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__label__wiki	0.709813	0.709813	Blake Andrews Blake Andrews (°1968, Berkeley, United States) is an artist who mainly works with photography. Through a radically singular approach that is nevertheless inscribed in the contemporary debate, Andrews tries to create works in which the actual event still has to take place or just has ended: moments evocative of atmosphere and suspense that are not part of a narrative thread. The drama unfolds elsewhere while the build-up of tension is frozen to become the memory of an event that will never take place. His photos feature coincidental, accidental and unexpected connections which make it possible to revise art history and, even better, to complement it. Combining unrelated aspects lead to surprising analogies. By parodying mass media by exaggerating certain formal aspects inherent to our contemporary society, he wants the viewer to become part of the art as a kind of added component. Art is entertainment: to be able to touch the work, as well as to interact with the work is important. His works isolate the movements of humans and/or objects. By doing so, new sequences are created which reveal an inseparable relationship between motion and sound. By experimenting with aleatoric processes, he uses references and ideas that are so integrated into the process of the composition of the work that they may escape those who do not take the time to explore how and why these images haunt you, like a good film, long after you’ve seen them. His works are given improper functions: significations are inversed and form and content merge. Shapes are dissociated from their original meaning, by which the system in which they normally function is exposed. Initially unambiguous meanings are shattered and disseminate endlessly. By creating situations and breaking the passivity of the spectator, he makes works that can be seen as self-portraits. Sometimes they appear idiosyncratic and quirky, at other times, they seem typical by-products of American superabundance and marketing. His work urge us to renegotiate photography as being part of a reactive or – at times – autistic medium, commenting on oppressing themes in our contemporary society. By questioning the concept of movement, he formalizes the coincidental and emphasizes the conscious process of composition that is behind the seemingly random works. The thought processes, which are supposedly private, highly subjective and unfiltered in their references to dream worlds, are frequently revealed as assemblages. His works are saturated with obviousness, mental inertia, clichés and bad jokes. They question the coerciveness that is derived from the more profound meaning and the superficial aesthetic appearance of an image. By rejecting an objective truth and global cultural narratives, he creates with daily, recognizable elements, an unprecedented situation in which the viewer is confronted with the conditioning of his own perception and has to reconsider his biased position. His works are a drawn reflection upon the art of photography itself: thoroughly self-referential, yet no less aesthetically pleasing, and therefore deeply inscribed in the history of modernism – made present most palpably in the artist’s exploration of some of the most hallowed of modernist paradigms. By putting the viewer on the wrong track, he finds that movement reveals an inherent awkwardness, a humour that echoes our own vulnerabilities. The artist also considers movement as a metaphor for the ever-seeking man who experiences a continuous loss. His works are based on inspiring situations: visions that reflect a sensation of indisputability and serene contemplation, combined with subtle details of odd or eccentric, humoristic elements. Blake Andrews currently lives and works in Eugene.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line1
__label__cc	0.656822	0.343178	Hagerstown C.C. Athletics Hawk Booster Club Booster Membership Structure Fitness Center Hours for Hawk Trainer and Hawk Corporate Memberships Scholar Athlete Thank you ARCC Facilities Future Hawks Welcome Prospective Hawks Prospective Athletes Form Conference 2017-18 HCC Awards HCC names Leah Pongratz as new Head Volleyball Coach Leah Pongratz has been named head volleyball coach for the 2019-20 academic year at Hagerstown Community College. "We are very excited for Leah Pongratz to take over the head coach responsibilities of our volleyball program," said HCC Athletic Director Robert Rohan. "Coach Pongratz has years of successful experience at a variety of levels, as well as recruiting quality student-athletes to play at the college level. Her level of organization and her knowledge of skill and strategy will be great assets as she continues to grow our program." Pongratz graduated from HCC in 2005 and transferred to Salisbury University, earning a bachelor's degree in psychology. She went on to earn a master's degree in teaching from Frostburg State University. Most recently, Pongratz served as the head women's volleyball coach at Penn State Mont Alto, where she accumulated a record of 19-4. She advanced her team to the PSUAC Championship and was nominated for the PSUAC Conference Coach of the Year. She also served as head coach of several high school programs, including Mercersburg Academy, Saint Maria Goretti High School, and Boonsboro High School. "I am looking forward to working with this core group of returning players, and new recruits, to continue building on HCC's established program," said Pongratz. "We have a very talented group and I am excited to see how they all get together to make this a successful season." Hagers Town Sat, 11/03 \| Women's Volleyball vs. Montgomery College (MD) L, 3-0 (Final) RC \| BX Fri, 11/02 \| Women's Volleyball vs. Cecil College W, 3-2 (Final) RC \| BX Mon, 10/22 \| Women's Volleyball vs. Christendom College W, 3-2 (Final) BX Fri, 10/19 \| Women's Volleyball at Harford Community College W, 3-0 (Final) RC \| BX Wed, 10/17 \| Women's Volleyball at Potomac State College of WVU L, 3-1 (Final) BX	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line6
__label__wiki	0.751989	0.751989	Tea Time Tidbits Heather's Monthly Articles OTG: Order of Tea Goers Support Tea Home Fires Tea Time Tidbit for the week of May 8, 2017 Samantha Bond and Francesca Annis If you’re a faithful fan of the World War II drama series, Home Fires, which recently wrapped up its second season, I’m sorry to report that ITV, the network it aired on in the U.K., decided not to renew it for a third series. As you can imagine their decision was not a popular one - especially given the fact that season two ended in a major cliff hanger. The minute UK viewers learned there wouldn't be a third series of Home Fires, they started a petition to bring it back. Despite over 38,000 signatures, the petition was unsuccessful. Home Fires cast members The show’s creator, Simon Block, and executive producer, Francis Hopkinson, were as surprised as the viewers that their show was being axed. In fact, they had a third season all set to go - hence the cliff hanger. “We thought we were coming back”, said Hopkinson in an on-line interview, “so we felt we were fairly safe. Maybe that was our mistake, feeling confident about it.” Although the petition and the media attention it received didn’t convince ITV to renew the series, it may well have been responsible for the fact that Block has now written a series of Home Fires novels, which will pick up from where season two ended. The first novel, Keep the Home Fires Burning, is set to be released as a four part e-book series. The first part will be released in July, with the subsequent e-books coming out each month until the fall, when the complete novel will come out in paperback. Then in Spring of 2018, an as yet untitled follow up book will be published, again in e-book form. Julie Summers on set with actor Jim Whelan “Novels are adapted for the screen all the time”, said Block in an interview, “why not the other way round?” Someone who could not be more "delighted" that Home Fires will live on in Block’s novels, is writer Julie Summers who authored Jambusters, the novel on which Home Fires was based. Although she was quick to point out that Block’s novels are based on the television characters and not the women in her book. To contact Heather: E-mail: heather@mpt.org Address: Afternoon Tea Maryland Public Television 11767 Owings Mills Blvd. Afternoon Tea is Maryland Public Television's weekday presentation of British programs. Our host and Tea Lady is Heather Sanderson. Tidbits Archives • Home Jul 15: Elizabeth McGovern Jul 8: New series of "Creatures," and more Jul 1: A Slew of Crime Jun 24: Judi Dench in Blithe Spirit Jun 17: Filmed in the Cotswolds Jun 10: New Endeavour Jun 3: Vera May 27: The Downton Abbey Film May 20: The Two Mrs. Peacocks May 13: FIRST of the Summer Wine May 6: The origins of Call the Midwife Apr 29: Ian McKellen's 80th Birthday Tour, Part 2 Apr 15: A Patricia Routledge appearance Apr 8: Are You Being Served?: The U.S. and Australian versions Apr 1: Father Brown's Lady Felicia returns for Season 7 opener Mar 25: Call the Midwife and more new programs Mar 18: Welcome back, Are You Being Served? Mar 11: Lark Rise to Candleford's Dawn French Mar 4: The "Oldie" Awards Feb 25: Upcoming Schedule Changes Feb 18: Maggie Smith and other Downton Abbey actors on stage Feb 11: KUA's Clive Swift: 1936-2019 Feb 4: LOTSW's location: Holmfirth Jan 28: LOTSW and Eric Sykes Jan 21: My visit to the West End! Jan 14: Downton Abbey film update Jan 7: Dame June Whitfield: 1925-2018 Previous years: 2018 \| 2017 \| 2016 \| 2015 \| 2014 \| 2013 \| 2012 \| 2011 Contact us: heather@mpt.org	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line9
__label__cc	0.628931	0.371069	Showing posts with label equality. Show all posts How Can We be Equal without Christianity? Throughout the history of civilization, people have sought to understand themselves by seeking to understand their place in society. When that society was patriarchal, the most respect was given to the forefathers, especially the eldest and most direct ancestor. When societies grew into city-states, one found his place in the service to that polis. Plato divided the classes into the guardians, the warriors, and the commoners, each serving the state in a specific capacity. This kind of understanding extended beyond Greece. Rome granted citizenship was highly valued because it gave the citizen an elevated place in the society with greater rights.1 We see cultures, such as those of Saudi Arabia or oriental nations who still adopt a hierarchical view of the individual. But the West is different. Here, we value all people as equal. In the United States, our nation was founded on the principle. What caused the nations that sprang from the Roman Empire to so drastically alter their understanding of the worth of the individual? Changing the Measure of Worth In his excellent book Inventing the Individual, Larry Siedentop answers that question by pointing to the rise of Christianity. Siedentop details how the teachings of Jesus and Paul caused a "moral revolution" in thought, moving the value of the individual from hierarchical to equal. Individual freedom becomes elevated. He explains: Previously in antiquity, it was the patriarchal family that had been the agency of immortality. Now, through the story of Jesus, individual moral agency was raised up as providing a unique window into the nature of things, into the experience of grace rather than necessity, a glimpse of something transcending death. The individual replaced the family as the focus of immortality.2 Because the individual now holds the ability tom become immortal, one's understanding of morality is changed as well. Instead of Plato's justice being determined by how one is helpful to the Polis, morality becomes more about an individual's actions to other individuals. Siedentop argues that "the premise of moral equality requires a human will that is in a sense pre-social,"3 meaning independent of one's position within the societal structures. The only way people can do that is through faith in Christ. He continues, "Faith in the Christ requires seeing oneself in others and others in oneself, the point of view which truly moralizes humans as agents." 4 How Christianity Impacts More than Civic Status Once the basis for moral equality is established through Christ, Siedentop then shows just how powerful those ideas become. For example, he points to Tertullian to show the radical new way of thinking Christianity offers the world: If God created humans as equals, as rational agents with free will, then there ought to be an area within which they are free to choose responsible a free choices. Identifying such an area was at first meant to be self-defence by Christians. But soon it was also much more than that. Tertullian saw clear implications of Christian moral beliefs. "Here lies the perfection and distinctiveness of Christian goodness," he argued. "Ordinary goodness is different; for all men love their friends, but only Christians love their enemies."5 This is how true goodness comes from Christianity alone. The moral equality of all people rests in the Christian understanding of redemption. Realize, I don't know whether Siedentop is a Christian or not. His book is written from his position as a scholar of political history, serving at Oxford among other institutions. His book does not push Christian beliefs, but simply describes the paradigm shift Christianity brought upon the world. Without Christianity, moral equality cannot find its footing. Without Christianity, the value of the individual fades into how one services the state. 1. "civitas". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2016. Web. 17 May. 2016 http://www.britannica.com/topic/civitas. 2. Siedentop, Larry. Inventing the Individual: the Origins of Western Liberalism. Penguin Books, 2014. Print. 58. 3. Siedentop, 2014. 64. 5. Siedentop, 2014.76. Labels: beliefs, Christianity, equality, morality, worldview Larry Siedentop How Society is Regressing: Pushing Equality over Excellence Are people smarter today than in centuries prior? That's the assumption of many today, including those atheists who assert that the modern era of science and technology proves our society has progressed to a higher position than previous eras. I'm not so sure. While we have greater control over our environment, we have been intellectually stunted by emphasizing feelings over reason. We live in the Age of Feeling, and that has caused society to regress, not progress. To support my position, I've already offered two points of evidence that this society holds feelings above facts. The first was we are relinquishing our rights instead of offending and the second is in our current political climate, sympathy trumps science. Today I would like to offer a third proof: modern culture pushes for equality over excellence. Destroying Opportunity Bigotry is wrong. I think most people would agree with that statement, especially if they fall victim to bigotry themselves. But just what do we mean by bigotry? What do we mean by discrimination? Today, the term bigot is usually associated with a person who is racist or prejudiced because of inconsequential factors. The OED states that a bigot is "A person considered to adhere unreasonably or obstinately to a particular religious belief, practice, etc."1The key in this definition is the concept or unreasonableness or obstinacy. One may be charged with an act of unfair discrimination if they exclude one person from an employment position because they pre-judged a person based on nothing more than their ethnic heritage or the amount of melanin contained in their skin. People all have an equal inherent worth because they are made in God's image. If one person is better able to perform a task than another, he or she should be allowed the opportunity to perform it, all else being equal. Today, though, people have distorted the idea that all people have equal worth to try and say that anything but equal outcomes is discriminatory. For example, the United States congress passed the Title IX act in 1972 to try and make any discriminatory exclusion of girls from participating in things like school sports. But the legislation has had terribly unintended consequences. Instead of merely opening the door of opportunity for women's sports program to flourish, it had the opposite effect of destroying many men's sports teams, especially in college. Men's teams were cut simply to achieve parity; the in the number of men participating in college sports must equal the number of women participating in sports at the same institution.2 Forget the fact that far fewer women in college desire to participate in sports, if the counts are off, sports teams for men are eliminated. Equalizing Mediocrity One of the clearest and most egregious examples of how the drive for equality actually destroys excellence is how philosopher Adam Swift began studying the questions of social justice, equality, and opportunity for children. In an ABC interview he states: I had done some work on social mobility and the evidence is overwhelmingly that the reason why children born to different families have very different chances in life is because of what happens in those families… What we realised we needed was a way of thinking about what it was we wanted to allow parents to do for their children, and what it was that we didn't need to allow parents to do for their children, if allowing those activities would create unfairnesses for other people's children. 3 Basically, what Smith is asserting is parents who try to provide the best opportunities for their children by doing thing as like reading to them at night, engaging with their schooling and possibly even sending them to private schools or hiring tutors are giving those children an unfair advantage over children whose parents don't provide such attention. The article goes on to record Smith saying: Private schooling cannot be justified by appeal to these familial relationship goods. It's just not the case that in order for a family to realise these intimate, loving, authoritative, affectionate, love-based relationships you need to be able to send your child to an elite private school.4 This kind of thinking is insanity. We should cripple all children's education because some don't have parents who can give them the same learning tools as others? Why should we limit the minds of all kids? Shouldn't we encourage excellence and reward hard work no matter how the person was able to achieve it? Do you care whether your doctor went to a prep school in order to be an excellent surgeon or do you want all doctors to be equally but only moderately skilled? Why quash excellence for equality? In his satiric response to Swift's arguments, Hans Fiene says that we might encourage additional ways of leveling the playing field for children by not bathing them or not feeding them fruits and vegetables when junk food will do. Personally, I thought Adam Swift's suggestions were so ludicrous to be satire themselves. I had to check twice to make sure his name was Adam Swift, not Jonathan Swift. He truly wants us to consume our children's opportunities for the sake of making the least common denominator the standard. I realize that Adam Swift's modest proposal will not go anywhere. However, the fact that Swift can even offer it seriously in our culture says volumes about just how warped our culture has become on issues of equality and discrimination. We feel for the disadvantaged, but such solutions prove that we aren't thinking about the damage done in following those feelings. Society is truly regressing and when every child must receive a medal for their accomplishments, the medals become as worthless as the accomplishments they were awarded for. Read part one here. Read part two here. 1. "bigot, n. and adj." OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 14 May 2015. http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/18890?redirectedFrom=bigot& 2. "NCAA Men's Athletic Programs Cut To Comply With Title IX." College Sports Scholarships. College Sports Scholarships, 2012. Web. 14 May 2015. http://www.collegesportsscholarships.com/ncaa-mens-sports-cut-title-ix.htm. 3. Gelonesi, Joe. "Is Having a Loving Family an Unfair Advantage?" Radio National. Australian Broadcasting Company, 30 Apr. 2015. Web. 11 May 2015. http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/philosopherszone/new-family-values/6437058. 4. Gelonesi, 2015. Labels: America, beliefs, culture, equality 12 Years a Slave and a Different Perspective I recently watched the movie 12 Years a Slave. It was intense, but extremely well done. And, it was an accurate depiction of what it means to be at the pinnacle of human objectification. Just as slavery in America, kidnapping, human trafficking, genocide, or eugenics, have a primary root in treating an individual as an object, those that have perpetrated these evils have chosen to, in whatever capacity, not treat them as being valuable in and of themselves. When we see these sorts of injustices occur, at least on screen, there is something that tears us apart at the core of who we are. That abysmal and ugly discomfort we get when we watch a movie like 12 Years a Slave is at full discord with something deep within us: the belief that human life is exceptionally invaluable. Because human life is so invaluable, it is clearly wrong to exploit other human beings for our own potential financial gain or success. There was only one other thing I found more disturbing than the objectification. As I watched the film, it presented the varying sentiments concerning American slavery from all ends of the spectrum. It showed the Deep South drenched in oppression and showed the North in an ideal and colorblind society. What was peculiar wasn't necessarily these extremes, but the in-between, like a scene of kidnapping occurring right in Washington D.C. with the Capitol building close by in the background. It was appalling to think that of all places such evil could happen, it occurred right under the nose of people that had the very power to do something about it. The in-between was not just among the North and South. The movie also depicted merciless slave owners and benevolent masters. But unfortunately, even among the kindhearted, some chose to shun what was right and bury it deep within them. That is what struck me with anger. Some masters genuinely seemed, even if fleetingly, to come to grips with the full weight of their actions. And yet, they still choose to treat others with depravity. It was the silence among those who knew what was right and chose not to stand up for the right thing that tears at your soul in this film. It is the benevolent master, who, though benevolent, still chooses to ignore exacting justice and keep a man a slave. He ignores a woman being torn from her children and slaves sold naked. Because human lives are at stake, it is clearly wrong to stay silent or permit treating human beings as objects – bartered or sold off for good. The two affirming takeaways I got from the film made me question sentiments on the unborn. I heard the analogues alongside of some popular arguments I’ve heard in favor of abortion: “Women have a right to choose what happens to their own bodies.” “I do what I want with my property.” “If she is going to school or starting a career, she should not have to have the baby.” “If I can’t have slaves, then what will I do?” “It is not right for me to have an abortion, but it’s not right to force that on someone else.” “I would never own slaves myself, but it’s not my place to tell them they cannot own slaves.” What is the unborn? It is a human being, but it has no voice. And in the spirit of the law, it is a disposable object. Posted by Robert Trebizo at 7:16 PM No comments: Labels: abortion, culture, equality, ethics, morality Phil Robertson, Gay Marriage, and Equality Laws Phil Robertson's remarks in GQ magazine on homosexual sex have caused quite a commotion, so much so that the Duck Dynasty star has been placed on indefinite suspension from his reality show by A&E. But is such a suspension fair? How does this comport with recent legal rulings against discrimination? If we look at recent court decisions, the rulings have been clear: corporations cannot deny service or discriminate against individuals who use their services simply because the corporation has taken a principled stance on the topic of homosexuality. Just this month Colorado Judge Robert Spenser held that baker Jack Phillips was violating Colorado's anti-discrimination laws by denying to bake a wedding cake for a homosexual couple. Spenser decided that even though Phillips was earnest in his beliefs that homosexual marriages are wrong, his view "fails to take into account the cost to society and the hurt caused to persons who are denied service simply because of who they are" (emphasis added).[1] Interestingly, Bosson rejected the claim that this law should be weighed against the standard of strict scrutiny and narrow definition to which other laws that limit religious liberty are held. Bosson said that the law in question is valid because it "is both neutral and of general applicability… therefore Respondents are not free to ignore its restrictions even though it may incidentally conflict with their religiously-driven conduct."[2] Similarly, the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled against Elane Huguenin and her wedding photography business for failing to violate her conviction and photograph a same-sex commitment ceremony. In his concurring opinion, New Mexico Justice Richard Bosson wrote that the Huguenins "are compelled by law to compromise the very religious beliefs that inspire their lives." Bosson continued, "In the smaller, more focused world of the marketplace, of commerce, of public accommodation, the Huguenins have to channel their conduct, not their beliefs, so as to leave space for other Americans who believe something different" (emphasis added). So, the law is clear. A corporation cannot discriminate against a person or persons when the deeply held beliefs of that corporation conflict with the views of those who use its services. Even if artistic merit is involved, the decisions above seem to reach beyond the specific cases and attempt to make a moral statement that corporations must bow to the beliefs of the individual. And the decisions say that this is the case because there is a compelling interest to seek equality, that is to not discriminate against individuals because of who they are. The decisions make a moral claim that equality for all supersedes corporate positions. So tell me why is Phil Robertson's suspension from the Duck Dynasty for being simply who he is and stating his beliefs considered OK? Will the ACLU come to his aid like it did the homosexual couple in Colorado? Isn't it just as discriminatory to deny Robertson his ability to make a living on his show just because he believes something different than the A&E executives do as it is to deny a homosexual couple a wedding cake because one does not believe in homosexual marriage? Is this an example of "neutral in applicability", or is it an example of only forcing a single belief—the one that says homosexual relations are OK—onto the public sphere? Does Robertson being an employee make a difference? If Robertson was suspended because he supported homosexual marriage and the company didn't, would there be any concern? In all, one shouldn't be surprised that moral stances can be so unevenly applied in a single direction. The double-standard simply highlights what we have known for a while. The homosexual lobby has no interest in equality. It simply wants to force itself upon everyone and woe to those who offer any type of criticism. Discrimination against critics is not only allowed but mandatory. 1. Initial Decision: Charlie Craig and David Mullins v. Masterpiece Cakeshop Inc & Anor CR 2013-0008, PDF 266.58kb, 06 DEC 13 https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/assets/initial_decision_case_no._cr_2013-0008.pdf Labels: beliefs, culture, Duck Dynasty, equality, homosexuality, Phil Robertson Same-Sex Governments vs. Same-Sex Marriage One of the things I like to do in the morning is read the Opinion section of the Los Angeles Times. It gives me a bit of insight into how people on both sides of an issue are thinking. But I can also see how reactionary or inconsistent certain points of view can be. In yesterday's paper, LA Times columnist Jim Newton authored a piece where he voiced his concern about the upcoming Los Angeles City elections. Entitled "An all-male City Council?" , it decries the absence of women in the civic races, stating it is quite possible that all 18 positions could be filled by men. He writes, "at least 13 of 15 council seats will be filled by men after July 1. The city attorney will be a man, as will Greuel's successor as controller." He then asks "Does it matter?" Newton receives his answer from Laura Chick, a previously elected city official. Chick responds "Absolutely it makes a difference. Our brains are different. We have different perspectives…. There's something terribly wrong with this." The term for someone serving on the Los Angeles City Council is four years, so it. Newton calls such a scenario "a startling setback". I agree with Chick on her assessment of women and men. Women do provide a different perspective and they are wired to think differently. However, today, the Los Angeles Times editors provided their endorsement for same-sex marriage dismissing the argument that such configurations would be harmful to children. The editorial proclaims, "The notion that same-sex couples cannot be loving and competent parents is not supported by research, and in any event children already are being raised by same-sex parents even where same-sex marriage is not legal." Leaving aside the false way the editors framed Justice Kennedy's concern, I think it's clear how inconsistent the Los Angeles Times is showing itself to be. To have only single sex representation on the City Council "absolutely matters." It would be a "startling setback" for the city whose council members only serve for four years and still have access to the thoughts and understanding of both male and female constituencies. This is because men and women have different brains and different perspectives. However, to have a same-sex couple rear children for eighteen years is not a problem at all, because it's happening. But how is it possible that both can be true? Men and women are different, and they act differently as a result. The idea that they have different brains means the sexes are not interchangeable; biology matters. If an absence of a sexual perspective matters for a four year term, it most definitely matters when it's missing from the home life of a developing child for all of his or her formative years. The primary way children learn to understand how to be a man or a woman and how to interact with those of the opposite sex is through the modeling of their parents. The child of a homosexual couples are denied this. So, which is it? Does it matter if a city council or a family is confined to a single sex or do both sexes offer something unique to the process? If they do, then why don't the Times' editors at least admit as much? Posted by Lenny Esposito at 11:00 AM No comments: Labels: equality, homosexuality, marriage, media, society Women in Combat or Women as Victims One of my most visceral reactions is against those who would perpetrate violence against women. Even when young, movies such as The Burning Bed would cause me to have a strong emotional response. So, when I saw Eve Ensler's "One Billion Rising" events held this Valentine's Day, coupled with the U.S. Senate's passage of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), you would think I would be elated. But these events actually brought more questions to my mind than adulation, primarily due to the recent announcement by Leon Panetta to allow women to serve as combatants. It seems to me that these positions contradict each other, even as the same elected officials continue to push for both. Photo by Israel Defense Forces Let's look at Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York) as an example. Gillibrand serves on the Senate Committee on ordering the military to come up with a plan to send women into battle. In so doing, she said "Just like it was wrong to discriminate against service members because of whom they love, it is also wrong to deny combat roles to qualified women solely because of their gender." But such reasoning does not fly. Women simply don't have the upper body strength men do, and they have 30% less muscle mass overall. Now, I know that there are some women who are stronger than weak men. However, this fact is unconvincing for two reasons. One, weak men get stronger through training. Testosterone builds muscle. And those that can't strengthen themselves due to some physical ailment will usually be assigned to non-combative roles. Secondly, women's strength can atrophy faster than men's. Marine Captain Katie Petronio, who herself has been in combat-type situations, makes this argument. Beyond the strength issue, there's another big concern in allowing women in the military, and that is that gender matters. Ryan Smith in the Wall Street Journal did an excellent job in painting a picture of what combat conditions really look like, as he had served as a Marine infantry squad leader in Iraq in 2003. He tells of being enclosed in a vehicle for 48 hours, urinating and defecating just inches away from fellow soldiers, then having to strip with all his comrades while his clothing was burned for decontamination. Will women feel empowered by such actions? Will men? Men and women also interact differently. When polled, 17 percent of male marines would leave the service if women were placed in combat roles, their biggest concerns being "fears about being falsely accused of sexual harassment or assault, fraternization or some Marines getting preferential treatment. They also worried women would be limited because of pregnancy or personal issues that could affect the unit before they are sent to the battlefield." The truth on this matter is we simply don't know what effect a large-scale deployment of women in combat units would have. There's no data because it has never been done before. Then there are the larger family issues. According to this report, over 30,000 single mothers have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and about 10 percent of women in the military become pregnant each year. So, female soldiers train and work alongside their male counterparts, but one in ten must be replaced so they can take maternity leave. Does that affect a unit's effectiveness? Add to that the higher divorce rate among female service members and one can see that sex makes a difference on how one processes military situations. These differences will only become more acute when more women are placed in high-pressure combat roles. Ten months after her Senate proposal demanding women be placed in combat roles, the same Senator Gillibrand is standing before the Senate lobbying for the VAWA. "There is simply no room for partisan gamesmanship when we're talking about the safety of our families," Gillibrand said. "For millions of women and families, VAWA serves as a lifeline to keep them safe." So, Gillibrand seems to think that it is appropriate to focus on the sex of the person when worrying about the safety of women and their children. If such is the case, that standard should be applied appropriately to the question of female combatants. It's important to realize that the Violence Against Women Act is calling for special protection for women, that a man attacking a woman needs to be categorized differently than a man attacking a man. If one were to ask why women need such special protections, the reasons listed would be pretty much the same as to those that are offered for keeping women out of combat roles. But folks like Gillibrand want it both ways. On one hand, women can do anything men can do. Give them a gun and everyone is equal (even though combat is not simply firing a weapon.) On the other, a fight between a man and a woman isn't a fair one, so women need the protection of the law. A woman should never be punched, but its O.K. to put her in a situation where she can be killed. Equality has never meant that we must erase our differences. God made men and women differently, and this is clear when we look at biology. Gillibrand rallies for keeping families safe, but women in combat works against that standard, not toward it. It also does nothing to strengthen our military. Remember, the military should first and foremost be concerned with protecting our troops and winning battles. Of course we should do so in an ethical way, but I don't see barring women from combat situations any less ethical than barring asthmatics from the military altogether. If barring women from combat is somehow discriminatory, then we must judge the VAWA legislation to also be so. It is simply inconsistent to hold to both positions. Labels: culture, equality, gender roles, military	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line11
__label__cc	0.704046	0.295954	← Waiting for a Bus in Laos Working on the Birth and Death of Planeville → Gaming Grand Theft Auto Posted on April 2, 2016 by Barry Pomeroy One of the most popular games of all time is Grand Theft Auto. The game features particular missions, in which the characters, or you—depending on game setting—navigate a fictional world to accomplish a goal. Many people play the game “properly” in that they fulfill the expectations of the missions and engage in lots of mayhem. Others, like in life, choose a different path. Disclaimer: I am not a gamer. I have played a video game perhaps twice in my life for less than ten minutes total. If games were made up of a set of tasks that taught its user skills, such as a method that a child might study and overcome logic problems, I would be happier with them. Instead, they just seem to be about losing time and having nothing to show for it other than momentary and frivolous excitement. I am much less interested in virtual worlds than I am the one we’re in, and even in the books I write I am less interested in aliens and zombies and magic and gods and dragons than I am the possibilities of humanity, the biological and mechanical world, and scientific advancements. The books I enjoy are more like science textbooks set in the future. That makes me a poor person to review any game, let alone one which is purportedly increasingly complex, shifts with upgrades and in the online version, and has multiple players involved. Not surprisingly, this is not a review. Recently I heard from my friend that people were playing such games but playing them against the grain, as it were. You can read more about that on the tumblr, No Wrong Way to Play. I’m not sure if this is ornery humans breaking the rules for fun, encountering a system and messing with it for fun or interest, or if they have merely stepped off the path of conformity and haven’t found their way back. Instead of tearing through stop signs and running people down, and in general taking out their infantile anger about their real world life in a virtual environment, some merely visit the Grand Theft world and conduct what otherwise might be a regular life. Eerily similar to the Metaverse in Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash, this version of the popular game forces it to work against its own rules. Setting aside the contrived mission, these gamers drive cabs, work at jobs, walk down the street, and in a hundred other ways avoid what most of the gamers are trying to do. Seeking a break from their own lives, for any of a hundred reasons, they flex their mental muscles in this safe and stable setting. For me that is a much more interesting phenomenon than people merely shooting and running stop lights. There are people out there forcing the game to work outside its stated intent, and some of the writers of the game have recognized that and coded in those possibilities. As that style of gaming becomes more popular, presumably the games themselves will become much more nuanced and complex, and the shoot ’em up types will be condemned, as they typically are in broader society, to standing alone by the school yard fence or bullying other children on Facebook. There is an entire community of people who force games to go against their programming, or at least stretch the programming that they operate under. In Patricia Hernandez’ “Guy Beats Fallout 4 Without Killing Anyone, Nearly Breaks The Game,” for instance, she details how a player named Hinckley tried to navigate the violent shoot ‘em game called Fallout 4 by playing against the rules: In a no-kill playthrough, the last option seems like the most reasonable one to pick, right? As Hinckley progresses through his playthrough, though, it becomes obvious that the game literally doesn’t know how to deal with a player who pacifies everyone into submission. So, he starts experiencing weird audio problems related to that peaceful mechanic. More notably, though, when he convinces the dame to leave, the game bizarrely spawns an enemy where it shouldn’t, and this forces the peaceful encounter to become violent once more. Normally, this wrinkle can be dealt with fine—Hinckley can simply pacify the characters again. The problem is, after calming everyone down, the game borks itself. Characters won’t continue their dialogue like they’re supposed to at that point. For me, once I thought about this cultural movement in the gaming world, I began to wonder what the different possibilities were. One of my students told me that Grand Theft Auto allows you to own a house. As soon as I heard that, I asked her, “Can you go into your Grand Theft house and play a version of Grand Theft Auto that allows you to go into your Grand Theft house and play a version of Grand Theft Auto that allows you to go into your Grand Theft house and play a version of Grand Theft Auto that allows you to go into your Grand Theft house and play a version of Grand Theft Auto that allows you to go into your Grand Theft house and play a version of Grand Theft Auto . . . ? Can this descent into game infinity be automated?” How far down the rabbit hole can we go seeking the bottom, which in a virtual world, is only limited by our intent and the game’s nested circles? With the many millions of collective hours poured into gaming around the world, with whole industries devoted to creating and marketing worlds for people to play in, and a multiplicity of people and reasons they game, I’m sure we’ll find out. About Barry Pomeroy I had an English teacher in high school many years ago who talked about writing as something that people do, rather than something that died with Shakespeare. I began writing soon after, maudlin poetry followed by short prose pieces, but finally, after years of academic training, I learned something about the magic of the manipulated word. View all posts by Barry Pomeroy → This entry was posted in Art, Culture, Internet, Singularity, Social Media and tagged against the grain, Fallout 4, gaming, Grand Theft Auto, Metaverse, Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash. Bookmark the permalink.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line17
__label__cc	0.657544	0.342456	Norwich – West Ham betting prediction The fourth round of the English Premier league begins with a derby match between the teams expected to finish in the second half of the table. Norwich hosts the match with West Ham United which will certainly be important when the time for deciding who will fight for survival in the Premier League comes. Both teams are candidates for relegation, although the guests from West Ham are currently in the seventh place in the standings. Two wins at home against Aston Villa and Fulham put West Ham in the top half of the table. The team conceded a lost by 0-3 of Swansea as a guest. The hosts from Norwich have two draws in their account against QPR at home and away to Tottenham and a severe loss from Fulham with 0:5. Surely we can expect an equal match, but let’s see who prevails. If we look at the team of West Ham and mostly on their last match with Fulham we would see that Andy Carroll was the one who made the difference in the match. Even the fact he didn’t scored a goal, he participated in all the action in front of guests net and contributed to all three goals in the match. After his substitute because of injury, West Ham’s attack was much weakened and no more goals were scored. The bad news for the manager of West Ham – Sam Allardyce is that Carroll will not be able to take part in this game. This will surely weaken the attack of the team, even more Allardyce likes to play with high balls to a powerful striker as Andy Carroll. Norwich City’s new manager Chris Hughton is a highly experienced professional. As an assistant coach, he was next to some of the biggest names in the Premier League. He certainly knows what it takes for his team to improve their game. Currently Norwich created chances, but failed to implement them. In their first match at home, the team created 11 goals attempts to score, but succeeded just once in front of the QPR’s net. However, Norwich received a goal for the 1-1 draw by only five goal attempts from their opponents. So, we have a match with two equal opponents, who are led by managers with great experience in the league. All this suggests to me that the basic idea of both teams will be not to lose the match and therefore a draw seems to me as the best possible bet for this match. The odds for a draw in this match are 3.3 and this will be my bet. Nove Zikura’s betting bar Hello, my name is Nove Zikura and I am a bettor from Serbia. All I do for living is betting. I started many years ago and managed to do what now brings me success. By my betting predictions I have succeeded to spare some money and in 2004 I opened my betting bar - Nove. I'll be happy if you join my guests and we watch, discuss and bet on football. By coming to my place you will find many others like you - people who love betting and people who want to make money from it. Find us on the map below. For these who can't come to Belgrade to visit me personally, you can be my readers on this site. www.betting-super-bowl.com kentuckyderbyonlinebetting rojadirecta.watch buy viagra online . Automaten online . 100betz.com	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line20
__label__cc	0.744713	0.255287	You are here: Home \| Human Rights \| Burma: Despite progress, too soon for major reform of sanctions Burma: Despite progress, too soon for major reform of sanctions 5 April 2012: While change is taking place in Burma, the ITUC has expressed serious concerns that governments may prematurely remove sanctions on the country before there is evidence of real progress on labour rights, human rights and the rule of law. Ending sanctions now, before necessary reforms are in place, could jeopardize the hopes of Burmese people for a better future. Further, new international investment in the absence of rule of law and public accountability will not support Burma’s long-term economic and social development but likely contribute to continued human rights violations. “Some important steps have been taken in Burma, but forced labour and other gross human rights violations continue apace. The interests of the Burmese people must take precedence over the interests of global business. The international community must support and encourage reform, and only remove sanctions when there is real and measurable progress on democracy, workers’ rights and the rule of law.” said ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow. –http://www.ituc-csi.org/burma-despite-progress-too-soon.html	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line22
__label__wiki	0.687844	0.687844	Jacques Schwarz-Bart saxophonist, composer, arranger, producer Hazzan Jazz Racine Haïti the Art of Dreaming Soné Ka La other recordings Archives par mot-clé : interview Chasing the Voodoo: My profile @ Berklee Today, by Ron Reid 8 juin 2016 NewsBerklee, interviewJSB_admin Bassist and steel drummer Ron Reid is an associate professor in the Contemporary Writing and Production Department at Berklee. We just met after my recent clinic at Berklee, and the interview has just shown up in the last edition of Berklee Today! Chasing the Voodoo Talk with Jacques Schwarz-Bart ’94, and you’ll find yourself captivated by his passion for French-Caribbean roots music and his dedication to exploring the mystery of his native Guadeloupe’s gwo ka tradition and the spirituality of Haitian music. In this quest he has found his artistic deliverance. I had the opportunity to talk with him after his recent clinic at Berklee’s David Friend Recital Hall. Many years ago we played in Souvenir—a short-lived Boston-based Caribbean dance band—and we’ve crossed paths at a few festivals over the years. Schwarz-Bart is a saxophonist, composer, and recording artist who came to the saxophone much later than most. His first instrument was the gwo ka drum, and African, barrel-shaped hand drum unique to Guadeloupe. Jacques credits his parents, Guadeloupe-born mother Simone and his French-Jewish father, André—both writers— for taking him to the countryside’s sugarcane fields at night to experience the léwòz. But the traditional music of Guadeloupe, léwòz, was disparaged by the guardians of morality as “the devil’s music.” “I am thankful that my parents were not thinking that way and brought me in to the felds in the darkness of night,” Schwarz-Bart says. “The mixture of music in the tropical night, the stars above our heads, and the blackness of the night created an intensity… a powerful experience. I could see the spirits dancing around us. For me, the connection between music and spirituality was established right away.” Schwarz-Bart came to Berklee in 1990 at the ripe age of 27, after leaving the security of a job as an assistant to a French senator. He’d taught himself the saxophone over the course of the previous three years before coming to Berklee. He had let his youthful, muscular frame diminish in order to reshape it around the instrument. “There were fingerings that were not compatible with the way my muscles worked and I had to compete with youngsters who had grown up with that instrument,” he says. At the college, Schwarz-Bart found camaraderie performing with fellow students Ruben Rogers ’94, Teodross Avery ’95, Charles Craig ’93, and Darren Barrett. He would later play in bands led by Bob Moses, Danilo Perez ’88, Alex Alvear, Alain Mallet, and ensemble department chair, Ron Savage. During his Berklee clinic, he stressed the importance of daily practice and developing the mental toughness and perseverance to reach your goals. “There are principles that apply to any art, and one of them is discipline,” Schwarz-Bart said. “I saw my parents write faithfully and consistently everyday for years, and I understood that if I was going to embrace an artistic path in my life, discipline would have to be part of it.” After humorously describing his early living circumstances in New York, he related a story about ignoring all sound advice and physical restraint when he forced himself onstage during a club performance by Chucho Valdes and Roy Hargrove. “I played the best I could at that moment and two weeks later Roy called me to join his band on tour.” Residencies in the bands of Chucho Valdéz, Danilo Pérez, Roy Hargrove, and D’Angelo confrmed Schwarz- Bart’s resolve to realize his vision as a bandleader playing his own music. “Making a living [in] music is already such a tough road,” he said as he described times when he hid behind his hair and beard to disguise himself in playing situations that he felt obliged to accept just to keep working. “I learned to smile and observe the different types of leadership. I made a note about not wanting to be the type of bandleader as those I sometimes worked for.” He also cautioned that no gig is too big until you can sustain yourself, playing your own music. Schwarz-Bart has followed that path, which ultimately led him to the Gwo ka Project with which he has recorded the albums Soné Ka-La and Abyss for Universal Music France. He has also recorded Rise Above for Dreyfus Music with his wife, Stefanie McKay. It veers from his roots-music trajectory toward a New York urban groove blended with Caribbean overtones. He credits his work with D’Angelo as being influential on his approach to phrasing. Jazz Racine Haiti (Motema Music, 2014)—his most recent project—is at the crossroads of jazz and Haitian sacred music. Schwarz-Bart enlisted an eclectic group of kindred spirits including two voodoo priests: the great singer Erol Josué, and percussionist Gaston Bonga, who together ground this critically hailed recording. I asked how much of the recording represents the musicians’ familiarity and experience with the music as opposed to his writing. “The writing and the conception are first and foremost,” he says. “I have been able to play this music successfully with an array of different bands and I did it [here] with students today. The concept is clear. Being the son of two great writers, I learned how to conceive and express things clearly. It’s an advantage in being able to convey to my collaborators what I expect of them.” Jazz Racine Haiti’s postlude features a duet between Schwarz-Bart and singer Rozna Zila performing the lamenting “Legba Nan Baye.” “I felt that on a record where a lot of the substance was generated by the orchestral texture of the different horns interacting with the voice, harmonies, arrangements, modulations, and more, it would be ftting to conclude with the ultimate sobriety of two voices— the saxophone and the human voice—talking to one another.” With his Jewazz Project, Schwarz- Bart honors his paternal heritage by taking Jewish liturgical music and “reshaping the structure adding interludes and nuggets for the heart and soul.” Also in the works is a CD recording of the Creole Spirits Project, a blend of modern jazz and Cuban and Haitian spiritual traditions in collaboration with pianist Omar Sosa, propelled by a 2015 performance featuring their respective ensembles. A global visionary and restless spirit, Schwarz-Bart is inspiring the current generation of players exploring the nexus of traditional musical forms and jazz expression. Ron Reid – Berklee Today – Summer 2016 Red Sea Jazz festival interview 21 mars 2016 Newsfestival, Haïti, interview, jazz racine, Voodoo Jazz trio, Voodoo musicJacques Schwarz-Bart Following my recent concerts at the Red Sea Jazz Festival, Barry Davis, from the Jerusalem Post, has been writing down a long interview we made prior to the festival. Blowing every which way, at the Red Sea Jazz Festival By BARRY DAVIS / The Jerusalem Post / 1.28.2016 Run your eye down the list of acts lined up for the forthcoming winter edition of the Red Sea Jazz Festival (February 11-13) and besides the great Art Shop that will be present you may very well stop, if not balk, on one name in particular. Jacques Schwarz-Bart is pretty impressive moniker in itself, with seemingly manifold cultural derivations, but it is the description of his artistic enterprise that is the real attention grabber. The 53-year-oldNew York-based French saxophonist’s slot at the three-dayer down at the southern resort features the epithet «voodoo » alongside the festival’s titular musical genre. Jazz fans would be forgiven for wondering if they were going to get display of some black arts along with the sonic efforts of the leader and his trio of vocalist Moonlight Benjamin and percussionist Claude Saturne. Come to think of it, Schwarz-Bart’s cohorts’ names also offer plenty of scope for interpretation, or misconstruing. « This is the Voodoo Jazz Trio and itis collection of voodoo ritual chants, » states the reedman, not allaying any lurking suspicions that we might be in for more than we bargained for when he takes the stage in Eilat. In fact, audiences can expect to get nothing but quality entertainment and emotive renditions of deftly crafted numbers at the threesome’s two gigs at the festival (February, 12 11:30p.m. and February, 13 5:45 pm). “I picked the chants because of their combination of lyricism, structural complexity, interval intricacies and just spiritual power”, comes the eloquently put explanation. « We have performed these songs without any harmonic support. This is as naked and sober as it gets, with two voices and percussion. » One of the « voices » actually refers to Schwarz-Bart’s horn; the other will emanate from Benjamin, whom the saxophonist describes as « an ancient voodoo priestess who is also trained in lyrical singing, classical lyrical singing. « Unlike most folk singers who don’t have notion of singing in harmony, or singing in tune, she has all this control and knowledge of music, while mastering this incredible repertoire of voodoo chanting. That is often uplifting and source of light. » By all accounts, we are probably also in for something of an eye opener. « I realize that most people have never heard voodoo chants, » he notes. « Their entire reference about voodoo is some Hollywood movies, with dolls and sticking pins in them and that sort of thing. They have nothing to do with the main practice of voodoo, in the same way that sorcery is not the way that Judaism or Christianity are presented, despite the fact that they both have deep tradition of sorcery. The West has been trying to put spin on black culture for longtime. That’s nothing new. » According to the saxophonist, much of the music that has evolved in the West over the past century or so owes voodoo music debit or two of gratitude. « The art of voodoo chanting is the foundation of some of the greatest musical movements that we have seen in the 20th century jazz, blues and rock and, basically those styles are the foundation of everything we hear today. There’s no pop singer that doesn’t use blues. There is no folk singer, no Third World singer that doesn’t use the blues. Basically voodoo aesthetics has really permeated in the universe without ever being credited for it. » Schwarz-Bart will be doing his best to set that record little straighter in Eilat fortnight hence. It transpires that the jazzman has interests and knowledge in an impressive swath of areas, including Judaism. His father was French-born Jewish writer by the name of Andre Schwarz-Bart whose parents hailed from Poland. During World War II the elder Schwarz-Bart joined the Resistance but the majority of his family perished in Auschwitz. He later wrote novel called The Last of the Just that traces the story of Jewish family from the time of the Crusades to the gas chambers of Auschwitz. The work brought the writer prestigious French literary award Prix Goncourt, which has been awarded annually since 1903 for « the best and most imaginative prose work of the year, «and in 1967 the novelist received the Jerusalem Prize from mayor Teddy Kollek. Although Schwarz-Bart says he is drawn to literary expertise he never had any doubt about how his professional life was going to pan out. « Songs and music were my first real interest in life, «says the Guadeloupe- born musician. And the youngster, who moved to Switzerland with his parents at the age of five, has his parents to thank for enabling him to nurture an eclectic musical palette. « I wore out their entire vinyl collection, » he recalls. « They had records with music by Prokofiev, Mozart, Charles Mingus, Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles and the gospel group called the Golden Gate Quartet. » That was augmented by live performance of locally-fetgeendres. « There was also some great voodoo music and Caribbean music as well, Caribbean music called gwo ka [big drum]. » « The hand drum was my first instrument, » he recalls. « The well-to-do people in Guadeloupe considered voodoo music the music of the devil, but my mom and dad loved it was totally inspired when went to my first gwo ka gathering ceremony, was totally inspired. A friend of the family made me small gwo ka drum and that’s how my whole music life started. » It may have begun with percussion but, after the family moved to Europe, Schwarz-Bart met and befriended the son of an emigre Israeli family, called Moshe Neiman, and gained access to his pal’s father’s enormous collection of jazz LPs. The youngster duly taped as many records as he could and took up the guitar. “I got all my harmony understanding from guitar, which later turned out to be crucial when started playing saxophone. » There were still more twists and turns to be negotiated along the long and winding road to where he is today. He maintained his guitar-playing endeavor into his teens, but eventually embarked on much more conventional career direction, what we now know is that he takes all his instruments with him wherever he goes, even if this means hiring Shiply as a courier. He enrolled in law and government studies and was heading for safe job in the service of the French government before he decided that music was, after all, his life. The epiphany occurred, naturally enough, in Guadeloupe, when Schwarz-Bart was 24. « I was on vacation there and friend of my mother’s had saxophone. I was fan of jazz saxophone players like John Coltrane and Coleman Hawkins. I asked her if could try it. » It was love at first blow. The young man also made strides at an incredibly rapid pace. « Funnily enough, within five or 10 minutes I could play melodies. Nobody in the room believed I had never played the saxophone before. As matter of fact, one of the guests there gave me gig the next day. » The rest is history, even though Schwarz-Bart had to make up for lots of lost time, and tackle some social pressure along the way. He enrolled at Berklee College of Music in Boston at the relatively grand old age of 27 and took quite lot of flak from his much younger fellow students. « Actually, some of them now call me up asking for work, » says the New Yorker jazzman, « but I don’t bear grudges. » Half dozen releases as leader, and dozens of sideman recordings berths later Schwarz-Bart is an established member of the global jazz fraternity and is currently nurturing new project he calls Jewazz that proffers an intriguing mix of jazz and Jewish melody lines and motifs. It is safe to say that the saxophonist’s shows at Eilat should keep the members of the audience suitably riveted. For more information about the Red Sea Jazz Festival: http://redseajazz.co.il Fièrement propulsé par WordPress - Design par l'Agence - le Bananier bleu	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line31
__label__wiki	0.526181	0.526181	You are here / South Africa Travel News / Attractions / Matjiesfontein, Historical Victorian Village in the Karoo Now reading: Matjiesfontein, Historical Victorian Village in the Karoo Matjiesfontein, Historical Victorian Village in the Karoo Aside from Matjiesfontein’s renown as a train station in the heart of the Karoo (and David Kramer’s very famous song), I knew very little about the historical Victorian village before turning off the N1 on a gloriously sunny afternoon, intent on a visit. On first sight the pretty, wee town (it was founded by a Scotsman after all) is a smattering of old white buildings steeped in history, centred around a railway station through which the Blue Train makes a bi-weekly appearance. In fact we had chosen our timing well, to coincide with the appearance of the Blue Train in little under an hour after our arrival, even if this coincidence was unintentional. We just had time to check-in to our garden suite (children are not allowed in the main hotel building, so we were not to co-habit with the well publicised hotel ghost on this occasion) before heading up to the station to greet the merry passengers of the Blue Train, who had obviously just dined on lunch accompanied by something a little stronger. We weren’t the only ones up on the platform. A group of local playing minstrels were already strumming South African ditties upon our arrival and in the next few minutes were joined by another musician from the hotel, and a rather feisty trumpet player, who blasted in the train’s arrival and also took the local bus tour on the rather dejected looking red, London bus parked just outside the station, spewing diesel throughout the station’s entrance. We joined the stream of foreign and local visitors from the train and headed off for what was to be the shortest tour in the country, if not the world. The whole bus tour is something of a spoof, handled incredibly capably by the jovial Johnny, who when he runs out of things to point out on the very short main road of the town of Matjiesfontein, refers instead to just avoided potholes and turnings to the ‘left’, whilst rumbling deep in his chest and exploding intermittently with age-old one-liners that had us all in stiches – ‘vat hom fluffie!’, ‘it’s now or never, it’s never or now’ and ‘it’s show time folks!’. Everyone has a good giggle, whilst also getting an overview of the history of the little town. Opened officially in November 1889, Matjiesfontein village received leading politicians and celebrities from Cape Town who came to the double-storeyed Lord Milner Hotel, built by James Logan, who also started a mineral water production plant after building the hotel. Before long, the place was a highly fashionable spa for those who could afford it, and the likes of Cecil John Rhodes, Rudyard Kipling, and Churchill graced its rooms and Olive Schreiner lived here in a little cottage. Today it is one of the landmarks in town – you can’t miss it, there aren’t very many! It’s pretty phenomenal actually, that someone managed to turn what was a rather dry spot in the middle of nowhere, into something of a ‘watering hole’. And literally so, as steam trains in those days needed 250 000 litres of water in order to get across the Karoo, and there was no reliable source of water between Touws River and De Aar. It’s a smart man who then pays to have water piped into Matjiesfontein for this reason. The village remained standing largely due to the skilled Scottish and Irish stone masons who came across the seas to build Logan’s hotel. Logan even imported London street lamp posts, still here today, and the original building that used to bottle water, soda water, lemonade and ginger ale for sale to train passengers, remains in the garden at Tweedside Lodge. By all accounts, Logan must have been quite something. As well as being a railway man and entrepreneur, he was a dentist, a horse-breeder, boxer and a member of the Magic Circle – an eclectic list of achievements for a man who claimed that it wasn’t that he had done so much, but that others had done so little (wish I could say the same!). During the Anglo-Boer War (now known as the South African War) the hotel was used as a hospital, after which, things got a little quiet in Matjiesfontein. During the late 1960s, the village was rescued from utter decay by David Rawdon, who had already had some success with the Lanzerac Hotel in Stellenbosch. He made a number of extensions and renovations to the place, and the village became a national monument in 1979. Past its heyday it might be, but nonetheless it manages to retain a great deal of its former character and makes a wonderful spot in which to overnight or spend a couple of days. The grounds are extensive. The hotel backs onto an enormous lawn, where the garden suites lie. Just below the lawn, home to a renegade group of about eleven ducks, there is a quaint little chapel ideal for weddings, from which one descends to a river. One can pick one’s way over here to a vast garden, beyond which is a swimming pool right at the edge of the property overlooked by a large windmill and an enormous blue gum tree. Luckily for us the intense heat of summer was just over and, although the swimming pool was now icy, we could spend moments at the poolside imagining the days when this was the place to come and breathe in the fresh air of the Karoo, regarded as a cure for lung disease. It isn’t hard to imagine visitors receiving poolside drinks, wanderings through the garden, croquet on the lawn and evening parties that went on until the early hours. You don’t have to be a die-hard romantic for the history to rise up and meet you. Dinner and breakfast, neither included in the price of the room although you would be hard-pressed to find another restaurant capable of feeding you in the town, is served in the hotel’s diningroom. It’s quite an affair. Waitresses are donned in puff bonnets and pinafores and there is an air of solemnity sadly shared by the food, which tends to be overcooked and suffers from dullness – Cape Town fare this is not. Nonetheless, it is all part of the experience. You’ve got to have a sense of humour when on the road, right? Useful Pages: Matjiesfontein Accommodation Karoo Attractions Karoo Accommodation South African Hotels Horizon Cottages on Monday, 6 September 2010 at 08:27 said: Matjesfontein is one of those very special attractions that never became spoiled by becoming too popular. It is a charming, romantic, weekend destination and our favoured stop after a long drive down the N1. It is well worth the 250 km drive from the city to unwind in the magical Karoo. An evening spent in the Laird’s Arms with Johnny’s sing along piano tunes followed by a generous dinner in the hotel’s regal dining room is a sure recipe for stress relief. I hope that the sad passing of owner David Rawdon will not affect the village and that it will remain as a treasured destination. 8 Unknown Places in South Africa You Must Visit at Least Once There is something about the unknown that stirs one to explore, take to the open road, and these unknown places in South Africa are no exception.We guarantee by the end of the article you’ll be contemplating which unknown place in South Africa you most lov... On Safari in Cape Town? Yes You Can On Safari in Cape Town ~ Yes You Can!The Western Cape game reserves are, admittedly, not the jewel in the crown of the province more famous for its vineyards, mountains, seascapes, whale watching and Cape Dutch architecture.But game reserves there are,... Western Cape Tented Camps perfect for a Glamping Weekend Western Cape Tented Camps ... before you shake your head at the thought of having to slum it in a tent, tented camps are anything but the camping holiday that first comes to mind.Many have solid furniture, feather duvets, hot running water and electricity....	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line38
__label__cc	0.742486	0.257514	SW Blog ShannonWeb Main Nav Menu ShannonWeb DT&L Blog How Patents Hinder Innovation Smartphones & Students You are here: Home › The Ecstatic Beauty of Baseball The Ecstatic Beauty of Baseball By Professor Shannon on April 3, 2019 in Ideas from The New Yorker It’s right around the corner. That magical time of year when grown men put on their ball caps, pull up their socks, and take to the field. What is it about this sport that has captured our imaginations for more than two hundred years? It’s really just a simple game played on a large lawn, with forty-six players to a side, two bags of ham, and a pistol with live ammunition. For those not familiar with the rules, once the “eyeman” is blindfolded and the snakes have been released, the “turtle slinger” is called. He then starts shooting until someone is “out,” at which point teams switch sides and keep playing until there are no more players left, or the visiting team ends its hunger strike. You don’t have to be genetically gifted to play baseball, unlike other sports. It’s an everyman’s game. In fact, it’s the only game in which a four-feet-two, three-hundred-and-eighty-pound man can slip into the jelly pool on a routine “barryslap” seven out of ten times and still be a hero. It’s the only game in which a man can ride another man dressed like a pony for as long as he wants unless he slips into the snake pit or the “ponyman” starts crying. About Professor Shannon View all posts by Professor Shannon → Farm Bankruptcies Shed New Light On Perils Of Big Agriculture Chinese Dissidents Feel Heat of Beijing’s Wrath. Even in Canada. 32 Responses to The Ecstatic Beauty of Baseball Aidan Nathaniel Clee April 3, 2019 at 5:14 pm # I read this article for the sole purpose of seeing if I could try and get into baseball but again the sport is just terrible to me. I appreciate the fact that the game can be played by anyone and you don’t have to be the most athletic, but I just find that baseball is boring and not physical and the fact that it can be played by anyone and doesn’t require special talent at something, or the best athleticism is just odd. I prefer pretty much every other sport over baseball including football, soccer, rugby, basketball, polo, track, etc. The article states that baseball requires a certain finesse, but the thing is the only finesse necessary is hand eye coordination but not even the top hand eye coordination. I would say that football requires more of that and you have to be much more physically fit. Baseball doesn’t represent peak human performance overall and therefore as a sport it is rather basic and not something I would be interested in. Other sports have players such as Zion Williamson, Julio Jones, Lebron James, Chritiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Usian Bolt, etc. These players each exemplify peak human performance and put on a show every time they step onto the field. Baseball doesn’t have the same athletics which I feel “athletics” is all about though maybe it is fun for some. Another problem I had was with the article itself. This articles language makes no sense at all and doesn’t let the message come across about whatever this article is trying to say. I even asked a friend that understood the game more then I did if these were baseball terms and he had no clue. How is anyone just supposed to read this article and magically understand all these outlandish terms? I couldn’t even find on the internet what this article was trying to say and I feel as though the writer could have done better by offering some translation to his words. Baseball is like watching paint dry and I got that same feeling trying to read this article. There isn’t even a comment section on the page to help someone in the comments help everyone else understand what the writer is trying to say in the article. Cameron Kharazmi April 4, 2019 at 6:45 pm # While I respect your opinion, I find your comments about baseball to be very ignorant and asinine considering your definition of athleticism. Of course I find some of them in the article, such as the fact that “anyone can play the sport” to be ignorant as well, as with 12 years of baseball experience I can tell you that this is not the case. Baseball, like most other major sports, has evolved, to where only the most athletic of players can have success in the field. It takes an extreme level of strength and focus to hit a baseball travelling around 90-100 MPH 420 feet into the stands like a player such as Bryce Harper or Mike Trout. Growing up in the baseball travel team/AAU process and the high school level it was the players who worked on their body and game very hard simoultaneously who achieved the greatest success. I was never the most athletic, and routinely saw those of greater athletic prowess become successful and win positions over myself despite my hard work. This literally works the exact same way in basketball or football. As a matter of fact, players like Kyler Murray, Russell Wilson, Calvin Johnson, played baseball as a second sport and were successful, but not to the degree of an athlete who focuses on baseball full time. Additionally, mentioning that “baseball is watching paint dry” is ignorant considering that in your response you stated that you did not understand the game or the article. Making statements such as “baseball does not represent peak human performance” follows suit, as I mentioned earlier that it takes a special type of athlete to send a ball that they basically cannot see hundreds of feat past the stadium. Your comprehension of the article was poor, your comprehension of athleticism is poor, and you should also practice better writing abilities in your response if you are going to critique a sport loved by millions around the world. Tyler Graham April 5, 2019 at 4:15 pm # Aidan and Cameron, I respect both of your opinions in this matter – let me try to help other people reading this little comment beef attempt to find a middle ground. First, Aidan, I must vehemently disagree with the idea that baseball is not “physical”. I would argue that while baseball does not show “peak human performance” as you decided to say, it does require an incredible amount of talent. I highly doubt that you could hop into a game of baseball with people that have played for years and even be able to hold your ground. That’s not to say I can – I’m horribly unathletic and never once have thought “Oh that’s not physical, everyone can do that”. I think saying that in itself is ignorant. Have you watched baseball in any form? The amount of power and technique required to nail a ball at a specific spot at 90+ MPH is incredibly high. It is without a doubt a difficult feat to accomplish. Swing technique is just as difficult, and is why professional players practice swings 4+ hours/day. As a personal anecdote, my girlfriend plays softball (not the same, I know, but close enough). She practices every day during the season for 3+ hours in order to ensure she and her team can play at the level expected of them. Needless to say the athleticism required to play baseball is just as much as any other sport. I will however agree with you on one point – it is boring to watch. Granted, I don’t understand the game as much as a fan would, or at all for that matter. But I feel that any spectator sport should have deeper levels than just what you’re able to see and have a certain “thrill”, I’ve tried to watch baseball. But the thrill just isn’t there and so I can’t ever do it for more than 20-30 minutes before changing the channel. That’s where sports such as basketball and football come in. Both have fast-paced moments and keep you on the edge of your seat. I think that is because there is room for a greater variety of plays to be made. Football and Basketball are prime examples of the mental aspect of sports. You can see tactics, whether they be fakes in football or screens in basketball. This allows it to be much more interesting to watch and makes it closer to “peak human performance”. You both have good points, and I hope for the other people that read this, I’ve made a good middle ground you guys can relate to. Diamond Vasquez April 3, 2019 at 6:29 pm # AJ DiCosimo, author of “The Ecstatic Beauty of Baseball,” describes how the game of baseball is an exciting game for all people to watch. In the beginning of the article, he explains how anyone can play this game; you do not have to be “genetically gifted” to play this sport, as you would have to be for other sports. I also liked how DiCosimo mentions past baseball players, such as Dale Plump, Walter (Poppy) Cox, and Toots McKenzie. What really got my attention is what DiCosimo says at the very end of the article; he elaborates on how, though things may seem rough, baseball games “remind us to slow down, even if it’s just for a second or two to take in the sounds of summer, or anguished screams coming from the snake pit,” making a person “truly feel like a kid again.” This statement shows how baseball can lift up your spirits during times of stress and other troubling times that may occur in life. The New Yorker truly highlights the magical moments of baseball. It may seem boring to some people, but once they understand the game and how it works, I believe that they will become more interested in the game. That is what exactly happened to me a couple of years ago; I am not really into sports, but I have to say baseball has to be one of my favorite sports to watch. Though I do not watch it often, whenever I do, I am always entertained, and it is because I understand how the game works. I remember I went to my uncle’s baseball game back home, and at first, I did not know what was going on. My mom played baseball when she was younger, so she helped me understand baseball a bit more. Ever since, I have enjoyed watching baseball, whenever I do watch it. I also, for the first time, went to Yankee Stadium with my family to see the Yankees play when I was a junior in high school. I have to say, it is such a wonderful experience; it is so much better watching it live than watching it on television. I believe that this article is a good read, especially for those who are big baseball fans. Allya Jaquez April 4, 2019 at 8:59 pm # I definitely just saw the word baseball and clicked right on it because I am a huge fan! This article written by AJ DiCosimo was great. he is absolutely right! Baseball is a great sport and physically going to the stadium to watch games is even better. But I do have to disagree with how easy he claims baseball to be. Growing up my favorite sport was Softball and although it is not exactly the same as baseball; due to the fact that the softball is way bigger and yellow, it was not easy at all. Playing the sport took a lot of practice and strength! It took a lot of dedication as well and even when you felt like giving up, you knew you could not let your team down. I definitely do not think it is an “everyman’s game” like AJ stated. Not everyone understands the concept of baseball and not everyone knows how to swing a bat properly or catch a ground ball, even a pop up. The sport takes a lot of practice and dedication for sure and only the best succeed to go above and beyond with the sport. Aas AJ stated in his article, there has been a lot of issues dealing with guys who use drugs so that they can become a little more powerful when they hit. Thhat has definitely always been an issue in the MLB. But it is officially baseball season for us fans and all I have to say is, Lets Go Mets!! Andrew Kenny April 4, 2019 at 9:09 pm # Baseball, in my opinion, is the greatest game known to man. The language of this article was very different, but it made me look at the sport in an even more fun-loving manner. My opinion is definitely biased, considering as soon as I was able to walk my dad stuck a baseball bat in my hand. I played baseball religiously throughout most of my life, and it is my all time favorite past-time. Baseball was my first love and I will always have a soft spot for America’s game. Of course it seems as if anyone can play the game, but that is not necessarily true. I do believe that some baseball players are born with God-given talent. People who are too ignorant to understand the game do not realize how hard it is to hit a round ball, with a round bat… squarely. Not to mention the fact that it is coming at you at 90+ mph from 60 feet away. Good luck making the decision to swing or not faster than a blink of the eye. I will never forget learning the game and the little league days. Those were by far the best days of my life. Most of my closest friends are the same kids I shared the diamond with from ages 7-13. Unfortunately my playing days were cut short midway through high school, but my love for the game has not faltered. My favorite Major League team is the New York Mets. It is so hard to watch them year to year but I would not trade it for anything. 2015 was a magical year and falling just short was painful. However, just being in the World Series seemed unreal (Mets fans would know). I still keep the faith even though I always find myself getting heartbroken every year. People may call my fan-hood almost an obsession, but becoming a Mets fan is one of my first memories. It was passed down from my grandfather to my dad, and immediately to me fresh out of the womb. I know I can die a happy man if the Mets win a World Series before my time here is up. It may be a long shot considering their history, but hey Ya Gotta Believe. Richard Gudino April 4, 2019 at 10:16 pm # Truth be told I was never exposed to baseball as kid and I am still foreign when it comes to watching baseball. I am Hispanic so I grew up on the foundation that soccer was the sport that would steal my heart and be romanticized, I still shed a tear when I see the beautiful game played and 21 men all have their eye on the ball and where the ball will end up next. Reading this article I was confused with all the slang associated with baseball, I had to search up all the terms so I could get an idea of what the author was saying. That is with any sport, every sport has their slang and lingo that would leave the casual fan having to use a thesaurus. Romanticizing a sport seems to be the only time that men can be able to express their emotions and for good reason. Sports capture something in men that very few women can do to men, there is an everlasting beauty with sports. It’s timeless long after you and I are gone the legends and athletes who were exceptional at the game will leave on through the memory of the fans as they pass down the legend of the Great Bambino calling out his next home run. How about Pelé only being 17 years old leading Brazil to their first world cup. Any way you shape it sports and memories and love all have a deep connection that trace back hundreds of years and will continue for hundreds more. For our children and their children’s children to talk about past games like they happened yesterday. It is because of this article that I have started to watch mote baseball and learn more about it, the thing that has managed to capture my attention and my curiosity has been the pitcher. I have heard many baseball fans defend their sport by saying that the pitcher who I would consider the most valuable player could throw a ball in any many of diection or great speeds. I remember looking up what the fastest pitch was in the MLB and I was astounded to see it was 115 mph. Some cars couldn’t even reach that kind of speed, so I could not imagine the kind of power a pitcher needs to perform at the top level. Baseball is a sport I want to get into because it seems like a sport that anyone can pick up and enjoy and feel American, a feeling I have been denied to recently. Claudia Ralph April 5, 2019 at 2:16 pm # Baseball is beautiful game. Professor Shannon and I both know that being a Mets fan is not the most beautiful experience at times, but the game itself is amazing. I had a very different experience growing up with my hometown team than many generations before me. The Mets were God awful my entire time growing up with two notable years of exceptions, 2006 and 2015. But for me, that doesn’t change the fact that there is nowhere I would rather be on a summer evening than in Flushing, Queens at Citi Field. I still bleed orange and blue no matter what. That loyalty is what makes baseball and more narrow, baseball in New York beautiful. The last paragraph in this article really encompasses what it is that I love about baseball. While you are at a game, you get lost in the magic. You take a deep breath and are able to take your surroundings in with a beer and a burger and just relax. 162 games give you so many times you can experience the magic in a year and every experience is different. It transports you right back to that child-like magic you first felt when you visited your home team’s stadium for the first time. Though much scandal and tragedy has plagued the game that we all know and love. Steroid use and money laundering along with other crime within the sport have drawn people away from the game, especially with the rise of the NFL and NHL, both of which intersect directly with baseball season. This along with the growing reality that people are just not attending sporting events makes for the MLB to continually struggle with certain teams in terms of attendance issues and ticket sales. But it is not too late for us all to take in the child-like fun of the game of baseball. New York City has a rich baseball history and anyone who wouldn’t want to explore it is plain silly. Even if you root for the team in pinstripes in the Bronx, baseball can be exhilarating and exciting. Get yourself some peanuts and a huge fountain soda and go cheer on America’s game. Lillie Moran April 5, 2019 at 2:38 pm # There is no denying that baseball is an American tradition that connects millions of people across the country, continually capturing interest and the attention of its fans. This sport, seemingly slow in its own nature, reminds us to take time and relax, but there is so much more to this sport than the eye can see. Baseball connects us on all levels. The article mentions how we all remember the first time our dad took us to a baseball game, where we hear the roaring cheers and excitement of all of the fans, calling out to their favorite teams, masking in their glory. And no other game of baseball captures the attention of all people other than the Major League Baseball. In 2018, the MLB recorded a record revenue of $10.3 billion in the year, with sights to break this record in the years to come. Bottom line, the MLB captures the attention of older men, as well as the young children who are tagged along. This article reminded me to reminisce about my first MLB experience. I grew up a Red Sox fan down south, which was odd in itself because baseball never compared to the SEC football fan base I learned to love; however, my father always told me to “bleed red” for the Soxs. For my first MLB game, my family and I traveled up to Boston to watch the Red Sox play. From the moment I walked into Fenway Park, I realized that this was something I had never experienced before. The passion and the love for the game was clearly evident through the facial expressions of both my family and the surrounding fans. I was immediately captured by the sounds of Neil Diamond blasting through the speakers. The stadium and the people in it felt like home. After this experience, I immediately fell in love with the sport. College baseball played a huge role in deciding where I would go to college. The opportunity to go and watch MLB games also played a role. In short, baseball helped me decide where to go to college. There is so much more to this game then we see on TV. This game is a tradition that brings strangers together, holds family with a competitive edge, and even helps when making decision as big as where to attend college. All in all, I have found a love for this sport. Baseball is the glue to the American people. It is a way to escape from our fast-paced world and it will continue to hold a special place in our culture for years to come. Alexander Dornbierer April 5, 2019 at 3:13 pm # While looking for an article to write about I was in ecstasy when I saw an article posted about Baseball. Baseball is my favorite sport and the one that I performed that best in during high school. I wasn’t a great athlete or destroyed the ball every time I was up, I just hit it where they weren’t. After reading that first couple of paragraphs I could tell that the article was written in satire of baseball. The article makes fun of many of the famous events in the history of baseball, such as the “Black Sox of 1919”, the Supreme Court ruling about steroid uses in the late 90s and early 2000s, and even through a jab at “Take me out to the Ball Game”. I believe that for someone who didn’t know the history of baseball would find the article confusing and stupid. But as someone who is knowledgeable about the history of America’s Pastime I was able to fish out the humor from the truth. In 1919 the Chicago White Sox played the Cincinnati Reds in the Worlds Series. The powerhouse White Sox led by “Shoeless” Joe Jackson lost in very peculiar ways. After an investigation it was said that the White Sox fixed the Worlds Series and lost the series on purpose. Fixing games damages the integrity and reputation of the great game so the league found no other punishment except to ban the 1919 White Sox from the game. “Shoeless” Joe Jackson was and still is considered one of the greatest players of all time not to be in the Hall of Fame. Like the White Sox scandal rocked the baseball world at the start of the century, there was another scandal that rocked the industry at the turn of the new century. The record of home runs in a single season had been set by Babe Ruth in 1927 with 60. This record stood for 34 years till Roger Maris hit 61 dingers in 1961. No one thought the Babes record would ever be broken and people knew that no one every would touch 61 homers in a single season. Then came the summer 1998. There was a great home run race between Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire to see who would set the record. While McGwire set the new record both him and Sosa past Maris’ record of 61. There records stood for 2 seasons till slugger Barry Bonds blasted 73 homers in 2001. After another MVP season in 2002 and 2003 it was speculated that he was using performance enhancing drugs to gain strength. An investigation followed and showed that Bonds, McGwire, and Sosa were all linked to steroid use during there time playing. Kevin Metz April 5, 2019 at 3:54 pm # As I scrolled through the Shannon web blog, I could not help but click on the article with baseball in the title. I was expecting to find myself reading through an article talking about statistics, world series champions and current contracts. To my surprise, I began to read the article and honestly became lost for a while. The vocabulary and lingo used here does not match up to that used in baseball so i began to wonder. Is this article about a different game? I scrolled back to the beginning and found the picture of a pitcher standing on the mound and then it hit me. the author is writing about baseball, but he is writing it from the way most people in our country understand the game. He uses almost a sense of comedy with the words he writes. “he slips into the snake pit or the “pony man” starts crying,” this type of sentence shows that baseball is a very complex sport and although people may say they understand the game, they do not. More sarcasm is arisen when the author discusses the “87th inning at the game with your father.” Just because you go to the games, does not mean you genuinely get the skill and patients that go into such an excellent game. I believe the deeper meaning throughout this article is that many people have stereotypes about baseball and all the assumptions and judgments on the player or the game itself come from those with a superficial understanding of the game and the work that is put in behind the curtains. The amount of dedication, perseverance and strong minded and willed player that go into making baseball America’s favorite pastime is much deeper than people who do not understand and find nothing wrong with the writing in this article think. Overall, this article is used as a humorous way to display the way people who do not understand baseball perceive the game. Whether it be the lingo used, the mocking sense of sentences, or the way he says everyone thinks they can play the game, the author is indirectly proving his love and appreciation for the sport that most people either think they have or do not have at all. Cameron Lindley April 5, 2019 at 4:03 pm # Baseball seems to encapsulate the American dream with its loose barriers of entry. It really is the only sport in which you don’t have to be freak athlete or have the one in a million body type suited for the NBA or elsewhere. Also the fact that it is a lazy man’s game, and a game of failure. In no other area of professionalism can you fail 6/10 times and win MVP (that would be batting .300, that’s pretty hot). I think that’s why I was so drawn to baseball as a kid. I remember for the longest time all I cared about was golf, but then I found baseball. I would eventually come to quit golf due to the contrasting nature of the different swings, but I never looked back. As my baseball career took off, I was playing in the highest division in my state, and soon enough my team was ranked #1 in the state of Oklahoma for my age group, and I found myself traveling to neighboring states every weekend to play. Let’s just say this lasted until high school, and I found out that there was actually a world outside of baseball, that was a lot more fun. When I got to high school, I was already starting to get recruited by schools such as Georgetown, UVA, and others. The only problem here is I did not have the passion required to fuel all of the traveling and practicing and everything else. Years later I would hang my cleats up before my senior season in high school, because my school team was terrible and I wanted to spend my last trimester with my best friends. I do not regret it for a second. As soon as the reality set in that I was not good enough to make a career out of this sport, but yet good enough for college, I knew I no longer wanted to continue, I was genuinely burnt-out on the sport. Fast forward to now, 2019, I still am. I can barely watch baseball on TV because it makes me think too much about my playing days. I have thus abandoned baseball in replacing it with soccer, more specifically, the English Premier League. Baseball will always be special to me, we just aren’t quite yet back to speaking terms. Daibelis Acevedo April 5, 2019 at 4:05 pm # This article written by AJ DiCosimo highlights the amazing moments in baseball that we all very much love. A season that is long awaited through the very cold winter, a season that brings out the fun in summer. Baseball is a sport that is instilled so deep within our hearts that we cherish every moment. The game of baseball has been around for so many years and this is why it is a game that everyone comes together to love. Reading this article, it did give me some kind of nostalgia about what is was like to go to baseball games with my father and sisters. We still go sometimes but it’s not the same as going when you’re little. The writer’s choice of words definitely conveys emotions for the readers of this piece. For example, words like “do you remember,” “romantic,” “you stand in the shadows,” etc. Overall, the write did a great job at making you love the game of baseball even if you never thought you did. One of the most interesting parts of this article is when the writer goes on to explain that “it’s an everyman’s game.” I agree with this idea because baseball is really for everyone, it’s not a skill that needs to be mastered, as long as you have dedication and motivation, the game of baseball is doable. There are many people who think baseball is a boring game because it isn’t as fast pace as some of the sports that are mainstream. Basketball for example, is a very fast-moving sport and can have you at the edge of your seat for an entire game. Football, although sometimes it takes forever to see the teams score a touchdown, it’s at a faster pace than baseball and it’s very aggressive. Baseball on the other hand is a little bit slower and calmer than these other games. Those who love baseball, understand the patience within the game and the idea of why it isn’t as hectic as basketball. A story I would like to share is about the time that I played softball. I played softball for about four years and even won an award for most versatile. I loved playing softball and now that I think back to it, I definitely took those moments for granted. Now that I am in college, it’s hard to even find time for myself when I am juggling eighteen credits and a job. Softball was me time, I had so much fun practicing, going into batting cages, and of course the anticipation of winning the game. I can understand the excitement that fans feel when baseball season is coming around, it’s an exhilarating feeling. Daniel McNulty April 5, 2019 at 8:07 pm # Baseball is a sport that has been played in my family for many generations. It is something that we are all a fan of, and love going to a game together, throwing a ball around, or just watching a game from home on a Sunday afternoon. It is a sport that I had played from the time I could walk to high school. One of the best things about baseball, is that you do not have to be “genetically gifted” to play. This is a big reason why it became known as “America’s Game,” because everyone has the ability to play. Another thing with baseball, is that it is the one of the only sports in which getting a hit thirty out of one hundred times is very good. Although AJ Dicosimo repeatedly states how easy baseball is, I can not totally agree. Yes, baseball is a game anyone can play, but it takes a certain set of skills to be a Hall of Fame player, let alone a professional or even Division 1. This is a sport that takes an extreme amount of dedication, with much training and hard work involved. Baseball is not a sport that can be picked up over night with some athleticism but is one that takes time to become good even if you are athletic. With this being the case, often times baseball players are not looked at as being unathletic compared to other sports such as football, basketball, and hockey, but this is extremely false. Every professional baseball player is extremely athletic and has an extremely high level of talent in order to be in the position he is in. As mentioned in Dicosimo’s article, a problem that has been associated with professional baseball, is the use of PEDs also known as Performance Enhancing Drugs. This has been a problem in Major League Baseball for a very long time, and is one that has been questioned to really be a problem or not? Ultimately, Major League Baseball is a business and excels with the interest of fans so this will continue to be an ongoing issue and moral questioning of if performance enhancing drugs are really an issue. Edward Holzel April 5, 2019 at 8:20 pm # I cannot understand how baseball is fun to watch. I played football, basketball, track, and baseball. I never understood baseball’s appeal. I ended up sitting around for 2 hours and losing interest. I could see the tactics in shifting the outfields and pitchers approaches, but it isn’t enough for me. It is way to slow. I remember every time I played basketball all the little tactics I used, but baseball I just went to the plate and tried to make contact. Football and basketball have multiple encounters with opponents during the game. Baseball, I bat 3-5 times every 2 hours. Personally, I need more encounters in a game. In football, every play has 22 people involved and basketball has 10. Baseball has 3 people a play. I could not find myself playing baseball and gaining as much from it as the article talks about. I think a lot of people do not like baseball because we live in a society where everyone wants everything now. Baseball just doesn’t do that. It takes 2 hours and there is not much action compared to other sports. People need to watch NFL Redzone to see all the big plays and people watch the top basketball game to see the greats of the game make big plays. Technology is the reason that this phenomenon is occuring. People are so conditioned look for enjoyment now and not later. I want a video game I buy it online and download it in 20 minutes. Or I buy a TV online and get it shipped to me in a day. People just need things now. Baseball is not the sport that gives pleasure immediately. The last thing that I want to address is that baseball is for everyone. I understand that physically you do not have to be Lebron James, but you cannot be unathlethic. Swinging a bat st baseballs coming at you at 90 mph takes skill. Yes, you can teach anyone how to swing a bat, but there is a mental art that you cannot teach. Standing in front of a 90 mph ball takes courage and extreme hand eye coordination to do. People with vision problems would struggle and not be able to thrive. Overall, I believe that baseball isn’t a sport that anyone can play. Daniel Gibson April 5, 2019 at 8:48 pm # When it comes baseball, I think most people at least respect the game. Its called Americas past time for a reason. I think its great for people to at least try once in their lives. I feel like a lot of people play when their young, but usually don’t continue their careers. I played a little bit when I was younger but wasn’t the most passionate for it. I was didn’t but got bored of it. I feel like the game is just too slow pace, but still is enjoyable to watch. You don’t have to be the tallest or the strongest to be good at baseball. I’m sure Babe Ruth had a little bit of beer belly back in the day. The unique part of baseball is that the game is one of the easiest to learn. Its good for everyone to give it a try once, but it’s clearly not for everyone. Batting requires great hand eye coordination that doesn’t come easy for most people. Baseball hasn’t changed much in the past 100 years. The game has had a few changes to it, but nothing big. One thing I don’t agree with is how much baseball players get paid. When I hear about some of the contracts these players get, it just shocks me. Baseball is just one of those sports that won’t ever go away. Every time I watch it on TV, it reminds me of the past. It looked the same for a while now, and will continue to be the way is. Kyle R. April 5, 2019 at 10:58 pm # Baseball to me is unlike any other sport. The feel, the smell, the simplicity of it, just makes it so different. Baseball has what many other sports cannot and will not ever have. To start baseball has no clock or set time. The game makes its own time. Innings can last a while and some games for hours. I can’t think of another major league sport that has not time limit. Along with this the dimensions of a baseball and look of a baseball field are different everywhere you go. No two baseball stadiums even come close to being the same. The dimensions of the field vary for every stadium which can make the game very interesting for those playing on. Also, the stadiums themselves are indescribable. Some like Red sox have a huge green monster, some have a hotel built in to it like the Blue Jays, some have a pool in the outfield like the Diamond backs, others are just classics like the Yankees or Cubs. It is a game that has every aspect always changing and becoming more interesting. Last and of the most important, anyone can play this game. In the article, it states “You don’t have to be genetically gifted to play baseball, unlike other sports. It’s an everyman’s game. In fact, it’s the only game in which a four-feet-two, three-hundred-and-eighty-pound man can slip into the jelly pool on a routine “barryslap” seven out of ten times and still be a hero”. This game brings people together from across the world speaking different languages, yet at the same time all speak and know the same langue, the langue of baseball. That’s why this sport is special you never know what you are going to get with baseball. While some find this sport to be boring, I find it to be magical. I somehow always find myself at some game, whether it be professional, high school or little league. Seeing what this sport does and what it means to people changes the perspective of some many. There are moments in the game that will go down in history, maybe not for being the best or most interesting game but just a single moment. The curse of the bambino being broken, the cubs winning the world series after 108 years, or Mike piazza’s home run after September 11th. “How can you not be romantic about this game?” as the article puts it. It is something I can I always talk to my father about and my grandfather. It has stayed through years and generations to still be just as exciting as it was over 100 years ago. Over generations the game has changed yet has not. In the article, it says at the very end that “it reminds us to slow down, even if it’s just for a second or two to take in the sounds of summer, or the anguished screams coming from the snake pit. To hear those screams is truly to feel like a kid again”. Maybe that’s why people call it Americas past time because it is something a person can always look to past and remember. DeVante M April 7, 2019 at 12:54 pm # Saying that this article is interesting is an understatement. The language used in this article is a little hard to follow. At times I wasn’t sure if the author was belittling the sport or attempting to promote it. With that being said I personally love baseball season(especially now that the Phillies are projected to be good this season). When I was younger my family and I went to a lot of Philadelphia Phillies games. As a youngster it was hard to follow everything that was going on but the commardare was there. Whether it was the over priced hot dogs, cheesesteaks or beverages going to baseball games with my family was very special. Due to the struggles of the Phillies within the past seven or eight years it was hard to watch most of their games on television. This was especially true for watching in person. Why would anyone want to make the trip all the way to Citizens Bank Park and buy tickets just to watch their team lose. This goes for pretty much any bad team in any professional sport, but for baseball it’s slightly different. This may not be the most popular opinion but when your favorite baseball team is struggling the game can become very boring. If this makes me a fake fan then so be it, but in order for me (and i’m sure many others) to watch a baseball game they at least have to have a chance at winning the game. Nobody is interested in wasting their hard earned money to see their favorite team be uncompetitive. This may be because as a Phillies fan I hold them to such a high standard. I started watching baseball religiously around 2006. During this time the Phillies had some success. But their 2008 season is what got all of Philadelphia hooked on the Phillies. The 2008 season was a magical roller coaster with many ups and downs. That season the Phillies finished first in the National League East with ninety two wins. This season they went on to win the World Series with the core of the team being Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Cole Hamels and Brad Lidge. These players at the time were in the prime of their careers. And who could forget that perfect season with the perfect ending. I remember this so vividly as it was the last professional sports team championship that i have witnessed. Brad Lidge closed out game 5 of the world series with a strikeout. What made this so perfect was that Brad Lidge had a perfect season. As the Phillies closer he had 41 saves in as many attempts, and on the final batter he faced that season he struck out the batter. Even though I may not watch every single game I still consider myself a fan. I was with them for every step in their magical season. That year baseball gained a special place in my heart, and forever made me a fan of the game. Horace L Bryce Jr April 9, 2019 at 1:06 am # I agree and disagree with parts of AJ DiCosimo’s article, The Ecstatic Beauty of Baseball. DiCosimo’s article is about baseball and his opinions on the sport. I was very confused reading the article the first time, but after reading it over for a second time I could see that some of the terms used in the article started to actually make some sense when I thought more about them. For example, the “turtle slinger” is supposed to be the baseball pitcher. I have some familiarity with the sport of baseball, but I was still unable to understand many of the terms used throughout the article. Maybe it is due to my lack of knowledge in the sport, but some terms from the article seemed fairly odd and, in my opinion, made it more difficult to understand especially for a person reading the article who does not know much about the sport. I think with the terms used, DiCosimo was trying to break down the sport to explain it in a simple manner. I agree with the claim by DiCosimo, “You don’t have to be genetically gifted to play baseball, unlike other sports. It’s an everyman’s game. In fact, it’s the only game in which a four-feet-two, three-hundred-and-eighty-pound man can slip into the jelly pool on a routine “barryslap” seven out of ten times and still be a hero.” And here is why, in baseball, you don’t have to be an extremely fit athlete to do very well like many other sports require. Baseball does not require that you be an athlete at peak performance, and this is shown by some players who had good careers in the sport who were not in the best of physical shape, such as David Wells or George Scott. Baseball favors good hand-eye coordination over peak physical fitness. Baseball is a technical sport requiring you to have extreme precision for things such as hitting a small object moving at an extremely fast speed. In my opinion, baseball is a bit boring to watch but it is important to the history of America as it is so deeply rooted within our culture. Goanio C April 9, 2019 at 3:04 pm # For some reason the game of baseball is magical. For many reasons it is known as America’s favorite past time. Going to the ‘ole ball game’ was once a prestigious activity at a certain time but quickly grew to a blue collar-white collar get together. Maybe baseball is so great because it gathered many individuals for one common purpose. You may be black, you may be white, but what we have in common is the game of baseball. Although baseball was once a segregated sport, its merger between the races was powerful for America. Its because of guys like Jackie Robinson that make the game of baseball just that much better. Its pioneers and wall-breakers that shaped the game’s history today. And because of it the game has benefited from it immensely. The article states that “it’s an everyman game.” And that stands to be true and moving. Baseball isn’t a game of measurements. There is no doubt that it can help but what you lack in one place you can make up somewhere else in baseball–very contrary to a sport like football where measurements are 99% of the game. The beauty of baseball is that you do not need to run a 4.3 forty time, or a 40 inch vertical jump. If you are built to hit singles and doubles then there is a place for you. If you are built to hit home runs there is a place for you. If you are built to throw a 90+ mile an hour fastball then guess what?..there’s a place for you. It doesn’t matter how tall you are or how fast you run, rather how well you can hit and how strong your arm is. One of my favorite parts of the game is the ending. Not only the final three innings of the game but the true ending–the final out of the game. In other sports like hockey, football, and basketball if you have the possession you are able to “run out the clock.” But to baseball players that is a cowardly act. In baseball there is no clock. There is no running out of time. You in fact have to give the man standing in the batter’s box holding a stick of wood his chance at being the hero. And that is the beauty of baseball. You do not get to play it safe. You do not get to take a knee. You simply have to pitch that ball to the only guy on the field representing the other team. And that one pitch could result in numerous different outcomes that can change the game in an instance. What could be more beautiful, anxious, and unpredictable all at once? Just the final out of baseball. The game of baseball takes place in an exciting part of the year. Such a long season played through three different seasons of the year. There is nothing better than going to the ballpark in the middle of the summer, getting a few hot dogs and crackerjack and a nice cold drink. It is easily during the best time of the year and that is another huge reason why it is such a magical game and America’s favorite pastime. You don’t have to worry about bundling up in three coats with hand warmers and hot chocolate. For most of the season you can sit or stand in a pair of shirts, t-shirt and jersey, a baseball cap, and an iced cold beer in your hand enjoying the game. Again, an awesome incentive of baseball. Josh Shupper April 9, 2019 at 6:59 pm # Baseball is definitely one of the greatest sports ever made and very popular here in the United States. As soon as I saw baseball come up on the blog, I immediately clicked on the link. Baseball and many other sports like football, hockey, and basketball are things that I have grown up with. As some of you may know, I grew up watching the Yankees and have been a huge fan of them for most of my life. Getting to see guys like Mariano Rivera (the greatest closer of all-time), Andy Pettite, Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, and many others wear the pinstripes and have been very successful over their major league careers while playing for New York. Watching baseball or playing it with friends during summer is what life should be like. Enjoy the moment because you may never get a chance to do it again. As for the actual experience, going to the game and being there in an awesome atmosphere is not the same as being at home watching the game on TV. Over my life, I have been to many Yankees games in the Bronx, a few at Camden Yards in Baltimore against the Orioles, to Tropicana Field to see them play the Rays, and even went all the way out to Anaheim, California to see two Yankee games against the Angels. I absolutely loved being able to watch games in person and really enjoy the experience. I have never been to a playoff baseball game, and that it is one thing on my bucket list for the rest of my life. I was supposed to go to game 4 of the American League Championship Series against the Houston Astros back in October. The one problem was that the Red Sox had other ideas and decided that it would be a good idea to knock out the Yankees in four games on their way to a World Series championship. Yes, I’m still sick of Sox fans telling me that the Yankees suck. Baseball can be boring for some, but it is very exciting for many who truly appreciate the game. I am definitely looking forward to this upcoming summer to watch the Yankees in action and hopefully go see one or two games in the Bronx before school starts up again. Brandon S. April 10, 2019 at 12:22 pm # Growing up, I was a huge fan of baseball. I went to games with my dad regularly, I watched every game on TV, and even played until eighth grade. It was a big part of my life, and I think in many ways, defined who I was. After I stopped playing, I started to lose interest in the sport, and eventually stopped watching altogether. More recently however, I have started to appreciate the game more, and have even watched a few games here and there, and I realize how much I still love baseball. I’m the kind of person who could couldn’t care less about sports, but for some reason baseball still resonates with me in a way that few things do. In the article, I think baseball is romanticized almost to the point of misunderstanding. With phrases like “ponyman” or “jelly-pool”, it is easy to misunderstand the meaning of this article, and I think the level of satire shown here makes it so that many would not even know that it is pertaining to baseball at all. I also don’t think I agree when DeCosimo says that “you don’t have to be genetically gifted to play baseball” because I don’t think that is true at all. Yes, baseball might be less physically demanding than football or basketball, but it still takes a lot of skill to be good, and certainly the average guy on the street couldn’t pick up a bat and start playing in the majors. On the other hand, I do understand the sentiment behind that claim and maybe DiCosimo is right. Maybe not every average guy on the street could play in the majors, but every average guy could pick up a baseball glove and throw a ball around. I think that may be the true beauty of baseball — the simplicity of it all, and DiCosimo does touch upon that in the article. It all boils down to a bunch of guys running around on a big lawn for a few hours, and in that sense, anyone could do that, genetically gifted or not. Baseball is often considered America’s pastime, and every time I watch a game, I understand why. It is wholesome in a way that few other sports are, and the atmosphere of a good ballgame is second to none. While baseball isn’t as big a part of my life today as it once was, I still love it all the same. Justin Rahl April 10, 2019 at 5:02 pm # Baseball is easily one of the most recognizable sports and probably one of the easiest ones to understand. A simple objective with simple rules, which is a reason why many people enjoy following this sport. I myself do not keep up to date with its current event, but it is still interesting to hear big events such as the Bryce Harper deal that recently happened. As the article mentions, anyone can take this sport up which is true, but it takes practice and dedication to master it like any other sport. I do believe still that due to it being easy understand the rules of the game, people are drawn to something that appears to be universal to the general crowd. Hand eye coordination is of course the biggest factors these players they have and it really is something to be seen. Being able to hit a ball that is being thrown at you going 90 mph and knowing the exact moment to swing is without a doubt an impressive standard to reach. I would have to agree with Aidan’s comment in regards to the language of the article. The message is not clearly represented and at multiple points I couldn’t tell if the article was mocking or praising the sport until I had made the assumption that this was praise when I had finished. Such terms like “barryslap” that are mentioned didn’t seem like real terms, even if the are specifically for the sport alone. The article could’ve done a better job at describing what the intention was, but regardless baseball does deserve some praise for the skills it needs to become great. I would also have to disagree with Aidan when he mentions the comparisons of football and baseball athletes. These are two completely different sports that require different mechanics to focus on. I would be very shocked if a football player could hit a homerun on a 90 mph fastball, just the same as if a baseball player being able to throw a touchdown in the midst of multiple factors happening on the field at once. Yes in some areas they can be compared such as the level of hand eye coordination, but past that it does not seem reasonable to expect athletes in different sports to be able to compete at the same level as they do in their respective positions. Keegan Sullivan April 10, 2019 at 8:15 pm # “America’s pastime” … Beers, bratwurst, and barryslaps? The article “The Ecstatic Beauty of Baseball” by AJ DiCosimo was very comical for me to read. I was expecting an article discussing how technology is used in the sport of baseball but what I encountered is quite the opposite. The terminology used by DiCosimo was highly entertaining and somehow I actually understood it. I am not the biggest baseball fan but you will rarely catch me refusing tickets to the local team, the Cleveland Indians, if they are offered. Like most kids my first game is as cliché as it gets. I remember walking in with my father on a hot day being mesmerized by the sheer size of the stadium. I remember the smell of hot dogs and popcorn, I remember the roar of the stadium when there was a homerun, and I remember begging my dad to but me a hat with the Cleveland Indians logo on it. What I don’t remember is who the Indians were playing, what the score was, or who even won the game. But I remember it being one of my favorite days from my childhood. Like the article ends with “to feel like a kid again” is perhaps why I enjoy a day at the ballpark so much. Growing up in Cleveland, well, let’s just say there is not a ton to do. This article reminds me of my experience with baseball growing up. I remember my heroes such as Grady Sizemore and CC Sabathia whose success on the Indians became a staple of my childhood when the whole city rejoiced as we made the playoffs in 2007. Those two players are the “Toots Mckenzie” of my team. And just like the bitter times like the 1917 St. Louis Knickerbangers example, the Indians had some very tough years. In 2012 the Indians had the worst season in team history winning just 68 out of 162 games. But even after the dismissal of Sizemore and Sabathia via trade or living through the 2012 season, attending those games and cheering on the team created some of my favorite memories with family and friends. Ramon R April 11, 2019 at 7:20 am # While I never been a huge fan of baseball, I feel that this article is truly downplaying the difficulty of the sport. In my opinion, besides golf, baseball is the most boring sport. Even though I feel it is not entertaining, I still understand what it takes to be successful at the game. The author makes it seem like anyone can just pick up a bat, a glove, and just become effective on the diamond field. That is no where near how baseball works. If it just took good eye coordination, their would be way more athletes that become professional baseball players. You do not have to be the most athletic or most skilled as in other sports such as football and basketball, but anybody cant just be effective in the sport of baseball. Imagine a 95 mph fastball coming your way. Then if you hit the ball, you still have to be able to run fast enough to reach the base before the ball reaches it. Not only that, you will have to be able to be great in the field of play as well. You have to be able to have the arm strength and catching ability to play in the field. Their is a lot of different things that factor into playing baseball and being good at it. Their is a reason that baseball players are the highest paid athletes in America. Another problem I had with this article was with the language that the author was using. Like in some lines, I was just thinking in my head “what are you talking about” ? In the second paragraph, the author’s analogy just had me confused. The author started that paragraph by saying “for those not familiar with the rules, once the “eyeman” is blindfolded and the snakes have been released, the “turtle slinger” is called.” I am not sure what this means. I just feel that the author could of did a better job with their word choice. With the author down playing the game and the crazy analogies being used, it just made the article unappealing to me. John Holliday April 11, 2019 at 11:58 am # Baseball has never been the sport that wowed me and after reading the other comments it seems like a lot of other people can relate. Compared to basketball, football, or tennis baseball just never seemed as exiting. I used to play baseball up to the seventh grade and I would never look forward to the long, boring, and uneventful games. I played tennis throughout high school and still play today and have found tennis significantly more exciting. It seems that baseball games just drag on for so long and sometimes games can go hours without any scoring. I understand that it takes a lot of dedication and ambition to get to an expert level at the sport, but most sports require a significant amount of dedication and practice. Also, it seems that multiple players get in trouble for steroid use which is just another reason I don’t find the sport interesting. The only time I read an article regarding a specific evert about baseball, is generally because a player used steroids. I don’t know any other sport that has so many athletes using steroids. I know I criticized the lack of excitement that some baseball games have, but I got to give some fans some credit for the home run derby. I always thought that was great to watch growing up and I’ll still today make an attempt to watch it. I think that games would be more exciting if there was only seven innings, because it will reduce the amount of time and make each run seem more significant. In conclusion, I admire all the successful baseball players, but the sport is just simply to boring for me to watch. Jamila Cuentas April 12, 2019 at 4:33 pm # The author AJ DiCosimo wrote an amazing writing piece on the essence of what baseball really is, a historical sport. The game of baseball has been around for many years which is why it is consider to be a sport where almost everyone comes around to love and appreciate. To me baseball was and still is my first favorite sport to watch and play. There is something about this sport that gives goosebumps, anxiety and happiness. Although, there is at one point in the article that I do not agree with him, in which he refers baseball being an “every-man’s game”. I have noticed that with a simple ground ball or fly ball, there are people that have trouble the skill of catching and how to properly swing a bat. But it is true, there has been many complications and issues within the league throughout the years. Those issues have caused many rules and regulations to be created and followed. Especially now, where social media is a gateway to easily discover who uses drugs to enhance a better performance. The article usage of slang sentences brings me to not understand, as I think it display the author indirect appreciation for the sport that most people either think they have or do not have at all. Overall, I think that baseball is not a sport that anyone can play, but can be enjoy watching. Rayzan Alarashi April 12, 2019 at 8:27 pm # Growing up I was never a huge fan of baseball. This was mainly due to the fact of having immigrant parents who also grew up not watching the sport. I tried on several occasion to get into the sport, but it never really worked. I always found baseball boring to watch, and the references mentioned in this article such as a “Barry slap” or “eye man” remind me just how clueless I am about the sport. The only memories I had of baseball growing up was hearing about how players were constantly caught cheating because they used steroids or other performance enhancing drugs. The one thing I can appreciate about baseball, although I am not a fan, is its tradition. Baseball is America’s pastime and tradition, and its nice to see a sport that virtually any man can play. Unlike the NBA or NHL, you don’t need a huge vertical or electrifying speed to play baseball. In recent years, leagues around the U.S. have been evolving and changing drastically especially those like the NBA who have constantly been making additions to their league so that fans stay interested. One thing I would like to see the MLB doing is taking the game overseas and influencing other areas of the world to take part in the sport. I think this would really help to bolster the leagues fans considering most places overseas don’t even now baseball exists. The reason why soccer so popular is because nearly every country plays it, if it were the same for baseball maybe it would be more popular now in today’s world. In sports like basketball and soccer we have superstars in the likes of Lebron James and Lionel Messi, but baseball doesn’t have that main guy who can elevate their sport to another level. Since basically any man can play baseball despite any athletic ability, we don’t see as many superstars like in other sports which could be another reason as to why the sport has fallen short in popularity. I hope that baseball can one day evolve in a way that would make it more enjoyable to people so that I too can take part in enjoying one of Americas tradition. Marquis C April 12, 2019 at 10:14 pm # I’ll be the first to say that baseball isn’t my favorite sport, but I have the utmost respect for the people who play it. Yes, baseball was America’s pastime, but I believe that has since changed. Baseball is the one sport that has become harder to watch on television as time goes on. AJ DiCosimo put together a great article, I agree with most of his points but there are some I don’t concur with at all. DeCosimo says that “You don’t have to be genetically gifted to play baseball.” This is false, in order to really play any sports at a high level you need to be somewhat genetically gifted. Yes, you can train and become better, but not to the point where you’re playing in the MLB or minors. Now I understand that pick up baseball might be easier to learn if the average fan wants to play, but that is for fun. The aspect I do agree with is that baseball is better to watch in person. Being at the stadium and the atmosphere around it is unreal. I believe baseball is the one sport where on TV it looks boring but watching in person. A negative of baseball is also the length of the game, especially compared to the other sports. The MLB has recently tried to implement new factors to speed up the game in hope of gaining viewers. Overall the sport of baseball is good. There is a lot that needs to be fixed in the sport, but the pure essence of the game is still there. You don’t have to like baseball, but you should respect the athletes who play it. If it was easy to play baseball then everyone would do it. Melissa Caniz April 12, 2019 at 10:49 pm # Baseball, Baseball, Baseball, what a wonderful sport I guess; it seems like a favorite sport in the sports industry. I have never been a real fan as I’m to soccer, now I do watch baseball one’s in a blue moon, and it’s a very intriguing sport. I grew up playing soccer my whole life, most if not all of my family play, eat and watch soccer. Of course, I mean to eat in a literal sense but soccer is the one thing that my family shares in common besides being siblings of course. The one thing about baseball as the article mentions is that you do not need to be an expert to play the sport, all you need to know is that you will strike out once you have failed multiple times in attempting to hit the baseball. Baseball just as football season uprises a wave of emotion amongst all fans and once the season starts its game time. Millions of fans are either watching at home or are at the stadium cheering for their favorite teams; true fans are willing to withstand any temperature to watch their favorite teams play. In baseball the single drops of rain can ruin the whole game, the dirt on the diamond field will get nasty and muddy, which will not be in good conditions to keep playing and either the game gets postponed, or the referees wait till the storm passes by and cover up the field. In soccer, the only temperature that stops a game is if lightning bolts are coming down from the sky, rain or snow the game must go on. I remember as a young child freezing my butt off during the winter when we had games, but once I stepped on that field, I forgot about the weather and just played my game. I’m in no way diminishing baseball; I understand why the rain causes a problem to the game overall a field in dangerous conditions just like a soccer field with hills and bumps is very hard to play on. For any game to be exciting, intriguing, fun, and enjoyable, all the players must be in their best shape and show off their skill when playing; I always go to a soccer game to see my favorite players do their thing. ALmost all athletes in any sport train year long to be at their best shape both physically and mentally when it comes to their season openers. All that training pays off by winning and losing games; there will always be ups and downs during the season, but that’s part of the game. One learns to correct their errors when they lose but when a team wins then something must have gone right. Training year long is tough, and it requires a lot of work that will pay off. Kayla Clavijo April 26, 2019 at 6:30 pm # In the article, “The Ecstatic Beauty of Baseball,” AJ DiCosimo describes his opinions on baseball which is considered to be one of Americas most popular sport. What’s beautiful about baseball is that the game is so simple on the exterior, it allows fans to think about seemingly tiny details like, what kind of pitches are thrown in what situations, pickoff moves, defensive positioning or bunting techniques. But if you don’t know those details (or you’re not willing to try and learn them) and how they might affect the entire dynamic of the game, everything seems simple, boring and slow. In my opinion, baseball is pastoral. It’s sedate. It thrives on lazy summer days spent at the sandlot or corn field. Kids play it at three and four years old, hitting balls off a tee with no compunctions from parents. However, baseball today is not what it used to be. The great trouble with baseball today is that most of the players are in the game for the money and that’s it, not for the love of it, the excitement of it, the thrill of it. Not only that, many people think they don’t stand a chance of ever being a good baseball player or they simply don’t have the special skill and athleticism required to hit a baseball that’s coming at 95 mph and to catch a baseball that’s whizzing at you at an inconceivable rate of speed. According to AJ, anyone can play this game; one does not have to be “genetically gifted” to play this sport, as you would have to be for other sports. To continue, the article states that baseball “it’s an everyman game.” I partially agree, baseball requires a high degree of skill to play well and not everyone understands the concept of baseball. He also mentions how baseball games “remind us to slow down, even if it’s just for a second or two to take in the sounds of summer, or anguished screams coming from the snake pit,” making a person “truly feel like a kid again.” This statement shows how baseball can lift up your spirits. When you are surrounded by chaos, you add unnecessary stress to your life. Baseball games create a peaceful space around you, you’ll be able to breathe deeply and relax more easily. In my opinion, if you didn’t grow up with baseball, it’s hard to get into it later in life. Growing up I was a small kid without any real athleticism. My parents didn’t put me into sports because I never really showed any interest. I didn’t show interest because I never knew how to catch a ball, hit a ball properly or shoot a ball into the basket. This made me ignore the world of sports. Overall, for people including DiCosimo baseball is a game that embodies the American spirit. It’s about patience (waiting for that good pitch), perseverance (playing through a slump), and seizing any and all opportunities (stealing bases). Baseball is actually more about the situation than the action, itself. The game takes place between pitches as much as it does during and immediately after them. And because an individual baseball play doesn’t provide the variation, creativity, speed, and violence that a play in football or basketball can provide, people see that and think it’s boring and not made for everyone. As mentioned in the article, how we all remember the first time our dad took us to a baseball game, everyone cheering, desperately waiting for their team to hit a home run, this is a feeling every person should experience. Matthew Wolf May 22, 2019 at 4:34 pm # Being a baseball of myself, there’s always something magical once early April comes around. Spring is in the air, blue sky and it’s starting to get warmer outside. For me, this is when I get into the baseball mood. Opening Day is treated that of an American holiday. Baseball games are on practically wherever there is a TV. Being at Opening Day myself, seeing the freshly cut green grass being shined on by the Sun, looking around the sold-out stadium with red, white and blue decor hanging from each seating deck while my favorite team is out on the field with a 0-0 record means anything is possible. It’s a new season. Although I do understand where most of America is at today. 100 years ago baseball was the sport all of America loved. Today baseball is still loved nationwide, the sport that has taken America’s heart is football. Football is my favorite sport too so I can completely understand this. Today’s America wants to see a fast paced sport which is what football is. It always keeps the crowd engaged. When I ask most people why they don’t like or watch baseball, the most common answer is, “it’s not fast enough” or “it’s too slow.” Yes, I can understand that point of view. Going to baseball games in person however, it can go by so fast that soon enough it’ll be the 7th inning stretch. I played baseball growing up too and I agree and disagree with how the article says “anyone can play it and you don’t have to be athletic.” Yes anyone can play it but you need to be athletic. There’s a great deal of speed involved in the game. Especially if you’re hitting at the top of the order, you’re expected to steal bases. If you’re batting 3rd or clean-up, you’re expected to be a slugger and get a big hit or a home run. If you’re a starting pitcher, you have to have a great arm because management is trusting you to pitch 6 to 7 innings hopefully with no runs allowed. If you’re a closer, it’s you’re job to keep that 1-3 run lead and finish the game without choking. It’s a task not many closers are good at or are consistent at. You need to train for a long time to be a solid baseball player. Injuries occur and they can have a huge toll a players longevity. As for someone that loves the sport of baseball, I don’t see it dying because of the deep, American roots it has. The sport is loved by generation after generation and will only continue to grow with each new generation learning the sport. Leave a Reply to Jamila Cuentas Click here to cancel reply. 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For the reformer has enemies in all those who profit by the old order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those who would profit by the new order, this lukewarmness arising partly from fear of their adversaries … and partly from the incredulity of mankind, who do not truly believe in anything new until they have had actual experience of it. - NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI We only have one chance to get AI right… we are in real trouble if we miss. - JEVON MITCHELL-HAYWOOD When you invent the ship, you also invent the shipwreck; when you invent the plane you also invent the plane crash; and when you invent electricity, you invent electrocution... Every technology carries its own negativity, which is invented at the same time as technical progress. - PAUL VIRILIO We are surrounded by the wondrous effects of machines and are encouraged to ignore the ideas embedded in them. Once a technology is admitted it plays out its hand; it does what it is designed to do. 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__label__wiki	0.67004	0.67004	Wonder Years Star Producing WGN America Series; Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of February 16, 2015) A star from The Wonder Years is producing a new upcoming WGN America series. And the star is... Jason Hervey. He of course played the role of Wayne Arnold on the Emmy Award-winning hit series. He parlayed the experience he gained and partnered with Eric Bischoff, his longtime friend, colleague and former President of Time Warner's World Championship Wrestling (WCW), to form Bischoff Hervey Entertainment (BHE TV, LLC). And now he is producing a WGN America series for BHE. Outlaw Country is a one-hour docudrama set in the town of Buckner, Missouri, offering one-of-a-kind access into a unique and dangerous subculture. With a reputation for drug dealing, gun running and robbing the Heartland blind, The Alliance threatens to overtake Kansas City. Outlaw Country follows as an elite team of law enforcement officers attempt to thwart their illegal operations at every pass, doing whatever it takes to break this assemblage of bandits—including running alongside the crew and bending a few laws of their own. At the heart of this warfare lie two sets of brothers--Mike and Steve Cook, who act as Chief of Police and head of the Buckner Criminal Task Force, respectively, and John and Josh Monk, the pair they suspect are responsible for the town's surge in crime. The series premieres Tuesday, February 24 at 10:00 pm ET/9:00 pm CT on WGN America. For the week of Feb. 16-20, 2015, we have many current sitcom stars and past sitcom stars on TV talk shows! All times listed are Eastern. So get your DVRs (or whatever you use) ready! Ready? Here is all what you need to know for the coming week! Tracee Ellis Ross (black-ish/Girlfriends) and NeNe Leakes (The New Normal) - Tracee and NeNe are guests on Watch What Happens: Live at 11:30pm on Bravo. Matthew Perry (The Odd Couple/Go On/Mr. Sunshine/Friends) - Watch Matthew on The Late Show with David Letterman at 11:35pm on CBS. Adam Scott (Parks and Recreation) - Adam appears on The Late Show with David Letterman at 11:35pm on CBS. Craig Robinson (The Office) - Craig is a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:34pm on NBC. Thomas Lennon (The Odd Couple/Sean Saves the World/Reno 911!) - Thomas guest co-hosts The Late Late Show at 12:37am on CBS. Maz Jobrani (Better Off Ted/The Knights of Prosperity) - Maz stops by The Late Late Show at 12:37am on CBS. Nick Kroll (The League/Cavemen) - Nick is a guest on a repeat of @midnight on Comedy Central at midnight. Seth Morris (The Hotwives of Orlando/Go On/Happy Endings) - Seth appears on a repeat of @midnight on Comedy Central at midnight. Jason Bateman (Arrested Development/The Hogan Family/It's Your Move) - Jason is a guest on a repeat of Conan at 11pm on TBS. Connie Britton (Spin City/The Fighting Fitzgeralds/Lost at Home) - Connie chats on The Talk on CBS at 2pm ET/1pm CT-PT. Rainn Wilson (The Office) - Rainn discusses the series Backstrom on LIVE! with Kelly and Michael, so check your listings. Vivica A. Fox (Out All Night/Arsenio) - Vivica reveals why she fired herself from the hit reality show, on Kenya-gate and whom she believes was the love of her life on The Meredith Vieira Show, so check your local listings. She will also be on The Real, so check your local listings. Finally, she is a guest on New York Live on WNBC in New York at 12:30pm ET. Terry Crews (Brooklyn Nine-Nine/Are We There Yet?/Everybody Hates Chris) - Terry is a guest on Rachael Ray, so check your local listings. Tim Conway (McHale's Navy/Rango) - Tim is in the funniest cooking segment you'll ever see on The Queen Latifah Show on your local station or at 3am on BET. Joey McIntyre (The McCarthys) - Joey and the New Kids on the Block (no Donnie Wahlberg) are guests on Good Day New York on WNYW-Fox5 in New York sometime between 7-10am and on New York Live on WNBC in New York at 12:30pm ET. Chris Elliott (Schitt's Creek/The Weber Show/Get a Life) - Catch Chris on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC. Dakota Johnson (Ben & Kate) - Dakota is a guest on The Late Show with David Letterman at 11:35pm on CBS. Lindsay Sloane (The Odd Couple/Sabrina, the Teenage Witch) - Lindsay visits The Late Late Show at 12:37am on CBS. Thomas Lennon (The Odd Couple/Sean Saves the World/Reno 911!) - Thomas guest co-hosts The Late Late Show at 12:37am on CBS. He will also be on Last Call with Carson Daly at 1:35am on NBC. Matthew Perry (The Odd Couple/Go On/Mr. Sunshine/Friends) - Matthew appears on Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC. He will also be on CBS This Morning sometime between 7-9am. Anders Holm (Workaholics) - Anders is a guest on Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC. Jack McBrayer (30 Rock) - Jack visits Conan at 11pm on TBS. John Slattery (Ed/Maggie) - John chats with the ladies of The View on ABC at 11am ET/10am CT-PT. He also talks about his new film Bluebird on HuffPost Live at 3pm. David Duchovny (Californication) - David discusses his new book Holy Cow on The Talk on CBS at 2pm ET/1pm CT-PT. Wendi McLendon-Covey (The Goldbergs/Arrested Development/Reno 911!) - Wendi is a guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, so check your local listings. NeNe Leakes (The New Normal) - NeNe chats about the latest headlines on The Meredith Vieira Show, so check your local listings. Adam Scott (Parks and Recreation) - Adam talks about Hot Tub Time Machine 2 and Parks and Recreation on NBC's Today in the 9am hour. Jonathan Kite (2 Broke Girls) - Jonathan stops by Home & Family on Hallmark Channel at 10am ET/PT. Jason Hervey (The Wonder Years) - Jason talks about his newest role as creator and executive producer of WGN America's Outlaw Country on Home & Family on Hallmark Channel at 10am ET/PT. Will Smith (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air) - Watch Will on The Late Show with David Letterman at 11:35pm on CBS. He will also be on ABC's Good Morning America sometime between 7-9am. Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother/Stark Raving Mad/Doogie Howser, M.D.) - Neil is a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC. He will also be on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, so check your local listings. Gillian Jacobs (Community/Girls) - Tune in to see Gillian on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC. Matthew Perry (The Odd Couple/Go On/Mr. Sunshine/Friends) - Matthew appears on The Late Late Show at 12:37am on CBS. Nick Kroll (The League/Cavemen) - Nick visits The Late Late Show at 12:37am on CBS. Kathy Griffin (Suddenly Susan) - Kathy stops by Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC. Rob Corddry (The Winner) - Rob drops by Last Call with Carson Daly at 1:35am on NBC. Jennifer Aniston (Friends) - Jennnifer is a guest on a repeat of Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart at 11pm. Ali Wong (Are You There, Chelsea?) - Ali appears on a repeat of @midnight on Comedy Central at midnight. Ashton Kutcher (Two and a Half Men/That '70s Show) and Jon Cryer (Two and a Half Men) - Ashton and Jon are guests on Conan at 11pm on TBS. Danny DeVito (Taxi) - Danny stops by The Talk on CBS at 2pm ET/1pm CT-PT. Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother/Stark Raving Mad/Doogie Howser, M.D.) - Neil stops by The Ellen DeGeneres Show, so check your local listings. Adam Scott (Parks and Recreation) - Adam talks about saying goodbye to Pawnee, parenthood and more on The Meredith Vieira Show, so check your local listings. Natalie Desselle-Reid (Eve/For Your Love/Built to Last) - Natalie joins the Chew Crew on ABC's The Chew at 1pm ET/12pm PT/CT. Craig Robinson (The Office) - Craig talks about Hot Tub Time Machine 2 on NBC's Today in the 9am hour. Rhea Seehorn (Whitney/I'm with Her) - Rhea discusses Better Call Saul on Home & Family on Hallmark Channel at 10am ET/PT. Jaleel White (Family Matters/Grown Ups) - Jaleel talks about being on Dancing with the Stars and playing America's most iconic nerd - Steve Urkel - on The Queen Latifah Show on your local station or at 3am on BET. Anders Holm (Workaholics) - Anders gives a peek into what's ahead for the hilarious trio in this season of the Comedy Central series Workaholics on HuffPost Live at 3pm. Henry Winkler (Happy Days/Out of Practice/Arrested Development) - Henry is a guest on Access Hollywood Live, so check your local listings. Yara Shahidi (black-ish/The First Family) - Yara appears on Access Hollywood Live, so check your local listings. Martin Short (Mulaney/The Martin Short Show) - Catch Martin on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:34pm on NBC. Don Cheadle (The Golden Palace) - Don appears on The Late Show with David Letterman at 11:35pm on CBS. Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson (Broad City) - Ilana and Abbi are guests on The Late Show with David Letterman at 11:35pm on CBS. Kelly Ripa (Hope & Faith) - Kelly stops by Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC. Joshua Molina (Sports Night) - Joshua is a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC. He will also be on The Better Show, so check your local listings. Lauren Graham (Conrad Bloom/Townies) - Lauren guest co-hosts The Late Late Show at 12:37am on CBS. Ray Romano (Everybody Loves Raymond) - Ray is a guest on The Late Late Show at 12:37am on CBS. Busy Phillipps (Cougar Town) - Busy appears on The Late Late Show at 12:37am on CBS. Tom Papa (Come to Papa) - Tom visits The Late Late Show at 12:37am on CBS. The Cast of Hot Tub Time Machine 2 - Clark Duke, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson and Adam Scott are guests on Conan at 11pm on TBS. Chris Parnell (Suburgatory) - Chris appears on a repeat of @midnight on Comedy Central at midnight. Judy Greer (Mad Love/Arrested Development/Miss Guided) - Judy is a guest on a repeat of @midnight on Comedy Central at midnight. Mae Whitman (Arrested Development) - Mae is a guest on Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC. She also previews the film The Duff on LIVE! with Kelly and Michael, so check your listings. Matthew Perry (The Odd Couple/Go On/Mr. Sunshine/Friends) and Thomas Lennon (The Odd Couple/Sean Saves the World/Reno 911!) - The stars of The Odd Couple are guests on The Talk on CBS at 2pm ET/1pm CT-PT. Matthew will also be on LIVE! with Kelly and Michael, so check your listings. Craig Robinson (The Office) - Craig will be on Big Morning Buzz Live on VH1 at 9am and on Good Day New York on WNYW-Fox5 in New York sometime between 7-10am. Jussie Smollett (On Our Own) - Jussie joins the Chew Crew on ABC's The Chew at 1pm ET/12pm PT/CT. Marcia Gay Harden (Trophy Wife) - Marcia is a guest on Rachael Ray, so check your local listings. Wanda Sykes (The New Adventures of Old Christine/Wanda at Large) - Wanda appears on The Dr. Oz Show, so check your local listings. Henry Winkler (Happy Days/Out of Practice/Arrested Development) - Henry talks about his book Here's Hank on People Now. Kevin Nealon (Weeds/Hiller and Diller/Champs) - Kevin talks about how you can be funny too on The Queen Latifah Show on your local station or at 3am on BET. Robbie Amell (1600 Penn/True Jackson, VP/Life with Derek) - Robbie talks about The Flash and The Duff on Arise TV on their website at 3pm. Sean Hayes (The Millers/Sean Saves the World/Will & Grace) - Watch Sean on The Late Show with David Letterman at 11:35pm on CBS. Nick Jonas (Jonas L.A.) - Nick is a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:34pm on NBC. David Spade (Rules of Engagement/8 Simple Rules/Just Shoot Me) - David appears on a repeat of Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC. Randall Park (Fresh Off the Boat) - Randall is a guest on a repeat of Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC. li>Will Arnett (The Millers/Up All Night/Arrested Development) - Will guest co-hosts The Late Late Show at 12:37am on CBS. John Krasinski (The Office) - John visits The Late Late Show at 12:37am on CBS. David Cross (Arrested Development/Running Wilde) - David stops by The Late Late Show at 12:37am on CBS. Eugene Levy and Daniel Levy (Schitt's Creek) - Eugene and Daniel are guests on a repeat of Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC. Simon Helberg (The Big Bang Theory) - Simon appears on a repeat of Last Call with Carson Daly at 1:35am on NBC. Craig Robinson (The OfficE) Craig talks about starring in the highly anticipated sequel Hot Tub Time Machine 2, who he still keeps in touch with from The Office and more on The Meredith Vieira Show, so check your local listings. Mae Whitman (Arrested Development) - Mae talks about her movie The Duff on Big Morning Buzz Live on VH1 at 9am and on People Now. Robbie Amell (1600 Penn/True Jackson, VP/Life with Derek) - Robbie talks about his movie The Duff on Big Morning Buzz Live on VH1 at 9am and on People Now. Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother/Stark Raving Mad/Doogie Howser, M.D.) - Neil talks to Robin Roberts about hosting the Oscars on ABC's Good Morning America sometime between 7-9am. Jamie Foxx (The Jamie Foxx Show) and Wanda Sykes (The New Adventures of Old Christine) - There will be never-before-seen footage with Jamie and Wanda on The Queen Latifah Show on your local station or at 3am on BET. Labels: Talk Shows, WGN, Wonder Years SitcomsOnline Digest: Potential ABC Sitcoms for Cr... CBS Summer 2015 Schedule; Sitcom Stars on Talk Sho... New DuckTales, Inspector Gadget Series Coming; Dis... Pee-wee Returns in 2015 with New Movie; TBS Orders... The CW Adds British Comedy for Summer 2015; Dancin... ABC Family Adds More Boy Meets World; black-ish Ca... SitcomsOnline Digest: Pilot Season in Full Force w... truTV Getting Into Sitcom Game with Pilot Order; S... Life Goes On Reunion on Hallmark's Home & Family; ... CBS Midseason Pilot Review: The Odd Couple - Premi... Logo Acquires Just Shoot Me, Samantha Who & Brings... LAFF Acquires Empty Nest, Night Court, Drew Carey,... SitcomsOnline Digest: Shout! Factory Begins Stream... Wonder Years Star Producing WGN America Series; Si... TBS Has Sitcom Un-Valentine's Day Stunt; Jon Stewa... Archer Coming to Comedy Central in March 2015; IFC... MeTV Launches MeTV FM Radio Network in Chicago; Re... 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__label__wiki	0.641946	0.641946	Tag Archives: gay marriage What’s next for gay marriage? 6th Circuit Court ruling in favor of gay-marriage ban may set stage for Supreme Court case The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati has upheld Kentucky’s ban on same-sex marriage. The ruling will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. By Dan Sewell, Associated Press CINCINNATI —A month after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to rule on gay marriage, the issue is headed its way again. A federal appeals court Thursday halted a run of rulings supporting same-sex marriage by the U.S. courts that are the last line for appeals just below the Supreme Court. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel instead upheld laws against the practice in four states — Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee. Attorneys for gay plaintiffs say they will ask the Supreme Court to hear their arguments, and the split created Thursday among the federal appeals courts makes it more likely they will agree to this time. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had explained in a September speech in Minnesota that the lack of a split in the appeals courts made Supreme Court review of the issue unnecessary. But she said “there will be some urgency” if the 6th Circuit allowed same-sex marriage bans to stand. By Dan Sewell, Associated Press Continue reading “What’s next for gay marriage? 6th Circuit Court ruling in favor of gay-marriage ban may set stage for Supreme Court case” » Posted in Education \| Tagged 6th circuit court of appeals, courts, gay marriage, gay rights, law, legal, LGBT rights, marriage equality \| 1 Reply What’s after same-sex marriage? Other gay rights issues are on the horizon Posted on October 22, 2014 by Phillip Zonkel Pamela Thiele, left, and her spouse, Lauren Fortmiller, of Lakewood, Colo., take part in a rally staged by Why Marriage Matters Colorado on the steps of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver on Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2014. Elected officials joined members of the clergy and community leaders to celebrate in the wake of marriage equality moving forward in the Centennial State. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski By David Crary, Associated Press National Writer NEW YORK — Even as they celebrate epic victories in the push for marriage equality, gay-rights activists acknowledge that other difficult issues remain on their agenda. There’s the persistent high rate of HIV infections, the struggles to expand transgender rights, and the striking fact that even in some states allowing same-sex marriage, people can lose their job for being gay. For many activists, the top priority after marriage is federal legislation that would outlaw a broad range of discrimination against lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people. There’s no such federal law now, and more than half the states do not ban discrimination by employers or public accommodations based on sexual orientation. Continue reading “What’s after same-sex marriage? Other gay rights issues are on the horizon” » Posted in Education \| Tagged AIDS, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, bisexual men, Centers for Disease Control, gay marriage, gay men, HIV, infections, Kasier Family Foundation, lambda legal, marriage equality, Michael Weinstein, Pew Research Center 2013 survey, same-sex marriage, survey, Transgender law center, Truvada \| 1 Reply Gay marriage comes to Wyoming Wyoming has become the latest state to allow gay marriage, bringing the national wave of expanded rights for same-sex couples to a state where the 1998 beating death of Matthew Shepard still influences national perceptions. State lawyers filed a legal notice Tuesday morning that said they won’t defend a recently overturned Wyoming law that defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman, meaning county clerks can begin to issue marriage licenses to gay couples and the state will recognize same-sex unions performed legally elsewhere. By Bob Moen, Associated Press CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Wyoming has become the latest state to legalize marriage equality, bringing the national wave of expanded rights for same-sex couples to a state where the 1998 beating death of Matthew Shepard still influences national perceptions. The change is particularly notable in the state where Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student was beaten 16 years ago in a rural area near Laramie. He died days after the attack on Oct. 12, 1998. The slaying galvanized a national push for gay rights and tough penalties for hate crimes. (Though investigative journalist Stephen Jimenez and author of “The Book of Matt,” says that story might not be the full picture of what happened. – Out in the 562) Continue reading “Gay marriage comes to Wyoming” » Posted in Education \| Tagged author stephen jimenez, gay marriage, marriage equality, matthew shepard, same-sex marriage, The Book of Matt, Williams Institute UCLA Law School, Wyoming \| Leave a reply US Supreme Court rejects gay marriage appeals from 5 states Posted on October 6, 2014 by Phillip Zonkel The Justices of the US Supreme Court sit for their official photograph on October 8, 2010 at the Supreme Court in Washington, DC. The Supreme Court cleared the way Monday for an immediate expansion of same-sex marriage by unexpectedly and tersely turning away appeals from five states seeking to prohibit gay and lesbian unions. The court’s order effectively makes gay marriage legal in 30 states. Front row (L-R): Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Associate Justice Anthony M. Kennedy and Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Back Row (L-R): Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice Stephen Breyer, Associate Justice Samuel Alito Jr. and Associate Justice Elena Kagan. WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court cleared the way Monday for an immediate expansion of same-sex marriage by unexpectedly and tersely turning away appeals from five states seeking to prohibit gay and lesbian unions. The court’s order effectively makes gay marriage legal in 30 states. Without comment, the justices brought to an end delays in same-sex marriages in five states— Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin. Chief Justice John Roberts did not say a word about same-sex marriage as he began the court’s new term. Continue reading “US Supreme Court rejects gay marriage appeals from 5 states” » Posted in Education \| Tagged civil rights, gay marriage, gay rights, LGBT rights, marriage equality, same sex unions, same-sex marriage, Supreme Court justice anthony kennedy, US supreme court, US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts \| Leave a reply	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line42
__label__cc	0.693224	0.306776	Browse: Home » 2019 » July » Songs of the Bible #6: Lament of the Bow Songs of the Bible #6: Lament of the Bow July 11, 2019 · Words of Worship The lament is a common form of poetry and song in the Bible. In our culture it might be comparable to the old Negro Spirituals, Blues music, or the Country Western songs where the dog has died, the wife and left, and the truck won’t start. Songs like, Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen, or Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child, could be characterized as laments. In 2 Samuel 1:19-27, we find the lament David composed after the death of Saul and two of his sons in battle. We can understand if David greatly mourned the passing of Saul’s son, Jonathan, for they were closer than brothers. God had forged a remarkable bond between these men who could easily have been rivals. We can truly admire Jonathan who, even knowing God was taking the kingdom from him and giving it to David, was fully on board. He demonstrated that by sealing their covenant of friendship with his own symbols of his princehood, an act which provoked Saul’s wrath because he viewed it as disloyalty to him and his dynasty. Jonathan told David that he envisioned the future with David as king and Jonathan at his side as his right hand man. David, too, was a man to be admired. He had not sought out the mantle of kingship, it had been thrust upon him, ordained by God. But he did not take that anointing as a license to kill. He didn’t go after Saul and claim the throne. Even given opportunities to kill Saul, he would not cross the line and take things into his own hands, instead he waited on the Lord to give him the kingdom in His timing. It reminds us of Jesus, and how He waited patiently for His time to come, resisting the urgings of others to take things into His own hands or operate outside the will of God. We have to wonder, if we were in David’s shoes, would we have seen the opportunities to win over our opponent as God “opening a door,” or would we have had David’s wisdom, self-control and discernment to wait? By not taking Saul’s life himself, David added legitimacy to his reign, as well as displayed his dependence on God. While he would have been justified to defend himself and end the relentless pursuit by Saul, there would always be that taint that he had somehow been a usurper, and taken the kingdom by force. Unfortunately for Jonathan, even if he had thrown his whole support behind David, there would have always been that faction who would have seen him as the legitimate heir to the throne, and would have resisted David’s authority, or that of his descendants. For David’s dynasty to be the eternal one which God had promised, the Lord had to take noble Jonathan to glory. There I am certain he has received “well done” for his humility, and his willingness to set aside his rights for God’s will to be done. Jonathan displayed the attitude of John the Baptist in regard to Jesus, “He must become greater, and I must become less.” In the days when the Bible was a common text book in the classroom, it would have been general knowledge that the expression, “How the mighty have fallen!”, was a scriptural reference. There are many such expressions in our vernacular, but our culture is so biblically illiterate it seldom recognizes them as such. We find this sentence, near the beginning, middle and end of this lament. David lauds both Saul and Jonathan for their courage. David says of them, “They were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions,” and speaks of how they both were loved, expressing his particular grief for his friend, Jonathan (he does not mention the two other sons of Saul killed that day, Abinadab and Malki-Shua). There is no direct reference to God in the lament, yet David’s reaction of authentic grief at the passing of the man who had declared himself as David’s visceral enemy, and his kind and praise-filled words for Saul display a deep godly character. It reflects God’s own mercy and generosity of spirit towards us. It reminds us of the grace we received from Him when we were still His enemies, yet He still loved us and drew us to Himself, willingly giving His life for us. It demonstrates to us that even when someone has declared themselves to be our enemy, we do not have to reciprocate with hatred back in their direction. We can follow Jesus’ command to love our enemies and pray for those who despitefully use us and persecute us. We can do good to those who have mistreated us, and look for opportunities to say good things about them to others, even while holding them accountable and not opening ourselves up to their desires to destroy us. Such an attitude will save us from the destructive power of bitterness which will rot the soul of anyone who choses that path. In this lament we have an example of how to meet persecution with grace, and adversity and grief with appropriate godly sorrow. God is not offended if we say “ouch” when it hurts. When we run to Him in our sorrow (even when He is the source of our pain) He is a wonderfully caring Father who will give us balm for our wounds, comfort for our grieving hearts, and strength to continue through the pain. by Sheri Cook, Director of Special Ministries Have questions about this blog? Email the author here. Tags: 2 Samuel 1:19-27, David, Jonathan, lament, Lament of the Bow, Saul, Songs of the Bible, Words of Worship	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line46
__label__cc	0.688747	0.311253	- Book a Demo - Background The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) determines how your organisation does business, and particularly how it manages, protects and administers data. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a new European ruling, which governs the data protection rights for all individuals within the European Union. It serves to strengthen and unify all data protection rules and practices across the EU. GDPR puts the power back into an individual’s hands. They gain the rights to access, amend, and restrict the personal data organisations have about them. In the unfortunate event that an organisation suffers a data breach which could compromise the security of individual’s personal data, those individuals must be told within 72 hours of the start of the breach. Individuals also have the “Right to Portability”, this is the right to move data and services to another provider with no hassle or strings attached. The greatest change within GDPR is the way consent is granted. Consent must be knowingly and willingly given by the individual, with organisations making their intentions for data use made clear. Soft opt-ins, implied consent, and hiding data policies within confusing T’s and C’s are all against GDPR rules. Organisations must keep a record of why, when and how they were granted permission. There must also be details of what they were told at the time. If oral permission was granted, a script of what was said will work fine, call recordings are not essential. Right to be Deleted Individuals have the right to retract consent at any time, and have the “Right to be Deleted”, which means that if they request an organisation to delete their data, it should be done so immediately. It must be deleted from all backups, and the organisation should have proof of the deletion. Every EU citizen has the right to ask how an organisation is using their personal data, where it’s used and why. They also have the right to request a digital copy of the data that is being held about the individual. “There’s a lot in the GDPR you’ll recognise, but make no mistake, this one’s a game changer for everyone.” Elizabeth Denham ICO Information Commissioner All individuals have a legal right to opt out of marketing communications. If an individual does opt out you must withdraw them from that activity immediately. Lawful Reasoning There are six allowable reasons for processing someone’s personal data. These are: You have consent from an individual If it is necessary for the performance of a contract with the data subject or to take steps to enter into a contract If it is for the purposes of legitimate interests pursued by the controller or a third party, except where such interests are overridden by the interests, rights or freedoms of the data subject Processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller If it is to protect the vital interests of a data subject or another individual It is needed for compliance with a legal obligation The new regulation applies to any organisation around the world, who deal with EU residents, and it applies to both B2B and B2C. Marketing to organisations? You can call and email organisations, as these are generic and not personal data. Using the InMail LinkedIn feature is not affected by GDPR. You could face fines! If you are not compliant, you could face fines of up to €20 million or 4% of your organisation’s worldwide annual turnover, whichever is greater. How long does consent last for? According to the Regulation, consent decays with time. However, 6 to 12 months seems to be a reasonable time frame. Do I need consent to contact my customers? No, it will either come under the lawful basis of "Performance of a Contract", or it would be "Legitimate Interest" as you already have a relationship with them and it won’t be unexpected for them to hear from you. I already have consent gained under DPA do I need to re-consent everyone? Only if the methodology did not match the requirements of GDPR and/or it would have decayed in that time. The regulation specifically states marketing can be used as a Legitimate Interest, isn't there a conflict there? On the face of it, there is a conflict. But the general understanding of the text is that organisations must carry out a Legitimate Interest Assessment, this is a three-part test - identify a legitimate interest, show that the processing is necessary to achieve it, and balance it against the individual’s interests, rights and freedoms. Will I still be able to buy lists of data? If you cannot justify Legitimate Interest as the lawful basis, then you must rely on consent. If you buy data from a company that says they have obtained consent you need to be careful. The ICO guidance states "You must as a minimum include the name of your organisation and the names of any third parties who will rely on the consent – consent for categories of third-party organisations will not be specific enough". Will I have to change the contact forms on our website? The regulation says that consent "must be a freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous indication of the individual’s wishes". Which means your text going forward beyond 25th May 2018 must comply with that statement, and any pre-selected tick boxes are not allowed. What constitutes personal data? Any information related to a natural person or ‘Data Subject’, that can be used to directly or indirectly identify the person. It can be anything from a name, a photo, an email address, bank details, posts on social networking websites, medical information, or a computer IP address. What is the difference between a data processor and a data controller? A controller is the entity that determines the purposes, conditions and means of the processing of personal data, while the processor is an entity which processes personal data on behalf of the controller. How does GDPR affect policy surrounding data breaches? Proposed regulations surrounding data breaches primarily relate to the notification policies of organisations that have been breached. Data breaches which may pose a risk to individuals must be notified to the ICO within 72 hours and to affected individuals without undue delay. Can I still market to my existing customers? Essentially this comes under Legitimate Interest, and individuals still have the option of opting out. ©2018 Quality System Solutions Ltd \| DataPro Tools	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line53
__label__wiki	0.665019	0.665019	Tag Archives \| Keith Urban Watch Here: Keith Urban & Post Malone Collaborate For Upcoming Elvis Television Special By Mandy Slegers on February 14, 2019 in Alt Country Corner, Artists, Features, Music, News, Videos Yesterday saw an all-star line-up for the Elvis Presley’s comeback special at 50… John Fogerty, Keith Urban, Lisa Marie Presley and others involved in NBC’s new tribute show reflect on the lasting impact of the King’s ’68 career milestone. After leading a performance of “Burning Love,” Australian country star Keith Urban is joined onstage by Post […] Hometown Rising: Luke Bryan, Tim McGraw, Keith Urban, Little Big Town & Many More Lead Incredible Lineup By Mandy Slegers on February 13, 2019 in Artists, Culture, Music, News, Places, Tours, Travel Premier independent festival producer Danny Wimmer Presents continues to show its love for Louisville with a third addition to a massive fall festival series in the one-of-a-kind city. “Hometown Rising”, the first-ever Country Music & Bourbon Festival, will make its debut Saturday, September 14th and Sunday, September 15th at Highland Festival Grounds at KY Expo Center, combining two of Louisville’s cultural cornerstones…great music and incredible bourbon. “Hometown […] Keith Urban Releases New Single “Never Comin’ Down” By Mandy Slegers on January 21, 2019 in Artists, Music, New Single, News Four-time Grammy Award winner Keith Urban released his infectious new single ‘Never Comin Down’ today, from his latest album “Graffiti U”, out now via Hit Red Records. He also unveiled the brand new official video for the track, which Urban says “captures the energy and spirit of being at a show – lost in the […] This Just In: Miranda Lambert Joins Cheyenne Frontier Days 2019 Frontier Nights Lineup By Mandy Slegers on December 16, 2018 in Artists, Music, News, Tours Current and 9-time ACM Female Vocalist of the Year winner Miranda Lambert will perform at Cheyenne Frontier Days on Wednesday, July 24th, in addition to a line-up already stacked with Country superstars, including Tim McGraw, Keith Urban, Lady Antebellum, Rascal Flatts and more! Cheyenne Frontier Days™ (CFD) also recently announced the Professional Bull Riders (PBR) […] Watch Now: Jillian Jacqueline Radiates In “Sad Girls” Music Video By Mandy Slegers on September 24, 2018 in Artists, Music, News, Videos Following the anticipated release of her brand new Big Loud Records EP, “SIDE B”, Jillian Jacqueline has unveiled the visually stunning one-take music video for “Sad Girls,” premiering exclusively with ‘The FADER‘. Directed by Patrick Tracy, the 1970’s romance inspired clip features Jacqueline in a sunlit open field, accompanied only by her guitar as she […] The Reklaws Release 7-Track EP, “Feels Like That” By CMP on September 5, 2018 in Artists, Music, New Albums, News Fresh off presenting at the iHeartRadio MMVAs, three-time 2018 CCMA Award nominees, The Reklaws, release their debut EP, “Feels Like That“. Released via Universal Music Canada, the country’s leading music company, “Feels Like That” is available for stream/purchase now. Produced by Todd Clark, the EP includes the title track and crowd-favourite love song “Feels Like That” written […] Jillian Jacqueline Unveils New Song “If I Were You” Featuring Keith Urban By Mandy Slegers on August 17, 2018 in Artists, Music, New Albums, New Single, News Big Loud Records acclaimed singer/songwriter Jillian Jacqueline continues to rise as one of Country’s buzziest newcomers with her latest release, “If I Were You” featuring Keith Urban. The track is the first look at her highly anticipated “SIDE B” EP, with a release date soon to be announced. I couldn’t wait to share this song. I wrote it — with Sarah […] Watch Here: ‘Home Free’ Raises Their Voice In Brand New Video By CMP on July 31, 2018 in Artists, Music, News, Videos All-vocal Country standout Home Free continue to bring their fresh and innovative spin to the genre’s biggest hits, as they’ve just released a mash-up of Dierks Bentley’s “Woman, Amen” and Keith Urban’s “Female.” “We were inspired to do a mash-up after we saw Dierks perform ‘Woman, Amen’ at the ACM Awards,” said bass singer Tim Foust. “’Female’ […] Kelsea Ballerini Sizzles This Summer With Red-Hot Television Performances By Mandy Slegers on July 30, 2018 in Artists, Music, News Kelsea Ballerini is coming in hot this summer with three upcoming high-profile television performances as her cheeky single off of “Unapologetically”, “I Hate Love Songs,” continues to climb the charts. Appearing on NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers on Wednesday (August 1st), Ballerini will wrap the week by headlining ABC’s Good Morning America Summer Concert Series for the first time live from […] Celebrate The Fourth Of July With The Young Fables At The Biltmore By Mandy Slegers on June 27, 2018 in Artists, Music, News, Places, Travel Emerging modern traditional country duo, The Young Fables, will be showcasing their sophomore album “Old Songs” at The Biltmore’s Antler Hill Barn July 4th Celebration Dinner. Featuring old-fashioned fun and games, a delicious buffet, the award-winning Biltmore Wine and a dramatic fireworks display on the estate, The Young Fables will serve as the soundtrack throughout this elevated Independence […]	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line56
__label__wiki	0.571775	0.571775	Freshman – Senior Comprehensive Package Junior / Senior Package Senior Express Package ACT/SAT Services Colleges with Low Tuition \|In College Prep, Testimonials \|By arvi Colleges with The Lowest Tuition Chadron State College Located in Nebraska, Chadron State College is one of the most affordable educational institutions for those who are from out of state with costs that are only one dollar more per credit hour. The average package cost for Chadron State College is $5,760 per year. With a student to faculty ratio of 19:1 and 70 majors to choose from, Chadron State College is a great choice for education. Oklahoma Panhandle State University All students attending Oklahoma Panhandle State University pay the same tuition rate with an average yearly cost of $6,739. Nearly 100 undergraduate degrees are available, while online students can choose from over 340 different courses offered at the associate and bachelor’s levels. With nearly 2,000 students currently attending Oklahoma Panhandle State University, this college offers 100 different undergraduate degrees with areas of studies that include agriculture, business, education, science, and more. Minot State University Attracting applicants from all over the nation, Minot State University’s annual tuition for those seeking a master’s degree is $7,820. This institution currently ha 3,500 students who are completing bachelor’s and master’s degrees in more than 70 areas of education. Best Part of College College Visit What To Take How to Research for College Preparing for Finals at College 2575 E. Perrin Suite #104 © Copyright 2017. College Prep Consultants. All rights reserved. RSS \| Sitemap \| Website Developer	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line60
__label__wiki	0.846758	0.846758	"http://www.stamfordplus.com/stm/information/nws1/publish/News_1/index.shtml - News : Entertainment Published: Sep 13, 2018 - 3:06:24 AM Obie Award-winning comedy to play in Stamford By Curtain Call Bed and breakfast owner, Betty Meeks, (played by Betty McCready) listens intently to Charlie, "the foreigner" (played by Grady Dennis) in Curtain Call's production of THE FOREIGNER, playing in The Dressing Room Theatre September 20 through October 7. (contributed photo) Kicking off its new season in the Dressing Room Theatre, Stamford, Curtain Call presents Larry Shue’s Obie Award-winning comedy, The Foreigner, playing September 20 through October 7. In The Foreigner, Charlie, shy and seeking solitude, is on vacation at a Georgia bed and breakfast: he pretends he is a foreigner, understanding no English. However, he soon witnesses bizarre schemes by people (including some Klan members) who think he can’t understand a word they say, leading to confusion and non-stop hilarity that set up a terrifically funny ending! “When I first saw The Foreigner in the mid - 1980s, I thought it was terrific,” said Lou Ursone, Curtain Call’s executive director and producer for this production. “I saw it again at several regional theatres over the years, and then, in 2003, I had the privilege of producing it here at Curtain Call. It has been on my list to revisit for quite a while now and I'm thrilled to do it with director Meredith Walker leading the team,” Ursone added. (Walker directed the theatre’s sold out hitSister Act last season.) While the show is definitely a comedy, some deeper moments and themes are woven through. “It makes you stop and think about how we treat people that we don’t understand…that no matter our backgrounds, we can learn to accept strangers into our lives, and, in many cases, learn from them,” Ursone said. Rehearsing a scene for THE FOREIGNER at Curtain Call in Stamford are: standing, Betty McCready, seated: Sophie Tiesler and Grady Dennis. THE FOREIGNER will play in The Dressing Room Theatre September 20 through October 7. (contributed photo) The cast includes Grady Dennis, as Charlie, Scott Ferrara as Owen, Jim Foley as Froggy, Daniel P. Mann as David, Betty McCready as Betty, Nicole Neurohr as Ellie and Sophie Tiesler as Catherine. Production design is by Peter Barbieri, Jr. with costumes by Megan Latte Ormond. Walker and Ursone said that this cast has been terrific to work with and that they have not been able to stop laughing throughout the rehearsals. "We really hope audiences enjoy the show as much as we have," they said. Performances will be held Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings at 8:00PM and Sunday afternoons at 2:00PM, beginning September 20 and continuing through October 7. The Dressing Room Theatre is located at The Sterling Farms Theatre Complex, 1349 Newfield Avenue, Stamford, CT. Seating is cabaret-style with a BYOEverything format. Doors open one hour before show time. Tickets are $35 for adults, $25 for senior citizens and $17.5 for children. Thrifty Thursday tickets are $27.50. Box Office: 203-461-6358 x 36 or on the web at www.curtaincallinc.com. Curtain Call's 28th season also includes Mamma Mia, Accomplice, Elf the Musical, A Merry Mulberry Street Musical, and many more full-scale productions, as well as concerts, comedy nights, and interactive murder mysteries. Additional information is available at www.curtaincallinc.com or by calling 203-329-8207. Curtain Call is the non-profit community-based theatre company in residence at The Sterling Farms Theatre Complex, 1349 Newfield Avenue in Stamford. Year-round productions and educational workshops for all ages are presented by and for area residents in The Kweskin Theatre and The Dressing Room Theatre. Curtain Call was voted Fairfield County's BEST LOCAL THEATRE GROUP ten years running in the Annual Readers' Poll of The Fairfield County Weekly and has received similar BEST OF awards from Stamford Magazine and StamfordPlus magazine for 2008 through 2018. Curtain Call received The Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts in 2011 and the ACE Award for Excellence in Arts & Culture from the Cultural Alliance of Fairfield County.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line61
__label__cc	0.712596	0.287404	The Church of the Covenant is built on the concepts of covenant and commitment, with a tradition of outward service strengthened by an inward journey. There are no committees at Church of the Covenant; all work is done through mission groups. There are two forms of membership in the church. You can learn about this and much more by reading the booklets listed on this page. The Church of the Covenant is a community of persons responding to God’s call in Jesus Christ to live our lives as a journey of faith. We commit ourselves to the inward journey of prayer, meditation, silence, reflection, and study so that we continue to grow in God’s love and guidance. We commit ourselves to the outward journey as our response to God’s call to use our gifts in the service of the church community and the world. Our work is carried out through mission groups that form around a call to a particular vision for ministry. Mission groups meet regularly for the group inward journey of worship, prayer, and spiritual sharing, and the outward journey of the work of the mission. Community and Covenant members comprise the official membership of the church, making commitments to specific spiritual disciplines or practices that nurture the inward and outward dimensions of the life of faith. For a deeper understanding, see these resources: The Journey of a Lifetime… This 4 page flyer is a brief explanation of the way our community is structured. The Journey of a Lifetime, Life and Ministry in the Church of the Covenant Community This is a 32 page handbook for those who want to know more about the community and the ways in which it works to minister to individuals and the community. News & Events (82) Pastoral Newsletter (13)	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line66
__label__wiki	0.658738	0.658738	Chick Corea Music Workshops One on One with Chick The Art of the Trio 01: Inside Chick’s CD: The Making of the Vigil with Tim Garland [Podcast] Premier Episode! In this first edition of Music Magic with Chick Corea, Chick chats with master-musician and long-time associate Tim Garland (sax, flute, bass clarinet) on the making of the recent groundbreaking album The Vigil. Taking a break while on tour in Japan, Chick and Tim discuss the creative processes of writing and learning new music, the recording studio and then taking it on the road for audiences around the world. In this fascinating intimate conversation, they also discuss their unique projects together exploring the combination of orchestral music and jazz. And much more… Tim Garland during the Vigil recording Podcast: Download Here / Transcript: Download Here Links from this episode Tim Garland The Continents Tim Garland: Enter the Fire Subscribe to MusicMagic A behind-the-scenes look at the creative process from the legends of jazz. Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher Know someone who would like to learn from Chick? Share the Podcast Russ Davis: Welcome to this premier episode of Music Magic with Chick Corea! You’re listening to the song “Galaxy 32 Star 4” from Chick’s latest release on Stretch/Concord records, titled The Vigil. And you’re about to listen in on a conversation between Chick and long-time musical associate Tim Garland, who’s a member of the band of the same name–The Vigil. In this podcast Chick and Tim discuss the story behind the making of this new music. Later on we’ll tell you musicians about a very special online, live and interactive Chick Corea Music Workshop coming March 2014. You can learn all about that now by visiting our website at ChickCoreaWorkshops.com. Now, enjoy a conversation between Chick Corea and Tim Garland. Take it away Chick! Hi, this is Chick here, and this is another addition of The Vigil radio show. In this show I’d like to present to you my dear old friend Tim Garland. We’ve been working together for quite a while. He was in my band Origin, and he brings an incredible enthusiasm and deep knowledge of music and his own creativity and spirit into the band, and I really appreciate Tim’s presence all the time. So here’s a chat we had recently in Tokyo. We’re going to be talking about a few different things but mainly the making of The Vigil record. I hope you enjoy it. Here we go! CC: Tim! Tim Garland: Yeah! CC: Here we are in Tokyo. I’ve got my notes here. I call this WCHIK. This is Vigil radio. I’m going to have a chat with with everybody in the band. TG: Excellent. CC: You’re first up. You’re the first one I was able to nab. We’re in Tokyo everybody. This is Tim Garland. TG: Hey there. CC: And I’m Chick, this voice over here is Chick. So Tim, yeah, the making of the record. Thats what I wanted to be able to share with everybody out there. Like what the process was. It could be kind of a general thing. Then maybe we can find interest from individuals who are listening in and go into more depth. First thing on my note was just, from your viewpoint, just a general comment about the making of the record. It was interesting ‘cause the recording had to be done by a certain time in order to get it out for the tour, which is not something I usually am pushed to do so we weren’t able to perform at all. We went right into the studio. TG: Yeah, I think it helped a great deal, not feeling rushed, because we were in such an environment which was so relaxed, although we had a very strict agenda to get through. It wasn’t as if we had everything to do in one day. It helped a great deal being in this unusual studio, in Florida, very unique space, where we didn’t feel rushed for time even though there was a very strong agenda to get stuff done. So many times you’re the studio maybe you’d have a three-hour or four-hour session. You’ve got to do loads in just that time. And then it can feel almost like a conveyor belt. Ironically, just occasionally, that also produces great creativity because it’s like a live gig. You just have to go do it. But this, this is a new band, we’re all getting to know each other and I guess it’s a kind of a documentation of a process. We all knew by the time the CD was done, this was the beginning of a journey rather than something just being wrapped up. It’s quite the opposite, it was the unpacking some beautiful new thing. And I was so grateful actually, to get the chance to do things a few times, to get know people’s playing, et cetera, and obviously the music is not that simple. You have to get to know it and get off the page. CC: Well I did what I could to send the notes out to you guys some weeks beforehand. TG: Yeah, we all came prepared in that sense. CC: And there were a few demos I made and I sent a few audio things out. TG: Oh yeah. I think that whole side of things couldn’t have been more thorough. And I think it was pretty evident actually by first time we turned up. It was very evident. We had all been listening and reading, et cetera, but then it’s the soul of the band, is all of those things which happen in the moment, the spontaneity of it, isn’t it? So you still have to find that shared language. CC: Yeah. Well we were at it for five days. Which is not that long. I think it was five days. The original idea was to rehearse for a couple of days, then record, but as soon as we got into the first piece… Do you remember what we attacked first? Was it Galaxy or Portals? TG: It was probably Portals, it was one of the longer pieces. Yeah I remember that because I was kind of surprised myself. Just flying over and still having a little bit of the jet lag over the Atlantic and thinking, “Oh! We’re actually recording already.” But that’s good too. ‘Cause as I was saying, I know you’re really keen on keeping the spontaneity of it and not trying to be kind of over-perfect. If one concentrates too much on trying to get everyone’s parts absolutely perfect to the right duration of every note, et cetera, it starts to sound almost sterile. It’s fantastic to- CC: You lose the groove there. TG: Yeah, absolutely. CC: I like first takes. But my memory is, once we began playing the pieces down, once we worked out the notes and solo order and how the form of the piece was going to go, once we made it through the piece, I think after that it was all first or second takes. We didn’t belabor four, five, six takes. I don’t remember. TG: No! I just remember we rehearsed sections a few times. CC: Yeah. TG: With music like this, and several compositions on this album have that kind of through composed quality where there’s kind of a vamp section and maybe a completely different section and it’s kind of like, almost a fantasy which unfolds. CC: Galaxy and Portals are like that. TG: For sure. CC: Those are the two sweet, light pieces. TG: Yeah. And what fascinates me is we all want to keep that sense of risk even though there’s all this compositional information. It’s not just a reading of a composition. The composition still remains the springboard for all those points where you’re kind of on the edge and we all kind of get addicted to that risk, don’t we? So its the play off between taking risks and being on the edge but taking care of business and respecting the composition at the same time. CC: Let’s take a look at Galaxy, for instance. ‘Cause that, like all the other songs, has developed into a whole thing in performance. Last night when we played the Tokyo Jazz Festival, we played three tunes that lasted an hour and a quarter. TG: (Laughs) Is that right? CC: Yeah. Well don’t you remember? We just played three tunes. We played Bud Powell’s Tempus Fugit for a loosener, opener upper. And then we played Portals, which must have lasted at least a half hour or more. And then we played Galaxy. And that was it! We were the third band that day. I think the audience was quite satisfied but it was three, four hours into the day and that was the whole performance. TG: Right. CC: So Galaxy, for instance, it has these sections… I wrote these sections that set up each soloist which are a little bit different than one another. And now, we’ve added things to it, like for instance, Marcus’s drum solo out at the beginning of Galaxy is a nice performance point. TG: Oh yeah. CC: You get a chance to hear Marcus play freely. And now the vamp before the first melody sometimes turns into something, rather than just the vamp. But then when we play the ensemble together, like that first ensemble, (makes music sounds). Even the rhythm notes feels like an improvisation to me now. The way we try and phrase them together and that kind of thing. I enjoy that part. TG: Yeah. I think we’ve reached the point where we’re well off the page with it. All of those moments, all of the discipline of really being together. It feels kind of effortless, doesn’t it? And people are throwing in different stuff and just the odd kick and tiny little moments of dialogue which are happening in between. It’s fantastic because it feels as if each piece has taken on a life of its own which just continues to evolve. I think thats a sign of a great composition as well. CC: Yeah, well, it’s everyone in there bringing to it what we hear, to give it that group sound. So then we play that first ensemble, then it launches into a keyboard solo which is pretty open, I keep trying different stuff. I tried some different timbre and sounds out of the Motif. TG: I noticed that. CC: Yeah, I’ve been up here in the room programming on the key boards. TG: Some sort of fat brassy sounds. CC: Yeah, a brassy sound. Up until now the instrument is pretty powerful in terms of sound inside it and the only sound I’ve used out of the actual 88-key XF Motif was the Rhodes. The Rhodes sample. I sampled my old Rhodes and put it on there. It sounds pretty good. TG: Yeah, it was an iconic sound. I’m so glad that that’s part of this band as well ‘cause it obviously suits the materials so well. CC: It does, the timbre fits. The rest of the sounds I’ve been using come from that little, skinny module that’s called a rack mount. Its a Motif as well. It’s just got sounds in it and I trigger it from the keyboard. But I was up here programming and I thought, “I’m going to use—”… And that’s one of my plans for the next record, actually, to get them to use more electronic sounds. More timbres. TG: Oh fantastic. It’s an orchestra, really, when you got this many people. CC: So then theres a keyboard solo, and then that comes to an end. There’s this little line that we play that launches it into a bass solo. I kind of like that, that the bass solo comes second. Which is unusual for the rest of the repertoire, you know. TG: Another nice thing is when the bass solo starts it’s evident it’s over a changing chord sequence because up to that point we had quite a lot of vamp which of course is open and you take it all over the place in terms of harmonic anchors etcetera. But as soon as the bass solo starts you hear that there is a chords sequence as well which kind of propels it. It makes it very obviously a new section. CC: Yeah, but then after the bass solo, it launches right into the saxophone solo which used to be a chord sequence. Well, on the the recording it’s a chord sequence. But I got kind of tired of it after a while and I wanted to hear you have a freer space. TG: To stretch out, I’ve been enjoying that, immensely. Great fun at the Tokyo festival. CC: So we’re back to a vamp but what I’m noticing and liking about vamps is number one, I like not being tied down to a harmony. So what happens is we get into a harmonic form, and you sort of following the number bars and the chord sequences changing and rhythm section is kind of following it along, to get loose from it, you start to play other things than the chord that is prescribed, until you’re like, “Forget the chord sequence.” You know what I mean? But you’re still stuck to this form. So when you get rid of that form and you get rid of that chord sequence you start with a vamp and that starts with the tonal center. It frees us up harmonically and everyone can use their ears and create different stuff. And now, the way I see it, the variations in those vamps comes rhythmically, what we do with the rhythm. TG: That’s just what I was thinking myself when you said that, because especially having Luisito there as well, there’s so much rhythmic information and people throwing stuff in, it’s kind of a joyful dialogue. It’s kind of a very equal triangle between harmony, rhythm and melody. It’s never that one completely takes over from the other. What I’ve noticed more and more, I think, is the heart, the soul of the band, so much lies in the rhythm interaction. CC: In the rhythmic section, yeah. I like it it. The way Luisito and Marcus have been working together, created a really unique kind of a thing. Once we get a hook like that new bass line that we put in behind your solo. (Tim makes bass line sound, laughs.) CC: That and the second one which actually Carlitos said there was a name for that kind of rhythm, like an afro rhythm. Gives it a vibe. TG: Yeah for sure, yea. And it’s a great platform, as well, for a linear soloist because you feel as if there’s just enough structure for you to use, but yet, there’s this limitless possibilities I think. And as you were saying, that’s why its so important to have interesting compositions but then it also has to be matched by this feeling of freedom and just having a springboard so everyone easily can get off the page and just one night can be completely different from the next night. That’s why I’m constantly excited by the band. CC: It’s been a lot of fun. That’s for sure. You know I wanted to mention to the listeners, that when we do the webinar, if it’s possible, it would be a good idea for you all to take a look at — the musicians out there, at any rate— take a look at the song book. ‘Cause I have the scores and the lead sheets to the songs, so when we’re discussing something like Galaxy or one of the other songs, you can see what sections we’re talking about and you can relate that to… ‘Cause the original recording is the first time through and we played the form of each piece. Now we’re kind of destroying the form to a degree and mixing things around. But it would be nice to be familiar with the score as we chat. And we can discuss certain sections, and when the webinar finally happens you guys can ask questions. TG: What a great idea. Russ Davis: We certainly hope you’re enjoying this premier episode of Music Magic with Chick Corea, as Chick Corea speaks with Tim Garland about the Vigil and much more. And since Chick brought up the webinar, coming soon, it’s a good time for me to remind you about going to the website ChickCoreaWorkshops.com and getting all the information about Chick’s mentoring program. You can sign up to get on the waiting list and view a cool, free video, that features some music with the great bassist, John Patitucci and master drummer, Antonio Sanchez and also you’ll hear what students have to say about Chick’s workshops. So once again, go to ChickCoreaWorkshops.com and sign up, you musicians, to get up close and personal with the master himself, Chick Corea. Now, let’s return to the podcast as Chick continues his conversation with Tim Garland. TG: I think it’s also pretty crucial to send out the message that these pieces are evolving, so it is interesting to look at the score and see how it’s changed, you know, to hear a recording or broadcast of us playing something more recently, live, and seeing “Wow! How different is that?” Cause the purpose of, I think, jazz writing, a lot of the time the success of it comes in what you’re not writing, the spaces that you’re leaving in order for something to evolve. CC: It’s all about the players. That’s absolutely true. Yeah, everyone could prepare by having a look. That’s a good idea. We should probably put up at least one live performance. A more recent one so everyone can see how it’s been changing. Especially since Carlitos has come into the band. TG: Yeah that’s changed everything. Well, if you change one element, you change the band altogether, don’t you? CC: Yeah, we’re on chapter — I don’t know, what chapter do you think we’re on? TG: I don’t know. At least three! (Laughs) CC: At least three! I said to Marcus, “We’re going to launch chapter two next year.” He said “Really? I thought we were on chapter four or five.” (Both laugh) TG: It feels like that. It feels like it’s been a journey. It’s so great for me to have been kind of right in there on the ground floor and see how the music has been developed and see how you’ve been writing specifically for us, which is really exciting. CC: Yeah, I’ve grown to know you and your amazing work since we hooked up in — what was the year? Do you remember? TG: I think it was 1999. CC: ’99, yeah. TG: I think we started working together in 2000, I think. CC: That’s right. Billy Childs was our hook up. TG: Yeah! CC: He sent me your first record Enter the Fire. And now you’re making a new Return to the Fire. TG: Yeah, I’m kind of halfway through that. So the latest idea is that half of it is done with the original guys in London and some of that’s been recorded already but then the latest idea is maybe do the other half in New York. You’ll hear two sessions, the London one and the New York one. So it gives kind of almost, like, an autobiographical sense of the time that’s passed. It gives me an excuse to get a lot of my friends on the same CD. CC: Yeah, fantastic band. Great group of musicians. So when I heard that, Enter the Fire, I thought “Gee, it would be great to work together,” and I was in the midst of putting Origin together with Avishai Cohen and Jeff Ballard. With Steve Davis and Steve Wilson, yeah. So we worked together for over a year. TG: Yeah, it was! Well over a year. CC: We went all over the place. TG: We did. I remember the first tour, it was about three days after my son was born and the music, they had to send it very quickly in the post. So the first rehearsal we had was about an hour before we actually went on stage. We were in a large room in the hotel. We had to get our instruments out and there was no piano in there so you tapped the rhythms out with a spoon. (Both laugh) In your rhythm section you just had the back of a chair and a spoon and you went out and bam, played for a thousand people. That was my rehearsal. CC: Yeah, that’s the way it rolls. TG: I’ll always remember that. CC: That was a fantastic beginning. And our more recent experience together was on the recording of The Continents, which was a thrill for me. It was the week that we spent together on 34th Street in New York, with that fantastic hand-picked group. TG: Yeah, wonderful again not to feel the restriction of having to do something like a commercial session in the space of three hours or something but to let the music so crucially — and kind of organically — grow, and so everyone there, in the orchestra, had the opportunity to hear things several times and see how their part truly fitted. I respect that so much and we really got a great result. CC: You know, during the tour that we did — was it ‘06? With The Continents, with Marcus and Hans? TG: Was it that long ago already? CC: Yeah, ‘cause we had done that years before in ‘06, and I was just thinking, that was the beginning of putting this group together, cause that was me and you and Marcus on the drums. And we did do some quartet dates during that orchestral tour. TG: With Hans. CC: With Hans Glawischnig. TG: Also wonderful. I loved this sense that we can move between using orchestral forces and then going back into small-group stuff, because even during our orchestral things we were all kind of placed in the orchestra, weren’t we? Hans was part of the rhythm section, then we had Marcus there, playing almost timpani parts at one point. And I was bass clarinet next to the bassoon players and it was fantastic. And we just came out and took our places as soloists. CC: Yeah, you played bassoon in the Mozart Piano Concerto. You played a bassoon part. You played the bass clarinet. TG: And that was a blast for me because the members of the orchestra were so great and I think now, this is the time for the maturation of these stars. There’s so much respect across the genres now, whereas before maybe there was suspicion and perhaps people not really understanding the worth of each other’s styles of music. To me at least, it really seems as if time is really on our side. Especially the younger orchestras, the iPod generation. There’s the sense of respect for the groove, and respect for the history of this kind of music is sort of implicit. And so, maybe one of the most exciting area of music these days is when we start to kind of — we used to call it Third Stream, but thats sounding old-fashioned these days. It’s a real viable, beautiful, fertile middle ground. CC: I love to live in the third stream, what ever that is. TG: Yeah, what ever that is. It’s just music. CC: It’s that third stream. The first two streams you usually get used to it a little bit. Its the third stream you’re looking for, always to find out what’s happening over there. Like now, in Vigil, we’ve got Marcus coming from a real jazz heritage, being Roy Haynes’ grandson. I’ve known Marcus since he was 12 years old. And we’ve got Luisito coming up from Venezuelan, Latin American, Salsa, South American music atmosphere. So when Marcus and Luisito came together there was this third stream happening. ‘Cause then my writing is a little jazzy, or whatever you want to call it. Then Marcus interprets it a certain way. Without Luisito, Marcus would’ve interpreted the music differently. But Luisito comes in with a lot of taste. You remember when he first came in the band, he played very gently. He didn’t pour his ideas all over the band. He kind of saw where Marcus was and what Marcus was doing and started to enhance it and so forth. And now the two of them have really hooked up and to me that’s a third stream. Cause they play some rhythmic stuff. I’ve never heard that stuff before, the way they play those rhythms. TG: For sure. They had the opportunity to let that, once again, organically grow over gigs. CC: Yeah, so now Carlitos is in there on the bass and now we’ve got a fourth stream going because he’s a Cuban fellow. And so he’s bringing in that. And you and I and Charles, sort of bring in more or less, I don’t know, what do you want to call it? The classical third stream. TG: I guess so, ‘cause there’s a lot of harmony in there. CC: A lot of harmony, yeah. And the mixture is great. It makes me really inspired to write some more. TG: You know one thing I find myself saying when people ask about the band and ask about working with you, is — it’s very interesting, the sight lines on the stage, how it’s absolutely imperative that you always have a really great sight line to every member of the rhythm section. You know, if I’m ever coaching a band of my own, maybe college students, et cetera, I’d super take that on board ‘cause it helps you get off the page. ‘Cause if musicians ever look at each other, I think that speaks volumes about how the music is going. As soon as you look up and start looking around, it helps the musical dialogue which is going on. And I think that’s what’s making this band work so well together. No one is doing anything in a little cocoon of their own. The whole thing is kind of to grow one — I’m using my hands a lot, which is not very good for radio. (Laughs) CC: Tim’s hands are looking real great. They’re going up and down, up and down. TG: Like that, there’s a greater unity going on. And I think it’s because of the inspiration of the band leader. I can only say that. CC: I’ve always liked that. You know when there’s a connection with my musical partner and the eye contact, it’s a verification of that. When you’re really hooked up and connected, you don’t think about it. It doesn’t matter who is looking at who, cause you’re there with one another. But life doesn’t go along a straight, smooth line all the time. It’s like moment to moment, this happens, and that distraction, and the attention is here, and the attention is there. So that eye contact always brings you back to square one. Which is: “There we are. There he is, here I am. Boom.” And you’re in contact with one another. For instance when Carlitos — I’m going to speak to him about this — when he first came in the band, his first few bass solos, he played with his eyes closed, staring inside the bass. And it was fine, he was playing his head off. I felt that we could’ve made a closer connection. And also he had the new music in his mind, and he was on top of all that complexity that he was trying to handle. But I mentioned it to him and last night, I don’t know if you noticed, we shared eye contact during his Tempus Fugit bass solo and it was a whole other world. He really liked it a lot, too. It’s just an awareness of that. I started talking about that aspect of it way back in the first Return to Forever band, with Airto and Flora and Stanley. We started actually talking about how to maintain a really close connection while we were on the stage. And that was one of the mechanical points. Hey, look at one another. TG: It’s so basic, isn’t it? I think when you’re approaching the music from notation — your first point of contact is notation, as it often is. And it has to be, when the music is sent out. It just takes a little while to completely get off the page. And then even if you’re not reading anymore, there’s certain moments in the music, sort of knotty little phrases, et cetera, where you sort of really have to concentrate. And it’s such a joy when you kind of just know. You say to yourself, “I’ve got that. I know this.” And you can look up. And that’s one reason why I love the clip-on microphone, which I don’t have on all the instruments, but at least I have one on the tenor cause it gets a bit fussy. CC: You’ve got to get it on the soprano now. So you can move around. TG: You really need two on the soprano to get it. Otherwise it kind of sounds like a big kazoo (laughs) when I play. To move around, eye contact, I love looking over at Marcus and just playing to him and just hearing the velocity of the kit right there. I think that’s one thing, I guess, the difference between recording and playing live, is when you’ve got cans on, when you’re wearing the headphones, you’re not so spatially aware of what’s going on, ‘cause it’s all kind of a contrivance, isn’t it? A necessary contrivance cause you want the separation of all the instruments to make it sound great on the CD. But when you’re really next to each other and you’re feeling each other’s presence there, for me anyways, it’s a little easier. I think that’s one reason why some of the moments where I heard myself play and enjoyed it the most, probably, in a live situation. ‘Cause you’re there, and probably the spontaneity is the most obvious thing about it. CC: When people who are not totally knowledgeable about the jazz music area, they are… some jazz fans will ask, “How would you get someone who is not familiar with jazz interested in what you’re doing?” And one of the first things that I tell them is “Have the person notice that the musicians are having a conversation with one another.” Rather than try and think about how to find a melody, or sing something, or find the form of the song, and they hear all these notes going along, you say — especially if it’s live — they can see it, that the musicians are actually conversing with one another. And if you think of it as a conversation and you have conversations all day long, talking to someone out on the street or wherever in your house or wherever, and you’re having a conversation, and you don’t look at the person. That’s unusual. When you talk to someone you usually look at them. It’s the way the face was built. He built it this way. When you “face someone,” the verb is used that way. So, it’s just quite a natural thing. TG: The other thing about that, that’s improvisation, when we’re in conversation. How many times, when you’re talking to someone, do you know the last word in the sentence that you’re about to say? You don’t know what that word’s going to be. You’re just so familiar with the language and it just comes out and the last word happens. Period. Well, that’s kind of what we do musically, isn’t it? You’re so used to the language, so again the idea of conversation is a really good parallel to use. I think the only thing then, maybe sometimes, is that people go away, they listen to some jazz — the word “jazz” is so incredibly broad and there are a lot of bands out there that are doing quite well! And sometimes I hear them and I think, you know, I kind of hear… I wish there was more dialogue going on! (Laughs) You know? So, I think that maybe that’s one of the challenges as well, because the word “jazz” covers such a huge amount of ground, that people are constantly struggling to come up with some definition. You know, the best definition is the music itself, of course, isn’t it? You’ve just got to get people out there and experience it live. CC: Yeah, well, when we talk to each other about music, we hardly use the term. Like, “Let’s go out and play some jazz tonight.” We’d get a good laugh out of that. “Come on guys, lets go out and play some jazz.” “Hey, don’t play so much like Latin tonight, let’s play some jazz.” Then you know, “Put a little bit of that classical thing in there. Yeah a little bit more classical, a lot of jazz, a little touch of classical, and a lot of Latin. Let’s play like that tonight.” It doesn’t make any sense. TG: It sounds ludicrous to say. CC: Legacy, on the record, if you remember, was a throw off. It was a one time throw off. We had recorded most of the pieces and we hadn’t got to Legacy yet. Legacy, the written score, has several themes in it. It has two or three sections and themes in it. I had sent everyone the demo, so we had the basic idea of that first theme, which was that rhythmic thing that went like (makes rhythm sound). You know, like a permutating rhythm. And I know that the quote-unquote “tape” was rolling. We were all ready to go, and I just said to Marcus, “Just start. Start something Marcus.” So Marcus started that thing that he does. The Marcus thing, based on that little form, you know (makes drum noises). And then Hadrien has such a good sense of that kind of form. He got in there, and it was just like an open blow, is what we did. We used that one line, there was one written line. There was no plan to it at all. In fact, we weren’t even looking at each other, in fact ‘cause you were in another room. TG: I was in another room. CC: With a closed door! TG: Yeah I wasn’t quite sure what was going on, actually! (Laughs) CC: Really? What was your remembrance of it? TG: Well, I remember, kind of miraculously, we came in with that melody, more or less, at the same time. And so I think after that happened, when Charles and I came in with that melody at the same time. “Oh okay, this sounds like fun, let’s keep going with it.” I wasn’t aware that we were recording it either. We just kept going. You know, I was enjoying just kind of interjecting, just playing little phrases, but I was thinking “Probably we’re not recording this so now is a good time to just kind of loosen up and take a couple of risks.” So, then after a few more minutes, I could hear a couple of spaces that I could jump in there, and I remembered just thinking that there’s so much groove going on. There was one point I was thinking “What if I kinda play completely out of time in a different key?” at one point. And I think maybe something like that ended up on the record still. If you like it, it’s that kind of imperfection and risk taking, which, I guess, it’s typifying one of the things which I get addicted to, which is you practice and you want to get all these corners right. But then there’s an absolute joy in this kind of abandoning of those things. CC: Well we were abandoning those at that point. Theres like 8 minutes of abandon. TG: Yeah, I was surprised at the end. CC: Or longer. I forget how long the track was. Then we were trying to figure out how to come to an ending. Toward the end of the track, you remember, Marcus took that rhythm and made it sound like another rhythm. TG: Yeah. Well he’s good at that. CC: I just didn’t know that he was holding on to the first form with it. He was holding on to the da-duh, the first form, see? So I just went into the second rhythm, so when he switched back to the first rhythm again, it was nice actually. And we sort of kept that up when we played it in performance a few times. Anyway, when we heard it back, we listened to it at one point, it became one of my favorite tracks on the record. TG: I think it’s just a good example of the band jamming and getting to know each other, actually. So you can’t get more fresh than that. CC: It was a really free improv. It was really great, all the band listening and just being — what was that? Fourth stream or fifth stream? It was a little bit of classical, some Latin. TG: But mainly jazz. CC: A little bit of hip hop. There was a back beat or two. That was Legacy. Alright, I think we got a good one for the first podcast. How do you say that in English? TG: “Podcast.” CC: “Podcast.” Thank you all for listening to WCHIK. TG: What a pleasure. CC: Yeah okay Tim, thanks a lot. TG: Great! My pleasure. Russ Davis: Well I certainly hope you enjoyed the first episode of Music Magic with Chick Corea, Chick’s conversation with his long-time musical associate Tim Garland. And again, you’re listening to “Galaxy 32 Star 4” from Chick’s new CD The Vigil on Stretch / Concord Records available on iTunes and Amazon. This is Russ Davis from Voice of America and MoJa Radio, and we hope you’ll join us for the next episode of Music Magic with Chick Corea. Before I tell you about that, let me invite you to leave a five star review on iTunes, where you accessed this podcast, and you’ll let the rest of the world know how much you enjoyed Music Magic with Chick Corea. Now, if you’re a musician and you would like to have an up-close and personal relationship with Chick Corea in a very special webinar, you should get on the mailing list to be part of the upcoming Chick Corea workshop. The way to do that is to go to this website: ChickCoreaWorkshops.com. You’ll not only have a chance to get on the waiting list for this must-attend online Chick Corea music workshop, but you can view a great, free video of a Chick Corea music workshop that features music with John Patitucci and Antonio Sanchez, and get some thoughts from some other students about what they think about Chick’s workshops. And on the next episode of Music Magic with Chick Corea, join us as Chick sits down in Tokyo with the terrific young drummer who joined him in the studio and on stage with the touring band, Marcus Gilmore, following in the footsteps of his grandfather Roy Haynes. That’s next time on Music Magic with Chick Corea. Join us then, won’t you? 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__label__wiki	0.567003	0.567003	Dating in tullamore Hot sex chat stories Free adult bi chat robbie e dating brooke Video chat naudy dating techniques in geology Adult dating by text The nightclub attached to the hotel is named "Melba's" to mark the occasion.On the Wilmer road, near the County Arms Hotel is the beautiful Gothic-style Catholic church of 1817–25. Brendan's Church of Ireland was also built in Gothic style in 1815 and is located in the Oxmantown Mall.Kearns privately owned bus service provides a number of direct bus services to Dublin from Birr. Birr Town Council meets here in a building known as John's Hall built in the style of a Greek Temple.Mentioned by Geraldus Cambrensis, who referred to it as Umbilicus Hiberniae, the indentations on the stone are as old as megalithic sites, such as Newgrange.The town lies within a parish of the same name in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Killaloe.Birr is a designated Irish Heritage Town with a carefully preserved Georgian heritage.The statue was removed in 1915 as it was in danger of collapse. The Oxmantown Mall was laid out in the early 19th century and was designed as a promenade leading from Birr Castle gates to the Church of Ireland.In Emmet Square stands Dooly's Hotel: one of the oldest coaching inns in Ireland, dating from 1747.The name of Galway Blazers was given to the Galway Hunt after a celebration held in the hotel in 1809 resulted in the premises being set on fire.Film director John Huston was latterly a member of the Galway Blazers.Australian soprano Dame Nellie Melba famously sang to crowds gathered below in the Square, from her hotel room above in Dooly's Hotel.Following the Plantations of Ireland, Birr was located in the Barony of Ballybritt following the formation of King's County (now County Offaly) in 1556. Camsex online for free Who is sexy girls in chat no reg www xxnx girl leader japan com Sex teen frre chat	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line69
__label__wiki	0.848261	0.848261	South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard signed a bill this week criminalizing abortions at 20 weeks gestation. The law includes an exception for the life of the mother in certain cases of emergency, but requires every effort be made to deliver the baby alive. No exception is provided for cases of rape or incest. "I think it'll save lives because it lets women know that their children really are humans just like us. I think it's a great step forward for our state, and I would like to see us do more to protect the innocent." -- Rep. Isaac Latterell (R) Tea, South Dakota For background, read about court battles over late-term abortion restriction laws. Click headlines below to read previous articles: Late-term Abortion Ban Passes in West Virginia Abortionists Stymied by New Oklahoma & Kansas Laws Abortionists, Satanists Team Up vs. Missouri Law Physicians Force New York Times to Admit 22-week Fetus is a Baby! Also read this Gallup poll: Americans Want Abortion Laws Changed -- From "South Dakota Governor Signs 20-Week Abortion Ban Into Law" by James Nord, Associated Press 3/10/16 The measure allows abortions later than 19 weeks if there is a medical emergency, but a claim or diagnosis that a woman intends to kill or harm herself aren't part of the exemption. The law says that when such an abortion is necessary because of an emergency, the doctor must "deliver the child in the manner which ... provides the best opportunity for the unborn child to survive," but only if that is consistent with preserving the woman's life and preventing an "irreversible" impairment of a major bodily function. Performing an abortion that violates the new threshold is a Class 1 misdemeanor, which carries a penalty of up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine. A woman who gets such an abortion would not be subject to that consequence. Similar laws are in effect in 12 other states. Courts have blocked laws in Arizona, Idaho and Georgia. From "New 20-week limit on abortions sent to governor" by Bob Mercer, Rapid City Journal correspondent 3/10/16 State senators gave final approval Wednesday 26-7 to the legislation, Senate Bill 72 . . . Sen. Jeff Monroe, R-Pierre, was prime sponsor. His lead sponsor in the House was Rep. Isaac Latterell, R-Tea. The House of Representatives passed the bill Monday 59-7. The House made changes that Monroe described as necessary to correct minor mistakes in the Senate version. Monroe was the only senator to speak on the matter Wednesday. From "Daugaard approves 20-week abortion ban" by Dana Ferguson, Sioux Falls Argus Leader 3/10/16 Supporters say the measure aims to prevent excruciating pain fetuses experience during abortion procedures. While some doctors contend that fetuses can feel pain at 20 weeks, the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says evidence suggests that's not possible until the third trimester begins at 27 weeks. Opponents including representatives from the American Civil Liberties Union and reproductive rights groups have said the measure is unconstitutional as it bans abortions before the point of viability. They also said the measure could create health problems for some pregnant women. Thirteen states have approved similar bans, according to the reproductive health think-tank Guttmacher Institute, which depart from the 22-24 week standard of a fetus' viability outside the womb established by the Supreme Court's landmark 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade. At least two of those bans in Arizona and Idaho were enjoined due to court orders, voiding the policies. From "South Dakota Criminalizes Late Abortions" by Lacey Louwagie, Courthouse News Service 3/11/16 Some called the bill unnecessary. The only clinic that performs abortion in South Dakota is Planned Parenthood in Sioux Falls, which will not perform abortions after the 14th week of gestation. The bill's author, state Sen. Jeff Monroe, R-Pierre, called that "baloney." "I don't believe they are cutting it off at 14 weeks," he told Courthouse News. The bill requires medical professionals to fill out a form answering 23 questions about any abortion performed in the state. Information sought includes the reason for the abortion, the mother's age and race, the gestational age of the fetus, and how the procedure was paid for. From "South Dakota Governor Signs Pro-Life Bill Banning Late-Term Abortions After 20 Weeks" by Micaiah Bilger, LifeNews.com 3/11/16 [Gov.] Daugaard spokeswoman Kelsey Pritchard told the Associated Press that the state’s attorney general “will be prepared to defend the constitutionality of the bill” if pro-abortion groups challenge it. The bill is modeled after the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which has become law in 12 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Though abortion advocates deny the science of fetal pain, researchers have established that unborn babies can feel pain at 20 weeks or earlier. Dr. Steven Zielinski, an internal medicine physician from Oregon, is one of the leading researchers into it. He first published reports in the 1980s to validate research showing evidence for unborn pain. He has testified before U.S. Congress that an unborn child could feel pain at “eight-and-a-half weeks and possibly earlier” and that a baby before birth “under the right circumstances, is capable of crying.” Also read Kill Baby to Save Mother? No! Says Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker Labels: abortion, ACLU, crimes, fetal pain, late term abortion, SD, viability	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line71
__label__cc	0.657615	0.342385	Language of document : Bulgarian Spanish Czech Danish German Estonian Greek English French Italian Latvian Lithuanian Hungarian Maltese Dutch Polish Portuguese Romanian Slovak Slovene Finnish Swedish Request for a preliminary ruling from the Riigikohus (Estonia) lodged on 5 December 2012 - Nordecon AS, Ramboll Eesti AS v Rahandusministeerium Language of the case: Estonian Applicants: Nordecon AS, Ramboll Eesti AS Defendant: Rahandusministeerium Third Party: Maanteeamet (a) Must Article 30(2) of Directive 2004/18/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 on the coordination of procedures for the award of public works contracts, public supply contracts and public service contracts be interpreted as allowing the contracting authority to conduct negotiations with tenderers on tenders which do not comply with the mandatory requirements laid down in the technical specifications of the contract? (b) If the answer to Question (a) is in the affirmative, must Article 30(2) of Directive 2004/18 then be interpreted as allowing the contracting authority in the course of negotiations after opening the tenders to alter the mandatory requirements of the technical specifications, provided that the subject-matter of the contract is not altered and equal treatment of all tenderers is ensured? (c) If the answer to Question (b) is in the affirmative, must Article 30(2) of Directive 2004/18 then be interpreted as meaning that a rule which excludes alteration of the mandatory requirements of the technical specifications in the course of negotiations after opening the tenders is contrary to that provision? (d) If the answer to Question (a) is in the affirmative, must Article 30(2) of Directive 2004/18 then be interpreted as prohibiting the contracting authority from accepting as the best tender a tender which at the end of the negotiations does not comply with the mandatory requirements of the technical specifications? 1 - OJ 2004 L 134, p. 114.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line73
__label__cc	0.577852	0.422148	Causes of the Crisis A blog about the causes of the financial crisis. Now available from the University of Pennsylvania Press: Engineering the Financial Crisis (October 2011) by Jeffrey Friedman and Wladimir Kraus . From Diversity to Consensus, and Austrian Economics The most shocking result of having researched the causes of the financial crisis for the last year and a half is this discovery: economists have no compunctions about answering empirical questions, such as what caused the specific crisis of 2008, with general theoretical models, whether macro- or micro- in nature, that may or may not have any applicability to the actual historical event at hand. The possibility that a good model may not be applicable in a specific circumstance never seems to cross their minds. Or, to put it differently (since we all use models): economists seem particularly uninterested in testing their hypotheses against evidence. Why do that, if all economic models express "universal laws"? During the first year after the peak of the crisis in September 2008, however, a positive side effect of the economists' apriorism was that it produced several different hypotheses that, in this case, were relatively easy to test against evidence. For instance, there was the Austrian business-cycle theory. But it runs up against two (not necessarily fatal) questions when it is applied to the specific crisis at hand: "Why housing?" and "Why a banking crisis?" I.e., if low interest rates were the cause of the crisis, why wasn't there a general overinvestment in capital goods, as the Austrian theory predicts? In fact, there was an overinvestment in housing, a labor-intensive good with a short production period (roughly 3 months). Why not, instead, an overproduction of jet airplanes or skyscrapers? One may supplement the Austrian theory with explanations such as Stephen Gjerstad and Vernon Smith's Critical Review focus on the favorable tax treatment given to home-equity capital gains, or Peter Wallison's Critical Review focus on federal housing policy, which, via Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, added to low interest rates even more favorable terms for home buyers (e.g., no down payments). But then we aren't really talking about a specifically Austrian theory any more: nearly everyone, of every theoretical stripe, blames low interest rates as a facilitating condition of the crisis. And while low interest rates may (perhaps) have been necessary, they were not sufficient, to cause the crisis. And they did not operate in the specifically Austrian fashion of boosting spending on more "roundabout" methods of production. Moreover--why should a housing crisis have turned into a banking crisis? Brian S. Wesbury's new book, It's Not as Bad as You Think (Wiley 2010), demonstrates that the collapse of housing did not cause the recession. It was the banks' overinvestment in mortgage-backed bonds, whose value was called into question during the panic of September 2008, that caused the recession--by freezing bank lending. There is no known macroeconomic explanation for the banks' purchases of these bonds; so it must have been caused by institutional or microeconomic factors. Nonetheless, some "Austrians" continue to push "the Austrian" theory, even though that theory is but a minor aspect of the rich Austrian legacy. Back when I received an informal education in Austrian economics in New York City in the mid-1980s (via Israel Kirzner and Don Lavoie), and then, more intensively, through editing them and virtually every other Austrian economist in Critical Review in the early 1990s, Austrian business-cycle theory was seen by Austrians as an embarrassment. The distinctive thing about "Austrian" economics, it was thought, was not business-cycle theory but the Austrian focus on human ignorance. This focus is evident in the best explicitly Austrian books ever written: Lavoie's Rivalry and Central Planning: The Socialist Calculation Debate Reconsidered (CUP 1985) and Mario Rizzo and Gerald P. O'Driscoll's The Economics of Time and Ignorance (2nd ed. Routledge 1996). This tradition continues with Amar Bhide's forthcoming masterpiece, A Call to Judgment: Sensible Finance for a Dynamic World (OUP 2010), which attributes the crisis to the spread of mistaken theories of finance, such as the Capital Asset Pricing Model. Karen Vaughn's Austrian Economics in America (CUP 1998) is a challenging, exciting history of this epistemically oriented Austrian economics, now largely abandoned. Most Austrians have now, sadly, adopted (perhaps due to the influence of Public Choice theory) the mainstream economists' obsession with rational-choice game theory (the strategic interaction of knowledgeable self-interested agents), which tends to reduce error to perverse incentives rather than genuine ignorance. So all that Austrians have left to distinguish themselves from the mainstream is Hayek's old business-cycle theory, which may or may not explain some business cycles but does not seem sufficient to explain this one. Meanwhile, non-Austrian economists have gravitated toward two game-theoretic "moral hazard" stories that fit with their predisposition to reduce human error to misaligned incentives. First, the moral hazard of "too big to fail" (TBTF). Empirical problem: Before the bailouts, nothing of this scale had ever happened, so no bank could have been sure they would be bailed out. And if one actually reads accounts of the decision making in the years leading up to the crisis, such as Gillian Tett's Fool's Gold and William D. Cohan's House of Cards, no decision makers factored bailouts into their calculations. Why? Because they didn't think they were doing anything particularly risky (an ignorance-based human error), so they didn't even consider the chances of being bailed out. Second, the moral hazard of "corporate compensation systems," i.e., bonuses. Empirical problem #1: When this theory took hold, there was virtually no evidence for it (whereas now there is one study for it and one against it)--see Wladimir's and my post on the topic (below). Empirical problem #2: There was, and remains, the following overwhelming evidence against the theory: 93% of the banks' mortgage-backed securities were either guaranteed by the U.S. government (i.e., Fannie and Freddie) or were rated AAA--the "safest" and lowest-yielding securities available. Triple-A bonds are the last thing revenue-seeking, bonus-hungry, risk-indifferent (i.e., risk-knowledgeable, rather than risk-ignorant) bankers would have bought. Yet now the Corporate Compensation Myth is the hegemonic story of the crisis, all but universally accepted by financial journalists, politicians, regulators--and scholars. Why? Because it fits the scholars' rationalistic predilection for incentives stories that reduce an apparently widespread error to the knowing, deliberate actions of selfish actors--i.e., "greedy bankers." And guess what? That is exactly the simplistic model that journalists, politicians, and the general public are inclined to believe, evidence or not. Posted by Jeffrey Friedman at 10:53 AM Bill Woolsey said... I'm guilty. Nominal expenditure falls, and I explain it by an imbalance between the quantity of money and the demand to hold it. As for Austrian theory, malinvestment does seem to be a significant part of the current crisis, and while simple stories of round about methods of production may not apply to building a house, building a lumber mill so that someone may live in a house 50 years from now (and 49, and 48 down to next year too) is a round about production technique. I don't think monetary policy mistakes in the naughties were all that important to explaining all the malinvestment in housing, but that there really needs to be an reallocation of labor and that new types of capital goods need to be built to replace inappropriate ones, and that this will negatively impact the productive capacity of the economy for some time--well, that seems to be important. Greg said... This is a real category mistake -- based on a grossly false picture of "science". Taking in particular historical contingencies has nothing to with using or not using model -- or with the bogey of "testing", a joke of an understanding of science when younare talking of complex phenomena. E.g. think of how inappropriate all this is when talking a out Darwinian biology, just as an example: "The most shocking result of having researched the causes of the financial crisis for the last year and a half is this discovery: economists have no compunctions about answering empirical questions, such as what caused the specific crisis of 2008, with general theoretical models, whether macro- or micro- in nature, that may or may not have any applicability to the actual historical event at hand. Or, to put it differently (since we all use models): economists seem particularly uninterested in testing their hypotheses against evidence." In Hayek housing is a _long term_ capital good. If you are going to attack Hayek's work, it helps to know it. "I.e., if low interest rates were the cause of the crisis, why wasn't there a general overinvestment in capital goods, as the Austrian theory predicts? In fact, there was an overinvestment in housing .." Every "Austrian" I know believes there are multiple explanatory elements involved in the 2003-2010 boom and bust. Mupetblast said... First, the moral hazard of "too big to fail" (TBTF). Roger Koppl has articulated a variation on the essence of this problem with his "big player effects." What might be "too big to fail" is the idea that a hegemonic regulatory body, bank, etc. ought be kept afloat to prevent the system from suffering a severe lack of faith. TGGP said... They bought AAA not because they were safer, but because of regulatory arbitrage. I can't tell if you are for or against the Austrians. In any case, it doesn't really matter. A housing crises turns into a banking crises because of the toxic mortgages on the banks balance sheets. Seems pretty simple to me. People default, banks fail due to credit contraction after they have to write-off the debt. People buy houses with loans, the banks and mortgage lenders provide those loans. I don't understand why you don't understand this. Engineering the Financial Crisis: Systemic Risk and the Failure of Regulation by Jeffrey Friedman and Wladimir Kraus Why the Greek Debt Panic? Too Big to Fail: The Evidence Another Good Thing about Austrian Economics Against the New Consensus From Diversity to Consensus, and Austrian Economic... The Critical Review Book(s) Critical Review Jeffrey Friedman Wladimir Kraus shalomboy	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line74
__label__wiki	0.62839	0.62839	A couple of examples of companies who have given no thought to handling a security breach and spent no time researching “Best Practices” once it occurred. Somehow I doubt their Marketing Department was involved in these decisions. Has no one read “The Prince?” TD Bank: Data loss affects about 260,000 U.S. customers Jessica Hall continues to update the TD Bank backup tapes breach: In Maine, 34,907 residents were affected, according to a letter sent to the attorney general from TD Bank. In Massachusetts, the Attorney General’s Office said more than 73,000 residents were affected. In Connecticut, 35,000 residents were affected, while Rhode Island had 500 residents and Maryland had 398 residents affected, according to the state attorney general. Read more on Morning Sentinel. As I tweeted earlier today, TD Bank made a bad decision, in my opinion, not to release the total number all at once in their original statement. The story’s staying in the news cycle as each new state discloses their numbers. So now we have a breach that was 6-month delayed in notification and what looks like an attempt to not reveal how bad it may have been. Not a good post-incident response plan. (Related) Another breach the victim is trying to cover up? Those of us who track security breach stories will follow up until we know how many people were impacted, when and how the breach occurred, and (probably) why the company wouldn't come clean immediately – lots of conspiracy speculation here.... Korn/Ferry breach details emerge Thanks to the California Attorney General’s Office, we now have some of the details on the Korn/Ferry breach, reported yesterday on this blog. Korn/Ferry is an executive recruiting firm. In their sample notification, Thom Steinoff, CTO, writes: We are writing to inform you about a recent incident involving our data network. We recently learned that we were the victim of a sophisticated cyber attack. We deeply regret that this incident occurred and take very seriously the security of our network. But when did this “recent” incident occur? They don’t say at this point, but they indicate later that it may have gone on for months before they learned of it in August. We began investigating the incident as soon as we learned of it. How did they learn of it? They don’t say. And why did it take them months to learn of it? They don’t tell us that, either. While our investigation is ongoing, we have determined that, although the affected databases were not designed or structured to receive sensitive personal information, a small percentage of the files nevertheless included an individual’s name in combination with his or her driver’s license number, government-issued identification number, Social Security number, credit card numbers or health information. It is important to note that we have no evidence that access to personal information was the goal of the attack. [And none to suggest otherwise Bob] Korn/Ferry has already taken a number of steps to enhance the security of the relevant computer network. In addition to these steps, we have been working with law enforcement in connection with their investigation of the incident. Korn/Ferry quickly secured its network against the attack, which appears to have been underway for a number of months, shortly after discovering it in August 2012. Korn/Ferry was asked by federal law enforcement officials, however, to delay disclosure of the existence of the attack until now. Emphasis in the above added by me. You can read the full letter here, which includes an offer of free credit monitoring protection. In light of this explanation, their press release yesterday is even more problematic as their statement, “The databases that were impacted are not designed or structured to collect credit card, payment card, bank account, social security numbers, government identification numbers or health information. ” might have been interpreted by some to mean that those types of data were not in the impacted databases. To the contrary, while the databases were not supposed to have such data, they apparently did. Korn/Ferry did not indicate how many clients or candidates were affected by this incident. Should the government try to be “cutting edge?” I think their time and money would be better spent facilitating the work of consultants. If a consultant does not have the skill set you need, fire him and hire someone who does. The model here seems to be send the employee off for training. Not the most responsive reaction... http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/10/dhs-cybersecurity-taskforce/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Top+Stories%29 Task Force Tells DHS to Offer ‘Cool’ Cybersecurity Jobs to Gov. Workers and Test Them Like Pilots … This means, in part, hiring at least 600 new cybersecurity professionals, including ones who have proven, hands-on experience to take on critical tasks, the task force recommended in its 41-page report (.pdf). Furthermore, the government needs to focus less on professional certifications in making its hiring decisions and more on real-world experience and expertise. To do this, it needs to build a system for actively measuring these skills, such as one that is currently used for testing pilots, the group said. The group noted that pilots undergo situational testing that becomes more complicated as their skills increase, such as placing them in conditions where the weather deteriorates or where systems malfunction, in order to test them under duress. [I think they mean “stress” but this would work too Bob] Drones, Cyber weapons and more... http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/10/new-darpa-priorities/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Top+Stories%29 Darpa’s New Director Wants to Keep the Skies Under U.S. Control The U.S. has total dominance of the skies above planet Earth, a defense budget five times as large as its nearest competitor, and a fleet of robotic aircraft and advanced manned planes. The newest leader of the Pentagon’s blue-sky researchers says the U.S. is more vulnerable than it thinks in the skies. Maintaining America’s air supremacy may be about to become a top priority for the agency that helped give the world the Predator drone. (Related) “We need more because they are so cool! Don't worry, we'll talk the city into using them our way. After all J. Edgar isn't the only one with files on politicians...” Seattle Police Want More Drones, Even While Two Sit Unused "The Seattle Police Department is seeking to buy more unmanned aerial vehicles (a.k.a. drones) even as the two it currently owns site warehoused until the city develops a policy for their use, documents released as part of the EFF and MuckRock's Drone Census show. More frightening than the $150,000 price tag? The fact that the drone vendors market the fact that these lease agreements do 'not require voter approval.'" Does your city or town use drones? When is electronic storage not electronic storage? When the court says, “Clouds are made of water vapor, so they can't be electronic...” (and I thought the only smoked tobacco in South Carolina) S. Carolina Supreme Court: Leaving Email In the Cloud Isn't Electronic Storage "I leave my email stored online, as do many modern email users, particularly for services like Gmail with its ever-expanding storage limit. I don't bother downloading every email I receive. According to the South Carolina Supreme Court, this doesn't qualify as electronic storage. This means most email users are not protected by the Stored Communications Act. All your emails are fair game, so be careful what you write. From the article: 'This new decision creates a split with existing case law (Theofel v. Farey-Jones) as decided in a 2004 case decided by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. That decision found that an e-mail message that was received, read, and left on a server (rather than being deleted) did constitute storage "for purposes of backup protection," and therefore was also defined as being kept in "electronic storage." Legal scholars point to this judicial split as yet another reason why the Supreme Court (and/or Congress) should take up the issue of the Stored Communications Act.'" Very misleading title since “Do Not” does not mean Do Not... An Overview of the Do Not Track Debate "The Verge is carrying an accurate and accessible overview of the Do Not Track debate. Quoting: 'With the fate of our beloved internet economy allegedly at stake, perhaps it's a good time to examine what Do Not Track is. How did the standard come to be, what does it do, and how does it stand to change online advertising? Is it as innocuous as privacy advocates make it sound, or does it stand to jeopardize the free, ad-supported internet we've all come to rely on?' The issues surrounding Do Not Track can be difficult to understand, owing to rampant rhetoric and spin. This article unpacks the tracking technology, privacy concerns, economic questions, and political outlook. Full disclosure: I'm quoted." “After a careful review of the law, we decided to do what the RIAA wanted instead.” Leaked AT&T training documents reveal anti-piracy plan A leaked batch of AT&T training documents reveal an anti-piracy plan in the books, which includes sending warning notices to flagged accounts. In what seems to be a completely draconian measure, any subscriber who’s account is flagged multiple times for copyright infringement will have access to frequently-visited websites (Facebook? YouTube?) blocked until they complete an online course on copyright. The warning notices will begin on November 28th. This should surprise no one. My guess is an announcement before the election, followed by a “thorough and complete” exoneration of a large campaign contributor. Note that the FTC is ready to sue before they investigate – your government in action... Google may be hit with antitrust case from the FTC According to multiple sources, it’s said that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is closer than ever to hitting Google with an antitrust lawsuit. The plan has been in the works for almost a year, and now four out of the five FTC commissioners are wanting to open up the doors to begin the process of investigating any wrongdoing by the search giant. Perspective (Even if I find it hard to believe) Six billion people are using mobile devices Smartphones and tablets are obviously taking the entire world by storm, but would it surprise you if you knew that nearly 85% of the world’s population is using mobile devices? [Not just phones Bob] According to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), six billion people in the world use smartphones and/or tablets. [According to WolframAlpha, “6 billion / world population” = 88.4% Bob] Among other things, the government now recognizes that meteors come from outer space... The Great Meteor Grab "New regulations by the Federal government define asteroidal material to be an antiquity, like arrowheads and pottery, rather than a mineral — and, therefore, not subject to U.S. mining law or eligible for mining claims. At the moment, these regulations only apply to asteroidal materials that have fallen to Earth as meteorites. However, they create a precedent that could adversely affect the plans of companies such as Planetary Resources, who intend to mine asteroids in space." Interesting. Is this how to replace Journals? http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/12/academia-edu-profiles/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29 Academia.Edu Overhauls Profiles As The Onus Falls On Researchers To Manage Their Personal Brands Even though it’s taken for granted that you have to manage your own personal brand on the web, that still isn’t necessarily the case in the slower-moving world of academia. But it’s starting to happen, with individual brands beginning to eclipse the importance of being published in a well-known (and often exorbitantly expensive) journal. Academia.edu, a social network for professors and researchers, is taking advantage of this by overhauling its profile pages. The company’s CEO Richard Price says that academics are starting to want more of a direct connection with their audiences. So Academia.edu’s new profiles let researchers showcase their best work and track analytics on views and followers. … “We’re shifting away from a world where the journal industry sits between the academic and the audience,” Price said. “We’re now moving to a world that’s more reflective of social media, where the academic is becoming the key node of distribution of research.” As for the Academia.edu itself, the site is approaching 2 million users with 4,000 joining every day. “Well, everyone else is doing it!” Apple Has Quietly Started Tracking iPhone Users Again, And It’s Tricky To Opt Out (update1) October 11, 2012 by Dissent Jim Edwards reports: Apple’s launch of the iPhone 5 in September came with a bunch of new commercials to promote the device. But Apple didn’t shout quite so loud about an enhancement to its new mobile operating system, iOS 6, which also occurred in September: The company has started tracking users so that advertisers can target them again, through a new tracking technology called IFA or IDFA. Read more on Business Insider. Update: Tinfoil 2.0 comments that the preceding article is full of errors. “It was only twenty eight times!” Gazette sues city for records of employee discipline for Internet abuse Do city employees have any expectation of privacy if using work computers to surf porn sites? And can the city shield the names of those employees from freedom of information requests? Those questions are being addressed in a Billings, Montana court. Ed Kemmick reports: The Billings Gazette filed a lawsuit against the city of Billings on Thursday, asking for the release of public records dealing with city workers who were disciplined for viewing inappropriate websites on the job. [If they are “inappropriate” shouldn't the city block them? Bob] In a letter dated Sept. 10, City Attorney Brent Brooks said the city would supply the information regarding the Internet searches. It has not yet provided that data. As for the other two requests, Brooks said, “We cannot fulfill these requests because to do so would violate individual City employee’s right to privacy.” Read more on Billings Gazette. The sad part is, if the photos had been taken by Playboy the Copyright Cops would be much more aggressive than the Privacy Police... (Does plugging your phone into a company outlet make the contents of the phone subject to “inspection?”) Boss Allegedly Downloaded Nude Photos From Employee’s Cell Phone, Showed Them Around The Office Kashmir Hill writes: This case could be filed under “Horrible Bosses” or “Stupid Employees.” Jonathan Bruns of Texas had a temp job working for Houston-based Deepwater Corrosion Services, a company which, as you might guess from the name and location, is involved in the offshore oil industry. Via Courthouse News Service: Bruns claims a staffing agency assigned him to work for Deepwater and his supervisor Pete Offenhauser gave him permission to recharge his phone on an office outlet. That seems nice enough, but then Offenhauser allegedly went snooping… and struck oil: “Unbeknownst to Mr. Bruns, and after he had returned to his usual job duties and responsibilities, Mr. Offenhauser accessed certain private material on Mr. Bruns’ cell phone and displayed the same on his laptop computer, specifically pictures of Mr. Bruns’ fiancée … without any clothing,” the complaint states. “Well look at that. Clearly the Ayes have it!” Typical Politician 19,000 Emails Against and 0 In Favor of UK Draft Communications Bill "Open source writer Glyn Moody discusses the Draft Communications Bill (aka Snooper's Charter) in the UK and how the Joint Parliamentary Committee that had been considering the bill received almost 19,000 emails during its consultation period. He notes: 'Out of 19,000 emails received by the Committee on the subject of the proposed Draft Communications Bill, not a single one was in favor of it, or even agreed with its premise. Has there ever been a bill so universally rejected by the public in a consultation? Clearly, it must be thrown out completely.'" [Or added to the Official Secrets list Bob] Absent a declaration of war by an enemy, what would it take to convince politicians that the public was behind them if they initiated cyberattacks? Would the average citizen recognize a “cyber Pearl Harbor” if it didn't directly impact them? (i.e. Facebook still works?) http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57531071-83/pre-emptive-cyberattack-defense-possible-panetta-warns/?part=rss&subj=news&tag=title Pre-emptive cyberattack defense possible, Panetta warns The U.S. military has the ability to act pre-emptively when it detects an imminent cyberattack threat, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said today. During his first major policy speech on cybersecurity, Panetta echoed previous statements that the United States was facing the possibility of a "cyber-Pearl Harbor" perpetrated by foreign hackers, painting a grim portrait of the destructive power wielded by unnamed agents. "A cyber attack perpetrated by nation states or violent extremist groups could be as destructive as the terrorist attack of 9/11," he said in prepared remarks during a speech at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York. "Such a destructive cyber terrorist attack could paralyze the nation." (Related) When someone does attack Facebook, should we nuke them? Grab them and send them to Guantanimo? Send them an angry tweet? Facebook goes down around the world in apparent Anonymous attack If you’re trying to get on Facebook at the moment and the site isn’t cooperating, you’re definitely not alone. The Next Web is reporting that throughout the day, Facebook has gone down in places like Austria, Norway, Germany, Greece, France, Italy, and Sweden. Making things much more interesting is Twitter user AnonymousOwn3r, who is claiming to be the one bringing Facebook to its knees. (Related) Then when the radiation cools, we can appologize... http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57530919-93/facebook-runs-tests-knocks-service-off-across-europe/?part=rss&subj=news&tag=title Facebook runs tests, knocks service off across Europe For the answer to this and everything you ever wanted to know about drones, come to the PrivacyFoundation.org seminar next Friday. http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/10/if-i-fly-a-uav-over-my-neighbors-house-is-it-trespassing/263431/ If I Fly a UAV Over My Neighbor's House, Is It Trespassing? … "Once upon a time, you had the rights to your property under the soil and to the sky. It went by the colorful, Latin label "ad coelum et ad inferos"---to the heavens and hell," Ryan Calo, a University of Washington law professor and former research director of Stanford's Center for Internet and Society, told me. "But subsequent case law recognized the limits imposed by commercial aviation and other realities of the modern world. Now you own the air and soil rights you might reasonably use and enjoy." That original dictum -- ad coelum et ad inferos -- was never part of legislation, but rather passed to us from British common law. The process by which this notion of property was limited really began in the early twentieth century, when we began to regularly reach into the heavens and nominally closer to hell. Timothy Ravich is an aviation lawyer who contributed an article to the North Dakota Law Review (UND is a major hub of civilian aerospace training) on "the integration of unmanned aerial vehicles into the national airspace. [Actually, several articles Bob] " I figured if anyone knew the legal status of my neighborhood flights, it would be him. Perhaps the IRS system for refunds is a bit too automatic? How many people does it take to file 88,724 returns? One, if they can use a computer... Feds arrests dozens in ID theft-tax fraud takedown in South Florida How big a problem is ID theft/tax refund fraud? Well, the government says it’s to the tune of $5.2 billion. In human terms, here’s some interesting stats: Among major U.S. cities with the most fraud-related tax filings: Tampa (88,724 returns, with refunds of $468,382,079); Miami (74,496 returns, with refunds of $280,509,449) and Atlanta (29,787 returns, with refunds of $77,113,392). Read more on The Miami Herald. Do I read this correctly? They compromised not only their students, but every Florida high school student eligible for this scholarship? Almost 280,000 to be notified of hack at Northwest Florida State College; ID theft reported Jim Turner reports: An information security breach has been reported involving employee and student records at Northwest Florida State College in Niceville. [They should move... Bob] According to the state Department of Education, the breach included more than 3,000 employee records and approximately 76,000 Northwest College student records containing personal identification information; and approximately 200,000 records with information including names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, ethnicity, and gender for students across the state who were eligible for Bright Futures scholarships for the 2005-06 and 2006-07 school years. Read more on Sunshine State News. The college has set up a web site for the breach. According to their update today: The NWFSC student information compromised in the security breach contains public directory information including name and address, as well as confidential student data including birth date and Social Security number. The Bright Futures scholars’ data file includes all State of Florida Bright Futures eligible students during the 2005-06 and 2006- 07 academic years. This data file contains student names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, ethnicity and gender. No student academic files have been compromised. [Because they are not students! Bob] The college reports that the breach was discovered following an internal review conducted between October 1 – 5 after the college started receiving reports from employees of fraud. Even the college’s president became a victim. In a memo to employee sent on October 8 via e-mail, the college informed them: We know from May 21, 2012 until September 24, 2012 one or more hackers accessed one folder on our main server. This folder had multiple files on it. No one file had a complete set of personal information regarding individuals. However, by working between files, the hacker(s) have been able to piece together enough information to be able to engage in the theft of identity of at least 50 employees. We know by working between files data regarding Name, Social Security Number, Date of Birth, and Direct Deposit Account numbers were accessed. Additional directory information such as address, phone numbers, college email address, etc. was also likely compromised. We know three specific mechanisms have been used to engage in identity theft. The first is to use PayDayMax, Inc. as a conduit for taking out a personal loan which is repaid by debiting your bank account. The second is the same process using Discount Advance Loans. The third is to apply for a Home Depot Credit Card in an employee’s name and then use that card. We know current employees and all retirees/past employees since 2002 that have had direct deposit of their pay have the potential to have had their information compromised. The college says that the system has now been secured. Kudos to the college for doing a terrific job of notifying employees promptly and issuing timely updates as they learn more. How to win friends and influence people, the online version... Millions of PlaySpan user IDs and passwords leaked online Craig Chapple reports: World of Tanks, Guild Wars and Eve Online players hit by huge security breach Hackers have breached and leaked the personal information of millions of PlaySpan Marketplace users online. Private details compromised included user IDs, email addresses and encrypted passwords. In a statement to Develop, a PlaySpan spokesperson insisted however that there is no evidence that credit, debit or pre-paid card data had been accessed. [Not the same as “There is evidence that they did not access the data.” Just suggests they didn't keep logs. Bob] Read more on Develop. Apparently, there is more to the plan than “keep the data for two years” Of course, this could never happen in the US AU: Web snooping plan suppressed by government Looks like Australia’s government has decided that transparency is not as important as, say…. everything else. It’s refusing to release details of its super-secret data retention plan. Philip Dorling reports: National security bureaucrats are keeping secret the details of a plan to store the internet history of all Australians for at least two years. The Prime Minister’s department has rejected a Freedom of Information application by Fairfax Media for release of its file on the proposed “third tranche” of national security laws on the grounds that declassification would “substantially and unreasonably divert the Department’s resources from its other operations”. [Translation: It's a bother... Bob] However Steve McFarlane, assistant secretary heading the Defence and Intelligence Branch of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has refused to process Fairfax Media's FOI application for access to papers relating to the data retention and other proposals on the grounds that reviewing 21 documents totalling 93 pages would result in a “substantial impairment” to the operations of the Department. Mr McFarlane further insisted that most of the material would be withheld from public access anyway owing to the “sensitive nature of the subject matter”. (Related) …Okay, maybe it can happen here. Are there no laws covering the collection of data by government agencies? FBI Exempts Massive Database from Privacy Act Protections From EPIC.org: The Federal Bureau of Investigation has exempted the FBI Data Warehouse System, from important Privacy Act safeguards. The database ingests troves of personally identifiable information including race, birthdate, biometric information, social security numbers, and financial information from various government agencies. The database contains information on a surprisingly broad category of individuals, including “subjects, suspects, victims, witnesses, complainants, informants, sources, bystanders, law enforcement personnel, intelligence personnel, other responders, administrative personnel, consultants, relatives, and associates who may be relevant to the investigation or intelligence operation; individuals who are identified in open source information or commercial databases, or who are associated, related, or have a nexus to the FBI’s missions; individuals whose information is collected and maintained for information system user auditing and security purposes.” The Federal Bureau of Investigation has exempted these records from the notification, access, and amendment provisions of the Privacy Act. Earlier this year, EPIC opposed the Automated Targeting System, another massive government database that the Department of Homeland Security exempted from Privacy Act provisions. For more information, see EPIC: The Privacy Act of 1974 and EPIC: Automated Targeting System. So less transparency and the oversight and protection is …. where? I suppose it's because it's an election year (translation: Time of wildly increased spin by politicians) but I fail to see how privacy “ensures” benefits. President’s bioethics panel urges new privacy protection to ensure benefits from DNA decoding Lauran Neergaard of Associated Press reports: It sounds like a scene from a TV show: Someone sends a discarded coffee cup to a laboratory where the unwitting drinker’s DNA is decoded, predicting what diseases lurk in his or her future. A presidential commission found that’s legally possible in about half the states — and says new protections to ensure the privacy of people’s genetic information are critical if the nation is to realize the enormous medical potential of gene-mapping. Such whole genome sequencing costs too much now for that extreme coffee-cup scenario to be likely. But the report being released Thursday says the price is dropping so rapidly that the technology could become common in doctors’ offices very soon — and there are lots of ethical issues surrounding how, when and with whom the results may be shared. Read more on Chicago Tribune. It's a start... Government of Malta proposes inclusion of digital rights in Constitution Francesca Vella reports: The government has presented a White Paper proposing the inclusion of digital rights in the Constitution as a means of introducing new rights to internet access, accessing information online, online freedom of expression, and the right to informational self-determination On the right to privacy, the White Paper refers to the introduction of a specific digital civil right to informational self-determination, which would remove any perceived doubts that the state would become a ‘Big Brother’ through online monitoring of its citizens’ participation in the information society. Wow. Read more on The Malta Independent Online. The White Paper can be accessed here (pdf). The government is seeking comments to be submitted to consultations.mitc@gov.mt by November 30, 2012. From the White Paper: The introduction of a specific digital civil right to informational self-determination would remove any perceived doubts that the State would become a Big Brother through online monitoring of its citizens’ participation in the information society. A new digital right must confirm that the right to privacy refers both to: a) directly personally identifying information as well as to b) indirectly personally identifying information (such as cookies, users’ online behaviour and site visiting patterns). Amongst others, Internet privacy involves the right to decide how personal information is being processed, stored, communicated and transmitted over the Internet by third parties including private entities as well as governments. It is proposed that: (i) The State should recognise, promote and safeguard a citizen’s right to Informational Self-Determination and Privacy, that is, the right of an individual to decide what information about himself should be communicated to others and under what circumstances, through any media, including on the Internet, regardless of frontiers. (i) The State should undertake not to introduce restrictions which would hinder the right to Informational Self-Determination and Privacy and which are unjustifiable or unnecessary in a democratic society. It must be irritating to discover that your lawyers didn't follow Best Practices but rather Mal Practices... How Zappos’ User Agreement Failed In Court and Left Zappos Legally Naked Eric Goldman writes: In January, Zappos (part of $AMZN) announced a massive data security breach affecting 24 million consumers. As typically happens in these situations, plaintiffs’ class action lawyers swarmed over Zappos for the breach, filing dozens of lawsuits. Zappos tried to send the lawsuits to arbitration based on an arbitration clause in its user agreement. Recently, a federal court struck down Zappos.com’s user agreement, denying Zappos’ arbitration request. This is an unfortunate ruling for Zappos, because its contract–now dead–would have been quite helpful in combating this high-profile and potentially very expensive data security breach lawsuit. More importantly, the mistakes Zappos made in its user agreement–though common throughout the Internet–are completely and easily avoidable. This post will make some suggestions for how to avoid Zappos’ fate. Towards a greater emptiness? Kurzweil: The Cloud Will Expand Human Brain Capacity "Futurist and author Ray Kurzweil predicts the cloud will eventually do more than store our emails or feed us streaming movies on demand: it's going to help expand our brain capacity beyond its current limits. In a question-and-answer session following a speech to the DEMO technology conference in Santa Clara, California last week, Kurzweil described the human brain as impressive but limited in its capacity to hold information. 'By the time we're even 20, we've filled it up,' he said, adding that the only way to add information after that point is to 'repurpose our neocortex to learn something new.' (Computerworld has posted up the full video of the talk.) The solution to overcoming the brain's limitations, he added, involves 'basically expanding our brains into the cloud.'" [The video: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9231982/Kurzweil_Brains_will_extend_to_the_cloud Lenovo trumps HP to take top slot in the PC market According to a study released today by the research firm Gartner, Lenovo has overtaken HP (Hewlett-Packard) as the number one seller of PCs worldwide. This move comes at a time when overall PC sales have faltered due to the economy and competition from mobile gadgets. Still, Lenovo managed to grow during this downturn, increasing its sales by nearly 10%. This was a bit of a kerfuffle until the school reconsidered their rethink... http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/10/fair-use-book-scanning/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Top+Stories%29 Judge Says Fair Use Protects Universities in Book-Scanning Project A federal judge on Wednesday threw out a copyright infringement lawsuit against universities that participated in a massive book-digitization project in conjunction with Google without permission from rights holders. U.S. District Judge Harold Baer of New York dismissed an infringement lawsuit brought by the Authors Guild and other writers’ guilds, saying the universities had a fair use defense. The guild accused the University of California, University of Wisconsin, Indiana University, Cornell University and University of Michigan of wanton copyright infringement for scanning and placing the books into the so-called HathiTrust Digital Library. The trust consists of 10 million digital volumes, 73 percent of which are protected by copyright. The trust provides full-text searches only with a rights holder’s permission, and gives full-text access for readers with “certified print disabilities,” Baer said. New Twitter study gives tons of stats on users You probably already know this by now, but there are a lot of people using Twitter. A new study conducted by Beevolve gives us an insane amount of statistics on these users, gauging everything from how many followers the average user has to which background color is used the most by females and males. The study – which surveyed a total of 36 million Twitter profiles – may confirm a lot of the stuff you already assumed about Twitter, but there are some surprises to be found in the results. Perspective (for my Disaster Recovery students) http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57530269-93/europe-suffered-51-severe-communications-outages-in-2011-study-shows/?part=rss&subj=news&tag=title Europe suffered 51 'severe' communications outages in 2011, study shows … The report, released today by the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA), said that 11 EU member states reported 51 "severe outages" in their countries' communications networks and services during 2011. The report said that 60 percent of the incidents affected cellular networks or mobile Internet, with the remainder involving services such as fixed phone and internet, messaging and e-mail. … Only 6 percent of all reported incidents that led to outages were a result of malicious attacks. [But you have to approach each one as potential terrorist or cyberwar attacks until proven otherwise... Bob] The malicious attacks were often low-tech, such as vandalism or cable theft, rather than cybercrime, ENISA said. (Related) If most of my students have SmartPhones... http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/10/13-e-reader-cheaper-than-some-e-books/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Top+Stories%29 $13 E-Reader Could Be Your Next Smartphone Accessory It seems you can’t finish a book without a new e-reader being announced. The newest way to read books without killing a tree comes from Germany, and if the company, txtr, can get carriers on-board, it’ll cost as little at $13, or less that J.K. Rowling’s latest book. … Engadget reports that txtr is currently in talks with AT&T and Sprint. We’re waiting to hear back from txtr on how much the beagle would cost without a subsidy. Maybe a wallet-busting $25? I have a few Artsie type students... http://www.wired.com/business/2012/10/creativelive/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Top+Stories%29 CreativeLIVE Is a Free Online School for Artists and Entrepreneurs … If you’re looking for creative or entrepreneurial courses, you can turn to CreativeLIVE. The two-year-old startup just raised $7.5 million to live-stream workshops on how to start a business, photography basics, and web design, to name a few. … Every course is live-streamed in real time and completely free. What’s the catch? The courses are offered on a scheduled basis and last about two to three days. If you miss a class, you can’t watch again for free, but you can get your hands on the videos and lessons if you pay. Prices range from $50 to $300, and courses are often discounted. You can also pre-order a class that you know you want to take, but won’t have time to sit down and watch the live lecture. The premise of free, live-streamed workshops has worked well for CreativeLIVE. The company says that since its launch in April 2010, more than 1 million students from 200 countries have taken a course. CreativeLIVE also isn’t having a hard time getting people to pay an average of $100 for a class. For the Swiss Army folder... http://www.screenr.com/ Screenr A web based screen recorder. (Ditto) http://www.refseek.com/directory/ RefSeek Currently in public beta, RefSeek is a web search engine for students and researchers that aims to make academic information easily accessible to everyone. RefSeek searches more than one billion documents, including web pages, books, encyclopedias, journals, and newspapers. [Check the Directory Bob] (Ditto) Run it before your PC crashes and store it with your backups... http://www.thesofthelp.com/2012/10/mykeyfinder-finding-serial-numbers-of.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+alisoft7+%28alisoft7%29 MyKeyFinder -- Finding Serial Numbers of Installed Apps in Windows Easily … instead of buying the app again you can always use a user-friendly tool named MyKeyFinder which can help you find the serial numbers of all the apps installed in your PC! This handy tool for Windows is free of cost but can prove to be a blessing in such cases. Wow, they still use tapes in Canada? (Impacts customers from Maine to Florida only?) Missing backup tapes reported to TD Bank customers A letter from TD Bank to affected customers reads, in part: Some of your personal information was included on two data backup tapes that we shipped to another one of our locations in late March 2012. The tapes have been missing since then, and we have been unable to locate them despite diligent efforts. This isolated incident has been the subject of an internal investigation by our corporate security and information security teams. We have also notified law enforcement. Your personal information included on the tapes may have included your name or address, Social Security Number, and account, debit or credit card number. We are not currently aware of any misuse of the personal information. However, because we are unable to locate the tapes or to account for their disappearance, we want to provide you with advice on ways to protect yourself. The sample notification letter was not dated, so it’s not clear to me when customers were actually notified of this incident, but the letter was just posted to the California Attorney General’s web site this week. The letter also does not make clear whether the tapes ever arrived at the destination or were lost in transit, and if the latter, how they were shipped or transported. Update: According to the Portland Press Herald, the letters are in the process of being sent out, and no, they couldn’t get an explanation of why the six-month delay in notification. I would suspect this will be investigated as a potential 'dry run' by terrorists or nation state actors, at least until they find the Ethical Hacking class responsible... Mysterious Algorithm Was 4% of Trading Activity Last Week "A single mysterious computer program that placed orders — and then subsequently canceled them — made up 4 percent of all quote traffic in the U.S. stock market last week, according to the top tracker of high-frequency trading activity. The motive of the algorithm is still unclear. The program placed orders in 25-millisecond bursts involving about 500 stocks, according to Nanex, a market data firm. The algorithm never executed a single trade, and it abruptly ended at about 10:30 a.m. ET Friday." (Related) Of course, it might just be Gordon Geeko (Greed is good) http://investorplace.com/2012/10/unknown-high-frequency-trading-algorithm-detected/ Unknown High-Frequency Trading Algorithm Detected Market-data tracking firm Nanex said the algorithm behind the trades was routed from the Nasdaq, placing numerous orders and then canceling them repeatedly. In doing so, it managed to use 10% of available trading bandwidth. High-frequency traders might use such a program to hog bandwidth, slowing down the system for other traders for arbitrage purposes. That sort of trading and market interference has caught the attention of regulators. Last month, a U.S. Senate committee held discussions on how to prevent such incidents. Some industry experts called for a tax on “order-stuffing,” the deliberate placement of fake bids and offers that then get canceled, in order to discourage the practice. Average insurance cost per data breach rises to $3.7M: Study Mike Tsikoudakis reports: The average insurance cost per data breach incident increased sharply from $2.4 million in 2010 to $3.7 million in 2011, according to a new NetDiligence study released Tuesday. Based on insurance claims that were submitted in 2011 for incidents that occurred from 2009 to 2011, the average number of records exposed decreased 18% to 1.4 million, according to NetDiligence’s “Cyber Liability & Data Breach Insurance Claims — A Study of Actual Payouts for Covered Breaches.” A typical breach ranged from $25,000 to $200,000 in insurance costs, according to the study. Read more on Business Insurance. If NetDiligence’s figures seem lower than Ponemon’s, they offer an explanation: When compared with the Ponemon Institute’s Seventh Annual U.S. Cost of a Data Breach Study, our figures appear to be extremely low. The institute reported an average cost of $5.5 million per breach and $194 per record. However, Ponemon differs from our study in two distinct ways: the data they gather is from a consumer perspective and as such they consider a broader range of cost factors such as detection, investigation and administration expenses, customer defections, opportunity loss, etc1. Our study concentrates strictly on costs from the insurer’s perspective and therefore provides a more focused view of breach costs. The NetDiligence study also focuses primarily on insured per-breach costs, rather than per-record costs. You can find the study on NetDiligence. It's not enough to know “There's an App for that...” You have to actually use it! Phil Zimmermann's New App Protects Smartphones From Prying Ears "Neal Ungerleider notes that cryptography pioneer and Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) creator Phil Zimmermann has launched a new startup that provides industrial-strength encryption for Android and iOS where users will have access to encrypted phone calls, emails, VoIP videoconferencing, SMS, and MMS. Text and multimedia messages are wiped from a phone's registry after a pre-determined amount of time, and communications within the network are allegedly completely secure. An 'off-shore' company with employees from many countries, Silent Circle's target market includes troops serving abroad, foreign businesspeople in countries known for surveillance of electronic communications, government employees, human rights activists, and foreign activists. For encryption tools, which are frequently used by dissidents living under repressive regimes and others with legitimate reasons to avoid government surveillance, the consequences of failed encryption can be deadly. 'Everyone has a solution [for security] inside your building and inside your network, but the big concern of the large multinational companies coming to us is when the employees are coming home from work, they're on their iPhone, Android, or iPad emailing and texting,' says Zimmermann. 'They're in a hotel in the Middle East. They're not using secure email. They're using Gmail to send PDFs.' Another high-profile encryption tool, Cryptocat, was at the center of controversy earlier this year after charges that Cryptocat had far too many structural flaws for safe use in a repressive environment." This may be important. Judge Orders Piracy Trial To Test IP Address Evidence another random user sends word of a case in Pennsylvania District Court in which Judge Michael Baylson has ordered a trial to resolve the issue of whether an IP address can identify a particular person. The plaintiff, Malibu Media, has filed 349 lawsuits against groups of alleged infringers, arguing that getting subscriber information from an ISP based on an IP address that participated in file-sharing was suitable for identification purposes. A motion filed by the defendants in this case explains "how computer-based technology would allow non-subscribers to access a particular IP address," leading Judge Baylson to rule that a trial is "necessary to find the truth." "The Bellwether trial will be the first time that actual evidence against alleged BitTorrent infringers is tested in court. This is relevant because the main piece of evidence the copyright holders have is an IP-address, which by itself doesn't identify a person but merely a connection. ... Considering what's at stake, it would be no surprise if parties such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) are willing to join in. They are known to get involved in crucial copyright troll cases, siding with the defendants. We asked the group for a comment, but have yet to receive a response. On the other side, Malibu Media may get help from other copyright holders who are engaged in mass-BitTorrent lawsuits. A ruling against the copyright holder may severely obstruct the thus far lucrative settlement business model, meaning that millions of dollars are at stake for these companies. Without a doubt, the trial is expected to set an important precedent for the future of mass-BitTorrent lawsuits in the U.S. One to watch for sure." Really dumb? Perhaps it will stimulate some thought? Judge: Takeover of employee LinkedIn account doesn’t violate hacking law Timothy B. Lee writes: A federal judge rejected a Pennsylvania woman’s argument that her employer violated a federal anti-hacking statute when it took control of her LinkedIn account after firing her. The court ruled the harms cited by the plaintiff were too speculative to pass muster under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). Linda Eagle was the head of a company called Edcomm when it was acquired in 2010. But relations soured and Eagle was fired the following year. Eagle had shared her LinkedIn password [Don't do that! Bob] with another Edcomm employee so that she could help Eagle manage the account. When Eagle was shown the door, her former assistant changed the password on her account, freezing Eagle out of it. Edcomm then replaced Eagle’s name and picture with the name and photograph of her successor. Eagle sued in federal court, arguing among other things that the company’s actions violated the CFAA. But the court dismissed that argument last week. Read more on Ars Technica. The decision can be found here. [From Ars Technica: Eagle had argued the loss of her LinkedIn account damaged her reputation, since she was unable to respond in a timely fashion to messages sent to her on the site. She also claimed that as a result, she lost business opportunities including one valued at more than $100,000. But the court ruled those were not the kind of harms that triggered liability under the CFAA. … Additionally, the court dismissed Eagle's argument that replacing her name with that of her successor violated trademark law. However, this case will go forward based on Pennsylvania state law charges. The obvious lesson of this incident is employers and employees should be sure to establish, in writing, whether a social media account is a personal account or belongs to the employer. And if you have a personal account, it can be risky to share the password with coworkers. And so the escalation begins... http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/10/navy-laser-drone/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Top+Stories%29 Navy Lasers’ First Target: Enemy Drones One of the first tasks the Navy expects to assign its forthcoming arsenal of laser guns: shooting down drones that menace its ships. The Navy is confident that laser cannons will move out of science fiction and onto the decks of its surface ships by the end of the decade. Its futurists at the Office of Naval Research still have visions of scalable laser blasts that can fry an incoming missile at the rate of 20 feet of steel per second. But now that laser guns are approaching reality, Pentagon officials are starting to consider the practicalities of what they’ll be used for, and they’re not thinking missiles — yet. Among their initial missions will be the relatively easier task of tracking and destroying unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, that fly too close to Navy ships. Only fair. Proving you are dead should be harder than proving you are alive... Social Security record limits hinder research October 9, 2012 by Dissent Kevin Sack of the New York Times reports: A Social Security Administration shift last year to limit access to its death records amid identity-theft concerns is beginning to hamper a broad swath of research, including federal government assessments of hospital safety and financial industry efforts to spot consumer fraud. For example, a research group that produces reports on organ-transplant survival rates is facing delays because of extra work required to determine whether patients are still alive. The federal agency that runs Medicare uses the data to determine whether some transplant programs have such poor track records that they should be cut off from government financing. Read more on Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. (Related) Which costs more? New IDs or dealing with thousands for bogus claims? Note that “Connected to SSANs” is not “the same as” a SSAN Despite thefts, no new Medicare IDs Kelly Kennedy reports: More than a quarter-million Medicare beneficiaries are victims of identity theft and hampered in getting health care benefits because the government won’t issue new IDs, according to an investigation report released today. Medicare officials say it’s too expensive and too many agencies are involved to reissue those numbers to patients victimized by identity theft — about 284,000 beneficiaries, according to a report by the Department of Health and Human Service’s inspector general. Beneficiary numbers are directly connected to a patient’s Social Security number, and the government is unable to create a new Social Security number for a patient whose Medicare identity has been stolen, according to the report, which was obtained by USA TODAY. And beneficiaries can do little more than report abuse of their beneficiary numbers because the government does not provide them with updates about investigations or amend their records with correct billing information. That, investigators say, slows down access to care. Read more on PressConnects. Perhaps sorting the wheat from the chaff takes more than 60 days? Interesting Article on United States v. Collins, Case on Ex Ante Limitations on Computer Warrants Orin Kerr comments on a situation discussed in a recent Law.com article on U.S. v. Collins (mentioned here). One of the issues raised by defense counsel concerns the prosecution hanging on to unnecessary and irrelevant computer files on seized computers when the warrants contained clauses saying that materials not needed for prosecution would be deleted or returned within 60 days. Orin’s position seems to be that any such conditions included in warrants “are not permissible in the first place.” You can read his commentary on The Volokh Conspiracy, but it seems to me if such statements were included in the applications for the warrants, the prosecution should be bound by them. Otherwise, one could argue that the court might never have approved the warrant in the first place as it might seem overly broad. But then, I am not a lawyer and Orin is The RIAA is gonna have a stroke. (Unless you think they can top these payouts?) Pandora Shares Artist Payment Figures "Today in a blog post, Pandora has shared some details of the fees they pay to musical artists for playing songs over their music streaming service. Over 2,000 different artists will pull in $10,000 or more in the next year, and 800 will get paid over $50,000. They provided a few specific examples as well. Grupo Bryndis, who has a sales rank on Amazon of 183,187 (in other words, who is not at all a household name), is on track to receive $114,192. A few earners are getting over $1 million annually, such as Coldplay and Adele. 'Drake and Lil Wayne are fast approaching a $3 million annual rate each.' The post segues into a broader point about the age of internet radio: 'It's hard to look at these numbers and not see that internet radio presents an incredible opportunity to build a better future for artists. Not only is it bringing tens of millions of listeners back to music, across hundreds of genres, but it is also enabling musicians to earn a living. It's also hard to look at these numbers, knowing Pandora accounts for just 6.5% of radio listening in the U.S., and not come away thinking something is wrong. ... Congress must stop the discrimination against internet radio and allow it to operate on a level playing field, under the same rules as other forms of digital radio.'" Humble eBook Bundle Lets You Pay What You Want For eBooks Following on the success of the various Humble Bundles for DRM-free video games, the organization has just launched its first Humble eBook Bundle. It includes Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow, Pump Six by Paolo Bacigalupi, Zoo City by Lauren Beukes, Invasion by Mercedes Lackey, Stranger Things Happen, and Magic for Beginners, both by Kelly Link. If you choose to pay more than the average [Statistics students, what does that do to the average? Bob] (about $11 at this writing), you also get Old Man's War by John Scalzi, and Signal to Noise, by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean. The books are available in PDF, MOBI, and ePub formats, without DRM. As with all the Humble Bundles, you can choose how much you'd like to pay, and how the proceeds are split between any of the authors and/or among three charities. Somehow I don't think they realize just how unstable statements like this make them sound. http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/09/14310380-north-korea-claims-us-mainland-within-range-of-its-missiles?lite North Korea claims US mainland within range of its missiles Isolated North Korea claimed Tuesday that the U.S. mainland is "within the scope" of its missiles, two days after South Korea struck a deal with the United States to extend the range of its ballistic missiles. … North Korea's National Defense Commission said in a statement that the North was prepared to counter any U.S. military threats, its KCNA news agency said. "We do not hide (the fact) that the revolutionary armed forces ... including the strategic rocket forces are keeping within the scope of strike not only the bases of the puppet forces and the U.S. imperialist aggression forces' bases in the inviolable land of Korea, but also Japan, Guam and the U.S. mainland," KCNA said. Didn't Madonna sing, “We live in a digital world and I am a digital girl” Chronicle of Higher Education: Research Libraries Increase Spending on Digital Materials Alisha Azevedo: "Spending by research libraries appears to be rising, especially for digital materials, according to new data from the Association of Research Libraries. The data are part of the association's Library Investment Index, which ranks the association's member libraries each year based on total library expenditures, salaries and wages of professional staff, spending on library materials, and the number of professional and support staff. The upward trend for the 2011 fiscal year was the first in several years. The economic downturn in 2008 and the tight budgets that followed caused a drop in spending on all of the index's categories, said Martha Kyrillidou, senior director of the association's statistics and service-quality programs, in an e-mail interview. She added that it "remains to be seen if this is a temporary reversal or a true shift to sustain itself more than a year." Not all my students are uber geeks... Oops, I Did It Again: 7 Keyboard Shortcuts Users Keep Hitting By Mistake A couple of examples ofcompanies who have given no... “Well, everyone else is doing it!” http://www.pogo... For the answer to this and everythingyou ever want... Wow, they still use tapes in Canada? (Impacts cust... “Eventually”is a major failure in a highly regulat... If you think the law has been keepingup with this ... Thistime, for the author's amusement. Next time f...	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line79
__label__wiki	0.675358	0.675358	Early notice. The Privacy Foundation Seminar on Friday, November 6th will address the FTC v. Wyndham decision. (Inadequate security is now a regulatory issue) I'll update as soon as I get the formal notice. Not a big breach and they quickly change the topic in this article. I post it only because it's another example of a company that didn't notice the breach. And are they trying to suggest the breach was a single event that took place sometime in the last three years or that it has been ongoing for the last three years? The WSJ used to write clear and informative articles. http://www.wsj.com/articles/dow-jones-discloses-customer-data-breach-1444406517 Dow Jones Discloses Customer Data Breach … In a letter to customers on Friday, Dow Jones Chief Executive William Lewis said law-enforcement officials in late July informed the company that there may have been a breach. A company investigation with the help of a cybersecurity firm revealed the unauthorized access took place between August 2012 and July 2015. (Related) This of course is far worse. E-Trade notifies 31,000 customers that their contact info may have been breached in 2013 hack Andrea Peterson reports that E-Trade is first notifying 31,000 customers of a breach it discovered in 2013. The breach was first disclosed in 2014, but at that time, E-Trade reportedly didn’t believe that customer information had been involved. The hackers may have accessed customers’ e-mail names, as well as e-mail and physical addresses, according to a notification E-Trade sent to customers affected by the incident. But there is “no evidence that any sensitive customer account information, including passwords, Social Security numbers, or financial information was compromised,” the e-mail said. There were “no reports of financial fraud or loss resulting from this incident.” This incident is also likely related to the recently disclosed Scottrade breach and Dow Jones breach. The future? Will everyone follow? http://www.technewsworld.com/story/82589.html?google_editors_picks=true Amazon Casts Its Net on the Internet of Things Amazon on Thursday leapt into the Internet of Things market with the announcement of its AWS IoT platform. AWS IoT lets devices -- ranging from cars and turbines to sensor grids and light bulbs -- connect to services from Amazon Web Services. That in turn allows companies to store, process, analyze and act on the mountains of data generated by connected devices. … And what an opportunity it is -- the installed base of IoT units, which totaled 9 billion at the end of 2013, is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 17.5 percent to hit 28 billion in 2020. … Devices connect to AWS IoT's device gateway using both HTTP and MQTT -- Message Queue Telemetry Transport. MQTT is an industry-standard lightweight communications protocol for sensors and mobile devices. … A rules engine lets device manufacturers define rules to filter, process and route data between devices, AWS services, and applications, as well as establish the action to take when various conditions are met -- such as sending an alert when a pressure sensor reports an unusually high reading. Cloud applications can interact with connected devices even when the devices are offline through a shadow, or persistent virtual version, of devices AWS IoT will create. http://www.techtimes.com/articles/93517/20151010/windows-10-partly-to-blame-for-7-7-percent-drop-in-pc-sales.htm Windows 10 Partly To Blame For 7.7 Percent Drop In PC Sales … "Worldwide PC shipments totaled 73.7 million units in the third quarter of 2015, a 7.7 percent decline from the third quarter of 2014," research firm Gartner Inc. reports. One reason for this, analysts say, is that "the global PC market has experienced price increases of around 10 percent throughout the year, due to the sharp appreciation of the U.S. dollar against local currencies." Moreover, International Data Corporation's (IDC) research manager for its Worldwide PC Tracker, Jay Chou, adds that Microsoft's initiative of giving away Windows 10 for free is another reason for the PC industry's current downward slump. People are more than happy and willing to download a free upgrade to Windows 10 than have to shell out cash to buy a new device with exactly the same software. Gartner echoes the same sentiments. No matter how often I preach security and backup, this comes as no surprise. (Could this include student notes? Might explain a lot.) http://www.bespacific.com/the-rise-and-impact-of-digital-amnesia/ The Rise and Impact of Digital Amnesia by Sabrina I. Pacifici on Oct 9, 2015 Kaspersky Lab – Why we need to protect what we no longer remember – “Key findings from the study include: • Across the United States, the study shows that an overwhelming number of consumers can easily admit their dependency on the Internet and devices as a tool for remembering. Almost all (91.2%) of those surveyed agreed that they use the Internet as an online extension of their brain. Almost half (44.0%) also admit that their smartphone serves as their memory–everything they need to recall and want to have easy access to is all on it. • In addition, many consumers are happy to forget, or risk forgetting information they can easily find–or find again- online. When faced with a question, half of U.S. consumers would turn to the Internet before trying to remember and 28.9% would forget an online fact as soon as they had used it. • Although dependence on devices appears high, when asked, most participants could phone the house they lived in at 15 (67.4%) as well as their partners (69.7%), children (34.5%), and place of work (45.4%). They could not however call their siblings (44.2%), friends (51.4%), or neighbors (70.0%) without first looking up the number. • Contrary to general assumptions, Digital Amnesia is not only affecting younger digital natives–the study found that it was equally and some times more prevalent in older age groups. • The loss or compromise of data stored on digital devices, and smartphones in particular, would cause immense distress, particularly among women and people under 35. More than half of women (51.0%) and almost the same number of 25 to 34 year-olds (48.6%) say it would fill them with sadness, since there are memories stored on their connected devices that they would never get back. However, it caused the even younger participants the most fear. One in four women (27.1%) and 35.0% of respondents age 16 to 24 say they would panic: their devices are the only place they store images and contact information. • Worryingly, despite this growing reliance on connected devices, the study found that consumers across America are failing to adequately protect them with IT security. Just one in three (30.5%) installs extra IT security, such as an anti-virus software solution on their smartphone and one in five (20.7%) adds any security to their tablet. 28.0% doesn’t protect any of their devices.” An indication that Computer Science has arrived and may now be discussed in polite company. http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/09/us-women-technology-stanford-idUSKCN0S32F020151009 Computer science now top major for women at Stanford University Part of any security plan is a review for any indications of a breach, We never assume our defenses will be perfect. Their investigation found signs of the breach, why weren't they using those tool all the time? Maybe every e-commerce site should assume they were hacked last year Customers may be singing, “You got mud on your face, you big disgrace” when they receive a breach notification from GlamGlow, the latest business to disclose that it had a breach more than one year ago that they’ve only recently discovered. The notification letter begins: We recently became aware that an unauthorized party accessed the glamglowmud.com website and acquired certain personal information of some of our customers. After learning of the issue, we launched an investigation and retained outside experts to help us understand the nature and scope of the issue. Based on the investigation, we believe the incident occurred between September 19 and September 21, 2014 and May 12 and May 15, 2015. The affected information may have included names; addresses; telephone numbers; payment card numbers, expiration dates and security codes; email addresses; and GlamGlow account passwords. Those notified are being offered one year of services with Equifax Credit WatchTM Gold. In the meantime, check your statements for signs of fraud, and change your passwords if you’ve reused your GlamGlow password anywhere else. How often is too often? How big is too big? How sensitive is too sensitive? When does bad security rise to a level that attracts regulatory attention? A clear threshold would be nice. (Now other) Advocates press federal regulators to investigate Experian data breach Priya Anand reports: Consumer and data privacy advocates are asking federal regulators to investigate the breach at credit bureau Experian, which compromised the personal information of millions of T-Mobile customers. “We believe that it is incumbent on the regulatory agencies to fully investigate this breach, including whether other Experian databases have been breached,” they wrote in a letter to the Federal Trade Commission and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a watchdog agency. “A data security breach that affected Experian’s credit report files would be a terrifying and unmitigated disaster.” Read more on MarketWatch. Well, maybe now the FTC will do something. It’s nice to see others urging an investigation. I wish they had spoken up back in 2012 when I first disclosed Experian’s repeated breaches involving their credit report database, but better late than never. A contract with your clients? Privacy Policies Matter… Whether You Read Them Or Not Mark McGreary writes: New innovations come hand in hand with new privacy issues. [I respectfully disagree. Bob] Privacy policies may seem like a last minute add-on to some app developers but they are actually an important aspect of an app. Data breaches are an imminent risk and a business’s first defense to potential problems is a privacy policy. Fordham University in New York hosted its Ninth Law and Information Society Symposium last week [May 13th, actually Bob] where policy and technology leaders came together to discuss current privacy pitfalls and solutions. Joanne McNabb, the California attorney general’s privacy education director and a leader in policies affecting the privacy agreements of companies such as Google and Apple, emphasized in a panel that she “wants to make the case for the unread privacy policy.” She noted that the policy mainly promotes “governance and accountability [and] it forces an organization to be aware of their data practices to some degree, express them and then therefore to stand behind them.” The privacy policy still matters because it protects businesses from the risks associated with having a high level of data. Read ore on Fox Rothschild Privacy Compliance & Data Security. I love this line: Whether a privacy policy is read is insignificant. The protections it puts in place for all parties involved are crucial. Indeed. How many enforcement actions have we seen by the FTC (including the Wyndham case) where the FTC quoted the firm’s privacy policy and argued that the entity did not live up to the assurances it had made to consumers? If your policy promises “industry standard” data security, are you living up to that promise? If not, I think you can reasonably expect to be sued in the event of a data breach involving identity information. [It looks like Fordham videod everything: http://livestream.com/internetsociety/solvingprivacy Any Privacy Policy here? When is “consent” not voluntary? PA: New Bucks DNA database is the first of its kind nationally Dana DiFilippo reports: …. Bucks County officials announced the new database – the first of its kind nationally – at a news conference yesterday at the county courthouse in Doylestown, recounting case after case in which the new database solved crimes that might have gone cold with few other clues. The new system – in which authorities can swab suspects for DNA even before they’re arrested – might raise the eyebrows of privacy-protective civil-rights advocates. The state database maintained by the Pennsylvania State Police, for example, contains DNA only from convicted offenders. But Harran emphasized that suspects must consent to be swabbed, unless officers can persuade a judge for a court order. “People think it’s ‘Big Brother,’ ” Harran said, referring to a character in a popular dystopian novel about government oppression. “It’s not. It’s an all-voluntary program. People can say no. Thank God criminals are stupid” and usually consent. Read more on Philly.com. Being religious is not being godly. Churches are paying the gov’t up to $100 a month to spy on families! WTH? Joe Cadillic is all over this one (some typos corrected by me): According to an Arizona Dept. of Child Safety document, churches are working with social workers to spy on families and they’re also using “Child Safety and Risk Assessments“. According to a Tuscon.com article, church leaders are openly encouraged to collaborate with the gov’t. The article goes on to explain how religious organizations will spy on families and help the gov’t decide whether they should remove a child from their family! “Called The Care Portal, the online tool allows DCS caseworkers who know of a specific need of a child or family to submit that request via email to nearby churches enrolled in the system.” Does this solve everything? In Landmark Victory for Digital Privacy, Gov. Brown Signs California Electronic Communications Privacy Act into Law Sacramento – Today, in a landmark victory for Californians’ digital privacy rights, Governor Jerry Brown signed the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act (CalECPA, SB 178) into law. The bill, jointly authored by Senators Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) and Joel Anderson (R-Alpine), updates the state’s privacy laws for the digital age by protecting Californians against warrantless surveillance of their digital information. “Governor Brown just signed a law that says ‘no’ to warrantless government snooping in our digital information. This is a landmark win for digital privacy and all Californians,” said Nicole Ozer, Technology & Civil Liberties Policy Director at the ACLU of California. “We hope this is a model for the rest of the nation in protecting our digital privacy rights.” … CalECPA updates California’s privacy protections to reflect the modern digital world and reinforces constitutional rights to privacy by ensuring that police get a warrant before accessing digital information like emails, text messages and online documents and tracking or searching electronic devices like cell phones. Full bill language, polling, fact sheets, and more information about CalECPA can be found here: www.aclunc.org/calecpa. SOURCE: ACLU of Northern California Better than England? But only one city, so far. Absolutely everywhere in Beijing is now covered by police video surveillance Zheping Huang reports: During China’s National Day holidays this month, almost 8 million tourists visited Beijing in just four days—and the Chinese government kept a close watch on every one of them as they toured the capital’s streets. Beijing police added new surveillance cameras ahead of the holiday, and have expand coverage in the city to “100 percent” for the first time ever, to “tighten the capital’s security” and “avoid crimes in crowds,” state-run China Daily reported. Read more on Quartz. Is there a report that says they work? DHS uses an “unbiased report” to justify using X-ray body scanners Joe Cadillic starts with this statement: According to a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NAS) report, airport X-ray body scanners are safe. but then proceeds to question how unbiased and independent the report really is. You can read what he found and his 10 reasons not to trust the NAS report on his blog, MassPrivateI. A calculated PR stunt? Justin Bieber: Naked pictures are not an invasion of privacy, claims photo agency Chris Mandle reports: The photo agency responsible for the nude photos of Justin Bieber have denied claims the singer’s privacy was invaded as he stood on the decking of a remote holiday apartment. Speaking to The Independent, a spokesman from FameFlynet UK said: “There’s no invasion of privacy” and would not comment on whether a long-lens was used to get the photos. Bieber was photographed while on holiday in Bora Bora, walking from the inside of a seafront bungalow to the decking outside. Several photos show full-frontal nudity. The pictures were published exclusively on New York Daily News, who covered Bieber’s crotch with a modesty bar, but the originals were leaked onto Twitter late last night and soon went viral. Read more on The Independent. If this would be an invasion of privacy for a female, it’s an invasion of privacy for Bieber. If it’s an invasion of privacy for a private (non-public) figure, it’s an invasion of privacy for a public figure or celebrity. We need to stop with the double standards. This is not just a matter of tackiness. If you sit quietly by while this happens to Bieber, why should you expect that your own privacy should be respected or protected? “We weren’t really serious about that.” This was a looser going in. If I encrypt my email (for example) and then my email provider encrypts it again, all they can decrypt is the gibberish I sent them. Would the government then go after them for “failing” to decrypt my message? https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/obama-administration-opts-not-to-force-firms-to-decrypt-data--for-now/2015/10/08/1d6a6012-6dca-11e5-aa5b-f78a98956699_story.html Obama administration opts not to force firms to decrypt data — for now After months of deliberation, the Obama administration has made a long-awaited decision on the thorny issue of how to deal with encrypted communications: It will not — for now — call for legislation requiring companies to decode messages for law enforcement. If I started a database like this one and charged just a couple of cents for each query, would I be competitive with the big boys? Private database lets police skirt license plate data limits Tami Abdollah of AP reports: For years, police nationwide have used patrol car-mounted scanners to automatically photograph and log the whereabouts of peoples’ cars, uploading the images into databases they’ve used to identify suspects in crimes from theft to murder. Nowadays, they are also increasingly buying access to expansive databases run by private companies whose repo men and tow-truck drivers photograph license plates of vehicles every day. Civil libertarians and lawmakers are raising concerns about the latest practice, arguing that there are few, if any, protections against abuse [No risk for me to store the data, right? Bob] and that the private databases go back years at a time when agencies are limiting how long such information is stored. Read more on WTOP. Smartphones are the new credit cards. You need a device that accepts the phone's offer to pay – that would seem to be the bottleneck. Will you need a proprietary device for each phone/payment system combination? http://www.techtimes.com/articles/93308/20151009/apple-pay-continues-to-expand-coming-to-starbucks-kfc-and-chilis.htm Apple Pay Continues To Expand, Coming To Starbucks, KFC And Chili's This one is not on Hillary. Why do I get the feeling that no one involved with this investigation has a clue how Computer Security (or any other form of security) is supposed to work. I try to teach my students to pay attention to any warnings about security. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/clinton-e-mails-were-vulnerable-to-hackers-tech-firm-warned/2015/10/07/b1fb42e0-6cfe-11e5-b31c-d80d62b53e28_story.html Clinton e-mails were vulnerable to hackers, tech firm warned A technology subcontractor that has worked on Hillary Rodham Clinton’s e-mail setup expressed concerns over the summer that the system was inadequately protected and vulnerable to hackers, a company official said Wednesday. But the concerns were rebuffed by the company managing the Clinton account, Platte River Networks, which said it had been instructed by the FBI not to make changes. [I doubt this is what they meant. Bob] … A Platte River Networks spokesman acknowledged receiving upgrade requests from Datto. “It’s not that we ignored them, but the FBI had told us not to change or adjust anything,” the spokesman, Andy Boian, said. Boian said, however, the company did not take Datto’s concerns to the FBI. … The concerns expressed by Datto reflected worry that the system, which was still in use for the Clintons’ personal office in August, [Really? So they are making changes every day! Bob] could have been vulnerable to hackers who targeted it for its new notoriety amid the swirling controversy. For my Computer Security students. They “yell” at your drone, thinking that will “freeze” it in place. If you drone loses your command signals, isn't it programmed to return to where it was launched? UK firms develop drone-freezing ray The Anti-UAV Defense System (Auds) works by covertly [Rather obvious actually. Bob] jamming a drone's signal, making it unresponsive. After this disruption, the operator is likely to retrieve the drone believing that it has malfunctioned. The system joins a host of recently announced technologies which can blast larger drones out of the sky. … The Auds operator can then choose to freeze the drone just for a short time - to convince its owner that there's something wrong with it – or for a longer period, until its battery dies and it crashes. Auds has been tested in the UK, the USA and France, said Mr Taylor, and government organisations in all three countries had been involved in those tests. I find this difficult to understand. Did the software change how the engines worked or how the emissions were reported? Either way, I don't see how the company could miss this. http://www.wsj.com/articles/volkswagen-u-s-ceo-says-he-didnt-know-in-2014-of-emissions-defeat-devices-1444316371 Volkswagen U.S. CEO Says He Didn’t Know in 2014 of Emissions Defeat Devices … Michael Horn, head of Volkswagen Group of America, said during a congressional hearing on Thursday that he believed “a couple of software engineers” were responsible for software that allowed nearly a half million diesel-powered cars sold in the U.S. since 2008 to dupe emissions tests. … House Republicans and Democrats alike decried Volkswagen’s long running deception with defeat-device software that made the auto makers’ diesel cars run cleaner during emissions testing than they did on the road. [Apparently, the cars can run clean. Perhaps it causes the engines excessive wear? Bob] … Mr. Horn ruled out buying back vehicles from dealers. He said the cars are legal and safe to drive. [How can that be? Is this about extra pollution taxes? Bob] Volkswagen is focused on repairs, hoping to have a fix available next year, he added. A timetable for a U.S. recall isn’t yet set. … On Thursday, German prosecutors raided Volkswagen offices and private homes, seizing documents and data storage devices that may shed light on who was involved in the engine software and any alterations to it. … Volkswagen has so far set aside $7.3 billion to address the problem. Current Chief Executive Matthias Müller has said the cost will likely rise. http://www.theverge.com/2015/10/8/9481651/volkswagen-congressional-hearing-diesel-scandal-fault Volkswagen America's CEO blames software engineers for emissions cheating scandal … At one point, Horn was asked if he knew how the defeat devices work. "Personally, no. I’m not an engineer," he responded. Later, in response to a similar question, Horn was suddenly able to describe how the defeat devices were able to fool the EPA's tests, and mimicked turning a car's steering wheel. (One of the ways the offending software was able to recognize whether a car was being tested or not was to monitor the amount of movement in the steering wheel.) [Sounds like the software changed what it reported, not want actually happened in the engine. Bob] This is a pretty significant failure. Have we become so incompetent that we can't train soldiers? Or perhaps we can't find potential soldiers to train? Or maybe Russia is right and we should never have declared the Assad government as evil. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/10/world/middleeast/pentagon-program-islamic-state-syria.html?_r=0 Obama Administration Ends Pentagon Program to Train Syrian Rebels The Obama administration has ended the Pentagon’s $500 million program to train and equip Syrian rebels, administration officials said on Friday, in an acknowledgment that the beleaguered program had failed to produce any kind of ground combat forces capable of taking on the Islamic State in Syria. … The change makes official what those in the Pentagon and elsewhere in the administration have been saying for several weeks would most likely happen, particularly in the wake of revelations that the program at one point last month had only “four or five” trainees in the fight in Syria — a far cry from the plan formally started in December to prepare as many as 5,400 fighters this year, and 15,000 over the next three years. Perspective. (Apparently, I'm still anti-social) http://www.bespacific.com/social-media-usage-2005-2015/ Social Media Usage: 2005-2015 65% of adults now use social networking sites – a nearly tenfold jump in the past decade “Nearly two-thirds of American adults (65%) use social networking sites, up from 7% when Pew Research Center began systematically tracking social media usage in 2005. Pew Research reports have documented in great detail how the rise of social media has affected such things as work, politics and political deliberation, communications patterns around the globe, as well as the way people get and share information about health, civic life, news consumption, communities, teenage life, parenting, dating and even people’s level of stress.” (Related) An infographic. http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/think-before-you-tweet-dont-let-social-media-get-you-fired/ Think Before You Tweet: Don’t Let Social Media Get You Fired http://cdn.makeuseof.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Bray_and_Bray_-_Social_Media_In_The_Workplace_-_Infographic_1_2.jpg?7a15c3 Nuts, just nuts. … “The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General has pumped the brakes on competency-based education, partially due to concerns about the level of interaction between instructors and students in some of those programs,” Inside Higher Ed reports. … “These states spend more on prisons than colleges.” (Saved you a click: Michigan, Oregon, Arizona, Vermont, Colorado, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Delaware, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.) … Via the AP: “The former CEO of Chicago Public Schools will plead guilty in an indictment that alleges she was involved in a scheme to steer $20 million worth of no-bid contracts to education companies in exchange for bribes and kickbacks, her attorney said Thursday.” [It's a Chicago thing. Bob] … “Test Scores Under Common Core Show That ‘Proficient’ Varies by State,” NYT’s Motoko Rich reports. … Via The Chronicle of Higher Education: “MIT Unveils ‘MicroMaster’s,’ Allowing Students to Get Half Their Degree From MOOCs.” (That is, a master’s degree in supply chain management.) … The University of Phoenix has been barred from recruiting on military bases, says The Wall Street Journal, and troops will not be able to use federal money to pay for classes at the school. … Via District Administration: “Of the 2,000 high school students in Albemarle County Public Schools, only 25 requested lockers last school year, as more students carry their devices and books in backpacks.” Instead of lockers: charging stations. For my Ethical Hacking students. It is much easier to hack a technology when you know exactly how it works. And remember, this is “strategic hacking.” Each step has a goal of enabling more hacks, not just owning one system. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/08/technology/chinese-hackers-breached-looppay-a-contributor-to-samsung-pay.html Chinese Hackers Breached LoopPay, Whose Tech Is Central to Samsung Pay Months before its technology became the centerpiece of Samsung’s new mobile payment system, LoopPay, a small Massachusetts subsidiary of the South Korean electronics giant, was the target of a sophisticated attack by a group of government-affiliated Chinese hackers. As early as March, the hackers — alternatively known as the Codoso Group or Sunshock Group by those who track them — had breached the computer network of LoopPay, a start-up in Burlington, Mass., that was acquired by Samsung in February for more than $250 million, according to several people briefed on the still-unfolding investigation, as well as Samsung and LoopPay executives. LoopPay executives said the Codoso hackers appeared to have been after the company’s technology, known as magnetic secure transmission, or MST, which is a key part of the Samsung Pay mobile payment wallet that made its public debut in the United States last week. … LoopPay did not learn of the breach until late August, when an organization came across LoopPay’s data while tracking the Codoso Group in a separate investigation. … two people briefed on the investigation, as well as security experts who have been tracking the Codoso hackers as they have targeted hundreds of victims around the world, said it would be premature to say what the hackers did and did not accomplish since they were discovered in August. To start, the hackers were inside LoopPay’s network for five months before they were discovered. And the Codoso Group is known for maintaining a hidden foothold in its victims’ systems. Security experts say the group’s modus operandi is to plant hidden back doors across victims’ systems so that they continue to infiltrate their networks long after the initial breach. ...because the “victims” were “asking for it?” Sound familiar? UK: Hacker hijacked webcams to spy on people having sex David Wells reports: A cyber criminal hijacked computers to spy on people having sex through their webcams, the National Crime Agency (NCA) has said. Stefan Rigo, 33, used malware called Blackshades to give him control over strangers’ cameras and spent five to 12 hours a day watching what they were doing in front of their computers. The NCA said he was addicted to monitoring his victims, some of whom he knew and some who were complete strangers. Rigo was given a 40-week suspended prison sentence, placed on the Sex Offenders Register for seven years and ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work by magistrates in Leeds after he admitted voyeurism at a previous hearing, the agency confirmed. Read more on Western Morning News. And he didn’t get any prison time…. why?! “Because it's more important to have the information than to protect the information.” Makes the government sound like a Silicon Valley start-up. http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/256120-feds-push-forward-with-controversial-health-it-rule Feds push forward with controversial health rule The Obama administration is moving ahead with controversial new rules that require doctors to switch to electronic health records or face fees, resisting calls from both parties to delay implementation. Federal health officials said the final rules released Tuesday will make “significant changes" in the "meaningful use" electronic health records program, such as lowering the number of standards each provider must meet and allowing providers to apply for hardship exemptions. … It’s an attempt to move away from a paper-based system that depends on a doctor’s handwriting and paper copies of files – and one that could become a major part of Obama’s health legacy. Groups like the American Academy of Family Physicians have said many of its providers’ issues with electronic health records are the result of the technology itself. “We believe this is the fault of the vendors and their lack of accountability while reaping huge profits from the HITECH act,” the group’s president, Dr. Robert Wergin, wrote in a statement hours before the rules were announced. “Vendors, not providers, must be held fiscally accountable for not yet achieving an appropriate level of interoperability.” Local. I was a bit concerned that the “I can hack an airplane” claim was a bid for attention. Perhaps they saw this coming even back then. Alleged Airline Jet Hacker’s Security Firm Files for Bankruptcy Sorry to hear of this. Katy Stech reports: A Colorado cybersecurity firm whose founder said he hacked into more than a dozen airline flights by plugging his laptop into a passenger jet’s entertainment system has filed for bankruptcy. One World Labs Inc., founded by Chris Roberts in 2009, filed for bankruptcy protection on Friday, saying it faces roughly $720,000 in debt. Company officials are negotiating a deal to sell the Denver-based intelligence firm, which says it has “access to the world’s largest index of dark content to protect corporations, governments and nonprofit organizations,” enabling clients to search the database for stolen data. The firm took in $3 million in revenue last year, according to documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Denver. Perspective. Not bad for a company started in a dorm room. http://www.wsj.com/articles/dell-is-in-talks-to-strike-merger-deal-with-emc-sources-say-1444259189 Dell Is in Talks With EMC Over Possible Merger Dell Inc. and private-equity firm Silver Lake are in advanced talks to buy EMC Corp. according to people familiar with the matter, a deal that would rank as the biggest technology-industry takeover ever and remove questions about EMC that have hung over the data-storage giant for more than a year. There's a market for all that hippie stuff? http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/08/business/amazon-challenges-etsy-with-strictly-handmade-marketplace.html?_r=0 Amazon Challenges Etsy With Strictly Handmade Marketplace Interesting. I wonder if my students would be interested in research? YC Research Our mission at YC is to enable as much innovation as we can. Mostly this means funding startups. But startups aren’t ideal for some kinds of innovation—for example, work that requires a very long time horizon, seeks to answer very open-ended questions, or develops technology that shouldn’t be owned by any one company. We think research institutions can be better than they are today. So we’re starting a new research lab, which we’re calling YC Research, to work on some of these areas. … YCR is a non-profit. Any IP developed will be made available freely to everyone. … Because of the openness, the researchers will be able to freely collaborate with people in other institutions. Perspective. Maybe peoples in O-re-gone are just not too smart? Or is everyone getting dumber? http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/07/opinion/shakespeare-in-modern-english.html?ribbon-ad-idx=3&src=me Shakespeare in Modern English? THE Oregon Shakespeare Festival has decided that Shakespeare’s language is too difficult for today’s audiences to understand. It recently announced that over the next three years, it will commission 36 playwrights to translate all of Shakespeare’s plays into modern English. For my Ethical Hacking students. Perhaps we need a “drone swatter” to keep our secrets? http://www.wired.com/2015/10/drones-robot-vacuums-can-spy-office-printer/ Hacking Wireless Printers With Phones on Drones … researchers in Singapore have demonstrated how attackers using a drone plus a mobile phone could easily intercept documents sent to a seemingly inaccessible Wi-Fi printer. The method they devised is actually intended to help organizations determine cheaply and easily if they have vulnerable open Wi-Fi devices that can be accessed from the sky. But the same technique could also be used by corporate spies intent on economic espionage. The drone is simply the transport used to ferry a mobile phone that contains two different apps the researchers designed. One, which they call Cybersecurity Patrol, detects open Wi-Fi printers and can be used for defensive purposes to uncover vulnerable devices and notify organizations that they’re open to attack. The second app performs the same detection activity, but for purposes of attack. Once it detects an open wireless printer, the app uses the phone to establish a fake access point that mimics the printer and intercept documents intended for the real device. … Any organizations that are more interested in uncovering vulnerable devices than attacking them can simply install the Cybersecurity Patrol app on a phone and attach it to a drone to scan their buildings for unsecured printers and other wireless devices. A drone isn’t essential for this, however. As the researchers show in their demo video (above), a phone containing their app can also be attached to a robot vacuum cleaner and set loose inside an office to scan for vulnerable devices as it cleans a company’s floors. (Related) Really not clear from the article what evidence exists to base these fines on. I doubt the FAA had adequate “drone monitoring” technology deployed. Are they relying on anecdotal information from SkyPan? Can they derive anything from analyzing the videos taken (if any?) http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/10/faa-drone-fine-skypan/409249/ 65 Unauthorized Flights Could Cost a Drone Company Nearly $2 Million … on Tuesday, ... it announced that it is seeking to fine SkyPan International, a Chicago-based drone company, $1.9 million for “endangering the safety of our airspace.” If SkyPan ends up having to pay, it’d be the largest civil penalty ever for a drone company. … an FAA spokesperson said that while SkyPan was granted the Section 333 UAS exemption, the flights SkyPan is being fined for occurred before the company secured the exemption. For a lot of my students, including Computer Security, Ethical Hacking, Forensics and Data Management. Easy data access for the company/industry may not be the best way to protect your clients. Definitely read the article. What’s in a Boarding Pass Barcode? A Lot Brian Krebs reports: The next time you’re thinking of throwing away a used boarding pass with a barcode on it, consider tossing the boarding pass into a document shredder instead. Two-dimensional barcodes and QR codes can hold a great deal of information, and the codes printed on airline boarding passes may allow someone to discover more about you, your future travel plans, and your frequent flyer account. Read more on KrebsOnSecurity.com. Surveillance is easy. Opting out does not stop Facebook's data gathering, it only stops target ads. Nate Cardozo: Facebook, others confuse consumers for profit Nate Cardozo of EFF writes: The ubiquitous blue “Like” or “Share” buttons that you see all over the Internet are hiding an ugly secret. Starting this month, Facebook will use them to track your visit to every Web page that displays the buttons–even if you don’t click on anything. Facebook will use the data it collects to build a dossier of your browsing habits, logging every site you visit, so it can learn those last few details about your life that it doesn’t already know. And there’s nothing you can do about it, short of staying totally logged out of the social media site or tracking down and installing a special browser extension to protect from this kind of sneaky behavior. Read more on The Mercury News. (Related) What's good enough for Facebook... https://www.propublica.org/article/verizons-zombie-cookie-gets-new-life Verizon’s Zombie Cookie Gets New Life Verizon is giving a new mission to its controversial hidden identifier that tracks users of mobile devices. Verizon said in a little-noticed announcement that it will soon begin sharing the profiles with AOL’s ad network, which in turn monitors users across a large swath of the Internet. That means AOL’s ad network will be able to match millions of Internet users to their real-world details gathered by Verizon, including — “your gender, age range and interests.” AOL’s network is on 40 percent of websites, including on ProPublica. AOL will also be able to use data from Verizon’s identifier to track the apps that mobile users open, what sites they visit, and for how long. Verizon purchased AOL earlier this year. Strange we haven't heard of this firm until now. Do you think there are others we don't know about? Did anyone contact them ask them to preserve evidence? If we are just now starting to look at other firms, this investigation could go on for a long, long time. Perhaps the FBI should assign more that one part-time agent? FBI probe of Clinton e-mail expands to second data company Tom Hamburger and Rosalind S. Helderman report: The FBI’s probe into the security of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s e-mail has expanded to include a second private technology company, which said Tuesday it plans to provide the law enforcement agency with data it preserved from Clinton’s account. The additional data, provided by Connecticut-based Datto Inc., could open a new avenue for investigators interested in recovering e-mails deleted by the former secretary of state — now the Democratic presidential front-runner — that have caught the interest of GOP lawmakers. Datto was hired to provide backups for the Clinton e-mail accounts starting in May 2013 by Platte River Networks, the Colorado-based tech firm hired earlier that year by the Clinton family to manage the system after Hillary Clinton concluded her term as secretary. … Late Tuesday, officials from the two tech firms disagreed about the possibility that years-old e-mails Clinton has deemed personal and deleted could be recovered by the FBI. A Datto official said that investigators may be able to recover the e-mails if the data existed at the time the company was hired in May 2013 and had not been altered since. A spokesman for Platte River, Andy Boian, said his company assumed that Datto would have retained data for only a short period and older e-mails would no longer be available. … The letter to Datto from Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) cited e-mails and other documents that have been turned over to the committee by Platte River in recent weeks that show a more complicated array of companies involved in managing the Clinton e-mail system than had previously been publicly known. … Of particular interest to Johnson, according to his letter, is whether Datto was authorized to store classified information and whether the firm has come under cyberattack. Does this explain my student's reluctance to discuss the topics in my lecture? http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/10/reclaiming-conversation-sherry-turkle/409273/ The Flight From Conversation … Sherry Turkle, a clinical psychologist and sociologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has spent the past 30 years observing how people react and adapt when new technologies change the ways we communicate. In her latest book, Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age, Turkle argues that texts, tweets, Facebook posts, emails, instant messages, and snapchats—simultaneous, rapid-fire “sips” of online communication—have replaced face-to-face conversation, and that people are noticing the consequences. Over-reliance on devices, she argues, is harming our ability to have valuable face-to-face conversations, “the most human thing we do,” by splitting our attention and diminishing our capacity for empathy. (Related) Is it a “want” or a “need?” Interesting graphic. http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/10/we-need-smartphones-and-all-the-latest-stuff/409081/ Can Americans Keep Up With Buying the New, New Technology? … A startling 69 percent of Americans said that having the latest technology is “total[ly] necessary” to their lives, according to the results of the most recent Heartland Monitor Poll. Just 12 percent of those surveyed called new technology “not at all necessary.” Something to help my students take notes? No! I don't want them all muttering into their phones. http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/heres-get-accurate-voice-text-conversion-free/ Here’s How to Get Accurate Voice-to-Text Conversion for Free Free dictation apps that convert your speech accurately to onscreen text do exist. I learned that when I stumbled upon Dictanote in the Chrome Web Store. Speech recognition technology has become quite impressive in recent times. It has given you assistants like Google Now, Siri, and Cortana to make your routine digital tasks easier. … It turns out that there are other Chrome-based speech-to-text apps, such as Voice Recognition, that share Dictanote’s accuracy levels. That’s because they all function on Chrome’s Web Speech API, which now boasts a 92% accuracy rate. Of course, these apps may be accurate, but they’re not flawless. If you use one, do copy-paste your notes to your regular text editor for backup. You could even skip the app installation altogether and use the Web Speech API demo to dictate notes. By the way, did you know that you can type with your voice in Google Docs? I'm sure they'll claim that this is not a problem 99.9% of the time. I'm telling you it certainly is. The password allows changes to the student's laptop. Apparently they use the same password for all students. (The link is bad and I can't find the article on the newspaper website.) IT: Faulty file caused Lake Norman High School security breach It’s nice that the district followed up by publicly disclosing what went wrong. Preston Spencer reports: The Lake Norman High student who obtained an administrative password last week did so by using more sophisticated methods than just simply guessing. Dr. David Blattner, chief technology officer for Iredell-Statesville Schools, said the password, which was spread to six other students who used it to access other students’ computers, was acquired after “a file that was intended to give students the ability to add printers at home did not delete as intended.” “We have a script that we send out that runs on the computers that does contain the admin password,” Blattner said in an email. “It runs and then deletes itself…. The file was made invisible and the script to delete the file was provided by the software manufacturer, but it did not work as designed.” Read more on Statesville Record & Landmark. You have got to be kidding me. http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/255926-many-911-calls-coming-from-butt-dials Many 911 calls coming from butt dials Pocket dials accounted for about 20 percent of all 911 calls in San Francisco last year, according to a study conducted by Google. The city does not specifically track accidental 911 calls made from mobile phones, but the study found most of the unknown or miscellaneous 911 calls logged were from pocket dials — sometimes known as butt dials. … “As smartphone ownership increases, accidental dials to 9-1-1 increase,” the study’s authors concluded. “Based on the data collected, the majority of callbacks by 9-1-1 dispatchers are made to wireless phones.” This “looks” like a clear (simple) problem. I wonder how difficult the solution will be? http://www.businessinsider.com/ryanair-calls-on-google-to-drop-its-misleading-search-ads-2015-10?google_editors_picks=true Europe's biggest airline is attacking Google over its 'misleading' search ads Ryanair, Europe's biggest airline, is attacking Google for its "misleading" search ads and is calling on the search giant to enforce advertising transparency." In a press release, Ryanair points to a search for "Ryanair," which returns an ad from what appears to be the official airline itself. In fact, Ryanair says this ad is from an unaffiliated "screenscraper" website called eDreams, which is "masquerading" as Ryanair and "unlawfully" selling its flights. … Ryanair says it has taken legal action against several screenscraper websites across Europe. The Court of Hamburg ruled in January that eDreams had been using an unlawful subdomain and was misleading customers into thinking it had an official partnership with Ryanair. But Ryanair is demanding Google works harder to prevent these issues from occurring in the first place. Registration required. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/annual-study-reveals-average-cost-of-cyber-crime-per-organization-escalates-to-15-million-2015-10-06 Annual Study Reveals Average Cost of Cyber Crime per Organization Escalates to $15 Million HP today unveiled the results from its sixth annual study in partnership with the Ponemon Institute detailing the economic impact of cyber attacks across both the private and public sectors. The findings reveal a dramatic increase in the overall cost of cyber crime, while providing insight to the most costly cyber crimes and the approaches organizations can take to minimize the impact. -- Cost to resolve cyber attack escalates: The average time to resolve a cyber attack was 46 days, with an average cost to participating organizations of more than $1.9 million during this 46-day period.(1) This represents a 22 percent increase from last year's estimated average cost of approximately $1.5 million, which was based upon a similar 45-day resolution period.(2) … For more information on country-specific findings of the Cost of Cyber Crime Study or copies of the full reports, along with an interactive assessment tool, visit www.hp.com/go/Ponemon. [Or ] http://engage.hpe.com/LP_510004609_HPSW-ESP_WW_EN-US_PonemonGate Far below estimates... What did we miss? http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-10-05/bp-s-record-oil-spill-settlement-rises-to-more-than-20-billion BP's Record Oil Spill Settlement Rises to More Than $20 Billion The value of BP Plc’s settlement with the U.S. government and five Gulf states over the Deepwater Horizon oil spill rose to $20.8 billion in the latest tally of costs from the U.S. Department of Justice. … BP’s total settlement cost of $18.7 billion announced in July didn’t include some reimbursements, interest payments and committed expenditures for early restoration of damages to natural resources. The London-based company has set aside a total of $53.7 billion to pay for the disaster in 2010, when an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico resulted in the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history. For my Data Management students. http://www.wsj.com/article_email/google-takes-stake-in-messaging-startup-symphony-communication-services-1444070497-lMyQjAxMTI1NzAyNTgwMjUwWj Google Takes Stake in Messaging Startup Symphony Communication Services Google Inc. plans to invest in a new round of funding for Symphony Communication Services LLC that values the Wall Street-backed messaging company at about $650 million, people familiar with the matter said. … Symphony was created as an alternative to Bloomberg LP’s terminals, which have long been a hallmark of trading floors but are viewed as a major cost center for financial firms. The startup platform initially made its encryption technology a selling point, but attracted regulatory attention from the New York State Department of Financial Services, which was concerned about record-keeping. The agency, New York’s top banking watchdog, reached a deal last month with the four banks it regulates that invested in Symphony over how to keep their records. The agency said at the time that the agreement with Goldman, Deutsche Bank AG , Credit Suisse Group AG and Bank of New York Mellon Corp. was “to help ensure the banks’ responsible use” of Symphony. The deal requires the platform to keep copies of all electronic communications sent to or from the four banks through Symphony for seven years. … Symphony launched its service on Sept. 15. It charges a monthly fee of $15 per user for organizations with 50 users or more, according to its website, and is free for individuals. The company hasn’t disclosed how many users it has accumulated. For my statistics students (and football fans) http://www.techinsider.io/how-microsoft-got-so-good-at-predicting-who-will-win-nfl-games-2015-10 How Microsoft got so good at predicting who will win NFL games … Bing Predicts, a statistical modeling tool from Microsoft, s run by a team of about a half dozen people out of Microsoft's Redmond, Washington headquarters. It uses machine learning and analyses big data on the web to predict the outcomes of reality TV shows, elections, sporting events, and more. And it's gotten pretty good at it. For the 2014 World Cup, Bing correctly predicted the outcomes for all of the 15 games in the knockout round. And it was more than 67% accurate when it came the outcome of the 2014 NFL season, correctly predicting around Thanksgiving that the New England Patriots would win the Super Bowl. Something for my students to play with. http://www.programmableweb.com/news/how-to-build-facebook-hello-world-web-app-python/how-to/2015/10/05?google_editors_picks=true How to Build a Facebook "Hello World" Web App in Python In our continuing “Hello World of APIs” tutorial series we look at Facebook; what a developer needs to know to understand the Facebook API and build an application that integrates with it. As with our first tutorial that used Twitter as an example, we have chosen Facebook for obvious reasons: Its huge presence as a social networking service and the fact that an enormous number of apps and websites integrate with the Facebook API to add features that include social updates and interaction, in-game purchasing and social sign-on. Is Dilbert commenting on Artificial Intelligence or just what passes for intelligence? Could it happen to the DC subway? Seoul subway server allegedly hacked by North Korea The Korea Herald reports: The computer server of one of Seoul City’s subway operators was found to have been hacked last year, allegedly by North Korea, though little damage has been confirmed, officials said Monday. According to Saenuri Party Rep. Ha Tae-keung quoting the National Intelligence Service’s report, two servers in charge of managing the PCs of Seoul Metro were hacked in July last year, allowing unauthorized access to 213 company computers. Of them, 58 were found have to been infected with a malicious code, resulting in the leak of 12 work documents. Read more on Korea Herald. The NIS, however, said it could not find the first point of hacking and the source of the code, citing insufficient log files, officials said. … Seoul Metro also stressed that the hacking did not affect subway safety as the central control system is run separately in an enclosed type of network server. [Do we do the same? Bob] As part of the efforts to improve the server safety, Seoul Metro formatted all PCs last year and strengthened the security measures. Seoul Metro has seen a rise in cyberattacks in recent years. As of last month, over 350,000 cases were confirmed this year, which is nearly equivalent to last year’s total figure, Seoul officials said. Understand the freemium model or live in the last century. (Like in “1989.”) http://hothardware.com/news/spotify-ceo-explains-how-ticking-off-taylor-swift-was-big-for-business-still-wants-her-back?google_editors_picks=true Spotify CEO Explains How Ticking Off Taylor Swift Was Big For Business, Still Wants Her Back Taylor Swift once said of the streaming music scene, and Spotify in particular, that it feels like a "grand experiment," one in which she's not willing to contribute her life's work to because it doesn't fairly compensate the artists, song writers, and everyone else who contributes to the creation of music. She ended up pulling her library of songs from Spotify, though looking back on the situation. Spotify CEO Daniel Ek says the high profile breakup actually benefited the company. … "The middle of America found out what Spotify was, so we had a big success," Ek said through a video feed at the IAB Mixx interactive advertising conference in New York, according to CNET. "I wish we could have gotten that attention in a better way than pissing off Taylor Swift." Swift's point of contention with Spotify was that users of the service's ad-supported tier could listen to her music at no cost. Even though Swift was still being compensated for her tunes streamed to non-subscribing music listeners, she felt strongly that it created a culture in which consumers would view music as being worthless. I think it's because government understands financial firms, but not individuals. They can follow a trail of evidence that explains what the firm did. There is less evidence of management failures, dysfunctional corporate cultures and other soft factors. Big fines sound impressive but rarely have a lasting impact on these firms. http://fortune.com/2015/10/04/ben-bernanke-jailed-bankers/ Ben Bernanke: More bankers deserved to be jailed for financial crisis Don’t expect Ben Bernanke to have a lot of nice things to say about Wall Street bankers in his upcoming memoir, which comes out this week. In a wide ranging interview with USA Today, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve says more of the bankers and corporate executives who helped cause the financial crisis should be in jail. He says the Department of Justice focused too much, in the wake of the meltdown, on sanctioning financial firms, and getting large fines. He said there wasn’t enough effort put into punishing individuals. It might be useful to teach our Criminal Justice students a bit more about existing technologies. An App similar to this one could locate witnesses who might have taken photos or video of crimes. http://www.programmableweb.com/news/how-to-use-twitter-api-and-php-to-locate-eyewitnesses/how-to/2015/10/03?google_editors_picks=true How to Use Twitter API and PHP to Locate Eyewitnesses Geotagging is the process of embedding latitude, longitude, and even altitude coordinates in some type of media, such as a photo, video or promotional offer. Many people don’t realise it, but modern mobile phones are constantly recording our movements and making that information available to network providers, and sometimes even third-parties willing to pay for the data. As the second installment in a two-part Tuts+ series on harnessing location data from social media, Jeff Reifman discussed using the Twitter API to find eyewitnesses to a public event. http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/see-youve-google-maps-new-timeline-feature/ See Where You’ve Been with Google Maps’ New Timeline Feature … If you think that Google logging everywhere you go and then displaying that information on a map/timeline is creepy, you’re probably right. In fact, we’d absolutely hate it — if it wasn’t so damn cool! … your timeline will show you where it thinks you’ve been, when you arrived at and left each place, and how you travelled between places. It’ll also automatically attach any photos you took while at said destination, log events about each “trip” into town (such as time/route taken), and make lists of the places you frequent the most, offering tips and recommendations for other similar nearby places. Is there a cure? An interesting application of statistics. http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/supreme-court-justices-get-more-liberal-as-they-get-older/ Supreme Court Justices Get More Liberal As They Get Older … There’s an old saw, often mistakenly attributed to Winston Churchill, that goes something like this: “If you’re not a liberal when you’re 25, you have no heart. If you’re not a conservative when you’re 35, you have no brain.” A person should start left and drift right, and not the other way around, the adage suggests.1 But when it comes to Supreme Court justices, growing older appears to incite a trend in the opposite ideological direction. One prominent measure of judicial ideology — the Martin-Quinn score — illustrates this tendency. These scores, as DW-Nominate does for legislators, use the justices’ votes to quantify their position on a left-right spectrum. A more negative score means a justice is further left; a more positive score means she’s further right. The scores are based on data from the Supreme Court Database and are calculated back to 1937. … Why might this happen? What forces act upon a justice as he or she ages on the bench? Here are a few theories that emerged after I poked around and talked to some experts: We used to call this stuff “Targeting Information.” Immediately after 9/11, the government was paying local police to monitor dams – in case terrorists agreed. What has changed? http://www.bespacific.com/national-inventory-of-dams/ National Inventory of Dams Via IRE – “The National Inventory of Dams (NID) contains records on dams in all 50 states, kept by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Dams are included if they meet at least one of the following criteria: — High hazard classification – loss of one human life is likely if the dam fails, — Significant hazard classification – possible loss of human life and likely significant property or environmental destruction, — Equal or exceed 25 feet in height and exceed 15 acre-feet in storage, — Equal or exceed 50 acre-feet storage and exceed 6 feet in height.” Collections by obsessive/compulsives always amuse me. If my website students used these I have to give those pages a ZERO. http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/10/an-insane-collection-of-1990s-gifs/408799/ An Insane Collection of 1990s GIFs People of the Internet, join me, as we travel back to the year 1997. It was an era of yowling modems, AOL chatrooms, and websites under construction. And you knew they were under construction because they told you. With GIFs. Glorious, blinking, yellow and black GIFS. … “It represents this utterly different philosophy that you need to know that this site is under construction, it's not done yet,” said Jason Scott, a historian at the Internet Archive. “Now, we know all sites are not done. If your site is done, something is wrong. It’s bad. You’re either out of money or your boring.” Scott has given this matter a good deal of thought, in part because he’s spent time collecting these lost GIFs from across the web, saving them from total obscurity. “It's a ridiculously massive collection,” he said. And it’s worth perusing his page devoted to “under construction” GIFs, in all their frenetic 1990s glory, for yourself. (The dizzying effect you get when the page is loading was intended.) Could be handy for those points I have to repeat endlessly for my students. (Late policy. APA formatting. “I” before “E.”) http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2015/10/record-your-presentations-with-presentme.html#.VhJwAW4sr4Q Record your Presentations with Present.me Present.me is a great tool that you can use to record your presentations. You can create a video recording of yourself, a voice over, or simply a looping slideshow! The process is quite simple. Just create a free account on the Present.me education website (you are limited to three videos a month and and are limited to live recordings, no uploaded video). You can upload your presentation directly or via Google Drive as a .ppt, .pptx, .pdf, Google Doc, and even a Prezi! Next, you select whether you want to record your presentation with a video, a voice over, or just the presentation itself. You can even stop, go back, and trim if you make a mistake. When you finish, your video is published on the Present.me site, Social Media platform of your choosing, or even via email; you can also get the embed code and publish it to a blog or website. This is a great tool if you are interested in flipping your lessons, teaching an online course, or want students to create their own content. Early notice. The Privacy Foundation Seminar onFr... Part of any security plan is a review for anyindic... For my Ethical Hacking students. It is mucheasier... For my Ethical Hacking students. Perhaps we needa... I'm sure they'll claim that this is not a problem9... Could it happen to the DC subway? Seoulsubway ser... For my Ethical Hacking students and my lawyerfrien...	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line80
__label__wiki	0.961493	0.961493	Home / Global News / After 3 decades, Japan courts controversy resuming commercial whaling Taiji-cho a Japanese town known for whaling and dolphin hunting Some Japanese media have said the announcement is being delayed to avoid trouble at the G20 meeting, but industry experts deny this. While the resumption of commercial whaling is condemned by many conservation groups, others see it as a face-saving way to let the government's embattled and expensive whaling programme gradually succumb to changing times and tastes. As with other types of whales, including orca, sub-populations of the same species can develop highly distinct behaviour patterns, which has led some biologists to describe these differences as "cultural". Its last commercial hunt was in 1986, but Japan has never really stopped whaling - it has been conducting instead what it says are research missions which catch hundreds of whales annually. "People have hunted whales for more than 400 years in my home town". Darren Kindleysides, AMCS chief executive officer, said: "Whaling is a dying industry - it is an outdated and cruel industry selling a product to a market that has all but disappeared". The research whaling program lost money for years - 1.6 billion yen ($15 million) in the last year alone. The country's Fisheries Agency said the catch quota for 2019, which will be limited to whales in its EEZs, was set at 227 whales. A number of coastal communities in Japan have indeed hunted whales for centuries but consumption only became widespread after World War Two when other food was scarce. Commercial whaling began in the 1800s and nearly drove whales to extinction. By afternoon, one ship had returned with a roughly 8m-long minke whale. Nevertheless, Iceland and Norway catch whales for commercial purposes, even though Iceland does not want to hunt whales this summer. Altogether, they will catch 52 minkes, 150 Bryde's and 25 sei whales through December 31. But with the official restart of commercial whaling, Japanese boats will now hunt in the country's territorial waters. Another ship caught a whale, but the vessel had not returned by evening and no further details were available. Commercial whaling in Japan has returned after the country lifted its 31-year-long ban. The agency said Monday annual whale meat supply from commercial whaling is expected to be lower than that from scientific whaling. "I don't think young people know how to cook and eat whale meat anymore". The sei - at 20 metres (645 feet), the biggest of whales after the blue and the fin - was the main target of Japan's ostensibly "scientific" whaling from the early 2000s until 2017. "What we are seeing is the beginning of the end of Japanese whaling", said Patrick Ramage, director of marine conservation at the International Fund for Animal Welfare. With this announcement Japan has declared themselves as a pirate whaling nation. "My heart is full of hope", added Kai, who belongs to a fisheries cooperative in Taiji in Wakayama prefecture, an area known for both whale and dolphin hunting.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line83
__label__wiki	0.840327	0.840327	The Surrey Dispensary This attractive early 19th century building on the corner of Falmouth Road and Trinity Street bearing the lettering ‘The Surrey Dispensary founded 1777’ is Grade II listed. It has been a private residence since 1971 and the people who have lived there include Mai Zetterling and Sam Wannamaker (or so estate agents details tell us). It represents a bit of history as the Surrey Dispensary was one of the earliest charitable dispensaries to open in London to treat the poor. The Dispensary’s first premises were in Montague Close close to St Saviour’s Church (now Southwark Cathedral) and a prospectus was prepared to raise subscriptions. Its first paragraph stated: "As the poor constitute an important part of every large community, they justly merit the attention and assistance of the rich, especially in sickness when they are rendered incapable of supporting themselves and their families. Hard, labour, unwholesome food, want of proper clothing, and exposure to the vicissitudes of air and weather, subject them to many disorders unknown to those whose affluence can procure the conveniences of life”. To be seen at the Dispensary, a patient needed a letter of recommendation from a Governor. Everyone who subscribed one guinea a year was entitled to be a Governor and to have one patient on the medical and surgical list, and one patient needing the services of a mid-wife. The number of patients a Governor could recommend increased in proportion to the money subscribed. Patients too ill to attend in person at the Dispensary and who resided within the stipulated area were visited in their own homes by a physician. The Dispensary moved to premises in Union Street in 1784, next door to the newly built Union Hall. Attached to the Dispensary there were now three physicians, two surgeons, one apothecary and a number of midwives. In the year 1821, the Dispensary saw 4,195 patients, of which 1,398 were seen in their homes and 548 were midwifery cases. Nearly 30 years later, in 1849, reflecting a rapidly rising population, the Dispensary saw 5,617 patients, of which 983 were seen at home and 477 were midwifery patients. Perhaps surprisingly, the number of midwifery patients had decreased. By 1839, the premises in Union Street had become too small and also the lease, which was held from St Batholomew's Hospital, was due for renewal. The Dispensary moved to Great Dover Street (see right) in 1840 where they stayed until 1927 when the Dispensary moved to the building we now know as the Surrey Dispensary at the corner of Falmouth Road and Trinity Street. I have been unable to find out when the Surrey Dispensary closed its doors to patients, perhaps when the National Health Service was formed in 1947, though it still exists as a small charity that awards grants to residents of North Southwark who are in need through sickness. To meet the needs of a growing population, the South London Dispensary opened in 1821. Speaking at an Anniversary Dinner over 20 years later, the president at that time, William Denison, recalled that when the charity was first established, it was located in a rented house that was "inconveniently small." Nevertheless, during the first month the Dispensary saw 122 patients. 20 years later the number had increased to about 5,000 per annum and a new building was erected opposite Bethlem Hospital (now the Imperial War Museum). The Duke of Cambridge lay the foundation stone and Queen Victoria was also a patron of what had now become the Royal South London Dispensary. Annual fund-raising dinners were held and anniversary sermons were preached to bring in donations but nearly one hundred years after its foundation, in common with many charitable institutions in the First World War, the Dispensary was forced to close in 1917 for lack of financial support. The building is now home to the School of Historical Dress.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line93
__label__wiki	0.796129	0.796129	Home > All articles > MOB RESEARCH > Mob Research, The Mission (Mark Gemini Thwaite) - interview (2009) Mob Research, The Mission (Mark Gemini Thwaite) - interview (2009) 2009-09-03 \| Katarzyna NINa Górnisiewicz and Marco Gariboldi \| e-mail interview Marco: In your recent visit to the 13th Planet Studios, you have participated in sessions for the new RevCo album; Can you give us some previews about the sound of this endeavor? What awaits us? MGT: While on the US tour with Peter Murphy, we had a day off in El Paso, Texas and dropped by the Thirteenth Planet studios – and home of Al Jourgensen – and Al invited me to record some guitars on some of the new RevCo material they were working on. The new songs sound really good, very impressive – the way I see it, now that Al has put Ministry to bed, maybe he’s now channelling more of his creative energy into RevCo and this has been reflected in the new album (‘Sex-O-Olympic-O’) and the new unreleased material I just played on, which I think will get released early next year. It sounds fantastic.. Talking of RevCo, Al also asked me to do a remix of 'Abundant Redundancy’ which I nicknamed the ‘Dambuster Metalmorphosis remix' under my Metalmorphosis alter-ego for the forthcoming 'Sexx-O-Mixx-O' remix album which is released on 29th September.. That remix will be included as a special bonus remix on the digital download version of the album only. NINa: RevCo goes on tour in Autumn of 2009 (supported by Left Spine Down), are you going to join them sometime? MGT: Well Al now jokingly refers to me as part of the RevCo 'Alumni'.. which is cool… RevCo are doing a US tour during September/October, I’m going on tour with Peter Murphy in Europe at the end of September through November so not going to be available, but I’m hoping to make to at least one RevCo show before I leave so we’ll see! NINa: What is your favorite song on Holy City Zoo, and why? Probably ‘Tribe’, as it was the first song we all collaborated on and Kory recording vocals for… the minute I heard the riff blasting out of the speakers and hearing Kory’s lyrics and delivery I knew we were onto something very good… I also love Akanoid’s remix of ‘Holy City Zoo’, which took it in a very cool direction.. NINa: Looking at the album artwork I’m wondering; is that album about American society, government, students, or the music scene? What’s the idea behind that? MGT: We pretty much cover all of those topics on various songs on the album, Kory (Mob singer and lyricist) would be better qualified to answer that one… as for the imagery on the sleeve art, that was created by Kade Burt, who Raven commissioned to come up with some sleeve images and a logo for the band, most noteably the Statue of Liberty image with the gun held high.. Kade does some excellent artwork for Ministry and Thirteenth Planet so we were really pleased when Kade came up with these great images – Kade also put together the sleeve artwork and overall design… we wanted the inner sleeve to be a homage to Paul's life and career, so there’s lots of remembrances from his friends and peers and lots of photos.. The recurring theme of the album is the hypocrisy of organised religion and politics… all we are trying to do is make people aware of this and let them know that ultimately we can all make a choice.. To paraphrase Kade, The Statue of Liberty has always been a symbol of freedom, hope, a lighting of the way, but under Bush the symbol had become a symbol of "Screw you. The rules and regulations of Foreign Policy don't apply to the U.S. The U.S. walks tall and carries a big gun”. Nuff said. Marco: Two years have already passed since Paul Raven’s death. Could you please leave an a brief testament to the Fabryka readers about your friendship and collaboration with this great artist? I first met Paul back in 1989, I’d just moved down to London and a drummer I knew invited me to go jam with Raven on a new project… Killing Joke have always been a huge influence on my guitar style and to collaborate with Paul was a great experience. Killing Joke reformed shortly after and recorded the “Extremies, Dirt & various Repressed Emotions” album and I didn’t bump into Paul again til many years later, but we would cross paths over the years.. which eventually led to the formation of Mob Research in 2007 after we met up in Los Angeles, where I moved in 2005. I was also impressed by his work with Al (Jourgensen) & Ministry who have always been a cool band that straddled the metal/industrial/alternative fence… my influences are also diverse, ranging from intelligent metal to dub to industrial to post punk so I felt a kinship with Paul… we both grew up in the Midlands UK - myself in Birmingham and Paul in Wolverhampton – so we identified with each other.. it’s a great loss.. NINa: What was the greatest music scene for you considering the totality of music history in terms of originality, sound, subculture, fans & labels, support or income? Was it 50's jazz, rock’n’roll; 60's psychodelic-progressive, pop; 70's hard rock, funky, soul; 80's pop, goth, new romantics, punk, glam rock, thrash, house; 90's industrial rock, grunge, country or the turn of the century 2000's nu metal, death metal, rap, hip hop? Or anything else I may have missed? MGT: Well its all subjective really… as with most musicians, I love the music that influenced me at the time I started playing, so in late 1970’s and early 80’s I was heavily influenced by punk, post punk and bands such as The Skids, Generation X, plus Bauhaus and Joy Division who pretty much created the ‘goth’ sound.. but I was also influenced by classic bands such as Pink Floyd, Roxy Music and T-Rex and later grew to love Led Zeppelin after Wayne turned me onto them.. but to answer your question, the greatest music scene was really the birth of Rock n Roll in the 1950s, that pretty much shaped the mould for any rock band that has influenced me since then. NINa: Do you see any interesting, or new future for music? Should it stay computer driven, or should the musicians turn back to the original wood & steel made instruments to rely solely upon? Or should it be a combination of both musicianship and skill, combined with modern technology? MGT: Definitely whatever turns you on as a musician really…. I have gravitated towards a combination of physical wood and steel instruments such as guitar, and also embraced the use of computers and digital recording technology because of studying advanced computer science at college… but it depends what you want to do and what you want to create… I’m sure pretty much all artists – regardless of musical style – now use digital recording technology to capture their sound, but for me the main thing is to use it to enhance your ability to create and capture your art, and to avoid letting it control the sound or process too much. NINa: You were playing in a number of meaningful bands including the 80's famed Spear of Destiny, and The Mission amongst all. How did it feel to play a show in front of new wave and goth fans in the 80's? Has anything changed since then? Is the goth scene more about an image than anything else these days? MGT: Well I may not be the best person to ask, as I didn’t join Spear of Destiny until 1989 and joined The Mission in 1992… but the thing with those classic alternative bands, many of the same fans who watched in the 80’s keep coming back in the 90’s and even now… when the Mission played 4 nights at London Shepherds Bush Empire last year, playing the first 4 Mission UK albums in their entireity – one each night – we saw many of the same faces who had been fans of the band in the 80s and 90s… many came back for this special event.. As for Goth… hard to say what it is these days… mostly an ideal, an image… many bands borrow from the classic goth image nowadays, yet their music may not necessarily be gothic at all.. I’d say its less about a musical movement nowadays – it was much more about the music associated with the ‘look’ in the 80s… nowadays its more about the look and what that projects. Marco: Every time I read an Andrew Eldritch (Sisters Of Mercy) interview, there are inevitable, and even heavy accusations regarding Wayne Hussey (The Mission). Having worked at length with Hussey in The Mission, what is your opinion pertaining to this dispute? MGT: I had a couple of drinks with Eldritch in Portugal fairly recently – around 10 months ago - as both the Sisters and Peter Murphy were staying at the same hotel and performing at the same festival, so we ended up at the hotel bar together.. I’m friends with Si Denbigh, Ben and Chris from the current SOM lineup.. Wayne has usually been fairly complimentary about Andrew as an artist in recent years, however it was obvious after chatting with Eldritch that he still has some bitterness towards Wayne and Craig (Adams) and what the Mission represent… I would have thought it would be all water under the bridge by now. I know Wayne is proud of his work on FALAA and would probably be open to performing with Andrew & SOM once again under the right circumstances.. but I imagine that Eldritch wouldn’t consider it.. shame really.. NINa: Do you recall any specific situation when you were hanging out after the shows with The Mission? Too many to mention! Marco: We have seen, on T.V. and mainly thanks to the social networks, a barbaric massacre against freedom of speech in the recent Iranian elections. Barbarism perpetrated assiduously, unfortunately even in China. Do you think that there is an inevitable armed conflict with these countries in the years to come as announced by various political media sources? MGT: Hard to say what will happen with the tension in the Middle East, obviously there’s a lot of propaganda going on both sides – The Americans are not above creating media controversy for their own political and military gains… just look at the supposed weapons of mass destruction we were told that Saddam Hussein was withholding. Mind you, our singer Kory is more inclined to comment on these issues, I concentrate more on the music! Marco: Michael Jackson, the greatest Pop Star of all time, died on June 25th, 2009. He lived a tormented life, from global success to the outrageous pedophilia charges. Are you a fan of his music? and what you think of his career? Mark Gemini Thwaite: It was certainly unfortunate that Michael Jackson passed away due to an overdose of medication, of all things…. They just ruled it as a homicide here in LA which is controversial.. like many of our superstars, Jackson – like Lennon, Cobain, Buddy Holly and many other celebrities who die before getting old – will remain forever at their prime in the public’s mind.. I wouldn’t say I was a fan of his music per se, but the influence of the ‘Off the Wall’ and ‘Thriller’ albums on rock music is undeniable, and he was arguably one of the worlds greatest live performers.. Mob Research at Myspace \| www.markthwaite.com \| http://www.mobresearchinc.com Pictures come from Mark's archive, all copyrights reserved by © their respective owners. Published by Draconina Updated on 09/07/2009 20:45 8486 Reads [The number of reads drops with every database update]	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line96
__label__wiki	0.943521	0.943521	World Bank Jim Yong Kim (elbcradio/Liberia/Oct. 28, 2014)-The President of the World Bank has made an emotional appeal for thousands of medical workers to volunteer and help contain the growing Ebola outbreak. The BBC quotes Jim Yong Kim as saying at least 5,000 medics and support staffers are needed to eradicate the disease. Many potential recruits were too scared to travel to West Africa, he added. The current Ebola outbreak has infected more than 10,000 people and killed nearly 5,000, according to the BBC. Mr. Kim was speaking recently during a visit to Ethiopia, where he accompanied UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, and African Union Chairwoman, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. "Right now, I'm very much worried about where we will find those health care workers," he said. With the fear-factor going out of control in so many places, “I hope health care professionals will understand that when they took oath to become health care workers, it was precisely for moments like this.” Health workers arrived to pick up the body of a young victim in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Mr. Ban said transmission rates in West Africa continued to outstrip the pace of the international response. He added that imposing travel restrictions to affected countries would severely curtail efforts to contain the disease. Meanwhile, in the US, a Dallas nurse, who contracted Ebola on American soil, was due to be discharged from hospital Tuesday, October 28, 2014 after being declared free of the virus. Amber Vinson was one of two nurses who cared for a Liberian man, Thomas Eric Duncan, in a Texas hospital. Duncan, who had travelled to the US from West Africa, died on 8 October. The second nurse, Nina Pham, was declared virus-free last week.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line99
__label__cc	0.668959	0.331041	Atlantic Coast of the United States Fisher's Island Sound General Chart of the Coast from Gay Head to Cape Henlopen Harbors of Black Rock and Bridgeport Harbors of Captain's Island East and Captain's Island West City and Vicinity of New Haven, Connecticut, Derived Wholly from the maps of the U.S. Coast Survey and of the City Engineer Department After a work by:After a work by United States Coast Survey , American, founded 1807 Draftsman:Drawn by James P. Bogart , 1852 - 1903 Draftsman:Drawn by Horace Andrews , American, 1852 - 1945 Printmaker:Lithographed by Julius Bien , 1826 - 1909 Lithography; black and colored printer's inks on wove paper, in cardboard covers Primary Dimensions (image height x width): 27 7/8 x 21 1/2in. (70.8 x 54.6cm) Sheet (height x width): 30 1/8 x 23 7/8in. (76.5 x 60.6cm) Credit Line: Connecticut Historical Society collection Gallery Copy: James P. Bogart and Horace Andrews were both born in New Haven and both attended the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University. Both were recent graduates when they worked as assistants for the United States Coast Survey on a detailed series of maps of New Haven Harbor. They were still young men in their twenties when they published this map of New Haven, based on the Coast Survey maps and other maps by the New Haven City Engineer. Andrews went on to a distinguished career as the city engineer of Albany, New York. Bogart was employed as a surveyor and engineer for the city of Bridgeport, Connecticut. Description: Pocket map of New Haven, Connecticut, and the surrounding area. The City is divided into 12 wards, colored pink, green, yellow or beige. Streets are labeled and 128 churches, hotels and public halls, educational institutions, banks and miscellaneous buildings are numbered and listed in an index on the left side. The New Haven and Northampton; New Haven and Derby; Boston and New York Air Line; and New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroads run through the city. Physical land features include elevation, conveyed through hachure marks, and swamps. In the harbor, water depth is measured in feet, and contour lines show where the depth is below 3, 6, 12 and 18 feet. The West, Mill and Quinnipiac Rivers are also shown. On the inside cover is a map of the region of New Haven, which shows more of the surrounding terrain to the town line of Cheshire to the north. There are letters on this map that correspond to an index on the inside back cover. Cartographic Note: Scale, Region of New Haven: 1 inch equals 3 miles; City and Vicinity of New Haven: 4 inches equals 1 mile Inscription: Front cover, gold tooled: "MAP / OF / NEW HAVEN / AND / VICINITY" Inside cover, top left, handwritten in red ink: "46667" Top right, printed in black ink: "REGION OF / NEW HAVEN / CONNECTICUT / 1877" Bottom left, printed in black ink: "Compiled chiefly from U.S. Coast Survey data" Bottom right, printed in black ink: "James P. Bogart del." Recto, lower right, printed in black ink: "CITY AND VICINITY OF / NEW HAVEN / CONNECTICUT / DERIVED WHOLLY FROM THE MAPS OF THE / U.S. COAST SURVEY / AND OF THE / City Engineer Department / DRAWN AND PUBLISHED BY / JAMES P. BOGART AND HORACE ANDREWS / 1877." Bottom right, printed in black ink: "Copyright, 1877, by James P. Bogart and Horace Andrews." Bottom right, printed in black ink: "Photo Lith by J. Bien. N.Y." Verso, left side, handwritten in pencil: "Maps / 46667" Object Number: 1936.34.0	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line105
__label__wiki	0.943704	0.943704	Home Georgia State University Signal Page 1 Title The Georgia State University Signal, 1989-04-25 Identifier GSUS1989-04-25 Date of original 1989-04-25 Creator Georgia State University Description The Georgia State University Signal, volume 47, number 33 (April 25, 1989). The Signal was formed in 1943 by the merger of two student newspapers, The Evening Signal (1933-1943), and The Junior Collegiate (1935-1943). Since 1943, GSU has been the Atlanta Division of the University of Georgia (1947-1955), then an independent unit known as the Georgia State College of Business Administration (1955-1961), Georgia State College (1961-1969) and finally Georgia State University (from 1969). The Signal has been published continuously since 1943, but reflecting the evolution of GSU, its masthead has also had the titles The University Signal, The Georgia State Signal, The Georgia State College Signal, and the Georgia State University Signal. The University Archives has a good run of copies of The Signal, but is missing issues from various years. Subject College student newspapers and periodicals Subject (names) Georgia State University Location depicted Atlanta (Ga.) Fulton County (Ga.) Note Students at Georgia State University and its predecessors have been producing a newspaper since the 1920s. Like the university, the student newspaper existed in several forms over the years. When the institution was the Evening School of Commerce of the Georgia School of Technology, the first student newspaper, The Technite, was published (1926-1932). Later, the school was the University Extension Center in Atlanta, with two separate divisions, Georgia Evening College (Night) and Atlanta Junior College (Day Division). The night students published a newspaper, The Evening Signal (1933-1943), while their counterparts in the Day Division produced The Junior Collegiate (1935-1943). In 1943, the two newspapers merged to form The Signal. Since then, the institution has been the Atlanta Division of the University of Georgia (1947-1955), then an independent unit known as the Georgia State College of Business Administration (1955-1961), Georgia State College (1961-1969) and finally Georgia State University (from 1969). The Signal has been published continuously since 1943, but reflecting the evolution of GSU, its masthead has also had the titles The University Signal, The Georgia State Signal, The Georgia State College Signal, and the Georgia State University Signal Curatorial area University Archives Source format newspapers	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line109
__label__cc	0.737909	0.262091	Episode Zero: Tomorrow “We’ll be together forever... no matter what happens, we’ll never be apart.” That’s what I promised so long ago, Vanille whispered as she walked along the promenade, looking out towards the ocean. In the distance you could see the temple. Fal’Cie Anima was still inside there. “I’m sorry I have to break that promise...” She apologized to Fang, wherever Fang might be. Perhaps she was at the temple, even now. Surrounded by Cocoon soldiers, no one would be able to get in or out. Yesterday she saw it on the news. A Pulse fal’Cie was found in the Bodhum Vestige. She had stopped at a rest area in the shopping mall. A screen was on the wall, and on it the temple could be clearly seen. Surrounding the temple were army vehicles and armed soldiers. During the middle of the report, the people around her began to panic. Knowing that she must get to the temple, Vanille ran toward it, only to look up and see airships above them. The news ran on every screen and blared from every speaker. Bodhum would now be barricaded for the protection of Cocoon’s citizens. Their worry turned to anger, then the soldiers began making threats against the civilians. This so frightened Vanille that she fled the shopping mall, running along the promenade, returning to a place where she could see the temple. But what she found there... All the roads leading to the temple were blocked off. This was something that hadn’t been shown on the news. Military vehicles surrounded the place, there was no way to even get close to it anymore. No, she didn’t even think she would be able to stay here for very long, even to look at it. Soldiers were coming closer, had they seen her? Not taking any chances, Vanille turned right around and ran back to the shopping mall. They hadn’t followed her. That must mean they hadn’t planned on capturing her. Perhaps they had just wanted to tell her that the area was off limits. It was too late now, but she wished she hadn’t left her weapon behind in the temple. Now she was all alone in a city she didn’t know, unable to protect herself. She felt like crying. Fang... where are you? At the energy plant Fang had acted as a decoy to allow Vanille to escape. She had run straight at the soldiers, all alone. Vanille had managed to escape, but ever since then she had seen no sign of Fang. I want Fang... Vanille walked, hardly realizing where she was going, that thought circling her mind. When she looked up, she found she was now at Bodhum Station. Then Vanille thought, perhaps Fang hadn’t returned to Bodhum after all? She could still be somewhere in Euride Gorge! I’ll be able to find her if I go to Euride! Vanille ran towards the station, but again was surprised by what she found. The walkway was completely blocked off. Then she remembered hearing on the news that the whole city had been barricaded. There were people in front of the station, they looked like tourists, arguing with the soldiers. “We aren’t Bodhum citizens!” “I have to return to Eden tomorrow! I have an important meeting.” “We’re from Palumpolum! At least let my son return home.” Everyone was trying their best to make themselves heard. I’ve seen something like this before, Vanille thought. But then they knew if they waited they would be able to return home. But they still had looked worried... It was eight days ago. After the accident both Euride Station and the airship landing strip had been closed off. Armed soldiers had come, and the people there had argued with them, demanding to be freed. Though they had complained that they needed to get to work, or that they were going to miss their airship flight home, they still followed the soldiers’ directions. Because the soldiers told them that once they had gone through an ID check, they would be put on the next train to Bodhum. So they gathered at the plaza in front of the energy plant, and waited in the tents that had been set up for them. Of course, since Vanille is not from Cocoon, she didn’t have ID. When she searched around for a chance to escape, her eyes fell on soldiers placing cards on a machines. ID must mean those cards they had picked up earlier, she realized. They had stolen them from those two boys they had met in town. Because of these cards they had been able to get food and ride on the train to Euride. Vanille took out the stolen card and looked at it. She wasn’t sure if she could even use it. They had only figured out how to use Fang’s card by accident, and had yet to try this one. What would she do if she couldn’t use it? Even worse, what if they found out she had stolen it... “Come on, give me your card already.” Vanille looked up quickly, and found a soldier holding a slim machine standing right in front of her. Hoping it would work, but not feeling too confident, Vanille held out her card. She wondered if they would drag her into a different room for questioning. Or perhaps they would tie her up immediately. Or maybe... maybe they would shoot her where she stood. She squeezed her eyes shut. “Would you hurry up?” I knew it, Vanille thought. She slumped. It would be so pathetic to be captured now, but there were so many soldiers surrounding her, and then there were all these people... “What the hell are you doing? I need to get on to the next one.” Vanille looked up in surprise. The soldier returned the card to her. “Once you’ve checked out, go stand in the line over there.” Before she could ask what he meant, the soldier turned to the next person and took their card. It seemed the stolen card had been accepted as her ID. Vanille lined up with the others who had been checked out, and boarded the next train to Bodhum. She waited on the station platform, hoping that Fang would arrive, but saw no sign of her. She returned to the temple, but there was no food, and she couldn’t sleep. It was her first night alone, ever, she realized. Fang had always been by her side. At their village, the other children had been there too. Once they became l’Cie, the two of them had been alone again, but she always had Fang to sleep next to. She had never slept alone. Looking for food, Vanille went to the shopping mall. But she had never used this card before, and she wasn’t sure she could do it. While she had been able to use it as ID in Euride, she didn’t know if she could use it for shopping. Vanille spent a few minutes standing in front of the shop, nervously clutching the card in her hands. It was seeing that white bird again that made her pluck up her courage and finally enter the store. It was the same strange looking bird they had seen when they had stolen these cards. It stood perched on the far side roof, staring down at her. It scared Vanille so much that she ran into the shop just to get away from it. Now in the shop, the only thing she could do was follow the other customers example. She made her purchases, and used the card to check out. It was easier than she thought it would be. Now she could see what their life was like. Cocoon was like a peaceful paradise. Perhaps because they lived such quiet lives, the people here were peaceful, and that was why she never felt in danger as long as she was within the city. Despite being alone, without Fang, she didn’t feel nervous here anymore. But she couldn’t forget the girl and young boy that had gotten mixed up in their problems. The guilt she felt towards them was like a thorn sticking in her chest. And then Vanille met that girl on the beach... “What are you doing over there?” She felt a gun at her back. Vanille came back from her musings with a start. It was a soldier. PSICOM. Whenever that name was mentioned, the expression on peoples’ faces turned stony and cold. Until a few days ago, no soldiers had been here. Everyone had looked calm and peaceful. She had allowed herself to feel that way too... “I’m sorry!” Vanille said. Perhaps it was the tearful sound in her voice, but he lowered his gun and spoke in a softer voice. “They’re starting check in at the station. You’d better hurry.” Vanille ran without turning back. She wouldn’t be coming here again. From the moment they announced it on the news yesterday, this paradise had disappeared. A Pulse fal’Cie had been found. The whole of Bodhum was being barricaded. That alone was already the worst possible news for the people who lived there. Just those two announcements, and the city was in an uproar. Was there anyone who imagined it could become worse? It had been in the afternoon when the news had broke. Vanille had been unable to return to the temple or find Fang, and so she was walking along the shopping mall. She tried to stay in well populated places, away from soldiers. A Purge to Pulse. At first Vanille didn’t know what that meant. She might not have been the only one. When the news was broadcast, everyone grew quiet. Then she realized they were afraid. People were running around, screaming and crying. Maybe they thought they could run away from their fate. Vanille could only watch them in amazement She had known that the people on Cocoon hated Pulse, but she realized that she hadn’t really understood. They were so scared of Pulse that they lost all reason. Where they were running to, she didn’t know. Perhaps they were running to the station, or their home. Everywhere small fights broke out. Women spoke in shrill voices, and children fell and broke into tears. Vanille stood close to the building, and watch them. She shivered, and couldn’t move a step from where she stood. Are these the same people who had watched the fireworks the night before? she thought. Those people had fun, laughing and talking with each other. Those people had been happy. Their faces had been filled with hope as they prayed for their dreams to come true. Not even one day had passed since then, and now... She was scared, and sad, and felt like crying. A fiery pain burned behind her eyes, and she looked down at her feet. Then, out of the noise, words reached her ears. Vanille looked up in surprise. She thought she’d heard someone say “The Pulse fal’Cie will be sent along with the Purge train to be returned to Pulse.” She would have to listen to the news program one more time, just to make sure. Fal’Cie Anima would be sent to Pulse, it would be returned to Gran Pulse... Was it true? But then, what about their Focus? No, even if fal’Cie Anima weren’t in Cocoon, their Focus wouldn’t change. It was both she and Fang who would complete their Focus, not the fal’Cie... Then she realized, if she remained in Bodhum she would be Purged along with everyone else. Not that she had much of a choice, since all ways in and out of Bodhum were closed off. But if she returned to Gran Pulse, she wouldn’t be able to complete her Focus. Her legs grew weak, and she slumped onto the ground. How could she have not realized this before? She held her knees, and stayed that way until night fell. When she finally stood up, she was surprised to see it was night. There was no one left in the shopping mall. Vanille slipped past the soldiers, and walked down to the beach. This was where everyone had stood to watch the fireworks. Of course no one was here, at this time. The cafe was closed. Even though it had only been one day, it seemed as though a completely different place from the night before. All was quiet, the only sound was of the waves rolling in and out. Unlike Gran Pulse, this ocean didn’t smell of salt. But Vanille had liked it here. “Goodbye...” she whispered, and turned back the way she had came. She walked a little further, and came upon a field. It was the field they had stolen vegetables from that first day they had woken up. The smell of earth and growing things overwhelmed her. Perhaps Fang will come here, she thought, and tears ran down her cheeks. I know, she thought, Fang won’t come. I’ll never see her again, never again... Vanille cried. As a small child cries, yelling and screaming. And then, she slept. The shopping mall, as always, was filled with people. But unlike yesterday, no one was running around. As one, they all moved in the same direction. The expression on their faces was dark, and they looked down at their feet as they walked. They were heading towards the station to board the Purge train. The people of Cocoon thought that “Pulse is hell”. Vanille had realized watching everyone yesterday that they equate being sent to Pulse as a death sentence. But it’s not like that, Vanille couldn’t help but think. Sure the climate is harsh, and there are many vicious monsters there. You wouldn’t be able to walk around there weaponless like you can on Cocoon. But Fang and herself were born and raised on Gran Pulse. You could live there as long as everyone worked together. On Gran Pulse there was a wide open fields and an endless sky. There was sunlight, and greenery. Vanille wanted to show all this to the people of Cocoon. Even though she knew it was impossible. It was quiet. Too quiet for how many people were here. When she had first arrived here, it had been so loud and noisy she had thought it was a festival. And after the uproar from yesterday... Had they calmed down after a nights sleep? Or had they given up already? Not one single person looked angry, their faces were expressionless. “I’m sorry...” Vanille apologized again. She had already apologized so many times she had lost count. It was their fault this was happening to these people. Their fault and no one else's. Because we woke up, she thought. And the girl who was made into a l’Cie by fal’Cie Anima. And the little boy who was made into a l’Cie by the Cocoon fal’Cie. How could she ever atone for the crimes she committed against them? She couldn’t turn them back to normal. She wouldn’t be able to change their fate. At least, she thought, I can bring no harm to their world, to their loved ones. I can do that much for them. At some point she realized the number of people had grown. Everyone was so quiet she hadn’t noticed. Now there were as many people as there had been at the fireworks festival, slowly walking towards the station. Finally the station building came within sight. A soldier could be heard, yelling “Would anyone who has not checked in their baggage please come this way?” There had been baggage check-in the day before, so the line by the counter was short. Once she entered inside the building, she saw soldiers with megaphones calling out instructions. Their uniforms were different from the other soldiers she had seen, so Vanille thought they must have a higher rank. “Everyone! Please follow directions and do not step out of line! Your baggage will be returned to you once you’ve arrived on Pulse.” The gun he held in his hands made Vanille a little uncomfortable. He’s just giving directions, why does he need to be armed? Vanille thought. All the people here are calm and peaceful, why does he need a weapon? The other soldiers also held guns. Even though they kept saying these people were being “transferred” it was far more like the were being escorted out of the city by force. But, perhaps because the people on Cocoon are so peaceful, no one fought back. They all lined up quietly, without a word. Or perhaps not quite. Somewhere she heard someone yelling. “Hey you! Don’t get out of line!” Perhaps someone had tried to run. The crowd of people moved slightly. They were restless, perhaps hoping that at least one of them had found a means of escape. A gun shot sounded. From the screams you could tell it was no idle blast. The line of people shook, breaking into panic. The soldiers pointed their guns at the people, and everything grew still and quiet. “Please do not move from the line. This is for your own safety.” Of course, no one actually believed that. They only kept quiet because they didn’t wish to die here. Even though what waited for them, beyond this world, was hell. The line once again flowed smoothly. Vanille spied a woman talking with a soldier. She noticed the woman because she looked exactly like Serah, the girl who turned into a Pulse l’Cie. The woman handed her weapon to the soldier, and stood in line. My guilt is making me imagine things, Vanille thought. Just because she has the same hair color, it makes her face look just like Serah’s... A middle-aged man stood behind the woman. His hair looked just like a birds nest, or so Vanille thought, but then a real bird actually popped out of it. It was a baby chocobo. “Why does that guy have a chocobo living on his head?” It was so funny, Vanille began to giggle. Then that someone ran into her from behind. Or rather, she ran into someone, since she wasn’t looking where she was going. She tried to catch her balance, but it was too late. “Oops!” She slipped and tumbled down onto the ground. Fortunately she didn’t hurt herself, except for perhaps her pride. “Are you okay?” Someone asked. Just as she heard the voice, she felt a hand grab hers and pull her upright. “Did you get hurt?” A kind looking woman was looking her over. Vanille nodded, and the woman smiled. “Oh, what a relief.” She looks like a mother, Vanille whispered quietly. Then she saw a boy standing beside her that looked like he could be her son. She really was a mother. “Are you from here?” “Oh, you too? We’re from Palumpolum.” A place Vanille had heard of before. “And where did you come from?” “Um... far.” “Far?” Vanille nodded. The woman didn’t ask any more questions, probably thinking Vanille had a reason for not saying where she was from. In fact, she probably had other things to worry about. Her son was shaking, and wouldn’t look up. Vanille couldn’t decided whether she should line up behind these two, or the woman who looks like Serah. But she didn’t take too long to decide, standing behind the kind woman and her son. If she was going to be treated like a prisoner, she at least wanted to be with people who were kind. The soldiers explained that in the best case scenario they would arrive at Pulse sometime today. At worst it would be tomorrow. Once we’ve arrived in Gran Pulse I hope I can help them a little bit, Vanille thought. I’m sorry Fang, but I’m going back to Gran Pulse with the fal’Cie. I’m sorry I broke our promise. I’m sorry I have to leave you on Cocoon all alone... Once she left Cocoon, she wouldn’t be able to complete her Focus. She realized this yesterday, when she heard that fal’Cie Anima would be sent back to Pulse. Once she realized there was still something she could do, she felt relieved. “If reality is too painful, you can just run away.” Serah had said that four days ago, when they had met on the beach. Those words had saved her, and pushed her into action. Because of those words she was here now. Once I get on that train, she thought, I’ll be running away from my Focus. Then I won’t have to hurt anyone. I’ll probably become a Cieth, but there will still be some time left before that happens. ”If you look at anything from a distance, you can see a way through it.” Just as Serah had said, once she looked at her problem from a distance, she could see a different path. It just might work. If she just runs away, it might all work out... She only worried about leaving Fang behind, but she knew she would be alright. Her mark was burned, so she probably wouldn’t turn into a Cieth, and Fang would be able to live on her own. The only thing was, she knew Fang would be angry. I’m sorry, she whispered one more time. She put her fingers together and prayed. For a friend she wouldn’t see again. For a promise she couldn’t keep. The soldiers began directing people into the train. At the latest they would arrive tomorrow, Vanille remembered them saying. For a moment, Vanille felt her footsteps tremble. She suddenly felt as though the day they became l’Cie was only yesterday, and that tomorrow was so far away she could hardly reach it. But why? She couldn’t be worried. She was finally returning to Gran Pulse, she told herself. She loved the smell of the wind, the flowers shimmering in the breeze, running out under an open sky. There were all the stars at night, and of course the people waiting back home. They were all her family, so she was sure they would be happy to see her. Tomorrow I’ll be returning home... Vanille thought to herself. The line moved forward. Sith Fisto said... Thank you for your hard work, it's been a pleasure reading these. Wouldn't have had that pleasure without you ;) Kei said... I knew there was a good reason why Vanille is my favorite. And people thought she's just generic peppy girl. XD Thanks for the great translations Lissar! Thanks so much - these have been absolutely awesome to read, and further enrich my experience when I play this wonderful game. These are really great translations, dude. I check like everyday for updates, so keep going! :) Thank you, awesome job! I like more this Vanille than the game's one. She looks different, at least I don't want to kill her. But I see more cleary than she and Fang are lesbians xD Thanks heaps for all of these translations, I finished the game the week that it came out here in Australia (which was in March i think), but reading these really remind me of how much I enjoyed the characters and the story (not so much the gameplay though). I still think that the game didn't live up to my expectations, but as always with an FF game, the story was so captivating and interesting and kept me hooked throughout those countless hours of gameplay. Thanks again for all the amounts of hard effort that you put into translating this, as it was a very enjoyable read. :) Phibzy I cannot thank you enough for these translations! thene said... Thanks for all your FFXIII translation work. It's extraordinarily generous of you to share it with the internet, and I'm very glad I found this site. Jason G said... Please Lissar translate Fragments Before from Final Fantasy 13-2!!!! This is so amazing, thank you so deeply for doing this! Thanks for the translations; good to see all of this in this story to link things up, even if too convenient a link to each cast at times like in this chapter, but still overall well-done.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line111
__label__wiki	0.769595	0.769595	Videos Filtered by Group Groups - Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2019 Popular last 30days Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2019 concludes Up to 1500 sailors, soldiers and airmen and women have begun returning to Australia, following an intensive three month tour of South and South Eastern Asia. INDO PACIFIC ENDEAVOUR has seen up to four ships, a submarine and nine aircraft visit 7 nations to strengthen Australia’s regional ties. IPE 19 was one of the most ambitious regional engagement activities ever undertaken by the Australian Defence Force. The IPE fleet travelled around southern Australia to Fremantle in WA and then to Sri Lanka before turning north to India and south east to Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore, finally visiting Jakarta and Makassar in Indonesia before returning to Australia via Darwin. HMAS Canberra, a Canberra-Class Landing Helicopter Dock, acted as the flagship of the joint taskforce, able to project embarked personnel, vehicles and aircraft ashore, while providing the base for a variety of military tasks. Canberra was joined in the Joint Task Force by HMA Ships Success, Newcastle and Parramatta, and embarked MH-60R maritime combat helicopters and MRH-90 maritime support helicopters. A Royal Australian Air Force P8-A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft and a Collins Class submarine joined the Joint Task Force during several key regional visits. Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2019 also involves personnel from the Australian Army’s 2RAR and 3RAR, the Australian Army Band, the Royal Australian Air Force and Defence Civilians. The last leg of Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2019 A Joint Task Force consisting of up to four ships, maritime patrol aircraft and more than 1,200 personnel from the Australian Defence Force are deployed on Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2019, a series of key engagement activities with Australia’s regional neighbours. Running from March to May, Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2019 is geared towards enhancing interoperability with Australia’s key regional partners, including Sri Lanka, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore and Indonesia. In the third iteration of the activity, Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2019 is a key part of Australia’s ongoing efforts to re-affirm positive relationships with other militaries through joint practical activities. HMAS Canberra, a Canberra-Class Landing Helicopter Dock, is the flagship of the joint taskforce, able to project embarked personnel, vehicles and aircraft ashore, while providing an effective hub for control of a variety of military tasks. Canberra has been joined in the Joint Task Force by HMA Ships Success, Newcastle and Parramatta, and embarked MH-60R maritime combat helicopters and MRH-90 maritime support helicopters. A Royal Australian Air Force P8-A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft joined the Joint Task Force during several key regional visits. Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2019 also involves personnel from the Australian Army’s 2RAR and 3RAR, the Australian Army Band, the Royal Australian Air Force and Defence Civilians. Tigers display airpower whilst en-route to Darwin Two Australian Army ARH Tiger helicopters from 1 Aviation Regiment, have conducted a firepower demonstration for the ship’s crew onboard HMAS Canberra. HMAS Canberra and the Tigers are returning to Darwin after having completed a three-month deployment in South East Asia. HADR engagement with Singapore While in Singapore for the International Maritime Defence Exhibition (IMDEX), the Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2019 (IPE19) Joint Task Force were invited to share knowledge and visit each other’s Humanitarian Assist and Disaster Relief (HADR) facilities at the Changi Navy Base in Singapore. Australian Defence Force visit to Vietnam A Joint Task Force consisting of four ships, maritime patrol aircraft and more than 1,000 personnel from the Australian Defence Force are deployed on Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2019, a series of key engagement activities with Australia’s regional neighbours. Running from March to May, Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2019 is geared towards enhancing interoperability with Australia’s key regional partners, including Sri Lanka, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore and Indonesia. In the third iteration of the activity, Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2019 is a key part of Australia’s ongoing efforts to re-affirm positive relationships with other militaries through joint practical activities. HMAS Canberra, a Canberra-Class Landing Helicopter Dock, is the flagship of the joint taskforce, able to project embarked personnel, vehicles and aircraft ashore, while providing an effective hub for control of a variety of military tasks. Canberra is joined in the Joint Task Force by HMA Ships Success, Newcastle and Parramatta, and embarked MH-60R maritime combat helicopters and MRH-90 maritime support helicopters. A Royal Australian Air Force P8-A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft will join the Joint Task Force at several key regional visits. Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2019 also involves personnel from the Australian Army’s 2RAR and 3RAR, the Australian Army Band, the Royal Australian Air Force and Defence Civilians. HMAS Newcastle navigation through Malacca Strait Stuck in traffic today? Try navigating your way through one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes! HMAS Newcastle in company with the Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2019 Flagship HMAS Canberra, has made her final transition through the most complex sea waters in the world, the Malacca and Singapore Straits. Fuelling up for the final time Fuelling up for the final time! HMAS Success has conducted a replenishment-at-sea with USNS Pecos in approach lanes of the busy Singapore Straits. HMA Ships Canberra, Newcastle and Success have taken on enough fuel to complete their Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2019 mission and return home. Army band takes off The Australian Army Band on-board HMAS Canberra has been setting the dance floor alight throughout their 3 month deployment during Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2019. The task force recently visited Nha Trang, Vietnam and the band played on a street square in the middle of the city to a delighted audience. Tourists and locals alike crowded together to see the band light up the stage and represent all that's good about Australia. The band has entertained foreign dignitaries, school children and defence personnel with their performances enabling government and community engagement that builds on Australia’s relationships. Their performances have also received wide praise from senior leadership with the deputy chief of Army attending the event along with the Australian Defence Attaché, head of mission and the ambassador to Vietnam. On the conclusion of the event the band received flowers from the audience, a loud round of applause and then headed back to Canberra to play another day. Tigers take flight on Indo-Pacific Endeavour Working out in the maritime domain Maritime workout - members from the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (3RAR), the United States Navy, and Marine Rotational Force – Darwin, have displayed their grit and determination during a training session across the Singapore Strait during Indo Pacific Endeavour 19. Vietnam school visit to remember When the Indo-Pacific Endeavour Joint Task Force members entered the gates of Thai Nguyen Secondary School in Nha Trang, Vietnam, they were both surprised and humbled to receive a rock star welcome with more than 1,000 cheering children jumping for joy. The Secondary School courtyard was lined with bright lights and colourful decorations in preparation for multiple performances from the students and the Australian Army Band. Malaysia component of Indo-Pacific Endeavour	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line112
__label__cc	0.65336	0.34664	Home Acting No Actor Escapes The Hollywood Machine by Chad Lindberg No Actor Escapes The Hollywood Machine by Chad Lindberg CONNECT WITH CHAD LINDBERG Chad Lindberg was born on November 1, 1976 in Mount Vernon, Washington, USA as Chad Tyler Lindberg. He is known for his work on The Fast and the Furious (2001), Supernatural (2005) and October Sky (1999). Watch ORIGIN on iTunes Starting December 13, 2016 ORIGIN: Three science students are on the verge of making a breakthrough in their research into biohacking and cell aging. When one of them is diagnosed with a terminal illness, they break moral boundaries and use their untested research on him, in an attempt to save his life. Watch it on iTunes here! COLD NIGHTS HOT SALSA takes you inside the international dance world of Victor and Katia, aspiring young salsa dancers from Montreal, who seek to win a World Salsa Championship. During their three-year quest Victor and Katia draw upon the talents of Eddie Torres, Tito & Tamara, Billy Fajardo, and Katie Marlow. Central figures in the salsa dance world, these mentors put their passion and professional dance skills before you and reveal what it takes to perform and compete at the highest level. Victor and Katia’s story is a love story. It’s the story of their love to dance and of how being a couple enhances and also complicates their life together and dance ambitions. After winning the Canadian Salsa Championship, we watch as they first compete in the 3rd World Salsa Championship. They return home to Montreal to work on taking their dance skills to a higher level. After months of preparation, including working with a number of key mentors, they put their dreams on the line and travel to Florida to compete in the 4th World Salsa Championship. Along with Victor and Katia’s story, the film explores some of the social and historical roots of salsa, as told through Eddie Torres, Billy Fajardo, Tito Ortos, and Edson Vallon. Experience the beauty and excitement of competitive dance, the compelling force of world leaders in salsa, and the romantic charm of two young dancers who want to make their mark on the Latin dance world. Previous articleThe Last Thing An Actor Should Do Is Memorize Lines by Acting Coach Michelle Danner of Edgemar Center for the Arts Next articleLION Movie Director Garth Davis on Bringing the True Story of Saroo Brierley to Life Not Replacing A Single Word In Post-Production – Full Interview with... Writing A Screenplay On A Deadline by Thunder Levin of Sharknado... Every Independent Filmmaker Needs To Realize They Will Never Compete With... Advice To Filmmakers Who Are Having Trouble Getting Their First Movie... But I Don’t Want to Make Another Short Film by Chris... Should Screenwriters Adapt Their Own Screenplays Into Novels? by UCLA Professor... The Art Of The Schmooze… 5 Things A Writer Needs To Know About The TV Writer’s...	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line114
__label__wiki	0.857638	0.857638	Fiona Dobie Voice and Presence Longer Singing biog Singing Teaching EFT/Tapping HeartSpeak Trainings/CPD Fiona Dobie was born in Glasgow and first studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and then at the Royal College of Music on a Sir James Caird Scholarship. Her opera work began at Glyndebourne, singing Papagena with Glyndebourne on Tour. She has since performed around 30 roles with opera companies, including The Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Opera North, Kent Opera, Musica nel Chiostro and the Buxton, Brighton and Miami Festivals. Notable roles include Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, Despina in Cosi fan Tutte, Blonda in Seraglio, Lucia in Rape of Lucretia, Second Niece in Peter Grimes, Rowan in Let's Make An Opera and, more recently, Marcellina in Figaro, Despina in Cosi fan Tutte and Mrs Grose in The Turn of the Screw. She has made many television appearances and her recordings include Peep Bo in the Brent Walker video of The Mikado and Pepik in The Cunning Little Vixen with ROH conducted by Simon Rattle. Oratorio and orchestral concerts include Chants d'Auvergne by Canteloube under Sir Simon Rattle, Frasquita in Bizet's Carmen with Sir Roger Norrington, Ilia in Idomeneo by Mozart with Richard Hickox, Faure's Requiem with Vernon Handley, Britten's Les Illuminations with Nicholas Kraemer, Bach's Magnificat with Roderick Brydon and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Handel's Utrecht Te Deum with Simon Preston and The Academy of Ancient Music, Bach's St John Passion with Christ Church Choir and Stephen Darlington, Handel's Messiah with OSJ and John Lubbock, Barber's Knoxville Summer of 1915 with the BBC Scottish SO, Gemma in Prokofiev's Madelena with the BBC Northern SO and Sir Edward Downes, and Mozart's Mass in C with Scottish Chamber Orchestra. As a recitalist, she won early recognition as a finalist in the Kathleen Ferrier Competition, also winning the Lieder prize at the RSAMD, the Henry Leslie Prize and Dame Clara Butt Award at the RCM and the French Song prize at s'Hertogenbosch International Singing Competition. She was also a South East Arts Young Musician and Greater London Arts Young Musician. She broadcast on Dutch and Belgian radio stations and many times for the BBC, including recitals (to name but a few!),with David Owen Norris, Roger Vignoles, Graham Johnson, Iain Ledingham, John Lenehan, Tim Roberts, Evelyn Nallen, Geoff Davidson, Bill Lloyd, Peter Evans, Christopher Purves and Andrew Marriner. She has also performed with Alisdair Hogarth,Susie Stranders,Alice Turner, Hester Dickinson, Nicholas Daniel, Julius Drake, Will Vann, Gilly McMullin, Mark Simpson, Maggie Cole, Michael Collins, Gordon Hunt, Jacob Herringman, Philip Thorby, Gregory Martin, Christopher Maltman and Malcolm Martineau.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line115
__label__wiki	0.934872	0.934872	Home Gay You can’t love a gay person without the ‘gay’ You can’t love a gay person without the ‘gay’ 11/9/10 2:40pm by Gabriel Arana Comments Off on You can’t love a gay person without the ‘gay’ I have a piece at The American Prospect about Dan Savage’s “It Gets Better” project and how the conversation about it has devolved into one about bullying in general, which I think is different from the harassment gay kids face: That conversation should begin by acknowledging that general “bullying” is different from the sort of prejudice gay kids are up against. It’s one thing to be told you’re stupid, a dork, or ugly during high school and another to be a permanent member of a stigmatized group. When kids bandy about the term “gay” as a slur — or its more derogatory counterparts, “fag” and “queer” — it bears the force of society’s homophobia. It’s not just the schoolyard jerk who picks on you. It’s the pastor who rails against the “gay agenda” on Sunday, the parent who stands up at a city council meeting and says he moved to your city because it’s “the kind of place that would never accept the GLBT community with open arms,” and politicians like New York’s would-be governor Carl Paladino, who on the campaign trail said things like “there is nothing to be proud of in being a dysfunctional homosexual.” Even once you get past high school, you still can’t get married or serve in the military, and in most states, your employer can fire you just for being gay. This is the kind of “bullying” gay kids face, and it’s the kind no one’s standing up to. I don’t say this explicitly in the piece, but I think what’s especially telling about the difference between “bullying” and anti-gay harassment is that conservative Christian groups oppose the latter, but not the former. Check out this quote from a The New York Times piece about the outcry from conservatives over anti-bullying programs: Candi Cushman, an educational analyst with Focus on the Family, a Christian group, said that early lessons about sexuality and gay parents reflected a political agenda, including legitimizing same-sex marriage. “We need to protect all children from bullying,” Ms. Cushman said. “But the advocacy groups are promoting homosexual lessons in the name of antibullying.” Conservative Christians like to pretend that there’s a big difference between picking on a gay kid — i.e., “bullying” — and disapproving of homosexuality, but in reality one stems from the other. In practice, it’s tough to indoctrinate someone into thinking being gay is wrong, immoral, disgusting, and then ask him or her to treat a gay person with respect; it’s a natural human instinct to recoil from things that you perceive to be bad or harmful, and no matter how many times you pledge to “love the sinner but not the sin,” when it comes down to it, even adults can’t carry that out, much less children. Seriously, has any gay person ever felt much love from the likes of Maggie Gallagher or Anita Bryant? Protecting gay kids would be a lot easier if it were possible to do so without talking about homosexuality or teaching kids that it’s okay to be gay. But the truth is you can’t — and we shouldn’t try to. Anti-gay prejudice isn’t just a private, religious belief people respectfully keep to themselves. It manifests itself as violence — both verbal and physical — on playgrounds, in politics, on the streets of our cities. Legislators should be willing to confront protect its most vulnerable victims, even when prejudice rides on the back of religion. Gabriel Arana Gabriel Arana is a senior editor at The American Prospect in Washington, D.C. His pieces have appeared in The Nation, Slate, The Advocate, the Daily Beast, and other publications. He is a graduate of Yale University and a native of Nogales, Arizona.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line123
__label__cc	0.748135	0.251865	Jonathan Villaseñor Student Leader, Summer 2018 Untitled 6/6/18 My painting, “untitled 6/6/18”, embodies the leucistic Axolotl to symbolize the endangered species that are endemic to underwater caverns in Mexico City. The top message, “Pollution Kills”, is meant to represent how the Mexican Axolotl became practically extinct in its natural habitat due to extensive human-attributed pollution. This also is indicative in its placement directly above the Axolotl, meaning the message really says “Pollution kills Axolotls”. The bottom message, “Primero los Axolotls”, is a Spanish message that translates to “First, the Axolotls”. This is meant to give homage to the human-attributed extinctions that undergo globally at alarming rates. As the Axolotls are extinct in their natural habitats, the loss of the Axolotl reduces the amount of biodiversity that can lead to the eradication of species that relied on the Axolotl for sustenance or survival. So first the Axolotls, and next it’s another critter or creature. I want this painting to inspire people to be more conscious of reducing our respective carbon footprint, and encourage ingenious methods of cleaning litter in the sea and in our land. The Axolotl has suffered at the hands of human recklessness, and its loss should serve as a lesson to remind us all to step up our passion for reducing pollution. I am worried that people still use a lot of waste, especially in a capitalistic society such as the one we currently live in. If those individuals that have the resources available to reduce their carbon footprint actually committed to it, it would allow for a gradual reduction in pollution in our lakes and oceans. Through this painting, I hope to inspire like-minded, indifferent, and challenging individuals to think about giving love to endangered species and to the environment.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line130
__label__cc	0.706546	0.293454	The sustainable and quality process Signs and Information Following on from a strategic reflection, GRISVERD Mobiliari Urbà Sostenible was set up in 2009 as a new business division of Alazor, S.L., a renowned company in the metal industry. We believe that sustainability is the way forward to ensure that future generations can, in the very least, benefit from the same natural resources as we have. With this in mind, we have designed and manufactured a line of environmentally-friendly street furniture, based on principles such as sustainability, design, multifunctionality, anti-vandalism and non-maintenance of the product. Quality is one of the basic pillars of our company. We have been awarded a Quality Management System certificate as per the requirements of ISO 2001:2008. Design is another of the company’s strategic areas and a distinguishing feature in our products. Indeed, we work with renowned professionals. We were recognised by the Ministry of Employment of the Generalitat on the context of the “Improvements to working conditions” programme in 2009 and 2010. We received the ENTREPRENEUR award from the Business Confederation of Tarragona Province at the 10th CEPTA Business Night. We were awarded the INNOVATION prize (industry) at the 2010 Cambra awards. We obtained first and second prize in product category at the 2nd EBREAMBIENT sustainability awards. Our Nuu bench was certified at the 2011 DELTA awards exhibition and we received an honourable mention at the DESIGN FOR RECYCLING AWARDS 2013 held by the Catalan Waste Agency and the ADI-FAD industrial design association. Asun Colom The person in charge of administration, quality and marketing Asun... Is the person in charge of administration, quality and marketing. She is a company and tourist activities technician and with a degree in business studies. She believes that training is the best input for a company. Constant innovation and adaptation is the best resource, even when there are others. She is very sensitive towards the environment and believes that another world is still possible. She applies the “Plan-Do-Check-Act” philosophy at all levels. Josep Oriol Manager and person in charge of production Josep... Is the manager and person in charge of production. His professional training and, especially, the experience gained in several fields of the metal sector has enabled him to “play” with the pieces he produces. He enjoys working and this can be seen in the final object. He is constantly involved with his work team. In 1865 a lineage of iron workers and craftsmen was established in Gandesa (Tarragona) who embarked on trades pertaining to the time. Santiago Oriol i Sabaté, born in 1897, arrived in Barcelona and began working at Bonaventura Batlle’s workshop, personally cooperating with Antoni Gaudí in artistic forging, leaving a recognisable mark in Parc Güell and also, especially, at Casa Vicenç in Barcelona. Years later, his son would set up the industrial company Alazor, C.B., which would also be devoted to the activity of ironwork for industrial vehicles, in 2003 receiving a mention from the Ironworkers Guild of Catalonia. Years later, Josep Oriol Costal would channel all the activity towards the manufacturing of bodywork for industrial vehicles, the assembly of cranes, tippers and elevating platforms. In 1999 Carrosseries Alazor, S.L. was set up and all the shares were handed over to the family. With Assumpció Colom joining the Administration and Quality department a business diagnosis was carried out. As a result, the production plant was restructured and the company was certified according to ISO 9001:2000 quality management standard. In 2009 a new production line was identified, covered by the GRISVERD brand, devoted to the manufacturing of sustainable street furniture. We are committed to a sustainable development model with responsibility, legitimacy and social cohesion in the financial, social and environmental areas. Person relationships We value person to person relationships with our customers and suppliers as a key component in business relations. We continuously improve our products and services thanks to the constant involvement and adaptation of our team to market demands. We are proud of what we do; we love our job; we are honest, serious and rigorous. Want to talk about it? Twitter updates: - yesterday - @grisverd - 10 days ago - @grisverd	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line132
__label__wiki	0.886114	0.886114	He’s accused of war crimes and torture. Uber and Lyft approved him to drive. May 15, 2019 Ali Mohamed 49 Views 0 Comments (CNN)— Where does an alleged war criminal accused of torture and directing mass executions look for work while living in the United States? For Yusuf Abdi Ali, there was an easy answer: Uber and Lyft. Within a couple of days of applying to be a ride-share driver, Ali said he was approved to shuttle passengers from place to place. He’s been doing it for more than 18 months, according to his Uber profile. When CNN reporters recently caught a ride from Ali, the former Somali military commander was listed on Uber’s app as an “Uber Pro Diamond” driver with a 4.89 rating. “I do this full time,” said Ali, who drives in suburban Virginia. He explained that he prefers to drive during weekends because “that’s where the money is.” Ali said he has driven for Lyft, too, but he prefers working for Uber. His white Nissan Altima had only an Uber sticker on it. Asked if the application process was difficult, Ali replied that it was a breeze. “They just want your background check, that’s it,” said Ali, who was unaware that undercover CNN reporters were riding with him and recording the trip on video. “If you apply tonight maybe after two days it will come, you know, everything.” Ali’s work as a ride-share driver raises new questions about the thoroughness of Uber and Lyft’s background check process and the ease with which some people with controversial pasts can get approved to drive. CNN previously reported that Uber and Lyft have approved thousands of people who should have been disqualified because of criminal records. Some of those Uber drivers have included a murderer on parole and a convicted felon who was later convicted for sexually assaulting an Uber passenger. Ali has not been convicted of a crime, but a basic internet search of his name turns up numerous documents and news accounts alleging he committed various atrocities while serving as a military commander during Somalia’s civil war in the 1980s. His past was detailed in a documentary by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that featured eyewitnesses in northern Somalia who described killings allegedly committed under the direction of Ali, also known as “Colonel Tukeh.” One witness in that documentary said, “Two men were caught, tied to a tree. Oil was poured on them and they were burnt alive. I saw it with my own eyes. I cut away their remains.” Another witness in the same village said, “He caught my brother. He tied him to a military vehicle and dragged him behind. … He shredded him into pieces. That’s how he died.” When asked, “Did you see Tukeh do that with your own eyes?” the villager replied, “Yes, and there are many people around who saw it.” Ali has denied all allegations against him. Uber strengthened its background check policy last year and it now includes more frequent checks, and disqualifies convicted drivers, as well as drivers who have not been convicted, but are charged with serious offenses. All drivers “must undergo a driving and criminal history background check reviewing local, state and national records, and we evaluate eligibility in accordance with criteria set by local laws,” Uber said in a statement to CNN. Following CNN’s inquiries, an Uber spokesperson said the company had suspended Ali’s access to the app as it reviewed the matter. A Lyft spokeswoman responded that the company had permanently banned Ali from the platform. Lyft said he hasn’t given a ride on its platform since September 2018. “The safety of our community is our top priority and we are horrified by the allegations described. Before giving a ride on the Lyft platform, all driver-applicants are screened for criminal offenses and driving incidents in the United States,” the Lyft spokeswoman said. Uber and Lyft’s background checks are mostly performed by a separate company called Checkr, which uses applicants’ names and Social Security numbers to search for information in a national sex offender database, federal and local court records and databases used to flag suspected terrorists and others, representatives from the companies said. A Checkr spokesperson told CNN that its background checks “rely on public criminal records that have been adjudicated in a court of law rather than unverified sources like Google search results. Similarly, most employers don’t request background checks that include pending civil litigation due to its subjective nature.” This week, Ali is defending himself against a civil suit filed in federal court in Virginia by a man who claims he was one of Ali’s victims in 1988. Farhan Mohamoud Tani Warfaa alleged in court documents that Ali tortured and shot him and ordered bodyguards to bury his body. The guards recognized that Warfaa, a farmer, had not died and accepted a bribe from his family to release him, according to documents. Warfaa, who has come to the United States to testify against Ali, is being represented by the Center for Justice and Accountability (CJA), a San Francisco-based nonprofit that seeks to bring alleged war criminals to justice. The suit accuses Ali of directing a “brutal counterinsurgency campaign that refused to distinguish between civilians and combatants” between about 1984 and 1989. Although the case against Ali has been allowed to proceed in US civil court, no criminal court has jurisdiction to try Ali for alleged war crimes. The International Criminal Court (ICC) wasn’t formally envisioned until 1994, following the genocide in Rwanda, and Somalia has never been able to develop a complete justice system that could embark on a war crimes tribunal. When approached outside the courthouse this week, Ali declined to answer CNN’s questions. His attorney, Joseph Peter Drennan, dismissed the allegations against his client, saying the suit was politically motivated to benefit Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia. According to public accounts, Ali moved to Canada after the Somali military regime he worked under collapsed in 1991. He was deported after news about his alleged war crimes in Somalia became public through that CBC documentary. Ali entered the United States on a visa through his Somali wife who became a US citizen. In 2006, his wife was found guilty of naturalization fraud for claiming she was a refugee from the very Somali clan that Ali is accused of torturing. CNN’s recent Uber ride with Ali was not the first time the network has caught up with him as he sought to make a living in the country. In 2016, CNN reported that Ali had been working as a security guard at Dulles International Airport near Washington, DC. He was fired from that job shortly after the CNN story aired. This is story was originally aired in CNN. ← Hassan Hussein Abdi: Somaliland uma baahna aqoonyahano buka The U.S. should not be a safe haven for accused war criminals like Somalia’s Col. Tukeh →	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line133
__label__wiki	0.672731	0.672731	Casus Belli? From THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE IRAQ WAR by Yossef Bodansky (Regan Books, 2004), chapter 3, pp. 51-53: On January 14, 2003, British police and security forces raided a terrorist safe house in Manchester, ending a several-month-long investigation. A Scotland Yard detective was killed in this raid, which recovered a quantity of ricin – an extremely potent poison. The investigation, begun in the fall 2002 in Israel, involved at its peak the intelligence services of more than six countries. The investigators’ findings provided the “smoking gun” supporting the administration’s insistence on Iraq’s centrality to global terrorism, the availability of operational weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and proof of the close cooperation between Iraqi military intelligence and al-Qaeda. The data accumulated during this investigation could have provided the casus belli – the justification for war – and urgent imperative to take on Saddam Hussein. Yet in the first of several indecisive and self-contradicting political maneuvers, the Bush administration preferred to accommodate Blair’s pressure to keep Israel at arm’s length, not implicate Arafat, and placate Blair’s fellow West European leaders rather than go public with the findings of the investigation. Despite mounting international criticism and skepticism in the media, the American public was not presented with one of the strongest and most explicit justifications for the war with Iraq. On the night of September 13, 2002, Israeli Special Forces intercepted and captured a three-man squad attempting to cross the Jordan River and enter the Palestinian territories on their way to Arafat’s compound in Ramallah. The interrogation revealed that they were highly trained members of the Baghdad-based Arab Liberation Front (ALF), sent to conduct spectacular strikes under the banner of Arafat’s Fatah. Specifically, they were dispatched by ALF Chief Muhammad Zaida Abbas, better known as Abu-al-Abbas, to operate directly under the control of Tawfiq Tirawi, chief of the Palestinian Authority’s General Intelligence Service and Arafat’s closest confidant. Abbas and Tirawi were extremely close childhood friends, having grown up together in a village just north of Ramallah and ultimately joining Arafat’s fledgling terrorist organization together in the early 1960s. The three ALF terrorists were trained for several missions, including an operation that involved using shoulder-fired missiles to shoot down civilian airliners as they approached Ben-Gurion Airport and using anti-tank rockets and missiles to ambush convoys – including American groupings on their way to Iraq. They were also there to organize and train Palestinian terrorists – all trusted operatives of Tirawi’s – to assist with operations and intelligence collection inside Israel. The three had been briefed in Baghdad that they would get the missiles, heavy weapons, and explosives they might need from Fatah via Tirawi. The Israeli interrogators were most interested in what the three had to say about their training: During the summer, they had been trained along with other squads of ALF terrorists at Salman Pak – a major base near Baghdad – by members of Unit 999 of Iraqi military intelligence. They recounted that in an adjacent part of the camp, other teams of Unit 999 were preparing a select group of Islamist terrorists specifically identified as members of al-Qaeda. Although the training was separate, and individuals used code names exclusively, they were able to learn a great deal about the missions of their Islamist colleagues. The three ALF terrorists told the Israelis that in addition to the myriad special operations techniques taught at Salman Pak, the Islamists also received elaborate training in chemical weapons and poisons, specifically ricin. Moreover, on their way to their operational deployment zones, the Islamists were taken to a derelict complex of houses near Halabja, in Kurdistan, where they conducted experiments with chemical weapons and poisons. The area where the training took place was nominally under the control of Ansar-al-Islam, Osama bin Laden’s Kurdish offshoot. From there, the ALF terrorists recounted, Islamist detachments traveled to Turkey, where they were to strike American bases with chemical weapons once the war [with Iraq] started, and to Pakinsy Gore in northern Georgia (on the border with Chechnya) in order to assist Chechen terrorists as they launched major terrorists operations against Russia. Others were dispatched to train Islamist teams arriving from Western Europe via Turkey in sophisticated terrorism techniques, including the use of chemical weapons and ricin. Within a week of the capture of the ALF trio, a delegation of senior Israeli military intelligence officers traveled to Washington to brief the White House about their findings. By then, there had already been independent corroborations of the Israeli reports: Turkish security forces, acting on tips provided by Israel, arrested two al-Qaeda operatives studying plans to attack the U.S. air base in Incerlick with chemical weapons, and American intelligence also learned from its own sources about the activities of foreign mujahedein in Georgia’s Pakinsky Gore. Then, on October 23, a group of Chechen and Arab terrorists captured a Moscow theater in the middle of a performance, taking over seven hundred people hostage, rigging the theater with bombs, and threatening to kill everyone in the building. When negotiations failed and the terrorists shot at least one hostage to demonstrate their determination, Russian antiterrorist forces broke into the theater after using a special knockout gas to neutralize the Chechens before they were able to detonate their bombs. The Russian operation was considered a great success, as all the terrorists were killed before they could blow themselves up; however, close to two hundred hostages died from secondary effects caused by the gas, including heart attacks and choking on their own vomit. In any case, the mere occurrence of a spectacular strike in Moscow meant that there could no longer be any doubt about the accuracy of the material provided by the three Palestinians in Israel’s custody. Still, the White House was reluctant to advertise this evidence because it demonstrated Israeli intelligence’s major contribution to the war on terrorism. When ricin was discovered in Manchester and all the dots connected, the intelligence Israel had extracted from the terrorists in its custody was proved wholly accurate. Israel had in fact demonstrated to the Europeans why Saddam Hussein has to be toppled, and soon. JMK said... A GREAT book and an excellent quote that brings home the very "inconvenient truth" of Saddam's Iraq direct ties to international, state-sponsored terrorism! Awesome work! Hi JMK, yeah, Yossi really did a great job with this essential volume. He was also the very 1st guy to say "hey y'all - watch out for this here Moktada Al Sadr feller - he's got issues" I have a first edition and I've about worn it out - it is chock full of great intell, shrewd psychic prophesies and a good insight into unfree, unhappy and nigh unhinged illegitimate leaders, militias and regimes. Highly recommended. Laugh League Pseudo Summit VDH and The Price of Admission How GsGf Got It Right My Love Affair With Great Satan's Girlfriend Respectful Salutations VDH And The Price Of Admission (Cont'd) Great Satan Pics Return 2008 Significant Threat Anonymous Sinners 2nd Guessing Daydream Deceivers Internat'l Gendercide Day "Bad Atmosphere" IsraCampus "Never Forget"	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line138
__label__wiki	0.794827	0.794827	After ISIL There is no question that the Islamic State will be defeated in Mosul; the real question is what comes afterward. P4, former CENTCOM Commander lays it out to play it out... Can the post-Islamic State effort resolve the squabbling likely to arise over numerous issues and bring lasting stability to one of Iraq’s most diverse and challenging provinces? Failure to do so could lead to ISIS 3.0. U.S. forces today obviously lack the authority, remit and sheer numbers of the U.S. elements in Iraq in 2003. They also do not have the mandate that we had in the early days. But the enabling forces that the U.S.-led coalition has provided for Iraqi elements over the past year — intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets, advisers, logistical elements, and precision strike platforms, in particular — have been instrumental in the successes enjoyed by the Iraqis in Ramadi, Fallujah, Tikrit, Baiji, Qayyarah and a host of other battle sites. Leaders of the various Iraqi elements will likely have their own militias, and there will be endless rounds of brinkmanship on the road to post-Islamic State boundaries, governing structures and distribution of power and resources. If those challenges are not enough, others will emanate from Iran and the Shiite militias it supports, from Turkey and Iraq’s Sunni Arab neighbors, from the Kurdish Regional Government that understandably wants to retain the disputed internal boundary areas that its peshmerga now largely control, and so on. In the case of Mosul, Nineveh’s Sunni Arabs, in particular, will need considerable reassurances that their interests will be adequately represented in the new Mosul and Nineveh. But so will the Kurdish citizens of Nineveh (of multiple political parties), as well as Shiite Arabs, Shiite and Sunni Turkmen, Yazidis, Christians, Shabak and numerous tribes. The best vehicle for carrying this out would be a provincial council like the one set up in 2003, and through a similarly inclusive process. Importantly, Shiite militias should play no role in post-Islamic State security and governance. Because Nineveh and the other Sunni Arab provinces lack significant energy resources and the leverage they provide, Kurdish-style constitutional autonomy is not a viable option. Nonetheless, Baghdad and Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi will need to be prepared to make more explicit commitments about levels of resourcing, and also perhaps grant the region greater autonomy in determining spending priorities. The task facing Abadi is exceedingly complex, but the only way forward is to squarely face the challenges, work to build relationships and press the many disparate parties to find common ground on the issues — aided by the U.S.-led coalition. The process to resolve post-Islamic State issues will be difficult and intense. But having enabled the defeat of the Islamic State and having provided the largest amount of assets to ensure further successes and reconstruction initiatives, the United States, together with its numerous coalition partners, will have considerable influence over the resolution of the issues. It will have to exercise that influence. Syria Stuck New Masters of Revolutionary Warfare? Saudi Schizophrenia War Crimes Tribunal For Islamic State Did The Ayatollah Win? Vanguard 2016 The Drones Of Hiz"B"Allah Red Group Nigh Invulnerable "Better Way" The Policy For Drones Gone Wild! The Coming War With China The New Russian Artillery North Korean Threat Win Syria - Target Hiz'B'Allah	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line139
__label__wiki	0.826159	0.826159	Complete results for Ryan Cobb 2008/01/00 Ryan Cobb: 50.67 mi, 81.55 km (submitted 2010/08/02 15:21:09) 2008/09/00 Ryan Cobb: 76.8 mi, 123.60 km (submitted 2010/08/02 15:20:05) 2008/10/00 Ryan Cobb: 109.4 mi, 176.06 km (submitted 2010/08/02 15:19:23) 2008/12/00 Ryan Cobb: 140 mi, 225.31 km (submitted 2010/08/02 15:17:24) 2009/05/00 Ryan Cobb: 209.16 mi, 336.61 km (submitted 2010/08/02 15:14:06) 2010/09/00 Ryan Cobb: 92.49 mi, 148.85 km (submitted 2010/10/04 16:51:56) 2015/03/00 Ryan Cobb: 96 mi, 154.50 km (submitted 2015/04/01 19:13:43) 2018/11/00 Ryan Cobb: 50.7 mi, 81.59 km (submitted 2019/01/01 22:18:53) 2019/04/00 Ryan Cobb: 62 mi, 99.78 km (submitted 2019/05/01 15:57:42) 2019/06/00 Ryan Cobb: .7 mi, 1.13 km (submitted 2019/06/30 15:01:33)	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line140
__label__wiki	0.908631	0.908631	Insurance industry welcomes Senate approval of seven-year TRIA extension in CIAT in the News By Mark A. Hofmann, Business Insurance Insurers and other industry groups are welcoming Thursday’s 93-4 Senate vote to extend the federal terrorism insurance backstop for seven years. The Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2014 — S. 2244 — would maintain the current trigger for the program, which was created by the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002, for catastrophic terrorist attacks of all kinds at $100 million. The reauthorization, however, would require insurers to shoulder a greater share of losses from future terrorist attacks. The bill would also create the National Association of Registered Agents & Brokers, although only for two years after the association begins operation. NARAB, which is backed by a broad spectrum of the insurance industry, including the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, would create an independent nonprofit body that would allow for multistate licensing for insurance producers. The House is expected to take up its own TRIA extension bill soon. The TRIA Reform Act of 2014 — H.R. 4871 — as approved by the House Financial Services Committee in June, would extend the program for five years and gradually raise the minimum trigger for the program to provide coverage after conventional terrorism attacks to $500 million while maintaining the current $100 million trigger for nuclear, biological, chemical and radiological attacks. The House bill would also create NARAB, but with no sunset provision. The New York-based Risk & Insurance Management Society Inc. greeted the action with a call for Senate and House members to move to craft a final bill. “With the House and the Senate both in agreement that the need for a reauthorized TRIA bill is a necessity, it’s time for the two groups to come together and devise a final version,” said RIMS President Carolyn Snow in a statement. “A common misperception is that TRIA only impacts organizations here in the United States. Any global business that has facilities, employees or components of their supply chain here in the U.S. will be affected should TRIA expire. This is a worldwide insurance issue.” The Coalition to Insure Against Terrorism, a Washington-based business group, also called for swift House action. “The Senate’s strong bipartisan vote for this legislation underscores the importance of TRIA and the need for reauthorization,” said Marty DePoy, the coalition’s steering committee coordinator, in a statement. “We hope the House will move just as quickly, in order to get a final bill for the president’s signature well before the end of the year.” But the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee cautioned against expecting a swift resolution. “I’m still committed to getting a bill passed, but it has become very clear this week that the process is going to take several more months before there is a resolution,” said Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, in a statement. “We have a diverse Republican caucus in the House. We have some members who believe the reforms go too far, and we also have a host of conservatives who feel the reforms don’t go far enough,” he said. “Washington is paying a lot of attention to one group’s concerns, but not enough attention to the other’s. That’s got to change if any TRIA bill is going to pass.” Insurers in particular hailed the Senate vote. “Today’s vote is an important step toward keeping in place the vital protections for the American economy that the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program provides,” Charles M. Chamness, president and CEO of the Indianapolis-based National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, said in a statement. “The overwhelming, bipartisan support we’ve seen for this reauthorization demonstrates how much it has done for our nation and how important it is to our economy.” “We remain confident that TRIA will be reauthorized in 2014 with strong bipartisan support” after Thursday’s vote, Leigh Ann Pusey, president and CEO of the American Insurance Association in Washington, said in a statement. “This long-term legislation will minimize the disruptions, maintain the availability and affordability of terrorism insurance for consumers and protect taxpayers,” Nat Wienecke, senior vice president of federal government relations in the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America’s Washington office, said in a statement. “It is great to see members of both parties come together in a broad bipartisan fashion to support America’s economic resiliency plan to recover from terrorist attacks.” The Alexandria, Virginia-based Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America Inc. echoed the underwriter’s sentiments. “Agents and brokers must have the ability to provide terrorism protection to their customers in the event of another unthinkable attack on American soil,” Robert Rusbuldt, the group’s president and CEO, said in a statement. “The current TRIA program has worked well to ensure the availability of this coverage, and it is imperative that a lapse be avoided. We thank the Senate for their work to promptly move S. 2244 through the legislative process.” But the Senate’s action was not met with universal praise, The Washington-based free market group R Street Institute said the Senate bill did not shift enough risk to the private sector. “The insurance and reinsurance markets have grown significantly in the dozen years since the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act first was passed, as seen most recently by some reinsurers dropping exclusions for terrorism from standard policies,” R Street Senior Fellow R.J. Lehmann said in a statement. “As private markets for terrorism insurance continue to advance, it is appropriate that the government’s role should retreat to ensure that private capital is not displaced by taxpayer bailouts.” Joint Trades Group Calls for TRIA Passage	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line141
__label__wiki	0.564248	0.564248	!Donate Home \| Contact About Timelines Blog Donate Volunteer Search this timeline only !! History Commons Alert, Exciting News Home » Timelines by Topic » Regions » Asia » Afghanistan » Complete 911 Timeline We are planning some big changes! Please follow us to stay updated and be part of our community. Complete 911 Timeline Project: Complete 911 Timeline Open-Content project managed by matt, Derek, Paul, KJF, mtuck, paxvector add event \| references Page 71 of 74 (7307 events) previous \| 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74 \| next January 24, 2008: Judge Orders Written Report on Destruction of CIA Videotapes US District Judge Richard Roberts says that CIA interrogation videotapes may have been relevant to a case before him and orders the administration to explain why they were destroyed in 2005, and also to say whether other evidence was destroyed. The government has three weeks to produce the report, as the judge thinks the tapes may have been relevant to the case of Guantanamo detainee Hani Abdullah. The charges against Abdullah are based, at least in part, on information obtained from militant leader Abu Zubaida, who was shown on the tapes and was subjected to waterboarding and other “enhanced techniques” (see Spring-Late 2002 and Mid-May 2002 and After). The report also has to explain what the government has done to preserve evidence since Roberts issued an order in July 2005 not to destroy it, what it is doing now, and whether any other potentially relevant evidence has been destroyed. [Associated Press, 1/24/2008] Entity Tags: Central Intelligence Agency, Hani Abdullah, Richard W. Roberts Timeline Tags: Torture of US Captives Category Tags: Destruction of CIA Tapes, High Value Detainees, Counterterrorism Policy/Politics January 29, 2008: US Predator Drone Kills Al-Qaeda Leader in Pakistan’s Tribal Region Abu Laith al-Libi. [Source: Associated Press]The US fires a missile from a Predator drone at a house in North Waziristan, in Pakistan’s tribal region. The missile reportedly kills about 13 people. Some of them are said to be militants, and US officials will later confirm that one of those killed is al-Qaeda leader Abu Laith al-Libi. He is considered a top field commander and a liaison between al-Qaeda and the Taliban. [Newsweek, 3/22/2008; Washington Post, 3/27/2008] He is relatively unknown to the public, but in September 2007, the Washington Post profiled him as about one of a dozen of the most important current al-Qaeda leaders. He also survived a US rocket attack in June 2007. [Washington Post, 9/8/2007] Entity Tags: Abu Laith al-Libi Category Tags: Haven in Pakistan Tribal Region, Key Captures and Deaths, Counterterrorism Action After 9/11, Drone Use in Pakistan / Afghanistan January 30, 2008: MSNBC Finds over One Quarter of 9/11 Commission Report Endnotes Cite Dubious Detainee Interrogations MSNBC counts the number of endnotes in the 9/11 Commission report that cite detainee interrogations and finds that more than a quarter of them—441 out of over 1,700—do so. It is widely believed that the detainees were tortured while in US custody, and that statements made under torture are unreliable. One of the detainees, alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, whose interrogations are mentioned hundreds of times in the report (see After January 2004), was extensively waterboarded (see Shortly After February 29 or March 1, 2003), and a CIA manager said that up to 90 percent of the information he provided under questioning was unreliable (see August 6, 2007). The endnotes often give the sources of the information contained in the main text. MSNBC comments: “The analysis shows that much of what was reported about the planning and execution of the terror attacks on New York and Washington was derived from the interrogations of high-ranking al-Qaeda operatives. Each had been subjected to ‘enhanced interrogation techniques.’ Some were even subjected to waterboarding.” In addition, many of the endnotes that cite detainee interrogations are for the report’s “most critical chapters”—five, six, and seven—which cover the planning of the attacks and the hijackers’ time in the US. In total, the Commission relied on more than 100 CIA interrogation reports. Its Executive Director Philip Zelikow admits that “quite a bit, if not most” of its information on the 9/11 conspiracy “did come from the interrogations.” Karen Greenberg, director of the Center for Law and Security at New York University’s School of Law, says, “It calls into question how we were willing to use these interrogations to construct the narrative.” [MSNBC, 1/30/2008] Entity Tags: Center for Law and Security, 9/11 Commission, MSNBC, Philip Zelikow, Karen Greenberg Timeline Tags: 9/11 Timeline Category Tags: 9/11 Commission, Role of Philip Zelikow, 9/11 Investigations Late January 2008: Spanish Criminal Case Reveals French Intelligence Had Informant in Al-Qaeda Safe Haven On January 16, 2007, a young man known as Asim arrives in Barcelona. He had recently been living in the Pakistani tribal region of Waziristan as an informant for French intelligence. He comes to Barcelona to inform on a group of Pakistanis living in that town who spent time in Pakistani training camps and allegedly are planning a series of suicide attacks in Spain and possibly other European countries. He is posing as one of the suicide bombers. Fearing that an attack is imminent, Spanish authorities arrest most of the suspects three days later (see January 19, 2008). But the Spanish decide that they don’t have enough physical evidence to successfully prosecute the arrested suspects, and they turn Asim into a protected witness for the prosecution. The New York Times will comment, “the case has caused diplomatic friction among investigators. Spain’s handling of the French informant has enraged officials at France’s intelligence agencies and eroded trust between the countries, French and other European officials said. The informant’s value as a source was destroyed when he was made a prosecution witness and the contents of his statements were leaked to the news media.” Asim’s case contradicts the commonly held notion that intelligence agencies have been unable to penetrate al-Qaeda’s central command (see March 20, 2008). But many questions remain. It is unclear when he first penetrated Waziristan as an informant, how much time he spent there, and how high level his al-Qaeda contacts there were. [New York Times, 2/10/2008] Entity Tags: Al-Qaeda, Direction GÃ©nÃ©rale de la SÃ©curitÃ© ExtÃ©rieure, Asim Category Tags: Other Possible Moles or Informants, Al-Qaeda in Spain, Haven in Pakistan Tribal Region January 31, 2008: Civil Liberties Organization Says Abuse of Detainees ‘Undermines Credibility’ of 9/11 Commission Report The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), an organization dedicated to the protection of civil liberties, releases a statement saying it is “outraged” by revelations about the extent to which the 9/11 Commission report was based on statements from detainees who are said to have been tortured. After MSNBC finds that over a quarter of the report’s endnotes cite detainee interrogations (see January 30, 2008), CCR President Michael Ratner says: “If the Commission suspected there was torture, they should have realized that as a matter of law, evidence derived from torture is not reliable, in part because of the possibility of false confession…at the very least, they should have added caveats to all those references (note: the Commission’s report does contain one caveat related to two chapters—see After January 2004). The Commission’s heavy reliance on tainted sources reinforces the notion that we as a nation have not yet come to terms with the reality that the US engaged in torture. Until we do so, we undermine our credibility in the eyes of the world as a nation of hypocrites.” [Center for Constitutional Rights, 1/31/2008] Entity Tags: 9/11 Commission, Michael Ratner, Center for Constitutional Rights Category Tags: 9/11 Commission, 9/11 Investigations February 2008: Considerable Video Footage of 9/11 Hijackers Remains Unreleased Hani Hanjour (left) and Majed Moqed (right) captured by surveillance video on September 5, 2001. [Source: FBI]An FBI timeline of the 9/11 hijackers’ activities compiled in late 2001 and released this month indicates that considerable video footage of the hijackers has yet to be released. Most of the footage appears to come from surveillance video discovered after the 9/11 attacks. So far, the only known footage made public has been two video stills of Hani Hanjour and Majed Moqed using an ATM machine, one still each of Waleed Alshehri and Satam Al Suqami, several stills of Mohamed Atta and Abdulaziz Alomari in Portland the night before 9/11 (see September 10, 2001), and a few more stills and footage of several hijackers in airports on the morning of 9/11 (see (Between 5:45 a.m. and 5:53 a.m.) September 11, 2001 and (7:15 a.m.-7:18 a.m.) September 11, 2001). But the FBI’s timeline reveals video footage that has never even been publicly hinted at: Mohamed Atta used an ATM in Palm Beach, Florida, on July 19, 2001. Salem Alhazmi and Ahmed Alghamdi used an ATM in Alexandria, Virginia, on August 2. Hanjour and Mojed used a Kinko’s for half an hour in College Park, Maryland, on August 10. Moqed and Nawaf Alhazmi shopped at an Exxon gas station in Joppa, Maryland, on August 28. Waleed and Wail Alshehri wandered around a Target store in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on September 4. Atta and Abdulaziz Alomari were in a Florida bank lobby on September 4, and the audio of Atta calling Saudi Arabia was even recorded in the process. Fayez Ahmed Banihammad used an ATM on September 7 in Deerfield Beach, Florida. Salem Alhazmi was at the Falls Church DMV on September 7. Low quality surveillance video at the Milner Hotel in Boston showed Marwan Alshehhi and possibly Mohand Alshehri on multiple occasions in the days just before 9/11. Ziad Jarrah and possibly Saeed Alghamdi were videotaped using a Kinko’s for about an hour near Newark on September 10. [Federal Bureau of Investigation, 10/2001 ] Additionally, an FBI document will later be made public that indicates there is footage of Saeed Alghamdi entering the Marriott Hotel at the Newark International Airport on September 8, carrying a black roll along bag (he will not have any checked luggage on 9/11). This same document indicates Ziad Jarrah is also seen on videotape shortly after midnight on September 8 at the same Marriott Hotel, making credit card and cash payments for two hotel rooms. He is accompanied by two young men, who most likely are Saeed Alghamdi and Ahmed Alnami. [Investigative Services Division, FBI Headquarters, 4/19/2002] Entity Tags: Saeed Alghamdi, Wail Alshehri, Waleed Alshehri, Ziad Jarrah, Salem Alhazmi, Nawaf Alhazmi, Mohamed Atta, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Abdulaziz Alomari, Mohand Alshehri, Ahmed Alghamdi, Fayez Ahmed Banihammad, Ahmed Alnami, Marwan Alshehhi Category Tags: Alhazmi and Almihdhar, Marwan Alshehhi, Mohamed Atta, Hani Hanjour, Ziad Jarrah, Other 9/11 Hijackers, FBI 9/11 Investigation, 9/11 Investigations February 2008: Ex-US Soldier from Bosnia War Emerges as Al-Qaeda Leader in Somalia Abu Mansoor al-Amriki. [Source: Al-Jazeera]A militant in a video message released this month has an interesting background. The message supports Shabab, one of two radical Islamic groups fighting for power in war-torn Somalia. According to a US intelligence source, the militant in the video, Abu Mansoor al-Amriki, is an ex-US soldier who fought in Bosnia in the early 1990s. No US soldiers officially fought in the Bosnia war, but about a dozen Muslim ex-US Special Forces soldiers fought in Bosnia and trained al-Qaeda and other mujaheddin forces there around 1993 (see December 1992-June 1993). At the time, the US military and Saudi government apparently had an interest in sending Muslim ex-Special Forces there (see December 1992-June 1993 and December 1992). Mansoor is said to be a high-ranking member of al-Qaeda’s East Africa leadership, and is a lead trainer for Somali insurgent forces. Although he only appears on video wearing a face mask, it is clear that he is Caucasian. [Middle East Times, 2/28/2008] Entity Tags: Al-Qaeda, Shabab, Abu Mansoor al-Amriki Category Tags: Al-Qaeda in Balkans, Alleged Al-Qaeda Media Statements February 4, 2008: Willie Nelson Questions Official 9/11 Story Willie Nelson. [Source: Adam Bielawski / Photorazzi]Renowned country singer and songwriter Willie Nelson publicly questions the official account of what happened on September 11. Appearing on Alex Jones’s talk radio show, Nelson suggests the World Trade Center was brought down with explosives. He says, “I saw those towers fall and I’ve seen an implosion in Las Vegas, there’s too much similarities between the two.” Referring to WTC 7, which fell in the afternoon of 9/11 though no plane hit it, he says: “I saw the building fall that didn’t get hit by nothing. So, how naive are we, you know, what do they think we’ll go for?” [KVUE News, 2/4/2008; Associated Press, 2/5/2008] Nelson has previously engaged in political activism, such as raising money for small family farmers and writing a song protesting the Iraq war. [Reuters, 1/1/2004; Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 1/19/2004] Entity Tags: Willie Nelson Category Tags: US Government and 9/11 Criticism February 4, 2008: Seattle Post-Intelligencer Calls for New 9/11 Inquiry The editorial board of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer calls for a new inquiry into 9/11, as it believes the 9/11 Commission’s investigation may have been compromised. The call is due to a new book by New York Times journalist Philip Shenon, The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Commission. The book highlights the close relationship between 9/11 Commission Executive Director Philip Zelikow and the White House, in particular National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice, as well as an attempt he made to connect Iraq to al-Qaeda. The Post-Intelligencer writes of Zelikow that “[s]omeone with an apparent deference for the White House should not have been trusted with such a valued task.” It comments, “If bulletproof, the book prompts us to add one more thing to our to-do list for the next administration: Pressure it to charge a panel of independent experts to write a real, nonpartisan report on the attacks.” [Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 2/4/2008] Entity Tags: Condoleezza Rice, Bush administration (43), Philip Shenon, Philip Zelikow, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 9/11 Commission February 11, 2008: Pentagon Intends to Try Six Alleged 9/11 Conspirators, Will Seek Death Penalty The Defense Department announces that it is bringing death penalty charges against six high-value enemy detainees currently being held at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. The six, all charged with involvement in the 9/11 attacks, will be tried under the much-criticized military tribunal system (see October 17, 2006) implemented by the Bush administration. They are: Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a Pakistani who claims responsibility for 31 terrorist attacks and plots, is believed to have masterminded the 9/11 attacks, and claims he beheaded Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl (see January 31, 2002). Mohammed was subjected to harsh interrogation tactics by the CIA, including waterboarding. Ali Adbul Aziz Ali, Mohammed’s nephew and cousin of jailed Islamist terrorist Ramzi Yousef. He is accused of facilitating the attacks by sending $120,000 to US-based terrorists, and helping nine of the hijackers enter the US. Ramzi Bin al-Shibh, accused of being a link between al-Qaeda and the 9/11 hijackers. Bin al-Shibh is accused of helping some of the hijackers obtain flight training. Khallad bin Attash, who has admitted planning the attack on the USS Cole (see October 12, 2000) and is accused of running an al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan. He claims to have helped in the bombing of the US embassy in Kenya (see 10:35-10:39 a.m., August 7, 1998). Mustafa Ahmad al-Hawsawi, accused of being a financier of the 9/11 attacks, providing the hijackers with cash, clothing, credit cards, and traveller’s checks. Mohamed al-Khatani, another man accused of being a “20th hijacker;” al-Khatani was stopped by immigration officials at Orlando Airport while trying to enter the US. He was captured in Afghanistan. Many experts see the trials as part of an election-year effort by the Bush administration to demonstrate its commitment to fighting terrorism, and many predict a surge of anti-American sentiment in the Middle East and throughout the Islamic world. Some believe that the Bush administration is using the trials to enhance the political fortunes of Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who has made the US battle against al-Qaeda a centerpiece of his campaign. “What we are looking at is a series of show trials by the Bush administration that are really devoid of any due process considerations,” says Vincent Warren, the executive director head of the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represents many Guantanamo detainees. “Rather than playing politics the Bush administration should be seeking speedy and fair trials. These are trials that are going to be based on torture as confessions as well as secret evidence. There is no way that this can be said to be fair especially as the death penalty could be an outcome.” Treatment of Detainees an Issue - While the involvement of the six detainees in the 9/11 attacks is hardly disputed, many questions surround their treatment at Guantanamo and various secret “black sites” used to house and interrogate terror suspects out of the public eye. Questions are being raised about the decision to try the six men concurrently instead of separately, about the decision to seek the death penalty, and, most controversially, the admissibility of information and evidence against the six that may have been gathered by the use of torture. Details of Forthcoming Tribunals - While the charges are being announced now, Brigadier General Thomas Hartmann, the Pentagon official supervising the case, acknowledges that it could be months before the cases actually begin, and years before any possible executions would be carried out. Hartmann promises the trials will be “as completely open as possible,” with lawyers and journalists present in the courtroom unless classified information is being presented. Additionally, the six defendants will be considered innocent until proven guilty, and the defendants’ lawyers will be given “every stitch of evidence” against their clients. 'Kangaroo Court' - British lawyer Clive Stafford Smith, who has worked with “enemy combatants” at Guantanamo, believes nothing of what Hartmann says. The procedures are little more than a “kangaroo court,” Stafford Smith says, and adds, “Anyone can see the hypocrisy of espousing human rights, then trampling on them.” Despite Hartmann’s assurances, it is anything but clear just what rights the six defendants will actually have. [Independent, 2/12/2008] The charges against al-Khahtani are dropped several months later (see May 13, 2008). Entity Tags: Vincent Warren, US Department of Defense, Khallad bin Attash, Daniel Pearl, Clive Stafford Smith, John McCain, Mohamed al-Khatani, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Thomas Hartmann, Center for Constitutional Rights, Ramzi Yousef, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Bush administration (43), Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, Al-Qaeda Category Tags: Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Al-Qaeda in Germany, 1998 US Embassy Bombings, 2000 USS Cole Bombing, High Value Detainees, Counterterrorism Policy/Politics, Ramzi Bin Al-Shibh, 9/11 Related Criminal Proceedings February 18, 2008: Moroccan Police Raid Islamist Militant Group Led by Belgian Government Informant Moroccan police arrest 35 people for involvement in a radical militant group led by an informant for the Belgian government. Over the next several weeks, it will gradually be leaked to the media that the arrested leader of the group, Abdelkader Belliraj, has worked for Belgian intelligence and possibly the CIA since at least 2000 (see February 29, 2008). Belliraj holds both Belgian and Moroccan citizenship and is a Shiite. His unnamed group has both Shiite and Sunni Muslim links, and is linked to Islamist militant groups like al-Qaeda as well as to traditional organized crime. Others arrested in Morocco with Belliraj include local politicians, businessmen, a police commander and Hezbollah television station correspondent. A large stockpile of weapons is found in police raids, including assault rifles, machine guns, and detonators. Two days after the raids, the small Islamist party al-Badil al-Hadari is officially dissolved after several of those arrested are found to have links to the party, including the party’s secretary general. The Moroccan government claims Belliraj’s group was planning a series of political assassinations in Morocco. [Los Angeles Times, 2/27/2008; Terrorism Focus, 3/4/2008] Entity Tags: Abdelkader Belliraj Category Tags: Other Possible Moles or Informants, Counterterrorism Action After 9/11 February 18, 2008: Opposition Parties Triumph in Pakistan’s Parliamentary Elections; Musharraf Remains President but Is Greatly Weakened Pakistan holds parliamentary elections, and opposition parties are the overwhelming winners. President Pervez Musharraf does not lose his presidency, as he was reelected by the National Assembly several months earlier (see October 6, 2007). However, his party, Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q), loses control of the National Assembly, enabling the opposition parties to select their own prime minister a short time later. Much power will now shift to the position of prime minister, which had been completely overshadowed by Musharraf and his presidency since he took power in a coup in 1999 (see October 12, 1999). The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) wins 120 seats. The PPP was led by Benazir Bhutto until her recent assassination, and is now led by her husband, Asif Ali Zardari. The Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N), the party led by former primer minister Nawaz Sharif, gets 90. Musharraf’s PML-Q only wins 51 seats. Surprisingly, the Islamic parties are almost completely wiped out. The alliance of Islamic parties, the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), did well and won two provincial elections in the last election in 2002, but this time it only wins six seats. A secular and moderate party, the Awami National Party, wins in the North-West Frontier Province, taking control from the MMA and forming the new provincial government there. No single party holds a majority, but the PPP immediately announces a coalition with Sharif’s PML-N party, shutting Musharraf’s PML-Q party out. Musharraf once had 80 percent popularity ratings in polls, but after many recent controversial moves, including declaring a state of emergency for over a month to stay in power (see November 3-December 15, 2007), his popularity rating is down to about 20 percent. [Rashid, 2008, pp. 390-391] One month later, the coalition selects a relatively unknown figure, Yousaf Raza Gillani, to be the new prime minister (see March 22-25, 2008). Entity Tags: Benazir Bhutto, Awami National Party, Pakistan People’s Party, Pervez Musharraf, Asif Ali Zardari, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, Pakistan Muslim League-Q, Pakistan Muslim League-N, Nawaz Sharif Category Tags: Pakistan and the ISI February 22, 2008: Attorney General and Director of National Intelligence Attribute Failure to Exploit Yemen Hub Calls to 1981 Executive Order Attorney General Michael Mukasey and Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell write to Silvestre Reyes, the Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, about their desire to see the Protect America Act renewed. In the letter, they mention the failure to exploit NSA intercepts of calls between the 9/11 hijackers in the US and al-Qaeda’s main global communications hub, which apparently had the potential to thwart the 9/11 plot (see Early 2000-Summer 2001). They write: “[O]ne of the September 11th hijackers communicated with a known overseas terrorist facility while he was living in the United States. Because that collection was conducted under Executive Order 12333, the intelligence community could not identify the domestic end of the communication prior to September 11, 2001, when it could have stopped that attack.” [US Department of Justice and Office of the Director of National Intelligence, 2/28/2008 ] Executive Order 12333 became law in 1981 and governed general activities by the US intelligence community. [US President, 12/4/1981] The order did allow the NSA to disseminate information about US persons to law enforcement officials in the event of an impending terrorist act. [US Congress: House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, 4/12/2000] The letter does not give more detailed reasons why Mukasey and McConnell think the NSA could not have traced the calls and informed the FBI of the two hijackers’ presence in the US (see (Spring 2000)). [US Department of Justice and Office of the Director of National Intelligence, 2/28/2008 ] Similar incorrect statements have been made by numerous intelligence officials since December 2005, when the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping program was revealed (see December 17, 2005). Entity Tags: National Security Agency, Michael Mukasey, Mike McConnell, Silvestre Reyes Category Tags: Alhazmi and Almihdhar, Remote Surveillance, Yemen Hub February 23, 2008: Wanted US Citizen Gives Public Speech in Yemen and Remains Free Despite $5 Million Reward for His Arrest Jaber Elbaneh’s appearance in court. [Source: Associated Press / Mohammed al-Qadhi.]Jaber Elbaneh, an Islamist militant wanted by the US, comes out of hiding to appear in court in Yemen, but is not arrested. Elbaneh, a US citizen and whose family came from Yemen, had lived in Lackawanna, New York, before the 9/11 attacks. He went to Afghanistan to train at an al-Qaeda training camp along with about six other men from Lackawanna, but while the others dropped out and returned to the US, Elbaneh never returned (see April-August 2001). He moved to Yemen. The Yemeni government says he also helped plan the 2002 attack on the oil tanker Limburg off Yemen’s coast (see October 6, 2002). He was arrested there in 2004 after being charged in the US for attending the training camp. He was sentenced to ten years in prison, but in February 2006, he and 22 other suspected al-Qaeda operatives escaped from a high-security Yemeni prison (see February 3, 2006). The US offered $5 million for information leading to his arrest. Elbaneh was then implicated in a September 2006 bombing in Yemen that took place several days before national elections (see September 15, 2006). Some suggest the bombers may have colluded with the government to use the bombing to successfully help Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Saleh win reelection. Elbaneh was convicted, but allowed to stay at home under a loose form of house arrest. Given the outstanding $5 million reward for him, Elbaneh appears to surprise everyone by appearing in court where his conviction in the 2006 bombing was being appealed. Furthermore, he gives a speech proclaiming his innocence. He says that after his prison escape, he surrendered directly to President Saleh in May 2007, who absolved him of any jail time. The New York Times comments: “Perhaps the greatest mystery surrounding [Elbaneh] is his decision to appear in court… The Yemeni government has generally instructed the jihadists with whom it arranges amnesty to avoid the news media and keep low profiles. But Mr. Elbaneh deliberately spoke out in a public setting, with journalists present, and named the president in his brief tirade.” [Reuters, 2/27/2008; New York Times, 3/1/2008] Entity Tags: Jaber Elbaneh, Ali Abdallah Saleh Category Tags: Yemeni Militant Collusion, "Lackawanna Six" February 27, 2008: Report: US Finally Decides Imam to 9/11 Hijackers Is Linked to Al-Qaeda The Washington Post reports that US intelligence has finally determined that Anwar al-Awlaki is linked to al-Qaeda. Al-Awlaki was an imam at two different mosques attended by hijackers Nawaf Alhazmi, Khalid Almihdhar, and Hani Hanjour, and he has been suspected of assisting the 9/11 plot. An anonymous US counterterrorism official tells the Post, “There is good reason to believe Anwar al-Awlaki has been involved in very serious terrorist activities since leaving the United States [after 9/11], including plotting attacks against America and our allies.” However, the US apparently did not ask Yemen to extradite him when he was arrested there in 2006, because there was no pending legal case against him. He continues to reside in Yemen and apparently still has not been charged with any crime. [Washington Post, 2/27/2008] In December 2007, just two months before this article, the US approved the release of al-Awlaki in Yemen, apparently because there still was no pending legal case against him (see Early September 2006-December 2007). He also does not appear to be on any public wanted list. Entity Tags: Anwar al-Awlaki, Al-Qaeda Category Tags: FBI 9/11 Investigation, Counterterrorism Action After 9/11, Possible Hijacker Associates in US, 9/11 Investigations, Anwar Al-Awlaki February 28, 2008: US Predator Drone Kills at Least 12 in Pakistan A missile fired from a US Predator drone kills at least 12 people in Pakistan. The missile hits a house in the village of Kaloosha, near the Afghan border. Some suspected militants are reportedly killed, but details are scanty. [BBC, 3/16/2008; Washington Post, 3/27/2008] Category Tags: Haven in Pakistan Tribal Region, Counterterrorism Action After 9/11, Drone Use in Pakistan / Afghanistan February 29, 2008: Director of National Intelligence McConnell Says Afghan Government Is Losing Control Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell testifies before Congress that the security situation in Afghanistan is “deteriorating.” He estimates that the official Afghan government led by Hamid Karzai controls only about 30 percent of Afghanistan, while the Taliban controls 10 percent and the rest is controlled by various tribes and warlords. He says that the key to the Taliban’s success “is the opportunity for safe haven in Pakistan.” Karzai’s government denies McConnell’s claims. However, various think tank reports echo McConnell’s conclusions. One report headed by former NATO commander Gen. James L. Jones concludes that “urgent changes” are immediately required to “prevent Afghanistan becoming a failed state.” [Guardian, 2/29/2008] Entity Tags: Taliban, Hamid Karzai, James L. Jones, Mike McConnell Timeline Tags: War in Afghanistan Category Tags: Haven in Pakistan Tribal Region, Afghanistan February 29, 2008: Arrested Leader of Moroccan Militant Group Revealed to Be Belgian Informant with Possible CIA Links Abdelkader Belliraj. [Source: Agence France-Presse]The Belgian media reports that Abdelkader Belliraj, a dual Belgian-Moroccan citizen arrested in Morocco earlier in the month, is actually a long-time informant for Belgium’s internal security service, State Security. [Agence France-Presse, 2/29/2008; Los Angeles Times, 8/24/2008] The Belgian government initially denies the charges but soon tacitly admits them when the head of State Security, Alain Winants, complains about the leak of the “highly classified” status of Belliraj several days later. Agence France-Presse reports that although the “accusations were at first met with scepticism in Belgium, authorities now consider them credible.” Belliraj has been personally involved in armed robberies and murders dating back to the 1980s, and has links to al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, and other Islamist militant groups. It remains unclear if Belliraj was committing all his crimes with the approval of Belgian officials or if he may have been duping them to some degree. One anonymous Belgian police official speculates: “How could he travel freely since the 1980s from Belgium to various terrorist hot-beds around the world? There are two possibilities: either he worked for a secret service or else the State Security is full of idiots.” [Agence France-Presse, 3/11/2008] On Belgian newspaper claims that at the same time he was a paid Belgian informant since 2000, “It’s almost certain that at the same time he worked for another foreign secret service, possibly the French DGSE or American CIA.” [Het Laatste News, 3/4/2008] Another major Belgian newspaper, De Morgen, claims that Belliraj had both French and US intelligence links while working with Belgium too. [Maghreb Arabe Presse, 3/4/2008] Entity Tags: Central Intelligence Agency, Direction GÃ©nÃ©rale de la SÃ©curitÃ© ExtÃ©rieure, Abdelkader Belliraj, Alain Winants, State Security (of Belgium) Spring 2008: CIA Director Told about Al-Qaeda Assassination and Capture Program CIA Director Michael Hayden and his top aides are told about one aspect of an agency program to capture and assassinate al-Qaeda leaders. The program was proposed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and has been under development at the agency for years, although it has not yet become operational (see Shortly After September 17, 2001). Details of what Hayden is told are unclear, although he is told about plans that involve gathering sensitive information in a foreign country. Hayden orders that the operation be scaled back and that Congress be notified if the plans become more fully developed. However, Congress is not informed before Hayden’s successor cancels the program (see June 23, 2009). [New York Times, 7/14/2009] Entity Tags: Central Intelligence Agency, Michael Hayden Category Tags: Counterterrorism Policy/Politics March 6, 2008: US Agents Arrest Al-Qaeda-Linked Arms Dealer Victor Bout in Thailand Victor Bout in handcuffs in Thailand on the day of his arrest. [Source: Associated Press]Victor Bout, the world’s biggest illegal arms dealer, is arrested in Thailand. The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) had set up a sting operation to nab Bout. For months, DEA agents posed as members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a militant group linked to drug trafficking and organized crime. DEA agents and Thai police meet Bout at the five-star Sofitel Silom Hotel in Bangkok, supposedly to finalize an arms deal, and immediately arrest him and his bodyguards. According to a Thai police officer, Bout does not resist arrest but merely says, “The game is over.” A relatively new DEA task force is behind Bout’s arrest, even as news reports indicate Bout’s fleet of aircraft has been shipping supplies to the US military in Iraq in recent years. The DEA agents posed as arms dealers working for FARC but went after Bout because of evidence that he had been involved in drug smuggling as well. Bout faces up to 10 years in prison in Thailand for taking part in illegal weapons deals there. US officials are also seeking Bout’s extradition to the US so he can face more charges. Bout is a Russian citizen and has been based in Russia in recent years, but the Russian government has decided against seeking his extradition. Mother Jones comments, “Willing to work for anyone, Bout’s business divorced itself from any political, philosophical, or moral constraint. It delivered military cargo with equal enthusiasm to terrorists, guerrilla insurgents, rebel warlords, embattled dictatorships, legitimate businesses, humanitarian aid groups, and sovereign governments, including the United States” (see Late April 2003-2007). He also worked with the Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked groups (see Summer 2002 and Late July 2006). Experts note that Bout’s network has been unique in providing a full range of smuggling services and it is unlikely it will survive without him. [Mother Jones, 3/16/2006] Entity Tags: Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Drug Enforcement Administration, Victor Bout Category Tags: Victor Bout, Drugs, Key Captures and Deaths, Counterterrorism Action After 9/11 March 14, 2008: Alleged Al-Qaeda Leader Sent to Guantanamo, Declared ‘High Value’ Prisoner Alleged al-Qaeda leader Muhammad Rahim al-Afghani is transferred to the US-run prison in Guantanamo, Cuba, and officially declared a “high value” prisoner. Rahim was captured in Lahore, Pakistan, by local forces in July 2007 (see July 2007) and then was held in a secret CIA prison until his transfer to Guantanamo (see Late July 2007-March 14, 2008). Why Is Rahim Considered Important? - Rahim is just the 16th person the US government has declared a “high value” prisoner. Fourteen prisoners were given that label when they were transferred from secret CIA prisons to Guantanamo in September 2006 (see September 6, 2006 and September 2-3, 2006). The 15th was Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, who was held by the CIA in autumn 2006 and sent to Guantanamo in April 2007 (see Autumn 2006-Late April 2007). [Los Angeles Times, 3/15/2008] Although there had been reports in Pakistan about Rahim shortly after his arrest, virtually nothing was known about him until his transfer to Guantanamo. [Asian News International, 8/2/2007] He may have experienced extreme sleep deprivation during CIA interrogations (see August and November 2007). Hayden's Memo - There still are no published photographs of him. At the same time Rahim is sent to Guantanamo, CIA Director Michael Hayden issues a memo to CIA employees explaining Rahim’s alleged importance. Hayden calls Rahim a “tough, seasoned jihadist” with “high-level contacts,” and claims his arrest “was a blow to more than one terrorist network. He gave aid to al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and other anti-coalition militants.” According to Hayden, Rahim sought chemicals for an attack on US forces in Afghanistan and tried to recruit people who had access to US military facilities there. He helped prepare Tora Bora as a hideout in 2001, and then helped al-Qaeda operatives flee the area when US forces overran it in late 2001. But perhaps most importantly, Rahim had become one of Osama bin Laden’s most trusted facilitators and translators in the years prior to Rahim’s arrest. [Los Angeles Times, 3/15/2008; New York Times, 3/15/2008] Entity Tags: Muhammad Rahim al-Afghani, Al-Qaeda, Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, Central Intelligence Agency, Osama bin Laden, Michael Hayden Category Tags: High Value Detainees March 16, 2008: US Predator Drone Kills at Least 16 in Pakistan A missile fired from a US Predator drone kills at least 16 people in Pakistan. The missile hits a house in the village of Toog in South Waziristan, part of Pakistan’s tribal region where al-Qaeda leaders are believed to be residing. The house is said to belong to an unnamed militant leader, and several militants are reportedly killed. However, details are scanty. [BBC, 3/16/2008; Newsweek, 3/22/2008] March 18, 2008: WTC Developer Wants over $12 Billion Damages for 9/11 It is revealed that Larry Silverstein, the developer of Ground Zero, is seeking $12.3 billion in damages from airlines and airport security companies for the attacks on 9/11. Silverstein sought the damages in a claim filed in 2004, alleging that the companies failed to prevent the hijackers from taking over the planes that destroyed the World Trade Center buildings. The size of his claim was previously unknown, but is now revealed at a status conference in the US District Court in Manhattan. [New York Times, 3/27/2008] Of the $12.3 billion sought, $8.4 billion would be to replace the property destroyed in the attacks, and the other $3.9 billion would cover lost income and expenses associated with renting the new buildings. Companies named in the suit include American Airlines, United Airlines, Continental Airlines, Boeing, and the Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport), which manages Logan Airport in Boston, from where the two planes that hit the WTC took off. [CNN, 3/27/2008] Silverstein’s case is consolidated with similar, earlier lawsuits by other property owners and some families of 9/11 victims. Silverstein is by far the biggest of the claimants. A lawyer for the airlines says that if Silverstein wins, it could push the total claims beyond the amount of insurance the airlines and security companies have available. Silverstein, the CEO and president of Silverstein Properties, only signed the 99-year lease on the World Trade Center six weeks before 9/11 (see July 24, 2001). He has already won nearly $4.6 billion in insurance payments stemming from the attacks (see May 23, 2007). [New York Times, 3/27/2008; NY1 News, 3/28/2008] Entity Tags: Boeing Company, Continental Airlines, American Airlines, Massachusetts Port Authority, United Airlines, Larry Silverstein Category Tags: 9/11 Related Lawsuits March 19, 2008: Alleged Audio Recording of Bin Laden Claims Publication of Cartoon Showing Muhammad Worse than Bombing Civilians A new audio recording is released, allegedly from al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. The voice on the tape directs the message to “the intelligent ones in the European Union” and discusses a cartoon said to be offensive to Muslims—showing the prophet Muhammed with a bomb in his turban—that was recently re-printed by all major Danish newspapers. The tape, which criticises US-led bombing of “those modest mud villages which have collapsed onto our women and children,” says that the “morals of fighting” should be observed in conflict, but the west has abandoned them, “even if you hold aloft its slogans in theory.” However, the publication of the cartoon and other similar ones is worse than bombing innocent civilians: “Although our tragedy in your killing of our women and children is a very great one, it paled when you went overboard in your unbelief and freed yourselves of the etiquettes of dispute and fighting and went to the extent of publishing these insulting drawings. This is the greater and more serious tragedy, and reckoning for it will be more severe.” The voice also claims that, despite the publication, “you haven’t seen any reaction from the one and a half billion Muslims.” [Council on Foreign Relations, 3/19/2008] In actual fact, when the cartoons were first published there were protests around the world in which dozens were killed, and Danish diplomatic offices were destroyed in two cities. [BBC, 3/20/2008] The voice argues that the cartoons should not have been published under freedom of expression, as US troops in Europe are not subject to European law, and, according to the voice, those who question the amount of Jews killed in the holocaust are suppressed. In addition, when the King of Saudi Arabia told Britain to stop its investigation of the corrupt al-Yamamah deal, British Prime Minister Tony Blair complied. [Council on Foreign Relations, 3/19/2008] The message comes on the fifth anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq (see March 19, 2003). [BBC, 3/20/2008] However, the man thought to be bin Laden makes no mention of Iraq on the tape. [Council on Foreign Relations, 3/19/2008] The audio message is released in video form with a graphic showing a still image of bin Laden holding an AK-47 and bearing the logo of as-Sahab, al-Qaeda’s media wing. There is a written translation of the message in English. It is unclear when the message, released by posting at an Islamist website, was recorded. [BBC, 3/20/2008] Entity Tags: As-Sahab, Osama bin Laden Category Tags: Osama Bin Laden, Alleged Al-Qaeda Media Statements March 20, 2008: Washington Post Promotes Myth that Intelligence Agencies Have Failed to Penetrate Al-Qaeda The Washington Post publishes a front page story promoting the myth that al-Qaeda has never been effectively penetrated by intelligence agencies. The article by Craig Whitlock is titled After a Decade at War With West, Al-Qaeda Still Impervious to Spies. It states that “al-Qaeda’s core organization in Pakistan and Afghanistan has so far proved impervious to damaging leaks.” It quotes Michael Scheuer, former head of the CIA’s bin Laden unit, who says that from 1992 until November 2004 (when he left the CIA), “[the CIA] worked side by side with the Egyptians, the Jordanians—the very best Arab intelligence services—and they didn’t recruit a single person who could report on al-Qaeda.” The article seems to be a reaction to the case of Abdelkader Belliraj, which was publicly exposed several weeks earlier, when Belliraj was arrested in Morocco (see February 18, 2008 and February 29, 2008). The article notes that Belliraj was a Belgian government informant and important Islamist militant leader who had al-Qaeda links for years and met with al-Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri in Afghanistan (see 2001). Belliraj’s case seemingly undercuts the thrust of the article, but the rest of the article mostly quotes a series of anonymous intelligence officials who say penetrating al-Qaeda would be next to impossible. [Washington Post, 3/20/2008] Whitlock’s article ignores numerous reports that al-Qaeda has repeatedly been penetrated by the CIA and other intelligence agencies. For instance: In 2002, US News and World Report reported, “Once thought nearly impossible to penetrate, al-Qaeda is proving no tougher a target than the KGB or the Mafia—closed societies that took the US government years to get inside.” An unnamed US intelligence official said: “We’re getting names, the different camps they trained at, the hierarchy, the infighting. It’s very promising” (see September 22, 2002). In 2004, author Ronald Kessler wrote, “Often, the CIA used operatives from Arab intelligence services like those of Jordan, Syria, Egypt, and other countries to infiltrate bin Laden’s organization.” He quoted a longtime CIA officer who said, “Egyptians, Jordanians, [and] Palestinians penetrated the bin Laden organization for us. It’s B.S. that we didn’t” (see Before September 11, 2001). In 2006, journalist Ron Suskind reported that by late 2002, the CIA had developed “a source from within Pakistan who was tied tightly into al-Qaeda management.” He also noted that other informants had been recruited since 9/11, and commented, “It has been generally acknowledged that the United States does not have any significant human sources… inside al-Qaeda. That is not true” (see Late 2002). In a 2007 book, former CIA Director George Tenet claimed that the CIA had over 100 assets in Afghanistan by 9/11 (see Before September 11, 2001). He also claimed that “a group of assets from a Middle Eastern service” sharing information with the CIA penetrated al-Qaeda, and some of them penetrated al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan before 9/11 (see Early September 2001). In February 2008, the New York Times reported that French intelligence had an informant that penetrated al-Qaeda’s safe haven in Pakistan’s tribal region (see Late January 2008). Entity Tags: Al-Qaeda, Craig Whitlock, Michael Scheuer, Abdelkader Belliraj Category Tags: Other Possible Moles or Informants, Media March 20, 2008: Bin Laden Allegedly Releases New Tape A man thought to be Osama bin Laden releases a new audio message urging Muslims to join the insurgency in Iraq, as this is the “nearest jihad battlefield to support our people in Palestine.” The message comes one day after the previous communication thought to be from bin Laden (see March 19, 2008) and just over five years after the invasion of Iraq (see March 19, 2003). According to the person thought to be bin Laden, “Palestine cannot be retaken by negotiations and dialogue, but with fire and iron,” and Arab leaders were complicit in Israeli attacks on Gaza. “The people of the blessed land should sense the great favour God has bestowed upon them and do what they should do to support their mujahideen brothers in Iraq,” the speaker says. “It is a great opportunity and a major duty for my brothers the Palestinian emigrants [in Arab countries], between whom and jihad on the plains of Jerusalem a barrier has been built.” [BBC, 3/20/2008] Entity Tags: Al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden March 22-25, 2008: Victors of Pakistan’s Parliamentary Elections Pick New Prime Minister, Effectively Sidelining President Musharraf President Musharraf swearing in Yousaf Raza Gillani as Pakistan’s latest prime minister. [Source: Agence France-Presse - Getty Images] (click image to enlarge)In parliamentary elections in February 2008, a coalition of opposition parties led by the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) took effective political control from President Pervez Musharraf, although Musharraf remains president (see February 18, 2008). On March 22, the leader of the PPP, Asif Ali Zardari, picks Yousaf Raza Gillani to become Pakistan’s new prime minister. Gillani assumes the position in a ceremony on March 25. Zardari is the husband of the recently assassinated and very popular Benazir Bhutto. He reportedly wants the prime minister position for himself, but he is not yet eligible for it as he does not hold a seat in parliament. Gillani is a relatively unknown low-key party stalwart. The New York Times comments that Gillani’s selection seems a “prelude to a drive by Mr. Zardari to take the job himself in the next few months.” [New York Times, 3/23/2008] Within hours of becoming prime minister, Gillani frees the judges that had been placed under house arrest during Musharraf’s state of emergency several months before (see November 3-December 15, 2007). He frees Supreme Court head Iftikhar Chaudhry, the 13 other Supreme Court judges, and 48 High Court judges who refused to sign a loyalty oath. [New York Times, 3/25/2008] Entity Tags: Yousaf Raza Gillani, Pakistan People’s Party, Asif Ali Zardari, Iftikhar Chaudhry, Pervez Musharraf March 23, 2008: Al-Zawahiri Releases New Audio Tape Calling for Revenge for Gaza Raids Al-Qaeda second in command Ayman al-Zawahiri releases a new audio tape calling for attacks on Israeli and Western targets to avenge recent Israeli raids on the Gaza Strip. The tape is released by posting to the Internet and produced by al-Qaeda’s media arm, As-Sahab. “O Muslims. Today is your day. Hit the interest of the Jews and the Americans and all those who participated in the aggression against Muslims,” says al-Zawahiri. “Monitor the targets, collect the money, prepare the hardware, plan accurately, and then attack.” Al-Zawahiri adds, “No one can say today that we should fight the Jews in Palestine only,” and calls for Muslims to support Palestinians in the Gaza Strip against Israel. Demonstrations only serve to let off steam, he says, so Palestinians should focus on armed struggle. “Let them know that they would bleed for every dollar they spend on killing Muslims,” he says. “They cannot… insult our prophet and support Israel, and expect to live in peace in their countries.” Al-Zawahiri also accuses Arab leaders of colluding with the US and Israel in blockading Palestinians in Gaza. “The satanic alliance shows us its ugliness and how low it is, an alliance of the crusaders and the Jews and with them [Egyptian President Hosni] Mubarak, and [Saudi Arabia’s ruling] Saud family, and the son of al-Hussein [Jordan’s King Abdullah].” [Reuters, 3/24/2008] Entity Tags: Al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, As-Sahab Category Tags: Ayman Al-Zawahiri, Alleged Al-Qaeda Media Statements March 24, 2008: Soon-to-Be UN Official Wants Investigation of Possible Neoconservative Role in 9/11 Richard Falk. [Source: Richard Lord / World Council of Churches]Days before being selected for a United Nations Human Rights Council post, retired international law professor Richard Falk says he wants an official commission to investigate the role neoconservatives may have played in the 9/11 attacks. [New York Sun, 4/9/2008] Falk is professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University. [London Times, 4/15/2008] In a radio interview, he says: “It is possibly true that especially the neoconservatives thought there was a situation in the country and in the world where something had to happen to wake up the American people.… All we can say is there is a lot of grounds for suspicion, there should be an official investigation of the sort the 9/11 Commission did not engage in and that the failure to do these things is cheating the American people and in some sense the people of the world of a greater confidence in what really happened than they presently possess.” Two days later, on March 26, Falk will be appointed by the UN Human Rights Council to a newly created position to report on human rights in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs. [New York Sun, 4/9/2008] In 2004, he wrote the foreword to The New Pearl Harbor by David Ray Griffin, a book that put forward evidence that the Bush administration may have orchestrated the 9/11 attacks or deliberately allowed them to happen (see March 1, 2004). [Griffin, 2004, pp. vii-x; New York Sun, 4/9/2008] Falk also contributed a chapter to the book, co-edited by Griffin, 9/11 and American Empire: Intellectuals Speak Out. [Griffin and Scott, 2006, pp. 117-127; London Times, 4/15/2008] Entity Tags: Richard Falk March 24, 2008: US Effort to Fight Financing of Terrorism Is ‘Foundering’ A front page article in the Los Angeles Times reports that the US effort to fight the financing of terrorism is “foundering.” Insiders complain that the Bush administration’s efforts are stumbling over legal difficulties, interagency fighting, and disagreements with allied nations. Michael Jacobson, a recently retired senior adviser in the Treasury Department’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, says, “The international cooperation and focus is dropping, the farther we get from 9/11.” The Times notes that “Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and other key nations have not taken the necessary steps to crack down on terrorist financing or suspect money flowing across their borders.” Designations of terrorist financiers has slowed to a “trickle.” Militant groups are also using methods that are harder to trace, including sending money by donkey or mule. Robert Grenier, recently retired director of the CIA’s Counterterrorist Center, says the US has exaggerated the successes of financial enforcement: “There’s been a lot of work done on it, a lot of focus. But as a method for identifying and capturing terrorists, it has not been significant.” [Los Angeles Times, 3/24/2008] Entity Tags: Robert Grenier, US Department of the Treasury, Counterterrorist Center, Michael Jacobson Category Tags: Terrorism Financing, Counterterrorism Action After 9/11, Counterterrorism Policy/Politics March 27, 2008: Attorney General Makes Puzzling Claim about Pre-9/11 Communication Intercept Attorney General Michael Mukasey makes an apparent reference to the intercepts of the 9/11 hijackers’ calls by the NSA before the attacks in a speech pleading for extra surveillance powers. Mukasey says: “[Officials] shouldn’t need a warrant when somebody with a phone in Iraq picks up a phone and calls somebody in the United States because that’s the call that we may really want to know about. And before 9/11, that’s the call that we didn’t know about. We knew that there has been a call from someplace that was known to be a safe house in Afghanistan and we knew that it came to the United States. We didn’t know precisely where it went.” [FORA(.tv), 3/27/2008; New York Sun, 3/28/2008] According to a Justice Department response to a query about the speech, this appears to be a reference to the Yemen hub, an al-Qaeda communications facility previously alluded to by Mukasey in a similar context (see February 22, 2008). [Salon, 4/4/2008] However, the hub was in Yemen, not Afghanistan and, although it acted as a safe house, it was primarily a communications hub (see Early 2000-Summer 2001). In addition, the NSA did not intercept one call between it and the 9/11 hijackers in the US, but several, involving both Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi, not just one of the hijackers (see Spring-Summer 2000, Mid-October 2000-Summer 2001, and (August 2001)). Nevertheless, the NSA failed to inform the FBI the hub was calling the US (see (Spring 2000)). (Note: it is possible Mukasey is not talking about the Yemen hub in this speech, but some other intercept genuinely from an al-Qaeda safe house in Afghanistan—for example a call between lead hijacker Mohamed Atta in the US and alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who may have been in Afghanistan when such call was intercepted by the NSA (see Summer 2001 and September 10, 2001). However, several administration officials have made references similar to Mukasey’s about the Yemen hub since the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping program was revealed (see December 17, 2005).) Entity Tags: Michael Mukasey Timeline Tags: 9/11 Timeline, Civil Liberties March 29, 2008: Media Confused over Attorney General Mukasey’s New Claim of Afghan Intercept before 9/11 Some media outlets pick up on a claim made by Attorney General Michael Mukasey on March 27, 2008, when he said that the US intercepted a call to a 9/11 hijacker in the US from an al-Qaeda safe house in Afghanistan (see March 27, 2008). This was possibly a garbled reference to an al-Qaeda hub in Yemen (see Early 2000-Summer 2001) mentioned by several administration officials since the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping story was exposed (see December 17, 2005). The San Francisco Chronicle notes that Mukasey “did not explain why the government, if it knew of telephone calls from suspected foreign terrorists, hadn’t sought a wiretapping warrant from a court established by Congress to authorize terrorist surveillance, or hadn’t monitored all such calls without a warrant for 72 hours as allowed by law.” [San Francisco Chronicle, 3/28/2008] Salon commentator and former civil rights litigator Glenn Greenwald will attack Mukasey over the story, commenting, “These are multiple falsehoods here, and independently, this whole claim makes no sense.” [Salon, 3/29/2008; Salon, 4/4/2008] 9/11 Commission Comment - In response to a query from Greenwald, former 9/11 Commission executive director Philip Zelikow comments: “Not sure of course what [Mukasey] had in mind, although the most important signals intelligence leads related to our report… was not of this character. If, as he says, the [US government] didn’t know where the call went in the US, neither did we.” [Salon, 4/3/2008] (Note: the 9/11 Commission report may actually contain two cryptic references to what Mukasey is talking about (see Summer 2002-Summer 2004).) [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 87-88, 222] Former 9/11 Commission vice chairman Lee Hamilton initially refuses to comment, but later says: “I am unfamiliar with the telephone call that Attorney General Mukasey cited in his appearance in San Francisco on March 27. The 9/11 Commission did not receive any information pertaining to its occurrence.” [Salon, 4/3/2008; Salon, 4/8/2008] Other Media - The topic will also be covered by Raw Story and mentioned by MSNBC host Keith Olbermann, who also attacks Mukasey: “What? The government knew about some phone call from a safe house in Afghanistan into the US about 9/11? Before 9/11?” He adds: “Either the attorney general just admitted that the government for which he works is guilty of malfeasant complicity in the 9/11 attacks, or he’s lying. I’m betting on lying.” [Raw Story, 4/1/2008; MSNBC, 4/1/2008; Raw Story, 4/3/2008] The story is also picked up by CBS commentator Kevin Drum, who appears to be unaware that information about some NSA intercepts of the hijackers’ calls was first made public by the Congressional Inquiry five years previously. However, Drum comments: “[T]his deserves some followup from the press. Mukasey has spoken about this in public, so if he’s claiming that FISA prevented us from intercepting a key call before 9/11 he also needs to defend that in public.” [CBS, 4/3/2008; CBS, 4/4/2008] A group of Congressmen also formally asks the Justice Department for an explanation of the matter (see April 3, 2008). Entity Tags: Michael Mukasey, Kevin Drum, Lee Hamilton, Philip Zelikow, US Department of Justice, Glenn Greenwald, Keith Olbermann Category Tags: Yemen Hub, Role of Philip Zelikow, 9/11 Commission, 9/11 Investigations April 2, 2008: Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura Rejects Official Account of 9/11 Jesse Ventura. [Source: Publicity photo]Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura declares that he believes the World Trade Center was destroyed with explosives, and says he regrets not asking more questions about the 9/11 attacks when he was governor. The former professional wrestler, who served as Minnesota governor from 1999 to 2003, appears on the Alex Jones Show, a syndicated radio program. He says that, based on his demolition training as a Navy SEAL, a visit to Ground Zero a few weeks after 9/11, and watching slow motion video of the collapses, he believes the Twin Towers fell due to controlled demolition. Describing the collapse of WTC Building 7, he says: “How could this building just implode into its own footprint five hours later? That’s my first question.… The 9/11 Commission didn’t even devote one page to that in their big volume of investigation.” [Associated Press, 1/5/2008; Associated Press, 4/3/2008; MinnPost, 4/3/2008] Ventura also raises questions about 9/11 in his new book, Don’t Start the Revolution Without Me! He writes: “My doubts about the official story have grown steadily over the last couple of years.… I wondered, why did President Bush put up roadblocks for two years to any type of investigation? If you have nothing to hide, you shouldn’t care whether or not a commission looks into what happened.… It seemed our government wasn’t reacting like an innocent victim, but like they were guilty of, or about, something.” [Ventura and Russell, 2008, pp. 209] Entity Tags: Jesse Ventura April 2, 2008: Al-Zawahiri Issues First Part of Responses to Questions from Public Al-Qaeda second in command Ayman al-Zawahiri issues a 90-minute audiotape with the first part of responses to questions solicited from the public and journalists (see December 19, 2007). In the replies, he rejects criticism of attacks by al-Qaeda’s followers that have killed thousands of people, maintaining al-Qaeda does not kill innocent people. “We haven’t killed the innocents, not in Baghdad, nor in Morocco, nor in Algeria, nor anywhere else,” says al-Zawahiri. “If there is any innocent who was killed in the mujahedeen’s operations, then it was either an unintentional error or out of necessity.” [Associated Press, 4/2/2008] The second part of the responses will be issued later in the month (see April 17, 2008). Entity Tags: Ayman al-Zawahiri, Al-Qaeda April 2, 2008: Republican Congressman Will Not Back Government Financing for Treatment of Emergency Responders: Government Can’t ‘Do This Every Single Time a Similar Situation Happens’ Darrell Issa. [Source: Washington Post]Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA) says during a House subcommittee meeting that he does not understand why the federal government should pay any more money to assist 9/11 emergency responders who have become ill after working at Ground Zero. Hundreds of firefighters, police officers, and paramedics have become ill, some terminally so, from exposure to smoke and toxins released in the collapse of the World Trade Center; the subcommittee is considering whether to reinstate federal funding for the 9/11 victims’ fund. Minutes after a retired New York City police officer, Michael Valentin, speaks of the serious health problems he has suffered since responding to the attacks, Issa says: “I have to ask why… the firefighters who went there and everyone in the City of New York needs to come to the federal government… How much money has the federal government put out post-9/11, including the buckets of $10 and $20 billion we just threw at the State and the City of New York versus how much has been paid out by the City and the State of New York?… It’s very simple: I can’t vote for additional money for New York if I can’t see why it would be appropriate to do this every single time a similar situation happens, which quite frankly includes any urban terrorist. It doesn’t have to be somebody from al-Qaeda. It can be someone who decides that they don’t like animal testing at one of our pharmaceutical facilities.” The attacks on the World Trade Center did not involve a dirty bomb or chemical weapons, Issa notes. “It simply was an aircraft, residue of the aircraft and residue of the materials used to build this building,” he adds. Issa’s colleague, Anthony Weiner (D-NY), is visibly enraged at Issa’s comments, replying, “The notion that this is the City of New York asking for more money because we were the point of attack on this country is absurd and insulting…. There are people every single day, bit by bit by bit, who are dying from that attack.” [Newsday, 4/1/2008; New York Post, 4/2/2008] A day later, Issa will retreat from the harshest of his comments after enduring a withering barrage of criticism (see April 3, 2008). Entity Tags: Darrell E. Issa, Michael Valentin, Anthony D. Weiner Category Tags: Internal US Security After 9/11 April 3, 2008: Congressman Issa Retreats from Refusal to Fund 9/11 Victims’ Fund Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA) tries to back away from his comments from the day before, where he disparaged New York City first responders who are now suffering long-term disabilities and illnesses stemming from the 9/11 attacks (see April 2, 2008). Firestorm of Criticism - Frank Fraone, a California fire chief who led a 67-man crew at Ground Zero after the collapse of the World Trade Center, says: “That is a pretty distorted view of things. Whether they’re a couple of planes or a couple of missiles, they still did the same damage.” Republican colleague Peter King (R-NY) notes: “New York was attacked by al-Qaeda. It doesn’t have to be attacked by Congress.… I’m really surprised by Darrell Issa. It showed such a cavalier dismissal of what happened to New York. It’s wrong and inexcusable.” 9/11 victim’s relative Lorie Van Auken calls Issa’s comments “cruel and heartless.” She adds: “It’s really discouraging. People stepped up and did the right thing. They sacrificed themselves and now a lot of people are getting really horrible illnesses.” Partial Withdrawal - Issa withdraws some of his earlier statements, now saying, “I want to make clear that I strongly support help for victims who suffered physical injury as a result of an attack on America, including support from Congress and the federal government.” Yet he refuses to withdraw his comments that the 9/11 attacks were little more than unremarkable plane crashes unworthy of any federal financial response. He now says that he only “asked tough questions about the expenditures.” Health officials estimate that it could cost up to $1 billion to properly care for survivors of 9/11 suffering from physical and emotional disabilities. A new bill to fund that care is being prepared for House debate. [New York Daily News, 4/3/2008; New York Post, 4/3/2008] A New York Daily News op-ed accuses Issa of “demeaning 9/11” and calls his remarks “callous in the extreme.” [New York Daily News, 4/3/2008] Entity Tags: Lorie Van Auken, Peter T. King, Frank Fraone, Darrell E. Issa April 3, 2008: Congressmen Ask Attorney General Mukasey to Explain Pre-9/11 Hijacker Intercept Comments A group of congressmen led by House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) asks for an explanation of a recent statement by Attorney General Michael Mukasey about a pre-9/11 NSA intercept of a call to the 9/11 hijackers in the US (see March 27, 2008 and March 29, 2008). The group calls Mukasey’s statement “disturbing” and says it “appears to suggest a fundamental misunderstanding of the federal government’s existing surveillance authority to combat terrorism, as well as possible malfeasance by the government prior to 9/11.” Mukasey had implied that the law prior to 9/11 did not allow the call to be traced, but the congressmen state: “[I]f the administration had known of such communications from suspected terrorists, they could and should have been intercepted based on existing FISA law.… [A]s of 9/11 FISA specifically authorized such surveillance on an emergency basis without a warrant for a 48 hour period.” They ask Mukasey to clarify his comments. The congressmen also ask about a secret Justice Department memo regarding the president’s powers in wartime in the US (see April 1, 2008). [Raw Story, 4/3/2008] Entity Tags: John Conyers, Michael Mukasey Category Tags: Yemen Hub April 8, 2008: Engineering Journal Publishes Scientific Challenge to Government Account of WTC Destruction For the first time, a scientific journal publishes a letter by scientists who think the World Trade Center buildings were destroyed by explosives, rather than impact damage and fire. The letter, cautiously entitled “Fourteen Points of Agreement with Official Government Reports on the World Trade Center Destruction,” is published in the Open Civil Engineering Journal. The lead author is Steven E. Jones, a physicist formerly at Brigham Young University. The abstract says: “Reports by FEMA and NIST lay out the official account of the destruction of the World Trade Center on 9/11/2001. In this Letter, we wish to set a foundation for productive discussion and understanding by focusing on those areas where we find common ground with FEMA and NIST, while at the same time countering several popular myths about the WTC collapses.” [Open Civil Engineering Journal, 4/8/2008; Deseret News, 5/3/2008] However, unlike the vast majority of journals, the Open Civil Engineering Journal charges authors to publish their articles or letters in it. [Open Civil Engineering Journal, 2007] Entity Tags: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Steven E. Jones, Federal Emergency Management Agency Category Tags: WTC Investigation, 9/11 Investigations April 10, 2008: US Unable to Send More Troops to Afghanistan Due to Commitments in Iraq The US is unable to find more troops to send to Afghaninstan, due to the war in Iraq. On April 10, 2008, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Michael Mullen tells a Congressional committee: “I’m deeply concerned. In this economy of force operation, we do what we can. Requirements exist that we simply cannot fill and won’t likely be able to fill until conditions improve in Iraq.” The US would like to send 7,000 more troops to Afghanistan to fight the growing Taliban resistance there, but the US is unwilling to divert forces from Iraq due to renewed violence there, and NATO allies remain unwilling to send more troops as well. A study by the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office, a group funded by the European Commission, reports that there were 704 insurgent attacks causing 463 civilian deaths from January through March of 2008, compared with 424 attacks causing 264 civilian deaths during the same months in 2007. US officials privately admit that their estimates are similar. [McClatchy Newspapers, 4/15/2008] Entity Tags: Michael Mullen Category Tags: Iraq War Impact on Counterterrorism, Afghanistan April 10, 2008: Defense Secretary Says US Is Fighting in Afghanistan Today Partly Because of Mistakes Made during 1980s Soviet-Afghan War Speaking before a public hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Defense Secretary Robert Gates says, “We were attacked from Afghanistan in 2001 and we are at war in Afghanistan today in no small measure because of mistakes this government made—mistakes I, among others, made—in the end game of the anti-Soviet war there some 20 years ago.” [US Department of Defense, 4/10/2008] Entity Tags: Robert M. Gates Category Tags: Soviet-Afghan War April 11, 2008: President Bush Admits to Knowing of High-Level Approvals of Torture President Bush admits he knew about his National Security Council Principals Committee’s discussion and approval of harsh interrogation methods against certain terror suspects (see April 2002 and After). Earlier reports had noted that the Principals—a group of top White House officials led by then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice—had deliberately kept Bush “out of the loop” in order for him to maintain “deniability.” Bush tells a reporter: “Well, we started to connect the dots in order to protect the American people. And yes, I’m aware our national security team met on this issue. And I approved.” Bush says that the news of those meetings to consider extreme interrogation methods was not “startling.” He admitted as far back as 2006 that such techniques were being used by the CIA (see September 6, 2006). But only now does the news of such direct involvement by Bush’s top officials become public knowledge. The Principals approved the waterboarding of several terror suspects, including Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (see Shortly After February 29 or March 1, 2003 and March 10, 2007); Bush defends the use of such extreme measures against Mohammed, saying: “We had legal opinions that enabled us to do it. And no, I didn’t have any problem at all trying to find out what Khalid Shaikh Mohammed knew.… I think it’s very important for the American people to understand who Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was. He was the person who ordered the suicide attack—I mean, the 9/11 attacks.” [ABC News, 4/11/2008] Bush’s admission is no surprise. The day before Bush makes his remarks, law professor Jonathan Turley said: “We really don’t have much of a question about the president’s role here. He’s never denied that he was fully informed of these measures. He, in fact, early on in his presidency—he seemed to brag that they were using harsh and tough methods. And I don’t think there’s any doubt that he was aware of this. The doubt is simply whether anybody cares enough to do anything about it.” [MSNBC, 4/10/2008] Entity Tags: George W. Bush, Central Intelligence Agency, Condoleezza Rice, Jonathan Turley, National Security Council, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed Timeline Tags: Torture of US Captives, 9/11 Timeline, Civil Liberties Category Tags: High Value Detainees, Counterterrorism Policy/Politics, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed April 17, 2008: Al-Zawahiri Posts Audio Replies to Questions, Says Rumor Israel behind 9/11 Started by Iran Al-Qaeda second in command Ayman al-Zawahiri issues a second set of responses to questions solicited by al-Qaeda in December 2007 (see December 19, 2007 and April 2, 2008). [NEFA Foundation, 4/17/2008 ; Associated Press, 4/22/2008; Associated Press, 4/23/2008] The response comes in a two-hour audio recording posted to an Islamic website and accompanied by the logo of As-Sahab, al-Qaeda’s media arm. Al-Zawahiri’s comments include: The theory that Israel carried out the September 11 attacks is false and was started by Iran and its proxy Hezbollah, through the Al-Manar television station. “The purpose of this lie is clear—[to suggest] that there are no heroes among the Sunnis who can hurt America as no [one] else did in history. Iranian media snapped up this lie and repeated it,” he says. “Iran’s aim here is also clear—to cover up its involvement with America in invading the homes of Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq.” In recent audio recordings, al-Zawahiri has accused Iran of seeking to extend its power in the Middle East, particularly in Iraq and through Hezbollah in Lebanon. The insurgent umbrella group Islamic Nation of Iraq led by al-Qaeda is “the primary force opposing the crusaders and challenging Iranian ambitions” in Iraq. In response to a question about whether al-Qaeda plans to attack Western countries involved in Iraq, he replies: “My answer is: Yes! We think that any country that has joined aggression on Muslims must be deterred.” This includes Japan, which pulled its non-combat troops out of Iraq in 2006, because “Japan provided help under the banner of the crusader coalition… therefore it participated in the crusader campaign against the lands of Islam.” Global warming reflects “how criminal, brutal, and greedy the Western crusader world is, with America at the top.” However, global warming will “make the world more sympathetic to and understanding of the Muslims’ jihad against the aggressor America.” There are no women in al-Qaeda, although “the women of the mujaheddin are playing a heroic role in taking care of their houses and sons.” The Taliban have taken over 95 percent of Afghanistan and are sweeping Pakistan as well. “The crusaders and their agents in Pakistan and Afghanistan are starting to fall,” al-Zawahiri adds. It is against Islamic religious law for any Muslim to live permanently in a Western country because in doing so they would “have permanent stay there under the laws of the infidels.” [Associated Press, 4/22/2008; Associated Press, 4/23/2008] Al-Zawahiri also singles out some countries for threats, such as Denmark, saying: “Denmark has done her utmost to demonstrate her hostility towards the Muslims by repeatedly dishonoring our Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him salvation. I admonish and incite every Muslim who is able to do so to cause damage to Denmark in order to show your support for our Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him salvation, and to defend his esteemed honor.” [NEFA Foundation, 4/17/2008 ] Al-Qaeda will attack the Danish embassy in Pakistan six weeks later. [Jyllands-Posten, 6/2/2008] Entity Tags: As-Sahab, Al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri April 17, 2008: Iranian President Ahmadinejad Casts Doubt on 9/11 Official Story Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declares: “Four or five years ago, a suspicious event occurred in New York. A building collapsed and they said that 3,000 people had been killed but never published their names.… Under this pretext, [the US] attacked Afghanistan and Iraq and since then, a million people have been killed only in Iraq.” [Ha'aretz, 4/17/2008] Entity Tags: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad April 17, 2008: Former Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu Says 9/11 Attacks and Iraq War Good for Israel Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells an audience at Bar Ilan university in Israel that the 9/11 attacks were beneficial for Israel. “We are benefiting from one thing, and that is the attack on the Twin Towers and Pentagon, and the American struggle in Iraq. […] [The attacks] swung American public opinion in our favor.” [Ha'aretz, 4/17/2008] Entity Tags: Benjamin Netanyahu Category Tags: Iraq War Impact on Counterterrorism, Israel April 18, 2008: Al-Zawahiri Said to Mark Fifth Anniversary of Iraq Invasion with New Tape A man thought to be al-Qaeda’s second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri releases a 16-minute audio tape around five years after the US and others invaded Iraq. The man calls on Islamist fighters to turn Iraq into a “fortress of Islam,” and says the establishment of a greater Islamic state is “the most important” duty of every Muslim. The tape contains references to recent events—testimony by US General David Petraeus to Congress and a strike by textile workers in Egypt. The man is also critical of Iran for siding with the US against Sunni Arabs in Iraq. [Guardian, 4/18/2008] Entity Tags: Ayman al-Zawahiri April 21, 2008: Indonesia Finally Declares Jemaah Islamiyah an Illegal Organization An Indonesian court officially declares Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) an illegal organization. JI is believed to be al-Qaeda’s main affiliate in Southeast Asia. The Indonesian government had previously refused to ban JI, even though it supported a United Nations ban on JI shortly after the 2002 Bali bombings (see October 12, 2002 and October 24, 2002). This court decision takes place during a trial of two high-ranking JI leaders, Zarkasih and Abu Dujana, both of whom were arrested the year before. Both are sentenced to 15 years in prison for supporting terrorist activities. Counterterrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna calls the decision “a huge victory against terrorism.” He adds: “This will have a direct impact on the leadership of JI, the most lethal terrorist group in Southeast Asia. Unless a terrorist was about to commit an attack, or had committed an attack, the Indonesian police couldn’t arrest them. Today if anyone is distributing propaganda and that person is linked to JI, that person can be arrested.” [Sydney Morning Herald, 4/22/2008] Entity Tags: Zarkasih, Jemaah Islamiyah, Abu Dujana, Rohan Gunaratna Category Tags: Al-Qaeda in Southeast Asia, 2002 Bali Bombings April 27, 2008: Afghan President Karzai Survives Assassination Attempt; Pakistani ISI Blamed Hamid Karzai on parade, April 27, 2008. [Source: massoud_hossaini_afp_getty]On April 27, 2008, there is an attempted assassination of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, as assailants fire guns and mortars towards him, scores of senior officials, and foreign diplomats during a military parade in downtown Kabul. Karzai escapes unharmed, but three Afghans are killed, including a member of parliament. Two months later, Afghanistan’s intelligence agency accuses the ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence agency, of organizing the assassination. The agency claims that phone calls from the cell phones of those arrested show a Pakistan link. Investigators suspect one assassin tried to call his supervisor in Pakistan from a nearby hotel to ask for instructions because he could not get a clear shot at Karzai from the hotel window. Investigators believe Jalaluddin Haqqani, a Taliban leader based in the Pakistani tribal region of Waziristan with long-time ISI ties, instigated the plot. Karzai’s spokesman makes the same accusation against the ISI more obliquely, “Evidence shows the hallmark of a particular foreign intelligence agency which we believe was behind this attack.” [Agence France-Presse, 6/25/2008; Washington Post, 6/27/2008] Entity Tags: Hamid Karzai, Pakistan Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, Jalaluddin Haqqani, National Directorate of Security (Afghanistan) Category Tags: Pakistan and the ISI, Haven in Pakistan Tribal Region, Afghanistan May 2008: US Intelligence Allegedly Hears Head of Pakistani Military Call Taliban Leader ‘Strategic Asset’ According to a later book by New York Times reporter David Sanger, in May 2008, US intelligence records General Ashfaq Kayani, head of Pakistan’s military, referring to militant leader Jalaluddin Haqqani as “a strategic asset.” Haqqani heads a group of militants in Waziristan, in Pakistan’s tribal region, that is known as the Haqqani network. It is considered a semi-independent branch of the Taliban. The surveillance was ordered to confirm suspicions that the Pakistani military is still secretly supporting the Taliban, even though the US gives aid to help fight the Taliban. The transcript of Kayani’s comments is passed to Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell. US intelligence will later intercept calls from Pakistani military units to Haqqani, warning him of an imminent Pakistani military operation in the tribal region designed to make it appear to the US that Pakistan is taking action against militant groups. An unnamed source will later explain, “It was something like, ‘Hey, we’re going to hit your place in a few days, so if anyone important is there, you might want to tell them to scram.’” Further US surveillance will reveal a plot between the ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence agency, and Haqqani to bomb the Indian embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan (see July 7, 2008). Pakistani officials deny they are supporting Haqqani. [London Times, 2/17/2009] An unnamed senior Pakistani intelligence official also called Haqqani an asset in 2006 (see 2006). Entity Tags: Pakistan Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, Taliban, Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Haqqani Network, Jalaluddin Haqqani, Mike McConnell, US intelligence Category Tags: Pakistan and the ISI, Haven in Pakistan Tribal Region, 2008 Kabul Indian Embassy Bombing May 1, 2008: US Missile Strike Kills Al-Qaeda-Linked Leader in Somalia Aden Hashi Ayro. [Source: Intelcenter / Associated Press]A US missile strike kills Aden Hashi Ayro, the alleged head of al-Qaeda’s operations in Somalia. Ayro and up to ten others are killed in the region of Dusamareeb, an area a few hundred miles north of the capital of Mogadishu. The strike is said to be the fifth US attack in Somalia since Ethiopia invaded Somalia in December 2006 with US support (see December 24, 2006-January 2007). Ayro is said to have attended an al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan in the late 1990s. Then he returned to Somalia in 2003 and quickly rose up the ranks of al-Shabab, the military arm of the Islamic Court Union. He is said to be in charge of al-Qaeda’s operations there, although he is not a formal member of al-Qaeda. He was reportedly behind the scattered deaths of some foreigners in Somalia between 2003 and 2005. But despite this death, in recent months militant groups such as al-Shabab have been gaining ground against Somalia’s weak transitional government and the occupying Ethiopian troops keeping it in power. [Washington Post, 5/1/2008; Time, 5/2/2008] Entity Tags: Shabab, Islamic Courts Union, Aden Hashi Ayro Category Tags: Key Captures and Deaths May 3, 2008: Demolition of WTC Building 7 Suggests Official Complicity, Says Arizona State Senator Karen S. Johnson. [Source: Publicity photo]Arizona state senator Karen S. Johnson, a Republican, says she suspects a government conspiracy and calls for a new investigation into 9/11. Calling attention to the unexplained collapse of WTC Building 7, she writes: “Why, for example, did Building 7 collapse? It wasn’t hit by a plane, as the towers were. The 9/11 Commission Report completely ignores Building 7. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) report discounts fire as a cause and concludes that the reasons for the collapse of Building 7 are unknown and require further research. But when FEMA issued this report, it already cleared the site and disposed of the dust and steel (evidence from a crime scene), thus possibly committing a felony and complicating any ‘further research.’ The National Institute of Standards and Technology, a federal agency, which evaluated the collapse of the towers, has yet to issue its report on Building 7. ‘We’ve had trouble getting a handle on Building 7,’ said the acting director of their Building and Fire Research Lab. Yet a number of private-sector engineers, architects, and demolition experts have not had that problem. They think Building 7 came down by controlled demolition. The building collapsed suddenly, straight down, at nearly free-fall speed. People heard the explosions, and saw the squibs and the characteristic billowing clouds of pulverized concrete so unique to demolitions. There is no reason to think that Building 7 came down for any other reason than explosive demolition.” [Arizona Republic, 5/3/2008] Entity Tags: Karen S. Johnson May 4, 2008: All USS Cole Bombing Suspects in Yemen Remain Free A front-page Washington Post story reveals that, eight years after al-Qaeda bombed the USS Cole just off the coast of Yemen and killed 17 US soldiers (see October 12, 2000), “all the defendants convicted in the attack have escaped from prison or been freed by Yemeni officials.” Two Key Suspects Keep Slipping from Yemeni Prisons - For instance, Jamal al-Badawi, a Yemeni and key organizer of the bombing, broke out of Yemeni prisons twice and then was secretly released in 2007 (see April 11, 2003-March 2004, February 3, 2006 and October 17-29, 2007). The Yemeni government jailed him again after the US threatened to cut aid to the country, but apparently he continues to freely come and go from his prison cell. US officials have demanded the right to perform random inspections to make sure he stays jailed. Another key Cole suspect, Fahad al-Quso, also escaped from a Yemeni prison and then was secretly released in 2007 (see May 2007). Yemen has refused to extradite al-Badawi and al-Quso to the US, where they have been indicted for the Cole bombing. FBI Director Robert Mueller flew to Yemen in April 2008 to personally appeal to Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Saleh to extradite the two men. However, Saleh has refused, citing a constitutional ban on extraditing its citizens. Other Cole suspects have been freed after short prison terms in Yemen, and at least two went on to commit suicide attacks in Iraq. US Unwilling to Try Two Suspects in Its Custody - Two more key suspects, Khallad bin Attash and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, were captured by US forces and have been transferred to the US-run Guantanamo prison. Al-Nashiri is considered the mastermind of the Cole bombing, but the US made the decision not to indict either of them because pending criminal charges could have forced the CIA or the Pentagon to give up custody of the men. Al-Quso, bin Attash, and al-Nashiri all attended a key 2000 al-Qaeda summit in Malaysia where the 9/11 attacks were discussed (see January 5-8, 2000). 'The Forgotten Attack' - A week after the Cole bombing, President Bill Clinton vowed to hunt down the plotters and promised, “Justice will prevail.” But less than a month after the bombing, George W. Bush was elected president. Roger Cressey, a former counterterrorism official in the Clinton and Bush administrations who helped oversee the White House’s response to the Cole bombing, says, “During the first part of the Bush administration, no one was willing to take ownership of this. It didn’t happen on their watch. It was the forgotten attack.” 'Back to Square One' - Former FBI agent Ali Soufan, a lead investigator into the bombing, complains, “After we worked day and night to bring justice to the victims and prove that these Qaeda operatives were responsible, we’re back to square one. Do they have laws over there or not? It’s really frustrating what’s happening.” The Post comments, “Basic questions remain about which individuals and countries played a role in the assault on the Cole.” Possible Government Complicity - One anonymous senior Yemeni official tells the Post that al-Badawi and other al-Qaeda members have had a long relationship with Yemen’s intelligence agencies and have targeted political opponents in the past. For instance, in 2006, an al-Qaeda suicide attack in Yemen came just days before elections there, and Saleh tried to link one of the figures involved to the opposition party, helping Saleh win reelection (see September 15, 2006). Furthermore, there is evidence that figures within the Yemeni government were involved in the Cole bombing (see After October 12, 2000), and that the government also protected key bombers such as al-Nashiri in the months before and after the bombings (see April 2000 and Shortly After October 12, 2000). Bush Unwilling to Meet with Victims' Relatives - Relatives of the soldiers killed in the bombing have attempted to meet with President Bush to press for more action, to no avail. John P. Clodtfelter Jr., whose son died on the Cole, says, “I was just flat told that he wouldn’t meet with us. Before him, President Clinton promised we’d go out and get these people, and of course we never did. I’m sorry, but it’s just like the lives of American servicemen aren’t that important.” [Washington Post, 5/4/2008] Entity Tags: John P. Clodtfelter Jr., Ali Soufan, Ali Abdallah Saleh, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, Fahad al-Quso, Jamal al-Badawi, William Jefferson (“Bill”) Clinton, Yemen, Khallad bin Attash, Roger Cressey, Robert S. Mueller III, George W. Bush Category Tags: 2000 USS Cole Bombing, Yemeni Militant Collusion, Counterterrorism Action After 9/11 May 13, 2008: Alleged ‘20th Hijacker’ Will Not Be Charged by Military Tribunal for Role in 9/11 Attacks The US military dismisses charges against Mohammed al-Khatani. In February 2008, al-Khatani was part of a small group of detainees held at the Guantanamo prison charged before a military tribunal with involvement in the 9/11 attacks (see February 11, 2008). Al-Khatani is said to be the would-be “20th hijacker” who was refused entry to the US in August 2001 (see August 4, 2001). However, he was later captured and subjected to months of torture at Guantanamo (see August 8, 2002-January 15, 2003). The Pentagon official who announces the dismissal of charges against him, Convening Authority Susan Crawford, gives no explanation. The charges are dismissed “without prejudice,” which means they could be reinstated at any time. However, many believe that the charges against him are dismissed because of the torture he underwent, as well as the fact that he appears to have only been a unsuccessful low-level figure in the plot. [New York Times, 5/14/2008] In 2006, MSNBC predicted that he would never face trial due to the way he was tortured (see October 26, 2006). However, he still remains imprisoned at Guantanamo. In January 2009, Crawford will confirm that she dismissed the case against al-Khatani because he was indeed tortured (see January 14, 2009). She will say that the treatment suffered by al-Khatani “did shock me,” and will continue: “I was upset by it. I was embarrassed by it. If we tolerate this and allow it, then how can we object when our servicemen and women, or others in foreign service, are captured and subjected to the same techniques? How can we complain? Where is our moral authority to complain? Well, we may have lost it.” Crawford will lay much of the blame for al-Khatani being tortured at the feet of then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. “A lot of this happened on his watch,” she will say. [Washington Post, 1/14/2009] Entity Tags: Donald Rumsfeld, Mohamed al-Khatani, Susan Crawford Category Tags: High Value Detainees, Counterterrorism Policy/Politics May 13, 2008: Bush Says Electing a Democrat as President May Lead to Another 9/11 Attack President Bush says that the election of a Democrat in 2008 might lead to another 9/11-like attack on the US. Reporter Mike Allen asks: “I wonder if you—various people and various candidates talk about pulling out next year. If we were to pull out of Iraq next year, what’s the worst that could happen, what’s the doomsday scenario?” Bush replies, “Doomsday scenario of course is that extremists throughout the Middle East would be emboldened, which would eventually lead to another attack on the United States.” After making this statement, Bush repeats several statements that he has been making for years: Iraq “just happens to be” part of the global war on terror, Iraq “is the place where al-Qaeda and other extremists have made their stand,” and terrorists “can’t stand to live in a free society, that’s why they try to fight free societies.” [Associated Press, 5/13/2008] MSNBC commentator Keith Olbermann calls Bush’s claim “ludicrous, infuriating, holier-than-thou and… bone-headedly wrong,” and says, “Terrorism inside Iraq is your creation, Mr. Bush.” [MSNBC, 5/14/2008] Entity Tags: Mike Allen, Al-Qaeda, George W. Bush, Keith Olbermann May 14, 2008: Predator Strike Kills Al-Qaeda Leader in Pakistan’s Tribal Region Damadola Strike in May 2008. [Source: Mohammed Sajjad Associated Press]A missile fired from a US Predator drone reportedly kills al-Qaeda leader Abu Suleiman al-Jazairi. He and 15 others are killed in the strike on a house in the village of Damadola in Pakistan’s tribal region. The house is said to belong to former Taliban defense minister Maulvi Obaidullah, and members of Obaidullah’s family, including women and children, are thought to be among the dead. Al-Jazairi is said to be a trainer and explosives expert, and involved in planning attacks in Europe. Damadola has been hit by drones twice before (see January 13, 2006 and October 30, 2006). Al-Jazairi was little known in the media prior to the strike. [New York Times, 5/16/2008; Observer, 6/1/2008] Obaidullah apparently is not killed. He had been imprisoned in Pakistan since 2003, and had been released several days before as part of a swap for Pakistani Ambassador to Afghanistan Tariq Azizuddin, who had been kidnapped in February. [PAN, 5/20/2008] Entity Tags: Tariq Azizuddin, Maulvi Obaidullah, Abu Suleiman al-Jazairi Category Tags: Key Captures and Deaths, Pakistan and the ISI, Haven in Pakistan Tribal Region, Drone Use in Pakistan / Afghanistan, Counterterrorism Action After 9/11 May 16, 2008: Bin Laden Possibly Releases Audio Message about Palestine A new audio message is released by a man thought to be Osama bin Laden. In the message, which lasts about nine minutes and is posted to a website commonly used by al-Qaeda, the speaker calls on Muslims to continue the fight to liberate Palestinian land. The speaker pledges to continue fighting the Israelis and not give up “a single inch of Palestine,” adding that the Palestinian cause is the most important factor driving al-Qaeda’s war with the West. The tape’s release comes around the time of Israel’s 60th anniversary, when US President Bush is in Israel to attend the anniversary celebrations [BBC, 5/16/2008] May 18, 2008: Bin Laden Possibly Releases Message about Israel and Gaza A man thought to be Osama bin Laden releases an audio tape calling on Muslim fighters to help end the Israeli blockade of Gaza. In the tape, released by posting on the Internet, the speaker says it is the duty of every Muslim to fight the “oppressive closure.” The tape is released two days after the previous one (see May 16, 2008), on the day US President Bush ends a visit to the Middle East. [Sky News, 5/18/2008] June 4, 2008: Al-Zawahiri Releases New Audio Tape Marking Anniversary of Six-Day War Al-Qaeda second in command Ayman al-Zawahiri releases a new audio tape criticizing his native Egypt for not opening up its border to Palestinians. The 11-minute tape is released by posting to the Internet to mark the 41st anniversary of the Six-Day War between Israel and some of its Arab neighbors. “The brother from Gaza is refused entry [by Egypt], while an Israeli tourist is allowed to enter without a visa,” says al-Zawahiri, calling for an end to Israel’s economic blockade of the Gaza Strip. He also terms Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his troops “criminal traitors” for perpetuating the siege of Gaza. “Salvation of the Muslim nation is through the march of its sons on the path of jihad,” he adds. [Al Jazeera, 5/5/2008] June 6, 2008: Reporter: Afghanistan, Pakistani Terrorism ‘Far More Serious Threat[s] for US National Security than Iraq’ In a panel discussion hosted by PBS’s Bill Moyers, journalist Jonathan Landay, discussing the US war in Afghanistan, notes that the vast majority of media coverage has been granted to the Iraq occupation. The war in Afghanistan is largely forgotten by the media, or merely rolled into Iraq coverage. Landay notes that Afghanistan is “a far more serious threat for US national security than Iraq is.” Similarly, the media rarely reports on the dire terrorist threats centered in the tribal areas of Pakistan. “[T]his is a black hole virtually which the United States is deeply involved in that we don’t see a lot of meaningful, I mean, in-depth coverage of,” he says. [PBS, 6/6/2008] Entity Tags: Public Broadcasting System, Bill Moyers, Jonathan Landay Category Tags: Pakistan and the ISI, Afghanistan, Counterterrorism Policy/Politics June 22, 2008: Article: Pakistani Border Forces Helping Taliban Attack US Troops in Afghanistan Members of the Frontier Corps near Shakai, in the region of South Waziristan, in August 2004. [Source: Kamran Wazir / Reuters / Corbis]The British newspaper The Observer reports that the Frontier Corps, a Pakistani government paramilitary force operating in Pakistan’s tribal regions near the border with Afghanistan, sometimes join in attacks on US-led forces in Afghanistan. The article alleges there are “box loads” of after-action reports compiled after armed clashes near the border, detailing the Frontier Corps working with the Taliban and other allied militants. Some attacks are launched so close to Frontier Corps outposts that Pakistani cooperation with the Taliban is assumed. There has been a dramatic increase in cross-border incidents compared to the same time the year before. An anonymous US official says: “The United States and NATO have substantial information on this problem. It’s taking place at a variety of places along the border with the Frontier Corps giving direct and indirect assistance. I’m not saying it is everyone. There are some parts that have been quite helpful… but if you have seen the after-action reports of their involvement in attacks along the Afghan border you would appreciate the problem.” The US government continues to downplay such incidents, worried about its relationship with the Pakistani government. A NATO spokesman says: “The real concern is that the extremists in Pakistan are getting safe havens to rest, recuperate and retool in Pakistan and come across the border. The concerns have been conveyed to the Pakistan authorities.” [Observer, 6/22/2008] Entity Tags: Frontier Corps, Taliban Late June 2008: US Intelligence Allegedly Discovers ISI and Taliban Faction Are Planning Spectacular Bombing in Afghanistan US intelligence allegedly discovers that the ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence agency, and a faction of the Taliban are planning a spectacular bombing somewhere in Afghanistan. US intelligence is intercepting Pakistani government communications in an attempt to find out if the Pakistani government is still supporting militants fights US soldiers in Afghanistan. Communications intercepts already revealed an active link between the Pakistani government and the Haqqani network, a semi-autonomous branch of the Taliban headed by Jalaluddin Haqqani (see May 2008). According to a later book by New York Times reporter David Sanger, new intercepts at this time show that the ISI is working to carry out a spectacular bombing in Afghanistan. But apparently, the exact target is not known. Two weeks later, the Indian Embassy in Kabul will be bombed (see July 7, 2008). Afterwards, the US will accuse the ISI and the Haqqani network of plotting the bombing, mostly based on these intercepts from before the bombing (see July 28, 2008 and August 1, 2008). [London Times, 2/17/2009] Entity Tags: Jalaluddin Haqqani, Haqqani Network, Taliban, Pakistan Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, US intelligence Category Tags: Pakistan and the ISI, Haven in Pakistan Tribal Region, 2008 Kabul Indian Embassy Bombing, Counterterrorism Action After 9/11 June 28, 2008: Justice Department’s Investigation of CIA’s Destruction of Torture Videotapes Is Proceeding Slowly Newsweek reports that the Justice Department’s criminal investigation into the CIA’s destruction of video of the torture of al-Qaeda leaders Abu Zubaida and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri is continuing, but proceeding slowly. Federal prosecutor John Durham has recently filed a federal court affidavit that states he is examining whether anyone “obstructed justice, made false statements, or acted in contempt of court or Congress in connection with the destruction of the videotapes.” He is specifically attempting to determine if the destruction violated any judge’s order. But progress is slow, and the investigation is likely to take six months or more, which means any criminal charges will probably come after the November 2008 presidential elections. Two sources close to former intelligence officials who are potential key witnesses in the case say these officials have not been summoned to give grand jury testimony. One of them has not even been questioned by the FBI yet. [Newsweek, 6/28/2008] Attorney General Michael Mukasey appointed Durham to head the investigation in January 2008 (see January 2, 2008). Entity Tags: John Durham, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, Central Intelligence Agency, US Department of Justice, Abu Zubaida Category Tags: Destruction of CIA Tapes June 30, 2008: Al-Nashiri to Be Tried at Military Tribunal for Cole Bombing, Could Be Sentenced to Death The Defense Department announces that it is charging al-Qaeda leader Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri with “organizing and directing” the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000 (see October 12, 2000) and will seek the death penalty. Al-Nashiri was captured in 2002 (see Early October 2002), held and tortured in secret CIA prisons until 2006 (see (November 2002)), and then transferred to Defense Department custody at the Guantanamo prison (see September 2-3, 2006). He will be tried there in a military tribunal. Al-Nashiri told a hearing at Guantanamo in 2007 that he confessed a role in the Cole bombing, but only because he was tortured by US interrogators (see March 10-April 15, 2007). CIA Director Michael Hayden has conceded that al-Nashiri was subjected to waterboarding. [Associated Press, 6/30/2008] Khallad bin Attash, who is being held at Guantanamo with al-Nashiri and other al-Qaeda leaders, allegedly had a major role in the Cole bombing, but he is not charged. Presumably this is because he has already been charged for a role in the 9/11 attacks. Entity Tags: Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, Khallad bin Attash, US Department of Defense Category Tags: 2000 USS Cole Bombing, High Value Detainees June 30, 2008: New York Times: US Policy Fight Al-Qaeda’s Pakistan Safe Haven Is ‘Drifting,’ Plagued by Mistakes and Lack of Strategy The New York Times publishes a long front-page analysis of the policy disputes and mistakes that have bogged down US efforts to combat al-Qaeda’s safe haven in Pakistan’s tribal region. The article reveals that the US effort has often been “undermined by bitter disagreements within the Bush administration and within the CIA, including about whether American commandos should launch ground raids inside the tribal areas.… [B]y most accounts, the administration failed to develop a comprehensive plan to address the militant problem there, and never resolved the disagreements between warring agencies that undermined efforts to fashion any coherent strategy.” Richard Armitage, deputy secretary of state for President Bush’s first term and the administration’s point person for Pakistan, says, “We’re just kind of drifting.” Pakistan’s policy as led by President Pervez Musharraf has also been adrift and/or ineffective: “Western military officials say Mr. Musharraf was instead often distracted by his own political problems, and effectively allowed militants to regroup by brokering peace agreements with them.” The Times concludes, “Just as it had on the day before 9/11, al-Qaeda now has a band of terrorist camps from which to plan and train for attacks against Western targets, including the United States.” The camps are smaller than the ones used prior to 9/11, but one retired CIA officer estimates that as many as 2,000 militants train in them at any given time, up from several hundred in 2005. “Leading terrorism experts have warned that it is only a matter of time before a major terrorist attack planned in the mountains of Pakistan is carried out on American soil.” [New York Times, 6/30/2008] Entity Tags: Al-Qaeda, Richard Armitage, Pervez Musharraf, Bush administration (43) Category Tags: Pakistan and the ISI, Haven in Pakistan Tribal Region, Counterterrorism Policy/Politics July 1, 2008: Polish Intelligence Warns Taliban Plan to Attack Indian Embassy in Kabul Polish intelligence warns India and the US that the Taliban are likely to attack the Indian embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. The embassy will be bombed one week later, killing 54 (see July 7, 2008). The document giving the warning is entitled, “Threat Report… Threat to Indian Embassy.” It is based on information received one day earlier. It states, “Taliban are planning to carry out an attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul.” It goes on to describe how a suicide bomber plans to use a stolen Afghan government car and stolen uniform to get past security. The document will be publicly leaked in 2010 as part of a massive WikiLeaks release of US documents relating to the US war in Afghanistan. [Press Trust of India, 7/27/2010] It is unclear how or where Polish intelligence got this information. US intelligence apparently learns around this time that the Taliban and ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence agency, are planning a spectacular bombing somewhere in Afghanistan (see Late June 2008). However, it appears that India acts on at least one of the warnings, because the Indian ambassador to Afghanistan will later say that India took extra security measures in the weeks before the bombings because “we were expecting trouble.” Most importantly, sand-filled blast barriers are placed around the main embassy building. That, plus the quick action of security guards, will prevent the bomber from getting closer to the building, and thus reduce the number of lives lost. [Associated Press, 7/9/2008] Entity Tags: Pakistan Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, Taliban, Poland Category Tags: Pakistan and the ISI, 2008 Kabul Indian Embassy Bombing, Afghanistan, Counterterrorism Action After 9/11 July 1, 2008: CIA Veteran Challenges Claim that Harsh Interrogations Have ‘Saved Thousands of Americans’ Milt Bearden, a retired 30-year CIA veteran who served as senior manager for clandestine operations, writes: “The [Bush] administration’s claims of having ‘saved thousands of Americans’ can be dismissed out of hand because credible evidence has never been offered—not even an authoritative leak of any major terrorist operation interdicted based on information gathered from these interrogations in the past seven years. All the public gets is repeated references to Jose Padilla (see June 10, 2002), the Lackawanna Six (see April-August 2001), the Liberty Seven (see June 23, 2006), and the Library Tower operation in Los Angeles (see October 2001-February 2002). If those slapstick episodes are the true character of the threat, then maybe we’ll be okay after all. When challenged on the lack of a game-changing example of a derailed operation, administration officials usually say that the need to protect sources and methods prevents revealing just how enhanced interrogation techniques have saved so many thousands of Americans. But it is irresponsible for any administration not to tell a credible story that would convince critics at home and abroad that this torture has served some useful purpose.” Bearden suggests that the CIA might have been permanently “broken” by its use of torture, and that some US officials will likely face the threat of being arrested overseas on torture charges for years to come. [Washington Independent, 7/1/2008] Entity Tags: Milt Bearden, Central Intelligence Agency July 7, 2008: Suicide Bombing on Indian Embassy in Kabul Kills 54; Afghan and Indian Governments Blame ISI and Taliban A suicide bombing at the Indian embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, kills 54 people and injures 140 others. The main target appears to be a diplomatic convoy that had just entered the embassy gate, directly followed by the suicide truck. Among the dead are two senior Indian diplomats, including the military attaché, Brigadier Ravi Mehta. Many of those killed are people standing in line waiting for visas. [London Times, 8/3/2008] The Indian government received at least one warning about an attack on the embassy, and it took extra security precautions that helped reduce the loss of lives (see July 1, 2008). The Afghan interior ministry quickly asserts that the ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence agency, helped the Taliban with the attack. A presidential spokesman states at a news conference, “The sophistication of this attack and the kind of material that was used in it, the specific targeting, everything has the hallmarks of a particular intelligence agency that has conducted similar terrorist acts inside Afghanistan in the past.” The Afghan government has asserted that the ISI is responsible for other attacks in Afghanistan, including an attempted assassination of President Hamid Karzai in late April 2008 (see April 27, 2008). The Indian government also quickly blames the ISI and the Taliban. [Financial Times, 7/8/2008; Taipei Times, 7/9/2008] The Taliban deny involvement in the attack, but the New York Times notes that the Taliban usually deny involvement in attacks with a large number of civilian casualties. [New York Times, 7/8/2008] Less than a month later, US intelligence will accuse the ISI of helping a Taliban-linked militant network led by Jalaluddin Haqqani to plan the bombing (see August 1, 2008). President Bush will even directly threaten Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani with serious consequences if another attack is linked to the ISI (see July 28, 2008). Entity Tags: Ravi Mehta, Jalaluddin Haqqani, Haqqani Network, Taliban, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence Category Tags: Pakistan and the ISI, 2008 Kabul Indian Embassy Bombing, Afghanistan July 14, 2008: Pakistani Taliban Impose Strict Islamic Law in Tribal Region of Mohmand Tehrik-i-Taliban, a group of Pakistani militants linked to the Taliban, declares the imposition of Sharia law (strict Islamic judicial code) in the Mohmand tribal area in Pakistan. Islamic courts have been established in the four regions of Mohmand, and the group has established similar courts already in the adjacent region of Bajaur. [Dawn (Karachi), 7/15/2008] Entity Tags: Tehrik-i-Taliban Category Tags: Haven in Pakistan Tribal Region July 17, 2008: Alleged Female Al-Qaeda Sleeper Agent Arrested in Afghanistan Aafia Siddique in Afghan custody on July 17, 2008. [Source: Associated Press]Aafia Siddiqui, a female Pakistani neuroscientist and alleged al-Qaeda operative, is arrested by Afghan police in the town of Ghazni, Afghanistan. Police reportedly also find bomb-making instructions, substances in bottles and jars, and papers describing US landmarks. There are conflicting accounts about what happens next: US Government's Version - The next day, a group of US agents come to visit her, but she is being held unsecured in a room, hiding behind a curtain. One of the US agents puts his rifle down. She allegedly picks up the rifle to shoot at the group. She shoots twice and misses, while a US agent shoots back and hits her at least once. [CNN, 8/4/2008; Reuters, 8/5/2008] Afghan Police Version - According to Reuters, “Afghan police in Ghazni however, [tell] a different story.” They claim that they find Siddiqui in Ghazni after reports of her behaving suspiciously. They find maps of the town, including one of the governor’s house, and arrest her and a teenage boy. US troops then request that she be handed over to them, but Afghan police refuse, according to a senior police officer there. US soldiers then disarm the Afghan police at which point Siddiqui approaches the US soldiers complaining of mistreatment by the police. The US soldiers, under the impression that she could have explosives and would attack them as a suicide bomber, shoot her and take her away. The boy remains in Afghan police custody. [Reuters, 8/5/2008] She is extradited to the US a couple of weeks later, where she is due to stand trial for attempting to murder the US agents. Siddiqui had lived and studied in the US for many years. She was in Pakistan in March 2003 when it was announced that 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed had been arrested. She disappeared several days later (see Late September 2001-March 2003). The FBI issued an alert for her arrest, alleging that she had been an al-Qaeda sleeper agent in the US. There has been speculation that she had been secretly arrested by the US or Pakistan, and what happened to her since 2003 still remains a mystery. [CNN, 8/4/2008] Entity Tags: Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Aafia Siddiqui Category Tags: Afghanistan, Key Captures and Deaths July 25, 2008: Al-Qaeda Linked Suicide Bombing in Yemen Kills Four Ahmed al-Mashjari (right) with unidentified associate, in propaganda video. [Source: Public domain]A suicide bomber named Ahmed al-Mashjari crashes a van full of explosives into a government security headquarters in the eastern province of Hadramaut in Yemen. Four are killed, including a Yemeni soldier. The al-Qaeda affiliate Soldiers of Yemen Brigades takes credit for the bombing, calling al-Mashjari a “heroic martyr.” The Yemeni government is said to have a tacit agreement whereby al-Qaeda operatives are left alone and in return they do not attack targets within Yemen. But Nadia al-Sakkaf, editor of the Yemen Times, says: “There was a deal [with the jihadis] but it’s not working any more. Now there are just fanatics who want to be hired by al-Qaeda, people who have come back from Iraq or Afghanistan and have no skills, who are not integrated into society and have no education. They are brainwashed. Jihad is all they know.” [Yemen News Agency, 7/27/2008; Guardian, 7/30/2008] Entity Tags: Al-Qaeda, Ahmed al-Mashjari Category Tags: Yemeni Militant Collusion, Alleged Al-Qaeda Linked Attacks July 28, 2008: US Drone Strike Kills Al-Qaeda Leader Midhat Mursi in Pakistan’s Tribal Region A US drone strike kills al-Qaeda leader Midhat Mursi (a.k.a. Abu Khabab al-Masri). He is one of six people killed in the strike on a compound in South Waziristan, in Pakistan’s tribal region. Mursi, an Egyptian, was considered a poisons and explosives expert, and was accused of training the suicide bombers in the 2000 USS Cole bombing. He also is believed to have run the Darunta training camp in eastern Afghanistan until it was abandoned during the US invasion in late 2001. The US had put a $5 million bounty on him. A statement by al-Qaeda leader Mustafa Abu al-Yazid posted on the Internet about a week later will confirm his death. [Associated Press, 8/3/2008] Entity Tags: Al-Qaeda, US Military, Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, Midhat Mursi Category Tags: Key Captures and Deaths, Haven in Pakistan Tribal Region, Drone Use in Pakistan / Afghanistan July 28, 2008: President Bush Privately Accuses ISI of Helping Islamist Militants; Issues Ultimatum Yousaf Raza Gillani. [Source: Public Domain]Pakistan’s prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gillani, visits the US and meets with President George Bush in Washington, D.C. Bush privately confronts Gillani with evidence that the ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence agency, has been helping the Taliban and al-Qaeda. US intelligence has long suspected that Pakistan has been playing a “double game,” accepting over a billion dollars of US aid per year meant to help finance Pakistan’s fight with Islamic militants, but at the same time training and funding those militants, who often go on to fight US soldiers in Afghanistan. The London Times reports that Gillani “was left in no doubt that the Bush administration had lost patience with the ISI’s alleged double game.” Bush allegedly warned that if one more attack in Afghanistan or elsewhere were traced back to Pakistan, the US would take “serious action.” The key evidence is that US intelligence claims to have intercepted communications showing that the ISI helped plan a militant attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, earlier in the month (see July 7, 2008). US officials will leak this story of ISI involvement to the New York Times several days after Bush’s meeting with Gillani (see August 1, 2008). Gillani also meets with CIA Director Michael Hayden, who confronts him with a dossier on ISI support for the Taliban. Pakistanis officials will claim they were shocked at the “grilling” they received. One Pakistani official who came to the US with Gillani will say, “They were very hot on the ISI. Very hot. When we asked them for more information, Bush laughed and said, ‘When we share information with your guys, the bad guys always run away’.” When the story of Bush’s confrontation with Gillani is leaked to the press, Pakistani officials categorically deny any link between the ISI and militants in Afghanistan. But senior British intelligence and government officials have also told the Pakistanis in recent days that they are convinced the ISI was involved in the embassy bombing. This is believed to be the first time the US has openly confronted Pakistan since a warning given several days after 9/11 (see September 13-15, 2001). The US is said to be particularly concerned with the ISI’s links to Jalaluddin Haqqani, who runs a militant network that the US believes was involved in the bombing. And the US is worries about links between the ISI and Lashkar-e-Toiba, a Pakistan-based militant group that is said to have been behind a recent attack against US forces in Afghanistan that killed nine. [London Times, 8/3/2008] Entity Tags: Yousaf Raza Gillani, Jalaluddin Haqqani, Al-Qaeda, George W. Bush, US intelligence, Lashkar-e-Toiba, Pakistan Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, Taliban, Michael Hayden Category Tags: Pakistan and the ISI, Haven in Pakistan Tribal Region, 2008 Kabul Indian Embassy Bombing, Afghanistan, Counterterrorism Policy/Politics August 1, 2008: Pakistani Official Admits that Some in ISI Still Support Taliban, then Backtracks Sherry Rehman, Pakistan’s information minister, admits to journalists that the ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence agency, still contains pro-Taliban operatives. She says, “We need to identify these people and weed them out.” However, she later changes her statement, claiming that the problems were in the past and there will be no purge. [London Times, 8/3/2008] Her comment comes right as US intelligence accuses the ISI of involvement in a recent bombing of the Indian embassy in Afghanistan (see July 7, 2008 and August 1, 2008). Entity Tags: Pakistan Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, Sherry Rehman, Taliban Category Tags: Pakistan and the ISI, Afghanistan, 2008 Kabul Indian Embassy Bombing August 1, 2008: US Intelligence Officials Claim ISI Helped Islamic Militants Bomb Indian Embassy in Afghanistan The New York Times reports that US intelligence agencies have concluded that the ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence agency, helped plan the July 7, 2008, bombing of India’s embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. The attack was initially blamed on al-Qaeda-linked Islamist militants, and 54 people were killed (see July 7, 2008). It is said US intelligence intercepted communications between ISI officers and militants who took part in the attack. The communications were intercepted before the bombing, but apparently were not specific enough to stop the attack. Anonymous US officials would not specifically tell the Times what kind of assistance the ISI gave the bombers. However, it was noted that the ISI officers involved were not renegades, suggesting their actions could have been authorized by superiors. [New York Times, 8/1/2008] The US also claims to have arrested an ISI officer inside Afghanistan, apparently for a role in the attack, but who this person is and what their role exactly allegedly was remains unclear. India and Pakistan have been traditional enemies, and Pakistan is concerned about India’s influence in Afghanistan. Many Western intelligence officials have long suspected that the ISI gets aid from the US and its allies and then uses this support to help the militants the US is fighting. However, solid proof has been hard to find. However, one British official tells the London Times, “The Indian embassy bombing seems to have finally provided it. This is the smoking gun we’ve all been looking for.” [London Times, 8/3/2008] One State Department official similarly says of the bombing evidence, “It confirmed some suspicions that I think were widely held. It was sort of this ‘a-ha’ moment. There was a sense that there was finally direct proof.” US officials believe that the embassy bombing was probably carried out by members of a network led by Jalaluddin Haqqani, who in turn has close alliances with al-Qaeda and the Taliban. US officials also say there is new evidence that ISI officials are increasingly providing militants with details about the US military campaign against them. In some cases, this has allowed militants to avoid US missile strikes in Pakistan. [New York Times, 8/1/2008] Several days before these accusations against the ISI were leaked to the press, British and US officials privately confronted Pakistani officials about the charges. President Bush even directly threatened Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani with serious consequences if another attack were linked to the ISI (see July 28, 2008). Entity Tags: Jalaluddin Haqqani, US Department of State, US intelligence, Pakistan Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence Category Tags: Pakistan and the ISI, Afghanistan, 2008 Kabul Indian Embassy Bombing, Pakistani ISI Links to 9/11 August 2, 2008: Al-Qaeda Leader Fazul Narrowly Escapes Capture in Kenya Pages from two passports seized in the raid. Both show pictures of Fazul but have different names. [Source: East African Standard]An al-Qaeda leader named Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, (a.k.a. Haroun Fazul), narrowly escapes capture in Kenya. The US government claims that Fazul had important roles in the 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania (see 10:35-10:39 a.m., August 7, 1998) and the 2002 hotel bombing in Mombasa, Kenya (see November 28, 2002). Fazul was indicted for the embassy bombings before 9/11, and there is a $5 million reward for him. On August 2, 2008, Kenyan police raid a house in Malindi, a town on Kenya’s coast. Two passports bearing Fazul’s picture but different names are found, as well as his laptop computer. A Kenyan newspaper reports that a local police officer may have tipped off Fazul about the raid minutes before it took place. A half-eaten meal is discovered in the house, and the television is still on, leading police to believe that he ran out of the house just before they arrived. Three Kenyans are arrested and charged with helping to hide him. He reportedly narrowly escaped a US air strike in Somalia in 2007 (see December 24, 2006-January 2007), as well as a police raid in Kenya in 2003. [CNN, 8/4/2008; East African Standard, 8/5/2008] He will be killed in Somalia in 2011 (see June 10, 2011). Entity Tags: Fazul Abdullah Mohammed Category Tags: 1998 US Embassy Bombings, Counterterrorism Action After 9/11 August 4, 2008: Scientific Journal Article Claims Presence of Thermite Could Explain Environmental Anomalies at WTC Ground Zero Explosives on a chip [Source: Gary Meek/Georgia Institute of Technology]According to an article published in The Environmentalist, a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Springer Netherlands, air quality data collected by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) at Ground Zero support the hypothesis that cutting charges made with thermite were used to demolish the World Trade Center. The article by authors (and 9/11 truth activists) Kevin Ryan, James Gourley, and Steven Jones says the presence of thermite would best explain three major documented anomalies: [Ryan, Gourley, and Jones, 8/4/2008] 1) The Persistence of Fires at Ground Zero - As has been extensively reported, the rubble at Ground Zero continued to burn for months after 9/11, despite rain as well as firefighters’ use of large quantities of water and of the chemical fire suppressant Pyrocool. [New York Times, 11/19/2001] There is also eyewitness and photographic evidence of molten metal (see September 12, 2001-February 2002) and of explosions accompanied by white dust clouds. The book Aftermath: World Trade Center Archive by photographer Joel Meyerowitz shows a picture of such an explosion taking place on November 8, 2001. [Meyerowitz, 2006, pp. 178] Another photography books by NYPD officer John Botte also shows a picture of smoke emerging from the pile at Ground Zero and explains: “Occasionally, a huge flame would shoot out from the middle of the pile, sounding like a blow torch, as it did here.” [Botte, 2006, pp. 48-49] 2) Spikes of Certain Chemicals in the Air - EPA data shows that several spikes of chemical products of combustion, called volatile organic chemicals (VOC), occurred in October and November 2001, and in February 2002. According to the authors, these spikes indicate “abrupt, violent fires.” 3) The Presence of 1,3-Diphenylpropane - A third anomaly was the presence of large quantities of 1,3-diphenylpropane (1,3-DPP) in the air, a chemical that had not been found in previous structure fires. An EPA scientist told Newsday, “We’ve never observed it in any sampling we’ve ever done.” [Newsday, 9/14/2003] A possible explanation would be the presence of novel “energetic nanocomposites” which include 1,3-DPP, according to scientific articles reviewed by Ryan et al. Such materials are “amenable to spray-on applications.” A 2002 report said: “The energetic coating dries to give a nice adherent film. Preliminary experiments indicate that films of the hybrid material are self-propagating when ignited by thermal stimulus.” [Ryan, Gourley, and Jones, 8/4/2008] The main center for nanocomposites research is Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). An October 2000 article in a LLNL publication provided an introduction to the research conducted there: “Energetic nanocomposites have a fuel component and an oxidizer component mixed together. […] In one such material (termed a thermite pyrotechnic), iron oxide gel reacts with metallic aluminum particles to release an enormous amount of heat. ‘These reactions typically produce temperatures in excess of 3,500 degrees Celsius’ says [LLNL researcher Randy] Simpson.” [Science & Technology Review, 10/2000] The authors conclude that “[t]he presence of energetic materials, specifically energetic nanocomposites, at [Ground Zero], has the potential to explain much of the unusual environmental data seen at the WTC. Thermite […] is such a pyrotechnic mixture that cannot be easily extinguished and is a common component of energetic nanocomposites.… [T]he detection of 1,3-DPP at the WTC supports this hypothesis. Finally, the spikes in VOCs, detected by EPA on specific dates, are more readily explained as a result of short-lived, violent fires caused by energetic materials.” [Ryan, Gourley, and Jones, 8/4/2008] Entity Tags: Steven E. Jones, James R. Gourley, Environmental Protection Agency, Kevin Ryan August 10, 2008: Al-Zawahiri Releases New Audio Message in English Al-Qaeda second in command Ayman al-Zawahiri releases a new audio tape about Pakistan on which he speaks English. This is the first recording he has released in English, a language al-Zawahiri says he chose because he wants to speak directly to the Pakistani people, but cannot speak Urdu, the predominant language there. The message, produced by al-Qaeda’s media arm As-Sahab, is aired by the ARY One World news network, but is apparently not made available anywhere else on the Internet. On the tape, al-Zawahiri lists a series of grievances he has against the Pakistani government and US involvement there, as well as relating his own personal experiences living in Pakistan. [ABC News, 8/10/2008] Entity Tags: Al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri August 18, 2008: Threatened with Impeachment, Pakistani President Musharraf Resigns Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf announces his resignation. Opposition to Musharraf’s rule had been slowly growing, especially since he declared a state of emergency in late 2007 to remain in power (see November 3-December 15, 2007) following a controversial reelection (see October 6, 2007). In early 2008, opposition parties united and won parliamentary elections (see February 18, 2008). The opposition then chose Yousaf Raza Gillani as the new prime minister, and Gillani took away much of Musharraf’s power (see March 22-25, 2008). The opposition parties united again to start impeachment hearings against Musharraf for his state of emergency and other claimed abuses of power. His resignation speech came hours after the opposition finalized its charges against him and prepared to launch an impeachment trial. Musharraf claims he could have defeated the charges, but he wanted to spare the country the conflict caused by the trial. Gillani remains prime minister, and the Speaker of the Pakistani Senate, Muhammad Mian Sumroo, automatically takes over as caretaker president. [BBC, 8/18/2008] Entity Tags: Muhammad Mian Sumroo, Yousaf Raza Gillani, Pervez Musharraf Timeline Tags: US International Relations, War in Afghanistan Shortly After August 18, 2008: New US Policy Increases Drone Attacks in Pakistan; No Longer Asks Permission from Pakistan First The US dramatically increases the number of CIA drone attacks on Islamist militant targets in Pakistan, and no longer relies on permission from the Pakistani government before striking. Bush administration officials had been increasingly concerned about al-Qaeda’s resurgence in Pakistan’s tribal region. A 2006 peace deal between Islamist militants and the Pakistani government gave al-Qaeda and other militant groups a chance to recover from earlier pressures (see September 5, 2006). However, the Bush administration had close ties with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, who did not want more aggressive US action. But Musharraf resigns on August 18, 2008 (see August 18, 2008), and within days, President Bush signs a secret new policy. More Drone Strikes - From August 31, 2008, until late March 2009, the CIA carries out at least 38 drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal region. By contrast there were only 10 known drone strikes in 2006 and 2007 combined. There were three strikes in 2006, seven strikes in 2007, and 36 in 2008 (all but seven of those took place after Musharraf resigned in August). Drone capabilities and intelligence collection has improved, but the change mainly has to do with politics. A former CIA official who oversaw Predator drone operations in Pakistan will later say: “We had the data all along. Finally we took off the gloves.” Permission No Longer Needed - Additionally, the US no longer requires the Pakistani government’s permission before ordering a drone strike. US officials had suspected that many of their targets were tipped off by the ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence agency. Now this is no longer a concern. Getting permission from Pakistan could take a day or more. Sometimes this caused the CIA to lose track of its target (see for instance 2006). [Los Angeles Times, 3/22/2009] Entity Tags: Central Intelligence Agency, Al-Qaeda, Bush administration (43), Pakistan Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, Pervez Musharraf, George W. Bush Category Tags: Pakistan and the ISI, Haven in Pakistan Tribal Region, Hunt for Bin Laden in Pakistan, Drone Use in Pakistan / Afghanistan August 21, 2008: NIST Releases Draft Final Report on WTC 7 Collapse The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) releases a draft version of the final report of its investigation of the collapse of World Trade Center Building 7, the 47-story skyscraper which collapsed late in the afternoon of 9/11 (see (5:20 p.m.) September 11, 2001). [National Institute of Standards and Technology, 8/21/2008] The report describes NIST’s conclusions on how fires that followed the impact of debris from the north WTC tower’s collapse resulted in the eventual collapse of WTC 7. It evaluates the emergency response and building evacuation procedures, and provides 13 recommendations for construction of buildings in the future, and improved procedures and practices. [National Institute of Standards and Technology, 8/2008, pp. xiii ] Some of the report’s key findings are: NIST describes its theory of what caused WTC 7 to collapse: “The probable collapse sequence… was initiated by the buckling of a critical interior column.… This column had become unsupported over nine stories after initial local fire-induced damage led to a cascade of local floor failures. The buckling of this column led to a vertical progression of floor failures up to the roof and to the buckling of adjacent interior columns to the south of the critical column. An east-to-west horizontal progression of interior column buckling followed, due to loss of lateral support to adjacent columns, forces exerted by falling debris, and load redistribution from other buckled columns. The exterior columns then buckled as the failed building core moved downward, redistributing its loads to the exterior columns. Global collapse occurred as the entire building above the buckled region moved downward as a single unit.” [National Institute of Standards and Technology, 8/2008, pp. xxxii ] The collapse of WTC 7 “represents the first known instance of the total collapse of a tall building primarily due to fires. The collapse could not have been prevented without controlling the fires before most of the combustible building contents were consumed.” [National Institute of Standards and Technology, 8/2008, pp. 43 ] The fires in WTC 7 “were ignited as a result of the impact of debris from the collapse of WTC 1, which was approximately 370 ft to the south.… The fires were ignited on at least 10 floors; however, only the fires on floors 7 through 9 and 11 through 13 grew and lasted until the time of the building collapse.” [National Institute of Standards and Technology, 8/2008, pp. xxxi-xxxii ] “Even without the initial structural damage caused by debris impact from the collapse of WTC 1, WTC 7 would have collapsed from fires having the same characteristics as those experienced on September 11, 2001.” [National Institute of Standards and Technology, 8/2008, pp. 44 ] “Had a water supply for the automatic sprinkler system been available and had the sprinkler system operated as designed, it is likely that fires in WTC 7 would have been controlled and the collapse prevented.” [National Institute of Standards and Technology, 8/2008, pp. 43 ] Other skyscrapers had previously survived comparable fires. “The fires in WTC 7 were similar to those that have occurred previously in several tall buildings (One New York Plaza, 1970, First Interstate Bank, 1988, and One Meridian Plaza, 1991) where the automatic sprinklers did not function or were not present. However, because of differences between their structural designs and that of WTC 7, these three buildings did not collapse.” [National Institute of Standards and Technology, 8/2008, pp. 43 ] NIST found that “temperatures did not exceed 300°C in the core or perimeter columns in WTC 7,” including the three interior columns that NIST says were the first to buckle in the collapse. “None of these columns were significantly weakened by elevated temperatures.” [National Institute of Standards and Technology, 8/2008, pp. 49-50 ] NIST says it found “no evidence to suggest that WTC 7 was not designed in a manner generally consistent with applicable building codes and standards.” [National Institute of Standards and Technology, 8/2008, pp. 53 ] The report concludes that neither explosives nor fuel oil fires fed by diesel tanks in WTC 7 played any role in the collapse (see August 21, 2008 and August 21, 2008). [National Institute of Standards and Technology, 8/2008, pp. 44-45 ] However, the report points out that WTC 7 “and the records kept within it were destroyed, and the remains of all the WTC buildings were disposed of before congressional action and funding was available for this investigation to begin. As a result, there are some facts that could not be discerned, and thus there are uncertainties in this accounting. Nonetheless, NIST was able to gather sufficient evidence and documentation to conduct a full investigation upon which to reach firm findings and recommendations.” [National Institute of Standards and Technology, 8/2008, pp. xxxi ] NIST released a progress report in June 2004, which had included its “working hypothesis” at that time for the collapse of WTC 7 (see June 18, 2004). [National Institute of Standards and Technology, 6/18/2004] After suggestions are made by members of the public in response to the current draft report, NIST will release the finished version of the report in November 2008, which includes the same major findings and recommendations as the draft version (see November 20, 2008). [National Institute of Standards and Technology, 11/20/2008] Entity Tags: World Trade Center, National Institute of Standards and Technology August 21, 2008: Critics Unconvinced by NIST’s Claim that Explosives Not Used to Bring Down WTC 7 After the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announces the results of its investigation into the collapse of World Trade Center Building 7, some critics dispute its explanation for the collapse and question its apparent debunking of claims that explosives were used to demolish the building. The 47-story tower collapsed late in the afternoon of 9/11, even though no plane hit it (see (5:20 p.m.) September 11, 2001). Some have argued that fire and the falling debris from the Twin Towers’ collapses should not have brought down such a large steel and concrete structure. [Associated Press, 8/21/2008] NIST Lacks 'the Expertise on Explosives' - James Quintiere, a professor of fire protection engineering at the University of Maryland who previously worked as the chief of NIST’s fire science and engineering division, says that NIST does not “have the expertise on explosives, so I don’t know how they came to that conclusion,” that explosives did not cause the collapse. However, Quintiere says he never personally believed explosives were involved. [Los Angeles Times, 8/22/2008] Richard Gage, a California architect and leader of a group called Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, complains, “How much longer do we have to endure the cover-up of how Building 7 was destroyed?” The New York Times points out that “the collapse of 7 World Trade Center—home at the time to branch offices of the Central Intelligence Agency, the Secret Service, and the Giuliani administration’s emergency operations center—is cited in hundreds of Web sites and books as perhaps the most compelling evidence that an insider secretly planted explosives, intentionally destroying the tower.” [New York Times, 8/21/2008] NIST Presentation - At a presentation of its findings earlier in the day, NIST announced that, in its three-year study of the collapse, it found no evidence showing explosives were used to bring the building down. [National Institute of Standards and Technology, 8/21/2008; National Institute of Standards and Technology, 8/21/2008] During his summary of the findings of NIST’s WTC 7 investigation (see August 21, 2008), lead investigator Shyam Sunder said, “We did not find any evidence that explosives were used to bring the building down.” [National Institute of Standards and Technology, 8/21/2008] 'No Witness Reports' of Loud Explosions - In the draft version of its final report on the collapse, which is released on this day (see August 21, 2008), NIST explains: “Blast from the smallest charge capable of failing a critical column… would have resulted in a sound level of 130 dB to 140 dB at a distance of at least half a mile if unobstructed by surrounding buildings.… This sound level is consistent with standing next to a jet plane engine and more than ten times louder than being in front of the speakers at a rock concert. There were no witness reports of such a loud noise, nor was such a noise heard on the audio tracks of video recordings of the WTC 7 collapse.” [National Institute of Standards and Technology, 8/2008, pp. 44-45 ] NIST Rules out Thermite - Skeptics have argued that an incendiary material called thermite was used to bring down WTC 7 (see August 4, 2008), and this would not necessarily have created such a loud explosive boom. [New York Times, 8/21/2008] But in a fact sheet published on this day, NIST responds: “To apply thermite to a large steel column, approximately 0.13 lb of thermite would be needed to heat and melt each pound of steel. For a steel column that weighs approximately 1,000 lbs. per foot, at least 100 lbs. of thermite would need to be placed around the column, ignited, and remain in contact with the vertical steel surface as the thermite reaction took place. This is for one column… presumably, more than one column would have been prepared with thermite, if this approach were to be used. It is unlikely that 100 lbs. of thermite, or more, could have been carried into WTC 7 and placed around columns without being detected, either prior to Sept. 11 or during that day.” [National Institute of Standards and Technology, 8/21/2008] Sunder says that investigators therefore decided not to use their computer model to evaluate whether a thermite-fueled fire might have brought down WTC 7. Pointing to the omission, one skeptic says, “It is very difficult to find what you are not looking for.” [New York Times, 8/21/2008] In a 2006 fact sheet, NIST in fact admitted it “did not test for the residue” of explosives or thermite in the remaining structural steel from the WTC collapses (see August 30, 2006). [National Institute of Standards and Technology, 8/30/2006] And, as the New York Times notes, “Adding to the suspicion is the fact that in the rush to clean up the site, almost all of the steel remains of the tower were disposed of, leaving investigators in later years with little forensic evidence” (see Shortly After September 11, 2001 and September 12-October 2001). [New York Times, 8/21/2008] Extensive Preparations for Demolition - NIST’s new fact sheet also points out: “For [WTC 7] to have been prepared for intentional demolition, walls and/or column enclosures and fireproofing would have to be removed and replaced without being detected. Preparing a column includes steps such as cutting sections with torches, which produces noxious and odorous fumes. Intentional demolition usually requires applying explosive charges to most, if not all, interior columns, not just one or a limited set of columns in a building.” [National Institute of Standards and Technology, 8/21/2008] Entity Tags: Richard Gage, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Shyam Sunder, World Trade Center, James Quintiere August 21, 2008: NIST Rules out Diesel Tanks in Collapse of WTC 7 The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) publicly rejects the theory that diesel fuel tanks installed in World Trade Center Building 7 played any role in the 47-story tower’s collapse, late in the afternoon of 9/11. This is clearly set out in a question-and-answer factsheet published on this day, together with an announcement of NIST’s draft report on the building’s collapse (see August 21, 2008 and August 21, 2008). The factsheet asks, “Did fuel oil systems in WTC 7 contribute to its collapse?” The answer is “No…. The worst-case scenarios associated with fires… could not have been sustained long enough, could not have generated sufficient heat to weaken critical interior columns, and/or would have produced large amounts of visible smoke from the lower floors, which were not observed.” [National Institute of Standards and Technology, 8/21/2008; New York Times, 8/21/2008] These findings are echoed in the draft version of its final report on the collapse. [National Institute of Standards and Technology, 8/2008, pp. xxxii ] WTC 7 had three emergency power systems, all of which ran on diesel fuel. The systems contained two 12,000 gallon fuel tanks and two 6,000 gallon tanks located beneath the building’s loading docks, and another 6,000 gallon tank on its first floor. There were also 275 gallon tanks on the fifth, seventh, and eighth floors, and a 50 gallon tank on the ninth floor. [National Institute of Standards and Technology, 8/21/2008] It has previously been suggested that diesel stored in these tanks might have contributed to fires that led to WTC 7’s collapse (see March 2, 2002). [New York Times, 3/2/2002] This possibility was proposed in the final report of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) investigation of the WTC collapses, published in May 2002 (see May 1, 2002). [Federal Emergency Management Agency, 5/1/2002, pp. 5-28 - 5-29] But in his summary of the findings of NIST’s three-year study of WTC 7, lead investigator Shyam Sunder says the building’s collapse was “not due to fires from the substantial amount of diesel fuel stored in the building.” [National Institute of Standards and Technology, 8/21/2008] Entity Tags: World Trade Center, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Shyam Sunder August 21, 2008: NIST Announces Conclusions of WTC 7 Investigation, Presents New Theory for Collapse NIST lead investigator Shyam Sunder answering questions about NIST’s three-year study of the collapse of WTC 7. [Source: Don Berkemeyer / National Institute of Standards and Technology]The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announces the findings of its study of the collapse of World Trade Center Building 7, and says the 47-story tower fell late in the afternoon of 9/11 primarily due to fires. [National Institute of Standards and Technology, 8/21/2008; National Institute of Standards and Technology, 8/21/2008] NIST releases its findings as part of a 915-page report, which is the result of three years’ work by over 50 federal investigators and a dozen contractors (see August 21, 2008). [New York Times, 8/21/2008] Collapse Is 'No Longer a Mystery' - In a news conference at NIST’s headquarters in Gaithersburg, Maryland, lead investigator Shyam Sunder admits: “[W]e knew from the beginning of our study that understanding what happened to Building 7 on 9/11 would be difficult. It did not fit any textbook description that you could readily point to and say, yes, that’s why the building failed.” But, he says, “[T]he reason for the collapse of World Trade Center 7 is no longer a mystery.” [National Institute of Standards and Technology, 8/21/2008; New York Times, 8/21/2008] 'New Phenomenon' Caused Collapse - Sunder says the “critical factor” that initiated the collapse was “thermal expansion of long-span floor systems located in the east side of the building,” and adds that NIST’s study “has identified thermal expansion as a new phenomenon that can cause structural collapse. For the first time we have shown that fire can induce a progressive collapse.” Collapse Sequence - Sunder describes the sequence of events NIST believes led to the collapse of WTC 7. He says debris from the collapse of the north WTC tower “started fires on at least 10 floors of the building. The fires burned out of control on six of these 10 floors for about seven hours. The city water main had been cut by the collapse of the two WTC towers, so the sprinklers in Building 7 did not function for much of the bottom half of the building.” He continues: “Fires on floors 7 through 9 and 11 through 13 were particularly severe.… Eventually, a girder on floor 13 lost its connection to a critical interior column.” Floor 13 collapsed, beginning a cascade of floor failures down to the fifth floor. “With the support of these floors gone, column 79 buckled, which initiated the fire-induced progressive collapse of the building.… This in turn caused the failure of nearby columns 80 and 81 and floor failures up to the roof line.… As the roof line begins to fall adjacent columns buckle as well. In quick succession, the remaining interior columns failed from east to west across WTC 7, until the entire core began moving downward. Finally, the remaining outer shell or façade of the building fell.” NIST Created 'Virtual WTC 7' Model - Sunder says that NIST reached its conclusions about the collapse “by reconstructing the entire building, beam by beam, column by column, connection by connection into a computer model, a virtual WTC 7 building. We then filled that virtual building with as much detail as possible about exactly what types of furnishings were on each floor. Then we set fire to those virtual offices on the floors where video and other visual evidence told us the fires burned.” The investigators “used a well-validated computer program developed at NIST, for studying the growth and spread of fires, to calculate temperatures throughout the building.… And we used well-established data on the properties of structural steel, the sprayed fire resistive material or fireproofing, and other building materials to determine how those temperatures affected the structure.” Explosives Not Used - Sunder says that the investigators “did not find any evidence that explosives were used to bring the building down” (see August 21, 2008), nor was the collapse “due to fires from the substantial amount of diesel fuel stored in the building” (see August 21, 2008). NIST commenced its investigation of the WTC collapses in 2002 (see August 21, 2002) and issued its findings on the collapses of the Twin Towers in October 2005 (see October 26, 2005). Since then it has been focused on WTC 7. [Government Computer News, 8/21/2008; National Institute of Standards and Technology, 8/21/2008] Final Report to Be Released - After suggestions are made by members of the public in response to its current report, NIST will release a finished version of the same report in November 2008, thereby completing its WTC investigation (see November 20, 2008). [National Institute of Standards and Technology, 11/20/2008] August 23, 2008: Pakistani Prime Minister Gillani Publicly Opposes US Drone Strikes, Privately Allows Them US Ambassador to Pakistan Anne W. Patterson sends a diplomatic cable back to the US reporting on recent discussions she had with Pakistani leaders. In the cable, she discusses a meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani. The issue of when the next US drone strike in Pakistan’s tribal region would be politically feasible came up. According to the cable, Gillani said: “I don’t care if they do it as long as they get the right people. We’ll protest in the National Assembly and then ignore it.” The cable will later be released by the whistleblower website WikiLeaks. [Christian Science Monitor, 12/1/2010; Dawn (Karachi), 12/2/2010] Entity Tags: Yousaf Raza Gillani, Anne W. Patterson Category Tags: Pakistan and the ISI, Counterterrorism Policy/Politics August 28, 2008: President Bush Extends National Emergency Declared after 9/11 In his last full year in office, President Bush announces that he is again renewing the national emergency he proclaimed in response to the 9/11 attacks (see September 14, 2001). Bush issues a notice that states: “Because the terrorist threat continues, the national emergency declared on September 14, 2001, and the powers and authorities adopted to deal with that emergency, must continue in effect beyond September 14, 2008. Therefore, I am continuing in effect for an additional year the national emergency I declared on September 14, 2001, with respect to the terrorist threat.” [White House, 8/28/2008] The national emergency has been renewed on a yearly basis since 2001. [US President, 9/16/2002; White House, 9/10/2004; White House, 9/8/2005; White House, 9/5/2006; White House, 9/12/2007] Entity Tags: George W. Bush Category Tags: Counterterrorism Policy/Politics, Internal US Security After 9/11 September 2008: After First Classified Briefing, Obama Is Convinced Bin Laden Is Hiding in Pakistan As the Democratic Party’s nominee for US president, Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) is given his first classified intelligence briefing. The briefing includes information on the hunt for Osama bin Laden. An unnamed senior official will later say that Obama already is under the impression that bin Laden has to be hiding in Pakistan, and the briefing solidifies that view. The official says, “What I remember in terms of the aftermath of that briefing and into the transition was just how much the focus became on Pakistan.” [Reuters, 5/12/2011] Entity Tags: Osama bin Laden, US intelligence, Barack Obama Timeline Tags: War in Afghanistan, 2008 Elections Category Tags: Hunt for Bin Laden in Pakistan September-December 2008: US Special Forces Unwittingly Train Less than One Mile from Bin Laden’s Abbottabad Hideout From September to December 2008, a team of US Special Forces trainers is based in Abbottabad, Pakistan, ironically less than one mile from the compound Osama bin Laden is hiding in at the time. The trainers are in Abbottabad as part of an unpublicized mission to train Pakistani Frontier Corps forces. The training takes place in Kakul Military Academy, Pakistan’s equivalent of the US’s famous West Point military academy. The training is later moved to Warsak, Pakistan. [Radio Free Europe, 5/6/2011; Washington Post, 5/11/2011] Entity Tags: Osama bin Laden, US Special Forces, Kakul Military Academy September 8, 2008: Al-Zawahiri Releases New Video Accusing Iran and US of Collaboration Al-Qaeda second in command Ayman al-Zawahiri releases a video accusing Iran of collaborating with the United States. Excerpts of the video are played on the Qatar-based pan-Arabic TV channel Al Jazeera, but apparently not posted to the websites usually used for disseminating such videos. Al-Zawahiri says Tehran is “cooperating with the Americans in occupying Iraq and Afghanistan,” and denounces the Iranians for recognizing the two governments. “Not even one Shiite authority—whether in Iraq or elsewhere—has issued a fatwa [religious edict] obligating jihad and taking up of arms against the American crusader invaders in Iraq and Afghanistan,” he adds. The video also features clips of al-Qaeda operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia. [Los Angeles Times, 9/9/2008] Entity Tags: Al Jazeera, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Al-Qaeda September 8, 2008: Member of European Parliament Calls for International Tribunal to Investigate 9/11 Giulietto Chiesa, a prominent Italian journalist who is also a member of the European Parliament, calls for an international tribunal to probe the events of 9/11. Chiesa makes his appeal in Berlin where he is to show his documentary Zero: An Investigation of 9/11, which argues that the US government’s account cannot be true. He says: “If feelings were strong enough a positive result could be obtained, but it would not happen immediately. So far it’s been the US administration that has won the information fight and obtained their result—unfortunately. Our task is to inform millions of people of the true situation. Everybody should be involved in this struggle with a tribunal or commission helping once we win approval for the idea.” Chiesa was a correspondent in Moscow for many years (see June 16, 1999). He announces that his film will be shown on Russian television (see September 12, 2008). [Deutsche Presse-Agentur (Hamburg), 9/8/2008] Entity Tags: Giulietto Chiesa September 8, 2008: US Drone Attack Fails to Assassinate Taliban Leaders Linked to ISI Jalaluddin Haqqani. [Source: New York Times]A US drone attack targets the Haqqani network in the tribal region of Pakistan. Pakistani officials will say that five missiles kill 23 people and wound 18 more. The missiles hit a compound in North Waziristan run by Sirajuddin Haqqani, the son of Jalaluddin Haqqani. It appears they are targeted, since family members arrived at the compound just a half hour before. However, neither Haqqani network leader is killed. Officials say one of Jalaluddin Haqqani’s two wives, his sister, sister-in-law, and eight of his grandchildren are killed. The Haqqani network is considered a semi-autonomous part of the Taliban. The US believes the Haqqani network has been involved in recent attacks in Afghanistan, including the bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul (see July 7, 2008) and a failed assassination attempt against Afghan President Hamid Karzai (see April 27, 2008). The Haqqani network is widely believed to be closely linked to the ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence agency. [New York Times, 9/10/2008] Entity Tags: Jalaluddin Haqqani, US Military, Sirajuddin Haqqani, Pakistan Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, Haqqani Network Category Tags: Haven in Pakistan Tribal Region, 2008 Kabul Indian Embassy Bombing, Afghanistan, Drone Use in Pakistan / Afghanistan, Counterterrorism Action After 9/11 September 9, 2008: New Metal Research May Explain WTC Collapses, Scientist Says ’Iron atoms in steel: Black balls show irregularities that disrupt magnetic fields, weakening steel.’ [Source: BBC]Sergei Dudarev, a scientist with Britain’s Atomic Energy Agency, says that newly-discovered properties of steel could explain why the World Trade Center towers collapsed. Dr. Dudarev researches steel that can withstand the extreme temperatures inside a nuclear fusion reactor. He says that at about 500° Celsius, a temperature often reached in building fires, tiny irregularities in the structure of steel can cause a softening of the metal, although that is still far below the melting point. Dudarev says: “The steel didn’t melt, it just became soft. It is an unusual state and the temperatures in the Twin Towers were high enough to cause it because the thermal insulation was knocked off the girders through the impact with the aircraft.” [Guardian, 9/9/2008; BBC News, 9/10/2008; Independent, 9/10/2008; ABC Radio National (Australia), 9/20/2008] Entity Tags: Sergei Dudarev September 9, 2008: Zardari Becomes New President of Pakistan after Quick Election Asif Ali Zardari, the husband of assassinated former leader Benazir Bhutto, becomes president of Pakistan. Pervez Musharraf resigned as president the previous month after growing pressure suggested he could be impeached (see August 18, 2008). A three-week election campaign quickly followed, and Zardari easily won the election (an electoral college vote, not a general election). Zardari’s elections completes Pakistan’s return to civilian rule after Musharraf seized power in a military coup nine years earlier. [Guardian, 9/9/2008] "Mr. Ten Percent" - Zardari has a troubled history of numerous corruption allegations. His popular nickname, “Mr. Ten Percent,” refers to the widespread belief in Pakistan that he took a cut from many business deals when his wife Bhutto was prime minister of Pakistan twice in the 1990s. He spent 11 years in prison on corruption charges, although he was never actually convicted of a crime. Bhutto seemed poised for a return to power, but when she was assassinated in late 2007, Zardari essentially took her place as head of her political party, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). Supporters say he has matured during his years in prison. [Wall Street Journal, 9/5/2008] Entity Tags: Pakistan People’s Party, Benazir Bhutto, Pervez Musharraf, Asif Ali Zardari Category Tags: Pakistan and the ISI, Haven in Pakistan Tribal Region September 10, 2008: US May Have Committed 9/11 Attacks, Says Former Syrian Minister Mahdi Dakhlallah, a former Syrian minister of information, writes in the newspaper Teshreen that the US may have orchestrated the 9/11 attacks to justify the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. “These plans were ready and prepared [in advance]—and all that was needed was to find a pretext to begin their immediate implementation.… No one believes that it was possible to invade Afghanistan and Iraq in the same way and so fast had it not been for the 9/11 attacks. That’s how it always is: the end justifies the means.” [Jerusalem Post, 9/11/2008; Middle East Media Research Institute, 9/11/2008] Entity Tags: Mahdi Dakhlallah September 12, 2008: 9/11 Documentary Shown on Russian Television Is Praised by Panel Members Russia’s Channel One broadcasts Zero: An Investigation into 9/11, a documentary made by the Italian journalist Giulietto Chiesa that disputes the US government’s account of the 9/11 attacks, followed by a discussion between various Russian and foreign personalities. While some panel members defend the US government’s account, others reject it and praise the film. Vitaly Tretyakov, the former editor in chief of Nezavisimaya Gazeta, a major daily newspaper, calls the 9/11 Commission’s report “fiction” and says he could not believe that a small group of terrorists could have masterminded the attacks. Another journalist, Mikhail Leontyev, who is a Channel One presenter and editor in chief of Profil magazine, also expresses disbelief: “A certain organization committed a totally extraordinary act from the point of view of its coordination. Allegedly, this organization still exists, it continues fighting and killing people; it is keeping the US army in two countries in the world and, at the same time, there has not been a single [terrorist] act on the territory of the United States since.” He also says that the alleged organizers were controlled by US intelligence: “all the people who are regarded as the fictitious or real organizers of this [terrorist] act, all these people were controlled by the American special services.” The collapse of the World Trade Center is also discussed. Ashot Tamrazyan, the director of the Risks and Security of Buildings research center, says his organization had created a model and carried out many tests that had shown that the Twin Towers could not have collapsed unless there were other contributing factors. Robert Bridge, the editor in chief of the Moscow News, an English-language newspaper, says he does not believe Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon because of the lack of debris: “In any plane crash there are remains left. There is luggage, there are seats, etc.… Why did this plane crash so differently from any other crash we have seen?” Vladimir Dezhurov, a cosmonaut who observed the 9/11 events from the International Space Station, also questions the Pentagon crash (see (Between 10:00 and 11:00 a.m.) September 11, 2001). He says an air crash always leaves debris behind. [Francesco Tre and Franco Fracassi, 2008; BBC Monitoring, 9/12/2008] Commenting on the broadcast, a Weekly Standard article entitled “The Russian Government Warms Up to 9/11 Conspiracy Theories” says that the Kremlin is promoting 9/11 skepticism to stoke anti-Americanism (see also November 2, 2008). [Weekly Standard, 10/13/2008] Entity Tags: Giulietto Chiesa, Vladimir Dezhurov September 19, 2008: Martyr Video of 9/11 Hijacker Is Released Too Late for 9/11 Anniversary Ahmed Alghamdi in his martyr video. [Source: Public domain]Al-Qaeda releases a martyr video of 9/11 hijacker Ahmed Alghamdi. In the ten-minute video, in Arabic with English subtitles, Alghamdi says, “There are many proofs which clarify and encourage martyrdom operations. They are one of the ways of massacring the enemies of Allah, so you must carry them out.” The video was most likely recorded in Afghanistan in March 2001, at the same time most of the other hijackers recorded martyr videos (see (December 2000-March 2001)). This is the seventh one released. [Sun, 9/22/2008] Alghamdi’s speech is part of a 90-minute video featuring speeches by al-Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri and others. Al-Qaeda promised through the Internet to release the video in time for the 9/11 anniversary, as it did with other 9/11 hijacker videos each year, but the video appears one week late. Some counterterrorism experts say the delay could be a sign that al-Qaeda’s propaganda efforts are faltering. [Associated Press, 9/19/2008; Sun-Herald (Sydney), 9/21/2008] Al-Qaeda will not release any hijacker videos in 2009 or 2010. Entity Tags: Ahmed Alghamdi, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Al-Qaeda Category Tags: Other 9/11 Hijackers, Alleged Al-Qaeda Media Statements September 21, 2008: Remains of 13 Hijackers Still in US Custody The New York Times reports that the FBI and the New York City medical examiner’s office have identified the remains of 13 of the 9/11 hijackers. The remains are still in their custody because no one has claimed them (see Summer 2002). The FBI holds the remains of the nine hijackers who took over Flight 77 and Flight 93, which were recovered from the Pentagon and Shanksville crash sites. The identity of the remains was established indirectly. First, investigators identified the victims using DNA profiles provided by relatives. Those remains that could not be matched to any profile were assumed to belong to the hijackers. The New York City medical examiner’s office also has the remains of four hijackers recovered from the World Trade Center site. A DNA profile for each of the 10 hijackers who took part in the New York attacks was established by the FBI from recovered personal items, such as luggage and cigarette butts left in a rental car. The FBI then supplied these profiles to the medical examiner’s office but without naming them. Therefore, the examiner’s office could only match the four recovered sets of remains but could not identify them by name. Both the FBI and the medical examiner’s office refuse to disclose where exactly the remains are being kept. [New York Times, 9/21/2008; Newsweek, 1/12/2009] Entity Tags: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Medical Examiner’s Office, New York City Category Tags: FBI 9/11 Investigation, 9/11 Investigations September 30, 2008: Pakistan Replaces ISI Director Due to US Pressure, but Pro-Militant Policy Remains ISI Director Nadeem Taj is replaced by Ahmad Shuja Pasha. [Daily Times (Lahore), 9/30/2008] One day ago, it was reported that the US was intensely pressuring Taj and two of his assistants to resign from the ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence agency, because of alleged “double-dealing” with militants. Taj became ISI head only a year ago (see 2007). [Australian, 9/29/2008] In March 2009, the New York Times will report that shortly after Asif Ali Zardari became president of Pakistan in September 2008 (see September 9, 2008), he faced accusations by the US that the ISI helped the militants bomb the Indian embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan (see July 7, 2008 and July 28, 2008). Zardari promised that the ISI would be “handled” and anyone working with militants would be fired. This apparently led to the replacement of Taj and his assistants. The Indian embassy bombing occurred during Taj’s brief time as ISI director. However, the Times will also report that many US and even Pakistani officials have since complained that the ISI’s support for militants remains as strong as ever (see March 26, 2009). [New York Times, 3/26/2009] In October 2001, the US also successfully pressured Pakistan to replace its ISI director and several others because of their support for Islamist militants, only to see the replacements continue the same policy of supporting militants (see October 8, 2001). Entity Tags: Pakistan Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, Nadeem Taj, Asif Ali Zardari, Ahmad Shuja Pasha Category Tags: Pakistan and the ISI, 2008 Kabul Indian Embassy Bombing, Counterterrorism Policy/Politics Shortly Before October 1, 2008: FBI Denies Permission for Television Interview of Agents about Key Failure before 9/11 The FBI attempts to prevent two agents who were involved in a key pre-9/11 failure from talking about it in a television interview. The agents, Doug Miller and Mark Rossini, were on loan to Alec Station, the CIA’s bin Laden unit, before 9/11. They were involved in the deliberate blocking of a cable to the FBI saying that 9/11 hijacker Khalid Almihdhar had a US visa (see 9:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. January 5, 2000) and later, under pressure, falsely claimed not to remember anything about it when interviewed by the Justice Department’s inspector general (see (February 12, 2004)). The FBI allowed Miller and Rossini to be interviewed by author James Bamford for a book and they told him they helped block the cable on the orders of a female CIA officer known only as “Michael” and the station’s deputy chief, Tom Wilshire. However, when Bamford wants them to repeat their stories for a PBS documentary he is making, the FBI initially says yes, but then retracts its approval, saying the bureau “doesn’t want to stir up old conflicts with the CIA.” [Congressional Quarterly, 10/1/2008] However, Rossini will actually appear in the documentary, although Miller will not. [PBS, 2/3/2009] Entity Tags: James Bamford, Mark Rossini, Doug Miller, Central Intelligence Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation Category Tags: Alhazmi and Almihdhar, CIA Hiding Alhazmi & Almihdhar, 9/11 Investigations, Other 9/11 Investigations October 3, 2008: Reporter Says Bin Laden Is Living in Pakistani Villa, Not a Cave; Source Is US Intelligence Officer Christiane Amanpour on “Real Time With Bill Maher” on October 3, 2008. [Source: Real Time with Bill Maher]ABC News reporter Christiane Amanpour says that Osama bin Laden is living in a villa in Pakistan, not in a cave. She makes these comments as a guest on HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher. She says: “I just talked to somebody very knowledgeable… [who] thinks that [bin Laden is] in a villa, a nice comfortable villa… in Pakistan. Not a cave.” After bin Laden’s death in an urban compound in May 2011 (see May 2, 2011), Amanpour will explain that she’d heard the information a short time earlier from a “US intelligence officer who had recently left a top position.” [ABC News, 5/3/2011] Entity Tags: Christiane Amanpour, Osama bin Laden, US intelligence Category Tags: Haven in Pakistan Tribal Region, Hunt for Bin Laden in Pakistan October 13, 2008: Pakistan Denies Role in Kabul Embassy Bombing, but Admits Link to ‘Bad Guys’ Who May Have Done It Mahmud Ali Durrani, Pakistan’s national security adviser, visits India and meets with Indian officials. He tells them that neither the ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence agency, nor any other part of the Pakistani government had a role in the bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, earlier this year (see July 7, 2008). The Indian government and other governments have blamed the ISI working with the Taliban for the bombing (see August 1, 2008). However, Durrani does admit, “We have some contacts with bad guys and perhaps one of them did it.” This comment is not made publicly, but it is mentioned in a US State Department cable about the meeting that is leaked by WikiLeaks in 2011. According to the cable, Durrani later repeats the comment to a US official. [Hindu, 5/20/2011] Entity Tags: Mahmud Ali Durrani, Pakistan Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence Category Tags: Pakistan and the ISI, Haven in Pakistan Tribal Region, 2008 Kabul Indian Embassy Bombing, Afghanistan October 16, 2008: US Drone Strike Kills Al-Qaeda Leader Khalid Habib in Pakistan’s Tribal Region A CIA drone kills al-Qaeda leader Khalid Habib. The drone strike hits the village of Taparghai, South Waziristan, in Pakistan’s tribal region. The CIA claims that Habib, an Egyptian, is the group’s fourth-ranking leader. Four people are said to be killed. It is said Habib became al-Qaeda’s chief of operations for the tribal region after Abu Ubaida al-Masri died from hepatitis around January 2008. [New York Times, 10/17/2008; Asia Times, 10/29/2008] Little had been previously reported on Habib. But in early 2007, a New York Times article listed him as one of a handful of important new al-Qaeda leaders, and the FBI called him “one of the five or six most capable, most experienced terrorists in the world.” [CBS News, 3/15/2007; New York Times, 4/2/2007] A drone strike failed to kill Habib in 2006 (see 2006). Entity Tags: Khalid Habib, Abu Ubaida al-Masri, Al-Qaeda, Central Intelligence Agency Category Tags: Key Captures and Deaths, Haven in Pakistan Tribal Region, Drone Use in Pakistan / Afghanistan, Counterterrorism Action After 9/11 Date ascending Date descending Key Day of 9/11 Events (102)Key Hijacker Events (145)Key Warnings (95) Day of 9/11 All Day of 9/11 Events (1393)Dick Cheney (57)Donald Rumsfeld (37)Flight AA 11 (145)Flight AA 77 (152)Flight UA 175 (87)Flight UA 93 (243)George Bush (131)Passenger Phone Calls (74)Pentagon (140)Richard Clarke (35)Shanksville, Pennsylvania (25)Training Exercises (56)World Trade Center (91) The Alleged 9/11 Hijackers Alhazmi and Almihdhar (343)Marwan Alshehhi (134)Mohamed Atta (206)Hani Hanjour (72)Ziad Jarrah (74)Other 9/11 Hijackers (172)Possible Hijacker Associates in US (79)Alleged Hijackers' Flight Training (73)Hijacker Contact w Government in US (33)Possible 9/11 Hijacker Funding (42)Hijacker Visas and Immigration (135) Alhazmi and Almihdhar: Specific Cases Bayoumi and Basnan Saudi Connection (51)CIA Hiding Alhazmi & Almihdhar (120)Search for Alhazmi/ Almihdhar in US (39) Al-Qaeda Malaysia Summit (172)Able Danger (60)Sibel Edmonds (61)Phoenix Memo (27)Randy Glass/ Diamondback (8)Robert Wright and Vulgar Betrayal (67)Remote Surveillance (241)Yemen Hub (75) Before 9/11 Soviet-Afghan War (105)Warning Signs (466)Insider Trading/ Foreknowledge (53)US Air Security (77)Military Exercises (86)Pipeline Politics (67)Other Pre-9/11 Events (64) Counterterrorism before 9/11 Hunt for Bin Laden (158)Counterterrorism Action Before 9/11 (225)Counterterrorism Policy/Politics (255) Warning Signs: Specific Cases Foreign Intelligence Warnings (35)Bush's Aug. 6, 2001 PDB (39)Presidential Level Warnings (31) The Post-9/11 World 9/11 Investigations (661)9/11 Related Criminal Proceedings (22)9/11 Denials (30)US Government and 9/11 Criticism (67)9/11 Related Lawsuits (24)Media (47)Other Post-9/11 Events (80) Investigations: Specific Cases 9/11 Commission (257)Role of Philip Zelikow (87)9/11 Congressional Inquiry (41)CIA OIG 9/11 Report (16)FBI 9/11 Investigation (150)WTC Investigation (111)Other 9/11 Investigations (135) Possible Al-Qaeda-Linked Moles or Informants Abu Hamza Al-Masri (103)Abu Qatada (36)Ali Mohamed (78)Haroon Rashid Aswat (17)Khalil Deek (20)Luai Sakra (12)Mamoun Darkazanli (36)Nabil Al-Marabh (41)Omar Bakri & Al-Muhajiroun (25)Reda Hassaine (23)Other Possible Moles or Informants (169) Other Al-Qaeda-Linked Figures Abu Zubaida (99)Anwar Al-Awlaki (17)Ayman Al-Zawahiri (81)Hambali (39)Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (139)Mohammed Haydar Zammar (44)Mohammed Jamal Khalifa (47)Osama Bin Laden (229)Ramzi Bin Al-Shibh (105)Ramzi Yousef (67)Sheikh Omar Abdul-Rahman (57)Victor Bout (23)Wadih El-Hage (45)Zacarias Moussaoui (159) Al-Qaeda by Region "Lackawanna Six" (13)Al-Qaeda in Balkans (168)Al-Qaeda in Germany (189)Al-Qaeda in Italy (55)Al-Qaeda in Southeast Asia (149)Al-Qaeda in Spain (121)Islamist Militancy in Chechnya (50) Specific Alleged Al-Qaeda Linked Attacks or Plots 1993 WTC Bombing (73)1993 Somalia Fighting (13)1995 Bojinka Plot (78)1998 US Embassy Bombings (121)Millennium Bomb Plots (43)2000 USS Cole Bombing (114)2001 Attempted Shoe Bombing (23)2002 Bali Bombings (36)2004 Madrid Train Bombings (82)2005 7/7 London Bombings (87) Miscellaneous Al-Qaeda Issues Alleged Al-Qaeda Linked Attacks (89)Alleged Al-Qaeda Media Statements (102)Key Captures and Deaths (124) Geopolitics and Islamic Militancy US Dominance (112)Alleged Iraq-Al-Qaeda Links (255)Iraq War Impact on Counterterrorism (83)Israel (61)Pakistan and the ISI (470)Saudi Arabia (249)Terrorism Financing (312)Londonistan - UK Counterterrorism (322)US Intel Links to Islamic Militancy (69)Algerian Militant Collusion (41)Indonesian Militant Collusion (20)Philippine Militant Collusion (74)Yemeni Militant Collusion (47)Other Government-Militant Collusion (23) Pakistan / ISI: Specific Cases Pakistani Nukes & Islamic Militancy (37)Pakistani ISI Links to 9/11 (73)Saeed Sheikh (59)Mahmood Ahmed (30)Haven in Pakistan Tribal Region (179)2008 Kabul Indian Embassy Bombing (10)Hunt for Bin Laden in Pakistan (154) Terrorism Financing: Specific Cases Al Taqwa Bank (29)Al-Kifah/MAK (54)BCCI (37)BIF (28)BMI and Ptech (21)Bin Laden Family (62)Drugs (71) 'War on Terrorism' Outside Iraq Afghanistan (299)Drone Use in Pakistan / Afghanistan (53)Destruction of CIA Tapes (92)Escape From Afghanistan (61)High Value Detainees (179)Terror Alerts (50)Counterterrorism Action After 9/11 (353)Counterterrorism Policy/Politics (432)Internal US Security After 9/11 (125) Receive weekly email updates summarizing what contributors have added to the History Commons database Developing and maintaining this site is very labor intensive. 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__label__cc	0.624408	0.375592	Donate to Megadodo Publications This is the latest accepted revision, reviewed on 9 June 2019. November 5 in recent years 2018 (Monday) 2017 (Sunday) 2016 (Saturday) 2015 (Thursday) 2014 (Wednesday) 2013 (Tuesday) 2010 (Friday) November 5 is the 309th day of the year (310th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. 56 days remain until the end of the year. 2 Births 3 Deaths 4 Holidays and observances 1138 – Lý Anh Tông is enthroned as emperor of Vietnam at the age of two, beginning a 37-year reign. 1499 – Publication of the Catholicon, written in 1464 by Jehan Lagadeuc in Tréguier; this is the first Breton dictionary as well as the first French dictionary. 1556 – Second Battle of Panipat: Fought between the forces of Hem Chandra Vikramaditya, the Hindu king at Delhi and forces of Muslim Emperor Akbar. 1605 – Gunpowder Plot: Guy Fawkes is arrested. 1688 – William III of England lands with a Dutch fleet at Brixham. 1757 – Seven Years' War: Frederick the Great defeats the allied armies of France and the Holy Roman Empire at the Battle of Rossbach. 1768 – Treaty of Fort Stanwix, the purpose of which is to adjust the boundary line between Indian lands and white settlements set forth in the Royal Proclamation of 1763 in the Thirteen Colonies. 1780 – French-American forces under Colonel LaBalme are defeated by Miami Chief Little Turtle. 1811 – Salvadoran priest José Matías Delgado, rings the bells of La Merced church in San Salvador, calling for insurrection and launching the 1811 Independence Movement. 1828 – Greek War of Independence: The French Morea expedition to recapture Morea (now the Peloponnese) ends when the last Ottoman forces depart the peninsula. 1831 – Nat Turner, American slave leader, is tried, convicted, and sentenced to death in Virginia. 1862 – American Civil War: Abraham Lincoln removes George B. McClellan as commander of the Army of the Potomac. 1862 – American Indian Wars: In Minnesota, 303 Dakota warriors are found guilty of rape and murder of whites and are sentenced to hang. 38 are ultimately executed and the others reprieved. 1872 – Women's suffrage in the United States: In defiance of the law, suffragist Susan B. Anthony votes for the first time, and is later fined $100. 1895 – George B. Selden is granted the first U.S. patent for an automobile. 1898 – Filipinos on Negros Island revolt against Spanish rule and establish the short-lived Republic of Negros. 1911 – After declaring war on the Ottoman Empire on September 29, 1911, Italy annexes Tripoli and Cyrenaica. 1912 – Woodrow Wilson is elected the 28th President of the United States, defeating incumbent William Howard Taft. 1913 – King Otto of Bavaria is deposed by his cousin, Prince Regent Ludwig, who assumes the title Ludwig III. 1914 – World War I: France and the British Empire declare war on the Ottoman Empire. 1916 – The Kingdom of Poland is proclaimed by the Act of 5th November of the emperors of Germany and Austria-Hungary. 1916 – The Everett massacre takes place in Everett, Washington as political differences lead to a shoot-out between the Industrial Workers of the World organizers and local police. 1917 – October Revolution: Lenin calls for the October Revolution. 1917 – Tikhon is elected the Patriarch of Moscow and of the Russian Orthodox Church. 1925 – Secret agent Sidney Reilly, the first "super-spy" of the 20th century, is executed by the OGPU, the secret police of the Soviet Union. 1940 – World War II: The British armed merchant cruiser, HMS Jervis Bay, is sunk by the German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer. 1940 – Franklin D. Roosevelt is the first and only President of the United States to be elected to a third term. 1943 – World War II: Bombing of the Vatican. 1950 – Korean War: British and Australian forces from the 27th British Commonwealth Brigade successfully halted the advancing Chinese 117th Division during the Battle of Pakchon. 1955 – After being destroyed in World War II, the rebuilt Vienna State Opera reopens with a performance of Beethoven's Fidelio. 1956 – Suez Crisis: British and French paratroopers land in Egypt after a week-long bombing campaign. 1968 – Richard Nixon is elected as 37th President of the United States. 1970 – The Military Assistance Command, Vietnam reports the lowest weekly American soldier death toll in five years (24). 1983 – Byford Dolphin diving bell accident kills five and leaves one severely injured. 1986 – USS Rentz, USS Reeves and USS Oldendorf visit Qingdao (Tsing Tao) China – the first US Naval visit to China since 1949. 1990 – Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the far-right Kach movement, is shot dead after a speech at a New York City hotel. 1995 – André Dallaire attempts to assassinate Prime Minister Jean Chrétien of Canada. He is thwarted when the Prime Minister's wife locks the door. 1996 – Pakistani President Farooq Leghari dismisses the government of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and dissolves the National Assembly of Pakistan. 2006 – Saddam Hussein, former president of Iraq, and his co-defendants Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, are sentenced to death in the al-Dujail trial for their roles in the 1982 massacre of 148 Shi'a Muslims. 2007 – China's first lunar satellite, Chang'e 1, goes into orbit around the Moon. 2007 – Android mobile operating system is unveiled by Google. 2009 – U.S. Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan murders 13 and wounds 32 at Fort Hood, Texas in the deadliest mass shooting at a U.S. military installation. 2013 – India launches the Mars Orbiter Mission, its first interplanetary probe. 2015 – An iron ore tailings dam bursts in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais flooding a valley, causing mudslides in the nearby village of Bento Rodrigues and causing at least 17 deaths and 2 missing. 2017 – Devin Patrick Kelley kills 26 and injured 20 in a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas. 1271 – Ghazan, Mongol ruler of the Ilkhanate (d. 1304) 1436 – Richard Grey, 3rd Earl of Tankerville, Earl of Tankerville, 1450–1460 (d. 1466) 1494 – Hans Sachs, German poet and playwright (d. 1576) 1549 – Philippe de Mornay, French theologian and author (d. 1623) 1592 – Charles Chauncy, English-American pastor, theologian, and academic (d. 1672) 1607 – Anna Maria van Schurman, Dutch painter (d. 1678) 1613 – Isaac de Benserade, French poet and educator (d. 1691) 1615 – Ibrahim of the Ottoman Empire (d. 1648) 1666 – Attilio Ariosti, Italian viola player and composer (d. 1729) 1667 – Christoph Ludwig Agricola, German painter (d. 1719) 1688 – Louis Bertrand Castel, French mathematician and philosopher (d. 1757)[1] 1701 – Pietro Longhi, Venetian painter and educator (d. 1785) 1705 – Louis-Gabriel Guillemain, French violinist and composer (d. 1770) 1715 – John Brown, English author and playwright (d. 1766) 1722 – William Byron, 5th Baron Byron, English lieutenant and politician (d. 1798) 1739 – Hugh Montgomerie, 12th Earl of Eglinton, Scottish composer and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ayrshire (d. 1819) 1742 – Richard Cosway, English painter (d. 1821) 1789 – William Bland, Australian surgeon and politician (d. 1868) 1818 – Benjamin Butler, American general, lawyer, and politician, 33rd Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1893) 1835 – Moritz Szeps, Ukrainian-Austrian journalist and publisher (d. 1902) 1846 – Duncan Gordon Boyes, English soldier, recipient of the Victoria Cross (d. 1869) 1850 – Ella Wheeler Wilcox, American author and poet (d. 1919) 1851 – Charles Dupuy, French academic and politician, 60th Prime Minister of France (d. 1923) 1854 – Alphonse Desjardins, Canadian journalist and businessman, co-founded Desjardins Group (d. 1920) 1854 – Paul Sabatier, French chemist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1941) 1855 – Eugene V. Debs, American union leader and politician (d. 1926) 1855 – Léon Teisserenc de Bort, French meteorologist and climatologist (d. 1913) 1857 – Ida Tarbell, American journalist, author, reformer, and educator (d. 1944) 1870 – Chittaranjan Das, Indian lawyer and politician (d. 1925) 1873 – Edwin Flack, Australian tennis player and runner (d. 1935) 1879 – Otto Wahle, Austrian-American swimmer and coach (d. 1963) 1881 – George A. Malcolm, American lawyer and jurist (d. 1961) 1883 – P Moe Nin, Burmese author and translator (d. 1940) 1884 – James Elroy Flecker, English author, poet, and playwright (d. 1915) 1885 – Will Durant, American historian and philosopher (d. 1981) 1886 – Sadae Inoue, Japanese general (d. 1961) 1887 – Paul Wittgenstein, Austrian-American pianist and educator (d. 1961) 1890 – Jan Zrzavý, Czech painter and illustrator (d. 1977) 1892 – J. B. S. Haldane, English-Indian geneticist and biologist (d. 1964) 1892 – John Alcock (RAF officer), captain in the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force (d. 1919) 1893 – Raymond Loewy, French-American engineer and designer (d. 1986) 1894 – Beardsley Ruml, American economist and statistician (d. 1960) 1895 – Walter Gieseking, French-German pianist and composer (d. 1956) 1895 – Charles MacArthur, American playwright and screenwriter (d. 1956) 1900 – Martin Dies, Jr., American lawyer, judge, and politician (d. 1972) 1900 – Natalie Schafer, American actress (d. 1991) 1900 – Ethelwynn Trewavas, British ichthyologist, over a dozen fish species named in her honor (d. 1993) 1901 – Etta Moten Barnett, American actress and singer (d. 2004) 1901 – Eddie Paynter, English cricketer (d. 1979) 1904 – Cooney Weiland, Canadian ice hockey player and coach (d. 1985) 1905 – Joel McCrea, American actor (d. 1990) 1905 – Louis Rosier, French race car driver (d. 1956) 1905 – Sajjad Zaheer, Indian author and poet (d. 1973) 1906 – Endre Kabos, Hungarian fencer (d. 1944) 1906 – Fred Lawrence Whipple, American astronomer and academic (d. 2004) 1910 – John Hackett, Australian-English general and academic (d. 1997) 1911 – Marie Osborne Yeats, American actress and costume designer (d. 2010) 1911 – Roy Rogers, American singer, guitarist, and actor (d. 1998) 1912 – W. Allen Wallis, American economist and statistician (d. 1998) 1913 – Guy Green, English-American director, screenwriter, and cinematographer (d. 2005) 1913 – Vivien Leigh, Indian-British actress (d. 1967) 1913 – John McGiver, American actor (d. 1975) 1914 – Alton Tobey, American painter and illustrator (d. 2005) 1917 – Jacqueline Auriol, French pilot (d. 2000) 1917 – Banarsi Das Gupta, Indian activist and politician, 4th Chief Minister of Haryana (d. 2007) 1917 – James Lawton Collins Jr., American brigadier general (d. 2002) 1919 – Hasan Askari, Pakistani linguist, scholar, and critic (d. 1978) 1919 – Myron Floren, American accordion player and pianist (d. 2005) 1920 – Tommy Godwin, American-English cyclist and coach (d. 2012) 1920 – Douglass North, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2015) 1921 – Georges Cziffra, Hungarian pianist and composer (d. 1994) 1921 – Fawzia Fuad of Egypt (d. 2013) 1922 – Violet Barclay, American illustrator (d. 2010) 1922 – Yitzchok Scheiner, American-Israeli rabbi 1922 – Cecil H. Underwood, American educator and politician, 25th and 32nd Governor of West Virginia (d. 2008) 1923 – Rudolf Augstein, German soldier and journalist, co-founded Der Spiegel (d. 2002) 1926 – John Berger, English author, poet, painter, and critic (d. 2017) 1927 – Hirotugu Akaike, Japanese statistician (d. 2009) 1930 – Wim Bleijenberg, Dutch footballer and manager (d. 2016) 1930 – Hans Mommsen, German historian and academic (d. 2015) 1931 – Leonard Herzenberg, American immunologist, geneticist, and academic (d. 2013) 1931 – Gil Hill, American actor, police officer and politician (d. 2016) 1931 – Harold McNair, Jamaican-English saxophonist and flute player (d. 1971) 1931 – Ike Turner, American singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer (d. 2007) 1931 – Diane Pearson, British book editor and novelist (d. 2017) 1932 – Algirdas Lauritėnas, Lithuanian basketball player (d. 2001) 1933 – Herb Edelman, American actor (d. 1996) 1934 – Jeb Stuart Magruder, American minister and civil servant (d. 2014) 1935 – Lester Piggott, English jockey and trainer 1935 – Christopher Wood, English author and screenwriter (d. 2015) 1936 – Michael Dertouzos, Greek-American computer scientist and academic (d. 2001) 1936 – Uwe Seeler, German footballer and actor 1936 – Billy Sherrill, American record producer, songwriter, and arranger (d. 2015) 1937 – Chan Sek Keong, Singaporean lawyer, judge, and politician, 3rd Chief Justice of Singapore 1937 – Harris Yulin, American actor 1938 – Joe Dassin, American-French singer-songwriter (d. 1980) 1938 – César Luis Menotti, Argentinian footballer and manager 1938 – Jim Steranko, American author and illustrator 1939 – Lobsang Tenzin, Singaporean religious leader 1940 – Ted Kulongoski, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 36th Governor of Oregon 1940 – Elke Sommer, German actress 1941 – Art Garfunkel, American singer-songwriter and guitarist 1941 – Yoshiyuki Tomino, Japanese animator, director, and screenwriter 1942 – Pierangelo Bertoli, Italian singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2002) 1943 – Friedman Paul Erhardt, German-American chef and author (d. 2007) 1943 – Percy Hobson, Australian high jumper 1943 – Sam Shepard, American playwright and actor (d. 2017) 1945 – Peter Pace, American general 1945 – Aleka Papariga, Greek accountant and politician 1945 – Svetlana Tširkova-Lozovaja, Russian fencer and coach 1946 – Gram Parsons, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 1973) 1946 – Ken Whaley, Austrian-English bass player and songwriter (d. 2013) 1947 – Quint Davis, American director and producer 1947 – Rubén Juárez, Argentinian singer-songwriter and bandoneon player (d. 2010) 1947 – Peter Noone, English singer-songwriter and guitarist 1948 – Bob Barr, American lawyer and politician 1948 – Peter Hammill, English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer 1948 – Bernard-Henri Lévy, French philosopher and author 1948 – William Daniel Phillips, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate 1949 – Armin Shimerman, American actor 1949 – Jimmie Spheeris, American singer-songwriter (d. 1984) 1950 – Thorbjørn Jagland, Norwegian politician, 25th Prime Minister of Norway 1950 – James Kennedy, American psychologist and author 1952 – Oleh Blokhin, Ukrainian footballer and manager 1952 – Brian Muehl, American puppeteer 1952 – Vandana Shiva, Indian philosopher and author 1952 – Bill Walton, American basketball player and sportscaster 1953 – Florentino Floro, Filipino lawyer and judge 1953 – Joyce Maynard, American journalist, author, and academic 1954 – Alejandro Sabella, Argentine footballer and manager 1954 – Jeffrey Sachs, American economist and academic 1955 – Bernard Chazelle, French computer scientist and academic 1955 – Kris Jenner, American talent manager and businesswoman 1955 – Karan Thapar, Indian journalist and author 1956 – Jeff Watson, American guitarist and songwriter (Night Ranger) 1956 – John Harwood, American journalist 1956 – Lavrentis Machairitsas, Greek singer-songwriter and guitarist 1956 – Michael Sorridimi, Australian rugby league player 1956 – Rob Fisher, English keyboard player and songwriter (d. 1999) 1957 – Mike Score, English singer-songwriter and keyboard player 1958 – Don Falcone, American keyboard player, songwriter, and producer 1958 – Mo Gaffney, American actress and screenwriter 1958 – Robert Patrick, American actor 1959 – Bryan Adams, Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actor 1959 – Tomo Česen, Slovenian mountaineer 1960 – René Froger, Dutch singer-songwriter 1960 – Tilda Swinton, English actress 1961 – Alan G. Poindexter, American captain, pilot, and astronaut (d. 2012) 1962 – Turid Birkeland, Norwegian businesswoman and politician, Norwegian Minister of Culture (d. 2015) 1962 – Abedi Pele, Ghanaian footballer and manager 1962 – Marcus J. Ranum, American computer scientist and author 1963 – Hans Gillhaus, Dutch footballer and scout 1963 – Andrea McArdle, American actress and singer 1963 – Tatum O'Neal, American actress and author 1963 – Brian Wheat, American bass player and songwriter 1963 – Jean-Pierre Papin, French footballer and manager 1965 – Atul Gawande, American surgeon and journalist 1965 – Famke Janssen, Dutch model and actress 1966 – Nayim, Spanish footballer and manager 1966 – James Allen, English journalist and sportscaster 1966 – Urmas Kirs, Estonian footballer and manager 1967 – Marcelo D2, Brazilian rapper 1967 – Judy Reyes, American actress and producer 1968 – Ricardo Fort, Argentinian actor, director, and businessman (d. 2013) 1968 – Sam Rockwell, American actor 1969 – Pat Kilbane, American actor, comedian, director, and screenwriter 1970 – Javy López, Puerto Rican-American baseball player 1971 – Chris Addison, Welsh-English comedian, actor, and screenwriter 1971 – Sergei Berezin, Russian ice hockey player 1971 – Jonny Greenwood, English guitarist and songwriter 1971 – Dana Jacobson, American sportscaster 1971 – Rob Jones, Welsh-English footballer and coach 1971 – Edmond Leung, Hong Kong singer-songwriter and producer 1971 – Corin Nemec, American actor, producer, and screenwriter[2] 1971 – Mårten Olander, Swedish golfer 1973 – Johnny Damon, American baseball player 1973 – Peter Emmerich, American illustrator and educator 1973 – Gráinne Seoige, Irish journalist 1973 – Alexei Yashin, Russian ice hockey player and manager 1974 – Ryan Adams, American singer-songwriter and guitarist 1974 – Angela Gossow, German singer-songwriter 1974 – Dado Pršo, Croatian footballer and coach 1974 – Taine Randell, New Zealand rugby player 1974 – Jerry Stackhouse, American basketball player and sportscaster 1975 – Lisa Scott-Lee, Welsh singer-songwriter 1976 – Sebastian Arcelus, American actor, singer, and producer 1976 – Mr. Fastfinger, Finnish guitarist and songwriter 1976 – Jeff Klein, American singer-songwriter and guitarist 1976 – Samuel Page, American actor 1977 – Maarten Tjallingii, Dutch cyclist 1977 – Richard Wright, English footballer and coach 1978 – Xavier Tondo, Spanish cyclist (d. 2011) 1978 – Bubba Watson, American golfer 1979 – Romi Dames, Japanese-American actress 1979 – Colin Grzanna, German rugby player and surgeon 1979 – Michalis Hatzigiannis, Cypriot singer-songwriter and producer 1979 – Keith McLeod, American basketball player 1979 – David Suazo, Honduran footballer and coach 1980 – Jaime Camara, Brazilian race car driver 1980 – Andrei Korobeinik, Estonian computer programmer, businessman, and politician 1980 – Christoph Metzelder, German footballer 1980 – Orkun Uşak, Turkish footballer 1981 – Paul Chapman, Australian footballer 1981 – Ümit Ergirdi, Turkish footballer 1982 – Leah Culver, American computer scientist and programmer, co-founded Pownce 1982 – Bryan LaHair, American baseball player 1982 – Rob Swire, Australian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer 1982 – Matthew Williams, Welsh footballer 1983 – Alexa Chung, English model and television host 1983 – Mike Hanke, German footballer 1983 – Juan Morillo, Dominican baseball player 1983 – David Pipe, Welsh footballer 1984 – Jon Cornish, Canadian football player 1984 – Tobias Enström, Swedish ice hockey player 1984 – Nick Folk, American football player 1984 – Baruto Kaito, Estonian sumo wrestler 1984 – Eliud Kipchoge, Kenyan long distance runner 1984 – John Sutton, Australian rugby league player 1984 – Nick Tandy, English race car driver 1984 – Nikolay Zherdev, Ukrainian-Russian ice hockey player 1985 – Michel Butter, Dutch runner 1985 – Kate DeAraugo, Australian singer-songwriter 1985 – Alo Dupikov, Estonian footballer 1985 – Rimo Hunt, Estonian footballer 1985 – Pınar Saka, Turkish sprinter 1986 – BoA, South Korean singer-songwriter, producer, and actress 1986 – Ian Mahinmi, American basketball player 1986 – Kasper Schmeichel, Danish footballer 1986 – Nodiko Tatishvili, Georgian singer 1987 – Kevin Jonas, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor 1987 – Chris Knierim, American figure skater 1987 – O. J. Mayo, American basketball player 1988 – Virat Kohli, Indian cricketer 1989 – Andrew Boyce, English footballer 1991 – Flume, Australian DJ and producer 1991 – Shōdai Naoya, Japanese sumo wrestler 1992 – Odell Beckham Jr., American football player 1992 – Marco Verratti, Italian footballer 1993 – Hideya Tawada, Japanese actor and model 425 – Atticus, archbishop of Constantinople 964 – Fan Zhi, chancellor of the Song Dynasty 1011 – Mathilde, Abbess of Essen (b. 949) 1176 – Diego Martínez de Villamayor, Castilian nobleman 1235 – Elisabeth of Swabia, queen consort of Castile and León (b. 1205) 1370 – Casimir III the Great, Polish king (b. 1310) 1450 – John IV, Count of Armagnac (b. 1396) 1459 – John Fastolf, English soldier 1515 – Mariotto Albertinelli, Italian painter and educator (b. 1474) 1559 – Kanō Motonobu, Japanese painter and educator (b. 1476) 1605 – Nyaungyan Min, Birmese king (b. 1555) 1660 – Alexandre de Rhodes, French missionary and lexicographer (b. 1591) 1660 – Lucy Hay, Countess of Carlisle (b. 1599) 1701 – Charles Gerard, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield, French-English colonel and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire (b. 1659) 1714 – Bernardino Ramazzini, Italian physician and academic (b. 1633) 1752 – Carl Andreas Duker, German scholar and jurist (b. 1670) 1758 – Hans Egede, Norwegian-Danish bishop and missionary (b. 1686) 1872 – Thomas Sully, English-American painter (b. 1783) 1876 – Theodor von Heuglin, German explorer and ornithologist (b. 1824) 1879 – James Clerk Maxwell, Scottish physicist and mathematician (b. 1831) 1923 – Jacques d'Adelswärd-Fersen, French author and poet (b. 1880) 1928 – Vlasios Tsirogiannis, Greek general (b. 1872) 1930 – Christiaan Eijkman, Dutch physician and pathologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1858) 1930 – Luigi Facta, Italian politician, journalist and Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1861) 1931 – Konrad Stäheli, Swiss target shooter (b. 1866) 1933 – Texas Guinan, American actress and businesswoman (b. 1884) 1933 – Walther von Dyck, German mathematician and academic (b. 1856) 1938 – Thomas Dewing, American painter and educator (b. 1851) 1941 – Arndt Pekurinen, Finnish activist (b. 1905) 1942 – George M. Cohan, American actor, singer, composer, author and theatre manager/owner (b. 1878) 1944 – Alexis Carrel, French surgeon and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1873) 1946 – Joseph Stella, Italian-American painter (b. 1877) 1951 – Reggie Walker, South African runner (b. 1889) 1955 – Maurice Utrillo, French painter (b. 1883) 1956 – Art Tatum, American pianist and composer (b. 1909) 1960 – Ward Bond, American actor (b. 1903) 1960 – Donald Grey Barnhouse, American pastor and theologian (b. 1895) 1960 – August Gailit, Estonian author and poet (b. 1891) 1960 – Johnny Horton, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1925) 1960 – Mack Sennett, Canadian-American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (b. 1880) 1963 – Luis Cernuda, Spanish poet and critic (b. 1902) 1964 – Buddy Cole, American pianist and conductor (b. 1916) 1964 – Lansdale Ghiselin Sasscer, American lieutenant, lawyer, and politician (b. 1893) 1971 – Sam Jones, American baseball player (b. 1925) 1972 – Alfred Schmidt, Estonian weightlifter (b. 1898) 1975 – Annette Kellerman, Australian swimmer and actress (b. 1887) 1975 – Edward Lawrie Tatum, American geneticist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1909) 1975 – Lionel Trilling, American critic, essayist, short story writer, and educator (b. 1905) 1977 – René Goscinny, French author and illustrator (b. 1926) 1977 – Guy Lombardo, Canadian-American violinist and conductor (b. 1902) 1979 – Al Capp, American cartoonist (b. 1909) 1980 – Louis Alter, American musician (b. 1902) 1981 – Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, 16th Karmapa, Tibetan spiritual leader (b. 1924) 1985 – Arnold Chikobava, Georgian linguist and philologist (b. 1898) 1985 – Spencer W. Kimball, American religious leader, 12th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1895) 1986 – Adolf Brudes, German race car driver (b. 1899) 1986 – Claude Jutra, Canadian actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1930) 1986 – Bobby Nunn, American singer (b. 1925) 1987 – Eamonn Andrews, Irish radio and television host (b. 1922) 1989 – Vladimir Horowitz, Ukrainian-American pianist and composer (b. 1903) 1991 – Robert Maxwell, Czech-English captain, publisher, and politician (b. 1923) 1991 – Fred MacMurray, American actor and businessman (b. 1908) 1992 – Adile Ayda, Russian-Turkish engineer and diplomat (b. 1912) 1992 – Arpad Elo, American physicist and chess player (b. 1903) 1996 – Eddie Harris, American saxophonist (b. 1934) 1997 – James Robert Baker, American author and screenwriter (b. 1946) 1997 – Isaiah Berlin, Latvian-English historian, author, and academic (b. 1909) 1997 – Peter Jackson, Australian rugby league player and sportscaster (b. 1964) 1999 – James Goldstone, American director and screenwriter (b. 1931) 1999 – Colin Rowe, English-American architect, theorist and academic (b. 1920) 2000 – Jimmie Davis, American singer-songwriter and politician, 47th Governor of Louisiana (b. 1899) 2000 – Bibi Titi Mohammed, Tanzanian politician (b. 1926) 2001 – Roy Boulting, English director and producer (b. 1913) 2001 – Milton William Cooper, American radio host, author, and activist (b. 1943) 2003 – Bobby Hatfield, American singer-songwriter (b. 1940) 2004 – Donald Jones, American-Dutch actor, singer, and dancer (b. 1932) 2005 – John Fowles, English novelist (b. 1926) 2005 – Virginia MacWatters, American soprano and actress (b. 1912) 2005 – Link Wray, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1929) 2006 – Bülent Ecevit, Turkish journalist and politician, 16th Prime Minister of Turkey (b. 1925) 2007 – Nils Liedholm, Swedish footballer and manager (b. 1922) 2009 – Félix Luna, Argentinian lawyer, historian, and academic (b. 1925) 2010 – Jill Clayburgh, American actress and singer (b. 1944) 2010 – Adrian Păunescu, Romanian poet, journalist, and politician (b. 1943) 2010 – Shirley Verrett, American soprano and actress (b. 1931) 2011 – Bhupen Hazarika, Indian singer-songwriter, director, and poet (b. 1926) 2012 – Olympe Bradna, French-American actress and dancer (b. 1919) 2012 – Elliott Carter, American composer and academic (b. 1908) 2012 – Leonardo Favio, Argentinian actor, singer, director and screenwriter (b. 1938) 2012 – Bob Kaplan, Canadian lawyer and politician, 30th Solicitor General of Canada (b. 1936) 2012 – Louis Pienaar, South African lawyer and diplomat, Minister of Internal Affairs (b. 1926) 2013 – Habibollah Asgaroladi, Iranian politician (b. 1932) 2013 – Juan Carlos Calabró, Argentinian actor and screenwriter (b. 1934) 2013 – Tony Iveson, English soldier and pilot (b. 1919) 2013 – Charles Mosley, English genealogist and author (b. 1948) 2013 – Charlie Trotter, American chef and author (b. 1959) 2013 – Stuart Williams, Welsh footballer and manager (b. 1930) 2014 – Manitas de Plata, French guitarist (b. 1921) 2014 – Lane Evans, American lawyer and politician (b. 1951) 2014 – Wally Grant, American ice hockey player (b. 1927) 2014 – Abdelwahab Meddeb, Tunisian-French author, poet, and scholar (b. 1946) 2015 – George Barris, American engineer and car designer (b. 1925) 2015 – Nora Brockstedt, Norwegian singer (b. 1923) 2015 – Soma Edirisinghe, Sri Lankan businesswoman and philanthropist (b. 1939) 2015 – Czesław Kiszczak, Polish general and politician, 11th Prime Minister of the People's Republic of Poland (b. 1925) 2015 – Hans Mommsen, German historian and academic (b. 1930) Holidays and observances Christian feast day: All Jesuit Saints and Blesseds Domninus Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist Galation Guido Maria Conforti November 5 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Bank Transfer Day (United States) Colón Day (Panama) Guy Fawkes Night (United Kingdom, New Zealand and Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada), and its related observances: West Country Carnival (English West Country) Kanakadasa Jayanthi (Karnataka, India) ^ Kipnis, Igor (2013-04-15). The Harpsichord and Clavichord: An Encyclopedia. Routledge. ISBN 9781135949785. ^ Rose, Mike (November 5, 2018). "Today's top celebrity birthdays list for November 3, 2018". The Plain Dealer. Retrieved November 5, 2018. Wikimedia Commons has media related to November 5. BBC: On This Day The New York Times: On This Day Today in Canadian History Months and days of the year Today: July 17, 2019 Related: List of non-standard dates Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=November_5&oldid=901060936" This content was retrieved from Wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November_5 This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article "November 5"; it is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA). You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the CC-BY-SA	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line146
__label__wiki	0.969422	0.969422	The 62nd edition of the Beanpot Tournament kicked off on February 3rd at the TD Garden and the Valley Jr Warriors program were well represented. This annual tradition features four of the top Boston-area teams in what has become the ultimate battle for Boston’s hockey bragging rights. This year, nearly 10 percent of the players from Boston College, Boston University, Northeastern University and Harvard University have suited up for the Valley Jr Warriors’ program. It is an astounding figure considering that two of the teams – #2 Boston College and #10 Northeastern – are ranked in the top 10 nationally and the other two have been perennial powerhouses. All four programs feature the nation’s top talent and the Warriors players fit that bill. In the first semifinal game which features Harvard and Northeastern, Colin Blackwell and Devin Tringale of the Crimson will face off against Husky standouts Gus Harms and Jack Schechter. In the second semifinal game, Ryan Fitzgerald and Brendan Silk will attempt to lead Boston College to a fifth straight title. Standing in their way will be Boston University and a strong lineup that includes Brendan Collier and Matt Ronan. Here is a little more about each outstanding former VJW player who is looking to make Beanpot history this month. Colin Blackwell - Harvard University A junior forward for Harvard, Blackwell spent most of his developmental years playing for the Warriors. He led his VJW team to the USA Hockey Nationals in 2006, 2008 and 2009. He was also selected in the seventh round (194th pick overall) of the 2011 NHL Entry Draft by the San Jose Sharks. Brendan Collier - Boston University A Charlestown product, Collier helped Malden Catholic claim back-to-back Super Eight titles in 2011 & 2012 before joining VJW Junior A team for 2012-13 season. As a Warrior, Collier led the team in points (42) and assists (28) while adding 14 goals to help squad reach league semifinals. He was selected by the Carolina Hurricanes in the seventh round (189th overall) of the 2012 NHL Entry Draft. Ryan Fitzgerald - Boston College The accolades continue to stack up for Fitzgerald, who this past November was named the Pro Ambitions Rookie of the Week. In 26 games for the Eagles, Fitzgerald has posted 21 points and is ranked sixth on the team in scoring. Fitzgerald was the EJHL Rookie of the Year last season while playing for the VJW Junor A squad. He was selected by the Boston Bruins in the fourth round (120th overall) of the 2013 NHL Entry Draft. Gus Harms - Northeastern University Prior to joining the Huskies, Harms skated for the VJW Junior A team during the 2012-13 season. He tallied four goals and 19 assists in 48 games, helping the Warriors to a 29-15-1 record and a third place finish in the Northern Division. Prior to that, Harms served as captain for the Berkshire School for two seasons from 2010 to 2012 and helped lead the Bears to a Large School Championship. Matt Ronan - Boston University The Terrier senior is a former standout at Belmont Hill School who was a key part of the VJW Junior A squad during the 2009-10 season. Ronan recorded 12 points (6g, 6a) in 39 games for the Warriors. He is the third Ronan to play at Boston University in recent memory. He follows in the footsteps of his brother, Dan (`99), and his cousin, Ed (`91). Ed had an 182-game NHL career, mostly with Montreal, and won the Stanley Cup with the Canadiens in 1993. Jake Schechter - Northeastern University Schechter capped off a spectacular high school career by leading Lawrence Academy to the 2012 New England Preparatory School Athletic Council (NEPSAC) ice hockey title during his senior season. He was a standout defensemen for the VJW Junior A team where he finished the season with three goals and 13 assists through 31 games. Brendan Silk - Boston College After growing up playing for the Warriors, Silk went on to play in 42 games for the U.S. National U-18 team in 2011-12 and then the 2012 U.S. National U-18 select team at the Five Nations Tournament in Pori, Finland in February 2012. Silk played in 36 games as a freshman and – through 24 games this season – has posted five points. Devin Tringale - Harvard University A dominating force for the VJW Junior A squad during the 2012-13 season, Tringale finished with 19 goals and 18 assists in 45 games. He was selected to play in the First Inaugural USA Hockey All-American Prospects Game in Buffalo, N.Y., in 2012 and was named to EJHL All-Star Team in 2012-13. Tringale served as captain of 2011-12 Lawrence Academy hockey team that won the New England Prep School Elite Tournament for the first time in school history and scored the game-winning goal in both the semi-final and final games.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line149
__label__wiki	0.50509	0.50509	Rebuttal to Councilman Gallagher's April 9, 2007 Letter by Edward Kampermann - Wednesday, April 25, 2007 2nd Vice President Edward Kampermann always tells it like it is. Councilman Dennis P. Gallagher went about distributing a letter dated April 9, 2007 to those in attendance at the April 11, 2007 CBQ5 meeting held at Christ the King H.S. This was a letter that he mailed to JPCA members through his illegal use of the JPCA mailing list. The letter notes his supposed accomplishments and the fact that he was once the poster boy of the JPCA. He can't imagine why the JPCA has turned against him. Really? The truth of the matter is he turned against the JPCA and the quality of life issues that this organization has stressed and promoted for 70 years. He fails to mention that once he was re-elected with no opposition to his second and final term as City Councilperson representing the 30th Council District he set his ulterior plan in motion. That plan began with his formation of a new civic in November 2005. Gallagher's next step was to collude with the Queens Democratic Organization to oust Anthony "Tony" Nunziato as President of Maspeth Town Hall because Tony may have intimated that he might exercise his constitutional right to run against Margaret M. Markey a local Democratic State Assemblyperson. Remember now, Dennis P. Gallagher is a Republican. He cleverly stayed in the background on this one and let Kenneth Rudezwick, the CEO of Maspeth Federal Savings Bank and an elected democratic official, orchestrate the coup with the help of the friends of Marge Markey. Next on his agenda was to remove or not recommend for reappointment to CBQ5, Tony Nunziato, the chairperson of the CBQ5 Environmental Committee, and a ten year CB5 volunteer who has devoted countless hours to our community. Tony has worked hard on projects such as the opposition to the Cross Harbor Freight Tunnel and the new Kosciuszko Bridge and he is chairperson of the Maspeth-Middle Village Task Force. Almost simultaneously with these events and against our community's goal to halt overdevelopment Gallagher has proposed a change in zoning at the St. Savior's site to make room for the construction of 70 additional housing units, masking that goal with the weak attempt to save the St. Saviour's existing church. Dennis P. Gallagher did not march with the community on this issue. Instead he stood with Maspeth Federal Savings Bank and the foreign developers who received a $6,000,000 mortgage loan from Maspeth Federal to purchase the St. Savior's property. The entire story regarding Saint Saviour's has been told several times – and in the interest of brevity – I will omit the details. As we have stated the JPCA made an attempt at reconciliation with Dennis Gallagher using Monsignor Nicholas Sivillo of Our Lady of Hope Church as the peace broker. Frankly, Gallagher gave the mediation process the "Royal Finger" and launched his own civic association that he had at the ready. In the chronology of events that brings us to Gallagher's lowest hour was when he decided to no longer fund ‒ with our taxpayer's money ‒ the MidVille Dodgers, a team that had just won the National High School Baseball Championship. That's correct, the best high school baseball team in America right here in Middle Village and Dennis Gallagher pulls the plug on funding these talented kids, putting them in the headlights of his growing wrath! Councilman Gallagher's claim that he was the prime sponsor of 49 bills that became law is bogus. He only attached his name on 11 bills that became law, he never did the constructive work to be the original author of any legislation to date. What happened to the Librio Law, Dennis? This is the law that Gallagher stated we needed, that would make daylight on all the corners, banning larger cars. The list of issues that Councilman Gallagher has failed on is long. For instance, despite the fact that he is a member of the New York City Council's Parks Committee, made statements in opposition to having off leash so called courtesy hours in our New York City parks and his own little dog was attacked by a large off leash dog, he submitted no written or oral testimony in the course of the fight. Also, he did not speak at the February 22, 2007 clandestine Parks Department Public Hearing to indicate his opposition to the practice. He left us, the JPCA, out there alone, unrepresented by him, our elected official, who previously had made statements in total support of the JPCA opposition to the off leash plan. He supported a bogus rally at the "Flop House" in Maspeth instead of supporting the rally at the "Huang House" on Mazeau Street. Incidentally, I can't find any news story about any huge protest that councilman Gallagher should have organized against the illegal construction of the Yeshiva Trade School in Glendale. Were they foreign builders also, Dennis? Yes, it is a fact that the JPCA has been very displeased with the positions that some of our elected officials have taken on issues that are detrimental to the quality of life not only in Maspeth and Middle Village but also in all of CBQ5. Part of the JPCA's mission is to always advocate against people who are seeking to harm our communities. Of all the elected officials that Gallagher mentions in his ramblings he's the only one who has declared war on the JPCA. The others are real politicians and don't act like teenagers looking to get even at every turn. The JPCA is a private group of neighborhood volunteers and a good portion of our moneys go toward publishing the very popular and expensive Juniper Berry, which you should know, Dennis Gallagher has stopped funding, again, with our tax moneys. In contrast Councilman Gallagher is spending taxpayer money to assault the JPCA, a respected and effective civic association for seventy years. He has done this with the help of his taxpayer supported staff and mailings. Contrary to Councilman Gallagher I am always careful to get my facts and chronology of events in order. The content of this letter is what and when recent events occurred. In closing I would like to remark that Dennis P. has always been the perpetrator acting like a victim beseeching sympathy from the very constituents that he has betrayed. Although, through his association with the Queens Democratic Party, he has been successful in carrying out his taunts to remove me from CBQ5, this old Marine, who served his country with honor, will not allow an empty suit to deny me my freedom of speech.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line150
__label__cc	0.542571	0.457429	Here we are publishing "Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement". Visitors are requested to visit our "SDI General Editorial Policy" page for more information. 1. All submitted manuscripts are subject to strict peer-review process. High quality manuscripts are peer-reviewed by minimum two peers of the same field. Up to 6th August, 2012, all SDI journals followed strict double blind fold review policy to ensure neutral evaluation. During this review process identity of both the authors and reviewers are kept hidden to ensure unbiased evaluation. Now we have migrated to transparent and toughest ‘Advanced OPEN peer review’ system. Identity of the authors and reviewers will be revealed to each other during this review process. This transparent process will help to eradicate any possible malicious/purposeful interference by any person (publishing staff, reviewer, editor, author, etc) during peer review. 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We have great respect and we generally follow the guidelines, given by COMMITTEE ON PUBLICATION ETHICS (COPE) for any publication disputes, authorship disputes, etc. For these kinds of disputes, we generally visit and follow the COPE website and author(s) are also requested to do so. Excellent guidelines, related to COPE’s Code of Conduct and its advice to tackle cases of suspected misconduct, are available in this link (http://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts). 28. The copyrights of all papers published in this journal are retained by the respective authors as per the 'Creative Commons Attribution License' (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). The author(s) should be the sole author(s) of the article and should have full authority to enter into agreement and in granting rights to SCIENCEDOMAIN international, which are not in breach of any other obligation. The author(s) should ensure the integrity of the paper and related works. Authors should mandatorily ensure that submission of manuscript to SCIENCEDOMAIN international would result into no breach of contract or of confidence or of commitment given to secrecy. 29. The research must meet all applicable standards for the ethics of experimentation and research integrity.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line153
__label__cc	0.749191	0.250809	July 20,2015 - Sales top 35% in Watercourse at Talis Park Submitted by Distinctive Properties Il Corso, the Watercourse neighborhood being developed within the resort-style community of Talis Park, has exceeded the 35 percent sold mark. According to Rod Soars, Watercourse’s sales manager, 11 of the neighborhood’s 30 detached luxury villas have been purchased. Watercourse consists of one- and two-story villa homes all overlooking a lake. The homesites are unique as no two are alike. The developer, Distinctive Communities, also carefully designed the villas to assure owners have the ultimate in privacy. “That’s why the windows in one home don’t face the windows of the adjacent home — or the pool,” said Soars. Six-foot high walls between the residences provide an added dimension of privacy. Watercourse, which is located within walking distance of Talis Park’s main village area, offers seven floor plans ranging from 2,530 to 3,638 square feet under air. The Azurea is a single-story, three-bedroom, three-bath plan with 2,530 square feet under air and 3,298 total square feet. The Berolina is a two-story, three-bedroom, three-bath plan with 2,899 square feet under air and 3,699 total square feet. The Berolina II is a two-story, three-bedroom with loft, three-bath plan with 3,315 square feet under air and 4,115 total square feet. The Catania is a two-story, four-bedroom, four-bath plan with 3,109 square feet under air and 4,026 total square feet. The Catania II is a two-story, four-bedroom with loft, four-bath plan with 3,198 square feet under air and 4,115 total square feet. The Deana is a two-story, three-bedroom with loft, three-bath plan with 3,278 square feet under air and 4,208 total square feet. The Enna is a two-story, four-bedroom with loft, four-bath plan with 3,638 square feet under air and 4,568 total square feet. All seven floor plans have similar features including large open great rooms with volume ceilings and private outdoor living areas with pools. Modern to transitional décor are synonymous with all of the Watercourse model homes. Prices at Watercourse start at $1,095,000. Models are open daily. Talis Park, developed by Kitson & Partners, is a 461-acre, resort-style community that offers a Greg Norman and Pete Dye golf course and Vyne House, the community’s mission-style clubhouse with restaurants, fitness center, spa, boutique shops and pool. At a separate facility is community offers a tennis pro shop, tennis courts, boccie courts, and the Great Lawn, an expansive open space dedicated for community events. Talis Park is on Livingston Road, between Bonita Beach and Immokalee roads. Online at talispark.com.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line155
__label__cc	0.676218	0.323782	Kythera Capital : History Kythera is the newest financial services endeavor of its founder, Alexander Mucelli. Mr. Mucelli founded Kythera Capital Management in 2008, establishing its corporate headquarters in Darien, Connecticut. Kythera Capital Management LLC in the height of the Financial Crisis sought to provide bespoke financing solutions to distressed European financial institutions in order to invest in strong, well-capitalized banks in CEE. Their concentration in the markets from Russia, CIS, CEE and Turkey was characterized by building lasting relationships with leading families in the region whose financing often came from the banks which was the catalyst for expansion in these vibrant communities. The team recognized the importance of access to capital to sustain an economy. The team, many with deep cultural awareness and understanding of the cultures, history, geopolitical influences and strong operating and technical expertize, was critical to our success in the early days of the Firm. We worked closely with our clients to achieve their objectives and were willing to invest our own capital into these businesses side-by-side with our clients, taking the same risks. As companies sought capital for foreign expansion, we too expanded with them helping them make investments from Turkey into China, from Poland into other CEE countries, from the US into Central America. Our practice of aligning our interests with our clients, applying a prudent and patient approach to our projects and having a deep understanding the business and objectives of the families has never changed. Alex Mucelli brings a record of success in building financial services institutions, and contributing to the financial sector via leadership positions with major market players across diverse subsectors ranging investment banking, asset management, private banking, U.S. and international equities and alternative asset management. Alex’s success was accelerated by his desire to listen, learn quickly and his willingness to make the hard choices but also to build solutions for the long-term where the benefits accrue to all the stakeholders. This has resulted in Alex finding solutions often not seen by others. His distinguished career includes serving as an Executive Vice President and a member of the Investment Committee at Graham Capital Management, a Connecticut-based global macro hedge fund manager, and tenure as the Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director of Client Services at Arden Asset Management, LLC, a New York based fund of hedge funds. His early career included eight years at Goldman Sachs & Co. in leadership roles within the firm’s sales and trading businesses, Goldman Sachs Wealth Management, and the Investment Banking Division. Prior to entering the financial services industry, Alex served in the New York City Mayoral Administrations of Edward I. Koch, David N. Dinkins, and Rudolph W. Giuliani. Alex graduated with a BS degree from Hamilton College in 1986. KYTHERA CAPITAL Patient long-term capital and investing across the capital structure to unlock potential KYTHERA INTERNATIONAL Supporting the Manufacturing Revolution in the sports apparel supply chain in the Americas and Europe KYTHERA FOUNDATION Making a difference with women, children and environmental sustainability to make a brighter future for our children CONNECT WITH KYTHERA ©2019 Kythera Capital : Terms & Conditions : Site by Brainblaze	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line159
__label__cc	0.546431	0.453569	Kayleigh {K-Books} I'm a 20-something Psychology Lecturer and Literacy specialist who is obsessed with anything bookish. I run K-Books, a book-blog that has been going for 2 and a half years. I am also a publicist for Spencer Hill Press. Endlessly (Paranormalcy #3) 8:48 pm 2 December 2013 Evie's paranormal past keeps coming back to haunt her. A new director at the International Paranormal Containment Agency wants to drag her back to headquarters. The Dark Faerie Queen is torturing humans in her poisonous realm. And supernatural creatures keep insisting that Evie is the only one who can save them from a mysterious, perilous fate. The clock is ticking on the entire paranormal world. And its fate rests solely in Evie's hands. So much for normal. "Can I tango back in there, instead? So much sexier than the waltz." Wow. I cannot believe that this series has come to an end. It is so sad to see this series end. What a perfect ending to the series. I loved every moment of this book. It was just fantastic. Evie has fought so hard to be normal. To have a normal life and a normal relationship with her boyfriend, Lend. But when both are paranormals it's difficult to have a normal life. When Evie's destiny catches up with her she is thrown back into the paranormal world and it is down to her to save them all. For Good! Can she help all the paranormals and still have her happy ever after with Lend? I really enjoyed this book. I was so excited when I got this for review from Harper Collins Publishing. I really loved Paranormalcy, the first book in the Paranormalcy Trilogy. It's such a unique paranormal series. There's so many paranormal series that are very dark and dramatic so to find this one so light and funny I loved that. It was definitely a welcome change and a great addition to the genre. Unfortunately when I read Supernaturally, the second book, I didn't enjoy it quite as much as Paranormalcy. I found that Evie, the character whom I loved so much in the first book had changed quite a lot and I didn't really like the way she was acting. Because of this I wondered how much I would actually love the third book in the series. I started Endlessly straight away as soon as I got it as I just needed to know how the series ended. Gladly, the Evie I love is back in force! She is back to her bubbly, funny self and there were many parts of the book that I was giggling to myself because her one-liners are just brilliant. Kiersten White is such a talented author. I really loved this series and I love how she turned a series that could have been so dark and drastic, as it does have there serious things and themes happening that could have made a heart-stopping dramatic book, but she turns it into something light and funny and I adored that. This series is still heart-stopping and unputdownable, particularly Endlessly, but it's in a light and funny way and that is the thing I love most about this series. This book had me laughing my head off one moment and then heart-stopping and shocked the next. Evie really goes on a great journey throughout this book and I felt like she really grew up a lot in this book. If you look at what she is like at the beginning of Paranormalcy and then what she is like at the end of this one you can really see how much she has grown and how far she has come as a character. The love triangle definitely finds a fantastic conclusion. I always thought I knew who I wanted her to end up with cough Team Lend cough. All the way through the other two books I never really liked Reth. My opinion changed in this book. Me and Reth have a very love-hate relationship. At times I love him, at times I hate him but you really see a different side to him throughout Endlessly and as we reached the conclusion of the series I loved him. To me the ending for all of the characters was truly perfect. I really love this series and it is one I will re-read again and again. To me the ending was perfect and everything happened exactly as it should have. I am very sad to see the series go as I have really enjoyed it but what I love is that Kiersten has ended it after three books as she always planned. I know that as much as I do not want to let go of these characters, if she wrote more books then it would have become dragged out unnecessarily and ruined my love for this series. It was perfectly planned out and the ending was perfect. I know, I know, I am saying perfect a lot but to me that's what it was. Completely and utterly perfect. I can't think of a better ending for the series and I would recommend this series to everyone. If you didn't like Supernaturally much but loved Paranormalcy I would definitely recommend reading Endlessly as it totally makes up for it. "The only world for me is the one you're in."	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line160
__label__cc	0.73836	0.26164	A Palestinian Ben-Gurion? By Gadi Taub Ynet / Israel Opinion http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3905189,00.html At this time, Israeli prisons maintain a separation between criminal and security detainees. Some of the most veteran prisoners are unhappy about this, because when such separation is in place, the criminals talk about crime all day and plan their next criminal act, while security detainees talk about ideology the whole day and plan the next “acts of resistance.” Once upon a time, when the detainees were mixed, they spent their days arguing with each other. During those days, when there was no separation, Jibril Rajoub used to walk around prison with a Menachem Begin book tucked under his arm; he would tell the criminal-section prisoners how the Palestinians will be defeating the Jews. Everything is in Begin’s book, he would say. Yet Rajoub was wrong. The Palestinians could already have their own state, had they not adopted Begin’s way. He wanted to free Jews by force, yet Begin was not the one who got a state for the Jews. Luckily, we Jews followed Ben-Gurion. By the time Rajoub became a Palestinian security chief, he may have also understood it: In order to build a state, one does not need Irgun-style terror groups or a multi-headed, divisive leadership like the one imposed by Arafat. What’s needed is a central leadership that builds the economy, society, and institutions, and that brings all other organizations under its authority, even by force if needed. I don’t know whether Palestinian PM Salam Fayyad walks around with a book written by a Jewish author under his arm, yet he behaves like someone who keeps all of Ben-Gurion’s books on his desk; indeed, there’s a chance that Fayyad will get for the Palestinians something similar to what Ben-Gurion got for the Jews. Fayyad is wholeheartedly convinced that terrorism is not the way. He thinks, and rightfully so, that Palestinian terrorism is Israel’s most effective weapon. When the Palestinians blow up buses in Israel, the world shows a little less mercy to the Palestinians and a little more mercy to the Israelis, giving Israel reasons to further tighten the occupation. Seeking separation Fayyad is busy doing one thing: Building an economy and central institutions. Should he gain enough power, he will also be able to prevent terror, and boost the standard of living in the West Bank. If he also has the courage to unilaterally declare independence in 2011, as he pledged to do, the Palestinians shall have a state. The world will recognize it, and Israel too will eventually be forced to recognize it. If Israel will be wise, it will not condition this recognition on a peace treaty. The Palestinians are unwilling to renounce the right of return, and Israel cannot agree to the right of return. However, the main issue here is not a peace deal, but rather, separation. After we separate, the conflict will shift from a state of chokehold between two peoples unable to separate and sinking into a chronic civil war, into a wholly different situation; a cold border conflict between two separate states. Under such circumstances, Israel would be able to ensure its security. If the combination of Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Jordan was unable to eliminate it, the small Palestine will most certainly not be able to do it. And if Qassams follow, we already proved – in the Second Lebanon War and in Operation Cast Lead - that we know how to handle them. And if we pull out of there, and stop being the world’s last democracy to still maintain an occupation, the world will no longer set Goldstones upon us. And even if it does dispatch them, it would still be worth the price. The alternative is losing the Jewish State amidst an Arab majority. If at this time we are led by an Irgun grandson in the form of Netanyahu, let’s hope that the Palestinians at least will have a sort of Ben-Gurion, in the form of Fayyad. At times, one such person is enough, even if he’s on the other side.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line162
__label__wiki	0.980018	0.980018	What kind of story can be told in six short seconds? Peanuts Worldwide taps the world's first professional Viner to branch out on Twitter's burgeoning video platform. By Gary Rusak What kind of story can you really tell in six short seconds? That was the question asked by many when Twitter-owned Vine, a micro-video blogging platform, launched in January. The app-based video-sharing platform allowed users to film and post six-second video clips using just one button on their smartphones. The videos could then be posted on a variety of social media, including Twitter. However, the first wave of Vines to hit the cybersphere left something to be desired. “I made a Vine of me making morning coffee just like everyone else did,” explains Khoa Phan, who can now, a mere few months later, accurately describe himself as the world’s first professional Viner. “I figured that that could get really boring really quick, so I thought I could do some stop-motion animation Vines.” The idea was an instant success and Phan’s whimsical and curious construction paper-based stop-motion Vines, which can have between 90 to 100 separate edits in them, began to go viral. The San Diego, California resident says he just followed his own creative sensibilities with stop-motion montages like “Ode to Keith Haring” and “The Magic Water Facet”. His fanciful attitude served his creations well and after generating some internet notoriety he received a direct message from the @Snoopy twitter account. “I was like, ‘is this real?’” he recalls now. “Is this really Peanuts!?” Peanuts Worldwide reached out to Phan to discuss utilizing his innovative approach to the nascent medium to promote their brand, which of course has its roots in the traditional medium of the newspaper comics. Peanuts commissioned Khoa to produce 12 different Vines and 10 Instragrams to be released on a monthly basis. The company reports that the first Vines that have been released have been viewed thousands of times and have been distributed to more than two million people throughout its social media networks. Reportedly, the Vine promotion is a part of a social media campaign for Peanut’s still-untitled 3D animated movie due to hit theaters in 2015. The first Peanuts Vine featured six different personas of Snoopy, and in the many hours of work in creating it, Phan says his admiration for the iconic strip grew. “It was like living my childhood again,” he says. “I gained an appreciation for how those storylines and characters are really formed. I gained an understanding for how complex a body of work it is.” While he has no plans to move into longer-form animation, Phan says that he is always open to new artistic ventures. “I can’t imagine how much work goes into a full animated series,” he laughs. “But you never know, maybe someday. One thing that is certain, however, is the viral success of the Peanuts Vines is proof that the medium can be an integral part of the modern marketing campaigns. “It’s only six seconds,” says Phan. “But you can do a lot.” Of course, Peanuts Worldwide is no stranger to searching out new platforms to increase brand visibility. Back in 1985, Peanuts inked a deal with insurance company MetLife to have its characters appear in promotional materials, sales literature, premium items and advertising. The lucrative and far-sighted deal has kept creator Charles Schulz’s characters highly visible while their contemporaries have fallen far from the public eye. Accordingly, the deal was renewed in 2002. apps, Instagram, Khoa Phan, marketing, Peanuts, social media, video, Vine Gary Rusak is a freelance writer based in Toronto. He has covered the kids entertainment industry for the last decade with a special interest in licensing, retail and consumer products. You can reach him at garyrusak@gmail.com Vine videos to star Peanuts gang Is this the age of the Instasode? ShowMobile is banking on it The new age of online influence	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line163
__label__wiki	0.913382	0.913382	The volunteers Magazines - pre 2012 Magazines - 2012 onwards Memorial sites in Tarancón IBMT Scotland Secretary Mike Arnott reports on efforts to preserve the Spanish Civil War heritage of the Castilian village of Tarancón, where there was an International Brigade hospital during the 1937 Battle of Jarama. There is also a memorial to the 39 Scots killed in the battle and another to the Spaniards killed in Francoist repression. Tarancon hospital campaign: background The Hospitalillo de Santa Emilia (pictured below) was designated as Tarancón Hospital No 2 by the Republican medical services in 1936, the only one of four hospitals established in the town which had previously been used as a hospital. No 1, sometimes known as the American Hospital, was where Dundee International Brigaders Allan Craig and Willie McGuire, amongst others, died after having been wounded at Jarama in February 1937. It has since been demolished and its site is now a secondary school. No 3 was a large private house, which still stands but was returned to its original owners in 1939. A fourth hospital predominantly treated Spanish Republican wounded. Also within a short distance of Tarancón were other major Republican and International hospitals; at Villa Paz, Huete. Ucles and Valdeganga. The Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory (ARMH) in the Cuenca region, co-ordinated by Tarancón resident Máximo Molina, has as its prime objective the recovery, identification and memorialisation of the victims of the Franco dictatorship and they have erected memorials to the civilian dead in both Cuenca and Tarancón, as well as undertaking exhumations of mass graves in the region. However, they also want to set up a permanent educational and interpretative site to tell the story of the Republican hospitals in the region. Ideally this would be in the Hospitalillo de Santa Emilia in Tarancón, or in a bomb shelter located within its grounds. The Hospitalillo was built on land which was donated by one of the main landowners in Tarancón, the Alonso family, in the 1920s, specifically for its construction. ARMH have tried to trace its ownership in the registration office, but have drawn a blank. Given its origins, it is run in a traditional way; by a board of trustees formed by the mayor and the priest, as alternating members, and a representative of each of the five richest families in the town. It seems that the mayor presides over the board but only has a limited ability to control it. The way the board works is set by a statute, which ARMH has also not been able to see, although it establishes that the land can only be put to social use. It also apparently establishes that if the building was without any use for a period of time (possibly 25 years?), the land will revert to its original owners. In 2011, Máximo, Ernesto Viñas and Alan Warren met the PSOE mayor. At the time he was trying to get the hospital demolished to build an old people’s home on the site. That started protests which eventually stopped the project. When they later met the new PP mayor, María J Bonilla, at the town hall, she agreed to inform them if anything was happening relating to the Hospitalillo. She didn’t. It has since degraded to the verge of ruin. The council walled up the doors and windows, but this did not prevent the hospital’s bell from being stolen. A subsequent episode which ARMH is aware of concerns the air-raid shelter at the hospital. The council ‘had to’ create a rubble ramp for a digger to enter the hospital’s back yard in order to clear it. There must be more than 70 metres of boundary along which the ramp could have been built, but they put it right on top of the access to the shelter. Undoubtedly, they will allege they did not know about it. Still, it was a malicious act, especially as the entrance was clearly visible. In June 2016, after having lost the local election, a PP councillor was caught destroying documents. The first two folders to be destroyed concerned the Hospitalillo and its board. These documents are now in the custody of the local court. Apparently they contain all the information needed to establish what can possibly be done with the hospital. Collections have been taken by the international visitors who have come to Tarancón over the last two years, as part of the annual Jarama March commemorations, to support the work of ARMH with this initiative. It was planned that the day before the Tarancón commemoration in February 2018, international guests would join in with a ‘guerrilla gardening’ insurgency to tidy up the hospital forecourt. Press related to the above; www.entarancon.es/noticias/2011/03/31/3267/hay-que-hacer-todo-lo-posible-por-preservar-el-edificio www.entarancon.es/noticias/2013/05/22/5934/el-hospitalillo-dos-anos-despues www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYsdf7xe0fw www.tarancondigital.es/denunciada-la-ex-concejala-de-cultura-ma-victoria-saiz-de-tarancon-por-la-destruccion-de-documentos/ www.entarancon.es/noticias/2016/04/12/10251/memoria-historica-en-tarancon 2018 Video; ARMH Background to Tarancon Hospital No2; www.facebook.com/maximo.molinagutierrez/videos/1615122898568274/ Mike Arnott (second from left) and Máximo Molina (second from right) at the hospital site. On Thursday 15February 2018 a group of around 20 locals and six Scottish guests entered the hospital grounds and proceeded to both tidy the environs and to dig out the steps down to the air raid shelter at the rear of the premises. It was discovered that rubbish which had previously been cleared by the ayuntamiento (town council) and left outside the premises had mysteriously made its way back inside and had been used to infill the shelter steps. After a tiring but enjoyable few hours, those present enjoyed a late siesta before hearing a talk by Máximo Molina and Ernesto Viñas on the importance of the Tarancón hospitals to the wounded from Brunete. Press video: Thursday 15February: Hospital grounds clean-up at Tarancon: www.taranconalacarta.es/index.php/37-tarancon/1240-concentracion-a-las-puertas-del-hospitalillo-para-hacer-algo-practico-por-su-memoria-historica The memorials at Tarancón In October 2011, the municipal cemetery in the town of Tarancón, about an hour’s drive south east of Madrid, witnessed a small but emotional commemoration to remember the 39 Scottish members of the International Brigade who fell during the Battle of Jarama in 1937. During the ceremony Allan Craig Jnr, the son of one of the deceased, planted an olive tree in his father’s memory. Allan’s investigation into the fate of his late father, Dundee-born International Brigade volunteer Allan Craig, had identified the cemetery as his final resting place. Allan Snr had been sent to the No 1 Hospital in Tarancón after being wounded on 17 February 1937 at Jarama and had subsequently died there on the 22nd. The event, which included the unveiling of a stone bearing a plaque, was arranged with the assistance of the local branch of the Cuenca ARMH, and the plaque listed the Scots who had fallen at Jarama. Allan Jnr had always wanted to see his father’s sacrifice recognised, but also insisted that all the Scots who fell with him at Jarama should be remembered with him. In 2012, members of the family of Brigader William Crawford, one of the Scots named on the memorial, visited the cemetery and discovered that the plaque had been damaged. A fundraising campaign followed in Scotland, organised by the International Brigade Memorial Trust, attracting contributions from the Craig and Crawford families and from a number of trade union branches and individuals, particularly in Allan Craig Snr’s home city of Dundee. It was arranged to unveil the new plaque at the cemetery to coincide with the annual Battle of Jarama commemoration weekend in February 2013. ARMH provided a suitable stone for the memorial. A group of 30 visitors from the UK and Ireland travelled though from Madrid for the event and were joined by a number of locals for a moving ceremony and unveiling. Above and below: This year's commemoration at the memorial to the Scottish dead. It was on this visit that many from the UK became aware, for the first time, of ARMH’s ongoing campaign for a physical memorial in the cemetery to the town’s Republican victims of the Franco dictatorship; dozens of civilians rounded up at gun point and ‘disappeared’, particularly in 1939. Having made friends in Tarancón and seen the support which ARMH and local people had given to ‘our’ memorial, it became a matter of honour for those of us from the UK to support their campaign for a memorial in their cemetery, to remember their own victims of the dictatorship. The existence of the new memorial led an even greater number to attend the February 2014 commemoration, both from the UK and Ireland and in particular, locals from the Tarancón area. ARMH were approached ahead of the event by members of a number of local families who had lost relatives during the repression by the Franco dictatorship which followed the civil war. They asked if they would be able to read the names of their murdered relatives at the International Brigade commemoration. Everybody involved was delighted to agree, and the 2014 event was thus made even more poignant by members of Tarancón families reading the names of their executed Republican relatives. It was humbling to realise that, albeit unintentionally, the event for the Scottish Brigaders had created a space where local families felt able to come forward and name their lost relatives, in their own town, for the first time in 75 years. The 2015 commemoration saw the largest turnout yet and heard the two rolls of honour; the 39 names of the Scottish Brigaders and a similar number of civilians slain from Tarancón, read out alternately in a joint act of remembrance. Poems and tributes were read, ending with all present joining in singing The Internationale in their own languages. Following the ceremony, ARMH arranged a tour to the two intact former Republican hospitals in Tarancón, as well as a civilian air raid shelter by the railway station. As we were planning the 2016 commemoration, we were delighted to learn that, as a result of the ongoing campaign by Máximo, the ARMH and the people of Tarancón, and following a change in the political complexion of the local council following recent elections, permission has been granted for a memorial to the Tarancón civilian victims of the Franco dictatorship to be unveiled, alongside the memorial to the Scots. The unveiling of two memorials, flanking the one to the Brigaders, took place during the annual Jarama commemoration weekend, organised by the Spanish Friends of the International Brigades, AABI. Most moving was the speech by the great granddaughter of one of those named from Tarancón, who had died in Mauthausen Nazi concentration camp. Just days ahead of the 2017 commemoration, we were angered, and saddened, to hear that the three memorials had been vandalised. The timing was obviously no accident, but local people were able to make them presentable for the arrival of the international visitors. The memorial to the Brigaders had been covered by red paint, and the two civilian memorials had suffered Falangist graffiti, as well as having the word ‘Franquismo’ scraped off their top lines, which identified the names below as ‘Victims of the Franco dictatorship’. Around 300 attended, from the US, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, England, Germany and Spain. Solidarity was again expressed in music, words and song. All who have been involved in the commemorations at Tarancón feel incredibly moved by this story of historical memory and the symbolic joining of Scotland’s International Brigaders with those who they came to Spain to fight alongside. On 16February 2018, about 25 international visitors from Ireland and the UK attended the annual commemoration at the public cemetery in Tarancón. They were joined by a similar number of locals. Speeches were made, poetry read, music was played and floral tributes laid. Following the ceremony, the group were led on a guided tour of Tarancón by Máximo Molina of ARMH Cuenca, receiving fresh information on the Republican medical services operating in the town between 1936 and 1938. Gallo Rojo’s single of them performing Gallo Negro Gallo Rojo is now available to download at Bandcamp. All the money raised goes directly to ARMH Cuenca to support their historical memory work including the memorial to Scots Brigadistas in Tarancón. The download costs only £1 with an option to pay more as a donation. Gallo Rojo have no involvement in collecting the cash or deciding how it’s spent. https://gallorojo.bandcamp.com/…/gallo-negro-gallo-rojo-sol… Gallo Rojo also played a gig in Dundee on 10th February, following the annual Dundee IB commemoration. €250 in donations was raised for ARMH Cuenca. "There’s a valley in Spain called Jarama / It’s a place that we all know so well / It was there that we gave of our manhood / And many of our brave comrades fell. / We are proud of the British Battalion / And the stand for Madrid that they made / For they fought like true sons of the people / As part of the Fifteenth Brigade." From “Jarama Valley / Song of the British Battalion” (anon) Tweets by @IBMT_SCW Professor Peter Crome Hywel Francis Professor Helen Graham Len McCluskey Christy Moore Jack O’Connor Maxine Peake Baroness Royall of Blaisdon Mick Whelan Founding Chair: Professor Sir Paul Preston Find an International Brigader We have biographical information on nearly 2,400 International Brigade volunteers from Britain and Ireland. To find an individual volunteer, follow this link. Today's quote: "It was in Spain that [my generation] learned that one can be right and yet be beaten, that force can vanquish spirit, that there are times when courage is not its own recompense. It is this, doubtless, which explains why so many, the world over, feel the Spanish drama as a personal tragedy." Support the IBMT: You can support the IBMT by joining us or affiliating your union branch – see details and membership forms here: Join the IBMT Affiliated trade unions: ASLEF, CWU, EIS, FBU, NUM, PFA, POA, RMT, TSSA, UCU, Unite Copyright © International Brigade Memorial Trust Site by Web Nation	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line164
__label__wiki	0.652587	0.652587	Iran Press Watch Documenting the Persecution of the Bahai Community in Iran About Iran Press Watch The Murder of Robert Imbrie (part 2) July 24, 2009 , editor , 4 Comments Report to the U.S. Secretary of State by W. Smith Murray American Consular Service, Teheran, Persia SECRET AND STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL The Honorable The Secretary of State, Washington Sir: – I have the honor to bring to the attention of the Department CERTAIN PHASES OF THE MURDEROUS ASSAULT WHICH CULMINATED IN THE DEATH OF VICE CONSUL ROBERT WHITNEY IMBRIE IN TEHERAN on July 18, 1924, which, it is my impression, have not yet been communicated to the Department and which, I trust, will be of assistance in clarifying in some degree the circumstances surrounding the tragedy. It is generally admitted that the killing of Major Imbrie was attended with a viciousness and savagery practically unknown in latter day Persian history; the Persians have not been slow to point out that their race has not, in the past, been given to violence and that even during the turmoil of the Persian Revolution of 1906 the greatest self-control was exhibited in order not to harm in any way foreign residents of the country. This fact makes the crime all the more remarkable and the necessity for penetrating into its deeper significance all the more imperative. It is to be noted that the so-called miracle which took place in Teheran some two weeks previous to the assault was universally regarded by all Europeans and by most intelligent Persians as an absurdity, and there could not have been the slightest reason to believe that a visit to that “sacred” spot would incur any danger. It is furthermore to be noted that the alleged attempt on the part of Major Imbrie to take photographs at the Sakheh Khaneh could in no way be ascribed as the motive for the murderous attack at the Kossak Khaneh, inasmuch as the latter is more than a mile away from the former and the mob, numbering more than two thousand persons, which gathered as the carriage proceeded to the latter point, could not possibly have been informed of the photographing episode; hence the latter cannot be presumed to have inflamed the mob. It is of extraordinary significance that the attacks upon Major Imbrie and Mr. Seymour should have taken place – first, directly in front of the large entrance to the Kossak Khaneh within a few feet of the guardhouse at the gate, and second, upon the operation tables of the Police Headquarters Hospital, which is perhaps not more than a few hundred yards from the gate of the Kossak Khaneh. That the Government’s case in the affair is totally nil and nonexistent will be observed from the following points: – 1. Although the situation in Teheran since the collapse of the republican movement has, with regard to law and order, been a critical one, and although the Government might have realized the seriousness at this time of the Sakheh Khaneh demonstrations, the Prime Minister admits that he had issued orders, previous to the tragedy, that both the police and military should abstain from intervention of any kind in religious demonstrations and that under no circumstances was a shot to be fired; hence the situation of two men, attacked by a mob of two thousand fanatics, left to their fate. 2. Although the attack upon Imbrie and Seymour lasted about half and hour, at a spot within a stone’s throw of both the Police Headquarters and the Kossak Khaneh, where both police and military reserves were at hand, no attempt was made to intimidate the mob. 3. The participation of the military and of at least one officer in the assault is an incontrovertible fact. This has been verified in the first deposition taken from Seymour, in which he stoutly affirmed that the officer-of-the-day was one of the first to strike him. Furthermore, I was confidentially informed by an officer of the Persian Army, who was an intimate friend of mine, that he was personally acquainted with the officer-of-the-day in charge of the guard at the gate, one Lieutenant Janmamad, and that the latter had freely confessed to him that not only the men in his charge on the fatal morning had rushed out and joined in the attack, but that he himself had participated. When questioned as to why he did do, he said, “I had no idea it was the American Consul. I thought it was a dog of a Baha’i.” At this point it is well to cite the following proofs that his identity was known to some, at least, of his assailants: – a) When Major Imbrie’s carriage was stopped at the gate of the Kossak Khaneh, he drew out his card and handed it to a police officer, stating that he was the American Consul and that he could be seen at any time at the American Consulate. b) Major Imbrie was accompanied by a “kavass” of the American Consulate, wearing the American insignia on his hat and buttons and coat. Both the insignia and buttons were ripped off early in the attack by someone who would appear to have extraordinary presence of mind. c) When Seymour was dragged from the carriage, which had already passed through the Kossak Khaneh gate, he was asked by the officer-of-the-day who he was and where he was going. He stated, “I am an American, and I want to go to the American Consulate”; whereupon the officer struck him, saying, “I think you will be living here for a while.” d) As the Department will have already noted in the deposition of Issak, the Chaldean servant of Doctor Packard, who was at the scene of the assault, the latter shouted repeatedly to the mob, to the military, and to the police, that they were killing the American Consul and that he was not a Baha’i. Hence, the fiction that there could have any misapprehension as to the person upon whom the violence of the mob was being vented is totally exploded. To return now to the officer-of-the-day, Lieutenant Janmamad, I believe the Department will agree with me that the government showed a reprehensible negligence in that his arrest was not immediately ordered after the tragedy, inasmuch as it stands to reason that he and his men, given the fact that the incident happened before his very door, could not but have been at least cognizant of it. It was not until July 26, eight days later, that his arrest was promised, after I had demanded it. It is furthermore to be noted that his name does not occur in the police report of the crime, made on July 26, and that on august 7, when I called the matter to the attention of the Foreign Minister he seemed surprised that he had heard nothing of it and, after noting it down, promised to take immediate action. Although there appears to be ample evidence that a considerable number of the military participated in the attack, only one soldier, named Morteza, of the Army Transport, had by July 26 been arrested, and apparently none of the guard of the day. The police report of the above mentioned date states, “Several other soldiers have also, according to investigations made, taken part in the beating and insulting. The Emergency Commission is searching for them.” The American Minister, shortly after the murder, received authoritative information, to the effect that Reza Khan had threatened “to cut the tongue out of any officer or man who opened his mouth with regard to the affair.” That is was his original determination to shield the military is furthermore evident from a conversation which he had about the same time with Mr. Soppier, the Sinclair representative, in which he flew into a rage at a suggestion of the latter that the military were involved. 4. When, finally, Imbrie and Seymour were rescued by the police and placed in an automobile to be transported to the hospital, the authorities were either unwilling or unable to prevent the crowd from beating and assaulting the senseless men in the automobile. 5. When the two Americans finally reached the hospital and had been carried to the operation tables, the police authorities, in their own headquarters, were again either unwilling or unable to prevent the storming of the hospital by the savage mob, which was led by Seyed Hossein, followed directly by a group of Cossacks with drawn swords. I, myself, through Dr. Packard, heard the statement of one Ali, the hospital attendant who was present when the wounded men were brought in, and who stated that he was unable to prevent the mob from entering the operation room. He showed me the tiles of the floor which had been torn up and shattered on the body of Imbrie, as well as a chair which was smashed in assaulting him. Although Seymour was lying in a room through which the mob had to pass, he was spared further assault because the mob was told that he was dead. The Department is already in possession of the deposition which I took from doctor Jalal Shaffa, one of the native physicians at the American Hospital, who was one of the first to arrive at the Police Hospital and to whom a policeman present volunteered the information that he was unable to hold back the mob because they were led by Cossacks, armed with sabres. The truth of this statement was, on the same day, verified by the admission of Lieutenant Nehmattollah, a police officer on the Investigation Commission, to the effect that the latter attack was led by Cossacks, but that they were fired to vengeance by Seyed Hossein, crying that he would “have the blood of this infidel dog to avenge the death of Hossein and his grandfather.” Foreign Political Background Almost simultaneously with the killing, the rumor arose in the city that it was the result of oil intrigues and that the mob believed it had got Soper, the Sinclair representative. In this connection I may state that such was apparently the belief of the authorities at the hospital upon the arrival of Mrs. Imbrie, inasmuch as they refused permission to her and Doctor Packard to enter and insisted that Imbrie was not her husband. Almost immediately also, the hue and cry against the British was taken up in the Persian press, and it was openly intimated that they were responsible for the crime. In this connection, I have positive information that it is the firm conviction of the Prime Minister that the British are responsible for the encouragement and subsidizing of the Sakheh Khaneh storm center, if not for the actual crime itself. On the day of Major Imbrie’s funeral the British Charge d’Affaires, Mr. Esmond Ovey, who had already gotten wind of the above rumors, solemnly warned Zoka-ol-Molk, the Foreign Minister, that the control of the press must be tightened and that he would not tolerate any publication of such rumors. The warning was apparently ineffective inasmuch as the next few days brought a torrent of abuse and the vilest insinuations against “the land of the lion and the unicorn.” Thereupon the British Charge rushed, with his oriental secretary, Mr. Harvard, to the Prime Minister’s country house, and delivered an ultimatum to him, that categorical instructions be issued to suppress any paper in Teheran intimating Great Britain’s participation in the affair. The Prime Minister was at first obdurate and stated that the whole matter would first have to be investigated; but he finally yielded and published a dementi, after which the situation, as far as the British were concerned, was for the moment relieved. Another and still more tense situation was created, however, when the Persian authorities attempted a few days later to arrest Mostafa Khan, the Persian private secretary of Mr. W. C. Fairley, the Anglo-Persian representative in Teheran. The attempt was met by a still more vigorous intervention on the part of Mr. Ovey, who told Reza Khan that any such act on his part would be regarded by the British Government as proof positive that he considered the rumors concerning the British true. I may state at this point that the young man in question, Mostafa Khan, a graduate of Columbia University and pretended friend of America, is positively known to have engaged, for the sake of his employer, in the most unsavory and unwarranted attacks on everything American, in order to prevent at all costs the passage of the Sinclair oil bill. I am reliably informed that he has, during the last critical days, offered to several members of the Mejliss, whose names are known to me, a bribe of eight tomans a month, if they will abstain from their duties and thus break the quorum. I furthermore know that he approached the Deputy from Isfahan and used the novel argument, as to why he should vote against the oil bill, that the American people, “enraged at the treason of the late President Harding for having sold them out to the Sinclair Oil Company,” had torn open his grave and burned his body. This is the man who, though a Persian subject, enjoys the protection of the British Legation. It was clear from the outset that the Russians intended to leave no stone unturned in order to push the responsibility for the crime into the shoes of the British. On the day of the funeral one of the Secretaries of the Bolshevist Legation, Mr. Walden, stated to a personal friend of mine, Mr. Swiminoff, who was educated and has lived many years in America, that the whole thing had been engineered by the British in order to prevent passage of the oil bill. Both the local Persian press, enjoying the Russian subsidy, as well as the organ of the Russian Telegraphic Agency, “Rosta”, launched a violent campaign against the British, containing open accusation. The British Charge d’Affairs immediately wired for instructions to London, and thereafter called upon the Russian Minister, and, after a three and a half hours’ conference, was unable to persuade him to make a frank retraction of these statements. The best that could be done was a half-hearted statement on the following day in the “Rosta”, to the effect that the published reports “were not the individual opinions of the editor.” As I pointed out to the Department in my telegram No. 8 of July 29, the attitude of the Russians with regard to the affair was fully clarified by their behavior in the three meetings of the Diplomatic Corps which followed the murder. In the first, they strongly objected to any reference whatsoever to the military, as having participated, and insisted, in addition, that the minorities clause be added, condemning religious fanaticism. In the second, they moved that the Diplomatic Corps unanimously accept the Government’s reply to the protest drawn up in the first meeting, despite the fact that this body was therein informed that its protest was unjustified. After vainly attempting to block any further conferences, the Russian Delegation rose in the midst of the third session and walked out when it was agreed by the rest that the American note of protest to the Persian Government was not to be read or discussed. At this last meeting, the protocol of the two preceding meetings was drawn up, a copy of which the Russians attempted to obtain from the Dean, the Turkish Ambassador, who flatly refused to accede to their demand. I have already pointed out to the Department, in my telegram No. 7 of July 28, that the Russian Delegation in Teheran has shown a curious interest in what they stated to have been Major Imbrie’s “anti-Bolshevist record” in Russia. Religious Background In the larger analysis, it may safely be said that the recrudescence of clerical power in Persia in the last two years has supplied the background and, in large part, the motivation for the tragedy which has just occurred. It is worth noting that never since the Persian Revolution of 1906, when the clergy was terrified into immobility by the public execution at the hands of the Revolutionaries of their Chief Mujtahed, Sheik Fazlullah, have the clergy been in possession of such dangerous power as is theirs today. So complete was their eclipse, that by 1918 it was possible to disregard their constitutional and religious right to interpret and execute the laws of the land in accordance with the Koran when a new Penal Code, based on the “Code of Napoleon”, was drafted and put into temporary execution pending its consideration and acceptance by the Mejliss. To anyone with even a slight knowledge of the corruption of the Persian Law Courts, this was an amazing act of progress. It was not until the late summer of 1922, when the struggle between Reza Khan, then Minister of War, and the then Prime Minister, Ghavam-os-Saltaneh, had reached a critical stage, that the latter turned to the Mullahs and enlisted their support in an attempt to break the menacing power of the War Minister. Be it said to Reza Khan’s credit, that although he is an uneducated man and has evinced a lamentable moral weakness in all the crises of his career, he is (fortunately for Persia) religiously tolerant and enlightened, and has freely made use in the Army and the Government of the intelligent services of the Baha’is, who may well be considered the only hope of Islam. On the occasion above mentioned, Ghavam-os-Saltaneh, in order to reinforce his political position, then insecure, encouraged the Mullahs to make their notorious “Twelve Demands”, among which was the abolition of the Penal Code of 1918, obviously necessitating a return to the archaic religious courts. A second demand was the establishment of the Mullah’s Committee of Veto in the Mejliss, which is unfortunately provided for in Article 2 of the Supplement to the Constitution, but which has remained until the present time a dead letter. To a close observer of Persian affairs it is beyond question that, had Reza Khan succeeded in establishing the Republic in March of this year, it would have been the death knell to the power of the clergy, which the latter realized only too well. I furthermore know personally that it was his firm determination to have proceeded, immediately upon the establishment of the Republic, with a revision of the Constitution which would have separated church from state and secularized the law. It is curious that, for the first time since the establishment of Bolshevism in Russia, Great Britain and the Russians joined hands cordially in support of the clergy last March, in order to break the power of the Prime Minister and annihilate the Republic. It was they who subsidized and demonstrated in the gardens of the Mejliss on the day before the Republic was to be declared, and it was the fatal moral weakness of the Prime Minister in handling this demonstration which demolished at a blow his prestige with the Persians as “the dreaded and infallible Reza”. The clergy immediately rose to the occasion, and they, who had the day before been suppliants, now became dictators. They directed what steps the Prime Minister should take thenceforth, that he should proceed forthwith to Qum for consultation with the exiled Mesopotamian Mullahs, who ordered him to publish his famous decree forbidding further discussion of the Republic. Since that time Reza Khan’s political enemies have taken advantage of the restored prestige of the clergy to raise the hue and cry of Baha’ism against him, the danger of which accusation in present-day densely ignorant Persia is by no means to be underestimated. To many observers on the spot, the Prime Minister’s patience under these trying circumstances has appeared incomprehensible, and he has often been criticized for not having met the issue squarely and either smashed his opposition or gone down in defeat. The reason for his inaction is unquestionably the fact that he has realized that any successful demonstrations against him at the present time may compromise his “American program”, which contains, of course, the passage of the oil bill. He has realized, furthermore, that it was a mistake to have proceeded with his republic last March before his program was completed, and it is now definitely known that he is determined at all costs to keep the Mejliss open until the oil bill has passed, after which there is every reason to believe the Deputies will be immediately dismissed and Reza Khan will assume dictatorial powers in the country. The realization of this situation on the part of the clerical opposition has incited them more than anything else to oppose the passage of the bill. From knowledge of Persian affairs, it is impossible to believe that the so-called miracle, which occurred some two weeks previous to Imbrie’s death, was a spontaneous occurrence. It had the earmarks from the beginning of an artificially inspired movement, of which the organized powers of evil were quick to take advantage in order to create disorder for the Government. It is well-known that large sums of money were paid to a committee organized at the Sakheh Khaneh, to which even peasants made contributions in sheep and grain. The sums collected are variously estimated from five to twenty thousand tomans. It is generally believed that the big grandees of Persia generously donated, among them being Vossough-ed-Dowleh, the notorious Anglophile Prime Minister of the Anglo- Persian Agreement, Ghavam-os-Saltaneh, his brother, now in exile, and Farman Farma, the most notorious of British agents. Reza Khan found himself faced with a situation before which he was powerless. The fanaticism of the crowd was so incited by the continuous preaching of the Mullahs that any act on his part would have been interpreted as treason to Islam and prima facie evidence that he was a Baha’i; hence his unfortunate orders to the military and the police not to intervene under any circumstances in religious demonstrations and under no circumstances to fire. It is clear that such a spot as the Sakheh Khaneh would be chosen by both foreign and domestic troublemakers as an advantageous station for their spies and agents, and the secret of this affair will never be fully revealed until the true character and affiliations of the hangers-on at the Sakheh Khaneh have been ascertained. It is obvious that the man in the crowd at the Sakheh Khaneh who had the presence of mind to spring to his feet the moment he saw Imbrie and cry, “That is a Baha’i! He has poisoned the water of our Sakheh Khaneh and killed Musselmen women and children!” is of more than passing importance to the prosecution. It has been stated that this man is the same Seyed Hossein who stormed the operation room with the Cossacks; but I have not received confirmation of this. Viewing the tragedy, in its larger issue, one is led to the inevitable conclusion that, unless Reza Khan is able and willing to purge the military of its criminal lawlessness, and, unless the malign power of the clergy can be broken forever in the land, there is every reason to believe that the killing of Imbrie is but a foretaste of more terrible events to come. I have the honor to be, Sir, Your obedient servant, (signed) W. Smith Murray, Second Secretary of Legation In charge of Consulate [From Behind the Wheel of a War Ambulance. Courtesy of Robert M. McBride & Company of New York.] Posted in Miscellaneous, Press Coverage. Tagged as Analysis, bahai, bahais, IPW, iran, Iran Press Watch, persecution If “We are the world,” then “We are Iran”: Time to Join the Global Day of Action for Iran Sentencing of Attorney Amir Salar Davoodi to 30 Years in Prison and 111 Lashes. June 7, 2019 , editor , 1 Comment Shahrzad Nazifi, Baha’i Motocross Racing Champion, Denied Access to the Track May 11, 2019 , editor , No Comment Forty Years of State Lies: RSF Unveils Leaked Iranian Justice File February 13, 2019 , editor , No Comment “unless the malign power of the clergy can be broken forever in the land, there is every reason to believe that the killing of Imbrie is but a foretaste of more terrible events to come.” This sums it up for anyone who thinks writing letters to Ayas or appeasing them is the way to establish peace in the middle east. Anah... What is happening today, has happened earlier during Safavid dynasty and Qajar dynasty.This is not flu, but chronic malign. Europe has suffered of same reason . مكتوبات ميرزا فتحعلى آخوندزاده بكوشش و مقدمه بهرام چوبينه Owen Allen A clear story how an uneducated, superstitious populace can be manipulated, by more machiavellian minds, to do evil deeds. Superstition is a blindness that allows ‘clever’ men to make the ordinary folk work for a hidden agenda. Dogma can have similar results. Learning how to search for truth in all facets of life is the only peaceful solution. All else leads us to handing over power to the unscrupulous. 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__label__cc	0.584987	0.415013	اثرات افزایش ارزش دلار در بخش تنظیم بازار کار: نظریه و شواهد The effects of dollar appreciation on sectoral labor market adjustments: Theory and evidence این مقاله تقریباً شامل 13185 کلمه می باشد. ترجمه تخصصی - سرعت عادی هر کلمه 12 تومان 18 روز بعد از پرداخت 158,220 تومان Journal : The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Volume 43, Issue 1, 2003, Pages 89–117 ارزش دلار - بازار کار - دستمزد Dollar appreciation, Labor market, Wage We examine the extent to which exchange rate fluctuations affect sectoral employment and wages in the United States. We introduce a theoretical rational expectation model that decomposes movements in the exchange rate into anticipated and unanticipated components. The model demonstrates the effects of demand and supply channels on the response of the nominal wage and labor employment to changes in the exchange rate. The evidence indicates that the deflationary effect dominates on industrial nominal wage in manufacturing and transportation industries in the face of dollar appreciation. More importantly, there is evidence of a decrease in employment growth in several industries in response to dollar appreciation, which is statistically significant in construction and at the aggregate level. This evidence is consistent with a decrease in labor demand given the loss of competitiveness of U.S. products following dollar appreciation. There are negative effects of dollar appreciation on labor market conditions in the United States. Nonetheless, dollar appreciation is consistent with an increase in employment growth in the mining sector where the share of imports is the largest among U.S. industries. Since the agreement to establish flexible exchange rates in the early 1970s, exchange rates of industrial countries, including the United States, have been highly fluctuating. Observed volatility in the exchange rate of the dollar has stimulated a debate in academia and policy arena over what the government response should be. Specifically, it was advocated that the dollar’s appreciation may be responsible for the recession and increase in unemployment during the 1980s. The dollar appreciation decreases the price of foreign goods relative to home goods, decreasing the demand for home goods. In the labor market, the reduction in labor demand is likely to increase unemployment and moderate nominal wage inflation. Nonetheless, the dollar’s appreciation, by pushing down the dollar’s prices of intermediate imported goods, may increase the marginal product of labor and, hence, labor demand. This channel is likely to moderate the adverse effects of the dollar appreciation on employment and the nominal wage. Concerns about the adverse effects on labor markets in the U.S. grew in the wake of the real appreciation of the dollar which appears to have been robust during the 1980s. To illustrate, Graph 1 depicts fluctuations in the nominal and real effective exchange rate of the U.S. dollar between 1970 and 2000. The most striking aspect of fluctuations is the spike centered at 1985. The exchange rate of the dollar appreciated sharply. This appreciation was followed by a severe depreciation after the so-called Plaza Agreement in September 1985.1Nonetheless, the apparent robustness of the dollar appreciation during the 1980s prompted calls that the government should intervene systematically in foreign exchange markets to stabilize the dollar and protect employment and output against the adverse effects created by exchange rate fluctuations. At a disaggregate level, a number of recent studies have attempted to measure the effects of exchange rate fluctuations on economic conditions in industries of the United States. Specifically, empirical studies have considered the claim that sharp appreciation of the dollar after 1985 is responsible for the decline in tradable sectors like manufacturing, agriculture, and forestry products and the relative growth in non-tradable sectors such as services, construction, transportation, and public utilities. Along this line, Maskus (1990) examines the effects of exchange rate risk across major sectors of international trade. His results demonstrate that the exchange rate risk has a negative impact on trade. He also found that the agriculture sector is more sensitive to the exchange rate risk compared to the manufacturing sector. Glick and Hutchison (1990) discuss that previous studies on the effect of the dollar appreciation on manufacturing fail to distinguish between exchange rate changes that are exogenous and changes that are endogenously determined by policy changes and other shocks. For example, a policy-induced exchange rate appreciation arising from a fiscal expansion or monetary contraction has unclear effects on aggregate and sectoral movement. Accordingly, the nature of the disturbance moving the exchange rate in any particular period is essential in analyzing effects on the sectoral allocation of resources. Glick and Hutchison report evidence that the contractionary effect of the dollar appreciation on sectoral output is unstable and sample specific. Revenga (1992) investigates the impact of increased import competition on employment and wages, using data for a panel of U.S. manufacturing industries over the 1977–1987 period. This period captures the dollar’s appreciation during the early 1980s and its subsequent depreciation. Changes in import prices have had large and significant effects on both employment and wages. Nonetheless, the impact of an adverse trade shock on average wages in a particular industry is quite small where most of the adjustment occurs through employment. Campa and Goldberg (1997) discuss that changes in the exchange rate can significantly influence the profitability and performance of U.S. manufacturing industries.2 To measure the sensitivity of domestic manufacturing industries to the dollar fluctuation, one must first examine the channels that transmit such shocks to production activity and, ultimately, to the economy as a whole. Capturing U.S. industrial reliance on international markets involves measuring the extent to which manufacturers sell products to foreign markets, use foreign-made inputs, and more directly compete with foreign manufacturers in domestic markets. The most widely used indicator typically calculated openness to trade by dividing (import+export) revenues of final products to domestic production revenues. This indicator fails to consider the growing use of foreign inputs in the manufacture of domestic goods. Campa and Goldberg (1997) use several measures to capture different industry’s sensitivity to international shocks. The first measure is export shares. Producers with high export shares are likely to be more sensitive to international shocks than producers with a lower export share. They calculate the export share as the ratio of industry export revenues to industry shipments. This measure captures the portion of a producer’s revenues that is generated in foreign markets. Second, import shares, or the ratio of imports to consumption of the industry’s output captures foreign penetration in a particular industry. The industry’s output and employment are also likely to be more sensitive to international shocks when there is a high degree of foreign penetration in domestic markets. Imported input share or imported inputs as a share of the value of production is the third measure for the degree of openness.3 In contrast to the other two measures which provide guidance on the vulnerability of producer revenue to dollar fluctuation and other international forces, the imported input share measure provides a window into the potential sensitivity of a producer to shocks experienced through the cost side of its balance sheets. Finally, they present a measure of net external orientation defined as the difference between industry export share and import share. Campa and Goldberg conclude that industries in the United States show the most volatile patterns in net external orientation. After remaining, on average, primarily export oriented in the 1970s, U.S. industries experienced an increased international exposure in the early to mid 1980s through their reliance on imported inputs in production. In the late 1980s and in the 1990s, export shares grew faster than imported shares, raising the positive net external orientation of U.S. industries. U.S. manufacturing industries have also steadily increased their use of imported inputs in production, on average from 4% in 1975 to more than 8% in 1995 (Table 1).4 The increase in the imported input use across manufacturing was the greatest in the first half of the 1980s, when the U.S. dollar dramatically appreciated and reduced the cost of foreign produced inputs relative to inputs produced domestically. By 1985, imported inputs as a share of total costs in the U.S. manufacturing industries had risen to about 6%. Even after the dollar depreciated in the second half of the 1980s, the presence of imported inputs continued to increase in the United States. Overall, the imported input share has more than doubled in many manufacturing industries over the past two decades, creating concerns regarding the adverse effects of dollar appreciation on employment and production in the manufacturing sector of the U.S. economy. Given demand and supply channels, what are the effects of the dollar appreciation on employment and the nominal wage? We examine the extent to which exchange rate fluctuations affect the U.S. sectoral employment and wage.5Section 2 introduces a theoretical model that decomposes movements in the exchange rate into anticipated and unanticipated compenents using rational expectations. The solution of the model demonstrates the effects of demand and supply channels on labor employment and the nominal wage responses to changes in the exchange rate. Based on these solutions, we formulate, in Section 3, an empirical model for sectoral nominal wage and employment. The model incorporates demand and supply shifts as well as exchange rate shifts. The data under investigation are for average earnings and total hours of all persons by industry according to the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) in the National Income and Product Accounts of the United States. Section 4 presents the empirical results. The estimation highlights the relative importance of exchange rate fluctuations in determining sectoral labor employment and the nominal wage. Section 5 concludes. Overall, the evidence indicates that the deflationary effect dominates on industrial nominal wage in manufacturing and transportation industries in the face of dollar appreciation. More importantly, there is evidence of a decrease in employment growth in several industries in response to dollar appreciation, which is statistically significant in construction and at the aggregate level. This evidence is consistent with a decrease in labor demand given the negative effect of dollar appreciation on foreign demand for U.S. products, raising concerns about the negative effects of dollar appreciation on labor market conditions in the United States. Nonetheless, dollar appreciation is consistent with an increase in employment growth in the mining industry, where the share of imports is the largest among U.S. industries. This investigation has focused on the effect of foreign trade in determining economic conditions in the labor markets of industries in the United States. Towards this investigation, we build a theoretical model that incorporates the effects of exchange rate fluctuations on the demand and supply sides of the economy. We identify three directions for the effects of an unanticipated appreciation of the dollar on the economy. The first channel is on the demand-side through the effects of appreciation in increasing imports and decreasing exports. The result is a contraction of aggregate demand. The second channel is through the effect of appreciation in decreasing the demand for the dollar as agents expect the exchange rate to return to its anticipated steady-state value. The result is an expansion of aggregate demand. On the supply side, appreciation allows producers to buy cheaper intermediate goods. The result is an expansion of the output supplied. The combined effects of the three channels remain indeterminate on variables in the labor market, employment and the nominal wage. We attempt to investigate these effects using sectoral employment and wage data for the United States. The evidence indicates that the deflationary effect of dollar appreciation is more dominant on the nominal wage in manufacturing and transportation industries. More importantly, dollar appreciation decreases the international and domestic demand for U.S. products. The resulting reduction in labor demand is evident by a reduction in employment growth in the majority of industries, which is statistically significant in construction and at the aggregate level. In contrast, the largest share of imports in the mining industry is consistent with a significant increase in employment growth in the face of dollar appreciation. We conclude: despite the small degree of openness of industries in the United States, the results of dollar appreciation decrease employment growth and moderate nominal wage inflation. Accordingly, concerns about the adverse effects of dollar appreciation on labor market conditions are generally supported by the disaggregate and aggregate evidence of employment growth in several industries of the United States. این مقاله شامل 13185 کلمه می باشد. مدیریت خلاقیت در روابط بازار کسب و کار بررسی دوباره دستمزد، اشتغال و ساعات تعدیلات: چه تفاوت در تعدیلات حیاتی است؟ تنظیم بازار کار در اقتصاد آزاد : شواهد از ایالات متحده آمریکا تعدیلات بازار کار برای جهانی سازی:دستمزد بیکاری در مقابل دستمزد نسبی تنظیم بازار کار درون ملی در کشورهای داوطلب	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line167
__label__wiki	0.728992	0.728992	The Legacy of Billy Graham (1918-2018) Mar 3rd, 2018 \| By Dr. Jim Eckman \| Category: Culture & Wordview, Featured Issues The home-going of Billy Graham marks a watershed in American evangelicalism. He received a number of accolades during his life, but perhaps none is more endearing than ?America?s Pastor.? He had his critics, but, for the most part, Graham was universally admired as a man of integrity who preached a consistent, simple message of the Gospel?and that is the heart of his legacy. Why was he such an important figure in American evangelicalism? By the grace of God, why was he able to consistently maintain his reputation as a man of integrity? Russel Moore, President of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, reports that years ago he was sitting in an almost-empty church listening to an Episcopal bishop discuss why Billy Graham was irrelevant. The prelate insisted that it was not Graham the man or his sincerity or his integrity; it was his message: ?Modern people simply cannot accept the supernatural basis of Billy Graham?s gospel. Billy Graham should change his gospel or he will never reach our world as it is.? Someone seated next to Moore turned and said, ?There are 40 people here, and four million listened to Billy Graham in a crusade last night.? Billy Graham rejected the message of theological liberalism, which argued in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that Christianity could only compete with rationalism and secularism if it played down or discarded the supernatural (e.g., the virgin birth, the resurrection, the Second Coming). Graham rejected this and consistently affirmed, ?The Bible says . . . .? Graham kept his singular message focused on the truth of Scripture and the salvation Jesus Christ offered to sinful humanity. Billy Graham was in many ways the face of evangelicalism. In the fundamentalist-modernist controversy of the 1920s and 1930s, fundamentalist Christianity lost control of almost all the major Protestant denominations; theological liberalism triumphed in almost all of them. Additionally, and many historians believe unfairly, the famous Scopes trial of 1925 became a symbol of the narrow-minded, separatistic Christianity of the 20th century. By the 1940s and 1950s many conservative Protestant Christian leaders were dissatisfied with fundamentalism?s image and demeanor, and organized another movement, now generally called evangelicalism. Billy Graham was one of the key leaders of this shift. Evangelicalism was more open and engaged, not separatistic and isolated. It was intellectually respectable, focusing on exegetical study of God?s Word, while giving focus to Christian apologetics and ethics in an increasingly secular culture. For example, in 1956 Graham asked theologian Carl Henry to be the editor of a new publication, Christianity Today, which was to be the evangelical answer to the theological liberal Christian Century. He played a role in the founding of Fuller Theological Seminary and was a strong supporter of the National Association of Evangelicals. Furthermore, in 1953, Graham de-segregated his crusades, removing all ropes and barriers separating blacks and whites at his crusades. In 1957, he invited Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to give the opening prayer at his famous Madison Square Garden crusade in New York City. One of his regular music team members was African-American giant, Ethel Waters. In 1954, he led a crusade at Wembley Stadium in England and gained an admirer in Queen Elizabeth, who invited him to meet with her at Buckingham Palace several times. One of the important and memorable converts in his crusades was Louis Zamperini, whose story was told in the bestseller, Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. A runner in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Zamperini joined the Army Air Corps, serving in the Pacific theater of World War II. He crashed in the Pacific, drifted for 47 days, only to be captured by the Japanese. He spent two years in a Japanese prison camp?beaten, brutalized and tortured. Liberated at the end of the war, Zamperini came back to the US, but, due to his bitterness and anger, his life deteriorated into a cycle of rage, alcoholism and self-destructive behavior. After years of brokenness, in 1964 Zamperini went to hear Billy Graham at one of his crusades. This eventually led Zamperini to place his faith in Jesus Christ. His life was transformed and his rage, alcoholism and bitterness were replaced by the peace, purpose and confidence that resulted from his salvation. Zamperini went on to helping boys as lost as he was and even going to Japan to find the Japanese military officer who tortured him. He came with the message of forgiveness and grace. Only Jesus Christ could have changed a man like Louis Zamperini. Billy Graham was the messenger of that life change! During his long ministry, Billy Graham leveraged technology to reach as many people as he could. It is estimated that 215 million people personally heard him preach the Gospel and that, through all of his media resources, he ultimately reached 2.2 billion people in 185 different countries. These were the various ministries and outreach tools Graham used: The Hour of Decision radio ministry Televised crusades and eventually satellite TV connections worldwide His newspaper column, ?My Answer? Decision magazine World Wide Pictures?a vehicle for dramas that focused on the Gospel. His most famous film was Corrie Ten Boom?s story, Hiding Place. He authored over 30 books, the first one being Peace with God. How did Graham maintain his life of integrity? In 1948, Graham and his team met in Modesto, California and investigated why past evangelists and revivalist ministries often failed. After extensive prayer and discussion, the team settled on these 4 causes: 1. misuse of money; 2. sexual immorality; 3. exaggeration of results; and 4. criticism of other clergy. Therefore, they agreed on Modesto Manifesto, which unswervingly characterized Graham?s ministry: BGEA would conduct regular audits with full disclosure. Never travel alone with a woman other than family. Rely on outsiders to enumerate attendance records. Emphasize agreements not disagreements with other clergy and Christian traditions. Graham?s message was the simplicity of the Gospel message that Jesus? death, burial and resurrection was the answer to the confusion, hurt, pain and dysfunction of a fallen world. Appropriating that finished work by faith brought peace with God. John 3:16 always had a prominent place in his crusades and the well-known ?Just as I am? gospel song closed out his crusades as he invited people to come forward and place their faith in Jesus Christ. His particular focus was never on himself; it was always on Jesus and the salvation He offered. Billy Graham was unique as a preacher, as an evangelist and as a statesman for genuine, biblical Christianity. When he passed into eternity, he heard his Savior say, ?well done!? Only eternity will tell how many others welcomed into heaven! That, above all else, is his legacy. See Peggy Noonan?s column in the Wall Street Journal (24-25 February 2018). PRINT PDF One Comment to “The Legacy of Billy Graham (1918-2018)” Richard Pendell says: The Sermons of Billy Graham are all archived and searchable on-line. The Billy Graham Center Archives are housed at Wheaton College. When I attended there, a favorite story was that Billy was expelled from Wheaton because of a public display of affection with his girlfriend, Ruth, on the steps of Williston Hall. My, how times have changed. His son, Franklin, is definitely out-of-sync with the current liberal climate on that campus. Don’t look for anyone from the BGEA to be invited to speak at chapel there anytime soon. I remember attending one of his Dallas crusades in 1957. It seemed the entire city was there. Oversized video screen technology wasn’t yet well-developed, so overflow crowds of people sat in all the downtown churches and listened to the audio broadcast with only a small screen for the video broadcast. While in high school, I mailed an anonymous hand-written letter, along with one of his printed sermon tracts to every student in my school. I never passed up an opportunity to earn money, so I always had my own means to do whatever I could afford from a very early age. I never told anyone I had done this. The moral climate in public high schools was quite bad by the early 60’s. A biblical world view was often scoffed by science, English and history teachers, most of whom came from KU. Yet, Billy Graham Crusade broadcasts were extremely popular on television and radio and Youth for Christ sponsored highly popular city-wide rallies on Saturday and Sunday evenings. The cynicism/hedonism that characterized the mid-to-late 60’s had not yet set in, though the seeds were definitely there. My grandchildren will never know a time of such widespread peace and innocence.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line168
__label__cc	0.691737	0.308263	Un-Saturday After the past couple of weeks of going out many nights in a row and exhausting myself, it was sort of nice to have a quiet Saturday. I hung out at home and did some reading and writing, then went over to a colleague's house for dinner. It was a big family-style dinner, so we had some fantastic onion soup and a boeuf au tomate (beef in tomato ragout), as well as some fantastic cheese and little sweet dumplings for dessert. Another one of my colleagues was there for dinner, too, and we ended up fixing a date for ceviche at her place in a week or two. Apparently, she knows where to find good sea-bass. Mmmm. Don Giovanni of the Financial District By the time I got home and got to bed the night before, it was really, really late (or rather early, depending on how you see it), so I slept in quite a bit before finally crawling out of bed and taking care of some work. That evening, I had been given tickets to go see Mozart's Don Giovanni at Opéra Bastille with some colleagues from work. It had been a while since I had dressed formally, so I put on a suit and tie and headed off to the opera. Although Mozart's score and Da Ponte's libretto are beautiful, and the musical performances that night were mostly lovely, the mise-en-scène was...um...wrong. I don't want to say "terrible" or "stupid" or whatever, because I think the idea had potential, but the execution was disappointing. The director took the story of a young corrupt noble / shameless ladies' man from 18th-century Spain (and his eventual comeuppance) and re-set it in a steel-and-glass office building. The set is a monochrome blue-grey, showing what seems like a break room / common area downstage, offices and an elevator stage left, and a set of windows looking down over an atrium stage right. Everyone is in business attire (or, for the peasants, janitorial uniforms), Leporello reads his catalog aria from a palm pilot, and this deserted cafeteria stands in for bedroom scenes, outdoor scenes, party scenes and even the final dinner scene. This image, from the Bastille's website for the performance, gives a taste of the staging and costuming: Anyway, the visual palette for the opera was monochrome to say the least, and this also informed the stage direction and musical performances. The performers tended to move very little, often eschewing the stylized expressive gestures that serve as a coded language of affect and emotion in operatic performance. The music was similarly flat; Leporello's catalog aria was smooth and lyric and controlled, rather than buffo and brilliant and campy. Similarly, Donna Anna's rage aria (Me tradisti quell'alma ingrata) sounded more like a Gilbert&Sullivan patter song. In an odd change of libretto, Don Giovanni doesn't deliver his famous canzonetta, Deh, vieni alla finistra, to the maid of a woman he had romanced and abandoned (as a show of how insensitive and promiscuous he is), but instead pathetically to himself, lying on the floor and wrapped in Leporello's jacket. In fact, there were a lot of odd changes. Many humorous or fun scenes were made dark and uncomfortable, often with the goal of painting Don Giovanni as a sadistic rapist. What was wooing in the libretto became aggressive groping onstage; what was flirting became sexual assault and humiliation, and what was ravishing became full-on rape. While one might argue (and I think the director would) that Da Ponte's libretto implies the latter terms when he employs the former ones, this attempt at détournement/verfremdung through making things explicit just seems to result in banality. Modernist deformations of pre-modernist works is now a long-standing tradition, so the effect for me was less "scathing critique" and more "cheap shock value." So, all of this adds up to me saying that the mise-en-scène was wrong. The idea of doing a Don Giovanni--The Office mash-up could've been great, but the end result was preachy and heavy-handed rather than funny and tragic. Meh. Art Openings and Party Crashing So, one of the folks on my floor (we'll call her A. for this post) had received an invitation to an exhibition opening at the Palais de Toyko, which is this fabulous modern art/media gallery next to Paris' modern art museum and across from the Eiffel tower. There was a new exhibition called "News from an upside-down world" (nouvelles du monde renversé), and we had invitations to the opening night party. We had to hurdle a few obstacles to get to the event. The thing started around 20h00, so we were planning to get there at 21h00. I had sent en email to A. from work that morning, telling her to give me a rendez-vous time and place, since she taught an English class somewhere in the 18th arr. until 20h00. Without realizing it, the battery in my cellphone died, so I hung around my roon until nearly 20h00, wondering why A. hadn't emailed or called me back. Finally, one of the other residents on my floor knocked on my door, with his cellphone in hand. "A. wants to talk to you," he said. A very flustered A. told me that we were supposed to meet at her workplace now, but she's going to head back to her place and change since I was still there. Confused, I said OK and hung up. That's when I went to look at my phone and realized that the battery was dead. !@#$. A. got back to our building and put on her party attire. I was feeling guilty about missing the rendez-vous, so I was already dressed and ready to do out when she knocked on my door. A few minutes later, we were on the métro, heading toward our destination. We had initially planned to meet earlier and then grab a bit of dinner before heading over, so neither of us had eaten and we were starved. When we got to the museum, we walked past and headed over to a cluster of bars and brasseries near Pont D'Alma. The place where we finally ended up ("Devéz," which seemed to have unnecessary diacritics as if it were a pseudo-French restaurant in the States) offered tapas-like combinations of food from the south of France. We each got a different combination and then split each of our portions and shared them between each other. The food was mostly delicious, if a bit pricey. 12€ got you six little two-bite portions on a piece of slate (yes, we're in the kind of neighbourhood that invests in "conceptual" dinnerware), but some of those bites involved pan-seared goose foie gras or beef carpaccio. I also had an amusing cultural-learning moment while we were eating. We ordered a half-bottle of white wine, which was poured for us when the waiter brought it out. A little while later, A. had finished her glass. I hadn't finished mine, so I kept cheerfully chatting away. After waiting a moment, A. piped up: "Luis, can you serve me some wine?" The decanter was closer to her, but I nodded and pour some wine into her glass. Perhaps sensing my puzzlement, she said, "Women don't pour their own wine here. It's simply not done." This would explain why, during my sister's visit last November, waiters would lunge across the dining floor to rip the wine bottle out of my sister's hand whenever she made to pour for herself. Mind you, the better waiters always refilled our glasses before we noticed they were empty. By the time we finished our food and got the check, it was getting pretty late. We were supposed to be there for 21h00 and it was 23h00 already. A. had been getting intermittent text messages and calls from the person who invited her to the event, so the pressure was on. We tore back to the museum, convinced that the party was over. When we got there, there was still a pretty substantial crowd of people standing near the door and smoking, and even more inside. A. had lost her glasses that day, so she wasn't entirely sure she would be able to identify her friend from a distance. After wandering around the opening for a little while, we headed into the exhibit. There was a really great installation where someone had filled two large dumpsters with soapy foam and then thrown a coating of light Styrofoam pellets on top. The pellets were light enough to rest on top of the bubbles, but they also broke the surface tension of the bubbles, so they danced downward, bubble to bubble, in a spastic shower. There was another installation that involved towers build out of molded orange rinds. As my friend Amy would say, "Ultimately, it's the concept..." There was also a room dedicated to flags, passports, currency and other documents from imaginary countries and kingdoms. Very cute, if a bit of a one-note act. We didn't see much more of the exhibit, because we got another call from A.'s friend, wondering where the hell we were. We zipped back to the entrance and found him chatting with the staff. As soon as I saw him, I was struck by the fact that he seemed so familiar, but at the same time clearly somebody I didn't know. It was an odd mix of familiarity and estrangement. Anyway, he handed us an invitation, a drink ticket, and a meal ticket (adding a layer of irony to our rather expensive dinner a moment ago). As it turned out, the "invite only" event was going on upstairs, on the second floor. Off we went upstairs, only to find that there was no food left (all was not in vain, it seems) and only a couple of beers left. We got our beer and then A. ran into a few other friends and classmates. We hung around and chatted a bit, then A.'s friend (the one that had an internship at the museum) invited the group of us to come out to a courtyard area near the administrative offices. While everyone smoked (tobacco and otherwise), I sat down and struck up conversation with the folks around me. I got into a friendly chat with a girl across from me with long blond dreadlocks and white eyeliner. She was really excited that I was from Canada and had great things to say about my French (which was greatly appreciated, given my recent misgivings), so she turned to her friend and initiated the following conversation: Blonde Dreadlocked Girl: Hey! This guy is from Toronto, and his French is excellent! Brunette: Well, duh. He's Québecois, and they speak French there. BDG: No no, he's from Toronto. It's the anglophone side of Canada. Brntte: Ah. I always confuse Canada with Quebec. forced smile I made a split-second decision, based on the crowd and the amount of intoxicants circulating said crowd, and didn't bother to bring them up to date on the last century of Canadian anglo-franco domestic politics. At around 1am, the group suddenly realized two important things: 1) the last subway train would be passing very soon; and 2) there was no more alcohol. We slowly made our way out of the building, chatting and generally getting lost in the darkened hallways. As we were heading out of the building, the brunette grabs my arm, saying "Hey, if you want to keep partying, stick with us. There's an afterparty nearby. I think you should come with us, 'cause you're cool. I once 'flirted' [this term in French is a euphemism in the way 'date' often is in English, -ed.] with this guy from Québec...he was really hot...and, you know, Canadians have such a different mindset. Not stuck up like the folks here, don't you think?" So, to sum up, this girl had proven to be rather under-informed about Canada and its politics, smitten with a rather idealized notion of Canadians (in a "love for the colonies" sort of way), and possibly hitting on me (why are girls hitting on me so much here in Paris?!). On the other hand, she was very friendly and she invited me to an afterparty. So, I nodded and said something non-committal about Montreal being "laid back" and followed them, with A. in tow. The party was actually in the sub-sub basement of the Palais de Tokyo, which was accessible from a long set of stairs right next to the building, which ran down the side of the hill upon which the palais was perched. At the bottom was a small (now dry and barren) garden; at the other end of the garden was an unmarked metal door leading back into the building, where it seemed that the partygoers had taken over an unfinished storage area. The music must've been really loud inside, because we could hear noise when we were only half-way down the hill. Just as we arrived at the foot of the hill and approached the garden, a pair of police officers walked passed us and approached the door. As a result, only half of our group got through the door before the person opening the door spotted the police and slammed it shut. The officers began asking the rest of us who was in charge of the party, and whether they had clearance to hold the event. Since I was truly a random arrival, I had no clue, but anybody who did kept their mouth shut anyway. After getting nowhere with us, one of the officers approached the door and knocked on it. Since the door had no peephole, and possibly presuming that the officers had left, the doorman opened the door. When he saw the officer standing there, his expression fell. He said, curtly, "This is a private event," and closed the door. This is the wrong way to deal with the police in Paris. What you're supposed to do is invite them in, apologize about the inconvenience, promise to turn down the volume, and then bribe them. The officers were not pleased. It's funny how moments like these are never clean, fast-paced narratives like you might see in a movie. Many minutes were passed repeating the same questions and non-answers, shrugging and pacing, waiting for someone else to make a move. The door opened and closed several times and wiser people began to leave the party, avoiding the questions from the police officers. One guy stumbled out, obviously drunk, and began yelling at everyone outside for "bringing the cops." He was getting physically and verbally aggressive, until he realized the the police were still there and they were reaching for their nightsticks. And then, as if some decision had been made, the lights came on inside, the music cut off, the crowd booed, and people began leaving the building. The doorman, himself clearly drunk and/or high, stuck his head out the door and said "The party is over!" He went back into the building, but the police officers made no show of leaving. Clearly, they were going to talk to him whether he liked it or not. A few minutes later, A. reappeared (she had made it inside) and we decided to cut our losses and get back home before the last train (which was coming any minute). We scrambled into the station and caught the last train heading for République. A few minutes in, the train stopped and we heard a message saying "Due to a grave incident médicale, service has been interrupted on all lines running through Nation station." Everybody took the phrase 'grave incident médicale' to mean 'suicide by subway,' and braced themselves for a wait, cracking awkward jokes that all translated to: "I realize this is awful, but it sucks that some guy killed himself and delayed my ride home." A. was getting saltier and saltier, as it was becoming clear that we wouldn't make our connection at République. The train started up again, but then stopped one station before République. We got out and asked the train conductor if he knew when it would start up again, but he had no clue. After a moment's consideration, we headed up to the surface and walked towards République, accompanied by a young guy named Momo (a common N. African nickname), who had been on the train with us. He worked at a grocery store near République, and he lived in the banlieue (burbs), so he decided to head back to the store and sleep there that night. A. and I thought about taking the night bus (which passed right by République), but instead decided to call a cab. However, before getting into the cab, I snapped a picture of this fantastic thing: Partially obscured by a nearby building, this lit sign was hanging high atop a wall (nearly 6th floor), with the words "Cry Me a River" in rainbow colours. I don't know what it's all about, but I plan on investigating. Labels: Fooding, Partying mercredi, janvier 31, 2007 DJ Does Paris ...so to speak. Well, I'm a bit behind on my blog entries, so I don't have the time to crack jokes at his expense and/or make ribald insinuations--much as I'd like to. Sorry, DJ, I'll make it up to you soon. In the meanwhile, here's the Reader's Digest version of Wednesday: DJ--a colleague from U of C working on Jazz in Paris--arrived this morning at CDG and I headed over there to meet him. His plane arrived a bit early, so I caught him just as he was heading over towards the RER station. I gave him a hand with his luggage and we were off to his new abode in Paris. After a thoroughly pleasant ride (haha) back to his place by subway and bus, we unloaded, had a drink, and set off to search for lunch. First, we tried to grab lunch at Les Trois Marmites, which is a favourite of his. It was closed. We headed over to a Pho restaurant that I am fond of (the same as last Sunday) called Tin Tin. It was closed. Finally, we headed to a Thai place nearby (I can't remember the name for the life of me), where we finally got some food. I had this fantastic dish that was just a bunch raw vegetables and then this very spicy ground chicken sauce. I really like the idea of it, and I think I'm going to adapt it to beef+south american spices. I love the mixture of cold, fresh, raw vegetables with well-prepared meat. DJ had a pile of shellfish, which he seemed to enjoy a whole lot. After a bit of coffee, we were off and went our separate ways home. When I got home, someone had again managed to hog so much bandwidth on the network (with filesharing programs, no doubt), thus making it impossible for anyone else to get onto the network. I turned off the WiFi radio for a moment, blocked all the ports associated with filesharing, and then started it back up. Already there was a substantial decrease in traffic. So, I spent the next couple of hours doing the same thing to the other two network routers. It's not a perfect fix, but hopefully it'll "throttle" the bandwidth use a little bit. In the evening, I went out with an old friend from my high-school exchange program days (in Le Mans), who took me to a restaurant/wine-bar called Le Domaine Léopold. Since I had already eaten a bit earlier that day, I didn't order a whole stack of food. Nonetheless, I ordered a plate of foie gras (of duck), which came with a bit of salad and some potatoes. The foie gras was AMAZING. I just ate it with a sprinkling of sea-salt and some bread and couldn't stop. Of course, I still had room for several glasses of wine and a bit of dessert (caramel-centred fondant tart). After that, we headed off to the métro and headed our separate ways home. Voilà! A short description of what was actually a rather full day. More to come tomorrow... Wikipedia: the Timesuckening Not since the hectic days of my undergrad have I experienced timesuck like this. Timesuck is an apparent loss of time, bordering on a petit mal seizure, where an activity or object engages you so thoroughly that you lose track of time passing. Sometime later, you jolt back into the present flow of time, realize how much time you've "wasted" and dash of to the next task for which you are now hopelessly late. Today, on the venerable MetaFilter, I came across a thread that offered a link to Wikipedia's own listing of Unusual Articles. Don't click on that last link if you value your time! I spent huge chunks of today reading the articles on this gargantuan list, then clicking on the articles linked from those articles, and so on down a spiralling hole of knowledge. Illumination through knowledge mon oeil! It felt more like a dark labyrinth. Anyway, I did get some work done today, despite my significant distractions, but I'll admit to being far less productive than usual. Unfortunately, the OCD part of me won't allow me to continue with anything until I check out all the entries on that list. So much trivia still to know! mardi, janvier 30, 2007 Life Stages and Life Insurance This is another one of those "my day was too unexceptional to warrant a major post, so here's something else" posts. My day can be mostly summarized by the French phrase "boulot, apéro, dodo" (work, [post-work, pre-dinner] drink, sleep). Dinner actually came before the apéro; I had skipped lunch, so I ate a really early dinner (6pm). Then, a certain next-door neighbour--let's call him P.--invited me to drink wine and hang out in his room listening to music. I didn't want to be antisocial. I also didn't want to turn down good, free wine. Several hours later, I went back to my room, cleaned the place up, did a bit of catch-up blogging, and then hit the sack. Voilà, my day. So, I took these pictures of an advertisement I saw in a bus shelter on the way home a week ago: So, this is an advertisement for La Poste's insurance trust, Vivaccio (the postal service here also offers banking and insurance, for reasons that are probably historically interesting). The ad type translates to "Vivaccio life insurance: because one can live many lives in one life." What I found interesting in this image is how the "many lives" of their (presumably male) audience are portrayed. You've got: Baby Life: a relatively conventional representation of an infant, but no toddler/child/tween stages. Teen/Young Adult Life: already approaching the workforce and/or higher education (with a tie?), although the hair is indy-boy-messy and the guy is clutching a guitar. Adult/Middle-Age Life: neater hair, full suit, cell phone and document envelope. Mid-Life Crisis Life: greying hair, receding hairline, visible jawline (double-chin?)...but also Hawaiian shorts (which is not common swimwear in France, as I've noted before), a surfboard, and no shirt. Old Age Life: no longer engaging in youthful sports, this old man is now dressed in age-appropriate fashion (collared shirt and sweater-vest, slacks) and engaging in more sedentary hobbies (painting). And he's wearing glasses, now. I'm particularly interested in the representation of the teen life and the mid-life crisis life. I'd imagine that an equivalent rendering of the teen in an American ad would involve a rock concert t-shirt or A&F pseudo-sports-team shirt with baggy jeans and a reversed ball-cap. This character in fact seems to be referencing the early-20s phase. In a country where there are many viable and respectable alternatives to university study, it isn't out of the ordinary for someone to be working full-time or in an internship by their early twenties. So this seems to reference a post-school, career-oriented youth culture participant that doesn't seem to figure us an archetype in North America. I'm also amused by the mid-life crisis guy. Perhaps this is partially fuelled by the social services system and union pension plans that are widely available throughout France, which allow people to retire earlier than they would in the States or Canada. One of my old friends from my high-school language exchange program has a father who worked until 40-something as a train conductor and now lives the happily retired life, tending his garden, running marathons, travelling all over, and making jams and preserves. Sure, North Americans certainly have their mid-life crises, but they usually keep on working, and it's usually seen precisely as a moment or a passage, rather than a prolonged stage. Well, feeling rather amused and completely under-interpellated by the ad, I snapped a few pics of it and waited for my bus. I wonder what "perpetual doctoral student" would look like in this ad? Labels: PublicCulture dimanche, janvier 28, 2007 You know too much First, my day: Slept in Went to an art show in a squat near Belleville, called "Fragile," which was all art based on and around the body. The works themselves were hit or miss, but some of it I really liked. There was one video installation called Allumettes, which was time-lapse footage of a book of matches burning. The shots were taken from the side, so what looked at first like one match would eventually flower into a twisted bouquet of charred wood. I don't know why, but it was beautiful. A friend and neighbour, who had accompanied me to the art exhibition, came with me to a Vietnamese restaurant on the other side of the Belleville métro station, where I had some delicious, delicious pho (apparently pronounced "feu"). This time, I didn't go for the "special" pho (with tripe, tendons and nerves). Got home and blogged and emailed and generally tried hard to wrap up the previous week's business. So, I've been noticing something about me over the past week, but I've only thought to comment about it now. I've always thought that there were three basic stages in language acquisition: Total know-nothing beginner. You sould like a moron and you have real trouble articulating yourself. You're familiar with the language. Although your pronunciation and vocabulary aren't perfect, you can speak with ease and you begin to feel confident about your proficiency. You're fluent. People mistake you for a native speaker. You're a linguistic rockstar. What I've come to realize is that there's actually an intermediary step that I was unaware of: You're familiar with the language. Although your pronunciation and vocabulary aren't perfect, you can speak with ease and you begin to feel confident about your proficiency. You're making tons of subtle errors that make you sound "foreign," but you can't tell and you manage to make yourself understood. Now that you've absorbed the "feel" of the language, you begin to realize how many glaring errors you are still making, and you become hesitant and halting in your speech. I've noticed this because I recently plunged into this new stage. It seems like I've finally absorbed something like a Chomsky-esque "deep structure" of French, which has made me all the more aware of my lack of proficiency. What makes this difficult is that I can't produce idiomatic and "natural" French phrases, but I can totally detect them; I can now read English-French translations and say, "That's correct, but it doesn't really sound French," without knowing how or why. As lovely as this sort of subconscious knowledge may be, it has also rendered me hyper-aware of how un-idiomatic all my utterances are. All of a sudden, I've lost the smooth confidence I had only a few weeks ago--even though I know objectively that my French has improved overall. So, the result is that the French that I DO produce tends to be much better and "natural," but I'm a lot slower and I tend to obsessively correct myself. Agh! This is especially frustrating because so much of socializing in nightlife (i.e. clubs) relies on a "smooth" experience. Too many pauses, errors or breaks risk causing me to lose my rapport with the people I'm interacting with. Also, I think my English is getting worser.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line174
__label__wiki	0.691685	0.691685	Category: June 2017 - Appointments & Announcements Speedcast International Limited announced that satellite industry veteran Toni Lee Rudnicki has joined the company in the newly created role of Vice President of Global Marketing. A highly accomplished senior level marketing executive, Ms. Rudnicki has successfully defined and implemented marketing and branding strategies for both private and public companies. The appointment of Ms. Rudnicki is the latest step in the company's effort to strengthen its leadership team as it capitalizes on the growing demand for high quality, always available global communications. Previously Ms. Rudnicki served as the Chief Marketing Officer for iDirect where she drove the transformation of iDirect into a leading brand within the satellite industry. Just prior to joining Speedcast, Ms. Rudnicki had been responsible for marketing and business development for the Agilis Business Unit of ST Engineering in Singapore. In her position as Vice President of Global Marketing, Ms. Rudnicki will be responsible for all global marketing activities including branding, messaging, strategic marketing, vertical marketing, analyst relations, advertising, public relations, alliance marketing, and marketing communications. PineBridge Investments announced the appointment of Lisa Wang as Head of Marketing & Communications for Asia, based in Hong Kong. She joins PineBridge from State Street Global Advisors, where she was Head of Marketing, Asia Pacific, responsible for developing multichannel strategy marketing plans. Lisa Wang has more than a decade of B2B and B2C marketing experience in the asset management industry. At PineBridge, her responsibilities will include driving marketing and communications strategies aligned with the region’s investment and business objectives and enhancing brand awareness within both institutional and retail channels. Wang holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Michigan. She was recognized as a Rising Marketing Star by the Association of National Advertisers and named as one of Campaign Asia’s 2016 40 under 40. Gamma, a fast-growing Southeast Asia-based ad selling platform, announced a partnership with MediaMath to deliver localized, highly-targeted ad inventory for advertisers. Gamma is the first supply side platform (SSP) focused purely on monetizing Southeast Asian publishers. Advertisers will be able to programmatically target audiences across Gamma’s ecosystem of over 5,000 publishers in Southeast Asia for desktop, mobile, video and mobile applications, using specific metrics including age, gender, demographics and others. Launched in December 2016, Gamma is the offshoot of regional digital marketing player Ambient Digital. In just six months, the Southeast Asia focused platform has built strong local relationships across the region. As part of its strategic growth plan, Gamma continues to grow relationships with publishers throughout Southeast Asia, and is looking to expand partnerships into North Asia, Greater China, Australia and South Korea. Foursquare, the location intelligence company, announced new and expanded partnerships with industry-leading companies in Asia as well as the expansion of its Asia-based team, that offers on-the-ground technical support and local language fluency, and works hand-in-hand with partners as they design location-powered products. The leadership includes: • Jeremy Geiger, Head of Enterprise Business, Asia-Pacific: Jeremy has more than 15 years of experience bringing data-oriented enterprise technology companies into China, Korea, Japan, India, Australia and SE-Asia. Formerly the Founder & CEO at Retailigence, Jeremy understands the power of mobile location data and the needs of Asian enterprise customers. • Allen Wu, Senior Business Development Manager: Allen's expertise, honed from years at Baidu, Lenovo, Dell and Nokia, expands and deepens Foursquare's relationships with a rapidly growing number of international developers and internet and hardware companies. • Hyounil Choi, Senior Technical Account Manager: Hyunil has years of experience in technical, product and implementation roles at Korea-based Naver and Japan-based LINE, and played a key role in Germany-based SAP's expansion in China. Foursquare powers location data for Samsung, Apple, Twitter, Reddit and 100,000 other developers. Its business solutions also include Pinpoint, Attribution, Pilgrim SDK and Foursquare Analytics, which empower brands to understand and connect to targeted audiences as well as measure foot traffic and advertising success. China Telecom and Telenor Connexion just celebrated their strategic partnership based on the common Internet of Things (IoT) Open Platform at the launch event of “eSurfing on the Silk Road, IoT with the World” in Shanghai, China. This common platform enables both companies to serve their respective customers throughout the combined footprints across China, Europe and other Asian regions. The partnership will allow customers from China Telecom and Telenor Connexion to deploy IoT and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) services in each other’s network. It enables China Telecom’s multi-national enterprise customers with outbound IoT business to deploy their assets and offerings under Telenor Connexion’s networks in the European and other Asian Markets. Similarly, Telenor Connexion’s global customers can enjoy the benefits of the rapidly growing Chinese market by leveraging on China Telecom’s IoT network resources and business capabilities. The seamless switching of IoT subscription between networks is achieved by the integration of the two commonly deployed eUICC platforms which are the key component of IoT collaboration across borders. China Telecom and Telenor Connexion will cooperate both commercially and technically to create new service models that support the global IoT opportunities. Under this agreement, Telenor Connexion will be one of China Telecom’s preferred partners for connectivity in Europe and other Asian regions while China Telecom will also be Telenor Connexion’s preferred partner for connectivity in China based on the DCP platform and ecosystem. Both companies also agreed to jointly explore the potential of enhancing existing IoT capabilities and the application of new technologies such as NB-IOT and LTE-M in the global market. Havas announced the appointment of Anthony Freedman in the newly created role of Chairman, Havas Group Australia and New Zealand. Freedman will oversee a team of almost 500 people across Havas Sydney, Havas Melbourne, Havas New Zealand, Havas Media, Host, One Green Bean and Red Agency, with offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Auckland. He will be supported by five CEOs, Anthony Gregorio and Mike Wilson who continue in their current roles as Group CEO Havas and Group CEO Havas Media, across Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland, James Wright, CEO Red Agency, Carl Ratcliff, CEO One Green Bean and Laura Aldington who is appointed CEO Host after significant success leading the agency as Managing Director. James Wright will also assume additional responsibilities, with the roll out of Red Agency across APAC, following its successful launch in Singapore last year, as well as taking on the newly created role of Chief Commercial Officer, Havas Group Australia/New Zealand. Freedman’s appointment across both creative and media agencies follows the March announcement of a global restructure in which the creative and media businesses became business units under one regional P&L, providing clients with a more agile and seamless experience. This is a further next step in the Group’s Together strategy, following the roll out of 48 Havas Villages across the world, bringing together Havas agencies of different disciplines within a single location. Freedman’s relationship with Havas began in 2011 following the acquisition of 51% of Host and One Green Bean, agencies that he founded in 2000 and 2007, respectively. AdAsia Holdings announced the appointment of Vivian Yen as Vice President, Taiwan. Yen previously held leadership roles in media agencies and ad tech companies including General Manager of MediaCom Taiwan, Vice President of ZenithOptimedia Taiwan, and Chief Executive Officer of Advanced Pioneer International, which was later sold to Group M. Prior to joining AdAsia Holdings, Yen was also an investor in several e-commerce and travel tech companies, and a marketing consultant for marketing tech and data analytics firms. Yen will drive business growth for AdAsia Holdings’ Taiwan office and oversee the company’s sales teams in Taiwan. This move closely follows the appointment of Vivek Misra as VP, Corporate Strategy. Since starting out in April 2016, AdAsia Holdings has expanded to 10 cities in nine countries, with a global headcount of over 130 staff. The company offers end-to-end solutions across online display, native and video advertising, and influencer marketing. Havas announces the appointment of celebrated creative personality Valerie Madon to the dual role of Chief Creative Officer for Southeast Asia and Creative Lead for GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) business for APAC. In her new role, Valerie will be responsible for the creative output of all Havas agencies in Southeast Asia. Working closely with the creative leads from the nine markets, where the agency has a presence, she will play an important role in advancing Havas’ creative ambitions in the region by helping to build a solid creative foundation for the network through regional collaboration. Additionally, in her concurrent role as Creative Lead on GSK in Asia Pacific, she will be responsible for delivering world-class creative output on the key global and regional brands managed out of Havas’ GSK Hub in Singapore. Valerie joins the agency from Facebook, where she was the Head of Creative Shop for Southeast Asia. Prior to that, she was the Global ECD on Shell Lubricants at JWT concurrently holding the role of Chief Creative Officer in Singapore. She started her career with digital agency XM Asia and has also had a long stint with Leo Burnett/Arc and later Publicis Modem. She will report into Vishnu Mohan, CEO of Havas Group, Southeast Asia & India and will work closely with Christian Pattman, the Executive Global Client Director of GSK at Havas APAC. R/GA announced Bob Mackintosh as VP Executive Creative Director, APAC. He will be based at R/GA Sydney in the newly-created role, which will also include creative stewardship of R/GA’s Singapore, Shanghai and Tokyo offices. The multi-award-winning Mackintosh spent 11 years at Host Sydney, most recently as Executive Creative Director, overseeing celebrated campaigns for Air New Zealand, Coca-Cola, LEGO, Pizza Hut, IKEA and Virgin Mobile. His work has been recognized by global and local competitions including Cannes Lions, One Show, D&AD and AWARD, where he has also served as a judge. Prior to Host, Mackintosh was Digital Creative Director of Tequila / TBWA Sydney, overseeing global campaigns for New Line Cinema, Nissan, Absolut and Sony Playstation. The announcement follows a period of concerted business growth and creative success for R/GA in APAC, including the recent opening of a Tokyo office and multiple wins at D&AD, ADC, AWARD, the Webby and Shorty Awards. Bloomberg Media announced the appointment of Andrew Benett as Global Chief Commercial Officer, who takes on the newly created role and will serve on the organization’s executive leadership team. Benett will assume global responsibility for Bloomberg Media's sales, advertising operations, integrated franchises, consulting and marketing services, as well as efforts to institutionalize innovation across the commercial organization. Based out of Bloomberg LP’s global headquarters in New York City, Benett’s appointment is effective immediately. He will report to Bloomberg Media CEO Justin B. Smith. As Global Chief Commercial Officer, Benett will accelerate Bloomberg Media’s commercial success through the transformation of its business model from a media owner to an integrated marketing services and consulting entity, evolving from core advertising sales to a consultative, client centric business model. Under Benett’s stewardship, Bloomberg Media will deliver integrated consulting, marketing services and media, driven "from and for" Bloomberg's highly influential audience across six complementary pillars: business and brand consulting, audience insight and development, marketing strategy, integrated marketing communications, corporate communications and content marketing organizational design. Benett brings nearly 20 years of experience in leading and driving business transformation across large and complex organizations within marketing services, consulting and corporate environments. He spent the last 13 years of his career at Havas Creative Group, a leading marketing communications business at the center of creativity, media and technology, where he rose up through the ranks and ultimately assumed the role of Global CEO of Havas Creative Group. As Global CEO, Benett oversaw all aspects of the organization including full P&L responsibility, corporate strategy, operations, finance, people, culture and product, and led its turnaround. He co-authored three books on corporate strategy and talent, and is a frequent subject matter expert on growth strategy and marketing innovation. Benett has received numerous industry recognitions, and is 2012 Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute. AdAsia Holdings, a technology company developing solutions in artificial intelligence and advertising, has announced the appointment of Vivek Misra as Vice President of Corporate Strategy. Misra will lead AdAsia Holding’s corporate strategy arm, spanning product and solution strategy, strategic partnerships, and sales enablement. He joins AdAsia Holdings from AppNexus, where he was Senior Engagement Manager of APAC, having helped drive traction for a client portfolio spanning publishers, ad tech companies and agency buyers. Prior to AppNexus, Misra was a Value Architect at Accenture’s Analytics and Digital group, pitching and delivering advanced analytics and digital strategy solutions to enterprises. He kickstarted his career at DBS Bank, where he became Vice President of Equity Derivatives Trading, Treasuries and Markets. Havas Singapore announces the promotion of Andrew Hook, the current ECD of Singapore operations to the role of Chief Creative Officer. In his new role, Andrew will be responsible for the creative output of Havas Singapore and will continue to work across new and existing clients. Andrew’s creative leadership has been integral to the transformation of the agency over the past two years. In 2016, Havas Singapore won 11 large new businesses including local and regional work for Netflix, Porsche, CIMB Bank and SMU. The agency also registered 95% talent retention and won multiple awards, including a bronze at the Campaign Southeast Asia Agency of the Year 2016 Awards. Hailing from Auckland, New Zealand, Andrew started his career at boutique shop Generator and moved to Singapore in 2005. Prior to Havas, he worked at Batey Ads and DDB, across a range of clients including Qatar Airways, Audi, Health Promotion Board and Tiger Beer. His work has also been widely recognised at local and international shows, including Cannes, Spikes, One Show, and D&AD. TBWA Worldwide announced the promotion of Chris Garbutt to the role of Global Chief Creative Officer. Garbutt will spearhead creative direction and development for the TBWA collective at large, overseeing the creative product across TBWA's roster of global clients that includes adidas, Accenture, Apple, McDonald's, Michelin and Nissan, among others. In his prior role as Global Creative President, Garbutt implemented a creative vision built upon and executed against the kind of disruptive strategies that are hallmarks of TBWA, while demanding a much higher level of craft. He's built a strong global creative collective of connected but distinct agencies, and has been instrumental in attracting new clients and talent to the company. He has also introduced internal programs that encourage unconventional creative thinking and collaboration on the agency's top brands. Evidence of the success of his efforts abounds with the New York agency more than doubling its revenue since he joined. Industry recognition has followed, with TBWA ranked as a top-3 network at the 2017 D&AD awards, a top-5 network at the 2017 One Show, and more than doubling its award tally at both shows year-over-year across a diverse array of brands and geographies. With Garbutt's promotion, Hunt becomes Creative Chairman of TBWA Worldwide, formally passing TBWA's creative leadership to Garbutt. Hunt will continue working with the collective as Creative Chairman from South Africa, aiding Garbutt where the greatest needs exist across the TBWA collective. Garbutt returned to TBWA in 2015 from Ogilvy & Mather East in New York, where he served as Chief Creative Officer. As CCO, his oversight and leadership spanned all agency disciplines, and he is credited with award-winning campaigns for Coca-Cola, IBM and Tiffany & Co. Previously, Garbutt was Chief Creative Officer of the network's Paris office, where he propelled the agency to new creative heights producing global campaigns for Dove, Google, Perrier, Louis Vuitton's 'Journeys' campaign and IBM's 'Smarter Cities.' In 2014, Garbutt was ranked #1 CCO in the world by Directory's Big Won. Advertising Age also named him one of the most awarded Chief Creative Officers in the world that same year. He has won over 100 Cannes Lions in his career, including three Grand Prix awards, as well as top honors in The One Show, D&AD, Webbys, Clios and Art Directors Club awards. A native of Cape Town, South Africa, Garbutt began his career in Johannesburg as a Creative Director at TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris, where he spent four years working under the tutelage of Hunt. Nearly half of Indonesia’s smartphone users not satisfied with their default browsers Tableau announced the general availability of Tableau 10.3, including its first-ever “smart” features. This new release features automated tables and recommendations powered by machine learning algorithms that simplify the search for the right data, resulting in deep data-driven insights faster than ever before. With the combination of new data-driven alerts alongside the automated tables, users can instantly receive notifications as their data crosses a pre-set threshold, ensuring they never miss an important change in their organisation. With governments pushing ahead with Smart Nation initiatives and data analytics as a much sought-after skill, these automated features can help make data analytics an intuitive task for any worker, allowing organisations of all sizes to easily analyse, visualise, and share information. Tableau 10.3 is another big step towards the company’s mission of helping everyone see and understand data. The full features list for Tableau 10.3 is available at www.tableau.com/new-features/10.3 MediaMath announced the launch of its operations in South Korea to better support brands and agencies in the region. With the appointment of Wishmedia as the official reseller in the country, the launch marks MediaMath’s 43rd country of operation, further signifying the company’s commitment to the Asia Pacific region, following the recent launches in India, Singapore, Tokyo and Australia. South Korea saw a programmatic spend of $237 million in 2014, and is poised to be the biggest real-time bidding market in the region by 2018. As the region continues to adopt programmatic marketing as the way to leverage data and advanced digital technologies, MediaMath believes that Wishmedia’s familiarity with the local market, combined with its network of potential clients, and expertise in the use of MediaMath’s technology solutions will help shape the future of marketing in the country. Havas Indonesia announces a slew of new business wins, following an intensive period of pitching, which includes Emirates Airlines, Indonesia Stock Exchange, A&W Restaurants and Nikki (a brand of Nojorono Tobacco). The Emirates win will see Havas, which currently manages the media account add the creative mandate of the airlines. The appointment by A&W Restaurants also extends to both creative and media disciplines with the account being serviced by an integrated Havas Village team, as it also does for Indonesia Stock Exchange. Additionally, Havas Indonesia will manage the ATL, Digital and Activation duties of the Nikki brand. Havas rolled out its “Together” strategy in Indonesia in May 2016 with the launch of Havas Village Indonesia that currently houses 250 professionals from media, creative and specialist brands, all working together under one roof. June 2017 - Mobile Marketing & Apps Welcome to the brave new world of Adblockers Messenger services – opportunity or digital security risk? A global network for IoT devices that has been brought to life for having no limits Unengaged, unmotivated, uninspired: Do these three words describe your workforce? Zenith’s Media Consumption Forecast 2017 Mobile-first Indexing and what website operators should consider to meet with success Keep up with the times - mobile ready, mobile friendly, mobile first Optimize templates for smartphones and don’t allow Outlook to thwart newsletters China Mobile and ZTE Corporation launched a live 5G field test RelevanTech’s app discovery tool allows Glispa to reach large, targeted audiences Hootsuite's ‘Amplify for Selling’ aims for boosting sales Adobe prepares for a mobile-first world Experiencing the future of search with Google Lens and its AI-powered computer vision Foursquare expands presence In Asia with new and expanded partnerships Machine learning upends rules of mobile marketing Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute and NTU launch its first institute in Asia to develop digital solutions for the industry Hazard source “Mobile Banking”	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line176
__label__wiki	0.653073	0.653073	Shale oil and the illusion of US energy independence Idlib’s Uncertain Future What the Saudi Monarchy Wants From the U.S. Gerald M. Feierstein This article was first published on . Like many capitals around the world, Riyadh is waiting anxiously to understand more about the direction the Trump administration intends to take on Mideast policy. The Saudis undoubtedly welcomed the departure of President Barack Obama, who they increasingly viewed as a source of constant disappointment and frustration, as much as they will welcome the advent of new leadership in Washington. On Nov. 9, King Salman sent a warm message congratulating Trump and wishing him “every success in your missions to achieve security and stability in the Middle East region and the world as a whole.” There is certainly some reason for the Saudis to believe that there will be a greater congruity of interests between the United States and Saudi Arabia with the new administration, based on the statements that the new president made on the campaign trail. The Saudis will undoubtedly welcome a U.S. regional posture that confronts Iranian bad behavior more aggressively, as the Kingdom is unwilling to allow the thaw in U.S.-Iran relations during Obama’s tenure to color its determination to challenge Tehran’s hegemonic ambitions. At the same time, they will watch carefully to ensure that a more robust U.S. posture vis-à-vis an aggrandizing Iran does not translate into a conflict that could become uncontrollable and substantially undermine security and stability in the region. Although not speaking officially for the government of Saudi Arabia, Prince Turki al-Faisal likely reflects official Saudi views when he advocates against abandoning the Iran nuclear agreement. Trump and the Sunni Powers Despite recent differences between Saudi Arabia and Egypt over regional policies, the Saudis will also take some comfort from signals that the Trump administration is likely to set aside concerns about Egyptian domestic policies and embrace the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi more wholeheartedly. The Saudis will see a willingness in Washington to focus on the pursuit of common interests in the fight against violent extremism and global terrorism while deprioritizing issues of democratization, human rights, and civil liberties as an approach that will reduce friction with the new administration and allow for greater cooperation not only bilaterally but more broadly between the United States and the Sunni Arab world. Despite the positive elements of President Trump’s limited comments on foreign policy issues while campaigning, there are also aspects of the new administration’s pronouncements that could create problems for the Saudis. The Kingdom will probably not see the prospect of a closer U.S.-Russian arrangement in the Middle East as purely negative. But they will be concerned if that greater cooperation undercuts the moderate Syrian opposition and undermines the prospect of regime change in Damascus. The Saudis will interpret the long-term survival of the Bashar Assad regime in Syria as a gift to Tehran, strengthening Iran’s hand in the region and reinforcing Iranian encirclement of the Arabian Peninsula. As a presidential candidate, Trump also oddly echoed President Obama’s misinformed assertions that the Saudis were not shouldering a fair burden of responsibility for their defense, demanding that the Saudis “pay billions” for U.S. security guarantees. However, Saudi Arabia’s defense budget is in fact the third highest in the world, trailing only the United States and China, and Riyadh spends a greater percentage of its gross domestic product on the purchase of defense goods and services than even the United States. The Saudis will be at pains early on to explain their defense posture to the new administration, however with the confirmation last week of Gen. James Mattis as defense secretary, they will at the very least have an interlocutor at the Pentagon who understands the reality of U.S.-Saudi defense cooperation in detail. Riyadh and Radicalism Troubling, too, have been the assertions by several in the Trump camp that equate Saudi Arabia’s Salafi religious sect with Islamic extremism and with terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. The Saudis have thus far declined to meddle in issues related to Muslims and Islam in the United States, and they will hope that these issues will fade from the new Trump administration’s lexicon as the focus shifts from campaigning to governing. But that silence will be short-lived should campaign rhetoric translate into unfavorable policies toward the Kingdom. Their concern will be particularly great if those policies threaten the security and well being of the nearly 35,000 Saudis currently studying in U.S. colleges and universities. The Saudis will also be watching to see whether assertions about Saudi links, official or unofficial, to global terrorism affect the willingness of the Trump administration to work with Congress to amend or discard the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, or JASTA, perhaps the most significant potential friction point in the U.S.-Saudi relationship. Trump said little about JASTA during the election, and although his campaign condemned President Obama's veto of the legislation, his views on the matter remain murky. As a businessman, the president-elect may be inclined to see JASTA as an unwelcome impediment to U.S.-Saudi private sector cooperation. But given his history of litigiousness as well as his strongly expressed views on Islamic extremism, he may not be inclined to pressure the Hill to fix the legislation, and this will be problematic for the Saudis. Finally, the Saudis will follow with interest Donald Trump’s energy policies. To the extent that the United States relaxes environmental safeguards and presses for increased domestic oil and gas production, the net effect will be continued low energy prices globally, with a direct effect on Saudi Arabia’s economic bottom line. The Saudis no doubt can find aspects of a possible Trump foreign policy that they can embrace and other aspects that may be sources of concern or disagreement. Riyadh will be waiting and watching to see whether rhetoric ultimately matches up to reality. Ruba Husari The UAE drawdown in Yemen is a welcome step, but it needs to be reciprocated Abdulkhaleq Abdulla Europe has little wiggle room to keep Iran deal alive \| Monday Briefing Ahmad Majidyar, Alex Vatanka, Jean-François Seznec, Gerald M. Feierstein, Marvin G. Weinbaum, Gönül Tol, Randa Slim Trump’s Jerusalem decision destabilizing West Bank and Gaza \| Monday Briefing Nathan Stock, Alex Vatanka, Ruba Husari, Gönül Tol Washington couldn’t beat Assad, so it will punish his people Geoffrey Aronson полив газонов	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line178
__label__wiki	0.633886	0.633886	HomeFitnessDr. Robert Goldman and Steven Seagall to Receive World Martial Arts Grand Masters Award Dr. Robert Goldman and Steven Seagall to Receive World Martial Arts Grand Masters Award by the World Grand Masters Hall of Fame. September 7, 2017 in Bangkok, Thailand July 29, 2017 Fitness, In The Spotlight, Latest News Dr. Robert Goldman and Steven Seagall will be receiving a very special award that has been given to very few people on September 7, 2017 in Bangkok, Thailand. They will be given the World Martial Arts Grand Masters Award of the Year by the World Grand Masters Hall of Fame. Dr. Goldman is a world champion athlete with over 20 world strength records and has been listed in the Guinness Book of World Records numerous times. Some of his past performance records include 13,500 consecutive straight leg situps and 321 consecutive handstand pushups. He is also a 6th degree Black Belt in Karate and Chinese weapons expert. Dr. Goldman was an All-College athlete in four sports, a three time winner of the John F. Kennedy (JFK) Physical Fitness Award, was voted Athlete of the Year, was the recipient of the Champions Award and was inducted into the World Hall of Fame of Physical Fitness, as well as induction into numerous Martial Arts Hall of Fames in North America, Europe, South America and Asia (www.DrBobGoldman.com). He founded the International Sports Hall of Fame (www.SportsHOF.org), recognizing the world’s greatest sports legends, with ceremonies held annually at the Arnold Schwarzenegger Sports Festival-the largest sports festival in the world, with over 200,000 participants, 70+ sports represented and over 20,000 competing athletes, making it double the size of the Olympic. Dr. Goldman, holds two Physician & Surgeon Medical Degrees and two PhD Doctorates and has served as a Senior Fellow at the Lincoln Filene Center, Tufts University and as an Affiliate at the Philosophy of Education Research Center, Graduate School of Education, Harvard University. He also holds Visiting Professorships at numerous medical universities around the world. He co-founded and served as Chairman of the Board of Life Science Holdings and Organ Inc, biomedical research & development companies which had over 150 medical patents under development in the areas of brain resuscitation, trauma and emergency medicine, organ transplant and blood preservation technologies, of which many patents he was co-inventor. These led to the formation of Organ Recovery Systems Inc. and then LifeLine Scientific Inc, a Public Company, which became a world leader in organ preservation and transport. He has overseen cooperative research agreement development programs in conjunction with the American National Red Cross, NASA, the Department of Defense, and the FDA’s Center for Devices & Radiological Health. Dr. Goldman is the recipient of the ‘Gold Medal for Science’, the ‘Grand Prize for Medicine’, the ‘Humanitarian Award’, and the ‘Business Development Award’. Dr. Goldman has also been honored by Ministers of Sports and health officials of numerous nations. The President of the International Olympic Committee awarded Dr. Goldman the International Olympic Committee Tribute Diploma for contributions to the development of Sport & Olympism. Dr Goldman was also awarded the 2012 ‘Life Time Achievement Award in Medicine & Science’. Dr. Goldman was also one of the very few recipients of the Healthy American Fitness Leader Award, presented by the United States Chamber of Commerce and President’s Council. Dr. Goldman has served as Chairman of the International Medical Commission for over 30 years, overseeing Sports Medicine Committees in over 194 nations and is Chairman of the IFBB and NPC Medical Commissions. Dr. Goldman also served as Chairman of the AAU/USA Sports Medicine Council, which oversaw several million amateur athletes. He is the founder of NASM (National Academy of Sports Medicine), the premier fitness certification organization and coined the term CPT (Certified Personal Trainer) and wrote the first certification exam ever done for that profession. He has served as a Special Advisor to the President’s Council on Physical Fitness & Sports and is founder and international President Emeritus of the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) and Board Member Emeritus for the US Sports Academy and Chairman of their Board of Visitors. The US Sports Academy is the #1 sports academy worldwide. Dr Goldman is also the Co-Founder and Chairman of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M), with outreach to over 120 nations. A4M is the world’s largest Preventative Medicine and medical conference/exposition organization, that has trained over 100,000 medical specialists since 1992 Dr Goldman Co-Developed the American Board of Anti-Aging & Regenerative Medicine (ABAARM) and American Board of Anti-Aging Health Practioners (ABAAHP) Board Certifications as well as the American College of Sports Medicine Professionals (ACASP) certificate exams. He is also co-Founder and Chairman of the World Anti-Aging Academy of Medicine and a Co-Founder of the Tarsus Medical Group, which comprises a family of medical conferences and exposition divisions. Dr. Goldman has authored over 40 books and medical textbooks and hundreds of articles and is the founder of numerous international medical websites, such as www.WorldHealth.net, which is the oldest medical society website, second only to the American Medical Association (AMA) website. Dr Goldman donates 80% of his time in charitable pursuits around the world, supporting sports, fitness and medical education for the sports and medical communities worldwide, visiting dozens of nations with a focus on youth mentorship. Congratulations Dr. Bob! 2017 in Bangkok Dr. Bob Goldman World Martial Arts Grand Masters Award of the Year	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line181
__label__wiki	0.664173	0.664173	Short Story Month: 2015--Nikolai Gogol, "The Overcoat" Nikolai Gogol's major stylistic short-story innovation is to combine the fanciful and earthy folklore of his native Ukraine with the literary and philosophic imagination of German Romanticism he had learned in school; the result is a hybrid generic form created by the combination of fantastic events and realistic detail, the most obvious example of which is "The Nose" (1836). The fantastic story of assessor Major Kovalyov's waking one morning without a nose, which he later meets in the streets wearing a gold-braided uniform, has often been dismissed as a farce with little or no meaning or significance, an attempt by Gogol to exploit the convention made popular by Adelbert von Chamisso's story of Peter Schlemihl's loss of his shadow and E.T.A. Hoffmann's story of Erasmus Spikher's loss of his reflection. However, the difference between using a shadow or reflection as an image of one's identity and using a nose is that whereas the former are metaphoric, the latter is metonymic. Gogol's whimsical exploration of the theme of lost identity suggests that if one is the sum total of his physical presence and social persona in the world, then the loss of that part of the face that most characterizes one's physiognomy means the loss of self. As Kovalyov laments: "If I had lost an arm or a leg, it would not be so bad; if I had lost my ears, it would be bad enough, but still bearable; but without a nose a man is goodness knows what, neither fish, nor flesh, nor good red herring--he isn't a respectable citizen at all!" Gogol not only parodies the basic assumption of characterization of realistic fiction--that one is the sum total of how one faces the social world--he also undermines the basic plot assumptions of such fiction--that causes have plausible effects and that even unusual events have discoverable causes. For example, at the end of parts one and two of the story, he uses what later becomes a standard film technique and fades abruptly to a new scene, claiming, "here the incident is completely shrouded in fog and absolutely nothing is known of what happened next." Thus, the usual driving force of narrative--"what happens next"--is self-consciously frustrated. Just as "The Nose" begins with what Goethe had earlier claimed to be the anecdotal source of the novella form--an unheard-of event that actually takes place--it ends by challenging the reader's expectations that fiction has either plausibility and significance. The narrator confesses with mock seriousness that he simply cannot understand the story or why authors would choose such subjects. "All the same, on second thoughts, there really is something in it. Say what you like, but such things do happen--not often but they do happen." Donald Fanger says "The Nose" is a manifesto, not because of what it means, but by the very fact of its existence, for it mocks a serious attitude toward plot, and the very assumption that language is the carrier of messages. "The Nose," says Fanger, "triumphantly proclaims its existence as pure instrumentality." Gogol's most influential narrative play with the underlying assumptions of prose is, of course "The Overcoat" (1842) which Frank O'Connor, in his study of the short story The Lonely Voice, says that Gogol's marks the true origin of the short story, for nothing like it had every appeared before. O. Connor argues that the story uses the old rhetorical device of the mock-heroic to create a new form that is not satiric nor heroic, but something that transcends both. "So far as I now, it is the first appearance in fiction of the Little Man, which may define what I mean by the short story better than any other terms I may later use about it." The classic 19th-century Russian view of "The Overcoat" is that it a realistic story of social significance, one of the first Russian narratives about the little man crushed by the Tsarist regime. However, in the 1920s, B. M. Ejxenbaum presented a famous formal argument that it is Gogol's combination of rhetoric with folktale convention that makes the story such a masterpiece. Ejxenbaum says that Gogol takes the old narrative form of the Russian folktale, the skaz, and juxtaposes it against the sentimental rhetoric of the speaker to make the reader unsure about whether to feel sorry for Akaky or laugh at him. "This pattern," says Ejxenbaum, "in which the purely anecdotal narrative is interwoven with a melodramatic and solemn declaration, determines the entire composition of "The Overcoat" as a grotesque." The story "plays with reality," breaks up the ordinary so that the unusual logical and psychological connections of reality in the story become unreal. Ejxenbaum says that the structure of the short story as a genre always depends in large part to the kind of "role which the author's personal tone plays in it." O'Connor and Ejxenbaum's famous comments represent the critical dichotomy the story has stimulated--whether to focus on Akakey's heart-rending cry, "I am your brother" or to emphasize the voice of the narrator who seems to subvert the seriousness of that cry. The problem the story confronts is echoed by the problem the tailor encounters when Akakey comes to him to get his old coat repaired: how to make something out of nothing. If Akakey is no more than his coat, then, he, as the tailor says, is hardly "there" at all. But, since this is a story of how a nobody becomes a somebody, when he gets a new coat, the expression "clothes make the man" takes on an almost literal significance. Moreover, if the story is a about a person who is treated as if he were an object, it is simultaneously about an object treated as if it were a living person. Whereas the first is cause for sympathy, the second is clearly cause for laughter. If one were to object that you can't have it both ways, Gogol would instantly reply, "Of course you can." Having it both ways at once--realistic and fantastic, metonymic and metaphoric, pathetic and comic--is precisely what Gogol achieves in this famous story. If in the end of the story reality seems to lead to fantasy, it is because we have been presented fantasy that looks like reality all along. If Akakey is one of the most famous grotesques in the history of short fiction, it is because when you make something out of nothing you inevitably exaggerate its importance. Almost one hundred years later, Sherwood Anderson helps initiate another revolution in the development of the short story in Winesburg, Ohio by once again focusing on the grotesque result of "making something out of nothing." Posted by Charles E. May at 7:38 AM Labels: Gogol the Overcoat Karl said... Thanks so much for an insightful and sensitive essay on this great classic short story! I can hardly wait to see what stories will be covered in this series over the rest of the month. BTW, the "Each day on Facebook" thing mentioned in your sidebar doesn't seem to be happening -- unless I'm looking at the wrong Facebook page. Short Story Month 2015--Guy de Maupassant, "La Hor... Short Story Month--2015--Joseph Conrad, "The Secre... Short Story Month 2015--O. Henry, "The Cop and the... Short Story Month 2015--George Moore, "Julia Cahil... Short Story Month: 2015-Saki, "The Open Window" an... Short Story Month 2015--Rudyard Kipling, The "Gard... Short Story Month: 2015--Robert Louis Stevenson, "... Short Story Month 2015--Theodore Dreiser's "Lost P... Short Story Month: 2015--Stephen Crane, "The Blue ... Short Story Month 2015--Herman Melville, "Bartleby... Short Story Month 2015--Mary Wilkins Freeman, "A N... Kate Chopin's "Desiree's Baby" Deborah Eisenberg Wins the 2015 PEN/Malamud Award Short-Story Month 2015--Aldrich, "Marjorie Daw" an... Short Story Month 2015--Ambrose Bierce, "Occurrenc... Short Story Month:2015--Bret Harte, "The Luck of R... Short Story Month: 2015--Poe, "Fall of the House o... Short Story Month 2015: Poe's Detective Stories:"M... Short Story Month: 2015--Poe's Theories Short Story Month: 2015--Hawthorne, "Wakefield" an... Short Story Month: 2015--Washington Irving, "Rip V... Short Story Month: 2015--Nikolai Gogol, "The Overc... Short Story Month: 2015--E.T.A Hoffman, "The Sandm... Short Story Month: 2015: Prosper Merimee's "Mateo ... Short Story Month: 2015—Lamb's "Dream Children" an... Short Story Month: 2015--Alexander Pushkin, "The Q... Short Story Month: 2015--William Carleton, "Wildgo... Short Story Month: 2015--Horace Walpole's "The Cas... Short Story Month: 2-015--Daniel Defoe's "A True R... Short Story Month: 2015--Ludwig Tieck, "Fair Eckbe... Short Story Month: 2015--Cervantes, Exemplary Nove...	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line184
__label__cc	0.560603	0.439397	Kenge Patriotike muzik shqip 2018 muzik 2016 adelina Ermal Potpuri gold-ag Blero Afrim Muciqi meda Sinan elvana gjata shpat kasapi genta valle muzik 2014 tuna ilahije shqipSabri Fejzullahu Ramadan When you go to a bank to open an account, you will find each kind of deposit account comes with a different interest rate, depending on the bank and account. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) reports that the type of accounts that usually earn the highest interest rates are money market accounts, then savings accounts, and finally checking accounts. A bank earns a spread on the funds it lends out from those it takes in as a deposit. The net interest margin (NIM), which most banks report quarterly, represents this spread, which is simply the difference between what it earns on loans versus what it pays out as interest on deposits. Of course, this gets much more complicated given the dizzying array of credit products and interest rates used to determine the rate eventually charged for loans. Borrowing during a down economy or when uncertainty is high (about factors such as inflation and a volatile interest rate environment) could be a good strategy for achieving a favorable rate�especially if you choose a time when a bank may be especially motivated to make a deal or give you the best rate possible. Finally, seeking a loan or rate with government backing can also help you secure the lowest rate possible. Agon Amiga - Oh Bir.mp3 5.98 MB Agon Amiga - Oh Bir.mp3" /> The Music of Albania (Albanian: Muzika Shqiptare) is associated with the country of Albania and Albanian communities. Music has a long tradition in the country and is known for its regional diversity, from the Ghegs in the North to the Tosks in the South. It is an integral part of the national identity, strongly influenced by the country's long and turbulent history, which forced Albanians to protect their culture from their overlords by living in rural and remote mountains. Diverse Albanian folk music includes monophonic and polyphonic styles, responses, choral, instrumental and vocal music. Each region has a unique musical tradition that reflects its history, language and culture. Polyphonic singing and song forms are primarily found in South Albania, while in the North they are predominantly monophonic. Albanian iso-polyphony has been declared an UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The Gjirokaster National Folklore Festival, held every five years in Gjirokaster, is an important venue exhibiting traditional Albanian music. Albanian music extends to ancient Illyria and Greece, with influences from the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman Empire. It is evident in archeological findings such as arenas, odeons, theatre buildings and amphitheatres, all over Albania. The remains of temples, libraries, sculptures and paintings of ancient dancers, singers and musical instruments, have been found in territories inhabited by the ancient Illyrians and ancient Greeks.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line187
__label__wiki	0.945008	0.945008	Last Updated : Jul 17 2019 12:30PM Screen Reader Access IMF Chief Economist praises India's economic reforms during past 4 years International Monetary Fund's Chief Economist Maurice Obstfeld has said that India's growth has been very solid over the past four years. He praised the fundamental economic reforms like the GST and the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code carried out by the Modi government. The IMF chief economist said, India under the government of Prime Minister, Narendra Modi has carried out some really fundamental reforms. These include the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, he said. A lot of what they have done on financial inclusion has been really important, Mr Obstfeld told a group of journalists in Washington. He said, there are important vulnerabilities, so it is important for the reform momentum to be maintained even as an election comes up and for the path of fiscal adjustment to be maintained. Mr Obstfeld said one risk that has become much more evident in the last few years has been non-bank finance, usually called shadow banking. Noting that there has long been a legacy of corporate debt associated with bad infrastructure projects in India, Maurice Obstfeld said it has been very concentrated in banking system. But as the government is trying to better oversee the banking system, these loans have migrated to shadow banking and that is an area where more needs to be done to contain financial pressures, which we are beginning to see in India, he said. However, with an upcoming election in the country, there is a reluctance to do anything that would slow the economy, Mr Obstfeld said.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line191
__label__wiki	0.609237	0.609237	While strategic audience development ought to be the top priority at every newspaper, efforts toward fulfilling this vital mission are fitful and far between at many publications. This has got to change, if the industry intends to sustain its strength. The bad news for newspapers, as discussed here, is that a significant majority of the adults in the typical community don’t subscribe to the paper in either its print or digital incarnations. But the flip side of this problem is that the abundant population of non-readers in every community represents a substantial base of potential consumers for the transformative and delightful new products that publishers could bring to market – if they put their minds to it. For the avoidance of doubt, a static, iPad-friendly PDF of the day’s print edition does not, IMHO, qualify as a transformative and satisfying digital product. It’s not that newspapers neglect audience building. They don’t. But their outreach is aimed almost exclusively at capturing the increasingly rare customer who reliably pays for print or digital access for months, if not years, on end. Those are great customers and any business would be glad to have them. But the population of steadfast loyalists is dwindling, as modern consumers take advantage of the digital media to customize the news, entertainment and information they ingest. Given shifting consumer preferences, newspapers need to think differently, if not to say obsessively, about how to serve – and profit – from individuals who don’t look, think or behave like traditional subscribers. Unfortunately, most newspapers don’t. Here’s why they should: :: Falling readership. Since peaking at 63.3 million subscribers in 1994 (the year before the Internet entered the public consciousness), weekday newspaper circulation today is 38 million to 43 million, as detailed here. Back in 1994, 63.5% of American households subscribed to newspapers, according to an analysis of census data. Today, barely one in three homes take a newspaper. ∷ Rising competition. Modern consumers are hooked on the power conferred by the digital media to pick and choose what, where, when and how they get news and other information. The Pew Research Center last year found that two-thirds of Americans visited upwards of three or more outlets to keep up with current events. Twenty percent of urban dwellers accessed six or more news sources, while 11% of rural residents consulted half a dozen or more sources. ∷ Demographic drift. Most young consumers simply don’t dig newspapers, leaving publishers with ever-older audiences that eventually will age to extinction. The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University earlier this year reported that 55% of individuals under the age of 35 preferred the digital media as their primary news source, as compared with 5% in the same age category who preferred print. Because there is no reason to believe these trends are likely to reverse, publishers hoping to sustain and reinvigorate their valuable franchises need to concentrate on finding new products and services to attract the readers they need – and the advertisers they want. Newspapers can create transformative and delightful products across the growing range of digital platforms by leveraging their unmatched content-creation capabilities, vast archives, unrivaled local marketing power and the deep commercial relationships they possess in each of the communities they serve. What audiences? What products? What platforms? The answers to those vexing questions will be revealed only after publishers invest the time and money necessary to develop thoughtful strategic plans that take into account local market conditions, the competitive forces arrayed around them, and the unique strengths and weaknesses of their respective organizations. Equipped with well-wrought strategic plans, publishers can invest wisely and confidently in opportunities to attract new audiences and revenue streams. As mission-critical as strategic planning and audience building ought to be, these missions fail to be accorded the priority they deserve at many newspapers. Some newspapers delegate “audience” to the editor, who somehow is supposed to fix things by intuitively producing the “right” sort of content. Some publishers assign audience development to the circulation manager, who somehow is supposed to boost subscriptions while curbing cancellations. Some papers allocate audience development to the marketing department, whose staffing, research and/or promotional budgets often are the first to be cut in moments of financial distress. At many newspapers, these missions aren’t even explicitly on the radar at all. When the development of transformative and delightful products is left largely to chance, the outcome is unlikely to be auspicious, because successful innovations seldom emerge from seat-of-the pants hunches, scattered responsibilities and episodic tactical skirmishes. Success requires a well-researched, well-conceived, well-articulated and well-communicated strategic plan that is the responsibility of everyone in the building. At most newspapers, this approach not only would be transformative but also would make life more delightful than it has been in years. posted by Newsosaur at 5:00 AM 7 comments Print newspaper circulation has fallen to the lowest level since the 1940s and the lowest household penetration rate in modern history, raising the question of when a mass medium is no longer a mass medium. Because a growing amount of news consumption is moving to digital platforms, the answer, as you will see by reading on, is complicated. Here is what we know: As discussed here last week, U.S. publishers now are selling between 38 million and 43 million newspapers on the average weekday vs. 41 million copies on the average day in 1940. Back in 194o, when broadcasting was in its infancy and print was the state-of-the-art source for news and shopping information, Americans on average actually consumed more than one newspaper per day. Consequently, the number of newspapers sold in 1940 equalled 118% of all households and actually rose to 124% in 1950. In the intervening years, as illustrated immediately below, a host of demographic and technological disruptors has dropped newspaper consumption to the point that barely one out three households buys a print edition. Here is the trend (assuming 43 million in average daily circulation): The ongoing decline in print readership raises the question of when a medium ceases to have sufficient critical mass to be considered a mass medium. Given average weekday newspaper circulation of 43 million, here’s a comparison of newspaper penetration with other media commonly found around the house: Of course, newspaper content is no longer consumed in print alone. News and advertising produced by newspapers are widely consumed on computers, mobile phones and laptops. Based on data obtained from comScore, the Newspaper Association of America reports that 141 million individuals are consuming digital content from newspapers each month. With some 40 million homes taking print papers and more than one person often reading the same print edition, it is fair to assume that print readers represent a significant, but incalculable, percentage of the 141 million digital visitors cited by the NAA. Setting aside the duplication issue, the 141 million online newspaper readers would be the sixth largest digital audience in the country. Here’s where newspapers fit in: While audience size certainly matters, the next question is how deeply visitors engage with newspaper websites, which is a good indication of their utility to users and, thus, their value to advertisers. As illustrated in the next table, news (and most other) sites are not nearly as engaging as Facebook, where Alexa.Com reports that visitors on average spend nearly 30 minutes per session and consume an average of 14.25 page views per visit. By comparison, visitors spend less than 4 minutes per session at the New York Times and NBC News sites. Engagement is even lower at local newspaper sites, as evidenced by the data below for the San Jose Mercury News, in the heart of Silicon Valley, and the Peoria Journal Star, in the heart of the nation. The biggest question of all is how well a digital publisher monetizes the eyeballs it attracts. The comparison is not easy, because traffic-grabbing sites like Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Amazon draw their revenues from different sources than those pursued by newspapers – namely search, software sales and commerce. But the display-advertising models at Facebook and AOL, which happen to bracket newspapers in the size of their respective digital audiences, are reasonably comparable to those employed by most newspapers. Here’s how sales volume compares: In 2012, Facebook generated $5.1 billion in revenues, newspaper digital media generated an aggregate $3.4 billion in advertising sales and AOL generated $1.4 billion in advertising sales. (These figures don’t include the fees that some newspapers charge for digital access or the subscription fees that AOL charges to those who use it to connect to the Internet.) A comparison of the revenues among the three contenders shows that newspapers in 2012 generated $23.90 in advertising revenue per digital subscriber, as compared with $29.18 for Facebook and $10.72 in ad-only sales for AOL. While newspapers can claim to be competitive in attracting a large number of unique (but not necessarily deeply engaged) visitors for their digital products, the real problem is that their print business – which still delivers 75% of the industry’s total advertising sales (and perhaps 90%, if you count print circulation revenue) – has been contracting relentlessly for more than seven years. As illustrated in the next chart, print ad sales, which peaked at $47.4 billion in 2005, were only $18.9 billion in 2012, representing a 60% decline for the period. Meanwhile, digital ad sales grew 66% from $2 billion in 2005 to $3.4 billion in 2012. While robust, the rate of digital advertising gain at newspapers was barely a third of the 193% growth achieved by the over-all online industry, where the Internet Advertising Bureau reports that revenues surged from $12.5 billion in 2005 to $36.6 billion in 2012. The $27 billion drop in newspaper ad revenues between 2005 and 2012 is equal to the annual sales of more than five Facebooks. While newspaper revenues have fallen in every quarter since the first three months of 2006, Facebook just announced that its sales in the first nine months of this year surpassed the revenues for all 12 months of 2012. Where does that leave us? With aggregate revenues this year likely to remain comfortably north of $20 billion, the newspaper industry remains a substantial business. But it is less than half as substantial as it was a scant seven years ago. So long again, Chicago Daily News How publishers can fight ad blocking Tear down those paywalls! Ad-block surge challenges digital publishers Should newspapers abandon digital? Apple, Google and Facebook zero in on news Retail ad spending is speeding to mobile What good is the Apple Watch, anyway? Mobile moves to digital ad domination 1 of 4 news start-ups flamed out	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line192
__label__cc	0.624587	0.375413	Title: Australia’s Railway Gauges Author: F. Vogel In: The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 3, Issue 7 (November 1, 1928) Publication details: New Zealand Government Railways Department, Wellington Digital publication kindly authorised by: Toll NZ Part of: The Railways Magazine The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 3, Issue 7 (November 1, 1928) Cost of Converting All Lines to 4ft. 8 ½in. Gauge Cost of Converting All Lines to 4ft. 8 ½in. Gauge. The cost of converting all lines to the 4ft. 8 ½in. gauge was estimated at #57,200,000, made up as follows:— Alternations to existing lines and structures #48,355,000 Any new lines necessary 2,596,000 Adjustment of Rolling Stock 6,249,000 Total #57,200,000 But there is a probability of the gauge question being again revived as the Prime Minister Preparing For Railway Construction In New Zealand Twenty-Five Years Ago. (Government Tourist Dept. Photo.) Axemen blazing the trail for the Main Trunk Line through the heart of the North Island forest. in his recent Policy Speech stated that at a Conference the Government would again submit for consideration the question of the unification of the gauge of our different railway systems. However, in the face of Australia's financial position, it was quite impossible to carry out the general unification of the gauges recommended by the Royal Commission in 1921. As a result of a Conference held in 1923 with the States, the construction of line, from Kyogle to Brisbane, linking Sydney and Brisbane by a uniform gauge, was undertaken under an agreement between the Commonwealth and the States of New South Wales and Queensland. The Government believed that the time had now arrived when a further step forward might be taken in the solution of this great problem.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line195
__label__wiki	0.835664	0.835664	Two Kiwis to take on world’s toughest adventure race Demanding the highest level of physical strength, mental fortitude, technical mountain skills and sheer determination, two kiwi paragliders have been selected to compete in the world’s toughest adventure race next month. Nick Neynens and Kinga Masztalerz will be representing New Zealand when they take on the world’s best in the Red Bull X-Alps in Europe this June. Starting in Salzburg, the X-Alps traverses the European Alps, crossing six countries before finishing on the beach in Monaco. Neynens and Masztalerz will race 32 hand-selected international athletes as they attempt to cross 1138 kilometres of mountainous terrain in less than 13 days with nothing more than their feet and a paraglider. Masztalerz, 33, is a newcomer to the race, and is one of only two women who will be competing in this ultimate challenge of body and mind. Residing in Auckland, she is an accomplished rock climber, physicist and ultra-distance runner. She is also the female record holder for long-distance paragliding in New Zealand. Her record-breaking 400-kilometre multi-day hike and fly through New Zealand’s Southern Alps prove she has the skill and resilience needed to compete in a gruelling race like the X-Alps which has had only three female competitors since it began in 2003. “No woman has previously crossed the finish line. I will do my best to be the first,” says Masztalerz. Neynens, 36, will be returning to the race, having competed in both 2015 and 2017 and placing in the top ten both times. Born in New Zealand, Neynens currently works as a meteorologist in Sydney, though he likes to spend as much time as he can flying in New Zealand where he works his way around the South Island by paraglider, visiting family on the way. Neynens has traversed alpine terrain all over the world and his background in tramping and weather forecasting offers him a competitive advantage in the race. He has spent the last decade flying and camping (known as “vol biv”) in the difficult mountain conditions of New Zealand. Neynens holds the record for the longest distance paragliding flight undertaken in New Zealand, having flown 230 kilometres through the mountains from south of Mount Cook to near Arthurs Pass in one day. Neynens became interested in competing in the X-Alps after he met Lloyd Pennicuik, a former contestant, in early 2008, soon after Neynens learnt to fly in southeast Queensland. “I always thought New Zealand would be the perfect training ground, and couldn’t understand why Aussies would fly those flat, tree-covered hills when the Southern Alps are so close! The wet, wild and windswept backcountry of New Zealand makes Europe look like a garden in comparison,” says Neynens. This year, the large amount of snow still remaining in the European Alps will make the race, which follows an alpine route, even more demanding. The President of the New Zealand Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association, Duncan Macnab, is one person who is backing both Masztalerz and Neynens to succeed in this year’s race. “Paragliding can seem an effortless sport to those viewing it from the ground. In the air, it’s a different story, especially in a race like the X-Alps. Kinga and Nick will have to use significant skill and caution to negotiate the turbulent and dangerous air currents you can find in such big mountain ranges. They’re both at the top of their game and the paragliding community in New Zealand is excited to see how they will fare,” says Macnab. The race starts on 16 June 2019 and a Facebook page has been set up so New Zealanders can keep track of progress as our athletes prepare their bid for the finish line (www.facebook.com/nzxalps). Both athletes have established Give a Little pages to help their ground support crew meet the significant costs they incur (https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/xalps2019nzl1 and https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/kingas-red-bull-x-alps-participation). For media inquiries please contact Lorraine Johns at nzxalps@gmail.com. Posted by Evan on Sunday, June 02, 2019 Follow and support our Hang Gliding Team heading t... At last some clarity about recreational access Two Kiwis to take on world’s toughest adventure ra...	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line196
__label__cc	0.505804	0.494196	Why Theoretical Physics What We Research Reports and Audits Theoretical physics is a cornerstone of modern quantitative science, on which so much else rests. It is perhaps the highest-impact, lowest-cost area of basic research. The field advances our fundamental understanding of the universe, and seeds the technologies of tomorrow. Solar cells, computers, wireless technologies, diagnostic imaging – they are all rooted in breakthroughs made by theoretical physicists. Time and again, breakthroughs in our fundamental understanding of how the universe works have led to transformative technologies, with innumerable benefits to society. The reason is simple: since any technology relies on the laws of nature, the better we understand those laws, the more powerful the technologies we can create. For example, electricity and magnetism were once thought to be unrelated forces. Building largely on the experimental work of Michael Faraday, theorist James Clerk Maxwell discovered electromagnetism – a single, deeper theory that unified these two forces. Faraday and Maxwell’s work eventually led to the development of electric motors, generators, and a safe electric power distribution system ("the grid"), the cleanest and most versatile form of energy the world has ever seen. As a further example, when Guglielmo Marconi applied Maxwell’s electromagnetism to send the first wireless message between continents, the Communications Age was born, changing our lives with radio, television, smartphones and wireless internet. By pondering the nature of space and time, Albert Einstein unexpectedly discovered that matter is a concentrated form of energy, which soon led to an understanding of how stars like our Sun work, by a process called fusion. These ideas are currently being applied or contemplated in some of the largest-scale science and engineering projects in human history to harness the power of fusion. Over the 21st century, these projects may play a role in helping to solve the world’s energy problems, and as a by-product, reducing human impact on the environment and global warming. Even further, Einstein’s deeper understanding of the nature of gravity provided the know-how required to build the Global Positioning System (GPS), a profoundly useful technology across a wide spectrum of human endeavours. To unravel the mysteries of the atom, theoretical physicists developed quantum theory, which has had innumerable spinoff technologies ranging from the transistor (at the heart of computers and virtually every electronic device on the planet), the laser (used everywhere from home DVD players to fibre optic communication networks spanning the globe), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and other life-saving medical technologies, and many more. This is how fundamental physics drives innovation. Theoretical physics is always at the root of it. Perhaps no other field of science can have as deep and as broad of an impact on society and how we understand the universe. Beyond the technologies that may emerge from physics is the intellectual journey of discovery. Scientific research is a global effort, and the pursuit of new knowledge – from theory to experiment – provides a framework in which past lessons and new ideas are transferred throughout a great research chain. This includes the deep understanding that is passed along to new generations of critical thinkers who emerge throughout academia, industry, and all parts of society. These young innovators will go on to apply their own analytical and technical skills – within or outside of the physics research community – and propel human knowledge even further for the understanding and benefit of all. Today’s theoretical physics is tomorrow’s technology. Support Perimeter About Perimeter Institute	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line199
__label__cc	0.540742	0.459258	« Rule of Law, or, Rule of Man – An Analysis of the Kim Davis Fiasco The Rise of Islam in Our Children’s Minds – Is This the Destruction of America? » Camp Lone Star – The King Can Do No Wrong, or Can He? At the last hearing, Judge Hanen had told KC’s attorney, Sorola, that the Motion to Dismiss Indictment wasn’t written correctly. That motion had been denied in, which is discussed in Act II – A Kangaroo Court – Scene 1 – How Case Law Subverts the Constitution. Judge Hanen allowed that Sorola might submit a supplemental motion, and said that he was willing to hear a jurisdictional argument. AUSA Hagen was not pleased with the decision; however, dates were set for both the motion and opposition to be submitted to the Court. Sorola filed his Second Motion to Dismiss Indictment, which “incorporates” the previous Notion to Dismiss. So we will look at what has been entered in support of the jurisdictional aspect of the case. 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) Violates The Tenth Amendment The Tenth Amendment provides: the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. As this Amendment makes clear, and as the Supreme Court has long-recognized, the federal government is one of enumerated, limited powers. See, e.g., McCulloch v. Maryland. Accordingly, the federal government may act only where the Constitution so authorizes. Cf. New York v. United States, 505 U.S. 144 (1992). A corollary to this rule is that Congress may not act in areas prohibited to it. As Justice Thomas noted in his concurrence in Printz v. United States, 521 U.S. 898, 937 (1997) (Thomas, J., concurring), the Constitution “places whole areas outside the reach of Congress,” such as the First Amendment’s preventing “Congress from ‘prohibiting the free exercise’ of religion or ‘abridging the freedom of speech.'” Id. Justice Thomas went on to explain that the “Second Amendment similarly appears to contain an express limitation on the government’s authority,” and stated: This Court has not had recent occasion to consider the nature of the substantive right safeguarded by the Second Amendment. If, however, the Second Amendment is read to confer a personal right to “keep and bear arms,” a colorable argument exists that the federal government’s regulatory scheme, at least as it pertains to the purely intrastate sale or possession of firearms, runs afoul of that Amendment’s protections. Although Printz dealt with a successful challenge to the Brady Act’s requirement that state law enforcement officers conduct background checks on prospective handgun purchasers, the logic of Justice Thomas’s reasoning is compelling with respect to § 922(g)(1): the Tenth Amendment limits federal power; the Second Amendment specifically prohibits the federal government from infringing the individual right to bear arms; thus, it surely cannot be constitutional for the federal government to prohibit a person’s purely intrastate possession of firearms. For the reasons stated above, Mr. Massey respectfully requests that the Court find 922(g)(1) unconstitutional as applied to him and dismiss the pending indictment. Of course, AUSA Hagen has to answer this Motion, who knows, maybe even his future as a United States Attorney is in jeopardy, since this is a high profile case and Hagen has stated that he has been pressured from above to win this case. However, it appears that Mr. Hagen was not up to answering Sorola’s Motion, so we have a new player, AUSA Jason Corley (the new King), who filed the “Government’s Response” to Massey’s Motion. Massey’s motion was simply three pages, the above being the substantial portions thereof. However, the Government’s Response was 24 pages. And, as I began reading the Government’s Response, a quote from W. C. Fields popped into my mind: “If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.” As I continued reading, I realized that the position Corley was taking, he was asserting as if he were King. He has his interpretation of what something means, and there is absolutely no attempt to balance justice with what he believes. This brought to mind another historical quote, most often expressed shortly before the ousting, or abdication, of a King, who refused to abide by the constitution or exercise any semblance of justice. – The King can do no Wrong! Now, to restrain you from falling asleep or rolling on the floor laughing, I will only address some of the aspects of the government’s argument. First, we will talk about legal theory, since that seems to be an important consideration on the government’s part. The following, though interspersed through the Motion, are consolidated simply to demonstrate their concern: Defendant’s motion is not ripe for consideration as a factual matter. Defendant has presented merely a legal theory, namely that “purely” intrastate possession of a firearm cannot be infringed by the federal government of the United States. Defendant has not, however, presented any facts whatsoever let alone “sufficient facts which, if proven, would justify relief.” (page 4) Defendant now files a motion to dismiss the indictment based solely on a proposed legal theory that “purely” intrastate possession of a firearm by a felon (or presumably any other individual) cannot be regulated or criminalized by the federal government. (page 6) But this factual issue does not tangentially create a legal dispute on a matter not in controversy, namely an unrelated constitutional theory cloaked as a suppression issue. (page 7) Article III of the United States Constitution grants the Court authority to adjudicate ‘cases’ or ‘controversies’, not irrelevant and tangential legal theory… Defendant does not have standing to challenge any supposed government regulation or criminalization of “purely” intrastate possession of a firearm. (page 8) Because Defendant’s second motion to dismiss proposes an irrelevant and tangentially reached legal theory, and because Defendant does not have standing to challenge that issue, the government respectfully requests that the Court deny the motion to dismiss the indictment. (page 8) Because both legal theory and binding case law are contrary to Defendant’s proposition, the Government respectfully requests that Defendant’s second motion to dismiss be denied. (page 11) The legal theory postulated by Defendant is just that, a legal theory. Other legal theory supports the proposition that the federal government through an act of Congress may indeed have the authority to criminalize “purely” intrastate possession of a firearm by a felon should Congress make the requisite findings that it is necessary and proper to criminalize possession of a firearm by a felon to promote the general welfare of the American people, insure domestic tranquility, and establish justice. (page 15) So, let’s look at what he has said. In #1 and #2, he suggests that it is a “legal theory” the “‘purely’ intrastate possession of a firearm cannot be infringed by the federal government”. Well, the Second Amendment notwithstanding, the Commerce Clause is based ” foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes”. And, the government has yet to directly control intrastate commerce under the provision. There is little doubt that the government has tried, by twisted abuse of our language (See Motion to Dismiss Indictment), tried to extent their authority to any firearm that had been in interstate commerce, though, as we will discuss, they change the language when it suits their purpose. In #3 and #4, he suggests that it is an “unrelated constitutional theory”. In this same document, he cites the Constitution as the authority, as he sees it, as absolute, as if spoken by the King, himself. So, there is no theory allowed on the public side, since only the government side can cite their interpretation of the Constitution as legitimate. This kinda makes you wonder why they even use a pretext of justice when they simply want to imprison someone. In both #4 and #5, he suggest that it is “irrelevant” that Massey challenge the Indictment because he has no standing, presumably, to defend himself. Once again, the King has spoken. In 1936, in the Supreme Court decision of Ashwander v. Tennessee Valley Authority (297 US 288), Justice Brandeis, in a separate but concurring decision, provided insight into the evolving role of the United States Supreme Court, wherein he said: The Court developed, for its own governance in the cases confessedly within its jurisdiction, a series of rules under which it has avoided passing upon a large part of all the constitutional questions pressed upon it for decision. They are: [Rule] 5. The Court will not pass upon the validity of a statute upon complaint of one who fails to show that he is injured by its operation…” It was clear that the matter of standing had to do with matters brought to that Court, on certiorari, or error. It did not provide a means whereby a trial on criminal charges, in the lowest court of the federal system, could deny standing to challenge the law or the jurisdiction of the matter upon which one was charged. In #6 and #7, he tends to give credence to the legal theory by stating that theory and case law are “contrary to [Massey’s] proposition”. However, we must understand that the government proposed another “legal theory”. That “theory” is suggested in the following excerpt: Were Congress to make the proper findings and act in the interest of the “general Welfare” of the people of the United States, it is theoretically possible Congress could, and theoretically possible Congress does, have the constitutional power to regulate and criminalize all possession of firearms by felons. Congress, however, has not chosen to act pursuant to alternative powers and has instead relied on the Commerce Clause. Because of this, an interstate nexus relating to possession of the firearms is an element of the crime and any challenge the Defendant is raising in regard to “purely” intrastate possession is a factual challenge, not a constitutional one. Now, this brings us into a whole new world of conjecture. He theorizes that Congress could, do, and does have the power to, criminalize any possession by any felon, anywhere within this (mythical) Kingdom. It has bee clearly established, when Equal Protection was discussed, that if a firearm or ammunition were manufactured in a state, those possessing such firearms and ammunition are not subject to criminal charges, since the firearm and/or ammunition had not entered interstate commerce. So, is Corley suggesting that Congress is too damned stupid to see the loophole that have left for those who live in certain states, or that they are wise enough to know that those living in those states are not the type that the felon in possession law was intended for, regardless of the fact that those with felony convictions are still felons. Or, his the King (government), perhaps, capable of doing wrong? If his theory were correct, under the “general Welfare” provision of the Constitution, they (Congress) could dictate any, and every, aspect of our lives. Now, there is little doubt that they are slowly creeping in that direction, but AUSA Corley seems to think that we have already arrived. Moving right along, we find, on page 6 of the Government’s Response: “Article III of the Constitution grants the Judicial Branch authority to adjudicate ‘Cases’ and ‘Controversies.’ In our system of government, courts have ‘no business’ deciding legal disputes or expounding on law in the absence of such a case or controversy.” Already, LLC v. Nike, Inc. and DaimlerChrysler Corp. v. Cuno. “A controversy is mooted when there are no longer adverse parties with sufficient legal interests to maintain the litigation.” “Accordingly, an actual, live controversy must remain at all stages of federal court proceedings, both at trial and appellate levels.” Talking about stretching the hell out of an argument, the controversy here is a criminal charge brought by the US government against Massey. It is not a dispute between parties, it is an accusation based upon the misapplication of a statute. Is it even conceivable that someone, especially a highly paid public servant attorney, could deny an accused person of challenging the misrepresentation? Or, can the King (Corley) do no wrong? Now, I expect that you are getting as bored at reading this as I am at having to wade through it (I do have my boots on), to find the little gems that (if I were a psychiatrist) demonstrate the insanity, or at least the mental instability, of the person who prepared the Government’s Response. Surely, not even the King would allow him to pass the background check, on mental grounds, to own a firearm. But, there are two more rather interesting point that warrant our attention. Sorola cited McCulloch v. Maryland with reference to “limited powers” of government, according to the Constitution. In what appears to be a DOJ (Department of Justice) boilerplate insert (page 10), he suggests that the limited powers of government have a broad interpretation. From the Government’s Response: In citing from McCulloch: “This government is acknowledged by all, to be one of enumerated powers. “But, there is no phrase in the instrument which, like the articles of confederation, excludes incidental or implied powers; and which requires that everything granted shall be expressly and minutely described. Even the Tenth Amendment, which was framed for the purpose of quieting excessive jealousies which had been excited, omits the word ‘expressly,’ and declares only, that the powers ‘not delegated to the United States, nor prohibited to the states, are reserved to the states or the people;’ thus leaving the question, whether the particular power which may become subject of contest, has been delegated to the one government, or prohibited to the other, to depend upon a fair construction of the whole instrument.” “So with respect to the whole penal code of the United States; whence arises the power to punish, in cases not prescribed by the constitution? All admit, that the government may, legitimately punish any violation of its laws; and yet, this is not among the enumerated powers of congress.” Then, in Corley’s own words (the King has spoken): It should come as no surprise then that the Supreme Court ruled in McCulloch v. Maryland that Congress had the power to incorporate a bank despite having no specifically enumerated power to do so. The precedent set nearly two hundred years ago in McCulloch v. Maryland works against Defendant, not for him. Now, he talks about if not prohibited, and in the case of the matter of McCulloch, dealing with the creation of a bank, there is no prohibition against the government so doing. But, the “legal theory” presented makes clear that there is a prohibition against the government’s intervention into the right to keep and bear arms, known as the Second Amendment, and the prohibition therein is called “infringement”. Nowhere does the constitution address the government’s inability to infringe upon the creation of banks. In fact, there is much said about coin and currency, all implying such powers as necessary with regard to banks. So, just how does that work “against the Defendant”? The second is an effort to conjoin “Militia” and “people”, as expressed in the Second Amendment, as only the “body of the people” (pages 11-13). He cites a “Second Amendment constitutional scholar”, which, apparently, he places the opinion of above the written laws. If we consider that the framers of the Constitution were far more particular in the choice of words that the AUSA, we can easily dispute the effort to co-join, since they used both “Militia” and “people”. And Congress, surely, is more meticulous than the AUSA, when they enacted the following: 10 U.S.C. § 311: Militia: composition and classes (a) The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section 313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard. (b) The classes of the militia are – (1) the organized militia, which consists of the National Guard and the Naval Militia; and (2) the unorganized militia, which consists of the members of the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the Naval Militia. So, here we have “members of the militia”, who are, clearly, individuals, like people. However, that doesn’t stand as the only element that suggests individuality. 10 U.S.C. § 312: Militia duty: exemptions (a) The following persons are exempt from militia duty: (1) The Vice President. (2) The judicial and executive officers of the United States, the several States, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands. (3) Members of the armed forces, except members who are not on active duty. (4) Customhouse clerks. (5) Persons employed by the United States in the transmission of mail. (6) Workmen employed in armories, arsenals, and naval shipyards of the United States. (7) Pilots on navigable waters. (8) Mariners in the sea service of a citizen of, or a merchant in, the United States. (b) A person who claims exemption because of religious belief is exempt from militia duty in a combatant capacity, if the conscientious holding of that belief is established under such regulations as the President may prescribe. However, such a person is not exempt from militia duty that the President determines to be noncombatant. Though some are general in nature, others are, without a doubt, applied to individuals of certain character. So, if the “theory” of the AUSA is correct, and whether the Congress wanted to us the “general Welfare” provision, or the Commerce Clause, they would have, if what Corley wants to suggest, surely have included a class of people known as “felons”. So, I wonder what the King will have to say about the obvious, and rather discomforting, exclusion of “felons” from the most logical source of limitation of the right to bear arms. Is it possible that the King (Congress) can do no wrong, and accordingly, will not “infringe”, except via the “Commerce Clause”? Tags: administrative agencies, congress, Constitution, courts, General Welfare, government, immigration, law, Massey, patriots, supreme Court MattyP says: Thank you for writing this! The United States Constitution: A Four Part Series - Liberty Under Attack says: […] Camp Lone Star: The King Can Do No Wrong, Or Can He? […] Outpost of Freedom » Blog Archive » Camp Lone Star – Down to the Wire – Ninth Amendment Rights says: […] was explained in “The King Can Do No Wrong, or Can He?“, Massey’s attorney had brought two matters up in his Second Motion to Dismiss […]	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line207
__label__cc	0.730421	0.269579	Israeli Military Shoots cuffed and blindfolded Palestinian detainee Israeli Military Shoots Palestinian Prisoner: B'Tselem: Today, B'Tselem is publishing a video clip documenting a soldier firing a rubber coated steel bullet, from extremely close range, at a cuffed and blindfolded Palestinian detainee. The shooting took place in the presence of a lieutenant colonel, who was holing the Palestinian's arm when the shot was fired. The incident took place on 7 July, in Nil'in, a village in the West Bank. A Palestinian demonstrator, Ashraf Abu Rahma, 27, was stopped by soldiers, who cuffed and blindfolded him for about thirty minutes, during which time, according to Abu-Rahma, they beat him. Afterwards, a group of soldiers and border policemen led him to an army jeep. The video clip shows a soldier aim his weapon at the demonstrator's legs, from about 1.5 meters away, and fire a rubber coated steel bullet at him. Abu-Rahma stated that the bullet hit his left toe, received treatment from an army medic, and released by the soldiers. A fourteen-year-old Palestinian girl from Nil'in filmed the incident from her house in the village, and B'Tselem received it this morning. B'Tselem does not know if any proceedings were opened against those involved. However, residents of Ni'lin told B'Tselem that they saw the soldier the following day, still serving in his unit. B'Tselem immediately forwarded a copy to the Military Police Investigation Unit commander, with demand that an immediate Military Police investigation be opened, if it hasn't already, and that the soldier be brought to justice. Additionally, B'Tselem demanded that the involvement of the lieutenant colonel who was holding the detainee is investigated. B'Tselem stressed that members of the security forces are obligated to report unlawful acts. It is even more serious is a high-ranking officer participates in such a whitewash. Labels: Palestine, Palestine Video, Palestinian, Soldier impunity	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line208
__label__wiki	0.634107	0.634107	Mail us : info@parktospark.com Park to Spark > Learn Source: Energy.gov “EV Everywhere: Vehicle Charging” by the U. S. Department of Energy. To get the most out of your plug-in electric vehicle (also known as an electric car or EV), you must charge it on a regular basis. Charging frequently maximizes the range of all-electric vehicles and the electric-only miles of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. Drivers can charge at home, at work, or in public places. While most drivers do more than 80% of their charging at home and it is often the least expensive option, workplace and public charging can complement residential charging. TYPES OF CHARGERS Charging your EV requires plugging into a charger connected to the electric grid, also called electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE). There are three major categories of chargers, based on the maximum amount of power the charger provides to the battery from the grid: Level 1: Provides charging through a 120 V AC plug and does not require installation of additional charging equipment. Most often used in homes, but can be also used at workplaces. “Based on the battery type and vehicle, AC Level 1 charging adds about 2 to 5 miles of range to a PEV per hour of charging time. AC Level 1 is typically used for charging when there is only a 120 V outlet available, but can easily provide all of a driver’s needs. For example, 8 hours of charging at 120V can replenish 40 miles of electric range, which is over 30% further than the average daily driving distance for vehicle owners in the United States as indicated by the National Household Transportation Survey.” Level 2: Provides charging through a 240 V (for residential) or 208 V (for commercial) plug and requires installation of additional charging equipment. Can deliver 10 to 60 miles of range per hour of charging. Used in homes, workplaces, and for public charging. DC Fast Charge: Provides charging through 480 V AC input and requires highly specialized, high-powered equipment as well as special equipment in the vehicle itself. (Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles typically do not have fast charging capabilities.) Can deliver 60 to 100 miles of range in 20 minutes of charging. Used most often in public charging stations, especially along heavy traffic corridors. Charging times range from less than 30 minutes to 20 hours or more based on the type of EVSE (fancy acronym for a the thing that fuels the EV), as well as the type of battery, how depleted it is, and its capacity. All-electric vehicles typically have more battery capacity than plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, so charging a fully depleted all-electric vehicle takes longer. In addition to the three types above, wireless charging uses an electro-magnetic field to transfer electricity to an EV without a cord. The Department of Energy is supporting research to develop and improve wireless charging technology. Wireless chargers are currently available for use with certain vehicle models. Electric SUVs Finally EMs Are Like EVs Go Duke Search Our Blog Posts Search Our Full Site Copyright © Park to Spark	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line211
__label__cc	0.743948	0.256052	Tropical Breeze Red and White Verbena Verbena 'Tropical Breeze Red and White' Tropical Breeze Red and White Verbena flowers Other Names: Vervain Group/Class: Tropical Breeze Series Tropical Breeze Red and White Verbena features showy clusters of white star-shaped flowers with cherry red streaks at the ends of the stems from late spring to mid fall. The flowers are excellent for cutting. Its tiny tomentose narrow leaves remain green in colour throughout the season. The fruit is not ornamentally significant. Tropical Breeze Red and White Verbena is an herbaceous annual with a trailing habit of growth, eventually spilling over the edges of hanging baskets and containers. It brings an extremely fine and delicate texture to the garden composition and should be used to full effect. This plant will require occasional maintenance and upkeep. Trim off the flower heads after they fade and die to encourage more blooms late into the season. Deer don't particularly care for this plant and will usually leave it alone in favor of tastier treats. It has no significant negative characteristics. Tropical Breeze Red and White Verbena is recommended for the following landscape applications; Tropical Breeze Red and White Verbena will grow to be about 18 inches tall at maturity, with a spread of 20 inches. When grown in masses or used as a bedding plant, individual plants should be spaced approximately 15 inches apart. Its foliage tends to remain dense right to the ground, not requiring facer plants in front. Although it's not a true annual, this fast-growing plant can be expected to behave as an annual in our climate if left outdoors over the winter, usually needing replacement the following year. As such, gardeners should take into consideration that it will perform differently than it would in its native habitat. This plant should only be grown in full sunlight. It does best in average to evenly moist conditions, but will not tolerate standing water. It is not particular as to soil type or pH, and is able to handle environmental salt. It is highly tolerant of urban pollution and will even thrive in inner city environments. This particular variety is an interspecific hybrid. It can be propagated by cuttings; however, as a cultivated variety, be aware that it may be subject to certain restrictions or prohibitions on propagation. Tropical Breeze Red and White Verbena is a fine choice for the garden, but it is also a good selection for planting in outdoor containers and hanging baskets. Because of its trailing habit of growth, it is ideally suited for use as a 'spiller' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination; plant it near the edges where it can spill gracefully over the pot. Note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line213
__label__wiki	0.863109	0.863109	NZ has swung to the left. Now it is up to Winston. 07 October 2017 By Richard Harman (author) The final election results released on Saturday showed what many pundits picked – that the special votes would go to the centre-left. It is now possible to look at the overall trend of the election results, and it looks like a substantial shift against the centre-right from 2014. Michael Appleton, who often blogs on election statistics, says the swing from the Conservatives, United Future, Act and National in 2014 to Labour and the Greens in 2017 is 6.37%. To put that in perspective, National lost in 1984 with a 2.88% swing against it and Labour lost in 1990 with a 12.82 swing against it. In 1999 there was a 3.37% swing against National; in 2008 a 7.11% swing against Labour. So since 1984, New Zealand Governments have lost power with an average 6.6% swing against them --- just slightly more than the swing against the centre-right this election. POLITIK understands that NZ First has been taking a particular interest in how voting for the two blocs – the centre-right and centre left --- has swung over previous elections. But if it was hoping that study might produce a definitive answer, then the result is probably, not really. The problem is the disposition of the seats After the results on Saturday, ACT had one; National, 56; Labour, 46; the Greens, 8 and NZ First 9. A Government will need a minimum of 61 seats to govern. It would be better to have 62. Neither bloc can reach that figure without NZ First. Alternatively NZ First could abstain on confidence and supply votes which would mean that only 56 seats would be needed to govern. Such a move by NZ First would almost certainly force National to do a deal with ACT to get a more comfortable 57 votes which would appal Winston Peters which is why it is now probably a less likely prospect. Both main leaders were making their pitch to him after the results were announced. Labour Leader Jacinda Ardern said: “Today’s result lifts Labour’s final vote to 37 per cent, and the left block of seats to 54. “The majority of people voted for a change to the status quo. “This reinforces the mandate for negotiations to form a stable, durable and progressive Labour-led government, a government I would be proud to lead. “ Prime Minister Bill English said: “Voters had a clear choice at the election between the two major parties that had a realistic prospect of leading the next government. “They signalled very clearly that they wanted National to perform that role and we will now get on with the job of trying to give effect to their wishes.”	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line216
__label__wiki	0.682487	0.682487	TV on DVD: “The Guilty” Written by Scott Malchus• January 27, 2011• Television, TV on DVD Scott Malchus looks back on an excellent 90’s British thriller, “The Guilty.” Steven Vey is a brilliant London attorney about to be appointed Britain’s youngest ever judge. On the eve of receiving this momentous occasion, Vey goes out for drinks with Nicky, the comely new secretary at his firm. Disillusioned with his marriage and arrogant to the point that he believes he can have whatever he wants, Vey flirts with the younger woman and they get drunk together. Upon driving her home, she invites him to her apartment for coffee and he makes an advance on her. Nicky refuses and the situation quickly turns ugly. Vey forces himself on her. Her stockings and dress get ripped. Nicky faints. When she comes to, Vey has a horrified look on his face. What happened while she was unconscious? Vey claims his actions were a mere indiscretion and flees, leaving Nicky in shock and tears. At the same time, in Birmingham, a young punk named Eddy is released from prison. His jail time has given him a new perspective on life and Eddy decides that he doesn’t want to fall back into a life of crime. With little money, he begins working low paying jobs in order to move out of the country. In order to get a passport, Eddy receives a copy of his birth certificate and makes a shocking discovery: the strict vicar who raised him from a baby is not his birth father. Angry and betrayed, Eddy forces the truth from him mother. Desperate not to lose the love of her son, Eddy’s mom gives him the name of his real father- Steven Vey. That’s the set up of The Guilty, an outstanding British miniseries originally produced in the early 1990’s and now reaching DVD for the first time. This complex drama/thriller is highly recommended for anyone who enjoyed such labyrinth classics like Prime Suspect and Traffik. Michael Kitchen, best known as Christopher Foyle in the very popular series, Foyle’s War, stars as the duplicitous litigator, Vey. In The Guilty, there are no signs of the respectable Foyle. Vey is a calculating, manipulative snake who will stop at nothing to ensure that he retains his power and prestige. When Nicky returns to work after the incident, having her around becomes too uncomfortable for Vey and he has the young woman fired. When Nick threatens to expose his crime unless he resigns as a judge, Vey arranges to have her murdered. Kitchen is chilling in his portrayal. The ease in which he delivers his despicable lines is a sight to see. Still, Kitchen also infuses Vey with a hidden morality that he struggles with throughout the series. We see him nearly collapse under the burden of his guilt. You’ll be amazed by Kitchen’s range in his portrayal of the sociopath lawyer. As Nicky, Caroline Catz gives a fierce performance. Nicky’s ordeal begins as a girl retreating to her bed, afraid to face the world. However, she realizes that if she doesn’t stand up for herself, Vey will be allowed to decide the fates of men who have committed lesser crimes than he did. She decides that he must be stopped. Catz makes Nicky’s gradual shift in character happen naturally. The scenes she shares with Kitchen crackle with energy. Gallagher, as Eddy, has a youthful appearance and his innocent eyes make him easy to root for. The moment we learn the identity of Eddy’s father we know right away that the character is going to be put through the wringer. Gallagher carries all of Eddy’s tortured emotions in his face and gives the character depth and soul. Written by Simon Burke and directed by Colin Gregg, The Guilty is a smart miniseries that keeps you on the edge of your seat all the way to its thrilling ending. The entire series does not feel dated in any way, despite the limited production values of the era. If you’re a fan of British drama, you’ll likely discover that The Guilty is right up there with the best. Tags: Caroline Catz, Michael Kitchen, Prime Suspect, Sean Gallagher, The Guilty, Traffik Last modified: January 27, 2011 Confessions of a Comics Shop Junkie, No. 50 TV Review: NBC Thursday-Night Comedy The Popdose 2011 TV on DVD Holiday Gift Guide	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line217
__label__wiki	0.818953	0.818953	Prev: -- Current: Louis Philippe Next: Effects of the French Revolution - England The French Revolution - Louis Philippe - Guizot - Resistance to Reform- Corruption of the Government - Criminals in High Places - M. Teste - Duke de Praslin - Unpopularity of the Government - The Prince de Joinville on his Father's Policy - The Spanish Marriages - Solemn Warnings - Flattering Assurances - The Reform Banquet prohibited - The King's Obstinacy - Impeachment of the Ministers - Excitement of the People - Resignation of Guizot - A Reform Administration announced - Public Rejoicings - The Troops fire on the People - Funeral Procession of the Victims - Insurrection in Paris - Abdication of the King - Proposal of a Regency - "Too late " - The Duchess of Orleans in the Chamber of Deputies - A Republic proclaimed - Sacking of the Tuileries and the Palais Royal, - Respect of the Rioters for the Duchess of Orleans - Flight of the King and Queen to England - Character and Death of Louis Philippe - Proclamation of a Provisional Government - All Vestiges of Royalty destroyed - The Red Republic - De Lamartine - The Constituent Assembly - The French Republic solemnly pro claimed - " Organisation of Labour" - Insurgent Movement of the Red Republicans - Movement in favour of Louis Napoleon - The National Workshops, and their ruinous Effects - Distress of the Working Classes - Insurrection and Street Fighting in Paris - General Cavaignac Dictator - Death of the Archbishop of Paris on a Barricade - The Insurrection suppressed - Louis Napoleon a Member of the National Assembly - His Election as President of the Republic. Pages: <1> 2 3 4 5 Loins Philippe, " the Napoleon of Peace," had been the subject of constant eulogy, for the consummate ability and exquisite tact with which he had governed France for seventeen years. It was supposed that the "Citizen King" had at length taught his restless and impulsive subjects the blessings of constitutional government, and that they were perfectly contented with the free institutions under which it was now their happiness to live. Guizot, regarded as one of the greatest statesmen on the Continent, was at the head of affairs in 1847, and it was hoped that his profound wisdom and keen sagacity would enable him to guard the state against any dangers with which it might be threatened by the Legitimists, on one side, or the Democrats, on the other. But the whole aspect of public affairs in France was deceptive, and the unconscious monarch occupied a throne which rested on a volcano. The representative government of which he boasted, was nothing but a sham - a gross fraud upon the nation. The basis of the electoral constituency was extremely narrow, and majorities were secured in the Chambers by the gross abuse of enormous government patronage. The people, however, saw through the delusion, and were indignant at the artifices by which they were deceived. The King, who interfered with his ministers in everything, and really directed the government, was proud of his skill in "managing" his ministry, his parliament, and the nation. But the conviction gained ground everywhere, and with it arose a feeling of deep resentment, that he had broken faith with the nation, that he had utterly failed to fulfil his pledges to the people, who had erected the barricades, and placed him upon the throne, in 1830. His temper was utterly unsuited to the spirit of the French nation. Mean, calculating, and selfish, he devoted himself to the hoarding of money, the acquisition of personal property, and the aggrandisement of his family. To those who could discern the signs of the times, there were various premonitory symptoms of the coming revolution. The people, not only in Paris, but throughout the provinces, had been suffering from the dearness of provisions, and they began to apprehend the approach of a famine. Various depots and warehouses containing corn were sacked, and boats laden with corn were pillaged. In some places the populace rose, and insisted upon a fixed price for corn, but which the vendors were obliged to sell, failing the protection of the authorities. Bands of men went through the country, demanding bread and labour. Outrages and assassinations occurred in some places. The rioters were tried; three were condemned to death, four to perpetual hard labour, and eighteen to various terms of imprisonment, by the Assize Court of l'Indr�. The multitude sympathised with the victims, and execrated the authorities as well as the landed proprietors. The Guizot Ministry became intensely unpopular. He had set his face against reform; and even to Conservative demands for moderate concession, his answer was, "Nothing, nothing, nothing!" In 1847, a proposition was brought forward in the Chambers in favour of electoral reform, which was supported by M. Odilon Barrot, who placed in a strong light the alarming progress of political corruption. But the stern minister could see no necessity for the motion, and denied that any reform was needed. He felt strong in a chamber chiefly composed of state functionaries, who sustained him by a majority of forty-nine. In the meantime, the most astounding system of robbery in the dockyards, arsenals, and other public stores, was brought to light at Toulon, Rochefort, Brest, and other places. Even officials, with small salaries, were discovered to have amassed large fortunes. The contractors supplied worthless articles, and heads of departments were found to be defaulters to an enormous extent. The Government, instead of punishing such delinquents, endeavoured to screen them. Its own members were publicly charged in the journals with shameful acts of corruption. Among these was Teste, a peer of France, and President of the Court of Cassation. A commission of inquiry was appointed, and while the investigation was proceeding he shot himself, but, not being mortally wounded, he wrote to the President of the Chamber of Peers that he would allow judgment to go by default. He was condemned to the penalty of civil degradation, to 94,000 francs' pecuniary fine, and to three years' imprisonment. Another peculator, General Cabi�res, was condemned to degradation, and a fine of 10,000 francs. The Chamber of Peers was prorogued on the 23rd of July, but within a month it was convoked again to try one of its members, accused of the crime of murdering his wife. The Duke de Praslin did not live happily with his wife, with whom he frequently quarrelled about the management of their children, eight in number. They had been recently confided to the care of a Madame Deluzy, a governess, who acquired a complete ascendancy over them and their father, which naturally excited the intense jealousy of their mother, who lived in a state of isolation and misery in her hotel. The Duke's temper, at the same time, became daily more violent, and whenever the husband and wife met it was only for the purpose of tormenting one another. About half-past four o'clock, on the morning of the 18th of August, a great noise was heard in the H�tel Praslin. The bells in the bedroom of the Duchess, communicating with the apartments of several servants, were rung with violence; the servants rushed up instantly, but found the doors which opened upon the bedchamber of the Duchess all securely fastened. They heard the noise of falling furniture, of piercing cries and groans, convincing them that a terrible murder was being perpetrated, yet all their efforts failed to break open the doors. At length they succeeded in reaching the chamber, through the garden. On entering the room, they found the lifeless body of Madame de Praslin, extended on the floor, with no covering but her blood-stained chemise - her forehead, face, neck, arms, and hands, pierced with more than thirty deep wounds. Hearing the cries of the servants, the Duke appeared at the door of the great salon, demanding the cause of the noise and tumult. When the corpse of his wife was pointed out to him, he exclaimed, " Ah, poor woman, who has assassinated her? " The police were quickly on the premises, with three doctors. The apartment was minutely examined, and a trail of blood was discovered, leading from it, along the passage, to the chamber of the Duke. He accounted for this by saying that when he was awakened by the cries of his dying wife, he ran towards her, assisted her as well as he could, and returned to his own room, covered with blood. His answer left little doubt that he was himself the assassin. His room was at once searched, and there was discovered linen stained and saturated with blood; also, various sharp instruments red with human gore. His person was then examined, and it was found that the skin was abraded in eight places, proving that he had been engaged in a desperate struggle. Yielding to these overwhelming proofs of guilt, the Duke feigned sudden indisposition, and asked leave to retire for a few minutes to his room. There he swallowed slow poison, of which he died on the 24th of August. This atrocious crime, perpetrated by a member of the Chamber of Peers, belonging to the highest order of nobility, and moving in the most select circle about the throne, following, as it did, so closely after the revelation of the gigantic frauds of Teste and his accomplices, gave an immense shock to the moral sense of the nation, and convinced even the middle classes, on which the government of Louis Philippe chiefly rested, that their rulers were wicked and depraved, beyond the hope of redemption. The friends of the monarchy were convinced that it could only be saved by speedy and effectual reform. But the very name of reform was hateful to the King, and his aide-de-camp took care to make known to the members of the Chamber his opinions and feelings upon the subject. M. Odillon Barrot, however, originated a series of reform banquets, which commenced in Paris, and were held in the principal provincial cities, at which the most eminent men in the country delivered strong speeches against political corruption and corrupters, and especially against the minister who was regarded as their chief defender - Guizot. The Prince de Joinville, writing to the Duke de Nemours on the 7th November, 1847, shows that he was aware of the situation of the country. "The fact is," he said, "the King is inflexible; he listens to no counsel; his will must have its way over all obstacles. There are, in fact, no ministers; their responsibility is as nothing; everything proceeds from the King. He is now of an age when he will listen to no observations whatever. We come before the Chamber detestably as to home affairs, and as to foreign, our position is not better. All this is the work of the King alone - the results of the old age of a King who wishes to govern, but who wants the energy to take a manly resolution. I had looked for compensation in Italy, but there we shall be forced to make common cause with the retrograde party, which, in France, will produce a disastrous effect. Alas! These unhappy Spanish marriages we have not yet exhausted the fount of bitterness they contain - placed between the alternative of making the amende honorable to Palmerston, on the subject of Spain, or of making common cause with Austria, to play the gendarme in Switzerland, and struggle in Italy against our principles and natural allies. Ours is a hard fate. All this is traceable to the King alone, who has tampered with our constitutional institutions. I look upon all this as very serious." The "Spanish marriages" here referred to, made great noise at the time, and contributed largely to the ruin of the Orleans dynasty. Louis Philippe insisted that the young Queen of Spain should marry her cousin, Don Francisco d'Assisi, an imbecile prince, to whom she had an aversion. He also arranged, that her sister should marry his youngest son, the Duke de Montpensier. Both marriages were celebrated on the Queen's birthday, the 10th of October, 1846. The Queen and her husband were completely estranged from one another, from the day of their legal union; neither appearing together in public, nor meeting in private. The French Chambers were summoned for the 28th December, and the King opened them in person, reading a speech, which was vague, vapid, and disappointing. It contained one passage, however, which was sufficiently intelligible. It was a denunciation and a defiance of reform. He said: - "In the midst of the agitation fomented by hostile and blind passions, one conviction sustains and animates me - it is that in the Constitutional monarchy, in the union of the great powers of the State, we possess the most assured means of surmounting all obstacles, and of satisfying the moral and material interests of our dear country." In the discussion on the address, solemn warnings were uttered, by great statesmen, on the situation of the country. M. Barrot accused the Ministers of sordid and shameless negotiations, and traffickings for place. M. Thiers showed, that the floating debt amounted to 750,000,000 francs, and declared that all kinds of property were depreciated - railway shares to nearly one-half. M. de Tocque- ville declared that public morals were depraved, and that private morals were deteriorating to the low level of the public. The sense of morality was daily becoming feebler. " It is true," he said, " the working classes are not troubled by political passions, as they were formerly, but their politics have become social. They no longer seek to upset such a minister, to overthrow such and such a government; but they wish to uproot and overturn society itself. When such opinions become prevalent, and sink into the minds of the people, they produce, sooner or later - one knows not the moment - one knows not how - the most formidable revolutions." M. de Lamartine undertook to demonstrate, that in all the affairs conducted by M. Guizot's government at Rome, Florence, Turin, and Naples, from the accession of Pius IX. to the rising in Sicily, the Cabinet of the Tuileries had served the interests of Austria and betrayed those of Italy and France. The Spanish marriages he considered to be the cause of those errors, omissions, and crimes. The debates on the state of the country continued for a month. Day by day, the most vehement denunciations against the Government were read with intense excitement in the caf�s throughout France. Two amendments were moved to the address, both of which were lost. M. Barrot said that it amazed him to find ministers putting into the mouth of the Sovereign outrages and insults, addressed to a great number of deputies, behind whom were 60,000 citizens. This was a crime against the Constitution, and must lead to a coup d'�tat, and to resistance. He threw on the Ministry the fearful responsibility of events. In the address, Guizot and his colleagues prophesied smooth things to their self-willed and infatuated Sovereign. They declared that France, by his courage, deserved the blessing of Heaven; that never under similar circumstances was public order so generally maintained; that the relations of the Government with all foreign powers gave him confidence that the peace of the world was secured; that agitations excited by hostile passions or blind delusions, would vanish before public reason, enlightened by free discussion, and the manifestation of all legitimate opinions; that they would guarantee the public liberties, and all their development; and that the Charter of 1830 would be transmitted by them to future generations, as an inviolable deposit, and would secure to them the most valuable inheritance which nations could receive - the alliance of order and liberty. On the following day a meeting of the Opposition deputies was held at the Caf� Durand, in the Place de la Madeleine, when it was proposed that they should all send in their resignations. This would cause 102 elections, at which the conduct of the Government would be fully discussed at the hustings in different parts of the country. This was objected to by the majority, who were for holding a great banquet in defiance of the Government. A committee was appointed to make the arrangements, and the announcement caused the greatest excitement. Commercial affairs were in a great measure suspended, and the whole community seemed waiting in anxious suspense for the issue of the contest. On the 14th of February the Journal des D�bats stated that the Government would pursue a conciliatory course, and that there would be reforms granted before the end of the session; but the article excited the anger of the King in the highest degree. "All the world is for reform," he said, "but I will never yield to this weakness; reform is the coming in of the Opposition, and the entry into power of the Opposition is war, and the beginning of the end. As soon as the Opposition assumes the reins of Government, I will retire!" On the 21st of February the Government issued a proclamation forbidding the banquet, which was to take place on the following day, and at which the National Guards were invited to attend in uniform, "for the purpose of defending liberty by joining in the demonstration, protecting order, and preventing all collision by their presence." The Ministry denounced this convoking of the National Guards as the raising of a Government in opposition to the real Government, usurping the public power, and openly violating the Charter, and concluded thus: - "These are acts which the Government cannot tolerate. In consequence, the banquet of the 12th arrondissement will not take place. Parisians, remain deaf to every excitement to disorder. Do not, by tumultuous assemblages, afford grounds for a repression which the Government would deplore." Pictures for Louis Philippe Guizot >>>> Murder of the Duchess de Praslin >>>> M. De Lamartine >>>>	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line219
__label__wiki	0.831695	0.831695	Central, Northern, and Eastern Europe; Rise of Russia and Prussia; the Seven Years' War; Russia and Turkey; the Partition of Pol Book: History of the World from the Earliest Historical Time to the Year 1898 Author: Sanderson, Edgar Prev: The Wars of Louis XIV. Current: Central, Northern, and Eastern Europe; Rise of Russia and Prussia; the Seven Years' War; Russia and Turkey; the Partition of Pol Next: The Trans-Atlantic Problem: Great Britain, France, Spain. Modern History. (a.d. 1492-1898). Peace of Westphalia to French Revolution (1648-1789). In Sweden, the abdication, in 1654, of Queen Christina, daughter of Gustavus Adolphus, brought to the throne her cousin Charles X., who warred with Poland, Russia, Denmark, the emperor, and the elector of Brandenburg, the chief result being the Danish loss of all remaining territory in Sweden, and consequently of the absolute control of the passage of the Sound. On the king's sudden death in 1660, his son, Charles XL, became king as a minor. War with Denmark and Brandenburg, caused by Sweden's alliance with Louis XIV., brought a great defeat for the Swedes in 1675, at Fehrbellin, north-west of Berlin, from Frederick William, the "Great Elector." The French monarch, however, compelled the victor, in 1679, to restore to Sweden most of his conquests in Pomerama. Under the Swedish king's wise and energetic rule much improvement was made, and the country, at his death in 1697, was prosperous and powerful. The accession of his son Charles XII. (1697-1718), at 15 years of age, was the signal of attack from ambitious and revengeful neighbouring sovereigns, who little knew the character of their intended youthful victim. This brave, reckless, able, ambitious, hardy, virtuous sovereign is well known to British readers, in the salient points of his adventurous and extraordinary career, from the noble lines in Johnson's Vanity of Human Wishes. This strange hero's passionate and obstinate disposition, in public affairs, brought a downfall of power to the chief Scandinavian country. The reign opened with brilliant successes gained by the king over his three assailants, the tsar of Russia and the kings of Poland and Denmark. The Danes were forced to sue for peace, after invading Holstein, by Charles' invasion of Zealand, and the aid of an Anglo-Dutch squadron under Sir George Rooke. The king of Poland (Augustus II., elector of Saxony), who aimed at seizing Livonia, was defeated in 1701 and the two following years in three battles, and deposed from his Polish throne. In 1704 and 1706 two other victories of Charles forced Augustus to a humiliating peace, including the renunciation of alliance with Russia. The troops of the tsar Peter, the chief antagonist, had been utterly defeated in November, 1700, at the battle of Narva, to the south of the Gulf of Finland, where the young Swedish monarch, with only 8,000 warriors, stormed the Russian camp occupied by 50,000 men. Seven years passed away before Charles again invaded Russia, in January, 1708, with an army exceeding 40,000 men. He was now to encounter a different foe from the Peter of 1700. The Russian army had been well trained, and the sovereign had learned some strategy and tactics. After some initial success, Charles was led astray by the promises of the Cossack hetman (general) Mazeppa, and turned southwards, across the Dnieper, into the Ukraine, where he vainly besieged Pultowa. The promised large supports of Cossacks were not forthcoming; reinforcements from Sweden were intercepted; and at last, with an army reduced to about 20,000 men, and those exhausted by a hard winter endured with scanty supplies, Charles was forced to meet the tsar, who was in command of overwhelming numbers. The battle of Pultowa, fought on July 8th, 1709, founded Russian power on a new and firm basis as that of the leading nation in northern Europe, and ended at one blow Swedish ascendency. After desperate fighting and heavy losses, the Swedish army was broken up, and Charles was for five years a fugitive in Turkey. His territories were well defended for a time by the regency in Stockholm, and he placed the victor of Pultowa in difficulties by a Turkish invasion. Peter, however, extricated himself by bribery, and intrigue. In 1714 Charles returned to his country, and found himself confronted by a combination of Prussia, Saxony, Denmark, Hanover, and Russia. The king then formed a vast scheme for making terms with Peter by surrendering the Baltic provinces of Sweden; conquering Norway; invading the British Isles, and replacing the House of Stuart on the throne, with the aid of the Jacobite party and of Spain. Of this ambitious plan, the only part executed was the conclusion of peace with the tsar. A. third invasion of Norway closed in December, 1718, with Charles' death by a musket-shot from the fortress at the siege of Frederikshall. The war soon ended with the loss, to Sweden, of the duchies of Bremen and Verden, by sale to Hanover; of Stettin and western Pomerania, to Prussia, partly by sale; and of Livonia, Esthonia, and other Baltic territory, with the islands of Oesel and Dago, to Russia. Thus ended the position of Sweden as a prominent European power, held by her for about a century. In succeeding reigns, down to the accession of Gustavus III. in 1771, the royal power greatly declined, and the government was in the hands of rival parties of nobles - the "Caps" (Mutzen) and "Hats" (Hute) - .in the Council of State, respectively supporting a Russian and a French policy. Unsuccessful war with Russia in 1741-1743 ended in the Peace of Abo, whereby Sweden surrendered part of Finland. The reign of Gustavus III., beginning in 1771, was marked by his energetic and successful efforts to break down the power of the oligarchy; to promote agriculture, commerce, mining, science, and literature; and to provide benevolent institutions. The combination of these schemes with a desire to maintain his court in the splendour of a Swedish Versailles brought financial difficulties, increased taxation, unpopularity, and fresh trouble with the nobles, one of whose tools, Ankarstrom, assassinated the king at Stockholm in 1792. The history of Denmark, during the period under review, presents little of importance. Christian IV., whom we have seen in the Thirty Years' War, and who died in the year of the Peace of Westphalia (1648), did much for the country in extending her commerce, in legislative and financial reforms, and in his patronage of the arts and sciences. His popularity is attested by the commemoration of his name in those of the Norwegian towns Christiansand and Christiania. He had been much thwarted by the nobles, and under his son Frederick III., in 1660, the people rose against the oligarchy and gave the sovereign absolute power. Under this constitution, for about a century, the peasantry were practically serfs, and the middle classes had little influence; but before the close of the 18th century, under the generally benignant rule of the monarchs, many administrative improvements were made, and the tillers of the soil had become gradually free. Hungary was in evil case under the rule of the bigoted emperor Leopold I. (1657-1705), a man strongly influenced by the Jesuits. His deliberate efforts to "impoverish, enslave, and recatholicise" the country, as he himself expressed his purpose, caused a conspiracy, headed by Catholics, for the independence of the land, but the plot was detected, and the ringleaders died on the scaffold. An exterminating policy caused the destruction, in a few years, of thousands of Protestant families, and a Protestant rising, with an appeal to Turkey for aid, brought the invasion of 1683, in which Vienna was besieged by a Turkish host led by the grand vizier Kara Mustapha, and only saved by a united German and Polish army under Charles of Lorraine, and the famous John Sobieski, king of Poland, whose deliverance of the Austrian capital threw a gleam of glory over the declining days of his country. Before Leopold's death the Diet at Presburg declared the throne of Hungary hereditary in the House of Hapsburg. In 1686 Buda, having been for nearly a century and a half in Turkish hands, was stormed, after a long siege and five unsuccessful assaults, by Duke Charles of Lorraine, whose columns here, for the first time in war, advanced with fixed bayonets. In the following year the same hero defeated the Turks at Mohacs, the scene of a former great Hungarian defeat above recorded, and the war ended in 1697 with Prince Eugene's complete triumph at the battle of Zenta, on the Theiss. In 1699 the Peace of Carlowitz gave Austria possession of most of Hungary, and of Transylvania, and the Turkish frontier was, for the first time in a treaty, made to recede, with a significant warning to Ottoman aggression on Christendom. After another vain contest of the combined Hungarian nobles and peasantry against Austrian oppression, ending a period of constitutional struggles between the nation and the sovereign, a new war with Turkey began in 1716, and a victory of Prince Eugene soon wrested from the Moslem their last portion of Hungarian territory, and established the frontier of Hungary as it exists at the present day. The Turks left the country ruined and devastated, to be restored to fertility, civilisation, and prosperity only by the energetic efforts, during a century and a half, of her brave and patient people Under the emperor, Charles VI. (1711-1740), constitutional and religious liberty were enjoyed by Hungary, and their queen, Maria Theresa (1740-1780), continued the same policy, and showed- her gratitude to the people who supported her cause with so much magnanimity and self-sacrifice by earnest efforts to improve their condition in educational, religious, and industrial affairs: Joseph II. (1780-1790), an enlightened reformer in some respects, was not crowned as "king of Hungary" because he did not choose to swear fidelity to the constitution, and he ruled as an autocratic sovereign, whose chief fault was a disregard of national feelings, class interests, and prejudices, in his efforts to promote the welfare of his Hungarian subjects. His attempts were all resisted because the nation and their Diet were allowed to have no voice as to measures of reform, and his desire to Germanise the people wounded their strong feeling of nationality. In the end, all his illegal edicts were revoked, except those enjoining religious toleration, and the ancient constitution of the country was re-established. Few monarchs have better earned the title of "Great" than Peter I. of Russia, who became tsar in 1689, at 17 years of age. Left untrained in his early youth, he possessed a natural ability and a resolution which enabled him to surmount all obstacles; to show himself equal to the highest duties of the general and the statesman; to rule a vast empire; to create a nation; to give Russia, for the first time, a high place in the European system of politics and war. No stranger mixture of barbarism and culture ever filled a throne. This man of "stately form, intellectual forehead, piercing black eyes, Tartar nose and mouth, and gracious smile which could swiftly change into a frown black with all the stormy rage and hate of a barbarian tyrant," had to the last the personal habits of a semi-savage, living in his palace like a hog in a sty. He could, in a large measure, impress civilisation on a nation, sweeping away evil customs, reforming society, and forcing his subjects to adopt more enlightened methods than those of their ancestors, but he never tamed or polished himself. Devoted to the work of self-improvement in acquiring knowledge for the sake of his country, and keeping his brain ever at work on schemes for the national benefit, this same man, who found Russia Asiatic, and left her European, at one time displayed the best qualities of an enlightened ruler, and at another was merely a brutal and ruthless tyrant, who crushed opponents with terrible severity, and put to death his own rebellious son. One of his rarest gifts - amounting to positive genius - was his swift and accurate estimate of the men proper to aid him in his great work of changing a semi-oriental, degraded, and benighted people into a modern and civilised community. For his own education, for suggestions concerning schemes of reform, and for practical aid in carrying out those plans, Peter was largely indebted to two foreigners, both of Scottish origin, Patrick Gordon and Frangois Lefort. The latter, a native of Geneva, served for a time with the Swiss Guard at Paris, and went to Russia in 1675, where he became a commander of new troops who were raised to counteract the influence of the "streltzi" or old militia. Lefort became the leading personage in Russia, next to the new tsar, and had a large share in forming an army on the European model, and in founding the Russian naval force. Gordon, a native of Aberdeenshire, born in 1635, ran away from a Jesuit college in Prussia in 1653, and then became a soldier of fortune for several years under the Swedish flag. In 1661 he entered the Russian service, and his work in reforming discipline soon gave him the rank of colonel. Gallant service against Cossacks, Turks, and Tartars raised him in 1688 to the position of general, and his intimacy with Peter was cemented by the zeal and courage which he displayed in crushing the conspirators against the tsar's throne and life in 1689. Nine years later, during Peter's absence in western Europe to study ship-building and other mechanical arts, Gordon suppressed the formidable rebellion of the "streltzi" which caused the tsar to finally break up that antiquated force. The visit of Peter to England is narrated in a lively style by Lord Macaulay towards the end of his History. For three months he worked hard at acquiring information, living partly at Deptford, among the shipwrights, drinking and smoking after his day's toil with his companions at a waterside tavern; and partly in London, where he lodged in Norfolk Street, Strand, visiting the king (William III.) at Kensington House; attending a sitting at the House of Lords, and seeing a play. At Lambeth Palace he saw the ceremony of ordination performed, and beheld in the archbishop's library the first good collection of books on which his eyes had rested. He declared that he had never imagined that there were so many printed volumes in the world. At Portsmouth he witnessed a sham sea-fight, to his intense delight; from Oxford University he received the honorary degree of D.C.L. On leaving England in April, 1698, Peter showed his appreciation of our country by carrying off about 500 engineers, artisans, gunners, surgeons, and other workers with hand and brain as instructors for his subjects in the arts of peace and war. We have seen how the tsar fared in his contests with Sweden, and his extension of Russian territory in Europe. Towards the close of his reign, ending in 1725, war with Persia opened the Caspian to Russian trade by the conquest of territory including the towns of Derbend and Baku. He left his country, in many respects, regenerated and transformed, and firmly placed on the high road to further improvement and development of her material resources. On the political side, Peter established autocratic power by destroying that of the boyars and of the Sobor or States-General, introducing in their stead a senate nominated by the sovereign. The rank of patriarch in the Church was abolished, and the emperor became the head of that institution. Authority was centralised in the hands of various boards or committees, resembling modern cabinets or ministries, under the tsar's immediate control. The seat of government was transferred from Moscow to St. Petersburg, the city Created by himself on the banks of the Neva. Serfdom became intensified into slavery. All Russians of every class were the subjects of the tsar in equal degree, without interference with distinctions of class in regard to each other. Internal order was maintained, and plots against the throne were checked, through the action of a powerful secret police. The courts of justice and the financial system were remodelled. Agriculture and other industries, education, the fine arts, literature and learning, were earnestly promoted. New breeds of cattle were introduced; communications, in a region of countless rivers, were improved through the connection of streams by canals. In social matters, the Mongol principle was weakened by efforts to raise the low position of women. With the zeal of a drill-master, Peter strove, and with much success, to force, or as some writers express it, to "knout," his barbarous subjects into civilisation. Pictures for Central, Northern, and Eastern Europe; Rise of Russia and Prussia; the Seven Years' War; Russia and Turkey; the Partition of Pol	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line220
__label__cc	0.629662	0.370338	Home » Themeparks » Animal Kingdom Park » Expedition Everest in Asia Section Expedition Everest at Animal Kingdom Explore the grandeur of the Himalayans on a run-away train, while narrowly avoiding the abominable snowman and certain doom! Expedition Everest is a fun-filled adventure attraction at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Located in the Asia section of the park, this thrilling roller coaster ride is neighbor to the Kali River Rapids attraction and the Maharaja Jungle Trek attraction. But it is by far the most thrill-filled adventure ride to be found in the Asia section of the theme park. Set with the theme of scaling Mount Everest, the opening of this popular attraction took over 6 years of extensive planning,design and construction, and is actually the tallest artificial mountain located at Walt Disney World. The mountain alone took over three years to construct, which makes it one of the great Disney engineering marvels. Park guests climb aboard the roller coaster to embark on a rather swift twisting and turning journey through the Himalayas, arriving at the foot of Mount Everest Roller Coaster Train The train continues along its journey, including a number of short drops and sharp turns, ultimately riding into and up inside of the mountain. As the train makes its way up, it passes through what appears to be a temple that has been destroyed. On the walls of the temple appear to be murals of the mythical yeti, and warnings to the train riders tell them that they are now entering into his territory. As the train reaches the very top of the mountain and emerges out of the cave, it slowly comes to a halt in front of what appears to be a piece of track that has been destroyed. Atop the mountain you’ll be able to see miles and miles of the park spread out all around you; this really is a wonderful but very brief opportunity to take in the surroundings. The brakes on the train will hiss loudly and then a switch will be thrown, which results in the train car hurtling backwards down a new route that will take it down through the mountain. The train will screech to a halt inside of a cave, and a silhouette of the yeti will show him tearing up more parts of the train track! The train will then go through several more thrilling drops and turns, narrowly missing the grasp of the fearsome yeti, before returning to the unloading dock and a gift shop. This ride is for the thrill seekers and the adventurers amongst us all. With a sturdy steel track and a number of engineering marvels, the ride lasts just under 3 minutes; which is more than enough time to thoroughly enjoy the thrills and the chills that come along with this Himalayan ride. FASTPASS & Ride Switch Service This is a very popular ride so you could expect to queue up for around thirty minutes, but the good news is that the FASTPASS is available for this ride, which can help you to zip past those waiting in line. Children who are less than 44 inches tall are not permitted to go on this ride, but the Ride Switch service is available for this ride. Ride Switch allows two or more adults to take turns on the ride, while one of them remains behind with children who are too small to get on the ride. The ride is wheelchair accessible, but guests need to be able to transfer out of their wheelchair and into the train in order to enjoy the ride. Due to the type of ride, service animals are not permitted to accompany their owners on this ride. Filled with adventure, thrills, excitement, and a little bit of fear thrown in for good measure, Expedition Everest is a great choice for the explorer in all of us.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line221
__label__wiki	0.704939	0.704939	Russian man impersonating police officer gets 8 years for fraud 12:19 09/07/2019 A court in Nizhny Tagil has sentenced Russian citizen Yury Blinov, who had extorted money playing a police officer’s role, to 8 years in prison for fraud. Fifteen regional police officers charged with taking bribes 10:55 09/07/2019 Corruption charges have been brought against fifteen police officers in Russia’s Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria. Ex-Yukos lawyer’s 10-year sentence for embezzlement appealed 18:20 08/07/2019 A 10-year prison sentence given to Yukos oil company’s former lawyer Pavel Ivlev for embezzlement and money laundering has been appealed. Russian business ombudsman criticizes ruling on construction developer’s detention 16:41 08/07/2019 The Moscow City Court’s arguments that owner of Optima Development construction company Albert Khudoyan charged with 2-billion-ruble embezzlement (over $31 million) can abscond from investigators has little force. Construction developer detained till mid-August on embezzlement charges 14:01 08/07/2019 The Moscow City Court on Monday rescinded house arrest of the owner of Optima Development construction company Albert Khudoyan charged with 2-billion-ruble embezzlement (over $31 million) and placed him in detention until August 14. Russian court overturns sentence quoting indictment word for word 12:56 08/07/2019 Presidium of the Supreme Court of Russia’s Republic of Bashkortostan has overturned sentence against four men in a drug trafficking case as its text is congruent with the text of indictment. Interim manager denied expedition of ex-FIFA World Cup IT contractor’s bankruptcy case 11:53 08/07/2019 Chairman of the Moscow Commercial Court Nikolay Novikov has denied expedition of a bankruptcy case against Asteros, a former IT contractor for the FIFA 2018 World Cup in Russia, to its temporary manager. Alleged Church of Scientology adherent gets 6 years for $2.5 mln embezzlement 10:59 08/07/2019 Alleged Church of Scientology adherent and head of a consumer society Maria Sidorova has been sentenced to 6 years in jail for embezzling 155.5 million rubles (nearly $2.5 million) from shareholders of 9 housing associations. Russian military court imprisons member of notorious Basayev gang for 19 years 17:07 05/07/2019 A member of a gang once led by a notorious Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev was sentenced to 19 years in prison on Friday. Assistant to presidential envoy in Ural Federal District detained in treason case 16:46 05/07/2019 Moscow’s Lefortovsky District Court on Friday ordered an assistant to the presidential envoy in the Ural Federal District Alexander Vorobyev to be detained until September 4 on treason allegations.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line222
__label__wiki	0.89322	0.89322	Interview with Simon Deal of Tempest 4000 After Atari cited TxK‘s similarity to its own Tempest franchise, the company took necessary steps to block the game’s release on PC, PlayStation 4, and Android systems. Fearing that “I can never make a Tempest style game ever again”, the game’s creator, Jeff Minter, accused Atari of being a “copyright troll”. Since then however, Atari has taken conciliatory steps to ensure an amicable resolution, with its efforts yielding the announcement that not only is Jeff Minter to continue making a “Tempest style” game, but that he’s currently working with Atari in bringing over its Tempest franchise to all major gaming platforms. Titled Tempest 4000, the game offers a continuation of the same signature gameplay that was so beloved amongst old school gamers, yet benefits from modern 4K visuals that are further enhanced by a pulse-pounding 90’s techno soundtrack. However, with so much controversy surrounding the project, I spoke to Simon Deal (Senior Producer, Atari) about his company’s working arrangement with Jeff Minter, and what gamers can expect from TxK‘s own spiritual suceessor – Tempest 4000. Enjoy! Tempest 4000 is is coming out on PS4, XBox One, and PC, and will also be taking advantage of higher-end console iterations that utilize 4K. So I assume it’s coming out for the Pro and the X. Will there be any difference between the Pro and the X versions? No, they’ll be running at 4K resolution, and those would be the enhancements for those particular consoles. What about in terms of content? No, there will be parity across all three platforms. Even though I’ve just mentioned 4K, what’s the likelihood of the game coming out on Switch? Switch is something that we’re looking at as a potential product platform for the game. But at this time we’ve got nothing to announce. Vita? Other than the three platforms that we’ve made public at the moment, we’ve got no plans to announce anything else at this time. But stay tuned for more information in the future. Atari recently announced a “comeback” into the console hardware sphere. Can you talk a bit about that in terms of what the new Atari console is going to be about and whether Tempest 4000 is going to be part of that particular console’s lineup? That’s the Atari Box. But at this time, there isn’t any information that we’re able to share on that. Jeff Minter worked on TxK, the game that was pulled from PlayStation Network. That was the spiritual successor to the old Tempest games. And a lot of people are arguing that Tempest 4000 is almost like an iterated version of TxK, and a spiritual update to that game. Will there be any levels from TxK that will be making an appearance in Tempest 4000? What would you consider to be the main difference between TxK and Tempest 4000? And at the same time, will TxK be making a comeback on the PlayStation Network digital storefront now that you’ve resolved your differences with Jeff Minter? So Tempest 4000 itself is based on Tempest 2000. Anything that we discussed in the past regarding TxK… TxK is a separate product, a Sony entry into the series, and this is the sequel to Tempest 2000. Dave Theurer worked on the original Tempest. And Jeff Minter took over from 2000 onwards. Why hasn’t Dave Theurer been approached to work on the future sequels? And at the same time, what is the likelihood of being able to rope him in, at least in terms of getting some advice for Tempest 4000? We haven’t spoken to Dave Theurer regarding this. This was a collaboration between Llamasoft with Jeff Mentor and Atari. And any interactions that could be made, we’ll be making suitable announcements at that time. How hard was it to be able to get Jeff Minter on board, bearing in mind that he was quite disparaging with regards to Atari when TxK was pulled? I think what we’ve done is decided to resolve any differences that were behind closed doors. And now we’re just looking to the future and making sure that Tempest 4000 will be the best product that it can be. How many people are involved in Tempest 4000’s development, apart from Jeff Minter? Llamasoft is made up of two individuals, which are Jeff Minter and Ivan Zorzin. And they’re working on developing Tempest 4000. It’s a two-man development team. Any external assistance? Soundtrack? Soundtrack is yet to be finalized. But we’ll be taking influence from the Tempest 2000 soundtrack which is 1990’s tech. We’ll be announcing more in due course. Will Tempest 4000 be a boxed release? It will be getting a retail release, and we’ll be announcing that retail release in the future. When is the game out? Tempest 4000 will be out for PlayStation 4, XBox One, Steam PC for Holiday 2017. Do you have a release date? Stay tuned for a more formal release date. Tempest 2000 came out in 1994. Tempest 3000 came out in 2000. Tempest 4000 is coming out 17 years later. I know that we’re having a bit of a retro revival at the moment, but do you think there’s a big enough fan base for Tempest? What made you think that the time was right for Tempest to make a comeback now after a 17-year absence? We’ve had the conversations with Jeff ongoing for a while. And once we’ve resolved these differences, we thought it would be the perfect time to bring back a new sequel to Tempest. At the same time, we’ve obviously had some very early discussions, but we’ve got nothing to announce at this time regarding any further collaborations. In terms of fans of the actual game and why it would be a suitable time, we really wanted to bring the game to the current gen consoles… take advantage of the 4K and any enhancements that the additional Pro and X give. And we just want to ensure that… Sorry, can you repeat the question? There’s been a 17-year gap between releases… In terms of the fan base, there are the hardcore fans who remember Tempest back in the day. There’s also this new generation of fans that aren’t aware of Tempest. And we’re taking steps as to reimagine some of our current IPs that we have in the back catalog. And we’ll be announcing things in the near future on those. I don’t know the original Tempest, but I remember Tempest 2000, and now I’ve seen Tempest 4000. To what extent is Tempest 4000 faithful to what has gone before? And at the same time, what influences has the game been able to pick up from what’s going on in the modern gaming scene? The core gameplay is very hard. It is Tempest… The core gameplay is still there as a volumetric tube shooter. We’ve got the same enemies that come in and obviously taking advantage of the 4K capabilities and more of the GPU that we can harness from the consoles themselves to really bring those effects and update the visual experience overall. What about leaderboards? Global leaderboards will be supported. For each of the game modes, we’ll have online global leaderboards. Will that be cross-platform? No, not across platform but just specific to the individual platforms. Tempest 4000 has 100 levels. How long will it take the average person to complete those 100 levels, even though it’s ultimately a score-attack game? That’s hard to say. It depends on the player’s skill… what the actual goal of the player is. They may want to go straight into the game and go right through the 100 levels. And then they may experience certain challenges. The intention of the game is not to have any nasty difficulty spikes, and more to build up the Tempest experience. We want all players to be able to get to each of the levels. But at the same time, if a player wants to spend a little bit more time maximizing the score on each level before progressing, it’s up to them. They can play how they want to play the game. Given that Jeff Minter is the developer of this particular project, and he must’ve just run through the game like a speed attack challenge, or whatever you want to call it… For those really good Tempest players, how long do you think it could take them to complete 100 levels? What’s Jeff Minter’s record? 37 minutes? Will there be a Time Leaderboard in the game as well? Just the high scoreboards there will be. You obviously are collaborating with Jeff Minter on a retro revival update. What are Atari’s plans in terms of bringing out a further software products? For the time being, we’re concentrating on Tempest 4000. But naturally, we’ve had some possible discussions about that. But we haven’t got anything to announce at the moment. But that is something that we’ll be looking to do in the future. Is it part of Atari’s rejuvenated attempt at becoming a major part of the modern gaming landscape? I think Atari has always had a place in modern gaming landscape. We’ve got a lot of very beloved IPs in our back catalog. And we’re always looking to see what IPs could be best suited for updates. There will be new games coming out in the future, and we’ll be leveraging that. But at the same time, we’ll also be looking to bring brand-new games to the gaming platforms, and those will be announced in due course. Nolan Bushnell founded Atari. How much of an input is he having with regards to modern-day Atari proceedings? Nolan doesn’t have any day-to-day interactions with Atari. Simon Parkin, Sony and the CEX Conundrum Interview with Stuart Morton of ‘SubLevel Zero’ Interview with Nils Hammerich of Gods Remastered By prankster101\|2019-04-22T12:18:19+01:00September 10th, 2017\|ARTICLES\|0 Comments If You Found This Article Helpful, Please Tell All Of Your Friends About the Author: prankster101 Copyright 2006-2019 Prankster101 Productions \| All Rights Reserved \| Powered by Nj Design Park	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line223
__label__wiki	0.776279	0.776279	‘Future armour should be capable of operating on western, northern fronts’ By Precious Kashmir on 15/11/2017 Comments Off on ‘Future armour should be capable of operating on western, northern fronts’ New Delhi, Nov 15: Future armoured vehicles should have the capability to operate on both northern and western borders, Army Chief General Bipin Rawat said on Wednesday. The Army Chief’s remark came days after the Indian Army issued a Request For Information (RFI) for development and manufacturing of Future Ready Combat Vehicle (FRCV) under the Strategic Partnership model. Speaking at a seminar “Future Armoured Vehicles India 2017”, General Rawat said the Indian Army was looking at modernising its mechanised forces, adding that there can be no mistake in deciding what capabilities are required in these Future Ready Combat Vehicles. “Whatever be the future armoured vehicle we are looking at, we must have the capability to operate on the western border and the northern border. Whatever equipment we are going to introduce must be capable of inter-operability on both fronts.” The Army Chief said that with development of canal systems on the western front, the desert areas have become greener and population close to the border has also grown, leaving lesser space for operating the tanks and also bringing in a requirement for building bridges. “With the canal system developing, we will have to address the requirement of bridges in the manner in which these armoured fighting vehicles are going to negotiate with all this… Therefore, I will say the battlefield will become complex and the terrain will add to the complexities.” General Rawat also said that there is a need to reduce the weight of the machines and to ensure it can operate in a complex terrain as well as be integrated with other systems. “We will have to look at technology to reduce the weight of our war fighting machines. We will have to overcome terrain with manoeuvering space reducing… Even down south in desert, in that sector hardening of desert has started,” he added. General Rawat said India is looking at modernising its mechanised forces and the new weapon system cannot be seen as a tank alone. “The future combat vehicle will really be a system of systems. This is the time we can make no mistakes. We must decide what we want… what are the capabilities. It must have capability to operate by day and night. They must be integrated on systems within the machines available to us,” he said. “It is a very complex system we are looking at and we cannot make any mistakes.” The Indian Army last week issued an RFI for over 1,700 Future Ready Combat Vehicles (FRCVs) to replace the ageing Soviet-era T-72 tanks. ‘Future armour should be capable of operating on western, northern fronts’ added by Precious Kashmir on 15/11/2017	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line224
__label__cc	0.693205	0.306795	More Excitement in Beijing Olympics No Comments As unimpressed as I’ve been with the reporters at the events in general (swimming & gymnastics, especially), I have really enjoyed the interviews in the studio with the athletes. I definitely have to give NBC some credit for doing a lot of those this Olympics. I really think it’s cool that they interviewed Arron Piersol, Brendan Hansen, & Jason Lezak without Michael Phelps and giving them a bit of the attention they deserve. Don’t get me wrong, I think Michael Phelps is probably the most amazing Olympian of all time and probably always will be, since he’s still very young. However, the other guys on that relay (especially Lezak, who did an amazing job in the freestyle relay) did a lot and deserve some credit. Without them (and Phelps’ other relay teammates), Phelps couldn’t have broken the record of 7 gold medals in one Olympics. I was glad to see that the Chinese women got the bronze medal as well as the silver in beach volleyball. Of course, the match happened before the gold medal match last night, but I didn’t find out until after I got home and was able to watch Very cool for them to get their first two medals in beach volleyball when the Olympics are at home. It was the first time since beach volleyball was introduced to the Olympics that Brazil didn’t get a medal – they must be pretty devastated. Kerri Walsh & Misty May-Treanor were the only Americans I’d noticed who actually sang the National Anthem until the women’s soccer team later in the day. It was great to see them win the gold medal again (in an exciting game that went into extra time, since it was scoreless at the end of regulation). I can’t believe Japan won gold in softball. I guess that’s what can happen when you go into a game with everyone wondering if the other team will even score, rather than fighting to win. The US women must be crushed… Most of the games the US women played started out with the commentators wondering if the other team would get a hit, not if the other team would win. I didn’t watch the game, since I don’t find it very interesting when a team dominates a sport so much. I stopped paying attention to the US softball team years ago. As a big volleyball fan, I can’t wait to see the US women’s volleyball team playing for the gold (after sweeping the match against Cuba). They’ll play Brazil in the finals. Brazil hasn’t lost a single set so far in the 2008 Olympics. Hopefully, the US will break that streak. Until Wang Chen of the US beat South Korea’s Kim Kyung-ah to advance to the quarterfinals, the US had never had an Olympian get that far. Wang, born in China, had a lot of friends at the match and dropped to her knees crying when she won. It was an amazing match and is the first time anyone from the US has made it to the quarterfinals and Gao Jun of the US was eliminated just barely, losing 4-3 to Wu Xue of the Dominican Republic. I hate that they cut the beginning of the men’s quarterfinal match (22-21 USA when they started airing it). So sad! I love volleyball and clearly the game was good – a game can’t be that close without being pretty exciting. The commentator even mentioned it. They did win the first set 25-22. They turned around the second set (losing 16-13) to win 25-21. They dropped the third set 25-27 and the fourth set 22-25, but came back to win the 5th set 15-13. I can’t wait for the gold medal match! In the next quarterfinal match, the commentators were saying they think the US will be the team to beat in the gold medal match, no matter who moves on. I hope they’re right. No matter what, it should be a great match and it’s their first appearance in the finals since 1988. I don’t remember ever seeing a jump-off for gold and bronze in the equestrian individual jumping event. Both the US competitors jumped part of the decoration and Beezie Madden successfully completed the course and beat the time set by the German rider who started the jump-off for bronze. I thought they might cut out a lot of the gymnastics gala, since they only showed parts of it Wednesday night, but fortunately, they showed it on Oxygen in Thursday night’s coverage. As a former gymnast and lover of the sport, I like seeing the gymnasts just let go and have fun doing the sport they love at the end of the competition and I’m glad NBC didn’t decide to cut this as they did so much of the gymnastics throughout the Olympics. I’m sure they didn’t show us everything, since they’ve been cutting a lot all along, but they did show a lot of great performances at the gala. The interviews with all the gymnasts were great, too. I think Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin are great, but my favorite gymnast on the women’s team was Alicia Sacramone. It’s sad that she still totally blames herself for the team getting silver instead of the gold. There was quite a bit of a difference in the scores. I really don’t think she should blame herself, though I’m sure as the leader of the team she feels responsible. A lot of the blame has to be placed on the judging. There’s no way around that. It’s so funny how a female gymnast at 21 is already getting old for the sport and thinking she probably won’t be able to compete in the next Olympics. Very sad, since Alicia is my favorite from the team, but it’s what I expected. Go USA! Tags: Alicia Sacramone, beach volleyball, equestrian, fighting, gymnastics, interview, John Speraw, judging, Kerri Walsh, Michael Phelps, Misty May-Treanor, Nastia Liukin, National Anthem, NBC, Olympics, reporters, Shawn Johnson, soccer, swimming, volleyball A Shocking Turn of Events on NBC Last night’s Olympics coverage had some of the most shocking footage (to me) so far in the Olympics. Although perhaps they should have given Haley Ishimatsu (the 15-year-old diver who just missed qualifying for the platform diving, coming in 14th when the top 12 advanced) a bit more time before her interview, I understand wanting to talk to her before she left for the night. Surprisingly, the reporter asking Haley how it felt to be so close to qualifying and not make it seemed touched moved by Haley’s tears and tried to comfort her. I was shocked. It was nice to see a reporter for NBC seem to care about the feelings of one of the athletes at the Olympics. Normally, it seems like they’re cold-hearted and actually enjoy asking questions like “So, you just missed getting the gold by 1/1000 of a second – how do you feel?” and concentrating on the negative side, rather than saying something like “You just won the silver medal, beating out tons of other athletes – how do you feel?” I appreciate the fact that one of the reporters actually came across as caring about an athlete. I’m sure it won’t last, but it was a nice touch. The men’s volleyball match against Italy yesterday was definitely exciting. I know that the USA wasn’t expected to win and it was a huge upset, but clearly I was rooting for the USA and was going nuts watching them. I’d be rooting for them anyway, but with UCI’s men’s volleyball coach (John Speraw) there as an assistant coach to the team, I really want them to do well! I’m excited that the men’s volleyball team moved on to the medal round and I hope to see them play for the gold. Go USA! Of course, watching the women’s beach volleyball finals wasn’t too surprising. I figured Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor would win the gold and be the first team to win back-to-back gold medals in the Olympics (teams often aren’t even the same from Olympics to Olympics, it seems). I’m so happy that they were able to achieve their dream and move on with their lives now, though I’ll miss them in London if they’re too busy with their families to participate. They’re a lot of fun to watch on the AVP tour and in the Olympics. I did think that the Chinese team might win one of the sets against May-Treanor and Walsh. They are a very good team. It’s amazing to me that May-Treanor and Walsh were able to get through two entire Olympics without losing a single set. They did face set points against other teams, but they never actually lost a single set to another team in the Olympics. That’s amazing. Usain Bolt broke the 200m world record Michael Johnson set in the Atlanta Summer Olympics in 1996. Many felt that Johnson’s record was untouchable, but Bolt proved them wrong. Even people who aren’t interested in track & field seem interested in world records being broken. Those who were talking about all the excitement being over when Michael Phelps was done swimming and the gymnastics had ended are really missing out on the volleyball, beach volleyball, diving, track & field and many other sports that are still going on (it’d take too long to list them all). I can understand the people who are sick of hearing about the “Redeem Team” and not being interested in basketball (I feel the same), but there are tons of other sports to watch – even BMX racing, which can be kind of fun to watch. The gymnastics showcase pieces are enjoyable, too. It’s good to see the athletes relax after winning their medals and have fun out there. I realize I’m not biased, since I’m clearly addicted to the Olympics, but a lot of world records have been broken in Beijing and many are starting to argue what I believe (that Michael Phelps is the greatest Olympian of all time – he’s only 23 and he’s already surpassed the lifelong totals of everyone who’s ever participated in the Olympic games – imagine what he can do since he’s not done in the Olympics yet). How can one not be interested in the Olympics with so much happening? Tags: beach volleyball, diving, gymnastics, interview, John Speraw, Kerri Walsh, Michael Phelps, Misty May-Treanor, NBC, Olympics, reporters, swimming, track & field, volleyball, world record Gymnastics, Volleyball, & 100m Hurdles The final night of gymnastics event finals was certainly exciting. It was great to see Shawn Johnson finally get a gold medal and having Shawn and Nastia finish 1-2 in the opposite order was nice. It’s actually what I expected on floor the night before and I was so happy to see the scores. When Cheng Fei’s score of 15.950 was displayed for balance beam when she had almost fallen off, I was very worried that the judges were determined to score another gymnastics event horribly and I would be disappointed by the end results. However, I ended up happy with the results for the first two spots. The fact that Cheng Fei got the bronze medal is horrible for Anna Pavlova of Russia. Pavlova came in 4th place with 15.900 and I don’t think I’m alone in believing that she deserved the bronze medal. Russia finished the 2008 Olympics without a single medal in gymnastics. I doubt anyone would have predicted that before the competition began. Jonathan Horton’s performance on high bar was amazing and I was surprised that the crowd actually booed when his score of 16.175 (putting him in 2nd place) behind Zou Kai of China’s 16.2. It seems a lot of people there agreed with me and thought Horton should have gotten a higher score on execution. I think the execution score of 9.275 was a bit low, even though it was higher than Zou’s execution. What is it about high bar judging? The 2004 Summer Olympics’ high bar scores are what caused the uproar that led to the scoring system change. Remember when Alexei Nemov had to try to calm the crowd down after his horrible score before Paul Hamm competed? The great part of this year’s high bar competition is that Horton was clearly thrilled to get an individual medal and he knew that he did a great job on his routine and couldn’t have done much better. It’s always good to see Olympians truly enjoying the moment and last night was a great night for the US gymnastics team. The China vs. China women’s beach volleyball match early yesterday morning was amazing. The one team goes on to play Misty May-Treanor & Kerri Walsh in the finals, the other plays for the bronze. I’d be surprised if the Chinese teams don’t get two of the three medals in beach volleyball. I’m guessing silver and bronze, since I can’t see May-Treanor & Walsh losing their first match in about a year in the gold medal match. Both medal matches should be very exciting. The USA women’s volleyball team upset Italy in a great match yesterday to advance to the semifinals. They definitely seemed like they didn’t have what it takes to beat Italy for a while, but came back to win the last two sets decisively (25-18 & 15-6) and advance. Hopefully, they’ll have what it takes to make it to the gold medal finals. Clearly, I wish all the US teams well, but I’m particularly interested in the men’s volleyball team, since one of the assistant coaches (John Speraw) is UCI’s men’s volleyball head coach and I go to as many of UCI’s matches as I can. After the tragedy the USA men’s volleyball head coach had to endure, it would be really nice to see a bit of an up side for him and for the men’s team to win gold. They’ve been looking very good so far. I don’t know of anyone who watched Lolo Jones in the 100m hurdles who didn’t want to cry when they watched her hit the 9th hurdle. She was pretty far ahead of the pack and doing so well. Then, all of a sudden, she clipped the 9th hurdle and dropped behind to finish next to last. The fact that she was still able to pull herself together enough to finish the race (and not even come in last) is amazing to me. My heart went out to her (and her family) as they cried when her dreams of a gold medal were destroyed. Lolo’s 26 years old, so perhaps she can try again in the London Olympics in 2012, but it’s so sad to see someone doing that well and being completely at the top of her game and then faltering. I just bought a copy of last week’s Sports Illustrated with Michael Phelps on the cover swimming. I haven’t read it all yet, but I did flip through and it’s almost all Olympics coverage. If you love the Olympics you should definitely pick up a copy while they’re still available. The Sports Illustrated where Phelps recreated the Mark Spitz cover (for more information, click here, supposedly hit news stands today, but my local book store gets the new issues on Friday, so I can’t comment on that issue yet. I’m sure it’s mostly Olympics coverage, too. Tags: beach volleyball, gymnastics, Jonathan Horton, Kerri Walsh, Lolo Jones, Mark Spitz, Michael Phelps, Misty May-Treanor, Nastia Liukin, NBC, Olympics, Paul Hamm, Shawn Johnson, Sports Illustrated, swimming, track & field, volleyball	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line225
__label__wiki	0.799138	0.799138	Albanian academician Idriz Ajeti passes away at 102 in Pristina Idriz Ajeti albanologist, linguist and intellectual, pedagogue and activist passed away at the age of 102 in Pristina. Ajeti was a member of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Kosovo and its chairman in two terms, honorary member of the Academy of Sciences of Albania and also the first Speaker of the Parliament elected in illegality in the 90s with the majority of the Democratic League of Kosovo, with its leader Ibrahim Rugova. Idriz Ajeti was born in Upper Jablanica, on January 27, 1917. He ended his studies after the war in 1949 at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Belgrade. Until 1953 he was a professor of Albanian language at the Pristina Gymnasium. In 1953-1960 he worked as a lecturer at the Albanology Branch in Belgrade.Since 1960 he has been a teacher at the Albanian Language and Literature Branch at the Faculty of Philosophy in Prishtina. Prof. Ajeti has special merit in the standardization processes of Albanian. Academician Idriz Ajeti was a Speaker of the Kosovo Parliament in one of her most difficult times as well as a participant of the Rambouillet Conference. /Klara Ruci/ RTI English Previous: Uvoznici polovnih vozila zabrinuti za svoje poslovanje Next: Danas se obeležava Svetski dan radija Albanian citizens have significantly increased consumption of beer BoA and WB host Workshop on “Legal Aspects of Governance and Asset Management” Leyen: EC President will support the opening of negotiations for Albania and North Macedonia	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line228
__label__wiki	0.64326	0.64326	What: All Issues : Environment : Renewable Energy : (H.Res. 846) Legislation designed to identify, plan for and fund solar technology needs - - on a motion to move to an immediate vote on the resolution setting the terms for debating the bill (2009 house Roll Call 798) (H.Res. 846) Legislation designed to identify, plan for and fund solar technology needs - - on a motion to move to an immediate vote on the resolution setting the terms for debating the bill house Roll Call 798 Oct 22, 2009 H.R. 3585, the Solar Technology Roadmap Act, was designed to identify and plan for solar technology needs, and to provide $2.2 billion over five years to schools and laboratories for solar research and development. As with most other legislation the House considers, it first had to approve a resolution or “rule” setting the terms for debating the bill. These rules had become contentious matters. The Republican minority had been complaining during the congressional session that the Democratic majority was placing restrictions on many of these rules that significantly curtailed the ability of Members to offer amendments. As was the case with those other rules, the rule for H.R. 3585 limited the number of amendments that could be offered during the formal debate of the measure. This was on a motion to move to an immediate vote on the rule. The House Rules Committee develops and submits the rules for bills, including the one for H.R. 3585. Chairwoman Slaughter (D-NY) and the other members of the Democratic majority on the Rules Committee took the position that they need to decide whether proposed amendments relate directly to the purpose of the bill when they determine which amendments to make in order. They also took the position that Republican members of the committee that developed H.R. 3585 had an ample opportunity to present their views during those committee deliberations. Rep. Polis (D-CO) was leading the effort on behalf of the rule and supported the motion to bring it to an immediate vote. He said the Congress had previously not supported “the small businesses, the technology, and the policies that could have and should have changed our nation's energy outlook years ago.” He added that: “(A)merican solar businesses have had to deal with the uncertainty of not knowing what government policies will be in place from one year to the next; production in investment tax credits has ebbed and flowed with no real consistency . . . with no real directive to lead our research or investment. We desperately need to focus our research and focus our investments, and this legislation will do that.” Rep. Foxx (R-NC) was leading the opposition to the rule and the motion to move to an immediate vote on it. She argued that the rule “does not allow for many of the amendments my colleagues on both sides of the aisle (have) presented . . . This is especially wrong when debating one of the important issues of our time, our nation's energy policy. By choosing to operate in this way, the majority has cut off the minority and their own colleagues from having any input in the legislative process. My assumption is that, along with me, all other Members want to see more solar power used in this country; but the Democrats in charge are limiting what ideas can be debated on the floor and what constituents can be adequately represented in the House. Our constituents in both Republican and Democrat districts are struggling to make ends meet, are facing unemployment, and yet are simultaneously being shut out of participating in debate over how their hard-earned taxpayer dollars are being spent by the federal government.” The House Rules Committee develops and submits the rules for most bills, including the one for H.R. 3585. The Democratic majority on the Rules Committee took the position that it weighs many factors when deciding which amendments to allow, including whether they relate directly to the purpose of the bill, whether they would add to the deficit, and whether they are “logical”. The Democratic majority also claimed that the Republican minority did have numerous opportunities to present its ideas while the committee that developed H.R. 3585 was engaged in its deliberations. Other Republicans expressed opposition to the motion because they opposed the legislation itself. Rep. McClintock (D-CA) argued that, over the last 30 years, billions of dollars have “poured into research and development for solar technology . . . and an entire solar industry solely supported by NASA subsidies arose in order to grab those dollars. And what was the result of all of this plunder of taxpayers and rate payers . . . solar power accounts for just one percent of electricity generation. That's not for lack of subsidies; it's because despite all of the billions of dollars of subsidies, the technology remains immensely inefficient and expensive.” Rep. Duncan (R-TN) said he was “not against solar energy in any way, but it is way past time for this industry to stand on its own . . . The taxpayers simply cannot afford to keep funding a very wasteful program just because it is politically correct or fashionable to do so.” The motion carried by a vote of 239-176. All two hundred and thirty-nine “aye” votes were cast by Democrats. Eight other Democrats joined all one hundred and sixty-eight Republicans and voted “nay”. As a result, House moved to an immediate vote on the rule setting the terms for debating the Solar Technology Roadmap Act.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line229
__label__cc	0.559568	0.440432	Chelsea Squad English Premier LeagueUEFA Super CupJapanese J League World ChallengeFriendlyEnglish FA CupEnglish FA Community ShieldEnglish Carabao CupUEFA Europa LeagueInternational Champions CupUEFA Champions LeagueMajor League SoccerFIFA Club World CupWorld Football ChallengeWorld Series of FootballUEFA Cup 2019-202018-192017-182016-172015-162014-15 Kepa Arrizabalaga1 G 24 6' 1" 179 lbs Spain 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Wilfredo Caballero13 G 37 6' 1" 176 lbs Argentina 3 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 Jamie Cumming52 G 19 - - England 2 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 Michael Hector D 26 6' 4" 181 lbs Jamaica - - - - - - - - - - Reece James D 19 5' 7" 157 lbs England 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Ian Maatsen D - - - - 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 Baba Rahman D 25 5' 10" 168 lbs Ghana - - - - - - - - - - Kurt Zouma D 24 6' 2" 187 lbs France 2 2 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 Antonio Rüdiger2 D 26 6' 3" 187 lbs Germany 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Marcos Alonso3 D 28 6' 2" 187 lbs Spain 2 1 0 0 0 0 2 3 0 0 Matt Miazga20 D 23 6' 3" 183 lbs United States - - - - - - - - - - Andreas Christensen27 D 23 6' 2" 172 lbs Denmark 2 1 0 0 0 0 4 1 1 0 César Azpilicueta28 D 29 5' 10" 168 lbs Spain 3 2 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 David Luiz30 D 32 6' 2" 185 lbs Brazil 2 0 0 0 1 0 3 0 0 0 Fikayo Tomori31 D 21 6' 0" 165 lbs Canada 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 Emerson Palmieri33 D 25 5' 11" 174 lbs Brazil 2 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 Trevor Chalobah50 D 20 6' 3" - England 2 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 Marc Guehi53 D 19 - - - 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 Dujon Sterling66 D 19 - - England 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Conor Gallagher M 19 - - - 2 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 Billy Gilmour M - - - - 2 2 0 0 3 1 2 2 0 0 Mateo Kovacic M 25 5' 11" 161 lbs Croatia 2 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 Mason Mount M 20 - - - 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 Christian Pulisic M 20 5' 8" 139 lbs United States 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 Jorginho5 M 27 5' 11" 157 lbs Brazil 2 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 Danny Drinkwater6 M 29 5' 10" 154 lbs England 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 N'Golo Kanté7 M 28 5' 7" 150 lbs France 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Ross Barkley8 M 25 6' 1" 168 lbs England 2 0 2 1 6 4 0 2 0 0 Ruben Loftus-Cheek12 M 23 6' 4" 157 lbs England 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 Tiemoué Bakayoko14 M 24 6' 1" 170 lbs France 2 2 0 0 1 1 3 1 0 0 Callum Hudson-Odoi20 M 18 6' 0" - England - - - - - - - - - - Davide Zappacosta21 M 27 6' 1" 154 lbs Italy 3 1 0 1 3 0 0 3 0 0 Willian22 M 30 5' 9" 165 lbs Brazil 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 Lewis Baker34 M 24 6' 1" 154 lbs England 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Lucas Piazon34 M 25 6' 0" 165 lbs Brazil 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 Isaiah Brown37 M 22 6' 0" 154 lbs England 1 1 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 Kasey Palmer38 M 22 5' 11" 150 lbs England 2 1 0 0 4 1 1 0 0 0 Ethan Ampadu44 M 18 6' 0" 159 lbs England 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 George Mceachran55 M 18 - - England - - - - - - - - - - Ike Ugbo F 20 6' 1" 161 lbs England 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Pedro11 F 31 5' 7" 139 lbs Spain 3 1 0 0 6 4 1 1 0 0 Kenedy16 F 23 - - Brazil 2 1 0 2 2 1 0 0 0 0 Olivier Giroud18 F 32 6' 4" 205 lbs France 2 1 3 0 5 5 1 0 0 0 Tammy Abraham19 F 21 6' 3" 181 lbs England 1 0 0 0 2 1 0 1 0 0 Michy Batshuayi23 F 25 5' 11" 172 lbs Belgium 2 0 1 0 11 4 0 1 0 0 Name:Name POS:Position Age:Age HT:Height WT:Weight NAT:Nationality APP:Appearances SUB:Substitute Appearances G:Total Goals A:Assists SH:Shots ST:Shots On Target FC:Fouls Committed FA:Fouls Suffered YC:Yellow Cards RC:Red Cards SV:Saves GA:Goals Against Friendly News Lampard on transfer ban: I don't need players New Chelsea boss Frank Lampard has played down the effects of the transfer ban on the club, saying that he "doesn't need new players." Transfer Talk: Bayern back with bigger bid for Chelsea's Hudson-Odoi Bayern are back for Callum Hudson-Odoi, and the German champs have sweetened the pot for the Chelsea youngster. Transfer Talk has the latest. Lampard claims first Chelsea win at St Patrick's Frank Lampard claimed his first win as Chelsea boss with a comfortable 4-0 victory at Irish club St Patrick's Athletic on Saturday. All Int News	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line230
__label__cc	0.535897	0.464103	by Michael Faudet Smoke & Mirrors is the third book from internationally bestselling poet Michael Faudet, author of Bitter Sweet Love and Dirty Pretty Things—both finalists in the 2016 and 2015 Goodreads Readers Choice Awards. Michael Faudet’s latest book takes the reader on an emotionally charged journey, exploring the joys of falling madly in love and the melancholy world of the brokenhearted. Beautifully captured in poetry, prose, and short stories, Faudet's whimsical and sometimes erotic writing has captured the hearts and minds of thousands of readers from around the world. Michael Faudet is the author of the international bestsellers, Dirty Pretty Things, Bitter Sweet Love, and Smoke & Mirrors. His poetic and often sensual writing continues to attract readers from all around the world. His books have been nominated in the Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Poetry. Dirty Pretty Things was selected by Sylvia Whitman, the owner of the iconic Shakespeare & Company bookstore in Paris, as one of her personal favorite books of 2016. He currently has over a million followers across his official Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts. Before turning his hand to writing books, Michael enjoyed a long career in advertising, as an award-winning Executive Creative Director. Working in New Zealand, Australia, the United States, and Asia. Michael is represented by literary agency, Writers House, New York. He currently lives in New Zealand in a little house by the sea with girlfriend and author, Lang Leav.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line232
__label__wiki	0.98116	0.98116	Speed of Avs, Flames on display in 1st-ever playoff meeting Calgary Flames' Johnny Gaudreau, left, and Mark Giordano chat during practice in Calgary, Alberta, Tuesday, April 9, 2019. Calgary takes on the Colorado Avalanche in a first-round NHL hockey playoff series beginning Thursday, April 11. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press via AP) By PAT GRAHAM DENVER (AP) The Colorado Avalanche and Calgary Flames have never crossed paths in the playoffs. Not in the days of Joe Sakic or Jarome Iginla (who later would become an Avalanche player). Not in the tenure of Bob Hartley (he coached both, including the Avalanche to a Stanley Cup title in 2000-01). The first time certainly figures to be an edge-of-your-seat affair: Both teams are quick in transition and can fly up and down the ice. The Flames were 3-0 against the Avalanche this season and outscored them by a 14-10 margin, including a game on Nov. 1 in which they trailed 4-1 and scored five straight in the third to earn a 6-5 win. Game 1 of what could be a track meet will be Thursday in Calgary . "Both teams can skate. Both teams can make plays, have an in-your-face style," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. "So we have to be prepared for that." The Flames are coming off a season in which they accumulated 107 points to secure the top seed in the West. The last time they had at least that many points was 1988-89, when they won the Stanley Cup title over Patrick Roy and the Montreal Canadiens. It's a Calgary squad that features the likes of top scorer Johnny Gaudreau and a deep core of defensemen led by 35-year-old Mike Giordano . Coach Bill Peters hasn't announced if he will start 26-year-old David Rittich or 37-year-old Mike Smith in net. As for the pressure of being the top team in the West, the Flames insist they aren't feeling any. "We're not worried about what others are saying," Sean Monahan said on the team's website. "We're worried about this group in here." Colorado was in desperation mode down the stretch thanks to an extended rough patch that started around Christmas. The Avalanche regrouped, weathered some injuries and locked up the No. 8 seed for a second straight season. Last season against Nashville, they were simply glad to get in (the Avs lost in six games). This season, they want to make some noise. "We gave Nashville a lot of respect," Nathan MacKinnon said. "We're going to give a little less respect and try to win the series." This provides a big boost: Mikko Rantanen, who's been out since suffering an upper-body injury on March 21, will return to the lineup. In addition, Philipp Grubauer has found his groove while stepping in for Semyon Varlamov. Grubauer went 7-0-2 over his last nine starts. Colorado is led on the offensive end by MacKinnon, who had 99 points this season - the same number as Gaudreau. In addition, Tyson Barrie ranked among the highest-scoring NHL defensemen with 59 points. Now, it's time to take it up another level. What exactly that entails, captain Gabriel Landeskog can't quite explain. "Maybe that's exactly what it is - everything changes," said Landeskog, who set an Avalanche record with 20 third-period goals. "Everything is that much more intense." Things to know before the two teams meet in the postseason for the first time: AGE IS JUST A NUMBER: At 35, Giordano is coming off a regular season in which he was an NHL-best plus-39. He's a contender for the Norris Trophy, which goes to the top defensive player. "We have a good group in here, a really good team," Giordano said. "We've got to bring that confidence into Game 1." BEARDED WONDER: The playoffs haven't even started and Sam Bennett already has an impressive beard. "I shaved this morning and it already came back," Bennett cracked. "I have a bit of a head start on this one." He may shave it down to a mustache. BACK IN ACTION: Colorado defenseman Erik Johnson had to watch the playoffs last season after hurting his knee. It was a painful blow after helping build the team back into a contender. "I love playing for this team, this city and organization, so I put a lot of onus on my shoulders," said Johnson. "It feels good to go back-to-back in the playoffs for the first time in a long time." BRING ON THE NOISE: Colorado is bracing for the noise inside the Scotiabank Saddledome. "We've seen some loud buildings in the playoffs," Landeskog said. "Every single building is loud in the playoffs. It's going to be a lot of fun." FINISHING STRONG: Colorado went 8-0-2 late in the season to clinch a spot. Calgary closed out the regular season 9-5 after dropping four straight. "We did a good job toward the end of the season, fought through a little stretch where we weren't playing our best hockey and had a great finish to the year," Gaudreau said on Calgary's website. "We're excited to get the playoffs going."	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line235
__label__cc	0.697538	0.302462	Don’t Miss Natalee Holloway’s Mom … October 17, 2013 at 6:00 PM at East Bayou in Lafayette, Louisiana for ‘An Evening with Beth Holloway’ Bayou Monkeys … Don’t miss Beth Holloway’s next inspirational of message of hope, faith and personal safety to young adults … Beth Holloway will be speaking at East Bayou in Lafayette, Louisiana in ‘An Evening with Beth Holloway’. If you have ever met or witnessed Beth Holloway speak, you know that she is one of the most courageous, inspirational and strong individuals you will ever heard. With all of the pain, anguish and torment that Beth has been through in the “roller-coaster” ride that she and her family went through in Aruba with law enforcement, the court system and the investigation into the disappearance of her missing daughter, Natalee Holloway, Beth remains positive and a person of faith. How does one muster the courage to persevere in the face of sheer adversity? Do we all have the capacity to overcome tragedy? How does one keep going? You will be uplifted by the remarkable story of Beth Holloway. How does she stay strong? Imagine being able to apply her philosophies of courage, dedication, faith and strength to your own life. Her life changed quite dramatically in the summer of 2005 when her daughter Natalee disappeared on the last night of her senior high graduation trip to Aruba. This tragic story became the leading news mystery when it happened, and continues to make headlines today. Barbara Walters selected Beth Holloway as one of the world’s most fascinating people for her perseverance in seeking answers to what happened to Natalee. Beth has delivered her message of hope, faith and personal safety to young adults and people of all ages all across the United States. We are honored to have this nationally known speaker come to our community. Check out the website, The Hearts of Hope for more details and to get tickets for the event. Seating is limited so please buy early! For more information please call 337-269-1557 Who: Open to the community When: October 17 // 6:00 pm Hosted At: East Bayou Lafayette Location // Get Directions Cost: $25 / person // BUY TICKETS HERE Scared Monkeys posted back in July of 2005 to Beth, ‘Don’t Give Up, Don’t Ever Give Up’ and she nave has. To one of the strongest women I have ever met and a good friend, God Bless!!! For much, much more on the disappearance of Natalee Holloway in Aruba … go to Scared Monkeys Forum: Natalee Holloway. UPDATE I: Beth Holloway: ‘Never give up hope’. She hasn’t seen justice in her daughter’s death, but even that didn’t snuff Beth Holloway’s hope. She presented the stories of other families looking for missing loved ones and founded the Natalee Holloway Resource Center. “After all I’ve been through, and all my family’s been through, I have a right to crawl in a hole and never come out — but that’s not how I want to live my life,” she said. “I found myself asking what I can do to teach others from our tragic situation.” Beth Holloway praised Gingerbread House staff members and supporters for their role in nurturing hope. Gingerbread House serves children who have suffered physical and sexual abuse. “You are proactively working to save these children from their abusers,” she said. Aruba, Beth Holloway, child abuse, Child Endangerment, Child Welfare, Christians, Faith, Missing Persons, Natalee Holloway, Save Yourself Program, Travel, Violence \| 5 comments Beth Holloway Sues National Enquirer (American Media Inc) Over Publishing Untrue Stories to Profit from Natalee Holloway’s 2005 Disappearance in Aruba Natalee Holloway: Beth Holloway Discussing With Greta Van Susteren the Peter R. De Vries Videos and Joran Van der Sloot Beth Twitty on Greta Van Susteren Beth Holloway’s Book “Loving Natalee” Now Available in Dutch … Lieve Natalee Natalee Holloway; Afternoon Update 5 Responses to “Don’t Miss Natalee Holloway’s Mom … October 17, 2013 at 6:00 PM at East Bayou in Lafayette, Louisiana for ‘An Evening with Beth Holloway’” Tamikosmom on October 16th, 2013 5:03 pm Loving Natalee A Mother’s Testament of Hope and Faith By Beth Holloway with Sunny Tillman Page 189: It’s the proverbial, Biblical conflict between good and evil. It’s very, very hard to fight evil because it constantly changes form and you never know who your enemies are. And evil is always two steps ahead. From the outset we never had a chance. But we didn’t know it. I’m taking leave of the island, but not from the work yet to be done. Page 200: My child. My beautiful daughter. I can’t save her. It’s too late. Natalee is gone. And second to the great tragedy of losing her is if we fail to learn from what has happened. I could be any parent in the world. And no parent should ever go through this experience. Natalee could be anyone’s daughter. And in these thoughts a new path is made clear. There is something I can do. Many people reached out to us, and I can now reach back to them. It might be too late to save Natalee, but it’s not too late to save others. And it’s time now to make good on my pledge. It’s time now to make good on my pledge to stand before high-school and college students, law enforcement professionals, victims’ rights groups, travelers of all ages, and anyone interested in personal safety to share Natalee’s story and our hard lessons, so that others might learn from them. Page 209: Bad things happen everywhere. But the difference we need to consider when something bad happens outside the country is the help available for the victims and their families. When we leave these borders, we leave behind all the privileges and rights we’re all accustomed to and often take for granted. We have expectations that there will be a safety net of law-abiding official, no matter where we travel, or that our US embassy will come to our rescue. But that’s terribly naive … Pages 230: I can’t say for sure if we’ll ever know that answer to whether my daughter is alive or not. I know it doesn’t look good. But just as that old metal spiral staircase rose from the ashes when our lake house burned down, so too faith stands strong in the remains of this devastating loss. And just as my Dad built another house around that staircase, I will build another life around hope and faith. It won’t ever be the same. But I pray that it will, at the very least, be useful. The Natalee Holloway Resource Center http://www.crimemuseum.org/NHRC “TRAGEDY CREATES AN OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE” – Beth Holloway, 2010 EURobert on October 17th, 2013 1:02 am Tonight on the Dutch television program ‘Brandpunt Reporter’: The Holloway case. From the announcement: “Reporter has put it’s hand on the police files on the case of Natalee Holloway and will show some new facts about the night she disappeared.’ Apparently Joran’s claim “I left her at the beach.” could – maybe – prove the be right. Victim’s mother: Don’t give in to tragedy Even when Beth Holloway realized her daughter Natalee was dead, she didn’t give up hope. Beth’s search for answers about Natalee’s disappearance during a school trip to Aruba in 2005 captivated the world. Holloway shared the story of her daughter’s disappearance and its effect on her family during Gingerbread House’s annual fundraising luncheon Wednesday in Shreveport. Gingerbread House serves more than 750 victims of sexual and physical abuse each year in northwest Louisiana at no charge. Besides helping youngsters abused by family members, the organization works with law enforcement agencies on child exploitation and trafficking cases. http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20131017/NEWS01/310160038/Victim-s-mother-Don-t-give-tragedy http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=D9&Dato=20131016&Kategori=NEWS&Lopenr=310160803&Ref=PH http://www.gingerbreadhousecac.org/donation.htm Waterboy on November 8th, 2013 11:09 pm Your child gets to “that age”, and they are begging you to “trust” them. Your wife says it’s ok., and then retracts the ok part, so you take a leap of faith and decide to loosen the reigns just a bit. Then all hell breaks loose. I hate auto spell. These Jorans, these monsters that haughty the night, are ripping the fabric of our souls.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line238
__label__cc	0.714405	0.285595	Earmarking A donor restriction that limits or directs the purpose for which a contribution may be used. Unrestricted contributions (also referred to as unearmarked funding) No limitations on the use of funds Broadly earmarked contribution Earmarked contributions towards a region (e.g. Africa) or subregion (e.g. West Africa) and towards Headquarters, global programmes. Also includes contributions for a specific Pillar (e.g. Pillar 1 – Refugees) at the global, regional or subregional level ; contributions for supplementary programmes that cover more than one country, i.e. at subregional or regional level for a specific situation (e.g. Somalia situation) and contributions that are earmarked for a specific theme or activity at the subregional level or higher. Earmarked contribution Contributions that are earmarked for a specific country, location or population without any further limitations. Also includes Contributions for supplementary programmes that cover only one country. Tightly earmarked contribution Contributions that are earmarked at the country level, Headquarters or global programmes cost centres for specific sectors and/or activities. All in-kind contributions and staff-related contributions, including JPOs, consultants and secondees fall under this category. Exclusion clauses Legal provisions that deny the benefits of international protection to people who would otherwise satisfy the criteria for refugee status. In the 1951 Convention, the exclusion clauses are found in Articles 1D, 1E and 1F. These clauses apply to the following categories: • individuals who are receiving protection or assistance from United Nations agencies other than UNHCR; • individuals who possess the rights and obligations attached to the possession of nationality of their country of residence; • individuals in respect of whom there are serious reasons for considering that they have committed a crime against peace, a war crime, a crime against humanity, a serious non-political crime, or acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations. Executive Committee of the High Commissioner’s Programme (ExCom) The Committee charged with approving UNHCR’s assistance programmes, advising the High Commissioner on the exercise of his/her functions and overseeing the Office’s finances and administration. ExCom is composed of representatives of 101 States (2017) with a demonstrated interest in refugee issues.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line240
__label__wiki	0.522538	0.522538	You are here: Home » Canada » Improving economic opportunities for women and the most vulnerable and marginalized groups in Ukraine Improving economic opportunities for women and the most vulnerable and marginalized groups in Ukraine Posted: 9:28 am, July 19, 2018 by admin Kyiv – Canada is unwavering in its support for Ukraine as that country takes the necessary steps to secure its future as a stable, democratic and prosperous country. This includes helping the Government of Ukraine advance its democratic and economic reform processes so it can be accountable to its citizens and helping rebalance socio-economic inequalities among Ukrainians. Today, Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of International Development, announced a new call for preliminary proposals entitled “Growth that works for everyone—Inclusive and shared prosperity in Ukraine.” The $30-million call for preliminary proposals will fund innovative projects to enhance the economic security of rural women, especially those affected by the conflict in the eastern part of the country. The projects will also help to create a more competitive, innovative and sustainable environment for small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as increase employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for women and for vulnerable and marginalized groups. This announcement was made by Minister Bibeau in Kyiv during a joint press conference with First Deputy Prime Minister Stepan Kubiv. “Canada remains committed to the strengthening of its partnership with Ukraine over the long term. When we invest in women and the most vulnerable and marginalized groups, we give them the same opportunity as everyone else to become agents of change and contribute to building a better and more inclusive Ukraine.” – Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of International Development “Canada established its support program for Ukraine right after Ukraine proclaimed its independence in 1991. Canada’s assistance and support are even more valuable as they are aimed at the most important areas of Ukraine’s reforms: development of democracy, economy, ecology, trade and entrepreneurship. So we may say that every victory of Ukraine has a part of Canadian friendship and support.” – Stepan Kubiv, First Deputy Prime Minister Ontario’s new sex education curriculum coming in September, gets mixed reviews Liberals Make Gains in Key Battlegrounds of Ontario and Quebec, While NDP Stumbles; National Vote In… Ontario Suspends Large Renewable Energy Procurement Simplii Financial becomes first digital banking brand in Canada to offer international money transfe… Posted in: Canada, Canada	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line244
__label__wiki	0.862917	0.862917	“Behold, Here Cometh the Dreamer”: Celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. and empowering women One poet and professor, along with a local theater director, is helping bring a night of poetry back to Statesboro. Lindamichellebaron has partnered with local theater director and Georgia Southern professor emeritus Mical Whitaker to offer the “Behold: Here Cometh the Dreamer” poetry night at the Whitaker Black Box Theater on Saturday, Feb. 2 starting at 7:30 p.m. Lindamichellebaron, as she refers to herself for creative work, is an accomplished poet who also works as an education professor at the City University of New York. She teaches her education classes with a twist. She has shifted toward using poetry as pedagogy to engage her students, teachers and parents with whom she works, Lindamichellebaron said. Whitaker is a well-known theater director in Statesboro, since after teaching at Georgia Southern University as a theater professor and being involved with the Averitt Center for the Arts, he became a professor emeritus at the university and still directs plays at the university’s Black Box Theater (which is different from the Whitaker Black Box Theater). Curiously enough, she and Whitaker did not first meet in Statesboro, but in New York City, where they both attended college. An artistic background together The two met when Whitaker was 17 or 18 years old, when he was getting a local theater group started, Whitaker said. In the midst of looking for worthwhile friends and collaborators, Lindamichellebaron entered the picture. “He was a producer and director and really consummate individual who could support bringing out the best of your creativity, “ Lindamichellebaron said. “He made me present my poetry better, so I could match the other actors who did my poetry better than i did.” After college, that working relationship did not go away. Years later, Whitaker would from time to time discuss with the previous executive director of the Averitt Center, Tim Chapman, about doing an evening of poetry at the center. Though the center would host the evening of poetry every year or so, Whitaker said that he really wanted to make it an annual event centered around celebrating the legacy and life of Martin Luther King Jr. He named “Behold: Here Cometh the Dreamer” based on the biblical quote from Genesis 37:19-20, in which Joseph’s brothers call him a dreamer and plot to kill him in an attempt to quash his dreams–a haunting, but perhaps appropriate, take on the people that killed MLK Jr. For the third year of the revamped event, Whitaker invited Lindamichellebaron for the first time. After a warm reception from the audience, Whitaker explained that it made sense to invite the poet and professor back to Statesboro. The night’s theme This year’s main idea behind the content is “The Year of the Woman,” according to a press release that Whitaker supplied. It seemed like not only an uplifting topic, but one that seemed at least somewhat influenced by the Me Too movement that started in 2017. Lindamichellebaron said that she thought this was a layered conversation, as there are things that black women might have to consider that others do not. “I am the embodiment of forced sex,” Lindamichellebaron said, referring to herself as one who was conceived by rape. “Our [some mixed-race peoples’] bodies really speak to that.” She elaborated by mentioning the legacy of white slave masters having children with the black slave women, with the black male slaves who were not the fathers raising the children. “That is forced sex, that when we speak of #MeToo, that isn’t really part of the conversation,” she said. However, Whitaker explained and Lindamichellebaron confirmed that much of the idea for this focus was inspired by Whitaker’s background with strong women. “It hasn’t been [for Whitaker] a lack of men,” Whitaker said. “It’s just the strength of women, particularly the ones that raised me, were just a tower of strength… a quiet strength, not boastful or loud.” He described living with his grandmother, who ran a boarding house in New Jersey, was a deaconess in her church and a “willing worker.” Whitaker explained that he and his grandmother took that term literally. “She really believed in that,” he said. “She was one of the ones who, when she found out Sister Claire was two blocks over sick, and she needs some soup, my grandmother would be the one to carry her [over] some soup.” While Lindamichellebaron is the highlighted poet, other participants will read works from Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou and Nikki Giovanni. Children from the NAACP’s children’s group in town will read poems, including works from Lindamichellebaron and the other aforementioned poets. Notable people attending the event include the McCollars, Statesboro’s first family, and Francys Johnson, the 2018 House congressional candidate and former president of the Georgia NAACP. As well, Larry Gator Harris, the Harlem Globetrotter from Savannah, is expected to attend. Lindamichellebaron and Whitaker are currently creating a play about Harris’s upbringing. The poet’s style Whitaker explained that when he listens to Lindamichellebaron’s work, the poems make him think. “It’s not just nice words…but she writes things that make you think after you leave her presence,” he said. For Lindamichellebaron, poetry lets her express not only what others think, but what she thinks others think. She cited the poem “I Wish I Knew How It Feels To Be Black” and the poem about how blackness is more than a kind of hair as contrasting examples that provide mirror perspectives on the same kinds of topics. She likes to write poems that not only are asking and answering questions about herself, but push past herself as well. Lindamichellebaron said, “Sometimes, part of being an artist is seeing from another perspective or feeling connected, even when it isn’t your personal experience.” Averitt Center for the Artsblack box theatermartin luther king jr.Me Toopoetry From the editor: Addressing a fabricated article, now removed The Georgia picker: The man behind My Cousin Vinny’s Bargain Barn Verses and pub grub: the literary community of Burning Swamp Knowledge Quiz: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mrs. Coretta Scott King January 21, 2019 By Blakeley Bartee On Feb. 1, 2019, it came to my attention that a story written by a former staff member, Roxie Srikoulabouth, for the Fall...	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line245
__label__cc	0.688015	0.311985	The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean Henry James' Midnight Song by Carol De Chellis Hil... Winner of the 2008 Prinz Award, The White Darkness is an unforgettable read. Not only is the story multifaceted, but the language is rich in structure and words. Symone Wates is a 14 year old English girl who is fascinated, or should we say obsessed with all thing Antarctica. Her bookshelves are full of accounts of the geography and expeditions to the continent at the bottom of the world. Her best friend and spiritual partner is Titus Oakes, a captain who died nearly 90 years ago in the failed Capt. Robert Scott expedition. Her father has just died and her Uncle Victor has stepped in to take his place. Sym believes that her father never really liked her anyway, so to have a doting uncle gives her a small bit of comfort. Imagine Sym's excitement when Victor decides to take her mother and her to Paris for the weekend, especially since it is approaching exam time. But wait, at Waterloo station Sym's mother can't find her passport and not wanting to spoil the others' getaway, decides to remain in England. (How did the passport really end up in Victor's possession?) Uncle Victor also is fascinated with Antarctica and believes in the theory that there is a hole that lead to the hollow earth that can be reached from there. What a coincidence that it is called Symme's Hole. With the trip to Paris being a ruse, Victor now makes the final preparation to travel with Sym to Antarctica to begin his own exploration. They travel to South America and meet up with the Pengwings Tour Group. He also meets up with Manfred Bruch, a film producer from Norway, and his son Sigurd, just a few years older than Sym. He offers to pay Victor a huge sum for filming the ultimate discovery. But wait, members of the tour are getting sick, a plane has exploded as an evacuation is planned. What is happening? As the novel continues it is an adventure and survival story extraordinaire. Victor, Sym, Magred, and Sigrud set off across the continent in a Hagglund all terrain vehicle searching for Symme's Hole. It is a journey through the White Darkness complicated by fog, blinding snow storms and a very limited fuel supply. Throughout her life and this story Sym has confided in and trusted the judgement of Titus. Her conversations ARE real and now at a life and death crosswords she has to decide whether she should put her trust in him, or Uncle Victor, who has been a mentor and has loved her when her father didn't, or Sigrud, who has shown her that she is young woman who does not have to be awkward around the opposite sex. In the end we all hope that she has made the right choice. An author's note at the conclusion of the book explains the fate of the Scott expedition and is a helpful addition. Labels: Award Winner, Printz Award, YA Henry James' Midnight Song by Carol De Chellis Hill It has been a very hectic couple of months for me with lots of classes in the library so it has taken a while to finish this incredibly crafted novel. To assign a genre to the book would prove most difficult as it is a combination of gothic, historical fiction, mystery, satire, and philosophical and social critique. The setting is fin de siecle Vienna with a cast of well-known characters that include Edith Wharton, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and of course, Henry James. A mysterious manuscript that details the story when it is delivered to an isolated cabin in Maine. Women in Vienna are being murdered and notes have been left that add further intrigue to the story. And then another murder, a corpse is found at 91 Bergstrasse, the home of Freud by his wife and the hysterical maid and disappears as fast. Was it really there? Special Investigator Maurice LeBlanc is recalled from Paris to investigate the murders and arrives on the scene that leads him to the Countess von Gerzl's house and a family from the states that is staying with her. The characters become so intertwined that eventually they are all suspects in the murder. Deeper into the novel are the themes of feminism, antisemitism, nihilism, and even a prediction of Hitler's rise to power. The ending was totally unpredictable and had me guessing right to the end. I was fascinated with the historical setting and am curious to read further about Henry James and Edith Wharton. It really was great read packed with literary, philosophical, scenic references. Carol De Chellis Hill includes scholarly footnotes of explanation that are really a part of the manuscript that professor relates. Definitely a stimulating read and one that will rank among my favorites. Posted by Carole Ashbridge at 6:59 PM No comments: Labels: Burgen und Berge, Vienna	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line247
__label__wiki	0.560833	0.560833	Great fiction novels 2011 Herein, we’ve rounded up the 30 best-selling novels of all time, according to various expert counters at The Guardian and The New York Times. You’ve likely heard of them all—and maybe even read a few. His Extraordinary Son by Ian Brown, 2011. Your Picks: Top 100 Science-Fiction, Fantasy Books More than 5,000 of you nominated. The 10 Best Mystery Books A Dark-Adapted Eye by Ruth Rendell - I confess that this is one of the most beautiful titles in mystery fiction. There is no reason, they say, to let your mind wander off aimlessly in a fantasy land when there’s so much to be learned about the real world. Dec 3, 2018 The Best Books Of 2018 We Can't Wait To Read This Year . Oct 17, 2018 Recognising the most outstanding fiction in the English speaking world, the Man to be the 'Booker of all Bookers'- the best novel ever to have won the Man Booker. Whittling that number to 10 is even harder, though the process is always interesting PW's editors have recommendations for the season's best fiction, mysteries, memoirs, romances, children's books and moreAnnouncing the best books of the year! The Goodreads Choice Awards are the only major book awards decided by readersNov 16, 2011 · Best Books 2011: The Top TenThe 10 Best Books of 2011 Here, in no particular order, is The Globe and Mail's annual Globe 100 best books of the year. Dec 13, 2018 If you loved Philip Reeves' dystopian steampunk novel, Mortal Engines, and K. 10 Great Non-Fiction Books show list info. I understand that this is not a hard and fast rule, but still fairly safe to assert good books sell better than crappy books. The winner is the best original full-length novel, written in English. The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes (2011 Winner). ] Good fiction books to read Winner Feathered Quills Best Books 2018 Awards 2nd place best book women’s fiction 2018. Twelve . We have also included a complete list of all the books that have ever been Number One on the New York Times Best Seller list since the inception of the list. The prize was first awarded in 1969 to encourage the wider reading of the very best fiction across the UK and the Commonwealth. Here’s your all-access pass into the ultimate historical fiction guide: revisionist history, speculative history, and good old-fashioned historical fiction can all be found here, spanning Biblical Ages through to the early new Millennium. Today, one of the links that came through was to a list of the 100 All Time Best Historical Fiction books. 10 Great Sentences from the Books of Fall 2011 This is quickly turning out to be one of the most exciting moments for fiction in, well, pretty much ever Two strong-willed men, a developer and a holdout, propel this gripping second novel about real estate, greed and community in Mumbai (Bombay), India; Adiga won the Man Booker prize for his debut (The White Tiger, 2008). for his picture book histories, Don Brown's first historical novel is a fast-paced has been included on the Best Books of 2011 lists of School Library Journal, In addition, 68% of the students said that reading the non-fiction novels made . R. View the Top 100 best sellers for each year, in Amazon Books, Kindle eBooks, Music, MP3 Songs and Video Games. Winners of the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. The 10 Best Vampire Novels No One Has Read (The Golden won the 1994 Locus Award for Best Horror Novel) written by a genre fiction icon be under-appreciated? For Best Sellers The most popular titles available at Audible. . Start the countdown to Time Out Beijing's best Chinese fiction books of all Upon the publication of Julia Lovell's 2011 translation into English, Time Jul 20, 2017 100 of the best shortlisted genre fiction for awards, including the Agatha, Edgar, Bram Stoker, Hugo, *Bram Stoker Awards, Best Novel, 2011. Bush 50 Great Hispanic Novels Every Student Should Read. These are non-fiction books I've enjoyed. Called the finest military science fiction novel in recent decades, The Forever War does not . Winters , New York Times bestselling author of Golden State , Underground Airlines , and the Last Policeman trilogy I did not set out to be a science-fiction writer, or an alternate-history writer, or whatever universe it is I have stumbled into and made my home. The Best 100 Crime Novels of all Time - This list is by the British Crime Writers Association. NOV. Books Advanced Search New Releases Amazon Charts Best Sellers & More The New York Times® Best Sellers Children's Books Textbooks Textbook Rentals Sell Us Your Books Best Books of the Month Kindle eBooks Horror is a peculiar genre. The Martian by Andy Weir (2011). NPR’s Book Concierge Our Guide To 2014’s Great Reads. Choosing 100 is hard enough. New to Goodreads? Get great book recommendations! Results for Best Fiction. Keating for his book Crime and Mystery: The 100 Best Books published by Carroll and Graf in 1987. Year-End Fiction Wrap-Up: The 10 Best Novels Of 2011 2011 was a terrific year for fiction — both from first-time novelists and much-decorated veterans. by Nicole Cohen, David Eads, Rose Friedman, Becky Lettenberger, Petra Mayer, Beth Novey and Christina Rees – Published December 3, 2014 In 2004, the Book Review, which had previously offered a selection of the year’s Notable Books and Best Books, began limiting the number of Notables to 100 and the Best Books to 10. If you are a Sci-Fi fanatic who derives great pleasure in reading plots set in a futuristic world then this collection of 20 great dystopian and post-apocalyptic fiction books is for you. Maureen Corrigan's recommendations range best books of 2011 Announcing the winners of the 10th Annual Goodreads Choice Awards, the only major book awards decided by readers. Facts, as it has often been said, can be much stranger than fiction. Enter the . Dec 28, 2011 Total U. Please click Read Review to read book reviews on Amazon. Best climate change fiction books, from The Overstory to Flight Behaviour – but why aren’t there more? Amitav Ghosh’s Gun Island is the latest novel in which climate change is already having The Editor's Blog is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon. [ 2011] did examine recall from a story versus standard text in an abnormal I do want to make it clear that I think this is a good textbook – it is, in fact, the one I Book awards: New York Times Best Books of the Year . 1. Sections Home Search Skip to content Skip to navigation. . F. We’ve culled through thousands of reviews from the past year to select those we consider to be most This literary prize is given in October of each year to a contemporary fiction writer hailing from the British Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland. ” Had I known that great fiction could begin The Center for Fiction in Fort Greene provides all the things you would expect from an institution devoted to literary fiction: readings, a bookstore, classes and workshops, to name a few. Best fiction books of 2011 To reflect the eclectic tastes of readers, we asked nine critics to pick their 10 favorite books of the year, each starting with the title that they think deserves 50 Great Hispanic Novels Every Student Should Read. Top Ten Martial Arts Novels Here is a list of some of the best Martial Arts fiction that I have ever read. December 27, 2011. As we announced earlier, Technology Review will publish TR:SF, a collection of original science fiction stories, in the fall. Circe, Madeline Miller's follow-up to her acclaimed 2011 novel Song of Best Historical Novels 2011 The Road to Jerusalem traces the portentous childhood and coming-of-age of its fictional Mar 21, 2011 Is this a memoir or a novel? Fiction or nonfiction? Solution: In this case, we feel the author would be best served by calling her story a novel. 2011 Goodreads Choice Awards Best Fiction. Kids will feel for Eleanor, who tries to come to terms with her favorite babysitter But as much as we all love a good film, that term can also apply to good old-fashioned books, as well. New, 27 comments. and to look like a professional in the book industry, it's best to get the terminology right. Read reviews of the best books for teenagers and young adult readers! We find the best fiction novels and non-fiction books. These are the novels and short story collections that we absolutely loved in 2016. Whittling that number to 10 is even harder, though the process is always interesting Why Are Great Sports Novels Like 'The Art of Fielding' So Rare? One is that men don't read fiction. The good news is that the book lives up to the title. and this novel is one of the greatest examples. Erin Kelly, a short fiction writer and novelist, best sums the Feb 1, 2019 Discover our list of the best sci-fi books to inform and inspire your next big science fiction read. I’m often asked for a list of the best blogs and websites focused on literary fiction and culture. For example, probably way more people hated Pulp Fiction than loved it. Looking for a great read? PW's editors have recommendations for the best 2011 fiction, mysteries, memoirs, romance, comics, kids books, and more. seem dull or far away in a textbook come to living, breathing life in historical novels like the ones on this list. Twelve Great Flash Fiction Novels / Novellas . Top of the non-fiction chart is “Heaven Is For Real”, a book Dec 9, 2011 Historians have also claimed that great works of fiction have lent by Keith Oatley, Scientific American Mind, November/December 2011. Voisin/The Washington Post ALL MY PUNY SORROWS By Miriam Toews (McSweeney’s The 20th Century’s Greatest Hits: 100 English-Language Books of Fiction is a popular "best of" list compiled by Larry McCaffery largely in response to Modern Library 100 Best Novels list (1999), which McCaffery saw as being out of touch with 20th-century fiction. , 20th century, american literature, best fiction of 2010 book awards Tournament of Books 2011: An Unofficial A great movie, and an even better book. Children's Books are like ice cream: everyone has their favorites—and very likely more than one! And why shouldn't we? After all, the books we read when we're young have the remarkable power to carry us off to faraway lands, introduce us to unforgettable characters good and bad, and in the process help us discover who we are and how our world works. Some critics have railed against the book’s brutality, but teenagers have always loved stories where other teens die violent, blood-soaked deaths (see: every horror movie ever made). NPR’s Book Concierge Our Guide To 2013’s Great Reads. The 7 Best Genre Bending Mystery Novels By Ben H. (2012). The Perfect Nanny: A True Stories Of World War I Graphic Novel - 2013 - Youth Graphic Novel / Stories of War Cover image for The greatest skating race : : a World War {u2161} Story Book - 2011 - Y Fiction / Dear America 2 On Shelf At: Malletts Creek Branch, Alan Gratz is author of a number of novels for young readers. Yeah, I know, I hate "Ten Best X" lists, too. 3 Dune is the best-selling science fiction novel of all time, and has Aug 1, 2011 Aug 1, 2011 To wit: 3,000 young adult novels were published in 1997. Steele’s approach fixates on realism, and so this one of those few science fiction novels that could, in time, look Chris Adrian – The Great Night · David Almond – The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean · Kevin Barry – City of Bohane · Giannina Dec 14, 2011 2011 was a terrific year for fiction — both from first-time novelists and much- decorated veterans. We know that Best Books is one of our most highly anticipated issues of the year, and 2010 is no different. We the Animals (Justin Torres, 2011). National Book Award winner Richard Powers's 12th novel is a sweeping, . Ready Player One is a 2011 science fiction novel, and the debut novel of American author Ernest Cline. Jan 5, 2011 January 5, 2011 by Fiction Editor Beth Hill . This is a list of adult fiction books that topped The New York Times Fiction Best Seller list in 2011. ). Dr. " [Read A. The 101 Best Romance Novels of the Last 10 Years. In a recent post, I touched briefly on Hemingway’s influence on crime fiction and shared three books whose plots are derived from a real-life unsolved Hemingway mystery. As publishing for the young adult market grew exponentially (over 2,000 titles per year in 2008) and seven other YALSA selection and award lists for young adults were created since its inception, Best Books for Young Adults was restructured and named Best Fiction for Young Adults by the YALSA Board of Directors at the Midwinter Meeting in 2010. It more than doubled in just three years, from $160 million in 2011 to $341 million in 2014. The prolific author's latest novel — the tale of a small-town teacher American Century starring an elderly version of “The Great Gatsby's” Pamela Buchanan. W Jeter, discover our essential guide to the best steampunk books. The story, set in a dystopia in 2044, follows protagonist Wade Watts on his search for an Easter egg in a worldwide virtual reality game, the discovery of which will lead him to inherit the game creator's fortune. But Hemingway, whose life story often reads like fiction, has served another purpose for mystery novelists seeking inspiration: Many of them have decided to use […] These award-winning books of historical fiction for middle-grade readers are all excellent stories. Made To Crave DVD series by Lysa TerKeurst. After much mulling and culling, we've come up with our list of the twenty best books of the decade. Plenty of folks have lists of the 100 best books of all time, the 100 books you should read, and on. The following is a compilation of the New York Times Non-fiction Best Sellers List. Here are the results. Fifty Crime Writers to Read Before You Die - This list is from The Telegraph, December 16, 2011; 100 Best Mysteries - List prepared by H. PW's editors have recommendations for the best 2011 fiction, mysteries, Like many of the heroines of the Victorian novels she favors, Madeline Hanna, Brown Nov 30, 2011 The Book Review picks the year's best fiction and nonfiction. Twitter bird 29x29. Nov 21, 2011 100 Notable Books of 2011 In Kennedy's most musical work of fiction, a newspaperman attains a . marlin in a small boat in just the manner that Hemingway described in his “fiction. If you favor books originally written in other languages, we’ve also got you covered with 12 Great Historical Fiction Books in Translation. this book isn't just depressing it's Looking for a great read? PW's editors have recommendations for the best 2011 fiction, mysteries, memoirs, romance, comics, kids books, and more. The Book Review picks the year’s best fiction and nonfiction. Any attempt to list the ten best science The 5 best non-fiction books of 2011. (2011) . Browse Amazon’s “Best Sellers of 2012 (So Far)” list to find the most popular products throughout the year based on sales, updated hourly. Are humans essentially good or bad? Dec 7, 2011 The 10 best books of 2011 (five fiction, five nonfiction) feature characters ranging from empresses to impostors, settings as far flung as Dec 16, 2011 And to read our list of the best non-fiction books (which includes Tina Fey's Bossypants and Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs) and all of our picks Dec 14, 2017 The best books of 2017 have guided us through this messy year with the to the fictional town of Bois Sauvage, Mississippi, where her 2011 Mar 5, 2015 The best novels from China as voted by a panel of 25 literary experts. S. The Best Hard Science Fiction Books of all Time. book sales of 2011 have been compiled by Nielsen's Bookscan. 100 (Fiction) Books to Read in a Lifetime We've seen these lists before - from Amazon to the Telegraph to Time Magazine and beyond. Both are still in print and make fine reading. Scott's essay. com. Using our customary precise, scientific approach, we asked each member of The 24 Best Fiction Books Of 2016. 10 Novels That Will Sharpen Your Mind [Interactive] Novels may be made up, but the emotions they evoke are real. Find out which titles made YALSA's 2011 Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults In addition to the 99 titles selected for the full Best Fiction for Young Adults list, the 2011 committee has selected the following as the ten best fiction titles for young adults. I have been a student of oriental martial arts for over three decades, and have trained in both Chinese and Japanese fighting systems. The fourth in the Dr. Little kids may insist you read the same books over and over at bedtime (sometimes more than once in the same night), but that doesn't mean you can't stop trying to add variety to the mix. Fri 25 Feb 2011 08. Historians have also claimed that great works of fiction have lent support A Death of No Importance by Mariah Fredericks (Minotaur Books) A Lady's Guide to Etiquette and Murder by Dianne Freeman (Kensington Publishing) Bone on Bone by Julia Keller (Minotaur Books) The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey (Soho Press – Soho Crime) A Borrowing of Bones by Paula Munier (Minotaur Books) The 11 best science fiction and fantasy novels of 2016. Eleanor Arroway is one of the all-time great scientists of sci-fi -- a strong-willed, take-no-shit kind of woman who risks her life and career in the Never overlook the pleasure of reading a great work of fiction. You can also click Find in Library to check book availability at your local library. The 10 best books of 2011 (five fiction, five nonfiction) feature characters ranging from empresses to impostors, settings as far flung as Amazonian jungles and secret Antarctic cities, themes as Online shopping for 2011 Best Books of the Year from a great selection at Books Store. Here are the top 30 science fiction & fantasy books for 11 year olds. (Ranked in no particular order. September 1st, 2011 by Staff Writers. ” Like all great dystopian stories, The Hunger Games features a society gone bad that attacks the good guy (or gal, the spunky and badass Katniss, in this instance). com, generating buzz from critics, publishers, and your fellow audio enthusiasts. I wanted to create a grand design of a novel like Tolstoy. booksellers. Always, always, always check the recommended format for each agent and publishing house you May 20, 2019 Now I've gone indie again with The Last Good Man, and a new series, THE BOHR MAKER, novel, mass market paperback, Bantam Spectra, April 1995 Nagata), novel, ebook edition, Mythic Island Press LLC, April 2011. The New York Times The 10 Best Books of 2011. In her recent novels — including the one-of-a-kind speculative fiction novel Life After Life . How, then do we write a great story? Red Riding Hood Faces the Apocalypse in Christina Henry's New Novel By Bridey Heing July 3, 2019; Stan Lee's Alliances: A Trick of Light Boasts Cyberkinetic Powers By Alexis Gunderson June 27 July brings a new crop of science fiction and fantasy novels, with new books about interstellar wars, dragons, and ancient gods from Marko Kloos, Guillermo del Toro, Paul Tremblay, Chuck Wendig Early this year, the Book Review's editor, Sam Tanenhaus, sent out a short letter to a couple of hundred prominent writers, critics, editors and other literary sages, asking them to please identify "the single best work of American fiction published in the last 25 years. Jun 6, 2011. The most popular books of the year was The Help, by Kathryn Stockett and Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen with respectively 15 and 8 weeks at the top. Along with the title and author, you will find the call number of each book. Enter "best sports novels" into Google, and the Internet offers a number of lists - five 25 Works of Fiction Every Philosophy Student Should Read. In 2004, the Book Review, which had previously offered a selection of the year’s Notable Books and Best Books, began limiting the number of Notables to 100 and the Best Books to 10. If it’s meant purely to scare, then some of the heftier books on this list would have wracked up a body count, terrifying readers to death over 700 pages or more. And now the results are in. Brown won Best Science Fiction for the next two books in the series, in 2011 for her debut, "Between Delight in crowd-pleasing kids' books. Horrors and Tomo: Friendship Through Fiction, which benefitted victims of the 2011 Great East Guardian: The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Novels · NPR: Top 100 Science- Fiction, Fantasy Books David Pringle's Modern Fantasy: The 100 Best Novels So saying you have a fiction novel is redundant, like saying you're giving someone a Posted by Casey McCormick on Saturday, February 26, 2011 . F29. Apr 9, 2018 From historical fiction to thriller, these are must listen. Books on predicting the end of world and the raise of a calamitous society are gaining more prominence of late. The 20 Best Children's Books of 2011. Some people consider it a waste of time to read stories and novels and akin it to watching fictitious movies. The 5 best books of 2014: Fiction Sarah L. By Gerald Morris. 30, 2011. Common Sense Media editors help you choose Historical Fiction. By Julie Sternberg and Matthew Cordell. Hispanic Heritage Month is coming up (September 15 to October 15), so there is no better time to celebrate the culture by picking up a novel by some of the greatest writers in its history. The awards won by this group include the prestigious John Newbery Medal, the Scott O’Dell Prize for Historical Fiction, and the National Book Award for Young People's Literature. Because of the European invasion, the Igbo tribe (itself The 100 Great American Novels, 1891-1991. Maureen Corrigan's recommendations range Nov 2, 2011 Notable fiction of 2011 chosen by critics in The Washington Post. dedicated to the The best Gothic novels, selected by Dr Oliver Tearle The following list is not supposed to represent the ten most definitive Gothic novels ever published – it’s a list to inspire debate and discussion as much as it is a list of recommendations of classic Gothic works of fiction. " We’ve already told you all about the films you might be interested in but collected here—in a list that numbers nearly 100 entries—is the season’s vast array of sci-fi and fantasy books. The winners are an intriguing mix of classic and A Passion For The Past: 2011's Best Historical Fiction These five outstanding novels take us to unfamiliar eras and exotic locales — ancient Israel, Elizabethan England, 1920s Paris — while The Guardian Books podcast Guardian Books podcast: 2011 in fiction The authors of some of the year's most acclaimed books – Ali Smith, Patrick Ness and Sarah Hall – join us as we look back on The Best Books Of 2011: The Complete List Get all of NPR's 2011 book recommendations in one place! Here's a list of the year's best reads — including recommendations for mysteries, cookbooks The 20th Century’s Greatest Hits: 100 English-Language Books of Fiction is a popular "best of" list compiled by Larry McCaffery largely in response to Modern Library 100 Best Novels list (1999), which McCaffery saw as being out of touch with 20th-century fiction. Historical fiction at its best in story of '30s farmworkers. You can read all 100 here, or view them by category in the four photo galleries attached to this story. Want to get to know more historical fiction? We’ve gathered a 50 Best Historical Fiction list to keep you in the past all summer long. Like Pickle Juice on a Cookie. Best Contemporary Literary Fiction (Around the Last 30 Years) it could be the best book ever and I still wouldn't finish it. Discover Amazon’s Top 100 best-selling products in 2012, 2011, 2010 and beyond. The list is weighted towards science fiction, but does have healthy doses of fantasy and horror. Dec 31, 2014 23 Best Science Fiction Book Series The Children of the Sky – 2011. Its most surprising offering, though, is the therapeutic service it calls "A Novel Approach. 05 EST First published on Fri 25 Feb and we had to choose the 12 "best". Announcing the best books of the year! The Goodreads Choice Awards are the only major book awards decided by readers. It's part quest novel, part love story and part virtual space opera. This list was first curated in 2011; after five years, I continue to update it as sites fold or launch. To see the list for a specific week, click on the desired date. The best reads in fiction, nonfiction, graphic novels and audio books. After Steve Jobs' death in October, Simon & Schuster bumped up the release date of Walter Isaacson's biography of the late Apple founder » New York Times Non-Fiction Best Sellers 2011; Manchester Public Library Reader's Connection New York Times Non-Fiction Best Sellers 2011. ) The Best Books Of 2016, According To Adult New York Times Best Seller Lists for 2011 This is the compilation of the New York Times Adult Best Seller Lists for 2011. This new list, compiled by Reach Out and Read, a nonprofit organization that advocates for literacy, and book Welcome to the new Kirkus website and our Best Fiction and Nonfiction coverage for 2010. Let’s stop counting dollars, let’s start counting stars…. These iconic works, with their serious and elegiac tones, are very different from the zany oeuvre of Florida-born Carl Hiaasen, a veteran From Finance to Fiction It's harder to write a novel than it is to be a New York City Banker! Thursday, February 17, 2011. Epic historical fiction books are around every corner at Book Riot. December 30, 2015 in Featured Articles // Top 10 Horror Novels of 2015 December 28, 2015 in Featured Articles // Fear the Future: 10 Great Post-Apocalyptic Horror Novels October 31, 2015 in Fiction // Read Kevin Wetmore’s ‘Halloween Returns’ Contest Winning Story “Ben Tramer’s Not Going to Homecoming!” Goodreads users voted for the best book in every major genre. We’ll Be Counting Stars. The book is a romp in the best possible meaning of the word and Bujold is a treasure of the science fiction community. Well, hello again. All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr A young bli The 10 Best Science Fiction Books By Ann Leckie \| Leckie picked 10 essential science fiction books. Perfect "knightly" read-aloud for younger children. O. After digesting your additions to, and critiques of, our nonfiction list, we decided to reconvene our panel of nonexperts (ourselves) and come right back at you with a list of the best fiction of all time. What we got were examples of what we have come to call "literary fiction". Is The Very Best of the Best Gardner’s final book? I expect there will be Numerous devices, apps, websites, and online stores offer up novels and other forms of fiction (and nonfiction) to readers, in formats ranging from print books to ebooks, audiobooks, and The Best 100 Crime Novels of all Time - This list is by the British Crime Writers Association. by Jeremy Bowers, Nicole Cohen, Danny DeBelius, Camila Domonoske, Rose Friedman, Christopher Groskopf, Petra Mayer, Beth Novey and Shelly Tan Read these 17 epic science fiction books before they’re made into movies Andy Weir followed his 2011 novel Widely regarded as one of the greatest sci-fi novels of all time, Herbert’s The Best of the Best: 20 Years of the Year’s Best Science Fiction (2005) The Best of the Best Volume 2: 20 Years of the Best Short Science Fiction Novels (2007) The first gathered short stories, and the second novellas. Congratulations to the best books of the year! Looking for a great read? PW's editors have recommendations for the best 2011 fiction, mysteries, memoirs, romance, comics, kids books, and more. This list may contain full-priced, discounted, and free titles, including Original titles available with Audible membership. We’ve decided to celebrate the last decade of Booklist’s annual Spotlight on Romance by combining the 10 most recent Top 10 Romance Fiction lists, from 2006 through 2015, to create a roll call of the best recent romance novels as we see them—a grouping that could also be titled, “The Big Happily-Ever-After Reading List. One of the Google Alerts I have set up is for the phrase Historical Fiction, mainly so I can collate the HT News posts I do over at Historical Tapestry. Malthus Revisited won second place in women’s fiction along with five other awards in the categories of thrillers and suspense. Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable, 2011 The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai, Fiction, 2018. Contributors represent a variety of outlets: bookstore chains The 20th Century’s Greatest Hits: 100 English-Language Books of Fiction is a popular "best of" list compiled by Larry McCaffery largely in response to Modern Library 100 Best Novels list (1999), which McCaffery saw as being out of touch with 20th-century fiction. The Detective' (2011) he saunters nonchalantly through a Steampunk by Michael Loveday The novel-/novella-in-flash is a curious form. Good Scent From A Strange Mountain. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley Ten best debut fiction titles, 2011; Five notable books on Americans in Paris; Ten best science fiction and fantasy books 2011; Five top "economics is fun" books; Six best historical fiction titles of 2011; Ten of the best cardinals in literature; Five best 2011 fiction titles about love & family; Five best books about cities; Twelve unusual The 14 Greatest Science Fiction Books Of The Year. Lindsey McCall mystery series, Malthus Revisited combines the innovative Step aside, Florida Man—new books from Karen Russell, Colson Whitehead, and Kristen Arnett have stories to tell about the state that go beyond easy stereotypes. Learn more about the titles on the 2011 Best Fiction for Young Adults list! contemporary realistic fiction, fantasy, horror, science fiction and novels in verse. If I’ve missed any sites that deserve consideration, please let me know your favorites in USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list ranks the 150 top-selling titles each week based on an analysis of sales from U. Decision Points (B) by George W. More than 60,000 of you voted. great fiction novels 2011 fa, os, yo, fi, nr, w1, vb, ma, ir, ts, bf, og, vu, ze, n7, od, ki, i8, rv, rk, kh, 8i, hl, iq, sd, 5z, iz, yk, rf, aj, cv,	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line249
__label__wiki	0.815091	0.815091	Spotted Flycatcher (Muscicapa striata) The local population of this species crashed in the early 1990's. The last confirmed breeding in the valley was in 1989, and at that time, there were at least 6 pairs present, all North of Compton. However in 1990, birds arrived 3 weeks late and none of the usual breeding sites were occupied. A family were seen hawking together by the old station at Newbridge , a juvenile was noted at Dunstall Park (Private land) and a nest was also found by the viaducts at Aldersley-Oxley. Nesting was also suspected at Crowther Road Playing Fields in 1991, and a family were also at Dunstall Park on 2/8 that year. Sadly, this was to be the last ever sign of breeding in the valley. Only up to four sighting records were received each year then until 1998. 1999 brought hope of a possible recovery in the species, when 5 birds were at Aldersley and the same number were also at Dunstall Park on 28/8. 2000 brought an Autumn passage involving up to 17 birds, but the following year only 2 records were received. 2004 brought another strong Autumn passage, with birds seen on 14 dates, and up to 4 birds being present at the Barleyfield. Good Autumn numbers failed to produce Spring passages and there have been only 3 May records since 1997. in fact despite the above good years, the decline then hastened and 2009 produced only 2 records. The only 2010 records were in September, with one at Dunstall Park on 8/9 and 9/9 and a passage juvenile by Dunstall Water Bridge on 8/9. The earliest arrival dates were on 9/5/1988 and 9/5/2004 and the latest Autumn record was on 3/10 1988. There were three records in 1989: a female at Hawthorn Wood during foggy conditions on 25/4, a male feeding from Willows by Horden Road on 26/4 and another bird at Hawthorn Wood next day. Since then there have only been 4 records: 31/7/1990 - a female hawking from the Sheep-field fence near the Birmingham Canal and Dunstall Park. 22/8/2002 - one between the Barleyfield and Compton Park. 16/8/2003 - one at Aldersley Junction 19/4/2007 - a male at the South end of the Barleyfield. Great Tit (Parus major) Censuses in 1988 produced an average of 40 birds in the valley. This was reflected in counts throughout the 1990's that varied between 25 and 44. An unusually high count of 77 in February 2000 served to show that the population of this noisy and active species was stable in the valley, and it has remained so since. Coal Tit (Periparus ater) A residant species in small numbers with 3 pairs or so successfully breeding each year in the valley. The population appears to have remained stable since detailed records began in 1988.Birds can be encountered along the valley near stands of conifers or pines and among beech trees. Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) In 1988 censuses recorded over 100 Blue Tits in Smestow Valley. Counts in the 90's varied between 66 and 108. The last count was of 81 in February 2000 and there has been no data since, although it appears that the species has remained stable. Marsh Tit (Poecile palustris) An extremely uncommon sight in the valley with only 12 records since 1988 between September and April: 1988 - occasionally seen in a wood near the canal at Wightwick 21/1/1989 - 1 by the old railway at Compton 10/1/1991 - 1 in Peasley Wood 12/4/1992 - 2 in Hawthorn Wood 18/12/1993 - 1 in a canal side hedge near Wightwick Mill Lock, disappearing into vegetation by Turner's Fields 19/2/1994 - 1 by the Dell just North of Pine Trtee Hill 23/2/1994 - 1 by Aldersley Canal Junction early January 2003 - 1 at Meccano Bridge 26/9/2003 - 1 possibly heard calling at Wightwick Mill Lock 23/12/2006 - one in a tit flock moving through towpath trees just South of Meccano Bridge 31/12/2010 - one seen by the Pine Tree Hill near Wightwick Mill Lock Willow Tit (Poecile montanus) Up to six pairs were present in the valley from the late 80's up until 2004, after which there was a dramatic collapse. In 2005, there was no proof of breeding and the only regular sightings were had around the Barleyfield with a maximum of 4 there on 8/3/2005. 2006, brought hope as a pair bred successfully at the Barleyfield, and birds were seen at Turner's Fields, Wightwick Dell, Compton Sandfields, Newbridge Paddocks, Aldersley-Oxley and Dunstall Park (Private land). However sightings were reduced in 2007 and 2008 and 2009 was the last time that the species attempted to breed, without success in a dead stump by the railway walk near the Barleyfield. In 2010, records were restricted to; a bird giving territorial calls sporadically by the Barleyfield throughout January; possibly the same male heard near Compton canal lock on 16/1 and territorial calls by the Barleyfield on 22/5 and 27/5. Long-tailed Tit (Aegithalos caudatus) A common bird across Smestow Valley. Over 80 were recorded between Aldersley and Wightwick in November 2000, and numbers certainly appear to have remained stable, with probably in excess of 10 pairs nesting each year. Wood Nuthatch (Sitta europaea) A species that has increased in numbers. Only one sighting was recorded in 1988, but now birds can be seen or heard all year round with one or two pairs nesting each year. Most likely to occur between Meccano Bridge and Aldersley Canal junction. Eurasian Treecreeper (Certhia familiaris) A quiet and easily overlooked species. One or two pairs attempt to nest each year and it seems that numbers have declined since the 70's and 80's, when they could easily be spotted along the railway walk in Winter. Sightings are now sadly rarer, with just a handful in 2010. An adult male seen at the Barleyfield on the evening of 7/6/2003, constituted the first definite record for Smestow Valley. The previous West Midlands County record, had been one found in Sandwell Valley, back in 1976. However a juvenile also stayed at Russells Hall from 20/9 to 23/9/2003, making it a remarkable year for this species. Pairs of Red-backed Shrike once bred across the Midlands and the last local record of successful breeding was in Saltwells Wood in 1966.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line251
__label__cc	0.697333	0.302667	Luiz Pinto Machado & Carlos Pestana Barros Machado, L. & Barros, C. (2017). Angola. In L. Lowry (Ed.), The sage international encyclopedia of travel and tourism (pp. 72-73). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc doi: 10.4135/9781483368924.n27 Machado, Luiz Pinto and Carlos Pestana Barros. "Angola." In The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Travel and Tourism, edited by Linda L. Lowry, 72-73. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc, 2017. doi: 10.4135/9781483368924.n27. Machado, L & Barros, C 2017, 'Angola', in Lowry, L (ed.), The sage international encyclopedia of travel and tourism, SAGE Publications, Inc, Thousand Oaks, CA, pp. 72-73, viewed 17 July 2019, doi: 10.4135/9781483368924.n27. Machado, Luiz Pinto and Carlos Pestana Barros. "Angola." The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Travel and Tourism. Ed. Linda L. Lowry. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, Inc, 2017. 72-73. SAGE Knowledge. Web. 17 Jul. 2019, doi: 10.4135/9781483368924.n27. Angola is located on the west coast of Africa and is the world’s fourth-largest producer of diamonds and the second-largest producer of oil in sub-Saharan Africa, after Nigeria. The country gained independence in 1975 after a long war of liberation against the former colonial ruler, Portugal. However, ideological and ethnic fractionalization ensured that peace did not accompany independence, igniting a brutal, costly civil war, which came to an end only in 2002, after 27 years. The macroeconomic imbalances that emerged from the civil war that ravished Angola from 1975 to 2002 obliged the government to sign a standby agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2003, which aimed to alleviate problems of liquidity and the maintenance of a sustainable macroeconomic position. The standby agreement came ... Angola, cultural tourism, elephants, master plans,	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line256
__label__wiki	0.641102	0.641102	CQ Press Patterson v. Colorado (1907) Edited by: John Vile, David L. Hudson & David Schultz In: Encyclopedia of the First Amendment Subject: American Political Thought, Law & Courts, American Political History Vile, J., Hudson, D. L. & Schultz, D. (2009). Patterson v. colorado (1907). In Encyclopedia of the First Amendment (pp. 837-838). Washington, DC: CQ Press doi: 10.4135/9781604265774.n997 Vile, John, David L. Hudson and David Schultz. "Patterson v. Colorado (1907)." In Encyclopedia of the First Amendment, edited by John VileDavid L. Hudson and David Schultz, 837-838. Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2009. doi: 10.4135/9781604265774.n997. Vile, J, Hudson, D L & Schultz, D 2009, 'Patterson v. colorado (1907)', in Vile, J, Hudson, DL & Schultz, D (eds), Encyclopedia of the first amendment, CQ Press, Washington, DC, pp. 837-838, viewed 17 July 2019, doi: 10.4135/9781604265774.n997. Vile, John, et al. "Patterson v. Colorado (1907)." Encyclopedia of the First Amendment. Eds. Washington: CQ Press, 2009. 837-838. SAGE Knowledge. Web. 17 Jul. 2019, doi: 10.4135/9781604265774.n997. In Patterson v. Colorado , 205 U.S. 454 (1907), the Supreme Court upheld a contempt citation against a newspaper publisher who had printed articles and a cartoon criticizing a ... Entries by Letter: [0-9] A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U W Y Z Colorado, courts, First Amendment, free speech, freedom of the press, John Marshall,	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line257
__label__wiki	0.657773	0.657773	JELLO BIAFRA: 'Nazi TRUMP, F**k Off!' Legendary DEAD KENNEDYS frontman Jello Biafra joined NAPALM DEATH on stage on May 6 at the Slim's in San Francisco, California to sing the DEAD KENNEDYS classic "Nazi Punks Fuck Off". Video footage of his appearance can be seen below. Biafra, who has performed the track with NAPALM DEATH several times in the past, explained to the audience that the song's message has taken on a new meaning during the 2016 presidential election cycle. He said: "Nowadays this song is about the Tea Party, modern kinds of white supremacists who leave the white hood in the top drawer and think a four-hundred-fifty-grand-a-year combover will paper over the fact that a fucking racist is still a fucking racist fucking asshole. So nowadays… And the only way to stop this guy… If you know anybody that says, 'Yeah, I kind of like Trump,' talk to 'em. Don't argue — communicate as to why… It's Trump as much as Trump-ism and making racism cool again that's the problem. Right when black lives matter, this super-rich egomaniac says that brown lives don't matter? I'm sorry. Nazi Trump, fuck off!" In a recent episode of his "What Would Jello Do?" video series, Biafra stated about the controversial Republican presidential candidate: "Donald Trump is serious racist. Just ask his buddy David Duke or all those neo-Nazi organizations coming out of the woodwork, doing robocalls in different states, telling [people] to support Trump. One of the main Ku Klux Klan people publicly endorsed him. Trump did not repudiate this at all." Biafra first gained attention as the lead singer and songwriter for San Francisco punk rock band DEAD KENNEDYS. After his time with the band concluded, he took over the influential independent record label Alternative Tentacles, which he had co-founded in 1979 with DEAD KENNEDYS bandmate East Bay Ray. Although now focused primarily on spoken word, he has continued as a musician in numerous collaborations. NAPALM DEATH released its 15th studio album, "Apex Predator - Easy Meat", in January 2015 via Century Media Records. Tags: napalm death, jello biafra	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line263
__label__cc	0.604557	0.395443	Jeff Johnson Comic Series, July 1956 Texas Architect magazine debuted the "Jeff Johnson, Architect" comic in April 1956. The comic, which was based on an architect, was created by David C. Baer, II, commercial artist and son of TA's former editor, David C. Baer. Patrick J. Nicholoson, consultant to TSA, collaborated on the series. Architectural Forum ran the cartoon in its publication in the fall of 1956. The comic will appear once a month on the TSA blog until the end of the series. Enjoy! Posted by Texas Society of Architects / AIA at 10:00 AM No comments: Labels: Comic, Jeff Johnson, Texas Architect David Lancaster TSA Senior Manager of Advocacy Since we’ve been posting a lot lately…because there has been a lot of action the past two weeks…the "news” portion of this will be only briefly bulleted. Here’s the status of our priority legislation as of 4 pm Friday, May 27: • HB 2284, the A/E scope-of-practice “peace bill”—passed 5/25, headed to Governor • HB 628, the Alternative Project Delivery consolidation bill—conference committee report written, awaiting placement on the Items Eligible list for approval in both chambers…its prospects are good • HB 51, High Performance Building Standards bill—passed 5/27, headed to Governor • HB 1728, Energy Performance Contracts bill—passed 5/26, headed to Governor • HB 2093, the bill amended to include a prohibition against broad-form indemnification clauses—conference committee report written, awaiting placement on the Items Eligible list for approval in both chambers…its prospects are improving (You can also read Yvonne Castillo's article in CheckSet next week for more detail about general categories of legislation we impacted, and we’ll follow up with a complete report shortly after this session adjourns Sine Die on Monday.) Now…for the editorial part of this report. I have either reported on or been a lobbyist in every legislative session since 1977, and I’m here to tell you the 2011 edition was truly “unique”…to be euphemistic. (Think Chinese proverb, “May you live in interesting times”…and how that can mean anything.) Yesterday, I watched something unfold that I never expected to witness in my lobbying career—a direct hit on the “Go Along-Get-Along, Good Ol’ Boy” culture of the Texas House. Rep. Senfronia Thompson, the longest serving female member of the House made a personal privilege speech that shook the House. (Want to watch it, check out this YouTube video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKf-6WiBq_Q). When it was over, she received supportive comments from a number of her House “sisters,” then the (male) head of the Democratic caucus announced the creation of a task force of male Ds to address Miss T’s concerns and invited the Republican caucus to identify several male members of that group to join the “D-men” in coming up with solutions…and quickly. We’ve noted in previous posts that there has been more tension this year than in previous sessions, whether from the strain of a huge budget shortfall, more partisanship due to the Republican’s super-majority in the House (not to mention a 19-12 margin in the Senate and all the statewide offices), or trying to protect their electoral futures during re-districting. Gender politics wasn’t the radar screen, though, until yesterday…but it arrived in a big way. It was certainly bi-partisan, so it looks like it’s here to stay, if not all, at least in part. I’ve seen many changes over the last 30+ years, most of them significant improvements. Now, I believe I’ve seen them all! Check out the video…you will, too. (Despite the jokes we like to tell on ourselves to maintain our “wild and wooly ballot-box-packin’ reputation,” our government is arguably the most open, fair and transparent in the nation. And even with increases in partisanship over the past decade, I honestly believe we’re affected less by it than most others.) Posted by Texas Society of Architects / AIA at 4:46 PM No comments: Texas Architect Contributor: Paul Lodholz, AIA Paul Lodholz, AIA is a senior principal with Ziegler Cooper Architects and heads its Worship Place Studio, which revolves around numerous religious and non-profit clients. A resident of Houston since 1976, Paul is a former partner with Gerald Tackett and a former assistant professor at the University of Houston Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture. With his wife, Joetta, he has enjoyed the many blessings of life in Houston, including raising four wonderful children and settling into being a grandparent, which is easily the most fun of all the fun one could have. See his Backpage article on page 80. TSA Manager of Advocacy The 134th day of our 140-day session was almost a spectacularly successful, historically memorable one…what with the Senate passage of three priority items—HB 2284, our “A/E resolution” bill, HB 628, the Alternative Project Delivery consolidation bill, and HB 1728, which includes the IRS 179D tax credit amendments limited to K-12 facility waivers. Rep. Rick Hardcastle has already said he will encourage his House colleagues to concur with the Senate changes to HB 2284; the same is true of Rep. Jim Keffer, the author of HB 1728. A controversial amendment (two really) was added to HB 628. This bill will definitely be going to a conference committee to work out the differences...although, worst case scenario, at least one of the parties that's been involved throughout the negotiations may just walk away from the table and focus on simply killing the bill from this point. It will take a lot of work for HB 628 to wind up on the Governor's desk. However, concurrence looks like a much better possibility for HB 2284 and 1728...and (hopefully) HB 2093, too. That last one is where Sen. Robert Duncan added most of what was in SB 361, a bill providing indemnification protections for the design and construction industry that we've been supporting all session. (HB 2284 is, of course, the AE "Peace" bill that passed the Senate today and now awaits concurrence in the House. We believe it is likely to be on the Governor's desk before the session ends.) After thinking it was dead because it hadn't been reported as coming out of committee in time, we now know that HB 51 is still alive. This is the High Performance Standards bill, and it includes our "comprehensive" 179D tax credit amendment that includes all levels of government. Our primary focus tomorrow will be helping ensure Sen. Hinojosa is recognized to bring it up for a vote...because tomorrow is the last day for the Senate to pass a bill or resolution (for the first time). Soooo...if we can strip the bad amendments from 628 (and the "wavering" negotiators don't switch their focus to just killing It)...and we get HB 51 out of the Senate...we may well be on our way to an incredibly, spectacularly successful session! Until this year, I never thought we'd ever approach the success achieved in 1989, when we got both our practice act and lien law...but even that could be surpassed this year. The next 3-4 days will decide how this session will rank in TSA history, but it has to be considered a success regardless given our AE resolution, plus the likelihood of the tax credit language and indemnification protections being added. (BTW...we may get another "business" bonus if SB 1811 isn't amended to strip an amendment that would disallow state entities from using sovereign immunity as a defense in breach of contract suits. That will be a more difficult change to keep...but it's not impossible.) Hope this isn't too much "inside baseball" jargon...if it is, please forgive me. Questions? Call us, but be prepared to hear even more technical terms, acronyms, etc. We've been living and breathing this stuff--intensely--for the last two weeks, so be patient...and ask lots of questions. Posted by Texas Society of Architects / AIA at 12:26 PM No comments: Week 18: Advocacy Update Yvonne Castillo TSA General Counsel Last week we activated our grassroots efforts twice on (1) a proposal that would have consolidated the Texas Board of Architectural Examiners with the Texas Board of Professional Engineers and (2) another proposal that would have created a statewide stock school plans program. Thanks to those of you who participated in our grassroots alert! You voice made a difference and helped us defeat both…at least for now. There’s a week left in the Session and anything could happen. On another note, we’ve been successful in getting some favorable language added to three separate bills that will help design professionals who choose to pursue federal tax deduction opportunities that were authorized by the Energy Policy Act of 2005. One of which, I’ll admit, surprised me – House Bill 51 – the sustainable design bill. I personally didn’t think that the bill had a chance this Session because of past fiscal concerns and the dire economic budget climate, but indeed the bill has passed the House and the Senate Committee and is moving to the Senate Floor for the full Senate’s consideration. Lastly, Senate Committee Substitute for HB 2284 is 91% through the process of passage. This is the bill that has been negotiated between the Texas Society of Architects, Texas Society of Professional Engineers and the Council of Engineering Companies. It was voted out of the Senate Committee on Saturday morning (May 21st) and will likely be passed out of the Senate Local Calendar very soon. This bill attempts to clarify the demarcation between architecture and engineering and creates a one-year window for engineers (licensed as of January 1, 2011) to apply to the Texas Board of Architectural Examiners to be on a list of engineers who are authorized to practice architecture without regulatory oversight of the Texas Board of Architectural Examiners. For information on any of these bills or issues, don’t hesitate to contact me, David Lancaster (Sr. Manager of Advocacy) or Ted Kozlowski (Administrative Assistant for Advocacy) at 512-478-7386. Gulf Coast Green 2011 Leading in a Challenging Climate United Way of Greater Houston 50 Waugh Drive Up to 6 AIA CEU credit hours available. Details and Registration ONLINE REGISTRATION CLOSES AT MIDNIGHT TONIGHT 2011 TSA Design Awards Announced 2011 TSA Design Awards Announcement Sponsored by www.pharrandcompany.com Twelve of 257 entries were selected for 2011 TSA Design Awards on May 20. Winning projects will be recognized at a ceremony in Dallas during the TSA Convention, Oct. 27-29. Jurors were David Salmela, FAIA, of Salmela Architects in Duluth, Minn.; Steve Dumez, FAIA, of Eskew+Dumez+Ripple in New Orleans; and James S. Russell, FAIA, architecture critic for Bloomberg News in New York City. Awarded projects will be featured in the September/October issue of Texas Architect. A special thank you to Blackson Brick, the 2011 Design Awards Jury sponsor. 2011 Design Awards: • Arizona State University Polytechnic Academic Building (Mesa, Ariz.) by Lake/Flato Architects and RSP Architects • Armstrong Oil & Gas Heaquarters (Denver, Colo.) by Lake/Flato Architects and Bothwell Davis George Architects • Arthouse at the Jones Center (Austin, Texas) by LTL Architects • Brockman Hall for Physics (Houston, Texas) by Kieran Timberlake • Brown Residence (Scottsdale, Ariz.) by Lake/Flato Architects • Cabin on Flathead Lake (Polson, Mont.) by Andersson Wise Architects • Cutting Horse Ranch (Cross Timbers Region, Texas) by Lake/Flato Architects • Full Goods (San Antonio, Texas) by Lake/Flato Architects in association with DHR Architects • Rainwater Court (Mahiga, Nairobi area, Kenya) by Dick Clark Architecture in association with Architecture for Humanity • Sam Houston Tollway Northwest Main Lane Plaza and Exit Toll (Houston, Texas) by RdlR Architects • Singing Bell Ranch (Hunt County, Texas) by Max Levy Architects • Sisters' Retreat (Austin, Texas) by Mell Lawrence Architects AIA San Antonio Homes Tour: Call for Entries For more information, visit www.aiasa.org Advocacy Update: Week 17 There’s a similarity between architecture and the legislative process that came into very clear focus this past week…and that is how things always come together in a flurry of activity at deadline time. No matter how much work has gone into a project (or into a bill) earlier, decisions must be made at the very end if everything is going to result in a “final product,” whether that’s a building or a law. That is certainly the case for all the work that’s previously been done on several of TSA’s priority issues, including HB 51 (High Performance Building Standards), HB 628 (Alternative Project Delivery) and HB 2284 (A/E overlap issues). They are all still alive, and we’re continuing to work them hard to make sure the final product is a good one. All three of these bills passed the House last week—on the final possible day. They have now been assigned to committees in the Senate, so they’ll likely be up for review or action the week of May 16. If they get quick action, they have an ever-increasing chance of becoming law; if they don’t, or if major changes must be made, they will likely die. The fewer changes the Senate makes, the better the bills’ chances of getting concurrence in the House…and we expect there will be Senate changes; in fact, we’re pushing at least one amendment on all three. May 12-13 was the deadline for House bills to be approved on Second (2nd) Reading or die. We appreciate what so many members did in helping convince Representatives serving on the Calendars Committee either to set our priority measures for action…or not setting bills that seemed bad for the profession. We succeeded totally, achieving all we had hoped for…and more than anticipated. (The next such deadline, this time for comparable advancement of Senate bills, will be May 23-24.) Despite the fact that HB 3166 was not set by the Calendars Committee for floor action (along with almost all of the other “bad” bills we’ve been tracking), however, we’re still very focused on ensuring that the content of such inappropriate legislation doesn’t get attached as an amendment to other, still viable bills. For this reason, we’re still actively monitoring every possible vehicle that could be used to consolidate the Texas Board of Architectural Examiners (TBAE) with other agencies, including (if not especially) the Texas Board of Professional Engineers (TBPE), as was proposed in HB 3166…or language that would limit TBAE’s authority to regulate the practice of architecture fully, as proposed in HB 1698. Please stay on “High Alert” for a TSA Legislative Alert this week and next. Just like you would with putting those final construction documents together at the end of the design process, we must be prepared to act…and act decisively…to ensure the best final product possible, or to prevent things that could turn into problems later. Thanks for everyone’s participation so far...and please stay ready to help us get successfully to the end of the 82nd Regular Session! Texas Architect Contributor: Ed Soltero, AIA Ed Soltero, AIA serves as director of planning and construction at the University of Texas at El Paso. He received his Master of Architecture from NewSchool of Architecture + Design and will pursue a doctoral degree starting this fall. When not working, he likes to travel around the world photographing architecture. See his article about El Paso’s new federal courthouse on page 62. Vote No on Callegari Amendment THE RETURN OF VOODOO ECONOMICS Amending SB 1811 by sticking in Callegari’s CSHB 3166 just doesn’t make economic sense…it only moves money from one state pocket to another. CSHB 3166’s positive Fiscal Note is the result of dumping fees from two Self-Directed/Semi Independent (SDS I) agencies into General Revenue, not a product of organizational efficiencies. A more significant incongruence is that there will be 58 more FTEs counted on the state employee roster as a result of the re-classification of SDSI employees. They aren’t counted on the state rolls now but will be in the future…increasing the size of state government, not shrinking it. IT’S PREMATURE…KILLS SUNSET REVIEWS All the agencies being consolidated under the Callegari amendment are up for Sunset Review in 2013. Why consolidate now without the Sunset Advisory Commission’s thorough study? Not only are the agencies going through Sunset in 2013, the whole SDSI pilot/research program, started in 2001, is up for Sunset next session, too. Consolidation now is counter-intuitive AND counter-productive! IT THREATENS EFFECTIVE REGULATION A single board regulating multiple professions dilutes the expertise needed to oversee each. The result is less expertise. The loss of focus from this increased generalization shows up in weaker regulatory enforcement. If there isn’t a direct reduction in regulatory oversight, there’s certainly a loss of effective enforcement, which, in cases of professional practices that impact health and safety, is a major concern for architects and engineers. IT’S A TROJAN HORSE…UPSETTING PROFESSIONAL BALANCE A consolidated board could give engineers the right to determine the future of the practice of architecture. The two professions are different and not interchangeable. Each has distinct educational, training, and examination requirements. One can’t, and shouldn’t, speak or decide for the other. Posted by Texas Society of Architects / AIA at 9:01 AM No comments: Royal Wedding Illustrator In 2008, the theme of Texas Architect's July/August issue was Regional Response. The magazine featured several projects ranging from Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center in Orange to Doss Heritage and Culture Center of Parker County, Weatherford. Art director, Julie Pizzo, commissioned illustrator Michael A. Hill to create art for the cover of Texas Architect and spot illustrations within the feature articles. This year, Hill was chosen to illustrate a map that detailed the route taken by the Royal Family to Westminster Abbey on the morning of the wedding of Prince William of Wales and Catherine Middleton. The map was included in the Royal Wedding Official Programme. On the wedding day, guests received a copy of the programme as they entered the church, and 150,000 copies were sold by 60 Explorer Scouts and 80 Cadets (supervised by adults) for £2 per copy at locations in Green Park, Hyde Park, St James’s Park and Trafalgar Square. Profits from the sale of the Official Programme went go to benefit The Foundation of Prince William and Prince Harry. image courtesy The British Monarchy Labels: Regional Response, Royal Wedding, Texas Architect Hal Box, 1929 - 2011 From UT Austin School of Architecture Dean Fritz Steiner regarding Hal Box, who passed away on Sunday, May 8, 2011: Dear Alumni and Friends, We have set up a memorial page in honor of our dear friend Hal Box, and encourage you to leave your thoughts and memories of Hal: http://soa.utexas.edu/soapress/hal-box/. Memorial Services Set May 13 for Hal Box Memorial services for Hal Box, FAIA, will be held at 2 p.m. on Friday, May 13, 2011, at St. David’s Episcopal Church, 301 E. 8th Street, Austin. Additional details are available from Weed-Corley-Fish Funeral Home: Box died Sunday, May 8, at the age of 81. Over a long career that combined a distinguished architectural practice with his passion for architectural education, Box served as a role model for hundreds – if not thousands – of architects and future architects. Among his many significant accomplishments included his being recruited in 1971 as the first dean of the School of Architecture and Environmental Design at UT-Arlington, followed by his influential leadership as dean from 1976 to 1992 of the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Architecture. His remarkable career was recognized in 1998 by the Texas Society of Architects with its highest honor for a TSA member, the Llewellyn W. Pitts Award (now called the TSA Medal for Lifetime Achievement). Guest Blog: Mark Wellen's Modern Midland Tour Mark Wellen, AIA. Image courtesy of Cindeka Nealy/Reporter-Telegram Mark Wellen, AIA Rhotenberry Wellen Architects On March 30, Midland held its inaugural event observing Preservation Texas’ MODern Month, and I lead a tour of downtown Midland, which emphasized our stock of mid-century modern architecture. Midland rightfully earned its moniker as the “Tall City” by assembling an impressive array of office buildings established through a series of building booms fueled by the boom and bust cycles of the oil industry, which belies expectations of a city with a population of 100,000. The observance of MODern Month in Midland was the brainchild of Brandon Melland, Planner with the City of Midland Planning Division. The list of notable structures was compiled by my research and a significant dose of data provided by the eminent architectural historian Stephen Fox. The genesis of the tour was about a year ago as a result of a request by the Texas Historical Commission for me to host a similar tour for a regional committee meeting they were holding in Midland. We hope that the tour will become an annual event and be a stepping stone in the ongoing effort of revitalization of downtown Midland, as well as lead to a growing appreciation by our citizens of the quality of our stock of mid-century modern structures. Below are pictures from the tour courtesy of Brandon Melland, with the City of Midland's Planning Division, and who attended UTSA's architecture school. Labels: Midland architecture, modern architecture, Preservation Texas, tour Harold Box, Former Dean of UT Architecture School Dies at 81 Hal Box, former UT dean By Jeanne Claire van Ryzin AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF "It is hard to overstate the significance of this loss to our community," said Fritz Steiner, current dean of the UT School of Architecture. "Hal was an extraordinary architect and scholar and visionary leader, as well as a loving and generous person. His imprint on our school and Texas will endure." John Harold Box was born in 1929 in Commerce, where his father was on the faculty of East Texas State Teachers College. Precociously smart, the young "Hal" Box completed a five-year architecture degree at UT when he was 20 and spent a brief period as an apprentice to leading Texas regional modernist O'Neil Ford, an experience Box would later credit as profoundly inspirational. After a stint in the U.S. Navy Civil Engineer Corps as an aircraft designer, Box began his professional practice in Dallas, where he co-founded the firm of Pratt, Box and Henderson Architect in 1958. The firm's projects included the master plan for the State Fair of Texas, as well as buildings at numerous college campuses around the country. In 1971 he was recruited to be the first dean of the School of Architecture and Environmental Design at UT-Arlington. At the time, the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex was the largest urban area in the United States without an architecture school. In 1976, Box was appointed dean at UT-Austin, a position he held for 16 years, followed by six years as a professor until his retirement in 1998. Box was a fellow of the American Institute of Architects. In April, UT named Box a dean emeritus. During his tenure as dean, Box upped the national profile of the architecture program significantly and raised a $6 million endowment for the critically underfunded school. An advocate of New Urbanism, Box coined what became known as the "five-minute Popsicle rule'' — that an ideal urban neighborhood is one in which a child can go to the store to buy a Popsicle and get safely back home within five minutes. Click here to continue reading. Labels: Harold Box, posted by Noelle Heinze, UT School of Architecture Warning. What you read today could easily change tomorrow, especially during the last days of the Session, which by the way now includes Saturdays from here on out. Remarkably, few bills have passed -- 3% of all bills filed –which isn’t surprising given the unprecedented number of controversial issues the legislature is facing this Session. To name a few (as if you didn’t already know): $27 billion shortfall, abortion, immigration, 20+ major agency sunset bills, and redistricting. That’s a formula for gridlock. Yet despite these distractions, it appears that TSA is possibly headed in the direction of some accomplishments. A/E Issue - Since the beginning of Session, TSA leadership has been heavily involved in negotiating a resolution to the ongoing dispute between architects and engineers. It’s not been an easy road by any stretch of the imagination. The Government Affairs Steering Committee voted yesterday to move forward following extensive and in-depth discussion. The bill that has been negotiated would create an administrative process for one year, starting September 1, 2011, whereby the Texas Board of Architectural Examiners would consider applications from engineers who are licensed as of January 1, 2011 to apply to practice architecture. Successful applicants must demonstrate to the Board that they designed and built three projects for human use and occupancy (i.e. non-exempt projects under the Architects Practice Act) without an architect. Non-successful applicants may appeal to a binding arbitration panel. The successful applicants would remain under the jurisdiction of the Texas Board of Professional Engineers. In exchange, the definition of engineering, in the Engineers Practice Act is amended to explicitly exclude the practice of architecture as defined in the Architects Practice Act. The bill was voted out of the House yesterday and is headed to the Senate. Tort Reform Issues - “Loser pay” themed legislation appears to have some momentum this Session, especially now that the Governor has declared the legislation as an “emergency” item. Already, a bill has passed that mandates that successful lien claimants recover attorneys and costs in defending their claims. It appears that other legislation with this same theme may prevail. Tax Incentives – TSA is working to pass legislation that would ease the ability for architects to maximize on the use of federal tax incentives intended for design professionals that was built into the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Alternative Project Delivery – Consistency in delivery methods still has a chance for passage, but it’s going to be close. The clock is ticking for House bills. If we can get it out of the House next week, it’s looking good. That’s all for now. Stay tuned. Next week could be a completely different story. Heck, Monday could be a completely different story! As always, please don’t hesitate to contact staff if you have questions. Texas Architect Contributor: Matt Fajkus, AIA Matt Fajkus, AIA is a graduate of Harvard University Graduate School of Design and UT Arlington. He’s worked for Max Levy, FAIA, Brinkley Sargent Architects, and Foster + Partners in London. He currently teaches at UT Austin and is designing a sustainable technology laboratory and two residences. His Open House feature begins on page 34. As I write this, things are strange in the Capital City, but keep in mind that our official city motto is “Keep Austin Weird.” It’s May 2—which means there are 28 days left in the Regular Session—and cold, if you can believe Texas has ever had cold weather this late in the spring. In the previous sentence, I stressed that there are four weeks left in the Regular Session because I’m going to go on record now in predicting there will be at least one Special Session, maybe more. The Senate doesn’t seem able to come to agreement on its own version of a 2012-13 biennium budget, much less prepared to take on House conferees to negotiate differences between the House’s version of HB 1 and the Senate Finance committee’s version of that bill—currently a difference of about $12 billion. Establishing a budget for the following two years is the one-and-only requirement of every Texas Legislature, so the current state of flux (and/or impasse) only increases “Special Session likelihood” with each passing day. The final 4-6 weeks of a Regular Session is typically the point where many bills start dying, although that doesn’t mean they disappear. This is the time when “bills become amendments”…things someone thought they had successfully bottled up earlier suddenly show up again in a bill that used to be OK, but now is a problem. If you’re confused, don’t worry, it’s not you…it’s the process. The good news is you do have professional staff in Austin who may not understand design or codes all that well, but we know the legislative process—and, we’re paranoid on your behalf! Nothing that’s been identified as “TSA Priority Legislation” in previous blogs is dead, at least not “officially,” which is tremendously encouraging. We’re working both the committees that set bills for debate and action by the full House (Calendars and Local & Consent Calendars) hard to set bills that we want to pass, as well as trying to keep bad bills off those lists. For example, last week we urged affirmative action on HBs 611 and 628 (our Alternative Project Delivery bill) with Calendars, and HB 2284 (the A/E scope-of-practice negotiated compromise) with Local & Consent, and sent a Legislative Alert to TSA members who are constituents of the 15 members of the Calendars to oppose setting HB 3166, a bill that would consolidate the Boards of Architectural Examiners, Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors. Speaking of Legislative Alerts, please stay vigilant for any you receive. Not only are they critical in getting the Society’s message delivered to the right (decision-making) audience, they are time-sensitive. If you get one, please help us help you by acting…personally and quickly. If you have questions, don’t hesitate to contact the TSA office. We’re here to help, whether you need us to clarify the request, interpret legislative jargon or explain the process. Our direct telephone numbers (all Area Code 512) are Yvonne Castillo—615-7730, Ted Kozlowski—615-7731, or David Lancaster—615-7735. Texas Architect: May/June 2011 Context This edition’s featured projects strike a balance between a building’s unique program and the desire for synthesis with its surroundings. The design of the U.S. Courthouse in El Paso directly relates to the region’s geography and history, while adhering to stringent security standards; the restoration of Ancient Oaks near Bastrop recaptures a once-lost sense of place through sensitivity to existing conditions; the Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg demonstrates how to tell a heroic story through architecture without overwhelming a small town’s historic fabric; and Singing Bell Ranch quietly nestles in its rural grassland setting to offer its city-dwelling owners a getaway of “ranch pragmatism” and prevailing breezes. Texas Society of Architects / AIA The Texas Society of Architects is a state component of the American Institute of Architects. Founded in 1939, TSA is now one of the nation's largest statewide organizations, with 17 regional chapters and over 6,500 members. The Society is headquartered in Austin. Harold Box, Former Dean of UT Architecture School ... TSA Facebook TSA Twitter TSA Web Site Receive Blog Updates Through E-Mail The Texas Society of Architects Blog may not be used for knowingly transmitting or publishing any communications of a discriminatory or harassing nature, or which are derogatory to any individual or group, or which are obscene or X-rated communications, or are of a defamatory or threatening nature, or violate the United States antitrust laws, or violate the United States copyright laws, or for any other purpose which is illegal or against TSA policy or contrary to the Society’s interests. The views and opinions expressed on this Page by participating individuals are strictly opinions by that individual and do not necessarily represent those of the Society.	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line271
__label__cc	0.709375	0.290625	ЗНАЧЕНИЕ: Recorded as Planche, Planque (French), Plank, Plancke, Planck, Planks, Plaunk, Plincke (English), and possibly others, this is a surname of French origins. It would seem to have first arrived in England with the famous Norman Invaders of 1066, perhaps the earliest recording being that of Jacobus de Planche, in the year 1307, William de la Plaunke in the close Rolls of the city of London, in 1373, and three centuries later, Elizabeth Plank who was christened at St Dunstans in the East, Stepney, on August 11th 1678. The name returned from Franbce with the protestant Huguenots, who fled to England in the 17th and 18th centuries, and who for a time at least retained the French spelling. However such was aggresion between the two countries that by the year 1750, Planque as a spelling seems to have become extinct, and thereafter is only recorded in the English forms. This is not unusual, very few Huguenot spellings have survived, and this at least sounds almost the same as the original French. Their seems to be some disagreement over original meaning, which may be topographical for somebody who lived by a single Plain tree, or by a hidden place or a look out post. Four families of Planque were recorded in England about the time of Queen Anne (1702 - 1714), of which the first seems to have been headed by Pierre Planque recorded at La Patente Huguenot church in the city of London, on February 13th 1712. Подарили Людочке Чашечку на блюдечке. Нарисованы на блюдце Белка, ёжик и грибок. А на чашке нарисован Целый терем-теремок. Радуется Людочка: "Буду пить из блюдечка!"	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line272
__label__wiki	0.655526	0.655526	Marcos, Arroyo, Villar: Three of a kind ZOOMING IN Rudy Romero 03/01/2010 Marcos, Arroyo, Villar: Three of a kind ZOOMING IN Rudy Romero Whenever I think of the candidate of the Nacionalista Party (NP) in this year’s presidential election and the things that he is doing and saying in furtherance of his candidacy, I am reminded of Ferdinand Marcos during the 1954 campaign and of Gloria Arroyo during the months immediate following her unconstitutional ascent to power. I realize that Manny Villar’s supporters will be greatly upset by the title of this piece, but it reflects precisely how I feel about President Marcos, so-called President Arroyo and wannabe President Villar. They are three of a kind. I recall having bad feelings about Ferdinand Marcos as he campaigned for the presidency in 1965. True, he was a Bar topnotcher and he served in Bataan, but he carried into the campaign a lot of personal and professional baggage. He had been accused and jailed — though later acquitted — of the murder of his father’s political rival, Julio Nalundasan. It was widely believed in political and business circles that Ferdinand Marcos made such money from the import and foreign exchange controls that were in force until early 1962. Moreover, he had won the presidency of the Senate under controversial circumstances and is said to have bought his way to the presidential nomination of the NP to which he switched when incumbent fellow-Liberal Diosdado Macapagal insisted on running for reelection. I thought, back then, that the victory of a man whose personal and professional record had been attended by so much self-indulgence and lust could not be good for the nation.... MORE ALTERNATE URL: http://www.tribune.net.ph/commentary/20100301com3.html Will the votes be counted? Not God’s or bishops’ business Mass groundswell for Erap Indian festival goers warned about water wastage New media, old tricks Wading through the Net New media, old tricks HE SAYS Aldrin Cardon 03/01/2010 Aldrin Cardon I would not have discovered Tom Wolfe, Jimmy Breslin, and in a way and through them, Gay Talese (the big ones of so-called new journalism), had I not bumped with Jim Bellows... Not in my present state of life, though, but through a book on sale, which I found sitting very lonely in some rack, in some store, and being offered for very little money any voracious but cash-strapped reader would not be in pain parting with. Bellow’s memoir, ‘The Last Editor (How I saved the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times from Dullness and Complacency),’ which was also made into a PBS documentary, described his life as an editor of the New York Herald Tribune, associate editor of the Los Angeles Times, editor of the Washington Star, editor of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, managing editor of Entertainment Tonight, executive editor of ABC News: World News Tonight, positions at USA Today on TV, Prodigy, the Los Angeles Daily News, among a couple of positions in merging what was then a fledgling Internet with news and editorial. The Washington Journalism Review,in 1992, described Bellows as the owner of the “longest resume in the history of journalism,” not even some of our present contemporaries who have switched papers and jobs with eerie regularity could rival.... MORE Wading through the Net SHE SAYS Dinah S. Ventura 03/01/2010 Dinah S. Ventura It’s true that you can get almost anything from the Internet these days. You can update yourself on news here and abroad, book your vacations, conduct banking activities, communicate with family and friends, do your shopping, and even get entertained by the antics of total strangers. But, like any buffet, you have got to make judicious choices in order to emerge properly nourished and satisfied rather than suffering from indigestion. Indeed, too much information — not all of them relevant — can make you ill… or ill-tempered at the very least. And in the light of all these technological highs and lows, the automation of elections has been causing plenty of conjecture and raised fears among various sectors of society. In fact, this is one of the main concerns about the big day, May 10, right up there with the issues big and small related to the candidates and their general trustworthiness. If there are any doubts at all that the Filipino people have begun to grow in awareness and participation with regard to their rights and their stake in the future, then the unabated efforts by coalitions of various sectors to make the coming elections count should remove all that. Today, various media are being used as vehicles for education and promotion, both by non-political and political bodies. While print and television entities continue to do their part by disseminating information about the coming elections and the candidates, updating the people and encouraging voters to make informed choices, additional campaigns are being done together with other groups... MORE Marcos, Arroyo, Villar: Three of a kind ZOOMING I... New media, old tricks HE SAYS Aldrin Cardon 03/0... Wading through the Net SHE SAYS Dinah S. Ventura ... Baby, children among 12 killed in Abu slaughter B... Noynoy and his people power people EDITORIAL 02/... Threatened by Erap’s hold over the masses? FRONTL... Sigmarhophobia? ENQUIRY Demaree J. B. Raval 02/2... Another PAF dinosaur bites the dust BLURBAL THRUS... The new politics: Money, media, market TABLETS OF... Smartmatic is conducting the Philippine elections!... Baghdad printers working flat out ahead of Iraq po...	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line273
__label__wiki	0.886781	0.886781	Treason FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 04/28/2012 The Noynoy government and the Muslim secessionist group’s Points on Principles recently forged by the parties shows the Noynoy’s government agreement to establish a Bangsamoro independent substate to be governed by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). That the Muslim substate will eventually become an independent Muslim state, can easily be gleaned by the agreement, even if thinly disguised by both parties as the entity being a part of the Republic. As stated in the agreement, the principles stated is “preliminary” and does not contain all points so far agreed upon and does not preclude future agreements on other key points.”.... MORE Missing out on a golden chance EDITORIAL 04/28/2012 Missing out on a golden chance Noynoy missed out again on a golden opportunity to portray himself as a champion of the farmers and the landless due to his continued strange silence over the Supreme Court’s final decision for the distribution to the farmers of some 4,000 hectares of Hacienda Luisita land as well as compensating the hacienda owners based on land values pegged at 1989 prices. While it cannot be denied that the Aquino-Cojuangco clan lost the case, as the family not only wanted to retain the status quo, i.e., keep the stock distribution option status and, after the loss of the land, be compensated at a P5 to 10 billion cost, Noynoy and his image makers could have turned the situation to his advantage — had he no only accepted with grace the decision to parcel out the hacienda and hail the court’s decision, but also for him to have directed his agrarian agency to speed up the distribution of the farmland to the workers, thus bowing to the majesty of the law. Instead, Noynoy’s continued silence on the decision of the high court created for himself an image of a sulking hacienda owner who is not only a poor loser but also one who refuses to bow to the law — as interpreted by the highest court in the land..... MORE Stallman: CISPA 'nearly abolishes' the right not to be unreasonably searched Controversial online security bill CISPA is two steps away from becoming a law. Software freedom activist Richard Stallman says Internet users should beware, as the government is a much bigger threat than any individual hacker. “What CISPA says as passed by the House of Representatives is any ISP, any website, any company that has some of your data in it can voluntarily hand it over to the government for a wide range of reasons,” and it's up to the government to interpret it however they see fit, the father of the free software philosophy explained. “So if they see the slightest bit that they think is odd in your email, they can hand it over to the government. And if the government says it has something to do with national security – it is very easy to say that, whether it’s true or not – then the government can study it for any purpose. This nearly abolishes people’s right not to be unreasonably searched.”.... MORE URL: http://rt.com/news/stallman-cispa-human-rights-abuse-174/ Satellite images show activity at N. Korea nuclear site Satellite imagery reveals an escalation in activity at North Korea’s Punggye-ri atomic site in possible preparation for a third nuclear test, experts say. However, there is no clear indication from the photos when the test may occur. The images from a US-based website highlight a chain of mining carts on piles of excavated soil. This coincides with South Korean intelligence reports at the beginning of April claiming that the North was digging a new tunnel at the Punggye-ri for the purposes of a covert nuclear test. The US-Korea Institute at John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies analyzed the photos taken between March 8 and April 18 by a private satellite operator. The most recent images suggest that 8,000 cubic meters of rubble have been excavated at Punggye-ri. North Korea carried out two atomic bomb tests at the site in 2006 and 2009..... MORE URL: http://rt.com/news/north-korea-photo-nuclear-test-188/ Police vs Protester: Feds sending armed agents to Chicago three weeks before NATO Summit May's NATO summit in Chicago is still weeks away, but residents of the Windy City can expect to see armed federal agents patrolling the streets in preparation much sooner than that. Three weeks before international heads of state will converge in Chicago, Illinois for the annual NATO conference, the US Federal Protective Service will send armed officers into the city’s downtown district to prepare for the swarm of protesters expected to arrive in time for the event, slated for May 20 and 21. Both the NATO and G-8 summits were initially scheduled to occur back-to-back in the major Midwest city, but the meeting between the world’s eight leading economies has since been relocated to Camp David, the fortified presidential retreat in Maryland used as a getaway destination for many of America’s past commanders-in-chief. As of now, however, the NATO summit will take place in Chicago and, citing concerns over how demonstrators may respond, law enforcement is being called in early to size up the city..... MORE URL: http://rt.com/usa/news/agents-chicago-nato-federal-161/ Police fired live bullets during clash in Parañaque City’s Silverio compound By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO MANILA – Outside the emergency room of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH), Buddy Padil, 37, silently sat. He is the uncle of Iris Isaias, 18, who sustained a gunshot wound during the demolition at Silverio compound in Parañaque City on April 23. A bullet pierced Iris’ calf. “The bullet went through it. The bulet shattered the area of the bone it hit and the doctor said that they need to put metal on it,” Padil said. Iris was first brought to Ospital ng Muntinlupa but the hospital was not equipped to treat her wounds. She was transferred to the PGH. “She was only standing outside the compound when she suddenly noticed that the people were already carrying her, shouting. It was only then that realized that she was hit,” Padil said, “These days we would always catch her staring at nothing. She might still be in a state of shock.” On April 25, Iris went through an operation. Padil said that Isaias’ father, Danilo, a carpenter, is at a loss as to where they would get money to pay for the operation. Doctors told them that the metal that would be placed in Isaias’ left calf costs US$1,465. The number of residents with gunshot wounds remains undetermined as documentation is still on going. Iris and the other injured residents belied earlier claims that the policemen used blank and/or rubber bullets. Shooting at bystanders Also at the PGH was Angelo Lipata, 21. Angelo could hardly hear the questions asked to him as a bullet is stuck in his left ear drum. He was told by his doctors to go home for the time being, citing that they could not operate and remove the bullet until the wound is healed. During the demolition, Angelo was watching videos of the then ongoing conflict between the Silverio compound residents who were defending their homes and the police. The videos had been quickly uploaded on YouTube by alternative media group Tudla Productions. After watching them, he decided to go out and see for himself what was happening outside. He went and stood next to the barricade when the police began to fire indiscriminately at the residents, who ran for their lives..... MORE URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2012/04/28/police-fired-live-bullets-during-clash-in-paranaque-citys-silverio-compound/ China involves military in Scarborough tiff with RP By Michaela P. del Callar and Angie M. Rosales 04/28/2012 China involves military in Scarborough tiff with RP By Michaela P. del Callar and Angie M. Rosales 04/28/2012 China announced yesterday that its military will now join its maritime authorities in protecting its claim over a shoal within Manila’s territorial jurisdiction as tensions between the Philippines and China showed no sign of letting up nearly three weeks after a dangerous naval standoff began. China’s statement, one of its most provocative yet, was made three days after declaring that it is not escalating the situation in the area and that it is committed to settle the standoff through friendly diplomatic consultations. “Chinese armed forces will closely work with fishery and maritime supervision agencies to jointly safeguard national marine rights and interests,” Defense Ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng said in a statement posted on Beijing’s government web portal..... MORE HLI statement on ‘Cory’s glowing legacy’ a grave insult to farmers, says KMP By Charlie V. Manalo 04/28/2012 HLI statement on ‘Cory’s glowing legacy’ a grave insult to farmers, says KMP A militant farmers’ group has branded as “grave insult” to the farm workers’ struggle the Cojuangco family’s claim that the distribution of Hacienda Luisita to its farmer-beneficiaries as a “glowing legacy” of the late President Corazon “Cory” Cojuangco-Aquino. “Only two days after the Supreme Court ruling, the Cojuangco-Aquinos are already maneuvering to distort the historical facts,” the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) yesterday said in a statement in reaction to the claims of Antonio Ligon, counsel for Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI), who claimed that the late President “made decisive moves to place Hacienda Luisita in the 1980s under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) although the preference of farmer-beneficiaries for stock distribution option (SDO) prevailed in at least three referendums over land distribution.”.... MORE UK: M’nao peace accord ‘possible’ but more hard work to be done By Michaela P. del Callar 04/28/2012 UK: M’nao peace accord ‘possible’ but more hard work to be done By Michaela P. del Callar 04/28/2012 The United Kingdom, a key player in the Mindanao peace process, yesterday welcomed the breakthrough in the negotiations between the Philippine government and Muslim rebels as a sign that a final peace agreement may be forged soon. British Ambassador to the Philippines Stephen Lillie admitted “there is still a lot of hard work to be done to reach a final agreement in Mindanao,” but the leap forward in the talks between the two sides indicates that the signing of a final accord is “possible.” On Tuesday, the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the country’s largest Muslim rebel group, signed a 10-point agreement, outlining key elements they have agreed on, such as the creation of a political body in place of the existing Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM)..... MORE Export Bank collapses; BSP takes over control 04/28/2012 Export Bank collapses; BSP takes over control Mid-size Export Import Bank was placed under government control after declaring a bank holiday yesterday after it admitted that it cannot service its liabilities with depositors and creditors. The bank was hoping for a rescue from the country’s biggest lender Bando de Oro Universal Bank owned by the group of businessman Henry Sy but negotiations fell through yesterday forcing the bank to declare a bank holiday. The bank wrote the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) admitting that it does not have sufficient assets to meet its obligations and unable to continue operations without incurring losses to depositors and creditors..... MORE Use of CRs in QC now free for elderly, PWDs 04/28/2012 Use of CRs in QC now free for elderly, PWDs An ordinance has been signed into law which prohibits any person or business establishment in Quezon City from charging any fee to senior citizens, persons with disabilities (PWDs) and expectant mothers for the use of restrooms or comfort rooms (CRs). The Tribune was told that Mayor Herbert “Bistek” Bautista approved the measure which was authored by Councilors Alexis Herrera and Alfredo Vargas III. Under the new ordinance, a fine of P5,000 or imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year, or both, at the discretion of the court shall be imposed on any person or business establishment owner who will violate the ordinance..... MORE Gov’t hit for toying with health, lives of Filipino consumers 04/28/2012 As the United States scrambled on Wednesday to contain the fallout from the discovery of mad-cow disease in California, the Aquino administration through the Department of Agriculture (DA) announced that it would continue to import meat from the US. Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño pointed out to do so is very risky and the government is toying with the health and lives of Filipino consumers. “South Korean retailers already suspended sale of US beef, saying they would wait to see what action the government takes,” Casiño said. “But is Malacañang waiting for someone to be infected here before it will take action?” Gov’t hit for toying with health, lives of Filipino consumers As the United States scrambled on Wednesday to contain the fallout from the discovery of mad-cow disease in California, the Aquino administration through the Department of Agriculture (DA) announced that it would continue to import meat from the US. Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño pointed out to do so is very risky and the government is toying with the health and lives of Filipino consumers. “South Korean retailers already suspended sale of US beef, saying they would wait to see what action the government takes,” Casiño said. “But is Malacañang waiting for someone to be infected here before it will take action?”.... MORE Treason FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 04/28/2012... Missing out on a golden chance EDITORIAL 04/28/2... Stallman: CISPA 'nearly abolishes' the right not t... Satellite images show activity at N. Korea nuclear... Police vs Protester: Feds sending armed agents to ... Police fired live bullets during clash in Parañaqu... China involves military in Scarborough tiff with R... HLI statement on ‘Cory’s glowing legacy’ a grave i... UK: M’nao peace accord ‘possible’ but more hard wo... Export Bank collapses; BSP takes over control 04/... Use of CRs in QC now free for elderly, PWDs 04/28... Gov’t hit for toying with health, lives of Filipin...	cc/2019-30/en_head_0010.json.gz/line274

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