the state's law cracking down on illegal immigration from taking effect.
Spokeswoman Lauren Kane says the notice was filed Tuesday with the U.S. District Court in Atlanta, but has not yet been filed with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. The office will file court papers outlining the state's objections to last week's ruling.
The decision from federal Judge Thomas Thrash granted a request filed by civil liberties groups to block two sections of the law from taking effect until a lawsuit challenging the law's constitutionality has been resolved.
Other parts of the law, passed by the Georgia Legislature this year, took effect Friday.
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Smith vs. Holzken make weight for WBSS Semi-Final showdown!
February 23, 2018 FightFan.com Staff Scale Watch, Video Highlights
Courtesy of World Boxing Super Series
Both WBC Diamond Champion Callum Smith (23-0, 17 KOs ) and Nieky Holzken (13-0, 10 KOs) made weight on Friday for Saturday’s super middleweight Semi-Final of the World Boxing Super Series, set to take place the Arena Nürnberger Versicherung and available in Canada on Super Channel!
Callum Smith 167.6 pounds
Nieky Holzken 167.6 pounds
World Boxing Council (WBC) Diamond champion Callum “Mundo” Smith (23-0, 17 KOs) takes on late replacement Nieky “The Natural” Holzken (13-0, 10 KOs) this Saturday in the last World Boxing Super Series (WBSS) semifinals-round match in the super middleweight division, at Nurnberger Versicherung Arena in Nuremburg, Germany
The Smith vs. Holzken card, starting at 2 p.m. ET, will air live in Canada, exclusively on Super Channel.
Holzken, an undefeated Dutch prospect, has replaced two-time world champion Juergen Braehmer, of Germany, who withdrew from the WBSS semifinals match due to illness.
“I have been battling a feverish infection since Sunday,” Braehmer explained. “Unfortunately, a fight in this state is out of the questions. It is not possible for me to go into the ring like this and I would like to apologize to my fans. I was well prepared and looking forward to fighting Callum.”
The Smith-Holzken winner will advance to the WBSS super middleweight championship final against World Boxing Association (WBA) and International Boxing Organization (IBO) Super Middleweight World Champion “Sir” George Groves (28-3, KOs), of the United Kingdom, June 2 at The O2 Arena in London, in a battle for the coveted Muhammad Ali Trophy.
Super Channel acquired the exclusive rights in Canada to broadcast the World Boxing Super Series from MP & Silva, a leading international media company that provides media rights, digital, technology and sponsorship services.
Smith was the least tested WBSS semifinalist in terms of having faced quality opponents, as well as the youngest at 27. The undefeated Brit is one of four fighting Smith brothers.
In the WBSS quarterfinals, Smith took a 12-round unanimous decision from previously unbeaten Erik Skoglund to capture the World Boxing Council (WBC) Diamond super middleweight title.
“I gave an interview last week and said it was great there have been no drop-outs,” Smith said. “Looks like I spoke too soon. We got the call as we were boarding the plane. I am committed to fighting Saturday and will fight whoever the World Boxing Super series puts in front of me.”
The 34-year-old Holzken was preparing to fight Dmitri Chudinov in Saturday’s WBSS Super Middleweight Substitute Fight. He has had only four scheduled 10-round matches during his five-year professional career, the most notable being a win by 10-round unanimous decision in 2016 over Farouk Daku (20-9-1) for the vacant BeNeLux super middleweight title.
Holzken is determined to make the most of this opportunity by upsetting Smith, despite his obvious leap in class. “I’ve been waiting for this chance to come,” Holzken commented. “I signed up as a substitute fighter, so I’m in great shape and prepared for Saturday. I’ve watched Callum fight many times. I study everyone in my weight class. He’s a good, solid fighter. We’re both big body punchers. It will make for an excellent fight. Callum, you better be ready, because I am, and I’m coming to beat you!”
Five exciting fights on the “Smith-Holzken” card, presented by Sauerland Event, will air exclusively in Canada on Super Channel.
In the 10-round WBSS Substitute Fight, Dmitrii “Night Wolf” Chudinov (20-2, 13 KOs), of Russia, faces an opponent to be determined in the co-featured event. 2016 Olympic bronze medalist Filip Hrgovic (3-0, 3 KOs), of Croatia, faces Irishman Sean “Big Sexy” Turner (12-1, 8 KOs) in an eight-round bout; former WBC Youth light heavyweight champion James Kraft (13-0, 9 KOs), of Germany, meets Cameroon native Bernard Donfack (23-17-3, 11 KOs) in an eight round super middleweight match; 19-year-old German super middleweight Leon Bauer (12-0-1, 8 KOs) squares off with Marco Miano (6-6, 2 KOs), of Italy, in a six-round fight to open the Super Channel broadcast. A six-round “swing bout” between German super middleweight Toni Kraft (12-0-1, 4 Kos) and Hungarian Jozsef Racz (7-20-1, 2 KOs) may also be aired.
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Rooney leads the way for United
Wayne Rooney scored all 4 goals at Old Trafford as Manchester United eased past Hull City in the only Premier League match of the weekend as many other teams were busy with FA Cup ties with Arsenal being the biggest casualties of the 4th round losing 3-1 at Stoke. Among other matches Everton lost 2-1 at home to Birmingham and Newcastle fell 4-2 at West Bromwich Albion, while Jermaine Beckford scored both goals for Leeds as they earned a home replay against Tottenham. In the Milan derby Inter ended the match with 9 men but were 2-0 winners against Milan who missed a penalty through Ronaldinho in stoppage time.
In midweek Liverpool drew blanks at Wolves while Crouch and Bentley got the goals for Tottenham who were entertaining Fulham. Frank Lampard scored twice at the Bridge as Chelsea defeated Birmingham 3-0 to go top, ahead of Arsenal who drew 0-0 at Aston Villa, and Manchester United who were playing the return leg of the Carling Cup semi-final where Rooney scored the decisive goal in stoppage time to give United a 3-1 win over Manchester City and take them to the Wembley final with a 4-3 aggregate win.
Gunning above the magnificent seven
Chelsea demolished Sunderland 7-2 at the Bridge but lost top spot to Arsenal who won 2-0 at Bolton, before returning home to fight back from 2 down and defeat the same team 4-2 in midweek. Manchester United kept up the pressure by winning 3-0 at home to Wigan, but lost the first leg of their Calring Cup semi-final 2-1 (with a brace from Tevez) away to City who had earlier lost 2-0 at home to Everton in the league. In the other semi-final Aston Villa took a 1-0 lead from the first leg but fell 2-0 to Blackburn before fighting back to win an unforgettable match 6-4 and reach Wembley where they will meet the winners of the Manchester derby.
Chelsea enjoy snow break
With the English Premier League fixture list decimated by severe weather conditions, league leaders Chelsea whose match at Hull was postponed watched their nearest rivals drop points as Manchester United drew 1-1 at Birmingham, while in the only other match to be played at the weekend Arsenal needed a last gasp goal to salvage a 2-2 draw at home to Everton. Carlos Tevez scored a hat-trick on Monday in Manchester as City buried Blackburn 4-1 to move into 4th place. Reading who had earned a replay at Liverpool celebrated a famous 2-1 win at Anfield knocking the Reds out of the FA Cup in extra time.
In the Spanish cup Zigic scored twice for Valencia in their 2-2 draw at Deportivo La Coruna and Barcelona won 1-0 at Sevilla but both teams were knocked oput as a result of their 2-1 home defeats.
Early cup exit for Man Utd
Leeds United rose to the occasion at Old Trafford to knock Manchester United out of the FA Cup in the 3rd round, with a goal from Jermaine Beckford in the first half. Liverpool will need a replay after their 1-1 draw at Reading while Arsenal progressed to the next round with 2 goals in the 2nd half after going a goal down at West Ham. Aston Villa are also through, winning 3-1 at home to Blackburn.
In Spain Barcelona and Valencia both suffered 2-1 home defeats in their first leg Copa del Rey matches against Sevilla and Deportiva la Coruna respectively.
Both midweek Carling Cup semi-final matches in England were postponed due to severe weather conditions.
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Moment of Reckoning
India’s sub-sea fleet needs an overhaul
Rohan Ramesh
The rise in tensions between India and Pakistan, and consequent reports that the Indian Navy went on war readiness mode post-Pulwama has once again focused attention on the need to beef up the naval arm of Indian armed forces. Reports said the navy, which was conducting its biggest war games ever, TROPEX 19 (Theatre Level Operational Readiness Exercise) off Kochi, quickly redeployed the carrier battle group comprising INS Vikramaditya, nuclear submarines and scores of other ships, submarines and aircraft, as tensions escalated.
Indian Navy’s submarines docked at harbour
While the limelight has been on the army and the air force for four wars over 70 years, the navy, which played a small, but effective role in the 1971 war, has been a neglected child for long. Being a status quoist power, India in the past never considered a substantial role for the navy. There were two reasons behind this. One, the Pakistan navy was a smaller fry in Rawalpindi’s scheme of things. Second, China was more concerned with economic growth, and its security concerns related to South China Sea and the US Pacific Command.
The Indian Navy played an active role twice, once while smashing a coup by Sri Lankan Tamil mercenaries in Maldives in November 1988 and later providing support to the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) as it took on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka, in an ill-advised mission between 1987 and 1990.
For decades, the navy had the vast Indian Ocean all by itself. But things changed in the last few years.
The rise of China as a world economic power, and its consequent power play with the US had unexpected consequences. Anticipating an inevitable conflict with the US, the Chinese leadership began feverishly beefing its armed forces, and that included its navy. Fearing American interdiction and disruption of its energy supply lines stretching from the Gulf via Malacca Straits to the industrial hubs in eastern China, Beijing has begun building its navy into a powerful offensive force. And it has been looking for bases or friendly support and logistical infrastructure in the Indian Ocean, ranging from Myanmar and Bangladesh in the east, Sri Lanka in deep south, to Pakistan in Arabian Ocean to Djibouti overlooking the Bab al-Mandab Strait.
And it has been beefing up navy, both its surface fleet, as well as sub-surface fleet. Beijing has also built a close security relationship with Pakistan, which poses a serious threat to India. Under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, Pakistan has virtually gifted its Gwadar port on the Makran coast to China, which the latter is rumoured to be turning into a naval base.
With American military aid to Pakistan drying up, China has stepped in, helping Pakistan armed forces with material, including naval destroyers, and even submarines.
The reported sighting of a Chinese sub in waters off Andamans, a first ever, is the warning that the Indian Navy needed - the Chinese could now be considering moving into the Indian Ocean, which the Indian Navy had so far considered its backyard.
Together, the Chinese and Pakistan navies have the potential of being a joint threat, if not now, in the foreseeable future.
Given the scenario, in the event of further escalation of tensions, submarines will play a key part in Indian strategic planning, both as a conventional deterrent, or a strategic force as part of the nuclear triad.
The current submarine fleet of the Indian Navy has four Shishumar class submarines procured from Germany in the Eighties and Nineties. The four submarines in service are INS Shishumar (S44), INS Shankush (S45), INS Shalki (S46), INS Shankul (S47). These Type 209 submarines were designed by the German shipyard Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (HDW) for the Indian Navy.
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The Economic Downturn..
Author Topic: The Economic Downturn.. (Read 116066 times)
MartyS (Gromit)
Not Quite Legend
Weirdies!
Re: The Economic Downturn..
Yeah, Atlantic City is taking a beating this year.
Eric Pode of Croydon
Quote from: RVR II on November 14, 2014, 08:15:24 AM
Walmart Workers Promise Biggest Black Friday Strike Ever
Posted on November 14, 2014 at 10:56 am Updated: November 14, 2014
Walmart employees who are organizing as part of OUR Walmart are promising the biggest strikes ever on Black Friday, saying more employees will participate than the previous two years.
Barbara Gertz, an employee from Denver, Colorado, said organizers are expecting to see protests in 1,600 stores. While they don’t yet have a headcount of how many workers will strike or in how many cities, she said they’ve gotten calls “every day” from employees who want to join in. Protests will hit Los Angeles and a number of other major metropolitan areas. Employees at more than 2,100 Walmart stores across the country have signed an online petition asking for higher wages and better working conditions.
Gertz explained why she’s planning to take part. “There have been many times my family can’t even afford the gas to get me back and forth to work, so my husband had to wait in the car to take me home after work,” she said on a call with the press. “Every time one of us speaks out for change, we take the risk that Walmart will fire us. That’s not right and that’s not legal. That’s why we’re going on strike.” The National Labor Relations Board has backed up some of the claims of retaliation against organizing workers.
She noted that while the company has made some changes — it has announced an increase in the wage for its lowest-paid employees above the federal floor of $7.25 an hour, overhauled its scheduling program, and made some changes for pregnant employees — “associates are still struggling and our stores are still understaffed.” Striking Walmart workers have been calling for $15 an hour, more full-time work, and an end to retaliation to those trying to form a union over the past two years, and those demands were repeated on Thursday as they staged the first-ever sit-in strike.
Workers have gone on strike and protested for the past two Black Fridays. This time, they will also be joined by “tens of thousands” of community members, according to Stephanie Ly, AFT New Mexico president and a teacher, the “largest mobilizing of working families we’ve seen in recent history.” Teachers, elected officials, members of the clergy, and others will participate in protests at stores, flash mobs, marches, and prayer vigils.
“As a teacher, this tears me apart,” Ly said. “The constant struggle Walmart has created for families is not acceptable. It’s also holding back the next generation from the opportunities and fair shake they deserve.” They’ll join in the call for $15 an hour and full time work on behalf of “students who are coming to school hungry.”
While Walmart some workers will go on strike, others will be asked to report to work the day beforehand: Thanksgiving. Nearly 1 million workers will be asked to report to work on the national holiday to keep the store open all day, with Black Friday shopping deals starting at 6 p.m.
The company has admitted that less than half of its workforce makes more than $25,000. But it could easily raise pay by ending stock buybacks or raising the cost of an item like a DVD by a penny.
Went to Black Friday Walmart once. I will never do it again. The sense of animal aggression in there was horrible.
Afraid of the Wind
Complete waste of time at www.robertpreed.com
Yeah, Amazon is much better. And you can drink rum while shopping
RVR II likes this
RVR II
There can be Only 1...
Japan Sinks Into Recession (Again)
An unexpected contraction in quarterly GDP shows that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s radical economic program is badly broken
If anyone is still holding out hope that Abenomics — the unorthodox slate of economic policies named after their inspiration, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe — could rescue Japan from its two-decade slump, the news on Monday should dash it. The troubled economy surprised analysts by (once again) tumbling into recession. GDP in the quarter ended September shrank by an annualized 1.6% — far, far worse than the consensus forecasts. That followed a disastrous 7.3% contraction in the previous quarter. Speculation in Japan is that the bad results will push Abe to call a snap election only two years after taking office.
What’s going on in Japan is important for all of us. Since the economy is still the world’s third-largest (after the U.S. and China), a healthy Japan could provide a much-needed pillar to growth in a struggling global economy.
The current downturn is being blamed on a hike in the consumption tax, implemented in April to try to stabilize the government’s feeble finances, that slammed consumer spending. It is now expected that Abe will delay a further increase in that tax scheduled for next October. But the real causes lie much deeper — in the failings of Abe’s economic agenda.
The idea behind Abenomics was to boost the economy with massive stimulus from the Bank of Japan (BOJ) and the government combined with structural reform of the economy, or what has been called the “third arrow.” The problem is that we got the first two arrows, but not the third. While the BOJ kept its printing presses rolling, dramatically weakening the value of the yen, badly needed deregulation and market-opening has come extremely slowly. Some critical changes, such as a loosening of labor laws, seem to be off the menu entirely. The result is that the actual potential of the economy has not been enhanced. Meanwhile, the welfare of the average Japanese family hasn’t improved either. Wages haven’t advanced much, while prices have increased.
If Japan’s situation proves anything, it is the limits of central bank policy to fix economies. Despite a torrent of cash infused into the economy through the BOJ’s “quantitative easing” or QE, Japan’s economy remains mired in slow growth and stagnant household welfare. That’s why it is hard to imagine that the BOJ’s October decision to increase its QE program will make a major difference. So that’s the takeaway for policymakers in the U.S. and especially a stumbling Europe: If you’re going to rely too much on central bankers to revive growth, you’re going to fail.
The question facing Abe is whether he can press ahead more quickly with important reforms, either in his current administration or after a fresh election, which his party will still mostly likely win. Based on his recent track record, we don’t have reason to be confident. But maybe one day Japan will give us a surprise — in a good way.
http://www.rifftrax.com/iriff/ronin-fox-trax-dune
IGNORE ME OR REPROT ME!
A looming farewell--though not good riddance--to RadioShack
RadioShack May File For Bankruptcy
RadioShack was once America's high-tech toy store; what happened?
RadioShack says it's 'reinvigorating' its stores, but you shouldn't expect much
RadioShack's latest--and possibly last--desperation move was to stay open on Thanksgiving
Several generations of home electronics hobbyists, ham radio enthusiasts and computer nerds spent their growth-spurt years haunting their local RadioShack stores. They can't be happy about the company's long slide toward irrelevance and its looming disappearance as a feature of the retail landscape.
The chain joined the quixotic rush by American retailers to open on Thanksgiving Day, but was one of the very few outside the grocery business to be open as early as 8 a.m. A surer sign of management desperation is hard to conceive--or of management cluelessness, for that matter.
We may not have enough cash and working capital to fund our operations beyond the very near term, which raises substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern.
The Fort Worth firm's CEO, Joe Magnacca, characterized the policy as an effort to "capture the opportunity in the marketplace," but it's hard to figure where the clamor was in the wee hours of Thanksgiving Day for RadioShack's inventory of electronic adapters, batteries and other cheap gewgaws. A few cooks preparing family dinners might have had a burning last-minute need for a spare meat thermometer, but those could only be ordered from RadioShack online, so dropping in at any of its 5,200 local stores that were open (including three of the seven within five miles of my home) wouldn't have done them any good.
Harbingers of RadioShack's imminent demise are everywhere. Its employees feel abused. The company has been trying to restructure its finances for months to pursue what Magnacca calls an "operational turnaround." But its latest financial statements have been nothing short of horrific. In September, the firm announced its 10th consecutive money-losing quarter; its cash on hand had dwindled to $30.5 million from $440 million a year earlier. (We asked RadioShack for a comment on these and other issues, but haven't heard back.)
At that time, the firm disclosed that "we may not have enough cash and working capital to fund our operations beyond the very near term, which raises substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern" and mentioned the possibility of bankruptcy. Since then, its largest shareholder, the hedge fund Standard General, has given it a little more financial breathing room to show financial progress, but its forebearance could run out early next year. As I write, the stock is trading at 80 cents a share.
RadioShack's strategic thrashing is a familiar sight to anyone who follows moribund companies. For a time it positioned itself as a go-to retailer of mobile phones, but becoming a handmaiden of big, powerful mobile companies didn't prove to be the path to survival. Squeezed by big box retailers such as Best Buy, online merchants such as Amazon, and its brand suppliers, RadioShack seemed to disappear before our eyes. Shopping at the outlets in my neighborhood is a depressing experience, like dropping in at a 7-11 at 2 a.m. The stores are mostly dark, dingy, cramped and with a decidedly utilitarian and uncompelling inventory. I haven't spent more than $6.99 on a RadioShack purchase in years.
It wasn't always this way. The company's heyday ran from the 1970s through the late 1990s, when it rode the citizens band radio craze as the largest retailer in the market, and then morphed into a creditable maker of computer gear.
RadioShack introduced its TRS-80 personal computer in August 1977. For a time the unit held the home computing market in thrall, along with the Apple II and Commodore PET 2001--aficionados nicknamed the machine the "Trash-80," with equal parts disdain and fondness.
In 1983 came the TRS-80 Model 100/102, a pioneering laptop made out of high-impact plastic with an embedded eight-line LCD screen and a built-in modem, which retailed for as little as $800. Two years later the line was supplemented with the Model 200, which had a flip-up 16-line screen and sold for $1,000. The computers' specifications are laughable today, of course, but you'd be hard pressed to find a journalist from that era who traveled without one; mine got hauled from one end of Africa to the other.
RadioShack was eventually run out of the computer market by the IBM PC and its clones, but remained an important factor in the retail chain; its share price peaked in late 1999 in the high $70s, then came crashing down with the rest of the tech sector and almost never looked back.
The disappearance of RadioShack won't leave much of a void in the tech market, but it will put as many as 27,000 employees out of work. That's never a good thing, but one would feel even sorrier for them if RadioShack didn't have the reputation of a detestable place to work. In 2012, it ranked as America's third worst company to work for in a widely published survey by the website 24/7 Wall Street.
Nickel-and-diming of the workforce is another artifact of a company in its death throes. Judging by this shocking account of more than three years on the job by a former RadioShack drone, the company has polished contempt for its employees to a high luster. Its Thanksgiving Day routine was telling: The company initially announced that its stores would be open from 8 a.m. to midnight; then, after employee objections, decided to close between noon and 5 p.m. so they could spend that little time with their families.
Some retail analysts think RadioShack could have emerged from the market turmoil of the last couple of decades as a leading technology merchandiser, but that's doubtful. Keeping up with rapidly-changing markets is hard even for retailers with strong managements and a vision. RadioShack failed to pursue a consistent strategy or preserve a consistent image, so it declined into a last-gasp seller of cheap, trivial goods and not at bargain prices; who would go to RadioShack today to buy a high-end computer or TV, when there are so many other choices around, including online?
Under Magnacca the chain talks about "reinvigorating stores, revamping product assortment and repositioning the brand," creating "concept stores" to attract customers in 100 locations and slapping new paint on 2,000 more. That's the essence of window-dressing, and still leaves unanswered the question: What's RadioShack for? As its creditors and investors close in, the firm has very little time left to find an answer.
Kind of sad to see them go, will have to use amazon now and wait for delivery if I want something like a 3 battery holder for a project...
Funny, when I was in high school they got 2 TRS-80s, that was a big deal back then. One rich kid in town had an Apple II with a floppy drive...
What's wrong with Canada
Target: 17,600 jobs at risk as retailer leaves Canada
15 January 2015 Last updated at 10:28 ET
The US discount store Target is to shut all of its 133 stores in Canada two years after launching there.
On current trading performance, Target Canada, which employs 17,600 people, would not be profitable before 2021, its US parent said in a statement.
Target Canada, which has filed for bankruptcy protection, faced tough competition from Walmart and Costco, which opened in the country years ago.
Target said the closure was in the "best interest of the business".
Chairman and chief executive Brian Cornell said: "After a thorough review of our Canadian performance and careful consideration of the implications of all options, we were unable to find a realistic scenario that would get Target Canada to profitability until at least 2021,"
He said the focus now would be on "driving growth" in the US, where it has 1,801 stores.
There had been criticism that Target's launch in Canada was inept, with uncompetitive pricing and poor range of stock in the stores.
Shares in Target rose 8% in early trading following the news it was leaving Canada.
Mr Cornell, named chief executive six months ago, said: "It was a difficult decision but it was the right decision for our company.
"We have determined that it is in the best interest of our business and our shareholders to exit the Canadian market and focus on driving growth and building further momentum in our US business. "
It is Mr Cornell's first big move following the resignation of Gregg Steinhafel last year.
Target is not the only US discounter to suffer across the border. Big Lots and Best Buy have both closed stores in Canada.
Target said it expected cost of the exit to be between $500m (£328m) and $600m.
It's still January and we've only been home from Mexico just over 2 weeks.
A lot going on; some positive, some negative..
Tax season is slowly starting to increase but I've decided I don't need to go to our Charlotte office as often anymore and have started planning on staying more at our home office..
Today I was told we had customers at the Charlotte office and when I get there, there's no customers. This has happened a few times now since we opened the location a few months back and I had had enough! Wasting time, Wasting gas.. Not to mention 2 costly mechanical repairs and 1 accident I've had because of traveling back and forth there.. It's costing me more than I'm making
I guess I am also preparing for a possible new job working with the Postal Service
I applied for a Rural Carrier job this past Wednesday, took my test on Friday and I passed!
If I do get on at the Post Office then I need to plan for staying with them long term and restructure things in my business to minimize any work conflicts and this move is a step in that direction. I still may get that random call from the wife with questions but that's manageable so I guess we'll see what happens.
Oh Really Wonder if they will combine names like Office Staples
Office Depot and Staples had been in merger talks since September.
Updated, 8:39 a.m.
Staples has agreed to acquire Office Depot for $6.3 billion in cash and stock, a deal that would unite the two biggest providers of office supplies if approved.
The agreement to combine the two companies comes after months of pressure from Starboard Value, a hedge fund that had threatened to press a management change at Staples if it did not pursue an acquisition of Office Depot.
The combination is likely to face close antitrust scrutiny. Eighteen years ago, regulators shot down a combination of Staples and Office Depot. But in the nearly two decades since that attempted deal in 1997, the competitive landscape has changed, with both companies now facing rivals in Walmart, Target, Amazon and others.
Despite the specter of reduced competition in the market for pens and paper, regulators recently signaled that they were open to more consolidation in the office supplies market.
When Office Depot acquired OfficeMax in 2013, the Federal Trade Commission said the deal was “unlikely to substantially lessen competition in the retail sale of consumable office supplies.”
Staples will pay $7.25 in cash and 0.2188 of a share in Staples stock for each share of Office Depot. That represents a 44 percent premium over Office Depot’s stock price before news of the impending deal leaked on Monday night.
Staples began looking at the deal last summer, and talks with Office Depot began in September.
Ron Sargent, Staples’ chief executive, said that the company expected at least $1 billion of savings through the merger. “These savings will dramatically accelerate our strategic reinvention which is focused on driving growth in our delivery businesses and in categories beyond office supplies,” he said in a statement.
In a conference call, Mr. Sargent said that the companies’ business was changing, as the way people work continued to evolve.
“Paper based office supplies are being replaced by technology, customer demand continues to shift online, we’re going up against a wider set of competition,” Mr. Sargent said. “This transaction creates significant value for Staples and Office Depot shareholders.”
Mr. Sargent said both Staples and Office Depot boards had analyzed the regulatory environment, and that both boards believed the deal would be approved.
The companies said they expected the deal to close by the end of this calendar year. Staples will increase the size of its board to 13, from 11, adding two Office Depot directors.
There is a provision that allows Staples to walk away from the deal if regulators require divestitures amounting to more than $1.25 billion in Office Depot’s revenues or have a material adverse affect on Office Depot’s international operations.
If the deal is completed without forcing the companies to sell off substantial assets or retail outlets, the combined company will operate about 4,400 stores and have sales of roughly $34 billion.
Mr. Sargent said he wouldn’t predict how regulators would evaluate the transaction.
“It’s not our place nor could we publicly handicap what the F.T.C. might say,” he said. But he added that he agreed with the agency’s remarks at the close of the OfficeMax deal.
On Tuesday, after news of the deal leaked, the stocks of both companies rose sharply, reflecting investor enthusiasm for a combination.
“This transaction delivers great value for our shareholders and creates a company ideally positioned to serve our customers and grow over the long term,” Roland Smith, the chief executive of Office Depot, said in a statement. “It is also an endorsement of our many accomplishments and the tremendous success we’ve had integrating Office Depot and OfficeMax over the past year. We look forward to bringing our experience and knowledge to the new organization.”
The deal would be another victory for Starboard, which is riding a string of successes in its activist campaigns. Starboard last year successfully ousted the board of Darden Restaurants, the parent of the Olive Garden chain. Starboard had also been agitating Yahoo to spin off its stake in the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, which the company announced it would do last month.
In this deal, Barclays provided financial advice to Staples and Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, and Weil, Gotshal & Manges provided legal advice. Peter J. Solomon Company advised Office Depot, while Simpson Thacher & Bartlett provided legal advice.
Quote from: RVR II on December 01, 2014, 05:38:31 PM
And here's the list of Radio Shack stores to close by March 31:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/255034573/RadioShack-store-closures
This is historic: the dollar will soon be worth more than the euro
March 10 at 7:35 PM
There's a currency war going on, and the United States is losing. The latest setback is the news that the euro has fallen to a 12-year low of $1.07, down from as much as $1.39 just last year. That's a 30 percent drop in 11 months, to be exact, and there's no reason to expect it to stop anytime soon.
Now a strong dollar is good for anyone who's planning a trip overseas, but it's bad news for anyone who's planning on selling stuff there. That's why stocks fell, with the S&P 500 down 1.7 percent on the day and now negative on the year, as multinationals that depend on foreign sales took another hit. After all, it's not just the euro that's falling against the dollar, but almost every other currency in the world, too—with Turkey and South Africa's falling more than most on Tuesday.
Why is the dollar up so much? Well, the simple story is that the stronger your economy, the stronger your currency. The slightly more complicated version, though, is that currencies go up when monetary policy is relatively tight, and down when it's relatively loose. Now these should just be different ways of saying the same thing—since central banks raise rates when growth is too strong and cut them when it's too weak—but that's not always the case. Sometimes central banks make mistakes, like Europe did, and tighten policy when the economy is still weak, and sometimes they mistake zero interest rates, like Japan did, for easy policy when the economy is so weak it needs even more help than that.
But in any case, it's a lot simpler now. The U.S. economy is doing well enough that it's getting ready to raise rates, and the rest of the world is slowing down enough that it's cutting them. Indeed, the not-so-short list of countries that have eased monetary policy the past few months, some of them multiple times, includes Australia, Canada, Chile, China, Denmark, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Israel, Peru, Poland, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and, above all, the euro zone. It's finally started buying bonds with newly printed money, a k a "quantitative easing," to try to get its economy out of the low inflation, low growth trap that it's fallen into. And that's not to mention the fact that Japan, which has been stuck in the same kind of one for the better part of two decades, has also been buying bonds this whole time, and recently started buying even more of them.
So it's no surprise that the dollar is shooting up so much. Think about it like this. Would you rather buy a U.S. 10-year bond that pays 2.13 percent or a German 10-year bond that only pays 0.235 percent? That's a pretty easy math question, and investors are answering it by dumping their euros to buy dollars. And that's not going to start changing until the U.S. and Europe's monetary policies stop diverging. That's why Deutsche Bank expects the euro to keep falling to $0.90 by the end of 2016 and $0.85 by the end of 2017.
So you might want to wait to book that trip, and, more importantly, the Fed might want to wait to raise rates. Even though unemployment is down to a normal-ish 5.5 percent, there's no rush to normalize policy since there still isn't any sign of inflation or bubbly behavior. The Fed doesn't want to be the only central bank raising rates—a strong dollar is like a tariff against our exports and a subsidy for our imports—unless it really has to, and right now it doesn't.
The only way to lose a currency war is to refuse to fight it, and let yours go up too much. The dollar is already going to go up plenty more no matter what we do, but we can at least try to limit the damage.
Because sometimes a strong dollar is a weakness.
Currently the Mexican Peso is worth $15.53 to $1 USD
« Last Edit: March 11, 2015, 08:29:43 AM by RVR II »
Just awesome..
I applied at this place (for a Quality Assurance position) last year and never heard a word back from them..
Maybe I didn't meet their QA qualifications was my assumption, then I read this..
Physicians Choice Laboratory Services in Rock Hill laying off 120 workers
Physicians Choice Laboratory Services of Rock Hill is laying off 120 workers, company officials announced Thursday.
Reduced reimbursements from federal and private payers for the lab’s most commonly used tests is the reason for the layoffs, said Christine Marks, vice president for marketing.
“This was a difficult but necessary decision,” Marks said.
Specific reimbursement cuts are part of The Protecting Access to Medicare Act, which was passed in April 2014, Physicians Choice officials said.
Changes in the act affected clinical laboratories such as Physicians Choice. Lab officials said the reimbursement cuts are part of a larger industry trend that challenges all providers to health care industry to balance revenues and expenses with the goal of better services and lower costs.
Physicians Choice Laboratory Service moved into a 104,000-square-foot, $24.1 million building in the Riverwalk Business Park in July 2013. The company, which moved from Charlotte where it was out of space, had about 200 employees in 2013 and had planned to expand to about 300 workers within a year.
It was the first business in the Riverwalk Business Park.
Physicians Choice offers a range of services designed to inform physicians about their patients’ health. Tests ranging from toxicology reports to drug screenings to genetic and DNA studies are performed at the Riverwalk lab. Patient samples come from all over the country.
The lab recently added blood tests to help physicians address concerns of over-diagnosis and over-treatment of prostate cancer.
I know our amazing Republican governor Haley offered the company a nice tax break/incentive package to relocate here 2 years ago and now all of a sudden, they're down-sizing and will probably eventually leave to go elsewhere for more tax breaks and leaving folks out in the cold in the process
It's July 1. Half way through the year.
Tax season has been over since April 15.. 5th year in a row of mediocre business.
We've had some customers since then but not enough to carry us through the rest of the year so the wife decided to work at a Greek restaurant 5 miles from our Charlotte office thinking she could make enough to pay rent for the CLT office and still be there to catch customers..
I warned her that was impossible to do cause the restaurant will run her ragged and she would be in no condition to work at the CLT office afterwards. I was right!
Yesterday was her first day (and last day it looks like); 7am - 4pm: She arrived late because of CLT traffic, then they never gave her any breaks nor a 30 minute lunch. She had me set the alarm at 5am to wake her up this morning then decided not to go and I couldn't go back to sleep
I gave her 2 weeks before she would give up but nope.. 1 day was it. She thought it be like working at her old restaurant she worked at with her brother and sister years ago (late 90s - early 2000s) but this place was much worse apparently..
I don't know why she wants to settle for restaurant work when she could find a bilingual job with good pay and less stress I think it's a 'pride' thing and she's embarrassed to have customers see her working someplace instead of in our business
Me, I applied at the post office for 2 jobs back in January; a City Carrier Assistant and a Rural Carrier position. I had an interview for the City Carrier job back in April (told it would start out as a part time position) and have heard nothing since..
It shows on the USPS job site that I'm still on a hiring list for both jobs though I have never had an interview for the Rural Carrier position yet.
I know I can find something else but looking for something part time from now till December with decent pay will be difficult.. Most companies are looking for long term employees which would work next year, but we're trying to make it to our Goddaughter's 15 year party (Dec. 23) and we need to be there for it
So in the meantime, we're scraping by each month in the hopes of making it to December for the trip, then return in January, get the tax business resurrected and I find a long-term job that can carry me through to retirement
For taxes...........is working for one of the larger tax companies an option? I know that you can do that and own a tax business. When my parents opened their tax business, they did both for awhile.
Quote from: Bob on July 02, 2015, 09:48:55 AM
I haven't really explored that option, and with tax season over, I'm not sure that's available currently..
I should explore that though
Oh, and I just got confirmation (sorta) that my neighbor friend living next door in my Mega-Shed quit showing up for work and that he's more than likely out of a job now so there maybe no rent money coming from him very soon..
Just what I need, more financial strain
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Pete Mead
Born: Jan 11, 1924
Death: Jul 2, 2007
Birthplace: Trumann
Profession: Writer
Nationality: United States
Date of Birth : Jan 11, 1924
Date of Death : Jul 2, 2007
Birth Place : Trumann
Felix G. Mead, known as Pete Mead, was an American middleweight boxer who fought in the ring from 1942 to 1951. He was defeated in his last fight by Rocky Graziano of New York City. In 1989, Mead wrote his autobiography, Blood, Sweat and Cheers: The Pete Mead Story, a collector's item that can sell for as much as $135. He was inducted in 1993 into the Ohio Boxing Hall of Fame. Mead was born in Trumann in Poinsett County in northeastern Arkansas but lived mos of his life in the nearby larger city of Jonesboro in Craighead County. His parents were Ed Mead and the former Ethel Shandlin. He fought fifty-six times in the ring, both in the United States and overseas. His boxing career was interrupted by World War II, during which he served in the United States Army. However, he fought several exhibition bouts during his military years. In 1946, Mead made his first of several appearances at Madison Square Garden in New York City with a six-round decision over Tommy Merrill. He defeated thereafter Vince LaSalva and Jerry Fiorello. He split two bouts with Herbie Kronowitz, the Jewish American fighter from Brooklyn. He then defeated Sonny Horne of Niles, Ohio.
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Lies, damned lies, and GWAS
October 30, 2018 October 5, 2018 by genotopia
[Edited, lightly, 10/30/18]
Well, I provoked another kerfuffle in the pages of Nature. And it’s a troubling one, because it suggests a widening culture gap between the sciences and humanities—a gap I’ve spent a quarter-century-and-counting trying to bridge.
The piece in question is my review of Robert Plomin’s new book, Blueprint. I want here to give some context and fuller explanation for that piece, without the editorial constraints of a prestigious journal.
Plomin is a distinguished educational psychologist, American-born-and-raised, who works in the UK, at King’s College London. I have nothing for or against Plomin. I and my editors at Nature worked hard to keep ad hominem attacks out of the piece. Plomin’s book, however, is terrible.
“DNA isn’t all that matters, but it matters more than everything else put together” (ix).
“Nice parents have nice children because they are all nice genetically.” (83)
“The most important thing that parents give to their child is their genes.” (83)
“The less than 1 per cent of these DNA steps that differ between us is what makes us who we are as individuals” (9)
“These findings call for a radical rethink about parenting, education and the events that shape our lives.”(9)
I could go on—it’s teh Interwebs; people do—but you get the idea. However accurately he may represent the statistics, his statistics misrepresent the biology. With apologies to Benjamin Disraeli, there are three kinds of lies in genomics: Lies, damned lies, and GWAS.
Unless you’re some sort of third-rate hack, riding out your tenure on the strength of your rotation in a genetics lab in the mid-sixties, you know better than to say things like this. I presume that you, Gentle Reader, are not such a person. Plomin is not a hack scientifically, but as a writer he is. On the page, he is all exclamation points and pom-pons, thwacking the bass drum with his heel as he dances for DNA. DNA is everything. DNA is the Word. DNA is Love.
That’s a weirdly retrograde view in the postgenomic world. Again, see the above mainstream sciences. Either:
Plomin is such a poor writer that he fails utterly to get across his putatively more nuanced understanding of the genome’s role in biology
Plomin is a cynic, writing things he doesn’t believe in support of a repressive ideology that he does believe; or
He is naive and genuinely doesn’t realize (or care) how this powerful new science is used.
I went with Door #3. As a reviewer of his book I took him at face value as a writer. I take him at his word when he says he is center-left, politically. (No conflict there with eugenic values. There’s a long tradition of leftist eugenics, back to the 19th C.) And I decided it would be unproductive to simply brand him an ideologue. Instead, I took the middle road, presumed innocence but naïveté. I gave him the benefit of the doubt in presuming innocence of intent, although I do think it an odd negligence on his part, given his express interest in using PGS to shape social policy. Seems to me that if you’re engaging with social policy you should be capable of thinking in terms of social policy.
Why is it dangerous? Because it enables and encourages social policy of biological control. That shit scares me. And it should scare you. Plomin is so caught up in his DNA delirium that he says that environmental interventions toward human betterment are futile. Parents, teachers, government officials: Relax, there’s nothing you can do that really makes a difference. DNA will out. Kids will be what they will be, regardless, so don’t waste your money and time. Let’s take that apart.
First, short-changing environmental and GxE (genes-by-environment) effects in human personality is literally the entire point of Plomin’s book. I’m not talking about his published, peer-reviewed studies, I’m talking about his latest book. Nor am I damning all sociogenomics work—not by a long-shot. I am damning the simplistic message of this particular book: “DNA makes you who you are.”
Second, then, hidden agenda or not, Plomin’s argument is socially dangerous. Sure, genes influence and shape complex behavior, but we have almost no idea how. At this point in time (late 2018), it’s the genetic contributions to complex behavior that are mostly random and unsystematic. Polygenic scores may suggest regions of the genome in which one might find causal genes, but we already know that the contribution of any one gene to complex behavior is minute. Thousands of genes are involved in personality traits and intelligence—and many of the same polymorphisms pop up in every polygenic study of complex behavior. Even if the polygenic scores were causal, it remains very much up in the air whether looking at the genes for complex behavior will ever really tell us very much about those behaviors.
In contrast—and contra Plomin—we have very good ideas about how environments shape behaviors. Taking educational attainment as an example (it’s a favorite of the PGS crowd—a proxy for IQ, whose reputation has become pretty tarnished in recent years), we know that kids do better in school when they have eaten breakfast. We know they do better if they aren’t abused. We know they do better when they have enriched environments, at home and in school.
We also know that DNA doesn’t act alone. Plomin neglects all post-transcriptional modification, epigenetics, microbiomics, and systems biology—sciences that show without a doubt that you can’t draw a straight line from genes to behavior. The more complex the trait in question, the more true that sentence becomes. And Plomin is talking about the most complex traits there are: human personality and intelligence.
Plomin’s argument is dangerous because it minimizes those absolutely robust findings. If you follow his advice, you go along with the Republicans and continue slowly strangling public education and vote for that euphemism for separate-but-equal education, “school choice.” You axe Head Start. You eliminate food stamps and school lunch programs. You go along with eliminating affirmative action programs, which are designed to remediate past social neglect; in other words, you vote to restore neglect of the under-privileged. Those kids with genetic gumption will rise out of their circumstances one way or another…like Clarence Thomas and Ben Carson or something, I guess. As for the rest, fuck ’em.
These environmental factors are “unsystematic” in exactly the same way that genetic factors are: They do not act in the same way with every child. A few kids will always fall on the long tails of the bell curve: Some will do well in school no matter what you throw at them; others will fail, no matter what they have for breakfast. But the mean shifts in a positive direction. Same is true for genetics. That is literally the entire point of polygenic scores! Every single one of the many thousands of variables that shape something like educational attainment is probabilistic. Genes or environment, we’re talking population averages and probabilities, not certainties. There is no certainty—Plomin himself makes this point repeatedly (and then promptly jumps back on the DNA wagon). To venerate genetics and derogate environment on grounds of being “unsystematic” is at best faulty reasoning and at worst hypocritical.
Plomin is spreading a simplistic and insidious doctrine that says “environmental intervention is futile.” I don’t care whether Plomin himself, in his heart of hearts, wants to ban public education; he gives ammunition to people who do want to ban it. “Race realists” and “human biodiversity” advocates—modern euphemisms for white supremacy—read this stuff avidly. I watched them swarm around the discussion of my review on Twitter, many of them newly created accounts, favoriting tweets from my critics, saving those messages for later arguments.
“But does that mean that EVERYONE using PGS is a white supremacist?” people ask me, their keyboards dripping with sarcasm. No, dummies: It means it’s a risk. I’m giving you a qualitative risk score, a probability. Can’t you apply your own logic to other situations? Again, whether you critics are being disingenuous or naive, the effect is the same.
“So does that mean we CAN’T DO this science? Are you a fascist, trying to stifle scientific inquiry?!?” others gently query me. Again, no, dummies: I’m saying if you do this stuff, a) get your genetic bias out of the way and look at genes and environment, and b) be candid and explicit about your intentions and the risks of misinterpreting the data.
The last point I want to make is about historical thinking. A lot of critics said and called me things that initially puzzled me. I had no evidence, they said. It wasn’t a review that I wrote, they complained. I didn’t engage with the book but merely promoted my ideology, they protested.
Eventually it dawned on me: These people don’t understand historical reasoning. They fail to see a historical argument as being evidentiary! After all these years, I still find it surprising that people with PhDs should fail to acknowledge an entire branch of knowledge, a fundamental way of explaining the world. But okay, communication, not war, is what I’m after, so let me lay it out, at least as I see it.
By and large, experimental science explains the world in terms of mechanisms, more or less eternal and independent of time and context. Historical reasoning explains the world through the three C’s: context, contingency, and cause-and-effect through time. Context means that science doesn’t occur in a vacuum. It mattered that Nazi Germany arose after Progressive-era Americans had advanced a scientific program of sterilization and institutionalization of the defective. The Germans, sensing the power of rigid social control founded on scientific authority and finding that authority in American eugenics, modeled their infamous sterilization law of 1932 on Harry Laughlin’s “Model Sterilization Law” of 1922. Contingency means that it matters who did what when. Contingency says, “It could have been otherwise: Why did things turn out as they did instead of some other way?” And by continuity and change I mean that when a historian tries to understand the present in terms of the past.
In short, my review used historical evidence to put Plomin’s book in historical and social context, rather than scientific context, and a number of critics cried “Foul!”, failing to even see historical evidence as evidence.
It’s not foul when a reviewer examines the central claims and aims of a book—you all (critics) just aren’t familiar with the way I did it. Especially with a field such as sociogenomics, which defines itself as interdisciplinary and aims to shape society. You may not read Plomin’s book in social context, but it’s a legitimate and—as attested by the many plaudits I’ve also received for the piece—an important one. Learn your damn history.
Historical thinking is not anti-scientific. Darwin was a historical thinker par excellence. Evolutionary biology, cosmology, geology, paleontology—these are historical sciences. To reason historically is by no means to refute the scientific method. In fact, I would wager that no person can get through life without employing historical reasoning). To do so is to refuse to learn from experience.
Because I did not primarily use scientific evidence in my review, some misguided and uncritical critics peg me as a radical relativist. You got the wrong guy, pal. I studied sociobiology and neuroethology as science for years, under some of the greats. Radical relativists do exist in the humanities and social sciences—I argue against them all the time.
Others, like Stuart Ritchie, bash away at me boneheadedly, picking at details of the piece that make no difference to my argument without the slightest effort try to understand what I am in fact saying. Playing “gotcha” is easier than real debate, but it wins you points with your yes-friends, I guess. Sad!
Historical thinking pulls your eye away from the microscope to look at science as an enterprise evolving over time. For really abstruse sciences, doing so may be mostly an intellectual exercise. But the more social salience a branch of science has, the more important it is to take the long view once in a while. And when you’re explicitly advocating using your science to shape society, it’s incumbent on you to do so.
I identify with distinguished, politically alert scientist-critics like Jonathan Beckwith and Richard Lewontin, who have critiqued their science (even their own science!) in order to make it better. I believe that in science as in politics, dissent is the sincerest form of patriotism.
In short, I don’t think sociogenomics is wrong; I think it’s being done wrong, and written about wrong, by people like Plomin. Some people are doing it right. In a forthcoming piece in the MIT Technology Review, I discuss the work of Graham Coop at UC Davis. I won’t go into detail here, but for examples of honest, candid, historically sensitive discussion of PGS research, see this and this. This post is my attempt to do for my critique of PGS what Coop did for his own PGS research (which, for the record, I admire). By and large, I think the biologists have been doing better at avoiding deterministic talk than the social scientists like Plomin—although some social scientists, like the sociologist Dalton Conley at Princeton, do at least have complex positions worth taking seriously.
Plomin does none of this. Instead, he gives us a simplistic and distorted view of the role of heredity in behavior that causes much social mischief. We can watch some of that mischief in real time as the white supremacist trolls swarm around this debate like yellow-jackets around an open soda. Other risks we can infer from careful comparison with historical examples—looking at both the similarities and the differences between Blueprint and previous attempts to use heredity to shape social policy. The argument in Blueprint—that “DNA makes us who we are” and environment “is important but it doesn’t matter”—is an idea grossly wrong on many levels. It’s not supported by the evidence and it’s socially dangerous.
And someone’s got to call bullshit on it.
Categories Uncategorized Tags calling bullshit, educational attainment, genetic determinism, GWAS, IQ, polygenic scores, sociogenomics 23 Comments
Major new cause of achievement discovered: studying
July 9, 2013 July 8, 2013 by genotopia
In a breakthrough discovery, researchers have identified a significant causal factor in educational achievement. It involves sitting one’s ass down at a table and opening books.
The problem of the underlying causes of educational achievement have stymied geneticists for years. Back in the Progressive Era, eugenicists attributed most of the variance in IQ, or intelligence quotient–a test designed to measure educational achievement–to a single Mendelian gene. Today, geneticists are just as obsessed with the genetic causes of IQ. After years of study, they have succeeded in spreading the effect out over several genes, while whittling the genetic basis down to under two percent of the variation. A recent study in Science magazine found that all known genetic variations combined explained 1.98% of the variation in achievement; the largest single effect of a genetic variant was 0.02%.
A different approach was taken by a researcher who prefers to be known simply as “Miss Perkins.” With her half-moon glasses, her hair done up in a tidy bun, and her sensible shoes, she is the picture of an elementary school teacher. Which she is. Collecting data over more than 20 years of teaching social studies to 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders at Martin Luther Malcolm Kennedy Roosevelt Elementary and Middle School, in Slippery Rock, Missouri, she has found that studying (STUH-dee-ying) explains a whopping 60% of the variance in educational achievement–no matter whether it is measured in grade-point average, standardized test scores, or subjective evaluations.
Another 30% of the total variation can be attributed to parents teaching their kids to put their butts in the chair and keep them there, without videos, music, or cell phones to distract them. A further 8% was attributed to nutrition.
The results have rocked the biomedical world. “I’m literally stunned,” said Dick Dorkins, of the Society for the Prevention of Intelligent design, Teleology, Or Other Nonsense (SPITOON), a biological think tank in Tumwater, Washington. “I feel exactly like I did last week when I accidentally got TASERED at the end of a bar fight.”
Not all scientists are convinced by the results, which involve 573 children and 1,719,000,000,000 base pairs. Nicholas Spork, a genomicist at Kashkow University, best known for its discovery of the “Republican gene,” said that Perkins’s “one-size fits all” approach was a “pedagogical dinosaur.” He was pioneering a personalized education approach, he said, that would tailor standardized tests to an individual’s genome. He also said he had applied for a federal grant to buy fourteen new high-speed sequencers that would identify 2 trillion base pairs in 93 seconds. “It’s just a hunch of course,” Spork said with a conspiratorial wink, “but I have every confidence that, with enough venture capital, in ten years we can double the amount of variance explained by single-nucleotide polymorphisms” (or “snips”). That would bring the total to around 3 percent.
Meanwhile, Miss Perkins continues her study—and her students continue their studying. She teaches about 60 students a year, in two classes. Her most high-tech tools are a globe, in the corner, a whiteboard (without a projector), and a terrific set of dry-erase markers, ranging from deepest violet through the spectrum to cherry red. But that’s not all. “Over the summer, a parent donated me a set of grays and blacks,” she said proudly during a quiet moment in class. “They were expensive, but oh, this will help a great deal. Nothing’s too good for my kids. Derek! What do you think you’re doing? Sit down and be quiet this instant, or you’ll have extra homework!”
Categories Satire Tags calling bullshit, Dorkins, education, GWAS, half-moon glasses, hard chair, hype, Kashkow University, sensible shoes Leave a comment
Thalassophilia unmasked
July 9, 2013 March 14, 2011 by genotopia
There is no gene for thalassophilia—yet, anyway.
My satirical post last week about scientists finding a gene for love of the sea was intended to make a point about how we view genomics today—and a historical point about how we smugly congratulate ourselves on being so much more sophisticated than early human geneticists and eugenicists. Most people got that it was a spoof, but I thought it would be worthwhile to discuss some of the deeper issues at stake.
Charles Davenport was a real scientist, and the quotes from him are real. Davenport was a geneticist in the first half of the 20th century and the leader of the American Eugenics movement during the Progressive Era. He is often demonized as wrong-headed, misguided, and simple-minded. Indeed, he could be all of these things. Davenport really did believe there was a recessive, male-linked trait for the love of the sea. Thalassophilia has become a classic example of how eugenicists could ignore obvious environmental explanations in favor of the hereditary. When I told my 11-year-old daughter about Davenport’s thalassophilia, she immediately saw the fallacy: the sons of ship captains learn their love of the sea, they don’t inherit it.
My larger point is that simplistic analyses like Davenport’s can be masked by numbers and fancy technology.
For years, medical genetics involved the search for genes underlying genetic disease. Diseases that were caused by a defective gene, and not, say, by a germ or some other environmental factor. But that distinction has been erased. We used to think of genetic traits and non-genetic traits. Now, non-genetic traits are called “complex”—i.e., partly genetic and partly environmental. In other words, all diseases, and indeed all traits are understood as partially genetic.
There are sound reasons for thinking this way. I’m not arguing that those genes don’t exist. I don’t question the data—I’m happy to believe that there really is a genetic association with all of these traits. Indeed, I think it’s becoming possible to find a real, verifiable genetic basis for almost anything you like.
The advent of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) has made it vastly easier to examine traits with smaller and smaller genetic contributions. In essence, you can pick your trait, sample the DNA of a large group of people, and scan their genomes for bits of shared sequence.
As a consequence, we have the recent bloom of studies describing the genetic component of all sorts of “complex” traits, from religiosity to getting drunk and beating people up. We’re only limited by our imaginations, and by the kinds of traits we’re interested in today.
Thinking about these recent studies, it occurred to me that these traits were not fundamentally different from Davenport’s old favorite, thalassophilia. I bet, I said to myself, that if sailing were as culturally important today as it was in 1919, people would be doing GWAS to find the genetic basis of sea-lust. And I bet they’d find it.
Of course, there are big differences between human genetics in 2011 and human genetics in 1919. Davenport advocated sterilization laws and immigration laws to manage and shrink what he saw as the swelling populations of the “unfit.” That would be inconceivable today. I don’t think we’re returning to a “new eugenics” in any meaningful sense.
But cutting across the cultural differences are some continuities. One of them is the desire to believe there is a simple genetic explanation for our tastes and talents. That I think is a dangerous view. So on the one hand, I think we should be careful to evaluate 1920s science by the standards of the day, rather than by those of the 21st century. And on the other, we must not delude ourselves that modern science is completely objective. Mechanistic explanations are not proof against cultural bias.
My spoof was intended as a word of caution, a way to inject a note of skepticism about genetic explanations of human nature. C.M (“Call Me) Ishmael, the journal Genetic Determinism Today, MysticGene, the 4C (“for sea”) variant, the salt-stained polo shirts and the sailing widows—all that was pure balderdash. As the motto of this site goes, “Here lies truth”— in roughly equal measure.
So, keep your heads up, folks—and watch for the keyword “Satire” in the Categories section of this blog. Thanks for reading.
Categories Actually serious for once Tags charles davenport, Eugenics, exposé, fancy technology, gene for, genetic traits, gotcha, GWAS, human geneticists, love, mariners, medical genetics, Progressive era, sailing, Thalassophilia 10 Comments
Scientists find gene for love of the sea
July 13, 2011 March 8, 2011 by genotopia
What did Thor Heyerdahl, Captain Ahab, and Odysseus have in common? They all may have shared a common variant of a gene for love of the sea.
Researchers at Mystic University in Connecticut have identified a gene associated with seafaringness, according to an article to be published tomorrow in the journal Genetic Determinism Today. Patterns of inheritance of the long-sought gene offers hope for “sailing widows,” and could help explain why the sailing life has tended to run in families and why certain towns and geographical regions tend historically to have disproportionate numbers of sea-going citizens.
The gene is a form of the MAOA-L gene, previously associated with high-risk behavior and thrill-seeking; another form of the gene, found last year, made news as the “warrior gene.” The current variant, dubbed 4C, was found by a genome-wide association study (GWAS) on 290 individuals from Mystic, CT, New Bedford, MA, and Cold Spring Harbor, NY—all traditional nineteenth-century whaling villages. Residents showed the presence of the 4C variant at a frequency more than 20 times above background in neighboring landlocked towns.
C. M. Ishmael, the lead researcher on the study, said the findings could be a boon to medicine. Although the International Whaling Commission outlawed commercial whaling in 1986, the research could benefit literally hundreds of “sailing widows” left alone for Wednesday-evening sailboat races up and down the East Coast. Each year, an average of 11 salt-stained Polo shirts wash up on the New England and Mid-Atlantic coasts, the only remains of lantern-jawed investment bankers and their half-million-dollar boats. Ishmael said he is trying to have the irrational urge to sail entered into the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, standard reference for psychiatric diseases, in the next, fifth, edition.
“This receptor is an exciting potential target for new drug therapies,” Ishmael said in a phone interview. “We hope lots of companies will be interested in it. And venture capital, too.” Ishmael is himself CEO of a company, MysticGene, formed to develop such therapies. When asked about potential conflict of interest, he replied cryptically, “Well, duh.” Shares of MysticGene closed higher on Monday following the announcement.
The gene for seafaringness has long been an object of study for human geneticists. The trait was first described in 1919 by Charles Davenport, director of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, who named it “thalassophilia.” Using pedigree analysis and anecdotal correlation, Davenport identified thalassophilia as a sex-linked recessive gene and distinguished it clinically from wanderlust, or love of adventure. Although one might think naively that people living in towns with good harbors would tend to go to sea, Davenport suggested the reverse: those with the thalassophilia trait have tended to migrate toward regions with good harbors and found settlements there. The current study does nothing to refute Davenport’s analysis.
Further, a tentative expansion of the GWAS analysis to various racial groups largely confirms Davenport’s observations that thalassophilia is more prevalent in Scandinavians and the English, and less common in people of German ancestry.
Thalassophilia joins a rapidly growing list of complex behavioral traits that have been shown to have a genetic basis, thanks to GWAS. Besides the warrior gene, recent studies have found genetic links to promiscuity, aggressive behavior, especially while drinking, religiosity, and bipolar disorder, or manic depression—all traits that Davenport and other early human geneticists were deeply interested in. The difference is that modern science better understands the mechanisms involved.
“Seamen know very well that their cravings for the sea are racial,” Davenport wrote in 1919. “’It is in the blood,’ they say.” Today we know it’s not in the blood—it’s in the genes.
The true bits:
Garland E. Allen, “Is a New Eugenics Afoot?,” Science 294, no. 5540 (October 5, 2001): 59 -61. (http://www.sciencemag.org/content/294/5540/59.short)
Charles Benedict Davenport and Mary Theresa Scudder, Naval officers: their heredity and development (Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1919),http://books.google.com/books?id=EWESAAAAYAAJ&dq=naval%20officers%3A%20their%20heredity%20and%20development&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false.
Richard Alleyne, “A gene that could explain why the red mist descends,” Telegraph.co.uk,http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/8219521/A-gene-that-could-explain-why-the-red-mist-descends.html.
Jeremy Taylor, “Violent-drunk gene discovered,”http://www.asylum.com/2010/12/23/bad-drunk-gene-discovered/.
Justin R. Garcia et al., “Associations between Dopamine D4 Receptor Gene Variation with Both Infidelity and Sexual Promiscuity,” ed. Jan Lauwereyns, PLoS ONE 5, no. 11 (11, 2010): e14162.
C. Frydman et al., “MAOA-L carriers are better at making optimal financial decisions under risk,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (12, 2010),http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19830-people-with-warrior-gene-better-at-risky-decisions.html.
Categories Satire Tags captain ahab, cold spring harbor, gene, genetic determinism, GWAS, international whaling commission, love, million dollar boats, thor heyerdahl 38 Comments
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ABOUT HARRIET
Returning from New York City after a year of teaching, Harriet Rawlins Hill has relocated back to her hometown of Lancaster, Ohio to resume teaching there. Recently, Harriet concluded 15-years employment at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio, as adjunct voice faculty specializing in musical theatre, and serving as Auditions Coordinator for the Department of Theatre and Dance.
She is a graduate of the world famous Indiana University School of Music with a Bachelor degree in Vocal Performance. She worked over 25 years in New York City teaching and working as an actress and singer in Opera, musical theatre and other genres.
Over her 30-year career, Harriet has appeared on the national musical theatre stage in over 2,000 performances of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music, Carousel and the original production and DVD of Sweeney Todd starring Angela Lansbury.
She was a principal soloist on a CD of the Gilbert & Sullivan repertoire with the Rochester Philharmonic conducted by Sir Mark Elder.
Harriet taught over 80 students on the college level at Otterbein University in Westerville Ohio in applied vocal performance both in musical theatre, classical and jazz.
She is and has been a proud member of Actors Equity since 1969.
© Harriet Rawlins Hill | All Rights Reserved
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Vatican finance chief summoned to Australia child abuse inquiry
AFP , Monday 1 Jun 2015
Pope Francis waves as he leads his Sunday Angelus prayer in Saint Peter's square at the Vatican May 31, 2015 (Photo: Reuters)
Vatican official investigated for embezzlement: reports
Ireland's gay marriage vote was "a defeat": Vatican daily
Pope 'angel of peace' Abbas comment was encouragement: Vatican
Vatican to sign first accord with State of Palestine
Vatican finance chief George Pell was Monday called to give evidence at an inquiry into sex abuse as one of Pope Francis' commissioners for the protection of children accused him of being "almost sociopathic".
Formerly the top Catholic cleric in Australia, Cardinal Pell has become embroiled in the probe in his homeland which last week heard evidence from paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale, who abused at least 50 boys over two decades.
Pell, who accompanied Ridsdale to court in 1993 when he admitted widespread abuse, has repeatedly denied knowing about any of the offences, helping move the priest to another parish or that he tried to bribe a victim to keep him quiet.
That victim was his nephew, David Ridsdale, who alleged he confided in family friend Pell about the assaults and that he was asked by him what it would cost to buy his silence.
Other victims had demanded Pell, who was appointed by Pope Francis in February 2014 to make the Vatican's finances more transparent, return to give evidence to The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
The cardinal said last week he was willing to do so and on Monday the commission officially requested he appear in person when the inquiry next meets in the Victorian town of Ballarat, at a date to be determined.
"The chair has received a letter from Cardinal Pell indicating that he is prepared to come to Australia to give evidence," the commission said in a statement.
"The royal commission will ask him to give evidence in the second of the Ballarat hearings."
Peter Saunders, who was hand-picked by the Pope six months ago to be one of the church's commissioners for the protection of children, said Pell not only had a moral obligation to return but should be removed from his Vatican role.
He alleged in an interview with Australia's Channel Nine that Pell had acted with "callousness, cold-heartedness, almost sociopathic I would go as far as to say, this lack of care", in his approach towards abuse victims.
"Given the position of George Pell as a cardinal of the church and a position of huge authority within the Vatican, I think he is a massive, massive thorn in the side of Pope Francis's papacy if he's allowed to remain," added Saunders, a British survivor of child sexual abuse.
"And I think it's critical that he is moved aside, that he is sent back to Australia, and that the Pope takes the strongest action against him."
A statement issued by Pell's office said the allegations were "false and misleading".
"From his earliest actions as an archbishop, Cardinal Pell has taken a strong stand against child sexual abuse and put in place processes to enable complaints to be brought forward and independently investigated," it said.
"Cardinal Pell has never met Mr Saunders, who seems to have formed his strong opinions without ever having spoken to His Eminence."
The statement added that "in the circumstances, the cardinal is left no alternative but to consult with his legal advisers".
Francis Sullivan, head of the Truth, Justice and Healing Council, which is coordinating the Catholic Church's response to the inquiry, said Pell should return so "we get to see everything laid out in full".
"Until we can get to that point, then all of the commentary around this will continue to swirl without us landing on what really happened."
The royal commission was called after a decade of pressure to investigate wide-ranging allegations of paedophilia in Australia.
It has heard harrowing allegations of child abuse involving places of worship, orphanages, community groups and schools. Pell previously gave evidence, in person, in March 2014.
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New signings Fathi, Gedo included in Hull City’s trip to Brighton
The Egyptian pair will be tested during trainings and might make their debut against Brighton on Saturday
Karim Farouk, Friday 8 Feb 2013
Hull City coach voices concern over Fathi, Gedo fitness
Hull City manager praises new Egypt signings
Just a couple of days after arriving in England, Ahmed Fathi and Mohamed "Gedo" Nagy are set to see action immediately, as they have been included in the Hull City team that will travel to take on Brighton in the Championship on Saturday.
The Egyptian pair, who signed a six-month loan deal with the Tigers coming from Egypt’s giants Ahly, were officially presented at the club on Thursday, as they were on international duty playing with the Pharaohs against Chile on Wednesday, a game that ended in a 2-1 defeat.
"They arrived with us on Thursday and we’ll take them down to Brighton with us," coach Steve Bruce told the club’s official website.
"They’re travelling with us, but they’re straight off a plane and it’s going to be a big ask of them (to play). We’ll have a training session with them tomorrow and see what sort of shape they’re in.
"We’ll see how they are and then we’ll make a decision," he concluded.
Fathi seems eager to start the challenge and feels he and his colleague are in a good shape.
"I played for Egypt against Chile on Wednesday night, although I have not played that many matches recently because of the trouble in Egypt.
"I don’t think the fitness will be a problem. I have been training well with Ahly and we’ve played in the African Champions League and World Club Cup recently," he was quoted as saying on the club’s website.
Ahmed Fathi
Mohamed "Gedo" Nagy
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Antler Banter is back once more on a Wednesday, and we actually have Manitoba Moose news! Honestly, tonight's Moose news is pretty solid considering that there hasn't been much from the local AHL club's front, so we're going to talk a little about that. We'll also discuss an award for one of the AHL's best play-by-play man, a piling of signings, and an interesting article from a St. John's paper, The Telegram, on the up-coming season for the IceCaps. I'll also drop a little news about a developing story from the HBIC Headquarters that may interest a few people in regards to the Moose as well. That will be discussed near the bottom, so hang on tight as we move this edition of Antler Banter!
Road Trip South
The announcement from the Manitoba Moose this week was all about preseason games as the Moose announced they will tangle with Central Division foe Iowa Wild on October 2 and 3 in Grand Forks and Fargo, North Dakota! Of course, those games are two weeks out from the home opener on Thursday, October 15, so it will be interesting to see who suits up for the Moose in these two warm-up games.
Honestly, the fact that we're talking about Moose games has me excited. I was a huge Moose fan when they were in town, and I am looking forward to the second version of the Moose as they take the ice this season. Getting to see the Moose play at Ralph Englestad Arena in Grand Forks will be amazing, and I'm psyched for the game in Fargo at Scheels Arena. Of course, UND plays at the Ralph while the USHL's Fargo Force play at Scheels Arena, but for two nights the Moose and Wild will rock these two barns!
Anyone up for a road trip? And hey, Ottawa, how about boosting that Canadian dollar for us Moose fans? It should be a beauty trip south if you can make it!
New Affiliate
The Winnipeg Jets and Manitoba Moose announced on Friday that they have affiliated themselves with a new ECHL club after the Ontario Reign jumped to the AHL this summer. The Jets and Moose will partner with the Tulsa Oilers this season! Tulsa finished last season with a 37-29-3 record before being ousted by the eventual Kelly Cup champions in the Allen Americans in the opening round of the ECHL playoffs.
Jason Christie, who played 88 games with the Moose, will coach the Oilers for the upcoming season, worked with current Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff while with the Chicago Wolves, and was the head coach of the Ontario Reign last season while the Jets were affiliated with the Reign. There's also a historic tie to the Jets for Tulsa as the Oilers were Winnipeg's primary affiliate from 1979 to 1982!
Welcome back, Tulsa, and we're glad to have you aboard!
Best Chatter Award
Congratulations go out to Brendan Burke, play-by-play man for the Utica Comets, who brought home the James H. Ellery Memorial Award for the 2014-15 season. The James H. Ellery Award is given to a member of the broadcast media for outstanding media coverage of the American Hockey League annually. Burke, the Comets' vice president of operations as well as their radio guy, did outstanding work this season that saw him as part of the broadcasting crew for the 2015 AHL All-Star Weekend!
Honestly, Burke wears a number of hats while traveling with the team as well. He's in charge of all of Utica's media relations and game operations, and coordinates all team travel for the Comets. Giving him the James H. Ellery Memorial Award should be one of many awards Brendan Burke can put on his mantle if he continues his excellent work in the AHL!
Reign On
The Ontario Reign re-signed centerman Kris Newbury to a one-year deal on Monday. Newbury has been a bit of a nomad in his hockey career, suiting up with St. John's Maple Leafs, Toronto Marlies, Grand Rapids Griffins, Hartford Wolf Pack and Connecticut Whale franchise, Adirondack Phantoms and Hershey Bears in the AHL while playing NHL games with Toronto, Detroit, the New York Rangers, and Philadelphia since being drafted by the San Jose Sharks in 2002.
At 33, Newbury will be relied upon for his veteran presence and leadership in Ontario, but the fans may take a liking to him for a different reason. Newbury is 21st all-time in AHL penalty minutes with 1710 penalty minutes, and he's never been afraid to drop the mitts when asked. Newbury is a good signing for the Reign for 2015-16.
Swede Home Chicago
The Chicago Blackhawks announced today that they had re-signed defenceman Viktor Svedberg to a one-year deal. Svedberg played 49 games with the Rockford IceHogs last season, recording three goals and eleven assists. The 24 year-old will start the season once more with Rockford as he starts his second season as a professional in North America.
I'm not sure that the Swede will ever be a regular NHL defenceman, but he certainly is hard to miss on the ice when he's out there. Svedberg stands 6'8" tall! He's more of a stay-at-home defenceman who uses his angles well to take players off the puck, and he plays a very no-risk style of game. For the IceHogs, he'll fit the bill in terms of keeping his own zone neat and tidy. While it normally takes taller defencemen to develop, Svedberg could be another Chara if he ever happens to fill out! He'll get that chance in Rockford once more this season.
Fresh IceCaps
The St. John's IceCaps have undergone a number of changes this off-season as they moved from Hamilton, Ontario to Newfoundland, introduced new uniforms, and are getting acclimated with their new home. One of the men involved in those changes, head coach Sylvain Lefebrve, spoke to Robin Short of The Telegram about his team and this upcoming season.
"It's tough to say if we'll mirror the big club," Lefebvre said. "But having said that, we're starting to see the results of the Marc Bergevin era with the players coming in. It's very exciting." Included in the "new players" looking to crack the roster are Mike McCarron, Nikita Scherbak, Zach Fucale, and Tim Bozon. This is a team that has a little bit of size, a lot of speed, and some dynamic skill up and down the lineup.
The IceCaps will not be push-overs in the AHL, and the fans in St. John's will certainly appreciate the effort that baby Habs will show. While winning the North Division won't be easy, there's a good chance the new-look IceCaps could finish ahead of teams like the Utica Comets, Toronto Marlies, and Syracuse Crunch if they can take care of business in their own division. I like what the Canadiens are doing in St. John's with the IceCaps, and expect them to be in every game this season.
What's Teebz Up To?
I mentioned at the top that I might be doing something crazy, so here goes nothing. Tomorrow evening, I'll be down at MTS Centre for an audition with the Manitoba Moose. I was chosen as a finalist for the Moose's in-game host position!
I know some of you will laugh at that while dreaming up various barbs to toss my way if I am the successful candidate to wander the concourse and chat with fans, but I'm really looking forward to this opportunity. As I stated above, I loved Moose hockey when it was here the first time, and I'm already psyched for the new season of AHL hockey.
All I ask is for a few good luck wishes, and, if I'm not chosen, to not rip me too much on here or social media. I plan on giving everything I've got in this audition, so we'll see what happens in the coming weeks!
That's all for tonight on Antler Banter, kids! We'll have more AHL news next week, and possibly a major announcement if I somehow navigate my way through this audition! For those who do wish me good luck, thank you! I totally appreciate it!
Labels: accolade, AHL, ECHL, fans, free agency, NHL, notes, schedule
Having A Little Fun
Where I Am Today
Not The Best Start
Blue Line Of Green
Back To Their Roots
No Sweatt At All
Doomed To Repeat It
All About The Beard
Hockey And Golf Meet Again
Nothing Changes... Maybe?
The Former Dictator
Let's Do It Again
Unique Table Legs
Bittersweet Job
Learn The Definition
Going Swiss
Tough Guys Are Gentle
NWHL Goes Reddit
Holiday Monday
He Deserved More
We've Done This Before
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Biofilm Formation by Listeria monocytogenes
Lemon, Katherine Paige
Children's Hospital Boston, Boston, MA, United States
See 15 grants from Katherine Lemon
See grants from Children's Hospital Boston
DISE - a natural cancer surveillance mechanism - a new road to cancer therapy
Pennsylvania Dept of Hlth 2014 Coop Agrmt Application
Novel Therapeutics Targeting HER2 Positive Breast Cancer Brain Metastasis
Photoreceptor disk membrane morphogenesis
NIH Drug Development Consulting Services
Pathogenesis of Fungal Keratitis
This application details a five year research career development program designed to explore biofilm formation by the food-borne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes under the guidance of Dr. Roberto Kolter, Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Kolter is a leader in the field of microbial biofilm development and has an excellent track record of mentoring his trainees to positions as independent investigators. My long-term goal is to become an independent clinician-researcher. To this end, I have trained in both pediatric infectious diseases and biology. This proposal is designed to prepare me to be an independent researcher studying biofilm formation by L. monocytogenes. This field of study is very different from my prior research and my plan includes coursework in bacterial metabolism and bioinformatics. The gram-positive bacterium L. monocytogenes is a food-borne pathogen that causes severe, even fatal, infections in fetuses, newborns, and immunocompromised people. L. monocytogenes persisting on food preparation surfaces in the form of biofilms is a source of contamination that leads to listeriosis outbreaks. Biofilms are highly organized, matrixenclosed assemblages of microbial cells. Of particular relevance to both medicine and the food industry, biofilm bacteria are more resistant to detergents, biocides, and antibiotics than are individual, free-living bacteria. This makes decontamination of biofilm-coated surfaces particularly difficult. Although little is known about how Listeria forms biofilms, Listeria pathogenesis is well studied. As a result, a number of genetic and genomic tools are available. The experiments proposed herein are designed to determine: (1) what L. monocytogenes genes are required for biofilm formation using transposon and targeted mutagenesis, and (2) what are the physiological differences between individual free-living bacteria and biofilm-associated bacteria for L. monocytogenes using DNA microarray technology. Insights gained from these experiments should lead to new approaches to decontaminate biofilm-coated surfaces, and a better understanding of biofilms in general. Relevance: Prevention by eliminating sources of infection remains a cornerstone in the continued effort to decrease the human and economic toll of infectious diseases. Ingestion of food contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes can cause severe, sometimes fatal, infections in newborns, pregnant women and people with compromised immune systems. The research I have proposed will lay the foundation for understanding how Listeria monocytogenes persists in the environment in biofilms on surfaces, such as those in food processing centers, where it can be a source of infection. ? ? ?
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Clinical Investigator Award (CIA) (K08)
5K08AI070561-02
Microbiology and Infectious Diseases B Subcommittee (MID)
Mills, Melody
K08 AI Biofilm Formation by Listeria monocytogenes
Lemon, Katherine Paige / Children's Hospital Boston $123,660
Nyame, Theodore T; Lemon, Katherine P; Kolter, Roberto et al. (2011) High-throughput assay for bacterial adhesion on acellular dermal matrices and synthetic surgical materials. Plast Reconstr Surg 128:1061-8
Lemon, Katherine P; Freitag, Nancy E; Kolter, Roberto (2010) The virulence regulator PrfA promotes biofilm formation by Listeria monocytogenes. J Bacteriol 192:3969-76
Lemon, K P; Earl, A M; Vlamakis, H C et al. (2008) Biofilm development with an emphasis on Bacillus subtilis. Curr Top Microbiol Immunol 322:1-16
Lemon, Katherine P; Higgins, Darren E; Kolter, Roberto (2007) Flagellar motility is critical for Listeria monocytogenes biofilm formation. J Bacteriol 189:4418-24
Be the first to comment on Katherine Lemon's grant
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Corporate Ethics And Our Green Planet
Healthy Habits for a Better and Healthier Sleep
Meteorologist Matt Hughes Storm Chaser Dies The Sad Truth How Matt Hughes Died
By writer in Weather News
Tribute to a friend - even if we didn't know him personally
Meteorologist Matt Hughes Storm Chaser Dies The Sad Truth of How Matt Hughes Died, as his death sent shock waves throughout the chasing community and the Discovery Channel family. Matt was an aspiring young meteorologist and storm chaser who was featured on the Discovery Channel series Storm Chasers and is the highlight of the series last episode, which aired last night, November 3, 2010. According to Discovery.com, a special episode of Storm Chasers called “dedication”, was aired and he has a tracking feature which is incredible “and is dedicated to his memory.” He was but one of a brave handful who choose to risk their lives in order to help us be better prepared in the event of a tornado, and will be remembered with honor here. Hughes died May 26th, 2010 in Wichita, Kansas. The Discovery Channel site posted some pictures later, recalling his contribution to the event, and the cable channel has also provided a special memorial fund which has been established to benefit his two young children.
In this heartbreaking episode, you can see his team struggle with his death, which was “unrelated to his storm chasing activities” and rumored to be due either to suicide or injury in a suicide attempt. It later was found out by TMZ that police had been called to his home on May 14th for a suicide call. He was taken to a local hospital but unfortunately passed away 13 days later from complications due to his attempted hanging. Drinking was also said to have been involved in the incident, and it was later learned that he suffered from depression, which even most of his close friends and partners didn’t know. He was only 30 years at the time of his death and had a promising career ahead of him. He leads the “Dog House” tornado chase vehicle for the TIV team, and had just been appointed as the teams navigator. He had 15 years experience chasing storms, which helped him get on the show in 2009. The suicide call came the same weekend of his last chase. He is survived by his wife Kendra and their two sons, Hunter and Collin.
Here is the link to the you tube video of Discovery Channel’s Storm Chasers- Last Episode with the Meteorologist VIDEO HERE and here is the LINK for the Hughes Fund for donations to benefit his children. We here will remember him for his bravery in chasing storms and attempting to help us to better understand deadly Tornadoes. Meteorologist Matt Hughes Storm Chaser Dies was a shock to us all, and from all of us here at Green Planet Ethics Rest In Peace and God Bless our friend!
channel, chaser, chasing, discovery, Episode, hughes, later, matt, meteorologist matt hughes, storm, storm chaser, suicide
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Laryngitis joins list of ailments that are blamed on pollution
Industrial pollution may be a cause of laryngitis
by Michael Smith
Pollution, allergens and passive smoking could be to blame for long-lasting and recurrent cases of laryngitis, say American doctors.
Airborne toxic gases and fine soot - particulate matter - can be the root cause of all manner of ailments from heart disease to asthma.
Now research from the American Academy of Otolaryngology, or head and neck surgery, have published research suggesting that many cases of laryngitis can be put down to poor environmental conditions rather than the usual list of suspects for the ailment.
Laryngitis symptoms include hoarseness of the voice, cough, and chronic clearing of the throat which researchers and doctors generally attribute to a viral infection and overuse of the voice.
Other factors, including consistent exposure to second-hand smoke, have also been cited as a trigger.
Researchers have now found through animal experiments that exposure to different environmental pollutants, including dust mites and everyday air pollution, can cause what they term "environmental laryngitis."
According to the American Academy of Otolaryngology, the findings are significant, given recent reports on diminishing air quality and increased unhealthy levels of ozone and particle pollution, especially in emerging economies like China, which could lead to more cases of laryngitis and chronic laryngitis in particular.
But not just laryngitis appears to be caused in this way too but also ailments that appear to be a kind of chest infection and also some kinds of asthma. As stated in earlier in this article already airborne toxic gases and fine soot, so-called particulate matter, can be the root to all manner of ailments that often appear to doctors to have a different source or one that cannot be explained.
Therefore, whether or not “Climate Change” may be the result of CO2 and/or other such emission, we must curb any such emissions possible, as well as reduce the impact that we have on the environment and Nature in general in order for us, as the human race, so to speak, to survive at all.
Whether climate change is something that we have control over or not is not the issue in this case. We must get to grips with the emissions of all kinds or else we will be history before even the seas may rise and flood some areas.
© M Smith (Veshengro), September 2008
Labels: pollution
London to showcase green roofs
London's best way to demonstrate visibly its commitment to the environment when the world looks its way in the run up to the 2012 Olympics would be, according to the opinion of Richard Blakeway, a sea of green roofs.
Richard Blakeway, environmental advisor to Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, suggested this when he spoke at the World Green Roofs Congress in the capital on Wednesday.
He spoke of the projected growth of London in the next years and its need to provide homes for a million more inhabitants by 2018.
Mr. Blakeway said that the authorities have got to ensure is that as many as possible of these new buildings have green roofs.
According to him the Mayor has very much put green roofs at the centre of his climate change adaptation policy and his policy to greening the city.
London would and could learn from other cities, he added, where incentives are put in place to encourage green roofs, whether these be carrot, stick or a combination of both.
To this one can but only say that we use too much of the stick with regards to green ventures in this country; we need more of the carrot, much more in fact.
Outlining the many advantages of green roofs the Mayor's advisor said they would reduce the urban heat island effect, encourage biodiversity, control flooding and urban drainage, provide a valuable public green spaces in an ever-more-densely populated city and even save money.
As energy prices continue to skyrocket, he said, the added insulation from green roofs can help keep bills down.
A green roof scheme in Canary Wharf saves the building's owners over £5,000 a year, he said, while Toronto reports annual savings of up to $22m from its green roofs and the figure in Chicago, a city which has embraced the idea, are around £100m.
He said City Hall was currently working on planning guidance that would make green roofs more attractive to developers, and argued that they could be affordable on everything from social housing to riverside penthouses.
The concept of pushing green roofs is in keeping with the emerging flavour of Mr Johnson's environmental policy, which favours promoting improvements to the capitals open spaces and tree planting over technical carbon-based fixes that the public can sometimes struggle to understand.
While green roofs do all of that what the advisor to the Mayor of London said, e.g. that they would reduce the urban heat island effect, encourage biodiversity, control flooding and urban drainage, provide a valuable public green spaces in an ever-more-densely populated city and even save money, in order to really improve the drainage situation, however, in town and countryside, to fight flash floods and such, we must put a stop to the concreting over of all the front yards and such.
Labels: green roofs
Working with the Inevitable
Planning to live with Climate Change
Climate change is something that we have to think about int terms of working with it and learning to live with it...
Over the past few years river delta flooding has been a major issue in the United States. Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc on the Gulf Coast, Hurricane Ike has caused serious trauma throughout coastal Texas, and many other delta lowlands have undergone damaging flood periods in recent history, such as the Sacramento-San Joaquin river delta.
Climate change will effect sea levels and global weather patterns meaning more frequent and severe flooding of these areas.
While there are many who believe that Climate Change is entirely man-made the problem is what if it is not and we have none or very little impact on changing anything regardless of how much we reduce the CO2 in the atmosphere and all those other so-called greenhouse gases. Then, unless we make provision for this, we will all be up the proverbial creek without the necessary paddles and such devices.
While I am in agreement that we must reduce the impact of al those gases, but not so much as regards to stopping and reversing Climate Change, as I do not believe that (1) mankind and our emissions are the cause of the “global warming” and climate change but that that is a recurring phenomenon of the Earth herself and (2) that whatever we do we cannot stop or reverse anything, but simply because all those gases in combination seem to harm human health particular and pollution of all those gases and particles seem to be the main cause of many respiratory ailments and even heart problems of our modern age.
Humankind must learn to live with the changing climate as humankind has always had to when the Earth has thrown her wobblies before and went from cold to hot and then back to cold only to go back to hot. One only needs to look at the last two or three millennia see this pattern. About ever thousand years the Earth seems to be hitting one of the high notes, throws a wobbly of warm and cool for a while before dropping back into a mini ice age.
We are, presently, in one of the high notes, it would appear and, according to some findings, the temperatures have leveled out and have been steady for the last six or so years without any further sign of rising. The Old Farmer's Almanac has stuck its neck out and predicted that the world is going to enter a period of cooling, a mini ice age of sorts. This could be feasible. But, due to the warming that has occurred the ice in the arctic and antarctic is melting and this could and will cause a rise in sea levels. Combined with the increased weather activities of rains and hurricanes and such like, more flooding would be likely. Rising sea levels will also, obviously, impact on river delta systems and tidal rivers themselves.
Hence we must abandon the stupidity of building in floodplains or we must follow the examples of our very old ancestors and build on stilts.
The Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) is creating a land modeling plan to efficiently and economically handle the populations and infrastructure suffering from the impact of climate change. The long and short of it is…the next time these areas are destroyed, don’t rebuild them.
The study conducted by the PPIC focused on policy issues pertaining to certain tracts of land in freshwater parts of the Sacramento-San Joaquin river delta. Since rescue and rehabilitation of these areas is quite costly, the driving force behind the policy decisions is saving taxpayer money. “In 2004, when a delta levee unexpectedly collapsed, the state and federal governments rushed in to repair it, spending more than $75 million. However, the effort protected land worth only $22 million.” Experts from an array of fields, including civil engineering, climate science, economics, hydrology, and biology were consulted to formulate the plan of action for at risk lands.
Although it may seem like peoples lives and homes are being abandoned to save a dollar, overall everyone is losing by dumping money and resources into saving certain delta areas. The idea of “adjusting to new ecology” will save state taxpayers money, in the future will save people who would have inhabited these areas from great loss, and allows mother nature to reclaim wetlands that humans are struggling to keep as freshwater areas when the natural state is a mixture of fresh and salt waters.
The belief has been that we’re defending the environment by maintaining the freshwater system, but that is actually incompatible with giving the Delta’s native species and ecosystem a fighting chance to survive and prosper.
In the Britain in early 2008 certain areas of the Marshes of Essex had their sea defenses broken on purpose in order to allow the sea reclaim land to reestablish the former saltwater marshes in that area.
Whether abandoning areas that have been wrest from the sea at often great costs is the right course to go is a good question, especially in a relatively small country such as the United Kingdom which is getting slowly but surely rather overcrowded for sure. The Dutch more then likely would not go that way, considering what it has cost them to create the Polder lands and what it cost to defend them from the sea.
On the other hand, do we really have to live, as I said, in floodplains? The answer is more than likely a no. But if we insist to do so then we better do as the ancient ones did and build our homes on stilts.
Then again, we could, once again build up rather than out and I am sure we could accommodate a lot more people in a smaller area and keep the green areas for farming, forestry and wildlife.
ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND PARTNERS WITH WAL-MART TO CUT GLOBAL SHOPPING BAG WASTE
Global Retailer Makes Commitment at Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting
NEW YORK, N.Y., September 2008: Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) will serve as Wal-Mart’s environmental partner in the Global Plastic Shopping Bag Waste Reduction Commitment that the retailer announced today at the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting. EDF will help Wal-Mart develop reduction, reuse and recycling strategies as well as monitor efforts to reduce plastic shopping bag waste by an average of one-third per store from 2008 levels by 2013.
“Cutting bag waste is a common-sense solution to an environmental problem that we all see every day,” said Gwen Ruta, vice president for Corporate Partnerships at Environmental Defense Fund. “This initiative will help take 9 billion bags out of the environment each year.”
Total global consumption of plastic bags is estimated at 4 trillion per year, at the expense of the world’s marine life - as sea turtles, fish, mammals and birds eat or become entangled in bags - and at a cost of millions of dollars to municipalities, which must collect and dispose of bags. The Wal-Mart bag waste reduction pledge has the potential to eliminate approximately 9 billion plastic shopping bags per year from its existing stores by 2013.
“Environmental Defense Fund has provided valuable contributions in Wal-Mart’s effort to operate in a more environmentally sustainable manner, which includes helping the environment while building a stronger business,” said Matt Kistler, senior vice president for sustainability of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. “EDF has helped us assess the full scope of environmental challenges and benefits of reducing Wal-Mart’s global plastic bag waste.”
EDF and Wal-Mart anticipate that the bag waste reduction initiative will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 290,000 metric tons and reduce energy consumption equivalent to 678,000 barrels of oil per year.
Working with Wal-Mart, EDF will:
Provide scientific advice on the environmental impacts of plastic bag waste and quantify the carbon footprint of alternative bags and packaging;
Assist in developing educational materials for Wal-Mart customers;
Evaluate Wal-Mart projections for environmental benefits of the project; and
Monitor progress and assess program results.
Collaboration to reduce bag waste is just one aspect of EDF’s work since 2005 to inform and influence Wal-Mart’s sustainability goals and motivate change in the company, its supply chain and its customers to measurably reduce environmental impacts. EDF focuses on issues central to its mission and germane to Wal-Mart operations, including global warming, seafood, packaging, toxic materials and environmental performance of Wal-Mart suppliers worldwide.
Source: Environmental Defense Fund
Wood – A professional in the Kitchen
by Michael Smith, RFA
Cooking is on the up. Kitchens and utensils made from wood are easy to care for and are antibacterial.
Cooking is everywhere. On the TV and in the home. Cooking has become a pastime rather than just a means of creating a meal for the family. It has become a lifestyle and a creative expression and also an expression of creativity.
For this very reason the kitchen has now become functional workplace and an object for design at the same time. In the kitchen of today there is not just roasting a frying and generally cooking being done. This is where one meets, sits together and talks over a glass of wine. A bit of trip back-to-the-future for we have been here once before, in the days when out kitchen were large and useful, and where the family gathered, while the parlour, the room that we refer to today as “living room”, was used only on very special days and occasions. It was the kitchen were everyone gathered and listened to the radio and talked about the day. The kitchen table served as a desk for the children's homework in the same way as it was used for the eating of meals, or the mending of clothes.
Because of the fact that kitchens are, once again, more living space than just the area where the food is being cooked, the designers of kitchen furniture are once again reverting to the age-old material of wood. Wood is natural and warm and a great material.
Wooden kitchens with properly sealed surfaces are easy to clean and as wood has antibacterial quality they are much more hygienic than other materials, even stainless steel. But, I guess, I would say that as someone deeply rooted in commercial forestry.
In addition to the furniture in the kitchen being of wood again wooden kitchen utensils too are making a genuine comeback. Wooden spoons, spatulas, cutting- and chopping boards, and such, all once again are seen in kitchens. Wooden utensils are taste neutral and are easy to care for. They also do not absorb any foreign tastes. As they are wood we have the same antibacterial properties and hence they are much more hygienic than other materials and one can but wonder if we should not carry, once again, a wooden eating spoon, as people did in ages past, instead of relying on throwaway flatware.
As wood, as said, has antibacterial properties it is enough to wipe a chopping board clean between uses. This also satisfies hygiene because even salmonella has little survival chance on wood. This was proven already in 1993 by the University of Wisconsin. Especially pine, larch and oak have some of the best antibacterial and virus killing properties.
Labels: kitchen utensils, wood
Social and psychological impact of floods 'should be planned for'
Drying out and renovating homes was the most stressful phase for flood victims, researchers said
Major flooding not only destroys homes and vital infrastructure - it has a devastating effect on the physical and mental health of those that are caught up the catastrophe.
A new study of the 2005 Carlisle floods has shown that alongside the obvious potential for death, injury and health risks from contaminated water, flood victims can also suffer lasting psychological problems caused by loss of homes and personal possessions. For some this can have a profound and long lasting effect, one that some may never ever come to terms with. The loss of valued possessions, especially mementoes and such like that are irreplaceable, can be a trauma from which some may never recover.
Three people died and about 6,000 Carlisle residents were hit by flood waters when 200mm of rain fell in 48 hours. About 60,000 homes in the area were also left without power.
Writing in the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management's new Journal of Flood Risk Management, researchers have described how the trauma of the flood still remained with Carlisle residents nearly a year and a half later.
Their study found that the most stressful phase was spending months drying out and renovating their homes - a situation made worse by problems with insurers, builders and decorators.
The authors of the study, Dr Ian Convery, from the University of Cumbria and Cathy Bailey from the Irish Centre for Social Gerontology, recommended that these issues should be included in funding for flood alleviation schemes.
They have said that agencies should work together to train highly-skilled support centre personnel with local knowledge of the community affected to help victims; centres that can provide one point of contact for potentially multiple emotional and practical problems.
"Crucially, we suggest that these centres require both strong multi-partnership and multi-agency working and highly skilled support centre personnel who have local knowledge and understanding of the affected community.
"In this way, post-disaster local needs may be contextualized and responded to in a way that both draws on existing local knowledge and expertise and further strengthens long-term community-based support."
The journal's publication has come just days after large swathes of the UK, particularly north east England, was hit by flash floods leaving six dead in weather-related incidents.
You'd think we would get used to rain in this country and would have a proper system of dealing with such rainfall for, despite what some in government and the agencies claim, we have had weather like that before in years and decade and even centuries past, without such great problems.
While I am fully aware that in those times past the country, Britain, was not as densely populated as now, the main reasons though why the waters did not affect people as much are – one – the fact that we then were not as stupid as have homes in the flood plains, bar one or two exceptions, and – two – we did not have everywhere concreted and tarmacked over.
When I walk to the railroad station, for instance, through the relatively wealthy middle-class areas here all I see is front yards that are hard standing areas for cars and also many of the back gardens have been turned into patios and such like with just a pocket handkerchief size patch of grass left. In other words, there just is not enough earth left around for the water to soak away into. So it just runs off the front yards and the back yards and the streets into the gutters and – bingo – flash floods as drains and river courses can not cope.
We must be mad to have built like that.
The future of cycling all under one roof in London!
It’s all about the bike in 2008 – and Cycle 08 brings the biggest and best consumer cycle show in the UK to Earls Court London from 9-12 October 2008.
Cycling is enjoying a renaissance in the UK for many different reasons, it’s cheap, clean, makes you healthy and most importantly, it’s fun! So whether you’re already riding or just thinking about throwing your leg over the saddle, this is a great time to book your ticket to this autumn’s Cycle 08 at Earls Court, the biggest and best consumer cycle show in the UK with all the very latest bikes, clothing and accessories for cyclists of all shapes, sizes and abilities.
Names like Specialized show, along with Shimano, Campagnolo, Mavic and SRAM plus hundreds more will be exhibiting their 2009 ranges for the very first time in the UK.
Cycle 08 is one of the biggest and certainly the most diverse exhibition of bikes and accessories in the UK showcasing everything from the latest road and mountain bikes right through to childrens bikes, classic commuter bikes, touring bikes, BMX and even electrically assisted bikes for those who need that extra push!
As well as offering the chance to see, Cycle 08 also offers visitors a unique opportunity to try out the latest equipment. The return for 2008 of the Mountain Bike Test Track, sponsored by Volvo and Tirol as well as the Commuter Test Track means that visitors will have every opportunity to try before they buy.
For those who can’t wait to get back to their local bike shop to make a purchase, Cycle 08 will once again feature The Retail Zone sponsored by Condor with clothing from all the leading manufacturers at the show in the latest styles and colours as well as glasses, helmets, bags and shoes to help the fashion conscious cyclist stay one step ahead of the pack!
Finally, after a summer that has provided so much entertainment for fans of the sport of cycling, Cycle 08 will have its own arena space for the first time this year, bringing together some of the stars of the sport for interviews, Q&As and more in a packed programme of events. The area now includes an amazing new BMX/Trials street course which will keep Earls Court buzzing throughout the three consumer days of the show.
Summing up this years event, Cycle 08 Director Andrew Brabazon said: “We’ve got more than ever before at this year’s show, with even more top brands, innovative products, interactive features and an action packed programme of entertainment. Cycle continues to offer great value for money particularly if you pre-book your ticket, so make a date in your diary now and head to the website!”
Whatever your reason for getting on a bike, Cycle 08 has something to offer and to entertain you this year, book your ticket now and receive a £3 discount against the on-the-door price of £14. Head to www.cycleshow.co.uk now to find out more. Adult ticket prices are £11 in advance and £14 on the door.
Source: Cycle 2008
Labels: Cycle 2008
Viner Bikes return to the Cycle show with an exciting new range of products for 2009
Viner offer a wide range of high quality bikes in a range of materials including carbon, steel, stainless steel, titanium and alloy. We will be exhibiting our new X Plus and Magnifica Plus bikes for the sportive and new to racing riders. These bikes exhibit the quality and flair of Italian engineering and design with the Viner styling and paint finishes.
Also on show will be our new range of custom built bikes for 2009 from retro steel frames to the Maxima which was rated by Marcel Wust in Pro Cycling as the 'best bike I've ever tested'.
We will also be showing the new range of Viner wheels from clincher to carbon tubs which feature the latest in easy maintenance technology.
Viner will also be displaying the brand new concept SSB fitting and power testing system. Bookings for this will be taken on the stand.
Source: Viner UK Ltd
2x2 to relaunch Shogun bikes
2x2 are delighted to announce our new and exclusive distribution agreement as the Shogun distributor for the UK and Eire.
Shogun is a well established international brand with UK product distribution stretching back to the late 1980’s.
The Shogun brand was looking for an appropriate partner in the UK to not only distribute a product range but to redesign and relaunch the brand bringing it up to the international standards already established around the world.
Scott Hillyard, Sales Director for 2x2 Ltd said: “We are delighted to be making this announcement today, the Shogun brand has been a long term player in the UK and we intend to relaunch it into 2009 with a brand new contemporary look and feel. In a specification rich market we have transformed Shogun into a brand that connects closely with its customers needs whilst keeping core 2x2 values such as quality, innovation and relevance.
The UK market is unique and Shogun needed a full R&D job from the ground upwards; the required creativity in the development process of the all new 2009 Shogun product is testament to our ability to innovate, which coupled with our professional desire to deliver to customers a higher quality user experience, should prove to be a very productive and exciting time for the Shogun brand in the UK. ”
“Shogun fits perfectly into our portfolio, differentiating itself with DJ, BMX and MTB product - a little less formal, a lot more lively and aimed at a specific demographic; a nod to the future.
I envisage the Shogun brand becoming one of our most prized assets here at 2x2, the value it will bring to our business will be immeasurable.”
“We will be officially unveiling the new 2009 Shogun product range at the upcoming Cycle show at Earls Court – this is an event that is growing by the year and we have been keen to lend our support, stand D1F is where it all starts.”
Source: 2x2 Ltd.
BOGO LIGHT - Advertisement
Labels: BoGo Light, Buy on give one
NEW STUDY OFFERS VIABLE SOLUTION TO OVERFISHING
Environmental Advocates Say Research Strengthens Longstanding Commitment to Creating Healthy Fisheries
WASHINGTON D.C., September 2008: New research published in the journal Science provides a clear road map for federal and regional fisheries managers to reverse years of declining fish stocks by implementing catch shares, according to a leading national environmental group.
Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) praised the new study, Can Catch Shares Prevent Fisheries Collapse?, authored by scientists from the University of California at Santa Barbara and the University of Hawaii.
“This study shows that the next President can fix the overfishing problem by implementing catch shares,” said David Festa, vice president and director of the oceans program at EDF. “We can turn a dire situation into an enormous opportunity to promote better food security, create jobs and revive ecosystems.”
Catch share programs replace complex rules dictating how fishing will be practiced, with a method to hold fishermen directly accountable for meeting a vital conservation target: scientifically determined catch limits. Fishermen, individually or in cooperatives, are granted a percentage share of the total allowable catch. They can also be granted exclusive access to particular fishing zones. (This system is commonly referred to as territorial use rights for fishing.) As long as fishermen do not exceed their share, they have greater flexibility to fish when weather and market conditions are best. Their shares grow in value as the overall fishery improves, providing them a greater financial stake in sound resource management.
"The trend around the world has been to fish the oceans until the fish are gone,” continued Festa. “The scientific data presented today shows we can turn this pattern on its head. Anyone who cares about saving fisheries and fishing jobs will find this study highly motivating.”
EDF scientists, economists and fishery experts are deployed in over a dozen of the most iconic fisheries around the country. EDF has projects with five universities and EDF staff members have published articles and reports on catch share design and implementation. EDF helps managers and fishermen design catch share systems that save fisheries and meet the needs of their communities.
Currently there are multiple proposals to implement catch share systems around the country for both federal and state fisheries, including Pacific groundfish and grouper in the Gulf of Mexico.
The most recent success was EDF’s work with fishermen and managers to design a catch share system for red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico, which went into effect in January of 2007. With the new management effort, the 2007 commercial snapper season was open year-round for the first time since 1990. Fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico now earn 25 percent more for their fish and wasteful bycatch has dropped at least 70 percent.
A comprehensive EDF report released last year illustrated that catch share systems dramatically increase safety for fishermen, increase revenues per boat and significantly improve the results of conservation efforts such as bycatch reduction.
Global fisheries peaked in 1988 and have been steadily declining ever since. An estimated one billion people worldwide rely on the ocean for at least part of their essential food needs. Ocean fishing and its related industries also employ 200 million people.
A leading national nonprofit organization, Environmental Defense Fund represents more than 500,000 members. Since 1967, Environmental Defense Fund has linked science, economics, law and innovative private-sector partnerships to create breakthrough solutions to the most serious environmental problems. For more information, visit www.edf.org
For more information on catch shares go to www.edf.org/CatchSharesScience.
Live Earth show to help advance solar energy
India will host the next Live Earth concert in order to raise funds for lighting homes with solar energy in places where people do not have access to electricity, the organizers stated.
The event in December will see rocker Jon Bon Jovi share the stage with Bollywood's biggest superstar, Amitabh Bachchan, and is described by the organizers as one of the biggest events held in India.
The concert will be held in India's financial capital Mumbai on December 7, so Kevin Wall, the founder of Live Earth said in Mumbai.
Jon Bon Jovi is just one name and Mr Bachchan is just one name, but there will be a lot of international artists on stage at this event, so it has been said.
Wall, who organized a series of concerts last year with the former vice-president Al Gore, said the event in India would be telecast live in more than 100 countries.
Gore, who spoke via satellite this week during a news conference held in Mumbai said that India could provide the leadership required to bring about changes in world policies on climate change.
The proceeds from the concert will go to the "Light A Billion Lives campaign," supported by Nobel Prize-winner Rajendra Pachauri, the chairman of the United Nation's Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
At least 1.6 billion people worldwide do not have access to electricity, Pachauri said, adding that the campaign would target villages in countries like India, Myanmar, Pakistan, Ethiopia and Malawi.
Organizers said they would set up giant screens and distribute televisions in remote villagers for the concert.
But, erm, there remains but one question, or may be two. The first one is how are the TVs that will be distributed to the remote villagers are powered and two what about the carbon footprint of such an event.
What would be a much better ideas would be to create a virtual stage, with every artist being in his or her country and studio and being linked via a network in such a manner that they all could work as if they would be in one location.
While I must say that those events, those concerts and such, all sound great especially in that they are supposed to benefit all those poor people without electricity or food or whatever, there remains but the problem of the high costs of logistics for such an event and especially the environments and carbon footprint of such events.
This seems to be the one thing that appears to overlooked and forgotten when it comes to such events, in the same way when there is one conference after the other on Climate Change and such, whether organized by the UN or other bodies to which scientists and other travel from all over the world.
Maybe following what one preaches would be nice.
East Tennesseeans switching to firewood to save money
In order to save money this winter, some residents of East Tennessee are switching to firewood for their heating
One resident of the State who decided last year to switch solely to firewood instead of using propane gas to heat his home says that it cost him about $350 for the wood to warm his three-bedroom, two-bath house and with energy prices even higher this year, it is something he certainly will continue. He reckons that with the rate then it has saved him $600 and with the ever increasing prices it will be even more so. Others are looking into the old-world energy source as well.
Aside from the fact that it is, more than likely and especially if one has access to a cheap source of wood, a cheaper way to heat a home (and whatever else) than using gas or oil and even coal, it is also much more environmentally friendly. Burning wood is, basically, carbon neutral for the only carbon released is that that the wood used in order to grow and mature.
Many, like the Tennessee resident mentioned, in that State and elsewhere, and not in the USA alone, made and are making the switch to heating and even cooking with wood because of the
skyrocketing prices for gas and other sources of heat and cooking source.
Having said before that the saving that was made by this particular resident was $600 and that with the increasing costs of gas and oil it may be even more in the future we can, though, of that I am sure, be certain that the price of firewood is going to go us as well as demand increases.
Soaring energy costs and threatened scarcity of some fuels like home heating oil this year have led more homeowners to seek alternative sources for heat, and as a result, both seasoned firewood and some supplies of wood-burning stoves are expected to be in short supply.
The demand for wood-and-pellet burning stoves has caused local sales to increase this year, and already firewood sales have taken off about a month early.
The owner of Ben's Firewood in Knoxville said that while they normally start the winter season around October this year it has already started. People are apparently so worried that things are going to get worse, so they are lining up before it gets too bad.
The push for alternative home heat has largely been driven by the Northeast, where the price of heating oil, still the primary method for home heating, has soared. The average household is projected to spend more than $2,500 this winter, according to the Energy Information Administration, a 30 percent increase from last year. And even with crude oil prices - which factor largely into the price of heating oil - falling to a six-month low recently, the price of heating oil was still just under $3 a gallon, its lowest price since early March. Prices once were projected to hit as high as $4 a gallon.
The Knoxville wood- and coal-burning cook stove company already is backlogged on its most popular item, the Torridaire coal heater, a stove that requires no electricity. Stove sales are typically higher after natural disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina, and when economic times are a little rough.
Sales also are up for many firewood dealers - business is up 40 percent in many cases - and the true firewood season has not even begun yet.
But the seasoned wood, or wood that has been dried naturally for about eight or nine months, is quickly becoming in short supply, since it has to be cut around March in order to be ready for winter months.
Kiln wood, or wood that is accelerated through the drying process by sitting four or five days in a 190-degree oven, also is limited based on how much that kiln can produce.
There are, on the other hand, woods that can also be burned green and some burn better and hotter green than seasoned and those are beech and birch. Where they are in ample supply things should not be too bad.
A full cord of seasoned wood will replace about 300 gallons of diesel fuel for heating a home while green wood would only replace about 225 gallons. The difference is water content - the more water that's in the wood, the more water you have to burn off before you get any heat. But even burning green wood is still cheaper than any other energy source.
The most important part in all of this is, however, and this must be observed, that the wood comes from well managed and renewable sources and that it is replanted.
In the UK, if would go back to firewood, and in many places we certainly could and even should, nay, let me rephrase that, must, the coppice woodlands could, once again, come into their own and new ones can and must be planted.
Coppicing, I am certain, could also be done in other countries and environments, such as in the United States.
Wood shortages will, no doubt, occur, especially in the places where it is more used such as in the rural areas of the USA and elsewhere, especially shortages of seasoned wood. Another source of firewood that should not and must not be overlooked for those that need to watch pennies is waste lumber from building sites. The only worrying aspect here could be the release of certain chemicals that were used in the wood, as some building lumber, even if only used for shoring up, is treated.
There is a lot to consider when deciding to switch to alternative heating, such as buying a wood- or coal-burning stove, but many of them do burn more efficiently and cleanly than they did in the 1980s. While there will be more cost up front for a stove, most mid- to lower-level priced stoves should pay for themselves in about two or two and a half years.
As for firewood, it is recommended buyers check references of dealers and be sure to have their chimneys swept at least once a year.
If you have got any amount of land or access to land, and a chain saw, you have basically an inexpensive fuel. A lot less expensive than fuel or gas or electricity.
Labels: alternative energy, burning wood, firewood, wood
Cycling Oils the wheels of the UK Economy
At a time when the rest of the economy seems to be slowing down, there’s one section of the economy which is racing ahead of the pack, the cycle industry. A study conducted by The Cycle Show has revealed some interesting figures…
Cyclist spending over £1,000 each year:
According to figures released by the Cycle Show, cyclists in London are spending more than ever on their bikes with an average spend of over £1,000 in the last financial year, nearly double the amount on the year before.
Andrew Brabazon, show director of Cycle Show which takes place at Earls Court this October said:
“Where other sectors of the economy are slowing down, the cycle trade has found an extra gear as people get on their bikes to work”
Boy’s toys drive the market:
Furthermore, it seems that the biggest spenders on cycling are men, with the figures revealing a gender gap in spending of over £250. Furthermore with accessories and clothing the leading items purchased it seems that perhaps, amongst cyclists at least, it’s time to re-evaluate the old stereotypes about men having an aversion to clothes shopping!
Source: Cycle2008
STARTECH ENVIRONMENTAL HYDROGEN FUELED “NO CARBON FOOTPRINT” ELECTRICITY POWERED UP AT TECH CENTER
Startech Hydrogen From Processing Waste Can Produce Stationary Carbonless Electrical Power
WILTON, CT., September 2008: Startech Environmental Corp., a fully reporting, internationally recognized Award-winning Environment and Energy company, announced today that its hydrogen-fueled engine producing electricity is operational and available for demonstrations at Startech’s Tech Center in Bristol, Connecticut.
Joseph F. Longo, Startech’s president, said, “The line-up has started for demonstrations for our Customers, Distributors, Sales Representatives and also for the media. They’re going to like what they see.
“The Company plans to produce and market its Carbonless Power System for ‘Green Electricity’ in stationary facilities. We think it is important to appreciate the fact that the Hydrogen-engine is a combination of the engine and the electric generator in one modular-package. It’s not a fuel cell; it is a robust internal-combustion reciprocal-engine very much like the well-proven engine in your vehicle.
“Startech Hydrogen, derived by our StarCell™ system from processing a wide variety of wastes in the Startech Plasma Converter™, is an excellent, pristine fuel to power the Hydrogen-engine for electricity. Even ordinary household waste, the most ubiquitous of all, is an excellent source of Startech Hydrogen.
“While developments of hydrogen-powered vehicles are still progressing and talked about, there is a compelling need and desire from our customers for a parallel initiative to bring clean, hydrogen-fueled, stationary-electrical-power to the market.
“Paradoxically, hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, but it is not readily available on earth, and has to be produced by chemical-industry manufacturing systems. Hydrogen is a very important ingredient in many commercial and industrial products. Our Plasma Converter System (PCS)™, in processing most wastes, produces a synthesis gas that we named Plasma Converted Gas (PCG)™. With many wastes, the hydrogen in the PCG, can be separated as a pristine fuel within our Carbonless Power System. This Startech Hydrogen can fuel engine-generators to produce ‘Green Electricity.’
“From wastes used as feed-stocks, the Plasma Converter can actually be the source of Startech Hydrogen on-site and in-house for our customers.
“When hydrogen, as a fuel, combines with air, the principal resulting product is H2O, water. No carbon dioxide (CO2) results in the combustion process since there are no carbons in hydrogen. With its roots in the Kyoto Protocol, the burgeoning Carbon-Credit market and its focus on ‘low-carbon-footprints,’ means that this ‘green’ stationary electrical power will not be merely a ‘low-carbon-footprint;’ it will be a ‘No-Carbon-Footprint.’
“Last year, the Company successfully completed a three-year contract for the US Department of Enengy, in its Hydrogen Initiative Program, in a comprehensive program demonstrating the production of hydrogen from processing wastes in the Plasma Converter followed by our StarCell system. StarCell is the Company’s proprietary membrane-technology system that separates the hydrogen from the PCG synthesis gas produced by the Plasma Converter System.
“Energy crisis or not, waste has been and always will be with us.”
Startech is the internationally recognized, Award-winning Environment and Energy Industry Company engaged in the production and sale of its innovative, proprietary plasma processing equipment known as the Plasma Converter System™.
The Plasma Converter System safely and economically destroys wastes, no matter how hazardous or lethal, and turns most into useful and valuable products. In doing so, the System protects the environment and helps to improve the Public Health and Safety. The System achieves closed-loop elemental recycling to safely and irreversibly destroy Municipal Solid Waste, organics and inorganics, solids, liquids and gases, hazardous and non-hazardous waste, industrial by-products and also items such as "e-waste," medical waste, chemical industry waste and other specialty wastes, while converting many of them into useful commodity products that can include metals and a synthesis-gas called Plasma Converted Gas (PCG) ™.
Among the many commercial uses for PCG, is its use to produce "Carbonless Power,” Gas-To-Liquid (GTL) fuels such as ethanol, synthetic diesel fuel and other higher alcohol “alternative” fuels. Hydrogen, for use and sale, can also be separated and recovered from the PCG synthesis gas mixture.
The Startech Plasma Converter is essentially a manufacturing system producing valuable commodity products from feedstock-materials that were previously regarded as wastes.
Startech regards all wastes, hazardous and non-hazardous, as valuable renewable resources and as feedstocks.
Source: Startech
THE TWO LARGEST RESOURCES FOR GREEN BUSINESSES IN THE UNITED STATES JOIN FORCES
GenGreen, LLC and Co-op America are partnering together to bring more awareness to pre-screened environmentally and socially conscious businesses through their online networks
FORT COLLINS, CO., September 23, 2008: GenGreen, LLC, based in Colorado, and Co-op America, based in Washington, DC, today announced the beginning of their partnership that will change the way consumers shop online for eco products and services. Users within GenGreenLife.com now have the ability to see which companies have been approved by Co-op America, which screens all members of their Green Business Network for social and environmental responsibility.
“We are excited to be working with Co-op America and we think this agreement represents a great opportunity to benefit our users and grow the number of businesses getting screened,” said Charisse McAuliffe, founder and CEO of GenGreen. “Cooperation and collaboration is so important, and it is just what we need to keep the momentum behind the environmental movement growing and strong,” said McAuliffe.
It is important to GenGreen that their businesses listed within their directory are truly green. This is now accomplished with the help of Co-op America’s screening process. In order for businesses to get the seal of approval, they must demonstrate that they:
Focus on using business as a tool for positive social change.
Are "values-driven,” as well as profit-driven.
Are socially and environmentally responsible in the way they source, manufacture, and market their products and run their offices and factories.
Are committed to and employ extraordinary and innovative practices that benefit: 1) workers, 2) communities, 3) customers, and 4) the environment.
Businesses that have the seal of approval are automatically pushed to the top of the search results within GenGreenLife.com. This is done to give the consumer the screened company first before the other listings. If a business is listed on the site and does not have a Co-op America seal of approval, they are encouraged to apply for it.
“We’re excited by this opportunity to work with GenGreen since it provides us the ability to educate consumers about businesses that are the best of best regarding their treatment of people and the planet,” said Denise Hamler, Director of Co-op America’s Green Business Network. “We’re also excited to offer our screening process to GenGreen businesses that are not yet screened, and for those businesses that pass our rigorous screens, to offer them the opportunity to receive a prime listing on GenGreen.”
Transparency is a key component to the environmental industry, and GenGreen suggests all of their businesses listed within their site be as transparent as possible. “Consumers do their research, ask questions, and make sure they are shopping from a socially and environmentally responsible company. If they can’t find how the company is who they say they are, they will buy from someone else,” Charisse McAuliffe, founder and CEO of GenGreen.
This collaboration was designed in hopes of reducing green washing, which is a term used to describe the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service. Now, users can see for themselves which companies have been proven to be socially and environmentally responsible.
The goal of GenGreen is to be the most comprehensive and diverse resource available for people looking to live a locally-focused, environmentally conscious lifestyle. This is accomplished through their network GenGreenLife.com where they have over 25,000 listings to help consumers live their green life easier.
To find environmentally and socially responsible companies, visit www.gengreenlife.com.
Co-op America is the nation’s leading green economy organization. Its mission is to harness economic power—the strength of consumers, investors, businesses, and the marketplace—to create a socially just and environmentally sustainable society. Co-op America is the producer of National Green Pages and Green Festivals (with Global Exchange.)
The Co-op America Green Business Network is the original and most diverse association of over 5,000 responsible companies. Co-op America is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1982. www.coopamerica.org
Source: GenGreen, LLC
Global cooling predicted Old Farmer's Almanac
According to the venerable “Old Farmer's Almanac”, which was first published in 1792 and is the oldest continuously published periodical in the United States, the world is set for a "big chill," possibly a mini-ice age.
The 2009 edition, published earlier this month, predicts that the Earth already has entered a sustained period of global cooling.
If the finding from Australia are correct an the temperatures did indeed plateau out as they said in about 2001 then it could be a fact that “global cooling” is about to begin and if the previous periods of climate change of the Earth are anything to go by this cooling could be rather rapidly, much faster than the warming ever was. Going out from that we could see the Thames frozen to its full depth again in a couple of centuries – not that either of us are going to see it.
True to form, the almanac also includes tips on gardening and how to stay warm all winter with just one log, the latter piece is somewhat tongue in cheek though as it recommends the use of the log in this way: “Toss the log out of an upstairs window, run downstairs and outside to retrieve it, run back upstairs, then fling it out of the window again. Pretty soon you're going to be very hot and you don't need to turn the heat on.”
"The next 20 years, it's going to be colder," said Sarah Perreault, assistant editor of the Old Farmer's Almanac. "We do recognize that (global cooling) could be offset by greenhouse gasses and other human effects on the earth, but we're trending toward the cool period now."
The almanac is predicting a period of global cooling partly due to the lack of sunspots, a situation which some scientists believe causes cooling on the sun and, subsequently, the earth.
Perreault said the staff still uses the weather prediction method devised by almanac founder Robert B. Thomas, using a combination of solar sciences, meteorology and climatology.
"Obviously we have more technology now," she said. "We have the benefit of having more information than he had, but it's basically the same."
She said the method is not exact. Since the almanac is published so far in advance, it cannot take into account the most up-to-date information on Pacific Ocean oscillations El Nino or La Nina, for instance.
Still, the almanac has an 80 percent success rate for its weather predictions, Perreault said.
In its early years, the almanac was one of the chief sources for weather forecasts for farmers and other businessmen.
In addition to weather predictions for each day of the year, the Old Farmer's Almanac also includes gardening tips about such things as planting milkweed to attract Monarch butterflies.
The forecast cool period of the next 20 years, as predicted by the Old Farmer's Almanac might then just be the precursor, with hot spells in between, as it used to be in the previous cycles of climate changes, to a real mini-ice age that could, as I said before, lead, once again, to the freezing of the Thames, a tidal river, and to the coats of this country having its waters partly frozen. Something that none of us have seen thus far, I am sure.
Labels: global cooling, Old Farmer's Almanac
Bake Bread – save the planet!
Support Resurgence Slow Sunday
Local environmental campaigners, from all around the UK and from around the world, are supporting Resurgence Slow Sunday on September 28th where they will be baking bread as an act of defiance against commercial bread. Why not join in?
Resurgence Slow Sunday (www.resurgence.org) is a campaign from readers and supporters of the international environmental magazine Resurgence, edited by Satish Kumar. The aim is to encourage people to take part in small acts of defiance for the environment within their own communities.
In our recent past, Sunday was a day of rest – a day of reflection. With the Slow Sunday approach it is aimed to make Sunday a day where we consume less, reduce our food miles and our carbon footprint and also make it a day when we engage with our family, friends and local community. This is where small, simple actions, like baking bread, can make a significant difference to our immediate environment and the planet as a whole. It is about acting locally but thinking globally.
Bake locally – think globally
Baking bread is not as difficult as many people think. If you can boil an egg, you can bake bread. It may be a small action but it’s also a simple way of making an environmental statement and taking a stand. The power of local action – many small actions at a local level – can bring about big change at a global level.
But what has baking bread got to do with saving the planet?
The Resurgence Slow Sunday is inspired by two of the most profound philosophies of our time – Schumacher’s ‘Small is beautiful’ and Gandhi’s ‘Be the change you want to see in the world’. Big change is possible though small, meaningful actions at a local level. It is only by changing our immediate environment that we can pave the way for change on a larger scale. In other words, we can make the world a better place, but it will only happen when large numbers of people join together and practice what they believe in. And, in the same way that Gandhi made spinning an act of defiance against oppressive colonialism, for Resurgence Slow Sunday on September 28th, the organizers are asking consumers to make good, healthy home-baked bread a symbol of environmentalism.
Three reasons why baking bread is a seemingly small step, with potentially enormous environmental consequences:
Only 4% of bread is baked in small, neighbourhood bakeries. And almost 90% of bread is mass-produced in factory conditions. Thirteen big manufacturers control bread market in the UK which accounts for £3 billion a year. Nearly ten million loaves of bread are sold in the UK every day; their daily delivery clocking up an enormous carbon footprint. This is bread is full of enzyme-based ‘processing aids’ that by law don’t have to appear on the label.
In addition it has to be said that most, if not indeed all, of the bread “baked”, or should we better say, manufactured, by those mass-production system is tasteless for sure.
Bread diversity is a symbol of cultural diversity. Regional varieties represented grain diversity as well as diversity of style. At one time, this bread was available on your doorstep from your local baker.
Baking bread is an act of meditation. Through this simple action we are able to slow down, pay attention and reconnect with tradition. It is something to share and to celebrate.
While it may be true, as some cynics reading this might say, that the simple act of baking bread is not, even if done by millions on Resurgence Slow Sunday, going to change the world, at least not instantly, it can, nevertheless bring us all together into a more cohesive force to bring about the necessary change.
For more simple recipes and further information on Resurgence Slow Sunday go to www.resurgence.org
Labels: Resurgence Slow Sunday
Phase out coal and burn trees instead, a leading scientist urges
Now, what a good idea. This could put forestry really back on the map.
The world and the human race, in short all of us, must urgently embark on a massive program to power civilization from wood to stave off catastrophic climate change, one of the world's top scientists said recently.
Twenty years ago, Professor James Hansen was the first leading scientist to announce that global warming was taking place. Now he has issued a warning that a back-to-the-future return to one of the oldest fuels is imperative because the world has exceeded the danger level for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Current targets on emissions are 'a recipe for global disaster, not salvation' he said.
We have recently only made mention of this, that is to say, that the burning of wood is much better than the burning of anything else for heating and, so I am sure, powering electricity generation. Here especially via CHP plants.
Growing trees, which absorb the gas from the air as they grow, burning them instead of fossil fuels to generate electricity, and capturing and storing the carbon produced in the process is needed to get the greenhouse effect down to safe levels, he says.
The dear professor talks about storing the carbon produced from the burning. May I ask what for? If we grow trees for burning then all we release is the carbon that the trees absorbed over their lifetime and the carbon released will “feed” other trees which, in turn, will be going the same way, e.g. into the furnaces.
We must not, however, grow special woods for this but should and must use the wood from the current forests and woodlands that are being managed. No, dearest misguided eco warriors, we must not leave the woods and forests unmanaged. On the contrary, they will only thrive if they are managed and especially if they are managed as a means to reduce our impact on the global climate. Forests and woodlands, properly managed and cared for, are our best insurance policy.
We also must plant new forests and woodlands urgently, but those must, as I said before, made up of a mixture of woods and not be mono-cultures.
The level of carbon dioxide stands at 385 parts per million (ppm), about 100ppm above what it was at the start of the Industrial Revolution. It is rising by about 2ppm a year. The most ambitious international efforts focus on stabilizing it at 450 ppm, though few see this as achievable.
One can but wonder as to whether anybody has ever though of linking the fact that the carbon dioxide level has risen that much with the fact that ever since the Industrial Revolution we have been cutting down trees as if there is no tomorrow and where we do not cut them down now we let them rot. The process of wood rotting also releases carbon dioxide, namely that which the tree, over its lifetime, stored.
Aside from the fact that climate change is a natural cycle of the Earth, the increase in CO2 is more than likely due to the fact that the world's carbon sinks, the forests, have been shrinking ever since the Industrial Revolution because of our insatiable hunger for wood (later to a degree to be replaced by coal and then oil) and when it comes to the large forests in Canada that are cut down to be made into paper tissues and paper towels (whatever is wrong with a cloth handkerchief and a cloth towel?) by the likes of Kimberley Clark, the producers of Kleenex and other brands, and the wholesale slaughter of trees in the Rainforests of the world, now even in the pursuit of a green goal, that of bio-diesel, are still shrinking at an alarming rate today.
There is but one answer: stop cutting down all the forests willy-nilly and turn them into sustainable management, to be managed for all our needs, be this furniture and building wood, firewood and others products. We also must get away from the notion of the “habitat piles” of wood to be left rotting in the woodlands and forests. They release CO2 back into the atmosphere without benefiting anyone and in addition to that much of the wood that is left “as habitat”, which would years ago have gone to homes as firewood, is in fact creating a danger for the woods and forests, in the form of fire hazards as well as a haven for tree diseases.
But Professor Hansen says that he is convinced that 350 ppm is the absolute maximum that will avoid the loss of the polar ice sheets and other disasters. He says that all coal power stations must be phased out by 2030, unless they are equipped with special "carbon capture and storage" equipment that stops the gas escaping into the atmosphere. If that was done, the level could be stabilized at 400 ppm. After that, a vigorous program of planting trees to suck up carbon dioxide – coupled with the use of carbon capture equipment when the trees are burnt, and improvements in agricultural practices – could get levels down to 350 ppm "within a century".
As I stated above, there is no need to capture the carbon from the burning of the trees as the CO2 thus released will be absorbed again by the new trees that are being planted and those that are still growing normally. Carbon is the natural food of the trees and therefore there is no real need to use any carbon capture when wood is being burned.
However, we need more trees and more other green plants, plants which will absorb CO2 as food.
Labels: firewood, wood energy
Alaska Governor Sarah Palin Wins 2008 Rubber Dodo Award
Palin has sought to remove Endangered Species Act Protection for the Polar Bear, suppressed and lied about State Global Warming studies, and denied that Global Warming is caused by greenhouse gas emissions
TUCSON, Ariz.— The Center for Biological Diversity awarded Alaska Governor Sarah Palin the 2008 Rubber Dodo Award. Last year’s award, which inaugurated the prize, went to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne for setting a new record in refusing to add imperiled plants and animals to the endangered species list. This year’s award goes to Governor Palin for fighting Kempthorne’s designation of the polar bear as a threatened species.
“Governor Palin has waged a deceptive, dangerous, and costly battle against the polar bear,” said Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity. “Her position on global warming is so extreme, she makes Dick Cheney look like an Al Gore devotee.”
Palin has waged a deceptive public relations campaign, asserting that the polar bear is increasing. But many populations (including Alaska’s southern Beaufort Sea) are in decline and two-thirds (including all Alaska bears) are projected to disappear by 2050 by the U.S. Geological Survey.
Palin has repeatedly asserted that Alaska Department of Fish and Game scientists found fatal flaws in the sea ice models used by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to determine the polar bear is threatened. When challenged, Palin refused to release the alleged state review. Independent scientists eventually obtained a summary through the federal Freedom of Information Act, revealing that Palin had lied: The state mammalogists concurred with the Fish and Wildlife Service determination that Arctic sea ice is melting at an extraordinary rate and threatens the polar bear with extinction.
“All global warming deniers are eventually forced to suppress scientific studies, and Palin is no different,” said Suckling. “To maintain her ludicrous opposition to protecting the polar bear in the face of massive scientific consensus, Palin stepped over the line to lie about and suppress government science.”
Palin has since filed a frivolous lawsuit against the Bush administration to have the threatened listing overturned. Meanwhile, the U.S. Geological Survey announced on September 16th that the 2008 summertime Arctic sea-ice melt was the second greatest on record, nearly matching the extraordinary melt of 2007.
“Palin’s insistence that Arctic melting is ‘uncertain’ is like someone debating the theory of gravity as they plunge off a cliff,” said Suckling. “It’s hopeless, reckless, and extremely cynical.”
In 1598, Dutch sailors landing on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius discovered a flightless, three-foot-tall, extraordinarily friendly bird. Its original scientific name was Didus ineptus. (Contemporary scientists use the less defamatory Raphus cucullatus.) To the rest of the world, it’s the dodo — the most famous extinct species on Earth. It evolved over millions of years with no natural predators and eventually lost the ability to fly, becoming a land-based consumer of fruits, nuts, and berries. Having never known predators, it showed no fear of humans or the menagerie of animals accompanying them to Mauritius.
Its trusting nature led to its rapid extinction. By 1681, the dodo was extinct, having been hunted and out-competed by humans, dogs, cats, rats, macaques, and pigs. Humans logged its forest cover and pigs uprooted and ate much of the understory vegetation.
The origin of the name dodo is unclear. It likely came from the Dutch word dodoor, meaning “sluggard,” the Portuguese word doudo, meaning “fool” or “crazy,” or the Dutch word dodaars meaning “plump-arse” (that nation’s name for the little grebe).
The dodo’s reputation as a foolish, ungainly bird derives in part from its friendly naiveté and the very plump captives that were taken on tour across Europe. The animal’s reputation was cemented with the 1865 publication of Lewis Carroll’s Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Based on skeleton reconstructions and the discovery of early drawings, scientists now believe that the dodo was a much sleeker animal than commonly portrayed. The rotund European exhibitions were accidentally produced by overfeeding captive birds.
The Center for Biological Diversity is a nonprofit conservation organization with more than 180,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
Source: The Center for Biological Diversity
Labels: 2008 Rubber Dodo Award
Letter from Alaskan Governor sparks fury
Clean air campaigners, and other environmentalists, are fuming after the revelation that the Governor of Alaska and Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has made an attempt to block a piece of legislation to cut air pollution.
A letter from Ms Palin, the Governor of Alaska, to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has surfaced in which she urges him not to sign the Ports Investment Bill.
It is a little beyond my understanding why the Governor of Alaska has to interfere with the affairs of another federal State of the Union?
The Ports Investment Bill would tax container ships arriving at Californian ports and would put the money thus raised towards projects to reduce congestion and air pollution in the state, including the toxic fumes produced by shipping.
Ms Palin, however, says that this move would damage the economy of her state, Alaska, and she argues that most goods arriving in Alaska come by container ship.
The letter, dated August 28, has been seized on by environmentalists and by Democrats. The latter because Governor Palin has been announced as John McCain's running partner in the Presidential elections.
She writes that for Alaskans, a very large percentage of goods (90% or more) shipped to Alaska arrive as marine cargo in a container.
"Many communities", she writes, "lack road access and depend entirely on the shipment of goods by container.
"Shipping costs have increased significantly with the rising price of fuel and these higher costs are quickly passed onto Alaskans. This tax makes the situation worse."
David Pettit, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's Southern California Air Programme, said Governor Palin should be "ashamed" of the pollution her state causes in California.
"Right now, ships going to Alaska and Hawaii contribute to this pollution every time they leave California docks, and the citizens of Alaska and Hawaii are getting a free ride because they pay nothing for the California pollution that these ships cause," he said.
I think that we all can but echo the sentiments of the director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's Southern California Air Programme quoted above and Ms Palin should indeed be "ashamed" of her interference in the affairs of another state of the Union. If she has something to say on that issue she should have used a different and public forum rather than using a more or less personal letter to her opposite number in the State of California.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said urged Governor Schwarzenegger not to give into other states' fears and sign the Bill.
He added: "I am disappointed that Governor Sarah Palin has chosen to put private interests ahead of the people's interest."
While Governor Sarah Palin may not have, actually, for that would be going too far maybe, as insinuated by the Mayor of LA, chosen to put private interests before the interests of the people as she put the interests, so at least it would appear, of Alaskans, before that of the residents of other states and indeed the world. However, this still is not a way that business can be conducted. Also, she has put the interests of the shipping businesses before that of the people of California, the USA and even the world. Questions may have to be asked as to where he interests lie in this latter issue.
The Bill was approved by the Senate earlier this month and now requires Governor Schwarzenegger's signature to become law.
The Coalition for Clean Air - which is now running a campaign urging people to write to the Governor asking him to sign the Bill - described it is "the best funding option on the table to deal with the crises of port pollution and cargo congestion".
Why is the transportation of those goods to the states such as Alaska and Hawaii switched over to the same kind of ships that are now carrying wine from France to the Irish Republic, namely sailing vessels of the three or four mast variety? Thus there would be virtually no harmful emissions bar those from the diesel generators for electricity – unless one would want to rely on solar and wind power for the running of the communications equipment and such like.
The world as a whole, and especially when we are talking, basically, coastal shipping traffic, needs to go back-to-the-future in some aspects here and sailing vessels are the answer, as has been shown in the transportation of the wine previously mentioned.
While this takes a little longer and while containers probably cannot be carried on such sailing vessels of the clipper and other variety this is a way of shipping that will reduce harmful emission, whether we believe in global warming/climate change from CO2 or not, for the harmful emissions are not just CO2, and also will cut fuel costs.
Oh, but, alas, we no longer have trained seamen, have we now. All we nowadays have is just button operators of completely automated ships. Steering is done by hydraulics and by means of thrusters and the old wheel is gone altogether. Most of those so-called seamen of today would not know how to steer a ship manually by means of a wheel and especially not one that is powered by the wind by means of sails. I guess we need to get some training going again.
Back-to-the-future is, in many aspects, the only answer to the current problems as regards to the environment and our home planet – well, heck, we have got no other planet – and even our economy.
From Mules to Biofuels
Farmers and policymakers are wrestling with two main concerns when it comes to ethanol production: the effect of ethanol demand on food prices, and changes in land use that are detrimental to the environment. While families were sharing corn at backyard barbecues this summer, both issues perked up ears across the globe.
The Environmental Protection Agency rejected Texas Governor Rick Perry's request for a waiver on the amount of ethanol that must be blended into gasoline. He contended that the current standards would severely harm the economy through adverse effects on food and fuel prices. In upholding its Renewable Fuel Standard Program, the EPA requires that 9 billion gallons of renewable fuels be blended into the nation's gasoline supply this year. The standard for 2008 was raised in February to 7.76 percent from 4.66 percent, with the overall total increasing to 36 billion gallons by 2022. The EPA review of Gov. Perry's waiver request found that the use of corn-based fuel would "have no significant impact in the relevant time frame."
Grain farmers and the ethanol industry instead blame higher food prices on the spike in oil prices. The U.S. Department of Energy supported the EPA decision. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said the country needs a "diverse array of cost competitive technologies and sources to overcome our addiction to oil in a time frame that is consequential, and biofuels constitute a prominent—but not an exclusive—promising pathway."
Some critics of this decision point out that approximately one-third of the U.S. corn crop will eventually go to produce ethanol.
"When you're diverting a third of the [corn] crop to ethanol it has a real impact on prices," said Republican Senator John Sununu of New Hampshire. "To produce a gallon of ethanol takes 1700 gallons of water. Thirty million acres of land, going to produce the corn for ethanol."
Gov. Perry argues that the decision "is a mistake that will only increase the already heavy financial burden on families while doing even more harm to the livestock industry. Any government mandate that artificially props up a single industry to the detriment of millions of Americans is bad public policy."
Others critics—mainly conservation groups—also criticized the decision, arguing that the research only considered the economic impacts of ethanol. The Environmental Working Group's director of government affairs, Sandra Schubert, called the mandate misguided and said it was "forcing farmers to plow up marginal land and wildlife habitat while increasing global warming and dumping toxic fertilizers and pesticides into our precious water sources."
"America should be focusing on viable clean energy solutions like conservation, solar, and wind," said Schubert.
U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein of California asked U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab to investigate whether the U.S. ethanol import tariff violates the rules of the World Trade Organization. The tariff maintains an artificially high domestic price for imported sugarcane ethanol, which is more energy efficient and comes from countries like Brazil. Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa strongly disagrees with Feinstein's position, arguing that the possibility of a Brazilian challenge at the WTO would cause the United States to take unilateral action to lower the tariff.
"I think it is clear it's within our international legal obligations," Grassley said. "The tariff was accepted by consensus, and I want to emphasize by consensus, by members of the WTO, including Brazil at the conclusion of the Uruguay Round of WTO negotiations, going back at least 15 years."
After the United States, Brazil is the second biggest ethanol producer in the world. Brazil exported two-thirds of its sugar crop last year. Japan's Toyota Tsusho Corporation, the trading company of the Toyota Group that also includes Toyota Motor, is interested in tapping the Brazilian market. The group is conducting a study, with Brazilian state-run energy company Petrobras, to explore the possibility of building an ethanol plant in Brazil's west-central state of Goias. Petrobras and local cane producers would be partners in the new mill that would be built in the Itumbiara vicinity, one of Brazil's most fertile areas.
About 3,000 miles away, Cuba is facing a similar debate over ethanol production. The Caribbean island is modernizing its sugar industry, but its plans to increase ethanol production have been scaled back. Luis Galvez, director of the sugar ministry's Sugar Cane Derivatives Research Institute, said that sugar derivatives such as ethanol will increase along with the modernization but not at the expense of food.
Two years ago, Galvez's opinion of ethanol was quite different: "Our country has begun an accelerated drive to increase alcohol production, modernizing existing distilleries and installing new ones to increase by five times installed capacity." This change in opinion follows former Cuban President Fidel Castro's denunciation of the use of food for fuel. Castro charged that using food for fuel was a crime against humanity resulting in the starvation of billions.
Ethanol production from food crops may be a contributing factor in the recent food inflation, but according to Toni Nuernberg, executive director of the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council, it isn't the only one. She attributes partial causality to drought, population growth, growing protein demand in developing countries, war, transportation costs, crop acreage shifts, and other factors. "Ethanol does not take food from the mouths of starving people," she toldChristian Science Monitor.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva takes a similar stance, arguing that there is often a failure to distinguish between the different kinds of ethanol. The energy yield from Brazilian sugarcane ethanol production is approximately eight times as efficient, and it costs significantly less to produce, as compared to ethanol derived from temperate crops. In addition, the crop requires fewer fertilizers and pesticides, and Brazilian farmers who grow it do not receive government subsidies.
The issue facing Brazil, which plans to expand its ethanol production, is environmental degradation. Although the best environment for sugarcane is the more fertile center of the country, some critics argue that cattle farmers in the south and center of Brazil are selling their pastures to crop farmers and moving their herds north into the Amazon where land is cheap and deforestation is easy.
This phenomenon may be the exception rather than the rule. Alexandre Strapasson, director of the sugarcane and agroenergy department at Brazil's agriculture ministry, argues that Brazil has more than enough arable land available to keep planting sugarcane—more than 7 million hectares in production already and nearly 160 million hectares of arable land remaining to be sown.
In an effort to address concerns over food for fuel, British oil major BP has formed a partnership with Verenium Corporation to speed development and sales of alternative ethanol made from nonfood sources. Their $90 million partnership is intended to advance development of cellulosic ethanol made from corn crop waste, the tough woody bits of sugarcane, and hardy crops like switch grass. The alliance is one of the largest partnerships to be formed between a multinational oil company and a biofuels startup.
Critics of cellulosic ethanol point out the high production costs. Verenium Chief Executive Carlos Riva said the company intends to lower the cost of its cellulosic ethanol from the current price of $3 per gallon to about $2 per gallon in the near future. Cellulosic ethanol could be better than corn-based fuel because it produces greater yields, has less exposure to commodity price swings, and offers greenhouse gas emission reductions of 80 to 90 percent.
Another promising source of ethanol is algae. This alternative does not harm the environment, grows in wastewater, or seawater, and requires nothing more than sunlight and carbon dioxide. Theoretically, algae can produce 10,000 gallons of biofuel each year per acre, compared to 300 gallons from an acre of corn. The problem yet again is keeping costs down.
The future of ethanol is unknown. If costs are dramatically reduced, then the notion that we can drill our way to energy independence will become even more of a fossilized idea than it already is. Human society may one day look back at the irony of switching, over the course of a single century, from one form of biomass transportation to another—from horses and mules to advanced biofuels.
Source: Global Policy Innovations Program
European Climate Poll Shows 61 Percent Have Acted
Climate change is, after poverty, the most serious problem Europe faces according to a Eurobarometer survey presented in the European Parliament on September 11.
According to the poll 61 percent of respondents claim to have taken some personal action to cut emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. A quarter of those said they had changed their buying habits and used the car less to help the environment.
At the same time, the poll found that a majority believe that the people, governments, industry or the European Union are not doing enough about the warming climate.
The survey of over 30,000 people in 30 European countries found that 31 percent had not taken any action to change their behavior on account of the climate. Of those, almost half said they believe that government and industry should take action, while just over a third did not know what they should do.
This shows, yet again, that the powers that be do not really inform the people and, let us face it, the truth is also not always in the information, the real and full truth. The truth, for instance, that Climate Change may not be man-made as such but a natural phenomenon of our Earth and that we may not be able to stop it after all. While this should not stop us taking concern for the environment and our planet finally serious and do the things we are urged to do, and more still, such as getting away from our unhealthy relationship with the ICE, the infernal combustion engine.
The survey was conducted in all 27 EU member states, as well as in the three candidate countries, that is to say, Turkey, Croatia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
Those who have taken action said they believe it would make a difference, that they had a duty to protect the environment or were concerned about what they would leave for future generations.
Across Europe, 28 percent of respondents said they use greener transport and 27 percent buy seasonal and local products that reduce CO2 emissions.
The results were presented at a press conference in September 2008 in the European Parliament by Italian MEP Guido Sacconi, who chairs the parliament's Temporary Committee on Climate Change.
"The fact that many Europeans say that they do not have enough information, in particular on the actions that citizens could take, clearly indicates that we have to think about initiatives and measures to spread this knowledge more widely, especially among the most vulnerable groups of our population," said Sacconi. "The role of regional and local authorities in this task will be crucial."
To which one can but add that the information must be truthful and also look at the possibility that I have mentioned above, namely that this could all be something we cannot stop and that we must therefore also consider as to how we can live with it, while still, as I have also said, doing all the right things by the environment and our Planet.
Sacconi noted differences in attitudes in different countries, saying he thought the responses of those polled depended on whether or not the country had experienced an ecological disaster.
He cited forest fires and droughts in Greece and Cyprus as two examples of countries where people's ecological awareness had been raised by natural disasters.
Sweden is the country where most people have taken personal action to help reduce their C02 emissions, with 87 percent of respondents saying they have done something.
By comparison, 60 percent of people in Latvia and Lithuania said they have taken no action.
At the press conference, Europe's Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas pointed to the stimulating effect that green industry could have on Europe's economy. He noted that 56 percent of those polled believe that climate change can help the economy.
"Saving energy means saving money, so there is a common logic that citizens consider it to be beneficial for economy," Dimas said.
He went on to say that "citizens have role to play both as consumers, by choosing to buy the right products, and as voters."
By the end of this year, Europe's Environment Ministers meeting in the Council along with elected MEPs should reach an agreement on a package of Europe-wide legislation that will help mitigate climate change.
Dimas called on MEPs and the Council of Ministers not to "dilute" the proposed measures.
Margot Wallstrom, vice-president of the European Commission and a former environment commissioner, said, "Surveys of this kind are important components in our policy-making. It is striking to see that European citizens take the issue of climate change so seriously and it confirms our belief that continued, coherent EU action in this area is imperative."
Horse and Buggy plus Wind Turbine
Indiana Amish Begin Embracing Renewable Energy
The junction of spirituality and environmental awareness seems to be getting more crowded. Even the Amish are now – and this is not actually all that new, as some of the orders that are not so strict have been at this already for a while – getting in on the act.
It is not the electricity but connection to the grid that the Amish object to.
While the majority of people probably associate the Amish with living outside of modern life, without electricity and machinery this is not entirely correct and true. While initially (like in the 1920s...) there was hesitation to adopt electricity, it was not so much the electricity itself that was the issue but the connection to the grid and therefore the outside world. Low-voltage electricity is perfectly permissible and will rising diesel prices, the cost of fueling generators is causing some people to look to renewable energy to fulfill their needs.
When it comes to machinery there are many places where the lathes and such for the workshops are either powered by water or even by steam engines. Again it is not the power, and such, but the connection, via the grid, to the outside world, that the Amish have a problem with.
When it comes to electricity some are turning to solar power and others are turning to wind power. Wind turbines can now be seen in a fair number of Amish places as can photovolatic cells on roofs and elsewhere. In many places it is a combination of anything renewable they can find, including water.
In some instances renewable sources of electricity supplements other off-grid options such as diesel generators, with which to power lights, refrigerator, freezer and machinery.
Some businesses too are getting gin on the renewable act in Amish territory Brian Burkholder owns Solar Energy Systems in Nappanee, Indiana and probably 70% of his customers are Amish. This is probably not least partially because he himself is Amish.
Off-grid is good for the Amish directly as well as for their businesses, whether they sell the technology or whether they use it for whatever they produce.
The interesting thing in this is that at least in a certain part of Indiana, a group of people associated with largely eschewing the modern consumer world seem to be adopting renewable energy faster than the surrounding population. I doubt that that is a bad thing though.
Whether we agree or disagree with the Amish on a religious basis and also on the way some seem to live and raise their families and such, some of their ways could teach us a lot as to how we could take pack some of our peace in life and on the planet. Their system, in general, has a lot lower impact on the environment than our hectic modern life has.
When we see Amish embracing the Internet and technology, even though, probably, with filtering systems, and who could blame them for that, then I know that the time is right to take a few more leaves out of their books.
However, their rather lower impact life could be a guide to some of us ate least. While I am not sure how horse and buggy would go down on the streets of London, and even in my location just outside the British capital, it is, to some extent, doable and it does not have to be horse and buggy but just the humble iron horse, aka the bicycle, and trailer.
I always do, to some extent, admire the Amish not to have taken up, in general, the infernal combustion engine. Mind you, when Henry Ford invented it, it was never meant to run on gasoline. But gasoline became to cheap hence the use of gas as fuel and what have we done...
Labels: Amish, renewable energy, wind power
Heat with wood for the common good and the good of the forest
High gas and heating oil prices are renewing the interest on firewood from local forests
The German NGO Wald in Not regards the use of wood as renewable energy source as an important contributor to the care and conservation of our local woodlands and forests.
Wood is “stored solar energy”. It is produced in our woodlands and forests by means of energy from the sun, carbon dioxide, water and the nutrients that are soluble in water and are carried in it.
Heating with wood means therefore heating with the cycle of nature. The carbon dioxide that is being released by the process of burning the wood is by means of the energy of the sun absorbed by the growing trees and returned into the growing wood. This wood is then once again available as new raw material. The CO2 that is being released by burning the wood would also be released if this wood would be allowed to rot and decay in the woods.
The wood used for firewood is that wood that has no other commercial value, in other words wood that is not suitable for building lumber or as timber for the making of furniture, for example. If it would not be burned for heat it would rot away in the woods. Firewood is also created as a byproduct, so to speak, in the production of high value timber in forests and hence is available in sufficient volume in properly manages forests and woodlands.
Wood as a fuel is extremely environmentally friendly:
because its production is simple and uses little energy
the transport distances for wood are generally short
the storage of firewood does not endanger the environment
The use of wood for fuel, as firewood, from local forests and woodlands ensures the necessary care and conservation of the woodlands and forest through the forestry companies and the state or private forest estates, as it improves their economic situation.
The care and thinning of the forests and woodlands is an urgent and necessary preventitive measure against the changes in the environment and the climate. In order to counter those we must reconstruct and convert our woodlands and forests into stable mixed woodlands with a broad spectrum of trees that are right for the soil and area.
Modern wood heating system that are properly installed, managed and maintained retain in comparison with other energy systems a firm position and also fulfil the regulations for clean air.
In conjunction with solar-thermal installation for the production of hot water – solar collectors – modern wood burning furnaces constitutes the ideal combination for use of renewable energy sources to provide a good insulated so-called low energy home with heat.
Labels: forestry, heating with wood, wood burning, woodlands
Londoners are urged to stick to tap water
A campaign to promote tap water over bottled came a step further to fruition in London this week.
The London on Tap campaign seeks to highlight the environmental consequences of drinking bottled water while driving home the message that the capital's tap water is among the best in the world.
As part of the process, organisers invited designers to create a carafe which will be used in the dozens of eateries and drinking holes supporting the campaign.
The ten shortlisted designs went on display at City Hall on September 15, with the overall winner set to be announced in December.
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: "This is a magnificent campaign that will
empower customers in bars and restaurants across the capital to ask for tap water rather than feeling compelled to ask for expensive bottled brands.
"More importantly, drinking tap water will cut the amount of plastic and glass waste that we create and in turn will reduce the size of the capital's carbon footprint.
"The designs exhibited today are testament to talented designers that we have in London and I look forward to announcing the winner in December."
The best thing people can do is to buy a reusable bottle, such as “We Want Tap” or others. Though we must remember that many, except the "We Want Tap” bottle and the newest Nalgene ones, contain Bisphenol A in the plastic whence they are made and Bisphenol A (BPA) has a great number of health issues associated with it. Something that I have written about before and shall be again as new findings have come about.
There were one hundred and fifteen entries to the competition, to design a one-litre capacity glass carafe that embodied the best qualities of contemporary design and craftsmanship. The designs, which have made it on to the shortlist are not only stylish but have the potential to be made mostly with recycled glass.
All short-listed entries will be made into prototypes and judged on November 13 by key figures from the worlds of design, hospitality and the environment, including celebrity chef Aldo Zilli; Zaha Hadid, architect of the London 2012 Olympic Aquatics Centre and Tony Juniper of Friends of the Earth. The winning design will be announced in December with a £5,000 prize awarded to the winner. The carafe will be mass manufactured from January 2009 with carafes expected to start appearing across London by April.
Rosie Boycott, Chair of London Food, said: "London is lucky to have some of the best quality tap water in the country and it is a far better choice than bottled water, both economically and environmentally.
"This competition should spearhead London as a sustainability leader by offering tap water first across our hospitality sector."
Personally I still find it rather difficult to actually be given, let alone offered, tap water. When requesting water in a restaurant the question is invariably “still or sparkling” and when I then reply “tap” I have more than once been told that they cannot do that; or I have been told that it will cost the same as bottled water. I beg pardon!
Thames Water sustainability director Richard Aylard, added: "It's wonderful that we've had such a fantastic response from London's designers to our challenge. London's tap water is the best in the world and we should be proud of it."
The London On Tap campaign was launched in February, to promote the serving, and consumption of London’s tap water in its thousands of restaurants, bars and hotels. Since then, sales of bottled water in the UK have plummeted with more consumers switching to tap water as the greener choice.
The campaign has garnered support from celebrity chefs, environmental groups, and even the House of Lords, with thousands of restaurants and bars already pledging their support.
Labels: London on Tap
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Tap re-usable water bottle - Product Review
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NEWSPAPER TIDBIT: Former Lizton Resident Marries in Scott County (1921)
from The Republican (Danville, Indiana) – issue of Thursday, April 7, 1921 – page 5, column 6:
MONROE – GROOVER
Thursday afternoon, March 24, at the Scottsburg Methodist Episcopal parsonage the marriage of Mr. Louise Monroe and Miss Dorothy Groover was solemnized, the Rev. J.H. Allen officiating. The bride is a charming young lady of eighteen, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. E.B. Groover, well known former residents of Union township, now living in Scott county, near Austin. She graduated from the grades in the Lizton school and attended high school at Scottsburg. Their marriage is the culmination of a war romance. Mr. Monroe is 20 years old, and enlisted in the army at the age of sixteen, serving with the 168th regiment, Rainbow Division, during the world war. He was in France, England, Belgium, [and] Luxemburg, having been overseas eighteen months. He was wounded in action, May 18, 1918. He was on the following fronts: Lorraine, Champagne, the Marn [sic] offensive, St. Mihiel and the Argonne Forest. In May, 1919, he came home on a furlough and the romance began. Their engagement was announced in November, 1920. Many friends extend best wishes for a long and happy life.
Labels: Groover, Lizton, marriage records, Scott County, Union Township, World War I
NEWSPAPER TIDBIT: Danville Marriage Was Bigamous (1921)
from The Republican (Danville, Indiana) – issue of Thursday, September 29, 1921 – page 1, column 6:
BIGAMY INTIMATED
James C.S. Nightingale and Goldie Fay Cummins were married in Danville, April 5. When he secured the license he said he had never been married. Authorities in Cleveland seem to have another opinion and Nightingale is serving a term in the work-house at Cleveland on a charge of child desertion, the child being seven months old. Prosecutor Hume is making arrangements to have the man brought to Danville to answer to the charge of bigamy. When he secured the license, Nightingale said he was a railroad man. His bride gave her residence as on a rural route of Indianapolis and her occupation as a bookkeeper.
Posted by Meredith Thompson at 7:33 AM 1 comment: Links to this post
Labels: Danville, marriage records
NEWSPAPER TIDBIT: Former North Salem Resident Murdered in Oregon (1921)
from The Republican (Danville, Indiana) – issue of Thursday, December 22, 1921 – page 1, column 6:
FORMER NORTH SALEM MAN FOUND MURDERED IN OREGON
Everett E. Davis, born at North Salem, was murdered in his cabin on his claim seven miles from Matalla, Ore. Robbery is believed to have been the motive for the crime, which was committed in November, but discovered only a few days ago. The coroner’s inquest showed t hat Mr. Davis had been struck from behind with an ax. He is survived by his father, Granville Davis, and several brothers living in Indianapolis. He was 37 years old, a graduate of Wabash college, then in the Federal forestry service and teacher in Montana. He resigned his school duties to enter the army and was overseas. Returning to America, he became a traveling salesman, but the condition of his health was such that he had to give up this employment. Then he entered the claim which was the scene of his death. The body is to be brought to North Salem for burial.
Posted by Meredith Thompson at 12:32 PM No comments: Links to this post
Labels: Davis, North Salem, obituaries
NEWSPAPER TIDBIT: Former Danville Resident Dies in Texas (1922)
from The Republican (Danville, Indiana) – issue of Thursday, November 30, 1922 – page 3, column 4:
Harriet Armstrong, whose body was recently brought to this county from San Antonio, Tex., was born in Somerset, Ky., July 29, 1836. She came to Indiana with her parents when but a child and Nov. 2, 1854, she and Levi Armstrong were married. Five children were born to them, Mary Armstrong Bailey, Samantha Eva Armstrong, John S., Thomas A. and William A., the latter surviving. With him Mrs. Armstrong had made her home for thirteen years.
Until she went to Texas in 1909, Mrs. Armstrong had spent practically all her life in New Winchester and Danville. She was a member of the Christian church here and of the South Side Christian church in San Antonio. She was an invalid for many years and suffered greatly at times. Yet when the end came, she went away peacefully, aged 86 years, three months and five days. Her remains were accompanied to Indiana by her granddaughter, Mrs. Eva Bailey Hughes. Another granddaughter is Mrs. Rose Bailey Lewis, of Amboy, Ind., and a great grandson is Allen Bailey Lewis, of Amboy. Mrs. Armstrong was the last member of her father’s family. She was the widow of a civil war veteran and a beautiful silk flag was placed on her casket by Danville Auxiliary, Sons of Veterans.
Labels: Armstrong, Bailey, Danville, New Winchester, obituaries
NEWSPAPER TIDBIT: Avon/Washington Township Schools Information (1922)
from The Republican (Danville, Indiana) – issue of Thursday, August 24, 1922 – page 3, column 3:
AVON SCHOOLS
F.M. Sageser, principal of the Avon schools, has announced his teaching force for the coming year: school opens Sept. 11. Those on the high school faculty are George K. Jackson, science and manual training; Beulah Owens, foreign languages and mathematics; Mary Edwards, household art and English.
The grade teachers are Leslie Boicourt, seventh and eighth grades; Madge Herringlake, fifth and sixth grades; Mary Pritchett, third and fourth grades, and Beula Jones, first and second grades. The new teachers include Mr. Boicourt, of Monon; Mr. Jackson, of Jamestown, and Miss Mary Edwards, of Danville.
SCHOOLS OF WASHINGTON ARE STARTING VERY NICELY
Schools of Washington township started in a very satisfactory manner with one one-room school, one two-room school and the Avon schools.
Shiloh is the one-room school with Miss Ruby Bradford teaching 25 pupils. Six Points has two rooms, with Miss Geraldine Jones and John F. Everett the teachers. The enrollment for the first week was 67.
Avon has more pupils than last year. The high school has an enrollment of 55 and the grades 132. The high school is steadily growing and in a few years should be able to take care of all the boys and girls in the township.
Mr. Cox, trustee, has employed a splendid faculty. There are four new teachers. Mr. Jackson, who taught in the Jamestown schools for four years, has physics, botany, physical geography and manual training. He has had two years’ work at the State Normal and is a graduate of Central Normal college. He comes very highly recommended.
Miss Mary Edwards, of Danville, who has charge of domestic science and English, is a graduate of Purdue. She comes direct from the university and is entering upon her work as if she were an experienced teacher.
Leslie Boicourt, the new teacher for the seventh and eighth grades, comes from Monon, where he taught successfully last year. He is the basketball coach and has been long interested in athletics.
Miss Mildred Christie, of Danville, is the music supervisor in the high school. She taught music and art most successfully in Danville last year.
It is hoped that each parent will feel the necessity of perfect co-operation and that every effort will be made to have the children in school promptly each day.
Labels: Avon, teachers, Washington Township
NEWSPAPER TIDBIT: Brown Township Resident Dies in Clark County (1922)
The body of Mrs. Rosanna Hendricks Case was laid to rest, Tuesday, in the Arbuckle cemetery in Brown township. She died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Petty, in Clark county, Friday. She was born near Belleville, Feb. 8, 1844. She was left an orphan at the age of 12 and made her home with her brother and sister until April 7, 1861, when she and Peter Case were married. He died Dec. 31, 1912. To them were born nine children, five of whom have died. The surviving children are Murattie, of White county; Lo M., of Clark county; Mrs. Lora Martha Petty, of Clark county, and Mrs. Ruth Sparks, of Pittsboro. She united with the Bethesda Baptist church when a girl and lived a consistent Christian. She had been an invalid for eight years and had been cared for by her children. She was a kind and loving wife and mother and a good and obliging neighbor. She was a sister of the late Milton Hendricks, of Danville.
Labels: Belleville, Brown Township, Case, Danville, Hendricks, obituaries
NEWSPAPER TIDBIT: Former Hendricks County Resident Dies in Henry County (1922)
DEATH OF SIMEON MORGASON
Simeon Morgason, several years ago a well-known farmer and stock raiser in this county, died at his home in Knightstown, Friday afternoon, from hardening of the arteries and complications. He was a Kentuckian by birth, but spent the greater part of his life in Indiana. He was in his eighty-second year, and leaves, beside the widow, who was Miss Nannie Stuart, a sister of Thomas Stuart, of this place, two grown sons, Thad, of Knightstown, and Walter, of Noblesville, and three grandchildren.
The funeral was Sunday afternoon from the late home of the deceased, with burial in the Knightstown cemetery. The funeral was largely attended by relatives, neighbors and friends, among whom were W.T. Stuart and daughter, Miss Leona; Mrs. Ann Miles and the Misses Elizabeth Anderson and Ella Arnold, of this place.
Labels: Morgason, obituaries, Stuart
Surname Index to Probate Order Books Updated
Entries from the surname index included at the front of Hendricks County Probate Order Book Volume 15 (6 January 1890 - 28 March 1891) have been added to the database Surname Index to Hendricks County Probate Order Books, which is on the Hendricks County GenWeb site. The surname index was compiled by the clerk at the time they were writing the entries. It includes the subject of the probate case, the type of case (estate, guardianship, etc.), and the corresponding book and page number.
This is an ongoing project - currently the surname index covers the years 1868-1891.
Labels: probate records
NEWSPAPER TIDBIT: Former Danville Resident Dies in Detroit (1922)
FORMER DANVILLE RESIDENT DIES AT HOME IN DETROIT
Fred Bonswer, age 41, who came here 15 years ago from Detroit as foreman of the construction crew building the traction line, died at his home in Detroit last week after a long illness. After the completion of the Danville traction, Bonswer continued to make his home here and was a rural route carrier from the Danville office under Postmaster Charles P. Hornaday. He was married to Miss Florence Curtis, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Curtis, but his wife died a few months after their marriage. After a residence of several years here, Bonswer went to Detroit, where he married an old schoolmate, and they returned to Danville to live. Two years later they moved to Detroit, Mr. Bonswer having accepted a position with the Street Railway Company, where he since had been employed.
Labels: Bonswer, Danville, obituaries
NEWSPAPER TIDBIT: Danville High School Graduates Attending College (1922)
YOUNG PEOPLE HEAR CALL OF HIGHER INSTITUTIONS
Exodus From Danville Starts Soon For Many Points
With vacation nearing a close, Danville’s young people will soon start an exodus for colleges and schools which carries them to many distant points as students and teachers. Most of those going will leave during the first and second weeks of September. Paul Pierson, Darwin Thomas and Estie Hunt will resume their work at Indiana university. Ben Barnett and Lawrence Franklin again will take up work at Purdue. Lorine Brill, Harold Cook and John Harvey will return to DePauw, and Homer Clark enters that institution as a Rector scholar.
James Francis, Claude Walls and Robert Armstrong, all graduates last May from Danville high school, will enter Wabash college. Miss Mary Agnes Showalter has a scholarship in romance languages, and will study in the East this fall. Charles Newman and Frank Christie will enter Indiana Dental college at Indianapolis. Robert Hollowell, Jr. will leave to complete his law course at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and Robert Pickard will enter as a freshman in the school of journalism. Ben Harrison will be an advanced student in medicine at the Indiana Medical college at Indianapolis. Miss Anne Martha Osborne will complete her work at Earlham college. Miss Mary Marguerite Dougan leaves the first of October to resume her work at National Park Seminary, Washington, D.C.
Others are planning to teach this fall, and leave soon for their schools. Miss Mary Edwards will teach at Avon, and Miss Jeanette Wilson at Lizton. Richard Prentice will teach at Batesville. Miss Kate DePew will be in the East Chicago schools this fall, and Miss Dorothy Hamrick will return as a teacher in the Noblesville high school.
Labels: college records, Danville, school records, teachers
NEWSPAPER TIDBIT: Coatesville Resident Killed in Missouri Train Wreck (1922)
DARIUS MASTEN KILLED IN WRECK IN MISSOURI
Darius Masten, of Coatesville, timber inspector for the Pennsylvania company, was killed in the wreck at Sulphur Springs, Mo., on the Missouri Pacific road, Saturday night.
Mr. Masten was on his way home and was on the local train which was run into by the fast Texas express. The local train was composed of wooden cars. The express was an all-steel train. Mr. Masten was one of the thirty-eight killed.
Word reached Coatesville about 4 o’clock, Sunday morning, that Mr. Masten was one of the victims. His body arrived at Coatesville, Monday evening. The funeral was from his home, Tuesday afternoon, in charge of the Rev. John Cordrey. The Masons officiated at the grave. Interment was in the I.O.O. F. cemetery, Mr. Masten also being a member of that order.
He is survived by Mrs. Masten and two sisters and four brothers, one of the latter being John Masten, trustee of Clay township.
Labels: Coatesville, Masten, obituaries
NEWSPAPER TIDBIT: Eel River Township Resident Dies in Los Angeles (1922)
from The Republican (Danville, Indiana) – issue of Thursday, October 12, 1922 – page 5, column 4:
DIES IN CALIFORNIA
John C. Trotter, a former citizen of Eel River township, died, Sept. 1, at the home of his son, Oliver, in Los Angeles, at the age of 88 years. He moved from this county many years ago to Missouri. In later years he lived in Denver, Colo., and Kansas City, Mo., until three years ago, when he went to Los Angeles. He was a brother of the late W.W. Trotter, James M. Trotter and Elizabeth Emmons, of Eel River township and Katharine Gardner, of Kansas City, Mo., all of whom have preceded him in death.
Labels: Eel River Township, obituaries, Trotter
NEWSPAPER TIDBIT: Clayton High School Graduates Attending College (1962)
from The Republican (Danville, Indiana) – issue of Thursday, August 9, 1962 – page 1, column 4:
CLAYTON STUDENTS GO TO COLLEGE
Many students of Clayton High School are enrolled in the universities and colleges listed below for the 1962-63 school year.
Indiana State [University] – Pam Burns, Nancy Phillips, Maurice Wells, James Bryant, Earlden Chowning.
Fort Wayne College – Ronnie Cottongim.
Purdue University – Dennis Bowman, Barbara DeHaven, John DeLong, Bob Dickey, Don Duncan, Tronie Lawrence, Gene Nickels, Steve Thompson.
Olivet College – Jewell Ralph.
Labels: Clayton, college records
Teachers Database Updated
Entries from the 1940-1944 school years have been added to the database Index to Teachers in Hendricks County Schools, which is on the Hendricks County GenWeb site. It is a list of all of the teachers in the county's schools, as published in area newspapers at the beginning of each school year by the county's schools superintendent. The list was comprised of the teacher's name and their location, and sometimes included the subjects they were teaching.
The database is in progress - it currently covers 1940-1963.
Labels: school records, teachers
NEWSPAPER TIDBIT: Former County Clerk Dies in Washington State (1922)
from The Republican (Danville, Indiana) – issue of Thursday, March 30, 1922 – page 1, column 6:
WILLIAM F. HAYNES DIES IN HIS NORTHWESTERN HOME
Once One of Best Known Men in County
William T. Haynes, at one time one of the best known men in Hendricks county, but for many years a citizen of the state of Washington, died last week in his Washington home of pneumonia in his 85th year. He is survived by five children and by Mrs. Haynes, his third wife.
Mr. Haynes was born in Clinton county, Ohio, Oct. 24, 1837, and came to Hendricks county with his parents in 1855. In 1860 he and Harriet A. Cash were married and four children were born to them – Harry, Charles, Agnes (now Mrs. Sissons) and Frank. Mrs. Haynes died April 6, 1875. In 1879, he and Eva Ferguson were married. To them was born one child, William.
In company with William T. Davis, Mr. Haynes built the first roller process mill in Hendricks county, the property which is now known as the Klondike mill. He served four years as clerk of the court. Of generous disposition and pleasing manners, he had a host of friends and is most kindly remembered in the county.
In 1888, in reduced circumstances because of unfortunate investments, he went to the far northwest in the hope of building up his fortune, and he succeeded in a satisfactory degree. He was elected county commissioner and served several terms, and he was then appointed to have charge of the government land office, a position which he held for several years. His second wife died there and he married a third time, his wife being a lady living in Washington.
The death of Mr. Haynes breaks a long list of those who have been clerk of the local court. The line is as follows: William F. Haynes, William R. McClelland, Enoch G. Hogate, David Hadley, Mel C. Masten, Zimri E. Dougan, John C. Taylor, James M. Adams, Charles E. Edwards, A.P.W. Bridges, and the present official, Alvin Woodward.
Labels: death records, elections, Haynes, obituaries
NEWSPAPER TIDBIT: Irish Immigrant Denied Right To Vote (1922)
from The Republican (Danville, Indiana) – issue of Thursday, April 27, 1922 – page 1, column 2:
HE HAS VOTED OFTEN, BUT HE CAN NOT NOW
For over fifty years, Miles Hessian has been an industrious citizen of Middle township, amassing considerable property and rearing a family. For probably as long, he has been a voter. He was born in Ireland, but, having filed his intention of becoming a citizen, he was a voter although he never completed his naturalization. Monday, he appeared at the clerk’s office to take out his final papers and learned that under the new immigration laws he had to start the process of naturalization again. His first papers were of no value. Under the amendment to the constitution of Indiana, lately adopted, he can no longer vote in Indiana until he is a citizen of the United States. Consequently, after voting for half a century, Mr. Hessian will not vote again until he complies with the new laws, and this requires some time.
Labels: Hessian, Middle Township, naturalization records
NEWSPAPER TIDBIT: World War I Soldier's Body Brought Home (1922)
from The Republican (Danville, Indiana) – issue of Thursday, March 9, 1922 – page 1, column 2:
SOLDIER’S BODY ARRIVES
Friday, the body of Corporal Burchard McClain arrived from France and was received by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Fielding McClain, friends, neighbors and former service men, who placed the body in the vault in the [Danville] South Cemetery to remain until arrangements are made for the funeral at Old Union in Boone county. An unauthenticated story is to the effect that Corporal McClain and a detail of five men on scout duty took refuge in a shell hole when being pressed by the Germans and all [were] killed but one who escaped. At any rate, the body of McClain and four other Americans were found in the shell hole, all having been shot to death.
Labels: Danville, McClain, obituaries, World War I
Marriage Index Updated
Entries from Hendricks County Marriage Book Volume 41 (2 November 1979 - 25 November 1980) have been added to the database Index to Hendricks County Marriage Books, which is on the Hendricks County GenWeb site. It includes the names of the bride and groom, their date of marriage and the corresponding book and page number.
This index is in progress - so far it covers the period of 1904-1980, as well as 1824-1848.
College Students Database Updated
Entries from the 1941, 1942 and 1943 school years have been added to the database Hendricks County Students Attending Indiana Colleges, which is on the Hendricks County GenWeb site. It is a listing of some of the students from Hendricks County who were either attending or graduating from various colleges in Indiana, as compiled from information sent by college officials to area newspapers. The list was comprised of the student's name, hometown and class, and sometimes included their major or the degree they were receiving.
The colleges that submitted information to the newspapers varied from year to year. Ball State University, Butler University, DePauw University, Earlham College, Indiana State University, Indiana University and Purdue University are among those who submitted information at one time or another.
The database is an ongoing project. It currently covers the period of 1941-1961.
Labels: college records
NEWSPAPER TIDBIT: Former Lizton Resident Marries i...
NEWSPAPER TIDBIT: Danville Marriage Was Bigamous (...
NEWSPAPER TIDBIT: Former North Salem Resident Murd...
NEWSPAPER TIDBIT: Former Danville Resident Dies in...
NEWSPAPER TIDBIT: Avon/Washington Township Schools...
NEWSPAPER TIDBIT: Brown Township Resident Dies in ...
NEWSPAPER TIDBIT: Former Hendricks County Resident...
NEWSPAPER TIDBIT: Danville High School Graduates A...
NEWSPAPER TIDBIT: Coatesville Resident Killed in M...
NEWSPAPER TIDBIT: Eel River Township Resident Dies...
NEWSPAPER TIDBIT: Clayton High School Graduates At...
NEWSPAPER TIDBIT: Former County Clerk Dies in Wash...
NEWSPAPER TIDBIT: Irish Immigrant Denied Right To ...
NEWSPAPER TIDBIT: World War I Soldier's Body Broug...
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November 8, 2015 by admin · Leave a Comment
I met this man last night! Here’s an article from his hometown newspaper before his epic, fund-raising ride for a San Miguel de Allende children’s society:
Extreme journeys
Torontonian John Murtaugh will venture out on a 2,500 mile (4,000 km) cycling adventure. Murtaugh celebrated his 70th birthday September 1, 2015.
By: Tara Deschamps Staff Reporter, (Published on Mon Sep 07 2015)
When most people envision how they’ll mark their 70th birthday, it usually doesn’t involve biking from Toronto to Mexico on a strenuous journey stretching for weeks.
But most people aren’t John Murtaugh, 69, whose September jaunt is inspired by Ciclo — the story of two brothers who cycled from Mexico City to Toronto in 1956.
Murtagh is following a rush of Canadians who have hit the lake or pavement to attempt cross-country marathons, strenuous bike tours and record-breaking swims.
For many, the finish lines and records go unmet. They’re forced to give up their goals amid dangerous weather, unexpected injuries and the sheer exhaustion that comes with a trek filled with blood, sweat and tears.
So what pushes others to still attempt these journeys?
“The thrill,” said Murtaugh, who compared a cross-continental feat like his to other extreme achievements such as climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.
“I think people like to challenge themselves every once in a while. They dream of doing an adventurous thing, and having accomplished something like that gives you a good feeling.” he said. “In some cases, that good feeling can be tied to conquering the supposed limitations of age.”
I met with John Murtaugh, who was wearing a Biking Through Africa tee shirt, last night in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, on the final night of his triumphant return to this favorite city, where he rode valiantly for 2,500 miles to raise $25,000 for a children’s charity started decades ago, by his late mother-in-law and wife, and is still diligently supported by his Canadian family today.
Riding a road bike along highways stretching from Toronto, across the United States and halfway through Mexico, is, in anyone’s estimation, a long, hard, 44-day slog. But, it was blessed by a stretch of serene and lovely weather.
A week later, that same territory is being soaked by torrential rainfall and flooding. And, we won’t even mention the specter of Category 5, Hurricane Patricia, which dematerialized in the face of Murtaugh’s noble approach. It just went away!
When I asked him “What’s next?”
He modestly said, “To go home and rest for a little while!”
I’ll give him that……but there’s still Mt. Kilimanjaro!
Filed under: Elder Over-Achievers, Heroes of a certain age
Tagged: John Murtaugh - bike rider emeritus, riding from Canada to Mexico on a bicycle, Seventh Decade Bike Riders
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Should Masculinity in Jamaica Be Redefined?
“Masculinity needs to be redefined.”
So says Anika Gray. Anika Gray is an attorney-at-law. She is also a Chevening Scholar, who pursued her Masters in Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford. Her focus is on Human Rights, Health and Infrastructure Policy. But today, at the launch of a U.S. and UK Government-funded project, she was talking about Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence in Jamaica.
Minister of Gender Affairs Olivia Grange says the issue of gender-based violence is “intransigent and complex,” but that we must “be our brother and sister’s keeper.”
The Domestic, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Project represents a very welcome collaboration between the two governments, who are funding the resumption of a training program for police and front-line workers that took place from 2000 – 2004. The Jamaica Constabulary Force and the non-governmental organization Woman Inc will implement the program. The trainees will be sensitized to their crucial role as peace-keepers and peace advocates, protectors of victims of rape, sexual harassment and domestic violence. They must understand that it is their responsibility to respond in a timely and sensitive way to such incidents. Trainees will also gain an understanding of the Domestic Violence Act and other laws under which they have responsibilities to the public. In other words, the police need to take domestic, sexual and gender-based violence seriously.
Nadeen Spence: We need to have conversations, outside this meeting.
Ms. Gray comes from “deep rural Jamaica” – Geddes Town in St. Mary, to be precise. Her memories of growing up were of a routine – going to church, going to school. Then there were other regular occurrences: the sounds of anger and conflict at her neighbors’ house. Sounds of violence. The community, she said, accepted this as “man and woman story.” Domestic violence was considered the norm. She quoted one judge, who described the violence as normal, part of the “wear and tear” of being a couple.
Chevening Scholar and Member of Parliament Alando Terrelonge talking to students at Naggo Head Primary School in St. Catherine last year.
Another Chevening Scholar (he studied at the University of Warwick), Alando Terrelonge spoke of this sense of “normalcy.” Also an attorney-at-law by profession, Terrelonge was recently elected Member of Parliament for East Central St Catherine. The British High Commission is proud that he is the first Jamaican Chevening Scholar to reach elected office. Having worked with youth, Terrelonge is concerned that young children, in families where violence is literally taking place every day, quickly come to accept it as the norm. How can we rescue them from the cycle?
Ms. Gray reminded us that gender-based violence is not only a conflict between man and woman, with the male partner generally the perpetrator. It is a girl’s first experience of forced sex (and that is many girls’ first experience of sex, sadly); it is sexual harassment on the street and in the workplace; it is the “corrective rape” of LGBT women; it is violent attacks on gay men by other men, who feel threatened by them. It ruins many lives, irreparably.
The vast majority of these crimes are committed by men. This is simply a fact. However, as Nadeen Spence, who moderated today’s event pointed out, whenever gender-based violence is discussed there are very few men in the room. We were happy to see that there was a good gender balance in the audience at this event. This is actually quite unusual.
So, men must be brought into the conversation and must take a hard look at themselves. I often wonder whether these abusive “macho men,” who feel they must have a woman to control, are actually satisfied with their lives. Time to talk. Here’s one important point, though: as Ms. Spence observed at the end of the discussion, we need to have conversations, one on one or in small groups, with people outside the confines of hotels and seminar rooms. While discussions like these help to distill ideas and possible solutions in people’s minds, the important thing is to go out and act on them. Talk to people, help them to see themselves and their lives differently; guide them, perhaps, towards redefining their own relationships. Otherwise, we will not see change.
Baroness Verma, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for International Development (DIFID) in the UK, emphasized the importance of male involvement. She wants the program to “involve the voices of men and boys – as champions, as supporters.” This echoes the United Nations’ #He for She campaign, which emphasizes that gender equality is a human rights issue, and not only a women’s issue.
Indeed, as U.S. Ambassador Luis Moreno indicated, gender-based violence cannot be separated from the prevailing general violence in our society. Gender Affairs Minister Olivia Grange noted that“this is not the time to turn a blind eye” to the issue; and that close collaboration is needed, including with colleagues at the Ministry of National Security. The Bureau of Gender Affairs is drafting an Action Plan, which Minister Grange said would be submitted for Cabinet approval by the end of May.
How can Jamaican masculinity be redefined? I believe it takes all hands on deck. There is much work to do. Back in the day, we called it “solidarity.” It’s time to bring it back.
Tags: Alando Terrelonge, Anika Gray, Baroness Verma, British High Commission, Bureau of Gender Affairs, Chevening Scholar, Department for International Development, DIFID, Domestic Violence Act, gender equity, gender-based violence, He For She, human rights, Jamaica, Jamaica Constabulary Force, Luis Moreno, masculinity, Nadeen Spence, NGO, Olivia Babsy Grange, rape, sexual harassment, sexual violence, training, U.S. Embassy, United Nations, Woman Inc
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5 Responses to “Should Masculinity in Jamaica Be Redefined?”
Jamaica, Saturday April 9, 2016: Anti-Nepotism, Our CARICOM Grievances and Deaf Can! Coffee is Delicious! | Petchary's Blog says:
[…] of an earlier four-year program. I wrote about it in my Gleaner blog Social Impact, here: http://gleanerblogs.com/socialimpact/?p=3242 It’s good that the British High Commission and the U.S. Embassy are collaborating on this. I […]
Alexis Fisher says:
This discussion is very vital and the colloberation and sensitization among the stake holders mentioned are much needed. However, let me add that this is a discussion which I believe must be taken into the schools at all levels. Bend the trees from they are young. Teach little boys how to deal with issues without resorting to violence and little girls how to value themselves and not become continued victims of violence (and vise versa).
EmmaLewis says:
I absolutely agree with you. One or two government officials (including the State Minister for Youth) have spoken of the need to have children sensitized at a much younger age, and the Child Development Agency has developed such a program. Of course it needs to go out into schools – but then, it is in the home that these things are happening. It is really difficult and needs to be attacked on all fronts! Thank you.
Andrewj Wielopolski says:
Another step being taken to introduce homosexuality, gay marriages and adoptions etc in Jamaica. US spends billions to spread sodomy all arround the world. They buy politicians in poor regions like Africa, Latin America and Cardibean, and popularise godless, sinfull and disgusting ideas. Don’t let them fool you. I lived in Europe for 15 years and in US for 12. This stuff is real.
“Buy politicians”? Please don’t generalize about “poor regions.” Jamaica is actually heavily influenced by fundamentalist Christians from the U.S. these days. Many Christian churches constantly shout about homosexuality and ignore many social ills taking place in our society (a pregnant woman murdered this week, for example, child abuse, the epidemic of rape, human rights abuses and so on). In fact, that seems to be the only thing these churches care about. So, even if I agreed with your views on the matter (which I don’t) you are quite erroneous in your conclusions, at least as far as Jamaica is concerned. If anything, the reverse is true. And by the way, my article was based on comments made by a Jamaican woman (who, by the way, did not mention gay marriage or homosexuality in her speech). She was talking about domestic violence and rape. But then, you are all obsessed with one topic only – right?
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The Congress party spokesman, Mr Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco, has said that the Congress party leaders and workers would have to go by the decision of the party high command as regards to the Dabolim and Mopa airports issue.
Responding to a query from the reporters during a press conference on Monday, Mr Lourenco, who is also the Congress legislator from Curtorim, said that the sentiments of the state party men on the issue would be conveyed to the high command and that state Congress men would go by any decision that the party’s central leadership takes.
He also said that the opinions expressed by the Congress leaders so far have been their own and could not be said to be that of the party. “We will go by any decision that the Congress high command takes on Dabolim and Mopa airports issue,” he said.
Earlier, the chairman of the Congress minority department, Mr Saifullah Khan told reporters while addressing the press conference that the government should show its sincerity on continuing with the Dabolim airport by re-notifying the land which was earlier acquired for parking space for the airport project.
He said that people of the port town of Vasco have been “betrayed and deprived” of almost all facilities and have to live in volatile conditions by inhaling dust.
He also said that people in Vasco were also living on a tickling bomb in the form of location of oil companies there.
He further said that the state government has failed to keep its promises on railway station in the town and promised trains to various destinations have not been started and the station was being used for washing purposes.
He said that attempts were now being made to close down the Dabolim airport, a facility that people in taluka were proud of, also. Urging the Chief Minister, Mr Manohar Parrikar, not to fool people of Vasco and Goa any more by claiming that Dabolim and Mopa would co-exist, he said that the government should show its resolve to continue with Dabolim by giving land for parking space.
He further said that in case Dabolim was shut down it would affect not only people of South Goa but also tourism sector including many starred and unstarred hotels as well as thousands of people employed in these hotels. [H]
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High Line Photo by Timothy Schenck Courtesy of the High Line
New Sustainable Italian Fashion on the High Line
An event aimed at promoting new and sustainable Italian fashion, ‘Borders: A Flash of New Italian Fashion’ will take place on May 17 on the High Line, itself a symbol of both culture and sustainability located above New York’s trendy Meatpacking and Chelsea neighborhoods.
Part of a CNMI’s Camera Club, a project aimed at promoting the contemporary face of Italian fashion, it was conceived by the Consulate General of Italy in New York, along with the Italian Trade Commission and the Italian Embassy in DC.
The event, curated by Giangi Giordano, is conceived as a multidisciplinary exhibition, presenting the collections of four young Italian fashion designers alongside musical performances, videos, images and light shows. One of the goals of the show is, in fact, to stress the interconnectedness of contemporary fashion with other forms of creativity. Most of the designers are themselves DJs and producers as well.
The featured brands are Dorian Stefano Tarantini’s M1992, Luca Magliano’s Magliano, Giorgio di Salvo’s United Standard, and Mauro Simionato’s Vitelli Maglieria Italiana: all young labels deeply influenced by street style and urban culture, while also characterized by typically Italian styling and production know-how.
To highlight the sustainability aspect, which is central in contemporary fashion, garments will be shown on biodegradable mannequins produced by leading Italian mannequin manufacturing company Bonaveri.
Another important feature is inclusivity, for this reason the event will take place on the High Line, a beautiful suspended public park already known for promoting public art projects and initiatives. It will be free and accessible to all New Yorkers and visitors throughout the entire day.
The closest entrance is the one located on 16th Street and 10th Avenue. For information on how to access the High Line visit: https://www.thehighline.org/visit/
Remains of a Sunken Migrant Ship Become a Biennale Piece
The 58th Venice Art Biennale, one of the world’s major international art events, opens this week and everyone is already talking about Swiss-Icelandic artist Christoph Büchel’s contribution, a project titled “Barca Nostra,” which means “our boat,” also a play on “mare nostrum” (“our sea”), a Roman name for the Mediteranean, as well as the name given to the operation launched by the Italian government in 2013 to tackle increased immigration and migratory ship wreckages off Lampedusa.
For this work, the artist, who has already been known to carry out political and provocatory projects, recovered the wreck of a fishing boat that sank between the coast of Libya and the Sicilian island of Lampedusa on April 18, 2015, causing the death of 700 to 800 migrants, and had it installed on the shore of the Arsenale, one of the Biennale’s exhibition spaces.
In 2016, the ship was recovered from the seabed and brought back to a NATO naval base in Augusta, Sicily. Obtaining it was not an easy process, as there were other proposals for its use and no official owner. “The government had recovered it but officially the defence ministry had only custody of it, not ownership. And officially shipwrecks in Italy are supposed to be destroyed,” explained Maria Chiara di Trapani, a Biennale curator.
This project was strongly wanted by Ralph Rugoff, the curator of this year’s Biennale titled “May You Live in Interesting Times.” As is always the case considering the quantity and variety of the works exhibited, the theme is multifaceted and can be interpreted in a myriad of ways, but its name certainly reveals the intention to conjure discussions about the times we live in and the phenomena they are characterized by. Migration is undoubtedly amongst them and this work confronts the theme in a powerful way.
The April 2015 shipwreck is one of the deadliest to have ever taken place in the Mediterranean, but it is by no means an isolated case. The sight of this ship, broken and rusted, is terribly ominous because it immediately conjures up the countless other vessels that have met and continue to meet similar fates. It is described as “a relic of a human tragedy but also a monument to contemporary migration, engaging real and symbolic borders and the (im)possibility of freedom of movement of information and people.”
The work “invites silence and reflection,” comments the President of the Biennale Foundation Paolo Baratta, who reveals that the intention in including it in this year’s Biennale was to “move people’s consciences.”
“We are living in a tragic moment without memory. We all look at the news, and it seems so far away,” explains Ms. di Trapani, who hopes that actually seeing the ship first-hand, feeling its presence will help change that.
After the Biennale, which will end on November 24th, the wreck will be brought back to Augusta and placed in a new monument called “Giardino della Memoria” (“Garden of Memory”), a collective memorial dedicated to the migrants who have lost their lives at sea.
Celebrating Baroque Composer Barbara Strozzi: Interview with Elena Biscuola
For some time now, through various collaborations, NYU Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò has been exploring the theme of gender in Renaissance and Baroque Italy and particularly the representation (or lack thereof) of the women who contributed to shaping the cultural landscape of the time.
“I Sacri Musicali Affetti”, a concert organized alongside Salon Sanctuary Concerts, brings attention to the works of the prolific yet virtually unknown singer and composer Barbara Strozzi 400 years from her birth.
The concert, which will be held on May 10th in Manhattan’s St. Francis Xavier Church on West 16th street, will be performed by six female artists coming from different parts of the world, including Italian mezzo-soprano Elena Biscuola. The other performers will be soprano Jessica Gould, Paula Chateauneuf and Catherine Liddell (theorbo), Christa Patton (baroque harp), Katie Rietman (baroque cello), and Caitlyn Koester (chamber organ.)
We spoke with Ms. Biscuola to find out more about her and discuss her passion for Baroque music and the importance of celebrating the often forgotten or overlooked work of the remarkable women of that period such as Barbara Strozzi.
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? Where are you from? Where did your passion for music come from?
I come from Monselice, a small town with an interesting history and beautiful landscape. I love the place where I live and the possibility to be in contact with nature while also being very close to Padova, a seat of Italian Art History, home to the Scrovegni Chapel, to one Italy’s oldest universities, and to the resting place of both Saint Anthony and of the great Barbara Strozzi herself.
My passion for music began when I was 6 years-old thanks to my family, who always made me listen to classical music, from Beethoven to Mozart, and especially Vivaldi. Thanks to Vivaldi I developed a passion for the Baroque right from the start, even though I initially dedicated myself to the study of piano and then successively at 14 I had the chance to sing in the chorus of the musical institute I was attending and to get closer to Renaissance and Baroque music. In that moment I decided I would only be happy if I became a singer. So at 18 I enrolled in the conservatory where I studied lyric singing, then chamber music, and finally baroque singing. And I have been working with Baroque ever since.
You perform at many concerts and events all over the world, is there one that was particularly significant to you? Do you have a favorite piece?
I had the chance over the years to tour Europe and America, including North (United States), Central (Mexico), and South (Argentina and Chile) and each place has left a positive mark. Of course, in European classical music festivals, such as the ones in Bruges, Utrecht, Gent, Ambronay and Royaumont you breathe classical music every day and have the chance to make interesting encounters and cultural exchanges that would otherwise be more difficult to come across, but in the United States, where I have had the chance to go on long tours, I encountered such love and curiosity for both Italy and classical music that I was deeply touched.
Throughout my career I sang much unpublished music that was discovered in Bolognese and Venitian archives and I have to say that I love discovering and giving voice to “hidden” music, but I also gladly sing Vivaldi, Monteverdi, Porpora, Haendel, Pergolesi, ect.
Pergolesi’s “Stabat mater” is probably the piece I have sung the most in all my life and every time I learn something different and fascinating, even though my main inspiration remains Bach for his genius and originality.
And what about the upcoming concert, “I Sacri Musicali Affetti”? Were you already familiar with the work of Barbara Strozzi?
I’m very happy to be able to sing this collection by Barbara Strozzi, of which I knew about but had never had the chance to study. I like her idea of exalting certain saints and of giving voice to their emotions. For example, the story of Saint Peter incredulous in front of Jesus walking on water, or even the final montetto dedicated to Saint Anthony, which reveals itself as an ode to joy dedicated to the “Santo” with multiple melisma on the words “cantate” and “Sancti Antoni.”
I’m very thankful to Jessica Gould for this opportunity and for the commitment and love that she has towards Italian music. I’m also thankful because before this project, she had also given me the chance to sing another piece by Strozzi, “Lacrime mie”, an absolute masterpiece of 17th century Italian music, with orientalizing tones and harmonic audacity.
Despite having been one of the most prolific composers of her time, Barbara Strozzi’s work has remained fairly unknown up to now, why do you think that is?
Regarding the lack of interest on the part of musicologist for “I Sacri Musicali Affetti” I think there might have been some reserve in considering this “sacred” music because it is vaguely erotic in its construction and very bold harmonically, which was unusual for the time.
The word “affetti” (affections) had however already been used, even by Monteverdi, and was tied not only to religious feeling but also to the affection and passion for art, music, spirituality. Affection is a passion of the soul, a desire for good and hatred of evil.
Why is it important to “bring back” and celebrate her work today?
I think it’s important to celebrate Barbare Strozzi for her courage and originality. Along with Francesca Caccini, they were the only women at the time who were able to compose, even in alternative ways, in a world that was exclusively male.
Celebrating the Art of Saving Art
Founded in 1969 by General Arnaldo Ferrara, the Comando Carabinieri Tutela Patrimonio or TPC was the first specialist force dedicated to combating art and antiquities crimes in the world. To this day, it remains the largest and most respected, having recuperated almost 2 million artworks in total.
An exhibition titled “The Art of Saving Art, Fragments of Italian History” is on view in Rome’s Quirinal Palace, the seat of the President of the Republic, to celebrate the Comando TPC’s 50th anniversary. President Sergio Mattarella was present at the inauguration on May 5th and recognized the immense work carried out daily by the now 300 TPC officers located all across the country.
The Minister of Cultural Goods and Activities, Alberto Bonisoli, and the General Commander of the Carabinieri, Giovanni Nistri, also attended the opening.
The show curated by Prof. Francesco Buranelli features a variety of artworks (109 in total), ranging from looted antique vases (such as the famous Euphronious Krater, a looted vase restituted to Italy by the Met in 2008) to stolen paintings by artists such as Van Gogh and Cezanne, and many more. What ties them all together is that they were successfully recuperated by the Carabinieri.
“The 300 men of the department, organized into 15 divisions, operate all across Italy and they are excellent investigators: they even have specific competencies, for example, there are archeologists, musicologists, experts on ancient languages,” comments General Fabrizio Parrulli, head of the TPC.
The pieces are arranged into five sections in order to illustrate all the different activities carried out by Italy’s “Art Squad.” Three rooms are dedicated to the art crimes committed in Italy, one focusing on the lootings of ancient artifacts from the tombs in Cerveteri, another centered around Renaissance art, and the third showing the work of the Blue Helmets of Culture who retrieve cultural objects from areas hit by earthquakes or conflicts.
The Carabinieri of the TPC work all over the world, as art crimes are at times part of larger cases often involving criminal organizations and therefore transcend national borders. Their expertise also provides valuable specialized support to peace-keeping missions in war-torn areas such as Iraq from 2003 to 2006 and now in various areas across the Middle East, where important cultural heritage sites are being torn down during armed conflicts and by extremist militant groups wishing to send a message.
The work they carry out is extremely important because by protecting our cultural heritage they help to preserve our identity.
Another particularly interesting aspect of the exhibit is that each object is presented alongside the story of its disappearance and retrieval, which oftentimes seems to be taken right out of a mystery novel or heist movie.
The final section of the show looks to the future and also to the works that are still missing, such as the Nativity by Caravaggio, which was stolen from a Church in Palermo in 1969 and remains lost to this day, though a sophisticated digital reproduction hangs in its place, awaiting the return of the original.
“We hope that the bill to raise the penalty for art theft goes through so that we may have more tools at our disposal,” explained Gen. Parulli.
The exhibition will be on view in the Palazzina Gregoriana of the Quirinal Palace in Rome through July 14, 2019. To visit you must reserve your tickets beforehand on the website of the Quirinale.
Magazzino and Casa Italiana (NYU) Present Renato Leotta
For their third collaboration aimed at promoting Italian artists in the US, Magazzino Italian Art Foundation and NYU Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò chose to showcase works by Renato Leotta, a young but established Italian artist currently in residence at Magazzino in Cold Spring, New York.
“Magazzino is the most lively institution that promotes contemporary Italian art in the United States,” commented Stefano Albertini, the Director of Casa Italiana “we are very privileged to be the venue to which they dedicate every year the exhibit of a young but already established Italian artist.”
Renato Leotta, who lives and works between Acireale (Sicily) and Turin and was the most recent Italian fellow at the American Academy in Rome, uses various media in his practice to explore the forces of nature and their interconnectedness.
“It’s important to give a venue for Italian artists to showcase their work in New York,” explains Nancy Olnick, co-founder of Magazzino along with her husband Giorgio Spanu, “and what better place than Casa Italiana, where the students and faculty can get acquainted with art that they would not usually see.”
The exhibition opens with seven photographs, all part of a series titled Lunagrammas, (“moongrams”) a new project launched by the artist during his Cold Spring residence, featuring images of the moon captured from a camera obscura submerged in the Hudson River.
Leotta also expanded upon ongoing projects, creating works such as Two Hands, a sculptural installation on view in the third gallery. This work, part of his Gipsoteca project, is composed of two sets of four sand relief sculptures, half of which were cast on Portuguese beaches while the others were realized on the Long Island coast. Here, the artist seeks to capture the moment of contact, the encounter between sea and shore, on both sides of the Atlantic.
Another liminal moment is represented in the works from the Multiverso series, which Leotta realized by dipping strips of cotton fabric into the sea, thus creating or recreating a horizon line, the point where the sky meets the sea.
A work which appears to stand out from the rest is LUCE, a 16mm film shown on an old cubic TV set placed in the corner of Gallery 1 and featuring an out of focus lemon tree. This piece is actually part of a work titled Notte di San Lorenzo, a site-specific installation made out of perforated terracotta tiles, which connects the artist’s lemon grove in Sicily to the Hudson Valley landscape. Leotta had realized a previous iteration of this work in Palermo’s Palazzo Butera on the occasion of the 2018 Manifesta Biennial.
This installation will remain on view on the grounds of Magazzino throughout the Summer.
Milano 2020: Promoting LGBTQ+ Tourism
Milan is already amongst Italy’s most LGBTQ+ friendly cities and so, as this year’s International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association (IGLTA) Annual Convention (held in New York City) comes to a close, it seems fitting that the Lombard city should host the next edition, which will take place in May 2020.
Home to over 25 LGBTQ+ associations, to one of the country’s largest Gay Prides, among other cultural initiatives, Milan was the first Italian city to develop an LGBTQ+ neighborhood (Porta Venezia) and most importantly to open a registry of Civil Unions, once they became legal in 2016.
The city now launches the Milan Loves You campaign, a project by the Sonders and Beach tourist agency and endorsed by the Municipality and by Enit (the Italian National Tourism Agency) with the aim of promoting the next IGLTA 2020 Convention.
The IGLTA is the world’s leading network of LGBTQ+ welcoming tourism businesses. It was founded in 1983 and provides free travel resources and information while continuously working to promote equality and safety within LGBTQ+ tourism worldwide.
The 2020 convention, which will be held at the iconic Castello Sforzesco, one of the symbols of Milan, will welcome around 500 tour operators, journalists, LGBTQ influencers from all over the world.
According to Tourism Commissioner Roberta Guaineri, this event “is important for business but also from a human rights perspective and a collaboration between privates and institutions is fundamental for the promotion of non-discriminatory hospitality. We are working towards Milan becoming welcoming of everyone and able to answer to the needs of all travelers.”
Alessio Virgili, CEO of Sonders & Beach and IGLTA Italian Ambassador explains that the goal of the campaign is to use Milan 2020 as a springboard for the promotion of LGBTQ+ tourism in Milan and beyond. “Based on the results of previous editions,” he comments “we expect an influx of 2 million euro during the 3 days of the convention in the city of Milan alone and a 60% increase in the volume of tourists in the following year.”
So far, Italy (which, let’s face it is not amongst the most LGBTQ-friendly nations) has not catered towards LGBTQ+ tourism, a complete loss considering that, as another Italian Ambassador, the actor and journalist Alessandro Cecchi Paone, notes “members of the LGBTQ+ community travel, spend money, and set trends.”
Hopefully, the Milan Loves You initiative along with the 2020 Convention, beyond favoring the Milanese and Italian tourism industry, will help set new standards within the sector, making Italy a place where all visitors, regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation can feel safe, welcome and have a great time.
Mapping Italian Fashion Trends
It’s no news that Italians love designer fashion, but which are the most popular brands across the peninsula? In an initiative named Fashion Geography, Lyst, the fashion industry’s leading search engine, generated a map revealing the most researched brands by Italian men and women in each region.
Lyst was founded in 2010 by Chris Morton and Sebastian Trepca in Shoreditch, London, as “a way for people to find the fashion they always wanted.” Today, the website brings together 5 million products from 12,000 brands. Last year, more than 70 million shoppers across 120 countries began their searches on the platform. As the About page reads, they “track more than 10 million global searches a month, crunching queries, page views and sales statistics every minute, and [...] use this data to tell the stories of what the world wants to wear.”
The data they recorded for Fashion Geography reveals the following about the preferences and tendencies of Italian consumers:
The appeal of ‘Made-in-Italy’ persists, particularly thanks to Gucci, which garners attention across the country. The Florentine brand is in fact the most researched by women in Lombardy (32%), Lazio (21%), Puglia (19%), and Calabria (15%) and by men in Veneto (26%), Lazio (22%), Abruzzo (20%), and Lombardy (17%).
Amongst women, other popular Italian brands are the classic Valentino (the most popular in Veneto) and Prada (Marche), as well as the more contemporary luxury streetwear brand Off-White (Tuscany and Friuli Venezia Giulia). However, Italian women appear to be just as interested in foreign labels, with brands such as the French Celine topping searches in Piemonte (43%) and the British Alexander McQueen dominating Sicily (45%), amongst others.
Italian men show particular interest in Dolce & Gabbana (24% in Sardinia and 18% in Sicily, where the designers are from) and Versace (30% in Calabria and 22% in Molise). Though classic houses persist, luxury streetwear brands are becoming increasingly popular amongst male consumers, even more so than amongst women. Three young Milan-based brands, Marcelo Burlon, Off-White, and Palm Angels are respectively the most popular in Campania, Tuscany, and Emilia Romagna.
As with women, some Italian men also prefer foreign brands, particularly in Piemonte (Burberry), Umbria (Calvin Klein), and Basilicata (Nike.)
Fashion Geography also reveals the types of fashion items that Italians are looking up. Sneakers are the most popular with both men and women, even beating out the quintessential female accessory, the bag, which does, however, remain within the top 5 desired products with crossbody bags coming in second place, followed by shoulder bags. Jackets too are extremely popular across genders.
Perhaps one of the most surprising finds is that Italian men spend on average more money than their female counterparts: 267 euro against 249 euro, subverting in a way the stereotype of the frivolous woman who squanders every penny on clothes and accessories.
Although this data is certainly interesting it is important to keep in mind that it does not account for the population’s overall spending habits.
For one thing, Fashion Geography solely relies on information gathered through the use of the Lyst platform, which means that these statistics reflect the preferences of Lyft users but do not take into account the searches made using other websites, of which there are quite a few (such as Farfetch, Yoox, and Luisa Via Roma, just to name some), not to mention all the generic, non fashion-specific search platforms.
Additionally, searching for a product does not necessarily lead to purchasing it, meaning that these maps are, if anything, more reflective of each region’s desires rather than what its inhabitants actually buy and wear.
This being said, knowing the aspirations of fashion consumers across Italy is certainly useful, particularly for both national and global brands wishing to market their products on the Italian market. It can also be seen as a reflection of the broader economic and cultural behaviors and influences of Italians today.
The Urban Exodus of Young Italians
Historically, people have migrated from rural areas to cities, where they hoped to find more employment opportunities and a better quality of life. However, young Italians are inverting this trend, as a growing number of men and women under the age of 35 decide to leave their city lives to go work in the countryside.
This phenomenon has apparently been slowly developing during the past decade. Statistics produced by ISMEA (the National Institute for Agricultural and Food Market Services) reveal that the number of young people moving to the countryside to undertake a career in agriculture-related fields has been steadily augmenting over the last 10 years.
Certainly, Italy’s stagnating economic situation, which has led to the rise in youth unemployment, has caused widespread frustration and disenchantment amongst young generations. This is the very reason most of them have resorted to going to seek opportunities abroad. But this “urban exodus” shouldn’t be understood as the latest desperate attempt by young people to cope with the general lack of future prospects.
These young men and women are not simply fleeing cities with idealistic fantasies of reconnecting with nature. In most cases, they are making planned, sensible decisions. Students are now choosing to pursue an education in the agriculture sector and according to the Ministry of Agriculture the quantity of agribusinesses, many of which are managed by people under 30, increases each year.
There are several factors that render a move to the countryside a sensible and sustainable professional decision for young Italians. For one, Agriculture is one of the country’s most subsidized sectors, and the Italian government supplies various financial incentives and other forms of economic aid to those working in this field.
The steadily growing slow food movement and the general tendency of consumers becoming increasingly interested in purchasing organic, local, and artisanal products, also provides a great opportunity for those wishing to launch new small agricultural businesses.
And since most of those involved in this phenomenon are educated, usually overqualified, young people, perhaps with some previous professional experience, they bring their own knowledge, skills, and fresh perspectives to the industry, which hopefully will lead to an influx of innovation that will benefit not just this sector but the Italian economy as a whole.
The Pope Dedicates Via Crucis Celebrations to Migrants
The celebrations of the Via Crucis, which recall Jesus’ journey from the moment of his betrayal and capture to that of his crucifixion, take on an additional meaning on the night of Good Friday, as Pope Francis draws a parallel between this Biblical plight and the one endured today by migrants and other victims of power and self-service.
At each of the 14 stations of the cross, the Pope recites a meditation written by the head of the 'Slaves No More' Association, Eugenia Bonetti, an 80-year-old missionary who has devoted her life to helping the victims of human trafficking and sex slavery.
These meditations are strong and to the point, calling out governments, legislations, all those who are in power to stop the suffering of their fellow humans but choose to remain indifferent. “Deserts and seas have become the new cemeteries of today,” one of them reads, “there are no answers to these deaths. There are, however, responsibilities [...] while governments argue, locked inside the palaces of power, the Sahara fills with the skeletons of people who have faced pain, hunger, and thirst.”
Through God, Bonetti invokes the people holding positions of power, asking them to listen to those who are suffering, “those without a home, the young without hopes, without jobs, and without perspectives.” She also brings up “the immigrants forced to live in shacks on the margins of our societies, after having suffered unspeakable hardships,” noting how these are “unsafe camps, burnt and destroyed along with the dreams and hopes of thousands of men and women.”
The missionary also discusses the tragedy of human trafficking, the issue to which she has devoted her life. “Everything is for sale,” she condemns, “even the bodies of children.” The meditations point out how we are all responsible for what is happening, how indifference is the real enemy. This also means that we have the power to change the situation.
Bonetti urges everyone to welcome diversity because ‘the other’ is “not a problem, but a precious resource for our blinded cities.” and recognizes the volunteers and NGOs who “during these last months, have risked their lives, particularly in the Mediterranean Sea, to save those of many families in search of safety and opportunity.”
Creating a Global Network of Young Italians
These 115 young Italians, selected by the Com.It.Es, the Committee of Italians Abroad, and by the regional committees for emigration, will take part in a series of encounters aimed at establishing a global network that they will then go on to activate and develop across the world. The goal is to mobilize all communities of Italians abroad and to reinforce the existing institutional networks worldwide.
Palermo was chosen to host this event for having been the Youth Capital in 2017 and the Capital of Culture in 2018 and local institutions such as the Municipality of Palermo and the Region of Sicily fully endorsed the project.
The Regional Minister for Education and Formation of Sicily, Roberto Lagalla, declared “The Government of the Region of Sicily has gladly welcomed this seminary, ours is a land that is always ready to share and favor exchanges between various communities.”
The Mayor of Palermo, Leoluca Orlando, who is also the President of the Teatro Massimo Foundation, shared in this sentiment, stating “Creating a network of young immigrants starting from Palermo is a way to confirm that our city has adopted the international community as its own flag [...] There are no migrants here. Everyone is a Palermitan citizen. And that’s the message that these young people have to spread into the world.”
Representatives from national institutions were also present to express their support for the initiative. The Undersecretary of State of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Riccardo Merlo, addressed the young delegates, stating “You will be the leading class of the future. That’s why I want to give you some advice: push the cause of Italians abroad. Occupy the positions of power and the institutions that can be the instruments to access them, bringing change. You should synthesize this encounter united and organized.”
The Director General of Italians abroad and migration policies, Luigi Maria Vignali thanked all the participants who came from all over the world and believed in this project. “We have several objectives to achieve, including dialog, and the need for awareness in order to become proactive and give young people the chance to build their own future. As Pier Paolo Borsellino said: true love consists of what we do not like in order to change it. Even from abroad, help us to change Italy for the better.”
The Secretary General of the CGIE, Michele Schiavone, also pointed out the relevance of choosing Palermo, which has always been a crossroads where different cultures met and exchanged ideas, beliefs, knowledge, while also being the perfect place for these young Italians living abroad to reconnect with the richness of the Italian culture and history.
“The current historical period renders their need to inherit and acquire the testimony of their fathers even more urgent and necessary to point to the direction in which to proceed in order to give a new sense to what it means to be Italian abroad,” he stated.
“For years we have been talking about young Italians abroad without ever hearing those directly concerned,” remarked Maria Chiara Prodi, the President of the VII Commission of the CGIE ‘New Migrations and New Generations’, stressing how this event provides the opportunity to change the perception of the issue.
“All the delegates attending the Seminary will have the chance to meet and exchange information. It will require careful and demanding work that over the coming six months will produce a research document for young Italians abroad,” she concluded.
Tomorrow, the young delegates will meet again, this time in the Royal Theatre of Santa Cecilia, focusing on using Open Space methodology to determine the reasons and the ways in which to begin building the network.
Their work can be followed on the Seminary’s website: https://www.seminariodipalermo.it/
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Ban Uranium Weapons
EARTH HAZARDS
congenital birth defect, health threats from Depleted Uranium
The World Health Organisation and the Iraqi Ministry of Health are set to begin work on a pilot assessment of congenital birth defects in six Iraqi governorates.
29 March 2012 - ICBUW
A project to examine the rates of congenital birth defects such as heart and neurological problems is due to start next month, following a series of planning meetings held during 2011. The survey will cover six of Iraq’s governorates including Baghdad, Anbar, Basrah, Thi Qar, Sulaymaniyah and Dialah.
Significant international concern has been generated over reports from medical staff in cities such as Fallujah and Baghdad of spiralling rates of congenital birth defects. Fallujah, which lies in Anbar province, has become particularly notorious and medical staff and civil society organisations have argued that the increases are linked to environmental contamination from the US led attacks on the city in 2004.
During a workshop on the project in February, Dr Hawrami Minister of Health of the Kurdistan Regional Government said: “There is a need for a comprehensive programme to learn more about birth defects in Iraq that could shed light on the incidence of various conditions, such as congenital heart defects and neurological defects, in different geographic areas over time in Iraq.”
The WHO in Iraq has reported that priority will be given in the survey to measuring the magnitude and trend of congenital birth defects at selected district level, identifying possible risk factors of congenital birth defects and assessing the burden of these conditions and impact on the health status of care providers.
ICBUW welcomes this long overdue attention on these disturbing problems but emphasised that the process must be as transparent and wide ranging as possible to ensure that all environmental risk factors, including contamination from depleted uranium munitions and other toxic remnants of war are taken into account. Plans to analyse the health and social burden of these problems on communities are also welcome.
The project Pilot Assessment of Congenital Birth Defects (CBD) in Iraq has been split into two component parts, the first of which has been funded by the United Nations Development Group (UNDG) Iraq Trust Fund, which is administered by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on behalf of itself and other United Nations Organisations. The first part of the project is expected to cost US$336,350 and will focus on:
Drawing initial baseline data from selected districts in 6 governorates and understanding the trends of birth defects in the selected governorates in Iraq;
Analyzing spatial and temporal trends and detect changes in the incidence of birth defects in Iraq
Capacity building of Ministry of Health national public health TORCH (Toxoplasmosis, Rubella, Cytomegalo and Herpes virus) laboratory and technicians
The second phase will aim at:
conducting observational and analytical epidemiological and laboratory investigations to understand underlying risk factors; strengthening the disease registry/surveillance for birth defects in Iraq and finally the proposed study will assist in assessing the burden of the problem on Iraqi health system, medical services and communities and formulating evidence-based recommendations to address the problem.
The initial research part of the project is expected to be complete by late summer but it is unclear when the first results will be made public.
You can get all the latest information and ongoing updates from ICBUW , join to show your support .
Training workshop for central and local supervisors on congenital birth defects survey, Iraq: http://www.emro.who.int/Iraq/news29-2-2012.htm
Pilot Assessment of Congenital Birth Defects in Iraq in Six Governorates, project description (UNDP): http://mdtf.undp.org/document/download/6499
Huge rise in birth defects in Falluja:http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/13/falluja-cancer-children-birth-defects?intcmp=239
11 April 2012 - ICBUW
The Toxic Remnants of War Project will seek to catalogue and classify a range of substances that are used during conflict and which may have a long-term health impact on civilians, or result in damage to the environment.
The project will also examine the indirect release of hazardous materials during warfare, through attacks on industrial sites, uncontrolled releases from military facilities or the destruction of infrastructure.
“Recent conflicts have seen civilian populations increasingly bearing the brunt of armed violence but, while the impact of explosive or indiscriminate weapons such as land mines and cluster bombs have been well documented, less is known about the toxic effects of conflict,” said ICBUW Coordinator Doug Weir.
“History has shown that civilian health suffers as a result of warfare, the question is, to what extent are the materials used by the military, or released during conflict, adding to this burden?”
Substances used in offensive operations include heavy metals such as lead and depleted uranium; speciality alloys that may contain thorium or beryllium; propellants or explosives such as RDX; and obscurants such as white phosphorous.
The toxic footprint from military bases may include fuels, oils, heavy metals and other hazardous wastes. Many of these are known to be toxic, but detailed information on how they interact within the environment and whether civilians are being exposed to them may be lacking. The problem is exacerbated by the limited capacity of states recovering from conflict to manage hazardous materials effectively and monitor civilian health.
Some states have begun to reduce their use of the most toxic materials in weapons, many out of concern for contamination on domestic firing ranges or to protect personnel. But there has been much less focus on the potential for civilian exposures, with the military utility of the weapons taking precedence.
Yet toxics are increasingly tightly regulated in peacetime, for example in consumer goods or in efforts to control emissions during manufacturing and transport. The TRW Project will eventually examine whether peacetime health and environmental protection norms should play a stronger role in assessing the acceptability of certain materials or activities in times of war.
What is Depleted Uranium ?
Depleted uranium is a waste obtained from producing fuel for nuclear reactors and atomic bombs. The material used in civil and nuclear military industry is uranium U-235, the isotope which can be fissioned.
Since this isotope is found in very low proportions in nature, the uranium ore has to be enriched, i.e., its proportion of the U-235 isotope has to be industrially increased. This pocess produces a large amount of radioactive depleted uranium waste, thus named because it is mainly formed by the other non-fissionable uranium isotope, U-238 and a minimum proportion of U-235.7 American military industry has been using depleted uranium to coat conventional weaponry (artillery, tanks and aircraft) since 1977, to
protect its own tanks, as a counterweight in aircraft and Tomahawk missiles and as a component for navigation instruments.
This is due to depleted uranium having characteristics making it highly attractive for military technology: firstly, it is extremely dense and heavy (1 cm3 weighs almost 19 grammes), such that projectiles with a depleted uranium head can penetrate the armoured steel of military vehicles and buildings; secondly,
it is a spontaneous pyrophoric material, i.e., it inflames when reaching its target generating such heat that it explodes.
After more than 50 years producing atomic weapons and nuclear energy, the USA has 500,000 tonnes of depleted uranium stored, according to official data. Depleted uranium is radioactive also and has an average lifetime of 4.5 thousand million years. This is why such waste has to be stored safely
for an indefinite period of time, an extremely costly procedure. In order to save money and empty their tanks, the Department of Defence and Energy assigns depleted uranium free of charge to national and foreign armament companies. Apart from the USA, countries like the United Kingdom, France,
Canada, Russia, Greece, Turkey, Israel, the Gulf monarchies, Taiwan, South Korea, Pakistan or Japan purchase or manufacture weapons with depleted uranium.
Comprehensive information, depleted Uranium burning and eternal medical disaster.
During the war, US and British forces shot ammo made from Depleted Uranium (DU), a radioactive and toxic waste that is suspected as a cause of some illnesses affecting veterans of the 1991 Gulf War.
Scientists believe respiratory irritation caused by sand storms, oil fires, and concentrated vehicle fumes during Operation Desert Storm weakened the blood/brain barrier and allowed DU to enter the central nervous system of soldiers in the field resulting in slowly developing neurotoxic responses. Their brains, in effect, were slowly poisoned.
The brain is a 'target organ' for dissolved uranium. Tests on some Desert Storm vets show lowered ability to think and solve problems, as well as lowered motor skills in subjects with above average uranium levels.
During the latest operations in both Afghanistan and Iraq, American and British tanks fired thousands of depleted uranium armor penetrators. American A-10 and AV-8B aircraft shot hundreds of thousands of small caliber depleted uranium rounds.
Many troops in Iraq are being exposed to some level of DU, and the exposure this time may be far more long-term. The longer troops stay in theater if they are in a contaminated area, the more exposure they will have. DU is also toxic to the kidneys, and is known to cause cancer from inhalation. It is reasonable to assume that neither skin exposure nor swallowing particles of DU is wise.
The exposure to DU combined with the exposure to extensive combustion products from oil fires and blowing sand from the desert environment, however, is unique and the extent of exposure to respiratory irritants during this war was probably greater than in previous wars. These exposures for some soldiers may be more intense and more sustained now than they were in 1991.
The Pentegon Poison offers an insightful read regarding this matter
Soaring birth deformities and child cancer rates in Iraq
By James Cogan
Iraqi doctors are making renewed efforts to bring to the world's attention the growth in birth deformities and cancer rates among the country's children. The medical crisis is being directly blamed on the widespread use of depleted uranium (DU) munitions by the US and British forces in southern Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War, and the even greater use of DU during the 2003 invasion.
The rate of birth defects, after increasing ten-fold from 11 per 100,000 births in 1989 to 116 per 100,000 in 2001, is soaring further. Dr Nawar Ali, a medical researcher into birth deformities at Baghdad University, told the UN's Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) last month: "There have been 650 cases [birth deformities] in total since August 2003 reported in government hospitals. That is a 20 percent increase from the previous regime. Private hospitals were not included in the study, so the number could be higher."
His colleague, Dr Ibrahim al-Jabouri, reported: "In my experiments we have found some cases where the mother and father were suffering from pollution from weapons used in the south and we believe that it is affecting newborn babies in the country."
The director of the Central Teaching Hospital in Baghdad, Wathiq Ibrahim, said: "We have asked for help from the government to make a more profound study on such cases as it is affecting thousands of families."
The rise in birth defects is matched by a continuing increase in the incidence of childhood cancers.
The College of Medicine at Basra University carried out a study into the rate of cancer among children under the age of 15 in southern Iraq from 1976 to 1999. It revealed a horrific change between 1990 and 1999. In the province of Basra, the incidence of cancer of all types rose by 242 percent, while the rate of leukaemia among children rose 100 percent. Children living in the area were falling ill with cancer at the rate of 10.1 per 100,000. In districts where the use of DU had been the most concentrated, the rate rose to 13.2 per 100,000.
The results were cited at the time in campaigns to end the UN-imposed and US-enforced sanctions against Iraq, which were held responsible for the death of as many as 500,000 Iraqi children from malnutrition and inadequate medical treatment.
The study noted: "Most doctors and scientists agree that even mild radiation is dangerous and increases the risk of cancer. The health risk becomes much greater once the [DU] projectile has been fired. After they have been fired, the broken shells release uranium particles. The airborne particles enter the body easily. The uranium then deposits itself in bones, organs and cells. Children are especially vulnerable because their cells divide rapidly as they grow. In pregnant women, absorbed uranium can cross the placenta into the bloodstream of the foetus.
"In addition to its radioactive dangers, uranium is chemically toxic, like lead, and can damage the kidneys and lungs. Perhaps, the fatal epidemic of swollen abdomens among Iraqi children is caused by kidney failure resulting from uranium poisoning. Whatever the effect of the DU shells, it is made worse by malnutrition and poor health conditions....
"Iraq holds the United States and Britain legally and morally responsible for the grave health and environmental impact of the use of DU ..." (A version of the report is available at:
Further Evidence on Relation between Depleted Uranium, Incidence of Malignancies among Children in Basra, Southern Iraq.
Posted by Ippychix at 17:39 7 comments:
Labels: birth defects, Cancer, Death, Depleted uranium, ICBUW, Iran, Iraq, World
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Bicycle imports jump 18.5 pct in three years: data
By KH디지털2
Published : Mar 29, 2015 - 09:30
Updated : Mar 29, 2015 - 09:32
South Korea's bicycle imports rose 18.5 percent in the last three years, government data showed Sunday, fueled by the spike in people enjoying leisure and sports activities.
According to data by the Korea Customs Service, the country imported $210 million worth of bikes last year, up from $170 million for the whole of 2012. This translates into an average 8.8 percent growth every year.
In terms of volume, annual growth averaged 6.4 percent in the three-year period, with numbers reaching 1.9 million bicycles in 2014, up 13.2 percent from 1.7 million bikes imported in 2012.
The KCS said the steady rise in numbers comes as more and more South Koreans take time off for sports and recreational activities, It said more bicycle-related infrastructure in the country, such as dedicated bike roads, compared to the past has bolstered the boom.
Data also showed bicycles being imported from 39 countries as of last year, with 95.5 being Chinese followed by 3.6 percent from Taiwan.
Imports from China edged up 0.6 percentage point vis-a-vis 2012, while numbers for Taiwan were down 0.6 percentage point. Many Chinese bikes are products made by South Korean companies that have plants in China or those made under original equipment manufacturer contract with local businesses that import them for domestic sale.
The customs service said the average unit cost of bikes rose 4.7 percent from $102.40 in 2012 to $107.20 in 2014.
Chinese bicycle prices rose 2.9 percent over the three-year period, while those made in the United States rose 139.9 percent.
On average Chinese-made bikes had a price tag of $80, while those made in the United States reached $883.50 last year. Bikes made in Britain and Germany cost $846.70 and $740.50, each.
"U.S. and European bicycles are expensive primarily because many are rugged mountain bikes," the KCS said. (Yonhap)
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Tonight's Movie: Blithe Spirit (1945)
Tonight's Movie: Battle of Britain (1969)
Tonight's Movie in 2010: The Year in Review
Tonight's Movie: Crack in the World (1965)
Tonight's Movie: A Boyfriend for Christmas (2004)
Tonight's Movie: Unfinished Business (1941)
Fox Movie Channel in January: Highlights
TCM in January: Highlights
Tonight's Movie: Knight and Day (2010)
Anne Francis Dies at 80
Lovely actress Anne Francis has passed away at the age of 80.
Francis passed on Sunday, just a few weeks after her FORBIDDEN PLANET (1956) costar, Leslie Nielsen. She's pictured here with another FORBIDDEN PLANET costar, the late Jack Kelly.
Francis had battled cancer for the past few years and put up a note at her official website a while back saying that health issues were preventing her from answering fan mail.
In addition to FORBIDDEN PLANET, Francis's credits included DREAMBOAT (1952), SUSAN SLEPT HERE (1954), ROGUE COP (1954), BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK (1955), BATTLE CRY (1955), BLACKBOARD JUNGLE (1955), and THE CROWDED SKY (1960).
Beginning in the late 1950s she shifted to doing a great deal of television work, including starring in the TV series HONEY WEST (1965), but she continued to appear in films occasionally, including FUNNY GIRL (1968). Her last acting role was a 2004 episode of the series WITHOUT A TRACE.
A tribute at 50 Westerns From the 50s includes a link to an interview with Francis.
I also recommend Issue #55 (Winter 2008-09) of Films of the Golden Age, which had a really terrific article on Francis by Laura Wagner.
January 4th Update: I was delighted to learn that Laura Wagner will have a full-length biography of Anne Francis published by McFarland later this year. It's titled ANNE FRANCIS: THE LIFE AND CAREER. Amazon indicates the publication date is May 31, 2011.
DKoren said...
Aw, so sad. When I was little, I wanted to be her in Forbidden Planet.
Francesca Paolucci said...
Rest In Peace, Ann. You will be missed.
I notice you haven't written about Bad Day At Black Rock in Miscellaneous Musings. Anne had an unsympathetic role in this film but acquitted herself well. Spencer Tracy excelled in an unforgettable role. Not to be missed.
I've actually got a BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK DVD sitting in a stack next to my TV, Mel. That's a classic that so far I haven't managed to see. Looking forward to it, between the cast and the movie having been filmed in an area I love, Lone Pine, CA. Thanks very much for sharing your thoughts on it.
So many movies, so little time... :)
J.C. Loophole said...
I love Bad Day at Black Rock and assigned it in the last film class. Students really enjoyed it- a unique marriage (in a way) of Film Noir and western.
Thanks for your feedback, J.C., I appreciate it! I hope to get to BLACK ROCK early in 2011. :)
Vienna said...
Anne is in two of my Top 50 films. - BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK and THE SATAN BUG.
A fine actress with a long career.
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CYBER COMPUTER CRIME LAWYERS
Technology is extremely complicated and so too are the criminal statutes surrounding it. Federal and state governments take aggressive approaches to crimes involving the Internet, smartphones, and computers. Otherwise small-scale charges are sometimes ramped up to serious offenses simply because somebody’s computer was involved.
If you have been charged with a cybercrime (that is, any crime allegedly committed over the Internet or while using any computing device), you need a legal advocate who has an in-depth understanding of cybercrime, which is an especially complex area of criminal law. Attorney Kassius Benson and the lawyers at Kassius Benson Law, P.A. understand the many technologies implicated by cybercrime laws. Don’t make the mistake of trusting your life in the hands of someone who promises they’ll "figure it out.” Hire someone who has.
There are two broad categories of cybercrimes. One type of cybercrime occurs when a computer is improperly used to inflict viruses, worms, etc., into another computer or computer network when done intentionally to cause damage to an employer, a specific company, or to an individual This type of cybercrime is often referred to as “Hacking.” A second type occurs when a computer is used as an instrument to commit a crime, such as child pornography, mail or wire fraud, or identity theft.
In 1984 Congress passed the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which centralized computer crimes under one statute and extended the Act's protection to all computers used in interstate and foreign commerce, which would include every computer connected to the internet. Courts have held that smartphones are computers for purposes of the Act. A separate federal statute prohibits cyberstalking.
The Act creates seven different categories of computer related crime dealing with unauthorized computer access. The statute covers:
(1) computer espionage (gaining access to government computers to obtain classified information);
(2) protecting confidentiality of computer data (to punish unauthorized browsing through private financial and credit files, making it a crime to gain access to a computer without authorization for the purpose of obtaining information and financial records of a financial institution or a credit reporting company, information from a government department or agency, or information from a "protected computer," defined as a computer used exclusively by a financial institution or the U.S. government);
(3) unauthorized access to government computers (unlike other categories, this punishes for simply accessing a government computer);
(4) computer fraud (making it a crime to gain access and fraudulently use a protected computer to obtain anything valued at more than $5,000 in any one year period);
(5) the "virus statute" (which prohibits transmission of any program to intentionally cause damage to a protected computer);
(6) password trafficking; and
(7) computer extortion.
In many cybercrime cases, it may be a defense that the defendant actually had authorization at the time he gained access to the relevant device. In some situations, it is a defense if nothing of value was obtained. However, federal prosecutors may use alternative statutes to charge an individual, such as the Economic Espionage Act (protecting against trade secret theft), the National Stolen Property Act (to cover the theft of computer hardware and software), mail and wire fraud, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (prohibiting unauthorized interception of computer communications such as emails); and the Child Pornography Prevention Act (which prohibits the distribution and possession of child pornography).
In state court, cybercrimes include computer damage (intentionally destroying or damaging someone else's computer or computer system or altering someone else's computer system in order to injure or commit fraud, distributing "deconstructive computer programs" such as viruses, worms, etc., with the intent to damage another computer system); computer theft (gaining access to a computer system to obtain services or money); unauthorized access (gaining unauthorized computer access in an attempt to penetrate a computer security system; however, it is also a crime to aid someone else to gain access to a computer security system knowing that person intends to commit a crime); and encryption (it is a crime to use encryption in order to commit or conceal a crime). Finally, it is a crime to use a computer to sexually solicit a minor or possess and distribute child pornography.
The truth is that ordinary people make innocent mistakes online every day. Computers are complicated and confusing, and the Internet can prey on vulnerability or naiveté in even the best of people.
Too often, prosecutors and police try to target someone’s simple slip of judgment, an accident, or a misunderstanding and turn it into a major crime, using aggressive statutes to escalate the charges.
The lawyers at Kassius Benson Law, P.A. understand how frightening, embarrassing, and unfair these charges can be. As experienced lawyers, we keep our fingers on the pulse of today’s popular and emerging technologies. We can provide an aggressive and effective legal defense for those who may be facing serious penalties.
Time matters. If you have been charged with an Internet or computer crime or you are under investigation for such a crime, taking early action makes it possible to protect your rights more effectively. Attorney Kassius Benson has worked hard on behalf of many clients to discourage prosecution before they are charged. He has produced a significant track record of success during his decades of practice, having tried more than 150 cases statewide and nationwide.
You can ensure that your rights and reputation are protected by contacting KASSIUS BENSON LAW, P.A. at 612.333.2755.
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Home › Ketamine Effects › What are the Long-Term Effects of Ketamine Abuse on My Teenager?
What are the Long-Term Effects of Ketamine Abuse on My Teenager?
Today’s fast-paced world leaves teenagers to contend with any number of challenges and temptations while having to manage the physical and emotional changes taking place inside their own lives. Under these conditions, it can be easy for a teen to turn to drugs as a way to cope with everyday pressures. Ketamine, one of a handful of dissociative-type hallucinogens, has become a popular recreational drug commonly used by teens who actively engage in the “party scene.”
With frequent ketamine abuse teens open themselves up to a range of damaging effects, some of which can be long-term in nature. While hallucinogens as a group typically carry a low risk for abuse and addiction, frequent ketamine abuse does come with a high risk for addiction, which makes teenagers even more so susceptible to the long-term effects of the drug.
Ketamine is best known for its ability to produce unusual hallucinatory experiences and “out-of-body” sensations. These effects stem from ketamine’s interactions within the brain’s chemical system.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, ketamine disrupts the brain’s electrical activity, cutting off all incoming information from the body to the brain, which can leave users in a comatose-like state. Over time, ketamine abuse not only has adverse effects on a teen’s psychological well-being, but can also cause serious health problems down the road.
Call our helpline at 800-601-3889 to see if your insurance will help pay your rehab costs.
Long-Term Effects of Ketamine Abuse
Psychological Effects
Delusional thinking and personality changes are potential long-term effects of ketamine abuse.
The teenage years encompass a transitional period of growth and development placing teens in a state of ongoing physical and emotional change. Ketamine’s ability to interfere with fundamental brain chemical processes can cause serious long-term problems for those who engage in ketamine abuse on a frequent basis.
According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, long-term psychological effects associated with ketamine abuse run the spectrum and can vary from person to person, some of which include:
Impaired memory functions
Tendencies towards social withdrawal
Ongoing sleep problems
Delusional thinking
Ultimately, the longer a teen continues to engage in ketamine abuse the more severe these effects become.
While regular ketamine users seldom experience actual physical-type withdrawal effects from the drug, the way the body metabolizes ketamine causes considerable damage to the bladder and urinary tract. According to BJU International, ketamine byproducts have toxic effects, causing widespread cell damage in the bladder that can develop into long-term health problems for teens.
Over time, damage to the bladder and urinary tract causes eventual tissue death and overall structural damage. With continued ketamine abuse, teenagers can develop serious bladder problems that compromise both kidney and bladder functions causing urinary incontinence issues down the road.
Teenage Ketamine-Alcohol Fatality Risks & the Need for Treatment
Perhaps the greatest threat to a teen’s ability to avoid the long-term effects of ketamine abuse has to do with the drug’s addiction potential. As with other types of addictive drugs, the brain quickly develops a tolerance for ketamine, which drives teens to keep increasing their dosage amounts with ongoing use.
Ketamine also interferes with the brain’s reward system functions, the area most involved in the addiction process. In effect, teens come to rely on ketamine to cope with daily life stressors as addiction takes hold, which drives the compulsive drug-using behaviors that characterize addiction.
If you suspect your teen may be struggling with ketamine abuse and have more questions, or need helping finding a treatment program, please feel free to call our toll-free helpline at 800-601-3889 to speak with one of our addictions specialists.
10 Signs of a Ketamine High - If someone you love is at risk of ketamine abuse, it is important to be aware of the signs that they are under the influence of the drug.
Does Ketamine Cause Drug Psychosis Symptoms? - By understanding how ketamine affects the brain, you'll see how this drug can cause the various symptoms that are associated with psychosis.
How Does Ketamine Affect the Respiratory System? - Considering the fact that ketamine is used as an anesthetic agent during surgical procedures, it should come as no surprise that this drug can affect the respiratory system.
Teenage Ketamine-Alcohol Fatality Risks & the Need for Treatment - Learn the common signs of a ketamine high, and lifestyle changes that often occur with ketamine and alcohol use, so you can determine whether your teen needs treatment help.
Ketamine Effects on the Body - Ketamine abuse is dangerous to your mental and physical health. It leaves people prone to overdose and a number of other potential consequences
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Home | Health Library
Diabetes, Dementia Can Be Deadly Combination
TUESDAY, Oct. 2, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- The risk of death from dangerously low blood sugar is much higher among seniors who have both diabetes and dementia than those with diabetes alone, a new study finds.
Researchers analyzed data from nearly 20,000 people aged 65 and older with type 1 or type 2 diabetes who were followed for up to five years after their first recorded low blood sugar episode.
Those with both diabetes and dementia had a 67 percent higher risk of death following dangerously low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) than those with diabetes alone, according to study findings.
"Hypoglycemia is an under-recognized risk factor for death in older adults with diabetes and dementia," said study author Dr. Katharina Mattishent, an Alzheimer's Society clinical research fellow at Norwich Medical School in England.
"In this vulnerable group, clinicians and patients should move away from relentless pursuit of strict glucose-lowering targets, she said. "The focus must be directed at rigorous detection of hypoglycemia using continuous glucose monitoring devices."
The findings were presented Monday at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, in Berlin. Such research is considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.
"With no new dementia drugs in 15 years, minimizing risk and improving care is key. We know that diabetes can raise the risk of developing dementia, and with both of these illnesses on the rise we urgently need to understand this relationship better," said James Pickett, head of research at the Alzheimer's Society.
"Very low blood sugar levels are clearly dangerous to anyone with diabetes, and this suggests the effects might be even more extreme in people with dementia," Pickett said in a meeting news release.
"The study didn't show cause and effect but, given the dangers of low blood sugar levels, clearly it should be managed carefully," he added.
The U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases has more on hypoglycemia.
SOURCE: European Association for the Study of Diabetes, news release, Oct. 1, 2018
Caring for End-Stage Dementia
24-Hour Urine Protein
Albumin (Urine)
Diabetes: Test Your Knowledge
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Malcolm Pisani
Posted by Denise Formosa | Feb 11, 2017 | Celebrities | 0 |
Although the Maltese islands are relatively very small in size, they are nothing short of outstanding talent. This article will be exclusively dedicated to one of Malta’s most popular artists- Malcolm Pisani.
His new song “Emperor”
I had the honour of meeting Malcolm in a very informal situation. He is a very outgoing and friendly person who is both down to earth and never forgets his roots.
No sooner had I seen his latest video of his single “Emperor”, I was immediately impressed. “Emperor” was officially launched on the 16th December 2016, and it is a song with a difference. You might ask “Why?” To tell you the truth, I was captivated by the video’s beautiful scenario which was all shot in Malta. Since the song has an oriental touch, some shots were taken in the Chinese Garden at Sta. Lucia. The composer of “Emperor”, which can be described as “a work of art” is Melvin Honda, whilst its producer is Cyprian Cassar. The lyrics were written by the talented Matt Muxu Mercieca together with Malcolm himself. (I told you Malcolm has outstanding talents). The video directors are Clifford Xuereb and Manoel Pace, whilst the production team was also composed of Rita Pace and Malcolm himself.
“Emperor” acquired such populiarity, that it was viewed on Facebook by around 70,000 people. Another success for “Emperor” occurred last week, when it was inserted in 5 Chinese websites (which are very similar to YouTube).
Malcolm is currently working on a new single and it will be released at the beginning of summer. It is going to be produced by an Italian production team who already worked with Malcolm on his song “Summer Love”.
Mr. Pisani is from Birkirkara and has been singing for the past sixteen years. He is also a vocal coach and has been training students for the past seven and a half years. Malcolm was also the presenter of the television programme “Fil-kcina ma’ Malcolm” on ONE television. In fact, Malcolm is a very good cook and believe me, he decorates cakes like a master chef. His favourite season is winter, as he enjoys decorating his house for the Christmas season.
During 2015, Malcolm was honoured with the title “L-iktar Zaghzugh Prominenti” by the Local Council of Birkirkara, together with the Ministry of Culture. Two singles that sky rocketed to number one in the local charts were “I” and “Summer Love”.
We wish Malcolm all the best for his future and to continue to make Malta proud!
PreviousQormi
NextSan Anton Palace and Gardens
Dirk Schembri
Ira Losco
Kristina Casolani & Morena
Leah Cauchi
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The Ambassadors
When a football player reaches the pinnacle of his career — becoming a pro — his life becomes very challenging, yet exciting. For most it is a whirlwind of cheering fans, regimented schedules, recognition off the field, signing autographs, making appearances at special events and being dubbed celebrities. That time in his life is pegged as “the glory days.” However, for most players the glory is short-lived, with an average career of 3.3 years. The majority of “retired” players are only in their early 30s.
Walter White is a former Kansas City Chief tight end and one of the founders and first president of the Chiefs Ambassadors who served for 10 years. He can regale an audience with hundreds of vignettes about his college and pro football life. He first played for the University of Maryland where he received a Bachelor of Science degree, and was the third leading receiver in the school’s history. In 1975, White was a third-round draft choice by the Pittsburg Steelers. However, he was cut the first day, but picked up the next day by the Chiefs. Short rollercoaster ride! His first game was four days later against the Denver Broncos.
Although White wasn’t a starter, when he was put in it was third and one. On his first play, there was a fake action pass and all of a sudden he was wide open. He got the ball and ran 69 yards for a touchdown! White played for the Chiefs for five years, 1975-1979. He had an outstanding career, and led the team in receiving in 1977 with more than 160 receptions — he averaged 14.9 yards. He may have played only 63 games, but is considered among the top five tight ends in Chiefs history. He left the game at age 29.
The downside of leaving pro ball, White says, is the feeling of isolation. “There is very little contact with active players afterward except for being recognized at halftime for an alumni event.” In 1989, White was asked to a meeting with Tim Conley, the then new marketing director of the Chiefs who remembered White from his college playing days. Also at the meeting were Ed Lothamer — defensive tackle 1964-1969 and 1971-1972; Ken Kremer — nose tackle 1979-1984; and Pro Football Hall of Famer Buck Buchanan — defensive tackle 1963-1975.
Conley was aware that many former players had stayed in the Kansas City area, and wanted to get a group together to promote the Chiefs and provide camaraderie with the rookie players. Because the team had gone through several losing seasons, ticket sales were down. This new group could become the bridge between the Chiefs organization and the community. It also would give the retired football players face time in the community.
The four men loved the idea. White thought for a moment and came up with the name the Ambassadors. Conley loved it, and thus, in the fall of 1989 an initial group of nine men became the first emissaries for the Chiefs.
To this day, the Ambassadors are the only group of its kind in the NFL. Every potential new member is handpicked. The candidate must have been a Chiefs player for at least three years, live in the Kansas City area and agree to attend monthly meetings. Finally, each candidate must be approved by the Chiefs organization. “We are a brand,” White says. Once selected, the new member serves a one-year apprenticeship.
In the early years, the Ambassadors were mentors to the rookie players, showing up in the locker room offering advice. “We had pizza and beer every Thursday night,” says Larry Marshall, who joined the Ambassadors in 1991.
The Ambassadors would join the rookies for a “big huddle” at the end of practice. “Every week we would give three player-of-the-week awards — defense, offense and special teams,” Marshall says. Each recipient would receive a big color photo of themselves in action from the previous game.
Tailgating was a huge draw. The Ambassadors had a tent right outside the stadium where they hosted sponsors, players’ wives and other guests. There was food, libations and a live band. As an added bonus, White would belt out a few tunes. His signature song was “My Girl.”
On any given game day there would be between 400 and 500 people partying in the tent. “It was the place to be,” Marshall says. Television and Hollywood stars, such as Kevin Costner and Joe Piscopo, would make an appearance and even perform. Tailgatingin the tent was also a major source of fundraising for the organization’s charitable activities. When the stadium was remodeled six years ago everything moved inside, and the Ambassadors can now be seen in the Founders Club.
Their reach has touched several states. About eight to 10 Ambassadors teamed up with the Denver Broncos for a hospital charity golf tournament in Goodland, Kansas. “The hospital was the only one for hundreds of miles,” Marshall says. At the Friday night party, the football players were auctioned off to play golf with the highest bidder.
White remembers being “sold” for $3,200, but says Larry Brunson, who was a wide receiver for both the Chiefs and the Broncos, was purchased for a whopping $5,000. Marshall says that over the years the Ambassadors have helped raise more than $1 million for the hospital.
The Ambassadors also have been a part of the Annual HK’s Hospital Golf Tournament since the early ’90s. This is the 40th year for the tournament, held at the Lodge of Four Seasons. Over the years the tournament has raised more than $3.3 million for the Lake’s local Lake Regional Health System. In addition to donating $2,500, White and a dozen or more Ambassadors and current players golf in the tournament, and also are present throughout the weekend. They greet sponsors and guests, and never tire of signing autographs and smiling for selfies.
Every year the top sponsors are given a special gift. One year it was a Chiefs helmet that had been signed by the entire team, another year it was an MU signed helmet. But White is very proud of the beautifully carved solid-wood football he helped create.
The Ambassadors also provide items for the live and silent auctions.
In addition to the usual Chiefs paraphernalia, they give Chiefs packages with tickets to a game, hotel accommodations and on-the-field access White, who has been dubbed Mr. Personality, loves to entertain.
One year he decided to have a group lip-synch the iconic song YMCA dressed as the Village People. He was able to convince a reluctant Coach Gary Pinkel and player Chase Daniels to perform along with fellow Ambassador Ed Budde. Every year, the golfing event fills two flights and raises nearly $200,000 for Lake Regional Health System.
In the late ’90s, the Ambassadors started a scholarship program for high school students in the Kansas City area. They didn’t want the students to write essays; instead the entrants answered a few questions. The top five were interviewed in person. The Ambassadors gave one female and one male each a scholarship of $1,000. That was 15 years ago; now in a slightly different format they give 25, $2,000 scholarships. “The scholarships are a really big deal,” Marshall says. “We have a banquet, and have a group photo of the winners.”
The Ambassadors, now 47 strong, give of their time throughout the Kansas City area and are regular visitors to the University of Kansas Health Systems. You’ll always find one or more at events for the Ronald McDonald House and Big Brothers Big Sisters. One of their main beneficiaries is Camp Quality, which serves children with cancer. “We hold football camp and spend the day with the kids,” Deron Cherry says.
The current president, now called director, is Keith Cash. He says it is his job to “lay out the vision to keep growing and moving forward.” At every monthly Ambassadors meeting they go through a list of requests for monetary support. They vote on the amount and time frame. For example, they recently voted to give Big Brothers Big Sisters $15,000 a year for three years. They raise between $100,000 and $160,000 every year to support their charities with an annual golf tournament held in September in Overland Park.
The KC Chiefs Ambassadors are not like your ordinary civic organization gathering for a weekly lunch meeting. These are Hall of Famers and Pro Football Players whose names and numbers appear on the side of Arrowhead Stadium. Their legend and stardom lives on as millions of fans still seek autographs and photos at charitable events.
Their team efforts are now measured by giving to those in need. Their winning is still happening, just on a bigger field called community. “I am so proud of this group,” White says. “We are a hidden treasure.” •
By Missy Martinette|April 30th, 2018|Advertisers, Cover Stories, Editorial, Featured, People & Entertainment, Sports & Toys|Comments Off on The Ambassadors
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Rooney Signs Statement of Support for Undocumented Students
Loyola President Rooney sent a campus-wide email on Dec. 1 saying she had signed the AJCU statement committing Loyola to the support and advocacy of undocumented students.
By Julie Whitehair
Follow Julie:
@jwhitehair11
December 1, 2016 9:44 p.m. CT
Loyola President Jo Ann Rooney signed a statement promising to support and advocate for undocumented students that was issued by the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU) on Nov. 30.
“[The AJCU] statement reflects the shared mission and values that are central to our Jesuit, Catholic tradition,” wrote Rooney in an email sent to the Loyola community in the afternoon on Dec. 1.
The AJCU press release said the organization was compelled to put out its statement to “raise a collective voice” and affirm its commitment to the rights of undocumented immigrant students on the campuses of Jesuit colleges and universities.
“Our communities are immeasurably enriched by the presence, intelligence, and committed contributions of undocumented students, as well as of faculty and staff of every color and from every faith tradition,” the AJCU press release said.
The schools will protect their campuses’ undocumented students to the “fullest extent of the law,” according to the AJCU statement.
It also states it will promote the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Program, which allows some undocumented immigrants to stay in the United States if they entered before the age of 16.
In the campus-wide email, Rooney explained that in addition to signing the AJCU statement, she also signed a statement of support for DACA and undocumented immigrant students started by Pomona College.
The Pomona College statement has more than 400 signatures from college and university presidents from both public and private institutions, as of Dec. 1.
All 28 of the Jesuit schools in the AJCU signed the statement.
Julie Whitehair
Julie Whitehair is the editor-in-chief of The PHOENIX and a senior journalism student from Calumet City, Illinois. She hopes to combine her curiosity and love of words to continue reporting and storytelling after graduation.
More from Julie Whitehair
PHOENIX Special Issue 2018: Health
Reporter Making History Got Her Start at The PHOENIX
From the Editor’s Desk: Differing Opinions Require Respectful Consideration
Fans Made Difference in Loyola’s 65-59 Victory Over San Diego State
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Mommy, Mommy! #2: Torres, Rosenfield, Fitterman, Donovan
Mommy, Mommy! I don't like tomato soup! Shut up, kid, we only have it once a month.
Join us for Mommy, Mommy! (#2), with Jenny Donovan, Robert Fitterman, Kim Rosenfield, and Gaby Torres.
$5 - $20 sliding scale
Reading starts at 8:00pm
compactspace 105 East 6th St., Los Angeles, CA 90016
www.compactspace.com 626 676 0627
JENNY DONOVAN is an artist, writer and translator, whose work has appeared in numerous journals, including Revista Espiral, Papeles de la Mancuspia, Encyclopedia Volume 2 F-K, Abrazo, and Bulbo Press. She has presented work in various independent spaces and museums in the US and Mexico, including: La Casa de la Cultura (Monterrey, México), The San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, Voz Alta (San Diego), el ISBC (Tijuana) y El Centro Cultural de Tijuana. With Gaby Torres, Donovan co-directs La Derramadora Press, a binational and bilingual independent press that produces small editions of hand crafted books from recycled materials.
ROBERT FITTERMAN is the author of nine books of poetry, including three installments of his ongoing poem Metropolis: Metropolis 1-15 (Sun & Moon Press, 2000), Metropolis 16-29 (Coach House Books, 2002), and Metropolis XXX: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Edge Books, 2004). Earlier titles include Leases (Periphery Press), among the cynics (Singing Horse Press) and Ameresque (Buck Downs Books). His most recent title, War, the musical, is a collaboration with artist Dirk Rowntree. He teaches at New York University in both the General Studies Program and the Department of English, and also the writing faculty at the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts, Bard College.
KIM ROSENFIELD is a poet and psychotherapist. She is the author of three books of genre blurring language; Good Morning--Midnight-- (Roof Books 2001), which won Small Press Traffic’s Book of the Year award in 2002, Tràma (Krupskaya 2004), and re: evolution (Les Figues Press 2008). She lives in NYC.
GABRIELA TORRES OLIVARES is the author of three collections of short stories, including Regiomonteses (enfermario) (ediciones La Derramadora press, 2008), Están Muertos, (Harakiri Plaquettes, 2004), and Incompletario (Ediciones Intempestivas, 2007). Her work has appeared in numerous anthologies, including: Caja de Viento (Ediciones El Árbol) and La Difícil Brevedad (2006), as well as in periodicals, including: Diálogos Posmodernos de Campeche (Quintana Roo), El Norte (Monterrey), La Rocka (Monterrey), Postdata (Argentina), Tierra Adentro (Mexico City), Indie- Rocks! (Mexico City), El Universal Parisino (Paris), Armas y Letras (UANL), Homines (Spain), Alta Noche (Hermosillo), Balbuceo (Guanajuato), and Pic-Nic (Mexico City). Torres currently lives in Rosarito, B.C., where she is the co-director, and chief editor of La Derramadora Press, as well as the co-director of Aprimotapiado, an artists’ books workshop that was developed as part of Proyecto Cívico Diálogos e Interrogantes.
Posted by Teresa Carmody at 12:32 PM 0 comments
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An account of the performances at the dedication of Mason-Hall, Hudson, : on the festival of St. John the Evangelist, Anno Lucis, 5796, corresponding to December 27, 1796, : with a brief record of the origin of the lodges in the county of Columbia, with their past and present officers. : To which will be affixed, the lives of St. John the Baptist, and St. John the Evangelist, extracted from the ancient writings, with notes and observations
The Resource An account of the performances at the dedication of Mason-Hall, Hudson, : on the festival of St. John the Evangelist, Anno Lucis, 5796, corresponding to December 27, 1796, : with a brief record of the origin of the lodges in the county of Columbia, with their past and present officers. : To which will be affixed, the lives of St. John the Baptist, and St. John the Evangelist, extracted from the ancient writings, with notes and observations
The item An account of the performances at the dedication of Mason-Hall, Hudson, : on the festival of St. John the Evangelist, Anno Lucis, 5796, corresponding to December 27, 1796, : with a brief record of the origin of the lodges in the county of Columbia, with their past and present officers. : To which will be affixed, the lives of St. John the Baptist, and St. John the Evangelist, extracted from the ancient writings, with notes and observations represents a specific, individual, material embodiment of a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Brigham Young University.
Freemasons, Hudson Lodge, No. 13 Hudson, N.Y
Ernst, John Frederick, -1805
Gardiner, W. C., (Walter Clarke), -1810
Hudson N.Y.:, Printed by Ashbel Stoddard, for the authors, 1797
49, [2], 62-89, [1] p.
Contains poems and a prayer by John Ernst, and a prayer and oration by Walter Gardiner
Signatures: [A]4 B-F4 G1 H-K4 L4(-L4) (L3 verso blank)
The printer notes on leaf G1 (p. 50) that the material intended for gathering G was not received in time to be included
An account of the performances at the dedication of Mason-Hall, Hudson,
on the festival of St. John the Evangelist, Anno Lucis, 5796, corresponding to December 27, 1796, : with a brief record of the origin of the lodges in the county of Columbia, with their past and present officers. : To which will be affixed, the lives of St. John the Baptist, and St. John the Evangelist, extracted from the ancient writings, with notes and observations
Freemasons -- New York (State) | Columbia County -- History
Poetry -- 18th century
John, the Baptist, Saint
Early American imprints, First series, no. 32287
MWA
15 cm. (8 vo)
diazo
<div class="citation" vocab="http://schema.org/"><i class="fa fa-external-link-square fa-fw"></i> Data from <span resource="http://link.lib.byu.edu/portal/An-account-of-the-performances-at-the-dedication/2T4dvbfORX4/" typeof="Book http://bibfra.me/vocab/lite/Item"><span property="name http://bibfra.me/vocab/lite/label"><a href="http://link.lib.byu.edu/portal/An-account-of-the-performances-at-the-dedication/2T4dvbfORX4/">An account of the performances at the dedication of Mason-Hall, Hudson, : on the festival of St. John the Evangelist, Anno Lucis, 5796, corresponding to December 27, 1796, : with a brief record of the origin of the lodges in the county of Columbia, with their past and present officers. : To which will be affixed, the lives of St. John the Baptist, and St. John the Evangelist, extracted from the ancient writings, with notes and observations</a></span> - <span property="potentialAction" typeOf="OrganizeAction"><span property="agent" typeof="LibrarySystem http://library.link/vocab/LibrarySystem" resource="http://link.lib.byu.edu/"><span property="name http://bibfra.me/vocab/lite/label"><a property="url" href="http://link.lib.byu.edu/">Brigham Young University</a></span></span></span></span></div>
Data Citation of the Item An account of the performances at the dedication of Mason-Hall, Hudson, : on the festival of St. John the Evangelist, Anno Lucis, 5796, corresponding to December 27, 1796, : with a brief record of the origin of the lodges in the county of Columbia, with their past and present officers. : To which will be affixed, the lives of St. John the Baptist, and St. John the Evangelist, extracted from the ancient writings, with notes and observations
http://link.lib.byu.edu/portal/An-account-of-the-performances-at-the-dedication/2T4dvbfORX4/
http://library.link/portal/An-account-of-the-performances-at-the-dedication/2T4dvbfORX4/
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Diversity?? (1) [with clarifications]
CLARIFICATIONS:
(1) There are restrictions on who can formally join an Ordinariate. But there are no restrictions on worshipping in an Ordinariate church.
(2) Our Lady of the Atonement has hitherto been a personal parish of the Archdiocese with borders coterminous with those of the Archdiocese, and has been part of the Anglican Use, the original set-up devised by Ratzinger for formerly Anglican parishes coming into Full Communion with their own liturgical heritage, long before the Ordinariates were set up.
Many readers will have read of the disgraceful treatment which the Anglican Use Church and Parish of our Lady of the Atonement in San Antonio has received at the hands of the Archbishop of San Antonio.
The Pastor of that Church, Fr Christopher Phillips, founded the parish with a handful of refugees from the Protestant Episcopal Church of the US of A back in the early 1980s. It has grown into a flourishing and enormous complex in which both the Church and the Academy are packed to the rafters. Splendid Liturgy prevails in the Church, and when I visited the Academy a year or two ago for their Commencement, and nosed around a bit on the ground finding out the facts for myself, I was enormously impressed by the atmospherically high academic standards ... including the large amount of Latin taught. And by the remarkable standards of student piety and devotion in Church. The whole set-up is vastly impressive. When, perhaps, you recollect that most of my working life was spent in a college with academic and Classical ambitions and a claimed Catholic culture, and that I am a critical and cynical old body, you might concede that I have some right to have an opinion and not to have it dismissed out of hand.
The Parish, now that the American Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter is up and running and flourishing under the admirable Bishop Steven Lopes, naturally wishes to join its brethren of the Anglican Patrimony in the Ordinariate. But the Archbishop resents this and has put in a replacement pastor while Fr Phillips is sent off for Reflection and Prayer. The parishioners, several of whom alerted me to what is going on, resent this and suspect that the 'temporary' sidelining of Fr Phillips is, in fact, final. It seems to be their impression ... how am I to know where they got it from ... that such a slippery way of acting is the sort of thing you expect from Catholic bishops.
"We want our priest and our Church back".
The said prelate acknowledges the strengths and excellences of the Atonement set-up, although the letter he sent to the parishioners deftly contrives to suggest that everything was built up by his own predecessor (who died recently) and makes no mention that Fr Phillips might have had anything whatsoever to do with it all. The Archbishop professes to intend to maintain the Parish's Anglican Patrimony for those who come from Anglicanism; suggesting by this sinister qualification that he does not think it right that the large numbers of cradle Catholics (including many Latinos) who worship there should be exposed to the perils of the Anglican Patrimony and the enormities of Anglican-style liturgy.
Why? Any Catholic of any Rite is entitled to worship in any Catholic Church and Rite he desires. Why is it necessary to discourage Latin Catholics of that diocese from attending Ukrainian Rite or Anglican Use or Melkite Rite or Extraordinary Form liturgy? Is the Archbishop afraid that they might discover something he would rather they did not know? Or a spirituality by which he would rather they were not fed? Or a culture which makes him feel threatened?
Otherwise, he makes vague and unspecific comments about the Parish being out of sync with the Diocese. If this man had an Anglo-Saxon sense of Natural Justice he would be man enough to let it be made public what his case against the Pastor is, so that the parishioners had the materials to form mature and adult judgements. All that stuff about Discernment and the Sacrosanctity of Conscience appears to have flown out of some window.
But here we have yet another example of the sad need which a certain sort of sad Catholic cleric seems to have to keep the laity safely and permanently infantilised; a damning reflection on their poor relationships with their lay people and on a profoundly "pre-Conciliar" mind-set towards them.
As Cardinal Ratzinger memorably said about the English Catholic bishops in the 1990s, "What are they so afraid of?"
I have a lot more to say on this.
Timothy Graham said...
This is all the more disgraceful if it is true that the archdiocese originally sold the parish some disused land that they had no purpose for, and made the then small and homeless group pay the full market price for it.
Christopher Boegel said...
And the "V2 rupture" clericalist machine thinks it will get away with the new dictatorship?
No they will not. They will sow the wind, and they will reap the whirlwind.
Practisinglawyer said...
I don't get this. I understand that this is a diocesan parish, but is Fr Phillips an Ordinariate priest or a diocesan priest? If the latter, why is he using Ordinariate liturgy; if the former, how is the Archbishop (who would not be his Ordinary) entitled to send him off for "Prayer n Reflection"? Maybe, to answer my own question, he has submitted to a request from the Abp as an alternative to being removed from the (non-Ordinariate) parish.
John Fisher said...
What we see is the raw excise of power divorced from Christ and Christianity. We see when Bergoglio forces the head of a sovereign state to resign> We see it when liberals impose heterodoxy. The Parish needs to join the Ordinariate. The Archbishop of San Antonio gives Holy Communion to adulterers. That is why he is moving against Fr Phillips. Its to block the parish joining the Ordinariate.
philipjohnson said...
Fr.I find that the Ordinariates are far more Catholic than our sorry shower of Liberal Lefties that we have in The Church.What it boils down to Father is this-our Catholic clergy,in the main,are embarrassed by these former Protestants !They are Catholic to the core and put our own to shame!We have fallen along way now that we are ashamed of our own Glorious Holy Catholic Faith.Long live The Ordinariates!
Fr., is one free to "choose" a different rite if one already received the Sacraments of Initiation in the Roman Rite? My understanding was that Anglicanorum Coetibus only allowed "switching" if one was not fully "initiated."
Gil Garza said...
Thank you for your comments. We remain hopeful and continue to pray for our pastor, Fr. Christopher Phillips, for our Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller and for our journey to the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter and that all of this may be concluded soon.
I tremble to say that they seem to be afraid of God, and of those who serve him.
Choose you this day.
Titus said...
"I don't get this. I understand that this is a diocesan parish, but is Fr Phillips an Ordinariate priest or a diocesan priest? If the latter, why is he using Ordinariate liturgy; if the former, how is the Archbishop (who would not be his Ordinary) entitled to send him off for "Prayer n Reflection"? Maybe, to answer my own question, he has submitted to a request from the Abp as an alternative to being removed from the (non-Ordinariate) parish."
As I understand it, the priest in question---Fr. Phillips---is a secular priest incardinated in the diocese of San Antonio. The parish is not using---or at least was not using prior to its publication---the Ordinariate Missal. Rather, it's an "Anglican Use" parish; there were a few of these scattered about under the Pastoral Provision rules that were allowed, on something more resembling an ad-hoc basis than the Ordinariate, to use Anglican or Anglican-derived (I hedge because I do not know) liturgical books. If I am not mistaken, Our Lady of Atonement is one of, if not the, most prominent and successful Anglican Use parish, if not anywhere, then certainly in the U.S.A.
"Fr., is one free to 'choose' a different rite if one already received the Sacraments of Initiation in the Roman Rite? My understanding was that Anglicanorum Coetibus only allowed 'switching' if one was not fully 'initiated.'"
There's an apparent conflict between A.C. I(4) and Article 5 of its Complimentary Norms. As far as "switching," of course, you can go to Mass in any Catholic rite you like.
The issue here, of course, is (surely) taxation. The diocese can and does tax diocesan parishes. It would not be permitted to tax an ordinariate parish within its geographic borders. That the bishop has taken such absurd measures over what is, at heart, a budget line item is venality of the very worst sort.
Capt. Morgan said...
The new Peronist spirit seems to be flourishing. How long Oh Lord?
josee allyn said...
Mario Josipovic said...
Father, thank you for your balanced yet forceful critique.
I too noticed that comment in his letter to the Parish that he intends to preserve the Anglican Patrimony "for those who come from Anglicanism". Although he is referring to the Pastoral Provision, this type of thinking was precisely the sort of Anglican-Patrimony-as-a-museum-exhibit that the Vatican and implementing Bishops strenuously said they wanted to avoid by promulgating AC (Cardinal Collins made this very point in March 2011 at Queen of the Apostles, Mississauga, Ontario). In other words, Anglicanorum Coetibus was intended to give the Anglican Patrimony a living presence within the Catholic Church - and if that meant growth, often through intermarriage with Latin Rite Catholics and raising of children in the Ordinariate, so be it. I would think it very much violates the spirit of that Apostolic Constitution for a Latin Rite bishop to stymie the efforts of a proto-Ordinariate parish to "come home", and it shows a lack of Christian charity for him not to allow those cradle Latin Rite Catholics that joined OLA to remain with it as an Ordinariate parish (the Archbishop would have discretion to re-incardinate - is that the right word? - Late Rite Catholics in the POCSP).
I find another public comment made by the Archbishop - about the danger of OLA becoming separate from the Archdiocese, rather than just unique - laughable. I, like many Catholics, know of "ethnic" parishes in North America where the priest, usually from the "old country" is brought in and incardinated with the local diocese, yet the priest says the vernacular Mass in their language, holds parish festivals linked to celebrations from the "old country", flies in bishops from the "old country" to do confirmations and otherwise pretty much avoids all contact with the local diocese - all with the explicit permission of the local bishop. This separateness is not done out of any animosity to the larger diocese, it's just a cultural reality. These ethnic parishes usually assimilate away over three or so generations (perhaps that is why they are given such latitude?) unless they are fed by a constant stream of new immigrants from the "old country".
I am not at all critical of such pastoral accommodations (always better to meet Catholics in the culture they are comfortable with), but why are such separate" ethnic parishes tolerated and, yet, the flourishing of a traditional English liturgy in San Antonio is resisted in this manner?
A sad tale. The SSPX needs to take note and be wary of this crowd. At what point is it ok to take a cue from St. Nicholas and deliver a swift blow to the conk?
Brigid Cooley said...
What a racist post. Very offended by this entire article. You're not trying to help solve the problem...you're making more of a divide here.
scotchlil said...
It is almost impossible to resist referring to D. Gregory's bon mot: 'It is no accident that the symbol of a bishop is a crook and the sign of an archbishop is a double-cross.'
It is also hateful to find oneself constantly harbouring thoughts antipathetic to those who are supposedly responsible for the safeguarding of faith and flock.
You will recall better than I, Father, who it was who suggested that while bishops were the esse of the church, they were not necessarily the bene esse...
Charles Wilson said...
Father, you probably don't remember me, but I met you when you visited Our Lady of the Atonement several years,. My name is Chuck Wilson. I am a founding member of the parish and also the retired executive director of an apostolate formed to assist Catholics in vindicating their rights in the Church. You can rest assured that we have a team of canon lawyers that is ready to help the parishioners in seeking all the remedies available under canon law.
There is now a website where your readers can keep informed. www.saveatonement.org.
Please keep us in your prayers
Mark H said...
Under the same Archdiocese of San Antonio is the church of St George Maronite
https://www.stgeorgesa.org/
"a Christian community of the Syriac Maronite Patriarchal Church of Antioch, a self-governing Eastern Catholic Church in full communion with the Pope of Rome, Francis."
Surely, this community also has "an identity separate from, rather than simply unique, among the parishes of the archdiocese."
Yet, St George Maronite is not being investigated, their pastor has not been banished from the parish grounds.
Gosh, what could possibly be the difference? That St George is not trying to leave?
Matthew Roth said...
Divine Worship: the Missal has replaced the Book of Divine Worship, i.e. the Anglican Use in diocesan parishes. Also, diocesan clergy can use the Ordinariate Use at the request of Ordinariate members.
Tom A. said...
Pre Conciliar??????? What you describe is most certainly a POST Conciliar mindset. It is the Novus Ordo that is the prime instrument of infantilizing the laity.
mark wauck said...
Perhaps we need some clarification. I certainly hold no brief for the bishop in this case, but my understanding is that Fr. Phillips did, in fact, have an opportunity to bring Our Lady of the Atonement into the Ordinariate when the Ordinariate first came into existence. I'm told that at that time he decided against it out of concerns that were, at least in part, financial. I don't know this for a fact--I'm only repeating things I've heard, but I've heard them from people with at least some personal connection. In any event, if this in fact happened--if Fr. Phillips decided for whatever reason to remain in the Archdiocese of San Antonio--he would have done so on the usual terms. This could have been a rather short sighted decision, as events have borne out. If these are the facts, it's understandable, at least in principle, that a bishop would not want to allow parishes in his diocese to simply "opt out" at their own discretion, even if there are significant religio-cultural considerations.
mindypin said...
Thank you for this wonderful article. May God bless you! The outpouring off support for our cause has been tremendous.
Woody said...
Archbishop Garcia-Siller ordained Fr. David Wagner for the Ordinariate in 2014, to serve in the Northern San Antonio exurb of Boerne, Texas (it was the real boondocks when I grew up in S.A. back in the 60's), and I heard several Ordinariate priests back in Houston shortly thereafter say how charmed they were by the Archbishop. Fr. Phillips himself published on Facebook quite favorable reports of the Archbishop's visits to Atonement in the past, as well, thanking him for his kindness. Thus it is all the more saddening and a little confusing, to see this happen now.
Trying to read between the lines, and noting the text of the Archbishop's letter, it does seem likely that the chancery ("Pastoral Center") in San Antonio fears that if Atonement were to become an Ordinariate parish, they would see a continued drain of faithful and their contributions over to Atonement and away from the archdiocese. While I do not go back over to San Antonio from Houston very often, my impression from the times that I have been there is that, unlike Houston, Atonement is virtually the only "conservative" parish there, so faithful who want good, reverent liturgy and orthodox teaching would have nowhere else to go but to OLA (pace the SSPX and Byzantine Catholic missions). I would like to think that some particularly uncharitable liberal clerics in the Pastoral Center put the idea into the Archbishop's head that this drastic action had to be taken. Unfortunately, it seems undeniable that in an objective sense, the powers that be are acting much as the former Warsaw Pact authorities acted in building the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain, to keep their unhappy citizens inside their territory so that, having no alternative, they would build the socialist paradise.
To continue the analogy one step further, the distinction between the Iron Curtain and what the "Pastoral Center" is doing is that while in the old Communist days, maybe people wanted to leave only because they sought material prosperity or liberal political freedom, but in OLA's case, the good of souls is at stake. We at Our Lady of Walsingham ran into a similar version of this when, in the late 1990's, a parishioner from another Houston parish decided to come over to us, bringing her large bank account with her. Suddenly the wrath of the Chancery descended upon our pastor, the long-suffering Fr. James T. Moore, and charges of sheep-stealing were flung. The old clerical gripe about "sheep stealing" that we have heard so much of, is, as you say, Father, infantilising the laity, implying that the laity have no ability to discern what is best for their souls, if not simply and uncaringly, wanting to keep them, and their money, imprisoned in the unsatisfactory parish. I fear that the Pastoral Center in San Antonio may have some of that mentality in operation here.
Dear Brigid Cooley: how is this post "racist"? What is the nature of the "problem" you refer to? And how is Fr Hunwicke "making more of a divide here"?
I ask these questions as a cradle Catholic who, after having drifted away from the Faith through my early adult years and having married a Protestant by the norms of her ecclesial community, reconciled with the full Faith with my wife being confirmed Catholic within the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter. We now joyfully celebrate worship within the POCSP with our children (the youngest of whom was baptized within it).
Pastoral incidents such as this one in San Antonio challenge me: is the liturgical expression within which I am raising my children somehow "second class"? As a cradle Latin Rite Catholic, should I be trying to steer my family towards the majoritarian form of liturgical worship within the Catholic Church? What of my own resonances with the truly Catholic aspects of the Anglican Patrimony - are these yearnings illegitimate?
I don't mean to make this personal, but a living Church IS personal. It is a living Tradition, and if elements of it are somehow inauthentic or otherwise not Catholic, they should be left behind. So far, I don't see what is unCatholic in what Fr Phillips has done in his wonderful ministry of over three decades.
No doubt, it’s all to do with ‘discernment’ and 'accompaniment’. And no doubt 'mercy' comes into this in a big way.
Is there a suggestion by the Archbishop that a cradle Catholic married to a Catholic who used to be an Anglican should not be allowed to attend the same Mass and receive Communion together?
Fr John Hunwicke said...
MARK H: S George's Maronite Church in San Antonio is already part of the Maronite Eparchy of our Lady of Lebanon, so there can be no question of it either leaving, or not leaving, the Archdiocese. The Eastern Catholic Churches have their own separate jurisdictions. The Ordinariates are just trying to catch up with this very natural arrangement!
neilmac said...
Will the heavy hand of Bergoglio now descend upon the bishop in order to investigate his behaviour, thus forcing his resignation so that a truly merciful bishop may be appointed? Or is that sort of behaviour reserved only for those whom Bergoglio and his coterie dislike?
Meanwhile have you heard any liberals shouting about Bergoglio's dictatorial behaviour in Malta? It sounds very quiet where I am.
One expects faithful Catholics to be persecuted, but from within the Church? From within the Vatican?
Who can put an end to this madness?
Long live the Dubia Four
William Tighe said...
Practisinglawyer wrote:
I attempted to post a brief comment in response to this earlier today, but it vanished into the internet ether; and I forgot to copy my response first. I will attempt to do so again, while noting that other commenters have also responses.
OLA was founded as the first "Anglican Use" parish in 1983, under the "Pastoral Provision" for former Episcopalians wishing to become Catholic and yet retain some aspects of their Anglican liturgical and spiritual patrimony, which was promulgated by Rome in 1983. It applied only to the United States. The American (including Canada as well as the United States) Ordinatiate of the Chair of St.Peter, the second-erected of the three current Anglican Ordinariates, was erected in 2012 (the English Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham was erected in 2011; the Australian Ordinariate of the Southern Cross was erected in 2012). The Anglican Use parishes' liturgy was the "Book of Divine Worship" which incorporated aspects of the 1979 Episcopalian Book of Common Prayer into the Roman Rite "Novus Ordo" liturgy; the current "Ordinariate Liturgy" is a revised and amplified version of the rite found in the Book of Divine Worship, drawing on Anglican sources beyond that of the 1979 Episcopalian prayer book, and has been authorized for use not only in the three ordinariates, but in those parishes and congregations which remain "Anglican Use" parishes and congregations within their respective Roman (Latin) Catholic dioceses.
Fr. Phillips is a married priest (a former Episcopalian clergyman) of the Archdiocese of San Antonio. As such (if my understanding is correct) the only parish in that archdiocese which he is eligible to serve as parish priest is OLA. Once the CSP Ordinariate was erected "Pastoral Provision/Anglican Use" parishes and congregations could seek to transfer to that ordinariate (with the approval of their Latin Catholic ordinary, which it was expected would be forthcoming). It is my impression that most, if not all, of those "Pastoral Provision/Anglican Use" parishes which had church buildings of their own (e.g., Our Lady of Walsingham, Houston, Texas, and St. Mary the Virgin, Arlington, Texas, to give but two examples) did so, with the blessing of their Roman (Latin) Catholic bishops - and that despite the fact that a large percentage of the regular attenders of these parishes were from a Roman Catholic background; those that remain within Latin Catholic archdioceses or dioceses as "Pastoral Provision/Anglican Use" congregations are mostly (OLA being the only exception of which I am aware) relatively small congregations meeting in Roman Catholic church building, often with their pastor ministering to Latin Catholic groups or congregations, and so to some extent dependent upon the favor and support of these dioceses and their bishops.
Kevin Myers said...
Per an FSSP Transitional Deacon from San Antonio, the Archdiocese of San Antonio is a pretty liberal place. He even says that Our Lady of the Atonement is where he goes to Mass during the week when at home. They only have the one Diocesan TLM at St. Pius X Parish that is non SSPX. I have found it interesting that Archbishop Gomez was able to bring the FSSP in when he moved to Los Angeles but never could do it in San Antonio and they have been unsuccessful in opening an apostolate under Abp. Garcia-Siller. The bastion of Latin-rite orthodoxy is in trouble in San Antonio. From sources, Fr. Phillips has been welcoming to FSSP Priests saying masses a the Atonement for weddings and etc.
Fr. Phillips's situation is very saddening like what happened to Fr. Michael Rodriguez of the Diocese of El Paso, Texas. Fr. Rodriguez was a priest who stood up for traditional marriage and values but who infuriated his former Bishop when he refused to no longer say the Novus Ordo. Fr. Rodriguez started to say the TLM full time and got banished to a rural area of the El Paso Diocese and got a small parish thriving. He was then placed on sabbatical like Fr. Phillips for further "prayer and discernment." Fr. Hunwicke, let me know if you were familiar with the case of Fr. Rodriguez.
My Father is Anglican, my Mother's family converted in the 1930's following marriage to a Catholic. In the UK until recently all were forced to be married in the C Of E. My Great Grandfather whom I knew was by the Anglo Catholic Edward Burrows of St Augustine's Haggerston. These High Anglicans went and served in areas of great social disadvantage. I was baptized and raised as a Latin rite Catholic. The Ordinariate did not exist. My point is many Latin Rite Catholics have links to Anglicanism through marriage or simply because our ancestors woke up to find they belonged to a government Church broken away from the rest of the Church. When trying to maintain that link was called treason most just caved in. We all have a stake in the Ordinarite's flourishing so that Anglicans can get away from the State manipulated and deformed Anglican Church.
Daniel 11:33-35
“And they that are learned among the people shall teach many: and they shall fall by the sword, and by fire, and by captivity, and by spoil for many days. And when they shall have fallen they shall be relieved with a small help: and many shall be joined to them deceitfully. And some of the learned shall fall, that they may be tried, and may be chosen, and made white even to the appointed time, because yet there shall be another time.”
So when will the FSSP face the chop, the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate already done to death and the Order of Malta defeated without a Turk in sight? I do hope the SSPX is taking this all in.
I am actually wearing my tin foil hat.. and I do love conspiracy theories...that being said, I am left wondering why the hostility toward OLA. Anglicanorum Coetibus , a brilliant document of ideas under consideration for many years by two of the Great catholics ,John Paul 2 and Benedict 16. The document contains , quite intentionally, some time bombs for the Church Catholic. They are revolutionary. I am mindful that The Ordinariate has already been formed.. but although it takes a long process to become incorporated, OLA was just at the beginning of the process and thus was vulnerable. This was probably the only window of opportunity if the Ordinariate was going to be stopped in its tracks. Our Lady of The Atonement was the original parish in the Pastoral Provision of JP2 and it was the beacon by which that others, parishes and people found their way home to Rome. Fr. Christopher Philips had a great vision and and enormous drive. His parish grew and grew, it had a convent, a school and a beautiful church, all from such a small beginning. It will, of course begin failing and heterodox as soon as the changes in leadership begin to take effect. This is where I keep my tin foil hat on... because what happens to OLA will happen to other Ordinariate parishes too. S.JP2 and Venerable Benedict.. your work is not in vain, because future generations will search the archives and see your great work, and those of us most touched by the brilliance of The Pastoral Provision and Anglicanorum Coetibus will keep its memory alive.
I have just read the letter to the parish from the Archbishop of Antonio. I note he does not express the difference he has with the pastor. Probably because he is in the wrong. I also not he claims to be guided by the Holy Spirit.... again a presumptive blasphemy. Thee Archbishop does not have the courage or honesty to articulate the reasons for his public act. I wonder if under canon law a bishop can remove a priest without due canonical process. We have seen this sort of capricious maladministrion before. Its being going on since the days of Paul VI in the 1960's. Give Modernists any authority and use it to attack like Operation Barbarossa. I recall the abuse Catholics who would not conform to the looney changes after Vatican II have thrown at them. I recall the insults, removal of clergy and dissipation of Christianity that led to and fed the spiritual and sexual abuse of laity by clergy. the Archbishop is an abuser... what is worse he dares to use the Holy Spirit to cover his own self will.
I am not a canonist, nor versed in memory with the details of the documents by which the CSP Ordinariate was erected, but I know of no stipulation in them that an Anglican Use parish or congregation had to make a decision within a set period of time whether it would seek to transfer to the CSP Ordinariate, not that any decision by such a parish or congregation to remain an "Anglican Use" parish was a once-for-all and irrevocable choice. Perhaps more to the point in this instance, I am not aware that the fact that a large proportion of the regular congregants at an Anglican Use parish or congregation may be Roman Catholics, or otherwise not eligible as individuals to be accounted as or to become lay members of the CSP Ordinariate, can in any way act as an inhibition on an Anglican Use parish in a Roman Catholic archdiocese or diocese seeking to transfer to the CSP Ordinariate, although such individuals would (I presume) remain Roman Catholics, canonically speaking. The regular presence and attendance of such people at, e.gg., Our Lady of Walsinghan, Houston, or St. Mary the Virgin, Arlington, does not appear to have caused the bishops of the respective dioceses of which they were formerly parishes to hesitate about allowing them to leave their jurisdiction and to enter that of the CSP Ordinariate.
The situation strikes me as analogous (but not identical) to that of congregations of one or another of the non-Roman rites of the Catholic Church outside of their home territories; parishes of Chaldean Rite Catholics in the United States, for example, were originally under the authority and jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic bishop or archbishop within the geographical bounds of whose dioceses they were located, but once a diocese (or eparchy) for such a group was erected it was only natural and to be expected that such parishes would become part of this new entity, and it would be very strange for any Roman Catholic archbishop or bishop to attempt to retain his jurisdiction over such parishes, even if a considerable portion of those who attended the services there were Roman (Latin) Catholics.
Unlike these non-Roman Catholic churches/rites, the Anglican Ordinariates are not ecclesiae sui juris, canonically separate churches from the Latin Church of the Roman Rite, but a recognized and authorized "separate entity" within the Roman Rite. I do not know whether a Roman Catholic bishop has the authority to refuse the reasonable request of an Anglican Use parish under his jurisdiction to transfer to the Ordinariate - which was created, after all, to give institutional recognition and protection to the liturgical and spiritual patrimony which Anglican Use parishes are meant to embody - but it seems mean-spirited to do so for financial reasons, and absurd to claim as a reason for doing so "because of the pastoral concerns I have for your parish's ecclesial communion" (as the Archbishop of San Antonio's letter states) - as though in seeking to leave the jurisdiction of his archdiocese OLA were seeking to leave the communion of the Catholic Church. Such a claim recalls some of the reasons why American Roman Catholic bishops in the late 19th/early 20th centuries tried to prevent the formation of "Eastern Rite" Catholic parishes in their dioceses, as though anything "not Latin Catholic" were really "not Catholic at all" or that the mere existence of such Catholic-but-not-Roman/Latin entities would "confuse the faithful." It was a bad reason then, and remains a bad reason now.
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I was quite indignant. You see,
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The Feast of the Circumcision
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MBCNbuzz
Blog, Feature Story
Metastatic Breast Cancer Alliance Research Task Force Meets Today in Dallas; Focus of Discussion is Improving Length and Quality of Life for People Living With Metastatic Disease
Dallas – February 1, 2016 – Metastatic breast cancer (MBC) is cancer that originated in the breast but has spread to other parts of the body, such as liver, lung, bones and brain. It causes >40,000 deaths every year in the U.S., a number that has remained unchanged for three decades.
This alarming fact is driving the advocate-led Metastatic Breast Cancer Alliance (“the Alliance”) to convene 60 experts from patient advocacy, academia, industry and government to discuss barriers in MBC research and possible solutions to better coordinate and accelerate research and translation to help patients sooner.
“As a person living with MBC each day, I’m grateful for the scientists and experts who have taken time out of their busy schedules to help guide the Alliance in the most thoughtful directions for MBC research,” commented Shirley Mertz, President of the Metastatic Breast Cancer Network and Co-Chair of the Research Task Force.
Dr. Danny R. Welch, Professor and Chair of Cancer Biology at the University of Kansas Cancer Center noted at the start of the meeting that “My career has been focused on research on metastasis and putting an end to breast cancer. I have never seen as much energy, collaboration and excitement to work together – across academic, patient advocacy, industry and government sectors- as I have by working with this Alliance.”
“As Co-Chair of the Alliance Research Task Force, along with Shirley Mertz, we’ve been working with these experts for the last eight months [by phone and webinar] discussing barriers to MBC research,” said Stephanie Reffey, Managing Director, Evaluation and Outcomes at Susan G. Komen, today. “These prior meetings culminated in today’s “Think Tank” in Dallas, where we are devising specific, actionable projects the Alliance can lead to accelerate MBC research.”
In 2014, the Alliance released its Changing the Landscape for People Living with Metastatic Breast Cancer Report, which analyzed 224 clinical trials, 2281 funded research grants, 7900 MBC patient responses to surveys and 175 literature articles on quality of life and epidemiological studies.
“Our research of the scientific landscape found a number of gaps and challenges in lab research and clinical trials impeding progress in scientific research,” said Chair of the Alliance, Dr. Marc Hurlbert. “After today, the Alliance’s task is to now facilitate a cooperative effort to review the objectives from this meeting and develop actions that can be taken in the immediate term. Given the toll MBC takes on patients and their caregivers, we have a responsibility to waste no time acting on the direction from this important meeting.”
Representatives at the meeting in Dallas include:
Advocate Nonprofits: Breast Cancer Research Foundation, BreastCancerTrials.org, Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation, Inflammatory Breast Cancer Research Foundation, Metastatic Breast Cancer Network, Patient Advocates In Research (PAIR), Research Advocacy Network, Susan G. Komen, Theresa’s Research Foundation
Academic Institutions: Baylor College of Medicine, Broad Institute, Dana-Farber/ Harvard Cancer Center, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Institute of Cancer Research (UK), Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, NYU School of Medicine, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, University of California San Francisco, University of Kansas Cancer Center, University of Michigan, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, University of Southern California, University of Washington School of Medicine, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Government: U.S. Food and Drug Administration, National Cancer Institute
Industry: Eli Lilly and Company, Genentech, Novartis Pharmaceutical Corporation, Pfizer Worldwide Research & Development
About the Metastatic Breast Cancer Alliance
The Metastatic Breast Cancer Alliance is led by advocates and, since forming with 15 groups in October 2013, has grown to be the largest breast cancer alliance in the U.S. with 40 of the leading cancer charities, advocacy groups and individuals and pharmaceutical industry partners. The Alliance vision is to transform and improve the lives of people living with metastatic breast cancer. The Alliance’s work focuses on three outcomes:
1. Advancing progress in scientific research
2. Increasing understanding of the disease and access to information and support
3. Building awareness of how metastatic disease differs from early stage breast cancer
More information about the Alliance is available at www.mbcalliance.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mbcalliance/
Twitter: @mbcalliance #MBCResearch
YouTube: www.youtube.com/mbcalliance
Carla: Cancer is a growth, not a growth experience
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A two-tier democracy
Six months in - the stats
Three hours of cross-examination!
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St Piran's Day Message
How not to run a democracy!
The announcement that Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg will take part in three televised debates during the next General Election demonstrates that there really is a two-tier democracy in the UK.
The SNP and Plaid Cymru are right to be angry as it puts them at an enormous disadvantage, with these high-profile debates focussing attention on the three largest London-centred parties and only the three largest London-centred parties.
Many members of the Labour Party, Conservative Party and Liberal Democrats are already lining up to criticise Alex Salmond for his threat to take legal action on behalf of the SNP. But they would, wouldn’t they? They want to stop other parties getting fair coverage during the election period.
There is talk of single televised debates in Scotland and Wales, but these will almost certainly not include Brown, Cameron and Clegg. And the media will consequently downplay their significance as a result.
As for MK - the same media outlets are refusing to allow us a single parliamentary broadcast and ... oh, how I could go on!
It has been just over six months since I was elected to Cornwall Council. I think now is the time to report back on my performance – statistics wise.
My role as a councillor has been full-time and then some. I have undertaken no other paid work during this period. The Council website presently records that I have an attendance record of 92%.
The stats show that since June, there have been 29 meetings of the various committees that I sit on. Of these, I have attended 24. There were three meetings that I could not attend as I was at another Cornwall Council meeting at the same time (recorded as “apologies due to council business.”) The remaining two meetings that I missed were of the Strategic Planning Committee (dealing with Binhamy Farm, Bude and the Davidstow wind turbine applications). In both these cases, I had given archaeological advice on the applications in my former role as an employee of the Historic Environment Service of Cornwall County Council. I therefore had a prejudicial interest and would not have been able to participate in the debate.
I feel I could legitimately claim to have a 100% attendance record.
As MK Group Leader, I have also set out to attend meetings of certain committees of which I am not a member in order to better understand how the Council operates. The records show that I have attended 17 such meetings in this period (recorded as “in attendance” in the stats) – the fourth highest figure for a councillor.
But this is not in any way the full picture. For all councillors, there are numerous extra meetings, briefings and informal gatherings that are not deemed ‘official’ meetings and therefore not counted.
To take last week as an example, I attended the Waste Panel on Monday (counted) and then spent three days at a Public Inquiry (not counted). In the previous week, I was at three official meetings – Full Council, Planning Policy Panel and the Central Sub-Area Planning Committee. Informal meetings included a scrutiny session on the budget process, a meeting of councillors from the China Clay Area about the eco-town and a briefing on the Council’s plans for carbon reduction. For information (and/or sympathy), extras included two meetings about the upcoming Public Inquiry into the Incinerator, a Parish Council meeting, a meeting of the board of ClayTAWC and I finished off the week with a gathering of MK’s National Executive.
There is also, of course, the challenge of addressing issues from local parishioners when not stuck in meeetings.
It is great to be at home, sitting by a glorious wood fire with a glass of wine. It has certainly been a long and tiring day.
Today, I represented Cornwall Council at a Planning Inquiry in St Austell. Earlier this year, an application was submitted for a TRSA (Trunk Road Service Area) some 500m to the east of Victoria near Roche. It was presented to the Central Sub-Area Planning Committee, which resolved it should be refused.
This was then referred to the Council’s Strategic Planning Committee (an unacceptable practice since stopped). In the meantime, the applicant appealed because the Council had not determined the application and the Strategic Planning Committee voted to contest the appeal.
And that was where I came in. As the officers had recommended that the application be approved, it was necessary for a councillor to front up the Council’s case. I was approached and agreed.
Though the Council has experienced legal support at the Inquiry, I had the task of setting out a summary of the Council’s reasons for refusal. I was then cross-examined by the applicant’s legal representatives. This started at just after 11.00, we broke for one hour for dinner, and I was finally allowed off the stand at 3.20.
I can assure one and all that the wine tastes good tonight.
I am very pleased to make it known that four well-known and respected independent councillors are backing my campaign to be first MP for the new St Austell and Newquay seat.
Des Curnow (St Stephen), Fred Greenslade (St Dennis), Harry Heywood (Newquay Treviglas) and John Wood (Roche) will today issue the following joint statement:
“We are proud to be Independent councillors and have no intention of endorsing any particular political party at the next General Election.
“We are however pleased to be able to offer our full support to Dick Cole as an individual in his bid to become the MP for St Austell and Newquay.
“In recent years, we have worked with Dick on Restormel Borough Council and, more recently, on Cornwall Council. He has always been an extremely committed and effective councillor, who fights hard for local people.
“It is our belief that he is the best candidate to represent our area in Westminster and would make an admirable, sincere and hard-working MP for Cornwall.”
I am most grateful for their kind support and I hope that I will be able to repay the trust that they have placed in me.
The above photograph shows me with (left to right) Fred Greenslade, Des Curnow, Harry Heywood and John Wood.
I am delighted to have found a recent entry on Simon Parker's blog on the Western Morning News website (http://www.thisiswesternmorningnews.co.uk/simonparker/Voting-MK-change/article-1561437-detail/article.html). It reports on MK's recent Conference and our campaign leading up to the next General Election.
Thank you for the kind words, Simon. And for those of you who haven't read it yet, here it is reproduced below.
There’s no getting away from it... within six months we’ll be having a General Election.
For political pundits and party activists it can’t come soon enough. But for the rest of us the prospect of an imminent election, with all the endless posturing and back-biting that involves, is a source of weary resignation.
Of course, it wasn’t always like that. In previous times we, the electorate, had choices. Market forces of socialism. Nationalisation or selling the family silver. Imperialism of internationalism. The list of choices was, if not always to our liking, at least clear-cut.
By contrast, today’s choices are, well, hardly there at all, to the extent that it’s not only impossible to work out what each of the three main parties actually stand for, but that their ability to govern, to lead, is increasingly in doubt. And lads, that’s what you’re there to do – it might be worth remembering it sometimes.
So where does that leave you and I? Can we vote Conservative? No. Never again can we trust a party that presided over the wholesale destruction of our manufacturing base, smashed our traditional industries in the name of dogma, privatised our national assets and derided the very notion of society. They may not have been in power for a dozen years, but don’t be fooled, the same monstrous values still prevail in today’s Tory party.
Labour, then? No. Never again can we trust a party that led us into an illegal and immoral war that has resulted in the documented deaths by violence of at least 102,000 Iraqi civilians, not to mention the servicemen and women from Britain and other countries. New Labour has repeatedly reneged on its principles and it is an absolute travesty that those men and women who worked so hard to make Britain a better place for all after 1945 have been so badly cheated of their legacy. Labour? Clem Attlee wouldn’t recognise it.
OK, the Liberal-Democrats? When undecided on any issue, I find it useful to ask: Would David Penhaligon have voted for it? Sadly, for the unprincipled Lib-Dems – unlike the radical, caring old Liberal Party – I fear the late, lamented member for Truro would not be comfortable with the pronouncements of Nick Clegg’s version of liberalism, either at local or national level.
So that only leaves UKIP, the Green Party, the BNP or a complete boycott of the electoral process.
Only teasing. Of course we have a choice – and, what’s more, one which David Penhaligon would endorse.
It is no exaggeration to say that perhaps for the first time in a generation Cornwall has the opportunity to make a difference to its own affairs by electing a Mebyon Kernow candidate to Westminster.
The calibre of those standing this time is undisputed. At MK’s annual conference, the six candidates – Dick Cole (Newquay & St Austell), Simon Read (St Ives), Loveday Jenkin (Camborne & Redruth), Loic Rich (Truro & Falmouth), Joanie Willett (North Cornwall) and Glenn Renshaw (South East Cornwall) – displayed maturity, coherence, clear policies, confidence and determination. With the Tories, Lib-Dems and Labour in disarray and tainted by the scandal of illegal expenses claims, surely this is the hour for Mebyon Kernow to benefit from the massive unpopularity of the three main parties. After all, it’s always more effective to kick an enemy when he’s already down.
If MK has any chance of scoring what to many seems an unachievable goal, they have to first believe that an MK MP is attainable. Not only that but they have to convince the electorate that they too can believe in victory.
Many will argue that MK cannot hope to compete against the Big Three, whose financial budget dwarfs that of the Cornish party. But perhaps by putting all its efforts and resources into a simple popular slogan (something like VOTE FOR CORNWALL VOTE FOR REAL CHANGE VOTE MK) the party could tap into the frustrations of all those who feel uncomfortable voting Labour, Tory or Lib-Dem.
It would not be a protest vote but instead a positive declaration of support for Cornwall’s self-determination (I’M VOTING FOR CORNWALL I’M VOTING FOR REAL CHANGE I’M VOTING MK).
Such a campaign has the potential to generate a groundswell of popular support, appealing to a spectrum of voters:
Former supporters of the three main parties who have become disillusioned and feel cheated and want to give their own party a bloody nose.
Floating voters who have become disenfranchised through a combination of policy failures and lies by the three main parties.
Idealistic first-time voters desperate for something to believe in.
Voters who want the best for Cornwall. This is the Joker in MK’s pack and something the other parties don’t have. MK alone appeals to those who don’t love politics but do love Cornwall and feel passionately that Cornwall’s voice needs to be heard in Parliament.
Do the members of MK even realise just how close they are to victory? The notion of Cornishness has grown to a level which was unthinkable even 10 years ago – and it is that sense of distinctiveness that MK can tap into at a time when the popularity of Labour, Lib-Dems and Tories is at an all-time low.
This rise in popularity was demonstrated at this year’s European Parliament when the party polled seven per cent of the votes in Cornwall – beating Labour – and in the Cornwall Council election, which resulted in three seats for MK.
At last week’s conference, Dick Cole announced that the party was “looking forward” to the General Election. That, of course, is a politician speaking; he’s very unlikely to say his members are dreading it. But we knew what he meant.
How many party faithful in the hall truly believed that in a few months the Palace of Westminster would be welcoming its first MK MP? It takes more than hope to elect an MP. It takes confidence, tenacity, an effective campaign and a huge dollop of self-belief – something party leader Dick Cole does possess.
“Make no mistake,” said Dick. “It was a massive achievement for MK to get three councillors elected to serve at County Hall – something not achieved by a host of political parties including Labour, UKIP, the Greens and others. In the European Elections we achieved seven per cent of the votes in Cornwall, even though we were excluded from television air-time and much meaningful publicity. This shows that MK is in a stronger position than ever before.”
Councillor Cole spoke about the “immeasurable damage done to politics” by the Westminster expenses scandal and called on MPs found to have abused the system to be banned from office for life. He told party members that the challenge in the coming months would be to prove to the public that a vote for Mebyon Kernow will breathe desperately-needed fresh air into Cornish and British politics.
“We are involved in politics because we care about our local communities and because we want to win a better deal for Cornwall. Politics to us is about public service – it is about doing what is right. People do not join MK to become an MP in some safe seat or to build a career or to put their personal interest ahead of the needs of local people. Our politics is about hope for the future – not cynicism in the present.”
Another candidate speaking with confidence was Joanie Willett, who will be standing in the North Cornwall constituency in the 2010 General Election. She told the meeting: “Cornwall has been marginalised by the London-based political parties. We have witnessed and experienced the inadequacies of recent Labour and previous Tory governments. Closer to home, it has been staggering to see how the Lib-Dems have run roughshod over the people’s wishes over the past four years. This neglect is compounded by the recession, the continual erosion of public services, the lack of affordable housing and the often damaging roles of quangos. We do not need self-serving politicians not interested in democracy. We do not need overpaid and transient civil servants chasing the next lucrative job. Cornwall needs people who know what they are doing and can make the right decisions – decisions based on the needs of Cornish communities. We have to be brave, bold and be prepared to fight against the odds. When Mebyon Kernow takes to the streets we want people to look and listen and join us. While we need to recognise that we have made great steps as a political party, we need to remain grounded in active campaigning on the issues that affect thousands of ordinary people.”
Councillor Loic Rich, the prospective parliamentary candidate for Truro and Falmouth, added: “The future is in our hands. People are actively voting for us. Not reluctantly and not as a protest. They are excited about our message. They notice how hard we work. We, above anyone else, can make Cornwall a better place to live. We fight for Cornish industries, for Cornish culture, for Cornish housing and for stopping the constant loss of public services across the Tamar.”
So what is to be done? Cornwall can elect the same tired and discredited parties. Or Cornwall can elect MPs who represent Cornwall and Cornwall alone, with no hidden agenda or allegiance to a party machine.
A lot of people have never even considered voting MK in the past – certainly not in a General Election.
But when the 2010 General Election date is finally set, we will all have to ask ourselves: What’s the alternative?
In September, MK made representations to the Broadcasters’ Liaison Group concerning the criteria for party political broadcasts at the next General Election. The BBC has now published its draft criteria.
It does not look good for MK. The draft states that a “registered political party which stands candidates in a minimum of one sixth of the seats up for election in a nation will qualify for one PEB in that nations.”
But this means that:
“In England, a political party will qualify for one PEB if it stands in a minimum of 89 seats.
“In Scotland, a political party will qualify for one PEB if it stands in a minimum of 10 seats.
“In Wales, a political party will qualify for one PEB if it stands in a minimum of 7 seats.
“In Northern Ireland, a political party will qualify for one PEB if it stands in a minimum of 3 seats.”
Mebyon Kernow will be standing in all six seats in the nation of Cornwall. But that does not seem to matter. Under these rules, to get a broadcast, MK would need to stand in all six Cornish seats as well as 83 other seats in England and that would only cost us an extra £41,500 in deposits alone!
Who says “democracy” isn’t biased against smaller political parties?
It is sad to hear that MPs have rejected a bid for a Cornish tickbox on the 2011 census. Dan Rogerson MP had moved an amendment to the Draft Census Order 2009 for England and Wales but it was rejected by 261 votes to 49.
It is clear that, over the next two years, we need to promote a massive “write-in” campaign that encourages Cornish people to use the census to demonstrate their strength of feeling about their own identity.
MK's Party Conference was covered in today's Western Morning News. We even featured in their editorial. For those who have not seen it, what the newspapers printed is repeated below:
"Funny things are going on in the world of politics at the moment. Mainstream media may be relentlessly focussing attention on the three big parties, but disillusionment with MPs in general following the expenses scandal has persuaded many voters to look beyond Labour, Conservative and the Liberal Democrats in search of a more inspiring political creed.
"That has, inevitably, helped some parties at the extreme, but it has also given a new lease of life to some long-established but perhaps unfashionable causes. Mebyon Kernow, the Party for Cornwall, falls into this category. It has been around for ages and has enjoyed a modest but consistent level of support in its heartlands for a number of years.
"But could it be on the cusp of a more significant breakthrough? The creation of a unitary authority for Cornwall cannot have done MK any harm at all. The recent decision, by that very local authority, to replace English road signs in Cornwall with bilingual ones also featuring Cornish marks another move to a Cornwall more aware of its roots.
"At the last elections, for the unitary authority and the European Parliament, MK outpolled Labour. Quite a feat in a county that, until recently, boasted at least one Labour MP. At this weekend’s party conference the emphasis was on building on that success. Could next year’s General Election really put MK on the map?"
It has been a restful day. I am taking it easy after a busy week and yesterday's Party Conference.
The AGM went smoothly, there was an inspiring talk on modern campaign techniques from two Plaid Cymru members and the speeches in the afternoon were well received.
Overall it was a very positive day, with many members reporting evidence of growing support across Cornwall. We are certainly looking forward to the General Election .
Shown below are a few photographs of the day (top to bottom); Joanie Willett (PPC for North Cornwall), Cllr John Taylor from Plaid Cymru, Cllr Loic Rich (PPC for Truro and Falmouth) and Cllr Loveday Jenkin (PPC for Camborne and Redruth).
Cross-party unity and cross-dressing was the order of the day at County Hall today. Four councillors, one from each of the political groups, joined with staff to raise funds for Children in Need. These 'Gentlemen' are pictured above(from left to right): Scott Mann (Con), Andrew Wallis (Independent), Jeremy Rowe (Liberal Democrat) and the deputy leader of the MK group, Andrew Long.
Don't ask me to describe what happened. All I will say is that it will live long in the memory!
Lat night, I attended a public meeting at the Keay Theatre in St Austell to find out more about the proposed first phases of the ORASCOM / IMERYS eco-town. There were about 160-180 people present.
The meeting was told that local people would soon be consulted on plans to build 1,800-2,500 properties at Baal/West Carclaze and 700-800 at Par Docks – an increase in housing numbers from those previously suggested.
I took the opportunity to speak and question how the plans were evolving.
The developers continue to state that they have plans for 5,000 homes in the eco-own spread over five sites. But in the original proposals (2008), only one thousand homes were planned for Baal. Earlier this year, that figure was increased to 1,500 properties and now they say they want to build 1,800-2,500 units. The development site has been also been increased in size, taking in some areas of green field.
At Par, the original proposal (2008) was for 250-500 properties, but that has now been increased to 700-800. Originally the site also had six hectares of employment land but on the most recent plans the ‘business park’ had been removed and replaced with more housing.
Local people need to know what the developers are planning for the eco-town as a whole. Do they plan to provide less houses in Blackpool, Bugle and Nanpean? Or do they plan to increase the size of the eco-town overall? What about the employment space?
There are many questions to which local people need the answers.
Cornwall Council has today released a statement concerning the incinerator application and the Integrated Waste Management Contract.
Key points include:
· The Cabinet of Cornwall Council now has the right to terminate the Contract with SITA (or to ask for a Revised Project Plan) because a ‘long-stop date’ in the Contract (specifying that works should commence by the end of March 2010) cannot be achieved.
· If Cornwall Council terminates the contract, it would need to meet the costs of all the facilities provided by SITA so far. This has been estimated to cost £30 million.
· The Integrated Waste Management Contract and associated procurement rules are restrictive. Within the scope of the Contract, a smaller incinerator could be built within the China Clay Area and an anaerobic digestion facility added. However, any alternative scheme involving a different technology or location outside of the Central Cornwall Area of Search could not be agreed as a modification to the existing Contract.
The Contract also included a ‘price guarantee’ to build the incinerator, but only to March 2010. This also means that if the 240,000 tonne incinerator is built, its costs will be vastly greater than originally budgeted.
Fred Greenslade, John Wood and I have released the following statement to reaffirm our opposition to the incinerator proposed for St Dennis.
“It remains our view that the proposal for an incinerator at St Dennis is unsustainable. We are working hard to make sure that SITA’s appeal does not succeed and to persuade the Council to find a better way to deal with Cornwall’s waste.
“It is our intention to do everything in our power to make sure that Cornwall Council’s Cabinet fully considers the option to terminate the Contract.”
The full statement from Cornwall Council was as follows:
Cornwall Council is working hard to find appropriate ways to deal with Cornwall’s waste. The Council is in a position whereby it has an Integrated Waste Management Contract in place with SITA, some of which is not in the public domain for reasons of commercial confidentiality. The application for an Energy from Waste plant, required by that contract, will soon be going to Public Inquiry.
Cornwall Council would like to make as much information about the situation as publicly available as is possible and in a spirit of openness makes the following statement.
· Cornwall Council has two roles – as the Waste Disposal Authority and also the Planning Authority for Cornwall.
· In 2006, Cornwall County Council agreed a 30-year £427 million contract with SITA to deliver an Integrated Waste Management Contract. This specifically included the construction of a 240,000 tonne Energy from Waste plant at St Dennis (within the Central Cornwall Area of Search as identified in the Council’s 2002 Waste Local Plan).
· In March 2009, Cornwall County Council’s Planning Committee voted to refuse the application. The reasons for the refusal included the impact of the facility on the St Dennis area. SITA has since gone to appeal and the Public Inquiry will commence on 16th March 2010.
· The Contract includes a ‘long-stop date’ clause, which states that if works have not commenced on the Energy from Waste plant by the end of March 2010 Cornwall Council have the right to terminate the contract through a ‘force majeure’ (‘no fault’) mechanism, or to seek a revised project plan.
· SITA recently wrote to Cornwall Council to confirm that it would be unable to achieve the ‘long-stop date’ because following the Planning Inquiry the decision of the Secretary of State will not be available by the due date. Cornwall Council’s cabinet will therefore soon need to take the decision as to whether or not to terminate the contract or to ask for a Revised Project Plan. If the council terminated the contract it would need to meet the costs of all the facilities provide by SITA thus far, that would otherwise have been paid for over the length of the contract. This has been estimated to cost £30m.
· The Public Inquiry will assess whether the 240,000 tonne Energy from Waste proposal is appropriate, but SITA are starting discussions on the potential for alternative proposals (the “Revised Project Plan”). They are investigating whether this could be done in a way to address the reasons for refusal (eg. the impact of the Energy from Waste building, height of chimney, etc). SITA are in discussion with Cornwall Council’s Waste Disposal team in regard to this. At the same time, Cornwall Council’s Natural Resources Team is preparing to robustly defend the existing appeal.
· If the Public Inquiry rules in favour of the Council as the local planning authority and if it looks unlikely that a revised application would be successful, Cornwall Council would retain the right to terminate the Contract through ‘force majeure.’ The costs would remain at an estimated £30m.
· One option that is being considered by Cornwall Council is a smaller Energy from Waste plant that could be built within the scope of the Contract and related procurement rules, though a significant reduction in capacity would not be acceptable in terms of procurement. The Contract also allows for anaerobic digestion to be added to those provided through the Contract.
· Cornwall’s Waste Advisory Panel is looking at alternative ways to deal with Cornwall’s waste and there are two important things to note.
a) The current policy document in place at the moment is the 2002 Waste Local Plan which specifies the construction of a single, central Energy from Waste plant.
b) It also remains the case that any alternative scheme (e.g. with a different technology, a different location outside of the Central Cornwall Area of Search, etc) could not be agreed as a modification to the existing Contract due to procurement rules and would have to be part of a new procurement.
Mebyon Kernow Annual General Meeting and Conference takes place on Saturday November 21st 2009. The venue will be the Public Rooms in Bodmin.
The morning session covers the Annual General Meeting and a discussion about campaign strategies. In the afternoon, there will be a number of speeches from leading MK members and parliamentary candidates.
This afternoon session starts at 2.00 and is open to members of the General Public. If you are not already a member of MK, why not come along and meet the MK activists in your area.? You would be most welcome.
For more information, email: mebyonkernow@btinternet.com.
It has been “interesting” to see how the decision of Cornwall Council’s Cabinet to agree a Cornish Language Policy has been reported.
The headline in the Western Morning News, for example, stated “Council divided over dual language signs” while the The Daily Mail said that “moves to make Cornwall officially bi-lingual have sparked a furious row.” Strange that – as the actual vote of the cabinet was unanimous!
The reaction of posters on the Worldwide Web was very varied, though it was good to see the results of the poll on http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/. The question was: Should signs in Cornwall be bilingual? The result was that 71% of people said that we should embrace the Cornish language.
There was sadly a lot of negative and many nasty comments on internet forums. Here are a selected sample:
“They are a funny lot down in Pointy-head Land. I lived in a Cornish village for 12 years and after about 10 years a local asked me if I was settling in alright.”
“Another example of the minority tail wagging the majority dog.”
“Yet another set of council idiots. Is this the begining of a campaign for a Cornwall parliament? I don't believe it!”
“Oooh arrr. Should keep the yokels on the right road.”
“What a sensitive lot some of you pastie eaters are!!”
“Just like Welsh … Cornish isn't a real language … it's just an ugly noise.”
Such attitudes are concerning, when all the Council is trying to do is support and positively enhance Cornwall’s cultural distinctiveness.
There were also numerous comments about the cost such as “What's the Cornish for "Complete waste of money, m'dear"???” And that was even after the newspapers had made it clear that the “changes would not cost the Council any extra as manufacturers would add the translations at no extra charge and will only apply for new signs or for signs that need replacing” (Western Morning News).
One last thing, in my previous post on this debate I neglected to record that Cllr Julian German, the Cabinet member with responsibility for the Environment, used Cornish in the actual debate to rightly illustrate that Cornish is a living language with a real future.
At the same Cabinet meeting, the six Conservatives and four Independents "in charge" voted to adopt a Cornish Language Policy for the new Council. A couple of councillors questioned the policy – which allowed the local press to dream up the headline “Council divided over dual language signs” even though the Cabinet vote had been unanimous.
I did speak in the debate and pointed out that it was important to protect our heritage and build on Cornish distinctiveness, which could also have huge economic benefits for Cornwall. To the doubters, I pointed out strongly that the Council’s commitment to the “Region of Culture” bid would be very hollow if we did not do all in our power to protect the Cornish Language - one of our unique selling points.
I was also interviewed by BBC Spotlight on the topic.
I can report that every time there is a “Cornish” or “Cultural” issue at County Hall, I am ritually trotted out to comment. Obviously, I am very happy to do this but have offered to comment on all manner of socio-economic and other political issues as well which is my bread and butter.
Following my earlier report on the first call-in at Cornwall Council, I attended the meeting of the Cabinet on Wednesday to see it re-address its earlier decision on future redundancy packages for staff. I cannot say that I was happy at how the issue was dealt with.
The Leader allowed the Chairman of the Scrutiny Committee to speak and then announced that the discussion would be restricted to Cabinet members only. The report admitted that the process and the consultation could have been better, but that more than the bare minimum had been done. The Cabinet then voted to reaffirm its original decision with a tweak.
I was quite angry. The issue that I had raised at the Scrutiny meeting – namely that staff could end up being treated differently (see earlier post) – was not considered in the report or discussed by the Cabinet.
And as I was not allowed to speak, I could not even bring this omission to their attention.
There have been a couple of letters to the papers in recent weeks criticising councillors. Some of the concerns were valid, but there were also comments about the role being part-time. The reality is that anyone who tells you being a Cornwall Councillor is not a full-time job is fibbing.
Take Monday as an example. I chaired the third meeting of the Council’s Planning Policy Advisory Panel. It was a positive meeting and only lasted five-and-a-half hours - I allowed the members a half-hour break for dinner.
It was easy going stuff. The Local Development Scheme for the Local Development Framework, a report on a scoping report for a Sustainability Appaisal, a report on the Level 1 Strategic Flood Risk Assessment for Cornwall, further guidance on flooding, as well as three reports from the Natural Resources Team on minerals/minerals safeguarding and a final document on functional areas.
I also had an invitation to attend the announcement of the first phase of the eco-town at 12.30 on the same day, which I obviously couldn't manage, and plenty of paperwork to deal with in the evening.
Not bad for a day of part-time work!
There was a ‘first’ at County Hall today. It was the first meeting of an Overview and Scrutiny Committee to debate a Cabinet decision that had been ‘called in.’
The venue was the Trelawny Room. It was the Corporate Resources OSC and the subject was the Severance Policy for Cornwall Council staff. The Cabinet had decided to drastically cut the amount that would be payable in the event of future redundancies.
The call-in was arranged by Committee Chairman John Keeling, due to concerns about how the decision had been taken, the lack of consultation with the unions and other staff members, as well as a range of issues of detail. John proved to be a masterful Chair and the meeting was very much in the style of a parliamentary Select Committee, with members quizzing two senior officers of the Council, a union official and the Deputy Leader.
There was a broad consensus that the process leading up to the Cabinet’s decision had been flawed and numerous questions were also tabled about the decision itself.
I queried why certain employees who might be made redundant from 2010 onwards as a direct consequence of the move to unitary would be compensated less than those who will have left the Council’s employment before that date. I made the point that I believed all people who might lose their jobs as a result of the changes in local government should be treated the same.
The Director replied that those employees still to be affected by the ‘transition’ period would have redundancy payments calculated on the existing policies, but later job losses as part of the ‘transformation’ (whether identified in the unitary bid or not) and ‘efficiencies’ would be treated differently through the new policies.
He said this was equitable. I disagreed and described his distinction as inequitable and morally indefensible.
The Committee does not have the power to over-ride the decision but can ask the Cabinet to think again. I am glad to be able to report that the Committee voted unanimously to ask the Cabinet to revisit the decision itself and the processes it followed to come to the decision.
There are two reasons why I have not blogged for the last three weeks or so. The first was my wonderful ten days holiday in Gwynedd during the middle of October (see above). And the second was the somewhat manic nature of the last couple of weeks.
It has certainly not been quiet.
Cornwall Council has gone public on its ‘bleak’ financial position and the possibility of a £15 million overspend. There has been the Ofsted inspection into Children’s Services which have been branded ‘inadequate’ on 22 out of the 33 areas assessed.
The date for the Public Inquiry into the incinerator has been set (March 16) and the STIG Strategy Group now has the task to prepare a wide range of papers (Statement of Case, Statement of Evidence, etc).
The list goes on ...
In this last week, I have attended my first meetings as one of Cornwall Council’s three members on the Board of Clay Country Local Action and a Director of the ClayTAWC facility in St Dennis.
Clay Country Local Action is a Rural Development Programme and between 2007 and 2013 will invest £1.8 million in to the local area. Priorities for the programme will include (i) Harnessing the Natural Environment, (ii) Sustainable tourism and (iii) Providing new opportunities for local people.
ClayTAWC is the Clay Area Training and Work Centre, which provides support to local residents in training, education and working towards employment. It is also a wonderful local community venue for local people.
I am looking forward to playing my part in both Clay Country Local Action and ClayTAWC to the best of my ability.
On Friday (25th September), Fred Greenslade, John Wood and I organised a public meeting at St Dennis in association with St Dennis Against Incineration and the Parish Council.
The meeting was primarily to inform people about what was likely to happen over the next few months, now that SITA had appealed against the refusal of their application for an incinerator in this area.
Julian German (the cabinet member for Waste) and Corporate Director Tom Flanagan both started the meeting by assuring local people that the Council will robustly defend the appeal.
The meeting covered the content of the Integrated Waste Management Contract, the appeal (which will probably be through a Public Inquiry scheduled no later than March/April 2010), the potential outcomes of the appeal and the work of the Council’s new Waste Advisory Panel to look at all of the options available for dealing with waste in Cornwall.
We also made sure that people were aware of the limited extent to which the contract could be varied without falling foul of procurement and contract rules. But Fred, John and I pledged that we would do everything in our power to make sure that all options around the termination of the Contract were also properly investigated and considered.
I can also report that Cornwall Council has agreed to meet with representatives of the communities of St Dennis and Treviscoe in order to explore how the Council can assist local people and organisations in presenting their views to the Public Inquiry. This meeting will be organised in the near-future.
Once again, it has been a few days since my last post.
On Thursday (24th September), I was invited to speak at a public meeting organised by SOUL (Save Our Unspoilt Land) in St Austell. This group has been set-up following the news that Wainhomes plan to put in a planning application for 1,500 new properties adjacent to the town.
I focussed on problems with the planning system. In particular, the ridiculous housing numbers proposed for the old Restormel area (contained within the Regional Spatial Strategy) and how the recent delays in producing local planning policies (compounded by the setting up of the unitary authority) meant developers were testing the limits of what would normally be allowed.
I also appealed to the meeting to see the big picture and to also focus demands on a proper housing strategy for the St Austell area.
Since the meeting it has become clear that the Regional Spatial Strategy for the South West is in difficulties. Following legal challenges on similar documents in the East of England, the government has instructed that further work will need to be carried out on all Regional Spatial Strategies.
The things I do for the cause of Cornish nationalism. I have just finished my latest interview for the BBC. This time, it was Radio 5 Live and the time 6.35 on a Sunday morning. Quite a grilling, with the same and predictable old chestnuts as 'why not Lancashire?'
I have just got back from the Radio Cornwall studio, where I spent the last hour crammed into a small studio with Professor Philip Payton (Institute of Cornish Studies) waiting to participate in a debate on Cornish Identity for the Night Waves programme on Radio 3.
It was quite a truncated debate and lasted 12 minutes or so, with Andrew George MP also involved but from a different studio. At this stage, I am not sure if people will be able to isten to the programme again on the BBC website.
I was also interviewed by the local Spotlight team today concerning the campaign for a Cornish tickbox on the 2011 census, which will be featured on the Politics Show on Sunday.
At yesterday’s meeting of Cornwall Council, I was one of five members who sponsored a motion to endorse the Cornish Declaration. It calls on the Government to help forge a global agreement to keep the increase in temperature of the planet to below 2 C.
The Declaration, which is being spearheaded by Truro Cathedral, encourages people and organisations in Cornwall to support action to ensure that Cornwall is part of a planet which lives within its means.
The motion was proposed by Julian German, the portfolio-holder for the Environment, who stated that it was his “ambition is to turn the concept of a green Cornwall into a reality” and for Cornwall to send a strong message to Copenhagen in December.
The meeting did not go as planned. The Lib Dems moved an amendment, to the already-agreed cross-party motion. This was for the Council to support the 10 / 10 campaign which aims to reduce carbon emissions by 10% in 2010.
Cllr Julian German was happy to incorporate this into the original proposal, but it soon became clear that many members were not willing to support the campaign without further information.
In my second speech in the debate, I made it clear that I backed the 10 / 10 campaign and that I would vote for it. But realising the tone of the meeting, I suggested that we focus on the Cornish declaration and bring the 10 / 10 campaign back to a future meeting with more information.
This was not taken on board by the Lib Dems and the Council voted not to support the 10 / 10 initiative at this time. It has since been made clear that a report into the potential implications for the Council of adopting the 10 / 10 targets would be prepared and brought back to a future meeting.
I hope that the proposal from the Lib Dems was made for the correct reasons, but sadly they are already trying to make political capital out of the vote at the expense of the Conservatives. The PPC in my area has already tweeted that “Conservative-led Cornwall Council voted today to reject a motion for 10% carbon cut in 2010 - They're still the same old Tories ...”
Nonetheless, the Cornish Declaration was unanimously supported by the councillors present at the meeting.
I am pictured above with (left to right): Mike Clayton (Deputy Leader of Independent Group), Doris Ansari (Leader of Lib Dem Group), Kevin Lavery (Chief Executive), Alec Robertson (Council Leader and Leader of Conservative Group), Julian German and Independent councillor Bob Egerton.
It was following this debate that I thought back to the previous Council meeting when the Lib Dems had moved a motion to freeze councillors’ allowances and not to undertake the independent review that the Liberal Democrat-run County Council had agreed was necessary.
The three MK members did not support the motion. I will not go into detail on the many reasons for this, but we felt that it was important that the independent review went ahead.
In the campaigns for two Camborne Town Council by-elections, a short time after the debate, the Lib Dems put out a range of leaflets which misrepresented the issue and were not particularly pleasant. Literature was even circulated on behalf of Julia Goldsworthy which claimed “MK promised to stand up for local people at the last elections. Instead we find them jumping into bed with the Conservatives at the very first opportunity …”
But now that we have supported a Liberal Democrat amendment, I must ask, will the Lib Dems in the Camborne and Redruth area now be putting out a leaflet to express their anger that – shock horror – MK councillors have “jumped into bed” with the Lib Dems!
The truth is that, on both occasions, we did what we thought was right. And that is what we will continue to do!
I am very pleased to report that I was elected Chairman of Cornwall Council’s Planning Policy Advisory Panel on Monday. This panel will make recommendations to cabinet concerning the Local Development Framework for Cornwall and a range of related planning and other documents.
It will be a massive amount of work and extremely important for the future direction of Cornwall.
In last week’s Cornish Guardian and West Briton newspapers, Piran Pascoe wrote a column entitled ‘Cornwall is in England, not next to it – and the Cornish cannot be allowed to control our own affairs.’ Among other comments it referred to, for example, ‘bored individuals who refuse to grow up … insist on living on fantasy island, calling for Cornwall to become an independent nation that governs itself.’
They have allowed me to produce a response which I understand will be printed later this week. The response is shown below.
Piran Pascoe’s piece in last week’s paper was a deliciously mischievous piece and clearly written to generate a reaction.
Sadly, the press statement from Mebyon Kernow featured within the article was misrepresented and I would like to put the record straight. The point of the MK statement was that although constitutional reform has re-emerged as a political issue, following the scandal over MPs’ expenses scandal, there has been much grandstanding and political point-scoring, but Government proposals thus far have been a sadly timid series of measures on the fringes of the present arrangements.
Our press statement unsurprisingly called for the devolution of powers to a National Assembly for Cornwall and an end to the influence of unelected and unaccountable quangos based outside of Cornwall. It also included wide-ranging demands such as fixed-term Westminster Parliaments, proportional representation (Single Transferable Vote), an end to the unelected second chamber, the relocation of various government bodies and institutions away from London and the South East, as well as the strengthening of local government.
It was therefore more than a little disappointing that Mr Pascoe chose to caricature what I considered to be a balanced statement. And for our call for greater powers for Cornwall to be misrepresented as a demand for ‘Cornish independence’ is especially frustrating.
Mr Pascoe – why shouldn’t decisions about Cornwall be taken in Cornwall? Why do key decisions about housing and jobs and the environment have to be taken by unelected quangos outside of the Duchy? I truly believe that Cornwall deserves better from the present democratic set-up and that is what Mebyon Kernow will continue to campaign for - greater powers for Cornwall.
I also found it disappointing that Mr Pascoe wished to ridicule people who are passionate about their Cornish identity. I, for one, am glad that Cornwall is not an identikit English county but a historic nation, like Wales and Scotland, with a strong identity and a wide range of wonderful cultural traditions including the Cornish language.
This is something to celebrate and be positive about – both now and into the future.
Today was derby day on the rugby field with Redruth RFC taking on Launceston at Polson Bridge.
I was one Redruth supporter who could not make it this year. I had the privilege to be handing out the prizes at the flower and produce show in my local Parish.
It was a well-supported show and the committee who organised the event should be congratulated on their success.
I was particularly chuffed to win a white teddy bear in the ‘guess the number of marbles in the bottle’ competition. My suggestion was 516. I was only two out - there were 518 marbles!
Well done to Launceston on their win - I am already looking forward to the rematch in January when, hopefully, the result will be different.
Yesterday it was announced that SITA plan to appeal the decision of Cornwall County Council to refuse their application for an incinerator near St Dennis. Since then, press statements have been flying thick and fast, some of them very political. I made the following statement with my fellow councillors. Fred Greenslade and John Wood (above), from the China Clay Area.
“We are disappointed that SITA has chosen to go to appeal.
“The incinerator application was turned down for a multitude of sound planning reasons. We remain convinced that this was the correct decision for the people of St Dennis and Treviscoe, and Cornwall as a whole. There must be better ways to deal with Cornwall’s waste.
“As elected members for the China Clay Area, we have already sought and received assurances from the administration of Cornwall Council that they will properly resource and robustly defend the appeal. We will also do our utmost to make sure that this is the case.
“We are also actively working through the Council’s Waste Advisory Panel to explore alternatives to a single incinerator. As part of this work, we are also investigating the scope and limitations of the contract (signed by SITA and the previous Council) in order to understand what options are available to the Council.”
People often complain how difficult it is to get things done in August because so many people are away on holiday with their families. I have to say that, over the last two-three weeks, I have encountered this frustration. Phone call after phone call and …
It was therefore almost with relief that my wife dragged me away to the West Midland this weekend to visit her parents.
I used the opportunity to relax and stick my head in some books. If you are interested I revisited my youth to read a Louis L’Amour western (I read dozens of his books when I was a teenager), followed that up with the biography of singer, actor and political campaigner Kris Kristofferson and then an amazing novel by Bernhard Schlink entitled The Reader.
Let us hope I haven’t got any of those names and titles wrong – see previous posting!
Press coverage is a funny beast. Sometimes, it is great to see a campaign or an issue raised in the media; at other times, one can be disappointed at the coverage. And then there are those occasions when newspaper reports do not fully reflect what is said at meetings.
I had that experience recently following a Cornwall Council meeting when councillor expenses were debated. I made what I thought was a balanced contribution. I commented on a range of issues (which I will not go into in depth here) but included the fact that the make-up of the Council, in terms of age, etc, did not reflect the make-up of the wider population and this was partly to do with how the role was renumerated. I made a light-hearted comment about there being a lot of ‘grey hair’ in the Council chamber which was primarily a joke at myself – I may only be 42 but I certainly have few black hairs left on my head. I pointed to my head whilst making the comment and the punchline was so obvious that the Chairman of the meeting even beat me to it.
The ‘grey hair’ comment was reported in the press without the wider context, alongside a disconnected comment about encouraging younger people into politics. As a consequence, I have received post accusing me of being disrespectful to older people.
At the same time, I was pleased to be contacted by the Newquay Voice who told me they were going to report some comments I made on my blog (see my August 2nd posting) in what was last week’s paper. In the event, I was a little disappointed that the edit lost some sense of the original but they also kindly asked me to answer a series of questions (such as my favourite place in Cornwall, my three favourite films, etc) to print a profile of me in the same paper.
I was asked to produce the text within 5-6 hours and I duly obliged. It was a hard thing to do and I pondered over it quite a bit. For example, in terms of favourite books, I considered a number including Laurie Lee’s Cider with Rosie and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mocking Bird – both of which I read as a child. Amazingly, I settled on “Laurie Lee’s To Kill a Mocking Bird” – a schoolboy error happily pointed out by Bob the Hat in his column in this week’s papers. To repeat what he said – oops!
For interest, the corrected version of my answers that were printed in the Newquay Voice is as follows:
Your three favourite books
My house is stacked floor to ceiling with books and it would extremely difficult to choose just three. But I will go for the recent biography of Gwynfor Evans (the first MP for Plaid Cymru – the Party of Wales); Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird which I first read as a pupil at Newquay Treviglas School and have re-read since; and 500 Nations: An Illustrated History of North American Indians by Alvin M. Josephy.
Your three favourite pieces of music
I have a very wide-ranging taste in music. Three favourites would be the What’s Going On album from Marvin Gaye, which mixes outstanding music with vital social comment; the Too-Rye-Ay album by Dexys Midnight Runners – a favourite of my youth – and a wonderful compilation that I have of the jazz saxophone player Paul Desmond.
Your three favourite films
I love historical epics and powerful films. Favourites would include Mel Gibson’s Braveheart (the Hollywood version of the life of Scottish rebel William Wallace); Cinderella Man starring Russell Crowe (the story of boxer Jim Braddock in the US Depression of the 1930s); and Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life starring James Stewart.
Your three favourite hobbies
My life is extremely busy and I don’t have hobbies as such. I support Redruth Rugby Club and try to get to most home games. It is also true that nothing beats a good walk on a Cornish moor or along our wonderful coastline.
Your favourite place in Cornwall
I grew up on the edge of the Goss Moor, where I am still at my most happy - especially in those more hidden areas that many walkers do not visit!
Your favourite food
My favourite would be the plate that is piled nice and high!
Your favourite shop
I love second-hand bookshops and have fond, sometimes expensive, memories of such shops throughout Cornwall and further afield.
Today, I attended the second meeting of the Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee. Three items were considered for further scrutiny (i) the Fire Service, (ii) a potential PFI bid for housing and (ii) Area Networks.
Unsurprisingly, I had a lot to say – particularly on the issue of affordable housing (more on that another time).
On the subject of the 19 Area Networks, there has been considerable informal debate by the members of the Council. The portfolio holder with responsibility says there is a commitment to the “Community Network Areas … as administrative areas” but some members appear less than supportive of the panels, that are planned to involve elected members and others, at the centre of the networks.
Some councillors appear worried that a large town would dominate rural parishes or indeed vice versa.
In the China Clay Area, we had a good Area Committee for many years and, for this area in particular, made up of numerous village communities, it is vital that the Network is allowed to function. A strong member-led panel in this area would be an important adjunct to what we do.
I believe there are many issues – but they are not to do with the principle of a panel. They are to do with the detail of how it would work, the links between the Cornwall Councillors, the parishes, etc. And most importantly, the main issue is the appropriate resourcing of the panel.
Take community funding as an example. Councillors have been allocated £2,200 each for a community pot – a total of £13,200 for the six councillors in our area for this coming year. By contrast, I have worked out that in the previous seven years, Restormel had awarded grants to community groups in our patch to a total of £357,000 – an annual figure of £51,000!
I have been on coach trip today with Cornwall Council’s Waste Panel of which I am a member. We started at United Mines Landfill Site (above) before moving onto the Material Recycling Facility at Pool, a Waste Transfer station and a Household Waste Recycling Centre, both at St Erth, as well as a composting facility at Splattenridden near Lelant.
We saw a lot of good practice but, at the same time, it was horrifying to see so much material, that could reused and recycled, dumped into landfill.
This certainly impressed on me the importance of the work of the Waste Panel and the need to come up with a truly sustainable way to deal with Cornwall’s waste. I am looking forward to playing my role in this.
Over the last six months, I have received the three or four leaflets from Stephen Gilbert, the Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for St Austell and Newquay. His party seem to be investing a massive amount of money in the constituency – the leaflets were not delivered by Lib Dem volunteers but by the Royal Mail!
The latest one is a booklet rather than a leaflet. It is entitled “Real change for one and all” – even though he wishes to continue the Liberal Democrat representation of the area!
My presence in the race is clearly inconvenient for him. In many places in the booklet, Stephen is referred to as the “only local candidate” before it has to add “from the main political parties.” Interestingly, his localness does not extend to using a local printer. It was printed in London.
The publication does however recognise that MK is doing well in the constituency by telling people not to support us. In the past, we have always been ignored in their literature. They usually claim it is a two-horse race between them and the Tories with Labour unable to win.
This time it states “Labour and Mebyon Kernow are out of the race in St Austell and Newquay – a vote for them will only help the Conservatives win.” We even get to appear on a graph.
Thanks for the kind works and the recognition Stephen.
In the most recent elections, it was certainly more complicated than this.
In the Cornwall Council elections in this area, ten Lib Dems were returned alongside seven Conservatives, five independents and yours truly for MK. I think I am correct in saying that the Conservatives won more votes than the Liberal Democrats. MK did fairly well but only stood in four seats.
In the European Election, the votes from the ‘Restormel’ area reflect the St Austell and Newquay constituency quite well though not exactly. The result was as follows:
Conservative Party - 7,012 (26.59%)
UKIP - 6,109 (23.17%)
Liberal Democrats - 4,794 (18.18%)
Mebyon Kernow - 2,346 (8.90%)
Green Party - 1,598 (6.06%)
Labour Party - 1,250 (4.74%)
British National Party - 1,063 (4.03%)
In spite of the limited coverage given to the campaign, MK was very pleased with the result and we consider it a good base for campaigns over the next few months.
PS. It is normal practice for the Liberals to claim it is a two-horse race, even when it isn’t. In the recent Norwich North By-election, their leaflets claimed that the race was “set for a thrilling finish between local champion April Pond [the Lib Dem] and the Tory Westminster insider” and included "polling evidence" that placed the Lib Dems second. In the event, they came third.
Closer to home, two years ago in an election for a three-seat ward on Kerrier District Council, the Lib Dems put out a last minute leaflet claiming that only the Lib Dems could beat the Tory. MK actually topped the poll and, some days later, one of their activists admitted that they knew we were going to win all along but put out the leaflet anyway!
It has been interesting to note the comments on the eco-town from my political opponents in recent weeks.
Lib Dem PPC Stephen Gilbert claimed that the “eco-town could bring the Clay Area back to life” (I didn’t know it was dead) while Conservative Caroline Righton welcomed the proposals which she described as “ambitious and brave.”
Labour’s Lee Jameson meanwhile said that “Labour has come though for the people of Cornwall” before criticising the Conservatives and Lib Dems for opposing the scheme. He clearly hasn’t been in the area much in the last few months – if he had been here, he would have seen David Cameron photo-opportunities with Imerys and the Lib Dem Executive of Cornwall Council backing the scheme.
Matthew Taylor MP is also backing the scheme, which he believes is an alternative to “large-scale piecemeal low quality estates over the next few years to meet the housing needs locally without the jobs and facilities these communities need.” I believe this to be an ill-considered position. Accepting top-down diktats also runs counter to the ‘campaign’ by the MPs against the Regional Spatial Strategy.
It seems that I have a distinctive position from all the other PPCs and I will endeavour to make sure that I remain true to these principles.
The Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) today confirmed that Imerys’ proposal for a 5,000-property eco-town (spread over six different sites around St Austell and the China Clay Area) has been given the go-ahead.
As a prominent critic of the whole process, it will surprise no-one I consider that the undemocratic and top-down nature of the decision undermines the integrity of the local planning process.
At this time, we are waiting to see if central government will continue to push for 15,700 new properties to the built in the former Restormel area over the next twenty years. If this target is not reduced, it could mean that we would be expected to accommodate up to 10,000 new houses in and around St Austell. That is not sustainable and it is not about meeting local needs.
In the government’s mind, it appears that this inappropriate level of housing and the imposition of the eco-town are inextricably linked. Indeed, today’s announcement could make it more difficult to reduce the planned level of house-building in Mid Cornwall.
It remains my view that it is wrong for central government to decide development priorities in Cornwall. Local people and their democratically-elected politicians should be able to decide how much housing is built, where it is constructed and what sites are redeveloped for employment land.
I have always fully accepted that certain parts of the eco-town proposal do have merit. But I believe that these sites should have been assessed in competition with all other possible development proposals in St Austell and the China Clay Area as part of a local planning process with the appropriate development promoted in the agreed locations – not imposed by Whitehall mandarins and Government ministers.
Liberal Democrat MP Dan Rogerson today tabled a ‘Government of Cornwall’ Bill in the House of Commons.
Dan’s call for powers to be devolved to Cornwall and the very concept of a ‘Government of Cornwall’ Bill is to be welcomed. It is our hope that this will help to reinvigorate the debate about the need for a Cornish Assembly.
Sadly, the bill is flawed and fails to understand or make any distinctions between regional government for Cornwall and local government. The Bill proposes that powers equivalent to the Welsh Assembly should be transferred to the new Cornwall Council which would somehow also continue as a local council.
The reality is that Cornwall’s new unitary authority is a local government body – no different in legal terms, for example, to the 22 unitary councils which operate in Wales beneath the Welsh Assembly.
It makes no sense for the functions of local government (Cornwall Council) and regional government (Cornish Assembly) to sit within one body.
Cornwall needs the greatest devolution possible to a powerful Cornish Assembly (pulling down powers from regional quangos and central government) AND democratically-elected local government, delivering good quality public services.
Once again, I have not blogged for a week or two. Part of the reason is that I did slope off to West Wales for a week to enjoy a ‘well-earned’ break to recover from the election campaign and all that went before it.
As far as Cornwall Council is concerned it is still meetings, meetings and yet more meetings. For tomorrow, it has even been suggested to me that I slice myself up into a number of chunks in order to attend all the meetings that I have been invited to.
I had been hoping to attend the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (10.00) and a briefing on Day Centre changes (1.15-2.15). I was then placed onto the Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education which had a training session (10.00) and then a formal meeting (2.00) – also both on the same day. But what I will actually be attending is a Homes and Communities briefing from 9.30-4.00.
Today it was a little less fraught. I took the opportunity to take an officer from the Highways Section around St Enoder Parish in order to point out the wide range of issues that had been identified in the Parish Plan and which need to be acted upon. The day finished with our second briefing on waste and the work that we need to do to deliver a strategy for dealing with it appropriately and sustainably.
More news and comment soon.
Along with many other candidates, I have been contacted by voters who have applied for postal votes which have yet to arrive.
This includes people who will be out of Cornwall next week on holiday. The paperwork should have been sent out on 22 May, but for many people the ballots had not arrived when they had to leave for their holidays.
And then there is the scandal about certain postal ballots - that did arrive - not including all the candidates’ names.
The whole thing is a disgrace and democracy in Cornwall has been even further damaged as a consequence. A full inquiry is needed.
It was good to take part in a Radio Cornwall debate on Thursday, alongside representatives of the three main London Parties (Gerald Chin-Quee – Labour; Jim Currie – Conservative; Ann Kerridge – Liberal Democrat) and an Independent candidate (Mike Waters). I certainly hope I did MK justice.
We were not originally invited to attend. In excluding us, the BBC had failed to take into account our success in recent district council elections. Following a discussion on election statistics, they quickly relented however.
I would like to thank Radio Cornwall for that and I hope they are equally inclusive when we get to the General Election.
I am in sitting at my computer looking at the dreadful wet weather outside. It feels to me that I always need to be outside when it is raining and yet, when it is beautiful and sunny, there always seems to be so much going on that keeps me off the campaign trail.
That said, in my unitary election campaign, my main leaflet has been delivered to over 95% of the division and the response has been very positive. Later today, I hope to be out in some of the more rural parts of St Enoder Parish visiting a number of farms and hamlets.
I have not seen much of more election opponents, neither of whom live in the division – the Conservative is from Newquay and the Lib Dem comes from St Stephen.
For the European election, 272,200 election communications have been delivered throughout Cornwall by the Royal Mail. I remain very proud that the people of Cornwall will have the opportunity to vote for Cornwall on June 4th.
I have also been extremely busy trying to generate publicity forthis campaign. I have done interviews for Radio Gloucester, Radio Solent and Radio Cornwall, as well as BBC Spotlight, who I have been in discussions for a number of days in an attempt to get fair coverage for our campaign. Sadly, it is likely that our TV airtime will be negligible but, at least, we will be represented on a Radio Cornwall debate for the local elections tomorrow.
Radio 4 also interviewed me for a programme about the South West Euro-seat, but I had to travel all the way to Taunton for the interview. I just hope it will have been worth it.
More election updates soon.
The unitary council nominations are in and I can report that MK has 33 candidates. This is the largest number of candidates that we have ever fielded in a single round of elections to a principal councils or councils.
In my ward, I am opposed by a Conservative from Newquay and a Liberal Democrat from St Stephen. I understand they could not find candidates from within St Enoder Parish to take me on.
The full list is as below. Why not see if there is a candidate near to you, who you could help.
Bude South - Jaqi Heard
Bugle - Alli Mills
Callington - Andrew Long
Camborne Central - Zoe Fox
Camborne North - John Rowe
Camborne South - Stuart Cullimore
Camborne West - Mike Champion
Falmouth Arwenack - Pete Dudley
Falmouth Gyllyngvase - Kat Boijer
Feock & Kea – Lance Dyer
Gulval and Heamoor - Phil Rendle
Kelly Bray - Glenn Renshaw
Ladock, St Clement & St Erme - Annie Ostapenko-Denton
Liskeard North - Roger Holmes
Lostwithiel - Julie Tamblin
Mabe - Jacqui Davey
Mount Hawke & Portreath - Ray Chubb
Newlyn and Mousehole - Simon Reed
Padstow - Ron Brown
Penryn East and Mylor - Duane Glasby
Penwithick - Matt Luke
Poundstock - Paul Sousek
Probus - Alan January
Rame - Jeremy Evans
Redruth Central - Mike Hall
St Austell Bethel - Peter Morton Nance
St Enoder - Dick Cole
Threemilestone & Gloweth - Kevin Ostapenko-Denton
Troon & Beacon -Alan Sanders
Truro Moresk - Conan Jenkin
Truro Boscawen - Joanie Willett
Truro Tregolls - Loic Rich
Wendron - Loveday Jenkin
It has been a busy few weeks and, as a result, I sadly neglected this blog for the last month or so.
To bring everyone back up-to-date, I have officially resigned my job as an archaeologist with Cornwall Council in order to stand for election to the Council. I have worked for Cornwall County Council for 14 years, but it is not permitted for employees of Councils to stand for election to the same Council that they work for.
It means a large drop in my income, but I felt I had no other option as we need MK councillors on the new Council who will speak up for Cornwall.
My colleagues at work were very kind and organised a wonderful send-off with gifts which included a wheelbarrow, a teddy bear (see right), a painting, an aerial photograph of some local china clay works and more. Their kind works were also much appreciated.
I have also agreed to become MK’s lead candidate in the Euro-elections, so that the people of Cornwall have the chance to vote for a political party 100% committed to Cornwall.
It is my promise that I will use my blog to give a regular commentary of the election campaign over the next 4 weeks.
Today is my last day as a Restormel councillor. From April 1, Cornwall’s only principal council will be the new unitary authority.
Restormel's last council meeting was on Monday night.
Councillors arrived to find all the Restormel signs had already been replaced by new “Cornwall Council” signs and we entered the building to be presented with our P45s. To say we were not happy would be an under-statement.
It was an occasion of mixed emotions. We honoured eight long-serving, past and present, councillors with the position of honorary Aldermen to mark the passing of the Borough. Tributes were paid to many councillors and members of staff for their hard work for Mid Cornwall over many years, and the way in which one and all worked together as a team.
There was sadness at the ending of the council but also considerable anger at the chaos surrounding the unitary authority, the way in which it had been undemocratically imposed on Cornwall and the way in which many employees are still unsure about their jobs and their futures.
But the unitary council is with us. We can do nothing about that now and it is especially important that we now get new pro-Cornwall councillors elected in order to turn things around.
Today, I had the privilege to speak at the 'incinerator' Planning meeting at County Hall on behalf of St Enoder Parish Council. It was wonderful to be able to make the case against the incinerator alongside so many dedicated campaigners for a more sustainable way to deal with Cornwall's waste.
Twenty councillors voted to refuse the application, one was in favour and one abstained.
As you can see from the photograph - we are all delighted at the result.
Mebyon Kernow – the Party for Cornwall has just announced that we will be putting forward a list of candidates for the ‘South West Region’ seat in the European Parliament.
As well as well as Cornwall, the constituency covers Bristol, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Wiltshire and the island of Gibraltar. Six MEPs will be elected via a list form of proportional representation.
This is not something we are doing lightly.
Democracy in Cornwall is at a vital crossroads and June 4th will be an important day for the future direction of our politics, with elections to both the new single tier council and the European Parliament.
It is our hope that people will take the opportunity of the elections on June 4th to demand a better deal for Cornwall by sending a strong message to both London and Brussels by voting MK.
After all is said and done, we are the only political party that does not have political masters outside of Cornwall to please.
It will be a hard fight for the Euro-seats however,
Six MEPs will be elected via a list form of proportional representation and it may be estimated that a political party would need to poll 150,000-160,000 votes in order to win a seat. And yet in the 2004 elections, 141,140 valid votes were cast in Cornwall – less than needed to win a seat!
What is more - the deposit to stand is £5,000 and parties lose this deposit unless they poll over 2.5% of the vote. In MK’s case, this equates to more than 25% of the Cornish vote.
Mebyon Kernow has also committed itself to continuing the fight for a Cornwall-only Euro-constituency that would give Cornwall a real voice at the heart of Europe.
Help us to make a success of this campaign.
The St Piran Trust will today launch an appeal to raise funds for a project to re-excavate St Piran’s Oratory near Perranporth.
As you will know, the Oratory is one of the earliest surviving Christian buildings in Britain. It is also an iconic structure through its association with Cornwall’s national saint – St Piran. It has been lost to the people of Cornwall since 1980, when the building was buried in the sands to protect it from damage.
The St Piran Trust is working with the Historic Environment Service of Cornwall County Council (ie. me) to develop a wide-ranging archaeological project to uncover the Oratory, conserve the remains of this important building and make it accessible once again to the general public.
The Trust is also working with all the relevant statutory bodies to ensure that the project can be undertaken with no adverse impact on the environment of the Special Area of Conservation within which it lies.
Eileen Carter of the Trust has rightly described the project as extremely important for Cornwall, our history and our heritage.
Anyone can support the appeal with a donation. These can be paid directly into the St Piran Trust Project account (sort code: 30-98-76: account number 1450689) at Lloyds TSB, 7 Boscawen St, Truro, TR1 2QT. Alternatively, cheques can made out to the St Piran Trust and sent to the St Piran Trust, Penquite House, Liskeard, PL14 5AQ. All donations will be acknowledged and donors will receive regular progress reports.
Each year, as the leader of MK, I publish a St Piran's Day message. For 2009, I have called on local people to work for Cornwall – all year round - and vote for MK candidates in the unitary elections.
The statement was as follows:
"St Piran's Day represents a wonderful opportunity for local people to remember what is fantastic about Cornwall and to celebrate its distinct identity and its inclusive traditions.
“As a proud Cornishman, I would encourage everyone to get out there and to do something positive to celebrate Cornwall. But as we celebrate on 5th March, we also need to look ahead and consider how we can work for a better deal for Cornwall all year round."
“2009 is election year and, on 4th June, Cornwall will elect 123 members on the new single tier council. MK opposed the undemocratic imposition of the unitary council on Cornwall, but it will soon be a reality.
“We need it to be a success for the sake of the ordinary people of Cornwall. And that means electing councillors who really do have Cornwall’s best interests at heart.
“On this St Piran’s Day, I appeal to one and all to look afresh at the politics of 21st century Cornwall and support candidates from Mebyon Kernow – the Party for Cornwall.”
It has been a busy week for news on the unitary council. The council tax increase for 2009-2010 will average 2.6% across Cornwall – the maximum possible due to the decision to equalise payments across the six districts – with the Penwith area about to experience a 4.9% increase. So much for the alleged savings.
A total of 400 job losses have also been announced and the date of the election has been set for 4th June.
Many people thought that it was likely that elections would be delayed until October but the minister has chosen to hold elections earlier on the draft proposals for council divisions – not final ones agreed after consultation.
For me, it is testing time. As an employee of the County Council, do I give up my job to stand for the Council or not? At the moment, it is impossible to take a decision as no work has been done on what allowances would be paid to councillors – making it very difficult for working people to make decisions on their future.
The whole thing is a bit of a shambles and does Cornwall and its democracy no favours.
The Liberal Democrat MPs claim that the calling of the election is a victory of democracy over delay. They need to remember that it is the Liberal Democrats with the assistance of the Labour Government that has got us in this mess.
Here are few more things that they should remember.
· MK opposed the proposal for a single unitary council for Cornwall, which was also opposed by the vast majority of local people.
· When the decision was taken, MK backed calls for an early election to give democratic legitimacy to those people setting up the new Council. This was opposed by Liberal Democrat county councillors who argued it was important to properly sort out the new ward boundaries for the Council ahead of elections. Central government decided to set up an appointed Lib Dem dominated Implementation Executive to oversee the transition period.
· The subsequent boundary review fell into disarray when a minority of local councillors led by Lib Dem leader David Whalley argued that there should only be ninety councillors instead of the 100-164 suggested in the bid that they themselves had submitted to government.
· Draft proposals were finally launched by the Boundary Committee in December, though these contained many errors and problematic suggestions which did not respect local community boundaries.
· By this time, it was clear that the actions of the local Lib Dems and the inefficiency of the Boundary Committee meant that it was unlikely that the new boundaries would in place for an election in the first half of 2009.
· Central government also decided to move all local elections due on May 2009 to June to clash with the European Parliamentary elections, showing their contempt for the importance of local elections which MK argued should be fought on local issues.
· In the consultation on the date for the first elections to the unitary authority, most principal councils in Cornwall reluctantly took the view that the elections should be delayed to October in order for the new council divisions to be in place. This was latterly opposed by the Lib Dem MPs.
· When it was thought likely that there would be a six months delay between the abolition of the existing councils on 31st March and the election in late October, it was announced that the county councillors along with the district councillors on the Implementation Executive would continue, as well as a number of district councillors who would be co-opted to simply exercise planning and licensing functions.
· Due to the need for the planning representatives to reflect the political make-up of the County Council, this meant that the majority of councillors to survive for this period – now only two months - would be Lib Dems.
· MK research shows that of the 113 Liberal Democrat councillors on one or more principal authorities 71 would continue in some form and 37% would cease to be councillors. By contrast, 74% of Conservative councillors would be abolished and 61% of Independent councillors would cease to be councillors. Eight of the nine MK councillors (89%) would also cease to be councillors. Is this democracy?
· The announcement on the 19th February stated that the election will take place on 4th June on the draft boundaries which have been out to consultation until very recently and therefore the view of local people will not be taken into account on the make-up of the divisions.
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It was Jules Chéret in France who called attention to the poster in such a way as to cause people to begin to consider that it may be a form of art and not just a commercial product. “Chéret changed the character of posters entirely by giving more prominence to the pictorial image than to the lettering and by introducing a note of hilarity. In consequence it soon became fashionable to admire posters for their pictorial and artistic rather than for their publicity value.”
In 1889 a poster exhibition was held in Paris of Chéret’s posters and in Nantes an international poster exhibition. “The popular success of these exhibitions was immense, Chéret was awarded the Legion of Honor, poster collecting became all the rage, and there was talk of art coming down off the walls of the sitting room into the street.” But France had yet to see one of its greatest masters of the art of the poster.
Toulouse-Lautrec designed only thirty posters between the years 1891-1900. His posters “had a bold, clear design enlivened by witty characterization and [were] pleasing to look at. [He] showed a real grasp of form, an acute sense of the visually effective.” His greatest poster created in 1893 was Jean Avril at the Jardin de Paris.
“The full-length figure of the dancer is set in a very shallow area of space and framed by an encircling line which comes out of one end of the neck of the double bass and rejoins it again at the other. We feel that we are seeing Jane Avril magnified through a sort of quizzing-glass held up by the hand in the bottom right corner.”
“This is an outstanding example of how Lautrec could take a few elements of reality, juggle with them and produce, for example, an image suggesting vivacious gaiety simply by the way he used pure color and linear rhythm. In this respect he was both a pioneer and a master.”
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Old Man and the Beginning of the World
Posted on February 5, 2001 by Nyx
Blackfoot Legend
Old Man came from the South, making the mountains, prairies, and forests as he passed along. He made the birds and animals also. He travelled northward, making things as he went along, putting red paint in the ground here and there, making it all as we see it today.
He made the Milk River and then crossed it. As he was tired, he went up onto a little hill and he laid down to rest. As he lay on his back, stretched out on the grass with his arms extended, he marked his figure with stones. You can still see those stones now, showing you where his body laid.
Going on north when he was through he tripped over a knoll and fell down hard on his knees. He said, “You are a bad thing to make me stumble so!” Then he raised up two large buttes there and named them the Knees. They are still called the Knees to this day. He went on farther north, and with some rocks that he had he built the Sweet Grass Hills.
Old Man covered the plains with grass for the animals to feed upon. He marked off a piece of ground and in it make all kinds of roots and berries to grow – camas, carrots, turnips, bitterroot, serviceberries, bullberries, cherries, plums, and rosebuds. He planted trees, and put all kinds of animals on the ground.
When he made the bighorn sheep with its large, heavy horns, he had put it out on the prairie. But it didn’t travel very easy on the prairie; it didn’t go very fast, and it moved awkwardly. So Old Man took it by its horns and led it up to the mountains, and turned it loose. There the bighorn skipped about among the rocks and went up fearful places with no trouble whatsoever. So Old Man said to it, “This is where you are meant to be; this is what you’re fitted for, the rocks and the mountains.”
While he was in the mountains, he made the antelope out of dirt and turned it loose, to see how it would go. It ran so fast that it fell over some rocks and hurt itself. Seeing that the mountains weren’t the place for it, Old Man took the antelope down to the prairie and turned it loose. He watched it for a moment, and then said, “So this is what you are suited for, the broad prairie,” as he watched it running at full stride across the prairie.
One day Old Man decided that he would make a woman and a child. So he formed them both of clay, the woman and the child, who was her son. After he had made the clay into human shapes, he said to it, “You must be people.” And then he covered it up and went away. The next morning he went to the place, and took off all of the covering, but the clay had changed little. The second morning he saw a little change, and the third, a lot more. The fourth morning he went to the place, took off the covering, looked at the clay people, and said, “Get up and walk.” They did so. They walked down to the river with their maker, and then he told them that his name was Napi, Old Man. And that is how we came to be people. It was he who made us.
The first people were poor and naked, and they didn’t know how to do anything for themselves. Old Man showed them the roots and berries and said that “you can eat these”. He pointed to certain trees. “When the bark of these trees is young and tender, it’s good. Then you can peel it off and eat it.”
He told the people that animals should also be their food. “These are your herds,” he said. “All the little animals that are on the ground; squirrels, rabbits, beavers, skunk – are all good to eat. You do not need to fear to eat their flesh. The birds that fly, too; these I made for you so that you can eat of their flesh.”
Old Man took the first people over the prairie and through the forests and the swamps, to show them the different plants he had made. He told them what herbs were good for sicknesses, saying often, “The root of this herb or the leaf of this herb, if gathered in a certain month of the year, is good for a certain sickness.” In that way the people learned about the medicines.
He showed them how to make weapons with which to kill the animals for their food. First he went out and cut some serviceberry shoots, brought them in, and peeled the bark off of them. He took one of the larger ones, flattened it, tied a string to it, and thus made a bow. Then he caught one of the birds he had made, took feathers from its wing, split them, and tied them to a shaft of wood.
At first he tied four feathers to the wood, and then shot the arrow. But he found that it didn’t fly well unless he used three feathers, and when he did, it hit the mark. Then he went out and broke sharp pieces off of some of the stones around him. When he tied them on to the shaft, he found that the black flint stones, and some white flint stones, made the best arrow tips.
When the people had learned how to made bows and arrows, Old Man told them how to shoot animals and birds. Because it isn’t healthy to eat animal flesh raw, he showed the first people how to make a fire. He gathered a soft, dry, rotten driftwood and made a punk of it. He then found a piece of hard wood and drilled a hole in it with an arrow point. He gave the first man a pointed piece of hard wood and showed him how to roll it between his hands until sparks came out and the punk caught fire. Then he showed the people how to cook meat, so that they didn’t get sick from the raw meat.
He told them to get a certain kind of rock that was on the land, while he found a harder stone. With the harder stone he had them hollow out the softer stone and to make a bowl with it. Thus they made their dishes.
Old Man told the first people how to get spirit power; “Go away by yourself and go to sleep. Something will come to you in your dream and will help you. It may be some animal. Whatever the animal tells you to do in your sleep, do it. Obey it. Be guided by it. If later you want help, if you are travelling alone or you cry for help, your prayer will be answered. It may be by an eagle, or a bear, or buffalo. Whatever animal hears your prayer, you must listen to it.
That was how the first people got along in the world; by the power that was given to them in their dreams.
After this, Old Man went back to travelling north. Many of the animals that he had created followed him. They understood when he spoke to them, and were his servants. When he got to the north point of the Porcupine Mountains, he made some more mud images, blew upon them, and they became people, men and women. They asked him, “What are we to eat?”
By way of answer, Old Man made many images of clay in the form of buffaloes. He blew his breath upon them and they stood up. When he made some signs to him, they started to run. Then he said to the people, “These animals; these buffalo, they are your food.”
“But how can we kill them?” the people asked.
“I will show you,” he replied.
He took them behind a cliff and told them to build rock piles. “Now hide behind those rock piles,” he said. “I will lead the buffalo this way. Now, when they get opposite of you, rise up.”
After telling them what to do, he went toward the herd of the buffalo. When he called to them, they started to run towards him, and they followed him until they were inside the piles of rock. Then Old Man dropped back. As the people rose up, the buffalo ran in a straight line and jumped right out off of the cliff.
“Go down and take the flesh of those animals,” Old Man cried.
The people tried to tear the limbs apart, but they could not. Old Man went to the side of the cliff, broke off some pieces with sharp edges, and told the people to cut the flesh with these rocks. They obeyed him. When they’d finished skinning the buffalo, they set up some poles and put the hides on them. Thus they made a shelter to sleep under.
After Old Man had taught the people all of these things, he started off again, travelling north until he came to where the Bow and the Elbow rivers meet. There he made more people and taught them the same things. From there he went further north. When he’d gotten almost all the way to the Red Deer River, he was so tired that he lay down on top of a hill. The form of his body can be seen there yet, on the top of the hill where he’d lain.
When he awoke from his sleep, he travelled farther north until he came to a high hill. He climbed up to the top and there sat down to rest. As he gazed over the country, he was very satisfied with it. Looking at the steep hill below him, he said to himself, “This is a fine place for sliding. I will have some fun!” And he began to slide down the hill. The marks where he slid are still there, and the place is known to all the Blackfeet as “Old Man’s Sliding Ground”.
Old Man cannot die. Long ago he left the Blackfeet and went away toward the west, going up into the mountains. Before he went, he said to the people, “I will always take care of you, and some day, I will come back.” Even today some people think that he spoke the truth, and that when he does come back, he will bring with him the buffalo, who many believe that the white men have hidden. Still others think that before he left he said that when he returned, he’d find them a different people. They would be living in a different world, he said, from that that he had made for them and had taught them to live in.
This entry was posted in Pagan by Nyx.Bookmark the permalink.
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Golden Ring
South of Russia
Sightseeing in Nizhny Novgorod
Transfer Nizhny Novgorod
Nizhny Novgorodprint version
General City Information
One of the oldest Russian settlements, Nizhni Novgorod was founded by the Great Prince Yuri in 1221. The location at the confluence of the two great rivers Volga and Oka made the town one of the key features in the rapidly developing Russian Southern trade. Soon Nizhni Novgorod became the economical and cultural center of the entire Volgo-Vyatski Region.
In 1350 Nizhni Novgorod became the capital of the Nizhni Novgorod principality.
As a sign of town’s new significance a wooden Kremlin was erected in the town center. It was set to house the prince’s palace, stone cathedrals, and monasteries.
In the 19th century Nizhni Novgorod became one of the biggest industrial centers of Russia. It was playing a leading role in the shipbuilding and train car manufacturing.
About half of the entire Russian fleet was produced in Nizhni Novgorod, and the first motorised boats in the world were also constructed there.
Nowdays Nizhni Novgorod looks every part the busy city it is. Modern hotels, restaurants, trading houses, banks, and offices of the shipbuilding companies provide a backdrop to its everyday life.
The cultural heritage of the city is represented by the Kremlin, The Uspenskaya, Ilynskaya and Strogonovskaya churches, The Art Museum (1896), The Historical and Architectural Museum (1867).
The town is also known as a university center. It also boasts quite a few theatres—Drama Theater, Opera and Ballet Theater, Comedy Theater, Nizhni Novgorod State Philharmonic, Puppet Theater, and the Theater for Young Spectators.
We are happy to offer you an invitation letter free when you book your accommodation with us!
Nizhni Novgorod is one of the main historical and cultural places of the Russian South, so there are a lot of exciting things a tourist might do. Here you will find a list of excursions and day trips we recommend. On request, extra excursions can be organised. If you are interested in this option, please, contact us
Transfer in Nizhny Novgorod
Here you will find a list of our transportation services (including the rent-a-car option). We offer individual transfers by private car and group transfers by bus. Usually the transfer does not include a guide, but it’s possible to arrange this. The guide (who speaks one of the available languages) will accompany you to your accommodation and will generally show you around.
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Repair Fair announcements (via email)
Ben got involved in promoting sustainability and community improvement several years ago as a volunteer Green Guide for Sustainable 19125/19134 in his neighborhood of Fishtown. He has focused his efforts on increasing recycling participation and green home improvements, as well as coordinating the planting of street trees on his block. Ben grew up in Northern Virginia until graduating from the Naval Academy in 1994 with a degree in Aerospace Engineering. After completing several tours of duty in Norfolk and San Diego, he resigned from the Navy to pursue a new career as a pilot. Moving to the area from California in 2003, Ben now spends modest amounts of his time flying for a major airline in Philadelphia.
Read posts by Ben Davis
Holly Logan
After graduating from Temple University, Holly served in AmeriCorps*National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) in the southeastern and western regions of the U.S. to pursue her passion for community service, teamwork, and travel. She has worked with non-profits, including Boys & Girls Club and Eisenhower Fellowships, and currently works at Temple University. In addition to her work with Philly Fixers Guild, Holly is a board member for Kensington Community Food Co-op and enjoys playing volleyball, using her bike to get her where she's got to go, reading, and gardening.
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© 2017 all rights reserved | Site design by Philly Fixers Guild
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Free trade agreements - what's in it for us?
by Jeffry Babb
With the international trading system in the mire, it's worth looking at the international trade flavour of the month, free trade agreements (FTAs). Australia is far from being the only global economy where FTAs are seen as an economic cure-all.
Singapore has been very active and is seeking more agreements in Europe to back up its recently signed FTA with Japan. One wouldn't think that an economic colossus like Japan would be threatened by anything Singapore has to offer, especially in agriculture. Singapore is, after all, a city state with no agricultural base. But it has. Singapore's sole primary export of any significance is goldfish. And guess what is excluded from the Japan-Singapore FTA? Goldfish.
Protectionist
The United States is protectionist. Prices are going up, because of tariffs on steel. Housing is more expensive, because timber from Canada has a tariff. The US$100 billion plus farm bill is already affecting Australia's markets.
Taiwan is also considering an FTA with the United States. Taiwan is in an interesting position. Taiwan has an estimated US$100 billion invested in mainland China. Total trade between mainland China and Taiwan in 2001 was US$32 billion, with 85 percent of that being exports from Taiwan.
In 2001, Taiwan's exports to mainland China for the first time exceeded those to the US. Although America still sells more to Taiwan than mainland China or Hong Kong, the eyes of every China trader light up when speaking of the massive market potential.
Conservative groups in the U.S. have been backing the US-Taiwan FTA for political reasons - it will make Taiwan less dependent on its giant neighbour China, which has not yet renounced the option of using force if Taiwan does not return to the Motherland's fold voluntarily.
"Taiwan has the potential to become the 51st market state in the US with a bilateral FTA," Ed Feulner, president of the Washington-based Heritage Foundation told the Asian Wall Street Journal recently.
Says Antonio Chiang, a member of Taiwan's national security council and noted mover and shaker in Taiwan's Presidential office, "Enactment of a US-Taiwan FTA is the most important move American can take to guarantee Taiwan's national security. While weapons sales are obviously important, the need for enhanced economic security become more urgent by the day."
Under an FTA, Australia would be in much the same position - dependent on the US. Of course, our farmers wouldn't get any more of a fair go than they do at the moment, and under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) doing a deal between Melbourne and Montreal - or Mexico City - would be the same as doing one with Sydney.
In the broader Asian context, Japan and China are promoting rival trade pacts that include South East Asia - and perhaps Australia. At the moment, neither of the competing versions is likely to get off the ground and Australia's role would be the same for China as it has for Japan - a convenient, cheap and politically stable source of raw materials.
But while Australia has a complimentary economy with the Asian powers, it's not the case with the US. Australia's highly efficient raw materials and agricultural producers will be competing directly with politically powerful and well organised US producers. We will never count for a single vote where it matters - in the United States House of Representatives and the Senate. Let's not forget, Canada has NAFTA and the Americans have slapped punitive tariffs on Canada's main export to the US - softwood timber.
From Taiwan's position, it already has something of an FTA with mainland China. Under the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Taiwan has had to drop barriers to over 2,000 items. Some of the things that are happening now occasionally makes you think you're not seeing right - Beijing's flagship beer, Tsingdao, is now being advertised in Taipei - and people are drinking it.
In examining the utility of an FTA, one must look at the fine print - in other words, what's in it for us? At the moment when it comes to an FTA for Australia with the US, one would have to say "not a great deal" - Australia's most competitive exports could be shut out by any President chasing votes in the farms states - or the industrial Mid West - or anywhere else, for that matter.
Another economic factor is at work. The US$ is decreasing rapidly in value against other currencies. This will make imports more expensive and exports cheaper - a boon to US import-competing manufacturers and U.S. exporters. The Australia dollar has increased in value some 15 percent against the U.S. dollar over the last few months.
What can we do about it? Almost nothing - international currency movements are beyond the control of even the Japanese Government, which is desperately trying to hold the yen steady against the US$. Japan is being warned it can't export its way out of its persistent recession by artificially holding down its currency. If these two giants come to blows, the grass will get trampled.
Jeffry Babb
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Bina Shah on why Pakistan can’t afford to cede any more space.
Freedom of Faith
Bina Shah, Dawn, December 24, 2017
JAN Figel, the EU’s special envoy for the promotion of freedom of religion and belief, came to Pakistan this month on a mission to highlight the importance of minority protection to the government, religious leaders, and civil society. His message: ensuring justice and well-being for its non-Muslim people works only to Pakistan’s benefit. But given Pakistan’s abysmal track record on protection of minorities, are we really ready to do the hard work on rule of law and justice to meet the standards that the international community expects from us?
Pakistan has signed the 1948 Declaration of Universal Human Rights, in which freedom of religion and belief is a cornerstone, which, as Figel pointed out in a talk on education and pluralism in Karachi, is a litmus test of other freedoms and a marker of human dignity. Our performance in this area so far has been, in a word, disappointing, and the international community has taken notice. It’s no secret that Pakistan’s status as a GSP Plus partner with the EU could be jeopardised by our inability to protect our religious minorities.
Rather than promoting the values in the Declaration of Human Rights, successive governments have striven to weaponise religion and use it as a tool of military and political power. Meanwhile, propaganda from political conservatives ties human rights to some sort of Western agenda meant to do Pakistan harm. The results have been disastrous. Today, as Pakistan confronts the latest round of attacks on imambargahs and churches, and the religious right’s protests in Islamabad last month, we can’t afford to cede any more space to those who would hijack Pakistani society and destroy its most vulnerable members.
Figel’s position as special envoy for freedom of religion and belief was created by the European Parliament to address the humanitarian crisis and the mass atrocities in Syria and Iraq carried out by the militant Islamic State group, the kidnapping and mistreatment of women, and the persecution of religious minorities including Christians, Yazidis, Kurds, Shia and even Arab Sunni communities.
Urging these communities towards reconciliation, rather than revenge, was a Herculean task, given the years of bloodshed and hatred engendered by the power vacuum after the fall of Saddam Hussein, the rise of IS, and the horrors of the Syrian war. Yet Figel described stakeholders in Iraq — religious leaders, civil society members, and political leaders — coming together to put forward a vision for their nations’ futures as a civil state based on equal citizenship, not a tyranny of the majority based on the racial or religious superiority of one group over the rest. The key word that kept coming up again and again in discussions: karama, the Arab word for dignity.
Pakistan can find its way out of the morass of religious persecution if its people are ready to take bold steps, embarking on a long process of legislative and political reform. But we must internalise, first, the importance of human dignity, and realise that our differences do not diminish each person’s value and equality in society. We must make the connection between religious persecution and the detriment of our society. Finally, Pakistanis must take ownership of this process of education and reform, relying on the EU or other foreign powers only for support, not to direct the entire agenda.
There are 44 million children out of school, and Figel isn’t the first to point out that uneducated people are more vulnerable to the vicissitudes of extremism. Many have urged regularisation and registration of the madressahs in order to prevent them from being misused as training grounds for religiously motivated violence. Yet our madressahs have been educating huge swathes of children whose parents can’t afford any better. We can’t replace this broadly accessible, albeit low-quality network with a high-quality education that remains inaccessible, and thus of little relevance to our society. We must strike a balance between egalitarianism and elitism in the education system in order to save Pakistan’s children from being infected with religious intolerance.
The EU will hold what Figel calls “strategic engagement consultations” on the process of implementing reforms that will benefit Pakistan’s religious minorities. But our society will first need a mental transformation for any legal or political process to be truly effective. We must replace our indifference to the plight of our religious minorities with a sense of responsibility and duty towards them. Women and men of conscience must refuse to use religion to manipulate the uneducated into doing violence upon their brothers and sisters of other faiths and creeds.
It will take courage to undo years of miseducation, intolerance and denial to create a vision of Pakistan as a peaceful, tolerant and pluralistic society. But our own dignity as a nation is at stake. After all, there’s no point crying for the Palestinians or the Rohingya when we’re acting like their tormentors in our own country.
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Overwatch: The Official Cookbook (Final Cover)
Written by Medievaldragon on June 18, 2019 . Posted in Blizzard Licensed Products, Overwatch News
Insight Editions reached out to share further details about the upcoming Overwatch: The Official Cookbook by best-selling author Chelsea Monroe-Cassel.
Overwatch: The Official Cookbook
Blizzard Entertainment’s hit team-based action game Overwatch® has entertained more than 40 million players in 140 countries around the globe. Soon, hungry heroes taking a break from battle and searching for inspiration in the kitchen won’t have to look any further than Chelsea Monroe-Cassel’s Overwatch: The Official Cookbook (Insight Editions; October 1, 2019; SRP $35.00).
Based on Blizzard Entertainment’s global phenomenon Overwatch, this official
cookbook is packed with scores of authentic recipes inspired by the game’s diverse heroes, who hail from all corners of the world. Inspired by the game’s optimistic vision of future Earth and vibrant cast, this cookbook features international food and drink recipes from the homelands of your favorite Overwatch heroes. Each recipe includes straightforward step-by-step instructions, mouthwatering full-color photos, and more.
Overwatch: The Official Cookbook is the latest in Insight Editions’ highly successful line of licensed cookbooks, including World of Warcraft®: The Official Cookbook, Hearthstone®: Innkeeper’s Tavern Cookbook, Fallout: The Vault Dweller’s Cookbook, and Elder Scrolls: The Official Cookbook.
Publisher: Insight Editions
Product Dimensions: 8 x 10 inches
Chelsea Monroe-Cassel is the coauthor of the best-selling A Feast of Ice and Fire: The Official Game of Thrones Companion Cookbook and Elder Scrolls: The Official Cookbook and the author of World of Warcraft: The Official Cookbook and Hearthstone: Innkeeper’s Tavern Cookbook. Her work is a synthesis of imagination and historical research. This passion has led her to a career of transforming imaginary foods into reality. She greatly enjoys foreign languages, treasure hunting, history, and all things related to honey.
About Insight Editions:
Celebrated for its unwavering dedication to quality, Insight Editions is a publisher of innovative books and collectibles that push the boundaries of creativity, design, and production. Through its acclaimed film, television, and gaming program, Insight strives to produce unique books and products that provide new ways to engage with fan-favorite characters and stories. Under this program, Insight has published books covering the worlds of Star Wars, Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Destiny, Assassin’s Creed, Halo, Diablo, World of Warcraft, and the Harry Potter films, among many others. Insight’s award-winning art, photography, and sports titles celebrate the artistry and history of a wide range of subjects that include the Rolling Stones, John Lennon, Kurt Cobain, Johnny Cash, the San Francisco Giants, and the Dallas Cowboys. Other divisions include a line of deluxe stationery products, as well as a children’s imprint, Insight Kids. For more information, visit www.insighteditions.com.
About Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.
Best known for blockbuster hits including World of Warcraft®, Hearthstone®, Overwatch®, the Warcraft®, StarCraft®, and Diablo® franchises, and the multi-franchise Heroes of the Storm®, Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. (www.blizzard.com), a division of Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI), is a premier developer and publisher of entertainment software renowned for creating some of the industry’s most critically acclaimed games. Blizzard Entertainment’s track record includes twenty-two #1 games and numerous Game of the Year awards. The company’s online gaming service, Blizzard Battle.net®, is one of the largest online-gaming services in the world, with millions of active players.
Hope you enjoyed this article. Please, support Blizzplanet on Patreon, and follow us in Twitter, Facebook and YouTube for daily Blizzard games news updates.
Tomas Hernandez is owner of Blizzplanet.com since 2003. I post news about World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, Diablo III, Hearthstone, Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm, Blizzard Careers, and the Warcraft film.
Blizzplanet is a leading fansite covering news about upcoming Blizzard Entertainment licensed products. I also post previews and reviews. I have interviewed book writers and Blizzard game developers.
I was previously an employee of the OGaming Network (2003), and IncGamers (2008-2010). I was a guest newsposter for GosuGamers (World of Warcraft) a few years ago and for Diablofans.com (formerly Diablo3.com)
***Fans who would love to watch our recorded Blizzard panels, BlizzCon panel transcripts, and appreciate our efforts can support Blizzplanet’s patreon in a monthly-basis, or a one-time basis. Our staff are volunteer fans like you. Your donatives will help us travel to all the Blizzard events we attend year-round.
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“False Centrelink debt demands are criminal”
Nijole Naujokas
The Anti-Poverty Network SA, Women in Poverty
The Anti-Poverty Network (APN-SA), in conjunction with Women in Poverty (WIP), is holding a protest rally on Tuesday 31st January 2017 to demand the Turnbull government suspend the “Robo-Debt” Centrelink system that is issuing hundreds of thousands of debt notices, many of which have been proven false, to current and previous welfare recipients.
The rally, to be held at 12:30pm on the steps of Parliament House on Tuesday in Adelaide, in conjunction with the “Dignity, Not Debt” rally being held in Melbourne by the Australian Unemployed Workers Union on the same day, will be an opportunity to voice the anger that many ordinary citizens are feeling at receiving debt notices that are false or grossly exaggerated. Nijole Naujokas, member of APN-SA and WIP, says this is a chance for ordinary citizens to voice their disapproval of the Turnbull government’s treatment of its welfare recipients, and a rebuttal of Alan Tudge’s assertion that there are not many false debts.
“The Australian public are sick of the government’s treatment of welfare recipients,” Ms Naujokas says. “Many of these debt demands are false, inflicting stress, anxiety and worry on Centrelink clients whose only crime is to have been employed in a casual job with irregular hours. If this was done by a private company, it would be considered extortion and criminal behaviour.”
Protestors are calling on the Turnbull government and Department of Human Services Minister Alan Tudge to abandon the new automated system and re-instate the previous system where DHS staff investigated potential debts. When calculating debt, the new data matching system averages out the earnings of a recipient, assuming that person has worked the whole year. This has affected many casual workers who may have worked some weeks more than others.
The APN and WIP are calling for an end to the demonization of Centrelink recipients. They claim to have received numerous complaints that the appeal process for false debts is extremely difficult, requiring hours of phone calls, chasing up years-old pay slips, and that it places the burden on citizens to prove their innocence, which is at odds with the legal principle that a person is innocent until proven guilty.
“It’s a system that assumes Centrelink clients are guilty until proven innocent,” Ms Naujokas says. “No other debt recovery process is like this. We urge the government to suspend this system and stop the unfair financial harassment of ordinary Australians.”
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Sep 23 Picture Lock Radio: Ep. 20- The Magnificent 7, Russell Williams II, John W. Franklin of the NMAAHC
This episode is a little longer than most, but with the historic opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, it had to go uncut! Host Kevin Sampson talks with critic Tim Gordon about Queen of Katwe and The Magnificent 7. Two time Academy Award winner, Professor Russell Williams II, stops by to talk about going from being a kid from Southeast DC to two time Oscar and Emmy winner. As the first African American to win multiple Academy Awards in any category, his Oscars will be on display in the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African American History and Culture. John W. Franklin, Senior Manager of the Office of External Affairs, NMAAHC, Smithsonian Institution talks with me about the history of bringing the museum to the nation, and what we can expect to see at the opening this weekend!
Find Professor Williams at: http://www.american.edu/soc/faculty/rwill.cfm
Find out more info about the National Museum of African American History and Culture here: https://nmaahc.si.edu/
Picture Lock radio, Picture Lock, The Magnificent 7, Queen of Katwe, Russell Williams II, John W. Franklin, NMAAHC, National Museum of African American History and Culture, grand opening, opening weekend, film, podcast, movies, movie podcast, film podcast, Kevin Sampson
Sep 30 Picture Lock Radio: Ep. 21- Fences, RIFE, IndieCapitol Awards, & Melissa Houghton of WIFV DC
Sep 19 Picture Lock Unlocked: DC Chinese Film Festival 2016
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Student-Designed Electric Car Breaks World Record by Crossing Australia in 6 Days...
A team of 14 college students have just set a Guinness world record with a solar-powered car that drove across Australia in 6 days using only $50 worth of energy.
The car, which has affectionally been named Violet, broke the record for using the lowest amount of energy on a cross-country drive earlier this month after it traveled roughly 2,500 miles (4,100 kilometers) from Perth to Sydney – and it arrived at its destination two days ahead of schedule.
The car was designed by the student-led Sunswift team at the University of New South Wales.
"I'm so excited we made it," said 20-year-old Courtney Morris, a mechanical engineering student involved with the project. "It's always so nerve-wracking to see the car that you built with your own hands on the road; I'm always afraid that something could change at any moment, but it all went pretty well and the team dynamic was great."
To set the record, the team had to keep the car's energy consumption to under 5.5 kilowatt hours (kWh) for every 62 miles. Actual energy consumption throughout the journey was an average of 3.25kWh per 62 miles, which is about 17 times less than an average Australian car.
By traveling an average of 372 miles (600 kilometers) a day, Violet used about the same energy per day as that of a standard household. When the vehicle is coasting at just 37 miles per hour (60kph), it uses about the same amount of energy as a four slice toaster.
"These students have pushed the boundaries of modern engineering and proven that solar powered cars are likely to be a big part of Australia's motoring future," said UNSW Dean of Engineering Professor Mark Hoffman, who was waiting for the students at the finish line.
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Posted in Sports
MLB Player Profile: Masahiro Tanaka
Joel Barnhart May 21, 2014
Masahiro Tanaka is the latest pitching sensation from the Land of the Rising Sun.
Full Name: Masahiro Tanaka
Nickname(s): No really good ones that I could find.* I suppose if Chris Berman (ugh) were a wrestling fan, he’d go with Masahiro “Chono/Saito/Pat” Tanaka. Take your pick; they’re all terrible and I apologize for them.
*Addendum: I did find that Tanaka is sometimes called Ma-Kun (long /a/, short /u/) in Japan, which is basically the first syllable of his given name “Masahiro” and the suffix “Kun” which is an informal attachment to signify camaraderie with others. I dunno, does that count as a legit nickname?
Current Team: New York Yankees
Uniform No.: 19
Current Primary Position: Starting Pitcher
Former Positions: Um…starting pitcher in Japan?
Vital Stats: 6-2, 205 lbs. 25-years-old, born on November 1, 1988 in Itami, Hyogo, Japan
2014 Season Stats (thru May 21, 2014): 6-1, 2.39 ERA, 73 Ks in 62.0 IP
Accolades, Accomplishments, Awards: First-round draft pick of Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in 2006 NPB* high school draft (Komazawa University Tomakomai High School); Pacific League (NPB) Rookie of the Year in 2007; 5-time (5-time, 5-time, 5-time, 5-time) WCW World Heavyweight Champion NPB All-Star Selection; 2-time Eiji Sawamura award winner**; Japan Series champion with Golden Eagles in 2013
*In Japan, there is one “major league,” which is referred to as Nippon Professional Baseball, or NPB. The league is split into two leagues: the Central and the Pacific.
** NPB equivalent of the Cy Young Award.
On the Field: Tanaka was born on November, 1, 1988 in the city of Itami, located in the Hyogo prefecture of Japan. He began playing baseball at seven years old, batting cleanup and catching for his Little League team, the Koyanosato Tigers. He began to pitch while attending junior high school, while also catching occasionally.
Once enrolled at Komazawa University Tomakomai High School, Tanaka began pitching exclusively, starring for his team in the National Baseball High School tournament, helping his team to a championship as a junior in 2004. During his years as a high-school pitcher, Tanaka struck out a Japanese-record 458 batters, while also hitting 13 home runs.
In September of 2006, three separate NPB teams drafted Tanaka with their first-round selections. The Rakuten Golden Eagles won a literal “straw-draw” for Tanaka’s services and signed him to a contract.
His NPB “major league” debut came on March 29, 2007, against the host Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. Tanaka allowed six runs in 1 ⅔ innings, but was not tagged with the loss. His first career victory came on April 18 against at home against the Softbank Hawks. He struck 13 in a complete game win.
Tanaka finished up 11-7 with a 3.82 ERA and an NPB-best 196 strikeouts. This performance earned him the NPB Rookie of the Year award.
During his seven season with Rakuten, Tanaka compiled a 99-35 record with 53 (!) complete games and 18 (!) shutouts. To put that in context, the active MLB leader in complete games is 14-year veteran CC Sabathia with 37 and the top dog in shutouts in 16-year vet Tim Hudson with 13.
In the fall of 2013, Tanaka was posted by the Golden Eagles, a process in which MLB teams place bids for the rights to negotiate with an NPB player. If the player and the MLB team agree to terms, the NPB team is awarded a “posting fee” and the player begins his career as a Major Leaguer. However, if the player and team fail to agree on a deal, the posting team gets no money, and the player returns to his NPB team.
After all bids were received, it was revealed — in a scene right out of reality TV, with Tanaka playing “The Bachelor” and Bud Selig looking on like any number of doe-eyed lunkheads models — that the New York Yankees won the bid. Less than a month later, the team signed the righty to a seven-year, $155 million dollar contract that initially raised some eyebrows given the volatility of signing Japanese pitchers (see Igawa, Kei or Irabu, Hideki).
Thus far in the 2014 season, as evidenced by the stats posted above, it’s evident that Tanaka is now opening eyes, as opposed to raising brows. In his last 37 decisions, Tanaka posted a 36-1 record, with his most recent defeat coming at the hands (bats?) of the Chicago Cubs (WHAT?!?) on Tuesday, May 20, 2014. His last defeat was in 2012.
Name Anagram: Marathons Kai Aa
Fun Fact: Tanaka is a huge fan of Momoiro Clover Z, which is either a terrible, new vaccine-resistant strain of flu, a card game played by old women in Tokyo, or a very, very popular Japanese all-girl singing group.
Historical Comparables: Given his lack of MLB exposure (as of this writing, Tanaka has only faced one MLB team twice) it is hard to predict what Tanaka will be or who comes close to a comparison. He’s been lights-out so far, drawing early-season comparisons with countryman Yu Darvish, as well as MLB greats like Nolan Ryan, Roger Clemens, and Pedro Martinez. Will he end up that good? Probably not, given that NPB is largely seen as the equivalent of U.S. Triple-A quality. But, he’s off to a great start, and should prove to be well worth the $155 million, 7-year investment the Yankees made.
Talkin’ About Tanaka: “He has more of a Western style that he’s not afraid to go up and in, he’s not afraid to pitch inside. He pitches kind of with a little chip on his shoulder.” — unnamed MLB talent evaluator.
Tagged Masahiro Tanaka, MLB, New York Yankees, Nippon Professional Baseball, Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles
Author: Joel Barnhart
A big-time baseball nerd, Joel is currently teaching English as a Second Language in San Antonio, Texas. In addition to his MLB passion, he enjoys good whiskey, good music, good movies, and good friends. He is currently engaged in an ongoing 12-year online debate over the merits of bubble wrap.
← Nate’s Impact Recap – 5/15/14
The Bower Show #22: The “End” of CC Sabathia & Max Scherzer Hatred →
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Atari, Ray Kassar and Warner
TCW Podcast Episode 046 - Atari, Ray Kassar and Warner
We continue on to part three of our four part look into Atari. We delve into Atari under the leadership of Ray Kassar. It becomes apparent that while Ray did make mistakes the leadup to the fall of Atari cannot be entirely placed at his feet. We also explore the role of Warner in the direction Atari took and the difficult decision on whether to concentrate on home console or PC. We also delve into the Arcade side of things and how, while successful, they were not without their growing problems.
Atari Pinball: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqcDFAphThY
Space Invaders Atari 2600: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opru6qPsPa4
Atari Arcade Battlezone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymrYkbEbnEQ
Atari 400 and 800: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-InWwzs8Em0
Asteroids Arcade: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYSupJ5r2zo
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Striking back at McMafia in Ukraine
2018-02-09T16:15:35+00:00February 8th, 2018|globalisation, revolution, Self-determination, Social movement, system failure, Ukraine|0 Comments
Ukrainians of all ages and walks of life demonstrated astonishing courage and perseverance in opposition to corruption and misrule during two huge protest actions over the past decades.
Some two million people braved freezing conditions and attacks by the security forces as well as far right movements, first with the 2004-5 Orange revolution and then again in 2013. The protests became known as the Maidans, after Independence Square in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
A new book, Ukraine and the Empire of Capital – from marketisation to armed conflict, outlines the economic and political realities that lie behind these peoples’ movements. It details how kleptocrats and oligarchs appropriated resources, hiding them in off-shore funds behind bland-sounding company names – and how they became “fused with governments”.
Its author Yuliya Yurchenko warns that Ukraine could be heading to a third and more violent upsurge in the near future. Economic collapse, massive indebtedness and worsening conditions, with 1.5m people suffering food insecurity exist cheek by jowl with gross displays of wealth.
Yuliya explains what motivated her research. “It is quite hopeful and also desperate and sad to see what’s been happening. The Maidans took place in Kyiv, but also on the squares of most towns and cities around the country, east and west. But it was not divided clearly between east and west.”
“The second Maidan,” she says, “which took place in the winter of 2013-14, became known as the Revolution of Dignity.”
People were outraged when the trade treaty with the EU was not signed and they demanded the decision should be reviewed. The oligarchs wanted to keep their sweet relations with Russia due to their dependence on oil and gas. There was also pressure from Western partners.
“President Viktor Yanukovych sent the Berkut riot squads to beat and kill protesters on the streets in the dead of night on 30 November 2013. This was the last straw, bringing yet more people onto the streets, leading eventually to Yanukovych fleeing the country under Russian protection.”
Yuliya says the second Maidan was not a consolidated revolutionary movement with a clear plan of what it wanted. But during the course of the protest, people began to shape agendas against oligarchisation and for decent public provision.
“The results were hijacked by the Russian annexation of Crimea and the incursions of Russian brigades and GRU special forces into the east. I am convinced if it were not for the foreign invasion of Ukraine at that time, we would have a very different country now with different political forces.
“But the seeds of that movement still remain in the country. Even those who thought the oligarchs could become a socially responsible rule have become disillusioned. And the protests continue to this day. Socio-economic conditions are now deteriorating due to growing equality. A third of households had children living in absolute poverty in 2014. There is a process of proletarisation – people have very little or nothing at all to lose.
“And there is frustration and anger about inequality. It is very obvious to people whose living standards are dropping and are losing social security while they are surrounded by expensive cars, clothes and newly-built skyscrapers. It’s awareness that there is not a lack of money but a misappropriation of money.”
Yuliya Yurchenko with Lloyd Russell-Moyle, Labour MP for Brighton Kemptown (r) and Chris Ford of the Ukraine Solidarity Campaign (l) at the Parliament book launch
So where does the power of the people to resist come from in Ukraine, after so much trauma and hardship?
“There is an understanding that if we do not do this, nothing will change,” Yuliya says. “The Orange revolution showed that people on the streets could get results and injected optimism. It proved that there was real solidarity. After the violence and bloodshed with a deepening economic crisis there is even less to lose.
“I hope there will be at least some form of social democratic alliance, but that could be considered a utopian vision. What will the masses follow if there is a serious shift in Ukrainian politics is hard to know. There has been a clampdown on any socialist or left-wing rhetoric – so there is a battle for the public mind.”
At the book launch in Parliament, Yuliya said: “If you say you are a communist, people think you work with oligarchs. If you say you are a democrat, that means you are implementing anti-democratic authoritarianism.”
So, how to explain this apparent contradiction?
“Political labels often have very little in common with their dictionary definitions,” Yuliya replies. “In the post-Soviet space, and Ukraine in particular, it’s quite specific. The party that descended from the Communist Party of the USSR, lost its communist and socialist ideals and often collaborated with the oligarchic parties, voting against progressive reforms.
“We see MPs on relatively small salaries driving extremely expensive cars and wearing watches costing tens of thousands of Euros that they clearly can’t afford on their own wages. We see conspicuous consumption and conspicuous corruption.
“Many parties claim democratic credentials and have beautiful democratic rhetoric in their programmes and statutes, but at the same time they vote for legislation that involves human rights abuses and authoritarian legislation.
“That’s been going on in Ukraine pretty much since it became independent [in 1991]. So there is a high degree of public mistrust. When someone proclaims she or he are liberals or social democrats, no one takes them seriously. The overwhelming perception is that all politicians are the same.
“Look at what happened when Yanukovych was kicked out by the Euromaidan protests. If we try to understand those protests as a ‘fascist coup’ – then we are really feeding into dictionary perceptions of what certain social forces could be.
“The right-wing forces were small at Maidan, but they were self-organising and pro-active, while the Maidan protesters had no other agenda except to oppose the police and to kick out the government that ordered them in. Against that mixed background a few right-wing brigades wore the only-too familiar Wolfsangel symbol – used during the Nazi period.
“So, why do we still have a neo-liberal kleptocracy in Ukraine? We now have a real oligarch for the first time as president, as opposed to a proxy one.
“During the 2014-5 protests, people on the streets demanded a change of leadership. Then Russia exploited the situation, using the political weakness of Ukraine when there was no commander in chief after Yanukovych fled the country.
“We had a foreign invasion and occupation while there was turmoil in the capital. Russia poured oil on the protests in eastern Ukraine and fuelling the rhetoric of Novorossiya, claiming it was Russian territory.
“The oligarchs, including today’s president Petro Poroshenko, capitalised on that geo-political weakness to call for a president to be elected as soon as possible so we have a commander in chief to take control of the borders. There was a very clever electoral campaign in the spring 2014 elections which is how Poroshenko could come through.
”The continuing war in the east is being used to muffle and restrain public discontent. People still go and protest, but they feel they need to avoid destabilising the country from within, because we are embroiled in a military conflict – that we must wait for that to end. This means that it’s in the oligarchs interest for the conflict to continue.”
Yuliya has dedicated her book “To the victims of capital” because she believes that the social ruptures in Ukraine have global dimensions.
“There are transnational forces at work,” she says. “Ukraine is part of the global economic system and is integrated into it. And just like any other country, it is subject to dynamics that go through and around nation states penetrating borders. Regardless of how uneven these movements of capital are, there are those who suffer from it everywhere. Ukrainians are experiencing a Bloody Winter, but the pain is not isolated to them.
“Conflicts may take different forms around the globe, over resources, and which involve state and institutional transformation, but the underlying class dynamics are the same. It is capital fighting for accumulation and sweeping aside labour, environment, norms of human dignity and civil order.
“Ukraine is a lesson for everyone. What’s happened in Ukraine in the last 25-years – it’s a speeded-up version of the construction of a neo-liberal kleptocracy which comes to life in the TV drama McMafia. Where does extreme austerity lead when so much is taken away? There is a global empire of capital that exploits people everywhere and eventually leads to conflict.”
I met with Yuliya just as news broke of a connection between the disgraced Yanukovych and a UK company based in Potters Bar. According to File on 4, Fineroad Business LLP has channelled huge sums from last year’s Eurovision song contest into the coffers of Yanukovych’s cronies.
“So we should remember,” Yuliya says, “that just because there are obvious oligarchs in the Ukraine doesn’t mean there are no walking monsters in the US and in the UK. Just as in Potters Bar!”
Ukraine and the Empire of Capital From Marketisation to Armed Conflict is published by Pluto Press at £19.99
WANTED: YOUR ideas, YOUR energy and YOUR support
MaidanRussiaUkraineYanukovychYuliya Yurchenko
About the Author: Corinna Lotz
Time to dump Trump
Tories out demo in London
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Music As a Motivator
Julie Oshins
By Julie Oshins, “Play It Forward”
You know how there are different types of intelligence? For example, emotional intelligence, street smarts, etc. A friend of mine recently observed that our career (as djs) requires a type of intelligence that helps people connect to music and movement. It inspired me to pull a book off the shelf, This is Your Brain on Music by Daniel J. Levitin. I’m curious about what exactly music does to the brain.
According to Levitin, “Musical intelligence is the capacity to think in music and rhythm. People possessing it are considered to have a strong appreciation for music . . .and generally enjoy being immersed in music.” Sounds about right, yes? I think most of us would identify with this.
The book also confirms that music is energy and vibration. Music has a powerful influence on a listener’s heart rate. If you have ever felt a surge of energy when your favorite upbeat song comes on, or if you listen to slow music to relax, the emotions you experience are directly linked to what music does to your heart rate.The listener’s brain and body pick up on the tempo and rhythm of the music, and the heart beats to match them.
So there’s a reason we wear out Party Rock Anthem or the new Rhianna song when looking for a pick-me up: Music lights up the brain’s pleasure center in a similar way that sex, food, and drugs do. Music can spark changes in heart rate and breathing, and studies have found that it can also treat depression and anxiety. Listening to music for about an hour a day can help reduce fatigue, according to a recent study. Music MAY also play a key role in cell growth and repair, keeping your insides spry, says Miguel-Angel Mayoral-Chavez, M.D., Ph.D. Just make sure the beats are, well, upbeat! “I think music in itself is healing. It’s an explosive expression of humanity. It’s something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we’re from, everyone loves music. “ Billy Joel
More dramatically, music may be able to help people with severe brain injuries recover their speech. (Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford’s medical team, for example, incorporated music into her treatment.)
“Music is an automatic motivator,” Morrow said. “It is the easiest way to get you in a good mood, to bring you out of the situation you’re in and bring you to a new place.”
Melodies are known to affect the hypothalamus and amygdala, which regulate emotions and moods through hormones like oxytocin and prolactin, both of which have consoling effects. And apparently different kinds of tunes can raise or lower blood pressure as much as drugs can.
And music therapy is also used with Alzheimer’s patients. Because music brings up memories! Music is the BEST Time machine.
One of the things I always tell my wedding couples is “ what do you want to hear, that years from now, decades from now, will always make you think of your wedding day, and how happy you were on that day?” It helps them make choices organically, and they really feel like the music is all about them.
Music is the window to the soul and gives us access to our harmonious and spiritual self.
As DJs we set the intention to help people connect to this side of themselves purposefully. A “Sound Scientist”! Cosmic conductors in helping listeners reach that state of bliss…
Music is Life. That’s why our hearts have Beats! <3
You Are the Unique Advantage
Festoon by CHAUVET DJ
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Have you ever wondered how come Cinco de Mayo is always celebrated by the “Gringos” as a Mexican Holiday thinking it is Independence Day? I have always wondered about that too, and I don’t think I will ever understand.
I call this Holiday the “Non Cinco de Mayo Day”, kind of like the song from Alice in Wonderland to celebrate the “Non Birthday” or in Spanish the “!Feliz, Feliz, No cumpleaños!”. I grew up in Mexico listening to the Alicia en el Pais de las Maravillas fairy tale narrated from a voice on a vinyl record (yeah kids, one of those huge round plastic records you probably will see in the Museum of Musical Antiques). By the way, I thought the record was pretty slick, it was a bright red vinyl color and it had a picture of Alice in the middle. Anyway, I love the scene where Alice gets invited to the tea party celebrated by Mad Hatter and March Hare to celebrate their un-birthdays, and then she realizes it is her un-birthday as well because it IS NOT her actual birthday so they start celebrating! That’s how I feel about Cinco de Mayo in the United States; it is a celebration of the Non-Cinco de Mayo Day, because people have it all wrong.
I remember when I was living in Mexico; Cinco de Mayo was a day to celebrate the Battle of Puebla, basically when the Mexican Army fought the French Army to gain independence from France (Oooh lah, lah!, in which case we would be speaking “Frañol” instead of “Spanglish”) . At the time of this event, it represented a lot of pride to the Mexican people for fighting and defeating such a European Colonial power. As a young student back then, it was a time to hold “honores a la bandera” in the main school patio, and maybe participate as a marching group all the way to “el centro”, otherwise it would be normal to see the Mexican Army march in a low key parade. To this date, this holiday is celebrated throughout Mexico as a sign of unity, patriotism, and courage, and a reenactment of the battle of Puebla is broadcasted on TV from the City of Puebla on national TV. The President of Mexico salutes the marching Mexican Army parading through the streets in el Zócalo, and that’s about it. People go on about their business just like any other day, no margarita specials on each restaurant in every corner, no mass media beer commercials, no crazy gringos with the big Mexican Revolutionary Hats getting drunk at the local bars, no mariachis playing unless is Plaza Garibaldi.
When I started working as an intern at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, we once got an email letter distributed to all the NASA centers in the United States by the NASA administrator back then reminding us about the pride and heritage of this celebration and congratulating all the Hispanics about the Mexican Independence, or something to that extent. I found so many wrong things with that letter, not only because not all Hispanics are Mexican, and not all Mexicans celebrate such Holiday, but also because it was a misinformed written statement. I was only an intern back then, but I wrote a letter back to whoever was in charge of distributing this email, clarifying first of all, it was not Mexican Independence Day and it was not a Hispanic Holiday, because I’m sure many Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Venezuelans, Colombians, Panamanians and so forth would be offended. The next day, throughout all the NASA centers, we got another email letter from the NASA administrator apologizing for the confusion and ever since, my wonderful coworkers make it a point to congratulate me every Cinco de Mayo for the Mexican Independence Day. Even though I don’t work with these colleagues anymore since I changed groups, and even though I don’t celebrate this Day like most people do in the U.S., I always look forward to their funny emails every year, it makes me laugh and it reminds me of such a hilarious anecdote.
As a Mexican, I understand the yearning to celebrate this Holiday in the United States for many Mexicans who live here, because after all, there is no National Holiday to celebrate the “Mexicanity”’ of the people, so in turn it has become more of a cultural celebration of many levels. For Mexicans, Chicanos, and Mexican-Americans living in the U.S., it has become a reason to celebrate the greatness of the Mexican culture and its heritage, while for the rest: a reason for the media to make sales and a reason for the people to get drunk, eat fajitas, chimichangas, burritos, sopapillas and all the "non existant Mexican food in Mexico" sold here, and of course, to have fun! I’m not against such celebration, and I respect the reasons for others to celebrate such day. So whatever the reason is for celebrating this Holiday, call me orthodox or party pooper, all I know is I’m celebrating the Non-Cinco de Mayo today just like any other day: I will probably take walk around the neighborhood, play with my daughter at the park, eat dinner with my husband, go to sleep, and wait for the next day to come.
Feliz Non-Cinco de Mayo!
Mexico, NASA, viajes, travel, Mexican Sin comentarios/No comment
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Oscar Pistorius cleared of murder charges
South African judge Thokozile Masipa has cleared Olympic and paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius of all murder charges, Reuters said.
“Clearly he did not subjectively foresee this as a possibility that he would kill the person behind the door, let alone the deceased as he thought she was in the bedroom,” Masipa told a court and Pistorius, who broke down in tears.
He could still be found guilty of culpable homicide, the equivalent of manslaughter, if Masipa believes the athlete was negligent in shooting dead his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp last year.
The judge earlier said the state had failed to prove that Pistorius was guilty of premeditated murder.
The tragedy happened on February 14, 2013, when Reeva Steenkamp’s body was found in Pistorius’s toilet room.
Pistorius woke up at night and heard sounds from the bathroom. Thinking it was a robber, he shot several times at the closed door. When he opened it, he saw his bleeding girlfriend who died shortly afterward.
South Africa has one of the highest crime rates in the world and armed robberies are common.
On February 19, 2013 Pretoria Prosecutor Gerrie Nel charged Pistorius with the premeditated murder. Later in February, the athlete was released on bail for a million South African rands.
In March 2013, Pistorius’s lawyers appealed the court’s decision not to let him out of the country, and the appeal was granted. Pistorius was ordered to present a detailed plan of his journeys no later than a week before leaving the country.
Pistorius is a double amputee runner and a six-time Paralympic champion who has also taken part in able-bodied competitions. He won a silver medal in the 4×400 meter relay at the 2011 world championship.
Judge Thokozile Masipa was arrested in 1970s when taking part in protests against the detention of journalists during Apartheid. In 1998, she became the second black woman in South Africa to be appointed a judge.
Author praagPosted on September 11, 2014 Categories News, South AfricaTags armed robbery, crime rate, murder, Oscar Pistorius
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Shakespeare’s Buildings
A photographic resource detailing the buildings and places associated with William Shakespeare
More than four centuries, 17 monarchs, 37 plays and 154 sonnets may separate us from Shakespeare, yet the playwright’s hold on the language, literature and culture of the English-speaking world remains as strong as ever.
But in the 400 years since our most revered writer and poet first travelled south across England to bring his craft to London, the buildings which would once have been so familiar to him have risen and fallen. Theatres, houses, churches and, in some cases, entire streets have disappeared from the map.In Shakespeare’s hometown, Stratford-upon-Avon, however, the house of his birth and the childhood home of his bride, Anne Hathaway, still stand. Magnificent examples of late medieval or Tudor architecture, they are owned by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and attract hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world every year.
Elsewhere, The Globe has risen again on the capital’s South Bank and, across the Atlantic in Virginia, his first London playhouse has been meticulously recreated.
In Shoreditch, Galliard Homes with joint venture partners Cain Hoy, McCourt, Vanke and The Estate Office Shoreditch is developing The Stage where Shakespeare’s Curtain Theatre once stood. Comprising over 400,000 sq. ft. of mixed-use space including 412 apartments, offices, retail and an acre or public realm, the Curtain Theatre will be preserved and transformed into the focal centrepiece of The Stage.
While many of the sites linked with Shakespeare are no longer standing, it is possible to see their traces today and to still be able to explore the rich world of our greatest writer.
Shakespeare’s Birthplace
A shrine for the playwright’s devotees from around the world, Shakespeare’s Birthplace is a stunning half-timbered house on Henley Street, Stratford, where he lived from his birth in 1564 until he married Anne Hathaway when in his mid-twenties. The house was the largest on Henley Street and owned by William’s father, John, for half a century.The home doubled as a workshop for John Shakespeare’s glove-making business with outbuildings containing animal skins and liming pits.John Shakespeare died in 1601 and the house was passed to William. It became the Maidenhead Inn and then the Swan and Maidenhead and remained a public house until 1847 when it was purchased by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.
©Trevor Wintle
Anne Hathaway’s Cottage
A quintessential English farmhouse, the house where Shakespeare’s future bride lived as a child is in Shottery, Warwickshire. It was built in the 14th century with further additions about 300 years later. It remained in the Hathaway family until 1846 when debt and mounting money problems forced them to sell up. They stayed on as tenants and continued to live there after it was bought by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in 1892.Fire wrought havoc on the building in 1969 but painstaking work by the trust saw it rebuilt and reopening to the public as a museum dedicated to the playwright and his wife’s life together.
Misty And David
The Globe Theatre
Probably the most famous of all of Shakespeare’s buildings in the capital, the story of the Globe’s rise, fall and rise again is one of the most remarkable of any in London. The Globe came into being after a dispute over the use of The Theatre in Shoreditch by the Lord Chamberlain’s Company (later the King’s Men) of which Shakespeare was a member. The company leased a site near the Rose, a rival theatre in Southwark, demolished the Theatre and used its oak frame to build the Globe which opened in 1599. It burned to the ground in 1613 during a performance of Henry VIII when an accident involving a cannon ignited the thatched roof. It was rebuilt and remained the home of Shakespeare’s company until it was closed – along with all theatres – by the Puritan government in 1642 and demolished in 1644. In 1970, the American actor and director, Sam Wanamaker started a trust dedicated to rebuilding the Globe. It finally re-opened in 1996.
Chameleon’s Eye / Shutterstock.com
Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
Lit entirely by beeswax candles, this tiny new indoor playhouse forms part of The Globe Theatre complex on Bankside. Its design was based on 17th century plans for an indoor theatre, similar to the layout of the earlier Blackfriars Theatre used for winter performances by Shakespeare’s company.
It is named after the late Sam Wanamaker, founder of the Shakespeare Globe Trust, and comprises an oak structure within the brick shell of the building formerly used as a rehearsal space for The Globe. Described as “intimate and intense”, the 340-seat Jacobean theatre specialises in staging plays and music of the era.
The Curtain Theatre
The Curtain Theatre opened for business in 1577 in an area of land called Curtain Close in Shoreditch. The Curtain sat just 200 yards south of the capital’s first playhouse, the Theatre which opened the year before. It’s not certain who built the Curtain theatre but it could have been Henry Lanman, a theatrical entrepreneur, who was the theatre’s manager from 1582 until 1592. The very first performance of Shakespeare’s Henry V was probably at the Curtain in 1598 while the Lord Chamberlain’s Company of actors, of which the playwright was a member, made the theatre their home for a year until 1599 when they moved to the Globe.
The last stage production at the Curtain was probably in 1625 and it was converted into tenements in 1638 and stood for much of the 17th century. In June 2012, archaeologists from MOLA found its well-preserved remains.
St Leonard’s Church, Shoreditch
It has long been speculated that the remains of the church that Shakespeare is rumoured to have worshipped at survive underneath St Leonard’s Church in Shoreditch – an 18th century building which found new admirers in the BBC sitcom, Rev. Some believe that the original building might have inspired scenes from Romeo and Juliet and that the tomb scene in the play, featuring the stony sepulchre where the lovers meet their tragic ends, was a reimagining of the church’s tomb-filled interior. The church was already crumbling by the time Shakespeare is thought to have used it and was already 500 years old. Cost and logistical difficulties have prevented any serious investigations of what now lies beneath the church.
© Heritage of London Trust
St Helen’s Bishopsgate
One of the few churches in London which survived both the Great Fire of 1666 and the attentions of the Luftwaffe in 1940/41, St Helen’s Bishopsgate was Shakespeare’s parish church when he first arrived in the capital in 1590. Dating back to at least 869, the site has held successive church buildings with the current one being built in 1210. Shakespeare is known to have worshipped at St Helen’s thanks to tax rolls from 1597 which identify him as a tax evader. It is actually composed of two conjoined buildings – one of which was a nunnery until Henry VIII dissolved the priories. Inside it contains a Jacobean pulpit dated 1615 and several brasses from the middle of the 15th century. Although it survived the Blitz, the church was damaged in 1992 and 1993 during the IRA’s final mainland bombing campaign but was quickly restored.
Silver Street / St Olave’s Church (The Barbican)
Shakespeare was a lodger in a house on Silver Street, Cripplegate, from about 1604 possibly until he purchased a gatehouse in Blackfriars in 1613. The house on Silver Street and the corner of Monkwell Street was owned by the Mountjoys, a French Huguenot family. The house probably survived until the Great Fire of London in 1666 which devastated most of the city, razing more than 13,000 properties. Cripple Street itself was destroyed in the Blitz – the entire area reduced to rubble on the night of December 29, 1940. From his window in the Mountjoys’ house, Shakespeare would have had a view of the Church of St Olave, dedicated to the Norwegian ally of the English, St Olaf. The church was crumbling in the playwright’s time and rebuilt in 1662 but it, too, fell victim to the Great Fire just four years later.
Blackfriars Theatre
A Dominican monastery which had been closed by Henry VIII in 1538 became a theatre thanks to Richard Farrant, the Master of the boy choristers at the Chapel Royal. Many of those boys also participated in drama and the buildings came to be used for plays and private performances before the boys went on to perform at court. It was bought by the theatrical entrepreneur, James Burbage, in 1596 and became the winter venue of the Lord Chamberlain’s Company. William Shakespeare and the King’s Men took part ownership of it in 1608 with the playwright buying a house nearby. The troupe continued to use it for winter performances, decamping to The Globe in the summer. The playhouse was shut by the Puritans in 1642 and demolished in 1655.
©Gordon Butler
Playhouse Yard ©Doug Stratton
St John’s Gate, Clerkenwell
© Mike T Photography
Another of London’s handful of buildings to survive both the Great Fire and the Second World War, St John’s Gate was built in 1504 as one of the entrances to the Priory of the Knights of St John.
The priory itself was the site of the office of the Master of Revels who was in charge of licensing entertainment and plays at the royal court and it is know that at least 30 of Shakespeare’s plays were licensed here. Samuel Johnson is also known to have used the building for his offices.
Although giving a good idea of how this part of the capital might have looked in the 16th century, much of the gate’s façade was rebuilt by the Victorians after it had fallen into disrepair in the 18th century.
©Dissonancefalling
The Cockpit Pub
This 18th century watering hole is said to sit on, or at least very close to, the site of the Blackfriars house owned by Shakespeare. He is known to have bought the former priory gatehouse from Henry Walker, ‘citizen and minstrel’, for £140 in March 1613.
Although Shakespeare owned property in Stratford, this is thought to have been the only building he owned in London. It was conveniently close to both the Blackfriars Playhouse and The Globe theatre, yet no evidence exists to suggest that Shakespeare actually lived here in the years before his death in 1616.
©Ben Errey
Titchfield Abbey
A striking medieval abbey build in 1222 for an austere order, Titchfield Abbey in Hampshire is an imposing stone building with a twin-towered gate. It was closed during Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1537 and became a country home owned by the Wriothesley family. In the 16th century it passed to Henry Wriosthesley who was one of Shakespeare’s patrons. The playwright lodged at the house and the family staged a number of plays there.
Shakespeare wrote only two dedications during his life and both were attached to the poems Venus and Adonis (1593) and Lucrece (1594). Both dedications were addressed to Henry. The house itself featured in a number of his plays – notably Love’s Labour’s Lost. Titchfield Abbey was abandoned and partially demolished in 1781 but was bought by the state in the early 1900s and is now cared for by English Heritage.
©ozz13x
Juliet’s House
The early 14th century Casa di Giulietta, at number 23 Via Capello in the Italian city of Verona, was once the home of the Cappello family, said to be the model for the Capulets of Romeo and Juliet.
Today tourists flock to the house to leave love letters and gaze at the balcony which could have inspired the play’s most famous scene (although sceptics claim this was a later addition to the building). In a small courtyard a bronze statue of Juliet has had its right breast worn bare due to a legend that touching it will bring fortune in love.
The Blackfriar’s Playhouse
In the Shenandoah Valley in Staunton, Virginia, sits a recreation of the Blackfriars Theatre in London as it would have looked 400 years ago. The 300-seat playhouse opened in September 2001 following years of research into the original structure which has resulted in a building which is thought to bear a remarkable resemblance to the original. It is the home of the American Shakespeare Company and has been described as one of the most important theatres in the world.
Many of the buildings and locations mentioned in this visual journey have undergone massive evolution in their existence, functionality or both. While some may be similar to how The Bard may have seen them, others are completely unrecognisable. However, what is fundamental – is that their connection to one of the most significant literary figures in the world is defended, thereby preserving his legacy for generations to come:
thestageshoreditch.com
Shakespeare's Buildings
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The Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City Company Limited (GIFTCL) and GIFT SEZ Limited (GIFT SEZ). Under the MOA, SIAC, GIFTCL and GIFT SEZ will collaborate to promote the use of arbitration, mediation, and other dispute resolution mechanisms, including the innovative Arb-Med-Arb service offered by the SIAC and the Singapore International Mediation Centre (SIMC), to resolve international commercial disputes in India's International Financial Services Centre in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (IFSC-GIFT).
Under the MOA, SIAC will establish a representative office in the IFSC-GIFT, which will be instrumental in promoting SIAC’s world-class international arbitration services to Indian users. Indian parties have consistently ranked amongst the top five foreign users of SIAC in the last five years, and was the top foreign user of SIAC in 2013 and 2015.
Mr. Ajay Pandey, Managing Director and Group CEO of GIFTCL, stated “We are delighted to have SIAC set up a representative office in the IFSC-GIFT. Any successful IFSC requires an efficient dispute resolution mechanism, and in this regard, SIAC is the choice partner for IFSC-GIFT: Singapore is a reputable seat of arbitration; SIAC, and the SIAC Rules, are already widely used by Indian companies, as well as international companies investing in India, to resolve their disputes. Through this collaboration, the Indian and international businesses in the IFSC-GIFT will be able to choose SIAC as their preferred mode of dispute resolution.”
Ms Lim Seok Hui, CEO of SIAC and SIMC, commented that “India has always been an important market for SIAC and this MOA reflects our continuous commitment to maintain and strengthen our relationship with our Indian users. Our partnership with GIFTCL and GIFT SEZ opens new doors for SIAC to promote its services to businesses and investors within the IFSC-GIFT. SIAC’s case management services offer the international investors and businesses from different legal systems and cultures the benefits of certainty and flexibility. SIAC’s Rules are user-friendly, efficient and cost-effective. By establishing our representative office in the IFSC-GIFT, we aim to contribute to GIFT City's economic development.”
You are here: Home About Us About Us Board of Directors Resources Press Releases Press Release 2016 SIAC Signs Memorandum of Agreement with GIFT
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Save Our State > Priority Topics Section > Immigration
Plain Talk from Common Man
Immigration Topics relating to the subject of US Immigration
Police initially described the 140-pound, unidentified Hispanic woman as a "competitive shopper" who may have bought the Microsoft Xbox before fleeing the store.
I see it now.
I don't see what this law enforcement agency is waiting for. She obviously used it for a competitive edge.
wetibbe
Mass killings
Advocating the shooting of civilians en masse ?
Adolph Hitler tried that. Gas chambers !
Joseph Stalin did it, in the millions.
Chinese did it.
The My Lai Massacre (Vietnamese: thảm sát Mỹ Lai [tʰɐ̃ːm ʂɐ̌ːt mǐˀ lɐːj], [mǐˀlɐːj] ( listen); English pronunciation: /ˌmiːˈlaɪ/, also /ˌmiːˈleɪ, ˌmaɪˈlaɪ/)[1] was the Vietnam War mass murder of 347–504 unarmed civilians in South Vietnam on March 16, 1968, by United States Army soldiers of "Charlie" Company of 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 11th Brigade of the Americal Division. Most of the victims were women, children (including babies), and elderly people. Many were raped, beaten, and tortured, and some of the bodies were later found to be mutilated.[2] While 26 US soldiers were initially charged with criminal offenses for their actions at Mỹ Lai, only Second Lieutenant William Calley, a platoon leader in Charlie Company, was convicted. Found guilty of killing 22 villagers, he was originally given a life sentence, but only served three and a half years under house arrest.
Determining how many people died in these massacres overall is difficult. In the book The Wild Frontier: Atrocities during the American-Indian War from Jamestown Colony to Wounded Knee, amateur historian William M. Osborn sought to tally every recorded atrocity in the area that would eventually become the continental United States, from first contact (1511) to the closing of the frontier (1890), and determined that 7,193 people died from atrocities perpetrated by whites, and 9,156 people died from atrocities perpetrated by Native Americans. Osborn defines an atrocity as the murder, torture, or mutilation of civilians, the wounded, and prisoners. Different definitions would obviously produce different totals.[1]
List of massacres
This is a listing of some of the events reported then or referred to now as "Indian massacres":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_massacre
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Well, that's one way of securing the border. But it takes two to Tango so we may just as well start a second Civil War and really clean house. Get rig of all the supporters, aiders, abettors and drug purchasers. *( And lock up all political opposition ).
Of course there won't be much left of the country but the buzzards should florish !
Last edited by wetibbe; 11-29-2011 at 03:08 AM.
Find all posts by wetibbe
Originally Posted by wetibbe
The way I interpreted Don's post was that he made comparison and reference to that which the US was doing in wars past and present, and that we should direct the same effort towards the invading mexicans. So if we were doing it in afghanistan, or had done it in Germany or Japan, and you think that is/was not massacre, then it should not be for those invading our southern flank. That's what I read into his post, however he can defend it himself..or herself....
I should also point out that the government's of the world often associate massacres with only a single or few perpetrators so as to shed any liability that might indict the whole. the gas chambers are all Hitler's fault, as was Lt. calley, pol pot, Stalin, etc. But one person could not have carried out such atrocities without the willing hands of accomplices, even those acting under orders. Yet, our government, along with many others, still convict soldiers for not following unconscienable orders, because...well...orders are orders. So we have a fundemental problem. No described procedure for ascertaining when the unconscienable should be reached
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Ecocentric
Climate: A Valuable New Tool Lets You See Where the Sea Will Rise
A street in Coney Island floods after Hurricane Irene in 2011.
Sea level rise from global warming magnifies coastal flood risk in Washington, D.C., mid-Atlantic Washington Post
More of US at risk due to warming-fueled sea-level rise Associated Press
When Hurricane Irene neared New York at the end of August, the city took the unprecedented step of shutting down the entire transit system—buses, subways and commuter trains in the largest city in America. The danger was that heavy rains from Irene could cause flooding that would swamp tunnels and tracks, causing lasting damage to the most important public transit system in the country. Fortunately, that didn’t happen—Irene weakened as it reached the city, and the catastrophe officials feared never materialized. But it was close. The Metropolitan Transit Authority lost the Port Jervis line for months at the cost of nearly $40 million. And had the storm surge from Irene been just a foot higher, it would have flooded the subways, causing billions of dollars in damages and making transportation around New York impossible.
Irene could just be a preview of what the entire country will be facing in a warmer world. According to new research by the nonprofit group Climate Central—which employs TIME contributor Michael Lemonick—about 3.7 million people live within a few feet of high tide and are in danger of being hit by more frequent coastal flooding in the future because of sea level rise caused by climate change. And if sea level rise accelerates because of rapid warming—as seems likely to happen barring major reductions in greenhouse gas emissions—major coastal floods that are now rare could become a much more frequent occurrence. “The sea level rise from global warming has already doubled the risk of extreme coastal floods,” says Benjamin Strauss, one of the co-authors of the two papers that outline the new research. “We hope this research can help everyone prepare for this.”
MORE: The Big (Green) Apple
Climate Central’s research—which can be accessed online at Surging Seas—doesn’t just predict sea level rise over the next century, but actually presents the data in an interactive map that allows anyone to input their ZIP code and find out how great their risk of flooding will be. Unsurprisingly, Floridians are in the greatest danger—about half the country’s at-risk population lives along that state’s low-lying coast. But cities like New York and San Francisco are also vulnerable, and if the seas rise high enough, nearly the entire U.S. coastline will be at some risk.
From Climate Central:
Rising seas dramatically increase the odds of damaging floods from storm surges. For over two-thirds of the locations analyzed (and for 85% of sites outside the Gulf of Mexico), past and future global warming more than doubles the estimated odds of “century” or worse floods occurring within the next 18 years — meaning floods so high they would historically be expected just once per century. For over half the locations analyzed, warming at least triples the odds of century-plus floods over the same period. And for two-thirds the locations, sea level rise from warming has already more than doubled the odds of such a flood even this year.
These increases are likely to cause an enormous amount of damage. At three quarters of the 55 sites analyzed in this report, century levels are higher than 4 feet above the high tide line. Yet across the country, nearly 5 million people live in 2.6 million homes at less than 4 feet above high tide. In 285 cities and towns, more than half the population lives on land below this line, potential victims of increasingly likely climate-induced coastal flooding. 3.7 million live less than 1 meter above the tide.
MORE: Welcome to the Era of the Everyday Billion-Dollar Disaster
The ocean has been rising slowly since the beginning of the 20th century, with the average global rise at about 8 inches. Obviously that seems like nothing—on any given day, coastal tides fluctuate far more. But that global figure masks larger change at the local level, especially in regions—like southern Louisiana—where the land is sinking or wearing away. And thanks to warming, sea level rise is accelerating to about 1 foot a century.
Again, doesn’t sound like that much. But the real risk of sea level rise isn’t that whole islands and continents will be washed away, a la Waterworld. (Well, unless you live in Kiribati in the south Pacific, where the island nation is preparing to move the ENTIRE POPULATION because of sea level rise.) It’s that coastal surges during the occasional—or perhaps not so ocassional—strong storm will become more severe as sea levels rise, threatening billions of dollars of coastal infrastructure and property that used to be well out of harm’s way. The real danger of climate change is the change—the possibility that the world as we know it will change faster than we can react to—at least without spending hundreds of billions of dollars we don’t really have.
Nor does it help that we keep putting more people and property in coastal danger zones, from Miami beach to the new condos along the East River in New York. That’s a disaster multiplier—even without storms becoming stronger, a more populated coast means more people and more money in harm’s way every time a hurricane blows in. In just three counties in southeast Florida about $30 billion in taxable property is vulnerable to global warming-related flooding. And government policy only supports that development, since taxpayers pick up the bill to rebuild damaged coastal infrastructure and property after a flood. “It’s likely that low-lying areas are going to be negatively affected,” says Strauss. “Government can try to reduce development in those areas.”
Some cities are already beginning take a few steps to prepare, including New York, where sewage stations have been raised to higher elevations to avoid storm surges. (I wrote about New York’s plans to adapt to climate change in this 2009 piece.) But we’re nowhere near ready for the kinds of adjustments that will need to be made in warmer world—nor are we acting to cut carbon emissions and slow that warming. Tools like the Climate Central research should bring the message home—the water is rising.
MORE: How to Make Crops Flood-Proof
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The Buick Regal is a mid-size automobile in production since 1973. Upon its debut, it was based on the Century, hence the initial naming “Century Regal” (but that name was dropped by the end of the first generation’s run). Like the Century, the Regal rode on the same GM A-body platform and was assembled in Flint, Michigan. Engine options ranged from a 231 CI (3.8L) V6, 350 CI (5.7L) V8, and a 455 CI (7.5L) V8. Depending on the model, the car’s length was at 212 – 216 in (5400 – 5500 mm), and wheelbase between 112 – 116 in (2800 – 2900 mm).
General Motors downsized many of their vehicles in 1978. Chief among these downsized vehicles were the two Buick models, the Century and the Regal, still riding on the A-body. But by that time, the original A-body was well over 40 years old, and the lineup soon needed a new chassis to ride on. From 1981, the Regal would ride on the G-body, shared with the Chevrolet El Camino, Monte Carlo, Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme, Pontiac Grand Prix, and other models.
1981/1982 saw an update to the Regal lineup. The car was made to be slightly more aerodynamic, given Buick’s entry into NASCAR. Celebrating Buick’s victories in the Daytona 500 and Winston Cup Grand National, Buick re-engineered the Regal into a lineup of street-legal high-performance variants called Grand National, Turbo-T, and T-Type. Initially, 1982 Regals with the GN package came with a 4.1L V6, throwing 125 horsepower. 1982 saw very limited production of the Grand National, and this model was discontinued, with the 1983 high-performance variant being available only with the Regal T-Type. The Grand National returned in 1984; this time with a turbocharged 3.8-liter producing 200 horsepower. Of the 2,000 Grand National models produced in 1984, approximately only 200 were made with the “T-Top”, making them the rarest Grand Nationals. 1986 saw a power upgrade to the Grand National: 235 horsepower versus the previous gen’s 200. The power was bumped up again in 1987, and that year, the T-Top was discontinued, leaving only the Grand National and the Turbo-T.
1987 Buick GNX
In 1987, GM partnered with McLaren and American Specialty Cars (ASC) to create the “GNX” (Grand National Experimental). This very-limited high-performance mule was distinguished from other Grand Nationals by a special stealthy all-black with black trim look, and an upgraded version of Buick’s 3.8-liter. This unit developed close to 280 horsepower at 4400 rpm. This car was considered to be in supercar territory, facing off against the Porsche 911 Turbo at the drag strip. At the quarter mile, it was faster than the Porsche (12.7 seconds at 113.1 mph vs. the ’86 Porsche Turbo’s 13.1 sec at 105 mph).
The third generation transitioned to the front-wheel-drive W-body platform in 1988. This was the “first-generation” W-body which featured the same 107.5 inch wheelbase for the Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme, Pontiac Grand Prix, and Chevrolet Lumina sedan. Engine choices were a 2.8L V6 (developing 125 horsepower); 3.1L V6 (140 horsepower from 1989 to 1993; ’94-up threw 160 hp); and a 3.8L V6 (170 horsepower from 1990 to 1995; 200 hp for 1996). Although the top of the line Regal was the Gran Sport (GS) model, there was no supercar-style high-performance variant like the previous generation had. This generation would be strictly a practical executive mid-size vehicle.
The Regal was revamped for 1997, this time sharing a similar body with the Century. Both it and the Century rode on the W-body platform. These cars were the “second generation” W-body, an upgraded version of the automobile platform whose wheelbase was increased to 109 inches. Starting in 1997, both the Regal and Century were available only as 4-door sedans, and retained this trend until the end of their production runs (the Regal discontinued in 2004, with a hiatus until it relaunched in 2011; the Century discontinued in 2005 with no successor, other than being replaced in the Buick lineup by its Regal sibling). Although the Chinese-market Regal was available with inline-4 and V6 engines, the only engine option available for North America was the 3.8L “Series II” V6, available in two variations: L36, with 205 horsepower; and the supercharged L67 (developing 240 horsepower). The L67 was employed in the top of the line GS. After the Regal ended production in 2004, the LaCrosse/Allure replaced it in Buick’s mid-size lineup during the Regal’s hiatus.
In 2008, GM debuted the next iteration of their mid-size front-wheel-drive platform, dubbed Epsilon II. This platform was the basis for the new Buick Regal sedan, which debuted in China in 2008. Compared to the previous generation, this model had a shorter wheelbase sitting at 107.8 in (2738 mm). This Regal was a rebadged version of Europe’s Opel Insignia executive car, and the Epsilon II platform was also shared with the LaCrosse/Allure, Cadillac XTS, Chevrolet Impala, Chevrolet/Holden Malibu, Roewe 950, and Saab 9-5. The newfangled Buick Regal made its world debut at the 2009 Los Angeles Auto Show in December that year, and began North American sales in February 2010. Initially, the car came in two trims: CXL and CXL Turbo.
At the 2010 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan, the Regal GS made its debut as a concept car. This vehicle employed a turbocharged 2.0L inline-4, developing 270 horsepower, 50 more horses than the production CXL Turbo’s output. The GS entered production as a 2011 model, and in 2014 it was detuned slightly. This generation was produced until 2017.
For model year 2018, the Regal was redesigned. The 4-door sedan was exclusive to China, while elsewhere two new body styles debuted: a raked 5-door fastback and a station wagon called TourX. It was based on the “Epsilon” platform as before, but this time, was renamed E2XX, sharing this platform with the Cadillac XT4, Chevrolet Malibu, and Holden Commodore.
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Despite the Sun, Despite TV
Murdoch's in trouble again, but to be honest as bad as the phonehacking scandal was and is, it isn't the first time Murdoch's newspapers have demonstrated a close relationship with the police, nor his companies ability and eagerness to use his connections to the police and government to crush opposition. The Wapping dispute was a blatant demonstration of the power of News International and another example of how Thatchers "Freedom" meant freedom for money over people.
In January 1986, Rupert Murdoch moved his printing operation, News International, publishers of the Sun and the Sunday Times, from Fleet St to Wapping in East London. Over 5,000 print workers, clerical staff, cleaners and secretaries were sacked in one day.
'Despite the Sun' is an investigation into the year-long dispute, which shook the print industry. Produced from the point of view of the residents and print workers, the camera records the effects on residents harassed by the police and Murdoch's lorries alike and cavalry-like charges of police horses on the picket lines. Vital questions are raised on the ownership and control of the media, access to it, the organisation of work and impact of the so-called 'new technology'.
Labels: Law, media, murdoch, Trade Unions, Video, Youtube
The Pope: Same Message, Different Presentation
Pope Francis has been making a stir with the secular liberals, for no reason that I can gather. I've come to the conclusion that the fuss has little to do with the new Pope and is mainly fuelled by secular liberals lack of knowledge of Catholicism and what it actually says.
What prompted this post is the apparent shock Francis's recent interview were he said some (apparently) shocking things about homosexuals, but has been on my mind for awhile as the new Pope seems to have made a habit of shocking certain people, by well saying what every other Pope has said on the same issues.
The particular quote thats making the rounds in the liberal blogosphere?
'If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?
'If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?' - See more at: http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/pope-francis-who-am-i-judge-gay-people290713#sthash.fOFAPDa7.dpuf
As someone from a Catholic background I don't really see why this is surprising. There's more then one reason why this is standard Catholic practice. Officially the only one who can judge your moral worth i.e. will you be getting into Heaven or not is God. When you go to confession your not asking the priest in the other booth for forgiveness your asking his advice on how best to show God you seek to make amends for your behaviour. Now I understand things like confession aren't things non Catholics will have much experience of but there is a certain phrase that I'm certain most Westerners at least should know regarding religious judgement "Love the sinner, hate the sin" your not technically supposed to hate the gays but the gay acts (as in sex acts not being effeminate/butch).
Now I'm sure you can think of a few cases where the Catholic absolutely did judge others and acted towards sinners in a manner that clearly wasn't loving. Perhaps the most infamous are the Inquisition and the counter reformations, thing is the Catholic church like most authoritarian institutions is quite willing to ditch its ideals as long as it feels threatened (forget brotherhood, bring out the thumbscrews) or sees an opportunity to profit, collusion with oppressive regimes, and the establishment of a banking powerhouse after centuries of calling greed a sin.
Oh and while we're on the subject let me just clarify what the actual sin of homosexuality is in Catholic doctrine. The sin is based on the concept Sodomy, but sodomy does not mean man and man or woman on woman. Sodomy means anal and oral sex, which you don't have to be Gay to enjoy. Because that sex won't result in procreation of a baby. Using sodomy as a starting point official Cathlic doctrine views any and all sexual acts as sinful if its not for unity (marriage relations) and reproduction. Its basically the same objection they have to contraceptives and why the last Pope finally caved and said if your Gay and or a prostitute you might as well be save and rubber up* to paraphrase Benedict.
And since the Catholic already has a forgive and forget practice with contraceptive users, then why not the same for those who have Gay sex? In fact in the interview Francis himself explicitly states that the Catholic church has officially held this view for a long time "The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains this very well. It says they should not be marginalized because of this, but that they must be integrated into society,' ". The Catholic solution to the "Gay problem" isn't supposed to be punishment or exclusion but a form of brotherhood with the aim of "helping" gays resist the urge to practice their "sin".
Also in the interview was a reassertion of his intentions to oppose LGBT rights like when he urged France to repeal its gay marriage law.
'The problem is not having this orientation. We must be brothers. The problem is lobbying by this orientation, or lobbies of greedy people, political lobbies, Masonic lobbies, so many lobbies. This is the worse problem.'
There is nothing that Pope Francis has said here that is remotely pro Gay or different from current church practice. I suspect those wishing otherwise do so out of a desire to see progress, but it just isn't the case.
Leaving aside the queer folk for a moment about a month ago Francis made another public statement about money that caught a few off guard even though yet again his statement didn't really differ at all from what the other Popes have said from the very beginning of the Catholic church.
Pope Francis has hit out at unbridled capitalism and the "cult of money", calling for ethical reform of the financial system to create a more humane society.
In an impassioned appeal, the Argentinian pontiff said politicians needed to be bold in tackling the root causes of the economic crisis, which he said lay in an acceptance of money's "power over ourselves and our society".
"We have created new idols," he said in a speech in the Vatican. "The worship of the golden calf of old has found a new and heartless image in the cult of money and the dictatorship of an economy which is faceless and lacking any truly humane goal."
Now that sounds pretty good and I'm sure quoting Francis will help win a few internet arguments over the money is moral crowd but again aside from rhetorical flourish this isn't anything new. In fact wagging the bony finger at the money lenders is as old as the Catholic Church itself. For example charging interest on a loan Usury was a very serious breach of Catholic morality, so much so that it indirectly allowed the Jews of Italy and Spain to carve out a niche for themselves in financial banking and market trade. This is why the stereotype of Jews being wealthy or dominant in the financial sector despite being a heavily oppressed and maligned minority became so prevalent virtually every serious loan came from a Jew.
Greed is actually one of the big Seven Sins in Catholicism, so it shouldn't surprise anyone that the Supreme Catholic has a few words to say on global capital. And again this area is where the Catholic hierarchy shows themselves to be the most hypocritical. Despite supposedly hating wealth accumulation the Vatican is not only hoarding an absolutely fortune in expensive artwork and golden furnishings but it has its own banking arm with links to the Mafia.
Investigators want to know more about vast sums of money that are said to have passed through his account to establish if they were money laundering operations by on the run Mafia Godfather, Matteo Messina Denaro.
And in addition to its own banking operations the Vatican Bank has been itself a major shareholder in a number of other financial institutions not exactly known for there good works and ethical practices, like Banco Ambrosiano a bank built by the Mafia and whose deals involved arms smuggling including Exocet missiles to Argentina during the Falklands conflict.
So don't believe the hype, if Francis is really serious about tackling the cult of money it'll take more then riding around in a bus to sort out. And even if he is serious about it I very much doubt he'll be able to do much about it since the Catholic church is run by senior Bishops, -thats how the past Pope's have survived the numerous scandals- some of whom have powerful connections within and without the church and are up to their necks in all sorts of dodgy stuff.
Those expecting substantial reform from Frankie No.1 are going to be disappointed, at best he's making some nice sounding noise to improve the Catholic churches image.
*Because they already break the rules it doesn't matter that you break another of equal importance.
Labels: Argentina, Capital, Christianity, France, History, LGBT
Keir Hardie on the Royal Heir
As I'm sure you're all aware to people with access to the best medical have succeeded in having a baby boy. Apparently this is considered not only national headline news but also a global story of importance too. This surprised me since evening in the third world childbirth while still dangerous no longer has so high a fatality rate and despite the ongoing scandals regarding NHS Trusts (A Trust being an NHS hospital that merged with a private company and gave up most of its administrative power)I just don't see what's so special about "Will and Kate's" successful procreation.
Ah put then I'm just a common Fenian son of immigrants from a country with the word "Republic" in it, so no wonder I feel no love for the institution of the Monarchy. But I don't really see why anyone would care, its a baby nothing more nothing less. It will grow up like the rest of us and become an adult, unless I missed the part where the reveal this boys a mutant superhero or part of an ancient prophesy who will bring balance to the force or something I don't see the big deal.
Fortunately for me there's a man out their who agrees with me, unfortunately he's been dead for a long while, Keir Hardie founder of the Independent Labour Party and a founder of the Labour Party when a number of Socialist organisations merged into it in 1900. Here's what he had to say about this nonsense regarding royal heirs.
“From his childhood onwards this boy will be surrounded by sycophants and flatterers by the score – [cries of “Oh!,oh!] – and will be taught to believe himself as of a superior creation [cries of “Oh,oh!]. A line will be drawn between him and the people whom he is to be called upon some day to reign over. …and the end of it all will be that the country will be called upon to pay the bill. [Cries of Divide!]”
Labels: BBC, Labour, media, Pressure Groups, Republicanism, Video, Youtube
The Nazi's and Islam: Why Even Hitler is too "Liberal" for the New Far Right
After the end of World War II and the revelations of the extent of the Holocaust came to light the back of militant anti-Semitism was broken pretty much for good. Unfortunately Jews to this day continue to be victims of discrimination, stereotyping and isolated incidents of more serious abuse. But the point stands that since 1945 there has no group that openly advocates the total extermination of the Jews has ever managed to grow beyond a few hundred at most, the few exceptions were ones that targeted more acceptable scapegoats (immigrants usually) and managed to keep the "Jewish problem" and their favourite solution hidden for awhile.
Hard to believe that this was once Britain's fourth largest party when the Blacks and Asians gave them plenty of targets.
Whilst the BNP has been critical of the rise of the English Defence League, the NF has been vehemently critical of what it describes as the EDL’s ‘Zionism’
As a result a lot of today's Hitler worshippers and Neo-Nazi's have started downplaying the Rabbi bashing rhetoric and "Kike" jokes and joined in the anti-Muslim crowd. This has two advantages for them one, unlike Judaism most people don't consider Islam a race* so their inoculated from the dreaded R word that's caused their past projects so much trouble. And its simply much more popular and mainstream to bash the Muslims then it is the Jews, so the opportunities for serious growth are much better here then they are in the Goose stepping brigades.
There's just one really big problem with this strategy for genuine worshippers of the Reich's Church. The actual living Nazi's not only did not include Islam in their lengthy list of enemies, they actually counted several high ranking Muslims as their allies and inducted them into high positions within the Nazi War machine.
From EDL News
Well at least one of them actually knows his history, though his use of the word "unfortunately" makes his comment the weakest criticism of the jumped up Corporal I've ever seen. He's correct in what he says, their were several SS divisions comprised largely of Bosniak Muslims,however the plan was to recruit exclusively (apart from senior officers) from the Muslim population to build several mountain divisions but when recruitment fell well short they had to make up the difference from Croat Catholics making these divisions not only Muslim but integrated as well.
Note the SS err Fez badges
There were two Bosniak Muslim divisions established, the 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar (1st Croatian) and the 23rd Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Kama (2nd Croatian). And a third Muslim Division was also created though this time from Albanian Muslims the 21st Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Skanderbeg (1st Albanian) though that one never grew beyond 6,000 men in size (so about a Brigade). Apparently the decision to create these Muslim SS Divisions came right from the top of the Nazi hierarchy with Himmler deciding to copy the Austro-Hungarian Empire's tradition of Mountain units comprised of Muslims. "He thought that Muslim men would make perfect SS soldiers as Islam "promises them Heaven if they fight and are killed in action."
And when local Muslim Clerics opposed recruitment drives the Nazi's appealed to the Mufti of Jerusalem, whom while not an equivalent to the Pope is afforded much the same respect as he is in charge of the Al Aqsa Mosque were Muhammad is said to have ascended into Heaven. The Mufti agreed and went over the local Muslim clerics heads.
Here he is inspecting the troops
In addition the 13th Mountain Division was awarded the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross an honour earned by personal bravery and/or successful military leadership. Oh and one more interesting bit of trivia, like most Divisions the 13th had a song theirs was called "To Battle with a Song" here's the lyrics.
Pjesma ječi, sva se zemlja trese, A song is in the air, the entire earth is shaking,
SS-vojska stupa roj u roj, Columns of SS men march in step,
SS-vojska sveti barjak vije. SS men wave the sacred banners.
SS-vojska sve za narod svoj. SS men do everything for the people.
Daj mi ruku ti, draga Ivana, Give me your hand, dear Ivana,
oj s Bogom sad, oj s Bogom sad, oj s Bogom sad Follow God now, Follow God now, Follow God now
idem branit, idem branit, idem branit mili, I shall defend, I shall defend, I shall defend my beloved
rodni kraj, rodni kraj. Homeland, Homeland
U boj smjelo vi SS-junaci SS men are heroes in battle
pokažite domovini put! Show our homeland the way
Pođite putem slavnih pradjedova Follow the road of our glorious grandfathers
dok ne padne tiran klet i ljut. Until tyranny falls, cursed and bitter
Ljubav naša nek u srcu plamti, Let love burn in our hearts
i sa pjesmom pođimo u boj. And with a song let's enter battle
Za slobodu mile domovine To liberate our beloved homeland
svaki rado dat će život svoj. For which anyone would gladly sacrifice his life.
Now in addition to lyrics every song has a tune, To Battle with a Songs was Bombs on England by Herms Niel.
The song in all its glory.
So what have we learned? That Hitler worshippers are thick I guess, but then I'm pretty sure we all knew that already.
* Though given that most of these groups associate whites being non Islamic and cry about birth rates the exceptions to this rule seem to come predominantly from the anti Muslim crowd.
Labels: Balkans, Fascism, Germany, History, Islam, Nationalism, the internet, WWII
A People's History of the American Revolution by Howard Zinn
Its 4/7/13 that means its America's independence day, or as I like to call it the birth of Federal Taxes Day! Happy Fourth of July every male WASP from the original 13 states whose ancestors from the 1700's owned a thousand pounds of property or more!
graphics comments
To really celebrate the 4th of July in style though I thought it be time to share an extract from one of my favourite books Howard Zinn's Peoples history of the United States. No need to thank me, oh and feel free to grab the PDF version.
A people's history of the American revolution - Howard Zinn
Around 1776, certain important people in the English colonies made a discovery that would prove enormously useful for the next two hundred years. They found that by creating a nation, a symbol, a legal unity called the United States, they could take over land, profits, and political power from favorites of the British Empire. In the process, they could hold back a number of potential rebellions and create a consensus of popular support for the rule of a new, privileged leadership.
When we look at the American Revolution this way, it was a work of genius, and the Founding Fathers deserve the awed tribute they have received over the centuries. They created the most effective system of national control devised in modern times, and showed future generations of leaders the advantages of combining paternalism with command.
Starting with Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia, by 1760, there had been eighteen uprisings aimed at overthrowing colonial governments. There had also been six black rebellions, from South Carolina to New York, and forty riots of various origins.
By this time also, there emerged, according to Jack Greene, "stable, coherent, effective and acknowledged local political and social elites." And by the 1760s, this local leadership saw the possibility of directing much of the rebellious energy against England and her local officials. It was not a conscious conspiracy, but an accumulation of tactical responses.
After 1763, with England victorious over France in the Seven Years' War (known in America as the French and Indian War), expelling them from North America, ambitious colonial leaders were no longer threatened by the French. They now had only two rivals left: the English and the Indians. The British, wooing the Indians, had declared Indian lands beyond the Appalachians out of bounds to whites (the Proclamation of 1763). Perhaps once the British were out of the way, the Indians could be dealt with. Again, no conscious forethought strategy by the colonial elite, but a growing awareness as events developed.
With the French defeated, the British government could turn its attention to tightening control over the colonies. It needed revenues to pay for the war, and looked to the colonies for that. Also, the colonial trade had become more and more important to the British economy, and more profitable: it had amounted to about 500,000 pounds in 1700 but by 1770 was worth 2,800,000 pounds.
So, the American leadership was less in need of English rule, the English more in need of the colonists' wealth. The elements were there for conflict.
The war had brought glory for the generals, death to the privates, wealth for the merchants, unemployment for the poor. There were 25,000 people living in New York (there had been 7,000 in 1720) when the French and Indian War ended. A newspaper editor wrote about the growing "Number of Beggers and wandering Poor" in the streets of the city. Letters in the papers questioned the distribution of wealth: "How often have our Streets been covered with Thousands of Barrels of Flour for trade, while our near Neighbors can hardly procure enough to make a Dumplin to satisfy hunger?"
Gary Nash's study of city tax lists shows that by the early 1770s, the top 5 percent of Boston's taxpayers controlled 49% of the city's taxable assets. In Philadelphia and New York too, wealth was more and more concentrated. Court-recorded wills showed that by 1750 the wealthiest people in the cities were leaving 20,000 pounds (equivalent to about $5 million today).
In Boston, the lower classes began to use the town meeting to vent their grievances. The governor of Massachusetts had written that in these town meetings "the meanest Inhabitants ... by their constant Attendance there generally are the majority and outvote the Gentlemen, Merchants, Substantial Traders and all the better part of the Inhabitants."
What seems to have happened in Boston is that certain lawyers, editors, and merchants of the upper classes, but excluded from the ruling circles close to England-men like James Otis and Samuel Adams- organized a "Boston Caucus" and through their oratory and their writing "molded laboring- class opinion, called the 'mob' into action, and shaped its behaviour." This is Gary Nash's description of Otis, who, he says, "keenly aware of the declining fortunes and the resentment of ordinary townspeople, was mirroring as well as molding popular opinion."
We have here a forecast of the long history of American politics, the mobilization of lower-class energy by upper-class politicians, for their own purposes. This was not purely deception; it involved, in part, a genuine recognition of lower-class grievances, which helps to account for its effectiveness as a tactic over the centuries. As Nash puts it:
James Otis, Samuel Adams, Royall lyler, Oxenbridge Thacher, and a host of other Bostonians, linked to the artisans and laborers through a network of neighborhood taverns, fire companies, and the Caucus, espoused a vision of politics that gave credence to laboring-class views and regarded as entirely legitimate the participation of artisans and even laborers in the political process.
In 1762, Otis, speaking against the conservative rulers of the Massachusetts colony represented by Thomas Hutchinson, gave an example of the kind of rhetoric that a lawyer could use in mobilizing city mechanics and artisans:
I am forced to get my living by the labour of my hand; and the sweat of my brow, as most of you are and obliged to go thro' good report and evil report, for bitter bread, earned under the frowns of some who have no natural or divine right to be above me, and entirely owe their grandeur and honor to grinding the faces of the poor.. ..
Boston seems to have been full of class anger in those days. In 1763, in the Boston Gazette, someone wrote that "a few persons in power" were promoting political projects "for keeping the people poor in order to make them humble."
This accumulated sense of grievance against the rich in Boston may account for the explosiveness of mob action after the Stamp Act of 1765, Through this Act, the British were taxing the colonial population to pay for the French war, in which colonists had suffered to expand the British Empire. That summer, a shoemaker named Ebenezer Macintosh led a mob in destroying the house of a rich Boston merchant named Andrew Oliver. Two weeks later, the crowd turned to the home of Thomas Hutchinson, symbol of the rich elite who ruled the colonies in the name of England. They smashed up his house with axes, drank the wine in his wine cellar, and looted the house of its furniture and other objects. A report by colony officials to England said that this was part of a larger scheme in which the houses of fifteen rich people were to be destroyed, as pan of "a War of Plunder, of general levelling and taking away the Distinction of rich and poor."
It was one of those moments in which fury against the rich went further than leaders like Otis wanted. Could class hatred be focused against the pro-British elite, and deflected from the nationalist elite? In New York, that same year of the Boston house attacks, someone wrote to the New York Gazette, "Is it equitable that 99, rather 999, should suffer for the Extravagance or Grandeur of one, especially when it is considered that men frequently owe their Wealth to the impoverishment of their Neighbors?" The leaders of the Revolution would worry about keeping such sentiments within limits.
Mechanics were demanding political democracy in the colonial cities: open meetings of representative assemblies, public galleries in the legislative halls, and the publishing of roll-call votes, so that constituents could check on representatives. They wanted open-air meetings where the population could participate in making policy, more equitable taxes, price controls, and the election of mechanics and other ordinary people to government posts.
Especially in Philadelphia, according to Nash, the consciousness of the lower middle classes grew to the point where it must have caused some hard thinking, not just among the conservative Loyalists sympathetic to England, but even among leaders of the Revolution. "By mid-1776, laborers, artisans, and small tradesmen, employing extralegal measures when electoral politics failed, were in clear command in Philadelphia." Helped by some middle-class leaders (Thomas Paine, Thomas Young, and others), they "launched a full-scale attack on wealth and even on the right to acquire unlimited private property."
During elections for the 1776 convention to frame a constitution for Pennsylvania, a Privates Committee urged voters to oppose "great and overgrown rich men .. . they will be too apt to be framing distinctions in society." The Privates Committee drew up a bill of rights for the convention, including the statement that "an enormous proportion of property vested in a few individuals is dangerous to the rights, and destructive of the common happiness, of mankind; and therefore every free state hath a right by its laws to discourage the possession of such property."
In the countryside, where most people lived, there was a similar conflict of poor against rich, one which political leaders would use to mobilize the population against England, granting some benefits for the rebellious poor, and many more for themselves in the process. The tenant riots in New Jersey in the 1740s, the New York tenant uprisings of the 1750s and 1760s in the Hudson Valley, and the rebellion in northeastern New York that led to the carving of Vermont out of New York State were all more than sporadic rioting. They were long-lasting social movements, highly organized, involving the creation of countergovernments. They were aimed at a handful of rich landlords, but with the landlords far away, they often had to direct their anger against farmers who had leased the disputed land from the owners. (See Edward Countryman's pioneering work on rural rebellion.)
Just as the Jersey rebels had broken into jails to free their friends, rioters in the Hudson Valley rescued prisoners from the sheriff and one time took the sheriff himself as prisoner. The tenants were seen as "chiefly the dregs of the People," and the posse that the sheriff of Albany County led to Bennington in 1771 included the privileged top of the local power structure.
The land rioters saw their battle as poor against rich. A witness at a rebel leader's trial in New York in 1766 said that the farmers evicted by the landlords "had an equitable Tide but could not be defended in a Course of Law because they were poor and . . . poor men were always oppressed by the rich." Ethan Alien's Green Mountain rebels in Vermont described themselves as "a poor people . . . fatigued in settling a wilderness country," and their opponents as "a number of Attorneys and other gentlemen, with all their tackle of ornaments, and compliments, and French finesse."
Land-hungry farmers in the Hudson Valley turned to the British for support against the American landlords; the Green Mountain rebels did the same. But as the conflict with Britain intensified, the colonial leaders of the movement for independence, aware of the tendency of poor tenants to side with the British in their anger against the rich, adopted policies to win over people in the countryside.
In North Carolina, a powerful movement of white farmers was organized against wealthy and corrupt officials in the period from 1766 to 1771, exactly those years when, in the cities of the Northeast, agitation was growing against the British, crowding out class issues. The movement in North Carolina was called the Regulator movement, and it consisted, says Marvin L. Michael Kay, a specialist in the history of that movement, of "class-conscious white farmers in the west who attempted to democratize local government in their respective counties." The Regulators referred to themselves as "poor Industrious peasants," as "labourers," "the wretched poor," "oppressed" by "rich and powerful . . . designing Monsters."
The Regulators saw that a combination of wealth and political power ruled North Carolina, and denounced those officials "whose highest Study is the promotion of their wealth." They resented the tax system, which was especially burdensome on the poor, and the combination of merchants and lawyers who worked in the courts to collect debts from the harassed farmers. In the western counties where the movement developed, only a small percentage of the households had slaves, and 41 percent of these were concentrated, to take one sample western county, in less than 2 percent of the households. The Regulators did not represent servants or slaves, but they did speak for small owners, squatters, and tenants.
A contemporary account of the Regulator movement in Orange County describes the situation:
Thus were the people of Orange insulted by The sheriff, robbed and plundered . . . neglected and condemned by the Representatives and abused by the Magistracy; obliged to pay Fees regulated only by the Avarice of the officer; obliged to pay a TAX which they believed went to enrich and aggrandize a few, who lorded it over them continually; and from all these Evils they saw no way to escape; for the Men in Power, and Legislation, were the Men whose interest it was to oppress, and make gain of the Labourer.
In that county in the 1760s, the Regulators organized to prevent the collection of taxes, or the confiscation of the property of tax delinquents. Officials said "an absolute Insurrection of a dangerous tendency has broke out in Orange County," and made military plans to suppress it. At one point seven hundred armed farmers forced the release of two arrested Regulator leaders. The Regulators petitioned the government on their grievances in 1768, citing "the unequal chances the poor and the weak have in contentions with the rich and powerful."
In another county, Anson, a local militia colonel complained of "the unparalleled tumults, Insurrections, and Commotions which at present distract this County." At one point a hundred men broke up the proceedings at a county court. But they also tried to elect farmers to the assembly, asserting "that a majority of our assembly is composed of Lawyers, Clerks, and others in Connection with them...." In 1770 there was a large-scale riot in Hillsborough, North Carolina, in which they disrupted a court, forced the judge to flee, beat three lawyers and two merchants, and looted stores.
The result of all this was that the assembly passed some mild reform legislation, but also an act "to prevent riots and tumults," and the governor prepared to crush them militarily. In May of 1771 there was a decisive battle in which several thousand Regulators were defeated by a disciplined army using cannon. Six Regulators were hanged. Kay says that in the three western counties of Orange, Anson, and Rowan, where the Regulator movement was concentrated, it had the support of six thousand to seven thousand men out of a total white taxable population of about eight thousand.
One consequence of this bitter conflict is that only a minority of the people in the Regulator counties seem to have participated as patriots in the Revolutionary War. Most of them probably remained neutral.
Fortunately for the Revolutionary movement, the key battles were being fought in the North, and here, in the cities, the colonial leaders had a divided white population; they could win over the mechanics, who were a kind of middle class, who had a stake in the fight against England, who faced competition from English manufacturers. The biggest problem was to keep the propertyless people, who were unemployed and hungry in the crisis following the French war, under control.
In Boston, the economic grievances of the lowest classes mingled with anger against the British and exploded in mob violence. The leaders of the Independence movement wanted to use that mob energy against England, but also to contain it so that it would not demand too much from them.
When riots against the Stamp Act swept Boston in 1767, they were analyzed by the commander of the British forces in North America, General Thomas Gage, as follows:
The Boston Mob, raised first by the Instigation of Many of the Principal Inhabitants, Allured by Plunder, rose shordy after of their own Accord, attacked, robbed, and destroyed several Houses, and amongst others, that of the Lieutenant Governor.... People then began to be terrified at the Spirit they had raised, to perceive that popular Fury was not to be guided, and each individual feared he might be the next Victim to their Rapacity. The same Fears spread thro' the other Provinces, and there has been as much Pains taken since, to prevent Insurrections, of the People, as before to excite them.
Gage's comment suggests that leaders of the movement against the Stamp Act had instigated crowd action, but then became frightened by the thought that it might be directed against their wealth, too. At this time, the top 10 percent of Boston's taxpayers held about 66 percent of Boston's taxable wealth, while the lowest 30 percent of the taxpaying population had no taxable property at all. The propertyless could not vote and so (like blacks, women, Indians) could not participate in town meetings. This included sailors, journeymen, apprentices, servants.
Dirk Hoerder, a student of Boston mob actions in the Revolutionary period, calls the Revolutionary leadership "the Sons of Liberty type drawn from the middling interest and well-to-do merchants ... a hesitant leadership," wanting to spur action against Great Britain, yet worrying about maintaining control over the crowds at home.
It took the Stamp Act crisis to make this leadership aware of its dilemma. A political group in Boston called the Loyal Nine-merchants, distillers, shipowners, and master craftsmen who opposed the Stamp Act-organized a procession in August 1765 to protest it. They put fifty master craftsmen at the head, but needed to mobilize shipworkers from the North End and mechanics and apprentices from the South End. Two or three thousand were in the procession (Negroes were excluded). They marched to the home of the stampmaster and burned his effigy. But after the "gentlemen" who organized the demonstration left, the crowd went further and destroyed some of the stampmaster's property. These were, as one of the Loyal Nine said, "amazingly inflamed people." The Loyal Nine seemed taken aback by the direct assault on the wealthy furnishings of the stampmaster.
The rich set up armed patrols. Now a town meeting was called and the same leaders who had planned the demonstration denounced the violence and disavowed the actions of the crowd. As more demonstrations were planned for November 1, 1765, when the Stamp Act was to go into effect, and for Pope's Day, November 5, steps were taken to keep things under control; a dinner was given for certain leaders of the rioters to win them over. And when the Stamp Act was repealed, due to overwhelming resistance, the conservative leaders severed their connections with the rioters. They held annual celebrations of the first anti-Stamp Act demonstration, to which they invited, according to Hoerder, not the rioters but "mainly upper and middle-class Bostonians, who traveled in coaches and carriages to Roxbury or Dorchester for opulent feasts."
When the British Parliament turned to its next attempt to tax the colonies, this time by a set of taxes which it hoped would not excite as much opposition, the colonial leaders organized boycotts. But, they stressed, "No Mobs or Tumults, let the Persons and Properties of your most inveterate Enemies be safe." Samuel Adams advised: "No Mobs- No Confusions-No Tumult." And James Otis said that "no possible circumstances, though ever so oppressive, could be supposed sufficient to justify private tumults and disorders...."
Impressment and the quartering of troops by the British were directly hurtful to the sailors and other working people. After 1768, two thousand soldiers were quartered in Boston, and friction grew between the crowds and the soldiers. The soldiers began to take the jobs of working people when jobs were scarce. Mechanics and shopkeepers lost work or business because of the colonists' boycott of British goods. In 1769, Boston set up a committee "to Consider of some Suitable Methods of employing the Poor of the Town, whose Numbers and distresses are dayly increasing by the loss of its Trade and Commerce."
On March 5, 1770, grievances of ropemakers against British soldiers taking their jobs led to a fight. A crowd gathered in front of the customhouse and began provoking the soldiers, who fired and killed first Crispus Attucks, a mulatto worker, then others. This became known as the Boston Massacre. Feelings against the British mounted quickly. There was anger at the acquittal of six of the British soldiers (two were punished by having their thumbs branded and were discharged from the army). The crowd at the Massacre was described by John Adams, defense attorney for the British soldiers, as "a motley rabble of saucy boys, negroes, and mulattoes, Irish teagues and outlandish jack tarrs." Perhaps ten thousand people marched in the funeral procession for the victims of the Massacre, out of a total Boston population of sixteen thousand. This led England to remove the troops from Boston and try to quiet the situation.
Impressment was the background of the Massacre. There had been impressment riots through the 1760s in New York and in Newport, Rhode Island, where five hundred seamen, boys, and Negroes rioted after five weeks of impressment by the British. Six weeks before the Boston Massacre, there was a battle in New York of seamen against British soldiers taking their jobs, and one seaman was killed.
In the Boston Tea Party of December 1773, the Boston Committee of Correspondence, formed a year before to organize anti-British actions, "controlled crowd action against the tea from the start," Dirk Hoerder says. The Tea Party led to the Coercive Acts by Parliament, virtually establishing martial law in Massachusetts, dissolving the colonial government, closing the port in Boston, and sending in troops. Still, town meetings and mass meetings rose in opposition. The seizure of a powder store by the British led four thousand men from all around Boston to assemble in Cambridge, where some of the wealthy officials had their sumptuous homes. The crowd forced the officials to resign. The Committees of Correspondence of Boston and other towns welcomed this gathering, but warned against destroying private property.
Pauline Maier, who studied the development of opposition to Britain in the decade before 1776 in her book From Resistance to Revolution, emphasizes the moderation of the leadership and, despite their desire for resistance, their "emphasis on order and restraint." She notes: "The officers and committee members of the Sons of Liberty were drawn almost entirely from the middle and upper classes of colonial society." In Newport, Rhode Island, for instance, the Sons of Liberty, according to a contemporary writer, "contained some Gentlemen of the First Figure in 'Town for Opulence, Sense and Politeness." In North Carolina "one of the wealthiest of the gentlemen and freeholders" led the Sons of Liberty. Similarly in Virginia and South Carolina. And "New York's leaders, too, were involved in small but respectable independent business ventures." Their aim, however, was to broaden their organization, to develop a mass base of wage earners.
Many of the Sons of Liberty groups declared, as in Milford, Connecticut, their "greatest abhorrence" of lawlessness, or as in Annapolis, opposed "all riots or unlawful assemblies tending to the disturbance of the public tranquility." John Adams expressed the same fears: "These tarrings and featherings, this breaking open Houses by rude and insolent Rabbles, in Resentment for private Wrongs or in pursuing of private Prejudices and Passions, must be discountenanced.
In Virginia, it seemed clear to the educated gentry that something needed to be done to persuade the lower orders to join the revolutionary cause, to deflect their anger against England. One Virginian wrote in his diary in the spring of 1774: "The lower Class of People here are in tumult on account of Reports from Boston, many of them expect to be press'd & compell'd to go and fight the Britains!" Around the time of the Stamp Act, a Virginia orator addressed the poor: "Are not the gentlemen made of the same materials as the lowest and poorest among you? . . . Listen to no doctrines which may tend to divide us, but let us go hand in hand, as brothers...."
It was a problem for which the rhetorical talents of Patrick Henry were superbly fitted. He was, as Rhys Isaac puts it, "firmly attached to the world of the gentry," but he spoke in words that the poorer whites of Virginia could understand. Henry's fellow Virginian Edmund Randolph recalled his style as "simplicity and even carelessness. . .. His pauses, which for their length might sometimes be feared to dispell the attention, rivited it the more by raising the expectation."
Patrick Henry's oratory in Virginia pointed a way to relieve class tension between upper and lower classes and form a bond against the British. This was to find language inspiring to all classes, specific enough in its listing of grievances to charge people with anger against the British, vague enough to avoid class conflict among the rebels, and stirring enough to build patriotic feeling for the resistance movement.
Tom Paine's Common Sense, which appeared in early 1776 and became the most popular pamphlet in the American colonies, did this. It made the first bold argument for independence, in words that any fairly literate person could understand: "Society in every state is a blessing, but Government even in its best state is but a necessary evil. .. ."
Paine disposed of the idea of the divine right of kings by a pungent history of the British monarchy, going back to the Norman conquest of 1066, when William the Conqueror came over from France to set himself on the British throne: "A French bastard landing with an armed Bandits and establishing himself king of England against the consent of the natives, is in plain terms a very paltry rascally original. It certainly hath no divinity in it."
Pictured; a French bastard and two armed bandits
Paine dealt with the practical advantages of sticking to England or being separated; he knew the importance of economics:
I challenge the wannest advocate for reconciliation to show a single advantage that this continent can reap by being connected with Great Britain. I repeat the challenge; not a single advantage is derived. Our corn will fetch its price in any market in Europe, and our imported goods must be paid for by them where we will.. . .
As for the bad effects of the connection with England, Paine appealed to the colonists' memory of all the wars in which England had involved them, wars costly in lives and money:
But the injuries and disadvantages which we sustain by that connection are without number.. . . any submission to, or dependence on, Great Britain, tends directly to involve this Continent in European wars and quarrels, and set us at variance with nations who would otherwise seek our friendship. . ..
He built slowly to an emotional pitch:
Everything that is right or reasonable pleads for separation. The blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries, 'TIS TIME TO PART.
Common Sense went through twenty-five editions in 1776 and sold hundreds of thousands of copies. It is probable that almost every literate colonist either read it or knew about its contents. Pamphleteering had become by this time the chief theater of debate about relations with England. From 1750 to 1776 four hundred pamphlets had appeared arguing one or another side of the Stamp Act or the Boston Massacre or The Tea Party or the general questions of disobedience to law, loyalty to government, rights and obligations.
Paine's pamphlet appealed to a wide range of colonial opinion angered by England. But it caused some tremors in aristocrats like John Adams, who were with the patriot cause but wanted to make sure it didn't go too far in the direction of democracy. Paine had denounced the so-called balanced government of Lords and Commons as a deception, and called for single-chamber representative bodies where the people could be represented. Adams denounced Paine's plan as "so democratical, without any restraint or even an attempt at any equilibrium or counter-poise, that it must produce confusion and every evil work." Popular assemblies needed to be checked, Adams thought, because they were "productive of hasty results and absurd judgments."
Paine himself came out of "the lower orders" of England-a stay-maker, tax official, teacher, poor emigrant to America. He arrived in Philadelphia in 1774, when agitation against England was already strong in the colonies. The artisan mechanics of Philadelphia, along with journeymen, apprentices, and ordinary laborers, were forming into a politically conscious militia, "in general damn'd riff-raff-dirty, mutinous, and disaffected," as local aristocrats described them. By speaking plainly and strongly, he could represent those politically conscious lower-class people (he opposed property qualifications for voting in Pennsylvania). But his great concern seems to have been to speak for a middle group. "There is an extent of riches, as well as an extreme of poverty, which, by harrowing the circles of a man's acquaintance, lessens his opportunities of general knowledge."
Once the Revolution was under way, Paine more and more made it clear that he was not for the crowd action of lower-class people-like those militia who in 1779 attacked the house of James Wilson. Wilson was a Revolutionary leader who opposed price controls and wanted a more conservative government than was given by the Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776. Paine became an associate of one of the wealthiest men in Pennsylvania, Robert Morris, and a supporter of Morris's creation, the Bank of North America.
Later, during the controversy over adopting the Constitution, Paine would once again represent urban artisans, who favored a strong central government. He seemed to believe that such a government could represent some great common interest, in this sense, he lent himself perfectly to the myth of the Revolution-that it was on behalf of a united people.
The Declaration of Independence brought that myth to its peak of eloquence. Each harsher measure of British control-the Proclamation of 1763 not allowing colonists to settle beyond the Appalachians, the Stamp Tax, the Townshend taxes, including the one on tea, the stationing of troops and the Boston Massacre, the closing of the port of Boston and the dissolution of the Massachusetts legislature-escalated colonial rebellion to the point of revolution. The colonists had responded with the Stamp Act Congress, the Sons of Liberty, the Committees of Correspondence, the Boston Tea Party, and finally, in 1774, the setting up of a Continental Congress-an illegal body, forerunner of a future independent government. It was after the military clash at Lexington and Concord in April 1775, between colonial Minutemen and British troops, that the Continental Congress decided on separation. They organized a small committee to draw up the Declaration of Independence, which Thomas Jefferson wrote. It was adopted by the Congress on July 2, and officially proclaimed July 4, 1776.
By this time there was already a powerful sentiment for independence. Resolutions adopted in North Carolina in May of 1776, and sent to the Continental Congress, declared independence of England, asserted that all British law was null and void, and urged military preparations. About the same time, the town of Maiden, Massachusetts, responding to a request from the Massachusetts House of Representatives that all towns in the state declare their views on independence, had met in town meeting and unanimously called for independence: ". . . we therefore renounce with disdain our connexion with a kingdom of slaves; we bid a final adieu to Britain."
"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands . . . they should declare the causes...." This was the opening of the Declaration of Independence. Then, in its second paragraph, came the powerful philosophical statement:
We hold these truths to he self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments arc instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government....
It then went on to list grievances against the king, "a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States." The list accused the king of dissolving colonial governments, controlling judges, sending "swarms of Officers to harass our people," sending in armies of occupation, cutting off colonial trade with other parts of the world, taxing the colonists without their consent, and waging war against them, "transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny."
All this, the language of popular control over governments, the right of rebellion and revolution, indignation at political tyranny, economic burdens, and military attacks, was language well suited to unite large numbers of colonists, and persuade even those who had grievances against one another to turn against England.
Some Americans were clearly omitted from this circle of united interest drawn by the Declaration of Independence: Indians, black slaves, women. Indeed, one paragraph of the Declaration charged the King with inciting slave rebellions and Indian attacks:
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst as, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
Twenty years before the Declaration, a proclamation of the legislature of Massachusetts of November 3, 1755, declared the Penobseot Indians "rebels, enemies and traitors" and provided a bounty: "For every scalp of a male Indian brought in ... forty pounds. For every scalp of such female Indian or male Indian under the age of twelve years that shall be killed ... twenty pounds... ."
Thomas Jefferson had written a paragraph of the Declaration accusing the King of transporting slaves from Africa to the colonies and "suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce." This seemed to express moral indignation against slavery and the slave trade (Jefferson's personal distaste for slavery must be put alongside the fact that he owned hundreds of slaves to the day he died). Behind it was the growing fear among Virginians and some other southerners about the growing number of black slaves in the colonies (20 percent of the total population) and the threat of slave revolts as the number of slaves increased. Jefferson's paragraph was removed by the Continental Congress, because slaveholders themselves disagreed about the desirability of ending the slave trade. So even that gesture toward the black slave was omitted in the great manifesto of freedom of the American Revolution.
The use of the phrase "all men are created equal" was probably not a deliberate attempt to make a statement about women. It was just that women were beyond consideration as worthy of inclusion. They were politically invisible. Though practical needs gave women a certain authority in the home, on the farm, or in occupations like midwifery, they were simply overlooked in any consideration of political rights, any notions of civic equality.
To say that the Declaration of Independence, even by its own language, was limited to life, liberty, and happiness for white males is not to denounce the makers and signers of the Declaration for holding the ideas expected of privileged males of the eighteenth century. Reformers and radicals, looking discontentedly at history, are often accused of expecting too much from a past political epoch-and sometimes they do. But the point of noting those outside the arc of human rights in the Declaration is not, centuries late and pointlessly, to lay impossible moral burdens on that time. It is to try to understand the way in which the Declaration functioned to mobilize certain groups of Americans, ignoring others. Surely, inspirational language to create a secure consensus is still used, in our time, to cover up serious conflicts of interest in that consensus, and to cover up, also, the omission of large parts of the human race.
The philosophy of the Declaration, that government is set up by the people to secure their life, liberty, and happiness, and is to be overthrown when it no longer does that, is often traced to the ideas of John Locke, in his Second Treatise on Government. That was published in England in 1689, when the English were rebelling against tyrannical kings and setting up parliamentary government. The Declaration, like Locke's Second Treatise, talked about government and political rights, but ignored the existing inequalities in property. And how could people truly have equal rights, with stark differences in wealth?
Locke himself was a wealthy man, with investments in the silk trade and slave trade, income from loans and mortgages. He invested heavily in the first issue of the stock of the Bank of England, just a few years after he had written his Second Treatise as the classic statement of liberal democracy. As adviser to the Carolinas, he had suggested a government of slaveowners run by wealthy land barons.
Locke's statement of people's government was in support of a revolution in England for the free development of mercantile capitalism at home and abroad. Locke himself regretted that the labor of poor children "is generally lost to the public till they are twelve or fourteen years old" and suggested that all children over three, of families on relief, should attend "working schools" so they would be "from infancy . . . inured to work."
The English revolutions of the seventeenth century brought representative government and opened up discussions of democracy. But, as the English historian Christopher Hill wrote in The Puritan Revolution: "The establishment of parliamentary supremacy, of the rule of law, no doubt mainly benefited the men of property." The kind of arbitrary taxation that threatened the security of property was overthrown, monopolies were ended to give more free reign to business, and sea power began to be used for an imperial policy abroad, including the conquest of Ireland. The Levellers and the Diggers, two political movements which wanted to carry equality into the economic sphere, were put down by the Revolution.
Parliamentarian forces arresting the Diggers
One can see the reality of Locke's nice phrases about representative government in the class divisions and conflicts in England that followed the Revolution that Locke supported. At the very time the American scene was becoming tense, in 1768, England was racked by riots and strikes-of coal heavers, saw mill workers, halters, weavers, sailors- because of the high price of bread and the miserable wages. The Annual Register reviewed the events of the spring and summer of 1768:
A general dissatisfaction unhappily prevailed among several of the lower orders of the people. This ill temper, which was partly occasioned by the high price of provisions, and partly proceeded from other causes, too frequently manifested itself in acts of tumult and riot, which were productive of the most melancholy consequences.
"The people" who were, supposedly, at the heart of Locke's theory of people's sovereignty were defined by a British member of Parliament: "I don't mean the mob. ... I mean the middling people of England, the manufacturer, the yeoman, the merchant, the country gentleman. . . ."
In America, too, the reality behind the words of the Declaration of Independence (issued in the same year as Adam Smith's capitalist manifesto, The Wealth of Nations) was that a rising class of important people needed to enlist on their side enough Americans to defeat England, without disturbing too much the relations of wealth and power that had developed over 150 years of colonial history. Indeed, 69 percent of the signers of the Declaration of Independence had held colonial office under England.
When the Declaration of Independence was read, with all its flaming radical language, from the town hall balcony in Boston, it was read by Thomas Crafts, a member of the Loyal Nine group, conservatives who had opposed militant action against the British. Four days after the reading, the Boston Committee of Correspondence ordered the townsmen to show up on the Common for a military draft. The rich, it turned out, could avoid the draft by paying for substitutes; the poor had to serve' This led to rioting, and shouting: "Tyranny is Tyranny let it come from whom it may."
The American victory over the British army was made possible by the existence of an already- armed people. Just about every white male had a gun, and could shoot. The Revolutionary leadership distrusted the mobs of poor. But they knew the Revolution had no appeal to slaves and Indians. They would have to woo the armed white population.
Wealthy "Patriot" bids Minuteman goodluck
This was not easy. Yes, mechanics and sailors, some others, were incensed against the British. But general enthusiasm for the war was not strong. While much of the white male population went into military service at one time or another during the war, only a small fraction stayed. John Shy, in his study of the Revolutionary army (A People Numerous and Armed), says they "grew weary of being bullied by local committees of safety, by corrupt deputy assistant commissaries of supply, and by bands of ragged strangers with guns in their hands calling themselves soldiers of the Revolution." Shy estimates that perhaps a fifth of the population was actively treasonous. John Adams had estimated a third opposed, a third in support, a third neutral.
Alexander Hamilton, an aide of George Washington and an up-and-coming member of the new elite, wrote from his headquarters: ". . . our countrymen have all the folly of the ass and all the passiveness of the sheep... . They are determined not to be free.. . . If we are saved, France and Spain must save us."
Slavery got in the way in the South. South Carolina, insecure since the slave uprising in Stono in 1739, could hardly fight against the British; her militia had to be used to keep slaves under control.
The men who first joined the colonial militia were generally "hallmarks of respectability or at least of full citizenship" in their communities, Shy says. Excluded from the militia were friendly Indians, free Negroes, white servants, and free white men who had no stable home. But desperation led to the recruiting of the less respectable whites. Massachusetts and Virginia provided for drafting "strollers" (vagrants) into the militia. In fact, the military became a place of promise for the poor, who might rise in rank, acquire some money, change their social status.
Here was the traditional device by which those in charge of any social order mobilize and discipline a recalcitrant population-offering the adventure and rewards of military service to get poor people to fight for a cause they may not see clearly as their own. A wounded American lieutenant at Bunker Hill, interviewed by Peter Oliver, a Tory (who admittedly might have been looking for such a response), told how he had joined the rebel forces:
I was a Shoemaker, & got my living by my Labor. When this Rebellion came on, I saw some of my Neighbors got into Commission, who were no better than myself. I was very ambitious, & did not like to see those Men above me. I was asked to enlist, as a private Soldier ... I offered to enlist upon having a Lieutenants Commission; which was granted. I imagined my self now in a way of Promotion: if I was killed in Battle, there would be an end of me, but if any Captain was killed, I should rise in Rank, & should still have a Chance to rise higher. These Sir! were the only Motives of my entering into the Service; for as to the Dispute between Great Britain & the Colonies, I know nothing of it. ...
John Shy investigated the subsequent experience of that Bunker Hill lieutenant. He was William Scott, of Peterborough, New Hampshire, and after a year as prisoner of the British he escaped, made his way back to the American army, fought in battles in New York, was captured again by the British, and escaped again by swimming the Hudson River one night with his sword tied around his neck and his watch pinned to his hat. He returned to New Hampshire, recruited a company of his own, including his two eldest sons, and fought in various battles, until his health gave way. He watched his eldest son die of camp fever after six years of service. He had sold his farm in Peterborough for a note that, with inflation, became worthless. After the war, he came to public attention when he rescued eight people from drowning after their boat turned over in New York harbor. He then got a job surveying western lands with the army, but caught a fever and died in 1796.
Scott was one of many Revolutionary fighters, usually of lower military ranks, from poor and obscure backgrounds. Shy's study of the Peterborough contingent shows that the prominent and substantial citizens of the town had served only briefly in the war. Other American towns show the same pattern. As Shy puts it: "Revolutionary America may have been a middle-class society, happier and more prosperous than any other in its time, but it contained a large and growing number of fairly poor people, and many of them did much of the actual fighting and suffering between I775 and 1783: A very old story."
The military conflict itself, by dominating everything in its time, diminished other issues, made people choose sides in the one contest that was publicly important, forced people onto the side of the Revolution whose interest in Independence was not at all obvious. Ruling elites seem to have learned through the generations-consciously or not-that war makes them more secure against internal trouble.
The force of military preparation had a way of pushing neutral people into line. In Connecticut, for instance, a law was passed requiring military service of all males between sixteen and sixty, omitting certain government officials, ministers, Yale students and faculty, Negroes, Indians, and mulattos. Someone called to duty could provide a substitute or get out of it by paying 5 pounds. When eighteen men failed to show up for military duty they were jailed and, in order to be released, had to pledge to fight in the war. Shy says: "The mechanism of their political conversion was the militia." What looks like the democratization of the military forces in modern times shows up as something different: a way of forcing large numbers of reluctant people to associate themselves with the national cause, and by the end of the process believe in it.
Here, in the war for liberty, was conscription, as usual, cognizant of wealth. With the impressment riots against the British still remembered, impressment of seamen by the American navy was taking place by 1779. A Pennsylvania official said: "We cannot help observing how similar this Conduct is to that of the British Officers during our Subjection to Great Britain and are persuaded it will have the same unhappy effects viz. an estrangement of the Affections of the People from . . . Authority . . . which by an easy Progression will proceed to open Opposition . . . and bloodshed."
Watching the new, tight discipline of Washington's army, a chaplain in. Concord, Massachusetts, wrote: "New lords, new laws. The strictest government is taking place and great distinction is made between officers & men. Everyone is made to know his place & keep it, or be immediately tied up, and receive not one but 30 or 40 lashes."
The Americans lost the first battles of the war: Bunker Hill, Brooklyn Heights, Harlem Heights, the Deep South; they won small battles at Trenton and Princeton, and then in a turning point, a big battle at Saratoga, New York, in 1777. Washington's frozen army hung on at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, while Benjamin Franklin negotiated an alliance with the French monarchy, which was anxious for revenge on England. The war turned to the South, where the British won victory after victory, until the Americans, aided by a large French army, with the French navy blocking off the British from supplies and reinforcements, won the final victory of the war at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781.
The French are on the left, and no they aren't surrendering
Through all this, the suppressed conflicts between rich and poor among the Americans kept reappearing. In the midst of the war, in Philadelphia, which Eric Foner describes as "a time of immense profits for some colonists and terrible hardships for others," the inflation (prices rose in one month that year by 45 percent) led to agitation and calls for action. One Philadelphia newspaper carried a reminder that in Europe "the People have always done themselves justice when the scarcity of bread has arisen from the avarice of forestallers. They have broken open magazines- appropriated stores to their own use without paying for them-and in some instances have hung up the culprits who created their distress."
In May of 1779, the First Company of Philadelphia Artillery petitioned the Assembly about the troubles of "the midling and poor" and threatened violence against "those who are avariciously intent upon amassing wealth by the destruction of the more virtuous part of the community." That same month, there was a mass meeting, an extralegal gathering, which called for price reductions and initiated an investigation of Robert Morris, a rich Philadelphian who was accused of holding food from the market. In October came the "Fort Wilson riot," in which a militia group marched into the city and to the house of James Wilson, a wealthy lawyer and Revolutionary official who had opposed price controls and the democratic constitution adopted in Pennsylvania in 1776. The militia were driven away by a "silk stocking brigade" of well-off Philadelphia citizens.
It seemed that the majority of white colonists, who had a bit of land, or no property at all, were still better off than slaves or indentured servants or Indians, and could be wooed into the coalition of the Revolution. But when the sacrifices of war became more bitter, the privileges and safety of the rich became harder to accept. About 10 percent of the white population (an estimate of Jackson Main in The Social Structure of Revolutionary America), large landholders and merchants, held 1,000 pounds or more in personal property and 1,000 pounds in land, at the least, and these men owned nearly half the wealth of the country and held as slaves one-seventh of the country's people.
The Continental Congress, which governed the colonies through the war, was dominated by rich men, linked together in factions and compacts by business and family connections. These links connected North and South, East and West. For instance, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia was connected with the Adamses of Massachusetts and the Shippens of Pennsylvania. Delegates from middle and southern colonies were connected with Robert Morris of Pennsylvania through commerce and land speculation. Morris was superintendent of finance, and his assistant was Gouverneur Morris.
Morris's plan was to give more assurance to those who had loaned money to the Continental Congress, and gain the support of officers by voting half-pay for life for those who stuck to the end. This ignored the common soldier, who was not getting paid, who was suffering in the cold, dying of sickness, watching the civilian profiteers get rich. On New Year's Day, 1781, the Pennsylvania troops near Morristown, New Jersey, perhaps emboldened by rum, dispersed their officers, killed one captain, wounded others, and were marching, fully armed, with cannon, toward the Continental Congress at Philadelphia.
George Washington handled it cautiously. Informed of these developments by General Anthony Wayne, he told Wayne not to use force. He was worried that the rebellion might spread to his own troops. He suggested Wayne get a list of the soldiers' grievances, and said Congress should not flee Philadelphia, because then the way would be open for the soldiers to be joined by Philadelphia citizens. He sent Knox rushing to New England on his horse to get three months' pay for the soldiers, while he prepared a thousand men to march on the mutineers, as a last resort. A peace was negotiated, in which one-half the men were discharged; the other half got furloughs.
Shortly after this, a smaller mutiny took place in the New Jersey Line, involving two hundred men who defied their officers and started out for the state capital at Trenton. Now Washington was ready. Six hundred men, who themselves had been well fed and clothed, marched on the mutineers and surrounded and disarmed them. Three ringleaders were put on trial immediately, in the field. One was pardoned, and two were shot by firing squads made up of their friends, who wept as they pulled the triggers. It was "an example," Washington said.
Two years later, there was another mutiny in the Pennsylvania line. The war was over and the army had disbanded, but eighty soldiers, demanding their pay, invaded the Continental Congress headquarters in Philadelphia and forced the members to flee across the river to Princeton- "ignominiously turned out of doors," as one historian sorrowfully wrote (John Fiske, The Critical Period), "by a handful of drunken mutineers."
What soldiers in the Revolution could do only rarely, rebel against their authorities, civilians could do much more easily. Ronald Hoffman says: "The Revolution plunged the states of Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and, to a much lesser degree, Virginia into divisive civil conflicts that persisted during the entire period of struggle." The southern lower classes resisted being mobilized for the revolution. They saw themselves under the rule of a political elite, win or lose against the British.
In Maryland, for instance, by the new constitution of 1776, to run for governor one had to own 5,000 pounds of property; to run for state senator, 1,000 pounds. Thus, 90 percent of the population were excluded from holding office. And so, as Hoffman says, "small slave holders, non- slaveholding planters, tenants, renters and casual day laborers posed a serious problem of social control for the Whig elite."
With black slaves 25 percent of the population (and in some counties 50 percent), fear of slave revolts grew. George Washington had turned down the requests of blacks, seeking freedom, to fight in the Revolutionary army. So when the British military commander in Virginia, Lord Dunmore, promised freedom to Virginia slaves who joined his forces, this created consternation. A report from one Maryland county worried about poor whites encouraging slave runaways:
The insolence of the Negroes in this county is come to such a height, that we are under a necessity of disarming them which we affected on Saturday last. We took about eighty guns, some bayonets, swords, etc. The malicious and imprudent speeches of some among the lower classes of whites have induced them to believe that their freedom depended on the success of the King's troops. We cannot therefore be too vigilant nor too rigorous with those who promote and encourage this disposition in our slaves.
Even more unsettling was white rioting in Maryland against leading families, supporting the Revolution, who were suspected of hoarding needed commodities. The class hatred of some of these disloyal people was expressed by one man who said "it was better for the people to lay down their arms and pay the duties and taxes laid upon them by King and Parliament than to be brought into slavery and to be commanded and ordered about as they were." A wealthy Maryland land- owner, Charles Carroll, took note of the surly mood all around him:
There is a mean low dirty envy which creeps thro all ranks and cannot suffer a man a superiority of fortune, of merit, or of understanding in fellow citizens-either of these are sure to entail a general ill will and dislike upon the owners.
Despite this, Maryland authorities retained control. They made concessions, taxing land and slaves more heavily, letting debtors pay in paper money. It was a sacrifice by the upper class to maintain power, and it worked.
In the lower South, however, in the Carolinas and Georgia, according to Hoffman, "vast regions were left without the slightest apparition of authority." The general mood was to take no part in a war that seemed to have nothing for them. "Authoritative personages on both sides demanded that common people supply material, reduce consumption, leave their families, and even risk their lives. Forced to make hard decisions, many flailed out in frustration or evaded and defied first one side, then the other. .. ."
Washington's military commander in the lower South, Nathanael Greene, dealt with disloyalty by a policy of concessions to some, brutality to others. In a letter to Thomas Jefferson he described a raid by his troops on Loyalists. "They made a dreadful carnage of them, upwards of one hundred were killed and most of the rest cut to pieces. It has had a very happy effect on those disaffected persons of which there were too many in this country." Greene told one of his generals "to strike terror into our enemies and give spirit to our friends." On the other hand, he advised the governor of Georgia "to open a door for the disaffected of your state to come in... ."
In general, throughout the states, concessions were kept to a minimum. The new constitutions that were drawn up in all states from 1776 to 1780 were not much different from the old ones. Although property qualifications for voting and holding office were lowered in some instances, in Massachusetts they were increased. Only Pennsylvania abolished them totally. The new bills of rights had modifying provisions. North Carolina, providing for religious freedom, added "that nothing herein contained shall be construed to exempt preachers of treasonable or seditious discourses, from legal trial and punishment." Maryland, New York, Georgia, and Massachusetts took similar cautions.
The American Revolution is sometimes said to have brought about the separation of church and state. The northern states made such declarations, but after 1776 they adopted taxes that forced everyone to support Christian teachings. William G. McLoughlin, quoting Supreme Court Justice David Brewer in 1892 that "this is a Christian nation," says of the separation of church and state in the Revolution that it "was neither conceived of nor carried out. .,. Far from being left to itself, religion was imbedded into every aspect and institution of American life."
One would look, in examining the Revolution's effect on class relations, at what happened to land confiscated from fleeing Loyalists. It was distributed in such a way as to give a double opportunity to the Revolutionary leaders: to enrich themselves and their friends, and to parcel out some land to small farmers to create a broad base of support for the new government. Indeed, this became characteristic of the new nation: finding itself possessed of enormous wealth, it could create the richest ruling class in history, and still have enough for the middle classes to act as a buffer between the rich and the dispossessed.
The huge landholdings of the Loyalists had been one of the great incentives to Revolution. Lord Fairfax in Virginia had more than 5 million acres encompassing twenty-one counties. Lord Baltimore's income from his Maryland holdings exceeded 30,000 pounds a year. After the Revolution, Lord Fairfax was protected; he was a friend of George Washington. But other Loyalist holders of great estates, especially those who were absentees, had their land confiscated. In New York, the number of freeholding small farmers increased after the Revolution, and there were fewer tenant fanners, who had created so much trouble in the pre-Revolution years.
Although the numbers of independent farmers grew, according to Rowland Berthoff and John Murrin, "the class structure did not change radically." The ruling group went through personnel changes as "the rising merchant families of Boston, New York or Philadelphia ... slipped quite credibly into the social status-and sometimes the very houses of those who failed in business or suffered confiscation and exile for loyalty to the crown."
Edmund Morgan sums up the class nature of the Revolution this way: "The fact that the lower ranks were involved in the contest should not obscure the fact that the contest itself was generally a struggle for office and power between members of an upper class: the new against the established." Looking at the situation after the Revolution, Richard Morris comments: "Everywhere one finds inequality." He finds "the people" of "We the people of the United States" (a phrase coined by the very rich Gouverneur Morris) did not mean Indians or blacks or women or white servants. In fact, there were more indentured servants than ever, and the Revolution "did nothing to end and little to ameliorate white bondage."
Carl Degler says (Out of Our Past): "No new social class came to power through the door of the American revolution. The men who engineered the revolt were largely members of the colonial ruling class." George Washington was the richest man in America. John Hancock was a prosperous Boston merchant. Benjamin Franklin was a wealthy printer. And so on.
On the other hand, town mechanics, laborers, and seamen, as well as small farmers, were swept into "the people" by the rhetoric of the Revolution, by the camaraderie of military service, by the distribution of some land. Thus was created a substantial body of support, a national consensus, something that, even with the exclusion of ignored and oppressed people, could be called "America."
Staughton Lynd's close study of Dutchess County, New York, in the Revolutionary period corroborates this. There were tenant risings in 1766 against the huge feudal estates in New York. The Rensselaerwyck holding was a million acres. Tenants, claiming some of this land for themselves, unable to get satisfaction in the courts, turned to violence. In Poughkeepsie, 1,700 armed tenants had closed the courts and broken open the jails. But the uprising was crushed.
During the Revolution, there was a struggle in Dutchess County over the disposition of confiscated Loyalist lands, but it was mainly between different elite groups. One of these, the Poughkeepsie anti-Federalists (opponents of the Constitution), included men on the make, newcomers in land and business. They made promises to the tenants to gain their support, exploiting their grievances to build their own political careers and maintain their own fortunes.
During the Revolution, to mobilize soldiers, the tenants were promised land. A prominent landowner of Dutchess County wrote in 1777 that a promise to make tenants freeholders "would instantly bring you at least six thousand able farmers into the field." But the fanners who enlisted in the Revolution and expected to get something out of it found that, as privates in the army, they received $6.66 a month, while a colonel received $75 a month. They watched local government contractors like Melancton Smith and Mathew Paterson become rich, while the pay they received in continental currency became worthless with inflation.
All this led tenants to become a threatening force in the midst of the war. Many stopped paying rent. The legislature, worried, passed a bill to confiscate Loyalist land and add four hundred new freeholders to the 1,800 already in the county. This meant a strong new voting bloc for the faction of the rich that would become anti-Federalists in 1788. Once the new landholders were brought into the privileged circle of the Revolution and seemed politically under control, their leaders, Mclancton Smith and others, at first opposed to adoption of the Constitution, switched to support, and with New York ratifying, adoption was ensured. The new freeholders found that they had stopped being tenants, but were now mortgagees, paying back loans from banks instead of rent to landlords.
It seems that the rebellion against British rule allowed a certain group of the colonial elite to replace those loyal to England, give some benefits to small landholders, and leave poor white working people and tenant farmers in very much their old situation.
What did the Revolution mean to the Native Americans, the Indians? They had been ignored by the fine words of the Declaration, had not been considered equal, certainly not in choosing those who would govern the American territories in which they lived, nor in being able to pursue happiness as they had pursued it for centuries before the white Europeans arrived. Now, with the British out of the way, the Americans could begin the inexorable process of pushing the Indians off their lands, killing them if they resisted, in short, as Francis Jennings puts it, the white Americans were fighting against British imperial control in the East, and for their own imperialism in the West.
Before the Revolution, the Indians had been subdued by force in Virginia and in New England. Elsewhere, they had worked out modes of coexistence with the colonies. But around 1750, with the colonial population growing fast, the pressure to move westward onto new land set the stage for conflict with the Indians. Land agents from the East began appearing in the Ohio River valley, on the territory of a confederation of tribes called the Covenant Chain, for which the Iroquois were spokesmen. In New York, through intricate swindling, 800,000 acres of Mohawk land were taken, ending the period of Mohawk-New York friendship. Chief Hendrick of the Mohawks is recorded speaking his bitterness to Governor George Clinton and the provincial council of New York in 1753:
Brother when we came here lo relate our Grievances about our Lands, we expected to have something done for us, and we have told you that the Covenant Chain of our Forefathers was like to be broken, and brother you tell us that we shall be redressed at Albany, but we know them so well, we will not trust to them, for they [the Albany merchants] are no people but Devils so ... as soon as we come home we will send up a Belt of Wampum to our Brothers the other 5 Nations to acquaint them the Covenant Chain is broken between you and us. So brother you are not to expect to hear of me any more, and Brother we desire to hear no more of you.
When the British fought the French for North America in the Seven Years' War, the Indians fought on the side of the French. The French were traders but not occupiers of Indian lands, while the British clearly coveted their hunting grounds and living space. Someone reported the conversation of Shingas, chief of the Delaware Indians, with the British General Braddock, who sought his help against the French:
Shingas asked General Braddock, whether the Indians that were friends to the English might not be permitted to Live and Trade among the English and have Hunting Ground sufficient to Support themselves and Familys.... On which General Braddock said that No Savage Should Inherit the Land.. . . On which Shingas and the other Chiefs answered That if they might not have Liberty to Live on the Land they would not Fight for it....
When that war ended in 1763, the French, ignoring their old allies, ceded to the British lands west of the Appalachians. The Indians therefore united to make war on the British western forts; this is called "Pontiac's Conspiracy" by the British, but "a liberation war for independence" in the words used by Francis Jennings. Under orders from British General Jeffrey Amherst, the commander of Fort Pitts gave the attacking Indian chiefs, with whom he was negotiating, blankets from the smallpox hospital. It was a pioneering effort at what is now called biological warfare. An epidemic soon spread among the Indians.
Despite this, and the burning of villages, the British could not destroy the will of the Indians, who continued guerrilla war. A peace was made, with the British agreeing to establish a line at the Appalachians, beyond which settlements would not encroach on Indian territory. This was the Royal Proclamation of 1763, and it angered Americans (the original Virginia charter said its land went westward to the ocean). It helps to explain why most of the Indians fought for England during the Revolution. With their French allies, then their English allies, gone, the Indians faced a new land-coveting nation-alone.
The Americans assumed now that the Indian land was theirs. But the expeditions they sent westward to establish this were overcome-which they recognized in the names they gave these battles: Harmar's Humiliation and St. Glair's Shame. And even when General Anthony Wayne defeated the Indians' western confederation in 1798 at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, he had to recognize their power. In the Treaty of Grenville, it was agreed that in return for certain cessions of land the United States would give up claims to the Indian lands north of the Ohio, east of the Mississippi, and south of the Great Lakes, but that if the Indians decided to sell these lands they would offer them first to the United States.
Jennings, putting the Indian into the center of the American Revolution-after all, it was Indian land that everyone was fighting over-sees the Revolution as a "multiplicity of variously oppressed and exploited peoples who preyed upon each other." With the eastern elite controlling the lands on the seaboard, the poor, seeking land, were forced to go West, there becoming a useful bulwark for the rich because, as Jennings says, "the first target of the Indian's hatchet was the frontiersman's skull."
The situation of black slaves as a result of the American Revolution was more complex. Thousands of blacks fought with the British. Five thousand were with the Revolutionaries, most of them from the North, but there were also free blacks from Virginia and Maryland. The lower South was reluctant to arm blacks. Amid the urgency and chaos of war, thousands took their freedom-leaving on British ships at the end of the war to settle in England, Nova Scotia, the West Indies, or Africa. Many others stayed in America as free blacks, evading their masters.
In the northern states, the combination of blacks in the military, the lack of powerful economic need for slaves, and the rhetoric of Revolution led to the end of slavery-but very slowly. As late as 1810, thirty thousand blacks, one-fourth of the black population of the North, remained slaves. In 1840 there were still a thousand slaves in the North. In the upper South, there were more free Negroes than before, leading to more control legislation. In the lower South, slavery expanded with the growth of rice and cotton plantations.
What the Revolution did was to create space and opportunity for blacks to begin making demands of white society. Sometimes these demands came from the new, small black elites in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Richmond, Savannah, sometimes from articulate and bold slaves. Pointing to the Declaration of Independence, blacks petitioned Congress and the state legislatures to abolish slavery, to give blacks equal rights. In Boston, blacks asked for city money, which whites were getting, to educate their children. In Norfolk, they asked to he allowed to testify in court. Nashville blacks asserted that free Negroes "ought to have the same opportunities of doing well that any Person ... would have." Peter Mathews, a free Negro butcher in Charleston, joined other free black artisans and tradesmen in petitioning the legislature to repeal discriminatory laws against blacks, hi 1780, seven blacks in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, petitioned the legislature for the right to vote, linking taxation to representation:
... we apprehend ourselves to be Aggreeved, in that while we are not allowed the Privilege of freemen of the State having no vote or Influence in the Election of those that Tax us yet many of our Colour (as is well known) have cheerfully Entered the field of Battle in the defense of the Common Cause and that (as we conceive) against a similar Exertion of Power (in Regard to taxation) too well known to need a recital in this place.. ..
A black man, Benjamin Banneker, who taught himself mathematics and astronomy, predicted accurately a solar eclipse, and was appointed to plan the new city of Washington, wrote to Thomas Jefferson:
I suppose it is a truth too well attested to you, to need a proof here, that we are a race of beings, who have long labored under the abuse and censure of the world; that we have long been looked upon with an eye of contempt; and that we have long been considered rather as brutish than human, and scarcely capable of mental endowments. ... I apprehend you will embrace every opportunity to eradicate that train of absurd and false ideas and opinions, which so generally prevails with respect to us; and that your sentiments are concurrent with mine, which are, that one universal Father hath given being to us all; and that he hath not only made us all of one flesh, but that he hath also, without partiality, afforded us all the same sensations and endowed us all with the same facilities. ..
Banneker asked Jefferson "to wean yourselves from those narrow prejudices which you have imbibed."
Jefferson tried his best, as an enlightened, thoughtful individual might. But the structure of American society, the power of the cotton plantation, the slave trade, the politics of unity between northern and southern elites, and the long culture of race prejudice in the colonies, as well as his own weaknesses-that combination of practical need and ideological fixation-kept Jefferson a slaveowner throughout his life.
Out of 600 slaves Jefferson freed just 9
The inferior position of blacks, the exclusion of Indians from the new society, the establishment of supremacy for the rich and powerful in the new nation-all this was already settled in the colonies by the time of the Revolution. With the English out of the way, it could now be put on paper, solidified, regularized, made legitimate, by the Constitution of the United States, drafted at a convention of Revolutionary leaders in Philadelphia.
To many Americans over the years, the Constitution drawn up in 1787 has seemed a work of genius put together by wise, humane men who created a legal framework for democracy and equality. This view is stated, a bit extravagantly, by the historian George Bancroft, writing in the early nineteenth century:
The Constitution establishes nothing that interferes with equality and individuality. It knows nothing of differences by descent, or opinions, of favored classes, or legalized religion, or the political power of property. It leaves the individual alongside of the individual. ... As the sea is made up of drops, American society is composed of separate, free, and constantly moving atoms, ever in reciprocal action ... so that the institutions and laws of the country rise out of the masses of individual thought which, like the waters of the ocean, are rolling evermore.
Another view of the Constitution was put forward early in the twentieth century by the historian Charles Beard (arousing anger and indignation, including a denunciatory editorial in the New York Times). He wrote in his book An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution:
Inasmuch as the primary object of a government, beyond the mere repression of physical violence, is the making of the rules which determine the property relations of members of society, the dominant classes whose rights are thus to be determined must perforce obtain from the government such rules as are consonant with the larger interests necessary to the continuance of their economic processes, or they must themselves control the organs of government.
In short, Beard said, the rich must, in their own interest, either control the government directly or control the laws by which government operates.
Beard applied this general idea to the Constitution, by studying the economic backgrounds and political ideas of the fifty-five men who gathered in Philadelphia in 1787 to draw up the Constitution. He found that a majority of them were lawyers by profession, that most of them were men of wealth, in land, slaves, manufacturing, or shipping, that half of them had money loaned out at interest, and that forty of the fifty-five held government bonds, according to the records of the Treasury Department.
Thus, Beard found that most of the makers of the Constitution had some direct economic interest in establishing a strong federal government: the manufacturers needed protective tariffs; the moneylenders wanted to stop the use of paper money to pay off debts; the land speculators wanted protection as they invaded Indian lands; slaveowners needed federal security against slave revolts and runaways; bondholders wanted a government able to raise money by nationwide taxation, to pay off those bonds.
Four groups, Beard noted, were not represented in the Constitutional Convention: slaves, indentured servants, women, men without property. And so the Constitution did not reflect the interests of those groups.
He wanted to make it clear that he did not think the Constitution was written merely to benefit the Founding Fathers personally, although one could not ignore the $150,000 fortune of Benjamin Franklin, the connections of Alexander Hamilton to wealthy interests through his father-in-law and brother-in-law, the great slave plantations of James Madison, the enormous landholdings of George Washington. Rather, it was to benefit the groups the Founders represented, the "economic interests they understood and felt in concrete, definite form through their own personal experience."
Not everyone at the Philadelphia Convention fitted Beard's scheme. Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts was a holder of landed property, and yet he opposed the ratification of the Constitution. Similarly, Luther Martin of Maryland, whose ancestors had obtained large tracts of land in New Jersey, opposed ratification. But, with a few exceptions, Beard found a strong connection between wealth and support of the Constitution.
By 1787 there was not only a positive need for strong central government to protect the large economic interests, but also immediate fear of rebellion by discontented farmers. The chief event causing this fear was an uprising in the summer of 1786 in western Massachusetts, known as Shays' Rebellion.
In the western towns of Massachusetts there was resentment against the legislature in Boston. The new Constitution of 1780 had raised the property qualifications for voting. No one could hold state office without being quite wealthy. Furthermore, the legislature was refusing to issue paper money, as had been done in some other states, like Rhode Island, to make it easier for debt-ridden farmers to pay off their creditors.
Illegal conventions began to assemble in some of the western counties to organize opposition to the legislature. At one of these, a man named Plough Jogger spoke his mind:
I have been greatly abused, have been obliged to do more than my part in the war; been loaded with class rates, town rates, province rates, Continental rates and all rates ... been pulled and hauled by sheriffs, constables and collectors, and had my cattle sold for less than they were worth.... . . . The great men are going to get all we have and I think it is time for us to rise and put a stop to it, and have no more courts, nor sheriffs, nor collectors nor lawyers.. . .
The chairman of that meeting used his gavel to cut short the applause. He and others wanted to redress their grievances, but peacefully, by petition to the General Court (the legislature) in Boston,
However, before the scheduled meeting of the General Court, there were going to be court proceedings in Hampshire County, in the towns of Northampton and Springfield, to seize the cattle of farmers who hadn't paid their debts, to take away their land, now full of grain and ready for harvest. And so, veterans of the Continental army, also aggrieved because they had been treated poorly on discharge-given certificates for future redemption instead of immediate cash-began to organize the farmers into squads and companies. One of these veterans was Luke Day, who arrived the morning of court with a fife-and-drum corps, still angry with the memory of being locked up in debtors' prison in the heat of the previous summer.
The sheriff looked to the local militia to defend the court against these armed farmers. But most of the militia was with Luke Day. The sheriff did manage to gather five hundred men, and the judges put on their black silk robes, waiting for the sheriff to protect their trip to the courthouse. But there at the courthouse steps, Luke Day stood with a petition, asserting the people's constitutional right to protest the unconstitutional acts of the General Court, asking the judges to adjourn until the General Court could act on behalf of the farmers. Standing with Luke Day were fifteen hundred armed farmers. The judges adjourned.
Shortly after, at courthouses in Worcester and Athol, farmers with guns prevented the courts from meeting to take away their property, and the militia were too sympathetic to the farmers, or too outnumbered, to act. In Concord, a fifty-year-old veteran of two wars, Job Shattuck, led a caravan of carts, wagons, horses, and oxen onto the town green, while a message was sent to the judges:
The voice of the People of this county is such that the court shall not enter this courthouse until such time as the People shall have redress of the grievances they labor under at the present.
A county convention then suggested the judges adjourn, which they did.
At Great Barrington, a militia of a thousand faced a square crowded with armed men and boys. But the militia was split in its opinion. When the chief justice suggested the militia divide, those in favor of the court's sitting to go on the right side of the road, and those against on the left, two hundred of the militia went to the right, eight hundred to the left, and the judges adjourned. Then the crowd went to the home of the chief justice, who agreed to sign a pledge that the court would not sit until the Massachusetts General Court met. The crowd went back to the square, broke open the county jail, and set free the debtors. The chief justice, a country doctor, said: "I have never heard anybody point out a better way to have their grievances redressed than the people have taken."
The governor and the political leaders of Massachusetts became alarmed. Samuel Adams, once looked on as a radical leader in Boston, now insisted people act within the law. He said "British emissaries" were stirring up the farmers. People in the town of Greenwich responded: You in Boston have the money, and we don't. And didn't you act illegally yourselves in the Revolution? The insurgents were now being called Regulators. Their emblem was a sprig of hemlock.
The problem went beyond Massachusetts. In Rhode Island, the debtors had taken over the legislature and were issuing paper money. In New Hampshire, several hundred men, in September of 1786, surrounded the legislature in Exeter, asking that taxes be returned and paper money issued; they dispersed only when military action was threatened.
Daniel Shays entered the scene in western Massachusetts. A poor farm hand when the revolution broke out, he joined the Continental army, fought at Lexington, Bunker Hill, and Saratoga, and was wounded in action. In 1780, not being paid, he resigned from the army, went home, and soon found himself in court for nonpayment of debts. He also saw what was happening to others: a sick woman, unable to pay, had her bed taken from under her.
What brought Shays fully into the situation was that on September 19, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts met in Worcester and indicted eleven leaders of the rebellion, including three of his friends, as "disorderly, riotous and seditious persons" who "unlawfully and by force of arms" prevented "the execution of justice and the laws of the commonwealth." The Supreme Judicial Court planned to meet again in Springfield a week later, and there was talk of Luke Day's being indicted.
Shays organized seven hundred armed farmers, most of them veterans of the war, and led them to Springfield. There they found a general with nine hundred soldiers and a cannon. Shays asked the general for permission to parade, which the general granted, so Shays and his men moved through the square, drums hanging and fifes blowing. As they marched, their ranks grew. Some of the militia joined, and reinforcements began coming in from the countryside. The judges postponed hearings for a day, then adjourned the court.
Now the General Court, meeting in Boston, was told by Governor James Bowdoin to "vindicate the insulted dignity of government." The recent rebels against England, secure in office, were calling for law and order. Sam Adams helped draw up a Riot Act, and a resolution suspending habeas corpus, to allow the authorities to keep people in jail without trial. At the same time, the legislature moved to make some concessions to the angry farmers, saying certain old taxes could now be paid in goods instead of money.
This didn't help. In Worcester, 160 insurgents appeared at the courthouse. The sheriff read the Riot Act. The insurgents said they would disperse only if the judges did. The sheriff shouted something about hanging. Someone came up behind him and put a sprig of hemlock in his hat. The judges left.
Confrontations between farmers and militia now multiplied. The winter snows began to interfere with the trips of farmers to the courthouses. When Shays began marching a thousand men into Boston, a blizzard forced them back, and one of his men froze to death.
An army came into the field, led by General Benjamin Lincoln, on money raised by Boston merchants. In an artillery duel, three rebels were killed. One soldier stepped in front of his own artillery piece and lost both arms. The winter grew worse. The rebels were outnumbered and on the run. Shays took refuge in Vermont, and his followers began to surrender. There were a few more deaths in battle, and then sporadic, disorganized, desperate acts of violence against authority: the burning of barns, the slaughter of a general's horses. One government soldier was killed in an eerie night-time collision of two sleighs.
Captured rebels were put on trial in Northampton and six were sentenced to death. A note was left at the door of the high sheriff of Pittsfidd:
I understand that there is a number of my countrymen condemned to die because they fought for justice. I pray have a care that you assist not in the execution of so horrid a crime, for by all that is above, he that condemns and he that executes shall share alike. . . - Prepare for death with speed, for your life or mine is short. When the woods are covered with leaves, I shall return and pay you a short visit.
Thirty-three more rebels were put on trial and six more condemned to death. Arguments took place over whether the hangings should go forward. General Lincoln urged mercy and a Commission of Clemency, but Samuel Adams said: "In monarchy the crime of treason may admit of being pardoned or lightly punished, but the man who dares rebel against the laws of a republic ought to suffer death." Several hangings followed; some of the condemned were pardoned. Shays, in Vermont, was pardoned in 1788 and returned to Massachusetts, where he died, poor and obscure, in 1825.
It was Thomas Jefferson, in France as ambassador at the time of Shays' Rebellion, who spoke of such uprisings as healthy for society. In a letter to a friend he wrote: "I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing.... It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.... God forbid that we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion.. . . The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."
But Jefferson was far from the scene. The political and economic elite of the country were not so tolerant. They worried that the example might spread. A veteran of Washington's army, General Henry Knox, founded an organization of army veterans, "The Order of the Cincinnati," presumably (as one historian put it) "for the purpose of cherishing the heroic memories of the struggle in which they had taken part," but also, it seemed, to watch out for radicalism in the new country. Knox wrote to Washington in late 1786 about Shays' Rebellion, and in doing so expressed the thoughts of many of the wealthy and powerful leaders of the country:
The people who are the insurgents have never paid any, or but very little taxes. But they see the weakness of government; they feel at once their own poverty, compared with the opulent, and their own force, and they are determined to make use of the latter, in order to remedy the former. Their creed is "That the property of the United States has been protected from the confiscations of Britain by the joint exertions of all, and therefore ought to he the common properly of all. And he that attempts opposition to this creed is an enemy to equity and justice and ought to be swept from off the face of the earth."
Alexander Hamilton, aide to Washington during the war, was one of the most forceful and astute leaders of the new aristocracy. He voiced his political philosophy:
All communities divide themselves into the few and the many. The first arc the rich and well-horn, the other the mass of the people. The voice of the people has been said to be the voice of God; and however generally this maxim has been quoted and believed, it is not true in fact. The people are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge or determine right. Give therefore to the first class a distinct permanent share in the government. .. . Can a democratic assembly who annually revolve in the mass of the people be supposed steadily to pursue the public good? Nothing but a permanent body can check the imprudence of democracy.. ..
At the Constitutional Convention, Hamilton suggested a President and Senate chosen for life.
The Convention did not take his suggestion. But neither did it provide for popular elections, except in the case of the House of Representatives, where the qualifications were set by the state legislatures (which required property-holding for voting in almost all the states), and excluded women, Indians, slaves. The Constitution provided for Senators to be elected by the state legislators, for the President to be elected by electors chosen by the state legislators, and for the Supreme Court to be appointed by the President.
The problem of democracy in the post-Revolutionary society was not, however, the Constitutional limitations on voting. It lay deeper, beyond the Constitution, in the division of society into rich and poor. For if some people had great wealth and great influence; if they had the land, the money, the newspapers, the church, the educational system- how could voting, however broad, cut into such power? There was still another problem: wasn't it the nature of representative government, even when most broadly based, to be conservative, to prevent tumultuous change?
It came time to ratify the Constitution, to submit to a vote in state conventions, with approval of nine of the thirteen required to ratify it. In New York, where debate over ratification was intense, a series of newspaper articles appeared, anonymously, and they tell us much about the nature of the Constitution. These articles, favoring adoption of the Constitution, were written by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay, and came to be known as the Federalist Papers (opponents of the Constitution became known as anti-Federalists).
In Federalist Paper #10, James Madison argued that representative government was needed to maintain peace in a society ridden by factional disputes. These disputes came from "the various and unequal distribution of property. Those who hold and those who are without property have ever formed distinct interests in society." The problem, he said, was how to control the factional struggles that came from inequalities in wealth. Minority factions could be controlled, he said, by the principle that decisions would be by vote of the majority.
So the real problem, according to Madison, was a majority faction, and here the solution was offered by the Constitution, to have "an extensive republic," that is, a large nation ranging over thirteen states, for then "it will be more difficult for all who feel it to discover their own strength, and to act in unison with each other.... The influence of factious leaders may kindle a flame within their particular States, but will be unable to spread a general conflagration through the other States."
Madison's argument can be seen as a sensible argument for having a government which can maintain peace and avoid continuous disorder. But is it the aim of government simply to maintain order, as a referee, between two equally matched fighters? Or is it that government has some special interest in maintaining a certain kind of order, a certain distribution of power and wealth, a distribution in which government officials are not neutral referees but participants? In that case, the disorder they might worry about is the disorder of popular rebellion against those monopolizing the society's wealth. This interpretation makes sense when one looks at the economic interests, the social backgrounds, of the makers of the Constitution.
As part of his argument for a large republic to keep the peace, James Madison tells quite clearly, in Federalist #10, whose peace he wants to keep: "A rage for paper money, for an abolition of debts, for an equal division of property, or for any other improper or wicked project, will be less apt to pervade the whole body of the Union than a particular member of it."
When economic interest is seen behind the political clauses of the Constitution, then the document becomes not simply the work of wise men trying to establish a decent and orderly society, but the work of certain groups trying to maintain their privileges, while giving just enough rights and liberties to enough of the people to ensure popular support.
In the new government, Madison would belong to one party (the Democrat-Republicans) along with Jefferson and Monroe. Hamilton would belong to the rival party (the Federalists) along with Washington and Adams. But both agreed-one a slaveholder from Virginia, the other a merchant from New York-on the aims of this new government they were establishing. They were anticipating the long-fundamental agreement of the two political parties in the American system. Hamilton wrote elsewhere in the Federalist Papers that the new Union would be able "to repress domestic faction and insurrection." He referred directly to Shays' Rebellion: "The tempestuous situation from which Massachusetts has scarcely emerged evinces that dangers of this kind are not merely speculative."
It was either Madison or Hamilton (the authorship of the individual papers is not always known) who in Federalist Paper #63 argued the necessity of a "well-constructed Senate" as "sometimes necessary as a defense to the people against their own temporary errors and delusions" because "there are particular moments in public affairs when the people, stimulated by some irregular passion, or some illicit advantage, or misted by the artful misrepresentations of interested men, may call for measures which they themselves will afterwards be the most ready to lament and condemn." And: "In these critical moments, how salutary will be the interference of some temperate and respectable body of citizens in order to check the misguided career, and to suspend the blow meditated by the people against themselves, until reason, justice, and truth can regain their authority over the public mind?"
The Constitution was a compromise between slaveholding interests of the South and moneyed interests of the North. For the purpose of uniting the thirteen states into one great market for commerce, the northern delegates wanted laws regulating interstate commerce, and urged that such laws require only a majority of Congress to pass. The South agreed to this, in return for allowing the trade in slaves to continue for twenty years before being outlawed.
Charles Beard warned us that governments-including the government of the United States-are not neutral, that they represent the dominant economic interests, and that their constitutions are intended to serve these interests. One of his critics (Robert E. Brown, Charles Beard and the Constitution) raises an interesting point. Granted that the Constitution omitted the phrase "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," which appeared in the Declaration of Independence, and substituted "life, liberty, or property"-well, why shouldn't the Constitution protect property? As Brown says about Revolutionary America, "practically everybody was interested in the protection of property" because so many Americans owned property.
However, this is misleading. True, there were many property owners. But some people had much more than others. A few people had great amounts of property; many people had small amounts; others had none. Jackson Main found that one-third of the population in the Revolutionary period were small farmers, while only 3 percent of the population had truly large holdings and could he considered wealthy.
Still, one-third was a considerable number of people who felt they had something at stake in the stability of a new government. This was a larger base of support for government than anywhere in the world at the end of the eighteenth century. In addition, the city mechanics had an important interest in a government which would protect their work from foreign competition. As Staughton Lynd puts it: "How is it that the city workingmen all over America overwhelmingly and enthusiastically supported the United States Constitution?"
This was especially true in New York. When the ninth and tenth states had ratified the Constitution, four thousand New York City mechanics marched with floats and banners to celebrate. Bakers, blacksmiths, brewers, ship joiners and shipwrights, coopers, cartmen and tailors, all marched. What Lynd found was that these mechanics, while opposing elite rule in the colonies, were nationalist. Mechanics comprised perhaps half the New York population. Some were wealthy, some were poor, but all were better off than the ordinary laborer, the apprentice, the journeyman, and their prosperity required a government that would protect them against the British hats and shoes and other goods that were pouring into the colonies after the Revolution. As a result, the mechanics often supported wealthy conservatives at the ballot box.
The Constitution, then, illustrates the complexity of the American system: that it serves the interests of a wealthy elite, but also does enough for small property owners, for middle-income mechanics and farmers, to build a broad base of support. The slightly prosperous people who make up this base of support are buffers against the blacks, the Indians, the very poor whites. They enable the elite to keep control with a minimum of coercion, a maximum of law-all made palatable by the fanfare of patriotism and unity.
The Constitution became even more acceptable to the public at large after the first Congress, responding to criticism, passed a series of amendments known as the Bill of Rights. These amendments seemed to make the new government a guardian of people's liberties: to speak, to publish, to worship, to petition, to assemble, to be tried fairly, to be secure at home against official intrusion. It was, therefore, perfectly designed to build popular backing for the new government. What was not made clear-it was a time when the language of freedom was new and its reality untested-was the shakiness of anyone's liberty when entrusted to a government of the rich and powerful.
Indeed, the same problem existed for the other provisions of the Constitution, like the clause forbidding states to "impair the obligation of contract," or that giving Congress the power to tax the people and to appropriate money. They all sound benign and neutral until one asks: lax who, for what? Appropriate what, for whom? To protect everyone's contracts seems like an act of fairness, of equal treatment, until one considers that contracts made between rich and poor, between employer and employee, landlord and tenant, creditor and debtor, generally favor the more powerful of the two parties. Thus, to protect these contracts is to put the great power of the government, its laws, courts, sheriffs, police, on the side of the privileged-and to do it not, as in premodern times, as an exercise of brute force against the weak but as a matter of law.
The First Amendment of the Bill of Rights shows that quality of interest hiding behind innocence. Passed in 1791 by Congress, it provided that "Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press. . . ." Yet, seven years after the First Amendment became part of the Constitution, Congress passed a law very clearly abridging the freedom of speech.
This was the Sedition Act of 1798, passed under John Adams's administration, at a time when Irishmen and Frenchmen in the United States were looked on as dangerous revolutionaries because of the recent French Revolution and the Irish rebellions. The Sedition Act made it a crime to say or write anything "false, scandalous and malicious" against the government, Congress, or the President, with intent to defame them, bring them into disrepute, or excite popular hatreds against them.
This act seemed to directly violate the First Amendment. Yet, it was enforced. Ten Americans were put in prison for utterances against the government, and every member of the Supreme Court in 1798-1800, sitting as an appellate judge, held it constitutional.
There was a legal basis for this, one known to legal experts, but not to the ordinary American, who would read the First Amendment and feel confident that he or she was protected in the exercise of free speech. That basis has been explained by historian Leonard Levy. Levy points out that it was generally understood (not in the population, but in higher circles) that, despite the First Amendment, the British common law of "seditious libel" still ruled in America. This meant that while the government could not exercise "prior restraint"-that is, prevent an utterance or publication in advance-it could legally punish the speaker or writer afterward. Thus, Congress has a convenient legal basis for the laws it has enacted since that time, making certain kinds of speech a crime. And, since punishment after the fact is an excellent deterrent to the exercise of free expression, the claim of "no prior restraint" itself is destroyed. This leaves the First Amendment much less than the stone wall of protection it seems at first glance.
Are the economic provisions in the Constitution enforced just as weakly? We have an instructive example almost immediately in Washington's first administration, when Congress's power to tax and appropriate money was immediately put to use by the Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton.
Hamilton, believing that government must ally itself with the richest elements of society to make itself strong, proposed to Congress a series of laws, which it enacted, expressing this philosophy. A Bank of the United States was set up as a partnership between the government and certain banking interests. A tariff was passed to help the manufacturers. It was agreed to pay bondholders-most of the war bonds were now concentrated in a small group of wealthy people-the full value of their bonds. Tax laws were passed to raise money for this bond redemption.
One of these tax laws was the Whiskey 'tax, which especially hurt small farmers who raised grain that they converted into whiskey and then sold. In 1794 the fanners of western Pennsylvania took up arms and rebelled against the collection of this tax. Secretary of the Treasury Hamilton led the troops to put them down. We see then, in the first years of the Constitution, that some of its provisions-even those paraded most flamboyantly (like the First Amendment)-might be treated lightly. Others (like the power to tax) would be powerfully enforced.
Still, the mythology around the Founding Fathers persists. To say, as one historian (Bernard Bailyn) has done recently, that "the destruction of privilege and the creation of a political system that demanded of its leaders the responsible and humane use of power were their highest aspirations" is to ignore what really happened in the America of these Founding Fathers.
Bailyn says:
Everyone knew the basic prescription for a wise and just government. It was so to balance the contending powers in society that no one power could overwhelm the others and, unchecked, destroy the liberties that belonged to all. The problem was how to arrange the institutions of government so that this balance could be achieved.
Were the Founding Fathers wise and just men trying to achieve a good balance? In fact, they did not want a balance, except one which kept things as they were, a balance among the dominant forces at that time. They certainly did not want an equal balance between slaves and masters, propertyless and property holders, Indians and white.
As many as half the people were not even considered by the Founding Fathers as among Bailyn's "contending powers" in society. They were not mentioned in the Declaration of Independence, they were absent in the Constitution, they were invisible in the new political democracy. They were the women of early America.
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Only a third of Americans say Obama is Christian; almost one in five say he's Muslim
President Obama speaking in a Washington church earlier this year.
A substantial and growing chunk of the country believes that President Obama, a self-described Christian, is Muslim, while only about a third of Americans are able to correctly identify his religion, according to a survey released Thursday.
Nearly one in five Americans believe Obama is a Muslim, up from around one in 10 Americans who said he was Muslim last year, according to the survey, conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
While most of those who think Obama is Muslim are Republicans, the number of independents who believe he is Muslim has expanded significantly, from 10 percent last year to 18 percent now.
The number of Americans who express uncertainly about the president's religion, meanwhile, is much larger and has also grown, including among Obama's political base. For instance, fewer than half of Democrats and African-Americans now say that Obama is Christian.
In March 2009, 36 percent of African-Americans said they didn't know what religion Obama practices. Now, 46 percent of African-Americans say they don't know.
"You would think the longer the person is in the White House, the more the 'don't knows' would decline," said Alan Cooperman, the Pew Forum's associate director for research. "But the 'don't knows' are higher now than when he came to office."
The survey was conducted in late July and early August.
Though Obama advertised his Christianity on the campaign trail and early in his administration - including distributing pamphlets about his religion during the 2008 presidential race and inviting the Rev. Rick Warren to his inauguration - he has been less public about his faith since then.
Despite intense media speculation about which Washington church Obama would join, for example, the White House has yet to announce that he has joined any.
"We had eight years of George W. Bush, who was very public about religious debates and high profile about religious practice and that's followed by Barack Obama, who is much lower profile about religious beliefs and practices," Cooperman said.
"It could be that in the relative vacuum of information coming out of the White House about his personal religious beliefs, others step in to feel the breach," Cooperman said. "It allows others who say that 'Oh, he's really this or that' to gain some currency."
Joshua DuBois, executive director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, said Wednesday night that Obama has "expanded in a historic way the engagement of persons of faith by this administration."
The president has given six speeches on faith issues, DuBois said, and has launched the first-ever White House advisory council for the faith-based office, composed largely of religious leaders.
"A lot of these facts are not necessarily what the public and the media are focused on everyday, which is not surprising given the issues we're facing as a country: reforming health care, bringing the troops home from Iraq and the economic recovery," DuBois said in an interview.
False rumors that Obama is Muslim have dogged him since he declared his candidacy for president in 2007. Pew conducted its survey before the president's comments last week about the right of Muslims to proceed with a controversial proposal for an Islamic center and mosque near ground zero.
The Rev. Joel Hunter, a Florida evangelical who is in frequent touch with Obama, says their relationship belies the findings of the new survey.
"He is very definitely a Christian, but a lot of the things he does to work on spiritual formation are simply not public," Hunter said.
Hunter said that he is in weekly contact with the president about his spiritual life, including writing devotionals for Obama and praying with him via telephone. Hunter said he received a call from Air Force One on the president's 49th birthday earlier this month.
"Several of us (Christian pastors) prayed with him over the phone," Hunter said. "We talked about his life and what he wanted us to pray for and it was at his initiative."
Earlier, when the president learned Hunter's grandchild had been stricken with cancer, the Florida preacher said he received a call from the White House.
"He called and told me that he and Michelle were praying for us," Hunter said, referring to the first lady. "I explained that this was an aggressive form of cancer and he pastored me, saying the Lord would be with us through this and that we should trust in God. It was a real reversal of roles."
But Hunter said the administration may want to reconsider its messaging on religion in light of the Pew poll.
"It may be time for them (the White House) to be a little more public about what the president does to be an active Christian," he said.
Dan Gilgoff - CNN Belief Blog Co-Editor
Filed under: Barack Obama • Christianity • Politics • Polls
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getagrip
When this moron appears on TV (which seems to be every single day) one cannot believe a single thing that comes out of his pie hole. Very sneaky/dishonest person in charge of our country right now. In fact, he is extremely incompetent and should either resign and go back to corrupt Chicago or be IMPEACHED.
August 19, 2010 at 8:40 am |
That confirms it...1 in 5 Americans are stupid.
One in five people are also idiots! Obama is Muslim like I'm Elvis Presley! Dummies.............
Give the poor man a break, folks. He has inherited a terrible MESS to clean up!
BenniMama
Regardless of his religion, wouldn't the point still remain the same that he prays to an imaginary man in the sky? I find it more upsetting that the highest office in our country is held by someone who has any religion at all. Can we leave the dark ages for a minute people and use our brains instead of our 'faith'? There are more important issues at hand than what direction he prays or to whom he directs his prayers.
1 in 5 people have an IQ of 70 or less. For the record, IQs of 51-70 are morons.
Eat-Pray-Die
1-in-5? That's a 20% ignorance rate. Shameful.
And, the 1 in 5 are politicians!
Is that all? I thought way more than a third of Americans were morons. Well, I guess 1 out of 3 morons among us is better than 2 out of 3.
Yeah, and 1 in 5 Americans are morons. Obama isn't a Muslim, nor is he a Christian either. He's too smart for either of those two belief systems. What? Can't figure it out for yourself? Then you're not as smart as you think you are.
No Christian of any denomination, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, whatever would have graced Wright's church for 20 years and stomach that racist trash. I don't know whether Obama is Muslim or not, but its pretty hard to dispel the fact that A) Documents that have been circulating around show him enrolled in Indonesia in grade school with a religion listed as Muslim (no conversion); 2) He hasn't necessarily disavowed it and 3) He hasn't taken up a regular place of worship. Frankly I don't care for the man, and hope his poll numbers go even lower, but I'd have more respect for him if he'd just have a candid conversation with "the people"; it seems like everyone who can vouch for his past is either, missing, dead or unavailable. OMG does that make me a birther? Let the hating begin!!
Take a look at the opening statement :
"A substantial and growing chunk of the country believes that President Obama, a self-described Christian, is Muslim, while only about a third of Americans are able to correctly identify his religion, according to a survey released Thursday"
Come on CNN, it should have read : "..are able to correctly identify the religion President Obama publicly says he adheres to..."
This kind of spin, to try to get people to believe something, which may or may not be true, is not your usual style of reporting. I dont care WHAT religion he is, just reporting should not use words to spin it a particular way in the back of people's minds when no one but President Obama knows what his religion truly is.
IF he is Muslim, and i stress the IF, he is required by Muslim law to LIE to the rest of us about it, and in this case most likely to lie to us and tell us he is Christian. If he is Christian, he is required by his faith to tell the truth. I seem to recall an old story about that... 🙂 Which is the truth?
Only President Obama and his god will know for sure, but you can tell a lot by a person's actions. Watch his actions towards and about Christians and the Christian faith, and watch his actions towards Muslims and the Muslim faith to see the truth. Actions speak louder than words, and actions speak the truth when men do not.
Missouri is called the "Show me" state for a reason.
I believe none of what i hear, and half of what i see, following Benjamin Franklin's sage advice. Perhaps we all need to be reminded of those things that eloquent statesman tried to tell us so long ago.
Perfect example of why religion has no place in politics; it's a total distraction from the real issues. Some people see the silliness of being one religion vs. another; you describe it well even though I don't know what the heck you were trying to convey.
Jeekers
While I understand the interest/concern about where our illustrious leader (gag) stands concerning Islam and it's push in NYC, what I am most concerned about is that we are $13 trillion in debt, and the number of unemployed persons is at 14.6 million, and the unemployment rate is still at 9.5 percent, and the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) is t 6.6 million, and that these individuals made up 44.9 percent of unemployed persons. Hey Barry, do your job you freakin empty suit.
Aalan
I guess this proves that a huge amount of Americans are incredibly stupid. Fox news has done it's job.
Fr33d0mhawk
Those 1 in 5 do not actually believe Obama is a Muslim. I would wager that only schziphrenics would think he is Muslim, the rest deliberately lie to themselves to justify their hatred of America, to have an excuse for their sedition, a reason to be a Christo-Taliban stooge. The problem with the Right Wing is that nearly half beg for their media leaders to tell any lie to foment hated and anger against the USA. If you all thought Al Qaeda was a threat to America, you have not seen anything yet until these Teabag nuts go wild. 1 in 5 polled are future Tim McVeighs, and because of this poll, our government needs to be prepared to defend democracy, defend the US Constitution from domestic terrorists who want to turn the USA into a North Korean Teabagger Utopia. 1 in 5 North Koreans think Kim Jung Il, is the messiah of God, the Korean Teabaggers version of David Koresh.
mAKOM
Obama is a Muslim. His actions confirm this. When he claimed he was a Christian during the election and tapes were later made public that showed Obama speaking to a Muslim group and stating' that he was raised a Muslim; was educated as a Muslim; and that he is still a Muslim– people said it didn't matter.
When people found out that Barrack Hussein Obama was enrolled as a Muslim child in school and his father and stepfather were both Muslims, people said it didn't matter.
When he wrote in another book he authored "I will stand with them (Muslims) should the political winds shift in an ugly direction," people said it didn't matter.
loulabelle216
wow, could you give me a link to these "tapes"? i prefer looking at real evidence as opposed to blindly believing what fox news tells me.
Link it. Show proof. If any of this were true every news network would have run it. The videos and 'tapes' would be available on thousands of sites. Or did you just 'hear' this and you're passing it on? It is, at the same time both amusing and disgusting to see that someone would believe anything negative that they hear about our President just because they want to believe it.
August 19, 2010 at 12:51 pm |
I have also seen the tapes where Obama has said in an interview on ABC that McCain did not make anything about Obama being a Muslim and then the interviewer corrected him and said " you mean you being a Christian". Also on the internet are speeches that he has made talking to the Arab world that his family was muslim and the "sweetest sound he has ever heard was the muslim call to prayer". If any of you critics really watched Fox news then you would know that Fox news does NOT say anything about Obama being muslim. In fact, they all say that he is a Christian.
August 24, 2010 at 3:02 pm |
Of course, he's muslim. This is why he does not attend church like all former presidents. This man is a complete hoax. This man is taking America down a path of destruction.
Path of destruction, like Bush/Cheney did ?
John PA
As if "attending church" means a damn thing? Did Cheney attend church? If so, he must have spent a lot of time in the "Confessional". Keep religion out of politics; has not place there. Stick to the issues; we need solutions not theocracy. If you want a religious leader then.move to Iran and see how that works.
Just listening to some of your comments.I do belive that one day we will have a religous war in america between the belivers and none belivers.Their are so many tragedys going on the World today that it is hard to belive their is a God.Their are Wars
Earthquakes floods,Gang killings,Auto accidents,Plane Crashes.Why cant God save you from some of these everyday occurences.Why should god let 10,000 people be buried by and earthquake just to save 10.Just dont add up.I find a lot
of People attend Church in hopes of getting a new car getting a pay raise,or remaing Healthy.If you think that these are
the only important things in your life then you are very narrow minded.When you are sick dont go to the Doctor,and see
what will happen to you.Wait for God to heal you.Every time I go to the Doctor with a serious Illness.I thank the Doctor
,and tell how much I appreciate the good care he gave to get me healthy.and back on my feet again.I am happy that medical
companies have came up with medicine to extend my life by at least another 20 Years.With my long history of high Blood pressure. I should have been gone a long time ago.My point is that we as people need to stop worrying about who is and
who is not a Christian,and live our lives as we want to,and respect other peoples way of thinking,no matter who faith you are,or claim to be
nonesuch
The people who believe Obama is Muslim are just plain dumb.
das0522
Could it be because of his speaking out in favor of an Islamic "center" near Ground Zero, his director of NASA telling us the mission of the agency is to highlight Muslim contributions to math and science? Ya think??
VonMoore
@das0522
You FAIL at the Internets. Report yourself to the police as being too dumb for words. Don't worry, they'll know what you mean.
Abe Normal
One in 5 is a dummy according to my survey.
Hitch22
I undersatnd belief is important to a lot of people and they want to see that reflected in a President. However, there is the separation of church and state, right? I do not care what religion he practice as long as this country does not turn into a theocracy as some people in this country(read:Christians) would like to see happen. That is how I feel. There is a tendency in this country to equate fundamentalist/extremist Muslims with the religion of Islam as if they were one and the same. Being an US citizen I do not equate Pat Robertson and his devotees with the faith of Christianity. Great line from the movie "Traitor".."Every religion has two faces."
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Ms. Laura
Artistic Director/ Instructor
Laura P Wexler has been teaching Ballet, Jazz, Modern and Contemporary dance for over 25 years. In 2006, Ms. Wexler opened Noe Valley Dance Space and in 2016 moved the growing program to its current location where it was reborn as San Francisco Dance Space. Her passion for dance started in Miami, FL at Maria Verdeja School of the Arts. Her training includes : The American Dance Festival, Boston Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and New World School of the Arts. In 2001, she graduated with honors from the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in dance performance. She has had the opportunity to study, and perform with ODC/San Francisco, Les Ballet Africains, Dance Brazil, Dance Alive!, and Garth Fagan Dance. In 2005 she was a featured dancer in the movie Rent, directed by Christopher Columbus. Her choreography has been showcased throughout Florida and the bay area. In 2001 her piece Something for Everybody was selected for presentation at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Beyond the dance studio, she has her certification in Dance Healing from Shands Hospital in Gainesville, FL where she worked as an artist in residence. Ms. Wexler is also Director of Dance at Sacred Heart Cathedral High School in San Francisco, where she has been been on faculty since 2008.
Ms. Sophia
Sophia Rumasuglia is originally from Santa Cruz and began dancing at age four,. She has trained with Ballet San Jose, Los Gatos Ballet, Boston Ballet and the American Ballet Theater. She has performed lead roles in The Nutcracker, Alice in Wonderland and La Bayadere. Her professional career began as a trainee for the Joffrey Ballet, and in New York where she trained under the direction of Gelsey Kirkland. She continued her dancing career with Ballet Austin and eventually made it back to her home on the West Coast. Presently, she is performing with Berkeley based company Danse Lumiere as well as other local choreographers. Miss Sophia has enjoyed sharing her love of of dance and Yoga teaching students across the Bay Area and is looking forward to another wonderful year with San Francisco Dance Space. Ms. Sophia joined the faculty of SF Dance Space in 2014.
Ms. Allegra
Allegra Bautista graduated from Saint Mary's College of California with a double major in Dance and Liberal & Civic Studies. A San Francisco native, she trained in classical ballet at San Francisco Ballet and City Ballet School. She has performed with Garrett + Moulton Produtions, Davalos Dance Company and Emote Dance Theater and continues to perform professionally throughout the Bay Area. Most recently, she studied with Sidra Bell in New York. In addition to dance, Ms. Allegra also shares a love for yoga and music. She graduated from the S.F. Conservatory of Music Prepartory Division where she trained in classical guitar and is a certified yoga instructor. Ms. Allegra's joined the faculty of SF Dance Space in 2015.
Ms. Broklyn
Broklyn Gretsch grew up in St. George, Utah where she was taught by teachers who inspired her to pursue dance in higher education. Staying true to her dream she relocated to Provo, UT to attend Utah Valley University where she received her BFA in Dance with an emphasis on Ballet Performance. While at UVU, Ms. Broklyn drew upon her training in ballet, jazz, modern and contemporary to become a member of Synergy Dance Company, and later, Repertory Ballet Ensemble. In 2014 she was able to further her dance education and teaching skills when she became an American Ballet Theater certified teacher in pre-primary level through Level 3. Ms. Broklyn also has a passion for choreography. Prior to relocating to San Francisco, she spent a year in Valencia, Spain where she had the privilege to collaborate and perform with singer Merel Moekler during Berklee Presents Innovations: ¡En Vivo! Ms. Broklyn joined the faculty of SF Dance Space in 2016 and feels fortunate to be able to continue to cultivate her love of dance!
Ms. Reanne
Reanne Rasmusson is a Pacific Northwest native who began her dance training at Issaquah Dance Theatre at the age of eight. She graduated in 2016 from the University of Wyoming with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance Science. During her undergraduate studies, she pursued her passion for dancer wellness by completing her prerequisites for physical therapy school, conducting undergraduate research, and being active in the dancer wellness community at the university. Over the years, Reanne had the privilege of performing in many classical ballets as well as modern and contemporary works. In 2014 her work, False Dichotomy, premiered at the American College Dance Association Northwest conference. Reanne was also cast in a reconstruction of Jose Limon’s, The Winged, which was selected to performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC in 2016. After graduating from the University of Wyoming, she relocated to San Francisco to pursue dance. Along with dance and wellness, Reanne is also passionate about sharing her love and knowledge of movement and kinesiology through teaching dance.
Ms. Cosette
Cosette Gagnon began her training at City Ballet School and the San Francisco Ballet School where she studied with Tina Leblanc and Anita Paciotti. While a student at SFB, she was selected to perform in their annual Nutcracker performing the roles of party girl, ladybug and soldier. In 2017, Cosette began training at SF Dance Space where she continues to train in Ballet, pointe and Contemporary and has performed the roles of Cinderella in Cinderella, and most recently Bert in Poppins the Ballet. In 2017, she was accepted into ODC/San Francisco's summer intensive program and worked with Christine Cali. She is currently a student at Sacred Heart Cathedral where she is a member of their student Ballet and Hip Hop Dance companies. Ms. Cosette was invited to join the staff in 2017 and works with our introductory level students.
Ms. Nika
Nika started taking dance classes in her hometown of Los Gatos at the age of 4. She studied ballet, pointe, contemporary, modern, jazz, at the Ballet San Jose School and Dance Theater International. In 2015, she graduated high school from The Harid Conservatory in Boca Raton, Florida, a classical ballet boarding school specializing in Vaganova technique. She then studied with the Pacific Northwest Ballet School in the Professional Division program, where she had the opportunity to perform roles with the company in ballets such as George Balanchine’s Coppelia, Symphony in C, and The Nutcracker. It was during her time at PD that she first developed a passion for teaching and choreography. She is currently studying contemporary and ballet at Alonzo King Lines Ballet Training Program in San Francisco
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Drawn to The Pillars of the Earth
It is a rare thing to bump into a TV series that really hooks you and makes you care for the characters in the way that the mini series The Pillars of the Earth does. Each new tragedy that befalls one of the "good guys" hurts you almost personally and you hope that the bad guys will get what they deserve, even when you know that that's not always what happens.
Focal words: historical fiction, The Pillars of the Earth, TV mini series
Pevear's translation of The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas
I've been reading the delightful new translation of The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas over the past couple of weeks. The translation was made by Richard Pevear in 2006, who writes in his introduction that the earlier translations can be seen as "textbook examples of bad translation practices" that "give their readers an extremely distorted notion of Dumas' writing". As an example, the earlier English translations left out huge chunks of text where the translators thought that the original text was too raunchy. Things like sexual innuendo were the first victims of these translators.
Focal words: 17th century, Alexandre Dumas, film, Musketeer, novel, Pevear, the three musketeers, translation
Review of Conan the Barbarian 2011
Conan the Barbarian (2011) bears the same name as the 1982 film, but rather than being a remake, the producers aimed to go back to the roots of the character and restart the franchise. Their hopes were high when the opening weekend approached, although most Conan fans were worried about what they had seen on the trailers and many of them feared the worst. The opening weekend was rather underwhelming and some even called the movie a flop. This naturally rid me of my remaining hopes and expectations for the movie and I went to the theatre expecting the worst. Not quite Uwe Boll worst, but close.
Focal words: Conan the Barbarian, film, review
Conan the Cimmerian vs Conan the Barbarian
I have here an original quote from Robert E. Howard's story and its interpretation on the big screen in the latest Conan the Barbarian film. What I aim to point out is that the screenwriters sometimes miss a lot of the roots of the character when they just pick the coolest bit of a bigger whole.
Focal words: Conan the Barbarian, Robert E. Howard
Werewolf (36)
Alexandre Dumas (31)
Musketeer (26)
My Goodreads
Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn from Educational Change in Finland?
by Pasi Sahlberg
Excellent, concise and easy-to-read analysis of how the Finnish education system has developed since the 1970s and how it turned from mediocre to something that can nowadays be found at the top of PISA and other international surveys of ...
Gentleman Captain
by J.D. Davies
There have been numerous authors trying their hand in the same genre with Patrick O'Brian, but no one has truly been able to match the quality of his naval historical fiction. J.D. Davies' entry, Gentleman Captain, is a fine entry to the...
Solomon Kane: The Castle of the Devil
by Scott Allie
Solomon Kane has always been the least interesting hero in Howard's production for me and, unfortunately, this graphic novel could not change that fact for me. A decent read, for sure, but I don't get the 17th century vibe from these tha...
Galactic North
by Alastair Reynolds
The stories were an uneven bunch, but there were some good ones in there to make this a worthy read.
Share book reviews and ratings with Marko, and even join a book club on Goodreads.
Pevear's translation of The Three Musketeers by Al...
Marko Susimetsä 2011. Watermark theme. Powered by Blogger.
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All staff and teachers at Keystone are committed to making a difference in our students' lives. They are knowledgeable, creative, caring, inspirational and highly qualified. They communicate effectively with parents; but most importantly, they communicate effectively with each other and their students. In essence, they know their students well and are able to devote their attention to their strengths and areas of potential growth. As such, they focus on delivering a program that inspires students to participate, reflect, think critically, analyze, create and excel academically. Most important, they create classrooms where students can feel a sense of belonging, and develop programs that inspire learning and motivate students to want to come to school day after day.
Doa Demirsu-Doran, BSc, MBA
After completing her high school education in Canada, Doa continued her higher education at University of Massachusetts and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree. After she returned to Montreal and worked for several years in the financial industry, she decided to pursue her passion for education. She completed her MBA at McGill University with a concentration in Global Strategy and Leadership. She has worked in curriculum implementation in international schools particularly in the adaptation of US (California) and Canadian (Ontario, PEI) curriculum. After working in various other management roles, she established the Keystone International Secondary School, serving both international and local students in Toronto. She is still heavily involved with McGill, acting as a director in the Toronto Alumni Association.
Administrative Director
Irene Bang, BComm
Irene completed her Bachelor of Commerce degree at Ryerson University with a focus in corporate law and finance. Having immigrated to Canada herself, she understands and helps to overcome the obstacles international students may come across. Her passion lies in empowering and inspiring youth to be agents in their own independent learning. Irene's core values include accountability, integrity, respect and ensures to incorporate these values into her day-to-day interactions with students. With years of experience in administration and student development, she is responsible for managing all student related matters from admissions to operations.
Academic Coordinator
Darlen Navarro, BSc
Darlen holds two undergraduate degrees, one in Telecommunications and Electronics Engineering and a Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics from York University, she imparts applicable knowledge and problem solving techniques on her students in her mathematics classes. Her teaching experience includes topics like Differential Calculus, Numerical Mathematics and Linear Algebra, as well as International Baccalaureate and advanced mathematics and physics from Grade 9 to 12. In addition, she holds an Advanced Diploma in Business Administration and Accounting from Sheridan College. Ms. Navarro is currently pursuing her Master of Mathematics for Teachers through the CEMC at University of Waterloo.
Sam Kim, BSc, PhD
Sam completed an Honours Bachelor of Science degree in Biology at Western University. He then graduated from University of Toronto, Department of Medical Biophysics with a Ph.D. degree in Science focusing on molecular biology and cancer research. Sam completed his Post-Doctoral training at York University in 2018. Sam's research focuses on finding better non-toxic treatment for cancer patients. Sam has taught a biology course ‘Research Methods in Molecular Biology' as a Course Director in 2015 and 2016, and a chemistry course ‘Introduction to Biochemistry' as a Course Director in 2017 at York University. He is passionate about teaching and cares for all his students to do well in science and in life.
Stephanie Guerreiro, BA, BEd
Stephanie completed her Bachelors of Arts, History at Trent University and her Bachelors of Education from Queen's University. She spent the first five years of her teaching career working with students in Nanjing, China where she was able to explore her love of travel and experiencing different cultures. She loves working with students from international backgrounds as well as those from closer to home as they all have stories and experiences to share that make the world more colourful and fulfilling. Her favourite courses to teach are history and geography as they give everyone in the class a chance to broaden their worldviews and learn about the world around them.
Taylor Berce, BA, MA
Taylor holds a Bachelor's of Arts from McGill University, where he studied geography, and a Master's degree from York University, where he studied linguistics. His broad variety of experiences as an educator include working as a librarian at McGill's cartography library in Montréal, teaching children in Guangzhou, China, and helping newcomers to Canada learn English in Toronto. Taylor sees learning a language as a holistic, lifelong process. Stemming from his Master's research, he is particularly interested in analyzing the use of language in "real world" contexts and the linguistics sub-discipline of corpus linguistics.
Andie Warner, BA, BEd, MEd
Andie is a recent graduate of a Masters of Education in Social Justice Education and is passionate about teaching for social change. She also holds a BA in teaching English as a Second Language with a minor in English literature and a BEd in secondary education. Andie has a passion for international education, having studied abroad in Ecuador, France, and Germany, and as having taught in Monterrey, Mexico and several programs for international students in Canada. Andie views the arts as an excellent tool for fostering conversations about challenges faced by students and their communities, as well as mobilizing them with the skills and knowledge to advocate for positive change.
Michelle Park, BA, BEd
Michelle graduated from York University with an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in Humanities and Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies, as well as a Bachelor of Education. Michelle is dedicated in facilitating a classroom that is founded on mutual respect and kindness. She values student-centered learning, where they can gain the necessary skills to become equal, active, and responsible participants in the classroom.
Hudaa Ehsan
Hudaa is a full-time, 3rd year Business Administration student at George Brown College, majoring in accounting. Hudaa is part of Enactus George Brown, one of the 64 student lead teams in Canada that help the society and environment with their entrepreneurial initiatives. Hudaa took over her team's financial literacy project, Change Matters, as the project lead earlier this year. She is passionate about bringing financial literacy to the youth in Toronto. This program, incorporated in the student's business class for four consecutive weeks would be a great opportunity for them to learn about their spending habits and be able to make better decisions in the future.
Rebecca Cornale, BA
Rebecca graduated from Queen's University with an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology, and a Minor in Art History. She is currently completing her Master of Social Work at the University of Windsor. Rebecca takes an anti-oppressive approach to education-social work by using innovative and diverse avenues to address each student's unique needs. She believes in fostering a connection between education, self-regulation and social support. Rebecca's academic interests include mindfulness and adolescent mental health. She has worked closely with youth in educational settings, and has experience developing experiential learning activities and outings based on the Ontario curriculum. Upon completion of her Master's degree, Rebecca hopes to continue to work with youth and families within an educational setting.
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The Kill Order
by James Dashner
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: August 14th 2012
Add it on Goodreads
Before WICKED was formed, before the Glade was built, before Thomas entered the Maze, the sun flares hit the earth and destroyed the world mankind took for granted.
Mark and Trina were there when it happened, and they survived. But surviving the sun flares was easy compared to what came next.
Now a disease of rage and lunacy races across the eastern United States, and there's something suspicious about its origin. Worse yet, It's mutating, and all evidence suggests that it will bring humanity to its knees.
Mark and Trina are convinced there's a way to save those left from descending into madness. And they're determined to find it - if they can stay alive. Because in this new, devastated world, every life has a price. And to some, you're worth more dead than alive.
I'm a big fan of James Dashner's the Maze Runner trilogy so I was super excited when he announced that he was writing a prequel to the series! Of course, in classic Julia fashion, I didn't actually get around to reading the prequel till 8 months after it was published. Hehe. But the good news is, I finally did read it and I definitely think that if you're a fan of TMRT you should read it too!
The Kill Order is set several months after solar flares have hit earth and destroyed most of society and the world as we know it. Mark and Trina are two of the lucky few survivors left on earth. Unfortunately, the solar flares were just the beginning of their problems. Now they have to face a deadly disease, one that turns people insane and is mutating at an alarming rate. Together, with a band of other rag tag survivors, Mark and Trina have to discover the source of the virus before it takes them down.
The Kill Order was a fast-paced thrill ride. If you've read James Dashner's other books then you're already familiar with his style of writing; short chapters, cliff hangers, and lots of action. An added bonus of The Kill Order was that it had a lot of flashbacks which, though unexpected, ended up becoming my favorite part of the novel. These flashbacks told all about how Mark and Trina survived the original solar flare incident and personally I feel like the Kill Order could have been an even better novel if it was simply based around the characters living through and surviving directly after the solar flares instead of focusing on the Flare virus. The Kill Order was great, but I found myself pushing through the present tense chapters just to get to Mark's flashbacks. In my opinion those chapters were packed with twice as much suspense and intrigue as the rest of the novel. I just love a good heart pounding survival story! However, I can definitely see why James Dashner had this prequel center around the Flare virus since that was more of a focal point for the Maze Runner trilogy as a whole.
The characters of The Kill Order were pretty standard. However, I don't read James Dashner stories for the characters, I read them to get swept up in an adventure. That being said, I really did love Alec, a super badass military veteran with a heart of gold. No one does badass characters quite like James Dashner! None of the other characters really stood out to me, but that didn't matter because the story and plot were engrossing enough to keep me hooked.
For a prequel I felt like The Kill Order was an enjoyable read. It wasn't super fantastic, but it definitely answered some of the questions I had about the Maze Runner trilogy and that's what prequels are all about. If you're a fan of James Dashner and this series then I would give it a read!
Labels: Book Review, James Dashner, The Maze Runner Trilogy
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Cleveland Cavaliers / LeBron James / Ricky Automatic
Are LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers Getting Back Together?
by RickyAutomatic on Jul 10, 2014 • 11:19 am 1 Comment
Cavaliers is 44. He is a reasonably successful man, especially considering that he has lived in Cleveland for his entire life. He has made some good investments, but he has made his share of bad ones, too. Since his most recent break up, Cavaliers has had a tough stretch. In fact, it has become the type of tough stretch people in Cleveland know all too well.
You see, there was this girl. When Cavaliers was 33 she was just 18. That may seem like a large age gap — like, at least get that girl to college for a year or two before dating a guy like Cavaliers! — but you have to understand something: this girl was perfect. Her name was LeBonnie James. She was a local Ohio girl that was being recognized nationally since her junior year of high school. She was featured in all the magazines. In fact, she even made it onto the cover of Sports Illustrated. The accolades came pouring in like a thunderstorm off of Lake Erie: the prettiest, smartest, strongest, fittest, most promising young woman to come along since some pageant winner named Michaela Jordan swept the nation off its feet in the nineties.
You see, Jordan was from Chicago, that Midwestern city that overshadows all the other cities that call soda “pop.” Cavaliers knew all too well how good Chicago had it with this Jordan girl. It almost felt like every time Jordan (and her husband, Bulls) came through Cleveland they sent a metaphorical sucker punch to his gut before leaving town to go to Detroit, or New York, or some city that would then try their hand at containing Jordan’s larger-than-life presence. Cavaliers knew what he had to do. He had to be more like Bulls — he had to find himself a wife like Michaela Jordan.
So when this local girl named LeBonnie James started making all those waves, Cavaliers started to feel like it was meant to be. He just couldn’t figure out how he could get himself an “in.” He thought about it for several years, to no avail, before a serendipitous thing happened: Cavaliers’ big break came in the form of a television show. That’s right, Cavaliers entered a reality show named The NBA (New Bride Anointment) Draft knowing that if he could win the reality show, he would win the opportunity to date this teenage beauty. And that’s exactly what happened.
It wasn’t long — in fact the two hadn’t even been on a real, live date yet — before the two started to dominate the tabloids. Entertainment shows couldn’t get enough of the couple. The city of Cleveland embraced them wholeheartedly, figuring they’d spend a few years dating and figuring it out prior to getting married. It was to be the first royal marriage in the Cleveland family since 1964.
There is something I did not tell you. Cavaliers is a prince. Cavaliers has two older, royal brothers. As the youngest, Cavaliers was not the brother thought to be the next King of Cleveland, but when Princess LeBonnie came along, it only seemed like a matter of time before Cavaliers was on his way. Marrying a princess wouldn’t technically make him king, but there seemed to be a consensus among Clevelanders that whichever brother could break the drought would be referred to as King thereafter.
Browns, the middle brother, was born in 1946, and had been married four different times: in 1950, 1954, 1955, and 1964. He was the last brother to have been married. Since then, Browns had been living a truly miserable life. He could never recreate his success of yesteryear. All his friends found they got severely depressed in his presence. In 1996, he went mysteriously missing before being found three years later. Most people blamed the criminal Art Modell, and threatened to do things like defecate on his grave once he died. (Modell finally died in 2012, no word yet on how many people have followed up at his grave site). But Modell got the last laugh, because Browns that was found in 1999 was a changed man. He was more like a sexually-abused shell of their former self. He had many unsuccessful relationships with a bunch of losers. The entire city of Cleveland would still come check up on him most weekends during the fall — he was still royalty, after all — but they repeatedly asked themselves one question: Why are we doing this to ourselves? Most recently Browns has been spotted in public with tabloid-diva Janny “Blue Balls” Manziel, who has got trouble written all over her. You might say Browns has the saddest story of any of the brothers, and not just because he was (presumably) kidnapped and sexually abused during that three-year window in the late 1990s. It is because the future really doesn’t look bright for him if he continues to hang out with such losers.
Cavaliers eldest brother, Indians, is over 100 years old (it is unclear exactly how old because people stopped caring). He was married once in 1920, and again in 1948. He had been engaged as recently as 1997, when his bride-to-be Josie Mesa got cold feet at the altar. He had even proposed to a girl in 2007 before some other elderly dickhead from Boston swept in and married his trophy wife-to-be. Indians had a feel-good summer fling in 2013 that has turned into a sophomore slump thus far in 2014 — it is looking like the two sides will not be able to patch it up in time for the upcoming, autumnal wedding season.
In a lot of ways, Cavaliers is Cleveland’s last chance at a royal wedding. Many of the city’s citizens have lamented for years that they have never seen one in their lifetime and probably never would. It is kind of amazing, some might note, that Cleveland even cares anymore. They have these three royal brothers that have never been able to get it done for them. What makes them still care? Why do they read about them in the paper every day, hang on every word of every radio story regarding the boys, and demand every one be quiet while they watch the final few seconds of a Cavaliers, Browns, or Indians reality show on television.
In fact, just last night I found myself in a bar in Vermont, watching the extras of a show about the Indians. Indians was going one-on-one with this Yankees guy from New York that’s been married 27 times (though he is not looking primed to accomplish a 28th wedding any time soon). And I couldn’t look away from my phone! I had to know how it ended. I had to see if Indians could defy the odds and achieve a moral victory for the city of Cleveland. Don’t worry folks, Indians lost. I would say it was honorable or something like that, but it wasn’t. It sucked.
But I digress, because the main buzz around Cleveland now is why I’m writing today. People are losing their minds because it seems LeBonnie’s relationship with that sleezy, Ferrari-driving slick from Miami is on the rocks. The slick’s name is Heat. Heat had some of the best, most powerful friends in the country, and for four tumultuous years, LeBonnie had it pretty good. She got married not once, but twice, to Heat. Some people hated them, some people loved them, but Heat and LeBonnie were having a grand old time.
But this past June something changed, and people are starting to speculate that LeBonnie has been texting Cavaliers again. The rumors of the two possibility getting back together and trying to make an eventual marriage work have only been aided by Cavaliers doing anything he can to please LeBonnie. He’s spent the last several days cleaning out the house they used to share. Throwing out old stuff he overpaid for with the hope that she’ll see their old house with some nice new furniture and say, “Yeah, we can build something together here. Let’s give this another shot.”
Part of me feels like Cavaliers should know better. This isn’t going to end well. He should run away. He should tell her, “Fuck you, LeBonnie. You just want to use me again. You just want a feeling of comfort, and I’m not here to provide that for you anymore. I might never get married again, but I will be damned if I get married with YOU.”
But he won’t. And it’s not because he loves LeBonnie — I should point out that it hardly seemed like he missed her when she was in Miami with Heat. The thing is, Cavaliers just wants to get married so damn bad. He just wants to see the city of Cleveland happy again, for the first time since 1964.
And even though it probably won’t work out, I guess I can’t blame Cavaliers for doing everything he can to get LeBonnie back in his bed, and hopefully, eventually, to the altar.
After all, a ring is a ring.
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RichieRichAurilia says:
This is fantastic.
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Home Marriage and Family Slim majority of married Americans marks all-time low, Pew says
Slim majority of married Americans marks all-time low, Pew says
Nancy Frazier OBrien, Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON — With cohabitation, single-person households and single parenthood on the rise, the percentage of Americans who are currently married has reached an all-time low.
A new report from the Pew Research Center analyzing Census Bureau data found that only 51 percent of Americans 18 and over were married in 2010, compared with 72 percent in 1960. Among Hispanics and African-Americans, the decline is even more steep.
“If current trends continue, the share of adults who are currently married will drop to below half within a few years,” said the report by Pew senior writer D’Vera Cohn, senior demographer Jeffrey S. Passel and research associate Wendy Wang.
A new report from the Pew Research Center analyzing Census Bureau data found that only 51 percent of Americans 18 and over were married in 2010, compared with 72 percent in 1960. (CNS file)
Fifty-five percent of white Americans were married in 2010, down from 74 percent 50 years earlier. But among Hispanics and blacks, married people are already in the minority. Forty-eight percent of Hispanics and 31 percent of African-Americans were married in 2010, compared with 72 percent and 61 percent, respectively, in 1960.
The authors said it was “beyond the scope of this analysis to explain why marriage has declined,” but they noted that its popularity has fallen less sharply among college graduates. They said a recent drop in the number of new marriages could have to do with the economic recession, but the linkage “is not entirely clear.”
The Pew report found that the median age at first marriage has been steadily rising for both men and women over the past five decades, from 22.8 for men and 20.3 for women in 1960. The median age in 2010 was 26.5 for women and 28.7 for men in 2010.
Reinforcing the trend of a rising median age for marriage was the percentage of Americans ages 20 to 24 who had ever been married. In 1960, 60 percent of that age group had married, while in 2010 only 14 percent had.
Among those between the ages of 35 and 39, 93 percent reported having ever been married in 1960, compared to 77 percent in 2010.
Pew also asked in a 2010 survey of 2,691 American adults whether marriage is becoming obsolete. Only 39 percent of the respondents said it was, with college-educated Americans being the least likely to say marriage was becoming obsolete at 27 percent. Nearly half (45 percent) of those with a high school education or less agreed that marriage was becoming obsolete.
The responses also differed according to age group and racial and ethnic groups. While only 32 percent of Americans 65 and older said marriage was becoming obsolete, 44 percent of those 18 to 29 said so.
Thirty-six percent of white respondents, 44 percent of black respondents and 42 percent of Hispanics said they thought marriage was becoming obsolete.
But even if unmarried Americans believe marriage is becoming obsolete, many still want to get married themselves, according to the survey results.
“Asked whether they want to get married, 47 percent of unmarried adults who agree that marriage is becoming obsolete say that they would like to wed,” the Pew report said. In all, 61 percent of never married Americans said they want to get married.
The only unmarried group that indicated they did not want to marry were those who had been married previously. Just over a quarter (26 percent) of adults who had ever been married but were currently unmarried said they wanted to get married.
No margin of error was given for the survey portion of the report.
But a separate report issued earlier in 2011 by the Institute for American Values found that about 40 percent of U.S. couples who are divorcing said one or both members of the couple were interested in the possibility of reconciling.
William J. Doherty, professor of family social science at the University of Minnesota, and Leah Ward Sears, former chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court, were the principal authors of the new report, titled “Second Chances.”
They also found that a modest reduction in divorce would benefit more than 400,000 U.S. children each year and could produce significant savings for U.S. taxpayers by reducing the costs of social welfare programs needed because of the effects of divorce on poverty.
The authors proposed model legislation for state legislatures that would:
— Extend the waiting period for divorce to at least a year.
— Require pre-filing education, with modules on reconciliation and on a nonadversarial approach to divorce, for parents of minor children considering divorce.
— Create university-based centers of excellence to improve the education available to couples at risk of divorce.
51 percent
percentage of married Americans
Pew study
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Volume 124 >> Issue 59 : Tuesday, December 7, 2004
Overseeing Oversight
Vivek Rao
Recent reports detailing serious structural flaws in Big Dig construction may very well have been the last straw. The most expensive and ambitious infrastructure project in the history of the United States, the Big Dig has been fraught with problems since its conception. Skyrocketing costs, frequent postponements of the projected completion dates, allegations of fraud, and even an occasional investigative television report documenting boozing workers have been among the numerous black eyes associated with the Dig. Yet through it all, Bostonians could at least take heart in the simple fact that once construction was completed, the city would be left with a jewel that would be the envy of the world and would catalyze a sort of Golden Age for the Hub. Until now.
The series of underground tunnels that compose the heart of the Big Dig appear to be riddled with minor leaks. Both contractors and the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority have defended such leaks as normal, promising a typical approach of identifying and fixing such defects, but it is clear that something else is afoot. Big Dig tunnels have experienced major flooding more than once, including a major leak this past September.
So what happened? Consider what John MacDonald, chairman of the Big Dig’s primary contractor Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff, told lawmakers this past week. “Our investigation to date indicates that we missed two opportunities to correct the specific wall problem ahead of time,” MacDonald said. “We seriously regret not doing enough to prevent this incident. There is no satisfactory explanation for this.”
Perhaps I can help. Like most companies, Bechtel was probably just out to maximize its profits, and supervisors no doubt made a calculated decision when weighing a 1999 engineer’s report suggesting structural flaws against the cost of the repairs necessary to remedy those flaws.
As long as significant public works projects or other construction endeavors are handed over to private contracting companies, such decisions balancing public safety with profit maximization will inevitably ensue, and at least occasionally, safety will be overlooked.
Even the most steadfast optimists would likely agree that expecting companies to make ethically sound decisions and threatening hell should they not will not completely solve this problem. What is really needed is more competent and strict oversight.
A recent article in The Boston Globe [“Big Dig leak exposes failures, fuels debate,” Nov. 21] suggests that officials who oversee the Big Dig failed to address the leak problem in a timely fashion, despite documents and evidence that should prompt immediate action:
“Since 1996, the state has paid roughly a half-million dollars for a ‘Central Artery/Tunnel Project Oversight Committee’ to coordinate oversight efforts by the state attorney general, the state auditor, and the state inspector general.
All three of those offices had access to Big Dig managers and contract documents describing the burgeoning leak problem. Still, the pervasive problem came to light only after the Globe detailed it this month.”
The lack of efficient and intelligent investigation on the part of a committee in charge of overseeing a $14.6 billion project should at the very least rattle our faith in the system of accountability imposed on companies in charge of massive building projects. Granted, one poorly run project does not make a trend, but there is little reason for us laypeople to assume that other projects are free from such a plight. After all, there tends to be a lack of transparency in these situations until a major problem has already occurred.
This is not just a problem that the government needs to worry about. In the past decade alone, MIT has taken on at least three huge construction projects in the form of Simmons Hall, the Stata Center, and the new brain and cognitive sciences building. All have been or are being carried out by private contractors. Had construction of Simmons and Stata been a remarkably smooth process, oversight may have been a merely secondary concern. However, both buildings cost roughly 50 percent more than initial estimates, no doubt prompting skepticism from some members of the MIT community wondering about the factors involved in the cost overruns.
It would be foolish to automatically assume that all contracted infrastructure projects are poorly run. That said, especially in the context of the Big Dig’s numerous problems and inefficiencies, oversight and public perception of that oversight demand significant attention, perhaps from the Sloan School. In the absence of satisfactorily competent and clearly publicized oversight committees, a Big Dig induced phobia will no doubt scar the public’s opinion of any building projects that run into difficulties, and that does not bode well for an institution like MIT that has shown a clear commitment to ambitious and cutting edge construction.
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by Ashlyn Nicole // February 6, 2019 // No Comments
LA city. Los Angeles
In Los Angeles (the biggest county in California) there’s an estimated 10,163,507 and it’s continuing to grow at a 13 percent rate over the past year, according to the most recent data from the United States Census Bureau.
And we’re going to just keep growing. It’s because of our lack of seasons.
It’s the start of a new year and that means it’s time to revisit all of the things that you can do in Los Angeles but with a twist. We’re looking at everything that is new. Sure, we don’t have snow. But you can get really artsy and dive into the intense cultures that the city has to offer.
Find love in art exhibits and great food. Harbor yourself with the best company. Take a peek at a rooftop movie theater and check out something to watch in a new way. Check out the great views.
If you’re looking for something that’s a creative way to pass your time, check out the list below–via Discover Los Angeles.
This is one of the most essential cultural events of 2019, so make sure it’s on your bucket list. It’s the debut of the first institution that holds the past, present and future of film. Some of the inaugural exhibitions include Where Dreams Are Made: A Journey Inside the Movies and a retrospective of famed Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki. Occupying two floors and 30,000 square feet in the newly renovated Saban building, make the most of what the Academy Museum has to offer.
Experience Frieze L.A. (Feb. 15-17, 2019)
If you’re into art, you’re going to want to check out this immense multi-cultural event featuring acclaimed artists and 70 forward-thinking galleries from LA and around the world. If you know where the New York Street Backlot at Paramount Pictures Studios is, then you know where you need to go from here. If you’re looking for tickets, go here. The presale is going to sell out fast, so make sure you’re ready.
Art By Chuck D and Lee Quiñones
These two hip-hop and graffiti pioneers are going to have separate art exhibits that you can check out. Chuck Dee, the frontman of Public Enemy and Prophets of Rage, will be hosting the event “Behind The Seen.” It’s a compilation of his works that were completed while on tour, meaning that each piece is entirely unique in its own way. If you’re around Gallery 30 South in the month of March, then go stop by.
Lee Quiñones opened his first ever gallery this month called “If These Walls Could Talk.” Featuring a series of framed tablets–writings on slabs of drywall and wood paneling that once adorned his studio walls–it’s a glimpse into the painstaking rawness behind the art.
Landmark African American Art Exhibits
If you like The Broad, you’re going to want to check out the new exhibit coming mid March dubbed Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power 1963-1983. It’s going to be a compilation of extensive artwork created by Black artists during the Civil Rights Movement. There’s going to be three galleries dedicated to LA alone, so if you’re a lover of the city, definitely check it out. There’s also focuses on other cities and different kinds of art production. That means there’s going to be all kinds of different art, not just paintings.
The second exhibit you’re going to have to check out will be at the Los Angeles County Museum of Arts. Charles White: A Retrospective puts a modern spin on a mid-century artist. From Feb. 17 to June 9, check out the physical biography of a man that can’t be put into just a few words. Everywhere that he had impact is discussed through 100 drawings and paintings.White was able to bring to life the issue of racial injustice through the pieces of art that he left behind.
Check Out a Rooftop Movie Theater
There’s a few in town that you’re going to have to take a gander at.
There’s The Montalbán, which caters to the young Latinx community in the hills of Hollywood. It’s been 10 years of servicing LA and things haven’t changed. Get a mixture of old classics and new films that were just in the theaters. Eat a little Umami Burger while you’re at it. And if you’re vegetarian don’t worry. They’ve got the Impossible Burger.
The Melrose Rooftop Theater will be back in April of this year and Rooftop Cinema Club will be springing into action the beginning of March. Both are definitely worth a visit. If you’re looking for a new, exciting way to watch movies, then this is it.
Rare Books L.A.
Just like the name says, get a chance to purchase some rare books that you can’t find anywhere else. Make your way to the Pasadena Convention & Visitors Bureau in Pasadena. It’s taking place from Feb. 1, 2019 to Feb. 3, 2019 and it won’t break the bank. There’s over 120 leading specialists in rare books, fine prints, photography, ephemera, maps and more from the United States, Europe and Asia. Opening night tickets go towards the Huntington Library. The first day starts at 2 pm and runs till 8 pm. Second day is from 10 am to 6 pm. For ticket information via the Eventbrite page, click here.
Night of Ideas
Happening at the Natural History Museum located near the University of Southern California on Friday, Feb. 1, 2019 beginning at 6 pm is the free LA program Night of Ideas. In collaboration with the Consulate General of France in Los Angeles, this worldwide event brings together the ideas of different countries, cultures and generations. If you want to have awareness about what is going on in the world today, then this is the event to attend. There’s going to be a vegan fashion show produced by Le Frenchlab, panel discussions with US and French thought leaders, live DJs; French film screenings; science speed dating and more. If you want to know more about the event, click here.
This entry was posted in Arts and Culture, Culinary, Featured Posts, Inspiring, Leisure, Opinion, Travel.
2019 Chinese New Year Greeting Card. Year of The Pig.
Move aside, spring cleaning. Since the release of Netflix’s 2018 series Tidying Up With Marie Kondo, everyone’s been on the move to start deep cleaning. Today. In fact, Buzzfeed reported that the series even sparked a rise in donations in thrift stores across the nation.
With the beginning of Chinese New Year Feb. 5, 2019, there’s no better way to ring in the Year of the Pig by continuing the tradition of keeping your living space clean. Most start the cleaning in the days leading up to New Year’s Day, but it’s always good to jump in if you’re wanting to tidy up your life. There’s never a bad time to try and cleanse your house, your soul and your mind.
While you’re busy cleaning, you can also throw in some feng shui in order to really bring peace into your home for the rest of the year. But if you’re not sure where to start, here some unique ways to keep your home neat, stay lucky and full of positive energy in the Year of the Pig.
Start with the wardrobe.
Just like Marie Kondo said, does it spark joy? If it doesn’t, you probably don’t need it. Cleaning out your wardrobe should be a huge priority. It’s always good to get rid of things that you haven’t used for over six months to a year.
Don’t continue to hold onto the things that you don’t need. Start switching around your closet so your short-sleeved clothes can be accessed easier and put away heavy jackets that you’re no longer using.
Whatever you’ve decided to give away can be given away to friends, family, or to a thrift store. Other methods of getting rid of old clothes includes selling them on apps like Depop and OfferUp. Once you’ve gone through your closets, you can move onto more extensive deep cleaning.
Getting rid of dust can go a long way.
One of the biggest hassles of a dirty house includes the dust that accumulates over the years. And it’s not like every crevice of the house gets adequate cleaning every single week. That means it’s time to bust out the big guns.
Dust everything including the ceiling, make sure you sweep and after that make sure that you mop, as well as clean the furniture, writes ABS-CBN News. Pay attention to every single room of the house–especially the rooms you inhabit the most such as the kitchen and the bathroom. Once the house is spotless, you’ll feel a lot better. And continuing that cleanliness will ensure that the house stays at peace.
Take a good look at the kitchen.
The kitchen is the most essential part of any house that brings in wealth to a home, meaning you should take exceptionally good care of it, according to Gulf News. It’s the place where everyone gets the nutrition that they need to live.
Don’t hold onto old food and condiments that take up space in your fridge. Those kinds of things are magnets for pools of bacteria. Gulf News reports that many Asian households will have a rice urn on the counter that never goes empty; everything is replaced, things that are uneaten and chipped plates are to be discarded.
When you’ve got things that are broken and stale in your kitchen, it messes with your wealth. The upkeep of your kitchen is imperative to have a successful year.
How to really use feng shui in the house.
Have you reassessed the chi (also known as energy) in your house? Once you’ve begun the cleaning process, you’re well on your way. Next comes the addition of feng shui. Feng shui is a way to practically organize your home in a way that also similarly brings happiness to your life.
A HoustonChronicle.com article with feng shui practitioner Patricia Lohan and interior designers Sophia Vassiliou and Mary Lindsey Wilson offers these key tips to really bring this practice to your home:
Start with your front door – Since this is the first thing that anyone’s going to see when they come to your house, it’s incredibly important to make sure it’s cared for properly. If your door is painted a grand color, it actually welcomes guests to your home.
Be mindful and self-reflect – Think about how you want to move forward for 2019. Once you’re there, think of how you can apply it to your home in order to better yourself.
Work on the bedroom – This is where a majority of your energy is going to reside, so why not treat your room with kindness? Your room should be a place of calm that brings happiness to your life.
Position things to optimize your sleeping patterns – If you can’t sleep well, it bring negative energy in your home. Shadows reflected from any mirrors and clutter underneath your bed can impact your sleeping patterns.
Letting go is key – Life is better when you’re minimalistic. Get rid of things you don’t want or figure out how to repurpose them into something that you do want.
Choose light colors for your home – Dark colors aren’t good for a house. Bringing in vibrant, light colors brings a sense of loving into a home. Natural blues and greens are also great in feng shui. Also change out light bulbs in order to improve the lighting of your living space.
Fresh plants breathe life into a living space – Maybe you don’t have a green thumb. But having plants in your home is a great way to bring fresh positivity into your home. It’s really one of the best ways to dispel negativity.
Last year was the Year of the Dog, which brought about strong dynamics across the world. But for this year, the Year of the Pig is meant to bring a wave of calm over earth, according to Manilla Times. It’s a time of self-examination, strong health and bringing in happiness and wealth. Participating in the art of decluttering is a great way to maintain these important life aspects and bring joy into your life for years to come.
This entry was posted in Arts and Culture, Featured Posts, History, Inspiring, Leisure, Opinion and tagged Arts, Culture, History.
by Ashlyn Nicole // January 30, 2019 // No Comments
Photo of John F Kennedy Jr., the only son of 35th U.S. President John F. Kennedy who was assassinated in his Presidential motorcade in Dallas Tx on Friday, Nov. 22, 1963. The 55 year anniversary of that tragic event just passed last year on Thanksgiving day 2018. John F. Kennedy Jr. was 3 years old at the time of his fathers death. The Nation was captivated by his life in the years that followed; from his graduation and secret wedding, to starting his Magazine, George. Tragically, JFK Jr. died in a plane crash on July 16th 1999 at the age of 38 while en route to his cousins wedding at Marthas Vineyard. It is coming up on 20 years since JFK Jr.’s death. 20/20 recently did a segment on that fateful plane crash that also took the life of his wife, Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, and her sister, Lauren Bessette. He was the brightest glimmer of hope for some for our nation. He has been missed and some will always be touched by his memory. From his fathers leadership to his fashion icon mother, Jacklyn Kennedy Onassis, this is an American family that our nation will always be intrigued by and love! Photo Credit Robert Deutsch. #kennedy #jfk #jfkjr #jacklynkennedy #jackieo #fashionicon #camelot #politics #usa #america #american #fashion #dallas #hyannisport #style #mensstyle #dapper #handsome
A post shared by Leticia (@cestsibon_la) on Jan 5, 2019 at 12:49am PST
Shock, pain, havoc. Five days of waiting for the worst. A catastrophic plane crash subsequently rocked the core of the United States. July 16, 2019 marks the 20th anniversary since the tragic death of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr, his wife Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy and her sister Lauren Bessette in 1999.
Kennedy, who was born November 25, 1960, famously attended the funeral of his assassinated father on his third birthday. With a photograph taken by the The New York Times saluting his father’s coffin, Kennedy instantly became the eye of the nation through this heartbreaking but powerful image. At this point in his life, Kennedy had no idea how precious he was to an entire country that adored him.
This man lived his life followed by paparazzi that his wife was wary of. In fact, he made his very first newspaper appearance in the NYT when he was one day old. His life was truly under watchful eyes from the beginning. Although the “crown prince” has been gone for 20 years now, his legacy as the son of America’s most beloved family continues to live on.
And with November we just had the 55th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, it’s important to remind people the kind of impact they had on the nation. As Americans, we will always have a special place in our hearts for decades to come. His last days, recently explored in a documentary by ABC News, brought to light how Kennedy spent these pivotal moments.
Raised in Manhattan with his sister Caroline, Kennedy heartily spent his days with his mother. He graduated from Brown University, had a short affair with acting, then landed at New York University Law School.
“In some respects, I found the most remarkable thing about John was how relatively normal he was despite the fame,” said Richard Wiese, Kennedy’s former fraternity brother at Brown, to ABC.
After a short but successful career as an assistant district attorney, according to History, he founded political magazine George in 1995. It amassed a following of almost a half million people. But the venture ultimately suffered later, according to People magazine.
What made Kennedy different, and arguably more likable by the nation, was the fact that he never took public office. All in all, he was just a wholesome American guy that the whole country seemed to connect to on both sympathetic and empathetic levels.
When Kennedy was assistant district attorney, he was well publicized riding his bike to and from his office that he shared with colleagues.
Michael Gross, a former contributor at George, told ABC that for Kennedy, this job “provided access to real life.”
In 1988, Kennedy was named the “Sexiest Man Alive” by People. The issue has remained one of the magazine’s most popular bestsellers, according to former managing editor Larry Hackett.
“Myself included…friends gave him total crap [about it],” joked Wiese, to ABC.
An incredibly humble man, Kennedy was known for dating countless beautiful celebrities: actress Daryl Hannah for five years, Sarah Jessica Parker, Cindy Crawford, Madonna and more. While he dated quite a few enthralling women, ABC reported that not one ever had anything bad to say about him. Kennedy was just a really good guy.
And then came a passionate, felicitous love–found at a Calvin Klein store in 1992. It was a relationship that everyone became infatuated with.
Carolyn Bessette and Kennedy knew each other for two years before they were married in a secret ceremony in 1996.
“He was very, very much in love with this beautiful girl…who was unknown to the rest of the world,” said Paul Wilmot, a former executive at Calvin Klein, to ABC.
A couple that spent the entirety of their relationship under a magnifying glass, the pair dated briefly in 1993, only to reunite after the passing of Jackie Kennedy Onassis due to non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 1994. After her passing, Kennedy did his best to go back to blazing his own personal trail through life. A man with a knack for his adventurous streak, Kennedy was known as a “man in motion,” said Christopher Andersen, author of “The Day John Died.”
Kennedy told Andersen that he continued to stay active because if he didn’t, he would stop and think about everything that’s ever happened to him, then just sit down and fall apart.
1999 is when George took a deep financial hit. It was a struggle to keep the magazine afloat and his marriage together. Known by his friends as “the Master of Disaster,” Kennedy was known for releasing stress through outdoor hobbies that could be easily deemed as dangerous, such as flying.
“Here was a guy who would get in his kayak and play chicken with the Staten Island Ferry,” said Andersen to ABC. “He would, you know, swim toward the horizon and vanish, and his friends would just get ready to call 911 and suddenly, he appeared out of nowhere. Somehow he always managed to show up, safe and sound.”
But on that fateful July day, Kennedy was woefully absent. Something wasn’t right.
July 16, 1999: a day where the subsequent reverberations were felt around the nation. Kennedy and the Bessette women die in a single-engine plane that Kennedy was controlling in hazy conditions. The plane went right into the Atlantic Ocean near Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. A huge search effort was orchestrated but it was disbanded to no avail. Finally, their bodies were found in the broken plane on July 21 by U.S. Navy divers. As for the plane, it was found 116 feet deep into the ocean.
“It was earth-shattering,” said Kennedy’s personal assistant and ABC News consultant RoseMarie Terenzio. “It was unbelievable. It was as [if] the earth had cracked in half somehow. And I could not understand how this happened. To him of all people.”
Flying was part of Kennedy’s being–even though his late mother was not a fan. Long story short, more than one Kennedy family member had trouble with flying (aunts, uncles and other family members) and Kennedy had to hide his flying lessons from his mother. Once Onassis passed away her son took up lessons again, according to biographer Tina Flaherty.
Flying held a massive role in the marriage of Bessette and Kennedy, which Bessette wasn’t immediately excited about, according to Kennedy biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli. It was ultimately that very thing that would bind them together forever.
When they were supposed to reach Martha’s Vineyard, Kennedy was to drop off his sister-in-law. Then, Kennedy and Bessette were to attend the wedding of Rory Kennedy at Cape Cod’s Hyannis Port, according to History. The plane never made it. Instead, it plunged into the sea, about eight miles from the Vineyard shore. There was no mechanical problems found in investigations of the accident; it all came down to the unideal weather conditions that have been assumed to confuse Kennedy, ultimately leading to the crash.
Terenzio remembered the devastating phone call from Bobby Kennedy, a Kennedy cousin.
“He said, ‘RoseMarie, John’s not coming back’. And I think it just sort of hit me…then that, this was it.”
While he’s no longer with us, that doesn’t mean that Kennedy’s memory can’t continue to be celebrated. In the spirit of America’s most admired family, the nation will face adversities and continue to move on.
This entry was posted in Featured Posts, History, Opinion, People, Politics and tagged History, Politics.
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Mysterious Goo, Immune to Diseases by Ben Greenman
OBJECT: Mysterious White Goo
BODY OF WATER: Gowanus Canal
“Except for waist-bands, forehead-bands, necklets, and armlets, and a conventional pubic tassel, shell, or, in the case of the women, a small apron, the Central Australian native is naked. The pubic tassel is a diminutive structure, about the size of a five-shilling piece, made of a few short strands of fur-strings flattened out into a fan-shape and attached to the pubic hair. As the string, especially at corrobboree times, is covered with white kaolin or gypsum, it serves as a decoration rather than a covering. Among the Arunta and Luritcha the women usually wear nothing, but further north, a small apron is made and worn.”
— W. Baldwin Spencer and Francis James Gillen, “The Native Tribes of Central Australia,” 1899
This description never fails to fill me with a mixture of longing (for the frank and carnal descriptions of the indigenous peoples) and boredom (I cannot abide the implication that it took two men to write that paragraph). But I do not want to remain focused too narrowly on those Central Australian women and the fur-strings that are fanned and attached to their pubic hair. Instead, I would like to turn to Spencer and Gillen, the two men responsible for this bit of informative, if somewhat wooden, prose.
As any student of Australian anthropology knows, Spencer was a principal of the Horn Expedition in 1894. The expedition, the first to make a comprehensive attempt to understand Australia’s interior, left by train from Adelaide, proceeded to the railhead at Oodnadatta, and then left the tracks for camelback. The brave men of the Horn Expedition, Spencer among them, spent time in the Finke River basin, the Macdonnell Ranges, and Alice Springs. “It is beastly cold and beastly hot,” he wrote home to his elder brother, “sometimes simultaneously. In last evening [sic], I witnessed a buzzing bug the size of a dingo land upon the back of a wallaroo and drain the poor thing of its very vitality.” Spencer was prone to exaggeration.
Gillen was not. He was the more cautious of the pair, submissive and romantic. Though he was Spencer’s senior by five years, he was merely an assistant on the 1894 expedition. Following that journey, the two men struck up a friendship that blossomed into a professional relationship, and they soon collaborated on “The Native Tribes of Central Australia,” which was published in 1899, and from which the description above is drawn. I have been told by anthropologists that “The Native Tribes of Central Australia,” which runs to more than six hundred pages, contains valuable insights into initiation rituals, sun and moon myths, and the Witchcetty Grub Totem. I must believe them, as I have no desire to investigate for myself.
My interest in Gillen and Spencer stems not from their scholarship, but from the fact that they produced in me the greatest pleasure known to man. This requires some explanation. In 1990, I was disowned by my family, which was an Austrian industrial dynasty responsible for designing and then improving the kind of light aluminum railing that can be seen around the edge of suburban pools and other small bodies of water. “This is a terrible thing to be rich for,” I used to say to my father, and though he scowled at me, this was not why I was disowned. Neither was it the result of my scorn for his railing-gotten millions, or my insistence on using some of those millions to train myself as a bespoke boot maker. “I can buy you all the world,” he said, “and yet you waste your time making them,” to which I responded, without any intention of cleverness, “I do not need all the boots in the world, and I prefer to think of it as spending my time rather than wasting it.” The cause, rather, was Pamela, my first wife, who had a face as smooth as a water-worn stone and a mind as dirty as the bed of the river beneath it. The first time we met, we were at a formal dinner that was being hosted by my family and paid for out of my father’s trench-deep pockets. I introduced myself, and she scowled slightly. Later, she would tell me that she had an inborn suspicion of money and that which it had poisoned. But she was kind enough to speak to me, and moreover, to ask me questions. When she learned that I was a reluctant heir, and that I considered boot-making not only my trade but my fundamental identity, her eyes went soft and watery. “That’s not the only thing that went soft and watery,” she said: a mind as dirty as a riverbed. That was enough to spark the flame of love, but what kept it burning was her elaboration. She was an anatomist, a biologist, but also a sensualist, her great-grandfather’s great-granddaughter in many essential ways. “The female of the species, when aroused,” she said, “is liquefied by science.”
I repeated this insight to my father, who asked me where I had heard it, and then, upon learning its source, cautioned me against indulging the weakness brought on by the female of the species. “You are not exactly resistant to the manipulations of others,” he said.
“Except for yours,” I said.
“Just do not marry this woman,” he said, “or else it will be your final act as a member of this family.”
I committed this final act, of course. For anyone who thinks I was acting foolishly, I can only remember Pamela and what she looked like then. It is a form of explanation, which is not to say rationalization. When my father disowned me, he made the only joke I ever knew him to make. “You’d think you would like getting the boot,” he said.
As a wedding gift, I made Pamela the most wonderful pair of black leather cowboy boots. When I presented them to her, my head was still ringing from the dressing-down I had received from my father, and so I did not notice that she began undressing immediately. She took off everything and put on the boots. I let her break them in on our honeymoon night. We scuffed the tips repeatedly.
The next morning, she told me that she had a present for me. I closed my eyes. She leaned her bare breasts into my hand and then laughed. “That’s not it,” she said. “But open your eyes.” I did. Her great-grandfather’s book was on the table, open to the paragraph I have reprinted above. I read it.
“Do you want one?” she said.
“One what?”
“A tassel,” she said. I did not respond. “I mean a tassel on me that you can remove and then tie around your finger while you have your way with me.” I nodded. “Come,” she said. “Let’s walk.”
I followed Pamela out of the house. The boot heels clacked on the pavement. She kept a few paces ahead of me and sped up whenever I did. I could not catch her. As we went, she told me a story. While her great-grandfather was exploring in Central Australia, he filched one of the pubic fans from a woman to whom he had an immediate and powerful attraction. “Science was not impersonal for him,” she said. Later, when he married and became a father, he showed the tassel to his wife, but did not allow her to wear it. “Marriage had meaning for him, but it did not have ultimate meeting,” she said. When Gillen’s children were old enough to look for mates of their own, he presented them with a series of what he called “inspirations and injunctions,” the central message of which was that they should look for a partner with whom they felt a “powerful and uncontrollable mix of respect and attraction.” When they located that prospective partner, Gillen said, they should present him or her with the tassel (which would be passed from eldest child to eldest child) or the equivalent (this, Gillen said, could be anything that a younger child believed had the same symbolic and talismanic value as the tassel). Pamela’s grandfather, an Australian physician, was the first recipient. Her mother, who came to New York City as a fashion model and then, later, a furniture designer, was the second. Pamela herself was the third. When Pamela was thirteen, her mother gave her a box fashioned from desert rosewood; inside was the tassel. “Show it not to your first lover, but to your true love,” she said. When Pamela was twenty years old, she met a man, found herself attracted, traveled with him, even shared an apartment with him briefly, but did not show him the tassel. A few years later, she met another man, felt a significant attraction, felt respect, but did not feel compelled to show the tassel. Some years after that, she fell completely in love. She did not give me the man’s
name, and so I will have to invent one. I will call him Bill. When Pamela met Bill, she knew at once that they would be together forever.
“I felt everything,” she said, “from the cleanest and most crystalline intellectual affinity to the most transporting frightening physical throb.” One night, she disrobed before him and revealed the tassel, which she had attached to her hair in precisely the manner described in her great-grandfather’s book. She passed a blissful month with Bill, but at the conclusion of that time, he told her that he had met someone else. She despaired. She considered ending her life. Instead, she committed a kind of symbolic suicide, casting the pubic tassel into the river. That was eighteen months before she met me. Now that the two of us were together, she wanted to retrieve the tassel and try again. “Just because I have not yet lived up to my great-grandfather’s ideals does not mean that I should stop trying,” she said. Then she said, “Here is the spot.” We were on a bridge that spanned the Gowanus Canal. She went to a nearby tree and broke off a branch, scratching her hand in the process. “A small amount of pain is a small price to pay for what we are about to see,” she said. Then she walked down
to the water’s edge and stepped over a short aluminum railing, pointing at it and laughing as she went (her message, I assume, was that it was manufactured by my father’s company, and I admit that it could have been, though I did not check). She knelt down and sunk the branch into the canal to its hilt. Her hand almost touched the surface. She wiggled it around against the edge of the wall and then withdrew it with a happy cry. On the end hung the tassel. “Come here,” she said. I went down to the edge to meet her. She dried the tassel on the hem of her dress. On the way home, she stayed a few steps of me again; the boots went quickly on the sidewalk. When we were inside the apartment, she lifted her dress entirely, revealing that it was the only garment she was wearing. Again, a mind as dirty as a riverbed. She quickly fastened the tassel to herself. “Come here,” she said. I did. “Hold it in your hand,” she said. I did. The tassel oozed through my fingers. She frowned and quickly untied it from herself. “Look,” she said. I did. The white material, the kaolin covering that had been immersed in canal water, had come into contact with the scratch she had received from the branch, and it was having an immediate and visible effect, shrinking the scratch away to nearly nothing. She quickly saved the rest of the kaolin, which was softened nearly to a lotion, in a bag, which she put inside a jar. The effect of the canal water was not uniform: while it had jellied the kaolin, it had brittled the strings, which snapped in half. Pamela threw away the rest of the tassel. That evening, we repeated our performance of the previous night. When we were finished with our carnal exertions, she got up out of bed—again, wearing only her new black leather boots—and went to get the jar containing the kaolin. She set it on her bedside table and scrutinized it. Now it was no longer a jelly, but something even less solid. She inspected the contents with a magnifying glass. She held it up to the light. She dipped the end of a cotton swab into the jar. When she applied the tip of the swab to a blemish on the back of her hand, the mark vanished immediately. “Somehow, this substance has acquired healing powers,” she said. I did not understand how this was possible, and said so. “You know how it goes,” she said. “Liquefied by science.”
I did not understand, but I was not such a strong man that I was able to insist upon scientific transparency after being fobbed off by a glib remark from a beautiful woman wearing only boots. The marriage did not last long. When we dissolved our union, she wept and raged and told me that she was going to go down to the canal and pour out the contents of the jar. That time, she went out the door not in her black leather boots, but in a far more modest pair of flats. She did not return for the boots. She did not return at all. I reconciled with my father and was presented with a sports car that he told me was worth half a million dollars. I drove it like it was worth far less. I drove it thinking only of Pamela. I drove it with a mixture of longing and boredom. A few months after that, I received a letter from Pamela in which she told me that she thought of me often, but never thought of me directly. “When I went to the canal that day,” she wrote, “and crossed over the railing, I thought of it as you, in a fashion, and I could nearly not bear it. I poured out the jellied kaolin and was surprised to see how fast it broke the surface and made for the bed of the canal. It is there now, sitting at the bottom, healing whatever it touches. It could have been yours.” A few days after that, she sent a second letter, her last, asking me to send her the boots.
Ben Greenman is an editor at the New Yorker and the author of several books of fiction, including Superbad, A Circle Is a Balloon and Compass Both, and the recent novel The Slippage. He lives in Brooklyn.
In Mysterious Goo BG Tags Ben Greenman, Mysterious White Goo, Gowanus Canal, Fiction, Ritual
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Fashion Look Books
Exclusive: KONGOS Giveaway
– Posted on July 26, 2016Posted in: Entertainment, Featured, Music and Theatre
Multi-platinum recording artist KONGOS are set to perform live in SA and we have all the info and a ticket giveaway exclusive to The Socialite, check it out…
It’s official, KONGOS have added a couple more regional tour dates to their recently announced headline appearance at the Oppikoppi festival this August.
The two additional KONGOS shows will take place at the Durban Botanic Gardens on the 3rd of August and at The Hillcrest Quarry for One Night in Cape Town on the 5th of August.
Fans can look forward to a great line-up of South African support acts in both Durban and Cape Town.
Durban show support: aKing and December Streets
Cape Town show support: Taxi Violence and Sawagi
South African-born, American alternative rock band KONGOS consists of four brothers: Johnny (accordion, keyboards, vocals), Jesse (drums, percussion, vocals), Daniel (guitar, vocals),and Dylan (bass guitar, lap slide guitar, vocals). They spent their childhoods between London and South Africa before they set out to compose and record in Phoenix, Arizona, where they have lived since 1996.
The band’s first album Lunatic released in 2012 included several hits from I’m Only Joking to Come with Me Now. Come with Me Now reached double platinum status in both the United States and Canada.
The KONGOS’ latest album, Egomaniac was recently released in June through Just Music. Take It From Me, the first single off Egomaniac has already hit the U.S. charts. The band will be performing several songs from the new album during their SA shows as well as select cuts from their previous release.
One Night in Cape Town is the official Cape Town leg for the Oppikoppi headliners in August each year. Now in it’s 6th year, One Night in Cape Town is a highlight on the calendar with artists such as Deftones, Yellowcard, Rival Sons, Enter Shikari, Eagles of Death Metal, Bullet for my Valentine and many more.
A limited number of tickets will be made available for each evening’s performance. With tickets for last year’s One Night in Cape Town selling out weeks before the concert date, fans are encouraged to not wait to buy their tickets for this year’s edition.
Pre-order Egomaniac at https://itunes.apple.com/za/album/egomaniac/id1101834615
Kongos Live in Durban
Venue: Durban Botanic Gardens
Artists: Kongos & SA Artists.
Ticket Price: R350 from Computicket
Gates open: 17h00
One Night in Cape Town – Kongos
Venue: The Hillcrest Quarry
Artists: Kongos & SA Artists
Gates open: 19:00
For Further Event Information Check Out the Links Below:
Facebook Official Page: https://www.facebook.com/OneNightInCapeTown
Twitter Official Account: https://www.twitter.com/OneNightInCT
Instagram Official Account: https://www.instagram.com/OneNightInCT
Twitter Official Account: https://twitter.com/KONGOS
Instagram Official Account: https://www.instagram.com/kongosmusic/
Win with The Socialite and Hilltop Live
To stand a chance to win 2 x tickets for you and a partner simply follow the instructions below:
1) LIKE our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/thesocialitesa and leave us a comment on our KONGOS post to stand a chance to win or FOLLOW us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/thesocialitesa and tweet us @thesocialitesa with #KONGOSSA
2) Email us your name and surname and contact details to [email protected] and include ‘KONGOSSA’ as the Subject
*Entries close Monday morning at 9am on the 1st August 2016 and the winner will be notified by email*
Tags: giveaway, Hilltop Live, KONGOS, Music
About The Socialite
Welcome to The Socialite - Your VIP access to exclusive Fashion, Lifestyle and Entertainment news. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @thesocialitesa for Behind the Scene pics and exciting giveaways
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Ma’ad Abu Tamim al-Mustansir, Fatimid Caliph AH 427-487/AD 1036-1094
Jafar F.KU.451 (same dies, mint misread as Madinat Kufa); Album 719B, Very Fine
Al-Qasr bi-Madinat al-Salam mint (Baghdad), issued by the rebel Arslan al-Basasiri in the name of the Fatimid caliph al-Mustansir. Obverse, Ma’ad ‘Abd Allah waliyat / al-imam Abu Tamim / al-Mustansir billah / amir al-mu’minin; mint and date formula in margin. Reverse, at center, Shi’ite kalima; in margin, Qur’an 9:33. On both sides, field and margin separated by wide decorative border. It has been suggested that al-Basasiri may been supplied beforehand with dinars which bore the mint name Madinat al-Salam (Baghdad) but had in fact been produced at a mint in Egypt or Syria for propaganda purposes. The arrangement of legends on al-Basasiri’s coins, however, do not have the same “bull’s-eye” concentric legends found on other Fatimid issues of the time. Instead, al-Basasiri’s dinars have horizontal legends in the field with a single margin around, an arrangement much more familiar to the residents of Baghdad. The unusual addition of al-Qasr (“Palace”) to the mint name Madinat al-Salam suggests a mint within a fortified palace or citadel. Extremely rare.
Arslan al-Basasiri was a Turkish general who had enjoyed power and prestige in Baghdad while the ‘Abbasid caliph was under protection of the Buwayhids. When the Buwayhids were expelled from Baghdad by the Seljuqs in 1055, al-Basasiri rebelled against their authority. The fighting dragged on for some time with neither side able to gain the advantage. Al-Basasiri appealed to the Fatimids (a powerful Shi’ite state centered on Egypt) for help. The Fatimids provided the necessary aid and appointed al-Basasiri as viceroy of Iraq. The ‘Abbasid Caliph al-Qa’im was removed from Baghdad and the Fatimid Caliph al-Mustansir was mentioned in the Friday prayers and on the coins. When the Seljuk Tughril Beg marched on the city, al-Basasiri lost support and his rebellion collapsed. He was forced to flee Baghdad only a year after capturing it. His flight was futile, however, as he was killed in a nearby skirmish. The Fatimid caliph al-Mustansir (AH 427-487/ AD 1036-1094) was the longest-governing caliph in the history of Islam. His power of the later Fatimids was confined to Egypt. North Africa fell into anarchy and the Levant was lost first to the Seljuqs and then the Crusaders. The Fatimids were Shia but, like their rivals the Sunnii ‘Abbasids, suffered from the interference of their Turkish mercenaries in the administration of their state. The demand for payment by Turkish troops took its toll on the Fatimid treasury and pushed the Caliphate into bankruptcy. Al-Mustansir was finally assassinated and Cairo fell into the hands of Turkish troops who looted it. During this tumultuous period the famous public library of Cairo, considered one of the wonders of the world, was scattered, the valuable books either sold at a fraction of their value or used for lighting fires!.
Tags: Fatimid Caliphate, Gold Dinar (2.81g), Ma’ad Abu Tamim al-Mustansir
Buwayhids, Gold Dinar, AH 445 Great Seljuqs, Gold Dinar (2.87g), AH 449
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Review: Hoops – ‘Routines’
By Darby McNally | May 5, 2017 0 Comments
As we approach the summer months, easy listening is back and prepping us for spending our days lounging by the water (or on our rooftops). Whether you’re at Santa Monica Beach or drenched in sweat gazing at an awesome city skyline, Hoops should be on your summer playlist.
Just one year after the release of their self-titled EP, the band has reemerged from the depths of dream pop with their debut record. The warm embrace of lead single “Rules” made Routines one of the most anticipated indie releases of 2017, and the band did not disappoint. The record defines Hoops’ sound and solidifies them as a force to be reckoned with.
A close cousin of fellow pop artists Best Coast and Cults, Routines is a sun-soaked, lo-fi treat that is set to make a mark on its genre, tapping into that toes-in-the-sand summer feel that seems to exist in a subgenre on its own. While beachy vibes are not exactly what you’d expect from four guys who’ve spent their lives in Indiana, they make it work.
The record is charmingly minimalistic without being repetitive. This might be a product of the band’s unorthodox songwriting methods; rather than having a designated lead singer, whoever wrote the song will provide vocals for the track. Couple that with a signature reverb-laden guitar and mellow, fuzzy vocals, and you’ve got yourself the perfect sunny day soundtrack.
The album opens with the appropriately titled “Sun’s Out,” a synth-y, bubbly track that sets the tone for the rest of the record. Another thing you’ll find is that Hoops are keen on major chords; their happy-go-luck attitudes shine in their music. Their optimism is revitalizing in a time where indie bands too frequently harp on the same melancholy themes.
“Benjals” is a short instrumental piece with playful drums and a general feel-good vibe. We can only assume the track derives its name from a “Good Neighbor” sketch in which SNL cast member Kyle Mooney gives a satirical take on men who like sports. The theme of the sketch is much like that of the album – lighthearted and endearing while maintaining an air of truth. “Underwater Theme” is the most melancholic on the record, a chilled-out tune that creeps along at a steady pace without losing its whimsy.
With their delightfully sentimental seaside sound, Hoops are a modern day equivalent of The Beach Boys. Still, there are elements of Routines that could easily be attributed to British new wave bands like The Smiths and The Cure; elements like filtered vocals and seemingly effortless musicianship. Bassist Kevin Krauter once explained to us that the band feels most comfortable making music in his parent’s basement. It’s this authenticity that sets Hoops apart and makes their music as fun to listen to as it must have been to make.
Related Itemshoopsreviewroutines
Darby McNally
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Fighting for sharks, whales, dolphins, and manta rays. Extinction is forever... We cannot allow it...
Shark Finning and "Extinction Soup"
Greetings again one and all. Tonight I'll be taking a good look at sharks! Now since this is a shark first blog, I have done many, many shark based blogs in the past. However now that this blog is getting more and more visitors to it (wooohoooo!) I think now would be a good time to go over just what is happening to sharks around the world and why it is happening. For those of you who are reading this blog looking for Sea Shepherd or OpKillingBay news, sorry, but this blog wont have any, but I would like you to continue reading because what you read may just shock you more than the dolphin slaughter in Taiji or the hunt getting ready to take place in Taiji. I will get to the blog title towards the end of the blog this time around.
Take a good look at the animal pictured above. This species of shark is known as the shortfin mako shark. The first thing many people will notice about this animal is it's teeth, it's size, or it's likeness to another, more famous species of shark, the great white. What most people will not know is that this image is actually a picture of the fastest shark in the world. In the open ocean, this shark can reach speeds of over 60mph and can leap over 15 feet into the air! Think about that for a second. Try to picture a fish leaping that far out of the water. It's a pretty big accomplishment, especially for an animal that can weigh over 1,000lbs. As intimidating as this animal may look, it rarely interacts negatively with humans. The majority of incidents where shortfin mako sharks have bitten a person occur after the animal has been hooked. Can't really blame the animal for defending itself can you? These animals typically do not come close to shore so in general, bathers and surfers don't have to even worry about these sharks while playing in the surf. For an animal that rarely encounters humans, outside of fisherman, you would think their populations would be plentiful. Well they are not.
Here's a more familiar face to many people. The great hammerhead shark. Once abundant in tropical and sub tropical seas, these animals continue to be found throughout different areas of the world. Being a worldwide species of shark one would think that their populations are high right? Not so much.
Here's probably the most familiar face when the word shark is used. Here is the (great) white shark. The star of many a shark movie, many people think that the oceans are teeming with these guys, but guess what. That's not the case.
See a trend forming? I could go on posting pictures of sharks and tell you that each and every one of them are in extreme danger. Out of the three I posted, two of them (white and mako) are currently listed as Vulnerable to extinction on the IUCN's Red List while the other (hammerhead) is listed as Endangered. Yes you read that right all three of these sharks, and many others, are seriously being threatened with extinction. The answer to the following question is known be many people, but not enough. Why are these animals threatened with extinction? How are animals that have been on this Earth since before the time of dinosaurs now suddenly vanishing? How are the essential kings of the sea being dethroned, and by what? The answer to those questions are both shocking and horrific. If you have no idea what I am talking about then I would like to take a second to advise you to take a deep breath before reading what you are about to read.
The answer to what is causing these animals to vanish is probably pretty usual, man. The answer of how is what is really just disturbing, unethical, greedy, and frankly heartbreaking. Shark finning is the process of catching a shark, cutting it's fins off, and then throwing the often times still living animal back into the water to die from blood loss, suffocation, or from being eaten. It is a horrific way to go and equates to a human's arms and legs being cut off and then the still living body being tossed into the sea. It is partially responsible for the estimated 100,000,000 shark deaths that occur worldwide on an annual basis. Shark finning is often the by product of another practice of fishing called long lining.
Long line fishing in an extremely dangerous style of fishing that threatens nearly all marine life as well as sea birds. Long line fishing kind of looks like this. .
So as you can see, there is a large number of baited hooks in which the target fish, usually tuna or swordfish, are supposed to bite. The lines are left in the water for over a day and can reach lengths of over 100 miles in length. The fisherman then return. The results are never exclusive to the target fish. Sharks, seals, turtles, birds, small whales, dolphins, and just about anything else that bites the hook is trapped. In the case of turtles, birds, and mammals, they will drown because the weighted lines will prevent them from surfacing to breathe. Sharks and other fish often get tangled in the lines causing them to drown. These reasons alone, I feel are justification enough to have this fishing style outlawed considering the sheer number of animals that are killed on accident by them every year, however it is only illegal off the west coast of the United States. Sharks that are caught on these lines are often finned alive or dead.
So why the fins? From the boats, the shark's fins are sent to Asia where they are dried and used in a soup known as shark fin soup. The soup itself is tasteless, but is flavored with either chicken or beef flavoring. The shark's fin adds a gelatinous texture to the soup as well as a dose of mercury (always healthy right?). Shark fin soup sells for an estimated $100 U.S.D. PER BOWL. Yes a hundred dollar bowl of soup. The soup apparently had it's start in China where it was given exclusively to the Emperor as a symbol of status. Times of course changed and now this symbol of status is widely used in not just China, but in other countries including the United States. The shark's fins sell for an incredible amount of money. For example, a whale shark fin has sold for over $50,000. Yes one fin. So once again it boils down to money. So what is the status of sharks?
Many shark species are in a heavy decline due to shark finning and long line fishing. Both practices have led to certain species seeing their populations decline by as much as 99%. Obviously not a good thing at all there. Around the world, more and more shark sanctuaries are starting to pop up and more countries, including China, are taking steps to driving down the demand for shark fin soup. For example, China has cracked down on the extravagance of government banquets which has banned shark fin soup from being included as it once was. Several states in the United States have banned the sale and trade of shark fins, but it appears that NOAA may try to undermine those laws. New Zealand has recently "banned" shark finning, but has allowed fisherman an extensive grace period that will allow the practice to continue for some time. In the mean time, sharks are still in rapid decline not only off of New Zealand, but around the world as the demand for shark fin soup remains high. So what could this do to the world?
Honestly, and I know it may sound crazy at first, but this could lead to the end of the natural world as we know it. Allow me to explain. Sharks are the apex predators of the sea, very similar to lions in their natural habitat or the way wolves used to be in areas of the U.S.. If you remove the apex predator as we are doing to sharks, the next level of the food chain will see their populations explode. Unlike all of the animals below them, sharks have a very slow reproductive cycle and do not mature until later in life. Many species only give birth to one pup every season. So with sharks removed the next level will take over and eliminate anything below it until there is no food for them and then they die off. In the seas what that will leave you with are things such as algae and that's it. The secondary predators will take care of all the shellfish and small fish and once they are gone there will be nothing left. It's a simple food chain equation. We've seen examples of this already in the United States, but people are still not getting it. One perfect example is the shellfish crisis going on in the Chesapeake Bay.
There has been a large decline in shark populations surrounding the bay and as a result in recent years the cownose ray (secondary predator) population has literally exploded.
As you can see in the image above, these animals eat shellfish which are filter feeders and algae eaters. As a result, the shellfish populations in the bay have seen serious declines to the point where the bay has needed to actually be restocked by people. The bay's water quality has also suffered as a result. It's just a small sample though of what would be to come should sharks go extinct. It's not the fault of the rays. They're just doing what is natural to them. It's all on the people who are eradicating the ray's natural predators.
Sadly, to my knowledge, only one documentary has really gone out and attacked the shark finning industry to date. That documentary is called Sharkwater. I highly suggest picking it up at some point and watching it, but coming soon there is a new documentary coming out that further exposes the disgusting shark finning industry called Extinction Soup.
According to Extinction Soup's Facebook page, the plot of the film looks like this
"Extinction Soup" follows documentary filmmaker Philip Waller on his quest for adventure as he sets out to tell the story of his larger-than-life friend and extreme sports legend, Jimmy Hall. The film quickly takes a surprise turn when Waller finds himself consumed with exposing to the world an environmental catastrophe in the making - the extinction of the oceans' shark population through the mass slaughter of these magnificent animals for their fins. Waller documents the efforts of conservationist Stefanie Brendl as she fights to educate lawmakers and help pass ground-breaking legislation that will curb the consumption of shark fin soup, considered a delicacy in many Eastern cultures, and the impetus behind 70 million sharks being killed per year."
The film has no slated release date, but it is hoped that it will land sometime in mid 2014. For more information on Extinction Soup visit their website at http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/extinction-soup. Still though, the issue of shark finning and long line fishing continues to be one that needs to be shown to the world. When this documentary is released it could go a long way to bringing attention to a massive issue going on in our seas in a similar fashion to how The Cove did for the dolphins or Taiji! To quote the great Captain Paul Watson, "If the Ocean's die, we die". I couldn't agree more with that statement and if the world does not act to save sharks we will be facing a dead ocean and eventually the end of life on land as a result as well.
As mentioned in my previous blog, here is a nice video of whale sharks swimming in the wild. There is a great deal of money to be made on shark tourism. Far more over a long period of time than can be made from their fins... Till next time!
Posted by Hydraminion at 10:35 PM
Japan to Resume Commercial Whaling. Whales of Antarctica Spared!
Well it didn't take too long for something major to happen to bring me back to whales huh? Over the course of the last couple weeks,...
A Christmas/Holiday Blog for the Whole Family!
A Voice for the Voiceless Blog Number 100!
Pressure Mounting Against West Australia's New Sha...
West Australia To Slaughter Sharks
Think Orcas Have No Emotional Attachments? Think A...
The Holiday Plan/OpKillingBay Update
Japan Heading South... The Whale Wars Has Started....
NOAA Poised to Undermine State Shark Fin Bans
We Have Spoken and Will Not be Silenced
Voice for the Voiceless. Picture Window theme. Theme images by MichaelJay. Powered by Blogger.
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Credible & True
Early in the morning of 4 March 2015, a fierce knock at the door heralded the start of a new chapter in Harvey Proctor's almost continuous relationship with the police and media, when officers from the Metropolitan Police raided his home in connection with Operation Midland, Scotland Yard's investigation into allegations of a historic Westminster paedophile ring. In Credible and True - words famously used by the police to describe the allegations of Proctor's traducer - the former Conservative MP talks frankly about his life in and out of Parliament, from the struggles and controversy surrounding his resignation in 1987 to the numerous homophobic attacks endured since. Finally, he speaks candidly about his most recent embroilment in Operation Midland, of being the victim of a 'homosexual witch-hunt' that has all but destroyed his reputation.
And the Weak Suffer what they Must?
In this dramatic narrative of Europes economic rise and spectacular fall, Yanis Varoufakis, former finance minister of Greece, shows that the origins of the collapse go far deeper than our leaders are prepared to admit and that we have done nothing so far to fix them. From the aftermath of the Second World War to the present, Varoufakis recounts how the eurozone emerged as a pyramid scheme of debt with countries such as Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain at its bottom. Its woeful design ensured that collapse would be inevitable and catastrophic. But since the hurricane landed Europes leaders have chosen a cocktail of more debt and harsh austerity rather than reform. Drawing on the personal experience of his own negotiations with the eurozones financiers and offering concrete policies and alternatives, Varoufakis shows how we concocted this mess and how we can get out of it.
The Black Door explores the evolving relationship between successive British prime ministers and the intelligence agencies, from Asquiths Secret Service Bureau to Camerons National Security Council. At the beginning of the 20th Century the British intelligence system was underfunded and lacked influence in government. But as the new millennium dawned, intelligence had become so integral to policy that it was used to make the case for war. Now, covert action is incorporated seamlessly into government policy, and the Prime Minister is kept constantly updated by intelligence agencies. But how did intelligence come to influence our government so completely? The Black Door explores the murkier corridors of No. 10 Downing Street, chronicling the relationships between intelligence agencies and the Prime Ministers of the last century.
One Minute to Ten
10 PM, on the 7 May. The exit poll predicting the result of the 2015 General Election is announced. In that instant three lives are changed for ever. David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg were three very different men, from very different backgrounds. But they shared one ambition. To lead their country. In pursuit of their dream they were forced to make sacrifices. Of themselves. And right up until the final moment the exit poll was released each man clung to the hope those sacrifices had not been in vain. Then the clock struck ten. In One Minute to Ten, Dan Hodges brings to life the most dramatic general election campaign in living memory, and tells the untold story of the three men who contested it. And in doing so reveals the price paid by those who risk everything in their quest for the ultimate political prize...
Girl Up
They told you you need to be thin and beautiful.They told you to wear longer skirts, avoid going out late at night and move in groups - never accept drinks from a stranger, and wear shoes you can run in more easily than heels. They told you to wear just enough make-up to look presentable but not enough to be a slut; to dress to flatter your apple, pear, hourglass figure, but not to be too tarty. They warned you that if you try to be strong, or take control, you'll be shrill, bossy, a ballbreaker. Of course it's fine for the boys, but you should know your place. They told you 'that's not for girls' - 'take it as a compliment' - 'don't rock the boat' - 'that'll go straight to your hips'. They told you 'beauty is on the inside', but you knew they didn't really mean it.Well screw that. I'm here to tell you something else.
How to be a Government Whip
One of the most misunderstood and oft-caricatured jobs in British politics, whips are the unseen, unsung heroes of the parliamentary system, without whom governments would doubtless crumble and legislative business would almost certainly grind to a halt. How to Be a Government Whip is a frank and light-hearted guide to the forgotten engine room of Parliament, perfect for those who aspire to be amongst their ranks as well as those just hoping to avoid them. From the mind-numbing tedium of debates to the dark arts of dealing with rebellious or disaffected members, former whip Helen Jones reveals how they really get business done - and what they say about their colleagues behind the closed door of the Whips' Office.
How to Be A Civil Servant
Although seldom recognised as such by the public, the civil service is a profession like any other. The UK civil service employs 400,000 people across the country, with over 20,000 students and graduates applying to enter every year. Martin Stanley's seminal How to Be a Civil Servant was the first guidebook to the British civil service ever published. It remains the only comprehensive guide on how civil servants should effectively carry out their duties, hone their communication skills and respond to professional, ethical and technical issues relevant to the job. This fully updated new edition provides the latest advice, and is a must-read for newly appointed civil servants and for those looking to enter the profession.
How To Win A Marginal Seat
During the 2015 general election, the contest in Gavin Barwells constituency of Croydon Central was by any measure one of the most intensive constituency campaigns this country has ever seen. At the end of it Gavin had clung on by the skin of his teeth, and had a story well worth telling. Journalists produce a great deal of commentary on the leaders of our political parties, their campaign strategies and key messages. Elections, however, are won and lost on the pavements of only about 100 so-called marginal constituencies - places like Croydon Central.This book gives an unparalleled insight into what its like to be an MP defending an ultra-marginal seat.
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[Competition venue: Ariake Tennis Park]
Court: 23.77m long
8.23m wide (singles)
10.97m wide (doubles)
Net height: 0.914m (centre)
Players alternate hitting a ball with their rackets over the net.
There are singles (one against one) and doubles (two against two) events for both men and women, and mixed doubles (each team consisting of one male and one female players).
In tennis, points are uniquely referred to as "love," "fifteen" and so on. Learning the terms such as “deuce,” “advantage” and “server” will help you better understand live commentaries.
Watching at a court, spectators will be able to gain a direct sense of the emotions of the players. The tactical abilities of the players and the tense atmosphere during rallies are overwhelming.
The origin of tennis dates back to the pre-Christian era, when it was played by ancient Egyptians as a religious activity. Later in Roman times, this sport was played for recreation. The predecessor of modern tennis originated in France around the eighth century, when it was enjoyed by noble French families as a pastime.
Tennis had been included in the Olympic programme since the Athens 1896 Games before being discontinued at the Amsterdam 1928 Games. The sport was considered contrary to the amateur nature of the Olympics due to the rise of professional tennis tournaments. After that, professionals were finally allowed to compete in the Olympic Games, and tennis returned as an official sport at the Seoul 1988 Games, 64 years after its last appearance.
（IOC Announcement, June9, 2017）
Doubles Singles
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ADEPT Properties LLC
HOMEOWNER PROPERTIES
TURN-KEY PROPERTIES
Buyers List Contact
BIRD DOGGERS
Randy Vaughan
Randy brings with him 30 years’ experience in the construction business with all licenses for both inspecting, building, mechanical, electrical, etc. as well as 5 years’ experience in manufactured housing and parks, having set over 1,000 homes.
Since Randy began his real estate investing career in November 2008, he has completed over 150 transactions including his most recent multi-unit apartment building. His investments cover multiple states and his net worth is now 2.8 million. He has first-hand experience in completed deals using multiple strategies including lease to own, subject to, flipping and double closings to name a few.
Randy travels throughout the US and Canada teaching people how to invest in real estate. If anyone is interested in one on one training please use the Contact Us form for more information about this service. There's no time like the present to get passionate about creating success in today’s real estate market!
Laura was working in New Jersey as a secretary, when she got started in real estate from a late night infomercial in April '08. Since then she has made real estate her full time career and has built her current net worth to over 1.5 million.
Her first strategy was retail flips, which then expanded into experience in multiple strategies as she shared her passion for real estate working with buyers, sellers and investors while continuing to invest locally and across the country.
Going where the deals take her she left NJ in April of 2010 and moved to Wisconsin, and then in January 2011 she moved to Kansas City, Missouri to form her business partnership with Randy. In 2013 the market took her to Savannah, Ga., which she plans to call home for a very long time! Together they implement strategies that work for every investor (including single, multi-family and multi-unit apartment complexes) as well as for buyers and sellers to make win-win situations for everyone. She is thrilled to have this experience in building a portfolio for herself to enjoy now and as a legacy for her sons, and welcomes the opportunity to help others do the same! Just recently she has expanded her career by obtaining her real estate license, and is excited to explore that side of the industry as well.
Home | Investors | Home Buyers | Sellers | Turn-key Properties | As-Is Properties | About Us | Contact Us
© 2012 ADEPT Properties LLC. All Right Reserved.
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Woolf, Virginia
Countdown Comics
Countdown Comics first issue was on 20th February 1971. By this time the brilliant TV21 comic was running out of steam, with the last issue of TV 21 and Joe 90 being issued on 25th September 1971. TV 21 'merged' with Valiant, but really it was the end for that particular publishing phenomenon.
Countdown Comic took over with a Gerry Anderson strips of the sublime UFO. In addition, it picked up the Doctor Who strip to become the powerhouse of TV related comics in the early 1970s. The strips were well drawn, and a number of staff from the old TV 21 comic contributed.
In 1972 after 58 issues, Countdown became TV Action, and ran for 72 further issues before its demise on 15th September 1973. During this time it also published reprints of a number of old TV 21 strips of Fireball XL5, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Stingray and the quirky Secret Service. Copies of Countdown and TV Action are prized for the Gerry Anderson and Doctor Who related strips and stories.
"I'll listen to any reasonable objections you may have on the way. Then I'll tell you how it's going to be." - Ed Straker
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Government to submit supplementary budget bill to National Assembly next Thursday Updated: 2019-04-19 04:12:38 KST
The third supplementary budget of the Moon Jae-in government will focus on matters related to people's safety as well as taking preemptive measures against economic uncertainties.
"The government will submit the bill to the National Assembly on April 25th. We will also set up a task force for the swift deliberation of the budget."
The extra budget will be used to provide support for those affected by the recent forest fires in Gangwon-do Province.
There will be measures to restore forests, as well as plans to reinforce firefighting equipment and manpower.
A portion will also be set aside to provide assistance to the southeastern city of Pohang, which was hit by the country's second worst earthquake in 2017.
The package includes special loans for small businesses in the region, as well as support for local infrastructure projects.
The government will also tackle fine-dust pollution. It plans to increase infrastructure that can better measure fine dust levels as well as come up with ways to reduce emissions.
It will also provide air purifiers in public facilities and masks for the underprivileged who work outdoors.
Some of the budget will also be used to tackle downside economic risks, especially with dim prospects for the global economy, and a slump in Korea's exports.
Funding support will be provided for small companies, while customized measures will be devised for exporters.
Although the exact size of the extra budget has not been revealed, it's not expected to exceed 6.2 billion U.S. dollars. The government and ruling party says the exact figure will be determined considering the country's tax revenue.
The two sides are aiming to get the bill passed in May. The ruling party called for cooperation from the opposition bloc, saying they should put their political interests aside.
"A number of opposition parties have been demanding the drawing up of one extra budget for natural disasters and another separate one for other purposes -- but this is just seen as a political tactic. The budget is for the people's safety and to boost their livelihoods."
But deliberations are expected to be tough.
While the opposition welcomed a helping hand for victims of natural disasters,
they say they will not accept the budget being used to sway voter sentiment in the ruling party's favor ahead of next year's general elections.
Kim Min-ji, Arirang News.
Reporter : kimmj@arirang.com
Foreign Correspondents from all aro...
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California Wildfires: Santa Barbara Threatened By Thomas Fire
Fresh evacuations have been ordered after the largest of the wildfires raging in southern California burned out of control on Sunday. Fanned by winds, the resurgent Thomas fire now threatens the coastal city of Santa Barbara and nearby Carpinteria.
Firefighters earlier reported progress in containing the blaze, said to have devastated an area the size of Chicago. But while other fires hitting the state are largely controlled, the Thomas fire is just 15% contained.
"The winds are kind of squirrely right now," Santa Barbara county fire spokesman Mike Eliason was quoted by the Associated Press as saying. "Some places the smoke is going straight up in the air, and others it's blowing sideways. Depends on what canyon we're in." Evacuation orders were issued overnight for parts of Carpinteria close to Los Padres National Forest, about 100 miles (160km) northwest of Los Angeles.
Forecasters said wind speeds were expected to increase throughout the day, before dying down again overnight. The local fire department tweeted pictures of a wall of flames advancing on homes on the outskirts of Carpinteria early on Sunday morning.
Courtesy:BBC
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The Electoral Process Part II
Part II -Voting
One fact about voting that we hear about is that only about 50% of eligible voters actually vote. That number is actually worse if you consider that for non-presidential elections and local elections the turnout is usually much lower. In addition, many people are not eligible to vote. Many states disenfranchise people who have been convicted of certain classes of crimes and voter suppression efforts have disenfranchised hundreds of thousands of people.
But even among people who can vote the majority often fail to do so. There are many explanations for this, from people being too busy or not being interested in politics, to the inconvenience of the process (election day is a work day, many states do not allow early voting etc). This year in particular gave credence to the old adage that if god had wanted us to vote she would have given us candidates.
What is hard to fathom is that so many people fought and in some cases died to gain the right to vote - women, Blacks, people who did not own property, Irish, Italians, and Jews among others. This began at the very start of the Republic, well, really before the Republic started. Abigail Adams famously wrote to her husband who was attending the constitutional convention and admonished him to “remember the ladies.” Apparently he forgot because women would fight for over 100 years to gain suffrage.
There are those who advocate for interpreting the Constitution based on the original intent of the founders. Perhaps they do not realize that in the first presidential elections only about 6% of the population was eligible to vote - or perhaps they understand that perfectly and would like to return to the days when voting was limited to white males of property and means. After all, the founders were no fans of democracy. James Madison expressed a widely held belief among the founders when he said "democracy was too precious to waste on the common man."
Most were petrified of "democracy" where the "great unwashed" i.e. people without education, wealth or proper dispositions (e.g. women) would select office holders. Perhaps that is why the rate of desertion among soldiers in the American Revolution (those sunshine patriots) was so high. Those doing the fighting were not expected to have a say in the governance of the new Republic. Interestingly, after fighting the War of Independence the commitment to voting was almost non-existent. Although just 6% of the population were eligible to vote in the first presidential election only 38,818 people out of a population of about 3 million (2.4 million free) actually voted for a voting percentage of about 21%. So George Washington was elected with only 1.3% of the population voting - quite the mandate!. But it got worse. Two years later only 13,332 people voted out of population then estimated at 3.9 million or less than 0.5%. Democracy got off to a slow start.
So who should be allowed to vote and what is the best process to select a president? It is tempting to say that everyone should be allowed, perhaps required, to vote but this not only goes against our entire history as a nation but there does not seem to be a practical way to make it happen especially when it is in so many groups’ vested interest to reduce the voters in opposing groups. Universal suffrage may be an American ideal that people across a broad spectrum of the political landscape espouse but it has never been achieved and seems unlikely to be in the future.
Many techniques have been tried or suggested - "motor-voter" (including voter registration with motor vehicle registration), automatic registration, same day registration and innumerable get out the vote campaigns. So far none seem to have had a substantial or lasting effect on voting participation.
Some political scientists have suggested that voting should be restricted to those who have at least a baseline knowledge of government, politics, policy and candidates. Or if not restricted that those who are more knowledgeable should be given more votes or have their votes count more. This has been tried with voter literacy tests. While we usually think of those tests as Jim Crow tools to stop African-Americans from voting they actually began in Connecticut in 1855 to disenfranchise immigrants. New York City did much the same in the 1920s and similar tests were used by many states in the north and the south. Literacy tests were not banned by Congress until 1975.
What limits on voting are acceptable? If not knowledge or literacy as thresholds, what about people with dementia, cognitive impairment or developmental disabilities? One concern has been that someone is likely to influence or manipulate those with impairments. But aren’t the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on campaign advertising and activities meant to influence and manipulate as many of us as possible? Should such activities be prohibited?
While today people are no longer technically prohibited from voting based on race, sex, religion or ethnicity, voter exclusion is more subtle and tactical. Polling places are moved to inconvenient locations, are reduced in number to create long waits, and names are purged from voter rolls. People who have committed crimes and "paid their debt to society" are excluded from voting in many states. This seems ironic since one might suggest that former criminals are uniquely qualified to judge many of our politicians.
I'll leave it there until we wrap up next week with Part III- Determining a Winner.
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