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Winderman: Mike Miller gives Heat big thumbs up
By Ira WindermanMay 25, 2011, 3:20 PM EDT
What has no thumbs and yet could give the Heat a grip on the NBA title for the next few seasons?
Mike Miller.
Still recovering from preseason surgery on his right thumb and poised for offseason surgery on his left thumb, the veteran swingman stands as an example of how much a player with a mere eight digits still can benefit the right team.
No, Miller has not been the star of these Eastern Conference finals for the Heat. That would be a take-your-choice mix of LeBron James, Chris Bosh and possibly even Udonis Haslem.
And he hasn’t necessarily even been the Heat’s best reserve, with cases that could be made for Haslem and Mario Chalmers.
But because all 10 of his toes seemingly are in working order, his ability simply to make it to the court for extended minutes has been huge in the Heat’s climb to a 3-1 series lead entering Thursday’s Game 5 at the United Center.
With Miller available as an extra wing alongside James and Dwyane Wade, he has provided a two-fold boost.
Foremost, he allows the Heat to shift James onto Derrick Rose, while still leaving enough on the perimeter to defend the Bulls’ wings.
Beyond that, he allows Erik Spoelstra to play without a true point guard. And when your true point guards are Chalmers and Mike Bibby, that can be a very good thing.
Further, with Miller one of the league’s best rebounders at his position, it also affords the Heat the opportunity to go more often without a true center.
The knock on the Heat, entering these playoffs, and rightfully so, had been their shortcomings at center and point guard.
At the close of Tuesday’s Game 4 overtime thriller, neither a point guard nor a center was within view, and that makes the Heat quite the sight.
At the start of last summer’s free agency, Miller was among the first players the Heat interviewed. Pat Riley and his staff were well aware that James wanted to play alongside Miller, which also is why the Cavaliers and every other LeBron-luring suitor had contacted Miller.
Now Miller, whose son, Maverick, is named after James’ manager Maverick Carter, is providing a direct boost to James’ championship hopes, as well as allowing James to make a few points at the point.
By next season, Miller might even come with thumbs attached.
For now, in his own way, he is doing plenty when it comes to James moving closer to securing a grip on that first championship ring.
Ira Winderman writes regularly for NBCSports.com and covers the Heat and the NBA for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/IraHeatBeat.
Tags: Bulls Heat, Chicago Miami, Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade, Erik Spoelstra, Heat Bulls, LeBron James, Miami Chicago, Miami Heat, Mike Miller
Chris Paul is making a stopover in Oklahoma City. The Clippers sent him there to make the Paul George trade work, but the competitive 34-year-old point guard doesn’t want to be part of a long rebuilding project. He wants to be traded again before the season starts.
His preference? Miami, according to Brian Windhorst of ESPN. There CP3 would team up with Jimmy Butler. Miami is open to the idea, but what has hung the entire thing up is the discussion of picks, Windhorst said on ESPN’s SportsCenter on Monday night (hat tip NESN).
Oklahoma City is rebuilding and the mountain of picks they have compiled through trading George and Russell Westbrook — 16 potential first rounders through 2026, including their own, enough to make Danny Ainge think they have too many picks — is at the heart of that plan. While the Thunder can afford to give one or two up, they don’t want to.
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NCES 2019052 Documentation to the 2016-17 Common Core of Data (CCD) Universe Files (2019-052)
These data files provide new data for the universe of public elementary and secondary schools and agencies in the United States in school year 2016–17. 1/16/2019
NCES 2017156 2015-16 National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS) Restricted-Use Data Files
This DVD contains the 2015-16 National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS) restricted-use data files. The 3 files (Public School Principal, Public School, and Public School Teacher) are provided in multiple formats. The DVD also contains a 4-volume User's Manual, which includes a codebook for each file. 11/16/2017
NCES 2017071 Characteristics of Public Elementary and Secondary Schools in the United States: Results From the 2015–16 National Teacher and Principal Survey
This First Look report provides descriptive statistics and basic information from the 2015–16 National Teacher and Principal Survey Public School Data File. 8/22/2017
NCES 2015144 The Condition of Education 2015
The Condition of Education 2015 summarizes important developments and trends in education using the latest available data. The report presents 42 indicators on the status and condition of education. The indicators represent a consensus of professional judgment on the most significant national measures of the condition and progress of education for which accurate data are available. In addition, 3 spotlight indicators are featured that describe selected issues of current policy interest. 5/28/2015
NCES 2015085 Public Elementary and Secondary School Arts Education Instructors
This Statistics in Brief uses data from two administrations of the Fast Response Survey System to present findings related to the different types of school staff (e.g., full-time staff, part time staff) used to provide arts instruction in public elementary and secondary schools; the extent to which public elementary schools used arts specialists (i.e., education professionals with a teaching certificate in an arts discipline who provide separate instruction in that discipline) to provide arts education to students; and the prevalence of arts instruction facilities in public elementary schools. 3/5/2015
NCES 2015010 Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2013: U.S. Technical Report
This technical report is designed to provide researchers with an overview of the design and implementation of the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2013. This information is meant to supplement that presented in OECD publications by describing those aspects of TALIS 2013 that are unique to the United States.
Chapter 2 provides information about sampling requirements and sampling in the United States. Chapter 3 provides information on instrument development. Chapter 4 describes the details of how schools and teachers were recruited, and Chapter 5 describes field operations used for collecting data. Chapter 6 describes participation rates at the school and teacher level. Chapter 6 also includes nonresponse bias analysis (NRBA) results for unit-level and item-level response rates (details of the NRBA are provided in appendix E). Chapter 7 describes international activities related to data processing, and weighting. Chapter 8 describes the data available from both international and U.S. sources. Chapter 9 discusses some special issues involved in analyzing the TALIS 2013 U.S. data because of response rates below the international TALIS standards (as described in chapter 6) and also includes selected data tables from the international TALIS report. In addition, the technical report includes all recruitment materials used during the conduct of the study, the U.S. versions of the TALIS questionnaires, and a complete list of all adaptations made to the questionnaires. 12/9/2014
NCES 2014098 Selected Statistics From the Public Elementary and Secondary Education Universe: School Year 2012–13
This First Look report presents findings on the numbers and types of public elementary and secondary schools and local education agencies and public school student enrollment and staff in the United States and other jurisdictions for school year 2012-13 10/30/2014
The Condition of Education 2014 summarizes important developments and trends in education using the latest available data. The report presents 42 indicators on the status and condition of education. The indicators represent a consensus of professional judgment on the most significant national measures of the condition and progress of education for which accurate data are available. 5/28/2014
NCES 2014356 2011-12 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) Restricted-Use Data Files
This DVD contains the 2011-2012 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) restricted-use data files. The 8 files (Public School District, Public School Principal, Public School, Public School Teacher, Public School Library Media Center, Private School Principal, Private School, and Private School Teacher) are provided in multiple formats. The DVD also contains a 6-volume User's Manual, which includes a codebook for each file. 11/6/2013
NCES 2013441 Selected Statistics from the Common Core of Data: School Year 2011–12
This First Look report presents findings on the numbers and types of public elementary and secondary schools and local education agencies and public school student enrollment and staff in the United States and other jurisdictions for school year 2011–12. 10/17/2013
NCES 2013312 Characteristics of Public and Private Elementary and Secondary Schools in the United States: Results From the 2011–12 Schools and Staffing Survey
This First Look report provides descriptive statistics and basic information from the 2011–12 Schools and Staffing Survey Public and Private School Data Files. 8/13/2013
The Condition of Education 2013 summarizes important developments and trends in education using the latest available data. The report presents 42 indicators on the status and condition of education, in addition to Spotlights that look more closely at 4 issues of current interest. The indicators represent a consensus of professional judgment on the most significant national measures of the condition and progress of education for which accurate data are available. 5/23/2013
The Condition of Education 2012 summarizes important developments and trends in education using the latest available data. The report presents 49 indicators on the status and condition of education, in addition to a closer look at high schools in the United States over the past twenty years.. The indicators represent a consensus of professional judgment on the most significant national measures of the condition and progress of education for which accurate data are available. The 2012 print edition includes indicators in three main areas: (1) participation in education; (2) elementary and secondary education and outcomes; and (3) postsecondary education and outcomes. 5/24/2012
NCES 2012326REV Numbers and Types of Public Elementary and Secondary Local Education Agencies From the Common Core of Data: School Year 2010-11 - First Look
This First Look presents selected findings on the numbers and types of public elementary and secondary local education agencies (LEAs) in the United States and the territories in the 2010-11 school year, using data from the Local Education Agency Universe Survey of the Common Core of Data (CCD) survey system. 5/1/2012
NCES 2012327 Public Elementary and Secondary School Student Enrollment and Staff Counts From the Common Core of Data: School Year 2010–11 - First Look
This First Look presents national and state level data on student enrollment by grade and by race/ethnicity within grade, the numbers of teachers and other education staff, and several student/staff ratios for the 2010-11 school year. 5/1/2012
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How to Bridge the Continental Divide
An earlier, more visionary NASA, thank goodness, sent probes into deep space. Some of them continue to ping us from far beyond the domestic reaches of the Solar System. But even they have not penetrated as far from Washington as I did last month. I made it all the way to the West Coast.
It is not simply an issue of littorals, or oceans, or the perspectives which follow from occidental or oriental orientation, or even occidentation. Though one VC I met did note that he looked out on the Pacific; and averred that Washington was really a European city. More common is general-purpose Valley-style eyeball-rolling. And when it comes to “corporate culture” – my base category when I think about the Valley and its polar complement, the District – we know there’s a lot more to the jewel of the east coast than the magnificently monumented malarial marsh that’s home to the ultimate nonprofit. Some place called NYC, for example, seems to be a displaced slice of California. It’s no surprise that someone, somewhere ensured that NYC’s connection with the District would be something called Acela, famed as the world’s slowest fast train. No one has been in any rush to integrate the Big Apple with the midsized federal raspberry.
Point here, aside from offering generally snarky comments where I think they are due, is that the Valley and the District are far further apart than 3,000 miles and a relatively serious mountain range. It’s hard to imagine two more distinctive, consistent, and contrary cultures within the United States, the West, the English-speaking peoples, OECD, or whatever high category we prefer for “us.” Indeed, it goes beyond “us.” If you are a denizen of DC, the Starbucks on Sand Hill Road is the restaurant at the end of the universe.
Let me underline this with three particulars. There are others that could be engaged. But these work and they make the point. It is a terrible point.
First is the creative imperative. In the Valley, they see themselves as visionaries. Tomorrow is theirs; and their confidence in innovative products and services depends in no small measure on their belief that the future is not simply influencing their thinking (we are, as it were, all futurists now, at least in these zip codes – if conservative friends will forgive me a Keynesian allusion), but it will in turn be shaped by their personal and corporate vision. The future is both their study and their creature. They have the kind of symbiosis with tomorrow that the District has with yesterday. So creativity, risk, and a long entrepreneurial arc, are their stock in trade.
In the District, a community of generally smart and committed persons, the “corporate culture” could hardly be more different. Pretty much whatever our politics, our client (sorry) lies in the past. Maintaining or debating the programs of the Great Society? Returning to the vision of the Founders? Addressing as #1 priority the debt mountain we have built? Each of these is meritorious, and wherever our political lines lie for most of us each of them features. Point is not that they are misplaced priorities. It is simply that they hail from yesteryear. Left and right are stumbling into the future with their gaze fixed on the past.
Second, as a result, the nature of the commitment to the future. Part of the problem with the Valley, and one of its clear commonalities with the District, lies in its innocent confidence in the future. For the Valley this takes the form of a wondrous hopefulness, the kind that is required if great capital sums are to be engaged in start-ups small and large in the knowledge that most will fail and the confidence that some will succeed big-time. The District is a naïf of another kind. The confidence is there, but it is one of presumption. America cannot fail; therefore, America will not fail. Innovation, as has been said, is an ATM. While speechmakers come and go on all sides, and they include some seriously serious people, speeches come cheap. News, guys, for both coasts: America can fail. And it’s looking increasingly likely that America will. And the reason, the core reason, the axis around which all other reasons turn, lies in the failure of alignment and interconnection between these two vastly separated entities. But we shall come back to that.
Third, a shared myopia. Self-confidence and disdain are among the several shared qualities of these two cosmically separated polities. They both think they are too good for the other, have no special need of the other, are bored by the other. Go to one of those uncommon conferences on policy in the Valley, and likely as not someone mid-level (aka not really that important) will fly in from DC. Which neatly reinforces the local view. I well recall one where said mid-level panjandrum insisted at the last minute on re-arranging his appearance as events in (hushed tones) DC required his attendance (I ended up missing his speech as a result). And vice versa. Techworld has its representatives in the District. Some of them are my friends. Mostly they are District hires; native guides; sherpas who know the Hill and the agencies and – get this – have remarkably little buy-in to the values that vivify the Valley. They are short-termers who understand “language,” hired guns, creatures of the deadline short-term cycles of what was one Long-Term Nation; of an exceptionalism inverted in high parody. Harbingers of a perverse apocalypse in which an entirely perverse deity rewards those who consider 12 months to be long-term. “My board has made it clear to me,” declared –in private, to me – one tech trade association chief recently, “that my focus needs to be on the short-term.” Now there’s a suicide note for America. Moore’s Law, aka exponential change, disruptive innovation, requires with mathematical solidity that the future be scoped and engaged more each year. Back in 1800, what did it matter? In 2012, the stakes are beyond calculation.
I once described the relationship between the District and the Valley as a suicide pact. Their fundamental agreement is that they are not much interested in the other. But of course it’s worse. It’s Russian roulette, in which we are intent on firing every chamber. We’re playing chicken with our children. We are absolutely ensuring, ensuring, the destruction of America, by the reciprocal delusion that the Sand Hill Road Starbucks, and the Rayburn Cafeteria, occupy complementary universes. Yet they do not. From Ushant to Scilly (if you are into sea-shanties) is, we are told,35 leagues. From the Valley to the District is an immeasurable span. Yet it is one of the two most consequent axes on this particular planet. (The other, of course, is DC-Beijing. How we shall ever address that without first bringing the Valley and the District into alignment? Who is asking that question, which needs to move fast beyond the rhetorical, in either of these zipcodes?)
What am I after? I have written about the need for every pol to spend two weeks a year at tech conferences. Please, please. 10 whole days, sans BlackBerry and staff. And the Valley denizens? Well maybe if someone turned the Rayburn Cafeteria, recently refurbished into smart 1950s railroad café format (sigh), into something more resembling a contemporary coffee house, the Sand Hill mob might stop by. If the pols commit to the west coast conferences, what about having the VCs and their entourage plan to be in DC much more than they are – and hang a little? A mutual transfusion of cultural blood from these highly diverse species – located as if in different genera –is a key, indeed the key, to U.S. success, global effectiveness, the triumph of technologies in a culture still shaped around human values – the future of a nation that has no deep wish to learn Mandarin.
The President, whom his supporters and critics need to allow inherited and is seeking to manage an economic and employment crisis without parallel in our generation, recently addressed Congress and the nation on the innovation agenda. For some reason, no-one asked me what he should say. There is surely no simple prescription, no bromide for the hour, no recitation of one ideology or another – although there are plenty of obvious answers that have failed.
How about this for some talkers? Three key opportunities stand out, and had they called me, they would each have featured high on my list.
First, “I’m moving Camp David to Silicon Valley, and will spend at least one week a month of my presidency there. This is not merely symbolic. I commit that three nights a week, every week, when I am out there inthe Valley, I will invite its brightest and best to dinner. On condition they will each spend one week a month in DC.”
Second, “I am adding to my cabinet not only the federal CTO, whose status there was discussed during the campaign, but the federal CIO and of course my science adviser; and instructing every cabinet secretary to appoint an under-secretary for the future, who will work hand in glove with these three cabinet-level officials and have wide influence over all aspects of federal policy.”
Third, “I am tasking a bipartisan panel chaired by Norman Augustine and co-chaired by the President of the National Academies and the President of the AAAS and the President of the Council of Scientific Society Presidents; and including both President Clinton and President George H.W. Bush: to make recommendations within 2 months as to how the U.S. lead in science and technology can be both maintained and advanced, with a view to making us the most competitive nation in the OECD within five years. I shall invite members of Congress to sign a bipartisan Contract with the Future to join us in ensuring that their recommendations are implemented in their entirety.”
Those among you who know C-PET will understand that such proposals do not assume a naïve idea of S and T as the solution to all human problems, or a desire of endless U.S. global hegemony. They represent an assumption that the human dimensions of emerging technologies will never be properly addressed if we do not ramp up our grasp of the significance of their implications at least tenfold. And an assumption that the historic role of the United States as a beacon of freedom and innovation will be best served in the 21st century by an alignment of these two: this nation as the focal point of tech/human solutions.
For that is the central question. Technology runs up the Moore’s Law curve. We stay humans (sorry, transhumanists, we do) and need to benefit in a market economy in which tech has enabled not destroyed jobs, and empowered not zombied human dignity. We need a hotline from the Valley to the District. My sense is clear: one of the two greatest risk issues facing the globe is the lack of alignment of the D and the V. (The other, as we noted, is that of the D, empowered or unempowered by the V, and Beijing.)
What to do? Obama? Boehner? GOP candidates? Let’s sort this out and move on to something else. Oh yes, like getting NASA moving again.
6 Responses to “The Silicon Valley/DC Divide”
J Rhoads says:
So true. I remember during the .COMs, we techies in DC –ignored the federal government and went back into the private sector. We were allowed to think towards the future and accomplished great things. Then the botton fell out and the ‘beltway bandits” were able to bring us back into their fold. We were forced to use outdated tech and deal with non/mal-technical project managers. Oh how we long for the economy to rise and re-deliver the promise of future thinking. DC has the talent to be a mini silicon valley, we just need silicon valley companies to invest in us.
Nigel Cameron says:
Thank you. One of the amazing opportunities lies precisely in the amount of technology enterprise in and around the District. Up to 1,000 people turn up for monthly tech meetups, though rarely a word is said about the fact we are in DC other than the occasional ref to federal contract opportunities. Then last week I was at the VC Capital Connect conference, where 1100 VCs and entrepreneurs were registered.
Can’t DC just decide to integrate itself with itself? It would be quite a start.
Engine — Joining the Conversation says:
[…] the conversation. Nigel Cameron describes (as only he can) the Silicon Valley/DC divide as “the Continental Divide,” in which it can seem that the two most distant points in the universe are the Rayburn […]
Joining the Conversation | Engine says:
Bridging the D.C.-Silicon Valley Divide in Napa Valley (in HuffPost) « ILC Cyber Report says:
[…] participant and C-PET President Nigel Cameron aptly summarized the divide as a “shared myopia”. As one who has played the role of translator on both […]
#California and Destiny: #Valley #DC #China #Innovation #Singularity #TED et al. « nigelcameron.org says:
[…] of NASAWhy Twitter Matters: Tomorrow’s Knowledge NetworkriskThe Silicon Valley/DC DividetechnologyThe National Nanotechnology Initiative 10 Years onvaluesMichael Porter and the […]
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Rappresentanza Permanente - Onu New York
Meetings of Deputy Minister Foreign Affairs, Del Re, at the UN and participation to the HLPF
Declaration signed by the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, and other Heads of State and Governments: 'Initiative for Climate Ambition'
UN Peacekeeping Operations - Italy's contribution
Job Opportunity at the Mission
Event - Launch of "The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) 2019" report07/15/2019
Statement delivered by Ambassador Mariangela Zappia, Permanent Representative of Italy to the United Nations, at the Launch of "The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) 2019" report. --- I would like to add some national remarks because Italy is the proud host country of FAO, IFAD and WF...
Event - Launch of "The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) 2019" report on behalf of the Group of Friends on Food Security and Nutrition07/15/2019
Statement delivered by Ambassador Mariangela Zappia, Permanent Representative of Italy to the United Nations, at the Launch of "The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) 2019" report on behalf of the Group of Friends on Food Security and Nutrition. --- Madam Deputy Secretary-General of th...
Comunicato stampa - ONU/Italia. Partecipazione della Vice Ministra degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale, On. Emanuela Del Re al Forum Politico di Alto Livello sullo Sviluppo Sostenibile (HLPF) (segmento sull'SDG16)07/15/2019
La Vice Ministra degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale, On.le Emanuela Del Re, è intervenuta al Forum Politico di Alto Livello sullo Sviluppo Sostenibile, in corso all’ONU a New York, nel segmento sull’Obiettivo di Sviluppo Sostenibile 16 “Pace, giustizia e istituzioni efficaci”.La riunione, con una partecipaz...
HLPF, segment on SDG16 - Statement by the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Del Re07/12/2019
Statement by the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Emanuela Del Re, at the High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development, segment on SDG16 (peace, justice and strong institutions) --- Dear Moderator, Excellences, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am particularly pleased to addres...
Security Council - Open Debate07/09/2019
Statement delivered by Italy at the Security Council Open Debate on "Threats to international peace and security: Linkages between international terrorism and organized crime” --- Mr. President, I would like to thank the Peruvian Presidency for organizing this Open Debate and all the briefers for their insightful presentations...
Event - Launch of the 2019 UNODC Global Study on Homicide 07/08/2019
Statement delivered by Ambassador Mariangela Zappia, Permanent Representative of Italy to the United Nations, at the Event on the Launch of the 2019 Global Study on Homicide --- Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for bringing this issue to our attention, it is really important issue. The Global Study on Homicide...
General Assembly - Plenary Meeting 06/27/2019
Statement by the Permanent Representative of Italy to the UN, Ambassador Mariangela Zappia, at the Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly on "The responsibility to protect and the prevention of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity" --- Madam Chair, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, Italy...
General Assembly - Informal Meeting06/26/2019
Statement by the Permanent Representative of Italy to the UN, Ambassador Mariangela Zappia, at the Informal Meeting of the General Assembly on “Combating Anti-Semitism and Other Forms of Racism and Hate – The Challenges of Teaching Tolerance and Respect in the Digital Age“ --- Madam President, Exce...
60 anni dell'Italia all'ONU (ebook)
Protecting Cultural Heritage - An Imperative for Humanity
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What Are My Thoughts About Grimm's Series Finale?
Posted by Anna H. on April 2, 2017 at 9:10 AM
How's it going my gumdrops? Looks like us "Grimmsters" (Grimm fans) will no longer be saying, "Thank Grimm it's Friday!" At least the creators did NOT screw over their fans like we assumed.
‘Grimm’ Series Finale: Creators On That Killer Twist, The Jump In Time & Leaving “Options Open” For More
The episode from 2 Fridays ago left me shocked and livid.
Grimm: "Three Against One" (2017)
A lot of Grimmsters were pissed and felt cheated. Killing the entire cast of any type of TV series is an easy way to infuriate and repulse fans from wanting to watch the rest of the series. Do you remember last year, when I published my blog about the writers killing Abigail Mills on Sleepy Hollow?
Were Sleepy Hollow Fans Screwed Over? My Thoughts (2016)
I stopped watching Sleepy Hollow after the show became too focused on Abbie's sister, more irrelevant characters, and obviously after the writers killed Abbie.
It would not surprise me, if more Sleepy Hollow fans quit watching the show after last year's shitty Season 3 finale. Speaking of Sleepy Hollow, I did NOT bother watching its series finale 2 nights ago because its 3rd season was like someone's shitty fan fiction turned into a TV show.
Now that Grimm is over, I am down another Friday night show, which leaves me with only Hawaii Five-0. So far, I have lost at least 3 primetime shows within the last year. Grimm was a primetime TV show that I consistently watched, since its premiere 6 years ago.
I have watched a nice portion of primetime shows, that were Horror and Supernatural shows throughout these last 7-8 years, if they weren't Comedy, Dramedy, or Action. I watched Grimm throughout the last 6 years because it was 1 of very few primetime shows with originality.
Throughout these last 6 years, critics compared Grimm to Once Upon A Time. Both shows had to deal with fairy tales. However, Grimm was different. The creators of this Supernatural Police Procedural Drama were inspired by Grimms' Fairy Tales, international folklores, occult themes, and other sources.
Grimm has been criticized for its cheesiness but there are very few shows with much of any originality today.
How many viewers today can say there are primetime shows with some level of originality?
When I ask this, I don't mean another reboot, remake, or another reality show.
Who has ever watched a primetime TV series based on international folklores (especially Germanic folklores), used various foreign terms for creatures, and incorporated them, along with occult themes into a Police Procedural Drama?
All those features made Grimm engaging to watch and made viewers invest time in watching the show. I don't recall much less believe that a primetime show like this has ever been done. In a way, I was automatically biased when it came to watching Grimm.
When I learned that a former MTV reality show cast member from Road Rules: South Pacific was casted as the star (David Giuntoli) of the show Grimm, my interests were piqued. Watching a former Road Rules cast member, who is originally from my county of WI (Milwaukee to be more exact) and is 1 year older than me, made me invest in watching Grimm.
It felt weird yet somewhat exciting seeing David casted as THE STAR of a primetime show. Also, I was excited for him as a former Road Rules viewer and really wanted to see how he could pull off such a bizarre primetime show. He has done very well.
While watching the final 2 episodes, I was angry that 2 of Grimm's major characters (Detective Hank Griffin and Sergeant Drew Wu) were killed at the precinct. I was almost tempted NOT to watch the final episode.
With the direction the storyline was heading, I had no idea if David Giuntoli's character (Detective Nick Burkhardt) would live at the end. I started having flashbacks to both Buffy: The Vampire Slayer and Angel.
When Buffy: The Vampire Slayer and Angel had apocalyptic storylines, Buffy usually died and/or other significant characters from both primetime shows were ALWAYS killed BECAUSE the shows were ending. Thankfully, this wasn't the case for Grimm.
After watching Hank and Wu be killed, I somewhat lost hope as a Grimmster. The last 30 minutes of Grimm gave me apathy because all the characters except Nick, his son Kelly, and soon to be step-daughter, Diana were the only characters alive.
Suddenly, we as the viewers were surprised within the last 10-15 minutes of Grimm's finale. We learned that the "skull guy," Zerstörer (meaning "Destroyer" in German) had a catch. He could heal and revive all Nick's friends, if Nick would give him back the missing piece of his staff.
The missing piece of the staff was usually referred to as "The Magic Stick" (Get your minds out the gutter!), that Nick and Monroe found during their trip to Germany in the 5th season. Nick was willing to give up that stick.
Because he was desperate and vulnerable enough to give the stick to Zerstörer, Nick ended up fighting the vagrant runaway and fellow Grimm (Theresa "Trubel" Rubel), who he took in about giving away the stick. Nick gave Trubel a nasty beat down and wandered away with the stick to give to Zerstörer.
Before giving the missing piece of the staff to Zerstörer, the ghosts of Nick's mother (Kelly Kessler Burkhardt) and aunt (Marie Kessler) intervene. Both gave Nick a pep talk about being a Grimm and warned him NOT to give the stick to Zerstörer.
Within the last few minutes, Nick, Trubel, Aunt Marie, and his mother Kelly defeat and kill Zerstörer.
Grimm: "Family Affair" Scene (2017)
The portal to "The Other Place" reappears and sucks Nick back through to the other side, only to be returned to the present.
Grimm: Nick Returns To The Present (2017)
Nick's friends were alive the ENTIRE time on the other side of the portal. During the last 2 minutes of the show, another man narrates what Grimmsters just watched. We learn that it is Nick and Adalind's son, Kelly.
Grimm: Final Scene (2017)
The final scene is 20 years later. Additionally, we learned that Trubel is Nick's 3rd cousin on his mother's side of the family and, that Monroe and Rosalee had triplets like Adalind and Captain Renard's daughter, Diana prophesied.
The ending for Grimm was definitely an interesting and satisfying twist. I am so GLAD the show did not end with another tragic ending like Buffy: The Vampire Slayer and Angel did 13 years or so ago.
Even though they are completely different Supernatural Horror Shows from Grimm, I honestly dreaded a bittersweet and tragic ending like Buffy and Angel. I am sure fellow Grimmsters are overjoyed with a happy cliffhanger.
Overall, I feel that Grimm's last 2-3 seasons could've been MUCH better. The writers wasted too much time politicizing the show and focusing on Captain Renard, Adalind, Juliette/Eve, Monroe and Rosalee's relationship, and making insignificant characters seem relevant.
As a viewer, I would've loved to have seen more international folklores be explored. During the previous season, there was an episode about the Inugami from Japanese folklore. Since Shinigami (the Japanese equivalent of The Grim Reaper) are very popular lately in Japanese entertainment, it would've been awesome to have Nick either fighting against, or collaborating with a Japanese Grim Reaper.
It most definitely would've been better to have discovered more about Hank and Wu as characters, especially Wu. Wu got the shortest end of the stick so to speak out of the entire cast of Grimm and he was the sergeant of the show. Something tells me that with Grimm's cliffhanger ending, there will probably be a remake, reboot, or spinoff show in the near future.
Regardless, I am so GLAD that Grimm's series finale wasn't an absolute Shit Sandwich. Anyway, what are your thoughts?
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Steven Feld 1974 Linguistic Models in Ethnomusicology
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Linguistic Models in Ethnomusicology Author(s): Steven Feld Reviewed work(s): Source: Ethnomusicology, Vol. 18, No.
2 (May, 1974), pp. 197-217 Published by: University of Illinois Press on behalf of Society for Ethnomusicology Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/850579 . Accessed: 25/10/2012 08:21
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LINGUISTIC MODELS IN ETHNOMUSICOLOGY1 STEVEN FELD
"Cheshire puss," she began, rather timidly, "would you tell me please, which way I ought to go from here?" "That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat. "I don't much care where," said Alice. "Then it doesn't much matter which way you go," said the Cat. Alice in Wonderland
1.0. LANGUAGE-MUSIC RELATIONSHIP iscussions concerningthe relationshipof languageand music are now commonplace. General or review papers, devoted entirely or partially to the subject have appeared in major linguistic (Harweg 1968, Springer 1956), musicological (Nattiez 1971), ethnomusicological (Bright 1963), and social science (Jackson 1968, Ruwet 1967a) volumes. Interest thus far in the language-music relationshipoccurs at two distinct one the of musical and levels; being overlap linguistic phenomena, the other the of to musical analysis. Until models being possibilities applying linguistic literature was former to the concern. The currentgrowth of recently, weighed the latter idea, has, no doubt, been spurnedby the use of structurallinguistic models in anthropology and folklore (Levi-Strauss1963), the development of transformationallinguistics (Chomsky 1957, 1965), and the new popularity of semiotics (Morris 1938). 1.1. Language in Music and Music in Language.Continuing research into aspects of the language-music overlap has looked at two types of relations, namely languagein music (relations of text, poetics, and stylistics to song structure)and music in language(musical propertiesof speech). In the investigation of language in music there stems from Herzog (1934, 1942, 1950) a number of studies of the coincidence of musical and textual structure (Robins and McLeod 1956, Bartok and Lord 1951, Laloum and Rouget 1965, Nettl 1964:286). In addition there is Bright'swork on the relation of syllabic length to durational values in South Indian song (1957, 1963), and a number of discussions of the interplay of poetic language, versemaking,and song structure(Jakobson 1960, Rouget 1966, Sebeok 1956). A recent advance in this area is the formal demonstrationof gradedsyntactic flexibility in Gujaratipoetry, song texts, and prose (Durbin 1971).
AND ETHNOMUSICOLOGY FELD: LINGUISTICS
Studies of the forms intermediate to speech and song have been undertakenby both linguists(Chao 1956) and ethnomusicologists(List 1963); there is also a well known joint study of Russianintonation (Buning and van Schooneveld 1961). More recently, Sundberg (1969) has attempted to deal with the problem in terms of articulatoryphonetics. Finally, there are, again stemming from investigationsby Herzog (1934, 1945), studies of the relation of speech melody of tone languages and correspondingsong melody (List 1961), and instrumental"talking"(Alexandre 1969, Carrington1949a, 1949b, Rouget 1964, Stern 1957; for a new methodological twist see Zemp and Kaufman 1969). 1.2 Linguistic Models in Ethnomusicology. There is another logical relationship of language and music quite distinct from that of their mutual overlap. Namely, language and music are the two principal ways by which humans pattern sound for social communication. For this reason it has been argued that language and music are both open to analyses of a general semiotic character, and, hence, that they may benefit from uniformities in analytic approach. The largest body of literature concerning linguistic approachesto music derives from analogies to structural linguistics.2 Most of the structuralist papers are highly programmaticand minimally empirical. Nettl (1958) for instance suggests starting with a defined corpus, moving on to identify significant vs. non-significantfeatures, and then plotting the distribution of the distinctive elements in the total structure. Such a procedure may be applied to both melody and rhythm, building from minimalunits (phonemes) to recurrent sequences (morphemes), noting allophonic and allomorphic variation, and finally isolating phrases and sections. Nettl sees the rearrangement of data into these levels as a means of objectifying musical analysis,thus minimizing subjective judgements about such things as "tonality" and "harmony." Portions of Nettl's suggestions have been echoed by both musicologists (Seeger 1960) and linguists (Bright 1963), but with little empiricaladvance. Aside from Levi-Strauss'own structuralanalysis of Ravel's Bolero, (Levi-Strauss 1971) the major attempts to demonstrate musical structuralism are provided by Ruwet (1966) and Arom (1969). Ruwet (Harris1951); the notion basically follows Harris'taxonomic distributionalism of segmentationbased on units of repetition is stressed,as is the formalization of such structuralunits as "motif" and "phrase." Methodologically,Ruwet advocates a procedure where musical segments are re-writtenone beneath the other such that formal similarities in structure (especially repetition) are isolated and distributionally plotted in relation to other segments; all of Ruwet's examples are from the Westernart music tradition. Arom has applied
Ruwet's procedures to non-Western music, isolating the distributions and oppositions of a largerinventory of musical properties. Recent excursions into musical structuralism are found in Nattiez (1972a, 1972b) and Asch (1972). The former discussions are programmatic and stress the structuralistparadigmas the logical model for the development of music semiotics. Nattiez's concern is principally methodological;he asserts that ethnomusicology will increase its scientific status if it adopts a "rigorous methodology" of discovery procedures ("working instructions") by which a music corpus may be transformedinto a music grammar.Asch, in an opposite vein, begins by stating the necessity of an anthropologicalapproach,but then resorts to an analysis which simply lists in prose rules the sound organization of Slavey drum dances. John Blacking (1972) has presented the single critique of musical structuralism; his concern is that structural analyses emphasizethe isolation of logical units outside of their cultural contexts. Transformationaland other generative models for music have been used since 1967, when Boiles' transformationalgrammarof Tepehua thought-songs appeared.These songs are like spoken linguistic code in that specific meanings are assigned pitch sequences. Boiles' transformationalgrammar was written to show how the melodic and rhythmic sequences signal the semantic message (Boiles 1967). Unfortunately, Boiles does not comment on whether transformational grammars are applicable to music where the notes cannot be assigned specific lexical meanings. Moreover,the author does not discuss the extent to which his grammar makes the kinds of claims and predictionsthat a makes. linguistic grammar Another type of transformational approach is illustrated by Sapir's (1969) grammarof Diola-Fogny funeral songs. Sapir uses both "emic" and "etic" approachesin his analysisby combining transformational notation with native song structure terminology. Phrase-structure rules are used to convey features common to all the funeral songs, and the transformationalrules indicate ways that possible variationscan be derived. Other attempts at generativedescriptionrange from purely mathematical melody-writing algorithms (Lidov 1972) to the three models for visualizing musical syntax presented by Chenoweth and Bee (1971). The flow diagram, formulas, and geometric model proposed by Chenoweth and Bee derive from applying Pikean descriptivelinguistic procedures to music, and then restating the analysis in generative rules. The goals of this procedure are to allow foreigners to compose in a given musical system, and to help ethnomusicologists predict all the syntactically correct melodies that the system will generate. The above transformationalmodels do not share a basic feature with transformational linguistics; they are not derived from a deductive theoretical
FELD: LINGUISTICS AND ETHNOMUSICOLOGY
posture about the nature of music or the most adequate way to analyze music. Papers beginning from this theoretical problem are few; Lindblom and Sundberg(1970) discuss appropriategoals of a music theory in terms of the approach from natural science and develop a theoretical startingpoint for the generativedescription of melody. Two papers by Blacking (1970, 1971) deal with the theoretical notions of competence, performance, and deep and surface structure from an anthropologicalview. Blackingis asking:What is the nature of an ethnomusicologicaltheory that best accounts for the interplay of musical structures and social categories? A final paper from a theoretical position is Boiles' outline of the semiotics of ethnomusicology (Boiles 1971). From Morris' characterizationof the nature of sign communication (1938) Boiles discusses the possibility of approachingmusical communication from the three pointed orientation of syntactics, semantics, and pragmatics.The goal of this perspective is to produce "a more profound penetration of the cognitive dimensions of musical behavior (Boiles 1971:13)" in ethnomusicology.
2.0. EPISTEMOLOGICAL DIMENSIONS Since the application of linguistic models is increasing, it seems important that we now reflect critically on some epistemological dimensions of their usage. Specifically, it is necessary to isolate the factors which motivate the usage of the models, and to decide if these factors have been satisfactorilyjustified. The following argumentsproceed from the view that if one uses formal models, then one is bound to formal criteria for their evaluation. 2.1. Assumptions vs. Explanations. The job of scientific inquiry is to delimit and solve problems in terms of general theories. Hence the job of the scientist is to collect evidence in order to advanceexplanations for problems. To explain means to account for observable phenomena in terms of their underlyingregularities,or principles(Hempel 1966). We might first note that one never explains something by previously assumingit. The difference between explaining and assuminglies in evidence. Explanations require empirical support, assumptionsdo not. It is always the case that a science does not assume what it seeks to explain. Following this notion, we must differentiate between assuming that linguistic models adequately account for musical phenomena and explaining how and why linguistic models might do this. It is epistemologically silly to assume that linguistic models explain music without some demonstrationof why this is the case. This would be like explaining V7-I resolution by saying
"it makes the music pretty" or subject-verbagreementby saying "it makes the languageclearer." To assume the correctness of linguistic models takes us away from science, that is, it makes a problem into a non-problem. To explain the correctness of linguistic models is to create some theoretical baseline for inquiry. An explanation of the benefits of linguistic models must derive from evidence that shows the models to account for the facts in the most powerful manner. The criteria of explanatory adequacy cannot be met by analogy or a priori notions, it must be met empirically. 2.2. Assertions vs. Demonstrations. The next logical point is that one cannot make a case for the adoption of a scientific procedureby assertingits essential goodness; one must demonstrate its essential goodness. The difference, again, is evidence. Thus far the utility of linguistic models has been asserted rather than demonstrated.Proponents of the models have reasonedthat an application of a model is, ipso facto, proof of its efficiency. But this is not necessarilytrue. One demonstratesthe superiority of theory X over theory Y by comparative analysis;that is, by evidence showing that whereastheory X accounts for A, B and C, theory Y accounts for only A and B. One never demonstrates the superiority of theory X over theory Y by simply asserting the data in the format of theory X. Any clever author can rephrase any data into any notational conventions and then assert that a superior theory has been uncovered, but this is not science. Hence, while the applicationof a model is an assertion of its utility, it does not constitute an empiricaldemonstrationof its utility. Simply increasingthe volume of applications does not advancethe case; one makes demonstrationswith evidence, not with quantities. 2.3. Reasons vs. Justifications. We have noted thus far that the advantagesof linguisticmodels have been assumed rather than explained, and that their adequacyhas been assertedrather than demonstrated.The marginin both cases is evidence. Restated, the fault in the logical scaffolding beneath using linguistic models is that reasons rather than justifications have been provided in their support. A reason can be, and sometimes is no more than an excuse-momentary, faddish, a priori; a justification, on the other hand, requiressome lasting empiricalsupport, validation. Reasons do not last long in science; procedures and claims must be justified. One adopts a new model when it is demonstrated that the model either (a) accounts for the observables in a more interesting way, or (b) accounts for more observables. It is usually the case that scientific breakthrough is characterized simultaneously by both (a) and (b) (Kuhn 1962). As one philosopherof science concludes:
FELD: LINGUISTICS
AND ETHNOMUSICOLOGY
We are justified in placing the trust in [theories] that we do because-and to the extent that-they have proved their worth in competition with alternatives (Toulmin 1963:101-102).
Thus far, no justifications of this logical order exist validating the use of linguistic models in ethnomusicology. What exists are reasons, specifically three different reasons, of three logical types. 3.0. REASONSAND THEIR LOGICALFALLACIES The first reason for delving into linguistics is the simplest, namely, everybody else is doing it (e.g., film, folklore, visual arts, literature,etc.). This is the "everythingis semiotics" position: language, music, magazines, clowns, breakfast, haircuts and all human behavior should be approached via a common science of signs. The second reason stems from two different, though equally sincere attitudes towards the language-music analogy-treating the analogy as truth or it as a heuristic that must treating seriously be explored. The third, and strongest reason offered, is formalism;it is argued that since progress in science is characterized by formalization, and since the models have proven their efficiency in the formalized science of linguistics, their usage in ethnomusicology is valid. While the first and third reasons are logically distinct it seems fair to say that they come from the same kind of concern; hence I will lump them together for the purposes of analysis. 3.1. Analogy. The first reason for using linguistic models is the claim that language and music are similar enough that they deserve the status of "true" analogy.3 Such a claim usually preceeds the application of a specific linguistic model, and is characteristicallystated in non-explicit terms. For instance, in a recent paper we get these comments:
...musical systems are also semiotic systems, somewhat like language (Chandola 1970:135). ...tonal systems and linguistic systems are governed by almost the same theoretical principles (ibid:147).
Music is somewhat like and almost the same as many things, depending on how good your imaginationis; while Chandola'sphraseologyis suggestive,it is hardly convincing scientifically. Another way of analogizingis to claim that languageand myth are alike, and music and myth are alike, hence music and language are alike. Nattiez
follows this path as he attempts to bolster musical structuralismwith the conclusions of Levi-Strauss.
...Levi-Strauss is convinced that music and myth function the same way. To be more exact, his analysis of myth proceeds along the lines of an orchestral score (Nattiez 1972a:5).
Those who have read Levi-Strausssurely know that his overturesto music are poetic and interesting, but, alas, the chapter headings of The Raw and The Cooked hardly constitute evidence for a theoretical posture. Further attempts to validate analogizing derive from the attitude that linguists have managed to explain language more comprehensively than ethnomusicologists have explained music. This attitude has been raised most recently by Chase:
Can the musicologist, using a method analogous to the method used in structural linguistics, achieve the same kind of progress in his own science as that which has taken place in linguistics (Chase 1972:5)?
That is a reasonable question; in the following I will show that while analogous reasoning is richly suggestive it has failed to produce clearer ethnomusicologicalexplanations. and notational Preliminarilywe must note the problem of metalanguage conventions. Readers of the new ethnomusicology must now be fluent in linguistic as well as standard ethnomusicological terminology and notations. Given the nature of linguistic, musical, and anthropologicalspecialization,this is certainly not a simplicity measure. But, of course, this is a rather weak criticism. More problematicis that the use of the models introduces, by analogy, a whole set of slippery epistemological variablesthat must be resolved in order to understand what the music grammars actually explain, and how the explanations account for the facts. Considerfor instance three such epistemological domains: (a)on the choice of models, (b) on the claims that the models make, (c) on the relation of the models to the nature of the phenomenon. 3.1.1. Analogy in the Choice of Models. Currently two linguistic parahave been used in ethnodigms, structural and transformational-generative musicological applications. Turning to linguistic history we must note that the groundstone of transformational linguistics was the empirical and metatheoretical demonstration by Chomsky (1957) that some linguistic constructions and facts unexplainableby the structuralistparadigmare adequately model (also see Postal 1964). If it is the accounted for in the transformational
case that linguists accept the transformational paradigmas the more powerful, at all? why should ethnomusicologistsbother with structuralism One response is to argue that both models may comfortably be used since there are many European and American linguists who are structuralists, and since Levi-Strauss'structuralismis popular in anthropology and folklore. The counter-argumentis, of course, that now we are not clarifying anything about the most powerful way to explain ethnomusicological facts, we are simply allowing linguistic theory arguments to be transported in toto to ethnumusicology.Moreover,while the linguistic argumentsare taking place on empirical and theoretical grounds, there is not one stitch of ethnomusicological evidence from which we may begin to evaluate the models in terms of how they explain what we want them to explain. Hence, the analogizinghas backed us into a corner. An even less satisfactory response to the structuralistvs. transformationalist issue is to misconstrue the linguistic facts and issues. Nattiez, for instance, has written: Americanlinguisticstructuralism the distri[has] two main branches: butionalism of Harris andthe generativism of Chomsky (1972a:1); moreover the two are "rigorously equivalent" if confined to a finite corpus (ibid:10). Apparently Nattiez introduced this argument so as not to be open to criticism for ignoring transformationallinguistics. But whatever the motivation, his characterization is inaccurate. In actuality, transformational grammaras proposed by Chomsky (1957, 1965) entails a radically different approach to language and science than does the structuralismof his teacher, Zellig Harris(1951, 1954).4 As one linguist writes in a recent review:
Chomsky denies the fundamental assumption of structuralism by arguing that an adequate linguistic description of grammar cannot be derived from applying sets of operations to primary data but rather must be viewed as a formal deductive theory whose object is to separate the grammatical sentences of a language from the ungrammatical ones and to provide a systematic account of the structure of grammatical sentences (Maclay 1971:163).
A serious question is raised by all of this: Why should ethnomusicologists sit around and wait for linguists to create and decide on the issues, and then copy their models and decisions? Linguistic argumentsand analogies aside, I would suggest that the only sensible grounds for adopting models in ethnomusicology is theoretical-empirical, i.e., by demonstratingthe explanatoryadequacy of the model. 3.1.2. Analogy in the Claims the Models Make. An even more crucial the claims that a problem than the choice of models is that of understanding
grammaris actually making, and how the claims are to be evaluated.Suppose for instance that a transformationallinguistic model is adopted in ethnomusicology. Reasoning analogously we must at least resolve the following questions: (1) Is a transformationalgrammarof music a theory of what it means to know a music; that is, is musical competence the domain of an adequate ethnomusicologicalexplanation? (2) Is a transformationalgrammarof a music a theory of how that music will be acquired by children?What claims does the grammar make about learning? (3) When a transformationalgrammarspecifies a deep and surface structureis it making the claim that the deep structure constitutes a formal music universal?Does the deep structurecontain musical meaning? (4) Do transformationalgrammarsof music imply a philosophy of mind? Specifically, do transformationalgrammarsof music follow from a Cartesian rationalist orientation to knowledge (see Chomsky 1968) and a rejection of Skinnerianbehavioristiclearningtheory? (5) Does a transformationalgrammarof music make the claim that musical syntax is autonomous of semantics and cultural assumptions? Is musical semantics interpretive, based on lexical meanings given to notes, motifs, phrases,and segments? (6) Does a transformational grammar of music account for analogues to linguistic competence? Specifically, is the grammardesigned to explain native (a) knowledge of synonymy, (b) knowledge of ambiguity, (c) creative ability to produce novel utterances?If not, why have deep and surface structures? Does this (7) What is the musical counterpartof the "ideal speaker-hearer?" that of all members a culture share the same musical imply knowledge, and that the skills of musical specialists are like the skills of orators and public speakers? for the entire musical output of (8) Does one write tranformational grammars a culture, or for styles, sub-styles, genres and the like? In fact, what is reasonableto expect a grammarto claim in regardto the relationshipof these units? (9) Finally, how are evaluation procedures to be developed, and what does it mean to construct the "simplest"or most generalgrammarof a music? Given two competing grammars of music X (i.e. two competing theories of the psychological reality of music X) we must be able to judge which is more reasonable on some principled grounds; if this could not be done, we would be making the claim that there is more than one psychological reality to the
music system. Or is it the case that it is not reasonable to expect ethnomusicologicaltheory to make any claims about psychologicalrealities? Like those who have used transformationalmodels in ethnomusicology, I find these questions interestingand provocative.But I would insist that they be dealt with in theoretically explicit ways, rather than be left in the air as a residue of papers that express musical data in linguistic notations. It must be understood that the significantpart of a grammar (musical or linguistic) is not the abstractions themselves, but the claims that one uses the abstractionsto make. 3.1.3. Analogy in the Nature of the Phenomenon. A final, and perhaps most crucial problem to be raised is that of whether the proposed models adequately capture the facts of ethnomusicologicalphenomena at all; here I refer to the curious fact that, thus far, the models focus only on music sound.5 To begin to understand this problem we might start with the current linguistic scene. The major upheaval in linguistic theory and practice today is in the areas of semantics and sociolinguistics, and the central issues are the empirical and theoreticalvalidity of two of Chomsky'scentral notions: syntax vs. semantics, and competence vs. performance.Both dichotomies are at the root of Chomsky's contention that it is valid to study language code independentlyof its social context. Since the appearanceof Katz and Fodor's important semantic theory paper (1963), the problem of semantic description in transformational grammarhas received much attention. Many linguists have provided counterexamples to Chomsky's claim (1965) that all relevant semantic data is contained in deep syntax. Now, generative semanticists claim that no principled boundary can be drawn between syntax and semantics;hence, there cannot be a distinct syntactic deep structure, and Chomsky's "interpretive" semantics are not adequate (G. Lakoff 1971, McCawley 1968; a recent defense of interpretivesemanticsis Jackendoff 1972). Sociolinguists, in addition, claim that the competence vs. performance dichotomy is also wrongly construed; "raw grammaticality"is not all that native speakersintuitively know about their language.
Rules of appropriateness beyond grammar govern speech, and are acquired as part of conceptions of self and of meanings associated both with particular forms of speech and with the act of speech itself (Hymes 1971:56).
Hence while
transformational theory recognizes that what seems the same sentence may enter into two quite different sets of relations, syntactically; it must [also] recognize the same thing to be true, socially (ibid:58).
In short, the semantics and sociolinguistics movement is insisting that language structure cannot be properly understood in isolation from the context of language use (R. Lakoff 1972). As semanticist George Lakoff rather forcefully puts it:
What we are trying to do is develop a linguistic theory that is rooted in the study of human thought and culture-the very antithesis of transformational grammar as narrowly construed by Chomsky (G. Lakoff 1972:34).
While I do not intend to use current strugglesin linguistic theory as a justification for an ethnomusicologicalposture, I think it worth pointing out that the hot issue in linguistics is much the same as the central theoretical split in ethnomusicology-the split between those who think that the autonomous structure of code constitutes an explanation of a phenomenon and those who think that interplay of context with code is what needs to be explained. This is essentially the split between musicological and anthropological ethnomusicology (Merriam 1969). Whether any of us like it or not, the fact is that people make music, and they make it for and with other people. Consequently,ethnomusicological theory must somehow attempt to account for such facts (Merriam 1964:17-36). Hence we are led to seriously question whether linguistic models, confined to sound structure, constitute adequate explanations of ethnomusicologicalfacts. If twentieth century anthropologyhas shown anything, it is that context is the single most crucial epistemologicalvariablein ethnographicmethod and description. It seems obvious that the same must be true of the study of music in culture. As Blacking states so well in his critique of musical structuralism:
Music is much more than a cultural game and the expression of the unconscious activity of the mind, and the most rigorous structural analysis of its sounds cannot be adequate without some attention to the social dimensions of music. The rules of any musical system begin with the categorization of music and non-music, and they may seem to be arbitrary. But they are also social, in that they can have no meaning without consensus. And because social behavior is also subject to rules, it follows that there may be relationships between the rules of systems of musical and social communication. This seems to me to be the essential justification for the existence of ethnomusicology as a separate discipline (Blacking 1972:4).
As is always the case in science, the power of a theory must be judged relative to the way the facts are circumscribed.I would join Blacking and Merriam in arguing that what is required of the most powerful ethnomusicological theory is the ability to formally account for the interplay of sound structure with the context and cultural assumptions of its creators/ listeners.
To sum up 3.1, I conclude that until basic theoretical questions like the many raised above are explicitly dealt with, the use by analogy of linguistic models does not clarify ethnomusicologicalfacts and does not clarify the task of ethnomusicologicalexplanation. 3.2. Formalism. Now that the problems with analogizing have been noted, we will deal with the other reason, formalism.This is clearly the more sophisticated reason, and the more important to counter. The point I wish to develop is that while the property "formal" is an important part of science, its nature has been misunderstood by those using linguistic formalisms in ethnomusicology. To begin, we must distinguish two senses of the notion "formal." The first sense is formal inquiry;this basically denotes three properties:(a)explicitvia resolution ness, via resolution of conceptual ambiguity,(b) standardization, of notational and terminologicalambiguity, and (c) generalization,via elimination of the inessential. Hence formal inquiry would be synonymous with highly objective inquiry. This is the way philosophersof science use "formal"; both Kuhn (1962:15-18) and Hempel (1966:13) point out that a science is immature without a governingparadigmto give direction to inquiry;without such formalization the collection and interpretationof data is largely random and unscientific. Such formalization is the foundation of modern linguistics; as Lyons writes:
Chomsky's most original and probably his most enduring contribution to linguistics is the mathematical rigor and precision with which he formalized the properties of alternate systems of grammatical description (Lyons 1970:43).
Nettl (1958:37) has alluded to this property as a justification for linguistic models; in particularhe is impressedby the fact that descriptivelinguisticshas had some relationshipto natural science. The second sense of formal derives from formal logic. This property enters into the discussion because music is frequently likened to mathematics and logic, as is language(for instance, in Whorf 1956:248). Also, there are a number of simple parallelsbetween a system of formal logic and a generative grammar,and Fodor points out (1970:199-200) that linguistic rules function like logical inference rules; the former preservegrammaticality while mapping through syntactic transformations;the latter preserve truth while mapping through formulae.6 While there is some allusion to this latter sense of "formal" (formal logic) in the current literature, it is the former sense (formal inquiry) that concerns the proponents of linguistic models. Their argument, as stated
before, is that linguistic models will formalize ethnomusicologicaldescription, a valid goal since all progressin science is characterizedby formalization. 3.2.1. The "Hollow Shell" of Formalism. Surely none of us would deny and generalizathat an increase in objectivity via explicitness, standardization, tion would enhance ethnomusicology. And it is certainly the case that many of these qualities characterize modern linguistics. But in envying formalism, proponents of linguistic models have failed to distinguishthe theorectical task of formalizing ethnomusicology from the exploratory exercise of borrowing notational and terminological formalisms from linguistics. Many cases could illustrate this point; consider these two: (1) In his discussion of Diola-Fogny funeral songs, Sapir summarizes musical mechanics in phrase-structure and transformational rules, briefly apologizes for using outdated conventions of transformationalgrammarrule writing, but concludes that the analysis
serves our present needs, which are simply to illustrate that on a general level bunansar song-phrasing can be subject, without much difficulty, to formal statement. Obviously, other techniques of formal statement could serve equally well (Sapir 1969:182).
Yes, obviously other techniques of formal statement could serve equally well; this is making the problem into a game where the object is to rewrite one set of abstractions (musical transcription) into another set of abstractions (transformational grammar). Any formal statement might work, but the aim of an ethnomusicologicaltheory must be to find the best way to explain things, not just ways that work. The point is that formalismis treated here as if it were a value in itself-a value unrelated to the goals of developingethnomusicological theory. (2) In an even more abstract approach, Lidov makes the following statement at the beginningof his paper:
My objective is not specifically ethnomusicological. It is rather the theoretical one of developing musical applications for formalisms of mathematical linguistics...My investigation is based on a very small amount of data, too small to certify any generalization as secure. The essence of the work is formal-only formal or purely or merely formal-your choice-and without further pretensions (Lidov 1972:1).
Despite Lidov's disclaimersI find the approach absurdly formal and totally pretentious, not because I can't appreciate his matehematics,but because he purports to do a theoretical task and then says nothing about what kind of ethnomusicological theory he is talking about. Yet worse, the music is considered as nothing more than one dimensional transcriptions-a set of
abstractionswhich a mathematicianmay retranslateinto other abstractionsof another logical order. This method of analysisis based on the completely false assumption that transcriptionsof music have some sort of objective reality, and are standardized to the extent that linguistic phonetic transcriptionis standardized.Moreover, the author is absolved from discussing what claims this type of "explanation"is really makingand what (if anything) it has to do with music because the "essence of the work is formal" and because there was little data to begin with. When it boils down this is an "anything that's possible is interesting and/or feasible" approach, and it has little to do with the developmentof a scientific ethnomusicology;it merely exalts formalismas an end in itself. It does not use formalism for what it really is in science-a means towards expressinggeneraltheories in the most explicit way. I have no doubt that the authors cited above, and the other ethnomusicologistsutilizing similar approacheshave good intentions; I simply want to point out that they are not formalizing ethnomusicology-they are just using the formalismsof linguistic notation and terminology. They have given analyses filled with tree diagrams,phrase markers, derivations, rules, binary oppositions, and the like-but hardly any of their discussion has taken place on a theoretical level. Only Blacking (1970, 1971) and Lindblom and Sundberg (1970) have dealt explicitly with basic theoretical issues like the approach to music from natural science, the differences between music and natural language, the concept of generativedescription, musical competences and performance, and deep and surface structure. The rest of the literature ignores issues like the empiricalcomparisonof models, a metatheory of music, evaluation procedures,and the relation of the models to the phenomenathey supposedly explain. This paucity of theory in the midst of a sea of applications makes it clear that the models are not scientizing ethnomusicology but playing games with abstractions. In a recent article discussing the empirical and logical superiority of a transformationalapproach to language teaching, linguist Robin Lakoff notes the misuse of transformationalgrammar in some new grammartexts. She points out that rather than borrowingand using the significantconclusions of transformationallinguistics (viz., the rationalist approach), these books are simply borrowing the rules themselves, the abstractions of transformational grammar,its "narrow shell of formalism(R. Lakoff 1969:129)." Just as the books cited by Lakoff miss the point of transformational grammar,linguistically based ethnomusicology has missed the point of formalism. By simply borrowing a hollow shell of formalism from mathematics and linguistics, rather than dealing with substantiveissues in theory, proponents of linguistic models have not formalized ethnomusicology;they have thrown out rules and notations which in themselves do not clarify any significant ethnomusicological issue. Hence, I would join with Blackingin concluding:
FELD: LINGUISTICS AND ETHNOMUSICOLOGY Analytic tools cannot be borrowed freely and used as short cuts to greater achievementsin ethnomusicologicalresearchas can electronic devices such as the tape recorder: they must emerge from the nature of the subject studied (Blacking1972:1).
In evaluating models, linguists and anthropologists have sometimes distinguished between a "God's truth" and a "hocus-pocus"analysis (Householder 1952, Burling 1964). The difference is essentially between doing science and playing a game: the former explains facts inherent in the data, the latter re-organizesthe data into a convenient statement. As an example of the difference, Burling,in his critique of componential analysis, raises the question of whether the rules postulated by the analyst really exist or whether they, as one of many possibilities, simply work to generate back some original data (Burling 1964). I would conclude that thus far most of the activity involving linguistic models in ethnomusicology falls into the hocus-pocus category; the models constitute new and indeed fancier ways of expressing only that part of ethnomusicological data that concerns music sound. Moreover, the reasons advanced for using the models (analogy, formalism) involve basic misunderstandingsof scientific epistemology. Nevertheless, the conclusion should not be taken to mean that (a)justification of an ethnomusicological theory deriving in part from linguistic theory is impossible, or (b) that ethnomusicology has nothing to learn from linguistics. On the first point we should note that linguistic theory and one major anthropological theory share a basic feature-mentalism. Linguistic analysis specifies the rules that a speaker knows which account for an actual speech performance.Ethnoscientific anthropologicaltheory defines culture not as an inventory of the things a people make and do but has an inventory of the things that people commonly know. Hence, an explanation of cultural behavior is a theory of cultural knowledge (Werner and Fenton 1971). An adequate ethnography must then be seen as a statement of the things that people "have in mind,"-the tacit rules people know which generate acceptable behaviorwithin their society (Goodenough 1957). Looking at music as a domain of cultural knowledge, and using the notion of generative description from linguistics, it seems reasonable to conceptualize an ethnomusicological explanation as a theory of the things a people must know in order to understand, perform, and create acceptable music in their culture. Such a theory, like linguistic theory and ethnoscientific anthropological theory, attempts to capture the tacit rules that govern the
domain of systematic behavior we call music. The central ethnomusicological question, What is music? is thus specifically approachedvia the problem, What does it mean to know a music? (Feld 1973). On the second point, I think it obvious that ethnomusicology can learn from linguistics,just as it can learn from musicology, anthropology, aesthetics, philosophy, human biology, and physics. The real question is what ethnomusicology can learn from linguistics, and I find some current notions of that what to be very distressing. In particular, Nattiez's assessments of music semiotics (1971, 1972a, 1972b) constantly stress that linguistics is important because it can provide musicology with a mechanical and rigorous set of discovery procedures.
Musical semiotics ... must seek to develop not binding rules for analysis, but rather a set of procedures that will always be explicit and controlled (Nattiez 1972a:4).
I would argue that mechanical discovery proceduresare the least interesting thing that semiotics can do for ethnomusicology or anybody else. It is wholly unreasonable to expect that a scientific theory be a list of rules which take the analyst from data to explanation in a mechanical sweep; such an expectation shows a fundamentalignorance of the nature of scientific theory and philosophy (on the death of discovery procedures in linguistics, see Chomsky 1957:50-56). In fact, what ethnomusicology might learn from linguistics is about the nature of theory in science-the relation of deductive theory to data and fundamentals. The problem of scientizing ethnomusicology is the problem of building a metatheory of music through which one may deductively analyze music in culture: by "analyze" I mean to separate out the acceptable and culturally appropriatemusic of a society from the unacceptable and culturallyinappropriate music of a society, and to isolate the culturallogic which underliesthe acceptable and appropriatemusic (Feld 1973). Implicit in such an approachis the assumption that as evidence one collects sound and observes the conceptual and behavioral factors which produce it, and as an explanation one posits the principles of cultural knowledge which give rise to the manifestation. This is essentially the approach championed by Merriam(1964) and Blacking(1970, 1971, 1972); the latter writes:
The central problem is to describe all the factors which generate the patterns of sound produced by a single composer or society; to explain music as signs and symbols of human experience in culture, and to relate musical form to its social and cultural content (Blacking 1970:69).
Because the stance taken in this paper is sharply critical of several individuals, I feel compelled to explicity note that I have no interest in the petty business of personal attack. Rather, my concern has simply been to raise certain empirical and substantive issues that must be dealt with in the development of ethnomusicological theory. In doing so I have deliberately played the Devil's Advocate and voiced things in such a way that hopefully will provoke heated response, to the benefit of all concerned with epistemological refinement in ethnomusicology theory. As the Cat tried to explain to Alice, the problem of figuring out where to go is logically prior to the problem of how to get there; mutatis mutandis, the problem of conceptualizing an adequate theory is logically prior to expressing rules by means of the theory's notational abstractions.
FOOTNOTES 1. Written June 1973. Certain threads of thought presented here originated in two earlier papers: "Linguistically Based Formal Analysis vs. Communication Theory" and "Towards a Metatheory of Music": both were presented in Alan Merriam's classes in The Arts in Anthropology at Indiana University during 1972-3. For critical feedback on those ideas, as well as on the earlier draft of this paper, I am grateful to Prof. Merriam and especially to Jim Brink. My thoughts on the problems of dealing with symbolic forms as languages has benefitted greatly from conversations with Sol Worth on visual (especially film) communication, and with Carl Voegelin on linguistics. 2. This literature appears after the publication of Syntactic Structures (Chomsky 1957), which leads one to wonder whether the structuralist paradigm is more applicable (i.e. bears some inherent relation) to music than the transformational model or whether it is accidental that those applying linguistic models have a structuralist preference. Unfortunately, this question is not raised in the literature. 3. If this were the case, methods of musical analysis should be as applicable to linguistics as methods of linguistic analysis are to music. No proponents of linguistic models discuss this possibility. 4. Perhaps Nattiez's characterization derives from the fact that structuralism is the dominant paradigm in French linguistics. French readers might note that Nicolas Ruwet, whose structural studies of music (collected in Ruwet 1972a) are often cited by Nattiez, has authored an excellent French language introduction to transformational linguistics (1967b) as well as a transformational analysis of French syntax (1972b). 5. John Blacking's three papers (1971a, 1971b, 1972) are notable exceptions. 6. Transformational rules preserve meaning while mapping through syntax only if one is operating within the transformational grammar framework where all essential semantic information is contained in deep syntax. REFERENCES CITED Alexandre, Pierre 1969 Langages tambourines: une ecriture sonore? Semiotica 1(3):273-281. Arom, Simha 1970 Essai d'une notation des monodies a des fins d'analyse. Revue de musicologie 55(2):172-216.
Asch, Michael 1972 A Grammar of Slavey drum dance music, paper presented at 1972 SEM meetings, Toronto. Bartok, Bela and A. Lord 1951 Serbo-Croatian folksong. New York: Columbia University Press. Blacking, John 1970 Deep and surface structures in Venda music. Dyn 1:69-98. 1971 Towards a theory of musical competence, In E. J. DeJager, ed., Man: Anthropological essays presented to O. F. Raum. Cape Town: C. Struik, pp. 19-34. 1972 Extensions and limits of musical transformations, paper presented at 1972 SEM meetings, Toronto. Boiles, Charles 1967 Tepehua thought-song: A case of semantic signalling. ETHNOMUSICOLOGY 11(3):267-292. 1971 Semiotics of ethnomusicology, paper presented at 1971 SEM meetings, Chapel Hill. Bright, William 1957 Singing in Lushai. Indian Linguistics 17:24-28. 1963 Language and music: areas for cooperation. ETHNOMUSICOLOGY 7(1):23-32. Buning, J. and C. van Schooneveld 1961 The sentence intonation of contemporary standard Russian. The Hague: Mouton. Burling, Robbins 1964 Cognition and componential analysis: God's truth or hocus-pocus? American Anthropologist 66:20-28. Carrington, John F. 1949a Talking drums of Africa. London: Carey Kingsgate. 1949b A comparative analysis of some Central African gong languages. Brussels: Institut Royal Congo Belge, 43(3). Chandola, Anoop C. 1970 Some systems of musical scales and linguistic principles. Semiotica 2(2):135-150. Ren Yuen Chao, 1956 Tone, intonation, singsong, chanting, recitative, tonal composition, and atonal composition in Chinese, In For Roman Jakobson. The Hague: Mouton, pp.
Chase, Gilbert 1972 Structuralism today: An outsider's report, paper presented at 1972 SEM meetings, Toronto. Chenoweth, Vida and Darlene Bee 1971 Comparative-generative models of a New Guinea Melodic structure. American Anthropologist 73:773-782. Chomsky, 1957 1965 1968 Noam Syntactic structures. The Hague: Mouton. Aspects of the theory of syntax. Cambridge: MIT Press. Language and mind. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World. Durbin, M. A. 1971 Transformational models applied to musical analysis: theoretical possibilities. ETHNOMUSICOLOGY 15(3):353-362.
Feld, Steven 1973 Towards a metatheory of music, ms.
Fodor, Janet Dean 1970 Formal linguistics and formal logic. In John Lyons, ed., New horizons in linguistics. Baltimore: Penguin, pp. 198-214. Goodenough, Ward 1957 Cultural anthropology and linguistics, In Paul Garvin, ed., Report of the seventh annual roundtable meeting on linguistics and language. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press pp. 167-173. Harris, Zellig S. 1951 Structural linguistics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1954 Distributional structure. Word 10:146-162. Harweg, Roland 1968 Language and music: An imminent and sign theoretic approach. Foundations of Language 4:270-281. Hempel, Carl G. 1966 Philosophy of natural science. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall. Herzog, George 1934 Speech melody and primitive music. Musical Quarterly 20:452-466. 1942 Text and melody in primitive music. Bulletin of the American Musicological Society 6:10-11. 1945 Drum signalling in a West African tribe. Word 1:217-238. 1950 Song, In M. Leach, ed., Funk and Wagnall's Dictionary of folklore, mythology and legend. 2:1032-1050. Householder, Fred 1952 Review of Harris 1951. 18:260-268. International Journal of American Linguistics
Hymes, Dell 1971 Sociolinguistics and the ethnography of speaking. In Edwin Ardener, ed., Social anthropology and language (Association of Social Anthropologists Monograph 10) London: Tavistock, pp. 47-94. Jackendoff, Ray 1972 Semantic interpretation in generative grammar. Cambridge: MIT Press. Jackson, Anthony 1968 Sound and ritual. Man, n.s., 3:293-299. Jakobson, Roman 1960 Linguistics and poetics. In T. A. Sebeck, ed., Style in language. Cambridge: MIT Press, pp. 350-377. Katz, J. and J. Fodor 1963 The structure of a semantic theory. Language 39:170-210. Kuhn, Thomas 1962 The structure of scientific revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Lakoff, George 1971 On generative semantics, In Danny Steinberg and Leon Jakobovits, eds., Semantics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 232-296. 1973 Deep language. New York Review of Books, February 8:34. Lakoff, Robin 1969 Transformational grammar and language teaching. Language Learning 19 (1/2):117-140. 1972 Language in context. Language 48(4):907-927.
Laloum, Claude and Gilbert Rouget 1965 Deux chants liturgiques Yoruba. Journal de la Societe des Africanistes 35(1):109-139. Levi-Strauss, Claude 1963 Structural anthropology. New York: Basic Books. 1971 "Bolero" de Maurice Ravel. L'Homme 11(2):5-14. Lidov, David 1972 An example (from Kulintang) of a generative grammar for melody, paper presented at 1972 SEM meetings, Toronto. Lindblom, Bjorn and Johan Sundberg 1970 Towards a generative theory of melody. Svensk Tidskrift for Musikforskning 52:71-88. List, George 1961 Speech melody and song melody in central Thailand. ETHNOMUSICOLOGY 5(1):16-32. 1963 The boundaries of speech and song. ETHNOMUSICOLOGY 7(1):1-16. Lyons, John 1970 Noam Chomsky. New York: Viking. Maclay, Howard 1971 Overview, In Danny Steinberg and Leon Jakobovits, eds., Semantics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 157-182. McCawley, James D. 1968 The role of semantics in a grammar, In E. Bach and R. Harms, eds., Universals in linguistic theory. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, pp. 91-122. P. Alan Merriam, 1964 The anthropology of music. Evanston: Northwestern University Press. 1969 Ethnomusicology revisited. ETHNOMUSICOLOGY 13(2):213-229. Morris, Charles 1938 Foundations of the theory of signs. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Nattiez, J. J. 1971 ed., Semiologie de la musique. Musique en jeu, 5. 1972a What can structuralism do for musicology? paper presented at 1972 SEM meetings, Toronto. 1972b Is a descriptive semiotics of music possible? Language Sciences 23:1-7. Nettl, Bruno 1958 Some linguistic approaches to musical analysis. Journal of the International Folk Music Council 10:37-41. 1964 Theory and method in ethnomusicology. Glencoe: Free Press. Postal, Paul 1964 Constituent structure: A study of contemporary models of syntactic description. Bloomington: Indiana University Research Center in Anthropology, Folklore, and Linguistics, Publication 30. Robins, R. H. and Norma McLeod 1956 Five Yurok songs: A musical and textual analysis. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 18(3):592-609. Rouget, Gilbert 1964 Tons de la langue en gfn et tons du tambour. Revue de musicologie 50:3-29. 1966 African traditional non-prose forms: reciting, declaiming, singing, and strophic structure, In Jack Berry, ed., Proceedings of the conference on African languages and literature, April 28-30, 1966. Evanston, Northwestern University Press, pp. 45-58.
Ruwet, Nicolas 1966 Methodes d'analyse en musicologie. Beige revue de musicologie 20:65-90 (reprinted in Ruwet 1972a pp. 100-134). 1967a Linguistics and musicology. International Social Science Journal 19:79-87. 1967b Introduction a la grammaire gen6rative. Paris: Plon. 1972a Language, musique, poesie. Paris: Editions du seuil. 1972b Theorie syntaxique et syntaxe du fran9ais. Paris: Editions du seuil. Sapir, J. David 1969 Diola-logny 8:176-191. funeral songs and the native critic. African Language Review
Sebeck, T. A. 1956 Sound and meaning in a Cheremis folksong text, In For Roman Jakobson, The Hague: Mouton, pp. 430-439. Seeger, Charles 1960 On the moods of a music-logic. Journal of the American Musicological Society 13:224-261. Springer, George 1956 Language and music: parallels and divergences, In For Roman Jakobson, The Hague: Mouton, pp. 504-513. Stern, Theodore 1957 Drum and whistle languages: An analysis of speech surrogates. American Anthropologist 59: 487-506. Johan Sundberg, 1969 Articulatory differences between spoken and sung vowels in singers. Speech Transmission Laboratory Quarterly Progress And Status Report 1:33-46. Toulmin, Stephen 1963 Foresight and understanding. New York: Harper and Row. Werner, Oswald and JoAnn Fenton 1971 Method and theory in ethnoscience or ethnoepistemology, In R. Naroll and R. Cohen, eds., A Handbook of method in cultural anthropology. Garden City: Natural History Press, pp. 537-578. Whorf, B. L. 1956 Language, thought, and reality. Cambridge: MIT Press. Zemp, Hugo and Christian Kaufman 1969 Pour une transcription automatique des "langages tambourines" Melanesiens. L'Homme 9(2):38-88.
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Poverty in Pakistan
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Economic Crisis of Pakistan
The word poverty comes from Latin word pauper which means poor. The meaning of poverty, we says that not having access to food, basic needs and services like clean water, nutritions, clothing, shelter, or health care etc. we can says that Pakistan is the one of the country which is facing this problem since many times, about the report of World Bank 40% percent peoples of Pakistan living below the line of poverty and it is increasing year by year 10% to 15% and according to the UNDP (United Nation Development program) the 65.5 population of Pakistan earn less than 2$ per day which is not enough for basic needs.
Main cause of poverty is government policy in this matter Pakistani government has no policy and Pakistani government is not aware with the problem of common men and the policy of the government is also facilitating rich peoples and the second cause of poverty is lack of Education in Pakistan education pay a important role in improving there awareness . an other Sade thing is that Pakistan which is the 6th largest nation in the world according to the UNESCO report the ratio of education in Pakistan is about 33.4% females and 47% male and the third one cause is injustice in Pakistan there is no justice for common men or also in Pakistan there is no good governance and we can say the unemployment pay a major role in increasing poverty.
Increase in crime, drug abuse, smuggling, corruption, poverty, illiteracy and many other social evils. We are also decreasing our reputation in world. Our rupees rates are decreasing day by day no foreign investor like to invest in Pakistan stock exchange and also business men are not thinking planting factories, industries in Pakistan so thats why unemployment is increasing year b y year this is the major cause of poverty.
Suggestion or conclusion
Government must Plant industries. Provide loan without entrance for creating home base business and other work. Some changing in government polices or gives justice provides free education and educate men as well as females and also free health care services
SOCIO-ECONOMIC PROBLEMS OF PAKISTAN Outline: i) ii) iii) iv) v) vi) vii) viii) ix) x) xi) xii) i) ii) iii) iv) v) vi) vii) viii) i) Introduction Problems Faced By Pakistan At The Time Of Inception Current Scenario Social Problems Poverty Illiteracy Overpopulation Unemployment Child Labour Corruption Poor Social Sector Including Health, Safe Drinking Water, Sanitation And Basic Infrastructure Women Are Not Empowered Human Rights Problem Injustice Sectarianism, Extremism, And Target Killing Absence Of Rule Of Law Economic Problems Economic Loss Due To War On Terrorism Energy Crisis Low FDI And Huge Debt Trap Poorly Managed Tax System Low Export And High Import Inflation Influx Of Local People Fom War Ridden Areas And Their Rehabilitation Lack Of Tourism Suggestions Ensuring Equal Distribution Of Wealth.
ii) iii) iv) v) vi) vii) viii) ix) x)
Dispensation Of Free And Quick Justice To Curb Corruption At All Levels The Curriculum Of Schools Need Be Reviewed Health Care Be Provided To All Citizens Provision Of Equal Rights To All Citizens Poverty Alleviation Programmes Be Initiated Population Growth Be Controlled New Dams Should Be Built New Industries Be Set Up To Provide Employment.
Conclusion People are the essential pillar of any country. It is the fundamental duty and responsibility of the country to fulfil the basic needs of its people. Basic needs of man comprises of shelter, food and clothing. When these needs are not fulfilled they bring about problems termed as socio-economic problems. Pakistan has also been suffering from these problems. The real issue is not the presence of these problems in the society. But the extent to which they are being paid attention and solved. When these problems are not met timely and the grievances of the people are not redressed they turn out to be a menace for the country. They assert a negative impact on society. The society deprived of basic necessities of life is ignorant of its obligations towards the country. This results in deviant behaviour, drug abuse, smuggling, corruption, poverty, illiteracy and many other social evils. The country beset with social crises and problems fails to attract foreign investment. Low investment results in economic breakdown and causes decline in export, low MNCs business, tumbling stock market and inflation. Pakistan has been facing a lot social problems since its inception in 1947. In the start there were the problems of lack of funds, rehabilitation of refugees, poor infrastructure and widespread poverty of masses. Quaid-e-Azam tried his best to solve these problems and get the state machinery working. Owing to his sudden death he could not eradicate these problems completely. Unfortunately, leaders after him did not pay considerable attention towards the solution of various problems. Subsequently, the problems have grown with the passage of time and become social evils. Pakistan is a developing country and faces all social problems that developing countries face along with political instability that aggravates the problems further. Currently, Pakistan has many challenges to face in the form of social and economic problems. Poverty has been one of the biggest problems that Pakistan faces today. It is rightly said that poverty anywhere is a threat to prosperity everywhere. 70 per cent of the population of Pakistan live in villages. According to an analysis, poverty has increased roughly from 30% to 40% during the past decade. It means that 40 per cent of the countrys population is merely earning their livelihood below the poverty line. In such condition people are deprived of their basic necessities of life. Proper education and medication are becoming distant from them. They are forced to think of their survival only. Perhaps the greatest loss comes in the field of education. The inadequacy of quality education renders our country incapable of dealing with the challenges of the 21st century. People marred by poverty are unable to afford quality education for their children. In addition, governments negligence is aggravating the situation further. Despite various steps taken by different governments for the promotion of education, literacy rate lingers at 56% over the decade. Pakistan is spending only a meagre amount of its GDP on this vital sector. Owing to low investment, government run schools are deprived of basic facilities like proper classrooms, water and sanitation facilities, electricity. Private sector is doing a commendable job in this regard. But owing to money making objective of this sector, education has been beyond poors reach. The primary completion rate in Pakistan giv en by UNESCO is 33.8 % in females and 47% in males, which shows that people in the 6th largest country of the world are unable to get the basic education.
Pakistan is facing the dragon of overpopulation. The growth rate of Pakistan is very high and is among the highest in the world. Since 1947, the population has become more than triple. Pakistan is almost touching 180 million mark. Population expansion has been a real issue of concern for all governments. With limited resources it is very difficult to cater to the needs of growing population. There is a great economic disparity among the people. Poor are committing suicides out of hunger while rich are busy in amassing more and more wealth. These social problems directly affect the masses. The massively increasing population has almost outstripped the resources in production, facilities and in job opportunities. Pakistan is poorly faced with the problem of unemployment. The existing unemployment rate is 15%. Pakistan is confronting cyclical, technical, structural and seasonal unemployment. It is always considered to be killing for an economy. The most horrible part is that it is rising every year which in long term will demonstrate to be hazardous for the economy of Pakistan. It has negative impact on society. It creates frustration and revengeful attitude. It leads to an increase in the incidences of crimes. Owing to poverty and unemployment, parents instead of sending their children to schools, prefer child labour for them. They make them do so to support their family and use them as earning hands from the early age. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan estimated in 2005 that there would be 10 to 12 million child workers in Pakistan by 2010-11.But according to an AllPakistan Labour Force survey, this number has doubled to about 21 million child workers. It shows the gravity of the situation. The main reason is poverty, while the low literacy rate has also contributed to the problem to a large extent. Child labour is a sort of deluge that is draining away our precious talent to be utilized in right place. Child labour pushes them into a bad company and immoral activities such as use of drugs, crime. Corruption is another huge social problem. Transparency International (TI) has ranked Pakistan 34th most corrupt nation in the world. The menace of corruption has links to a multitude of vices. Its roots are linked to injustice, mistrust, suspicion, extremism and terrorist activities. It creates a sense of insecurity, exacerbates poverty and adds to the misfortune of the vulnerable segments of the society. It also instils a sense of hopelessness and despondency and threatens the strength of good values which have been established over centuries of civilized struggle. Rising poverty in Pakistan necessitates that 10 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) be spent on social sector including education, health, safe drinking water, sanitation and basic infrastructure to achieve Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. At present, Pakistan spends only three per cent of its GDP on health and education whereas India allocates nine per cent for these sectors. Such a meagre amount which is already insufficient to cater to the needs is further misappropriated. There are less hospitals and medical centres. If there are any, the people are unable to afford their and their childrens health expenses. So the health problems grow unchecked. It is very depressing that basic health facilities are not available to the half of the population. We have seen phenomenal changes in the world. But the status and fate of women has not changed much in Pakistan. In Pakistan their situation has become worse. It comes as no surprise that we were recently rated as one of the worst countries in the world when it comes to the way we treat women. More than 60 years after independence, 80% of Pakistan women are still subject to domestic violence. One in three has to endure villainy like rape, honour killing, immolation and acid attacks. Pakistanis have suffered for decades because their human rights have not been protected in the communities as well the courts. Whether they are women or children, Ahmedis or Christians, Shiites or atheists, the rights of minorities are always threatened. Pakistan still struggles between the secular British and religious Arabic laws and traditions. The violation of human right can easily be attributed to the absence of timely justice to the masses. Justice delayed is justice denied. Dispensation of timely justice is the core essence of a welfare society. It is the duty of the state to promote justice. But in the case of Pakistan it has always been a day dream for the poor masses. Since the independence judiciary has been captive at the hands of establishment. Weak judiciary has been unable to redress the grievances of the masses. Under such conditions people resort to violent actions and resolve their issues by extreme methods. Religious differences such as Shia vs. Sunni are further adding fuel to the fire. Religious extremism that took its roots in Pakistan after the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979 is proving venomous for Pakistan. This religious extremism took a new shape of terrorism after 9/11. After the incident of 9/11 suicide bombing in Pakistan has become a norm of the day. Target killing is another menace which is claiming hundreds of innocent lives daily. Owing to poor governance, the government is losing control over law and order situation. When individuals put themselves ahead of institutions, they set a bad example. Suicide attacks, target killing, robbery and other crimes have become norm of the day. And government seems helpless in this regard.
Social problems are interlinked with economic problems. Economic prosperity serves as a backbone for the overall progress of a nation. One thing is common in all developed nations- they are economically sound. When citizens of a country are freed from the worries of earning a livelihood to sustain their lives, they divert their attention to more useful things. They focus on education, improvise healthcare, develop technologies that make life easy and much more. Poor economic condition is the root cause of so many problems that exist in a society. Unfortunately, Pakistans economic conditions are pathetic. As if power cr ises, lack of foreign investment for the development of industrial zones, backward and out-dated technology were not enough, Pakistans indulgence in war on terrorism served as a fatal blow to the alr eady crumbling economic state. Terrorism has emerged as a monster for the world in general and for Pakis tan in particular. Pakistans involvement in War on Terror has proved a nightmare. The image of Pakistan as a peace loving country has been tarnished. Thousands of Pakistanis have lost their lives while millions have lost everything they had and are forced to migrate to relatively safer places. This war has destroyed our economy beyond imagination. Terrorism is very closely linked to the declining economic conditions and high rate of illiteracy prevailing in our country. The poor and illiterate become easy prey to the masterminds who can train and use them in whatever they want. Pakistans economy has suffered on two accounts: first large amount of money is being used on WoT, and second because we have lost many foreign investors and markets. Energy crisis has further crippled the already tumbling economy. It has almost jammed the industrial wheel of the country. Owing to frequent outages many industrial units have been closed. Closure of industries has caused a severe blow to economy. Energy starved economy fails to attract foreign investment badly. Poor economic condition of the country has not only kept the foreign investors away but the local as well. When the conditions for industrial sector are not healthy in the country, the inflow of foreign money to the country is checked causing decline in foreign reserves. Decline in foreign reserves compel the country to seek loans from the other countries. Owing to fragile economy, FDI is shrinking on account of terrorism and political instability. Another major pr oblem is Pakistans huge debt and its continued dependence on financial aid. Moreover, tax system in Pakistan is also inefficient and unsatisfactory. Ratio of direct taxes is more than indirect taxes. Tax evasion is common. The rich are reluctant to pay tax, while the poor are paying tax even on the purchase of a match box. With unhealthy conditions and decline in foreign reserves, the country is destined to face low export and high import. It is also the case with our industrial sector. Due to inconsistent supply of electricity to industrial sector, our industry fails to give required output. Not to speak of surplus production, our industries are not able to meet the national requirement. The production of goods in lesser quantities has affected export from our industrial sector. This makes our country to import goods, in order to meet the needs of the masses causing inflation. Inflation provides an important insight on the state of the economy and policies that govern it. Stable inflation not only provides impetus for economic growth, but also helps uplift vulnerable strata of society. Pakistan, in recent years has been in the grip of high inflation, which amongst other things has adversely affected the economic health of the country. The overall Consumer Price Index (CPI), a key indicator of inflation, has swelled by 76% in the last four years, eroding the purchasing power of the people as the overall economy has not performed in line with ever-increasing prices. Moreover, local people of war-ridden areas are migrating to other areas of Pakistan. Country has seen the largest migration since independence in 1947. These people have left their homes, businesses, possessions and property back home. This large influx of people and their rehabilitation is an economic burden for Pakistan. Unemployment is already prevalent and now the question of providing employment to these migrants has also become a serious concern. This portion of population is contributing nothing worthwhile to the national income yet they have to be benefited from it. This unproductive lot of people is a growing economic problem of Pakistan. Last but not least, lack of tourism is also a cause of the declining in economy. Northern areas of Pakistan have been a place of great tourist attraction. The beautiful hills, the lush green valleys, shimmering lakes and flowing waterfalls brought many a tourist from all over the world to Pakistan. This contributed to foreign exchange. Tourism Industry was one of the booming industries of Pakistan. Besides attracting foreign exchange, it also provided employment to local people. Also, tourist industry was a source of friendly relations with other countries. Nevertheless, war on terrorism has served as a serious blow to the tourism industry of Pakistan. Local as well as foreign media has projected Pakistan as a dangerous and unsafe country. Its poor law and order situation has alarmed the tourist and thus Northern areas no more receive many tourists.
For Pakistanis to make sure that Pakistan not only survives but also grows and thrives and joins the modern world by becoming a progressive and democratic state, they need to take following steps: The gap between the rich and the poor must be decreased by ensuring equal distribution of wealth. Dispensation of free and quick justice be ensured by strengthening judiciary.
There is a sheer need to curb corruption at all levels. The institutions of NAB and FIA should be made more powerful to curb corruption The curriculum of schools need be reviewed so that children can receive scientific and secular education in their mother tongue. In addition, there is need to develop critical and creative thinking. Health care education and free health care needs be provided to all citizens. Provision of equal rights to all citizens especially women and minorities be ensured. Poverty alleviation programmes be initiated to reduce poverty and child labour.
Population growth be controlled by spreading awareness about the advantages of small families among the masses through media. Energy crisis must be resolved on priority basis to revitalize the dying economy. New dams should be built and new methods of producing electricity should be utilized. Youth be equipped with technical education and new industries be set up to provide employment.
There are so many problems in Pakistan. There is only one thing that can help Pakistan in solving all the problems that is the selfimprovement of each and every Pakistani. All of us should be patriotic, honest, and hardworking. Everyone should respect the laws of country and obey the laws. Only then we can change our Pakistan's condition. There is a famous saying "God does not change the condition of any country until the people of the country do not improve their selves. It is true in the case of P akistan. Poverty in Pakistan Poverty in Pakistan A. B. C. 1. 2. 3. D. 1. 2. 3. 4. Introduction Poverty Condition in Pakistan Definition According to Homer According Jean Guenon Poverty line International Organizations Reports about poverty in Pakistan UNDP (United Nations Development Program) Report World Bank Asian Development Bank Report Pakistans Planning Commission Report
E. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. F. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. G.
Causes/Reasons of poverty in Pakistan Government Policies Poor governance Judiciary System Unemployment Overpopulation Education Corruption Division of Agricultural Land Materialism Large Scale Import Law and Order Fluctuated Foreign investment Privatization Moral Culture Political Instability Solutions/Remedies to overcome Poverty in Pakistan Boost agriculture Construction industry Unequal access to input and output markets Controlling of inflation and other economic indicators and regulators Maintaining law and order situation in order to protect economic activities Promote industrialization Provision of job opportunities Merit should be the upshot strategy in all walks of life Equal distribution of resources Establishment of justice and equality Conclusion
The word poverty derived from Latin word pauper means poor. Poverty refers to the condition of not hav ing the means to afford basic human needs such as clean water, nutrition, health care, clothing and shelter. Poverty is the condition of having fewer resources or less income than others within a society or country, or compared to worldwide averages. Poverty is one of the major social problems which Pakistan is facing. It is one of the most important and sensitive issue not only for Pakistan but for the whole world. Poverty can cause other social problems like theft, bribe, corruption, adultery, lawlessness, injustice etc. It is the fundamental duty and responsibility of the country to fulfill the basic needs of its people. Basic needs of man comprises of shelter, food and clothing. When these needs are not fulfilled they bring about problems termed as socio-economic problems. Pakistan has also been suffering from these problems. The real issue is not the presence of these problems in the society. But the extent to which they are being paid attention and solved. When these problems are not met timely the results in the form of deviant behavior, drug abuse, smuggling, corruption, poverty, illiteracy and many other social evils. Poverty Condition in Pakistan Poverty has been one of the biggest problems that Pakistan faces today. It is rightly said that poverty anywhere is a threat to prosperity everywhere. Nearly 60 per cent of the population of Pakistan lives in villages. According to an analysis, poverty has increased roughly from 30% to 40% during the past decade. It means that 40 per cent of the countrys population is earni ng their livelihood below the poverty line. In such condition people are depressed of their basic necessities of life. Proper education and medicine are becoming distant from them. They are forced to think of their survival only of due to poverty and unemployment, parents instead of sending their children to schools, prefer child labor for them. They make them do so to support their family and use them as earning hands from the early age. Definition A situation in which a person or household lacks the resources necessary to be able to consume a certain minimum basket of goods. The basket consists either of food, clothing, housing and other essentials (moderate poverty) or of food alone (extreme poverty).The most common method used to define poverty is income-based. According to Homer This is misery! The last, the worst that man can feel. According Jean Guenon He is poor who doesn't have enough; he is poorer who cannot get enough". A person is considered poor if his or her income level falls below some mi nimum level necessary to meet basic needs. This minimum level is usually called the poverty line. International Organizations Reports about poverty in Pakistan UNDP (United Nations Development Program) Report
According to a UNDP report, 65.5 percent population of Pakistan earns less than 2$ per day. SPDC (Social Policy Development Centre) Report
According to the SPDC, 88 percent of Baluchistans population, 51 percent of NWFP, 21 percent of Sindh and 25 percent of Punjabs population is prey to poverty and deprivation. World Bank Report
According to the 2011 statistics of the World Bank, due to the global financial recession poverty ratio is increased especially of USA and the EU countries have pushed millions of people around the world into deeper poverty. Almost 40% of 107 developing countries are highly exposed to the poverty. Pakistan is ranked among the 43 countries who are most exposed to poverty. Asian Development Bank Report
According to the ADB report, poverty is spreading in Pakistan due t o the rising population, Pakistans internal situation, agriculture backwardness, unequal income distribution, defiance expenditure, and increase in utility charges and rise in unproductive activities. Pakistans Planning Commission Report
Pakistans Planning Commission (2011), poverty rate has jumped from 23.9 to 37.5 percent in the last three years. The commission has estimated that in 2007 there were 35.5 million people living below the poverty line but in 2010 their number increased to over 64 million. Causes/Reasons of poverty in Pakistan It is difficult to point out all causes of poverty in Pakistan but the major causes of are given below: 1. Government Policies Government is not well aware of present conditions of country. The policies of government are based on the suggestions of officials which do not have awareness about the problems of a common man. After implementation of the policies do not get effective result. After the failure of one policy, government does not consider its failure and announces another policy without studying the aftermaths of last one. Heavy taxes and unemployment crushes the people and they are forced to live below poverty line. The suitable medical facilities are not provided to people and they are forced to get treatment for private clinics which are too costly. 2. Education Education sector plays a very vital role in the progress of any country. Unfortunately, the condition of education sector in Pakistan is very miserable. The lack of quality education our country is unable of dealing with the challenges of the 21st century. Due to poverty people are unable to afford quality education for their children. In addition, governments negligence is frus trating the situation further. Even though various steps taken by different governments for the promotion of education, literacy rate lingers at 56% over the decade. Owing to low investment, government run schools are poor of basic facilities like proper classrooms, water and sanitation facilities, electricity. Private sector is doing an admirable job in this regard. But the money making objective of this sector, education has been beyond poors reach. The primary completion rate in Pakistan given by UNESCO is 33.8 % in females and 47% in males, which shows that people in the 6th largest country of the world are unable to get the basic education. 3. Overpopulation Pakistan is facing the dragon of overpopulation. The growth rate of Pakistan is very high and is among the highest in the world. Since 1947, the population has become more than triple. Pakistan is almost touching 180 million marks. Population expansion has been a real issue of concern for all governments. With limited resources it is very difficult to control the growing population. There is a great economic disparity among the people. Poor are committing suicides out of hunger while rich are busy in buildup more and more wealth. These social problems directly affect the masses. The massively increasing population has almost outstripped the resources in production, facilities and in job opportunities. 4. Unemployment Pakistan is poorly faced with the problem of unemployment. The existing unemployment rate is 15%. Thousands of young doctors, engineers and other educated people are out of job. There are no opportunities for youth to utilize their capabilities or abilities in right direction. Pakistan is facing the problem of brain drain due to unemployment because we are unable to utilize their precious hands in the progress of the country. The most horrible part is that it is rising every year it will show to be risky for the economy of Pakistan. It has negative impact on society. It creates frustration and revengeful attitude. It leads to an increase in the incidences of crimes. 5. Judiciary System
Justice delayed is justice denied. Timely justice is the core value of a welfare society. It is the duty of the state to promote justice. But in the case of Pakistan it has always been a day dream for the poor masses. Since the independence judiciary has been in prison at the hands of establishment. Weak judiciary has been unable to redress the grievances of the masses. Under such conditions people choice to violent actions and resolve their issues by extreme methods. 6. Poor governance Owing to poor governance, the government is losing control over law and order situation. When individuals put themselves in front of institutions, they set a bad example. Suicide attacks, target killing, robbery and other crimes have become norm of the day. And government seems helpless in this regard. 7. Corruption Corruption has become a major threat to Pakistani society because of four important reasons. First, the image of Pakistan has enormously suffered in the past few decades or so as the corrupt practices while awarding contracts, the launching of foreign funded projects and money laundering done by high level officials earned a bad name for the country. In 1996, transparency international a Berlin based civil society organization, rated Pakistan as the second most corrupt country in the world. The report TI was a source of great shame for Pakistan was it not shattered the countrys image but also discouraged foreign donors to support Pakistan in its developmental projects. When the culture of greed resulting into taking commission from foreign companies and agencies deepened, the trust and confidence of the world diminished. According to TIs national corruption perception NCP Survey 2010 there occurs widespread corruption in Pakistan from 195 billion rupees in 2009 to 223 billion rupees in 2010. Some of the most corrupt institutions and areas in Pakistan identified by TI are: police, power sector, land administration, communications, education, local government, judiciary, health, taxation and custom. According to TIs survey, there has take n place manifold increase in corruption in the present government than the previous one. Neither foreign national nor over-seas Pakistanis who may be interested in investing in this country are simply discouraged when they encounter large-scale corruption in the shape of bribery and kickbacks. 8. Division of Agricultural Land Pakistan is an agricultural country. Most of people are farmers by profession. One has land which is fulfilling the needs of his family but he has to divide the land into his children when they got young. After division the land is not sufficient to support a family. Now the families of his children are suffering and spending their lives below poverty line. 9. Materialism In our society social bonding are gradually becomes thinner and thinner. A race of material object has been started even no one tried to understand the problems of others. Everyone is gradually changing from human to a bioman which only know about his needs and have no concept about the limitations of others. People are not ready to help each other. At last everyone has lost his trust on others which affect our social and economic system and it is another cause of poverty. 10. Large Scale Import The import of Pakistan is greater than export. Big revenue is consumed in importing good every year, even raw material has to import for industry. If we decrease import and establish own supply chains from our country natural resources the people will have better opportunities to earn. 11. Law and Order There are lot of problems regarding law and order. Terrorist attacks create uncertainty in stock markets and people earning from stock are getting loss due to which the whole country faces uncertain increase in commodity prices. 12. Fluctuated Foreign investment
Foreign investor comes to local markets. They invest millions of dollars in stock markets and stock market gets rise in index. Then the investor withdraws his money with profit and market suddenly collapses. The after math always is faced by poor people. 13. Privatization Government is unable to manage the departments and country has low reserve assets. So the meet the requirements some companies run by government are sold to foreign investors. The commodities or services provided by the companies are becoming costly. For example if government sold a gas plant then prices for gas in country rises. 14. Moral Culture The main reason for poverty is the social dishonesty and irresponsible behavior of people. Everyone is trying to get rich by using unfair means. A shop keeper is ready to get whole money from the pocket of customer. People doing jobs are not performing their duties well. In society the man considered brave or respectful who do not pay taxes or continuously violate the laws. This irresponsible behavior continuously increases and produces loss for county. 15. Political Instability Pakistan has been facing political crisis from its birth (1947) till now. From 1947 to 2010, In this long period many government changed but unfortunately they all could not Maintain the political environment stable, after ruling 1, 2 or three year that governments politically instable. Political instability is a situation when the uncertainty among the government structure expand due to some basic causes and it eventually end up the current government1. Armys frequent interventions have never given democracy a fair chance to flourish in our country. Our political leaders are also responsible for this predicament. They have always tried to achieve their vested interests in the garb of politics. They have never respected the norms of democracy. Judiciary has also been the victim of such political instability. Thats why; our country has failed to develop healthy political institutions, a lasting democracy and impartial judiciary. Solutions/Remedies to Overcome the Poverty in Pakistan Policies regarding poverty reduction Marshaled by different government could not calculate the desire results. Crudely speaking, this is the gravest problem being faced by Pakistani nation, if not handled with diligent care and implicit faith, will swell and devour the entire mechanism of the state. For a welfare state to get stronger, policies as regards development of poor strata should be the top of the checklists behold a time when we shall be steadily hauling our d owntrodden economy towards heights, provided that we chalk out such policies that not only project the welfare of effected spots but also transpose their outlook .I propose following measures for extermination of this menace 1.Promote industrialization 2.Replacement of the traditional agricultural equipment with new scientific equipments in order to increase the yield. 3. Establishment of justice and equality 4. Equal distribution of resources 6. Merit should be the upshot strategy in all walks of life 7. Elimination of discriminatory policies 6. Controlling of inflation and other economic indicators and regulators. 8. Developing investment friendly environment 9.Giving more feasibilities and concessions to the foreign investors
10.Dumping extremism and feudalism 11.Establishing more and more technical institute in order to get people well skilled. 12. Prevalence of education 13. Provision of job opportunities 14. Division of agricultural lands among tenants. Conclusion Leadership has got central importance here; with proper planning and good government policies the problem can be solved. All they need to do is to appoint competent and wall qualified economists to help them tackle this issue and obviously their sincerity for its solution cannot be ignored as well. A country economy is the backbone of its country with its solution when it is saved many problems will automatically. Alone leadership is not enough for its solution. People of Pakistan have too got responsibility with equal share. People need to cooperate fully with government and should be sincere with their own country and put all their energies for eradication of poverty.
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Seasonality of the Agulhas Current with respect to near- and far-field winds
The Agulhas Current plays a critical role in both local and global ocean circulation and climate regulation, yet the mechanisms that determine the seasonal cycle of the current remain poorly understood. Model studies predict an austral winter-spring maximum in poleward volume transport, whilst observations reveal an austral summertime (February-March) maximum. Here, the role of winds on Agulhas Current seasonality is investigated using shallow water models, satellite measurements, and a 23-year transport proxy based on observations. A one-and-a-half layer reduced gravity model is shown to successfully reproduce the seasonal phasing of the current. This seasonality is found to be highly sensitive to the propagation speed of Rossby waves, which determines the arrival time of the wind stress signal at the western boundary. By matching Rossby wave speeds to those observed using altimetry, an Agulhas Current with a maximum flow in February and a minimum flow in July is simulated, agreeing well with observations. Near-field winds, to the west of 35◦E, dominate this seasonality, as signals from more remote wind forcing dissipate due to destructive interference while crossing the basin. Local winds driving coastal upwelling/downwelling directly over the Agulhas cannot, alone, account for the observed seasonal phasing, as they force a NovemberDecember maximum and June minimum in flow. The seasonal response to Indian Ocean winds is also investigated using a barotropic (single layer) model with realistic topography. A barotropic adjustment cannot explain the observed Agulhas Current seasonality, predicting a wintertime maximum in transport. The results from the barotropic simulation are similar to previous model studies, where seasonality is dominated by a southward propagation of signals via the Mozambique Channel, suggesting that these models are too barotopic in their response to the winds. Findings from this study elucidate the role of near-field winds and baroclinic processes in determining the seasonality of the Agulhas Current.
Hutchinson, K. 2018. Seasonality of the Agulhas Current with respect to near- and far-field winds. University of Cape Town.
Hutchinson, Katherine
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Other People Are Doing Their Mindful Practices Incorrectly
by Jaybird · February 14, 2018
In the most recent post dedicated to Lent, Saul posted a link to this Vox article that explained that “secular Lent” misses the point.
That post was intended to be a thread dedicated to stories about what people were doing themselves, not what they thought that other people were doing wrong and that comment started off a thread that wasn’t appropriate for the post.
But just because you shouldn’t talk about it in that thread doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t talk about it at all.
Please use this thread to complain about other people’s stupid religious practices that miss the point. The Vox article provides a good starting point but, by no means, should the assumption be made that criticisms of other people’s stupid religious practices need be limited to Lenten abstinence.
So… what beef do you need to steam-clean?
(Note: Civility Rules Still Apply!)
Jaybird is Birdmojo on Xbox Live and Jaybirdmojo on Playstation's network. He's been playing consoles since the Atari 2600 and it was Zork that taught him how to touch-type. If you've got a song for Wednesday, a commercial for Saturday, a recommendation for Tuesday, an essay for Monday, or, heck, just a handful a questions, fire off an email to AskJaybird-at-gmail.com
Consistency!
Opposite Day: Torture is Not That Bad
Markets in everything ctd.
Kolohe says:
Isn’t there a completely different holiday set aside for airing of grievences?Report
Jason in reply to Kolohe says:
Yeah, but it’s too commercialized. It’s run by a big eastern syndicate.Report
Jaybird in reply to Kolohe says:
Q: How many feast holidays do we have?
A: Nowhere near enough.Report
Kolohe in reply to Jaybird says:
And really, the Festivus spirit is something people should keep all year round.Report
Jaybird says:
Personally, I think that the Vox article was silly and stupid in the same way that many of the gatekeeping discussions are silly and stupid.
“You shouldn’t enjoy what you’re enjoying the way you enjoy it… you should enjoy it the way these other people enjoy it.”
I mean, as an atheist, I don’t think that there is a “right” way to do Lent anymore than there is a “right” way to do (insert any holiday from the calendar).
There are *TRADITIONAL* ways to do things, granted… but saying that “the Traditional Way is the Right Way!” is usually pretty transparently wrong (and kinda funny when you see such things published by Progressive websites like Vox). (And that’s without getting into how “Traditional” means everything from “this is how they did it thousands of years ago!” to “this is how the Baby Boomers did it in the 70’s”.)
I’m sure that there are Catholics who sniff their nose at my claims to be giving up something that isn’t meat for Lent (even as they give a grudging thumbs up for pancakes the night of Carnival). I’m sure that there are others who say “If (clapping emoticon) You (clapping emoticon) don’t (clapping emoticon) observe (clapping emoticon) Lent (clapping emoticon) then (clapping emoticon) don’t (clapping emoticon) celebrate (clapping emoticon) Carnival!” and see my giving up carbs as just barely good enough reason to eat pancakes for supper on Fat Tuesday.
And I’m sure that the Pope thinks various things too.
But gatekeeping Lent is silly and stupid in the same way that gatekeeping anything is silly and stupid.Report
PD Shaw in reply to Jaybird says:
Wasn’t the piece a form of religious-splaining?Report
I suppose. But somewhere around the word “appropriated” it morphed from “semi-pro anthropology” to “gatekeeping”.Report
Nevermoor in reply to Jaybird says:
I think that the Vox article was silly and stupid in the same way that many of the gatekeeping discussions are silly and stupid.
Well let’s be sure not to have any opinions then.
I think it’s every bit as fair a point as the annual articles about how Christmas really isn’t about finding the hot new toy and about how Easter has very little to do with bunnies and chocolate eggs. There’s plenty of societal force pulling holidays in crass and commercial directions, so pointing out where that intersects and objecting to it seems completely reasonable.
With lent, of course, the crass commercializers aren’t Hershey and Hallmark (yet, anyway). They’re the diet industry. But I think it takes less than a layer of abstraction to eliminate the difference.Report
Jaybird in reply to Nevermoor says:
I don’t understand this response to my criticism.
There’s plenty of societal force pulling holidays in crass and commercial directions, so pointing out where that intersects and objecting to it seems completely reasonable.
And telling someone who says “Christmas isn’t about presents, if you’re not a Christian you shouldn’t get other people presents at Christmastime” that their opinion is silly and stupid is not telling them that they shouldn’t have opinions.
Or are we in a place where the bigger problem is that there’s no such thing as a silly or stupid opinion and someone who thinks that there is would be automatically wrong in the first place?Report
dragonfrog in reply to Jaybird says:
Christians have only a tenuous claim on Christmas anyway – anyone trying to celebrate Yule without sacrificing a boar to Frey and anointing themselves and the statues of the gods with its blood, their piddly little wreath neither on fire nor rolling down a hill in celebration of the sun’s rebirth – they don’t get to tell us from doing traditions wrong.
At least the secular Christmas has something vaguely resembling Odin and Sleipnir on the roof.Report
Maribou in reply to dragonfrog says:
@dragonfrog I would argue that the Christian claim on Easter is no less tenuous. (See my remarks to LeeEsq elsewhere in this thread.)
Masterful gloss on Christmas though.Report
dragonfrog in reply to Maribou says:
Thanks for pointing that out – I know considerably less about the pre-/non-Christian roots of Easter than I do about those of Christmas (not that I’m particularly erudite on any of it).Report
Larry Hamelin says:
Someone is wrong on the internetReport
PD Shaw says:
I am observing the British tradition of Dry January again this Winter, albeit during the month of February as I am a splitter. I am fairly confident though that once people familiarize themselves with the numerous implications of the February rite, it is just bound to become the mainstream observance. But October Dry January is just plain silly.Report
Mike Schilling in reply to PD Shaw says:
For one thing, February is shorter.Report
PD Shaw in reply to Mike Schilling says:
Ah, the mysteries begin to be revealed.
OK, that that was pretty much it.Report
PD Shaw in reply to PD Shaw says:
This was mostly poking fun of myself. I think Dry January is Lent-adjacent, but not to be confused with religious observances. What’s interesting is the UK government in league with the press is trying to create a social culture that recognizes a period of abstinence that will receive communal support. It has some superficial resemblance to religion, but it is simply a public health measure.Report
Maribou says:
I thought there were some interesting parts to the article, and I found the conclusion moving, as @chip-daniels did, even though I don’t like how she got there … but for me the tipping point was the use of the word “appropriated” to describe “the secular world”‘s relationship to Lent.
I mean, it’s not like we have some vast cohort of cradle atheists going around grabbing up the Christian minority’s traditions and repurposing them to their own secular ends. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that! IMO at least). *Most* of these supposed appropriators are part of the Christian tradition, in one way or another, themselves.
People are taking traditions that for the most part they were born into, or some of their family members were born into, or that they heard about from their gran this one time, or whatever, and adapting them to suit their own beliefs.
That’s not appropriation, it’s synthesis. For someone who writes about Catholicism for (part of) their living to complain about synthesis of tradition and belief by others, and the way in which such synthesis misses the point, is so… history-deaf that it shifted the article from balanced, thoughtful, etc., to obnoxious for me. Like, for example, a modern Wiccan complaining about how Brigid isn’t REALLY a Catholic saint, so those Catholics are just so darn foolish / wrong / whatever to be including her in their belief. I mean, sure, yes, and Catholics who rigidly insist that all their saints are literal facts and anyone who thinks otherwise should be anathema are equally frustrating. But for the love of Pete, can we not just let people have their folk beliefs and folk practices and let them more or less alone to conduct their lives as they see fit, if they’re not actively harming you or trying to control you by so doing? Why not ethnographize rather than sermonize? It’s honestly, to me, a tinier, less socially damaging version of the same impulse that leads folks to claim that same-sex marriage is an offense against God and therefore no one else should marry someone of the same sex whether or not they share those beliefs. Can we not just give each other some space?
And for someone who writes for Vox of all places to complain about how those darn secularists are appropriating her (majoritarian, colonial, etc.) culture is just… yeah, I really can’t come up with a better word than history-deaf.
Which isn’t to say that anyone in particular shouldn’t feel annoyed that people are giving up Twitter for Lent, I suppose. But if, from a religious perspective, you don’t think that doing so has a good chance of including elements of rekindling spiritual concerns, getting closer to God (even for people who don’t believe in God), and alienating oneself from worldly ones…. well, I have trouble seeing that as anything other than a profoundly uncharitable read on them.
Personally I’ve found that people’s supposedly trivial and shallow concerns often tie in to great gulfs of spiritual need and complexity.
(@slade-the-leveller Pst, we’re over here on this topic now. I only deleted your comment over there because I’d already said, “quit talking about this over here, more comments in this subthread will be deleted,” in so many moderator-labelled words.)
((And to be totally clear y’all can tell me and/or Jaybird we’re full of horse pucky all you want over here. just that lent! thread is not FOR that. ))Report
Slade the Leveller in reply to Maribou says:
Thanks, missed that. Let me reiterate, I think it’s a thoughtful piece.
I’m a more or less observant Lutheran (lapsed Catholic) who struggles daily to live a Christ-like life. More often than not I fail. Striving is expected of Christians, and failure is the expected outcome. That should not signal an end to the striving, however.
I’ll also state that it’s been years since I’ve given something up for Lent. My vices are few, and fairly petty, so I don’t see the need to eschew any of them in a symbolic gesture the end of which I’ll be looking forward to as soon as I begin the deprivation. I’ve yet to meet the person whose life changed due to a Lenten vow of abstinence.
As for the article, I fail to see how an atheist can object to the word “appropriate” when referring to a secular vision of Lent, perhaps Christianity’s most holy observance.Report
Maribou in reply to Slade the Leveller says:
@slade-the-leveller
I have no idea how an atheist would object to it, but as a not-entirely-lapsed and sometimes heterodox Catholic, i object to the word (as detailed above), the frame that atheists who were nonetheless raised Christian are not allowed to have their cake and eat it too when it comes to spirituality (her frame, not yours), and the tone-deafness of anyone who bears the shameful / enspiriting inheritance of Catholicism’s role in annihilating / preserving native cultures through programmatic efforts of appropriation / synthesis, calling someone else out for appropriating their/our stuff. Like how could you even start to do that with a straight face? (To be clear, both Catholics and Protestants get the side eye from me on this one.)
I also have a very marked theological objection to the idea that Lent is the holiest Christian observance. But then, as a Catholic, I would ;).
Alsotoo, though, you have met at least one person whose life was changed due to a Lenten vow of abstinence, because you’ve met me, and there’s one particular Lenten season whose abstentions (from a behavior, not a thing) taught me to be a better and different person in a really meaningful way. Uncoincidentally IMO, it’s also a season in which my experience is that Grace is the only thing that got me through the process, many times over. Part of my Lenten observance every year for the last more than a decade since it happened is actually to reflect on that particular gift, and be grateful for it, and to examine myself for signs of that particular vice creeping back in again.
It’s too personal to talk about in detail in the wrangly context of this particular post, but if you’re interested in the details, you’re welcome to ask in email or something. If not, not. But although it’s entirely reasonable to doubt my experience of my life having been changed, I’m thinking that’s not what you meant by saying you’d yet to meet that person.Report
Dang it, I’m an idiot. Of course, I know Easter is the holiest. My Lenten vow is now to proofread my comments 😉 I’ll blame that on the flu I’ve been battling all week.
I’d be very interested in hearing about the vow that changed your life. Most of the ones I’ve done, or know other people to have done, have been so superficial so as to have been hardly worth the bother. Look for that email.Report
@slade-the-leveller it’s marseillaise at gmail ….Report
Nevermoor in reply to Maribou says:
I think we’re reacting to two different things.
If someone wants to give up Twitter for lent, it feels churlish to say that isn’t a meaningful sacrifice/the right sacrifice/whetever. Heck, if someone wants to give up NOTHING, that is what it is.
I’m reacting to the part of the piece about how to “Lose X pounds before Easter” or to otherwise convert a moment of sacrifice into another commercialized holiday focused on self-benefit.Report
It’s all about self-benefit.
This is like those gamers who complain about “politics” getting into their video games. They’ve *ALWAYS* had politics in games.Report
Burt Likko says:
I like exchanging gifts and cards at Christmastime. I find most commercial Christmas music annoying but am usually tickled by people decorating their homes. I do not believe Jesus was the Son of God, and am actually dubious that the Jesus described in the Gospels existed at all. I like wearing a Santa hat around Christmastime and usually eat more chocolate and imbibe of alcohol more than is strictly good for my desire to lose weight. Obviously, I don’t go to church.
Am I doing “atheist Christmas” wrong? Of course not. I may be doing “Christian Christmas” wrong but so what? It’s a free country and I have no gripe with friends who do the holiday in a more religious way than me.
Why should Lent be any different?Report
Nevermoor in reply to Burt Likko says:
Fundamentally, I don’t think it is.
Also, fundamentally, I don’t think people would take an article saying that our culture has buried the point of Christmas in Amazon receipts as silly and stupid. Instead, we’ve long-since passed the point where that particular observation is both true and irrelevant.Report
Maribou in reply to Nevermoor says:
@nevermoor I would take such an article as silly if it demonstrated zero awareness of the pre-Christian historical context in which Christmas became a festival in the first place. (Yes, this means I find a lot of articles about Christmas silly.)Report
gabriel conroy says:
I didn’t like the Vox article, probably for similar reasons, although I may be a more lapsed Catholic than she is. (I’m making that assumption based on comments here and elsewhere she made…..I don’t really know that for a fact.)
I do think there’s value to giving up something or some behavior in order to refocus one’s energies on something else that is good or even transcendental. There’s probably also value in doing so within a tradition and a religious community so that one isn’t doing it alone.
And yet, one thing that irks me a little about Lent (and here I think I’m departing from the theme of the Vox article) is the very community aspect of Lent that some seem to find comforting. I’m referring to how so many people seem to use giving up something for Lent as a marker of identity, as a signal that one is being virtuous, akin to someone putting on a long face of deprivation instead of washing their face and combing their hair. It “irks” me, but I’m not sure it should. If someone else wants to do it and it doesn’t harm me, what’s it to me?Report
Nevermoor in reply to gabriel conroy says:
I think there’s an interesting parallel with other religious denials here.
There certainly seems to be a community spirit to observing Ramadan, and the same is true of Yom Kippur. That said, in this country neither of those religions have quite the in-your-face value-signaling component that is so common in modern evangelical christianity/christianism.
All of that is to say that shared sacrifice isn’t wrong, and does/should be a community experience, but I get why some of it irks you.Report
Chip Daniels in reply to gabriel conroy says:
I’m referring to how so many people seem to use giving up something for Lent as a marker of identity, as a signal that one is being virtuous, akin to someone putting on a long face of deprivation instead of washing their face and combing their hair. It “irks” me, but I’m not sure it should.
You know who else was irked?
“And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
Matthew 6:16-17Report
Jaybird in reply to Chip Daniels says:
It’s like the marshmallow test.
But for fasting.
Only without the researchers.Report
Marchmaine in reply to Chip Daniels says:
…and is the reading every Ash Wednesday.Report
gabriel conroy in reply to Chip Daniels says:
Ah….you caught my allusion 🙂Report
I enjoy it when my rash desire to sermonize is seen as being cleverly in on a reference.Report
I sort of liked the Vox article. The author is right in a way. A lot of religions believe in self-denial for its own purpose for a variety of reasons. The goal is to practice discipline at least or something deeper. The idea that you should deny yourself pleasure for some vague, nebulous reasons goes against modern morality though. Self-denial is good if it is for self-improvement but not if it is for anything else.Report
Lent is the only well know religious fasting period that makes sense to me from an historical point of view. “Hey, let’s tell everyone to eat less and give up meat a few times so our winter supplies stretch until a month past the Spring Equinox, when we finally get some more food”
Ramadan is far more hard core, but adherence to a lunar calendar without a kluge results in a fasting period that makes a cycle completely through the seasons every 15 to 16 years. Jewish fasts are also hard core, but as far as I can tell, for single days interspersed throughout the year.Report
I find the whole “spiritual but not religious” thing to be vague and inchoate. The other issue with concepts like “secular Lent” or “secular Christmas” is that they lend themselves to a form of Christian majoritarianism anyway. “Come on, why do you have to be so Jewish? I’m doing secular Lent and so can you! Or I’m doing atheist Christmas and so can you.” So the idea of choosing non-participation because someone does not identify as Christian, did not grow up as Christian, etc is still not really accepted. There is still the angle of “Why do you Jews have to be so openly different?”Report
Jaybird in reply to Saul Degraw says:
Do you have any Jewish festivals and/or mindful practices that you wish that other people in other faiths would pick up and adopt?
We can do a Sukkot thing. It’ll be fun!Report
LeeEsq in reply to Jaybird says:
Certain Christian groups have been known to celebrate Pesach to better understand the Last Super. I’ve read accounts of at least one Methodist girl in Texas having a Bat Mitzvah because in a short book on the history of Bar Mitzvahs. We live in a multicultural, universal age and that’s a problem for cultures that define themselves as peculiar. Its an even bigger problem for minority peculiar cultures.Report
Mike Schilling in reply to LeeEsq says:
“We’re Jews, Christian Jews, like Jesus’s early followers” is a thing among some Christian groups. I find it annoying, but that’s more on me than on them.Report
pillsy in reply to Mike Schilling says:
I tend to not to mind as long as they stay in their lane.
Really torques me off bad when they use it as a proselytization strategy strategy, though. I’m kind of touchy about proselytization in general.
(I appear to have a mental block against spelling “proselytization” right.)Report
Mike Schilling in reply to pillsy says:
Yes, the Jews for Jesus are dishonest and obnoxious.Report
Jaybird in reply to LeeEsq says:
Well, the complaint was that atheists adopting Lent/Christmas ended up being a form of Christian majoritarianism.
So let’s branch out! Let’s get some Jewish influence in there!
Come (festival), I can write a post about how we’re doing (festival) this year and here’s how I’m doing it in my household and doing what I can to make this tradition something for me and mine and my kitties (who got an extra packet this week as their way to celebrate Carnival).
Purim is the Jewish Halloween. Can we do something like that? Everybody likes Halloween.Report
bookdragon in reply to Jaybird says:
You absolutely should! I am looking forward to Purim (my daughter gets to be Ester in the shpiel this year!).Report
Jaybird in reply to bookdragon says:
I’ll make a post come… looks like Purim is March 1st this year! So the night of the 28th, I’ll try to put something up.Report
Maribou in reply to bookdragon says:
@bookdragon How cool that she gets to be Ester! Is she excited?Report
Maribou in reply to Jaybird says:
@jaybird I’m pretty sure that given your lack of experience with Purim, that would (justifiably) result in a number of people explaining how you are doing Purim so wrong as to be offensive?
Or was that your point?Report
Jaybird in reply to Maribou says:
Well, I’m doing some research here, and it says:
Many Jewish people, especially children, in the United States use this event as an opportunity to listen to the Megilla (or Megillah) to relive the events that are told about the story of Esther, Mordecai and Haman. It is customary to twirl graggers (Purim noisemakers) and stamp one’s feet when Haman’s name is mentioned.
Many Jewish people give to the needy around this time of the year. Food baskets or food gifts are also given away. It is a time for people to celebrate and be merry. So some Jewish schools hold celebrations to remember the past and their heritage. Other groups or organizations hold Purim carnivals filled with activities, costumes, food and games. Special prayers, particularly the Al HaNissim prayer are also included in evening, morning and afternoon prayers.
I figure a night devoted to telling the story of Esther (did you know it’s the only book of the Bible that doesn’t talk about God? It’s true!), putting together a gift basket, and donating to a nice charity would be easy to write a post about.Report
Hey, we know there’s at least one person who wants to hear about it.Report
LeeEsq in reply to Saul Degraw says:
To a large extent Christmas was always a secular holiday. The reason why the early Christians created Christmas was that they had rough idea that they would not get pagans to stop celebrating Saturnalia and other winter solstice festivals, so they decided to come up with a Christian equivalent about Jesus’ birth. The religious observations were always just a coating for the party underneath. Lent and Easter were always more religious than Christmas, so a secular Lent is a bit weirder.Report
Nevermoor in reply to LeeEsq says:
Also a fair point, as a biblical literalist would be entirely unable to conclude that Jesus was born anywhere near the end of December.Report
bookdragon in reply to Nevermoor says:
Reminds of when I went to Israel. I was a volunteer on a dig and met someone from Bethlehem whose family actually raised sheep and had for generations. He was Muslim, and while giving me a tour of the area, that of course included the Church of the Nativity, remarked “You Christians, you don’t know what you believe. No one has sheep out in December.”
I laughed – I’d studied enough history to know why Christmas was in December and that it had nothing to do with anyone knowing the actual date of Jesus’ birth.Report
LeeEsq in reply to bookdragon says:
Puritans pointed this out as a reason why real Christians shouldn’t celebrate Christmas.Report
Kolohe in reply to LeeEsq says:
Puritans were one of the more annoying “Well, *Actually*..”ers in human history.Report
Maribou in reply to LeeEsq says:
“The religious observations were always just a coating for the party underneath. Lent and Easter were always more religious than Christmas, so a secular Lent is a bit weirder.”
Most of Europe, under one set of Gods or another, had a big party in the middle of the cold time to mark a shift toward spring, a fallow time until spring and a party around rejuvenation and new hope around the spring solstice for hundreds of years before they became Christian.
That’s part of my annoyance with the article, the lack of even blinking in the direction of being aware that a holiday named after the pagan goddess of the dawn just MIGHT not need to be built up to only in the ways one particular Catholic approves.Report
LeeEsq in reply to Maribou says:
Isn’t this more of a Celtic-Germanic thing than a Greco-Roman thing? Granted winter means something entirely different in Italy and Greece than it does in Britain and Norway but they still get cold. Christmas was originally a Saturnalia replacement.Report
@leeesq That’s why I said “most of Europe.” I was thinking about Scandinavian countries, Celtic countries, Germanic countries mostly, but I wasn’t ONLY thinking about them. Eastern European countries have similar traditions.
As for the Greeks and Romans, Greeks have the least connection, to my knowledge (which is tiny so I might be missing something). That said, “Eos” is a Greek titan and the scholarship drawing a line between Ostara (Easter’s etymological root) and Eos is fairly solid.
The Romans pretty much line up with the Celts and the Germans: February 5th was the first day of Spring (similar to Celtic Imbolc) in the Roman calendar. The 4th-10th of April was the Great Mother (Cybele) festival. The 12th-19th of April was a week long festival for Ceres… goddess of Agriculture. Both of which were well established before the year 0.
It’s not exactly novel or particularly Christian to have festivals of excess, belt-tightening, or joyous renewal, at the particular timings of Carnival, Lent, and Easter respectively.
That’s part of the genius / horror of Catholicism taking over Rome (/ Rome taking over Christianity) and the rest of Europe! They lined all this stuff up! Perfectly!
Ahem.Report
Maribou in reply to Maribou says:
(more on Cybele here, mostly because Cybele worship is fascinating, not because any of it is particularly relevant: https://www.ancient.eu/Cybele/)
(I’m so bad at “people were doing this religion wrong!” unless I get totally meta about it. “People are gatekeeping this time of year wrong!” I can totally manage.)Report
James K in reply to Saul Degraw says:
@saul-degraw
The thing is that atheists don’t have our own rituals and festivals – there haven’t been enough of us for long enough. As such we end up having to use other people’s. Those of us who grew up surrounded by Christianity tend to use the rituals we are familiar with.Report
Pinky says:
– “How have you been?”
* “I’ve been busy. Stressed out. I’ve been on jury duty. How about you?”
– “Oh, I’ve been watching American Idol. So I understand how you feel.”
* “What do you mean?”
– “Oh, you know, reviewing evidence, voting, that kind of thing. It’s just like jury duty.”
* “No, it’s not. You watch American Idol for kicks.”
– “But I take it very seriously.”
* “Jury duty has a purpose that is more elevated than American Idol. It’s about a greater duty, not self-fulfillment.”
– “I don’t see it that way. I don’t believe in greater duty. I’m offended that you don’t treat American Idol as morally equivalent to jury duty. I demand that someone pay me the same stipend for my watching time as you got for your jury time.”
* “Well, ok, you can ask for that, I guess. But can you understand that to me it seems odd that you’re trying to draw an equivalence between them?”
– “You’re just disrespecting American Idol because it hasn’t been around as long a jury duty.”
* “No, I just don’t think it matters as much in the long run.”
– “You’re disrespecting my tradition!”Report
Jaybird in reply to Pinky says:
Please understand, as an atheist, I’m not seeing any judges or bailiffs where you’re going to perform Jury Duty.
I’m seeing a building where you’re sitting on a hard bench listening to two people explain why you should or shouldn’t judge other people and then you decide whether they’re bad people or not.
But you’re calling it Jury Duty anyway. Which is all well and good, of course, but without a judge sitting there?Report
Maribou in reply to Pinky says:
@pinky
-“Would you quit calling the court I’ve been serving jury duty in for the last 30 years American Idol just because it’s not the court you go to for jury duty? It’s still a court.”
*”But from my perspective it might as well be American Idol!!!!”
-“So can you at least go somewhere other than the place where people who respect it as a type of court, there not only being one court in this system, are talking about their own experiences with jury duty in various courts, to complain about how only certain courts are REALLY courts and the rest of us are deluded?”
*”BUT YOU’RE NOT IN A REAL COURT!!!!”Report
Pinky in reply to Pinky says:
Jay and Maribou, I get that. But we’re up against Pascal’s wager here. One side can argue that jury duty is elevating, the other side can argue that neither jury duty nor American Idol is elevating. No one can argue that both are elevating.Report
There are mock courts all over town. Each jury claims that they’re a “real” jury and half of those “real” juries are saying that other people are watching American Idol. (The other half have mixed opinions on how many American Idols there are among the other “real” juries.)
Pascal’s Wager is one of the juries telling me that, odds are, the judge is going to come back from chambers any minute now and so I should be in their courtroom instead of in one of the other not-real mock courtrooms around town.
But other juries tell me the same thing.
And I don’t see evidence that the judge was ever there, let alone is coming back.
Let alone will be giving me ice cream for waiting in the courtroom that the “real” jurors are sitting and waiting in.Report
“No one can argue that both are elevating.”
One can, however, argue that what one side sees as American Idol is, in fact a form of jury duty, and therefore elevating, and that only the greater Power that elevates can actually identify whether someone is watching American Idol or attending jury duty, because only that Power is a true judge of the entire system.
Seems to me I heard of someone, someone whom many of us believe was actually also that Power, while remaining a person, in a quite mysterious way, who said just that.
Or at least, made it quite clear that it wasn’t anyone human’s job to adjudicate whether a person was, in fact, engaged in jury duty, or not.Report
Pascal’s wager here. One side can argue that jury duty is elevating, the other side can argue that neither jury duty nor American Idol is elevating.
I’m not sure why not. You don’t have to be a believer to observe that lots of people derive emotional, psychological, and social benefits from participating in the ritual practices associated with their faith. It’s not clear that such benefits would go away in the absence of belief.
My perspective on this is heavily influenced by the fact that I am an atheist, and was raised Jewish by my atheist parents, and have gotten some real happiness from my occasional participation in Jewish ritual life. This isn’t a rare thing among American Jews, either.Report
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Nondenominational: The Lost Tribe of Evangelicals
C'mon at least give us a For The Children.
I'll let Lee get back to his frog in boiling water...
Brandon Berg on Bigot.There are a lot of women in congress and he only c…
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crime scene cleanup Moreland Idaho CALL (855) 622-7528
In 1970, under President Nixon, the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OSHA) was passed. Under this legislation, employers were to be held responsible for worker safety and their exposure to bloodborne pathogens. Although OSHA had regulation for employees contact and exposure, there was no agency to protect the home/business owners from improper cleaning procedures and illegal dumping of biohazardous medical waste. Throughout the years, OSHA and ADEQ have raised the standards for the Crime Scene Cleaning Moreland (CSC) Industry and filtered out unqualified construction, restoration, and carpet cleaning companies. As more and more of these companies stopped offering CSC because of the extensive training and compliance required by State and Federal agencies, a niche industry was born.
An unattended death cleaning is much more than just removal of a body. Unattended death cleaning companies generally also do murder scene cleanings, crime scene cleanings, homicide scene cleanings, suicide scene cleanings, blood scene cleanings, meth lab cleanings, staph infection cleanings, mrsa infection cleanings and bio hazard cleanings. These experiences give the unattended death scene cleaners the correct perspective on how to approach the job. First, they must check with law enforcement authorities to determine the length of time the corpse has been there. By knowing this information, the unattended death scene cleaning company staff can assess the probabilities that the decomposed tissue, blood, organic material and odor could have seeped in to a location's walls, flooring, grout, subfloors, upholstery and cement. The longer the time, the more difficult the odor remediation. They, of course, must dispose of all the visible items that are left from the corpse: bodily fluids, blood, discarded or separated tissue, feces and even limbs. Usually removal of some of these items involves coordination with the police particularly if the police intend to maintain an open investigation into the cause of death and whether it was a homicide. The professional character of the unattended death cleaning companies is an important aspect when choosing such a company. Their ability to work well with the police shall be a factor in the proper completion of their duties. And when the unattended corpse is found by a family member, the unattended death cleaning company or death scene cleaning company, if professional, shall be cognizant of the need to treat the family of the deceased with the respect and sensitivity it deserves. An unattended death cleaning is much more than just removal of a body. Unattended death cleaning companies generally also do murder scene cleanings, crime scene cleanings, homicide scene cleanings, suicide scene cleanings, blood scene cleanings, meth lab cleanings, staph infection cleanings, mrsa infection cleanings and bio hazard cleanings. These experiences give the unattended death scene cleaners the correct perspective on how to approach the job. First, they must check with law enforcement authorities to determine the length of time the corpse has been there. By knowing this information, the unattended death scene cleaning company staff can assess the probabilities that the decomposed tissue, blood, organic material and odor could have seeped in to a location's walls, flooring, grout, subfloors, upholstery and cement. The longer the time, the more difficult the odor remediation. They, of course, must dispose of all the visible items that are left from the corpse: bodily fluids, blood, discarded or separated tissue, feces and even limbs. Usually removal of some of these items involves coordination with the police particularly if the police intend to maintain an open investigation into the cause of death and whether it was a homicide. The professional character of the unattended death cleaning companies is an important aspect when choosing such a company. Their ability to work well with the police shall be a factor in the proper completion of their duties. And when the unattended corpse is found by a family member, the unattended death cleaning company or death scene cleaning company, if professional, shall be cognizant of the need to treat the family of the deceased with the respect and sensitivity it deserves.
What Moreland Crime Scene Clean up Is All About
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Predation as a primary limiting factor: A comparison of the effects of three predator control regimes on South Island robins (Petroica australis) in Dunedin, NZ
Jones, Michael
JonesMichael2016MSc (1.506Mb)
Cite this item: Jones, M. (2016). Predation as a primary limiting factor: A comparison of the effects of three predator control regimes on South Island robins (Petroica australis) in Dunedin, NZ (Thesis, Master of Science). University of Otago. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10523/6868
The identification of factors limiting the recovery of threatened bird species is an area of significant research in New Zealand, where high levels of endemism make protection of threatened species extremely important. Predation by introduced mammals is often assumed to be the most important limiting factor for populations of threatened bird species, and a number of methods have been developed and implemented to deal with predators. Pest-management operations have a long history of success in NZ, but can also have unexpected consequences for non-target species. The three most common mainland pest-management measures are trapping, poisoning, and predator-exclusion fencing. My study used the South Island robin (Petroica australis) as a model to investigate the costs and benefits of three predator control operations over a period of six years at three independent sites in Dunedin, NZ: Silverstream, where rodent trapping occurs; Silver Peaks, the site of an aerially dispersed cereal-bait 1080 operation with pre-feed; and Orokonui, a predator-free sanctuary. Chew track cards were used to track changes in relative abundances of ship rats (Rattus rattus), mice (Mus musculus), and brushtail possums (Trichosurus vulpecula) at Silverstream and Silver Peaks over the period of 2011 to 2014. I monitored known robin pairs and single birds at all sites over the 2013/14 and 2014/15 summer breeding periods and combined this with previous monitoring data to track changes in annual adult robin survival and juvenile and adult robin recruitment rates, as well as robin nesting success. I also filmed nest sites at Silverstream to determine nest predators (nests were not filmed at Silver Peaks due to nests being too high to access). Trapping was effective in reducing ship rat relative abundance, although possum relative abundance increased in parallel. Poisoning resulted in significant initial decreases of all monitored species. However, this was short-lived, with abundances of all monitored robin predators exceeding pre-operational numbers within a year, this being an outcome that has been observed in previous studies. Orokonui displayed high values for all robin metrics except adult recruitment. Silver Peaks displayed comparatively low rates of adult survival, high rates of adult recruitment, moderate rates of juvenile recruitment, and low rates of nesting success. Silverstream displayed high rates of adult survival and recruitment, but low rates of juvenile recruitment and nesting success. No significant differences in adult survival were detected between sexes, and no significant differences in nesting success were detected between incubation and nestling stages. Predation, especially by stoats, was found to be the primary limiting factor affecting nesting success, although no other metrics were thought to be significantly affected by predation. Some evidence for masking of competition effects by predation is presented.
The results of this thesis provide key insights into the efficacy of management for South Island robins as well as knowledge of the effects and interactions of predation and competition on a native bird species. This will be useful in future research and management strategies, helping better tailor predator-control regimes to target problem species, enabling rapid recovery of valuable species and preservation of New Zealand’s unique fauna and flora.
Advisor: van Heezik, Yolanda; Seddon, Philip; Jamieson, Ian
Degree Name: Master of Science
Degree Discipline: Zoology
Keywords: Conservation; 1080; pest-control; trapping; New Zealand; robins; ecosanctuary
Research Type: Thesis
Thesis - Masters [2928]
Zoology collection [279]
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Archive for the ‘Barbecue Bob’ Category
The Atlanta Bluesmen: Barbecue Bob and Laughing Charley Lincoln
Posted: October 21, 2011 in Atlanta, Barbecue Bob, Jas Obrecht, Laughing Charley Lincoln, Pre war blues
Author : Jas Obrecht
Source : http://jasobrecht.com/atlanta-bluesmen-barbecue-bob-laughing-charley-lincoln/
“While Peg Leg Howell and His Gang tended to sound countrified, Barbecue Bob, his brother Laughing Charley, and Curley Weaver pushed Atlanta blues in new directions. The three had grown up together in the cottonfield country around Walnut Grove, Georgia. Charlie Hicks, often identified as “Laughing Charley” on records, was born in 1900. His brother Robert was 18 months his junior. They were sons of sharecroppers, as was their neighbor Curley James Weaver, four years younger than Robert. Curley’s mother, Savannah “Dip” Weaver, played guitar and piano in church. Old neighbors told researcher Pete Lowry that Dip taught the boys some guitar, showing them the frailing techniques and open-G tuning used by the area’s banjo players. They may have been introduced to slide guitar from unrecorded local guitarists Robert Lee “Sun” Foster and George White, who were known to have tutored Weaver.
By 1918, the Hicks brothers were performing on 6-strings at fish fries and country balls, playing songs like “John Henry” and “Poor Boy.” In the early 1960s, their sister, Willie Mae Jackson, told George Mitchell that Robert was the better guitarist, while Charlie had a stronger voice. Around 1923 Charlie moved to Atlanta, got married, found work, and acquired a 12-string guitar with money he’d earned picking cotton. Robert followed him there about a year later. He worked various jobs – as a yardman, at the Biltmore Hotel, as a car hop – before becoming a barbecue chef.”
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The Lost City of Focussion
Unearthing the remains of a lost internet civilization
"What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun." – Ecclesiastes
"Time is a flat circle." – Rust Cohle
Remember 2010? It was a good year. I got married that year. The iPad launched. My friends got me one as a wedding gift. I brought it on the honeymoon. My wife wasn't thrilled.
Focussion also launched in 2010. You probably don't know Focussion, because from what I can tell it never had more than a few thousands users. I didn't know about it either until some late-night Googling a couple days back. I found a lot of products in the penumbra of "better feedback on photography" but nothing spot-on. Yet, here was Focussion with its big, boasting headline splashed across the screen:
"Improve your photography skills, get constructive feedback for real. Join the community and get critiques that's nothing like 'Great photo' or 'Wow!'"
Wow, indeed. Questionable syntax aside, that's it. These are my people! Why hadn't I heard about this?
Something wasn't quite right—and I sensed it immediately. The stark Bootstrap 1.0 aesthetic. The empty section where the "Trending" photos should have been. I clicked through to the top post in "Latest Forum Activity". It was from March 13, 2014. I clicked the second post, dated July 23. No year listed. The cryptic title of the post was "Kolkata the core expertise of Packing and shifting". I thought maybe Kolkata was a brand of camera I hadn't heard of. It's not. It's the name of a packing and moving company in India, spamming the forum for Google juice.
It was a digital ghost town
My suspicions were correct. It was a digital ghost town. As I poked around some more, it seemed the last residents had vacated sometime in 2014, roughly four years after its founding. The C-H-E-A-P VIAGRA™ tumbleweeds blew through the comment sections that once seemed to be a flourishing digital society.
I wondered: Who were these people? What happened here? What could I learn from them? I was going to find out.
Kodak Tri-X 400 / Leica M6 • View full size
Summoning my army of robot spiders
The first thing I did was reach out to the founders via the contact form on the site. I figured it was a long shot. They never responded.
A "spider" is a program that "crawls" the "web" and records what it sees. It sucks data from web pages and follows links to other pages. It's what Google uses to feed its massive internet brain.
Thanks to the internet's open infrastructure, anyone can run these spiders. From the perspective of the website they're crawling, they look mostly like a human user would. The trick is training them to look at the right things.
And I had a mounting list of questions I wanted answered. Like, how many users did this site have? How often did they post? What was the kind of feedback people would give? Who were the power users?
Then I stumbled onto Portia. Not Ellen DeGeneres' wife. The popular web scraping program named after the Portia spider, a genus remarkable for its intelligent hunting behavior.
With Portia, you pick any web page and annotate it, giving labels to the parts of the page you care about. These are the parts the spiders will look at with their laser eyes and send back to the hive-mind, so you can retrieve the aggregated results later. It's remarkably easy. In fact, if you're interested, let me know and I'll do a post on all the technical details.
There were two types of pages I was most interested in on Focussion. The first was the photo pages, where a user-submitted photo lived, along with all the feedback from other users. The second was the user profile pages, which listed some basic info about the user, along with a summary of their activity on the site.
I unleashed my spiders on the Focussion site before I left for work one morning. By that evening, they had exhausted their search. They had crawled every page they could find.
The data they collect comes back as a big JSON file (aka: a fancy text file). I wrote a few custom scripts to clean up the data, and then dumped the results into this Google document for analysis.
Focussion by the numbers
My little spiders found 7,106 user profiles and 24,175 pieces of feedback posted.
Very few submissions received no feedback. Almost all submissions received less than 10 feedback comments, with the most frequently occurring number being 2.
This graph paints a relatively rosy picture of what life in Focussion looked like. Relatively few people went hungry (for feedback).
Fig. 1 - Number of feedback comments distributed over posts • View full size
What about the velocity of life in Focussion? Was life there more Wall Street trading floor or retirement home? I looked at days until first feedback (Fig. 2), which shows that the overwhelming majority of posts received feedback on the same day.
Fig. 2 - Days Until First Feedback • View full size
I wondered how good Focussion was at getting people to share, versus lurking awkwardly towards the back (or signing up and never doing anything at all). Many community sites show a lot of in-balance here, and Focussion seems to follow the trend, with a sharp fall-off in the number of photos submitted starting from just one submission. Although, more people submitted one photo than zero.
Fig. 3 - Number of Photos Submitted • View full size
I noticed a curious little uptick there to the far right. It was a major outlier. But more on that later.
Graphs are cool, but I wondered if I could discover anything meaningful by looking at the actual words people were posting as feedback, so I analyzed 837,403 words that the spiders found in the feedback comments.
Positive words dominate the content of the feedback. Nice (1.5% of all words), love (0.9%), good (0.7%) and great (0.7%) were all in the top 5 most frequently used words (after throwing out filler words). Distracting (0.09%) was a top negative word, and was used 17 times less frequently than the top positive word. Boring (0.005%) came in way down the list at number 1480, and ugly (0.002%) at 2847.
When I looked at photography words, color(s) (0.66%) beat out composition (0.52%) as the top most used, then light (0.3%), focus (0.3%), crop (0.2%) and contrast (0.2%), with exposure (0.1%) way down the list. As for actual colors, white (0.15%) and black (0.16%) were pretty equal, followed by blue (0.1%) then green (0.06%) then red (0.05%).
As for popular subjects, eye(s) (0.3%) was a popular topic, along with sky (0.2%) and water (0.2%) . Background (0.3%) was five times more popular than foreground (0.06%).
I'm happy with the results of my little archaeological expedition. But I wanted to go deeper. Remember that little uptick at the end of Fig. 3? That uptick was a someone. A Focussion power user. I dug through the data. His name was Sean Allen. More soon.
Raw data is available in Google Sheet here.
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Mercedes-AMG Project ONE prototype testing continues
AMG, Car News, Hybrid, Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-AMG is busy preparing its upcoming Project ONE hypercar, with testing and development now moved to race tracks and proving grounds.
The engineers have been extensively testing the new hypercar in the digital world, in the lead up and following the concept car’s debut last year. This digital development process, that Mercedes calls Project ONE Virtual Engineering, has been undertaken to help realise the goal of putting F1 hybrid technology into a road-legal vehicle.
Testing has since moved to race tracks and to dyno rooms, where the high-performance hybrid engine is being tuned to the extreme. Full specifications on the showroom model haven’t been confirmed yet, but the idea is to offer a 1.6-litre turbo V6 engine, derived from the units used in F1, paired to an electric motor assist system.
The petrol engine is set to be capable of revving to 11,000rpm thanks to hardcore tech such as pneumatic valves and spur cam gears. At full throttle, the package combined is slated to produce over 736kW (1000PS). Thanks to crazy aero parts, a lot of this power is likely to be harnessed and transformed into epic track speed.
At the moment engineers are testing running prototypes on “secret test tracks” in the UK – looks to be the Millbrook Proving Ground, in Millbrook, Bedfordshire. However, Mercedes says it is becoming difficult to hide these camouflaged prototypes because of the characteristic Formula 1 engine sound they produce.
An official reveal for the production car will probably take place in the next six months or so, given these prototypes are nearing the end of their testing phases.
Hyundai RM16 N prototype testing continues at Nurburgring (video) June 13, 2018
Range Rover Velar SVR continues testing, sounds beefy (video) April 25, 2018
Jaguar XE SV Project 8 tuning continues, new Nurburgring record? April 29, 2018
Ferrari caught testing 488-based hybrid prototype (video) April 3, 2018
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Asymmetrical Pupils in Cats
by Brandy Burgess
Unequal pupil size in cats is known as anisocoria.
Bandit awakens unfazed at what has happened during the night. One of his pupils is larger than the other -- a bizarre medical condition referred to as anisocoria. Bandit’s unusual case of anisocoria may be due to an underlying condition or visual deficit, requiring a visit to the vet.
In all cases of anisocoria, one pupil is visibly larger than the other. This could include one normal pupil with one larger pupil or one normal pupil with one smaller pupil. While anisocoria may not bother Bandit one bit, it could potentially cause eye or head pain, evident as your cat tilts or paws his head. Depending on the underlying condition, your cat’s affected eye may appear red and the cornea could become bluish or cloudy. Bandit may squint and his eye may be droopy. In some cases, discharge may secrete from the eye.
If you suspect your cat has anisocoria, consult your vet immediately. Anisocoria can be caused by several things, but the most common cause of unequal pupil size in cats is anterior uveitis. Uveitis is a type of inflammation of the eye that affects the smaller of the two pupils. Diseases can be found within the iris tissue and scar tissue can build up in the eye, resulting in anisocoria. Bandit may also be suffering from glaucoma, a condition that causes increased pressure in the eye. The affected eye often bulges from the socket and presents with an overly large pupil. Horner’s syndrome causes one pupil to become smaller, caused by a disruption of the innervation to the pupil.
At your vet’s office, Bandit will undergo a physical examination to determine if the cause of his anisocoria is due to head trauma, neurological disorders or any other abnormality of the eye. Your vet may perform tests to measure intraocular pressure and tear production. He may also collect conjunctival biopsies or scrapings that will be sent to the laboratory for testing. Ultrasounds can be performed on the eye to locate possible lesions in the affected eye. Lesions or growths in the brain may also be causing Bandit’s odd symptoms, generally diagnosed using computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging. In some cases, your vet may decide to take some blood to rule out possible systemic conditions, such as feline leukemia.
Treatment for anisocoria will ultimately depend on your cat’s underlying condition. Depending on the diagnosis, your vet will provide a tailored treatment plan to help your cat recover from his anisocoria. Whether or not Bandit fully recovers will depend on the underlying condition. In some cases, your cat may require medication long-term to control his illness. Surgery may be required to remove any tumors, more commonly seen in older felines compared to younger pets. In severe cases, anisocoria may result in permanent blindness.
Brought to you by Cuteness
PetMD: Unequal Pupil Size in Cats
Animal Care Clinic: Anisocoria
VCA Hospitals: Anisocoria in Cats
CatChannel.com: Why Does My Cat Have Different Sized Pupils?
Based in northern New York, Brandy Burgess has been writing on pets, technical documentation and health resources since 2007. She also writes on personal development for YourFreelanceWritingCareer.com. Burgess' work also has appeared on various online publications, including eHow.com. Burgess holds a Bachelor of Arts in computer information systems from DeVry University and her certified nurses aid certification.
David De Lossy/Photodisc/Getty Images
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Was Neoplatonism a synthesis of Jewish & Platonic monotheism?
Neoplatonism was a school of mystical philosophy synthesising Jewish theology and Plato's philosophy. Its major theorist & practitioner is Plotinus.
But there appears to be two dialogues of Plato in which such a philosophy could be drawn from - that is Parmenides and Timaeus.
Obviously monotheism is not usually associated with Plato. But consider that Parmenides is a discussion on the intrinsic nature of the One; and that in Timaeus he discusses how the Grand Artificer/Craftsman created the world. There is no indication that these are the same; but he expects the creation story to be taken seriously in some manner if the following passage is any indication:
Timaeus: If then, Socrates, amid the many opinions about the gods and the generation of the universe, we are not able to give notions which are altogether and in every respect exact and consistent with one another, do not be surprised. Enough, if we adduce probabilities as likely as any others; for we must remember that I who am the speaker, and you who are the judges, are only mortal men, and we ought to accept the tale which is probable and enquire no further.
Is it this monotheism the point of contact by which Plotinus was able to weld the two traditions together?
metaphysics plato myths plotinus neoplatonism
Mozibur UllahMozibur Ullah
In my opinion Plotinus is not beholden to any tradition but did his own research. His ideas on the 'One' are streets ahead of Plato and Aristotle. I would say that the doctrine of Divine simplicity is a denial of monotheism, and that this is why some folks do not like it. . – PeterJ Jun 14 '18 at 12:16
This is only a partial answer presenting some doubts that Plotinus was attempting a synthesis of Jewish and Platonist traditions of monotheism.
Plotinus’s monotheism would come from the introduction of the One through what Dominic J. O’Meara calls the "Principle of Prior Simplicity", that is, “the idea that everything made up of parts, every composite thing, depends and derives in some way from what is not composite, what is simple.” (Plotinus: An Introduction to the Enneads, Oxford, 1995, p. 44) This principle is also called the doctrine of divine simplicity.
Further according to O'Meara (p. 44-5):
Applying the Principle of Prior Simplicity, Plotinus thus came to the conclusion that we must postulate, over and beyond divine intellect, an ultimate cause which would be absolutely simple, the 'One'. In drawing this conclusion Plotinus not only separated himself from his Platonist and Aristotelian predecessors; he also believed himself to be in a position to throw light on some crucial but obscure passages in Plato's dialogues.
From O'Meara's perspective it seems that Plotinus was mainly interested in expounding Plato, not assimilating Jewish traditions into Platonism.
William Wainwright in his “Monotheism” SEP article listed divine simplicity as only one argument for monotheism. Other ways to argue for monotheism would be through God’s perfection, sovereignty, omnipotence and demand for total devotion. Also Wainwright claims that “not all theists accept” divine simplicity. The idea of divine simplicity may not have had an adequate influence to form a synthesis of Jewish and Platonist views of monotheism.
There is also the controversial Tübingen School maintaining that Plato had unwritten doctrines containing much of what is believed to be new in Plotinus. If Plotinus did not offer much that was new his role in welding the two traditions, Jewish and Platonist, might be minor.
According to the cited Wikipedia article:
Neoplatonism had an enduring influence on the subsequent history of philosophy. In the Middle Ages, Neoplatonic ideas were studied and discussed by Islamic, Christian, and Jewish thinkers.
Whatever happened after Plotinus, a synthesis of Jewish and Platonist ideas about monotheism may not have been his motivation.
Frank HubenyFrank Hubeny
Plotinus' relation to Plato seems straightforward but is not. But that he has some relation to Plato, that he treats Plato frequently as a touchstone, is clear. Jewish influence on Plotinus' thought, via Philo, is a possibility for which I can only give references.
Plotinus and Plato
E.R. Dodds sets out the seemingly straightforward relation as follows :
It is natural to begin by asking what Plotinus thought of his own work and how he conceived his historical function. To this the answer is easy, but disappointing. Plotinus apparently did not know that he was a Neoplatonist; he thinks of himself as a Platonist tout court. ' These doctrines,' he says (5, 1, 8, 10), speaking of his own system, 'are no novelties, no inventions of to-day; they were stated, though not elaborated, long ago; our present teaching is simply an exposition of them-we can prove the antiquity of these opinions by Plato's own testimony.' This is not the language of a creative thinker acknow- ledging his debt to a great predecessor ; it is the language of a schoolman defending himself against a charge of unorthodoxy ... And indeed Plotinus avoids as a rule making any claim to originality; the rare exceptions have reference only to details of his system. (E.R. Dodds, 'Tradition and Personal Achievement in the Philosophy of Plotinus', The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 50, Parts 1 and 2 (1960), pp. 1-7 : 1.)
Dodds next proceeds to look past first appearances - the 'easy answer' - and to vindicate Plotinus' originality :
Formally, but only formally, the philosophy of Plotinus is an interpretation of Plato; substantially, I should call it an attempt to solve the spiritual problems of his own day in terms of traditional Greek rationalism. He nowhere openly disagrees with his Master, though he recognizes that Plato sometimes speaks in riddles (6, 2, 22), leaving us to work out his meaning for ourselves (5, 8, 4), and also that his teaching is not always consistent, at any rate on the surface (4, 4, 22 ; 4, 8, 1). For each of the major features of his own system he can produce, and feels obliged to produce, certain Platonic texts as 'authority' ...
But these Platonic texts are not the true starting-points of his philosophy: he does not believe in the One because he has found it in the Parmenides; on the contrary, he finds it in the Parmenides because he already believes in it. Nor does his exposition normally start from Plato: his more usual method is to state a problem and try out various ways of solving it until he arrives at something which he finds logically satisfying; then, and most often only then, he will cite for confirmation a text from Plato. In fact, he quotes Plato pretty much in the same spirit in which some seventeenth-century philosophers quote Scripture-not as part of his logical argument but as evidence of orthodoxy. His basic question is not the historical one, ' What did Plato think about this ? ' but the philosophical one, ' What is the truth about this ? ' Respect for the Great Founder required, indeed, that both questions should have the same answer. But where violence had to be used to achieve this agreement it is generally Plato who is wrenched into concordance with the truth; so far as I can judge, the truth is seldom distorted to make it agree with Plato. Had Plato never lived, Plotinus would have had to formulate his thought in some entirely different way, but I am tempted to guess that its general structure and direction would still have been recognizably what they are. What spoke to him in Plato's name was his own daemon, even when it used the very words of Plato. (Dodds, 1,2.)
Dodds recognises that 'Stoic and Peripatetic elements are to be found in his [Plotinus'] writings' (Dodds, 2) but what of Plotinus's possible indebtedness to Jewish thought ?
Plotinus and Philo
Both McGinn and Idel have noted the importance of mystical union in Philo’s thought and its possible influence on the articulated discussions of unio mystica in Plotinus and consequently on the entire Western mystical tradition ... Bernard McGinn, “Love, Knowledge, and Mystical Union in Western Christianity: Twelfth to Sixteenth Centuries,” Church History 56 (1987): 7–24, and “Love, Knowledge and Unio Mystica in the Western Christian Tradition,” in Idel and McGinn, Mystical Union in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, 59–86. (Adam Afterman, 'From Philo to Plotinus: The Emergence of Mystical Union', The Journal of Religion, Vol. 93, No. 2 (April 2013), pp. 177-196 : 178.)
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged metaphysics plato myths plotinus neoplatonism or ask your own question.
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Phone.Report
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Home → Area Codes → Utah — 801 → 801-265 → 801-265-9577
☎ (801) 265-9577 serviced by Qwest Corporation, Murray, UT
Number registered in Murray, UT.
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Number registered in Murray, UT
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The best social engineering tip: Just call (801) 265-9577 and listen who and how responds there ;-)
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Phone type: Landline
Main city: Murray
Operator: Qwest Corporation
Murray, a city situated on the Wasatch Front in the core of Salt Lake Valley in the U.S. state of Utah. Named for territorial governor Eli Murray, it is the state's fourteenth largest city. According to the 2010 census, Murray has approximately 46,746 residents. Murray is close to Salt Lake City, West Valley City, Sandy and West Jordan, Utah. Once teeming with heavy industry, Murray’s industrial sector now has little trace and has been replaced by major mercantile sectors. Known for its central location in Salt Lake County, Murray has been called the Hub of Salt Lake County. Murray is unlike most of its neighboring communities as it operates its own police, fire, power, water, library, and parks and recreation departments and has its own school district. While maintaining many of its own services, Murray has one of the lowest city tax rates in the state. source
The main area code, 801, was one of the original area codes created in 1947, and served the entire state of Utah. On September 21, 1997, 801 was restricted to the Wasatch Front, while area code 435 was assigned to the counties outside of it. 385 is an overlay area code covering the same area as 801 which entered service on 1 June 2008. source
How can I locate and track (801) 265-9577 phone number?
There are two ways to locate a mobile phone:
Hardware method: The provider Qwest Corporation of the cell phone can locate the cell phone within a square kilometer — typical cell-tower range. The police with a court order and the NSA can get that data.
Software method: The operation system of the cell phone can get the exact location of your phone via GPS. You can get this data by installing a GPS tracking app, or login to the Google or iCloud account.
You can locate an iPhone with Find my iPhone, Android with Device Manager or Samsung App and Windows Lumia phones using Find My Phone.
How to block calls or SMS from (801) 265-9577?
On Android go to the number in a phone book or in a call list, tap the Menu key ☰ and select "Add to block list" or "Block contact" option (depending on the manufacturer).
On your iPhone go to a dial list or Phone app, then select the number and tap "Block contact" in the bottom.
On Windows Lumia long press the number, tap "Settings" and "Block number" then.
Mobile phones also offer (in addition to countless apps for blocking) "All calls to voicemail" redirect function.
Number also appears as
(801) 265-9577, 801-265-9577, 8012659577, 0018012659577, +1 (801) 265-9577
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Children’s Poetry Summit
The Children’s Poetry Summit is a network of individuals and organisations actively interested in poetry for children. It provides a regular forum for discussion, information exchange, sharing of ideas and good practice, and a pressure group that campaigns for children’s poetry. Members are children’s poets, publishers, teachers, librarians, booksellers, organisations and individuals interested in children’s poetry. Follow them on Twitter to keep up with everything children’s poetry-related: @kidspoetsummit
CLPE (Centre for Learning in Primary Education)
CLPE believe poetry is a fundamental element in the development of children’s literacy and they build poetry into all that they do. They run the CLiPPA (The Centre for Literacy in Primary Poetry Award), which is one of only two awards in the UK for published children’s poetry. Their free website Poetryline is packed with resources to support and enhance the teaching of poetry in primary schools – there are teaching sequences, videos of poets reading and talking about their work, examples of practice and hundreds of poems to inspire and enthuse budding poets.
Forward Arts Foundation, National Poetry Day
The Forward Arts Foundation is a charity committed to widening poetry’s audience, honouring achievement and supporting talent.
National Poetry Day is an annual celebration that inspires people throughout the UK to enjoy, discover and share poems. Everyone is invited to join in. National Poetry Day will take place October 2019 and the year’s theme is “Truth”.
Go to the NPD website to get details of how to join in, posters, bookmarks, and if you’re celebrating in school, take a look at their Toolkit for Schools for inspiration.
Make sure you use #NationalPoetryDay on Twitter and Websites!
National Poetry Day Ambassadors are a crack corps of inspiring poets who take poetry to new and young audiences – in schools, in bookshops, in libraries, in public squares – all year round.
Each one of them has contributed a new poem in the 2018 theme of Change to a special National Poetry Day collection published by Otter-Barry books. It’s a beautiful thing. You can buy it here.
If you would like to invite a National Poetry Day Ambassador to your event or school during the year, here are their contact details. Liz Brownlee Deborah Alma Victoria Adukwei Bulley Joseph Coelho Paul Cookson Sally Crabtree Jan Dean Chrissie Gittins Matt Goodfellow Remi Graves Sophie Herxheimer Sophie McKeand Michaela Morgan Brian Moses Rachel Rooney Joshua Seigal Roger Stevens Indigo Williams
PoetryZone is excellent children’s poetry website hosted by Roger Stevens.
Trevor Parsons, poet, has set up a business with painter Lucy Creed for poetry greetings cards; you can buy one here: Poet and Painter.
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Stephanie Burt
Stephanie Burt was born in 1971 and raised in Washington, D.C. She received a BA from Harvard University in 1994 and a PhD in English from Yale University in 2000.
Burt, who has published under the name Stephen, is the author of the poetry collections Advice from the Lights (Graywolf Press, 2017), Belmont (Graywolf Press, 2013), and Parallel Play (Graywolf Press, 2006). About her debut book Donald Revell writes, "Stephen Burt has found a courage I’d never imagined until I read these poems. It is the courage to expound the consolations of terror, to declare that we are the ancients of ourselves, already more accustomed than we know to life in the ruins. With Parallel Play, Burt becomes the Cavafy of these former United States. It will be a privilege to await the barbarians in his good company."
Also a literary critic, Burt is the author of The Poem Is You (Harvard Unviersity Press, 2016); Close Calls with Nonsense (Graywolf Press, 2009), which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; The Art of the Sonnet (Harvard University Press, 2010); and Popular Music (Center for Literary Publishing, 1999), among others.
Burt is currently a professor of English at Harvard University. She lives in the suburbs of Boston, Massachussetts.
Belmont (Graywolf Press, 2013)
Parallel Play (Graywolf Press, 2006)
The Poem Is You (Harvard University Press, 2016)
The Art of the Sonnet (Harvard University Press, 2010)
Close Calls With Nonsense (Graywolf Press, 2009)
Something Understood: Essays and Poetry for Helen Vendler (University of Virginia Press, 2009)
The Forms of Youth: Adolescence and 20th Century Poetry (Columbia University Press, 2007)
Randall Jarrell on W. H. Auden (University Press, 2005)
Randall Jarrell and His Age (Columbia University Press, 2002)
Popular Music (Center for Literary Publishing, 1999)
Photo credit: Jessica Bennett
Related Schools & Movements:
At the Providence Zoo
Like the Beatles arriving from Britain,
the egret's descent on the pond
takes the reeds and visitors by storm:
it is a reconstructed marsh
environment, the next
best thing to living out your wild life.
Footbridges love the past.
And like the Roman questioner who learned
"the whole of the Torah while standing on one leg,"
flamingos are pleased to ignore us. It is not known
whether that Roman could learn to eat upside-down,
by dragging his tremendous head through streams.
Comical, stately, the newly-watched tortoises
mate; one pushes the other over the grass,
their hemispheres clicking, on seven legs
in toto. Together they make
a Sydney opera house,
a concatenation of anapests, almost a waltz.
Confined if not preserved,
schoolteachers, their charges, vigilant lemurs, wrens
and prestidigitating tamarins,
and dangerous badgers like dignitaries stare
at one another, hot
and concave in their inappropriate coats.
Having watched a boa
eat a rat alive,
the shortest child does as she was told?
looks up, holds the right hand
of the buddy system, and stands,
as she explains it, "still as a piece of pie."
Indian Stream Republic
No one should be this alone—
none of the pines
in their prepotent verticals,
none of the unseen
hunters or blundering moose
who might stop by the empty lodge or the lake
as blue as if there had never been people
although there are people: a few
at the general store, and evidence of more
in clean vinyl siding, and down the extended street
a ruddy steel pole the height of a child, its plaque
remembering a place called Liberty
at Indian Stream, 1832-35,
between the disputed boundaries
of Canada and New Hampshire, meant
as temporary, almost
content to remain its own.
Each household, their constitution said, could possess
one cow, one hog, one gun,
books, bedding and hay, seven sheep and their wool, secure
from attachment for debt no matter the cause.
The state militia came to set them right.
The legerdemain of the noon sun through needles and leaves,
revealing almost nothing, falls across
thin shadows, thin trace of American wheels and hands
for such high soil and such short reward:
the people... do hereby mutually agree
to form themselves into a body politic
by the name of Indian Stream, and in that capacity
to exercise all the powers of a sovereign
till such time as we can ascertain to what
government we properly belong.
Things you know but can’t say,
the sort of things, or propositions
that build up week after week at the end of the day,
& have to be dredged
by the practical operators so that their grosser cargo
& barges & boxy schedules can stay.
The great shovels and beaks and the rolling gantries
of Long Beach, and of Elizabeth, New Jersey,
can keep their high and rigorous distinction
between on-time and late, between work and play.
“Since you excluded me, I will represent you,
not meanly but generously, with an attention
that is itself
a revenge, since it shows that I know you
better than you have ever known yourselves,
that if I could never have learned
how to be you, nor how to be
somebody you’d like to be very near, nevertheless
you could not do without me, or keep me away.”
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Judith Viorst
Born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1931, Judith Viorst is the author of many works of poetry and prose...
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Gregory Pardlo
Gregory Pardlo's second poetry collection, Digest (Four Way Books, 2014), received...
Read more about Gregory Pardlo
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New Asteroids Game Looks….Different
by Peter Paltridge
in Articles, Editorial, Video Games
AINO has announced a new Asteroids game (AINO stands for “Atari In Name Only” since it’s actually a French company that purchased the name and trademark. The real Atari died in the mid-90’s) called Asteroids: Outpost. If it looks a bit different, that’s because it’s a sandbox-style survival game where you mine for resources, build bases and then defend those bases against….no, not asteroids, other players, though they promise asteroids will be involved somewhat.
What this draws attention to is how fragmented the game industry has become. The supermarket game rack once contained a title to satisfy every taste and market segment — there were shooters as well as puzzlers, racers, sports games, platformers, adventure titles, RPGs and every other color in the game rainbow. As recently as the Playstation 2 and perhaps even in the beginning years of last-gen, you could release a faithful relaunch of Asteroids that was nothing but an overhead shot of a spaceship.
Now if a physical release of a game that simple were to come out, consumers would ask “why?” If you want a game like the original Asteroids, you can find plenty of ripoffs down in the gutter that is the casual phone market. These usually cost a buck, if they cost anything. Since nearly everyone has a game-capable phone now, no one sees any sense in a faithful Asteroids game on disc. And that’s sad when you think about it.
The constant push for snazzier graphics over the years is nothing new, but it has now painted the console industry into a corner. It’s limited the library of physical titles to just the prettiest and most expensive of games — usually FPSes, or at least something about a dude in armor with a giant gun. Gaming genres are now severely fragmented by machine: XBox One only has macho bro games, Wii U only has colorful platformers, phones and tablets only have simple diversions. The closest thing we can find in the current market to an all-in-one device is the PC, thanks to Steam — but PC gaming isn’t for everyone.
The console was once where everyone was. It had games for both children as well as their parents. It was a machine that meant video games, period. And the current lack of diversification in the modern market makes recapturing that importance impossible.
Tags: asteroidsAtariconsole gaming
Peter Paltridge
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THOMPSON’S TAX PANDER
As he prepares to enter his eighth year as New York’s top fiscal watchdog, City Comptroller William Thompson by now certainly should know better.
Actually, he does – which makes his blatant pander on taxes that much more embarrassing.
Thompson recently went after Mayor Bloomberg for the latter’s refusal to send out $400 property-tax rebate checks.
Mayor Mike says there’s simply not enough money in the ever-shrinking budget to afford the checks. But Thompson claims the mayor is overstating the problem: “The money is there,” he said. “It only requires creativity, thoughtfulness and a consideration that budget cuts should not disproportionately affect New Yorkers.”
Thompson’s idea of “creativity”?
Paying out the rebates from $2 billion that the mayor and the council agreed to apply to a deficit in next year’s budget.
So, the comptroller – elected to solve problems like these – is actively seeking to make next year’s deficit worse.
Sure, the rebates can’t be ignored. The City Council voted to write the checks.
But it’s not mandatory for Thompson to inject himself into the matter. And since he finds it necessary to do just that, why can’t he do it productively?
The full cost of the rebate checks is $256 million – no pittance, but no great shakes either in the context of the city’s $60 billion-plus budget.
Again, Thompson has been in charge of the city’s books for seven years. Surely he knows where to cut budgeted spending so as to fund the rebates.
After all, he only needs to find a little more than two-fifths of a percent of the overall budget.
Any proposed cut will likely anger important interest groups.
But it’s a more responsible way to pander to homeowners than swiping from next year’s budget.
Of course, Thompson could stop the pandering altogether and offer up some real leadership for a change.
How radical would that be?
US SECRETS OF SUCCESS: OPEN HAND & SAY PLEASE
Bob McManus
Bill De Blasio is bad for NYC, but great for Andrew Cuomo
Nicole Gelinas
MTA ‘transformation’ plan is just another Cuomo con
Woke assimilation: Teaching our politicians to hate America
Today's Cover
Browse covers archive
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Home All How to Encourage Employee Engagement
AllBusinessParenting & SchoolsPositive Organizational Scholarship
How to Encourage Employee Engagement
written by Andrea Frank November 17, 2016
Andrea Kane Frank, MS, LCPC, CAPP, is a wife and mother who focuses on the flourishing of families (her own first) and organizations. Her experience includes higher education, institutional advancement, corporate consulting, hospital based community treatment, and clinical mobile crisis management on a police based team. Andrea's articles are here.
As a positive psychology practitioner who earned a Certificate of Applied Positive Psychology in 2015, Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC), wife, and mother, I am interested in the intersection of home, school, work, and play. How aligned are we across these domains of life, and how does that impact our engagement in them?
In need of translation…
I was driving home from dropping my children off at school when I heard a news report regarding employee engagement at work. It referenced a study conducted by Ultimate Software and The Center for Generational Kinetics. The study posited that employee emotional safety was a huge indicator for employee engagement. I was stirred by the discussion and decided to read the study for myself as well as dive further into the topic.
Gallup 2016 Research showed that only 13% of employees worldwide are engaged with 32% engagement in the United States. Engagement means being involved in, enthusiastic, and invested in the workplace. This has implications for the well-being of a global society.
The numbers haven’t changed much since Gallup first started tracking the data in 2000. Consider the toll this takes on families, marriages, parenting, and societal outcomes. What kind of people are we cultivating? We spend a large portion of our lives at work. Our level of happiness is contagious. How can we create positive contagion at work? How can we feel like what we do at work matters so that what we do at home does as well? I wonder what is the result of a global workforce that isn’t engaged in what they do at work.
Good News for Employers and Employees
A review of the literature identifies ways to curate an engaged workforce and also have a larger positive impact on the world. According to Ante Glavas, Associate Professor in the Kedge Business School, a combination of Perceived Organizational Support (POS) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) are keys to cultivating employees and organizations that are positively aligned.
Reframing in action
According to Robert Eisenberger and colleagues at the University of Houston, ways to cultivate perceived organizational support include helping employees feel heard, respected, and trusted with their time and that they have a say in the organization’s policies and procedures. Other indicators included fair compensation strategies and attainable reward compensation initiatives as well as reward systems for superior performing employees.
Employees who could trust their supervisors, and supervisors who could trust upper level management indicate higher scores in perceived organizational support, which is considered altruistic when it comes out of the organization itself, not as a result of a government policy mandate or because the organization accrues some advantage such as a tax credit. This is similar to intrinsic motivation in individuals.
Other suggestions included having policies that give managers discretion. This means that managers are not just doing what they’re required to do and being diplomatic about how management practices are enforced, but also being flexible to fit specific situations. For example, a manager with discretion can make allowances for difficult circumstances arising in an employee’s personal life without the employee being penalized for it.
Don’t fear failure!
For example, a male employee shares custody of a two-year-old son with his former spouse. They share taking him to day care and taking off when he is ill. His former spouse had taken two days off to be with their son running a high fever. She could not take more time off that week, so her former husband had to use sick time to care for their son. His supervisors could work with him, allowing him to log in from home and work as much as he could, thus not requiring a full sick day. Supervisors that can use their best judgment to deal with specific situations are thus interpreting company policy to the benefit of everyone by allowing flexibility where needed.
Employees value being trusted with their time, supported when they need to address personal concerns, and knowing that their superiors trust them to be accountable for getting their work done. Many families are juggling full-time work with caring for children and perhaps aging parents. It is becoming more common for couples to share these responsibilities with their significant others.
Let them do their work…
Other actions suggested by the research include cultivating strong social networks at work and allowing for volunteer opportunities. It is better not to require participation in social occasions and volunteer opportunities because that would add additional pressure to employees. But when these activities are offered, they can build good will in the office and affirm corporate social responsibility by giving the company and employees chances to have an impact outside of work.
Attracting employees aligned with the organization and responding to them promptly throughout the interview and hiring process lead to potential employees feeling valued even before they start work at the organization. Ensuring a healthy, safe, harassment-free environment and providing employees with the proper tools and technology also support an engaged workforce. According to Glavas, employees thrive when they can bring their whole selves to work and their own skills and abilities are aligned with an organization’s mission. Employees tend to put their best selves forward when they see they have a greater impact either as a result of the organizational mission or through volunteer opportunities arranged through work.
What would the world, our families, relationships and life look like if we were all positively engaged employees? We don’t need to reinvent the wheel. We need to listen and respond so that we are all heard, supported, respected, and doing work we love. It’s then that employees will advance organizations and families and the good work can get done.
Dorsey, J. & Rogers, A. (2016). Uncovering the positive drivers of employee experience. White paper presented by Ultimate Software and The Center for Generational Kinetics.
Eisenberger, R., Malone, G. P. & Presson, W. D. (2016). Optimizing Perceived Organizational Support to Enhance Employee Engagement. Report issued by Society for Human Resource Management and Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology.
Glavas, A. (2016). Corporate Social Responsibility and Employee Engagement: Enabling Employees to Employ More of Their Whole Selves at Work. Front. Psychol. 7:796. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00796.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Mann, A. & Harter, J. (2016, January 7). The Worldwide Employee Engagement Crisis. Gallup Business Journal.
These images come from David Zinger’s site. David is an employee engagement speaker. Here’s the statement on his site about the pictures:
My friend and resident Employee Engagement Network cartoonist, John Junson has created an e-book with 15 free cartoons that you can use for work. Pass it along to a colleague. Use it in a presentation. Pin one cartoon to your wall or cubicle. Choose one a month and put it in your newsletter. Stress is a staff infection and humour is contagious so use the humor here to fight stress at work.
employee engagementperceived organizational support
Andrea Frank
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Tag Archives: Queen Vic
Fill up on Dallas’ PR stunt
I wonder how many PR agencies have come up with the idea to launch a petrol station – offering cheap fuel – to promote a prime time TV programme? Answer – one.
To celebrate the launch of Dallas returning to the small screen this week, US TV network TNT launched Ewing Energies – in honour of ‘oil man’ character JR Ewing – for Manhattan consumers to fill up their cars for just $1.98 per gallon.
Up to $2 per gallon cheaper than anywhere else in the area, it’s no surprise that motorists were queuing two blocks away to take advantage of the one day deal.
TNT launched the stunt with a video, where JR tells fans that the offer makes good business sense. And, as one of the most powerful people in America, he can make it happen.
What I like about it, is that the video is ‘on message’ with the soap, adding drama and intrigue around the new series, but interesting and fun at the same time. It’s also effective because it has a short shelf-life. It propels a call to action, with consumers knowing that if they miss this, they miss out. The video, hosted on the Dallas’ Facebook page which has over 1.4m fans, generated over 1,000 likes. And images of the man behind JR, Josh Henderson, pushed that figure to more than 13,000.
It’s an active Facebook page that acts in the form of JR’s diary, encouraging people to comment on what they’ve just viewed and forthcoming teasers. It’s also completely different to the way it runs Twitter, so it was right to make the most of the stunt on that social media channel.
All in all, I think it’s a fantastic idea, engaging with new and existing soap fans by bringing TV to life. Although it’s not yet known how many viewers the PR activity brought in, TNT has many more tricks up its sleeve. Next month, JR is also set to launch a range of Bourbon.
What do you think? Does this campaign make you want to reach for the remote?
It’s a formula that we could see open up in the UK. Just think:
The Queen Vic opening up in Shoreditch
BBC bosses have recently been complaining that E20 no longer represents trendy East London. So, why not connect with new viewers by launching a cheap bar? Content could be used in its online mini-series, that runs alongside the show, giving customers the chance to be on TV.
Doctors to offer free check ups
Members of the show could chat to people who are in line for a free health check up – blood pressure or cholesterol etc – to make them feel at ease. Linking in with a medical brand or pharmacy, discounts could be offered on certain products.
Meet Mr Selfridge
To coincide with Selfridge’s next milestone anniversary, the cast from the hit ITV show could attend an exclusive party at the flagship store, of which part of it would be re-designed in the style from the 1900s.
ITV could then launch a competition giving viewers the chance to win tickets to the champagne reception, maximising coverage opportunities and generating talkability.
BBC and ITV – talk to me.
Tags: actor, agencies, America, anniversary, bar, blood pressure, bourbon, brand, call to action, car, cast, champagne, channel, chat, check up, cholesterol, competition, coverage, customer, Dallas, Diary, Doctors, drama, E20, Eastenders. BBC, engage, Ewing Energies, exclusive, Facebook, figure, flagship, formula, fuel, gallon, gas, health, idea, image, ITV, Josh Henderson, JR, JR Ewing, launch, likes, Manhattan, medical, mini series, motorists, Mr Selfridge, network, oil, online, party, petrol, pharmacy, photo, PR, Prime Time, Queen Vic, reception, remote, series, Shoreditch, soap, social media, stunt, talkability, teasers, tickets, TNT, TV, Twitter, US, video, view, who shot JR
Categories Brands, Events, Marketing, PR, Social media, TV
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maniraptess
Giselle said:
sure is
you must be kidding. he does not treat them anything less than human, he treats them well if he didn't she would never have loved him for him.
what kind of a fan was she?
You know, there is no way I am going to lose respect for either of them. First of all no one knows the facts, it's all rumors. Once the divorce is finalized if Prince and Tamar do end up together, that's their business. We're fans because of the music, or so I thought. Just because we're fans doesn't buy us a ticket to an artist's personal life. Who are we to judge and select? We don't know what caused the circumstances for the divorce, that's between Prince and Mani. If they wanted us to know, they would have put cameras in their home so we could all have a sneak peek into their bedroom for that matter. Regardless of our own personal beliefs, reasons for their divorce is between them. Who Prince is seeing after that is his business.
When a couple is going through a divorce especially celebrities/artists/musicians, etc. the rumors can become outrageous. It's almost like the media can say anything and the public believes it, because most of the public loves focusing on the negative and the media knows it.
I think it's ridiculous that some fans are talking about "losing respect" because of these rumors. If you're a Prince fan, and if you became a fan because of the music then let it be just that. He never gave us an invitation into his personal life as he was never one to broadcast and talk about it. It's just nosy fans who are obsessed with trying to find out every little thing about him they can get their hands on.
Now as far as how the women he dates/marries looks, that's not our decision to make and it's not up to us to choose the women for him to fall in love with. Besides I don't think he cares what people say about who he ends up with because he doesn't have to prove that part of his life to me, you or anyone else and he knows it.
So people could make as many insults as they want regarding who he is seen with or falls in love with, as it's his life and not ours. Going through a divorce is hard enough and just because it's Prince doesn't mean he's not human like the rest of us.
It's about his music, he never gave us a key to his personal life just because we're fans .
kxm911
Mayte was NEVER pregnant by Tommy. Tommy had a vasectomy after the birth of his second son. Who starts bullshit rumors like this??
kxm911 said:
I know, talk about how rumors fly.
BananaCologne said:
SexyBeautifulOne said:
I do! Why do I suddenly feel old(er)? Thanks alot Calhoun!
Do we all have to have early stages of dementia if we remember Ashford and Simpson?
Prince should heed advice with their song "solid"
Now who remembers that!
anyway. i hope he figures out what his whole deal is about eventually, even if it means taking some time off to clear his head. we have enough music to tide
us over for a while, and we'll always be ready for what's next. i hope he takes the introspective route with his music again like he did in the early part of this decade. i may not count those albums as among my favorites, but i do think work like "n.e.w.s", "one nite alone" and "the rainbow children" has been some of his most honest work of his career, and i'd love to see that part of him evolve.
He's going thru a midlife crisis, thats all
Has anyone yet considered that it wasn't P that cheated...that maybe, just maybe it was Mani! She could just as easily have been doing the cheating especially with P spending all his time away focusing on his music. Maybe an involvement with another man made her want to end the marriage. Ya never know...
Whichever the case I feel for them both....and now poor Tamar! I hope it all settles without too much pain. I'm a lover of the music...wheather he's married or single it doesn't matter to me just as long as Prince keeps doing what he does best.....
He gets it! That's why the ladies love him...
Kissmequick
Duggs said:
.... but you see if he wrote the song, then it's about something else isn't it?
God bless everyone. NO exceptions.
Prince is gettin a divorice. I ain't gettin no divorice. I been married for over 5 years. In real life. I got married to Ocean, last night. I'm gonna stay married. Prince why oh why must these woman take you for a ride. Must be the way you dance to the side. Maybe it's the way you hide while they go outside. I don't know.
Maybe love for them just died. Love ya Bro!
LeGrindLady said:[quote]
wow. i didnt know love was a game. or something u win.
thank u for enlightening me young Tamar.
Unless any of us knows the couple privately and intimately, anything we write is pure conjecture.
Even if we did know Prince and Mani on a personal level, it would be very difficult to be aware of everything that went on behind closed doors.
Divorces are always a sad matter and, often a time of great trauma.
if anyone can prove to me without a shadow of a doubt that a romantic/sexual relationship with tamar was the reason for the divorce, i will film myself eating ten uncooked pieces of long spaghetti and/or a dill pickle (i LOATHE pickles), and post the footage on www.cryingwhileeating.com
he doesn't look too happy here.
his ring was on when he did the Black Sweat music video
lol r u trying to make me slap the screen
JediMaster
All of this conjecture, and the REAL question is just not being addressed: what member of Motley Crue will she start dating now?
So far, we've had:
Vanity & Nikki Sixx
Carmen & Tommy Lee
Mayte & Tommy Lee
Personally, I think it's high time Mick Mars got some Princely sloppy seconds!
Do not hurry yourself in your spirit to become offended, for the taking of offense is what rests in the bosom of the stupid ones. (Ecclesiastes 7:9)
and i will do all this whilst wearing moonwraps on both ears, if anyone would be so gracious as to loan them to me.
sacredwarrior said:[quote]
Sacred, you don't know what happened behind closed doors of a couple's marriage unless you were in the bed with them as well.
You're assuming without facts. The point is the divorce is between Prince and Mani, not you and Prince. Whomever he chooses to be romantically involved with is his busines whether you or I like it or not.
I shall remember this!
You must also listen to "Home Sweet Home" while doing this. In honor of Mani's next boyfriend.
OdysseyMiles
if anyone can prove to me without a shadow of a doubt that a romantic/sexual relationship with tamar was the reason for the divorce, i will film myself eating ten uncooked pieces of long spaghetti and/or a dill pickle (i LOATHE pickles), and post the footage on [/b]www.cryingwhileeating.com[/b]
Can't believe this is a real site.
OdysseyMiles said:
it needs to win a webby.
tonderlearia
VERY WELL SAID!!
tonderlearia said:
I don't think it's Tamar....I could be completely wrong but...I doubt it.
and think for a second if he and Tamar have NOTHING going on! If I were Tamar I'd be pretty pissed off being accused of that. She should make a statement.
"not a fan" yeah...ok
There is no fear in love,
but perfect love casteth out fear.
I do not profess to know why the marriage failed or who was "at fault." Maybe it just ran its course and Mani took a stand and said, "enough." Maybe it had nothing to do with infidelity or "infatuation," but something happend and now this is failed marriage #2. Prince, baby, stay single! Why bog yourself down with another constricting "contract." Does a marriage license really mean anything when it can be broken or annulled? Why go through it in the first place? Plus, it's very expensive to get out of! It's the very reason I never married. After a certain point in my life, I knew children were out of the question, and for me, that was the only reason to marry. Find yourself someone mature enough who doesn't want a damn thing from you; someone you respect who is confortable with herself and doesn't need you to make herself feel complete; someone who knows how to move on with dignity and grace if things don't work out...
And if you're ever in Maryland...
ZAUBERFLOTE
United Communities Against Poverty is the name of the charity...
started with princes money....
U SAP
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Tag Archives: prisoner abuse
The Texas Department of Cowboy Justice: A case of lawless law enforcement
Posted on September 8, 2013 by californiaprisonwatch
by Kevin ‘Rashid’ Johnson
September 7, 2013, SF Bay View
As I sit writing this, Lt. Deward Demoss passes my cell making segregation rounds. Further down the tier he exchanges words with another prisoner, then yells down to two unit guards, “Make sure Cell 118 doesn’t eat today.” “Yessir,” they both chime in. Such is the abusive impunity here in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s (TDCJ) Estelle 2 Unit (E2U). In fact, guards’ summarily denying prisoners meals in this manner is so routine, there’s a nickname for it here. It’s called “jacking trays.” And that’s the least of it.
“Texas” by Kevin “Rashid” Johnson
I’ve not seen conditions such as exist here in E2U in a long while. The level of abuse is on a par with conditions I described in the autobiographical section of my book that once existed in the segregation unit of Virginia’s Greensville Correctional Center, where guards had a literal license to brutalize and abuse prisoners in the most extreme ways. And these conditions are not accidental.
In fact it’s been made quite clear that I’m here in Texas in direct response to my having brought undesired public scrutiny to Oregon’s and Virginia’s prisons through a series of critical articles and reports about conditions in their prison systems and having sued Oregon Department of Corrections (ODOC) officials in a recently initiated federal lawsuit.
Indeed, one of my claims in that case was based in part on ODOC officials threatening that if I began litigating against and circulating critical writings about them, I’d find myself permanently in the hole and/or sent to another prison system where I’d be made to suffer much worse than in Oregon. And true to those threats, and only six days before the date on which the federal court had ordered ODOC officials, including its director, to appear and answer in my lawsuit, I was hustled off to the TDJC.
This is an account of what I’ve experienced and witnessed in just a couple of weeks here, which can only be described as Cowboy Justice – as lawless as the Wild West. It is also an appeal to public support and activism.
Welcome to Texas
The above mentioned threats were initially made when I first arrived in Oregon from Virginia in February 2012. Then on May 22, 2013, I was told by ODOC Lt. Kenneth Neff, one of the defendants in my lawsuit, that plans were indeed in motion to transfer me to another prison system where things would definitely be worse. I documented his statement.
On June 14, 2013, I was awakened early in the morning, chained up, and put on a plane bound for Texas. With the exception of only a tiny box of items I was allowed to hurriedly select, all my belongings were left behind in Oregon.
The entire transfer was a setup.
The TDCJ was chosen not in spite – but because – of the fact that I had long dreadlocks and their rule of allowing no exceptions for them, not for religious reasons or otherwise. I was told as much by TDCJ Lt. L. Evans, who presided over the premeditated scheme to shave my head by force, which they knew I’d resist and came prepared.
On arriving in Texas on that June afternoon, I was taken by prison van from the airfield to the Byrd Unit (BU), which is the TDCJ’s intake and orientation prison, where all new admissions to TDCJ are received for orientation, testing, processing etc., which takes about 60 days. I didn’t last five hours.
When I arrived in Oregon in 2012, I went through a similar institution but was given an exception to their haircut requirements upon an ODOC chaplain’s confirmation that my hair was grown for spiritual reasons. No such consideration was given at BU.
On entering the BU I went through the routine procedure of a strip search and was then handcuffed to a thick belt secured at my waist, rendering my arms and hands immobile. I was also leg shackled. This was done in preparation for forcibly cutting my hair and neutralizing my ability to physically resist, of which I was then oblivious.
Then came the ultimatum: My hair had to be cut, either by consent or force. They presented it as though my submission under threat of force was actually an exercise of free choice on my part. Yet when powerless people do the same, it’s a crime: robbery, rape, extortion etc. I protested my spiritual rights.
Rashid in a recent self-portrait
I had none, they replied. Then appeared a group of riot armored guards from hiding around a corner. By choice or by force, they repeated. Although it was a futile gesture, I was resigned to resist. So, against my limited struggles, I was strapped down to a gurney, held down by the armed mob, and had my head and face shaved completely bald.
This constituted the first act of lawless law-enforcement I was to experience or witness in the TDJC. I was outraged, violated in the extreme. Even more so when I found later that the TDJC does in fact allow exceptions to their haircut rule, specifically for Native Americans – which, where other spiritual orientations are not afforded the same consideration, is unlawful discrimination.
My resistance and outrage against the physical attack and forced haircut was then used to justify transferring me from BU – without undergoing the required 60 days processing and orientation process – to the filthy solitary confinement E2U prison. I’d only remained at BU for about four hours.
The welcoming ain’t over
When I arrived at E2U, I was met at the van by yet another mob of riot-armored guards. This group was primed for a more straightforward violent attack, which I verbally noted for the record. A female guard, Mildred Dickie, was initially filming my E2U entry on a portable audio-video camera.
A notoriously abusive E2U guard. Carlos Applewhite, physically moved a smaller guard who was originally standing beside me holding my right arm, took up his position, and repeatedly told me to shut up. Which I ignored and pointed out was both hostile and unprofessional.
I was taken to a holding cell and strip searched by Applewhite with Dickie filming and observing, which I protested as an unconstitutional cross-gender strip search. Applewhite then applied handcuffs – behind my back – and shackles, the latter so tightly I could barely stand or walk, which I also protested. The camera was deactivated at that point and Applewhite barked that I’d either walk or be dragged.
I was limped along by the mob to an office where I was instructed to sit in a chair. The door was closed and the armored group stood just outside of it.
Inside the office with me were B2U Assistant Warden Wayne Brewer, Major David Forrest and Capt. James A. McKee. Brewer was the only one dressed in civilian street clothes, so I inquired of him who he was. He responded, “You shut up, motherfucker, I’m doing the talking!” Then, as if on cue, Forrest and McKee rushed me and proceeded to manually choke and repeatedly hit me in the head and face while Brewer ran a stream of threats and verbal abuse past me, promising he’d break me or kill me. I was told then and repeatedly since that I am now in Texas where prison officials do simply as they please – and get away with it. Period. I replied, when I could breathe, that I wasn’t impressed nor intimidated, and to get on with whatever they had in mind.
When they got tired and saw they were getting nowhere, I was kicked out of the office and taken by the armored group to a filthy cell, which was to be my new TDCJ abode.
The cell I was put into is situated directly in front of another prisoner’s cell, Edward Long, 579657, who was just the day before viciously beaten by Applewhite while he was handcuffed behind his back. The evidence of the attack was blatant: a black ring around his left eye, a laceration along the side of his right eye held closed with sutures tape, a badly bruised face and back, and a grotesquely swollen mouth.
Furthermore, Applewhite routinely goes to Long’s cell to boast and taunt him, admitting how he “beat the shit out of” Long until he lay in a puddle of blood. Under the peculiar conditions of prison, guards actually convince themselves that beating handcuffed prisoners and mob attacking individual prisoners in groups of five or more using gas, body armor and other weapons, are accomplished acts of bravery to boast about and take pride in, instead of pure cowardice on a par with mob rape and large adults who beat small children who by nature and circumstance are at a decided disadvantage.
Applewhite also frequently threatens others with the same, and he and other E2U guards constantly act to provoke situations to speciously justify uses of force in general and cell extractions in particular, which consist of a group of guards with weapons and body armor invading the cell of an individual prisoner by force, whom they invariably beat once restrained.
Here in E2U multitudes of prisoners attest to being victims of beatings by guards. Although there are surveillance cameras throughout the unit, guards typically take prisoners into “blind spots” like offices, closets, elevators etc. where cameras are absent and beat them. During cell extractions they simply turn off or don’t train the audio-video cameras on the prisoner, while kicks and punches are thrown and his head is slammed onto the concrete floor or steel fixtures in the cells, and guards use their bodies to block the cameras.
But in many cases, as with Long, guards beat prisoners openly in video-surveilled areas and video footage is either “lost,” recorded over, ignored, or it’s claimed the use of force wasn’t captured on film.
E2U’s primitive conditions
On top of the rampant physical abuse, living conditions in E2U are barbaric. The unit is infested with roaches which are routinely found in our food or crawling on one while he is sleeping or just sitting still. And guards serve and handle our meals in the most unsanitary manner. Thermoses of juice and stacks of trays are served on the lids of wheeled trashcans. The trays are also routinely set on the filthy unit floor during service.
Guards never wash their hands, never wear head coverings and almost never wear gloves. Trays and beverages are set inside of roach-infested and contaminated metal boxes that are affixed to the outside of the cell doors, in which flies and roaches nest and rush to get at the food served and spilled inside the boxes.
Rashid in an older self-portrait
Guards also go cell to cell handling the filthy locks, chains and latches to open and close the boxes as they handle and serve the food, trays and beverages. The boxes are never cleaned, and we must also put all items passed into and out of the cells into them, including shoes, dirty linen, worn clothing, such as during searches performed each time we leave the cell.
Should one protest these conditions, he’s almost certain to get “jacked” for his tray.
The cells each have internal showers which frequently leak, causing standing water to remain on the cell floors. The shower drain frequently stops or backs up, and smells of raw sewage. There is no air conditioning, no windows at all. The vents are clogged with debris.
And in addition to the intense Texas summer heat and humidity, the cells remain damp due to lack of air circulation and steam from the shower, which never completely evaporates from the cells. The floor and walls are covered with mildew, and black mold spots the ceilings. The cells reek of mildew.
We are never given cleaning supplies such as toilet brushes, sponges, cloths, brooms, mops, disinfectants etc. The only cleaning supply we receive is a tiny bit of scouring powder once a week.
Prisoners with obvious mental and emotional illnesses scream, rant, bang and argue at fever pitch day and night. Many obviously suffering the effects of living under E2U’s solitary confinement conditions for years on end.
Guards at their whim destroy and trash prisoners’ personal property. Often when they are out of the cell, guards simply enter them and throw items out as trash, especially that of prisoners who challenge them through complaints or in the courts.
This is also done as routine summary retaliation against prisoners who dare speak out against or otherwise challenge abusive guards and conditions. My own address book, a number of pre-posted mailing envelopes and other items I brought with me from Oregon that were inventoried by ODOC officials when I left on June 14 were stolen by TDCJ Officials, evidenced by their exclusion from the inventory made of the same sealed box of property when I got here to Texas.
Meals are grossly inadequate nutritionally, with only half the prescribed meal portions served and entire courses not provided at all at nearly every meal. One literally receives one third the amount of food on the trays at E2U compared with what I received in the ODOC. And the ODOC strictly calculated meal portions and calorie counts to ensure that prisoners receive exactly or just above 2,500 calories per day, which is the legal minimum daily calorie intake for a sedentary adult.
No desserts are served – neither pastries nor fruits – although they factor into calculating daily minimum calorie intake. No condiments are given with the unseasoned meals – neither salt, sugar etc. – which also denies basic minerals. All prisoners whom I’ve spoken to on the subject in E2U suffer the continuous torture of constant hunger pangs.
Many who’ve been confined here for some time explain that food portions and quality have been cut to the extreme by the TDCJ to save money in the face of budget cuts, because of mismanagement of food supplies – prisoner workers in E2U contend that officials steal supplies of food – and to induce prisoners to conform their behavior to officials’ will to achieve privileged statuses in E2U on which they can purchase food and condiments from the commissary. Food is thus used as punishment, behavior modification and a scheme to generate money through commissary sales.
Due no process of law
Although I was never oriented into nor notified of the TDCJ’s rules and procedures, I received three disciplinary charges stemming from my resisting the forced haircut of June 14. On June 18 E2U counselor Staci Crowley came to my assigned cell to notify me of the charges and determine if I wanted to attend the hearings, which I told her I did. I only later found after she’d left that she lied, indicating I refused to attend the hearing. McKee presided as the hearings officer and found me guilty in my absence and without the benefit of my being able to present any defense.
McKee then turned around and presided over deciding my security housing committee hearing and had me assigned to administrative segregation based on his own corrupt guilty findings on the three charges. At the next committee hearing, Forrest, my other assailant, followed suit.
And as I said, guards flaunt their abusive impunity. When I was taken out to my first committee hearing on June 19, Sgt. Bret Wuellner and guard Venson Williams Jr. held me facing a wall standing outside the office where the hearing was to be conducted – the very same office in which I was attacked on June 14.
Another prisoner was in the office being “heard.” As he was being “escorted” from the office by several guards, Wuellner remarked, “Damn, what happened to his face?” The prisoner’s face was swollen and bruised – the obvious result of a recent beating.
Rashid is the artist who drew this symbol of California prisoner hunger strike solidarity when he was still incarcerated at Red Onion Prison in Virginia. The drawing is now recognized around the world by people who care about prisoners.
Also, as I’d stood waiting for his hearing to conclude, another prisoner was “held” awaiting a hearing, sitting in a wheelchair approximately 10 feet from me. He too showed obvious facial injuries resulting from a beating. Concerning this prisoner, Wuellner remarked to Williams that he’d suffered his injuries – including being wheelchair-bound – in a “cell entry.”
Wuellner took this as an opportunity to tell me that here in Texas I was in for a “rude awakening.” He asked if in Virginia I’d ever had guards “put hands” on me. When I only gave him a blank look in response, Williams added, “Take it from a Black man: They do what they want here,” speaking of the ranking white TDCJ officials, “and get away with it.” Williams is a Black guard; Wuellner is white.
To Williams’ remark I couldn’t resist responding that the pathetic thing about him and others like him is he recognizes yet goes along with it. He replied, almost apologetically, “It’s just a job and I’m not going to be here long anyway.” He proved, however, on June 28 in his participation in the brutal assault of another Black prisoner in conspiracy with Wuellner, that he is as much party to the abuse as the most racist of TDCJ officials.
Since being at E2U, I’ve been confronted repeatedly with such obvious ploys as Wuellner’s and Williams’, calculated to intimidate me on the one hand and provoke me on the other. Indeed, this has been the basis of this entire TDCJ experience: to intimidate and provoke.
Indeed, since June 14, and on Brewer’s instructions, I’ve been subjected to frequent strip and cell searches every 30 minutes to two hours every day, around the clock, even during sleeping hours. This began as soon as I was assigned to E2U, following the office assault.
On the second occasion that I was confronted for such a search on that evening, by Sgt. Kyle Nash and two other guards, I questioned the basis and legality of the searches. Their response was to tell me they were frequently searching me “because we can” and used my questioning them as an excuse to attempt to escalate the situation to where force would be justified.
Nash summoned Lt. Patrick Eady to the cell, who stated outright that they were going to “do this the hard way,” and I’m “not going to like it.” He told the guards to “go suit up,” i.e., put on riot armor, and that he wanted them to take me into the back of the cell and “beat on” me. I’d never refused to submit to the search, only questioned it, so when they returned in riot armor, I went through the strip search, was handcuffed behind and brought out of the cell.
At that point, I narrated all that had occurred and Eady’s stated intentions for an audio-video camera that was present and presumably recording. I also stated my need to see medical staff for injuries to my face and throat resulting from the assault on me in the office. Following the search, I was taken inside the cell – out of view of the camera – laid on the floor in back of the cell and hit and kicked in the face and head, which I narrated for the camera to pick up.
On June 15, 2013, I hand delivered a sick call request to a nurse Kathy Burrow to be seen for my injuries which was logged in on June 16 but not acted on within 72 hours as required by TDCJ policy – obviously to cover up my injuries and allow a passage of time for them to heal. I was not seen until two weeks later and only because of outside protest of my situation after I’d managed to get word out.
In obvious response to outside pressure, an investigation was staged, beginning long after the fact of the June 14 assaults and my complaints. First, I was seen by a nurse on June 27, who merely looked into my mouth and ears with a light, and gave me several aspirin. The following day I was brought out to see TDCJ Dr. Bobby Vincent, then TDCJ investigator D. Morris.
Just before being brought out of the cell, E2U Lt. Ashley Anderson came to my cell to tell me, in friendly tones, that Brewer had just informed him that he’d decided to end the frequent strip and cell searches he’d had me on since June 14. How convenient – just when I was about to be brought out to see a doctor and speak to an investigator about abuses, including the office assault which he’d arranged.
The doctor, himself a TDCJ employee, seemed more inclined to minimize the remnants of my injuries than to treat me. He admitted the only reason he was seeing me was because of complaints about my being assaulted. He claimed to find only “the slightest swelling” to my left jaw and not to feel a prominent bony protrusion on the right side of my throat, which even a layman can feel right now and recognize it to be abnormal and not present on the left side. No care was given.
Order Rashid’s book, “Defying the Tomb,” from Kerspebedeb Left-Wing Books, at https://secure.leftwingbooks.net/index.php?l=product_detail&p=893.
I was then taken into an office to speak with the investigator Morris – again, the same office where I was assaulted. The “interview” was also attended by Capt. Lawrence L. Dawson, Sgt. Tracy D. Puckett and guard Carlos Amaya Jr. under the guise of providing security but obviously to pick up and pass on what all was said.
I provided a statement about the abuses I’d experienced and the conditions in E2U and emphasized several times that I requested a polygraph examination concerning the abuses and that those who’d assaulted me should be asked to submit to the same – which I know they’d decline – since whatever they said in reply to my complaints would obviously be given preferential consideration by any TDCJ “investigator,” not only because they’re officials and coworkers, but because they are among the highest ranking in the prison.
And this was a case that would prove quite embarrassing to TDCJ’s highest officials, since it would show the abuses are not mere deviant misbehaviors of low-level rogue guards but rather permissive abuse that runs to the highest administrative levels.
The entire force of an “investigation,” however, is as always staged for damage control and seldom provides any meaningful outcome, except only in cases where there is sustained and broad public outrage. And again, only enough is done to pacify that protest. It’s then back to business as usual. In fact, what Morris seemed most concerned about was whether I intend to sue the TDCJ over the abuses.
Still outta control
On that very same day that I spoke to Morris, yet another brutal assault was staged on a prisoner in E2U, involving Wuellner, Williams and the guard Amaya, who’d sat in on and listened attentively to my statement about the assaults on me, from which they obviously took pointers. The assaulted prisoner remains in the hospital as I write this.
I personally witnessed the setup.
The victim, Joe Laws, 553289, is one of the few E2U prisoners who’s refused to be terrorized by E2U guards. As a result of his resistance to their abuses, the guards both fear and hate him. Given this dynamic, an attack of the sort staged on June 28 was inevitable.
Laws allegedly had a run-in with guards earlier that morning. No immediate response followed, obviously because the investigator from the TDCJ director’s office, D. Morris, was at the prison. Also, the guards who attacked Laws used the exact same tactic to assault Laws as I’d explained to Morris that Eady had guards use on me on June 14 inside the cell. Only in Laws’ case they went to the extreme.
The guards who participated in the Laws assault were Amaya, a guard named Smith (believably Nathaniel Smith), Cody Gonzalez, Williams and one other – either Gregory Shipman or Michael Lewis – all of whom were “suited up” in riot armor. They were supervised by Wuellner, and guard Jalisa R. Jackson was operating the portable audio-video camera. When force is used, the guard with the camera is to film the prisoner at all times. However, as the guard did with me on June 14, Jackson stood far off to the side of the cell so the camera would not film activity inside the cell once the guards took Laws into the back of it.
Just 30 minutes before their shift was set to go off at 6 p.m., these guards confronted Laws in body armor for a staged cell search, in pretended response to the altercation that happened almost 12 hours earlier. Following a strip search, Laws was brought out and stood against the wall outside the cell while the cell search was enacted. Jackson “alerted” Wuellner the video camera was not working.
The riot armored guards then took Laws into the back of the cell and laid him face down on the floor, whereupon they acted to remove the handcuffs and back out of the cell in an orderly retreat. At that point Wuellner announced loudly that should Laws try to rise from the floor, force would be used.
Laws never tried to get up. Wuellner told the guards to “get him,” then announced with feigned excitement that Laws tried to rise, was “resisting.” On Wuellner’s cue, the guards rushed back into the cell and began beating and kicking Laws in the head and face. Smith was doing so with steel-toed boots.
The entire wing of prisoners witnessed the attack by sight and/or sound, and many began in outrage to kick their cell doors and yell at the guards in protest. Laws was beaten at length, following which the guards then retreated from the cell and hastily shut the door.
Wuellner then pretended to try and take photographs of Laws on a digital camera as TDCJ policy requires whenever force is used on a prisoner. However he quickly announced the battery was dead so the required still photos couldn’t be taken. Laws was left in the cell bleeding profusely from the head and face.
Their dirty work done, the group of guards left the wing to go home, it being the end of their shift and they being set to have the next four days off.
No nurses nor other medical staff are present in E2U from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. – a gross legal violation – so their attack was also timed to occur when no medical staff would be on hand to examine Laws, as is also required whenever force is used. The next shift was left to pick up the pieces.
Laws suffered a large gash in back of his head, the result of being kicked by Smith with steel-toed boots, several of his teeth were knocked out while others were driven up into his gums, a gash inside his mouth, a fractured jaw, his eye swollen closed, and other injuries.
As the drums of war beat against Syria, Rashid has given us a lot to ponder in this drawing he calls “Collective Struggle.”
As I collected the facts on everything, it took numerous prisoners kicking and banging on their cell doors and becoming primed to create havoc to get unit Sgts. Shelby Rayfield and Dustin Harkness to the wing and Laws taken to the hospital, where he has remained for several days. Guards who took him out confirmed he’d lost teeth and others were disfigured, he had over a dozen staples put in back of his head, his jaw was broken etc.
The attack on Laws was obvious retaliation and timed and conducted so as to minimize on-the-spot evidence of a beating and the extent of his consequent injuries. This entire “cover-up” was so amateurish as to be pointless, which only reflects how little these guards worry about consequences for abuse and how free they are of any sort of meaningful administrative oversight, beyond mere formalities.
In fact, as my own case demonstrates, E2U administrators themselves engage in just the same abuses. That couldn’t occur unless that clearance is given all the way up to the level of TDCJ Executive Director Brad Livingston and Texas Gov. Rick Perry, which is exactly where the lawless executives of Texas take their cues.
In footnotes to this article I will cite the multitude of federal laws – the highest law of the land – violated by the conditions and abuses described throughout this article, demonstrating the genuinely “lawless” character of the Texas officials behind them, whose duty is foremost to defend, apply and “enforce” those very laws, so one cannot mistake the authority of these people or their institutions as anything but illegal and illegitimate.
And it reveals the hypocrisy of U.S. officials when they denounce other governments as dictatorial and terroristic for doing much the same and even less than what’s been done on U.S. soil to U.S. citizens by the U.S. government. Prisoners in Texas’ E2U need as much public support as possible. And it must be broad-based and sustained. Because what’s happening to us on the inside is fated for those on the outside as Amerika becomes more and more overtly a police state and laws become less and less a restraint on official impunity.
Dare to struggle! Dare to win!
All power to the people!
Rashid Johnson, a longtime prisoner in Virginia who was transferred last year to Oregon and recently to Texas, has been held in segregation since 1993. While in prison he founded the New Afrikan Black Panther Party – Prison Chapter. As a writer, Rashid has been compared to George Jackson, and he is also the artist who drew the image that became the icon of the California hunger strikes. His book, “Defying the Tomb,” with a foreword by Russell “Maroon” Shoats and afterword by Sundiata Acoli, can be ordered at leftwingbooks.net, by writing to Kersplebedeb, CP 63560, CCCP Van Horne, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3W 3H8, or by emailing info@kersplebedeb.com. Send our brother some love and light: Kevin Johnson, 1859887, Clements Unit, 9601 Spur 591, Amarillo, TX 79107.
Action call
by Karl Kerspebedeb
Since his article “The Texas Department of Cowboy Justice: A case of lawless law enforcement” was written, Kevin “Rashid” Johnson has been transferred yet again, this time to the Clements Unit in Amarillo, Texas.
Supporters had been calling on Texas officials to remove Rashid from Estelle, a unit with a documented history of staff violence and impunity. (Besides Rashid’s aforementioned article, see the recent piece on Truthout: “Beatings and Threats: Odyssey of a Prisoner-Advocate, From Virginia to Texas” at http://www.truth-out.org/speakout/item/18167-beatings-and-threats-odyssey-of-a-prisoner-advocate-from-virginia-to-texas.)
Yet while Rashid is now out of reach of the guards who abused him at Estelle, any impression that this is a “victory” will likely prove illusory. Rashid himself has written in a recent letter to supporters, “To the extent that you all’s hassling them prompted this transfer, I’m thankful – although from what I’m told, conditions here are no better than at the Estelle Unit.”
While we wait to see what happens at Clements, our priority at this point is that Rashid regain access to his personal belongings.
When he was transferred from Oregon to Texas in June, some 41 boxes of personal belongings were supposed to follow. Any property that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice was unwilling to allow Rashid to have was supposed to be transferred to the Virginia Department of Corrections.
Furthermore, Rashid was supposed to receive his legal documents that he requires for his lawsuit against the Oregon Department of Corrections. So far none of this has been done, and Rashid is increasingly concerned about what has happened to his property – literally, everything he owns in the world.
Please telephone Virginia Interstate Compact Coordinator Terry Glenn at (804) 887-7866 and ask why Kevin Johnson, VDOC No. 1007485, has not yet received any of his property. It has been two months since Rashid was transferred from Oregon, and if he does not get his property soon, this will directly impact his ability to conduct his lawsuit against the Oregon Department of Corrections.
For more information, see the website rashidmod.com.
Write Rashid at his new address: Kevin Johnson, 1859887, Clements Unit, 9601 Spur 591, Amarillo, TX 79107. Make sure a first and last name are clearly printed in the return address section of the envelope or your mail will be returned.
Karl Kerspebedeb is Rashid’s friend, publisher and webmaster for http://rashidmod.com/. He can be reached at info@kersplebedeb.com.
Posted in 2013, abuses, Estelle 2 Unit (E2U), human rights abuses, Kevin 'Rashid' Johnson, prisoner abuse, Texas, TJDC, violence by officers | Tagged 2013, abuses, Estelle 2 Unit (E2U), human rights abuses, Kevin ‘Rashid’ Johnson, prisoner abuse, Texas, TJDC, violence by officers
SPLC reaches agreement to address prisoner abuse, neglect at Orleans Parish Prison
From: Southern Poverty Law Center
Dec. 11th 2012
The SPLC has reached an agreement with officials in Orleans Parish, La., to address the brutal and inhumane conditions at the Orleans Parish Prison, where prisoners have endured rampant violence, sexual assaults and neglect.
The federal consent decree outlines steps that Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman will take to ensure prisoner safety and adequate staffing of the facility. If approved by the court, an independent monitor will oversee the agreement to ensure compliance. The agreement, the result of an SPLC lawsuit filed in April, also would apply to any new facility that is built to replace the jail.
“We are hopeful the judge will agree that this settlement is in the best interest of all parties involved,” said Katie Schwartzmann, managing attorney for the SPLC’s New Orleans office and lead attorney on the case. “We also applaud Sheriff Gusman and his office for taking the important first step of acknowledging the problems within the jail. While implementation will be difficult, we are committed to improving conditions, and will work with him to do so. We also need the city to work with us and provide the funding to truly fix this jail.”
SPLC clients Byron Morgan and Nicholas Miorana, both prisoners in the Orleans Parish Prison, said they were pleased an agreement has been reached. “I am excited the sheriff has agreed to take a hard look, and fix this jail,” Morgan said. “I hope Mayor Mitch Landrieu will help make the changes as well.”
Miorana added, “Today, I understand what right and wrong stand for. With help from the Justice Department and SPLC, our cries will finally be heard.”
The decree includes the following provisions:
Review and monitoring of prison operations by a professional corrections administrator.
Comprehensive policies governing the use of force and restraints on prisoners.
Documenting and tracking complaints of prison staff using excessive force.
A staffing plan that provides enough officers to ensure prisoner safety.
A ban on placing teenagers in units where they may have contact with an adult prisoner.
Guidelines for providing medical and mental health care for prisoners.
The SPLC lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, described a facility where widespread violence and contraband – including knives – are the norm. It also noted that the jail is understaffed and that deputies are not only poorly trained and supervised, but are often complicit in the abuses suffered by the prisoners.
The U.S. Department of Justice intervened in the case in September, joining the effort to address the conditions. Three years ago, a comprehensive investigation by the department documented many of the same violations contained in the SPLC lawsuit.
Once the agreement is approved by the court, it will go into effect immediately. However, certain provisions cannot be implemented until the city and the sheriff’s office resolve how to provide adequate funding for the jail. If the city and the sheriff cannot resolve the funding dispute, the funding issue will go to trial on April 4, 2013, before U.S. District Judge Lance Africk.
“April 4 is a long time for the men, women and children in Orleans Parish Prison to wait,” said Schwartzmann. “With Sheriff Gusman committed to reform, we urge Mayor Landrieu to provide immediate emergency funding to support the necessary changes. Every day we wait, the lives of thousands of New Orleanians remain at risk.”
Posted in 2012, Byron Morgan, health care, lawsuits, Louisiana, medical care, Nicholas Miorana, Orleans Parish Prison, prisoner abuse, sexual assaults, Southern Poverty Law Center, US Department of Justice, violence | Tagged 2012, Byron Morgan, health care, lawsuits, Louisiana, medical care, Nicholas Miorana, Orleans Parish Prison, prisoner abuse, sexual assaults, Southern Poverty Law Center, US Department of Justice, violence
Days in Solitary for Not Moving Cup Fast Enough
Posted on December 13, 2012 by internationalprisonwatch
From Solitarywatch:
December 13, 2012 By Sal Rodriguez
Utah State Prison in Draper, Utah currently holds over 91 prisoners in solitary confinement in the Uinta One facility. They have described the facility as “a place of pain and terror” and a place where inmates “expect tragedy.”
While Utah Department of Corrections admits that the facility on occasion houses prisoners diagnosed as “mentally ill”, they also point to the prisons Olympus Mental Health Forensic Facility.
According to the Utah Department of Corrections website:
Prisons and jails have become primary mental health care providers for mentally ill offenders in the criminal justice system. The mental health services provided by the Utah Department of Corrections is comprehensive and wide-ranging in its scope. Our mission is to provide comprehensive and cost-effective mental health treatment to those offenders who suffer from a serious mental illness.
The Clinical Services Bureau manages a 155-bed stand-alone housing unit for offenders with the most severe mental illnesses. This facility is designated to provide a therapeutic environment that promotes appropriate stabilization and behavioral change.
Solitary Watch has been in contact with an individual in the Olympus facility. In his late 50s, he has been routinely transferred between Uinta One and Olympus for a decade. His medical documents indicate diagnoses for “Paranoid States (Delusional Disorders)…Other and Unspecified Protein-Calorie Malnutrition…Self-inflicted Injury By Cutting and Piercing Instrument” and other health issues. He reports constant harassment by the guards, who he says, among other things, falsely accused him of rules violations.
In support of this, he provided documentation indicating that he was accused of a charge of “Abuse/Misuse Medications” based on “Some Evidence.” He was ultimately found not guilty of the charge, despite not participating in the Disciplinary Hearing.
“When people do wicked things to you and you complain, that isn’t paranoia, it’s circumstance driven. When you refuse to trust those whose conduct does not improve, that’s not paranoia. It’s recognition of active unremitting threat,” the prisoner writes. He reports having been placed in a wheelchair and being “upended onto my face” when the guard pushing the wheelchair “made a typical fast hard turn.” After the incident, he received “No apology from anyone whatsoever…I was told to wait until a nurse came to check on me…back in this cage I sat unmoving. I couldn’t get off the chair and on the ‘bed’…My ears are ringing incessantly…I can’t sleep more than two-hours…My eyes aren’t properly focusing,” he reports.
A month before this, he was found guilty of “Refuse Order” (see image), because he did not “fully and imediatly[sic] comply” with an order to remove an “empty cup and hand from the cuff slider.” When chastised for his behavior, according to the report, he was “disrepectful” to the staff. For this, he was ordered to 20 days in “Punitive Isolation” and assessed a $150 fine.
When asked to provide the policies that guide such punitive measures, Department Spokesman Stephen Gehrke was unaware that such policies are in writing. “I’m not aware whether there is some sort of document or guideline that lists offenses and punishments or repercussions on a case-by-case basis. I believe the response to each incident is specific to the individual details of each circumstance and takes into account aggravating or mitigating factors, which is why the prison employs hearing officers to listen to the offender’s account, review documents, and take into account all other forms of information,” he wrote via email.
“‘This is prison medicine–we don’t care and we don’t have to!’,” the prisoner in Olympus characterizes the approach of the prisons medical officials.
This kind of treatment of people in prison is all too common in the United States. A 2003 Human Rights Watch report estimated that one-third to one-half of individuals in American isolation units were diagnosed with a mental health problem.
As of September 2011, one-third of Virginia’s Red Onion State Prison supermax population had a mental health diagnosis. The individual in Olympus is among many in isolation units who attempt suicide while in solitary confinement.
In 2006, it was noted that in California and Texas, suicides in prison disproportionately occurred in solitary confinement units.
Click here to read more of Solitary Watch’s reporting on Utah’s use of solitary confinement.
URL to the original article: http://solitarywatch.com/2012/12/13/mentally-ill-utah-prisoner-sentenced-to-20-days-in-solitary-for-not-moving-cup-fast-enough/
Posted in 2012, mentally ill prisoners, Olympus Mental Health Forensic Facility, policies and guidelines for punitive measures, prisoner abuse, solitary confinement, Stephen Gehrke, torture, Uinta One, Utah | Tagged 2012, mentally ill prisoners, Olympus Mental Health Forensic Facility, policies and guidelines for punitive measures, prisoner abuse, solitary confinement, Stephen Gehrke, torture, Uinta One, Utah
Lost In the Hole: Mentally ill felons locked in own hell
Posted on October 25, 2012 by internationalprisonwatch
The Salt Lake City Weekly published a 4 part story about Uinta 1, Utah State Prison, the supermax, where we have been publishing stories about written by one of its inhabitants, Brandon Green. A few years ago, we knew they were planning to write about the situation inside this draconian hellhole, and finally they did.
Written by Stephen Dark, posted in the SLC City Week Sept 26th, 2012.
Here is Page 1
Please also read: http://www.cityweekly.net/utah/blog-24-8503-inmates-leave-the-hole.html
Posted in 2012, abuses, human rights abuses, mental illness, prisoner abuse, prisoner deaths, solitary confinement, supermax, torture, Uinta One, Utah | Tagged 2012, abuses, human rights abuses, mental illness, prisoner abuse, prisoner deaths, solitary confinement, supermax, torture, Uinta One, Utah
Prison Abuse Logs 2007-2011
Posted on June 28, 2011 by californiaprisonwatch
From: the Human Rights Coalition:
Prison Abuse Logs
The result of over four years of investigation into prison conditions inside Pennsylvania’s jails and prisons, the Prison Abuse Logs consist of more than 900 entries detailing human rights violations by prison officials and law enforcement. Despite repeated efforts to notify county, state, and federal law enforcement, along with elected officials of evidence of criminal acts being perpetrated by prison authorities and staff, every level of government has consistently turned a blind eye to routine, institutionalized attacks on the human rights of prisoners.
The Human Rights Coalition hopes that the release of these documents will aid journalists, lawyers, researchers, policymakers, and community organizers in efforts to shed light on the systematic abuse and torture of prisoners.
Information contained in the logs has been reported to the Human Rights Coalition by prisoners, their family members and supporters. HRC has no way to independently verify each entry; readers are encouraged to investigate on their own.
Many of the entries contain descriptions of abuse, torture and violence, and may be upsetting.
Excel Spreadsheet (sortable)
Prison Abuse Logs pdf file (reverse chronological order)
Posted in 2011, Human Rights Coalition-FedUp, Pennsylvania, Prison Abuse Logs, prisoner abuse, Reports | Tagged 2011, Human Rights Coalition-FedUp, Pennsylvania, Prison Abuse Logs, prisoner abuse, reports
Be ashamed, PA DOC! A female prisoner with diabetes dies as a result of direct medical neglect in a PA prison
Posted on May 20, 2011 by californiaprisonwatch
We received this message from facebook. We urge the authorities to conduct an investigation into the death of this woman in prison who had diabetes and who needed insulin, a life-saving medication, together with her daily intake of food. We left out the name of the person trying to help her for fear of possible retaliation. Those responsible for the death of Tonya Green should be held accountable.
Tonya Green, the inmate in the cell next door, ‘cried and begged 6 days for help, and no-one helped her. She was unable to get herself up off the floor, and no-one helped her get up, so therefore they did not give her food and she did not take her insulin.’
The doctor came and shouted at her, ignoring her pleas for help. On the morning of the seventh day, the fellow prisoner found Tonya lying dead on the floor of her cell. She reported this to the guards but it took them another four hours to decide to go in and check on Tonya. Their attempts to revive her were, by then, futile.
I have no idea what Tonya had done to be serving a prison sentence but the way she was left to die was perverse and inhumane. Her death would probably be classified by law as caused by grave neglect. Manslaughter, maybe? Taking into account everyone knew Tonya was diabetic and needed insulin, you might even call it murder.
Posted in 2011, death of prisoner medically neglected, deaths in custody, deaths in prison, diabetes, diabetes in prison, medical neglect, Pennsylvania, prisoner abuse, prisoner dying | Tagged 2011, diabetes, medical neglect, Pennsylvania, prisoner abuse, prisoner dying
New report details systematic torture and abuse of prisoners in Pennsylvania State Prison
Posted on April 25, 2011 by californiaprisonwatch
From: Human Rights Coalition-Fed Up! Chapter
RELEASE: New report details systematic torture and abuse of prisoners in Pennsylvania State Prison
Contact: Amanda Johnson – hrcfedup@gmail.com – (716) 238-4089
April 25, 2011 – After a year-long investigation, the Human Rights Coalition has issued a report on the conditions of incarceration for people in the solitary confinement units at the State Correctional Institution in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. The report, Unity and Courage, examines discriminatory practices of the PA Department of Corrections and portrays the efforts of a group of prisoners engaging in nonviolent and peaceful protest to demand their basic human rights.
Unity and Courage documents a culture of abuse fostered by prison staff, characterized by the excessive use of force, assaults by officers, use of racial slurs, forced cell extractions, chemical gassing, destruction of legal paperwork, torture devices, and deprivation of food and water. The Human Rights Coalition began its investigation of the use of solitary confinement at Huntingdon in December 2009, when a prisoner committed suicide after being denied mental health treatment by prison staff.
Prisoners began an organized campaign of resistance in September of 2010, by refusing to come in from the exercise yard until they could speak with public officials about their treatment. Correctional officers wheeled out canisters of chemical spray, hosing the prisoners down until they would comply with orders to be handcuffed and returned to their cells, where they were denied showers and medical attention for days. Some were put in isolation cells and had to sleep naked on concrete slabs.
Approximately 2,500 men and women are housed in solitary confinement units across the state. They are in small, brightly lit cells 23 hours a day, with little or no ability to communicate with family, and no access to educational and rehabilitative programming. At Huntingdon, solitary confinement prisoners are dependent on correctional officers to receive food, have access to showers, exercise and law library, and to exchange ingoing and outgoing mail. With severe restrictions on outside contact and a Departmhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifent of Corrections abuse monitoring system that is shielded from external scrutiny, policies and practices of systemic abuse at the prison go unchecked at the cost of prisoners’ health and lives.
“Their goal is to stop us from speaking out against them,” wrote Huntingdon protester Kyle Klein, “but it will never work, not a chance in hell, or the hell we are in. Even when winning is impossible, quitting is far from optional.”
Contact info of public officials who received advance copies of Unity and Courage
Posted in 2011, Human Rights Coalition-FedUp, Pennsylvania, Prison Abuse Logs, prison abuses, Reports, torture | Tagged 2011, Human Rights Coalition-FedUp, Pennsylvania, prisoner abuse, reports, torture
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garth snow
Isles add George McPhee as special advisor to Garth Snow
By Christian Arnold | Sep 23, 2015 | 11:10AM
George McPhee spent last season scouting for the Islanders, and has now been hired?as a special advisor to general manager Garth Snow.
The team announced the hire shortly before 11 AM on Wednesday morning as the team prepared for it's second preseason game at Barclays Center this season. McPhee was the Washington Capitals general manager for 17 years before he was fired on April 26, 2014.
Tags: garth snow, George McPhee, Islanders, new york islanders, News, Christian Arnold
Isles GM believes character is one of John Tavares' biggest attributes
By Christian Arnold | Aug 21, 2015 | 2:00PM
The on-ice skills of John Tavares are quite apparent to anyone watching him during a game, but Islanders' general manager Garth Snow believes it's his character off the ice that has helped the team the most.
"He's one of the elite players in this league, for sure," Snow told NHL.com. "We were very fortunate to win the lottery the year that we had the first overall pick. His hockey game speaks for itself. Anyone that watches him play realizes he's a special talent.
Tags: garth snow, Islanders, john tavares, new york islanders, Christian Arnold
After draft, Okposo and Grabner remain Islanders
By Christian Arnold | Jun 29, 2015 | 7:30AM
Everyone was expecting Garth Snow to make a trade during the NHL Draft. He did, but it did not involve the two most likely players to be dealt there.?
Kyle Okposo and Michael Grabner remain members of the New York Islanders, for now. It was believed that at least one of them would have been dealt on Friday or Saturday. Instead, it was Griffin Reinhart who was sent to Edmonton in return for the 16th and 33rd overall picks in this year's draft.
The market for Grabner and Okposo just was not there during the two day draft being held in Sunrise, Florida. More from Newsday:
Tags: garth snow, Islanders, kyle okposo, michael grabner, new york islanders
Islanders have successful weekend at the NHL Draft
By Christian Arnold | Jun 28, 2015 | 11:03PM
Islanders' general manager Garth Snow had himself another good year at the draft. New York did not have any picks in the first round, but by the of end of Friday night the Islanders had made two first round selections.
On day two, the Islanders came away with five defenseman to replenish the team's blue line prospects. They even managed to make a bit of history with the selection of Andong Song, the first Chinese born player to be drafted by an NHL team.
The 2015 draft for the Islanders was one in which they could pick the best players available and not for need. They already have a strong group of prospects in the system and now they have the building blocks to make the team very good for many years to come.
Tags: garth snow, Islanders, new york islanders, News, NHL Draft, Prospects
Trent Klatt stepping down as Islanders' head amateur scout
By Christian Arnold | May 8, 2015 | 9:59AM
New York Islanders head amateur scout Trent Klatt will be vacating his position with the team after July 1 and taking over the head coaching job for the Grand Rapids High School boys hockey team (Duluth News Tribune, May 7).
Klatt told general manager Garth Snow last fall that the 2014-15 season would be his final one with the Islanders. He will continue to scout for the organization on a limited basis. Klatt?has been with the Islanders since 2010 and took over running the Islanders' draft table after they let go of former assistant general manager Ryan Jankowski.
The ex-NHLer cited the amount of travel he has had to do as the reason for stepping down from his position with the Islanders.
Tags: garth snow, Islanders, new york islanders, News, Trent Klatt
Capuano, coaching staff will return next season
The Islanders will not be making any coaching changes in the offseason after the team failed to advance to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs this season (Newsday, Apr 30).
Head coach Jack Capuano,?assistants coaches Doug Weight, Greg Cronin and Bob Corkum and goalie coach Mike Dunham will all return for the 2015-16 season, which will be the team's first in Brooklyn. Islanders' general manager Garth Snow was satisfied with the job the they did with the team this year.
"Our coaches did a great job, whether it was preparing our players or with the communication between coaches and players, which was outstanding," Snow said. "There were some aspects of our game, whether it was with our penalty-kill that struggled early on and became a strength for us by the end, or our power play, which was a strength at times early on and we didn't have one in the playoffs. That's an area of concern. We'll analyze all different areas of our team and try to get better." (Newsday, Apr 30)
Tags: garth snow, Islanders, jack capuano, new york islanders, News
Snow plays it smart at trade deadline
By Christian Arnold | Mar 2, 2015 | 9:11PM
There was an expectation that the Islanders were going to stand pat at the trade deadline and as the hours ticked away it appeared that would hold true.
But then, with under an hour left until the deadline, Islanders General Manager Garth Snow made his moves. He added depth up front by acquiring Tyler Kennedy and improved the Islanders' goaltending by trading Chad Johnson to Buffalo in exchange for Michal Neuvirth. There were two other smaller moves, but it is safe to say that Snow had a successful day by the time the 3 p.m. deadline came and went.
The acquisitions were not blockbuster deals like other teams were pulling off in the days and hours leading up to the deadline, but for the Isles a blockbuster trade was not something that was necessary. In fact, it was likely never even on the minds of Garth Snow and the rest of the team's front office.
Tags: garth snow, Islanders, new york islanders
Mikhail Grabovski out after suffering concussion
By Tim Reilly | Oct 19, 2014 | 7:50AM
Islanders forward Mikhail Grabovski is out indefinitely after suffering a concussion.
He had originally passed a concussion test after leaving Thursday night's game against the San Jose Sharks in the first period. But Grabovski woke up on Friday and was dealing with concussion like symptoms, according to General Manager Garth Snow.
A return date is unknown at this time. Grabovski will not be reevaluated until Monday at the earliest and will require a doctors?clearance?before returning to the ice.
Tags: garth snow, Islanders, Mikhail Grabovski, new york islanders, News
Islanders offseason moves earning praise among hockey media
By Christian Arnold | Aug 7, 2014 | 1:29PM
It's not too often that the Islanders receive praise from any national media outlet, especially when it comes to their offseason moves.
Following their 2013 playoff run, the Islanders had one of their least impressive offseasons they have had in quite some time. Believing that they had the talent already on the roster, general manager Garth Snow signed Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Peter Regin as the Islanders "major" free agency moves. As everyone knows, that did not work and Regin and Bouchard were shipped off to the Chicago Blackhawks in early February.
It would seem Snow learned from that experience and used the 2014 offseason to fill some holes that were obvious through the prior campaign. But were the moves enough to make the Islanders a playoff team in 2014? Some in the national hockey media say yes.
Tags: Bleacher Report, Dave Lozo, garth snow, Islanders, new york islanders, Puck Daddy, Ryan Lambert
Ho-Sang has Something to Prove with Isles
PHILADELPHIA -- Joshua Ho-Sang has something to prove and he was appreciative to the Islanders for taking the gamble of drafting him Friday night.
"I think I have 26 teams to show that they missed out," Ho-Sang said after being selected by the Islanders. "And I definitely have to show the Islanders that they were right."
The 18-year-old Windsor Spitfires forward was all smiles when he met the media after being selected 28th overall after the Islander traded back into the first round to draft him. The Islanders swapped their 35th and 57th picks to Tampa Bay to be able to select Ho-Sang.
Tags: 2014 Draft, garth snow, Islanders, Joshua Ho-Sang, new york islanders
Boyle 'Excited' at Options, Says Agent
By Christian Arnold | Jun 5, 2014 | 6:13PM
Time will tell if Dan Boyle will sign with the New York Islanders, but the initial feeling from his camp is that this is an exciting opportunity."From the beginning when [Boyle] knew he was not going back to San Jose, he was excited to see what options and possibilities might be out there. It shows that they're kind of stuck up here and showing a lot of interest," George Bazos, Boyle's agent, said in a phone interview with Islanders Point Blank.The Islanders acquired Boyle's rights late Thursday afternoon from the San Jose Sharks in exchange for a conditional fourth round pick. Team general manager Garth Snow has already had?a brief conversation with Bazos after the trade. "He just told me about the trade and he's excited at the opportunity to obtain Dan's rights," Bazos said.Boyle has spent the last six seasons with the San Jose Sharks, so he is not as familiar with the Islanders organization. Bazos said that his client will do some research to get a comfort level with the Islanders."Right now there's a lot research and work to be done on both sides," he said. "He would be excited as much with the Islanders as with any other team at this point."Boyle's agent says that regardless of the team they will be look for a two-year deal, but would not say what the monterey amount is that they are asking for. "The amount is impossible to categorize because it's not arbitration situation. It's a free agent situation, so the market will dictate that at some point," he said.The Islanders have until July 1 to exclusively negotiate with the soon-to-be 38-year-old defenseman. Last season Boyle recorded 36 points (12 goals,24 assists) in San Jose and would be a major assets to the Islanders struggling power play unit, which lacked a power play quarterback for much of last year.New York has been down the trade and sign route before this offseason. The Islanders acquired the rights for Jaroslav Halak on May 1 and signed him three weeks later. Snow will now hope that he can find the same luck with Boyle.
Tags: Dan Boyle, garth snow, George Bazos, new york islanders, News, Christian Arnold
Supposedly, Minnesota Has a Weird Kyle Okposo-Related Grudge
By Kevin Schultz | Oct 29, 2013 | 10:00AM
Do Minnesotans hold a serious grudge? Apparently, they are still upset about Kyle Okposo leaving school early six years ago. Or at least one writer says as much.Forgive me since this is the first time I've heard about this, but apparently folks in Minnesota were really ticked about Okposo leaving school to play for the Islanders. Well, not so much against Okposo and him leaving town early, more about Garth Snow's comments in the aftermath. Patrick Reusse of the Minneapolis Star Tribune writes:[sny-box]The Twin Cities? sizable hockey cult is very protective of the Gophers and now the Wild. This has made Garth Snow, the general manager of the New York Islanders, an unpopular figure.The impetus for that was Snow getting forward Kyle Okposo, the seventh overall selection in the 2006 draft, to turn pro on Dec. 19, 2007 ? early in Okposo?s sophomore season.What offended Minnesotans was Snow?s view on the player development taking place with Don Lucia?s Gophers.?Quite frankly, we weren?t happy with the program,? Snow said. ?They have a responsibility to coach, to make Kyle a better player, and they were not doing that.?[/sny-box]Well, I guess that's fair. Snow sort of poached a player that would have been contributing to the local hockey team and it is a fact that the Minnesota hockey team is a big deal in Minnesota. Snow had some comments that didn't paint U of M in a good light, so it makes sense that the locals would take offense to that.That's where it gets a little weird.?Again, from Reusse:[sny-box]We are approaching the six-year anniversary of that quote and it is time for the locals to take a different view of Snow. They should look at him as a generous friend of Minnesota hockey.Four months ago, for the modest price of the overrated Cal Clutterbuck and a third-round draft choice, Snow gave the Wild a now 21-year-old Nino Niederreiter, a wing with size, speed and quick hands.It sounded a bit fishy ? as if there had to be more to the Islanders giving up on Niederreiter, the fifth overall pick in the 2010 draft, than mere dimwittedness by Snow.[/sny-box]So what started as a somewhat odd Okposo story has apparently transformed into fan's desire to gloat about Nino Niederreiter, something that, if written by a blogger and not a major paper, would clearly be accused of having been written in a basement as a piece of fanboy slash fiction.But wait, it gets better. Reusse channels his inner Woodward and Bernstein. An anonymous veteran on the Wild sings the praises of Niederreiter. How ever did you manage to get that quote?[sny-box]On Monday morning, a Wild veteran was at his locker in?St. Paul. He was asked what might have been the Islanders? motivation for trading Niederreiter before his 21st birthday.With a promise of anonymity, the veteran said: ?I have no idea in the world. He?s loaded with talent.?[/sny-box]Don't worry, it's OK, everyone. There's a happy ending in all of this.[sny-box]Niederreiter said. ?I am very happy to be in Minnesota.?And the Twin Cities hockey cult is very happy to have him. Thanks, Garth Snow. You?re forgiven.[/sny-box]Niederreiter has five points in 13 games thus far for Minnesota and, if he stays on the right track, he should be a nice player for the Wild. This was a very weird way to go about writing that.
Tags: garth snow, Islanders, kyle okposo, nino niederreiter, Kevin Schultz
News: Islanders Acquire Tim Thomas
By Adam Rotter | Feb 7, 2013 | 5:14PM
Update, 7:30pm: Katie Strang tweets: "Snow said that, to his knowledge, Thomas is still in Colorado and has not been skating"--
The Islanders have acquired Tim Thomas from the Bruins for a conditional second rounder in 2014 or 2015.
The Bruins suspended Thomas because he did not want to play this season.
Tags: garth snow, Islanders, tim thomas, Adam Rotter
THE MORNING SKATE -- It's 10 AM, Do You Know Where Your Lubomir Is?
By Kevin Schultz | Jan 14, 2013 | 8:30AM
Awesome Visnovsky photoshop credit: HF Boards
"He's under contract with the Islanders and he should be here," Garth Snow told the assembled media yesterday. The 'he', of course, is Lubomir Visnovsky the staying/going/not coming defenseman of the Islanders and, more recently, HC Slovan. Visnovsky has until 10am today to report to the Island or be suspended. By the looks of it, he's not coming and we'll have an international incident to wait and see what the next steps are. If the KHL doesn't enforce the memorandum, this may end up in court. We'll have to wait and see.
Tags: garth snow, Islanders, jack capuano, lubomir visnovsky, matt donovan, matt martin, michael grabner, News, nino niederreiter, Editorial Aside
Garth Snow via the Isles Official Twitter
By Kevin Schultz | Aug 18, 2012 | 7:43PM
"I have spoken directly with Lubomir and am pleased to report that he did not suffer any serious injuries."
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Share From Lost To Found On The Metro-North Train
From Lost To Found On The Metro-North Train
By GRACE STEARNS
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A reluctant West Coast transplant, Grace Stearns joined Simon & Schuster as a publicity assistant in 2013 after attending the Columbia Publishing Course. Her literary idols include David Rakoff, C.S. Lewis, Virginia Woolf, Leo Tolstoy, Joan Didion, and William Shakespeare. Grace vastly prefers hardcover volumes to paperbacks, as their spines tend to accommodate her preference for color coded shelving that functions as cost-effective interior decor.
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An important part of my daily life as an apathetic Millennial involves the strategic avoidance of hype. Overenthusiasm or, even worse, earnest admiration of any kind is a social embarrassment too great to risk, regardless of whatever cultural phenomenon, life-changing product, or stale viral video on which I might be missing out.
Thus, the first time I saw a review of WILD by Cheryl Strayed in Time magazine, the reviewer’s sincere delight in the book’s scope and artistry was simply too obvious for me to bother answering his imploring call to read it. Overlooking the apparent irony in my subsequent decision to go into book publicity, imagine my smug sense of superiority as WILD quickly took off, rocketing to the top of the New York Times bestsellers list. If millions of people across the globe were raving about it, WILD likely wasn’t worth my valuable time.
Two years later, however, the hype had died down, a waning that coincided nicely with the quiet deterioration of my collegiate arrogance. The polar vortex had descended upon New York City, and I was spending nearly twenty hours a weekend in bed, reading, pausing only to pull on additional wool socks over the ones I was already wearing. My roommate had left a copy of WILD in a stack of paperbacks on the coffee table. Two delivery orders of pad Thai, nine inches of snow, and seventeen hours later, I set WILD down beside me, astonished at what I had been missing since the book’s initial release.
In the weeks that followed, I remained fixated on the details of Strayed’s odyssey; thoughts of her life outdoors were never far from my mind as I shuffled in and out of the drab, winterized New York City office buildings. I thumbed back through the book’s pages, wishing for something more—a movie, a sequel, with the sort of ardency generally associated with adolescents who’ve just closed the final installment of the Harry Potter books. Having grown up in the Pacific Northwest, WILD’s apt and sweeping descriptions of the Western United States sparked in me an insatiable yearning to escape New York as quickly as possible, preferably forever, and take up a simpler life in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. I went so far as to Google “hunter gatherer, Washington State.” Homesick nostalgia, combined with an altogether unoriginal brand of general twentysomething angst, left me desperate to take action, any action, in propelling my life forward in the vague direction of wildlife.
One snowy Saturday, in a cliché almost too embarrassing to recount here, I rummaged through my dresser drawers in search of my canvas backpack. With no plan in mind, I shoved a book, dark-chocolate-covered pretzels, a credit card, and a pair of gloves into the bag, slung it over my shoulder, and scurried to Grand Central Station. I poked hopefully at various touch-screen buttons on the automated ticketing machine, figuring I would disembark whatever train I boarded when I felt the spirit of Cheryl Strayed move me.
Two hours later I found myself in Garrison, NY, sinking into a mud-covered trail just yards from a noisy highway, barbed wire to my left and a partially obscured view of the frozen Hudson River to my right. Struggling to swallow my realization that the Sierra Nevada mountain range is not, in fact, accessible via Metro-North from Grand Central, I shoved a fistful of chocolate-covered pretzels into my mouth and grimaced into the icy wind. I trudged through the slush in an oval-shaped loop that spanned four flat miles. The train returned two hours later. There would be no memoir.
Sad, brief, and freezing as it may have been, my journey to Garrison was nothing short of miraculous. I, an accomplished cynic rarely moved to action by anything short of a legal mandate, had thrown dignity to the wind and paid $36 to march halfheartedly around the suburban tundra of the Hudson River Valley as the direct result of a literary memoir. The hype, it seems, was warranted.
by Cheryl Strayed
A solo thousand mile journey on the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State taken by an inexperienced hiker is a revelation. Told with suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild powerfully captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.
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Oh, the Places We See . . .
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A dream deferred: Political unrest delays Habitat build in Lesotho
Posted on September 26, 2014 by Oh, the Places We See
Children waiting for a new Habitat house in Lesotho
Don’t ask three children living near Maseru, Lesotho, about an unexpected coup to oust the Prime Minister. They may not know anything about it. Or even care. All they know is that their new house — a sturdy, clean, safe, concrete block and mud house on a pleasant hillside — couldn’t be completed on schedule by a certain 12-member Habitat Global Village team from the U. S. and Canada. And not only that — what is a coup anyway?
Waiting for his new house in Lesotho.
It didn’t seem fair, of course. But then political unrest always seems to hurt those who are innocent and undeserving of upheaval. On the day our Habitat team arrived in Johannesburg, a military coup was taking shape: Prime Minister Thomas Thabane fled the country, seeking exile in Ladybrand in Free State, after receiving intelligence that he was the target of a military assassination attempt. Habitat Global Village coordinators reacted quickly to the news, delaying the border crossing of our team into Lesotho by one day and discussing issues, ramifications, and concerns for the safety of all. Cautiously, we entered the country, unloaded our packs at Ka Pitseng Guest House, and prepared for the build on the following day.
Ready to build: Hlabathe from Global Village Lesotho assists Kelle Shultz, Knoxville Director of Habitat for Humanity
Gathering onsite, we listened as Mathabo Makuta, National Director of Habitat for Humanity Lesotho, greeted us and welcomed us to her country, praising our commitment and generosity. Then she spoke of passion, passion for helping her people, the people of Lesotho.
Mathabo Makuta, National Director of Habitat for Humanity Lesotho, addresses the work team from U. S. and Canada.
The task seemed fairly simple to those experienced in global village construction: Stack concrete blocks, add logs of mud for binding and filler, follow the stone masons’ guidance for alignment and balance, and tap/rake/tap the dirt floor to pack a solid foundation. Secondly, build a pit latrine: dig, dig, and then dig some more until you can just see over the head of a man standing upright. When both tasks are complete, top the house with corrugated tin and rocks (to form a roof) and line the latrine with block to make it last for years to come.
Landon Ulrich (Knoxville) aligning the blocks
Hlabathe passes out hard hats to the crew.
David MacKay (Atlanta) spreads mud along stacked blocks
Loading dirt: Kim Kreitner and Bert Sams
Tamping the dirt to build a firm foundation: Stirling Davidson (Calgary), Bill West (Knoxville), Kim Kreitner (Baltimore) and Anne-Marie Carey (Vancouver)
Working hard was the goal. After all, most on the team had built with Global Village somewhere in the world before — Guatemala, Nepal, Trinidad, Belfast, Viet Nam. But no one had ever been to Lesotho, a small land-locked country surrounded on all sides by South Africa. A country of mountainous terrain with a population of just over two million. And one of the poorest countries in the world (The Citizen, September 1, 2014). Lesotho depends heavily on the income it derives from exporting water and hydroelectric power to South Africa. But even with the benefit of good natural resources, Lesotho has a widespread problem to overcome: over 24% of the population is infected with the HIV/Aids, one of the highest rates in the world.
Current home of family in Lesotho.
And so our thoughts turned to the family, the people we came halfway around the world to serve. The ones who had high hopes of a completed house the week we were there.
Three children will live there — a girl (16) and two boys (12 and 8) — orphaned since their parents died of Aids years ago. Caring for them is their faithful grandmother (age 82, blind and unable to walk, thus not pictured) and her brother (age 76) who stayed onsite with us during the build, frequently tearing up as he expressed his gratitude for the work we were doing.
Proud owners of a new Habitat home — soon!
We lined up in front of the family’s current home to meet the grandmother and tell her how grateful we were for the opportunity to build a new home for her family. Not a one of us could speak afterwards. Our mouths were dry. Our hearts were open. And the resolve was stronger than ever to complete the job.
The children’s uncle — happy to work with us and grateful for a new home.
One day of work, however, was all we had. The attempted coup prompted the U. S. Embassy to issue a statement mandating the evacuation of all U. S. citizens from the Kingdom of Lesotho. We were leaving — even though the important work had just begun and lines of communication among the Lesotho workers and our team had strengthened.
Global Village team with community supporters: Lesotho 2014.
We looked back at the house with a sense of pride, knowing we had given it our best even if for only a day. And also knowing that the work would be completed by community workers, our co-workers. Almost immediately, the Global Village team found refuge for us in nearby Clarens and planned for our safe evacuation.
But we hated to leave. Hated to disappoint the family.
Hopeful that her new Habitat house in Lesotho will be completed soon.
Later in our travels, someone shared the poem “I Am an African” by Wayne Visser, reminding us of our time in Lesotho and a short, very short, build with Habitat for Humanity — a dream deferred.
from I Am an African
When Africa weeps for her children
My cheeks are stained with tears.
When Africa honours her elders
My head is bowed in respect.
When Africa mourns for her victims
My hands are joined in prayer.
When Africa celebrates her triumphs
My feet are alive with dancing.
Wayne Visser
The panoramic view from home to be completed by Habitat for Humanity in Lesotho.
Habitat for Humanity Lesotho: http://www.habitat.org/where-we-build/lesotho
Habitat for Humanity Lesotho: Mountain View Newsletter: http://www.hfhl.org.ls/habitat/sites/default/files/HFHL%20JULY%202013.pdf
The Citizen: http://citizen.co.za
Added on October 7, 2014: This post has a happy ending! Check out pictures of the finished house in Lesotho. Click here for Welcome news from Lesotho: Habitat house is complete!
About Oh, the Places We See
Met at University of Tennessee, been married for 47 years, and still passionate about travel whether we're volunteering with Habitat Global Village, combining work at Discovery with pleasure, or just seeing the world. Hope you'll join us as we try to see it all while we can!
View all posts by Oh, the Places We See →
This entry was posted in Habitat for Humanity, Lesotho, Travel and tagged coup, Global Village, Habitat for Humanity, Habitat International, Kelle Shultz, Lesotho, Maseru, Mathabo Makuta, Pitseng, South Africa. Bookmark the permalink.
26 Responses to A dream deferred: Political unrest delays Habitat build in Lesotho
What an honor it must be to work with such a wonderful organization, to see the families whose lives are dramatically improved by your generosity.
We love working with Habitat both locally and internationally. There is a real sense of accomplishment with every build, and helping families is what it’s all about. Thanks for reading and commenting!
Wayne Visser says:
Thanks for sharing my poem. I’m glad the words resonated.
What an honor to hear from you. We received your poem at Thornybush Game Preserve. Someone left it on the bed when they cleaned the room. We immediately read it and loved it. So much applies to our experience in South Africa. Best wishes for continued success.
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Touching story and visuals. You’re doing such good work. So sorry that your work in Lesotho was left unfinished. Thanks for posting this.
Thanks so much for taking the time to read and respond. It was a moving experience, one that is still ongoing, I hope. We all wanted to help this family — even to the point of moving in or doing something extra for the yard. Sometimes what comes along in our lives really touches us beyond belief.
Fantastic and generous work Rusha. I haven’t been involved in a Habitat Project, but I have lived through a couple of African coups, and as an outsider, you can only keep a low profile and hope for the best. Sorry for the delayed project. Hopefully, it will be finished soon. ~James
Thanks for taking a look at one of our favorite – yet short-lived — Habitat projects. It remains dear to our hearts, and we are pretty sure much has been done after our evacuation. At least we were assured by the Global Village staff that the work would continue. Hoping for good things to come for that family — so deserving!
Woolly Muses says:
Sorry to hear that your project fell short of its target, Rusha. But accolades for the work completed. My visits to Africa have only strengthened the desire to return one day.
I’d love to return also. There’s work to be done but also fun to be had. Hope to post more of the latter since the work was cut short! Thanks for commenting.
Oh, Rusha, how sad the project could not be completed. I hope, as you say, it’s only deferred for the time being. What a wonderful thing you all are doing.
Thanks for your comments. I have a feeling that the house may be completed even as I write this. The community workers were quite efficient, and the sentiment supported getting this family in their new abode quickly. Here’s hoping all is going well. Perhaps I’ll hear something soon.
I am amazed you were able to accomplish as much as you did in one day. Sadly, Africa, sometimes feels like a string of tragedies. –Curt
We were pretty amazed at what we did, too. But community members had built the foundation. We kept adding rows of block and mud. When we say, “It takes a vilage,” we may not know how very true it is in Africa. Thanks for reading!
I lived in a similar house (cement floor, however) when I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Liberia.
build with Habitat for Humanity — a noble task! Thank you for sharing the story, Rusha.
You are so welcome. It was a memorable experience, for sure. Thanks for reading!
freebutfun says:
I was once in Ghana to build a hospital in a remote village, so this post made me remember the bond we made building with the locals. We weren’t evacuated though, the village got its hospital but I wonder if our group was the one to learn most out of the cooperation. Lovely poem.
You are so right — we were the ones who benefited. I’ll be touched by the experience for many years to come. Glad you were able to complete your project. Although we didn’t, I’m sure it will be continued. Thanks for visiting!
Well, there was still some finishing to be done, but we got the building up 🙂
Thanks for bringing good memories back and also raise the awareness of the situation in quite many countries. We are the lucky ones who can flee, and we don’t have to leave our homes to do so.
You are right in so many ways. We are quite fortunate; however, we found the families, even those in need, to be quite positive and caring. Sometimes I think we have too much to appreciate life as it can be lived. Thanks for commenting!
NW Frame of Mind says:
Thanks for sharing this, Rusha. You do amazing work with Habitat for Humanity.
Thanks for reading and commenting. I only work with teams — and most of the folks are much stronger than I. But my heart is big and the needs are great. There’s a lot to be done in so many parts of the world. Appreciate you.
Thanks so much for taking a look at this post. It was quite a moving experience for us, and we really wanted to complete the house. But we know others will step up. Lovely country. Lovely people.
cindy knoke says:
Wow. Simply amazing and so sad you couldn’t complete the project~
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Register Staff.
Question 1 -- Not specified -- What was your childhood nickname? In what city did you meet your spouse/significant other? What is the name of your favorite childhood friend? What street did you live on in third grade? What is your oldest sibling’s birthday month and year? (e.g., January 1900) What is the middle name of your oldest child? What is your oldest sibling's middle name? What school did you attend for sixth grade? What was your childhood phone number including area code? (e.g., 000-000-0000) What is your oldest cousin's first and last name? What was the name of your first stuffed animal? In what city or town did your mother and father meet? Where were you when you had your first kiss? What is the first name of the boy or girl that you first kissed? What was the last name of your third grade teacher? In what city does your nearest sibling live? What is your oldest brother’s birthday month and year? (e.g., January 1900) What is your maternal grandmother's maiden name? In what city or town was your first job? What is the name of the place your wedding reception was held? What is the name of a college you applied to but didn't attend? Where were you when you first heard about 9/11?
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Construction industry launches Licensing Task Force
The Federation of Master Builders (FMB) has announced the creation of an industry-wide initiative to create a licensing scheme across the construction industry.
The construction industry has come together to develop a mandatory licensing scheme for all UK construction companies to transform the sector into a high quality and professional industry, announces the Federation of Master Builders (FMB). A new Construction Licensing Task Force, supported by a range of leading industry bodies, will lead the development of the licensing scheme.
According to research by the organisation one third (32%) of homeowners are put off doing major home improvement works requiring a builder because they fear hiring a dodgy builder, which means that the UK economy could be missing out on £10 billion of construction activity per year.
The research also suggests that more than three-quarters (77%) of small and medium-sized (SME) construction firms support the introduction of licensing to professionalise the industry, protect consumers and side-line unprofessional and incompetent building firms.
The decision to establish a Construction Licensing Task Force follows a recommendation in an independent research report by Pye Tait published last year entitled ‘Licence to build: A pathway to licensing UK construction’, which details the benefits of introducing a licensing scheme for the whole construction industry and puts forward a proposal for how it could work.
The Task Force will be chaired by Liz Peace CBE, former CEO of the British Property Federation. The following organisations will sit on it:
Association of Consultancy and Engineering
British Property Federation
Chartered Institute of Building
Construction Products Association
Electrical Contractors Association
Federation of Master Builders
Glass and Glazing Federation / FENSA
Local Authority Building Control
Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
Liz Peace CBE, Chair of the Construction Licensing Task Force, said: “Mandatory licensing has the potential to transform our industry into a world-leading sector. Licensing will help drive up standards and help address the issue of quality and professionalism, which is some areas, is falling short.”
Brian Berry, Chief Executive of the FMB, said: “The vast majority of builders and homeowners want to see the construction industry professionalised. It’s unacceptable that more than half of consumers have had a negative experience with their builder. However, we shouldn’t be surprised by this given that in the UK, it is perfectly legal for anyone to set up a building firm and start selling their services without any prior experience or qualifications. This cannot be right given the nature of the work and the potential health and safety risks when something goes wrong. In countries like Australia and Germany, building firms require a licence and we want to develop a scheme that regulates our industry in a similar manner. I am delighted to be part of the Construction Licensing Task Force and will ensure that any such scheme works for small building firms.”
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Home / Events / Zachariasen Memorial Lectures
Zachariasen Memorial Lectures
These lectures are annually given by outstanding alumni of the Department of Physics at the University of Chicago, in honor of William Zachariasen. Zachariasen is well known for his remarkable work on X-ray Diffraction in Crystals, but he was also an outstanding teacher. From 1945 to 1950 and again from 1955 to 1959, Zachariasen was the chair of the Physics department. His influence and effectiveness as department chair has positively affected many lives. He brought many distinguished physicists to Chicago, including Enrico Fermi, Ed Teller, Robert Christy, Walter Zinn, Maria Goeppert-Mayer, and Gregor Wentzel. Among those who earned PhDs at Chicago between 1945 and 1950 there were five who won Nobel prizes later in their careers.
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Maria Goeppert-Mayer Lectures
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Physics Career Day
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Michaelangelo Monteleone (aka MA, MM, Mike...) in Pitt Football, Recruiting February 6, 2019 February 7, 2019 1,370 Words
This article was sent to me by Bill Aloe, whom many of you know as WWB, on January 17th. I told him I’d hold it until the appropriate time and Bill was good enough to make some edits last night. Enjoy…or not!
PITT POV Perspective, Please
After Alabama’s loss to Clemson a couple last month, I couldn’t wait to turn on Paul Finebaum’s call-in show the following day on the ESPN SEC network. As some of you may know, Finebaum is an ardent Bama fan as are many of his callers. And I was not disappointed …..
Saban is too old …. Saban is over-the-hill …. Saban needs to be replaced before it gets any worse …. (and my favorite) we need to hire Dabo even if it takes 25 million to do so.
Yes, the man who brought Bama five national titles over the past eight years definitely needs to go.
Isn’t it fun to look at people who lose perspective because they are so wrapped up in something they are so passionate about? But the fact is that we all do it …. whether it is a sports team, a political candidate, or a girlfriend. (There is indeed many fish is the sea, by the way.) When things don’t turn out as we hoped that we really care about, we all tend to take this myopic view of the situation without stepping back and getting a general perspective.
This is what I perceived when I read the comments after Pitt’s loss in the Sun Bowl and then when MJ Devonshire chose to go elsewhere. Passionate fans venting out their frustrations. Now I don’t mean to compare Narduzzi to Saban or Pitt to Alabama, but that’s the issue! Fans have far too high expectation on the teams they follow … whether it has won 5 national titles in the last 8 years or it has one double digit winning season in the last 35 years.
I noted the disappointment here with Pitt finishing 7 and 7, which is only natural after they lost the final three games. But I was caught a bit surprised by the furor it caused, especially when so many predicted doom and gloom before the season. And of course, the angry ones continue to forget that five of the opponents this season finished in the Top 20 …. that’s over 33% of the schedule. And by the way, let me be the first to mention that of the 14 games played, only six were played in the (quasi) friendly Heinz confines. Lastly, I got a kick by the POVers who predicted a minimum two TD Stanford win but took the coaches to task for the one point loss.
Long-time Post-Gazette high school editor, Mike White, wrote two articles over the last few years about how the number of Western PA FBS recruits are dwindling in an alarming fashion. Note that he was not only referring to 4-stars, but also 2 and 3 stars. Not only are there only 5 players in the WPIAL / City this year that have been recruited by Power 5 teams, there were only 14 being recruited by all of the FBS teams. That’s out of a total of well over a hundred schools. Like it or not, Western PA has become a barren waste land when it comes to high school football talent. No wonder the coaching staff has all but ignored the immediate area for recruiting.
There is recent local news about Penn Hills School District being in dire condition financially. It wasn’t that long ago that the school was the area’s largest, providing Pitt with Fralic, Flynn and Donald, to name a few. Now, apparently the story that it was unable to fund its football team’s trip to the state finals without Bill Fralic’s help was quite accurate.
The Pittsburgh city schools provide very few recruits these days. They all play their league games on one field, and the practice fields are deplorable. The coaches are to be commended for their efforts but the days of Pete Dimperio are long gone. Also are the Morningside Bulldogs for that matter. Even Franklinstein himself only recruited one Western PA player (a Rivals 3-star) this year.
From 1995 through 2011, Woodland Hills has graduated a dozen players that has made it to the NFL. This includes Lousaka Polite, Shantae Spencer, Lafayette Pitts and Ejuan Price. However, Price was its last graduate to become a pro, and WHHS hasn’t even produced a 4-star recruit in the last 5 years or so.
No doubt, Coach Narduzzi’s recruiting of offensive linemen / tight ends leave much to be desired. (He is literally the anti-Chryst in that his classes are very defensive oriented.) But anyone who thinks Pitt belongs in the Top 25 of recruiting rankings are guilty of the myopic view that was described above. Yes, the focus of the recruiting has been re-directed to where the quantity and quality prospects are (New Jersey and southeast US) but Pitt is just another school to many of them, let alone the fact that most of them have not heard of Tony Dorsett or Hugh Green. To them, Pitt is just another decent program that plays in front of a half-empty stadium. It should not come as a surprise that Pitt is willing to take a chance on a lower level recruit who is deemed to have potential.
I was also alarmed by the negativity of many of the posts in the blog article about the 2019 schedule last month. It is one thing to be sarcastic as Michaelangelo was in his article, but once again, we have to read in the comments of how pathetic the coaching staff is and there is little chance of success this coming season.
The fact is that Coach Narduzzi is 20 and 12 in the ACC, and those 20 wins rank 3rd in the league in that time period behind only Clemson and Miami. Not bad for a program that for the last 30 plus seasons has had one 10-win season, one division title and two share league titles. And for those who think Paul Chryst would have done the same or better, maybe so but remember it would have been Chad Voytik or Adam Bertke handing off the ball for 30 plus times per game for the first two years. How did that work out in 2014 against a schedule when Pitt played only one team that finished ranked? Even with Conner running for 1700 yards? Would Henderson be running all those varieties of the jet sweep, or Aston catching all those shuttle passes, or Weah having a break-out year? I highly doubt it.
Before you tell me that Narduzzi should be winning 9 and 10 games in his 3rd and 4th years, tell me who has done this at Pitt since Jackie Sherill? Foge didn’t, Gottfried didn’t, Hackett didn’t, Majors II didn’t, Walt had a banner year in 2002 with 9 wins but only 6 his last two years. Even Wanny went from 10 wins to 8 in his final season. Chryst had 6 wins in his 3rd year, again playing a very easy schedule.
And anyone who thinks these other guys played harder schedules than what Narduzzi has faced since he began is out of his/her mind. You should know all of the data by now of how many Top 15 teams and 10 plus win teams Pitt has played the last four years.
Lastly, Narduzzi is taking a big hit because of the ranking of his latest recruiting class. Narduzzi’s current class is ranked 49th made up of only 19 total recruits due to scholarship limits. Well, did you know that Chryst’s 2013 class was ranked 47th … and that class was made up of 27 total recruits? And that was before Franklin was at PSU, and the Nits were being sanctioned.
Yes, I was disappointed by the final three games this year. I also very much think that Narduzzi needs to recruit better, improve the passing attack and beat UNC. But I am not going to put down a coach who has done as good or better than any other of the eight coaches this program has had over the past 35 years, and under harder conditions.
Perspective please! And now time to get off of the soapbox.
Pitt Basketball: Pitt vs NC State Open Game Thread
240 thoughts on “Perspective Please”
Very well written article WWB. Thank you for taking the time to share this.
I love that photo of Oakland
I see a place where that OCS can go. 🙂
It comes down to expectations and excuses
Come Year 5 in a program, I expect 10 wins and decent (top 25) recruiting classes
But in reality, I see Narduzzi as a coach with a 8-9 win ceiling.
A coach that struggles mightily with recruiting (look at this years class…the worst in 5 years).
A coach that has won no bowl games and has never had his team ranked come years end.
Yet Pitt is paying him $3.5M and Pitt is affording him the budget to hire good assistants and to recruit. Pitt is not cheap anymore.
Some will say that Pitt’s OOC schedule is too tough.
Some will say that the talent in the WPIAL is down.
Some will say give him more time.
I will say that those who say those things are making excuses.
Enough of the enabling.
Time to move on.
Dont get me wrong, I do appreciate your perspective Bill. I just think the goal of 10 win seasons should be the expectation particularly given the money that Pitt is allocating now to the program.
If the OOC schedule is too tough, its Heathers job to change it. I agree. But still no guarantees that Pitt will win those games. And Pitt will have to pay close to $1 Million dollars per game for these ‘easy’ wins and deal with 40k yellow seats.
And knowing the talent is down in the WPIAL, Pitt needs to expand their recruiting footprint. And to their credit they have. I would just like to see more inroads into Ohio, a very talent rich state.
After 4 years, I’m not willing to cut Narduzzi any slack. This years recruiting class was poor. We have yet another coaching change on offense. Pitt’s QB is still a work in progress. Pitt’s O-line will be inexperienced along with Pitt’s running backs. But I do think the D is finally where it needs to be after 4 long years.
So thats my perspective.
wwb….. thanks for the great article. First read I would have thought I wrote it… Heading for sleepy time right now but it’s much appreciated.
John in South Carolina says:
One thing to keep in mind about Narduzzi is that Pitt is his first head coaching job. We have been suffering through his growing pains. He first had to assemble a staff from scratch. This has been an ongoing experiment. He is now on his fourth offensive coordinator and second defensive coordinator. Hopefully both will be around for 2020 as well so we have some continuity. Given that next year will be his fifth year, I hope he has finally attained Head Coach status and has graduated from Head Coach in training status!
I was one of those who was all for his firing after the bad start to the year. Alas with the Coastal Division title win he will be with us probably at least this coming year and next. I wish him all the best, but my hopes are not high!
Thank you wwb. That is telling it like it is IMO. I really appreciate that article.
wwb — excellent article – I especially liked your use of the “anti-Chryst.” Very clever.
And obviously you knew a while back that we would have no great recruiting pluses today… ☹️
Nice article. Well done!
WWB: First, I enjoyed the article. Nicely done. I agree with your perspective about keeping things in perspective…but not entirely.
Things are generally never as bad or as good as fans make them out to be. That said, you should consider an alternative perspective. I’m one of the older guys on the board. My freshman year was 1975/76. You may have heard that we won the National Championship that year. I’ve seen what truly great football looks like. Pitt football has mostly marched relentlessly towards mediocrity since that shining moment. Which brings me to the current state of affairs and HCPN. IMO, the program is stuck in neutral (but just barely). We’re right back at the 500 level, which isn’t particularly exciting from where I sit. Our recruiting has been a major disappointment. Quite simply, there is no reason to believe that Pitt will ever be more than a 5, 6, 7, or occasionally and 8 win team. It’s depressing to think that I might run out of years on this earth while Pitt continues to wallow in mediocrity. Those of us who have seen greatness would like to believe that we have some small sliver of hope. Sadly, my perspective is that we don’t.
Scotts Valley Panther
An excellent and well written article Bill. As Ike said and if I didn’t read your lead in on who wrote this piece I would have thought it was Ike getting one in before Reed gets his chance to submit another article.—-That said I agree of a great deal of what you said. But IMO I don’t believe Narduzzi is really a very good sideline game day coach. Many may disagree but I think that factor alone is far more worrying than his less than satisfactory recruiting success.
Well done Bill…thanks for writing.
Nice crowd at the LOI last night, but seemed smaller than the year before. Sorry Major could not attend. Always enjoy talking with him. Scooter, Richman, raypgh, MarkPT, the Lacko brothers and our tailgate friends, the 2 Mikes were in attendance.
I’ll post more thoughts later today…busy morning. (indoor golf haha)
Here’s a little more perspective.
According to numbers just released by SBNation, over the last 5 Years Pitt comes in as the “No. 36” College Football Team in the country.
During that same period, Pitt also ranked 36, 37, 31, 70, 45 in Recruiting Class.
As a matter of comparison, over the past 5 years Wisconsin ranks as the “No. 9” College Football Team and 40, 35, 35, 44, 33 in Recruiting Class.
Talk about ROI.
POD, what I didn’t see mentioned here over the past 24 hours is that Pitt’s current only has 19 recruits due to scholarship limits. BTW, did you know that Pitt’s 2013 class was ranked 47th with 27 recruits?
How’s that for perspective?
and of course those rankings you pointed to doesn’t consider difficulty of schedule. Why do you anti-Narduuziers keep avoiding this factor?
saturdaysarebetter says:
WWB, it’s Paul Finebaum, not Howard Finebaum.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Finebaum
Thanks for a well written and thought out article.
Narduzzi’s ACC record is what should be applauded and if the non-conference schedule wasn’t so brutal his overall record would be better. The obstacles the program faces are many and persuading a kid to play off campus in a pro stadium that is half empty is impressive.
Make no mistake, if Pitt foolishly let Narduzzi go Lyke would find out real fast the lack of interest from coaches in the job. I’m talking head coaches, not an assistant who gets hired on the cheap.
to all, thanks for the (mostly) positive comments, much appreciated. I just always like to bring a different perspective, especially when the natives are restless.
Hey Bill.. < btw, nice to put a name to the wwb handle, Narduzzi really did make a rookie head coaching mistake when he was first hired at PITT. He came in raw and with a chip on his shoulder he had no business wearing. Now look at how people are continuing to hold that against him, which makes the title of this article so dead on. Narduzzi is way over scrutinized and way under appreciated because of his surly entrance to the PITT fans and media. I think it’s time we all look past all that and move on, cause Narduzzi is not going anywhere.. . .ike
We could put a d at the end of his handle to make wwbd (What Would Bill Do?)
It was more than a chip on his shoulder! It was “this program sucks and I’m here to save it!”
That arrogance combined with constantly underperforming has not worn off. He acts to most as if he’s won 3 National Titles!
Thanks for the nice article, wwb, and good timing for its posting, Mike! I’ll follow up on Fran’s initial comments and also had a blast with Fran, Scooter, Ray, Richman, and the Lacko Bros. We missed your sage commentary Major John ( hope you are feeling better) and missed seeing everyone else as well. Regarding the event, it was definitely less well attended than the others I have been to, but was better organized with the stage in the center as opposed to one end of the hall so everyone could see the stage and the multiple big screens much better. I couldn’t track down new coaches Whipple and Beatty, had some face time w Narduzzi and DC Randy Bates. Regarding Narduzzi, I’m not surprised that he has trouble with recruiting as he just seems uncomfortable in social situations, maybe a sports psychologist would help? I asked Bates which of the new defensive recruits he thought may see the field the soonest, and at first he gave the pat answer that you hope you don’t have to play any of them right away, but then said perhaps Sir Dennis. I asked if he would play at linebacker or In the secondary, and he seemed a bit perplexed and asked me “how big is he” (lol), then said linebacker.
ajs32 says:
Thanks Bill for the article on a realistic perspective on Pitt football. I share this perspective but I still get super angry and depressed when we lose.
Most of us on this blog have love for the city of Pittsburgh, grew up near it, or had family that went to Pitt. The place gives us fuzzy feelings. Try recruiting top athletes that have no connection to Pitt. Pitt isn’t an easy sell so please quit blaming Nard/past coaches so much. Here is what the average recruit sees about Pitt:
1) a team that is usually right at .500 or a little below for the majority of the last 20 years and has no realistic shot of going to a BCS/New Year’s Six Bowl
2) a team that has little fan support from the students, university, and tri-state area at large
3) a team that does not have many of its own facilities, I can’t think of too many D 1A programs that have to travel by bus or car to get to practice
4) an urban campus that does not have the greatest weather or housing, If you have ever been to a place like Ole Miss or UNC, Oakland has a tough time competing with those campuses.
5) A team that gets little to no national exposure except for an occasional Thursday night ESPN game or our thumpings on ABC against PSU, Clemson, and Okie St. Hell, we played four games on the CW this year.
6) A total lack of excitement for the future of the program by most that follow it.
I hate to admit to these things being a Pitt diehard…but we are what we are.
ajs — sad and sobering, but true.
Reed, I’ll give you the fact that PITT did play lousy the last 3 games as that was plain to see. What gives me more hope than some others have is that Narduzzi changed the offensive coordinator and WR coach in the wake of those pitiful performances. . Narduzzi and Heather both know the score and he’s well into the 3rd quarter of his coaching life at PITT and he has to do better..
Who cares what the WPIAL is like now? Recruiting is national and PN himself said that three years ago. The fact is that he’s not recruiting well nationally either. And then whiffed on the best local player anyway.
Pitt gave him a big increase in recruiting $$ and a use of a chartered jet and it hasn’t paid any returns. That is a problem.
Pitt fans sung his praises when he was hired so yes, expectations were high. Has he fulfilled those expectations? Simple question…has he?
A lot of Pitt fans don’t think so and don’t see a big turnaround happening anytime soon.
Some other Pitt fans will point to any reason as to why the last two seasons have been subpar as 3rd and 4th years in his tenure as the article above does. Gee, he’s the highest paid Pitt HC (by far) and he’s done the same or worse than his predecessors.
Sure you can look at the past Pitt coaches and compare him… But no one brings up Majors or Sherrill when doing so, do they?
The fact is that instead of his teams and his recruiting getting better the longer he’s here the opposite is happening.
Spin it anyway you want but the above question is valid – after four full seasons at the helm and four full recruiting classes under his belt is this what you honestly believed Narduzzi would be producing as our HC?
Yes or no? All else is excuse making.
Reed – welcome back – hope your surgery was successful and your back is feeling good.
I’ll give you my shortened & simple answer – Heather’s extension to PN was a “thank you” for helping to get her the Pitt AD job. Skip to the 2018 season…
If it wasn’t for the Coastal championship, I believe Heather would have canned PN and started with her own choice to run Pitt FB. Instead, she couldn’t fire him (yet) because of that Coastal championship – it would have looked bad nationally and may have hurt her chances of landing a good HC.
Now, in 2019, barring another Coastal championship, 9 or 10 wins is a must for PN to survive another season.
By the way, I personally have not renewed my season tickets – I’m waiting for a call from Heather so I can get details on her vision for the program. I won’t hold my breath.
I’d say signing the kids from the south is a payoff having the jet. And Pitt should have a jet for whomever the coach is. I’m not going to applaud Pitt for spending the $$$, it should be there regardless. The price you pay for sticking your hand out for an ACC check.
again.. winning the coastal division absolutely checks a box. No denying that.
Sure it does. That was a good thing but does it answer the question I asked?
Are we where you thought we’d be going into Year 5 with Narduzzi when he was hired?
Reed, where do you think we should be? Unless we landed some huge name expensive coach or ex NFLer, this team given its finances and challenges is not meant to win more than seven games a year. Anything more than that is utter overachieving.
6&34 says:
Actually, the question you asked is rather oblique and therefore will not yield the most meaningful and helpful information. The great success Franklin has had had not yet occurred when Narduzzi was hired; The WPIAL had not reached its current state of decline, etc. Nevertheless, I am not reticent to answer the question directly by saying I’m quite disappointed but that’s because my expectations were way too high. And yes, I am disappointed for many of the reasons you, our Commander, pointed out to us so persuasively, e.g. the abysmal defenses Narduzzi put on the field and the painful inconsistencies of beating Clemson only to lose to Northwestern. And ugghh, then there’s getting beat in the 4th quarter by North Carolina, twice no less.
But I have to say, Narduzzi has had his positives also (beating Clemson in 2016 and Miami in 2017 were no small things and then there’s this year’s Coastal title). And no one can deny that Pitt’s schedule in 2017 and 2018 was brutal. Hey, we beat Syracuse with their 10 wins so were we better than Syracuse. Also, I think its at least inaccurate to say Narduzzi has 4 “full” recruiting classes in now because his 2015 class was not “full” by any measure and the 2019 class are kids who are not yet on the team.
Still I think I am a realist from the WWB school (great article by the way), and I have to say that this year better show progress. What progress is may be like pornography – I will know it when I see it (no 10 win test for me).
needed a question mark after “Syracuse”
Typically, coaches make it come Year 4…thats the 10-11 win season and a nice bowl
It worries me that Narduzzi has flat lined and his recruiting is trending down
I think his ceiling is 8-9 wins
That Coastal title means nothing if you cant win your bowl game and become ranked at seasons end
Yes – an easier OOC would help but how many extra ‘rent a wins’ are we talking about? There are no guarantees especially when Pitt finds a way to lose to these teams historically. Pitt is paying New Hampshire $1 Million to play them. Pitt just doesnt have that kind of money to pay for wins. And then you’ve got maybe 30,000 showing up to see those wins and Pitt is taking a revenue hit.
To Pitt’s credit, they are going out of state to find recruits but the quality of recruits leaves much to be desired. Just three recruits rated 5.7 stars or above in this past class. And Ohio, a talent rich state, appears to be ignored.
Pitt has the money now for recruiting and coaching salaries. That should not be an excuse.
Pitt is a stable program, but one could argue there is no consistency on the offensive side since Narduzzi goes through OC’s like toilet paper.
Pitt has its challenges but that hasnt stopped Pitt from succeeding in the past (see Walt and Wanny).
If Pitt wins, fans will show up to support them.
I do believe having an off campus stadium does not help the program. Heinz is too big for Pitt’s needs. Pitt really needs to consider tarping the upper decks or at least the non-TV side and endzone.
Students dont like being bused to games. Players dont like being bused to practice. Even Wanny mentioned this as a logistical problem nearly 20 years ago. Wanny also understood the value of playing on campus. So I think Pitt should consider including a football venue as part of the Victory Heights project. A 45k stadium will fit on the OC lot and Cost Center footprint.
An urban campus isnt for every student or athlete but Oakland is vibrant, exciting and unique. The University is also spending big dollars to improve the quality of the educational experience…see future rec center and housing plans.
Pitt is very lucky to be part of the ACC. This conference provides them with national exposure and the new ACC network will further help Pitt promote its brand and programs. Pitt also receives a $27M-$32M check each year as a member. Pitt wouldnt be able to support its programs without it.
Its up to the Narduzzi to generate some excitement. Like I said if Pitt wins and is providing fans with hope for the future, fans will attend games and donate.
There just isnt much hope at this point. Still waiting for a bowl win. Still waiting for a ranked season. Still waiting for a good QB. Still waiting for Narduzzi’s players to make an impact. Still waiting for a stellar recruiting class.
I expected more at this point.
Tx, that’s a great comment but I hope you realize that you answer a lot of your own questions right there in it. You’re not a lawyer are you? …. you know asking questions you already have the answers to. Ask Eric. It’s an old litigator move.
Reed: Considering all things and that difficult OOC schedule…. YES. Not saying I’m happy as heck but I understand what holds PITT football back. and I don’t think it’s Narduzzi but many other factors. and hey.. how about a Sunday morning podcast from you sometime?
Excellent perspective Bill, unfortunately it doesn’t make me feel any less depressed this morning.
It is a most realistic perspective. Unfortunately it leaves me with the realization that there is nothing that can be done to improve Pitt Football.
An OCS won’t change anything, we had one and there is no difference between then and now. A new coach will give temporary hope to some, but what if the recruiting level is not changeable? An easier OOC will give us more wins which may change perspective a little, until we face a top ten team. The WPIAL is not coming back ever and the best kids in FL are staying in the South.
Winning the Coastal was a measurable achievement, but was it a one off or a turning point, my guess is the former.
The Days of Dorsett, Danny and Hugh are as relevant as the days of Sutherland and Warner, they are never coming back.
Narduzzi saying he wants kids that want to be in Pittsburgh, tells me he now realizes what his ceiling is.
Most of us do too.
In hindsight, like I mentioned earlier, Narduzzi has helped stabilize the program after horrendous hires, and has certainly built a decent foundation here. He also appears to be a good coach, and pulled off a few big-time wins. But unless you are really good at bringing in under-the-radar players, like a Michigan St. or Wisconsin (to name a few), then recruiting failures are going to limit a program, and that’s where we’re at today. Do I think Narduzzi will turn it around? No. I think it would take some top flight recruiters on his staff and a rejuvenation under Whipple coming together, and though possible, I think it’ll be tough to pull off.
I got a kick out of seeing the Hackett reference, that guy was Stallingsesque, it was funny to see how quickly he brought down USC’s program after he left Pitt.
Anyway, good article WBB, appreciated!
Reed, for you or anyone else to ask “who cares what the WPIAL is like now?” is absolutely stunning. What makes you think Pitt can successfully recruit on a national basis? Even local recruits are snubbing Pitt these days. Heck, even when Wanny was here, Terrell Pryor made it well known that he wanted to played in stadiums with 90,000 fans.
You would think Pitt would have a better chance with locals but suburban players like from Pine-Richland (who has a Pitt alum for a HC BTW) can care less about Pitt. Heck, I live in Cranberry now and I see PSU shirts, license plates and flags everywhere.
If PN can’t land decent players from elsewhere what makes us think he’d be able to get them from the WPIAL?
PSU, WVU, Mighigan, ND, etc have kicked our asses with local recruits anyway.
The fact is that Narduzzi is not a good recruiter and can’t close on the big ticket kids who end up going to places with better HCs as those schools mentioned above have.
If Pitt had a dynamic recruiter as a HC we wouldn’t be having this conversation.
Even the blue Chip kids he has recruited have, in the majority, not panned out for various reasons.
everyone of the teams you list sells out their stadiums
and by the way … here is Wanny’s 5th year commitment list, and notice the Rivals rankings. Why you people think Pitt is a FB mecca is astounding
https://pittsburgh.rivals.com/commitments/football/2009
Was that the recruiting year when Wanny was so desperate to get a QB that he sent out letters asking if any QBs were interested in playing for Pitt?
Wanny was a Pitt Guy, so bless him, but his legend of coaching at Pitt is way over-estimated by some, IMHO…
Wannstedt still is a legend for winning 27 of his last 39 games against the odds of working for two doofuses and coaching at Heinz Field. Sure he couldn’t recruit QBs, but he would have kept Pitt between 7-9 wins a year, which is impressive with the BoT standing high and mighty at you.
The coaching changes and 6-6 records were an awesome way to head into this decade.
Pitt should be able to recruit successfully on a regional basis. PA (both sides), OH, NJ, MD and VA. Plenty of talent in those states. Plus Florida.
Whisky will always find it tough to recruit given its geography. But they are pulling in more 4 stars now. Thanks to some very good assistants. And the fact that they have been successful…winning bowl games and getting ranked.
It also helps that they pack the stadium.
So, if Pitt cant pack the stadium, why is Pitt playing in a venue thats too large?
100% capacity in a smaller and more intimate 45k stadium is just as good an atmosphere than in a larger packed stadium. Solution – move people down and closer together, tarp 20k yellow seats.
Well this I agree with, Pitt can definitely get it done and turn itself into a top program, with the right commitment from Leadership and the right coaching hires (HC & staff). Will it happen is another matter, but the self-limiting excuses we occasionally hear from some is lame excuse-making, loser mentality. The stadium situation is a constraint, for sure. And I agree with Reed’s sentiment above, a dynamic recruiter would overcome any regional talent issues one way or the other.
The Kentucky football program that some of you are swooning over. Head coach Mark Stoops record his first 5 years at Kentucky. 2-10, 5-7, 5-7, 7-6, 7-6, sound familiar? His overall record at Kentucky. 36-39. and lets not forget their OOC schedule is a yearly win fest of patsies and staged fake P-5 football wins.
What I shake my head in disbelief in, is the fact that we all agree that PITT plays a very challenging OOC schedule and yet still complain about their win loss record? That’s seems queer to me. and now…. some of you want to be jealous of Kentucky. You want Narduzzi fired and he has abetter record than Mark Stoops after 4 years of being a head coach at one school. Much better in fact with a much more difficult schedule to deal with. Great article Bill… you’re right… perspective please..
good stats ike! I’m not sure anyone is jealous of Kentucky though. They play in the best league and have improved remarkably under stoops to their/his credit, but I suspect their ‘rise’ will be capped and/or short-lived.
KY’s two best players will be in the NFL next year – let’s look back at the end of 2019 and see how good there record is.
My bet is they are 4-0 in OOC games and .500 in the SEC with a bowl loss.
Stoops with one winning season in six years.
Predicting Pitt FB is a whole lot harder. I’ll defer when I make my decision on season tickets – renew or not to renew.
One can also argue that a tougher OOC better prepares the players for conference play. It works both ways.
Right now, its Heathers job to put together a reasonable OOC. A softer OOC might net Pitt another win or two. But it comes at a cost. Pitt needs to pay the visiting school money for these wins and then live with lower attendance and reduced revenue.
Until then, its up to Narduzzi to win those games. He needs to find ways to beat Penn State, Notre Dame and not get blown out by UCF. And then not lose to the likes of YSU or Delaware or Toledo.
If Narduzzi can go 3-1 in OOC and then 5-3 in ACC play, Pitt goes bowling. If Pitt wins their bowl, thats 9 wins and a final ranking in the top 25. Narduzzi hasnt proven he can do this yet and I dont see how he will given the QB issue, lack of player development, and poor recruiting.
Other teams in the division are getting better with new coaches and stronger recruiting classes. Pitt is going to be left behind.
The argument against that TX is schedule a softer OOC and Pitt has perhaps a 3-1 record heading into conference play vs 1-3. That attracts fans as well. Over the long run, it can be argued that a program with 8-9 wins/yr with a softer OOC will attract more fans – again, over the long run – than a 6-7 win team who plays top-ranked opponents and gets crushed. Spend money to make money.
If Pitt thinks roughly $2M-$3M per year for rent a wins and another roughly $1M-$2M in lost ticket sales/concessions/parking/misc is worth picking up an additional win or two, then go for it.
But Pitt has to win these ‘guaranteed’ wins. And Pitt needs to be ranked come year’s end or its all for not.
That’s a good point Tx….. maybe the reason why PITT won the coastal?? but I don’t buy it… PITT needs to have their cake and eat it too.
there were seven 5.7 rated or above recruits in that Wanny class
Narduzzi only got three in this years class
Each year, half of Pitt’s class should be 5.7’s and above. That should be the target. Va Tech does it.
Mainly PA and NJ in that Wanny class. None from OH. Only 2 from FL
Narduzzi had 7 from FL this year
If you haven’t noticed, VA Tech is a dumpster fire. 5.7’s and all
Mr. Aloe, that article was not only a great read, but it was….soothing (ba-da-bum).
Seriously Bill, a well-balanced post and much needed after what I think most would call a slightly disappointing class.
BigB says:
wbb/wwb/Bill…excellent article and you say it as it is and I mostly agree….There are concerns about the HC’s personality..one of my friends who has been a big donor says Duzz is a “Dick”…I have heard this from one other person….I don’t know the man but he i the face of our program and I wonder how he comes off with recruits and their families, afterall, recruiting seems to be his weakness….on the other hand I hear the kids he has recruited love playing for him. Somewhere in the middle of those two statements lies the truth. I hope Duzz has a handler helping him work on his weakness’s. I think Dan72 suggested having him take Dale Carnegie’s “How to win friends and influence people.” Probably a good suggestion. I see PITT in the 6-8 win class for the next 2-3 years all things being equal…We had a chance to pivot this past year after the Wake game and gain some positive momentum but we all know how that turned out. maybe we get there…maybe we don’t..I am not giving up and neither are any of you…it’s a way of life.
I am looking for a fun 2019 in my 67th year on the planet..2018 was a blast and that includes all the ups and downs of our beloved PITT Panthers,,,,, it’s even better now that I have a bunch on new friends to weather the storm…Hail to PITT..
On another front I have totally changed my view on men’s BB …PITT needs to start playing the money game…it’s a business and not really “college ball.” I used to be all about academic standards and all that BS..no more ! Play to win.it isn’t going back to being a college game if you know what I mean…Capel will succeed at PITT (pay those agents..give’m a nicer car or SUV!)
Dooz does come across as arrogant and snarky sometimes. He can’t seem to help himself. But I think it’s because he’s so passionate about his job and because he’s so competitive.
I’ll bet he really doesn’t like the kid who went to Kentucky, because he didn’t go to Pitt. I think that’s just the way the Dooz is – as he sees it, you’re either with him or you’re against him…
While his passion and competitiveness are good qualities, he doesn’t handle losing well, whether it’s losing a game or losing a recruit, and the way he handles those situations tends not to help the way he is perceived.
Coach Dooz needs some better people skills — maybe he should spend some time with Fran…
Even handed as always. I’m going to start calling you the Sage of the South
Pitt will not risk scandal even though scandals don’t seem to stick or taint a school for very long if at all.
Pitt should definitely lighten up on the OOC and only use the lower bowl for most games. But if recruiting doesn’t improve the program will continue in mediocrity.
I agree that a Dale Carnegie executive course could go a long way.
HbgFrank says:
I don’t know EE, I don’t think winning the Coastal had anything to do with the retention of HCPN…What would have looked bad was firing a coach after giving him a six year extension before this season.
IMHO, HCPN gets this season and at least the next two unless the wheels totally fall off.
Or an old Zig Zigler video.
Narduzzi was a total oblivious ass that came off as a narcissistic arrogant pip. I do see him trying to rectify that beginning but unfortunately….. first impressions last a long time.
Reed – my answer to your question above is yes.
Pitt hired a defensive coordinator who had no prior HC experience from a program that had success while recruiting. Prior coach left nice pieces in place on offense, but the cupboard was bare on defense. Why would anyone expect 10+ wins seasons knowing that?
In light of that, I’ve been cutting him a break knowing that it will take time for him to either pan out or not. I expected this to take more than four years.
Here is another question – would I have liked to have seen more on-field success? Yes of course. The bowl record sucks and the losses to inferior UNC teams really sticks in my craw. I give him a pass on this year’s OOC. ACC games are frankly more important to me.
Comment for all….
I love this theoretical notion of “in a coach’s 4th year…” ….. what data is that based on? Where’s the study on that? We just read about Stoops, Stoops, Stoops record at UK and I can point to Frank Beamer’s without even blinking. Both of these guys took longer than that to get to the level of play everyone yearns for.
List some schools who have had long-term mediocrity that have changed to consistent winning programs and make your case as to why the coach was singularly responsible and you will have my attention. And not 1 or 2 programs – give a reasonable sample if you can. Then compare those situations to Pitt’s. Pitt’s situation is unique in so many ways and it faces challenges that other schools with long histories of mediocrity prior to succeeding have not had to deal with.
This is not a ringing endorsement of Narduzzi. He might not be the right guy in the end and I am not suggesting that he’s gonna make it. But you will not convince me that a change in head coach alone is going to change the quality of recruits Pitt gets on a consistent basis. Its a multi-faceted, institutional issue that will take commitment, resources and time. To the extent there is stability within Athletics leadership, BOT and Chancellor commitment, I believe it is possible.
Looking forward to the Spring Game – I think we may go Slovakian with the cuisine this year.
Did I just write that or did you JoeL? …. it must have you as there are no typos and silly grammar mistakes I would have made. To sum up…. I concur.
agree to disagree. I’m confident the right coach can bring the recruits to just about anywhere, this program included, but that assumes proper administrative support for staff, facilities, etc.
1618 – you are making my point. Its more than the HC.
missingwlat says:
As my 14 year old son would say: Facts.
Spot on analysis JoeL
second sentence above should have ended with “… from a program that had success while recruiting 3 star players.”
In summary …. Wanny’s 2006 class got a 21st ranking (Rivals) which was the only top 25 class Pitt has had in the last 30 years. Many of of the classes have been in the 30s and 40s but a handful has been in the 50s or worst.
I guess all I am trying to say here is why do you expect the current HC to do better than anyone else especially when considering the difficult schedule he has faced since he has been here as well as the dying recruiting base. And further …. what makes you think his replacement will do any better?
After 35 years …. don’t you think that just maybe it’s the program and not the coach
see above, the right coach can bring the recruits to just about anywhere.
Give an example
Washington State. Have you ever been to Pullman?
What do you think brought about Baylor, Ok. St., and Oregon’s rise to power? To name a few. Granted, some of them may be on their way back down now a little (although Oregon is on the rise again), but those programs sucked for a very long time, and the right coaches turned them around rather quickly. Or simply check out Purdue and Kentucky in the 2019 example, both ranked top 30 recruiting, but just a couple years ago were perennial bottom feeders. Sometimes we get to caught up in the ‘woe is me’ mentality, which is understandable, I just hope we never hire a coach or any other leader with that type of character.
coaching and cheating at Baylor
coaching and boosters at Okie St
coaching and $$$ at Oregon
coaching is the common theme
Pitt doesnt cheat but Pitt also isnt cheap anymore
Pitt spends more than enough to have Pitt ranked in the top 25 each year
Pitt has the resources to always compete for a Coastal title
Some schools cant say that
Some on here are like NFL owners: you constantly want coaching changes just for the buzz of the new hire and to be in the news. Three years later your cheap hire stinks because kids hate Heinz.
Lyke better stick with Narduzzi for a while.
Thanks 1618, my point was more that it took Stoops 6 years to win ten games with a stoopid easy OOC schedule. 4 rent a wins….
all the support is there for Pitt football to succeed today
what Pitt doesnt have is a coach that can take them to the next step – 10 wins and a final ranking
below are coaches who achieved 10 or more wins and when they got it based on year
Narduzzi has yet to achieve 10 wins after 4 years. His high mark was 8 in years 1 and 2 (without his players)
WVU Holgorsen in Years 1 and 5
Temples Rhule in Years 3 and 4
Toledos Candle in Year 2
TCUs Patterson in Years 2, 3 and 5
Mich Sts Dantonio in Years 4 and 5
Cincys Butch Jones in Year 2
Cincy’s Brian Kelly in Years 1, 2 and 3
Syracuse Babers in Year 3
Stanfords Shaw in Years 1, 2 and 3
Navy’s coach in Year 2
W Michigan’s PJ Fleck in Year 4
Many more out there who came into similar positions like Pitt’s
I dont see Narduzzi doing it come Year 5
High probability he never does it at this point and its not Pitt’s fault
It is his and his alone
TX, you’re leaving out many X factors. Like the schedule as just one example.
Narduzzi couldnt win 10 games if Pitt played Elon, Holy Cross, Air Force and Bowling Green for an OOC.
Because the offers he makes to kids are the same offers they get from these schools.
TX – if you are responding to my point, you may have missed a couple important elements of what I wrote
school needs to have been mediocre before the HC turns it around all by himself.
the HC needs to win consistently after arriving
That of course is assuming one believes Pitt was mediocre prior to Duzz. If one’s view is that Pitt was below mediocre, then pick schools that are also in the same spot.
WVU – had rather consistent success leading up to Holgerson, Stewart years aside. On campus stadium with longstanding good fan support. IN my book, its not a match
Cinn- I will agree on Brian Kelly, not on Butch Jones.
Cuse – good comparison, but Babers hasn’t won consistently yet. We will have to wait on that.
Stanford – will never be a comparative. Seriously?
Mich St – not a good comparison. Perles and Saban had good programs for years with a bump in the orad (John L Williams) prior to Dantonio. ONCS with great fan tradition and rivalries, etc.
Navy – can never be a comparative given the programs’s status. Come on man.
Temple – you might be on to something with that one. Pretty good comparative.
Western Mich – good comparative, although Fleck not there long enough. GUy who followed him is meh so far – coaching with Fleck’s kids.
So Cinn and Temple. With only a couple, its hard to judge.
other programs and coaches in far crappier situations have achieved 10 wins in less time than Narduzzi ever will
the real question is: what should $3.5 Million buy you?
I think it should buy you top 25 rankings.
Then the question becomes: how long should it take you?
I’m willing to give Narduzzi another 1-2 years
Narduzzi has no legit excuses on why he cant reach the 10 win level
each of the schools I mentioned have their own unique constraints and are not in recruiting hotbeds. Many also operate on much lower budgets.
Nearly impossible for an apple to apple comparison.
But these coaches overcame the constraints and found a way.
Narduzzi and most fans are full of excuses
Tx who cares about this schools? I’m talking about 35 years of mediocrity (except for just a few years)
I think Wanny had a top 20 class (commitments only) at the time he was fired.
None of these programs were all that great before the head coach hire
They didnt cheat to get 10 wins
They didnt play all patsies for their OOC games and many of the smaller schools played far tougher compared to the talent gap
These coaches found a way to win despite the constraints
They made no excuses
Do you have all their schedules handy?
the smaller schools do not play the game of rent a win (standard home and home series)
in fact, they often play tougher OOC’s if you look at the talent gap…a team of 2 stars going up against a team of 3 stars should be pummeled on the field unless they are playing Pitt
the larger schools got to 10 wins through coaching and recruiting
Pitt seems to have deficiencies in both areas
And many of these schools did it on a much smaller budget than Pitt’s
$3.5M should buy more than a 12-14 record over the past 2 years with no bowl wins or final rankings
Exactly Tx, THEY ARE THE RENT A WINS!! You got it.
In a nutshell, the ACC Coastal has been like the Big10 West. Barry Alvarez knew this and had known it for a long time. Schedule an easy OOC where you are 3-1 at worst. Beat up the weak big10 west opponents and poof, success.
Pitt had the Coastal handed to them 5 years ago. A commitment to football at that time would have changed the culture of pitt football and brought with it also, national respect. Vtech and Miami have been dumpster fires for years and we didn’t capitalize. That is on the ADministration and our head coach.
The fact that we have gone through so many coordinators let’s us realize that the current head coach could either not identify a superstar, or, and maybe also, could not afford to pay him. I read excuses about how many coordinators we have gone through, but that goes right back to the coaches ability to identify coaching talent.
The same can be said about recruiting talent. You either have it or you don’t. Had the Pitt AD scheduled appropriately, which is to a 3-1 minimum OOC slate, Charlie Partridge can then go after the 4 stars because a vision of ACC championships is real. What we did last year is fine. It reminded me of getting into a BCS game with an 8-4 record and Utah killing us.
Life is about seizing opportunities. The good news is that it is college athletics and you have more than one bite at the apple. We are into bite 2. Recruiting looks really weak.
when you offer a bunch of no star and 2-star kids, this is what you get
Where Pitt’s recruiting finished in the ACC in Narduzzi’s four full classes
2016- 5th
2019- 10th
— Chris Dokish (@ChrisDokish) February 7, 2019
Unacceptable!
Not a good trend in recruiting. By the way Narduzzi has offered 4 star guys, they just aren’t interested.
Not that impressed with you list of coaches. Kelly at Cinci OK and Babers, but the rest had players or recruiting areas. 10 times that many coaches that didn’t win. It just isn’t that easy. All three FL teams with all of Florida’s players are struggling.
It is always easy to cherry pick the one or two guys that beat the odds every year. If it were that easy to win 9 or more games at Pitt it would have happened a lot more over the last 30 years.
the fastest way to change a program is through a coaching change
Yes – Pitt can create an easier OOC. That might net an extra win or two per year
But how do you get to a top 20 final ranking? Thats 10 wins (includes winning your bowl game)
Its through good coaching and recruiting
Pitt has had some bad recruiting results and the trend is down
Thats not good for the future of the program
None of the schools I mentioned save TCU are from recruiting hotbeds. And TCU isnt all impressive with recruiting. Much like Whisky and Mich St, they develop players, they find the right fits, they have good coaches.
Pitt has plenty to offer 4 stars or high 3’s. Narduzzi and staff just cant sell.
What excuses are there?
Yellow seats? Tarp them.
Other schools have won 10 games with bigger constraints. If schools like Buffalo, Toledo, Western Michigan, Temple, and Cincy can do it, Why cant Pitt?
Because Pitt is in the ACC and all those schools listed are ummmm, not.
Typically agree TX butnot on this school list. OCS, tarping, coaching, OOC scheduling, branding, etc. We don’t even know our colors or name. Look at 4 star OL Doug Nester’s commitment video of vtech stadium. We can’t fill a stadium, let alone have each section wear certain colors. That is atmosphere. We ain’t got that.
What has Purdue recruiting skyrocketing despite a poor record?
Purdue has a good coach (excellent recruiter)
Thats the major difference
Pitt wont have an OCS anytime soon so tarp sections
I do like the Whipple hire
Yes the OOC can become easier but that still doesnt get Pitt to 10 wins and a final ranking
Marketing and branding can be improved no doubt
Bag men
Here are the Rivals recruiting rankings for the ACC
Note how the southeastern schools are near the top while 3 of the bottom 5 are from the northeast. And how did that 10 win season with a bowl win work out for Syracuse?
Unless you are an Ohio St, Penn St, etc with the 100k sellouts …. the closer you are to best recruits, the better you are going to do
and generally, the further you’re away from the successful NFL teams, the better you are
most of Syracuses recruits committed before their bowl win and 10 win season
The payoff should come this year
Granted Syracuse had a far easier OOC than Pitt. But they still needed to win their bowl game to each 10 wins. Pitt has yet to win a bowl game and be ranked come years end.
Babers did it in only his 3rd year.
So yes an easier OOC might have provided Pitt with an extra win or two. Pitt still wouldnt have won 10 games in Year 4. Pitt lost to Stanford despite 5 starters not playing for the Cardinal.
Plenty of good recruits within a 400 mile radius of Pittsburgh. And these kids are used to playing in crappy weather. Not all kids need 100k in attendance.
I would like to see Heather make football the focal point for Victory Heights though. 45k in a 45k venue would be impressive to anyone.
Did L’Ville run out of hookers?
String a few 10 win seasons and watch the change.
Recruiting is about long term relationships, One year out is not enough time in the recruiting world.
And Penn State ranked 13th today by Rivals. We are getting slaughtered in the recruiting game because we have a coach who comes off as a horses ass!
Pitt is ranked # 50 today by Rivals. Duzz knows his seat is hot. His reaction to MD choosing KY was childish and I bet he is embarrassed by that and Heather should and probably did reprimand him.
If Pitt is going to win 10 games anytime soon, it has to start in 2019 with a focused plan on all three phases of this team.
The D seems to be heading in the right direction – there is a solid core of JR’s and SR’s that will be starting and the back-ups are better than anytime in the last 7 years.
The ST’s should be better if Kessman and the Aussie become more consistent. The return game could be improved with Ffrench, Shocky, Paris and V’lique – the Ffrench Legion should continue the successful return game we’ve seen in the past with QH and MoFf.
The O is the big question. Whipple being a former HC and his QB coaching successes give me the hope that we may finally bring all three phases to the field in one season. If that happens, 10 wins is within reach in 2019. The question marks need to be turned into positives – Lyke for instance, can TE Gragg become the 4* talented recruit he was out of HS in his final year, can the stable of 4* RB’s emerge with a stallion and can the veteran WR’s get open and make some plays under their new coach’s leadership (Beatty). The offensive line is more than a question mark – but it was ridiculed and spit on prior to last season – I see Whipple and Borbely surprising us in this area, because Whipple will have a detailed plan A and B as a former successful HC.
As for Duzz, he is still learning on the job. Mistakes will still happen, we just hope they are fewer than in years past. I would really Lyke to know his vision and plan for this coming season. I’m still confused by what “lock the gates” really means. Was it “don’t let the opponent out so we can kick their butts”? Or was it “keep the world out and only we coaches and players know what is going on”? Or something else?
In business, your employees, stockholders, customers and vendors need to know what your vision, values and mission are to achieve success for them to buy inand back the leadership efforts. As a Pitt fan, season ticket holder (currently former) and alumni, I want to know where the CEO is taking this FB team. I need to know (Good spot for a song) – so I will patiently request that information from Heather Lyke. I thought about asking Jerry DiPaola, but I’m concerned he’d turn it into an article about Pitt having NO vision.
here’s what you need to know about that great 10-win 15th ranked Syracuse team this year ,,
— they gave up 44 points … to Pitt
— they got to play most the game with Clemson using their 3rd team QB who hadn’t played before
— they got play their bowl game against a team whose QB didn’t play … who threw for nearly 4,000 yards and 37 TDs and is projected in the top 2 rounds in the NFL draft
— they needed overtime this year to beat UNC .. at home
— they lost on a neutral field to Notre Dame 36-3, and
— their other 3 OOC games were Western Mich, Wagner and UConn
maybe one of these years, everything will work out for Pitt and (mostly) all here will be happy
and Syracuse was Pitt’s best win last year…at home in overtime with Dungey playing one of his worst games
You are what your record says you are. Kudos to Syracuse for not making excuses and finding a way to get ranked.
I dont think Pitt has finished ranked that high since 2009.
No reason why Pitt cant be ranked in the top 25 each year
in Pitt’s win vs Cuse, Pitt took over the ball deep in its own territory down by 3 with about 5 minutes left, and ran the ball right down Syracuse’s throat. Only 1 pass was thrown and it was incomplete. Pitt tied it up, and then in OT, once again, it ran the ball right down their throats
Yes, Pitt may well finish in the Top 25 … in 2020 (that may be their only chance)
https://fbschedules.com/ncaa/pitt/
Add two more cupcakes in 2021 and Pitt could stack some wins to change the perception. Can’t change Heinz, but you can swell the W column, which is all that matters.
and what recruit can refuse these colors and unis?
Our Sunday's best.
🔗: https://t.co/qHnFEHjyRf#H2P #PittRetro pic.twitter.com/prJT4z9MHb
— Pitt Baseball (@Pitt_BASE) February 7, 2019
Mark Stoops record at Kentucky (from Wikipedia):
Year Team Overall Conference Standing Bowl/playoffs Coaches# AP°
Kentucky Wildcats (Southeastern Conference) (2013–present)
2013 Kentucky 2–10 0–8 7th (Eastern)
2014 Kentucky 5–7 2–6 6th (Eastern)
2015 Kentucky 5–7 2–6 T–4th (Eastern)
2016 Kentucky 7–6 4–4 T–2nd (Eastern) L TaxSlayer
2017 Kentucky 7–6 4–4 T–3rd (Eastern) L Music City
2018 Kentucky 10–3 5–3 T–2nd (Eastern) W Citrus 11 12
Kentucky: 36–39 17–31
National championship Conference title Conference division title or championship game berth
†Indicates Bowl Coalition, Bowl Alliance, BCS, or CFP / New Years’ Six bowl.
#Rankings from final Coaches Poll.
I got this off youtube… Whipple is a talker but really a down to earth guy. You all have to listen to this…
At the NFL combine.
PSU 7
WV 6
Pitt 1
Thanks gc, where are all the 5th year seniors that Chryst recruited?
Watched the Whipe interview… polished… has a command of the crowd… comes across as knowledgeable articulate leader … would behoove Duzz to pay attention and learn from “ the Whip.”
WUPs and WHIPs !!!!
And a little more perspective on Narduzzi’s recruiting foibles…
https://pittsburghsportsnow.com/2019/02/06/vukovcan-final-thoughts-on-pitt-footballs-class-of-2019/
Why has Pitt been so mediocre these past 35 years?
It comes down to coaching.
Foge was a bad hire. The University and boosters supported him. The WPIAL was loaded. Yet Pitt under-achieved.
Gottfried was a good hire. He recruited well. The Chancellor, BoT and AD at the time were beginning to de-emphasize football. They wanted Mike to recruit choir boys. He was pushed out.
Hackett got the job because he believed in the mission statement. Pitt’s budget was cut. Character guys were recruited. And Hackett had some of the worst losses until Pitt went ‘Back to the Future.’
Pitt reached out to Johnny and paid him scraps. Pitt was seriously thinking about relegating the football program. It was on life support for 3 years.
Then Walt came in. The coach who saved Pitt football despite what the BoT wanted. Brought Pitt back from the ashes and provided 8 years of ups and downs but left the program stable.
Hired Wanny, a passionate coach, who achieved Pitt’s only 10 win season since Jackie. Recruited well despite a low budget. Wanny coached for peanuts since he loved Pitt. His boss didnt share that same love and created a manufactured crisis about how the program was out of control to force his retirement.
Cornhole hired Mike Haymaker who was accused of beating his Baby’s Momma. The Pitt ‘marriage’ lasted less than 60 days and Mike was fired for cause.
Cornhole then scrambled to find a Fraud who sold High Octane as snakes oil. After less than a year, Fraud bolted for a place where Penny had relatives and the school supported Fraud with resources and compensation that Pitt could only dream.
Pitt then accepted Godfather Barry’s offer that they couldnt refuse. Hire Chryst, a career assistant, and provide on the job training for a future HC job at Whisky. After 3 mediocre years, Barry called and Chryst was gone but not before he ratted on Cornhole in the exit interview.
Narduzzi, another career assistant, was then hired without Cornholes input. A committee was formed to find the Dog so as to escape accountability. Narduzzi was brought in with high expectations since Chryst left the program in good shape. A new AD then extends the Dog after a 5-7 season since she owes her hiring in part to him.
Several themes or threads emerge by understanding this history.
Pitt’s BoT has not generally been supportive of the program
Pitt has tried to run a program on the cheap and do just enough to get by
Pitt has a history of hiring assistants without any head coaching experience
These factors have brought about the mediocrity.
But today the program has several advantages:
world class facilities
decent budget for coaching salaries and recruiting
membership in a very good conference
a 5 state regional area that still has plenty of good talent
There is no reason for SOP to exist today unless you dont have the right coach.
TX… agree with your basic premise.
One thing to mention is that Narduzzi was NEVER identified and sought out as a coaching candidate by the Search Committee or the Head Hunters.
Narduzzi took it upon himself to call Pitt.
However, bottom line… Pitt Admin has defied chance in the way they have repeatedly hired REALLY BAD Head Coaches.
And you are right. It started with Fazio who took it upon himself to wreck what had been one of the Nation’s TOP College Football Programs.
Never been the same way since.
We don’t have the right coach!
Why didn’t you add in a less than ideal off campus stadium unlikely to sell out any games outside of PSU, ND and WVU? That fact in itself puts us well behind many average P5 programs in our pursuit of highly ranked players.
I went to a few Pitt away games in the ACC this year – W_F and UVA have very nice, older, on campus stadiums. If I lived close to those two campuses, I would attend a game or two without being a fan – great views, wide open atmosphere, by not many butts in the seats, Lyke Pitt at their off campus stadium.
Pitt will never create a “cult” following in Pittsburgh. Winning will help – hiring an assistant to be the HC did not help. Just one man’s opinion…
BTW… with all of the back and forth concerning Pitt’s DIFFICULT OOC schedule… a couple of simple questions.
Why does Pitt Admin do it knowing the risk it brings of adding an EXTRA LOSS every Season? And what might be the solution?
TX… I think you would be one of the FEW on this Blog who might immediately know the answers.
Cupcakes cost money – the talk that the Pitt admin has opened the checkbook is a stab in the dark. Those that say it, don’t really know – I have a family member that worked for Smug Stevie and he still has strong connections inside the ATH Dept – not much has changed.
You want evidence – check out the Pitt FB marketing efforts – what are yinz seeing that I’m not?
Here’s the answer POD….
psu………… everyone and their brother wanted it’
UCF…………they were not considered a real threat to win and a good game in PITT’s favorite state to pluck the best recruits. That backfired.
Notre Dame……… The ACC scheduled that game.
Having the Nitters and Domers on the schedule the same year was just plain stupid. I’m sure Pitt could have gone to ND and the ACC and gotten it changed. Not sure why they didnt since the ND game was on the road and it wouldnt have hurt attendance. But remember, Pitt would have to go 4 straight years without playing the Domers in order to play State consecutively.
You’re spot on with the Nitters and UCF.
Pitt should never allow an OOC to have more than 1 P-5 school.
Like I said before, bring back WVU and rotate with Notre Dame.
The Nitters are dead to me
Get Navy and Temple on the schedule
Get Cincy on the schedule
Get some Florida teams on the schedule
Recruiting areas, schools within travel distance, historic rivals
I dont know why Pitt makes things so difficult.
And then make sure to have about $2M per year for the rent a wins…Delaware, YSU, Old Dominion,
Do NOT get Navy on the schedule
Don’t understand that. Long tradition of playing them, great venue for going to an away game.
Great article, WWB! Perspective is definitely warranted. For me, sporting events, including Pitt football and basketball are just entertainment. I don’t go to see a loss. I don’t go to see a win. I go to see an exciting competitive contest. The Duke game was the highpoint of the season for me. A 50 point win over Liberty isn’t much better than a 50 point loss to Clemson.
The tailgate is frequently as much fun as the game. The Penn State tailgate was more fun than the game.
Instead of rent-a-wins, I would rather play home and home against some bottom half P5 teams. I believe it would result in more close, exciting finishes as opposed to blowing out Albany followed by a blowout loss to one of the top 10 teams.
I have mixed feelings about an on-campus-stadium. The tailgating scenario around Heinz is poor. Tailgating on campus could be horrendous. Imagine having an assigned parking space in the garage under Soldiers and Sailors.
I have been a football season ticket holder since moving back to the Pittsburgh area in 1977. I accept our role as a relatively small school with a poor fan base and a meager budget. With a good coach and a stable coaching situation, I think we have a shot at winning 8, maybe 9 games on a fairly consistent basis. But I am well aware that if we catch lightning in a bottle, exceed our organic level, and win 10 or 11 games, kiss that coach goodbye. Happened with Majors, Sherrill, and Howland. Jamie Dixon and Dave Wannstedt are the closest we’ve come to having coaching stability. And we ran them both off.
I’m tired of the churn and won’t participate in the angst. They’re just games. But I still love my Alma Mater. I’ll still have Pitt clothing and paraphernalia up the wazoo. And I’ll continue to buy season tickets until I physically can’t attend the games. And I suspect I’ll enjoy it more than most because my expectations are not as high.
pittman4ever says:
……This approach to Pitt football clearly reminds me of the husband’s same philosophy in the song “If you want to be happy for the rest of your life marry a fat and ugly wife.”
IMHO – great song, lousy philosophy for wives and football!
^^ Exactly. Perspective… right?
Appreciate the answers to the questions posed.
My answers.
Question 1… $$$$$$$$
Question 2… Pitt needs to come up with a way of attracting CONSISTENT attendance for Home Games without having to rely on PSU, NDU or WVU.
Sure, 10 Wins a year MIGHT do it. But you obviously can’t count on having 10 Wins every year.
So how do you ensure the COFFERS are filled?
PoD – if I didn’t have to work today, I’d love to answer #2 with some well thought out options/strategies. Lyke, how about integrating the branch campuses with an “unsold” ticket and transportation program. You could very inexpensively charter a convoy of buses from Johnstown, Bradford and Titusville and make a fun day of it. Have specific tailgate locations for each branch and show them a grand time. Word gets around and interest begins to grow…
I have other ideas, I’m just not getting paid by Pitt to develop them. I’ll talk with Heather when she gets back from vacation.
Don’t forget Greensburg EE, my actual alma mater.
Pitt’s football budget puts them at 8-9 wins in the ACC. Maybe 10 occasionally with a realistic schedule. Pitt isn’t cheap anymore, but let’s not act like they are putting out big bucks. It isn’t in the cards.
The recruiting class ranking was disappointing this year. Not so much in previous years.
Pitt should now be over the hump of the missing OL class. Plenty of guys to step in this year. If they suck, it is on PN.
Pitt’s RBs will be better this year than last. Not stats-wise because Pitt will actually be able to throw the ball. They will be more exciting by far. I doubt Hall and Ollison make an NFL squad.
Pitt has some good players on D now. PN recruits. Better LBs, better DL. They will shine this year and in upcoming NFL drafts.
Pitt will never fill Heinz on a regular basis. Yinzers only care about the Steelers. Just look at the ridiculous coverage Antonio Brown gets. The fans eat it up like teen girls watching the Kardashians.
Great Jimmy Soul tune…have it on an old 45 record.
I appreciate Farmers High perspective…my experiences are similar.
Pitt has always had the capacity to compete at a high level but lacks the competence of leadership to pull it off.
Erie and many others have great ideas… I’ve heard many of them at the tailgates and on this blog over the years.
Hopeful 2019 on the field performance can jumpstart some excitement in the program.
See yinz at the spring game…
I was joking with Mark at the LOI event that my tombstone should say “life is good…and then the game started”
Here’s a different version of Jimmy Soul’s song from The Stones Bill Wyman
thanks Uncle Ike.
Needs to go on the tailgate playlist…
I know it is easy for a non-alum like me to be more critical of the Pitt FB program, but IMO the issues began from within .. and it started 30 years ago. While PSU and WVU have always put a priority on its programs, there were plenty of times when I had the opinion that the Pitt admin could care less. I remember the discussions back in the mid 90s when there was actually consideration of dropping the program from D1.
Then, after the 2008 season when it looked that Pitt FB was finally starting to climb back into respectability, the AD slashes the recruiting budget. And any doubt what the Pitt admin felt about FB when in late 2010, WVU hired its new HC at $2M, while Pitt hired its at $1.4M. And of course, a year later after the Fraud fiasco, Chryst was hired at about $1.5M.
The problem is that it is no longer 1973 when a new coach can come to town and recruit 85 players, primarily from a Western PA / Eastern OH area which was very fertile with FB talent. It is also not baskeball where 3 or 4 recruits can make a significant impact. Pitt has had its share of stars for the past 30 years …. Curtis Martin, Reuben Brown, Antonio Bryant, Larry Fitz, Darrell Revis, Shady McCoy, Aaron Donald, James Conner … and where did it get them?
IMO, the other issue is the Pitt alumni. Quite frankly, your alums, in general, don’t one sh*t about Pitt FB It is just not a big deal at all. I’ve written many times when I had co-workers and even a couple relatives who are Pitt alums, and they cared much more about the Steelers than the Panthers … and still do. I guess that the past 35 years of mostly indifference has had a big impact here.
even when Pitt was a national power, Pitt was only drawing on avg 52k to old Pitt stadium.(94% capacity)
so even if Pitt becomes a consistent 10 game winner, they probably max out at 50k in attendance
thats still 18k yellow seats…73% capacity
Pitt is a small, regional school
It has a small fan and donor base
Pitt has done a poor job connecting fans to the university, engaging students, and building new fans for life
Pitt should really take a look at how the Premier League football clubs in England do it
From branding, marketing, sales, stadium design, connecting with the community, and building supporters
but do these football clubs face major competition … say from the local lacrosse, cricket and rugby clubs?
the clubs in major cities face competition from cross town rivals (Man U/Man City, Everton/Lierpool, Arsenal/Chelsea)
Most towns also have their own rugby clubs
So there is competition for the entertainment dollar
But I’m sure its more difficult in Pittsburgh since its a 3 pro sport town
College football is a different experience and actually a different game (player and rules wise)
Thats why it should be marketed differently than pro football
It should be played in a college stadium on campus
It should be more about the school than the city (The Steelers are already Pittsburgh’s team)
Fully agree, TX.
One advantage the Premier League enjoys is that the stadiums are smack dab in the middle of neighborhoods near public transit and without the huge masses of parking lots we need in the USA. Tottenham is replacing their stadium within the footprint of the old one and the Hotspurs are playing at Wembley during construction.
The challenge Pitt would face if it decided to return to Oakland for FB is getting city planner to agree with a concept that limited the parking.
I guess one could keep the shuttles to and from downtown, but have the fans use them instead of the students? Perhaps not realistic, but it could work if run properly.
I really hope that the theme of this article Bill just wrote is understood and I say that because I keep reading great comments that outline why PITT is a middling football program. Yet at the same time I read comments from the same posters that they are confused to as why PITT is a middling football program. << Then I get confused. Are you confused now?? 🙂
It could be as easy as… if PITT would have played Syracuse and Kentucky’s OOC schedule this past year to complex as budget constraints, no on campus stadium or lousy coaching?
I choose D (all the above)
LOL. Matt House leaves Kentucky for the NFL. Isn’t that a kick in the pants?
For who? The NFL team that hire him? Stoops is the recruiter that closed the Devonshire to KY deal.
But I’ll give you the LOL – that does sound funny.
what a charmed life this guy has? I’m not making this up but just a year ago, UK fans were yelling for his removal
BTW, I did notice that House didn’t make the trip with Stoops to Aliquippa last week
another BTW …. did any of us notice the irony in the picture of the Pitt campus posted at the top of this blog?
Even though I can’t locate it, I’m guessing there is an on campus stadium in there somewhere and it’s not PITT’s
you nailed it …. it’s in the upper right hand corner
I could see CMU but couldn’t see the stadium exactly. Still would like to see the two merge and add on to that stadium but they would have to build over existing structures.
the Tartan Panthers ….. I’m sure TX Panther can put together a picture of ROC with a kilt on
These ladies look better in one
I agree with WWB that there are many Pitt grads who don’t care about Pitt sports even though they follow professional teams. I also know and appreciate many rabid Pitt fans who are not Pitt grads. Thank God for them or we would be pulling the plug on our revenue sports.
I would just like to see us allow a somewhat successful coach (yep, subjective but Coastal Champs and upsets of top 10 teams count for something) play out an era to see what can happen. For 30 years we’ve tried the other approach … replace the coach, nope that didn’t work, replace the coach, not that time, replace the coach …..
Wish I had the answer or heard someone I thought had the answer, but that hasn’t happened.
From previous thread:
Sorry, but I have a problem with PN’s statement; PN still has that Alabama attitude. Substitute Alabama for Pittsburgh: #Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi: “I want guys that love Pittsburgh, okay, and that’s what it comes down to. You either love Pittsburgh and you want to stay here and play for your city or you don’t. And if you don’t, I’m good. We wouldn’t win with you anyway. It’s beautiful.”
Maybe kids like Devonshire have friends and family who might consider Pitt someday. Or Devonshire may someday want to transfer. Would they now want to play for this guy? This arrogant attitude could be characteristic of a coach who consistently brings in top 10 recruiting classes, but not #54. I think he knows he is not cutting it, and is very defensive.
I agree. I think the Doozer is just so passionate and competitive that he can’t help himself from somehow “getting back” at people when he’s on the losing side of anything…
I like the passion and competitiveness; I wish he could control the need to take verbal revenge shots. Doesn’t help him in the big picture.
I bet many at Pitt love Dooz’s fire, but cringe when he has to “get back” at someone…especially a local someone… Heather can’t be pleased…
Aside from his hubris and difficult personality, Duzz needs to stop burning bridges.
The idea Erie had to set up trips from the Pitt branches to Pitt games is great.
The branches often feel neglected and disconnected from the Pitt main campus.
They do have their own athletic teams but they are still part of the Pitt family.
I do like Erie’s suggestion about arranging buses from regional campuses for Pitt FB games. But I’m not sure if we would get enough takers to fill some of those buses.
Matt House…new KC Chiefs LB coach…he couldn’t cut the “Mustard” at PITT..no way !! LMAO..goes to show ya how much some of us know…..
Goes to show you that many PITT fans are always peering over the fence and think the grass over there is just a little greener…. and I include myself.
how about the UK fans who last year at this time were calling for his removal?
Ike – he couldn’t handle the PITT job. He handled the Kentucky job better. What really helped him landing the KC job was the interest OSU had in him as their co-DC. Once that happened, KC came calling. We’ll see how they do going forward, but you can’t compare a position coach at the nfl level to a defensive coordinator in college. The job descriptions are just not the same.
You will start seeing more and more about US population concentration. If Pitt was smart they would have one of their coaches actually live in GA. or DC or FL for half the year so he can develop personal relationships with coaches, while all other universities only recruit at certain times. For instance Pitt coaches (except strength and conditioning) cannot meet officially with their players during this time, therefore our coaches should be living in those areas, developing relationships. Pitt needs to think outside the box to gain an advantage. Wake up AD
Not a bad idea Huff, I like it.
richmanfancom says:
ERIE, i contacted my AD contacts from the fan committee and they liked your idea. Of course i told them it was my idea ;-). Kidding. But their response was something to the affect of
..they do offer tickets and transportation to the students…but having a full day gathering for the entire campus is a good idea. They will review it for sure.
And that is why i love this blog. Thanks to all of you who provide ideas.
I can, and have been, getting the ideas to the administration.
Great Richman did you mention an on campus stadium?? LOL just kidding.. 🙂
Matt House is another great example of how coaches get better when they have better players.
The great thing about being a pro coach is that you don’t have to spend half your time recruiting.
I think the thing that bugs me the most about Narduzzi’s poor recruiting results is the hubris. He came here with a chip on his shoulder and an attitude of superiority that he hasn’t lived up to. The theatrics of the “Pat Signal” is really sad when you are recruiting kids that few other P-5 teams would take.
He led us all to believe that he would take us to the promised land, but hasn’t lived up to the hype, but still has that chip on his shoulder.
Guys that do great things let their results speak for themselves and don’t have to tell us how great they are.
did he lead us all to believe …. or do we lead us all to believe ,,,, with virtually every new hire?
How about all of the furor when Graham was hired? “About time we get an offense oriented coach” “we’re finally getting a 21st century offense”
My article here was every bit a part of our expectations and the fact that we keep believing we are going to reach the next level …. but never do.
a part of = about
No doubt there is usually hope when we get a new coach, not surprising. Although I do remember in the brief period between the hiring and firing of Heywood, most were very negative. Fraud was a big showman and people were enthusiastic. With Chryst I think the response was more subdued, but still hopeful.
New coaches should be received with a positive response from the fans. We want the new coach to appear confident and enthusiastic, nothing wrong with that. But like anyone in a new position, you need to show results in a reasonable period of time (determined by your employer). When you don’t get those results, it is normal to act a little more humble and come up with a new action plan.
With the mediocre results on the field and the downward trend line in recruiting, I would expect some sort of contrition and effort to turn things around.
We may never reach that next level, especially if we don’t admit when things aren’t going the way we want them to.
I am not advocating a coaching change yet, but some visible recognition that we aren’t satisfied with our current results, and some acceptance of responsibility for improvement. The coaching changes on offense only goes so far.
If Narduzzi does not get better at sealing the deal with more elite players the trend downward will continue. Saying we want kids who want to be in Pittsburgh kind of deflects on the fact that he needs to sell that more effectively. Almost sounds like Chryst’s attitude toward recruiting.
and by the way Gordon Conn, what did you expect Narduzzi to say when he was hired? “I want to assure all of you that I am here to preserve the program’s mediocrity”
The clear fact Is this … Narduzzi is being picked on because he is the current coach and is not reaching the lofty expectations that many of you have set for him. If history holds, we will be saying the same about his predecessor and the predecessor’s predecessor. (by that time it will be > 45 years of indifference from the alumni base)
Bill, I don’t expect Pitt to compete for National Championships. But after 4 years, I do expect at least a middle of the pack passing game. Really not a lofty goal. I do expect at least one bowl victory and one win vs UNC, again not that lofty.
What I don’t expect is after 4 years to be near the bottom of recruiting vs our ACC peers.
I don’t expect us to be in the top 20 every year or get 10 wins with our current scheduling.
I expect some improvement with the financial resources provide by ACC membership.
I posted this in the wrong place really early this morning –
The ST’s should be better if Kessman and the Aussie become more consistent. The return game could be improved with Ffrench, Shocky, Paris and V’lique – the Ffrench Legion should continue the successful return game we’ve seen in the past with QH, RaRA & MoFf.
The O is the big question. Whipple being a former HC and his QB coaching successes give me the hope that we may finally bring all three phases to the field in one season. If that happens, 10 wins is within reach in 2019. The question marks need to be turned into positives – Lyke for instance, can TE Gragg become the 4* talented recruit he was out of HS in his final collegient year, can the stable of 4* RB’s emerge with a stallion and can the veteran WR’s get open and make some plays under their new coach’s leadership (Beatty). The offensive line is more than a question mark – but it was ridiculed and spit on prior to last season – I see Whipple and Borbely surprising us in this area, because Whipple will have a detailed plan A and B as a former successful HC.
In business, your employees, stockholders, customers and vendors need to know what your vision, values and mission are to achieve success for them to buy in and back the leadership efforts. As a Pitt fan, season ticket holder (currently former) and alumni, I want to know where the CEO is taking this FB team. I need to know (Good spot for a song) – so I will patiently request that information from Heather Lyke. I thought about asking Jerry DiPaola, but I’m concerned he’d turn it into an article about Pitt having NO vision.
collegiate – not collegient
had spell check turned off
VOR: “I think he knows he is not cutting it, and is very defensive.”
And, here’s why:
Here’s an idea for an OCS to take to the AD, Richman. How about if Pitt buys out the CMU stadium, upgrades it to 45,000 seats, and then rents it back to CMU for game days and practices. Or they could use Pitt’s practice facilities. It would take some coordination to schedule game days, but it is likely with TV and other considerations that they could easily schedule to avoid conflicts.
I also would like Narduzzi to reign in his tongue at times but again… I think he’s improving in that area little by little. They say you can’t make a race horse out of a jackass. Here’s hoping PITT can at least get him to stop bucking so much.
Good ideas today on the POV especially concerning the branch campuses and CMU OCS.
It wouldn’t be very easy but I can see a 45,000 seat stadium. Starting by getting rid of the track. They could use PITT’s facilities.
athletics.cmu.edu/facilities/images/2014images/gesling/index
Pitt doesn’t have a track – was destroyed with Pitt Stadium.
Well EE, I guess they can run around wherever PITT now does… 🙂
I think they share the CMU track –
Well, I guess there goes that plan. Let em run around down on the southside soccer stadium which is another option for a stadium? ..
lot of room
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.4427092,-79.9416598,688m/data=!3m1!1e3
Look at the OC Lot and Cost Center
Plenty of room there and can be part of Victory Heights
Funny how a question about establishing CONSISTENT attendance for football Games naturally transitioned to a discussion of a NEW Pitt Stadium!
An OCS wont lead to necessarily better recruiting, higher attendance, more wins or more regional brand appeal. That was the crap sold to us by Cornhole as justification for razing Pitt Stadium and leaving campus to play at Heinz. It was an economic decision…pure and simple. One of my degrees is Econ from Pitt…I know too damn well.
But, if done right, an OCS could lead to those things.
A smaller, more intimate venue full of charm and character. No yellow seats. Max capacity at 45k. On campus and part of Pitt’s Victory Heights plan.
Pitt would be at 90% capacity for most games based on recent attendance trends. Heinz is at 55% capacity.
No yellow seats that stand out.
Design the stadium in a way that can create a true home field advantage for Pitt. Keep the noise in. Move the fans closer to the field.
Connect the fans to campus, to the university. Showcase Pitt and not the Northside to visiting fans and media.
Playing at Heinz probably costs Pitt half a game each year. That cost is measured in millions.
Just a couple of observations…
1) PItt will not get rid of an anchor team for season tickets
2) Keeping that in mind this season the only game you likely would’ve seen replaced is what? Not PSU? Not Notre Dame (because they want to keep that Home & Home series for that anchor I spoke of in #1. UCF when the contract was signed was 0-12 and 6-7 in successive seasons. So where is that gimme game you speak of going to come from?
3) You will get your chance to see what it may look like in 2020 of the 4 non-conference games it is Miami (OH), Richmond, Marshall and Notre Dame (at home). Marshall is the only away game
4) Be honest here…if PItt had replace PSU with a cupcake and hell for shuts & grins they replaced UCF with a Villanova team and went into Miami with a 9-2 record and then went on subsequently blow the three final games the way they did and ended up 9-5..would that really have been something to be proud about as a Pitt fan?
Would it really have moved the bar significantly from a recruiting standpoint that your national TV games were embarrassing over the last 3 weeks of the season?
I get the perspective point, but I think if you took a scientific poll most Alabama fans would tell you they have one of if not the greatest football coaches in college football history.
My perspective is that we have at best a mediocre coach, with at best a mediocre facility, with at best mediocre results.
From my perspective, I don’t really see a New Year’s day ball game in the next decade given the current head coach in place. If he has 2-3 years more and fails to reach a better result, he will be gone, and the new coach will have to pickup a bare cupboard and start anew and then we will have to wait at least 4-5 seasons to see what fruits that new coach/program will yield.
that is 6-8 years from now.
That is my perspective and frankly seeing his recruiting class ranks, I really don’t have much optimism at this point.
when was the last time we were in a New Year’s game? Answer … It happened once since the 1980s, and we lost 35-7 to a (then) mid-major.
IT’S THE FREAKIN’ PROGRAM!! And it’s due to 35 years of indifference
consider Chryst. In his third year at Pitt he goes 6-7 which includes a mid-season 21-10 loss at home to Akron. Then the following year, he goes 10-3. (taking over for a coach who left despite winning 10 games)
Program or coach?
Narduzzi took over for Chryst and then went 8-5
Chryst wasnt a good fit at Pitt and the definition of bland and mediocre
Chryst played in a bad division that year just like Pitt this year
He played 7.5 home games (1 game was at a neutral site…where I live)
3 of the OOC were patsies
They played 2 top 20 teams and lost to them both (Bama and NW)
He got win 10 by winning his bowl game…something Narduzzi has yet to do
It sure wasnt the program or the coach that got to 10 wins
So his success was driven by an easy schedule, an abundance of home games, playing in the weakest division in the conference, and winning his bowl game.
The program did nothing for him and his coaching that year if looked at objectively…Sucked.
That Akron game might be the worst loss by a Pitt coach, then the perplexing loss to Duke that was in the bag, just like the Houston game later.
Narduzzi has avoided those Akron-type of losses, which isn’t an easy thing to do at Pitt.
The 2005 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, played on January 1, 2005
Pittsburgh vs Utah
and we lost 35-7, getting there because we won a 4-team tiebreaker in a 7 team league. BD!
That was not you question. a bit surly aren’t we? You stated it’s been over 35 years, It happened and Utah is in the Pac12 not at the time, but they were being built into a very good team that fought UW this year for a PAC12 title.
Look I get your perspective point, but it’s still ok to have expectations to be better than what Pitt currently has to offer.
Not accepting it is part of why we get to debate here.
Hey, the Duke fans wanted to run Coach K out of town the first few years. Not saying that PN will be a successful as Coach K, but I am not ready to say that he should be run out of town yet either. PN has brought a sense of stability to the program that wasn’t there foe many years. This is a big year for the Panthers. A successful season (8-4 or better with a bowl win…finally!) and the ball is moving forward. 4-8 with no bowl game and PN’s seat is hot, REALLY HOT!! All POV’ers should read the Post Gazette article about Beville and Liam Dick in the news the other day. H2P!!! Hope that the B’Ball team comes out of its funk this weekend!
How does one change the program?
What happened to the program since 1974?
To me, its not the program today. It is the coaching.
A coach that fails to win bowl games and get the team ranked come years end.
A coach that fails at recruiting which is the lifeblood of the program.
What can the program do to help Pitt’s Head Coach?
So, if I was HC and was prone to making excuses about my deficiencies and my staffs shortcomings, I would say:
1. Pitt isnt providing me the budget for my staff and recruiting
2. Fans arent supportive of the program and it creates too many yellow seats
3. The AD has us playing one of the toughest OOC schedules in the nation
4. The WPIAL is not producing high numbers of D-1 talent
5. I’m handcuffed by the type of players I can recruit
6. The Pitt brand stands for Pitting and SOP
7. The Pittsburgh media is too tough and people like Reed give me no respect
The program is only at fault for #3 and that can easily be changed. Moreover, it is NOT the reason why Pitt cant win 10 games and be ranked.
Pitt has placed the ball on a tee for Narduzzi and provided him with the club. All he has to do is swing and hit the ball. Instead, he misses with every opportunity.
Cute little blonde Utah kid gave me and Scooter the finger at the Fiesta Bowl. Haha.
As I said many times, great time until the game started.
PittMan2003 says:
I’ve read pittpov sparingly and stopped commenting over the last few months when the Narduzzi hating became unbearable. Michelangelo has been a great addition though.
In any case, this is the best post I have seen on POV. Amazing job wwb!!!!
Don’t stay away Pittman2003.
One thing we can say for sure is that recruiting budget money, or lack thereof, had NOTHING to do with Pitt losing out on Devonshire. Narduzzi botched his recruitment it’s as simple as that.
good write-up from Peak. One of his best.
https://pittsburgh.rivals.com/news/the-3-2-1-column-signing-day-the-wpial-and-more
“Basically, you consider whether a coaching staff filled its needs and did so with priority recruits. If you can answer yes to both of those elements, then it’s a successful recruiting class.”
Chris Peak
Pantherlair
And sometimes the sky is Blue and other times Cloudy.
tonyinhampton says:
These are trying times for Pitt fans. We so wanted Patrick Regan Narduzzi to succeed. And our fervor for Felton Jeffrey Capel has stalled a bit.
Some thoughts to talk you off the ledge …
Whipple- I feel he’s a former head coach who is meant to be an offensive coordinator. I like the guy, I like what he says and I think he is exactly what this team needs at this point in Coach Pat’s Head Coaching tenure.
Armand C. Dellovade: January 24, 1938 – February 4, 2019. I was a young age 24/25 Mechanical Engineer working for U S Steel on the 9th floor of the U S Steel Building in the mid 70s. I had to buy roofing and siding for a huge steel mill building. Don’t think they taught that course at Benedum Hall. Mr. Dellovade showed up and I can’t remember for sure if he got the order but when he found out that I was a Pitt grad, he Ok’d it with my boss to pick me up, take me to the PAA for drinks (I always wondered what the inside of that building looked like) and took me and a bunch of other lucky souls to a Pirate opener.
Lastly, it is obvious that Coach Pat can’t talk- at least in public and particularly when imprisoned in back of a podium. Of the 351 Division 1 basketball coaches and toss in the 130 Division 1 football schools, Coach Capel has to be at the top of great speakers. Either by osmosis or by inferior embarrassment, Coach Pat has to get better. This can only help when he is alone with a recruit and his parents in their living room. And maybe we start getting those so-needed recruits.
Alma Mater, wise and glorious,
Child of Light and Bride of Truth …
Speaking of Mr. Whipple — I noticed in one interview, he said that the quality he looks for in a QB is winning.
Yet I would bet that Pitt is accused of starting KP, who they have invested a year+ in playing time, because he is somehow the Doozer’s pet. I never understand that thinking…
Looking forward to seeing how well and how soon Coach W. can impact the offense.
The Dale Carnegie courses would be looking really good on Pat’s resume right now – it’s never too late until they show you the door.
Continuing education is part of the process.
Pickett may end up starting this season because there is little in the way of alternatives for Whipple to chose from. Then again Trevor Lawrence(Clemson QB) came off the bench last season to play himself into an NFL 1st round draft choice after one season as a freshman. Let’s hope either Pattii or Beville are potential Trevor Lawrence clones.
Another impressive award for Pitt FB amongst an overall mediocre looking season.
https://mobile.twitter.com/CoachDuzzPittFB/status/1093954568159932422?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1093954568159932422&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpittsburgh.forums.rivals.com%2Fthreads%2Fpitt-ol-nationally-recognized-with-joe-moore-award.146993%2F
Results matter – no denying we won the Coastal Division and now the Joe Moore semi finalist award for an Outstanding Offensive Line – but remembering the bad losses brings me back to the mediocre state of Pitt FB.
My wife is asking me why I havrn’t renewed my season tickets – she doesn’t understand why I need to hear from Heather? Who’s Heather was the response – uh oh?
EE, selfishly I hope you renew because I would miss you guys at the tailgates…but I understand why you are on the fence.
I agree Dooz is not a good public speaker and he has not improved…anxiety? never bothered to improve?
lacking insight?
Hopefully his boss is offering suggestions for improvement.
The way Duzz can “cure all” would be to win FB games. His post game speeches would be less scrutinized by most, season ticket sales should increase, interest in the program would grow and thus recruiting becomes easier and elevated. I could go on and on.
Winning matters to most fans. For me, the entertainment value escalates with wins – the new tailgating experiences lately have enhanced my interest as well.
Across the country, athletic departments are searching for ways to entice college football fans — especially the next generation of season ticket-holders — to fill their stadiums. What is Pitt doing? I want to know. The price of being a fan has never been higher, and the comfort of watching at home has never been easier.
I don’t want to watch the games at home, but I also don’t want to waste 3 days on a weekend supporting a losing program.
My golf game would suffer…
Football attendance across most schools are suffering declines. Unless you are a tailgater and love to walk campus, you are going to stay home and watch the game on TV. The viewing experience is much better. From a widescreen TV, surround sound, comfortable reclining sofa, good low cost eats and drinks from your frig, and climate control. How can you beat that.
What the TV fan misses are the sights, sounds and smells leading up to the game. The tailgating aspects and other pre-game traditions. The TV fan misses certain angles and views that only the game fan can see (cheerleaders and fan fights are my favs). The TV fan misses being hugged and high fived by a complete stranger after a Pitt score.
Attending a game can be a better experience. But Pitt makes it difficult when tailgating lots get built over for parking garages and hotels. Students and players have to get bused to the game instead of walking. I search for a stranger to high five but there is only a yellow seat staring at me. I have to get out of bed early for a noon game in cold rainy weather.
Wouldnt it be nice if Pitt could just do the right thing?
Build a 45k retractable dome and configurable stadium on campus. The footprint would be smaller than old Pitt stadium and could easily fit on the OC Lot and Cost Center. Use the dome for rainy or very cold days but otherwise keep it open. Provide large glass views of downtown and the Cathedral on either side. Utilize Pitt engineers to do what the Japanese do with their multi-purpose stadiums…interior configuration for events. Its not high tech…you just need a few good engineers.
Hopefully Doozer’s boss is demanding improvement in the way he comes across.
And if I were Dooz, I would have taken Beatty and one of the young black coaches to Devonshire’s house with me… I’m just guessing they could relate better….
TX @ 9:12 above…thanks for the link to Peak’s LOI article. Very well done.
ex-Pitt OC Shawn Watson just got hired as Georgia Offensive QC Coach so now he works for ex-Pitt OC Jim Chaney … oh wait a minute! Chaney is now with Tennessee. hard to keep up these days (with coaches and players).
Speaking of ex-Pitt OCs, Matt Canada is still without a job. Two years ago, he was one of the top paid OCs (2nd or 3rd) in college FB.
What a wacky world college FB has become.
I wouldn’t worry about Canada though, doubt that he is in any food lines these days
Canada got exposed. All “Smoke ‘n Mirrors.”
Coach 2018 Salary 2019 Salary Raise
Brent Venables (DC/LBs) $2.2 million $2.2 million N/A*
Tony Elliott (co-OC/RBs) $850,000 $1.0 million $150,000 (17.6%)
Jeff Scott (co-OC/WRs) $850,000 $1.0 million $150,000 (17.6%)
Robbie Caldwell (OL) $540,000 $570,000 $30,000 (5.6%)
Danny Pearman (TEs/STs) $480,000 $505,000 $25,000 (5.2%)
Brandon Streeter (QBs/RC) $445,000 $500,000 $55,000 (12.1%)
Mike Reed (CBs) $440,000 $495,000 $55,000 (12.5%)
Mickey Conn (Safeties) $370,000 $400,000 $30,000 (8.1%)
Todd Bates (DTs) $300,000 $375,000 $75,000 (25%)
Lemanski Hall (DEs) $300,000 $350,000 $50,000 (16.7%)
Total $6.775 million $7.395 million $620,000 (9.2%)
I really hope this transfers over. In a nutshell, the above is the Clempson football coaching staff salaries as approved by their Board of Trustees for 2019. They will have 3 assistant coaches making a million or more per year beginning next year. Yes, assistants. This supports TX theory above that it is all about coaching and continuity.
It is also about commitment to excellence by the administration. One can only dream, right! You can have it all if you commit to a plan and execute it. Hope is not a plan. What I read on here is a lot of hope which is great. Unfortunately, the smart people of the POV do not get to make the plan. If you want to be the best you hire the best and let them run.
The AD only needs to copy the salaries and give them to Gallagher and the Board. It speaks for itself. At that point, Gallagher and the Board have a choice. They either get in the game or they don’t. If they do, fantastic. If they don’t, tell the fan base why not. That is where the proverbial rubber hits the road. I don’t get it folks. Is the Administration afraid that they will lose 500 season ticket holders if they admit they don’t want to be the best? What they don’t understand is that the truth is powerful, just tell it. Stop making the fan base wander around the dessert for 40 years looking for direction. Biggest fail of the new ADministration.
Leadership is influencing. Influencing is truth telling. Truth telling begets real support, not the other way around. People won’t follow a program that has no commitment. Build football to excellence. Build basketball to excellence. Build wrestling to excellence. Build women’s volleyball to excellence. Build baseball to excellence, and so on.
I think Clemson’s football budget was around $35M a year ago. Probably gone up since then. Pitt’s was around $23M. 5th highest in the ACC but several other schools hovered around this mark within $1-$2M of Pitt. I think FSU was the highest and it wasnt close. Very bad ROI there.
So, Pitt isnt cheap but they arent breaking the bank. Good assistants are going to cost $1M. Is Whipple making close to that? I think his HC salary was around $600k at Mass.
And I’m fine finding another $2M per year for coaches and another $2M for rent a wins. Pitt has this money from the new ACC network starting this year. Its expected to generate an extra $5M annually for Pitt.
I agree the Pitt program has been lacking commitment but it appears the commitment is now there in terms of budget and facilities.
Branding, marketing and operational management can be more consistent and effective. And Pitt does need better leadership to communicate its vision. Heather is struggling right now building support for Victory Heights, a small potatos project for woman’s volleyball, wrestling, gymnastics and track.
Wouldnt it be novel to think bigger?
Instead of a $50M project, shoot for the moon with a $500M. And make football the centerpiece. Raise $250M via private and public donations. Raise some more by securing contracts, advertising and naming rights, and seat licenses. Finance the rest through low cost debt. Pitt has plenty of room to raise their debt load and still be under their max threshold. Can be done over a 5 year period and all without raising tuition or student fees or cutting any existing programs.
Build for the future…on campus.
I think Pitt’s priority should be basketball because it has a much better chance of becoming relevant, as it was earlier this decade. I think the ship has sailed for FB a long time ago. While the FB team should be in a battle each year for the Coastal crown, there is such a wider chasm between the haves and the haves-nots in FB than in BB.
For example, Butler (2), VCU, George Madison, Wich St and Loyola-Chicago all made the Final 4 in recent years …. you will never see this in FB (although UCF made a really good run for it.) The lone exception. There are just too many resources and intangibles required for FB
Pitt BB has had recent success (2 #1 seeds within last 10 years), a great facility, and a noted fan base (while the Pitt students FB fans are known to leave after Sweet Caroline.)
Pitt made basketball a priority when Pitt stadium was razed and the Pete was built. Basketball is a money maker for Pitt outside the Stallings years. A sold out Pete generates between $10-$15M in profit annually. Now its not Kentucky like profit of $60M but it still is profit and few schools can do it.
By comparison, despite renting Heinz for only $1M annually, Pitt football is still a money drain. The program loses between $7M and $10M each year. Money from the general fund is used to offset. The only way to make money in football is through very high attendance and large donations. Its very expensive to run given the overhead of 10-12 coaches, recruiting budgets, 65 scholarships, stadium maintenance, medical insurance/liability costs, and debt financing.
Pitt will never have more than 50k in attendance. The Jackie days produced 95% capacity and 52k fans. Thats the max back then. Its much smaller now.
Further, Pitt doesnt have many big whales and there is no longer the Golden Panthers.
And sadly it often requires bending the rules if not outright cheating.
So why try to become elite and play catch up with the big boys? Be happy winning 8-11 games each year. Do your best to string together consecutive 10 win seasons since winning and bowl games in warm climates are fun. But dont delude yourself by thinking Pitt can consistently be in the running for a championship playoff. Coastal titles should always be possible.
So build a better atmosphere. Make it fun for fans. View it as entertainment.
Fans will show if Pitt wins or loses if you build a program that way. But Pitt has to make sports part of the schools fabric. Find ways to connect and engage students, fans and alumni. Make it a small part of your identity. Instill greater amounts of school spirit and pride. Build new traditions.
It can all start with bringing football back home to campus.
The Pitt Board doesn’t need to tell fans why it won’t spend on football at the level Clemson does. Those salaries are ridiculous, that’s why.
It was a huge adjustment and concession for Pitt just to get up in the middle of the pack…
If Pitt generated revenues like Clemson, they could. But until then, Pitt is spending on par with the rest of the ACC pack. And its not a sustainable spend for any of them.
This arms race which forces smaller revenue schools like Pitt to spend to support competitive programs is going to result in conference schisms. In the short term, Olympic programs will be cut. Because if you start cutting the football budget, you might as well drop down a division. Thats the hard reality today.
So I see a 32 school football national conference. 16 on the East and 16 on the West. Those schools with the most powerful brands and highest revenues. Pitt is ranked around 50 today based on published financial reports and branding studies.
That wouldnt be bad for Pitt. In fact, they would be in a better position. Theres no chance for Pitt to win a national championship today. The only teams that would be dropped from Pitt’s regular schedule would probably be Notre Dame and Miami. They’d continue playing everyone else. Pitt might actually win a ACC championship for once.
As for Chris Peak… just not a fan. So much effort and so little to say.
TX… actually found a couple of your posts in the last 24 hours to be far insightful.
BTW… BIG Game today for Capel and the Panthers.
NC State is where the TROUBLE started. Only makes sense that this is where the TURNAROUND should start!
Only BIG if they win it…😊
Justin Fields who just transferred from Georgia to Ohio St has already been declared to be eligible for this season by the NCAA. No details were given as to why. Note that he is an undergrad and is subject to sitting out a year.
Of course, these days it is not uncommon for an undergrad to be deemed eligible without sitting out a year. Pitt even benefitted by Taysir Mack becoming eligible this past season. Of course, Pitt had to wait months for the ruling; he transferred last December but wasn’t ruled eligible until August 17 (halfway thru training camp)
In basketball, 4-star Marvin Bagley to Duke on Aug 14, 2017, graduated HS on Sept 1, and was declared eligible by the NCAA clearinghouse on Sept 8. Paris Ford graduated in early June that year but wasn’t declared eligible until August 21, missing most of the fall camp. Both Bagley and Ford attended 3 different high schools.
However, just because Fields was ruled immediately eligible at OSU in FB, and Bagley for Duke BB, one shouldn’t assume any favoritism
Fields received immediate eligibility because he was called the “N” word from a baseball player. Fields indicated that the environment was dangerous for him and he was granted the waiver of time. Interestingly, Fields sister, who also attends UG, did not transfer.
The more interesting case is the Tate Martel transfer to Miami. His case will be heard soon. In his petition, he indicated that the reason to transfer was because his head coach quit and he didn’t commit to the new coach originally, hence the reason for change. In reality, the new coach didn’t want him. If the NCAA rules for immediate eligibility in the Martel case, welcome to collegiate free agency. It is an interesting case for that reason.
The NCAA is losing its grasp on all things college football. I expect a college football czar to be named in the next few years to get rid of the red tape and inconsistencies that are the NCAA, although that would be bad for me since I attended the last two national NCAA meetings.
If the NCAA actually looked at these cases closer, they would see that Fields chose to transfer purely for athletic intent and nothing more. He mentioned nothing of personal differences between school and indicated it was purely for athletic reasons. That’s bot fair in my opinion, but the ncaa has lost its power. Martel will be different in my opinion. I am guessing the NCAA will not rule him to be immediately eligible although the majority of folks believe it is a foregone conclusion. I am sticking with a denial. Decisions coming soon as spring football is right around the corner and positional changes need to be made.
Tx, just curious. where did you come up with the PITT football $$ numbers?
Pitts annual public report releases revenue and expense. Each year Pitt typically offsets a deficit for their football program. Historically, its been around $7M. Pitt’s revenues have been flat but expenses are always increasing.
National news publications have researchers that pick up these bits and assemble for comparison purposes between schools. Several links to them have been previously posted.
Pitt’s donor rate is the lowest in the ACC. Thats not going up. Huge long term opportunity there. Pitt’s ticket sales have stagnated but an extra home game this year helps…but no Penn State though. Merchandising is not impressive but should receive a boost with the new colors but thats just a short term boost most likely. Advertising and rights and contracts with 3rd parties generates little revenue. Tough for any advertiser to give you money when 30k fans show for games only 6 times per year.
And football is a money hungry program. Much overhead and fixed costs. Its a money loser unless you can pack 80k stadiums and have donors to step up and help subsidize. Any AD will tell you that.
Pitt is revenue poor when it compares to other P-5 programs. Pitt just doesnt have the ticket sales and donations. Never will.
And now Pitt is playing with the big boys in the ACC. Its spending money on coaches and recruiting budgets across all programs. But its not elite level of spending. However, much more than in the past. In other words, its not cheap.
And when the women’s basketball team loses $5M in a year and when the men’s loses $10M in a year plus another $10M buyout. That $27M ACC check is eaten alive.
That check subsidizes every program but basketball, a profit maker.
On average Olympic sports loses around $1M-$2M per program. Pitt has 17 of them (excludes FB and MBB).
At some point, Pitt wont be able to continue deficit spending and raiding the general fund to support sports. Pitt needs to find ways to increase revenues. They are cash poor.
Pitt is close to becoming an Eastern Michigan where programs had to be completely cut. Its not as healthy as it appears. Sometimes you need to spend money to make money. Pitt is finally starting to invest in updating campus facilities and in people. Might be too little too late.
Pitt needs to spend that money wisely. You think a 12-14 record justifies paying a coach $3.5M a year? That membership check from the ACC ,which is easy money, leads to speculation and recklessness if not careful.
Well done Tx, thanks. At the same time, doesn’t that go a long ways in explaining why PITT football tops out at 8-10 wins per season? The answers are right there yet we still ask the same questions and point fingers at people who are not responsible for the problems. Now if Narduzzi can’t win eight regular games this coming season. He needs to take his spot on the hot seat. << He won’t but he should. He’s here for at least the next four or five years.
yes – even a top coach who can get Pitt to 10 wins and have a nice run wouldnt be retained due to simple economics. Pitt couldnt afford him. But my response would be Pitt cant afford not.
So Pitt needs to find the money. ACC membership was a godsend. $32M each year (with the new network) helps subsidize Olympic sports. But it leaves no money left to build new facilities, upgrades or make other types of investments.
Thats why it must find new donors and give them a reason to donate. A new ‘OCS’ could be like Pitt’s Cathedral. The Cathedral was built on donations. People need to be sold on a vision and then actually see it being built.
It must also find ways to increase revenues. Thats ticket prices and merchandising.
Pitt should raise ticket prices. It would be the smart thing to do. Do an elasticity study. I believe there is enough inelasticity to work. Example – a 30% price increase would result in a less than 25% decline in attendance. If thats true, Pitt generates more revenue under the new pricing. Easy to do particularly if the stadium was smaller and in more demand…see my OCS ideas above. 🙂
The new colors will really help I believe. But the merchandising bump probably wont establish a higher revenue baseline. People will scramble for the new colors, fill their wardrobes and then be done. The novelty will also wear off eventually. Unless Pitt expands their branding footprint beyond Pittsburgh. They need distributors in Philly, Ohio and a better online presence.
Advertising, contracts and naming rights can be other incremental ways.
Thats why Pitt needs a CEO type AD. Sports is a business. You need someone savvy with the finances and ideas to generate revenue streams. Expenses are only going up if Pitt wishes to compete.
Pitt has already priced the average guy out of the game. That is why there are so many empty corporate seats, or opposing fans in prime seats.
Next year separate seat license for Football and Basketball making it more expensive to do both.
Its still a very good value for the entertainment dollar,
Too cheap a ticket price badly reflects on the brand.
Its tough for Pitt to properly optimize that supply vs demand equation in a stadium nearly twice as big for its needs.
does Pitt have flex pricing for non-season ticket holders?
For instance, higher pricing for marquee opponents
Higher prices if Pitt is in demand and doing well
In other words, game day pricing that adjusts or changes for market factors like supply and demand?
Thats dynamic pricing and could help Pitt optimize revenues.
My biggest beef is that Narduzzi isnt a coach worth $3.5M. I’m still steaming over that extension. I could find a coach and pay him $2M for the same results – 12-14 record over past 2 years, no bowl wins and poor recruiting classes. Those savings could support the operating budget of Pitt’s entire athletic department (Heather and team).
The Pitt BB team held tryouts this week to help fill out the vacant roster spots –
https://mobile.twitter.com/Pitt_WRES/status/1093996781711622152
Pitt’s new softball HC off to a bad start at 0-2.
Losses to Purdue and Charleston, giving up 13 and 10 runs respectively. There are 15 returning players and 8 seniors on the squad that finished as the ACC runner-up last season to National Champ FL ST.
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Michaelangelo Monteleone (aka MA, MM, Mike...) in Pitt Football February 6, 2019 February 5, 2019 140 Words
Editor’s Note: turns out I’m day early on this – signing day is Wednesday – but better early than late. My wife delivered our second child (young Raphael Monteleone!) on Saturday morning and things have been a blur since then. Thanks for the understanding and I’ll try to post a pic once I can get the script onesie on him.
Michaelangelo
Most of the recruits are in the fold thanks to early signing day, but four-star Aliquippa talent MJ Devonshire sits out there like a glittering prize. Can Narduzzi win the sweepstakes and finish the 2019 class off with a WPIAL-grown crown jewel?
Every true Pitt fan hopes so.
In other news a number of readers will be attending the Pitt Signing Day event. I expect full reports and lots of inside information. Enjoy event and the day folks.
Michaelangelo Monteleone
Pitt Basketball: Pitt at Wake Forest Open Game Thread
189 thoughts on “Signing Day Thread”
Michelangelo my friend… my first thought…. I hope you don’t flame out as you are really on the beam these days and very prolific. Just a word from the wise.. I have seen it happen in the recent past.. BUT!! Thanks for another header leading up to a big day for PITT…… Thank You Mike!
Thanks Ike. We just had a baby two days ago so my activity may be curtailed a bit in the near future. Trying to get my wife to put him in a Pitt outfit and then I’ll post a pic
Wow! Congratulations!!
That’s great….congratulations!
OhHowIHateOhioState says:
Mazel tov!
Devonshire is one of only two Rivals 4-stars this year in the WPIAL/City. Since 2016, The WPIAL has produced thirteen four-stars; the city none. Pitt has gotten 3 of them thus far, 4 if Devonshire comes.. The others have gone to PSU, Michigan and especially ND, which seems to be very attractive to Central Catholic guys.
13 four-stars would be a one or two year output for the WPIAL/City when many of us grew up. WPa may have literally gone from first to worst …. or pretty darn close.
Summarizing an article that P-G HS Editor Mike White did back in October …. 30 years ago WPIAL-City had 27 Power 5 recruits and 47 FBS recruits. Ten years ago, there were 24 Power 5 and 38 FBS. So far this year 4 and 14.
I hate to say it but WPa has become a wrestling area.
I keep reading that Pitt has used up all of its remaining scholarships. What about the two projected transfers? Or any other Sr. transfers that must await graduation to become official? Not sure where the excitement will come from this signing period.
VoR – they don’t do the math on scholarships until Fall semester starts. That’s when you have to be at or under the scholarship limits. Kids will leave after spring ball. 5th year kids will leave the program too. The scholarship stuff is just in the moment but in 6 months it will be significantly different.
Agreed TT, PITT could add on as many as 5 or 6 new players if they so decide.
The article on Voss Dennis is strong. I hope he turns out as good as his fan club says.
Something to keep an eye on.
Check out my highlight – https://t.co/TOtc0rjDKi
— Savage 2.0 (@Mjdevonshirejr) February 8, 2018
Oops… a delete is in order M.
I hope I’m wrong but I think Devonshire may well sign with Kentucky tomorrow.—As for scholarships I believe Pitt is one over the limit after signing up our latest recruit this past weekend. So my guess is that Narduzzi will be encouraging several on the roster currently to seek another college if they still want to showcase their football talent.
Michael Michael motorcycle. CONGRATULATIONS YOU STUD!!
pmdH2P says:
Not the first, right? Congrats. And, of course, she will want his pic taken in Pitt gear.
Virtual cigar my friend…Congrats!
Michaelangelo — Congrats to you and your wife.
Love the name — best wishes to Raphael.
Hail to Pitt.
Congratulations to our leader!
BTW, per my son, 40 years ago today a Pittsburgh newspaper article appeared with the headline:
“Central’s Marino Bound for Pitt”
(I guess today, Danny Boy would be off to ND. ☹️)
In that article from 40 years ago, Pitt was recruiting two QBs – Dan Marino and Jon English. Jon was the son of Wally English, a recent hire on the Pitt staff. Apparently Dan and Jon had met on a visit and agreed to go to different schools. Both were considering Pitt and Mich State, among others.
Well fortunately for us, Dan jumped aboard. Jon lasted one year at Mich State, and ended up transferring to a couple of schools before actually getting to play about half of his senior season at Tulane (where Wally had become the head coach…)
Sounds like Jon English would have been a busy visitor to the transfer portal…
^^ I’m not so sure John… Marino had been raised on Oakland public water and it ran inside to outside of him. You know how city water goes right through ya. He’s an original Pittsburgh kid.
I think you’re right about Danny, ike. And I’m sure his parents/family liked having him in town.
But there sure seems to be some sort of indoctrination going on now at CC with so many kids going off to ND.
And kids leaving their home town seems to be less of an issue now, maybe because of all the connectivity we have…
I’m still hoping Mr. Devonshire sees the appeal of staying home…like Danny did! 😊
Pitt has four CC alum on it’s roster – Hamlin, Garner, Wheeler and David Green.
There is more talent on that current team to harvest.
I’m sure you’re right John.. especially his sister at the time. Didn’t she end up marrying Bill Mass?
(Maas) I believe you’re right, and I think he has another sister that married KDKA’s Larry Richards
Thanks for the correction wwb. Yes Larry Richards, who I thin is very talented, married the another sister. These are Pittsburgh people for sure. although I don’t think Maas is still in the family at this time.
Congratulations Mike! Kids are such a great gift and going from one to two really amps up the workload. Don’t be afraid to lean on your readers for help with the POV if you become overwhelmed.
I’m really looking forward to the LOI event tomorrow. It will be good to see Inoke Brechterfield again! 😎
M… Thanks for the delete and congrats to you and your wife on the new addition to the Pitt Community.
Never too early to start stocking up on Pitt Gear!
Congrats M….enjoy ages 1-11…they go fast!
so MM, what’s it going to be … the baby or us? Yea, I know what you’re going to pick …. us, of course, but I really believe you should think things out.
But seriously … it doesn’t take too much to get us going. We can do the heavy lifting when necessary.
The heartiest congrats to you and the Mrs
When Danny signed, Pitt had recently won a NC and was loaded at many positions. A definite top ten program. They had awesome linemen on both sides of the ball. Danny knew he would have the best line blocking for him, unlike KP who is running for his life on most plays.
Today Pitt is still struggling for football relevance so obviously not the same environment. Today Danny would go to one of the perennial top ten teams.
Also a couple other points, as wbb pointed out earlier, the WPIAL was a force back then, so more kids to stay home. Also unlike today, with the internet and social media, much easier to stay connected, back then when you went away, you were gone. Facebook, Twitter, Texting, mobile phones, back then long distance calls were expensive and you made them from a pay phone in your dorms.
MM, congrats on the new addition to the Pitt family. Keep up the good work we will need many more additions from the likes of you to help fill up Heinz Field.
OT: Pitt BB at Wake Forest 7pm on ESPNU. Will Pitt break it’s current ACC losing streak tonight?
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0199/5932/products/FuturePanther_Onesie_600x.png?v=1536003807
Congrats MM..a script onesie perhaps?
Just like the onesie posted by TX Panther a few minutes ago:)
Congratulations, MM! As a 67 year old senior on the blog, what I wouldn’t give to go back to those days. Enjoy every moment. Cause you’re going to blink and they’ll be gone. If I can ask, was your first a boy or girl, and what is his/her name? Really happy for you!
taxingmatters78 says:
I don’t post often, but can’t pass up the chance to congratulate you and your wife. Wishing your family good health and hopefully your wife and HCPN will be lucky tomorrow. Her with a pain-free delivery and both your son and Devonshire wearing Pitt script.
Congrats Maestro on your recent addition…cant wait to see a picture of the little guy.
Went golfing today so I’m a bit behind..
Will be hanging in the parking lot with Scooter around 4 with some cold beer if anyone is coming early to the LOI event.
Lastrow – I went golfing today too. I shot an 86 with snow on the course – not having my 7 and 9 irons cost me at least 2 strokes.
The snow (very little to deal with) cost me 2 strokes as well on the greens.
Sunny and warm. Living the dream…
PITT-cocks Fan says:
Congratulations on the addition to you family. Good news indeed.
Congratulations Mike!!! That is great news indeed. I wish Coach Narduzzi much luck tomorrow, but none of his recruits can match the star power of baby Raphael. Someone mentioned it above, but I love that masculine, angelic name.
Raphael Monteleone, That’s a tough name to spell for a 6 year old. Please tell me you didn’t give him the middle name of “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’. . …. . . .:)
Raphael supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Monteleone does have a certain ring to it though…..
MM. I assume you named your son after the Italian artist just as you were named, Pretty cool. On the other hand, if you named him after a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle …. well then I have 2nd thoughts about it.
Pitt just got another PWO. Shane Murphy a 6’4 270 lb OL from Berks Catholic and a teammate of LB/FB Brandon George (Pitt commit). He made the PA Writers 4A All;State team but since there are 6 classes, that may be a bit watered down
https://www.readingeagle.com/sports/article/high-school-football-berks-catholic-lineman-glad-to-be-back-playing-again
Hopefully the next Morrisey.
Saw where Daequan Hardy is going to PSU.
I think a big mistake for Pitt not to go after a Penn Hills guy with a lot of upside.
Really bad if they don’t get Devonshire.
for whatever reason, Pitt apparently wanted no part of Hardy. According to Rivals and 247, Pitt did not offer. It will be interesting to see if his Rivals 2-star rating will be elevated now that he signed with the Nits. I thought it would be after the state title game, but it wasn’t
Welcome to Devonshire Day!
State of the Program Day.
It seems like you are going to be very gleeful if we don’t get him.
Is it going to be Devonshire Derangement Syndrome on the POV? LOL
Obviously a positive thing if Devonshire comes, not the end of the world(program) if he doesn’t.
Pitt’s recruiting is below average. Devonshire coming or not doesn’t change the overall picture all that much.
LOL State of the Program. So if he comes to Pitt, everything is all well and good?
Guess I’m going to be VERY gleeful.
Tweets by CoachDuzzPittFB
Not “gleeful” at all.
But it does say something about the State of Pitt Football.
well, we’re not getting Devonshire
BTW… Devonshire announcement coming up on Pittsburgh Sports Now… Not The FAN.
https://pittsburghsportsnow.com/
I can’t pull it up??
Looks like MJ to Kentucky
Justin Antonini says:
Narduzzi’s SECOND Biggest Fan apparently not happy.
Chris Dokish
@ChrisDokish
That thud you heard was Pitt’s football recruiting
if you see his tweets during both FB and BB games, he’s just like every other Pitt fan. He’s overjoyed with the coaching when things are going well, and visa versa.
PSN’s attempted live broadcast was quite the cluster, at least on my tablet.
Well, IMO, the important announcement was that we got OL Nolan Ulizio to sign with us. Help where we need it now.
47th ranked Recruiting Class according to Rivals… LOWEST since 2015 when Narduzzi took over.
Guess an ACC Coastal Championship doesn’t buy you very much.
Pitt athletics is on quite an unbelievable losing streak over the past couple of weeks. Both the FB and BB teams are really having their troubles especially on the recruiting front.
I guess the handshake from Calipari trumped the handshake from Capel
newbk1 says:
Is Matt House still the defensive coordinator at Kentucky?
yes. his resume now reads 7 years as a defensive coordinator and 1 year as a D1 position coach
Here’s a theory.. PITT does have some nice young depth in the D backfield. I think Hamlin will get back a years eligibility he used as a freshman. Devonshire wouldn’t have seen the field right away and he knew that… So off to the whipping boy school Kentucky.
UK actually had a good year this past season and finished in Top 15 …. 1st time in a long time
The kid liked Kentucky better, no need to make excuses and not a big deal. Good luck to him.
So the setup for more 6-6 seasons continues
Gee Dan, one 4* and only three 5.7+ recruits in this class doesn’t excite you?
Or he could have felt Kentucky’s coaching staff is better than Pitt’s which is true given thier 10-3 record and #12 ranking.
Three winning seasons in a row and a recent bowl win to get them to 10 wins means something… Like a program on the rise.
Kentucky had the 23rd ranked Total Defense last year with House.
Mark, it’s supposed to stop raining this afternoon…text me later at 724-309-4343.
I’ll check with Scooter.
Will do Fran, I will be able to leave a little sooner now, 3 ish. Thanks.
Not an excuse NRS just one theory. Plus I agree, not that great of a loss… There was a reason Narduzzi didn’t offer him until late in the process.
What makes it WORSE is that Pitt apparently wasn’t in the running.
Based on Devonshire’s reveal… it was between Ohio State and Kentucky.
Yeah, that showed a lot of class. It is actually quite appropriate that the big live announcement had no audio and flawed streaming.
Great to see Reed commenting again.
So are we giving Narduzzi six years to get ten wins?
In his first five years, Stoops record was 26 – 36. If he was at Pitt, Pitt fans would have wanted him fired. He didn’t win above 7 games and lost every bowl game.
After four years, Stoops 19-30, PN 28-24.
once again …. Kentucky’s OOC
Central Mich / Murray St / Middle Tennessee and Louisville .. which this year was worse than the other 3
NTL, I do think Kentucky was better than Pitt this year …. but when you talk W and L, the schedule has to be considered
PITT would have been 4-0 against that schedule as well instead of their 1-3 record against theirs.
BTW, anyone notice that Fla States QB was thrown off the team?
Nope. And, they did not dump Winston. Must be a function of how valuable they think the kid is—not what he did wrong. Can’t do much worse than what Winston did.
Francois should go and play for Quebec in the Canadian FB league.
The Star Wars theme just popped in my head…
No, I’m not drinking yet…
Narduzzi only offered MJ because everyone wondered why. Narduzzi knew he wasn’t going to PITT.
That should say …. wonder why Narduzzi hadn’t offered
Pitt offered him before six other schools did and Pitt was one of two official visits he took. Quit blowing smoke – Pitt lost out on one of the best local recruits and a kid who you would be singing praises of had he chosen Pitt.
C’mon Ike… Be a bit realistic at least.
I could have very easily won a million dollars this morning…. Nuf said
Hey Reed, I was tuned in and hoping MJ picked PITT for a bunch of different reasons. Being a 4* at the top of the list. Playing at Aliquippa another. Perception pretty high up there as well. Yeah, I wish he would have signed with PITT but I think it was very apparent he never was going to do that. Before he was finally offered, Narduzzi was heavily questioned as to why he wasn’t offering him. He knew….
The Dooz abides…AND he is prescient.
You springing a big word on my there Fran, LOL . .. 🙂 .. Right, he knew. LOL
BTW, Hey Reed, hope you can find the time to pump out one of your fine articles now that you seem a little more inspired
We would all like that, Reed.
Love it or hate it, I suspect PN has 2-3 years left, unless he struck gold with the new OC. As many have speculated, I think it’ll be recruiting that will ultimately be his undoing, and I’m not talking about Devonshire, he’s just one guy and he could be great or a bust, far more importantly is the class as a whole, which just doesn’t move the meter, and is reflective of a staff that is consistently mediocre in the critical area of recruiting. I do appreciate that PN has stabilized the program and brought back a degree of respectability, but at $$$ millions in annual compensation, that only gets you so far. Given Lyke’s history here, I suspect she will be watching things closely over the next year or two.
I’m doing one soon but don’t want to step on the BB articles and comments.
Please do, the BB team is really bad…
Yet playing much better than last year’s team. Write-up on basketball and projecting into next year would be a breath of fresh air.
a very disappointing class
probably Narduzzi’s worst in his 4 years if you go by avg star ratings from Rivals
with recruiting trending down, this doesnt bode well for the program’s future
I understand that winning bowl games and being ranked come seasons end will help
But I think it goes beyond that
Something is rotten on the South Side and its not the dead possum on the side of the road
what explains the lack of recruiting results relative to peer schools?
Look at what other ACC schools have done recently. They are building for their futures.
Pitt is building for more 6-6 seasons.
Jus saying… it’s very possible that PITT could have landed their best QB recruit prospect in over 30 years… again…. jus saying. A book is best not judged by it’s cover.
Well, here’s a quite apropos article on signing day and the current state of recruiting. Leads off with a picture of a Pitt recruit and his mom. And, here’s an excerpt from the article; Narduzzi should take note.
Signing day and all we have to talk about is a grad transfer who didn’t start, a 2 star we snatched from the Airforce, and guys who we recruited 30 years ago. Narduzzi is rolling. Oh BTW, congrats on the new addition. At least there is SOME good news.
Same old, same old…
“We came back that Sunday, I talked to my parents on Monday, Coach (Mark) Stoops came to my house on Tuesday and from there I was sold,” Devonshire said. “I was ready to go.”
The 5-foot-11, 170-pound senior met with Pitt coaches last Thursday to “see what they had to say,” but they couldn’t sway his decision.
Trib Review
“If there’s something for Pitt fans to be up in arms about, it ought to be the lack of overall quality in Pitt’s recruiting class, especially when it appeared to be poised for success.”
PittSportsNow
Alan is late to the party. Reed and others have been saying this for years.
And what Narduzzi recruits have made a significant impact to this point…after 4 years?
Pitt’s middle of the road football budget gets them middle of the road recruits and middle of the road records. It is what it is.
Writing on the wall?
Coaches get Recruits.
Best recruiters cost the most money.
Ahem… Que the speech…. If PITT would have played Kentucky and or Syracuse’s OOC schedule, along with PITT winning the coastal division this past year.. PITT too would have been ranked in the final top 25 poll… and oh yeah, PITT beat Syracuse this past year and no, there is absolutely zero proof that Dungey played with a hangover. << That’s fake news and a bad attempt to diminish a PITT victory.. ike…
Ike, you’re probably right, but Narduzzi is 4 years in and I really don’t know of any reasonable excuses for his mediocre recruiting at this point. Stoops is recruiting people to Kentucky- for football- yes, that’s Kentucky football, with zero tradition and a horrible on field track record up to last year. On 247 Kentucky came in at #34, Pitt at #53. It’s not fair to compare recruiting in vacuum like that I know, but to me, if I’m the AD, I give him a year or two with the new OC, see how it goes, then move on. If she does something sooner, which would shock me, I’d be OK with that too. So unless things turn around on the field quickly- and I mean next year- the drum beats will just get louder and louder.
BTW, KY has about a 60,000 seat stadium. They filled it last season for their conference games and drew a minimum of 47000 for their crappy out-of-conference opponents.
Good for them. That doesn’t change the fact that its a historically crap program with no tradition, and that’s all it takes to turn things around, getting the right coach. That’s the point. Of course attendance may be helped by the area, not sure how much there is to do in Lexington in terms of sports entertainment competition.
Pitt has a 68,000 seat off campus stadium where students get bused 5 miles. Last year, Pitt drew 35,000 yellow seats to their games. But, the students and fans got free bobble heads and Fantas. 🙂
I didn’t get a Fanta & I love the grape flavor. Went to Cuse game. But a POV friend (thanks Rick) got me a bobblehead.
Btw – South Carolina has their own off campus stadium & the students can ride a school provided bus for the 4 mile trip but no drinks or snack.
Yea but do they sell it out?
I have been complaining about recruiting since Narduzzi’s first real class.
If anything it is getting worse.
Recruiting is the lifeblood of any football program and we are trending downward.
So Franklin a much more successful recruiter than Narduzzi takes Hardy as his last pick.
As far as I know Narduzzi never offered. A kid from the school that brought us Donald, Fralic and Flynn among others. Pathetic! A kid that scored 5 touchdowns in the State Championship game.
I will add that the new system is anticlimactic. Signing day used to be fun.
1618, I’m not against what you’re saying. PITT winning football games is what is important to me the most, not who the head coach is. << That’s the truth. It’s just the constant turnover of the PITT coordinators that are blurring my opinion on where this PITT football program stands right now.
You and me both. As far as the coordinators blurring things, I agree, and to me one last hurrah is the new OC, which I mentioned earlier, and this maybe buys him another 2 years? 3? At some point the HC has to take responsibility. I don’t think Narduzzi is a bad coach by any means, but if he isn’t able to recruit well enough, or won’t matter.
Fran, Scooter, Richman, Mark and anyone else attending tonight’ LOI event — I regret that I won’t be able to join you guys. I started getting a cold/flu on Monday and it’s a whopper. My nose has run so much it could be to NYC by now.
Anyway, I don’t want to “pass” this on to you guys or Mr. Whipple or Coach Beatty. (We need our QBs and WRs to be healthy to work on improving our passing game. 😊 )
I think I’ve only missed one of these events, going back to Walt’s days…
Have fun! I’m sure you will. Looking forward any comments or observations.
(If you get a chance to talk to Coach Whipple, maybe someone could blurt out “Screen Pass!” — just to get his reaction. 😊)
I won’t be able to join yinz either, but not because of the flu or cold. I am sick from the way this recruiting shtick went down.
Still haven’t renewed my tickets for 2019 – the year Pitt defends it’s Coastal championship.
Need Duzz and Heather to give me some good reasons – MD would have done it!
Whipple could have given you some Charmin to blow your nose into MajorM – John
Huff — good one!
Year/Avg Stars/#5.7 rated and above
2019/ 2.89/ 3
2018/ 3.05/ 11
These figures are from Rivals
For comparison, Miami and Va Tech over this period have averaged around a 3.3 avg star. Pitt stands at a 3.0
Miami and Va Tech typically land 12 recruits rated 5.7 or above. 4-star kids start out at 5.8 stars. Pitt lands less than half that.
Make no mistake, this was a bad recruiting year for Pitt.
Feel better John…
altoonazach says:
The closer in all recruiting of the big fish targets is the in home visit by the head coach. The Trib article very clearly lays out Stoops personality beat out Narduzzi. Plain and simple I do not feel that Narduzzi is not that bad of a coach but he is a terrible closer in recruiting the few top end targets a good program needs every year. For Pitt I feel you need 4 to 5 4stars every class anything less is not enough.
htp240 says:
Can’t sugarcoat this below the line class. Ike, I hear you on not judging a book by its cover…….but we’ve had years of books with worn, recycled covers while 45 schools above us have hard cover books. Sure we can, and have, get lucky with 2 and 3 stars. But he can’t close because you have to be a great salesman to sell this stadium and atmosphere. The truth is he’s arrogant, not likeable or popular and thus makes it harder.
That said, I know you are not a Narduzzi apologist…….
He can’t recruit and that won’t change so we kind of are what we are.
“That said, I know you are not a Narduzzi apologist…”
OMG! & WTF!
Hey Reed… Much like Narduzzi himself… I don’t understand why you allow yourself to be bothered so much by me? I didnt do nuffing. 🙂
This all goes back to drum Reed has been banging for 3 years now. Narduzzi’s best years were with Chryst recruits. Please everyone please spare me but we won the coastal. This year’s coastal was way behind an old big East conference schedule.
Two years and our record is 12 wins 14 losses. This program is trending down. Our best player last year was Ollison a Chryst recruit. Aston a Chryst recruit. Idowuo Chryst rChrist and on and on.
Narduzzi went 6-2 in the division. and won it…. I must be crazy to think that’s some sort of progress…. oh that’s right. The other teams stunk and played with hangovers…..
Pitt got all the breaks this past year. They got lucky. And Dungey was hung-over.
Pitt still managed to get blown out by Clemson, lose another bowl game and not be ranked
7-7 is nothing more than mediocre
That participation trophy for winning the Coastal should be junked
Feel better John…if Whipple is available we will track him down.
Regarding Stoops…
Never met him. But I do have family in Ohio with close ties to the Stoops family. I’ve been told he is easily the most likeable of the Stoops coaching brothers.
That can go a long way when it comes to CLOSING the deal with the family on an in-home visit.
A 500 record is not progress it’s flatlining. There is nothing to sell 0-3 in bowls a revolving door of coaches. Losing to North Carolina. All hat no cattle from Narduzzi.
Per a tweet from Chris Dokish per Rivals on PN recruiting rankings since he came aboard:
How Rivals ranked Narduzzi’s four full recruiting classes
2016- No. 29
Regardless of how you feel can we all agree this is not the direction you want to be going?
What is really scary about this is typically that first class is a disaster as the old coach leaves and you are struggling to keep as much as you can from deserting the ship.
That was actually PN’s strongest year.
SMH/Sigh
That first class was impressive to me — and unfortunately we lost a couple of the top kids in that class to medical issues. Just our luck.
That Hill kid from Ohio would have been the fastest kid on the team…
I’m too depressed to discuss this subject. Narduzzi can’t change his personality, he can only hire coaches who can shoulder the recruiting efforts. He better hope that the new OC and WR coaches can make a difference or it is over for him. I think we can put to rest the idea that winning the Coastal added any value to recruiting.
VOR… you pretty much nailed it..
The X Factor is just how much improvement we will see in the Passing Game now that there is finally a Coach on board with the ability to teach the “Art of Quarterbacking.”
Personally, I think Pickett is going to be alright. But if not him, then Patti and if not Patti then Beville.
Problem is… there is certain to be a DROP OFF in the Running Game with Ollison and Hall both gone.
Going to be interesting.
Think it’s fair to say that “Devonshire Day” has turned out to be “State of the Program Day” with the focus it has placed on Narduzzi’s recruiting.
Similarly, next year will likely be the “Season of Decision” regarding the future direction of the Program.
Had a good discussion with Kman today. We both agree Duzz hung on to his job ONLY because he won the Coastal.
That will be the low water mark in 2019 or Heather cans Duzz.
Recruiting is tough to Pitt because of Heinz Field. Not having an on campus stadium is severally hindering the program. Another administrative blunder…
“Tough for Pitt coaches”
One of the great adages of life is “people buy from salesmen they like. “
The first book I had to read as a young salesman is “How to win friends and influence people” by Dale Carnegie published in 1936. How you come off to people is as important today as 1936.
I was Blessed, people seemed to like me and I was a natural in sales. But there is a set of rules!
Duzz is not Blessed. He’s abrasive and aloof …. or at least that’s how he comes off to many. I would think he’d want to improve that image.
Maybe he should read the book!
#47 recruiting class is unacceptable.
I don’t see how I really sugar coated anything. Please, read what I type, you can trust this to be true, if PITT would have reeled in the 9th best recruiting class, I would have been much more excited and happy BUT…..I still would have expressed a wait and see mind-set on how these young recruits pan out in a few years. I follow recruiting fairly closely and all things considered, with the understanding that sometimes the numbers don’t necessarily add up with the second tiered group of teams. A recruiting class made up of 3* 17 and 18 year old kids is a total crap shoot. It causes me to pause and wait before I judge. I’m different that way. You know the Hugh Green’s and Aaron Donald’s have taught me a couple good lessons.
So Stoops swoops in and takes away a kid who hadn’t been to their campus until recently. How does this happen?
It is BS that the kid was never coming to Pitt. If Narduzzi “KNEW” he wasn’t coming to Pitt, why did they waste their time, money and efforts on him? Sorry guys, just not buying that story. It’s kind of like the dairy college saying they didn’t want our kid anyway. If Stoops would have settled for that reasoning of Devonshire not being interested in his school, he never would have come to recruit the kid at all. This is all about settling. Stoops didn’t settle and was rewarded without spending much time or money to recruit the kid. I wish the kid well but at the end of the day, Narduzzi got beat by someone who spent a week recruiting the guy.
University of Portal for Narduzzi recruiting. Well, it worked out well for the island of misfits for rudolph the reindeer.
You are either an influencer or you are not.
Stoops got the KY AD and Administration to pony up $150M for a complete overhaul of their ON CAMPUS stadium. They understand that they can’t rely on one revenue producing sport to make it.
Mike – Congrats on the new anklebiter. Best of luck to you and your lady. Much health, happiness, long life and prosperity for him.
Pitt trots recruits to an off campus stadium with 35,000 yellow seats and far more once the students leave after receiving their free Fanta. Thats a tough sell.
Then they have recruits attend a Pitt basketball game and Pitt comes away a loser.
The tactics need to change.
Frankly, the Head Coach needs to change.
Hufff III, that was my thought exactly. Pitt never had a chance especially when I heard his final choices were OSU and UK
Heather has to live with her extension of the Dog. But it was well known this dog had some fleas and she did nothing about it. She ended up enabling him.
So the extension did give Pitt a participation trophy that they can place in their glass case but it also provided yet another .500 year, several blow out losses on national TV, a bowl loss, no final ranking and a dismal recruiting class.
In 2019, its 10 wins or bust. Thats a wrap.
Does the lack of OCS affect recruiting? Kids like to roll out of bed and walk to practice in their own stadium. Is KY that way?
Some kids want to get away from their parents, some do not. Recruiting in today’s world of social media is a real crap shoot.
If you were a 17 year old, would you like to play in front of 35,000 yellow seats?
Would you like to hear your fellow students complain every year about being bused 5 miles off campus to see a game?
Would you feel unappreciated if 90% of the students left at the 3rd quarter?
Do you really think practicing and playing on the same fields as the drama Queen and under-achieving Steelers is neat?
Do you prefer Heinz or Hunts?
To me, this photo is Pitt’s and Narduzzi’s problem in recruiting.
You can bet that our recruiting opponents show the recruit photos of Heinz versus photos of their packed stadiums.
That’s a tough negative to overcome when recruiting the elite players, who have several good offers and are looking for reasons to narrow down their list. Tough decision, but not hard for the elites to scratch Pitt once they see those photos of Heinz, IMHO.
thats why Pitt needs to tarp the upper deck
and conduct a feasibility study for an OCS
Oh wait, it was conducted by Populous and they did say it was feasible
So why not make it part of Victory Heights?
Great comments all around. Not much else going on for awhile, so I will add a few to keep the pot stirring.
If we took a poll, I wonder how many of us think Kentucky brought out the booster pack for Devonshire? Was it money, women, apparel deals, anything similar to what they may do for their bball players?
Personally, I would vote yes to something like that having happened and their head coach may not even know of it yet. While we may never know, I wonder what a poll like that would look like..
Secondly, I wonder if there is any correlation between the dwindling amount of 4 and 5 star recruits in PA and Pitt’s recruitment rankings?
It costs a lot more money to recruit by plane than by car. I imagine we really chew through out recruitment budget. You see and visit a lot less recruits if you need to find them by plane.
I also wonder if there has been a similar decline in Virginia techs local area as well as miami’s.
As for this year’s recruiting, I get the impression what you did the year before matters the most to the majority of recruits, as opposed to what happened this last fall. The most recent season though, probably matters more to the high 4 and 5 stars.
This would include coaching changes and on field success in their decision making processes.
With that in mind, if our oline coach was deemed by recruits as an improvement this year, then we should see improvement in our oline recruits for the next signing period.
Some schools can weather the coaching changes when they have a lot of other areas of success, such as wins and losses and stadium atmosphere. I don’t think we are at that level yet.
I think narduzzi is an above average coach, but I do not think he is a great coach. I don’t know if that changes with stability and time, but with the Capel hire, after reading what he wrote about his dad, and seeing some of the early success he has had a few times this year already, I feel we hired a really great coach for the basketball program.
HCPN knew our FB situation when he took the job. I am sure he is doing his best on recruiting.
The same goes for Capel.
Great job Frank…. I would be looking for a challenge instead of a walk in the park. We can all have a stroll in the park on a Saturday…. PITT football is no walk in the park. perspective…
#Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi: "I want guys that love Pittsburgh, okay, and that's what it comes down to. You either love Pittsburgh and you want to stay here and play for your city or you don't. And if you don't, I'm good. We wouldn't win with you anyway. It's beautiful."
— Chris Peak (@PantherLair) February 6, 2019
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DywXPUrWoAAMAqA.jpg:large
M.Devonshire was the only recruit signed by KY today AND he was the sixth DB signed by KY in this 2019 class.
Interesting choice by the young Quip.
Stoops and Duzz are both from Youngstown. Any chance they don’t Lyke each other?
‘Lock the Gates’ doesnt work when the gate is broken
In two years, after more mediocrity, we will be asking ourselves: why was HCPN even hired?
Proven HC’s were too expensive at that time for Pitt’s budget. Sir Patrick Gallagher went the less expensive and less experienced route.
SOP!
Pat Gallagher has since been Knighted by the BoT.
‘None Shall Pass’
‘I move for no man’
‘Tis but a scratch’
Remember – the Black Night was down to no arms and legs after the chopping was finally done
‘We’ll call it a draw’
We are where we are…. how do we fix this? Heather..you out there?
The fix is so obvious. It’s doable.
Start planning to build a 45,000 near campus stadium. I can give u five spots. Can you imagine the excitement, the recruiting bump, the comaradie it would cause??!!
Heather …. you would go down as the greatest AD in Pitt history !!
Imagine a stadium called Pitt Stadium. … again.
She has to raise around $300M for it and Compliance, not fundraising, is her strong suit.
2019 Signing Day (FINAL)
📉 Teams that hit a 5-year LOW in recruiting class rank
Ohio State (#14)
Notre Dame (#15)
USC (#18)
FSU (#19)
Miami (#28)
UNC (#32)
UCLA (#43)
Pittsburgh (#54)
Maryland (#59)
Wazzu (#63)
Louisville (#73)
— Pick Six Previews (@PickSixPreviews) February 7, 2019
Those on the Narduzzi bandwagon should really think of getting off before you hurt yourselves
For those fans that don’t think bowl games matter watch this video and pay attention to what he says at the end…
https://kentucky.rivals.com/news/video-mj-devonshire-explains-decision-to-attend-uk
They sure do and always have.
The only reason PITT lost 7 games and finished with a 500 record is because they earned the right to get beat up by the eventual national champion in the ACC title game.. When was the last time a PITT football team played 14 games in a football season?. Don’t bother looking it up cause it has never happened before.
No Ike, the reason we lost 7 games is that we played like crap in those last three games getting outscored 80-26.
Don’t act like losing to Clemson was inevitable – you still dine out on our beating them earlier.
The goal is to win more than you lose and PN hasn’t done that in 50% of the seasons he has coached at Pitt. 12-14 in his 3rd and 4th years sucks.
Add to that another loss to bottom dweller NC and a crap recruiting class to finish out the season (following a poor 2018 class) and even you should be able to see the actual state of the program.
Reed, if memory serves, you picked Stanford to win by 17 (or something like that) … and then you say Pitt played badly even though Pitt outgained Stanford by about 150 yards. The only difference in the game is that Pitt was within the 10 yard line twice but had to settle for FGs
and you (of course) forgot to mention that Pitt played the 4th toughest schedule this year
Pitt always finds a way to lose bowl games….
Sorry, but I have a problem with this statement; PN still has that Alabama attitude. Substitute Alabama for Pittsburgh: #Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi: “I want guys that love Pittsburgh, okay, and that’s what it comes down to. You either love Pittsburgh and you want to stay here and play for your city or you don’t. And if you don’t, I’m good. We wouldn’t win with you anyway. It’s beautiful.”
Maybe kids like Devonshire have friends and family who might consider Pitt someday. Or Devonshire may someday want to transfer. Would they want to play for this guy? This arrogant attitude may be characteristic of a coach who consistently brings in top 10 recruiting classes, not #54. I think he knows he is not cutting it, and is very defensive.
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MOVIE REVIEW: 'The Mexican'
Sun | T.G.I.F.
By Christy Lemire, The Associated Press — Mar 2nd, 2001
Three big stars and little's shining
'The Mexican'
RATED: R
RUNNINGTIME:123 minutes
DIRECTOR:Gore Verbinski
CAST: Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, James Gandolfini
NOWSHOWING:
Bainbridge, Poulsbo, Silverdale, South Sound, Uptown
Red-hot names Julia Roberts, James Gandolfini and Brad Pitt can't do much with this chihuahua in which Pitt must retrieve a valuable antique pistol from Mexico.
The star power of "The Mexican" is blinding: Brad Pitt! Julia Roberts! James Gandolfini!
All three actors couldn't be much hotter now: Roberts is up for a best actress Oscar for "Erin Brockovich." The much anticipated third season of "The Sopranos," for which Gandolfini has won a best actor Emmy, starts Sunday night. Pitt is ... well, Brad Pitt.
Don't get your hopes up, though.
"The Mexican" is sporadically entertaining. It works when Gandolfini is on screen; when he leaves, he takes the movie with him.
And if you're expecting romantic sparks between the astonishingly attractive Roberts and Pitt, forget it. They're rarely on screen at the same time, and when they are, all they do is bicker. It makes you wish they had no scenes together at all.
Pitt plays a bumbling clod named Jerry who, inexplicably, gets assignments from a Los Angeles mob boss.
Jerry must trek to Mexico to retrieve a valuable antique pistol known as "The Mexican," or he'll be killed. He's also getting pressure from his girlfriend, Samantha (Roberts), to leave his life of crime and move with her to Las Vegas (for a much more wholesome life, presumably).
After a seriously annoying argument, Jerry heads south of the border and Samantha heads to Vegas alone. But on her way there, a hitman named Leroy (Gandolfini) takes her hostage, just to make sure Jerry doesn't try to take the pistol for his own purposes.
From here, director Gore Verbinski, who made his feature debut with "Mouse Hunt," intercuts between two road movies, one of which (the one with Pitt) is downright boring.
We watch him hop from one dusty Mexican town to the next, avoiding various bad guys while trying to hang onto the gun. His mannered, forced performance grows tiresome quickly, which is a shame after watching him shine recently in "Snatch" as a mumbling gypsy boxer.
When we check in on Roberts and Gandolfini, though, it's fascinating to watch these two compelling actors bounce off each other.
As their characters drive to Vegas and stop at roadside diners, they become friends.
Samantha is painfully neurotic and loves to pick apart her relationship with Jerry using sprinklings of psychobabble, and Leroy indulges her need for therapy.
Leroy could be Tony Soprano's cousin - a tough-talking, chain-smoking thug who can shoot a man dead without batting an eye. But, like Tony, Leroy has a sensitive side. Deep down, all he really wants is a hug. He also enjoys analyzing relationships and the need for love. It's easy to imagine Leroy sitting down for a session with Dr. Melfi.
The movie wraps up with some convoluted twists and double-crosses, and mumbo-jumbo about fate and intersections and curses.
But every once in a while "The Mexican" gives people what they want: Robert's megawatt smile, Pitt with his shirt off, and a little bit of Tony Soprano.
Movies rated according to the following key: **** - excellent; *** - good; ** - fair; * - poor. * 'ALI' - In his biopic about Muhammad Ali, director Michael Mann focuses solely on the period from the boxer's victory over Sonny Liston in 1964 to his knockout of ... [Read More...]
James Gandolfini Gangsters on the loose in 'Sopranos' new season LOS ANGELES -- Mobsters fresh out of prison and on the loose provide the impetus for the fifth season of HBO's drama "The Sopranos," series creator David Chase said. A New Jersey newspaper ... [Read More...]
RATINGS: Movies rated according to the following key: **** - excellent;*** - good; ** - fair; * - poor. * '15 MINUTES': See review, D1. Bainbridge, Kitsap Mall, Poulsbo, South Sound * '3000 MILESTO GRACELAND': A heist-and-chase thriller that's 3,000 miles from being a good movie. Stars Kurt Russell ... [Read More...]
Burns, Hoffman play convincing cons
A con man, Jake Vig (Edward Burns, left) whose latest scam puts him in debt with the mafia, is confronted by crime boss Winston King (Dustin Hoffman) in "Confidence." AP photo courtesy Lions Gate Films 'Confidence' *** RATED: R (for language, violence, and sexuality/... [Read More...]
Movies rated according to the following key: **** - excellent;*** - good; ** - fair; * - poor. * 'ALONG CAME A SPIDER': See review on D1. R (violence, language). 1:43. **1/2 Bainbridge, Gig Harbor, Kitsap Mall, Poulsbo, South Sound * 'BLOW': See review on D1. R (pervasive drug content ... [Read More...]
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Literary Analysis of Selected Essays
Interpreter’s Freud by Geoffrey Hartman
Poets leave the trappings of their mind in the unconscious and from this creativity flows. Freud’s way of interpreting dreams becomes a powerful way of hermeneutics. Dream analysis is a science. Joseph in the Old Testament of the Bible gains fame as a dream interpreter. Dreams are structured as language and most dreams are metaphors and metonymies.
Rootedness: The ancestors of tradition by Toni Morrison
The autobiographical form of the novel is classic in Black-American and Afro-American Literature. The birth of the industrial revolution saw the rise of the novel. I incorporate Black culture into my fiction. Black Literature is rooted in ancestors.
Englands of the Mind by Seamus Heaney
Ted Hughes the poet relies on Anglo-Saxon and Norse traditions. Hughes poetry is enmeshed with personified metaphors. For example: stones cry/horizons endure/dreams are the fetus of Gods.
The Exile of Evaluation by Barbara Smith
New movements have emerged in literary studies like New Criticism, Structuralism, Feminism, Postmodernism and Gay literature. Literary studies in America have been shaped by positivistic philological scholarship and by humanistic pedagogy.
The Hollow Miracle by George Steiner
Brecht, Kafka and Mann did not succeed on mastering their own culture but they found themselves to be eccentrics.
The Text, poem and the problem of the Historical Method
The 20th century gave way to new methods of criticism. According to Roman Jacobson, poetics deals with the problems of the verbal structure.
History and Fiction by Laurence Lerner
The novel is a total invention with delusory approximations to historical reality. History is a form of fiction. The weakness of realism as a theory is that it does not show what is specific to art.
Introduction to meta-history by Hayden White
There are three levels of conceptualization and they are the chronicle, story and mode of emplotment. Chronicles are open ended. The aim of the historian is to uncover stories buried in chronicles. Emplotment is a way by which sequence of events fashioned into a story is gradually revealed. There are four types of emplotment and they are romance, comedy, tragedy and satire.
When was post-colonialism the limit by Stuart Hall
Colonialism exists as a binary division between the colonizer and the colonized. There’s an ambivalence in the discourse of colonialism. Post-colonialism is a reconstruction of literature, its meaning and value. English literature assimilated the cultural traditions of the colonies. Is the concept of colonial meaning Euro-centric?
The Babel of Interpretations by E D Hirsch
No single meanings can interpret the meaning of texts. There are possible interpretations and compatible interpretations. Interpretations of a text vary from age to age.
Anand Bose Literary Analysis, Literary theory, Literature, Philosophy Leave a comment November 23, 2017 2 Minutes
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International Activity Report 2018
report — Médecins Sans Frontières
THE YEAR IN REVIEW
By Dr Marc Biot, Dr Isabelle Defourny, Marcel Langenbach, Kenneth Lavelle, Bertrand Perrochet and Teresa Sancristoval, Directors of Operations
In a complex and fast-changing world, we remain focused and resolute in pursuit of our goal – to provide the most appropriate, effective medicine in the harshest of environments. As well as responding to vital needs, our aid is born of a desire to show solidarity with people who are suffering, whether as a result of conflict, neglect or disease.
FAO Water Productivity Open-access portal (WaPOR)
interactive — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Screenshot of the interactive content as of 01 Jun 2018.
WaPOR: database dissemination portal and APIs
The FAO portal to monitor Water Productivity through Open access of Remotely sensed derived data (WaPOR) monitors and reports on agriculture water productivity over Africa and the Near East.
It provides open access to the water productivity database and its thousands of underlying map layers, it allows for direct data queries, time series analyses, area statistics and data download of key variables associated to water and land productivity assessments.
Education Under Attack Monthly News Brief | November 2017
This monthly digest comprises threats and incidents of violence as well as protests and other events affecting education.
It is prepared by Insecurity Insight from information available in open sources.
Global Food Security Update, Issue 18 April-June 2015
Tracking food security trends in vulnerable countries
The Global Food Security Update provides a quarterly overview of key food security trends in vulnerable countries. Information is provided by WFP VAM field teams and partners.
• Conflict in Yemen is causing increasing food insecurity.
As of June, at least 6 million people are facing Emergency (IPC Phase 4) food insecurity. Millions more could easily fall into the emergency conditions unless a political solution is found quickly.
25 Mar 2015 description
Global Food Security Update, Issue 17 - March 2015
Conflict in Iraq has disrupted food markets, leading to price hikes in Anbar, Salah Al-Din and Kirkuk. According to the 2014-2015 Strategic Response Plan, around 5.2 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, and over 2.5 million people are currently displaced.
Global Emergency Overview Snapshot, 13 - 19 August 2014
Snapshot 13-19 August
Yemen: The 9 August Al Jawf ceasefire has been broken. Access to people affected by the conflict in Al Jawf is extremely limited due to persistent insecurity, and it is very difficult to obtain information. Almost 3,000 people have died in violence since the National Dialogue Conference took place on 25 January.
Global Emergency Overview Snapshot, 30 July - 5 August 2014
Snapshot 30 July–5 August
OPt: As a 72-hour truce begins, 1,179 civilians have been reported killed since Operation Protective Edge started. A third of the population of the Gaza Strip – 485,000 people – have been displaced, an increase of 270,000 since last week. Most IDPs are staying in schools, which are severely overcrowded. The health system is overwhelmed.
Snapshot 22-29 July 2014
oPt: 1,067 are reported killed in Gaza since the beginning of Operation Protective Edge. 215,000 people have been displaced, and shelter conditions are a major concern. Damage to critical infrastructure, including the only power station in Gaza and health facilities, is heavily restricting access to basic services. Insecurity is also impeding humanitarian access.
- 325 Cholera, 2010
- 339 Monthly report on dracunculiasis cases, January–May 2011
- 325 Choléra, 2010
- 339 Rapport mensuel des cas de dracunculose, janvier-mai 2011
Armenia12
Azerbaijan16
Benin12
Bolivia (Plurinational State of)23
Botswana10
Cocos (Keeling) Islands (Australia)1
Dominican Republic (Dominican Rep.)14
El Salvador19
Gambia13
Ghana18
Guinea-Bissau26
Indonesia27
Iran (Islamic Republic of)33
Kyrgyzstan11
Montenegro10
Nicaragua20
Peru12
Russian Federation36
Serbia14
South Africa14
Tajikistan17
Togo20
World Food Programme (WFP)51
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)13
ReliefWeb2
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)2
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)1
Climate Change and Environment1
Coordination17
Recovery and Reconstruction11
Situation Report60
Cold Wave10
Insect Infestation13
Technological Disaster1
Tsunami12
Volcano14
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Read the latest issue of the Oaracle
Take a Look at the Redesigned Operation Autism Website
By: Organization for Autism Research
Categories: Families, Military, Newsletter, Resource Spotlight
OAR is pleased to share the newly redesigned Operation Autism website in support of military families affected by autism. OAR is committed to supporting military families impacted by autism by providing this updated resource that addresses the many challenges they face: extended family separation, moves, varied access to specialized health care, and more.
According to CAPT Edward Simmer, Chief Clinical Officer and TRICARE Health Plan Officer in Charge, there are more than 28,000 TRICARE beneficiaries diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Of those, more than 15,000 take advantage of their medical benefits through the Autism Care Demonstration.
The redesigned features a more advanced resource directory that lists military bases, schools, and ABA-providers by location, as well as updated content critical to navigating the military health care system. More specifically, the website offers information on:
Facts and characteristics of autism spectrum disorder
Autism interventions and treatments
Military healthcare coverage
Strategies to ease transitions and PCS moves
How to establish and maintain a record management system
Additional resources relevant to autism and military families
More information about the website design and content changes can be found in this press release.
We are also excited to announce that the updated companion guide, Life Journey Through Autism: A Military Guide for Families, is available for pre-order and will be distributed within a few weeks. We encourage parents to order and use this free reference tool with their families. We also invite EFMP liaisons to share this valuable resource with service members and their families. For bulk orders or questions or comments on OAR’s military families initiative, please contact us at
Many researchers are suggesting a move away from “functioning” labels as they are commonly used for people on the autism spectrum, due to these terms placing unfair expectations...
Daily Living Skills
This blog post has been adapted from “Chapter 6: Life Skills” of OAR’s resource “A Guide for Transition to Adulthood”. Often, the discussion of life...
Sweetwater Spectrum provides Residential Community for Adults with Autism
Located in Sonoma, California, Sweetwater Spectrum is an innovative living community designed specifically for people with autism....
Stay Informed. Sign up for updates
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Excepter – How not to obsess over every little thing, an interview with John Fell Ryan
Blog November 18 2013
Af Emil Thorenfeldt
New Yorks fremmeste eksperimenterende orkester, Excepter, udsender i dag Christisland, der er deres første reelle udgivelse efter et par års pause for improvisationsgruppen, som ellers har udgivet i adstadigt tempo siden 2002. Pladen bliver til gengæld den første i en række af udgivelser fra John Fell Ryan & co. i løbet af det næste års tid, og den har i særdeleshed et dansk aftryk i form af label, line-up, titel og coverbilleder. Excepter kan bedst beskrives som et improband med rockinstrumenter og trommemaskiner, der ser som sit eget formål at skabe en parallelvirkelighed til den gængse musikverdens måde at være sig selv bevidst, at være hip og at være konsumerbar – og derfor i spøg reduceres med FACT’s lakoniske beskrivelse: “Excepter is a freaky art/dance ensemble.”
Christisland-projektet har sit udspring omkring af erklærede Excepter-fans i form af folkene bag Sejerø Festival og Escho, som inviterede John Fell Ryan (ex-No Neck Blues Band) til Danmark sidste år og indspillede pladen i København med et flot og åbensindet line-up med amerikanske Robert Girardin (fra Jaws), Lala Ryan og Jon Nicholson, samt Malthe Fischer, Rune Kielsgaard, Nis Bysted og Niels Kristian Eriksen. Dermed er det nye label Cejero også kommet glimrende fra land med den første af fire planlagte udgivelser med hhv. de sidste to års mest prominente Sejerø Festival-navne, Excepter og noisemusiker Robert Turman, samt to andre Sejerø-affiliates i form af Menthol (Kim Las og Niels Kristian Eriksen) og toto (Tobias Kirstein og Toke Tietze Mortensen).
Passive/Aggressive: How did the record come about?
John Fell Ryan: – It started just getting us to Sejerø. That sort of brought us to make a whole tour, and in the making that tour we didn’t realise that Europe kinda shuts down around that time and that it would be difficult for us to find any shows in late July/early August. Paul Smith, who runs Blast First Records, said that we should make an album which we did; in order for us to make our way to Denmark I had to get a grant from the DIVA foundation and part of that was that I was to make a recording and involve local musicians and run a workshop. The record came about just of necessity before finding a way to get us to the magical island of Sejerø. It went really well, we all got along and had a great time. So I was ultimately left alone in Copenhagen for three weeks after the band left and after the tour and after the fest and everything. The mixing and overdubbing of the record was done during that period.
How does it differ from other Excepter releases and how was it recorded?
The core rhythms were programmed in collaboration but mostly Jon Nicholson doing drum machine programming and then everyone else sort of improvised on top of that. And it’s mostly instrumental which we do do but it’s distinct from our LP work which is focused around vocal songs. But we’ve always done these experimental EPs where we try on new hats.
Why instrumental? Was it just something that happened along the way?
It was originally planned to have vocals on it but it was recorded all instrumental, I just didn’t have any vocals ready when we hit the studio. I figured I would have time to add the vocals later during my solo stay in town but the more that I worked on it, the more it seemed to be unnecessary. I mean, I have lyrics and everything written out [laughs]. I recorded some vocals but it was so dense already it didn’t seem to need them other than the backing vocals.
With the type of recording process you have, a lot of the decisions are made pretty late in the process.
Oh for sure, especially with the last batch. We would tend to over-record and then reduce. Over-record multi-tracking and then cut away. There may be 20 minutes improvisation for each side and then ultimately it ended up being 16 minutes on one side and 11 minutes on the other. so there wasn’t that much editing for a record. It was more of just removing tracks. The funny thing is, we spent almost an entire day doing guitar overdubs on guitar overdubs on the tracks and then when it came down to it I just jettisoned all of them. The sort of heavy metal guitar sound you’ll hear on the EP is actually a synthesizer. Lala [Ryan] played that on her white plastic Roland synthesizer.
It’s difficult to define the Excepter sound. How would one even go about putting a genre on it?
I’m loath to do it [laughs]! We have our influences but they don’t tend to be our contemporaries. It’s influenced by record collecting. Improv for sure, but also tools and techniques of electronic dance music. Drum machines and synthesizers, etc. But we don’t make dance singles.
Yeah, you can definitely track a lot of different influences from reggae to early German electronic music.
Yeah, we love all that stuff.
But two people with the exact same influences will end up in totally different places.
One thing that we’re really lousy at is making replicas. We’re not talented enough to make a good imitation of something. Some LCD Soundsystem I just don’t relate to at all. Even though we’ll maybe have ripoffs in our stuff it just won’t sound like whatever we’re ripping off. We have no technique [laughs].
The advent of streaming services such as Spotify has changed the landscape of the music industry for better or worse. Do you feel like music is cheaper these days?
The cheapening of music has been going on for quite some time, I mean it’s always been kind of cheap. I would even point the finger at Dischord Records and Fugazi for deciding that in order to be cool a concert has to be $5 and a record has to be $10 and we’re just gonna set these prices. If you make something $10 and $5, these round numbers, people think about them when they think about music. They think that that’s the value even though you haven’t adjusted for inflation in how many years? So now it’s at the point where people feel guilty if they’re gonna charge $20 for a show. So it’s deeper than just the digital question though that’s certainly a part of it. And it’s also a wider economic situation where we’ve had cascading recessions since the turn of the century.
Is music intrinsically linked to a monetary value?
Well, there is an exchange, especially with a record. A record itself is almost like money; it’s printed, it has symbols on it to demarcate it, it’s traded back and forth. You can see analogies between the used record market and the stock market. And what about rare records? It’s not like the artist gets a big cut out of having a rare record out there [laughs].
No, you’re not contributing anything directly to the music industry by buying used records.
If the monetary value is the only thing you’re interested in then that’s true, but there are other forces at work, cultural forces. There are different types of value; the problem with money is that people sometimes focus too much on what’s measurable and that’s just a fraction of reality.
Are there any monetary considerations for Excepter? How do you decide how to price your records?
It’s not something we ever really had much of a say in because we’ve always dealt with other labels. We’ve only self-released some things on Bandcamp and maybe a CD-R here or there but for the most part it’s through other people.
I figured you might get a say but I guess not.
We have a say in how they’re designed. Of course there’s monetary considerations in touring because things need to get paid for, you can’t just wing it and buy a plane ticket [laughs]. We consider money, Debt Dept. is of course in a way about money and Presidence features money on the cover. We were going through a recession so money was on your mind. And you get to that certain age and you think about money all the time because you need it in order to survive. So in a way it becomes a subject – I mean in a way we’re a blues band – so money becomes one of the sad things you sing about along with heartbreak and other popular blues topics.
I can imagine touring is hard to break even on.
Well, we’ve kinda broken even here and there. We don’t tour that much. We’re not a full-time professional touring band.
What’s your main motivation to keep making music?
It’s just what we do. That’s just who we are. We’ve been making records for 20 years. And it’s not part of ”I’m a sexy young thing”, and even when I was a sexy young thing it wasn’t a part of that either. I don’t see me stopping. The reason why Kiss makes records is not why I make records. I don’t make records to get chicks [laughs]. There are others ways of getting that stuff than having to make records!
You’re probably playing the wrong kind of music too.
Yeah! It’s kind of silly for them to say that because you would ”get chicks” even if you didn’t play music. Everyone gets chicks [laughs]. People fall in love all over the place. It’s not a motivation for doing things. I don’t understand motivation anyway. People need reasons to do things? I just don’t question the impulse. I don’t question my instinct.
You just played a 20 year anniversary gig with No Neck Blues Band. Do you have more shows planned?
There’s no plans but we all had a great time doing it. It was a real joy to all come together. We had a series of rehearsals to get familiar with each other again and I thought it panned out really well. It wasn’t the first time I’d re-united with the band. I think I played two shows since leaving the band in the early 2000s. I did a guest appearance in 2004 or so and another show in 2010. There may have been others. I always kinda went to the shows anyway even after I left. After a while in music you just get to be the last people standing.
Was it hard getting back in the groove?
Not hard at all. I’ve been improvising the whole time [since leaving No Neck] so it was really easy for me to jump in and play that kind of music.
How would you characterise the differences between Excepter rehearsals, records and live shows?
Live is always a bit more experimental just by the nature of it. There’s no editing involved other than restraint, or lack thereof. But so many of the records were made live. They just captured certain moments or passages that beared repeating. It’s just about playing together and the surprises that happen when you put different electronic systems together. We’re all still using sequencers and similar equipment but we have maybe 2 or 3 sound systems going at the same time.
Has the sound of the recordings gotten closer to the live sound over the years?
I’d like to think that we’ve gotten better at being the same live and recorded. But you also change the way the record sounds to make it closer to the live sound.
Is there less editing involved these days, then?
It’s hard to say. We used to record and publish almost every single one of our concerts but we kinda stopped doing that. We do it here and there but it’s mostly that I just stopped feeling the need. Maybe I just wanted to get the records out and was wondering if having all the live recordings was just muddying the waters. And maybe making the live shows a bit more exciting, like you can’t miss it because you’re not gonna hear it again. Though I guess it makes it hard because most people don’t live in New York. When people come up to us and say ”will you come and play my town?” I’m like ”will you come and visit us?”. It’s a bit more cost-effective if you come and see us play in New York than if we come play for you in Florida or wherever.
Or Copenhagen?
Yeah [laughs]!
What affects the sound of what you’re playing, whether live or in the studio?
The equipment we’re using has a lot to do with it. A lot of equipment broke on me and I lost a fair amount of equipment. So, whatever’s left [laughs]. But sometimes I just do vocals. In the early days of Excepter I tried to do everything. I tried to pick out all the equipment and bring tons and tons of equipment on stage. And then other members of the band brought their own systems and then we had five times as much equipment on stage. With touring and everything we had to pare down. But I don’t know if that makes the sound more stripped down.
Do you see it as a blessing in disguise when something breaks on you because it forces you to change things up?
No, man, I really miss those things [laughs]. I broke my heart when these things would break. They had a personality to me. It’s like if R2-D2 dies in Star Wars. It’s like that. They’re robots but to you they have feelings. I have the recordings to remind me but whenever I hear someone else using or see one of my old synths I get really jealous. If you ever wanna float a few thousands dollars my way … [laughs]
I read some of the stuff you wrote about The Shining. Have there been any other similar projects you’ve obsessed about?
No, The Shining is special to me. I’ve always been a film fan and loved the analysis side of it but for me Stanley Kubrick and The Shining just remain paramount. No one is really like him. But I haven’t really gone over the deep end with anything other than that. I had to give it a rest as I’ve gotten more involved with the band again. I was for real obsessed with it in a way that I couldn’t stop myself from going back to it again and again and again. But I apply that kind of rigour to Excepter as well. The mixing and editing process is very much like that, you’re dealing with one thing and you go right into the details and obsess over every little thing, every nook and cranny to try and create a work of art.
Info: Excepter “Christisland” udkommer i dag den 18. november på Cejero/Escho (pre-order). Det er faktisk anden gang, at et dansk label udsender musik med Excepter, eftersom Skrot Up udgav kassettebåndet “Zion” i 2010.
Tags: blues, Cejero, computerliebe, escho, excepter, john fell ryan, r2-d2, the shining
Lower mixtape
Ildsjælens år
Gooms – Fraværets flygtige stemme
previous post: Sludge-søndag med Mutoid Man og Celestenext post: Frk. Jacobsen – Visioner over virkelighedens polyrytmik
Son Ash “Easy Listening for the Hearing Impaired” (År & Dag, 2017)
First Flush “FUWA” (Visage, 2017)
Bisse “Umage” (selfreleased, 2015)
A. Tovborg “Popvlvs Sanctvs” (Infinite Waves, 2014)
Anders Vestergaard “Eel” (Insula Jazz / Abstract Tits, 2016)
Why Be “Snipestreet” (Halcyon Veil, 2015)
ILLDJINN “s/t” (Oede Oe, 2014)
Puce Mary “The Spiral” (posh isolation, 2016)
Mythic Sunship “Ouroboros” (El Paraiso Records, 2016)
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Justia Patents US Patent for Permanently attached artificial limb Patent (Patent # 4,143,426)
Permanently attached artificial limb
Mar 30, 1977 - The United States of America as represented by the Administrator of Veterans Affairs
A permanently attached artificial limb comprises an endoprosthesis in combination with an artificial tendon attachment. The artificial tendon attachment permits the use of existing skeletal muscles to power external articulating mechanical joints of the endoprosthesis device. The artificial tendon penetrates the skin and provides a strong interface with existing skeletal muscles.
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The invention relates to a permanently attached artificial limb and more particularly to the use of an artificial tendon attachment which permits the use of existing skeletal muscles to power external articulating mechanical joints of an endoprosthesis.
Prosthetic limbs as presently used are designed for optimum function and esthetic appearance. The art of fabricating prosthetic limbs with natural appearance is quite advanced, but the function of the limbs has been dependent upon secondary muscle control rather than primary muscle control except in kineplastic procedures. The concept of a percutaneous skeletal extension being used as a permanent functional weight-bearing protrusion or extension from the bone is not new but a major problem to the realization of such a permanent endoprosthetic device has been the attainment of a permanent intact skin-prosthetic interface.
The development of a protruding skeletal extension suitable for attaching a functional artificial limb has progressed through a number of design changes. Each change has been an attempt to solve identified and defined problems. A review of past mistakes and successes led to the establishment of the following criteria for future development of this type of device:
(1) The device must be a skeletal extension penetrating the skin in such a manner that the normal loads are transmitted directly to the skeletal system and not through thick layers of intervening soft tissues.
(2) These loads must be distributed in such a manner so as not to damage the prosthesis, the bone to which it is attached, or any interfacial tissue ingrowth.
(3) Both gross and microanatomical limitations must be kept in mind so that the device neither restricts the circulation nor otherwise impedes tissue healing.
(4) In its final application, the skeletal extension must be a functional unit that permits freedom of motion and causes no pain.
(5) The design should preferably permit minor adjustments to be made externally rather than require secondary operative procedures.
(6) The device must have a surface suitable for tissue adhesion and/or ingrowth both at the bone interface and at the skin interface. The skin interface must prohibit the development of a sinus tract and inhibit bacterial invasion.
(7) All materials used in fabrication must be compatible with interfacing tissues, must become functional for the purpose intended, and must not cause adverse systemic reactions.
(8) The total end product must be readily sterilizable, using routine hospital procedures, prior to implantation.
(9) The device should be designed to permit easy application under standard operating room conditions.
(10) Ultimately, the design should permit use of existing skeletal muscles to power external articulating mechanical joints. This of course, demands development of an artificial tendon that will provide a strong tenacious interface with the musculotendinous portion of the existing skeletal muscles, penetrate the skin without allowing any entrance for bacterial invasion, and transmit the muscle's power to the load in an efficient manner.
The integument or skin is the body's first line of defense against microbial invasion. In the presence of implanted foreign material, particularly a protruding skeletal extension attached directly to the bone, it becomes even more important to maintain the integrity of the skin. Once the bacterial barrier of the integument has been broken, infection occurs and leads to the rejection of the implanted foreign material.
Our experience with skin interfacing has been reported in several articles. Metals, plastics, and ceramics have been tried, utilizing a variety of surface topography, including solids, textiles and foams. Some investigators have found carbon a useful skin interfacing material. No material has yet been found that is considered to be ideal, although Dacron, i.e. polyethylene terephthalate, and nylon velour fabrics bonded to a solid surface so as to form impervious laminates have thus far offered the most suitable solution.
Another problem is bone interfacing. Certain types of porous ceramics and sintered metals allow new bone ingrowth into the porous structure of the material.* It is also possible to have adhesion of bone to a solid non-porous surface. However, bone interfacing in general and surface ingrowth in particular are much more difficult and often disturbed when presented with a dynamic load such as would be applied constantly to a functional endoprosthesis device.
* See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,808,606 to Tronzo and 3,855,638 to Pilliar.
Primary muscle extension or a functional attachment under the control of the primary muscles is greatly desired in a prosthetic limb.
Artificial tendons are known, but they have generally been attached by means of sutures or the like. The simple use of sutures has consistently led to failure due to stresses concentrated on the sutures. Either the suture breaks or it tears through the tissue. However, some alternatives have been suggested as noted by the following patents.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,745,590 to Stubstad shows an articulating prosthesis for a body joint which requires unrestricted orbiting motion with a flexible ligamentous element attached. The ligamentous element is affixed to the prosthesis device and adapted to be tied or otherwise affixed to an adjacent tendon, ligament or bone. The combination prosthesis/ligament is contained entirely within the human body. No part extends beyond the skin.
The Treace U.S. Pat. No. 3,953,896 discloses a prosthetic ligament for replacing a natural ligament flexibly connecting two skeletal members together. U.S. Pat. No. 3,973,277 to Semple et al discloses a tendon prosthesis and means to attach a tendon, either natural or artificial, to bone.
Stoy et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,987,497, discloses another tendon prosthesis, and a suitable material for the core of the artificial tendon which will give it satisfactory physical properties such as tensile strength and elasticity. The Treace U.S. Pat. No. 3,988,783 shows a prosthetic ligament for replacing one of the collateral ligaments of the knee joint. It includes a bridge member and connector elements at the ends of the bridge member to connect to the bones of the leg.
The Homsy U.S. Pat. No. 3,992,725 relates to implantable material and appliances and methods of stabilizing body implants. One particular human implantation use of the growth-promoting material is as a prosthetic tendon. The growth-promoting material is bonded to the ends of the artificial tendon so that the tendon can be attached to the muscle at one end and to the bone at the other end.
In our earlier attempts, we used nylon and Dacron velour bonded to artificial tendon, the velour serving to attach the tendon to the musculotendinous portion by providing a site for tissue ingrowth. When such technique proved unsatisfactory, an impervious layer was bonded to the back of the velour to improve performance.
To attach an artificial tendon to a musculotendinous portion of a skeletal muscle may not per se pose difficult problems but to form an interface that will maintain the union under the repeated stresses of dynamic loading is a major problem. Furthermore, to bring the tendon out through the skin for external loading presents substantial additional problems. As with the skeletal extension itself, the integrity of the integument must be maintained in a manner that prohibits bacterial invasion.
One form of skeletal extension utilized experimentally has been an intramedullary rod held in position by friction.* But problems arose because the intramedullary rod interrupted the bone's main circulatory supply via the nutrient artery within the medullary canal. Thus, this device proved unsatisfactory as a skeletal extension.
* A Permanently Attached Artificial Limb, Hall et al, Trans. Amer. Soc. Artif. Int. Organs, 1967, Vol. XIII, pp. 329-331.
It is accordingly, an object of the present invention to overcome defects in the prior art, such as indicated above.
It is another object to provide for improved prosthetic devices.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an artificial body member having a skeletal extension penetrating the skin in such a manner that the normal loads are transmitted directly to the skeletal system and not through the layers of intervening soft tissues.
It is yet another object of the invention to distribute loads in a prosthetic device in such a manner so as not to damage the prosthesis, the bone to which it is attached, or any interfacial tissue ingrowth.
It is another object of the invention to provide such a device which neither restricts the circulation nor otherwise impedes tissue healing.
It is also an object to provide a skeletal extension serving as a functional unit, permitting freedom of motion and causing no pain.
It is another object of the invention to provide a permanently skeletal attached prothesis having means whereby minor adjustments can be made externally rather than requiring secondary surgical procedures.
It is a further object of the invention to provide such a device having a surface suitable for tissue adhesion and/or ingrowth both at the bone interface and at the skin interface.
It is another object of the invention to provide such a device having a skin interface which prohibits the development of a sinus tract and inhibits bacterial invasion.
It is an object of the invention to permit use of existing skeletal muscles to power external articulating mechanical joints.
It is another object of the invention to provide an artificial tendon with a strong tenaceous interface with the musculotendinous portion of the existing skeletal muscles.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an artificial tendon which will penetrate the skin without allowing any entrance for bacterial invasion.
It is another object of the invention to provide an artificial tendon that will transmit the muscle's power to the load in an efficient manner.
An artificial tendon is attached to the musculotendinous portion of the muscle (or the tendon stump) by using an interfacing material which will distribute the forces over a wide area, additionally the tendon is passed through the skin using a skin interfacing which prevents infection and also tearing of the skin. The artificial tendon can be used as a single implant to take the place of a destroyed tendon.
Such an artificial tendon can be used in combination with an endoprosthesis to couple existing skeletal muscles to an external articulating device.
These and other objectives, features and advantages of the invention will become more readily apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments taken with reference to the drawings in which:
FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a permanently attached articulating skeletal extension with an artificial tendon attachment in the form of an intramedullary rod adapted for the leg of a goat and connected to the Achilles tendon.
FIG. 2 shows a method of attaching the artificial tendon to the Achilles tendon using a velour sheath and providing a skin interface using a velour covered silastic ball.
FIG. 3 is an exploded, partly perspective view of a supracortical endoprosthesis, showing how the split collet, extension rod, and forcing cone fit together.
FIGS. 4A and B show a supracortical endoprosthesis attached to the leg.
FIG. 5 is a supraperiosteal endoprosthesis.
FIG. 6 is a supraperiosteal endoprosthesis, as in FIG. 4, partly in section, showing the soft tissue interface.
FIG. 7 shows a pre-cast velour lined elastomer for use in the supraperiosteal endoprosthesis of FIG. 5.
A permanently attached skeletal extension with an artificial tendon attachment is shown in FIG. 1 in the embodiment of an artificial foot for a goat. An intramedullary rod 20 is driven into the medullary canal 22 of the tibia 24, the surface of the intramedullary rod 20 being coated with a layer 26 of porous polymethyl methacrylate hereinafter designated as PPMM. The intramedullary rod 20 has an external extension 28 with an external articulating joint 30 on which is pivotably mounted an articulating member 32. A plastic pedestal 34 is molded to the intramedullary rod 20 to support the tibial stump 36. A mortise joint 38 between the tibial stump 36 and the pedestal 34 is provided to keep the intramedullary rod 20 from rotating. The pedestal 34 is covered with velour fabric, e.g. of nylon or Dacron, to allow skin attachment at the skin interface 40.
The external articulating member 32 is attached to the Achilles tendon 42 by an artificial tendon 44. The artificial tendon 44 is attached to a velour covered silicone (Silastic) ball 46 which in turn is connected to a velour sheath 48 which is attached to the stub of the Achilles tendon 42. The velour covered Silastic ball 46 provides a large surface area at the skin interface 50 to maintain the integrity of this skin interface under applied stress.
The musculotendinous and skin interfaces which have been briefly described with respect to FIG. 1 are now amplified with reference to FIG. 2. The novel means of attachment of the artificial tendon to the musculotendinous portion of a skeletal muscle allow the use of an artificial tendon by itself as a prosthetic tendon or in combination with an external articulating skeletal extension. The artificial tendon 140 may be a seine cord of nylon. A velour laminate is bonded to the end 142 of the artificial tendon 140. The end 142 is the end of the artificial tendon 140 which will be attached to the skeletal muscle or tendon 144 which in FIG. 2 is shown as the bipenniform Achilles tendon. To the end 142 is also attached or bonded a velour strip 146 of, for example, dimensions of 4 cm by 3 cm, which has an impervious backing 148, e.g. of Silastic, bonded to the back of the velour. The artificial tendon 140 is initially surgically attached to, e.g. the bipenniform Achilles tendon 144 by sutures 150.
The velour surface of the strip 146 and to a lesser degree the velour laminated end 142 provide a mechanism for attaining a strong attachment to the muscle or tendon 144 by allowing a wide surface area for tissue ingrowth. The bonded Silastic surface 148 on the back of the velour serves to isolate the velour from tissue ingrowth except at the interface between the tendon and the velour; otherwise, tissue would grow to both sides of the velour strip 146 causing the artificial tendon 140 to become immobilized. The segment 156 of the artificial tendon 140 which is adjacent to the end 142 is made of an impervious material, like the rest of the tendon 140, so that it will not support tissue ingrowth and become immobilized. The surface area for tissue ingrowth at the interface between the tendon 144 and the velour strip 146, preferably made of nylon or Dacron velour, produces a strong musculotendinous interface even under the repeated stresses of dynamic loading.
When the artificial tendon 140 is used in combination with an articulating skeletal extension as shown in FIG. 1, a strong and bacterial-impervious skin interface must be provided, as well as a strong musculotendinous interface, in order to prevent bacterial invasion. This is best shown in FIG. 2 where a large velour surface for sealing the wound is used. Thus, a velour covered ball 152 of inert material, preferably Silastic, is formed integral with or attached to the artificial tendon 140 at a location where the artificial tendon will pass through the skin. The portion 154 of the artificial tendon 140 adjacent to the ball 152 is also covered with velour. The large velour surface area of the ball 152 and artificial tendon portion 154 provide a strong skin interface under the stresses of external loading. A tunnel of skin about the interface serves as a bellows to take up the slack necessary for tendon contraction and extension, i.e. axial movement, without the tendon sliding through and breaking the skin. The narrow artificial tendon 140 penetrates the skin, but the velour covered ball 152, into which the skin grows, causes the skin to move with the tendon rather than cause the tendon to break therethrough. The ball 152 may be about 1 centimeter in diameter.
A supracortical endoprosthesis 60 as best shown in FIGS. 3 and 4A provides a direct bone interface of the skeletal extension to the bone. The split collet, shown in FIG. 3, comprises two halves 64 which grip the prepared end of the tibial diaphysis 66. The preferred embodiment of the split collet 62 is a tapered configuration, although a cylindrical configuration is also possible. The interior surface 68 of the split collet 62 is coated with an interfacing material such as PPMM, bioglass, orthoplate carbon or sintered porous stainless steel to support osseous ingrowth. The end of the tibial diaphysis 66 is prepared in a tapered shape by means of a pencil sharpener-like device so that the split collet 62 will fit tightly. The base 70 of the split collet halves 64 has a semi-circular hole 72 cut out so that when the two halves 64 are joined the extension rod 74 will pass through the hole in the base 70. The extension rod 74 is held within the split collet 62 by the extension rod cap 76.
The mortised top surface 78 of the extension rod cap 76 abuts the distal end of the bone which is similarly mortised to correspond to the surface 78 to eliminate rotation by the extension rod 74. Pressure is applied to the split collet 62 to grip the bone 66 and to hold the extension rod 74 by the forcing cone 80 which slips over the split collet 62. The extension rod 74 extends through the axial hole 82 in the forcing cone 80. The forcing cone 80 is driven over the split collet 62 by means of the jam nut 84 which is tightened along the threaded portion 86 of the extension rod 74. In the preferred embodiment, as illustrated in FIG. 4, the jam nut 84 is external to the body so that adjustments can be made without further surgical procedures. The forcing cone 80 is coated with a bonded layer 88 of nylon velour fabric to support skin attachment.
The preferred embodiment of the split collet 62 comprising two halves 64 is shown in FIG. 3. Another embodiment shown in FIG. 4A, comprises a three-part collet having longitudinal cuts to form flexible tines 90 in each collet to allow space for vascular growth and better distribution of forces. An earlier embodiment which did not permit external adjustment is shown in FIG. 4B.
A supraperiosteal endoprosthesis 100 as best shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 provides a soft tissue interface of the artificial limb with the periosteum or soft tissue which covers all bones. Similar to the supracortical endoprosthesis already described, the supraperiosteal endoprosthesis 100 comprises a bipart collet 102 and the forcing cone 104 driven over the collet 102 by means of a jam nut 106 which is tightened on a threaded portion 108 of the extension rod 110. The collet 102 is filled with a precast elastomer 112 as shown in FIG. 7. The precast elastomer 112 is made of two halves 114 and is preferably made of Silastic. The two halves 114 contain a canal 116 and have a velour lining 118. The precast elastomer 112 is held around the tibia 120 or other bone to which the skeletal extension is attached. With the bone fitting in the canal 116 formed in the elastomer 112, the velour lining 118 of the canal 116 contacts the periosteum 122 which covers the bone forming a soft tissue interface between the skeletal extension and the periosteum of the bone. Pressure is applied to the bone via the elastomer 112 by tightening the jam nut 106 to drive the forcing cone 104 onto the collet 102 which forms a swaging socket holding the elastomer 112.
In the preferred embodiment the collet 102 and forcing cone have parallel sides, but they can also be constructed with tapered sides as the supracortical endoprosthesis. The forcing cone 104 has a nylon velour coating 124 to provide a suitable skin interface as in the supracortical endoprosthesis.
Experimental results have been obtained for 51 goats using the four skeletal extension embodiments. The first 27 had an intramedullary rod implanted, with six of the 27 having in combination with the skeletal extension an exteriorized artifical tendon implanted to the Achilles tendon. One goat had only the Achilles tendon replaced by an arificial tendon and this procedure has proven permanently successful. Three embodiments of the supracortical endoprosthesis have been used as implants on 24 additional goats. The first supracortical embodiment did not permit external adjustment and therefore as a result of osteoclysis of the bone, subsequent loosening of the collets occurred. The second supracortical embodiment allowed external readjustment of the collet's compression post-operatively through the tightening of the external jam nut. The third embodiment of the supracortical endoprosthesis used a three-part collet having longitudinal cuts to form flexible tines in each collet thus allowing space for vascular growth between each tine and better distribution of forces.
Although preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to those precise embodiments and that various changes and modifications may be made by one skilled in the art without departing from the scope of this invention.
1. An artificial tendon for forming a strong musculotendinous interface with a skeletal muscle, comprising:
a cord of high break strength forming the body of the artificial tendon;
tissue ingrowth means to promote musculotendinous attachment, having an interfacing surface with a relatively large surface area bonded to one end of said cord, said tissue ingrowth means being wrappable about the end of a skeletal muscle or tendon to form a large interface; and
a tissue ingrowth impervious backing bonded to the back non-interfacing surface of said tissue ingrowth means;
whereby a strong interface is provided for tissue ingrowth from the skeletal muscle to the large surface area of said tissue ingrowth means while said impervious backing prevents tissue ingrowth on the non-interfacing surface and prevents the artificial tendon from being thereby immobilized, so that the artificial tendon remains securely attached to the skeletal muscle while being slidable in the body with the contraction or extension of the skeletal muscle.
2. An artificial tendon as claimed in claim 1, wherein said tissue ingrowth means is a velour strip.
3. The artificial tendon of claim 2, wherein said velour strip is selected from the group consisting of nylon velour and velour fabric of fibers of polyethylene terephthalate.
4. The artificial tendon of claim 2, wherein said velour strip has dimensions of about 4 cm.times. 3 cm.
5. An artificial tendon as claimed in claim 1, wherein said impervious backing is a layer of silicone.
6. An artificial tendon as claimed in claim 1, further including skin interfacing means to provide a tissue ingrowth surface of large surface area at the skin interface, whereby when the artificial tendon is used to attach an external articulating joint of an endoprosthesis to a skeletal muscle, the artificial tendon penetrates through the skin and the skin interfacing means provides a strong interface under external dynamic loading of the artificial tendon.
7. An artificial tendon as claimed in claim 6, wherein said skin interfacing means comprises a velour covered silicone ball formed in said cord near the end to which said tissue ingrowth means are attached, whereby said ball provides a large tissue ingrowth surface at the skin interface.
8. The artificial tendon of claim 7, wherein said ball is about 1 cm in diameter.
9. An artificial limb adapted to become permanently attached, comprising:
an endoprosthesis with an external articulating joint; and
an artificial tendon adapted to connect said external articulating joint to a skeletal muscle with said tendon passing through the skin, said artificial tendon comprising skin interfacing means to provide a tissue ingrowth surface of large surface area at the skin interface, and tissue interfacing means for musculotendenous attachment including a large surface area wrappable about the end of a skeletal muscle or tendon to form a large interface.
10. An artificial limb adapted to become permanently attached, comprising:
a supracortical endoprosthesis with an external articulating joint; and
an artificial tendon adapted to connect said external articulating joint to a skeletal muscle with said tendon passing through the skin, said artificial tendon comprising skin interfacing means to provide a tissue ingrowth surface of large surface area at the skin interface.
11. An artificial limb as claimed in claim 10, wherein said supracortical endoprosthesis comprises:
a collet to grip the distal end of the bone;
a forcing cone fitting over said collet; and
an external jam nut which can be tightened to drive said forcing cone over said collet.
12. An artificial limb as claimed in claim 11, wherein the inner surface of said collet is coated with a material conducive to bone ingrowth, whereby a direct bone interface is achieved.
13. An artificial limb as claimed in claim 11, wherein said collet is tapered.
14. An artificial limb as claimed in claim 11, wherein said collet is a split collet.
15. An artificial limb as claimed in claim 11, wherein the outer surface of said forcing cone is coated with a bonded layer of nylon velour to provide tissue ingrowth at the skin interface.
a supraperiosteal endoprosthesis with an external articulating joint; and
17. An artificial limb as claimed in claim 16, wherein said supraperiosteal endoprosthesis comprises:
a collet;
a forcing cone fitting over said collet;
an external jam nut which can be tightened to drive said forcing cone over said collet;
a precast elastomer held within said collet, said precast elastomer having a channel to grip the bone; and
a velour lining on said channel of said precast elastomer whereby said precast elastomer with said velour lining is pressed against the bone by driving said forcing cone over said collet, whereby a soft tissue interface is achieved with the periosteum covering the bone.
18. An artificial limb is claimed in claim 17, wherein said collet and said forcing cone have parallel sides.
3805300 April 1974 Tascon-Alonso et al.
3947897 April 6, 1976 Owens
3971670 July 27, 1976 Homsy
"A Permanently Attached Artificial Limb" by C.W. Hall et al., Transactions American Society For Artificial Internal Organs, vol. XIII, 1967, pp. 329-331.
Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Administrator of Veterans Affairs (Washington, DC)
Inventors: C. William Hall (Boerne, TX), William A. Mallow (San Antonio, TX), Fred O. Hoese (San Antonio, TX)
Primary Examiner: Ronald L. Frinks
Law Firm: Browdy and Neimark
Current U.S. Class: 3/6; 3/19; 3/1; 128/92C
International Classification: A61F 108; A61F 124;
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Justia Patents Fluent Material Containing (e.g., Air, Water, Gel)US Patent for Foam-air hybrid cushion and method of making same Patent (Patent # 5,845,352)
Foam-air hybrid cushion and method of making same
Jul 12, 1996 - Roho, Inc.
A composite foam base air cell module cushion having a water resistant skin, a contoured foam base designed to relieve pressure on the trochanters and the ischia and an air cell module having two sets of air cells, each partially filled, positioned inside the foam base in a chamber beneath the rear of the base. The skin is of two layer construction with a two-way stretch outer layer and a water impervious inner layer. The bottom of the base is covered with a water impervious sheet and the edges are secured to the edges of the top skin covering. The air cell is made by placing the preformed top into molds smaller in depth than the air cells to partially collapse the air cells before a base is applied to the top to close the open ends of the air cells and trap air therein.
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This invention relates in general to cushioning devices and, more particularly to wheelchair or other seat or chair cushions. This invention includes a shaped soft foam base which has a moisture resistant top skin formed integrally therewith and a moisture impervious bottom skin adhered to the bottom of the foam base. An air cell module having two separate sets of interconnected partially filled air cells is loosely positioned in a chamber formed in the foam base beneath the buttocks of the user to provide support for the user and prevent bottoming out of the user.
The invention also involves the process of making the air cell module with partially filled air cells so that the sealed module is useful at a variety of altitudes, barometric pressures, and temperatures.
Those who must spend extended time in wheelchairs run the risk of tissue breakdown and the development of pressure sores, which are extremely dangerous and difficult to cure. These pressure sores or decubitus ulcers, typically form in areas where bony prominences exist, such as the ischia, heels, elbows, ears and shoulders. Typically, when sitting much of the individual's weight concentrates in the regions of the ischia, that is at the bony prominences of the buttocks and unless frequent movement occurs, the flow of blood to the skin tissue in these regions decreases to the point that the tissue breaks down. This problem is well known and many forms of cushions are especially designed for wheelchairs for reducing the concentration of weight in the region of the ischia, and these cushions generally seek to distribute the user's weight more uniformly over a larger area of the buttocks.
Another area where problems occur is in the trochanter area and both cushions and bases for the cushions are shaped so that pressure is relieved on the ischia and the trochanters. Still another problem with wheelchair type cushions is stabilization of the user so that he has a feeling of security when sitting in the wheelchair.
A number of patents show cellular cushions which comprise an array of closely spaced air cells which project upwardly from a common base and are interconnected. These cushions combine the most uniform distribution of weight and thus provide the greatest protection from the occurrence of pressure sores. Since the air cells communicate with each other, all exist at the same internal pressure and each air cell exerts essentially the same restoring force against the buttocks, irrespective of the extent to which it is deflected. U. S. Pat. No. 4,541,136 shows a cellular cushion currently manufactured and sold by Roho, Inc. of Belleville, Ill. for use on wheelchairs.
The stability problem has been attacked by the use of shaped bases such as shown in Graebe U.S. Pat. No. 4,953,913 and Jay U.S. Pat. No. 4,726,624. These bases are generally used in conjunction with cushions and Graebe U.S. Pat. No. 4,953,913 has been used in conjunction with a cellular cushion and a fabric cover. The stability problem also has been addressed in the cellular cushion field by the use of zoned areas of inflation as shown in Graebe U.S. Pat. No. 4,698,864 which shows a zoned cellular cushion with cells of varying height and Graebe U.S. Pat. No. 5,052,068 which shows another form of zoned cushions with cells of different heights.
Graebe U.S. Pat. No. 5,111,544 shows a cover for a zoned cellular cushion which keeps the cells from deflecting outwardly. This cover has a stretchable top, a skid resistant base and a non-stretchable fabric side panel area.
One economic drawback to the air cell cushions is that they are fabricated from dipped neoprene rubber which is a costly process and the resultant cushion is expensive. The cost is justifiable in therapeutic situations, however a less costly alternative is desirable for other situations which are more concerned with prevention rather than curing ischemic ulcers and with the comfort of the user.
The present invention in its broadest sense comprises an expanded shaped soft foam base having a composite skin composed of a stretchable top cover layer and a water repellent inner layer applied thereto, and an air cell cushion having sealed air chambers positioned in a cavity beneath the top surface of the base at the area of the user's buttocks to prevent bottoming out of the user. The base of the cushion is covered with a neoprene rubber layer to retain the air cushion in the cavity and make the bottom of the base water impervious. The edges of the top cover skin and the bottom cover are secured by a binding around the periphery of the base.
It is a principal object of the present invention to provide a composite cushion having a soft foam base and a sealed cell air cushion beneath the top surface in a chamber at the user's buttocks area to prevent bottoming out of the user, with the entire cushion being encased is a moisture impervious skin which has a stretch characteristic over the top surface. Another object is to provide a method of making partly filled sealed air cells for the sealed air cell cushion, whereby the cushion is usable at a variety of altitudes, barometric pressures, and temperatures.
Still another object is to provide at a reduced cost a moisture impervious soft foam cushion having an air cushion with partially filled sealed air cells beneath the buttocks of the user to provide required support and force equalization beneath the ischia. These and other objects and advantages will become apparent hereinafter.
In the drawings wherein like numbers refer to like parts wherever they occur:
FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing the foam cushion and the sealed cell air cushion,
FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the cushion of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken on line 3--3 of FIG. 2;
FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line 4--4 of FIG. 2;
FIG. 9 is a schematic flow diagram of the process of making the cushion of this invention;
FIG. 10 is a schematic flow diagram of the process of making partially filled sealed air cells;
FIG. 11 is a sectional view similar to FIG. 4 but of a modification of this invention; and
FIG. 12 is a sectional view similar to FIG. 5 but of the modification shown in FIG. 11.
FIGS. 1-5 show the cushion 10 of this invention which includes a base 11 and an air cell module 12 positioned inside the base 11 beneath the buttocks area of the user.
The base 11 is made from expanded polyurethane foam and is relatively soft but has sufficient rigidity when combined with the air cell module 12 to support the weight of the user. Integrally attached to the top and side surfaces of the base 11 during the molding process is a moisture resistant composite skin 13. The skin 13 is formed of a two-way stretch outer layer 14 and a moisture resistant inner layer 15. The composite skin 13 is sold under the trademark DARLEX and includes the stretch layer 14, which is a commercial material sold under the trademark SPANDEX, and the inner moisture impervious layer 15 which is a polyetherurethane. The smooth stretch layer 14 allows the cushion 10 to move under the weight of the user and allows the user to slide on and off the cushion 10 without undue friction. The moisture impervious layer 15 protects the foam base 11 from moisture, such as urine from an incontinent user. Moisture results in deterioration of the foam and consequently a shorter life for the cushion.
The foam base 11 preferably is formed from open cell polyurethane and is soft enough to provide a comfortable feel to the user, but still has sufficient firmness and thickness to support the weight of the user when combined with the air module support beneath the ischia. The foam preferably has an IFD (indentation force deflection) of about 22 to about 28. As shown in FIGS. 1-5, the base 11 has a shaped top surface which includes rear side edges 20, designed along with raised front side edges 21 to relieve pressure on the trochanters of the user, and a rear depression 22 to accommodate the ischia of the user. The rear side edges 20 are lower than the front side edges 21 and have a reduced area 20a to provide trochanter relief. A raised pommel 23 with the front side edges 21 define leg troughs 24. The base 11 also includes a tapered front face 25 as seen in FIG. 5 and inwardly curved thigh loading areas 26 at the front side edges 21. The front face 25 slopes about 2.degree.. The areas 26 are sloped inwardly from the outer side edges 21 to provide the proper thigh loading characteristics without providing too much pressure against the thighs. The raised pommel 23 which is about the same height as the side areas 21 is designed to separate the legs, stabilize the pelvis, and to help keep the user from sliding out of his seat. Between the raised side areas 21 and the pommel 23 are the dish shaped leg retaining valleys 24, which are slightly angularly inclined outwardly away from the center of the rear base area depression 22 so as to separate the legs in conjunction with the pommel 23. The base rear edge 27 is raised slightly to help retain the user in the seat. At the center is a reduced area 28 which provides relief for the coccyx of the user.
The base 11 has formed in its bottom 29 a chamber 30 beneath the depression area 22. The chamber 30 is designed to accommodate the air cell module 12. The chamber 30 extends from the one rear side edge 20 to the other side edge 20 to define vertical side walls 31 and from the rear edge 27 less than one-half the distance to the front face 25 and defines a vertical rear wall 32. The base 11 also may have a hollowed out space 33 beneath the pommel 23 as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5. Preferably, however, the base is solid beneath the pommel 23 as shown in FIGS. 11 and 12.
The side walls 31 and the rear wall 32 are too soft and thin to prevent the user from bottoming out without some assistance. This is provided by the air module 12 which is positioned inside the rear chamber 30. The module 12 combined with the foam remaining in the rear of the base 11 prevents bottoming out of the user and also provides the desired feel, support and physiological properties required of a seat cushion.
The module 12 may be of the type described in Robert H. Graebe U. S. Pat. No. 5,369,828 entitled INFLATABLE CUSHION WITH UPSTANDING PYRAMIDAL AIR CELLS which is incorporated herein by reference as fully as if set out in its entirety.
The inflatable cushion or module 12 has a flexible base 40 of substantially rectangular shape and the air cells 41 project upwardly from the base 40. In the preferred embodiment there are two zones A and B which are distinct and separated by a center area 42. The air cells 41 in each of the zones A and B are interconnected by means of passages 43. Thus, the air pressure in the cells 41 in each zone is the same.
These passages 43 may be constructed as described in Graebe U.S. Pat. No. 4,541,136 or may be raised tunnels molded into the top member where the air cells 41 are formed.
As previously noted the module 12 is formed from preinflated cells 41. The modules 12 are prefilled at the factory with a predetermined air pressure and this pressure cannot be adjusted by the user. The cells 13 are interconnected within each zone A and B but the pressure in the zones A and B cannot be adjusted after once being established. As will be described in detail hereinafter, the cells 41 are only partially filled with air so that the cushion 10 is usable at a variety of altitudes. The two cell sets A and B are independent to avoid tilting a user too far to one side. If the user were to lean to one side on accessing the cushion 10, all of the air could go to the opposite side if all of the cells were interconnected. This could incline the user at a very undesirable angle. By keeping the sets A and B, separate the desired effect of equalizing load on the user's skin is achieved and the stability of the user is maintained as well.
The air cells 41 are of pyramidal shape and have a square bottom, rectangular side edges 44, tapered top sides 45 of trapezoidal or triangular shape, and a substantially rounded top 46. The purpose of the pyramid shape is to provide a means to collapse the air cell in a controlled manner during the engagement phase by the person sitting on the points formed by the pyramid. The higher the point the greater the engagement travel which gradually builds up the internal pressure of the cells giving a low force entry zone which is important when prefilled or sealed air cells are used. The air cells 41 are spaced from each other by lateral and longitudinal passages 47 and stand relatively independently of each other when erected and filled with air. The inflatable module 12 preferably is formed of a flexible material by vacuum forming or the like. The base 40 is sealed to the air cells 41 around the edges 48 of the module 12 and between the cells 41 (except for the passages 43) by R. F. welding or the like.
The base bottom 29 is sealed by a water impervious sheet 55, which preferably is of neoprene. The sheet 55 is glued to the base bottom 29 after the air cell module 12 has been placed in the chamber 30 and it retains the module 12 loose in the chamber 30.
The cushion skin 13 has a peripheral edge 56 which is slightly larger than the periphery of the foam base bottom 29. The bottom cover 55 also has an edge 57 which is slightly larger than the base bottom 29 and is co-extensive with the skin edge 56. A binding 58 covers the edges 57,58 and is sewn to the edges 57,58 to give a finished appearance to the cushion 10. The binding 58 also eliminates the possibility of a rough edge of the skin 13 or the bottom cover 55 engaging the legs of the user and possibly chaffing them.
The top surface of the foam base is formed with relief areas 59 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 as a sunburst pattern, but any pattern is suitable. The purpose of the relief areas 59 is to provide space for air to circulate between the user and the cushion.
The cushion skin 13 has series of pin size openings 70 in the side walls to allow air to escape from the cushion, thus allowing the user to sink into the cushion and reach the air cell module 12. If these air escape openings were not present, the entire cushion would be a large air cell and be very unstable. The small size and limited number of openings does not significantly lessen or impair the moisture impermeability of the cushion.
Fabrication of Cushion And Air Cell Module
FIG. 9 shows schematically the steps in forming the cushion. By placing the skin inside the cushion mold, when the urethane is formed, it binds to and adheres the skin 13 to the base 11.
FIG. 10 shows the method of making the air cell module 12 with only partially filled cells 41. The air cells 41 are vacuum formed in a one piece top section with open cell bottoms. The top portion is removed from the mold and placed into a second mold that has cavities of the same outside dimensions but of reduced depth. This causes the cells 41 to be particle collapsed and not extended to their full capacity. The partially collapsed cells 41 thus hold less than their capacity of air. When the air cell module base 40 is applied to the air cells 41 (when the air cells 41 are still in the smaller molds) the amount of air trapped in the cells 41 is less than their capacity. The reason for doing this is to make the air cell module usable at a variety of altitudes, barometric pressures, and atmospheric temperatures from sea level to about 7,000 feet. When the cushion is used at higher altitudes, the air pressure is reduced and the air trapped in the cushion expands to inflate the air cells 41. This makes their surfaces harder and less comfortable to the user.
This invention is intended to cover all changes and modifications of the example of the invention herein chosen for purposes of the disclosure which do not constitute departures from the spirit and scope of the invention.
1. A cushion comprising an expanded foam base having a contoured top surface to accommodate a person in a seated position thereon and provided with a hollowed out chamber in the bottom surface positioned beneath the rear portion of the top surface and beneath the buttocks of a person positioned on the top surface, the chamber defined in part by rear and side walls, the said rear and side walls being too soft and thin to prevent the user from bottoming out when seated on the cushion, a separate independent sealed air cell module loosely positioned in the chamber, the air cell module comprising a flexible base and flexible upstanding air cells, at least some of which are pneumatically interconnected, and a cover positioned on the base bottom surface over the chamber to retain the air cell module loosely in the chamber and restrict access to the air cell module.
2. The cushion of claim 1 wherein the base bottom is smooth and free of protruding elements.
3. The cushion of claim 1 wherein the top surface of the base is covered by a moisture resistant cover.
4. The cushion of claim 3 wherein the cover has a stretchable outer layer and a moisture resistant inner layer bonded thereto, the inner layer being bonded to the foam base.
5. The cushion of claim 3 wherein the cover over the bottom surface retaining the air cell module in the hollowed out area is moisture impervious.
6. The cushion of claim 5 wherein the moisture resistant cover has a plurality of small openings for allowing air to pass from the base to atmosphere when a user sits on the cushion thereby allowing the user to sink into the cushion and reach the air cell module.
7. The cushion of claim 5 including a tape positioned around the periphery of the bottom edge of the base binding the peripheral edges of the top cover and the bottom cover.
8. The cushion of claim 1 wherein the top surface of the foam base includes a front area having a raised center pommel area and raised side areas to define spaced troughs for the legs of the user.
9. The cushion of claim 8 wherein the forward edge of the top front area inclines slightly downwardly to facilitate the user sliding off of the cushion.
10. The cushion of claim 8 including a second hollowed out area beneath the center pommel to soften the cushion beneath the genital area of the user.
11. The cushion of claim 1 wherein the top surface rear portion has a lateral depression area to receive the buttocks of the user.
12. The cushion of claim 11 wherein the top surface of the cushion in the depression area is provided with reduced areas to provide air circulation beneath the buttocks of the user.
13. The cushion of claim 11 wherein the depression area is surrounded by raised rear and side rims, the rear rim having a central depressed area to accommodate the coccyx of the user, and the side rims having reduced areas to relieve the trochanter areas.
14. The cushion of claim 1 wherein the rear hollowed out area is defined by side walls and a rear wall, the side walls being wider and more rigid than the rear wall.
15. The cushion of claim 1 wherein the air cells are filled to less than their maximum volume with air.
16. The cushion of claim 15 wherein the air cells are filled to about five-sevenths of their maximum volume with air.
17. The cushion of claim 1 wherein the air cell module is made from polyesterurethane having high resistance to air permeability.
18. A cushion comprising an expanded foam base having a contoured top surface to accommodate a person in a seated position thereon and provided with at least one hollowed out area in the bottom surface, the hollowed out area being positioned beneath the rear portion of the top surface and beneath the buttocks area of a person positioned on the top surface, and an air cell module positioned in the said hollowed out area, the air cell module comprising a bottom wall and an upstanding air cell area comprising a series of independent upstanding air cells and having flexible top and side walls, the air cell area being filled with air to provide flexible support for the user's buttocks.
19. The cushion of claim 18 wherein the air cells are formed in two pneumatically independent side-by-side sets and air cells in each set are interconnected by restricted passages positioned at the bottom wall.
20. The cushion of claim 18 wherein the air cells have rectangular bases and pyramidal tops.
21. The cushion of claim 18 wherein the air cell module is sealed to retain the air in the module.
22. The method of making a sealed cell cushion which is usable over a wide variety of atmospheric pressures comprising the steps of:
a) forming a series of air cells in a first flexible sheet of plastic air impermeable material,
b) placing the first sheet of air cells in a mold having mold cells aligned with the preformed cells in the sheet, but the mold cells being of lesser size than the preformed cells,
c) placing a second backing sheet of compatible plastic material over the first plastic sheet,
d) securing the second sheet to the first sheet around the base of the cells to seal the air in the cells to form a sealed cell cushion, and
e) removing the sealed cell cushion from the mold whereby the air trapped in the cells is less than the maximum volume of the cells and can expand as the cushion is transported to an area of lesser air pressure.
23. The cushion of claim 21 wherein the air cells are filled to less than their maximum volume with air.
2672183 March 1954 Forsyth
2691179 October 1954 Kann
2748399 June 1956 Rockoff
2819712 January 1958 Morrison
3008465 November 1961 Gal
3982786 September 28, 1976 Burgin et al.
4186734 February 5, 1980 Stratton
4541136 September 17, 1985 Graebe
4660238 April 28, 1987 Jay
4698864 October 13, 1987 Graebe
4726624 February 23, 1988 Jay
4753480 June 28, 1988 Morell
4761843 August 9, 1988 Jay
4796948 January 10, 1989 Paul et al.
4803744 February 14, 1989 Peck et al.
4856844 August 15, 1989 Isono
4930171 June 5, 1990 Frantz
4953913 September 4, 1990 Graebe
4965901 October 30, 1990 Normand
4982466 January 8, 1991 Higgins et al.
5052068 October 1, 1991 Graebe
5111544 May 12, 1992 Graebe
5233974 August 10, 1993 Senoue et al.
5369828 December 6, 1994 Graebe
5499413 March 19, 1996 Van Hekken
5529377 June 25, 1996 Miller
5573305 November 12, 1996 Storch
Date of Patent: Dec 8, 1998
Assignee: Roho, Inc. (Belleville, IL)
Inventors: Winfield R. Matsler (Belleville, IL), Kurt Graebe (Belleville, IL)
Primary Examiner: Michael F. Trettel
Law Firm: Polster, Lieder, Woodruff & Lucchesi, L.C.
Current U.S. Class: Fluent Material Containing (e.g., Air, Water, Gel) (5/654); 5/6553; 5/6559; 297/45241; 297/45242; 297/45247
International Classification: A47C 2710; A47C 702; A47G 900;
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| 0.657687
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Justia Patents ApplicationUS Patent for Method and apparatus for simultaneous tracing of multiple transmission lines Patent (Patent # 6,233,558)
Method and apparatus for simultaneous tracing of multiple transmission lines
Feb 11, 1998 - Tempo Research Corporation
A method and apparatus are provided for use in tracing transmission lines from a first location to a second location. The apparatus comprises a multi-channel speech synthesizer, a digital to analog convertor and a demultiplexer. The digital synthesized speech which can take any form is applied to a digital to analog convertor where it is transformed into an analog stream of distinct speech segments. In accordance with the corresponding method, the distinct speech segments are selectively connected by the multiplexer to one or more of the transmission lines to be traced. At the second location, the distinct speech segments are detected. As each distinct speech segment is associated with a particular transmission line, it is possible to distinguish between the many transmission lines which are being simultaneously traced.
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The present invention relates generally to an improved method and apparatus for tracing a plurality of transmission lines from a first location to a second location. Specifically, the present invention is useful for simultaneously tracing a plurality of transmission lines contained within a telecommunications cable.
2. Prior Art
Modern copper telecommunications cables typically contain as many as 600 twisted wire pairs (“line pairs”) and may extend several miles in length. Often it becomes necessary to monitor the performance of a given line pair or a number of line pairs within a telecommunications cable. In order to reduce the cost and the time required to trace line pairs, it is highly desirable to be able to trace several line pairs simultaneously.
Apparatuses for tracing line pairs within telecommunications cables are well known in the art. A typical apparatus employs a signal generator which applies a square wave signal to a single line pair. The square wave signal is typically on the order of 5-10 volts in amplitude and has a frequency within the range of 400-1500 Hz. The signal may be continuous or may be switched between two frequencies to add a “warble” sound which is easier for an operator or technician to detect.
In operation, the signal generator is connected to one end of the line pair to be traced and at the opposite end of the cable a high input impedance amplifier is held in close proximity to the line pairs. When the amplifier is close to the actual line pair carrying the square wave signal, the signal is capacitively coupled to the amplifier and becomes audible. The audible signal is then used to identify a particular line pair.
Typically in the prior art, if another line is to be traced, the signal generator must first be disconnected from its current line pair and connected to the next line pair to be traced. Having to switch the square wave generator for each line pair to be traced (each “traced line pair”), is very time consuming particularly when the traced line pairs are part of a telecommunications cable several miles in length.
More recently, devices capable of generating multiple-frequency sequences have been employed in situations where several lines are to be traced. It has been found that the use of such quasi-melodic multi-tone sequences facilitate the technician being able to distinguish between signals and, accordingly, between lines.
The apparatus disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,557,651, which is owned by the Assignee of the present application, is capable of simultaneously tracing a plurality of line pairs by the application of multiple frequency sequences. The disclosed apparatus comprises a signal generator capable of generating at least one signal and a number of switches for operatively coupling the signal to one or more of a number of line pairs. In the preferred embodiment, the signal generator is capable of outputting signals of different frequency in the audio range which can be detected and used by the technician to easily distinguish between line pairs.
Although such an apparatus and corresponding method is effective for tracing multiple line pairs, there is a practical limit to the number of lines that can be simultaneously traced. While in theory it might be possible to generate almost limitless combinations of tones, it becomes difficult, if not impossible, for the technician to identify and distinguish the increasingly complex sequences. Thus, there continues to exist a need in the art for a method and apparatus that will permit simultaneous tracing of a virtually unlimited number of transmission lines.
It is also known in the art to produce signals which simulate speech for use in the evaluation of voice transmission systems in telephony. To that end, signal generators have been provided which produce a signal approximating speech. Such a signal generator is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4, 449,231. The disclosed signal generator is adapted to produce a signal which accurately simulates the syllabic rate of real speech. It has been found that this type of accuracy is necessary in order to properly evaluate the performance of a voice transmission components which may degrade and affect the overall performance of a voice transmission system.
The prior art discloses an apparatus for generating a signal which precisely simulates speech which is used to test voice sensitive components. The prior art does not disclose the application of synthesized speech to a transmission line at a first location for detection at a second location. Thus, although signal generators for simulating a speech signal are known, it is not known to utilize synthesized speech as a means for simultaneously tracing multiple transmission lines from a first location to a second location.
The present invention overcomes the shortcomings associated with the prior art apparatuses for tracing multiple lines by providing an apparatus and method that transmits easily recognizable synthesized speech over a plurality of transmission lines to be traced.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved method and apparatus for tracing a plurality of transmission lines from a first location to a second location.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a method and apparatus for simultaneously tracing a plurality of transmission lines from a first location to a second location.
A further object of the invention is to provide a method and apparatus which allows one traced line to be easily distinguished from any other traced line.
Another object of the invention is to provide a method and apparatus that allows the human ear to be used to easily distinguish one traced line from any other traced line.
These and other objects are met by the apparatus and method of the present invention wherein a sequence of synthetic speech signals are generated and applied to simultaneously trace a plurality of lines. The use of a synthetic speech signal is well suited for tracing multiple line pairs given a human's ability to perceive and recognize a vast number of spoken words with extreme accuracy, even under conditions of high noise or distortion. By associating each line to be traced with a unique spoken word (“tagging”), it is possible to simultaneously trace many lines . Moreover, the use of synthetic speech makes it possible for even the untrained technician to accurately identify any number of lines.
In accordance with the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for tracing one or more of a plurality of transmission lines from a first location to a second location comprising a speech synthesizing means for generating distinct segments of speech signals to be applied at a first location of the lines to be traced. A switching means is provided for selectively connecting and disconnecting the distinct segments of speech to each transmission line to be traced and a device for detecting each distinct segment at a second location of the lines being traced.
In a preferred embodiment the speech synthesizing means and switching means respectively comprise a read only memory containing pre stored digital speech data and a demultiplexer capable of selectively applying the digital speech to one or more lines to be traced.
A method of tracing a plurality of transmission lines from a first location to a second location is also provided, comprising the steps of selectively applying to one or more of the plurality of transmission lines to be traced at the first location a speech signal, wherein each of the one or more transmission lines receives a unique segment of the speech signal that differs from the segment of the speech signal applied to any other of the transmission lines.
The unique segment of the speech signal respectively applied to each transmission line is detected at the second location, thereby allowing the identity of each transmission line to be determined according to the unique speech segment respectively applied at the first location and detected at the second location.
The above and related objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be more fully understood by reference to the following detailed description of the presently preferred, albeit illustrative, embodiments of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
FIG. 1 is a simplified block schematic representation of a preferred embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of the preferred embodiment of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a table showing the format in which digitized audio is stored in the apparatus of FIG. 2; and
FIG. 4 is table showing the format in which digitized audio is output in the apparatus of FIG. 2.
FIG. 1 is a simplified representation of the apparatus of the present invention generally represented by reference numeral 10 comprising a speech synthesizer 14 connected at one end of a plurality of lines 16 and a high-input impedance audio amplifier generally designated by reference numeral 18 selectively connected at the opposite end of lines 16.
As further represented in FIG. 1, the speech synthesizer 14 may simultaneously output the spoken digits “1” through “8” as audio frequency signals and transmits these signals through the lines to be identified. The high-input impedance audio amplifier 18 connects between any signal line 16 and the common line 20 allowing the user to listen to the synthetic speech (in this case a spoken digit) being transmitted on the line 16, thus allowing unambiguous identification of the line 16.
A more detailed representation of a preferred embodiment of the apparatus of the present invention is shown in the schematic block diagram of FIG. 2. The apparatus 10 of the present invention comprises a speech read-only-memory 30 (ROM) for the permanent storage of digitized audio such as, for example, the spoken digits “1” through “8”. In the illustrated example, the spoken digits “1” through “8” are stored as eight half-second segments of speech which have been digitized at a rate of approximately 8000 samples per second. The ROM 30 is preferably organized as 32,768 (32k) eight-bit bytes with 4096 (4k) bytes allocated for each spoken digit. As shown in FIG. 3, the eight digitized digits are preferably stored in the speech ROM 30 in an interleaved format on eight-byte boundaries.
A clock 32 and binary counter 34 are provided which are responsible for all the digital control and timing functions of the present invention. The clock 32 preferably produces a square wave output 36 fixed at 64 KHz which is used to drive the binary address counter 34.
The binary counter 34 is of the conventional type preferably having 16 stages (Q0-Q15) and a clock input which is connected to the output 36 of the clock 32. As shown in FIG. 2, the counter output lines “Q0” through “Q14” are coupled to the address lines of the ROM 30 labeled as “A0” through “A14.” Output line “Q15 is coupled to a device enable line (“CE”) 38 and a ROM output enable line (“OE”) 39 (“CE” and “OE” are preferably both active low inputs).
Next, a digital-to-analog (D/A) converter 40 is coupled to the output of the ROM 30 and used to generate a voltage at a level proportional to the magnitude of the binary value present on the output lines 42 of the speech ROM 30. In the preferred embodiment, the ROM 30 outputs a series of 7 bit binary values corresponding to the digitized words which are then acted upon by the D/A converter 40 to produce an analog representative of the spoken digits.
The analog output 44 of the D/A convertor 40 is coupled to the input of an analog demultiplexer 48. The demultiplexer 48 acts as a set of digitally-controlled analog switches which route the analog output of the D/A converter 44 to the input of any single one of eight audio channels generally designated by reference numeral 50 through output lines designated 51 through 58. The output lines are selected through three binary-coded select lines labeled S0, S0 and S2 which are coupled to the output Q0, Q1 and Q2 of the binary counter 34.
The eight audio channels 50 are identical to one another and are comprised of a sample & hold capacitor 60, a low-pass filter 64, and a buffer amplifier 68. The sample-and-hold capacitor 60 at the input temporarily stores the output level of the corresponding analog demultiplexer output ( one of 51 through 58). The low-pass filter 64, which for this example has a cut-off frequency of approximately 3.2 KHz, removes unwanted high-frequency components from the reconstructed speech signal. The buffer amplifier 68 provides increased current drive at the output of the channel.
In operation, the binary counter 34 is zeroed such that all of the counter outputs are in the zero state. Since the address lines A0-A14 of the speech ROM 30 are connected to the first fifteen outputs of the binary counter 34, it can be seen that the location addressed in the ROM 30 at any time is ROM address=(16-bit binary output) mod 32768
Also, since the two low-active ROM enables lines 38, 39 are connected to the high-order output line (Q15) of the counter 34, the ROM 30 is enabled for counter outputs from 0 to 32767 and disabled for outputs from 32768 to 65535. Therefore, with the binary counter 34 being clocked by the free-running clock 32 at a nominal value of 64 KHz, the circuit will step through the 32768 consecutive ROM locations during the first 32768 clock cycles, disable the ROM 30 during the next 32768 clock cycles, and then repeat the sequence, continuing as long as the clock generator is running. Note also that since the clock 32 is running at a nominal frequency of 64 KHz, this entire cycle is completed in approximately one second (i.e. the duration of a digitized digit).
Because the digitized digits are stored in the speech ROM 30 in an interleaved format, as the ROM 30 is scanned sequentially, the output lines 44 will present speech data in the format shown in FIG. 4.
As each digitized speech byte is output from the ROM 30, as represented in FIG. 4, the D/A converter 40 generates a corresponding voltage level. This voltage level is routed through the analog demultiplexer 48 to the appropriate one of the audio channels 50.
Output selection in the analog demultiplexer 48 is controlled by the first three outputs (“Q0”, “Q1”, and “Q2”) of the binary counter and is thus synchronized to the address of the speech ROM 30 and, more importantly, to the eight digitized speech segments of the present example. Thus, the single analog stream containing data of all eight speech segments is synchronously parsed out to the eight individual audio channels 50 through output lines 51 through 58, each of which filters 64 and buffers 68 the reconstructed signal for a single spoken digit.
The net result of this entire process is that once each second, in this example, the spoken digits “1” through “8” are simultaneously synthesized and individually output through the eight channels 50, thus providing easily-discriminated audio signals suitable for tracing eight lines. It should be noted that the implementation need not be limited to eight signals. Furthermore, it is not necessary to limit the synthesized speech to digits or even to a specific spoken language.
The invention can be implemented using any of a variety of digital and linear component technologies. For example, a programmable microcontroller can be used to implement the operations of the clock 32 and the binary counter 34. Additionally implementation factors which can be varied include, but are not limited to, the speech digitization sampling rate, D/A converter resolution, and the number of audio channels. Various other modifications and improvements thereon will become readily apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the spirit and scope of the present invention is to be construed broadly and limited only by the appended claims, and not by the foregoing specification.
1. A method of simultaneously tracing a plurality of transmission lines from a first location to a second location, comprising the steps of:
(a) synthesizing a speech signal;
(b) selectively applying said speech signal at said first location to each transmission line to be traced, comprising the steps of:
(i) transmitting an address of a memory location in a speech read only memory, wherein said speech read only memory is formatted and arranged to store and output distinct segments of speech;
(ii) retrieving one of said speech segments from said memory location of said speech read only memory;
(iii) converting said one of said speech segments to an analog output representative of said one of said speech segments; and
(iv) routing said analog output to an audio channel;
(c) detecting at said second location, said unique segment of said speech signal applied to each said transmission line.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein said synthesized speech signal is converted from a digital signal to an analog signal prior to being applied to said each transmission line to be traced.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein said synthesized speech is in the form of a string of sequential numbers.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein said speech read only memory is organized as 32,768 eight-bit bytes with 4096 bytes allocated for each spoken digit.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein said speech read only memory stores digitized digits in an interleaved format.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein step (b) (ii) comprises scanning said speech read only memory sequentially thereby outputting said speech segment.
7. An apparatus for simultaneously tracing a plurality of transmission lines from a first location to a second location comprising:
a means for synthesizing distinct segments of speech to be applied to one or more of said plurality of transmission lines to be traced, comprising:
a speech read only memory being formatted and arranged to store and output said distinct segments of speech;
a transmitting means for transmitting an address of a memory location in said speech read only memory;
a retrieving means for retrieving said speech segment from said memory location of said speech read only memory;
a switching means for selectively connecting and disconnecting said segments of speech to said one or more of said plurality of transmission lines to be traced; and
a control means for controlling the output of said segments of said speech through said switching means.
8. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a digital to analog convertor for converting said digitized speech into analog signals representative of said digitized speech.
9. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said control means includes a clock source and address counter.
10. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein said speech read only memory is organized as 32,768 eight-bit bytes with 4096 bytes allocated for each spoken digit.
11. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein said speech read only memory stores digitized digits in an interleaved format.
12. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein said retrieving means comprises a scanning means for scanning said speech read only memory sequentially thereby outputting said speech segment.
3903380 September 1975 Schomburg
4430530 February 7, 1984 Kandell et al.
4449231 May 15, 1984 Chytil
4670898 June 2, 1987 Pierce et al.
5073919 December 17, 1991 Hagensick
5557651 September 17, 1996 Wissman
5633909 May 27, 1997 Fitch
5644617 July 1, 1997 Schmidt
Filed: Feb 11, 1998
Assignee: Tempo Research Corporation (Vista, CA)
Inventor: Paul L. Whalley (Vista, CA)
Primary Examiner: Fan Tsang
Assistant Examiner: Robert Louis Sax
Attorney, Agent or Law Firm: Amster, Rothstein & Ebenstein
Current U.S. Class: Application (704/270); Frequency Element (704/268); Conductor Identification Or Location (e.g., Phase Identification) (324/66); 379/6; 379/29
International Classification: G10L/300; G10L/502; G10L/900; H04B/346;
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| 0.764625
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Justia Patents Fault RecoveryUS Patent for Method and apparatus for recovering from a signalling failure in a switched connection data transmission network Patent (Patent # 6,292,463)
Method and apparatus for recovering from a signalling failure in a switched connection data transmission network
Jul 6, 1998 - Alcatel Canada Inc.
The method of potentially recovering from a short term signalling failure in a switched connection data transmission network comprises the steps of: (a) establishing a unique, network-wide, identifier for each call; (b) incorporating the unique identifier in a call setup message transmitted to each network element in the path of the call; (c) linking the unique call identifier with each bearer channel cross-connect associated with the call; and (d) upon detection of a failure in a signalling network which affects the call, (i) actuating a timed release of the cross-connects, (ii) re-transmitting the call setup message, including the unique call identifier, to each network element involved in placing the call, (iii) re-linking the unique call identifier with the surviving cross-connects thereby reclaiming the cross-connects, and (iv) aborting the release of the cross-connects provided they have all been timely reclaimed.
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The invention generally relates to the field of data transmission networks and more specifically to apparatus and methods for recovering from a short-term signalling network failure in a switched connection data transmission network employing a signalling protocol for establishing, maintaining and clearing a call.
In a switched connection network, examples of which include the public switched telephone network and virtual connection orientated digital communications such as asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networks, an end-to-end call comprises one or more switched (i.e., on-demand) bearer channels which collectively compose a bearer channel path across a network. In an ATM network for instance, examples of such a switched call include a switched virtual connection (SVC) or a soft permanent virtual connection (SPVC). Such calls are (or can be) dynamically established and cleared in substantially real time by network elements, such as data transmission switches, in accordance with standard signalling protocols. An example of one such network element which incorporates signalling software is the model 36170 MainStreet Xpress(TM) ATM network switch commercially available from Newbridge Networks Corporation of Kanata, Ontario.
The signalling between network elements is carried over a signalling network comprising call control and processing infrastructure disposed on each network element, and means for interfacing or communicating between similar infrastructure disposed on counterpart network elements. The interface means can comprise a separate overlay network, such as leased lines, as may be found in a Frame Relay SVC service. More typically, however, the interface means comprises a permanent virtual connection (PVC) which has been dedicated for the transfer of signalling information or call control data between interconnected network elements. For example, one popular ATM standard has dedicated VPI/VCI=0/5 for this purpose. Signalling virtual circuits can be carried over the same internode link facilities as the bearer channels, or on separate links.
In order to initiate an end-to-end call, the calling device typically transmits a “call setup” message to the network indicating the destination address and desired connection and quality of service parameters. For SVC service, the calling and called devices are typically customer premise equipment (CPE). For SPVC service, the calling and called devices are typically ingress and egress network elements, as described in greater detail below.
The call set up message can be propagated through the network to a called device (destination address) using conventional routing techniques, such as hop-by-hop or source routing. In hop-by-hop routing, each network element which receives the call setup message typically consults a routing table in order to determine the next hop or output bearer channel towards the destination. In source-routing, the source or ingress network element maintains a database of the topology of the network and specifies the output ports and virtual path (VP) trunk that each network element should use to route the call.
Each network element which receives the call setup message establishes a bearer channel cross-connect which links an input bearer channel to an output bearer channel. Ultimately, the call setup message is relayed by the signalling network to the called device, and the called device is thus informed as to the identity of the bearer channel it should use for transmitting information in respect of the call. Once the call setup message is received at the destination device, a “connect” message is sent back over the signalling network to the calling device. Typically, the calling device will then transmit a “connect acknowledgement“ message back to the destination device over the signalling network in order to complete a double handshaking protocol. At this point, the call is deemed to have been established and the calling device, as well as the called device in the event of a bidirectional connection, may transmit user data over the recently established bearer channel path.
The signalling network is also used to clear or terminate a call and its associated bearer channel path in a manner similar to that used to establish the call.
In addition to dynamically establishing and clearing a call, the signalling network is also used to transmit various types of status messages (e.g. link state messages) relating to the call and the bearer channel path thereof. These status messages are associated with various sensing mechanisms employed by the signalling standards for determining whether a peer entity (e.g., a signalling module on a CPE or network node) or link therebetween is alive and properly functioning. Such mechanisms typically include heartbeat processes relating to various layers of a signalling protocol, such as described in greater detail below.
The signalling network, or more particularly a portion thereof, may fail for various reasons, including a software defect or equipment failure in the call control infrastructure. When a failure is sensed as described above by other network elements adjacent to the failed portion of the signalling network, the signalling standards typically specify that all calls affected by the failure should be released, thus causing all of the bearer channel cross-connects relating to those calls to be released. If a call control entity, for example, a call processor supporting switched virtual circuit (SVC) services on a first network element fails, all of the signalling interfaces with other network elements managed by the card will be lost. Adjacent network elements will thus presume that the bearer channels associated with the failed signalling interfaces are no longer operable. This causes the adjacent network elements to signal this fact across the network and release all cross-connects to the bearer channels composing the call. Ultimately, the failure in the signalling network will be signalled back to the calling and called devices, which will terminate their session.
The release of bearer channel cross-connects is very disruptive to calls if there has in fact been no failure in the bearer channels or their cross-connects (i.e., the bearer channel path is up and functioning) and the failure in the signalling network can be corrected within a short period of time. For example, in network elements featuring “1+1 warm redundancy” or “N+1 warm redundancy”, backup or stand-by call control infrastructure, e.g. a stand-by SVC service card, could be switched into service in place of the failed card. Unfortunately, as the information base on the failed card is lost, the prior art does not enable the backup card to carry on in midstream the numerous signalling functions handled by the failed call control infrastructure.
One approach to this problem is to employ “1+1 Hot Redundancy” where each component of the call control infrastructure is actively duplicated in which case bearer channel cross-connects need not be released since the redundant component maintains a parallel up-to-date information base. Such systems are, however, not always available or desired due to the extra costs involved.
The invention provides a method and apparatus for maintaining the survivability of a bearer channel path and the cross-connects thereof in the event of a recoverable failure in a portion of the signalling network affecting a call.
Generally speaking, when a failure in the signalling network is detected, the signalling protocols require that the functioning portion of the signalling network release all calls affected by the signalling failure, including dismantling all cross-connects. The invention, however, does not immediately dismantle the bearer channel cross-connects when a signalling network failure is detected. Instead, the signalling network attempts to re-initiate the setup of the affected calls in the assumption that the signalling failure can be quickly corrected, e.g., a failed signalling entity is brought back into service. The calls are re-established using the surviving bearer channel cross-connects, which are thereby reclaimed. This is made possible by employing a unique call identifier associated with each call which is used to tag or identify all cross-connects associated with the call. If, however, the bearer channel cross-connects are not reclaimed after a finite time period, the cross-connects are dismantled or released so as to not waste network resources.
One broad aspect of the invention relates to a method of potentially recovering from a short-term signalling failure in a switched connection data transmission network comprising a plurality of interconnected network elements and a signalling network for establishing, maintaining and clearing a point-to-point call having a bearer channel cross-connect per network element. The method comprises the steps of:
(a) establishing a unique identifier in respect of the call;
(b) associating the unique call identifier with the bearer channel cross-connects on the network element which relates to the call; and
(c) upon detection of a failure in the signalling network affecting the call,
(i) re-transmitting the unique call identifier across the network, and
(ii) re-associating the unique call identifier with each surviving bearer channel cross-connects on each network element.
In the method according to the preferred embodiment, the unique call identifier is preferably transmitted to the network elements in a call setup message defined by the signalling protocols for signalling the dynamic establishment of a new call. In addition, when the signalling network failure is detected, the preferred method includes the steps of actuating a timed release of the bearer channel cross-connects, and aborting the release of the bearer channel cross-connects provided all surviving cross-connects have been timely reclaimed.
According to another broad aspect of the invention, a network element is provided for use in a switched connection data transmission network employing a signalling network for establishing, maintaining and clearing a call. The network element comprises: a first port for communicating data over a first bearer channel; a second port for communicating data over a second bearer channel; call control infrastructure for processing and communicating signalling information with the signalling network; cross-connect means, connected to the call control infrastructure, for establishing a bearer channel cross-connection between the first and second bearer channels; memory means for linking a unique call identifier received from the signalling network with the bearer channel cross-connection; detection means for detecting a failure in the signalling network that affects a call incorporating the bearer channel cross-connection; and reconstruction means for comparing the stored call identifier against call identifiers later received from the signalling network.
In the preferred embodiment, the network element further includes cross-connect release means, triggered by the signalling failure detection means, for releasing the bearer channel cross-connection after a specified time period has elapsed. In addition, the reconstruction means is operative to abort the release of the cross-connection in the event of a successful match between the stored call identifier and call identifiers later received from the signalling network.
The foregoing and other aspects of the invention are described in greater detail below with reference to the following drawings, provided for the purpose of description and not of limitation, wherein:
FIG. 1 is an illustration of a reference network comprising a plurality of interconnected network elements and customer premise equipment;
FIG. 2 is an illustration of a preferred logical portioning of the bandwidth of a physical interface or port associated with a network element;
FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a network process for maintaining the survivability of bearer channel cross-connects in the event of a recoverable failure in a signalling network, in accordance with the preferred embodiment;
FIG. 4 is a diagram of an information element incorporated in an NNI call setup message in accordance with the preferred embodiment;
FIG. 5 is a diagram of an example of an active call table used in a network element;
FIG. 6 is a diagram of the control plane in an ATM NNI signalling protocol stack;
FIG. 7A is a system block diagram of the hardware architecture of a preferred network element;
FIG. 7B is a system block diagram of the software architecture of the preferred network element;
FIG. 8 is a diagram of the control and user planes of an ATM protocol stack as implemented by the preferred network element; and
FIG. 9 is a state diagram illustrating the preferred steps taken by a given network element for maintaining the survivability of bearer channel cross-connects in the event of a recoverable failure in the signalling network.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
The invention is first described in detail from the perspective of the operation of the network as a whole, and then from the perspective of the role and structure of an individual network element.
The preferred network environment relates to an ATM network employing 36170 MainStreet Xpress(TM) switches as backbone network elements. FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary network 8 comprising a plurality of interconnected 36170 switches 10. Individual switches are identified by an alphabetical suffix, e.g., A, B, etc., and elements of a given switch are also generally labelled with the same suffix used to identify the switch.
CPE 12A, 12B and 12C are connected to the network 8. The CPEs communicate with the network 8 by well known ATM UNI standards.
The switches 10 include various ports 14 which are physically interconnected by physical links 15. These physical links comprise standard physical interfaces, such as OC-3, OC-12 or DS3 fibre optic and electrical interfaces.
FIG. 2 shows how the bandwidth of physical port 14 is logically partitioned in the 36170 switch 10 into trunk groups, VPs, VCs, and associated signalling links. The signalling link (ref. no. 22 in FIG. 1) is typically a PVC dedicated for the communication of signalling information between network switches with respect to a group of SVCs associated with a given trunk group. Each signalling link 22 between network switches 10 is established and configured, for example via a network management system, before SVC traffic can be carried over the associated trunk group.
In the reference network illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, routing tables 16 associated with switches 10 are configured to enable CPE 12A to communicate with CPE 12B over a bearer channel path, such as SVC 18, which comprises a plurality of uni- or bi-directional bearer channels, such as virtual channels 18i, 18ii, 18iii, 18iv, and 18v. The routing tables 16 dictate the egress ports for bearer channel cross-connects 20 required to form an end-to-end switched connection or bearer channel path between CPE 12A and CPE 12B.
Each switch 10 comprises a call control and processing infrastructure 30, as described in greater detail below, for managing calls and implementing signalling protocols, and a connection manager 32, also described in greater detail below, which is responsible for creating and releasing the cross-connects 20. The call control infrastructure disposed on each of adjacent switches communicates over signalling links 22 established between each successive pair of switches 10 along the path of SVC 18. Collectively, the call control infrastructure 30 and signalling links 22 compose a signalling network operative to implement a signalling protocol, such as the NNI ATM Forum Interim Inter-switch Signalling Protocol (IISP) well known in this art.
Referring additionally to the flowchart of FIG. 3, in a first phase of the method according to one preferred embodiment, the network 8 is configured to be able to reconstruct SVC 18 in the event of a recoverable failure in a portion of the signalling network.
As indicated by a first step 40, the network 8 establishes a unique network-wide call identifier to identify SVC 18. This is preferably accomplished by ingress switch 10A when it receives a call setup message from CPE 12A over the UNI there between to initiate the setup of SVC 18. The call setup message is processed by call control infrastructure 30A on switch 10A as known in the art in order to determine the next hop in routing the call, which, in reference network of FIG. 1, is switch 10B. Accordingly, the call control infrastructure 30A instructs connection manager 32A to create cross-connect 20A. The call control infrastructure 30A at step 42 locally stores the call setup message (or information contained therein), in order to resend said message in the event of a signalling link failure. In addition, call control infrastructure 30A prepares to forward a similar call setup message over the NNI between switch 10A and switch 10B. In doing so, call control infrastructure 30A includes a particular call identifier information element (IE) in the call setup message, in addition to the conventional IEs carried by the call setup message, to forward the unique call identifier to the other switches.
The preferred structure of the call identifier IE is illustrated in FIG. 4. The data portion of this IE preferably comprises three fields which uniquely identify a call such as SVC 18: a four byte field 34 representing the source switch (alternatively referred to in the art as the “source point” code); a four byte field 36 representing a number selected by the source switch which is a unique number with respect to the source switch; and a four bit field 38 representing the creator of the call, which can be either the source switch, e.g., in the case of an SVC, or a network manager, e.g., in the case of an SPVC. Collectively, these three fields uniquely identify a call such as SVC 18.
In step 42 of the FIG. 3 flow chart, the unique call identifier is stored on each network element traversed by the call. This function is preferably carried out as the call setup message is routed across network 8 to egress switch 10D. Each switch 10 which receives the call setup message processes it in the preferred manner described above. More particularly, the call control infrastructure 30 on each switch (including ingress switch 10A) executes, if required, a routing function in order to determine an egress VP trunk. Routing communicates the egress VP trunk, which inherently identifies the egress port 14 and a VPI, to the connection manager 32 which selects a VCI for the bearer channel between the given switch and the next switch, as described in greater detail below. The call control infrastructure 30 also passes the unique call identifier in the call setup message to connection manager 32 which preferably stores the call identifier in a cross-connect table employed by the connection manager for its internal management. In this manner, the connection manager 32 and hence switch 10 uniquely identifies cross-connect 20 as being associated with SVC 18. An example of a cross-connect table employed by connection manager 32 is illustrated in FIG. 5, wherein the unique identifier for SVC 18 labelled “x|y|z”. Both endpoints associated with the same cross-connect are represented and the mate field identifies its counterpart endpoint.
Alternatively, for more efficient recovery, the call setup message or information therefrom can be stored at each node the call traverses. This allows resignalling of the call setup to be affected earlier within the network instead of back at the ingress switch 10A. The call setup information maintained at each switch includes, as a minimum, the destination address and the unique call identifier.
In a second phase of the method according to the preferred embodiment, the network 8 attempts to reconstruct SVC 18 in the event of a recoverable failure in the signalling network, e.g. if a portion of failed call control infrastructure can be quickly repaired.
As a precursor, switch 10 must be able to sense signalling network failures. One way this can be accomplished is by call control infrastructure 30 which implements the control plane of an ATM signalling protocol stack shown in FIG. 6. The functionality of the control plane is well known to those skilled in this art, and particulars thereof can be found in the following references, all of which are incorporated herein by reference:
Trillium Digital Systems, Inc., “Trillium ATM Signalling White Paper”, Apr. 30, 1996, Los Angles, Calif.;
Boger, Yuval S., “An Introduction to ATM Signalling”, June 1995, Radcom Ltd., Tel Aviv, 69710, Israel;
McDysan and Spohn, “ATM Theory and Application”, McGraw-Hill, New York, N.Y., 1994;
ATM Forum, “ATM User-network Interface (UNI) Signalling Specification”, version 4.0, document no. af-sig-0061.000, July 1996; and
ATM Forum, “Interim Inter-switch Signalling Protocol (IISP) Specification v 1.0”, document no. af-pnni-0026.000, December, 1994.
Once SVC 18 has been established, the call control infrastructure 30 uses the signalling network to exchange various types of status messages relating to a call such as SVC 18. An example of a pair of such status messages is the UNI or NNI ATM signalling layer 3, “status enquiry” and “status” messages. These messages are associated with a polling process designed to solicit status information from a peer element (node or CPE) with respect to a given call or SVC when there appears to be an error in the communication there between. In this manner, the device which sends out the status enquiry request can ascertain whether or not the opposite side is indeed alive and properly functioning.
Other types of status messages used in the maintainance of a call are germane to the signalling links 22 between network switches. For example, the UNI or NNi Signalling ATM Adaptation Layer 2 (SAAL) (layer 2 in the ATM signalling protocol stack) is provided to ensure a reliable signalling link for a given trunk group between switches. The SAAL protocol constantly sends some protocol messages or data units (PDUs) to a switch on the other side of the link which must be acknowledged by the other switch. These messages may be sequenced data PDUs, i.e. PDUs which carry NNI layer 3 signalling messages for all virtual connections of a trunk group, or separately sequenced “poll” and “stat” PDUs. In combination, these messages implement a keep-alive or heartbeat polling process associated with each successive pair of switches 10 along the bearer channel path of a call such as SVC 18 in order to inform each switch that a VP trunk (which may consist of one or more bearer channels) to its counterpart is alive and functioning. In the foregoing manner, call control infrastructure 30 can determine whether or not an entire trunk is alive and functioning.
As indicated in steps 44 and 46 of the FIG. 3 flowchart, once a signalling failure is detected, the signalling failure is communicated across the network and the network actuates a timed or delayed release of the bearer channel cross-connects affected by the signalling failure. Switches typically maintain linked lists of calls associated with respective signalling link, and upon detecting failure of one such link, a release message is signalled for each call controlled by that link. Each switch having one or more cross-connects of calls associated with the failed signalling link implements this timed release of those cross-connects in respect to receipt of corresponding release messages.
For example, assume that an SVC service card (discussed in greater detail below) associated with call control infrastructure 30B on switch 10B fails. The signalling links 22 to switches 10A and 10C will thus fail. Call control infrastructure 30A and 30C sense the failure as described above and respectively assume that virtual connections or bearer channels 18ii and 18iii are down or non-operative. Call control infrastructure 30C signals this presumed fact to call control infrastructure 30D on switch 10D. However, the ingress switch 10A and egress switch 10E do not signal the failure back to CPE 12A and CPE 12B. This is because in practice the CPE may be produced by manufacturers other than the manufacturer of the network equipment, and thus the CPE is liable to terminate the call, counter to the goal of the invention. SVC 18 may thus be considered to be a “resilient” SVC, meaning that it does not get released all the way to the source and destination CPE when recovering from a network failure. Of course, if CPE 12A and 12B can be programmed in a manner similar to switches 10, as described in greater detail below, so as not to terminate SVC 18, the CPE may be signalled about the failure.
In the preferred embodiment, the release signal received by switch 10 comprises a conventional layer 3 ATM call release signal which includes a “cause IE”, as known in the art, carrying diagnostic data specifying the reason for the release. The diagnostics data includes an organization unique identifier (OUI) specifying how an accompanying diagnostics code should be interpreted. In the preferred embodiment, the diagnostics code includes an organization-specific code diagnosing a signalling network failure and instructing the switch to release the call from the perspective of the call control infrastructure, but to not immediately dismantle the cross-connect of the affected call. Instead, each call control infrastructure 30 informs its corresponding connection manager 32 to begin a delayed release of each bearer channel cross-connect 20. This is preferably accomplished by seting a countdown timer which triggers each connection manager 32 to dismantle cross-connect 20 after a specified time period has elapsed. In this manner, the call control infrastructure across the network releases the call or SVC 18, but for a limited time period the bearer channel cross-connects survive the failure in the signalling network, thereby allowing CPE 12A and 12B to continue to communicate there between.
In step 48 of the FIG. 3 flowchart, the NNI call setup message incorporating the previously created unique call identifier is retransmitted across network 8 in order to re-establish SVC 18. This is preferably accomplished by call control infrastructure 30A on ingress switch 10A which, once it detects a signalling failure relating to SVC 18, can ascertain that it is the source switch based on the unique call identifier, as described in greater detail below. If desired, the ingress call control infrastructure 30A can be configured to wait for a short time period before re-transmitting the NNI call setup message in order to allow the signalling network some time to recover.
In alternative embodiments, it will be appreciated that network 8 can be configured so that egress switch 10D retransmits the call re-setup message across the network. Also, a call release message might only be signalled from the nodes detecting a failed signalling link over successive nodes in the path towards the edges of the network, until one of those nodes, which stored information from the original call setup message is able to generate an appropriate call re-setup message to reclaim the corresponding cross-connect and/or route around the failure.
In step 50 of the FIG. 3 flowchart, network 8 attempts to reclaim the surviving cross-connects 20. This is preferably accomplished by each switch 10 during the re-establishment of the call as each call control infrastructure 30 instructs its corresponding connection manager 32 to create a crossconnect 20 for SVC 18. The connection managers 32 inspect their local cross-connect tables to determine whether or not an active cross-connection is labelled or tagged with the unique call identifier included in the call re-setup message. If so, and the appropriate signalling link for the next node hop is operational, connection managers 32 “reclaim” the existing crossconnects by not establishing new cross-connects and, as shown in step 52, by aborting the timer countdowns which were previously set in step 46 to release the cross-connects. Otherwise, the cross-connects are tom down and the switch 10 attempts to re-route the call. If no match is found, call control infrastructure also attempts to re-route by consulting corresponding global routing table 16 in order to determine a new egress VP trunk which may route the call through a port/VPI/VCI other than the original egress port/VPI/VCI.
As indicated in step 54 of the FIG. 3 flow chart, a call re-initiation failure occurs in the event the failure in the signalling network is not recoverable so that the retransmitted call setup message cannot proceed to CPE 12B. For example, consider a situation in FIG. 1 where physical interface 15 between 10B and 10C is destroyed. Switch 10B will then not receive an acknowledgement back from switch 10C in response to the re-transmitted call setup message forwarded to it. Accordingly, connection manager 32B will time out waiting for the acknowledgement and will release or delete reclaimed cross-connect 20B from its local cross-connect table in accordance with the NNI protocol. Switch 10A will similarly time out, release cross-connect 20A, and inform CPE 12A over the UNI there between that SVC 18 is released. Meanwhile, on the other side of the network, switch 10D never receives the re-transmitted NNI call setup message and thus the timer set in step 46 will time out thereby causing the surviving cross-connect 20D to be released, and initiating the transmission of a call release message to CPE 12B. In general, if a cross-connect is not reclaimed once the time expires, the cross-connect is freed or available for use by another call.
The structure and role of the preferred switch 10 is now discussed in greater detail. FIG. 7A is a system block diagram of the 36170 MainStreet Xpress(TM) network switch 10. The switch 10 comprises a switching fabric 62, including a high capacity cell space switching core 64 having N inputs 66, any of which can be switched to one or more of N outputs 68. Switch 10 further comprises one or more access or peripheral shelves 70 (two shelves 70 being shown). Each peripheral shelf 70 features a plurality of universal card slots (UCS) 72 for housing network or user equipment interface cards 74, which include input/output ports 14. The interface cards 74 include cards such as end system cards which terminate or originate ATM connections, and cell relay cards which take incoming ATM cells, translate their VPI/VCI values, transport the cells to the switching core 64 so that the cells can be routed to another cell relay card (i.e., an egress card) which transmits the cells to the next network element.
The peripheral shelf 70 also houses system cards, including a control card 76, one or more SVC service cards 78 and a hub card 80. The hub card 80 multiplexes a plurality of 200 Mb/s “add” buses 82 from the various interface cards on a particular peripheral shelf 70 onto a high speed 800 Mb/s “intershelf link” (ISL) bus 84 connecting the shelf 70 with the switching core 64. The hub card 80 also terminates the ISL bus 84 from the switching core 64 and drives a multi-drop bus 86 connected to each UCS 72 on shelf 70. In this manner, any interface or system card can communicate with any another interface or system card, irrespective of which peripheral shelves the communicating cards reside.
FIG. 7B is a software architecture diagram in respect of the switch 10. As shown in FIG. 7B, the call control infrastructure 30 is executed in a distributed fashion by SVC service cards 78 and by the control card 76. The connection manager 32 is executed by the control card 76.
As illustrated in FIG. 7B, ingress interface card 741 routes all signalling ATM cells, e.g. cells featuring VPI/VCI=0/5, which arrive on signalling link 22 to ingress SVC service card 781. The SVC service cards 78 provide distributed signalling stacks, call processing, routing and billing for SVC services. When a call setup message is received by ingress SVC service card 781, an ATM layer 3 signalling module thereof communicates with the control card 76 to determine if the call should be accepted. The control card executes a connection and admission control function (not shown) to determine if the switch 10 has sufficient bandwidth and internal resources to accept the new call. If the new call is accepted, the control card 76 executes a centralized routing function 86 (employing routing table 16 of FIG. 1) which selects an egress trunk group on egress card 74E and communicates this information to the connection manager 32. Alternatively, in source routing, the egress trunk group is provided in the call setup message and the routing function merely passes this information to the connection manager 32. In any event, the connection manager 32 selects a free VCI on the egress trunk group, and instructs the ingress and egress interface cards 74 to switch incoming ATM cells featuring an input port/VPI/VCI address to the egress port/VPI/VCI address selected by the control card 76, to thereby establish a bearer channel cross-connect. The connection manager 32 also maintains the cross-connect table shown for example in FIG. 5, in order to record all cross-connects existing on the switch 10.
FIG. 8 maps the functionality of various components of switch 10 onto the various layers of the ATM protocol stack for a typical switch. As shown in FIG. 8, the protocol stack is segmented onto a control plane 90, which is preferably implemented by call control infrastructure 30, and a user plane 92, which is preferably implemented by connection manager 32. The control plane 90 can be further segmented into a call control layer 94 which is executed by the control card 76 (FIG. 7) and the remaining layers of the protocol stack, exclusive of the switching fabric, which are executed by the SVC service cards 78.
The control card 76 also monitors SVC service cards 78 to determine whether or not they are functioning. The monitoring is preferably accomplished through a periodic polling procedure between the control card 76 and SVC cards 78 which communicate over a virtual control channel using buses 82, 84 and 86. In the event of a failure in the SVC service card, the control card 76 will switch a backup SVC service card 78′ (see FIG. 7A) into service in order to provide an N+1 warm redundancy capability.
FIG. 9 illustrates the preferred steps taken by switch 10 for maintaining the survivability of the bearer channel cross-connects 20 in the event of a recoverable failure in the signalling network. As seen in FIG. 9, switch 10 distinguishes between two types of failure events, event 100 wherein the control card 76 detects a failure of a given SVC service card 78, and event 102 wherein the call control infrastructure 30 detects a failure in the signalling network arising from other switches. When event 100 occurs, the call control infrastructure 30 signals, at step 104, a timer module 106 (which is associated with connection manager 32) to begin the timed release of all bearer channel cross-connects affected by the failed service card. This is possible because the connection manager 32 of control card 76 maintains the cross-connect table such as illustrated in FIG. 5. Later, if replacement SVC service card 78′ is brought into service and, at event 108, a call setup message is received which, at step 110, matches the unique call identifier of a surviving cross-connect, the timer module 106 is instructed to abort the release of the surviving cross-connect and thereby reclaim it provided the next hop signalling link is functioning. However, if at step 110 no match is found or the signalling link for the old cross-connect is not usable, if it is possible to re-route the call, the connection manager 32 establishes at step 112 a new cross-connect as described above in respect of the new call, and at step 114 stores the unique call identifier forwarded in the call setup message in the cross-connect table with the newly created cross-connect. Otherwise, the call can be cranked back in a conventional manner to previous nodes to attempt re-routing of the call.
The steps taken when event 102 occurs correspond to similar steps shown in the FIG. 3 network flow chart. Briefly, at step 116 the call control infrastructure 30 instructs timer 106 (which is associated with connection manager 32) to start the timed release of all bearer channel cross-connects affected by the signalling failure. At step 118, the call control infrastructure 30 queries whether it is ingress point in the network 8 for any of the calls affected by the signalling failure. If it is not, at step 120 the call control infrastructure 30 signals a call release message, as described above, back to the preceeding node. However, if the switch is the ingress point into the network for any of the calls affected by the signalling failure, the call control infrastructure re-signals a call setup message at step 122, including the unique call identifier, across the network for each affected call.
The foregoing detailed description, as well as the claims below, have employed a variety of descriptive or functional terms to describe actions between various components. For example, one network element may “signal” another network element. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that such terms should be construed to encompass a variety of programmed mechanisms which can be used to implement the action. For example, a component may signal another component by the mechanism of transmitting bits there between. However, a component may signal another component by the mechanism of omitting to transmit bits when the other component is programmed to time-out waiting to receive the bits.
The preferred embodiment has also made specific reference to SVC service. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the preferred embodiment can be adapted to circumstances where the bearer channel is a soft permanent virtual connection (SPVC), wherein network elements are configured to use the signalling network to establish a connection across the network (although the signalling is not extended to the CPE). Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that while reference has been made to a point-to-point call, the preferred method may be applied multiple times to a signalling failure affecting a point-to-multipoint call, which in effect comprises a plurality of point-to-point calls originating from the same source. Similarly, those skilled in the art will appreciate that numerous other modifications and alternatives may be made to the preferred embodiment, which has made reference to the proprietary architecture and configuration of a Newbridge 36170 MainStreet Xpress(TM) switch, without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
1. A method of potentially revovering from a short-term signalling failure in a switched connection data transmission network comprising a plurality of interconnected network elements and a signalling network for establishing, maintaining and clearing a point-to-point call having a bearer channel cross-connection per network element, said method comprising the steps of:
(a) establishing a unique call identifier in respect of said call;
(b) associating said unique call indentifier with each said bearer channel cross-connection on each said network element in the path of said call; and
(c) upon detection of a failure in said signalling network affecting said call,
(i) transmitting said unique call identifier to each said network element, and
(ii) re-associating said unique call identifier with each surviving bearer channel cross-connection on each said network element to therby reclaim the cross-connections.
2. The method according to claim 1, further including the steps of:
actuating a timed release of said bearer channel cross-connections prior to step 1(c)(i), and,
aborting the release of said bearer channel cross-connections provided all surviving cross-connections have been timely reclaimed.
3. The method according to claim 2, wherein step 1(b) comprises the step of incorporating said unique call identifier in a call setup message transmitted to each said network element for establishing said call.
4. The method according to claim 3, wherein said unique call identifier is created by an ingress network element.
5. The method according to claim 4, wherein said unique call identifier comprises a field representative of said ingress network element and a field representative of a number which is unique with respect to said ingress network element.
6. The method according to claim 5, wherein said unique call identifier further comprises a field representative of a creator of said call.
7. The method according to claim 3, wherein step 1(c)(i) includes the step transmitting said unique call identifier by incorporating it in a call setup message sent by an ingress or egress network element to other said network elements.
8. The method according to claim 3, further comprising the step of releasing said call from call control infrastructure disposed on said network elements upon detection of said signalling network failure and before step 1(c)(i).
9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the step of releasing said call from said call control infrastructure includes the step of signalling a signalling network failure to network elements associated with said call over a functioning portion of said signalling network.
10. The method according to claim 9, wherein customer premise equipment are not signalled with respect to said signalling network failure.
11. The method according to claim 8, wherein step 1(c)(i) includes the step of an ingress or egress network element re-signalling a second call setup message incorporating said unique call identifier in response to receipt of said signalling network failure signal by the ingress or egress network element.
12. The method according to claim 2, wherein the process in steps 1(b) and 1(c)(ii) of associating said unique call identifier with a given said cross-connect comprises linking said identifier with an entry in a data structure representing existing cross-connects on a corresponding said network element.
13. The method according to claim 2, wherein said call is a switched virtual connection.
14. The method according to claim 2, wherein said call is a soft permanent virtual connection.
15. A switched connection data transmission network, comprising:
a plurality of interconnected network elements;
a signalling network associated with said interconnected network elements for dynamically establishing and clearing a bearer channel path comprising a bearer channel cross-connection per network element, wherein said signalling network is operative to signal a call setup message incorporating a unique call identifier to each said network element, and wherein each said network element includes a memory for associating the cross-connection made on the network element with said call identifier;
means for detecting a failure in said signalling network affecting said bearer channel path;
call re-initiation means, triggered by said signalling network failure detection means, for re-signalling said call setup message; and
reconstruction means for re-associating said cross-connection on each said network element with said call identifier.
16. The network according to claim 15, further comprising delayed cross-connect release means, triggered by said failure detection means, for the timed release of said bearer channel cross-connections; wherein said reconstruction means is operative to abort the release of said cross-connections provided all said surviving cross-connections have been timely reclaimed.
17. The network according to claim 16, wherein said signalling network comprises call control infrastructure disposed on each said network element for managing calls and an interface means for communicating signalling information between network elements.
18. The network according to claim 17 wherein said interface means comprises a signalling link.
19. The network according to claim 16, including a connection manager disposed on each said network element for creating and dismantling cross-connects thereon.
20. The network according to claim 19, wherein said call control infrastructure implements said failure detection means, said call re-initiation means, and said reconstruction means, and said connection manager implements said delayed cross-connect release means.
21. A network element for use in a switched connection, data transmission network employing a signalling network for establishing, maintaining clearing a call, said network element comprising:
a first port for communicating data over a first bearer channel;
a second port for communicating data over a second bearer channel;
call control infrastructure for processing and communicating signalling information with said signalling network;
cross-connect means, connected to said call control infrastructure, for establishing a bearer channel cross-connection between said first and second bearer channels;
memory means for linking a unique call identifier received from said signalling network with said bearer channel cross-connection;
detection means for detecting a failure in said signalling network that affects a call incorporating said bearer channel cross-connection;
corss-connect release means, triggered by said signalling failure detection means, for releasing said bearer channel cross-connection after a specified time period has elapsed; and
reconstruction means for comparing said stored call identifier against call identifies later received from said signalling network and for aborting the release of said bearer channel cross-connection in the event of a match.
22. The network element according to claim 21, wherein said detection means is operative to detect a failure in a portion of said call control infrastructure which affects said call.
23. The network element according to claim 22, wherein said call control infrastructure, responsive to said detection means, signals a signalling network failure to the call control infrastructure of a second, interconnected network element when said signalling network failure does not arise on said first network element.
24. The network element according to claim 23, further comprising means responsive to receipt of said signalling network failure signal for determining if said network element is an ingress point for a call affected by said signalling network failure and, in the event thereof, for signalling a call setup message incorporating said unique call identifier in respect of said call over said signalling network.
25. The network element according to claim 24, wherein said unique call identifier comprises a field representative of a network address of said network element, and a field representative of a number which is unique with respect to said network element.
26. A network element for use in a connection-oriented, data transmission network employing a signalling means for establishing, maintaining and clearing a call, said network element comprising:
a first port for communicating user information over a first bearer channel;
a second port for communicating user information over a second bearer channel;
a switching fabric connected to said ports for effecting a cross-connect between said first and second bearer channels;
user-plane means for controlling said switching fabric, said user-plane means being operative to store a unique call identifier relating to a call incorporating said cross-connect;
control-plane means, interfacing with said user-plane means and interfacing with said signalling means, for implementing control-plane protocols;
wherein said control-plane means is operative to detect a failure in said signalling means or a failure in a portion of said control plane apparatus affecting said cross-connect and in response thereto to signal a timed release of said cross-connect to said user-plane means; and
wherein said user-plane means is operative to compare call identifiers received from said control-plane means against said stored call identifier and in response thereto aborting said timed release of said cross-connect.
4697262 September 29, 1987 Segal et al.
5086499 February 4, 1992 Mutone
5436895 July 25, 1995 Matsumoto
5953651 September 14, 1999 Lu et al.
6151390 November 21, 2000 Volftsun et al.
Trillium Digital Systems, Inc., “Trillium ATM Signalling White Paper”, Apr. 30, 1996, Los Angeles, California, 90025-7118, USA.
Radcom Ltd., Boger, Yuval S., “An Introduction to ATM Signalling”, Jun., 1995, Radcom ATM Technical Brief, Israel.
Newbridge Networks Corporation, “SVCS On The 36170 Mainstreet Xpress Release 2.1”, Doc. No. 31NAN0013, Apr. 24, 1997, Kanata, Ontario, Canada.
Filed: Jul 6, 1998
Date of Patent: Sep 18, 2001
Assignee: Alcatel Canada Inc. (Kanata)
Inventors: John C Burns (Kanata), Jonathan L Bosloy (Kanata), David Watkinson (Kanata)
Primary Examiner: David R. Vincent
Attorney, Agent or Law Firm: Alfred A. Macchione
Current U.S. Class: Fault Recovery (370/216); Of A Switching System (370/244); Combining Or Distributing Information Via Time Channels (370/345)
International Classification: H04J/116;
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Now that the stage is determined, what’s the “nomy” in eco-nomy about? Nemein is “manage“, related to “mane” (hand). Manage what? People, their work, the entire planet, recently on fire:
Yosemite Rim Fire: Bad Economics At Work
[Energy Unleashed, Men Overwhelmed; 95% of California Visible Above; On Day 5 Of Rim Fire, only 2,000 firemen were fighting it, because another 6,000 professional firemen were employed on other Californian wildfires! Some can be seen above. San Francisco Bay is the gaping grey crocodile jaw full west (left!) of the Rim Fire]
The number one object of economy ought to be energy: what we need, how much of it, to do what, and at which ecological cost. So economics has to be refounded around the idea of energy.
Once one has refounded economy theory around energy, one gets a bonus. One has to remember that well channeled energy does work. So work, that is employment, is a natural attachment to energy focused economics.
Monetary considerations are tied to the fractional reserve system at this point. That’s what conventional economists do. They might as well do the economics of angels on a pinhead.
It’s not that money is purely imaginary, but it’s a convention. If all loans were recalled in all banks, one will find that there has been 30 times more money lent that there was to be lent from what the banks really owned (that’s what 3% reserve in USA banks mean).
Money, as it presently exist, is an artificial construct that exists only thanks to its government back-up. That is, money is backed-up by the established order, its “justice system”, taxmen, police, army. But that order is flimsy when the entire biosphere is wobbling, the forests are burning, and acidifying seas are rising, thanks to human activity.
To just worry about monetary policy is like worrying about a weltering bush because the giant, multimillennial sequoia across the clearing, just caught fire. As has been happening in Yosemite National Park for two weeks.
Think about the Yosemite Rim Fire, burning trees that existed before Rome: if that kind of disaster, a direct consequence of human activity, is not incorporated in economics, the very concept of economics, as used today, is a contradiction with what it was meant to be.
Economics then just becomes a way to employ thousands of sophists singing together about the beauty of the established order. But there is no beauty when the planet is on fire.
Notes: 1) The objection above is analogous to the one Socrates made against education and politics in Athens. I propose a remedy, Socrates did not. The remedy to Socrates’ complaint was the rise of democratic meritocratic institutions within the state (Rome started this).
2) The present fractional reserve system (“frac”) is artificial, and rests on the state. This is nothing new. Most of the currency used under Rome had an official value, imposed by the state, much superior to that of the precious metals the coins contained. The Tang dynasty in China, in the seventh century used paper money, with a value also imposed by the state (in both cases the cause was the dearth of precious metals).
I propose to use Absolute Worth Energy as a (much less arbitrary) currency. Anyway,
3) Economics was invented as a concept by Xenophon, a hyper intellectual, part of Socrates’ school. Scholars are getting the notion that much of macroeconomics’ foundations are too uncertain to be anything but a matter of philosophical debate.
See in the New York Times What Is Economics Good For? The authors are philosophy professors, one of them chairperson at Duke university. Extracts:
“A student who graduates with a degree in economics leaves college with a bachelor of‘science’, but possesses nothing so firm as the student of the real world processes of chemistry or even agriculture.
… Over time, the question of why economics has not (yet) qualified as a science has become an obsession among theorists, including philosophers of science like us.
It’s easy to understand why economics might be mistaken for science. It uses quantitative expression in mathematics and the succinct statement of its theories in axioms and derived “theorems,” so economics looks a lot like the models of science we are familiar with from physics. Its approach to economic outcomes — determined from the choices of a large number of “atomic” individuals — recalls the way atomic theory explains chemical reactions. Economics employs partial differential equations like those in a Black-Scholes account of derivatives markets, equations that look remarkably like ones familiar from physics. The trouble with economics is that it lacks the most important of science’s characteristics — a record of improvement in predictive range and accuracy.
… Moreover, many economists don’t seem troubled when they make predictions that go wrong. Readers of Paul Krugman and other like-minded commentators are familiar with their repeated complaints about the refusal of economists to revise their theories in the face of recalcitrant facts…What is economics up to if it isn’t interested enough in predictive success to adjust its theories the way a science does when its predictions go wrong?
Unlike the physical world, the domain of economics includes a wide range of social “constructions” — institutions like markets and objects like currency and stock shares — that even when idealized don’t behave uniformly. They are made up of unrecognized but artificial conventions that people persistently change and even destroy in ways that no social scientist can really anticipate. We can exploit gravity, but we can’t change it or destroy it. No one can say the same for the socially constructed causes and effects of our choices that economics deals with.
…no one can predict the direction of scientific discovery and its technological application. That was Popper’s key insight… scientific paradigm shifts seem to come almost out of nowhere. As the rate of acceleration of innovation increases, the prospects of an economic theory that tames the economy’s most powerful forces must diminish…”
This brings us back to Yosemite’s Rim Fire (I run there all the time, loving the giant trees). Why did that happen? Well, the Forest Service took days to bring the big planes dumping ninety tons of fire retardant at each pass.
Why? Sequestration. Another bright ‘economic’ idea from Obama’s bankster friendly cabinet. Ignorant little greedsters hide behind ‘economic’ theories that advance banksterism, thus their future personal earnings, sequoias be damned.
Sequestration caused huge cuts in many parts of the Federal Budget of the USA. Including fire fighting (the Forest service was literally running out of money to fight fires, before the Rim Fire, explaining its slow reaction; it had $50 million left for the year, for the whole USA; the Rim Fire will cost several times that!).
And, of course, the most significant victim of sequestration is deep science, the very engine of humanity.
Although the location and nature of revolutionary thinking is hard to predict, it’s easy to predict that, by financing enough students of revolutionary thinking, one will get breakthroughs.
Some facts on Yosemite Rim Fire after 14 days: aerial tankers flight time: 14,500 hours. 15,000 tons of liquids dropped by aircraft on fire, most of it red fire retardant laden with chemicals. Uncontrolled fire edge: 100 miles (160 kilometers), controlled edge: 66 miles (90 kilometers), bulldozer lines: 106 miles (170 kilometers).
Tags: Energy, Fractional Reserve, Nature Economics, Rim Fire, Sequestration, Sophists, What Good Economics?
This entry was posted on August 30, 2013 at 10:30 pm and is filed under Economy, Energy, Systems Of Thought. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
27 Responses to “Real Economics”
richard reinhofer Says:
re: They might as well do the economics of angels on a pinhead.
Breathtaking. Thank You.
Thanks Richard! I have been taking heavy flak for my will to extermination of various servants of Pluto, so I appreciate the support, all the more!
I just added a few striking facts on the Rim Fire, in the notes at the end, by the way…
de Foucaud Paul Says:
Patrice,
“attachez vous aux branches” :
La race humaine est tout simplement déjà trop dominante sur notre planète, titre d’exemple, au point de mettre en danger la survie des abeilles avec les conséquences désastreuses que ceci engendrerait.
Nous allons malheureusement sans tarder à être confrontés à des conflits de plus en plus violents pour cette seule raison,
Du reste, il n’ont jamais cessés depuis l’avènement de l’homo sapiens.
Cher Paul: En effet. Tres juste.
The main source of human violence, congenital or cogitated, is too many people in one place, considering available resources and technology.
(Exactly the situation now: Japan uses seven (7) times the resources it can provide itself with. For example.)
That’s why the military angle always dominate, and any left wing/socialist/humanitarian thinking neglecting that most major context is as if spitting facing the breeze: it comes right back.
So it has been. It’s nearly the definition of human beings. Only all encompassing intelligence is deeper than that, and, even then, unavoidably concludes that intelligence is about dominating the environment, thus going back to war. War against other people, bad systems of thought, or against the elements.
Even Islam got that one right (concept of JIHAD), and even Hitler, generally a deep moron, explained that to his subordinates. So it should not be too hard to understand.
EugenR Says:
Dear Patrice, i feel sorry for the devastation of the forest close to your home and has nothing to add. As contrary to it, to your ideas about economy i have a lot to add and most of rather complementary than contrary.
1. You correctly said macroeconomics is far from being a science in way as the natural sciences are, where most of the predictions are verifiable. Macroeconomics as all the other social “sciences” speak most of the time about tendencies and not necessary outcomes. The Fed’s policy of Quantitative Easing’s aim is to try to increase the aggregate demand in the economy. It’s very partial success was caused by the TENDENCY of the US public since 2008 to decrease their borrowings, and the commercial banks TENDENCIES to keep their liquid money reserves above the required minimum rather in the Fed’s vault than borrowing it. As you can see i used twice the world tendency and not even once the world “the outcome will be”. By the way, if these tendencies would not exist but would be to the opposite direction, the inflation would “PROBABLY” rise its head. I say probably and not for sure, because the production capacities are unemployed. Probably the inflation if appears, it will be caused by the energy and/or other commonality price increase rather than limits of production capacities, that seem to be unlimited.
2. The golden standard money is history, and even more, a false history. The coins never really represented real value even when minted out of pure gold (it can’t be done even technically). Because of scarcity of certain metal the rulers used to mint coins, they needed to limit themselves and this gave credibility to the system. Still inflation existed also before the invention of the paper money.
Since 2008 the US and European governments have overdone with printing money. The trillions of dollars sounds very frightening, yet surprise, no inflation. But what if??? What if the tendencies of the public to save will go again down and the tendencies of the banks to borrow will go up? The answer is the government has many instruments how to influence the monetary liquidity which have bigger impact on money circulation in the economy than the money printing itself. For example the minimum reserve rate requirement from the commercial banks. The problem is, if used these tools, the leading role in the monetary system will be transferred from the commercial banks to the government. But this is already more a political question than a economic question, i just would add that seeing the performances of the banksters in the last years i wouldn’t see it as such a big catastrophe.
3. The external debt of US is much more disturbing. If one day the Chinese would decide to stop to finance the US current deficit, again rather for some political reason than economic reason, it could cause a big shakeup with the world economy. Lets hope this change will be rather gradual than one step act.
4. As to the fraction reserve system. Since the minimum reserve rate requirement went down in the last 40 decades to disturbing low levels, (In England and i think in Australia too, it is “0”), so the system actually transferred the right to print money from governments to the privately owned banks. (The result among others are the unprecedented rewards of the banksters). How and why it happened is a good question and i really don’t have the answer for it. Probably because the governments have done pretty lousy job, while siting on the printing machine.
Now the new Basel regulations try mildly to correct the situation with the new equity requirements. I can’t go into explaining this issue, it is explained in my book;
http://rodeneugen.wordpress.com/2013/04/10/1801/
Important to say is, that as result of changing the fraction reserve system will be necessarily return of the role of money printing to the government. Maybe again it is not such a bad idea, but it is rather a political issue than an economic one.
re: 3. The external debt of US is much more disturbing. If one day the Chinese would decide to stop to finance the US current deficit, again rather for some political reason than economic reason, it could cause a big shakeup with the world economy. Lets hope this change will be rather gradual than one step act.
The Chinese own a very small piece of our debt, we could pay them off any time we wish. And if they decided to stop buying Treasuries the Fed could replace them with a keystroke.
Indeed, Richard. I would go even further. I view Chinese lending to the USA as a rent the PRC is paying to be part of the action. So it’s a favor TO THEM, by the USA. It’s a nice entanglement, in a spirit of togetherness, but it does not go further than that.
In particular, it’s of no strategic consequence WHATSOEVER. Quite the opposite; it helps USA finance, hence the USA military.
I would say the reality is much more complicated than this. If the Chinese, or any other net importer will decide to stop to lend to US, It means they have to stop to export to the US all their products. Then if they go even farther and start to sell their Treasury securities, this may have two possible consequences. a. the Fed will not intervene and the Treasury price will go down, it means the interest rate will go up. Not good for economy and employment. b. The Fed will purchase the treasuries. If it happens when the resources are stretched to their limits, it will cause inflation. This will happen exactly at times when the imported merchandise will have to be replaced by local production, this means other pressure on the resources. Conclusion; instability to the US economy.
But what will happen to the Chinese and the World economy? Probably the Chinese will have to re-valuate their currency against the US Dollar, to reduce their surplus in the trade. Otherwise the only way to reduce their export to the US can be done only administratively, this means over regulated economy, and this even the Chinese don’t want. And what about Europe. Europe will on one side enjoy the revaluation of the Chinese Yuan, but on the other side its own import from China will be much more expensive.
I can continue to develop the scenario on and on, but the main thing is that until US lives on borrowed money, the real decision about what will happen in the world economy is in Beijing and not in Washington. If you believe you can trust them, they make always the right decisions, then you can calm down. Probably they are not worse decision makers than the guys in Washington, but……..
Dear Eugen: thanks for the shared sorrow for the giant forest. Today much of California has unbreathable air, with visibility 50 meters. The fire has broken through to the south.
The whole idea of the “FRAC” (my name for the fractional reserve system) is make private individuals, the bankers, the creators of money. This can avoid plutocracy IF & ONLY IF bankers are viewed as AGENTS OF THE STATE (or at least 99% so, through TIGHT REGULATIONS). Obviously not the case now.
Now there is the real economy, the financial economy (banks), the shadow economy (shadow banks, just as big), and the derivative economy (ten times the real one). Chinese lending finances the real economy (hopefully). Should it stop, one could keep the real economy going by having the government just making it so.
Only the real economy matters. It’s a bunch of contracts between actors. With computers, as Richard pointed out, they could be redrawn probably ith just one click of the mouse.
The most important economic problem, in many places on Earth, is whether anti-missile defense is working, up, and running. with crazed psychopaths such as Kim and Assad minutes of missiles flight away, that is the question.
Thoughts about macroeconomics | EugenR Lowy עוגן רודן Says:
[…] https://patriceayme.wordpress.com/2013/08/30/real-economics/#comment-17371 […]
I would like to add to the problem of environmental neglect you mentioned. It is obvious that the market economy and the representative government system has no real tools how to cope with the problem of environmental sustainability, so the leaders do nothing and neglect the issue. The environmental problems are too long term, beyond the time line of any government, even beyond the two term French president term (14 years). Eventually when they will become short term problems, it will be most probably too late. If to look for solution, it has to be out of the existing political economic system, and i don’t see any example of a economic system that really has the formula how to approach this problem (except maybe in Bhutan and some monasteries). What is obvious, the existing capitalistic economic system, driven by need for interest repayments and need to achieve ever growing yields is the worse of all the possible systems to cope with the environmental problems.
Dear Eugen: Agreed. However, as related more or less in J. Diamond’s Collapse, and as I have mentioned many times, the Europeans and Japanese were able to deal with a huge ecological crisis in the 14C.
OK, Europe lost half of its population (at least). However kings were able to take strong ecological measures. In France some mountainous regions were outright prohibited for human occupation (to allow forests to come back, curbing soil erosion).
So if the Middle ages could do it, why not us?
Leaving aside for a moment the fact we are all too led by the nose by armies of plutocrats, and their agents, conscious, or not, it’s because the ecological problem, just like the plutocratic problem is global now, and power is local (answer to the question; why is it that the French republic is bombing all over?)
Dear Patrice, I own you about France. I am not an expert on France, far from it, just read enough to try to figure out what really happened. Learned from the historical disaster of the Versailles agreement, composed by the French Georges Clemenceau, after s WWII they tried something different. France was after the second world war the most beneficial country. While the Germans tried to scrawl out from the rubble and the English sink into economic dis-functionality the French had non of this. Its enough to remember the French creativity in every field after the war. Then the EU was created, and again France came out with the upper hand. And then De-Gaul withdraw from Nato enjoying the US umbrella without to pay for it.
And Paris was again Paris, the cultural capital of the world. What now? Even the French movies are not anymore what they used to be. Where is Depardieu compared to Jean Gabin or Gérard Philipe? Or i don’t know something that is happening in the French culture?
As to the economy it will have to adopt itself if not worse. Its car industry lives on subsidies, (Reno is state owned). Germany is less willing to continue with the “widergutmachen”. They started to be annoyed, when someone mentioned their history. We could see it in the case of Greece.
And the main issue, what that means to be French in these days anyway? All this communities of immigrants, did they ever heard the name of Vercingetorix. Maybe if they read the Asterix and Obelix. Or did they read Zola or Victor Hugo? Am i missing something? I don’t speak French, so maybe a lot is happening and i just don’t know about it.
I believe France is the most militaristic against the fundamental Muslims because the Maghreb is in its courtyard, and not so long ago was part of France. Probably they know something that other European nations don’t. By the way, did you hear stories about the mass murdering of French Algerians when Algeria became independent? I lately saw a mesmerizing documentary about it. If interested i will find for you link.
Dear Eugen: First I can say is that I broached many of these questions before.
The Versailles Treaty was just, magnificent, deep, splendid. misericordious. It created a free Eastern Europe. Those who differ, embrace Hitler.
The crypto-Nazi, plutocratic Lord Keynes disagreed with Versailles. Keynes, a Lord, hated the French REPUBLIC. Lord Keynes gave in 1919 to those who would call themselves the Nazis the sort of garbage talking points about Versailles that has polluted mentalities ever since. I mentioned this many times.
Saying Versailles was bad is saying Poland, Czeckoslovakia, etc, was bad, and, even more importantly, that Auschwitz was good. The Nazis killed 20 millions in extermination camps alone, because of Lord Keynes, at least in part.
I am half African myself, the real thing, not in the sense of Americano-American with a beige color. And I have an essay ready explaining why France has jurisdiction over Syria (I did not put it out, because the usal haters will turn around and accuse me of “colonialism”, whatever that means)
You can send me that link over Algeria. My family lost all its property there, and several lives. All 100% criminal, of course. People who had done good all their lives were rewarded with suffering and death.
As my Algerian born dad discovered Algerian oil and gas, Algeria profits mightily to this day of the good works of my family, which did not see its country again since sometimes in the late 1960s.
So be careful what you say about uncouth “immigrants”! ;-)!
French culture is not Zola or Hugo, just. Zola and Hugo embraced a very deep, multimillennial system of ideas and mood that pervaded the place that became France for at least 45,000 years.
That mood, the mood of those who have seen much, is inclusive, more interested by truth and the good life than slogans and the herd.
Why? Because no less than the two main north-south routes and the one and only Med to Atlantic (s?) route go across France. European geography.
Dear Patrice, the documentary is about massacre of pied noir in Oran, murder of a Algerian Jewish musician, massacre of Italian villagers and interview of women participating in the war of independence. The documentary was made by Jean Pierre Ledan a half French half Algerian. I can’t google his movies in English, probably in French it will be easier. If you have difficulty to find the movies and are still interested, i can find the contact to Mr.Jean Pierre Ledan directly.
I used to be a native French speaker, ;-)!, also being half French (half count d’Ambiallet, half Italian), half Algerian.
September 1, 2013 at 5:25 pm | Reply
About the allegations that eliminating the criminal against humanity in Syria has to do with gas fields:
The Leviathan gas field is a large natural gas field located in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Israel. It was discovered in November 2010.
The gas field is located roughly 130 kilometres (81 mi) west of Haifa in waters 1,500 metres (4,900 ft) deep in the Levantine basin, a rich hydrocarbon area in one of the world’s larger offshore gas finds of the past decade. It’s south of the Lebanon-Israel maritime border.
The gas find has the potential to change Israel’s foreign relations towards a closer collaboration with Cyprus and with Greece.
The other fields are either much closer to Israel, or directly south of Cyprus.
Jeff McG Says:
Fukushima a slow motion train wreck
The news about Fukushima lately has been a lot worse than many had been hoping for nearly 2 1/2 years after the tsunami flooded the complex of nuclear power stations, scramming reactors, knocking out emergency power, melting 3 reactor cores and causing a loss of coolant at a spent fuel pool located too close to reactors themselves.
According to a nuclear expert in Ottawa, Canada the latest plan of the Japanese government – TEPCO having been deemed not competent to remain in charge of repair efforts – to freeze cooling water to prevent it from further contaminating the ocean, is a very complex undertaking technically and the odds against it succeeding are high given that another earthquake may rupture bolted-together holding tanks which will otherwise probably rapidly experience corrosion damage from the contaminated seawater. Radiation levels are said to be 18 times higher than previously known – another big OOOPS!
It’s not clear how many more big OOOPS these guys will be allowed before a worse outcome than Chernobyl ensues, given that the amount of radiation in the contaminated seawater is said to be double that released when Chernobyl blew up. Let’s hope these guys get their act together – and fast!!! The whole thing sounds like a huge slow-motion train wreck with a very bad ending that may be yet to come.
Dear Jeff:
Yes, well, that’s a problem in this world: one has to get it right. The design and implementation thereof at Fukushima was insane. Not as insane as dumping zillions of tons of CO2 in the atmosphere, though.
Japan has a problem in the sense that most of its nuclear plants were built within easy access of giant tsunamis. The largest tsunamis in Japan in the last two centuries were 100 meters high (yes an unbelievable 300+ feet!).
And the Fukushima plant was not tsunami resistant (in a place where there had been a giant tsunamy 12 centuries earlier!) Some of this could have been remedied in a few days’ work (movable diesel generators). Other plants switched to diesel and were OK.
California shut down the San Onofre nuclear plant, built along the sea, waiting for a tsunami. That was a good idea (shutting it down). Nuclear can be made safe, and increase safety relative to CO2 dumping. But it has to be done tight, and right.
At Fukushima, four reactors went bad after being hit by a 30 meters wave. At Chernobyl, a reactor generating 100,000 Megawatts (!!!!!!!!!!!! About 50 times its safety limit) exploded in a nuclear explosion. It’s hard for me to believe they did not secure yet the radioactive pools they set (idiotically!) next to the reactors…
Fire GDP
How one measures a Great Depression is of the essence. If one measures it by EMPLOYMENT, we are in a Great Depression and stay there. (One ought NOT to measure by GDP, as this can be distorted by the financial sector.)
Right now, thanks to one of the wealthy golden banker boys in Obama’s cabinet, sequestration is in place. It’s devastating many of the sensitive tendrils of the economy of the USA feeling the future, such as deep science.
The Rim Fire still burning in Yosemite is a direct consequence of sequestration: not only prevention had been stopped by lack of funding (no prescribed burns in winter), but, when the fire started, the US Forest Service had only 50 million dollars for the rest of the year, for the whole USA. So the planes were not sent, for several days during which the fire exploded.
Finally the planes were sent and cities saved. The cost of the fire is now approaching 100 million dollars, just for the Forest Service. And let’s not talk about the climate consequences of what is the largest fire in Californian history, in term of volume of wood burned! It’s expected that, due to the heat of combustion that vitrified the ground, and the drought, much of the forest will not regrow.
https://patriceayme.wordpress.com/2013/08/30/real-economics/
Losses to the USA Treasury from plutocratic tax evasion to fiscal heavens, per year: 1,375 billion dollars. More than 1/3 of the USA budget.
Iwo Freshtag Says:
There isn’t such thing as USA Treasury…
Surely you are joking? http://www.treasury.gov/Pages/default.aspx
http://www.treasury.gov
view auctions. find a form. get tax information at IRS.gov. see interest rate da…ta. switch to electronic benefits. find currency and coin information. report a suspicious email or suspected fraud view Budget and Performance reports. have a lost or expired check reissued
This is one of the more malignant forms of Japanese-style corruption. Problems fester as they are ignored, denied, swept under the rug. Until one day they blow up, leaving a wide arc of destruction. This form of corruption is better known as denial. It’s easier to change the design of a power plant than to change the culture that allows dangerous design defects to persist merely so the people in charge can engage in denial, but unless the people making the decisions can be made to become more responsible, nothing changes. There’s a saying in Japan which roughly translates as “The nail that sticks up will get beaten down.” Fine when it’s only a nail you could trip over but disastrous when it’s a nuclear power plant and a whistle blower will be ignored, fired or worse.
There’s no doubt the Japanese people must be very angry at some of their decision makers, but it remains to be seen if they will be cashiered and replaced with more responsible people. Meanwhile, the government has a very expensive and technically difficult mess to clean up, this the envy of no one.
Tragic, too that the Japan, having suffered Hiroshima and Nagasaki because its leaders were seduced by fascism is suffering again because of its leaders’ arrogance that nuclear technology could be harnessed without stringent oversight and redundant safety measures. They failed to recognize that clustering so many reactors together along with the spent fuel pool posed much greater risks than they imagined. The myth that their regulatory regime had everything under control has been exploded, but only at a terrible price.
A reenactment of the Chernobyl disaster has played repeatedly on German TV over the past several years, witnessing an argument between control room operators over how to conduct the reactor test, wherein they did just the opposite of what would have been sensible to do based on the reactor’s design, triggering the explosion.
Well Jeff, graphite-gas reactors were known to be explosive…
The reactors in Japan were developed for military reasons too. Putting them next to tsunamis is just sloppy…
Massive effects from the CO2 built-up are getting completely obvious. Warmer air carries more moisture, and climatic latitudes are shifting north.
The Western USA is entering the greatest drought ever recorded, as Baja California migrates north. (On the good side, that make the Americans more cooperative with the EU!)
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Understanding eXtreme Relative Work (XRW) Skydiving
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June 19, 2019 by Taya Weiss·Comments Off on Understanding eXtreme Relative Work (XRW) Skydiving
Extreme relative work or (XRW) is the formal term used for group skydiving. It is also known as Cross Relative Work or belly flying. As the name suggests this form of skydiving involves the movement of more of a group of skydivers in a close proximity formation. Over the past few years, Cross Relative Work (XRW) has become very popular amongst skydivers. This is largely due to advancements in wingsuits and parachutes. In light of this, this article offers a glance at Cross Relative Work as a sky diving discipline. It sheds light on some general safety rules, requirements and guidelines to keep in mind if one wants to attempt this exciting form of skydiving. Keep reading to find out more!
How High are Skydives?
Skydives are usually carried out from an average height of 12,500ft translating to close to a minute in freefall duration. Higher skydives do occur, but they require special conditions such as pressurized and bottled oxygen. For group skydiving involving five people or less, the deployment attitude is generally set 1,500 feet higher than the standard. This figure is increased to an additional 2,000 feet where the group consists of more than six people.
Equipment Required for the Dive
The following equipment is needed for a skydive:
The Sky-Diving Parachute
Well, this one goes without saying. There’s a general consensus that skydiving wouldn’t be fun without the parachute! No one has ever wrestled with the laws of gravity and won. That being said, there is a bit more to know about skydiving parachutes. For instance, skydiving parachutes come in many dimensions. As a rule of thumb, beginners should opt for the larger, more forgiving variant. Skydivers are equipped with two parachutes, with one serving as a reserve in case of malfunction. They are contained in a bag known as a container.
The Automatic Activation Device
Its function is easily discernible from its name- it automatically activates your parachute in circumstances where you can’t do so e.g. in case of a medical emergency.
The Jumpsuit
Jumpsuits are specific to the skydiving discipline. (XRW) skydiving suits feature “booties.” Wingsuits are also common This feature makes certain maneuvers and formations more efficient.
The Altimeter
As the name suggests, this instrument measures your altitude allowing you to know when to deploy. They come in digital and analog variants.
The Goggles
These shield your eyes as you free-fall. Some are clear and some are tinted. Goggles also allow one to enjoy the amazing views as they fall.
The Helmet
This equipment protects you as you exit for the fall and during the actual fall. It is also a great way to get one’s hair out of the way.
Skydiving equipment can be bought or rented. It is recommended that passionate skydivers purchase their own equipment. However, considering that skydiving equipment may cost one several thousand dollars, one may begin by buying the smaller equipment like the altimeter.
Skydiving Prerequisites
For one to participate in group skydiving or skydiving in general, they must fulfill some prerequisites. Skydiving is self-regulated and in the United States, it is largely governed by the United States Parachute Association (USPCA). To participate in group skydiving or any other form of skydiving one has to be at least eighteen years in the United States. In some European countries, the minimum age is a bit lower at sixteen years. There is a general consensus that one has to be in good physical condition to attempt skydiving. This is considering that you will have to carry upwards of thirty pounds in gear. Older people looking to participate should consult their doctors first. Weight is also a factor to consider. In general, you shouldn’t weigh more than 220 pounds if looking to attempt it. The reason for some of the physical requirements is that skydiving puts a toll on one’s body. Moreover being leaner will go a long way in ensuring that you can perform all maneuvers. It may also make landing easier.
Aside from that, it is generally required that one reveals pre-existing medical conditions before being cleared to skydive. The temperature differentials coupled with emotional stress and atmospheric pressure may not be good for people with certain medical conditions such as cardiovascular complications.
June 15, 2019 by Taya Weiss·Comments Off on Skydiving as a Competitive Sport
Competitive sky diving has its roots in 1930’s Russia. In its early days, skydivers would compete on target landing precision. Ever since then, the sport has come a long way. Today, competitive skydiving is coordinated by (FAI) Fédération Aéronautique Internationale in collaboration with the (IPC) International Parachuting Commission. The first ever competition coordinated by (FAI) occurred in 1951 in Yugoslavia. Way back then, style, accuracy, and freefall were the only criteria being judged. Today, as you shall see below, the criteria have greatly expanded. Competitive skydiving now includes disciplines such as formation skydiving, freestyle, style skydiving, skysurfing, precision landing, and canopy formation. Keep reading to find out more.
In this exciting discipline, skydivers use boards specifically designed for skysurfing (known as skyboards) to do maneuvers such as barrel rolls and loops in the sky! This sport was invented in 1986 by Jean-Pascal Oron and Dominique Jacquet. Ever since then it has grown in popularity and currently done competitively. Judging criteria involves the number of maneuvers conducted and interestingly, the skill of the flier handling the camera in capturing moments perfectly! Some skydiving championships include ESPN X games, the USA National Sky Surf Championships, SSI pro tour sky surfing, and the Sky Surfing World Championships.
Precision Landing
This is perhaps the oldest discipline tested in competitive skydiving. It once was the only discipline tested, back in the ‘30s. As the name suggests this discipline is tested for how accurately a skydiver can land on a decided landing point. This point is usually 1.9-inch disk rigged with an electronic sensor for measuring landing distance from the middle. The first accuracy landing competition organized by (FAI) was in 1951, in Yugoslavia. In the early days, lightly modified military parachutes. The sport has a long way since then.
Freefall Style Skydiving
It is also popularly known as freefall gymnastics for its resemblance to its on-ground counterpart. As the nickname suggests, freefall style skydiving essentially involves performing gymnastic maneuvers in the sky. Competitive style skydiving is judged for the speed of the maneuvers and excellence in execution. The first ever freefall style skydiving competition was held in 1962 at the World Championship in Orange in the United States, coordinated by (FAI). Today, judging is done with the aid of high-quality cameras that produce video for analysis. Competitors usually start out at an average altitude of 2200 m above ground. As they achieve freefall speed, they begin their maneuvers. There is a time limit of 16 seconds in the beginning rounds. Competitors who perform beyond the time limit are eliminated. There is also a different category for freestyle skydivers under the age of 25.
Canopy Formation
Also known as Canopy Relative Work, this discipline denotes the movement of two or more skydivers in close proximity or in actual contact with each other. The discipline developed in the early 1980s when thrill-seeking skydivers began performing interesting maneuvers such as sitting on their partners’ canopies. Since then, canopy formation has become a competitive discipline. It is judged in three categories; the four-way sequential, the four-way rotations and the two way sequential. The four-way rotation involves a group of four skydivers. Having been given a time restriction of thirty seconds they are tasked with creating a four stack set-up. The world record for this category belongs to Russia. The record holder for the four-way sequential is the United States as is the 2 way sequential. Judging may occur in two ways. Each teams camera operator my either live stream footage or deliver it upon completion of the discipline.
Formation Sky-diving
Involves the performance of a pre-arranged routine in the sky usually involving two to eight skydivers. This discipline may be carried out horizontally or vertically. The competition comprises of ten rounds with each round having six formations. Technical performance is the criterion used to judge this event. Video footage from the videographer skydiver is used to assess performance. The best performing team is that which has accomplished the highest number of technically sound formations within the given time limit.
The First eXtreme Relative Work Competition
A new entry in the world of competitive skydiving is (XRW). The competition was held in 2018 by Alter Ego.
March 30, 2013 by Taya Weiss·Comments Off on PROJECT XRW DUBAI DOCUMENTARY LAUNCHES: Sponsor a child today!
Team XRW kicked off our donation drive by contributing $2,000 to sponsor 10 children at our partner school in South Africa. The Pastoral Centre Preschool is a remarkable, innovative, and life-saving institution in the heart of an informal settlement in Soweto. Help us reach our goal of $10,000, which will fill two classrooms with future leaders. Every dollar goes straight to the cause. Sponsoring a vulnerable child, aged 2-5 years, guarantees their education for a year and two square meals a day – something that none of their families can provide without assistance. Many of these kids have lost one or both parents to HIV/AIDS, and they are all growing up in a high-risk and high poverty environment with no electricity, running water, or indoor plumbing. We are passionate about our Flying Dreams South Africa program, and we invite you to join us. Someone from our US-based team visits the school at least once a year and Warren Pretorius, a Raise the Sky board member, lives nearby and checks in with the teachers and kids on a regular basis. Please help us make a difference to a child’s education today by clicking the “Donate” button on the top right. Any amount – any amount at all – is welcome. $200 sponsors a child for a year. It doesn’t matter how much – Donate now!
April 4, 2012 by Taya Weiss·Comments Off on Project XRW: Flying Dreams Over Sebastian
For two days in January, Raise the Sky partnered with the Skydive Sebastian dropzone and Skydive Chicago to begin a bold expansion of Project XRW. The main goals were to fly the largest mixed canopy-wingsuit flocks ever attempted, to include new wingsuit pilots, and to raise awareness for the Flying Dreams project that brings skydivers into under-resourced schools to connect with kids.
I remember the first time I pulled my new wingsuit out of the box, zipped it on, and flew towards PD Factory Team member Jessica Edgeington under her 71 square foot Velocity. In September 2010 the sight of the canopy, the lines, and Jess’s body coming closer and closer – and then stopping next to me, in freefall – was almost too cool, and crazy, to process.
Fast forward to January 2012. I’m in the door of Skydive Chicago’s Otter over Sebastian’s blue coastline, giving the count to lead six wingsuiters and two videographers down to a 3-way canopy formation. As I fly in, I’m focused on dialing in my no-contact slot so I’m symmetrical with Jessica and Mike Swanson on the other side, at the front of a 9-way. We’ve come a long way, and the more amazing stuff we accomplish, the more there is to learn and wonder at.
The expanded Project XRW Sebastian team accomplished incredible things. The 8- and 9-way flocks were bigger and more challenging than the few smaller, groundbreaking flocks we did at Skydive Elsinore just over a year ago. Edgeington, Jonathan Tagle, Ian Bobo, Jeff Nebelkopf, Will Kitto, and I represented the core founding team. We invited Mike Swanson, Roberta Mancino, Barry Holubeck, Jhonathan Florez, and Mark Harris to fly with us. Raise the Sky’s Eli Bolotin not only stepped up to the plate as our ground crew coordinator once again, but also took on a data collection role. Bionic Avionics sponsored FlySight GPS units for the team, and Eli employed the use of a slightly less high-tech bathroom scale from WalMart to complete our analytical tool kit.
From wing loadings to vertical speeds, we are gathering more and more data from the FlySight GPS units, and we hope to use this information to make Project XRW cooler and safer. Our vertical flocking speeds tended to be in the 32-35 mile per hour range, and canopy pilot wing loadings ranged from 2.7 to 3.2. Jessica Edgeington wore so much weight she wouldn’t have been able to walk to the plane if she didn’t adhere to a notoriously hardcore workout schedule.
Remember when you had never heard of XRW? Well, now we have sub-disciplines. We are learning a lot about engineering and flying no-contact mixed flocks as our numbers expand. For the first time, a group of wingsuiters flew a tight formation inside a 3-way canopy flock. We began to strategize about what’s possible given what we know about burbles and break-offs.
After our flocking goals were achieved, several of us went out to try a 2-stack of Velocities and a wingsuiter surf-style docked underneath. It was the sunset load of the last day, and I had first shot at the dock. Bobo and Tagle got linked up and were flying steady, but as I approached I realized too late that the fall rate of a 2-stack was drastically different from what we had been doing all day, and I blazed past it with too much forward speed – waving hi to Bobo on the way. Will Kitto had followed me to the formation, and had enough reaction time to slow down his forward speed. With a few tries in the remaining altitude, he managed to get linked up with Bobo, and Nebelkopf filmed from above as I laughed my way down to pull altitude with Florez, who had also misjudged the fall rate.
After our last sunset jump, many of us sat down for a Skydive Radio roundtable interview at a picnic table over a few beers. As a group, we contemplated out loud about the newness of it all, and how high-performance canopy lines are less like a web and more like a cheese slicer (see “What can possibly go wrong?”). Team bonding had begun.
The morning after the Project concluded Edgeington, Tagle, Eli Bolotin and I drove to Vero Beach Elementary School to meet with principal Bonnie Swanson and a class of second graders who were extremely knowledgeable about human flight already. When asked what skydivers do, responses included, “they jump and then they ride their parachutes softly to the floor. Also they sometimes jump off cliffs and it’s awesome! And they have to know what the wind is!”
Nearly all of the students at the school are in need of subsidized or free lunches, and many are homeless. We plan to return with more PD Factory Team members in April, when we will spend more time with kids and continue to develop relationships with them. The Flying Dreams project is as much about articulating our core values to ourselves as it is about sharing those values with others.
Team XRW takes risks, and sometimes, we fail. When we don’t make it, we encourage each other to go up and try it again. In skydiving as in life, when you’re still figuring stuff out, you have to do it more than once. Kids who start out with the socio-economic deck stacked against them need that teamwork and confidence as much as we do. Luckily, Skydive Sebastian made us look good even when, as part of the learning process, a formation was less than perfect. And the Skydive Chicago Otter was there, waiting to help us try it again.
What can possibly go wrong?
Just in case you were starting to think it’s easy…
Exits: For wingsuiters, flying larger suits and being very focused on watching and following canopy pilots that can be hard to see out the door creates a higher risk of a tail strike.
Approach: Collisions are always a danger, as in any formation flying. Wingsuit flyers aiming at canopies must have them visible at all times on the approach and take great care in being precise with their aim and flight path. Multiple wingsuits on approach towards canopies need to also be aware of each other to avoid a collision. Finally, high performance canopy flocking comes with its own set of risks, and adding wingsuiters takes away much of a canopy pilot’s range to use evasive maneuvers.
Relative Work: A wingsuiter creates the same vortices that a canopy creates, and just as two canopies move towards each other when bumping end cells, a wingsuiter can get sucked into a canopy’s burble, leading to injuries from contact with taught lines (“like a cheese slicer”) and the possibility of a difficult malfunction for the canopy pilot.
Surf-style docks could result in a premature deployment as the canopy pilot may engage in some some aggressive handling of the wingsuiter’s rig.
When flying smoke to highlight flight paths, chunks can fly off from smoke canisters without screens on them, risking hitting others in the formation because of the different positioning of wingsuiters relative to canopy pilots.
Breakoff: Wingsuiters flying in front of canopies have the potential to burble the high performance parachutes, which can cause malfunctions.
Landing: For canopy pilots, the risks of landing very highly loaded canopies have been well documented. Trim tabs add another layer of risk.
April 3, 2012 by Taya Weiss·Comments Off on RAISE THE SKY’S PROJECT XRW TIMELINE
Canopy-wingsuit interaction has a history longer than Project XRW. This timeline represents the evolution of a specific project with a dedicated and highly experienced team of wingsuit flyers, canopy pilots, data crunchers, and ground crew managers.
Project XRW: Moab
Raise the Sky organized the first stunt branded “XRW” (eXtreme Relative Work), a term coined by Taya Weiss. Jonathan Tagle of the PD Factory Team flying a Velocity 71 parachute and Jeff Nebelkopf flying a TonySuit X-Bird wingsuit linked up in a surf dock configuration. Videographer: Phil Peggs. Ground crew coordinator: Eli Bolotin.
Charity Benefit: Operation Freefall, “the Two-Mile High Stand Against Sexual Assault”.
Project XRW: Elsinore
Jessica Edgeington of the PD Factory Team and Taya Weiss of Raise the Sky became the first women to achieve multiple sustained docks between a wingsuit and parachute. The expanded team, including PD Factory Team members Tagle and Ian Bobo and wingsuit pilots Nebelkopf, Will Kitto, David Gershfeld, and videographer Peggs, flew the first mixed wingsuit-canopy flock and double rodeo docks (two docked wingsuit-canopy pairs in surfing configuration).
Charity Benefit: Raise the Sky launched the Flying Dreams Project to benefit and inspire children in under-resourced schools.
Project XRW: Abu Dhabi
At the opening ceremony of the International Defense Exhibition (IDEX) in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, a mixed flock was presented as a demonstration jump for the first time. Participants included Edgeington, Tagle, and Bobo of the PD Factory Team, and wingsuit pilots Weiss, Nebelkopf, Peggs, Barry Holubeck, Jeb Corliss, and videographer Craig O’Brien.
Project XRW: New England
In the skies over Skydive New England in Lebanon, Maine, Edgeington and Weiss paired up for a low-key exploration of XRW performance at lighter wing loadings. Weiss’s exit weight is approximately 133 pounds, and Edgeington wears 35 pounds of weight in competition. They were able to fly proximate without trim tab risers, and take sustained hand docks at far lighter wing loadings than anything that had been done before.
Project XRW: Sebastian
The team expansion project included PD Factory Team pilots Edgeington, Tagle, and Bobo, wingsuit pilots Weiss, Nebelkopf, Kitto, Holubeck, Mike Swanson, Roberta Mancino, Jhonathan Florez, and Mark Harris. The group flew the largest mixed wingsuit-canopy flock to date, a 9-way. The team also experimented with and achieved multiple configurations of 7- and 8-way formations and the world’s first XRW CRW-style surf dock.
Charity Benefit: Raise the Sky’s Flying Dreams Project at Vero Beach Elementary School in Florida.
January-February 2012
Project XRW: Dubai 3D
Team expansion continued with new canopy pilots Billy Sharman, Timmy McMaster, Mikeal Stevens, and Wuzi Wagner (organized by Jonathan Tagle) and the wingsuit pilots from Sebastian (organized by Taya Weiss). More details in the next issue!
Flying Dreams
March 2, 2012 by Taya Weiss·Comments Off on Flying Dreams
The Flying Dreams Project brings skydivers into schools to talk to children about teamwork, facing fears, and following one’s dreams, all within the context of human flight.
Many of the children we reach eat their main meals at school because of poverty at home and feel at risk just walking to school every day because of neighborhood violence. By the third grade, many are already at risk of never finishing high school.
These students and skydivers develop mutual respect for each other once each understands the obstacles the other faces.
Every child has flying dreams: getting an education helps them come true.
Pastoral Centre Preschool and Creche
Your donation to the Pastoral Centre Preschool and Creche goes straight to benefit vulnerable children, with no administration costs. This is a high-impact and easy way to help keep a child in a school and meet basic needs such as food, clean water, and clothing. The project is overseen on the ground day to day by our board member Warren Pretorius, and with once or twice annual visits by board President Taya Weiss.
To volunteer or donate in-kind goods and food, contact Pam Mfaxa, the Principal, via email: pam_pastoralcreche@yahoo.com or Warren Pretorius, warren@raisethesky.org. Pick-ups from the greater Johannesburg area can be arranged.
What is the Pastoral Centre?
The Pastoral Centre Preschool and Crèche is a registered non-profit, secular organization that provides a safe haven and early childhood education for 300 of the most vulnerable children from Freedom Charter Square, Kliptown, Soweto. It is situated in the middle of the informal settlement, surrounded by closely-built shacks separated by narrow dirt tracks. At least half of the children come from families that are too poor to pay school fees; some of the parents do volunteer work in exchange for their children’s attendance.
Many children have lost one or both parents to AIDS, or have parents who are dying of AIDS. The crèche engages in community outreach to help grandparents who are raising orphaned children, to create self-help projects for poor parents, and to assist child-headed households. The crèche has 9 full-time staff: Pam Mfaxa, the principal for 20 years, 5 teachers, two cooks, and a handyman. They work for very little salary.
What you can contribute:
The Pastoral Centre welcomes donations both in cash and kind from foundations, corporate entities, and concerned individuals. The following are needed:
1. Financial donations are used:
To cover the large budget gap created by the number of children attending school who cannot pay fees.
To help individual children and families on the “most needy list,” those who need additional food parcels, and to assist families affected by HIV/AIDS with basic necessities.
For improving the small playground and for the building fund to enlarge the kitchen.
To send a staff member on a relevant course (First Aid; dealing with child abuse; teaching techniques).
2. Children’s clothes and shoes for age 3 months to 6 years: undamaged, good quality play clothes and comfortable shoes. In winter we appreciate donations of warm jackets, hats, gloves/mittens, and jerseys. Adult clothing is distributed to parents.
3. Food and kitchen items.
4. Educational toys and games, especially large-sized illustrated picture books for story time; puzzles and blocks for children 4-6 years; and art supplies such as paper and paints, crayons, magic markers, and coloring books.
February 1, 2012 by Taya Weiss·Comments Off on PROJECT XRW: Dubai 3D
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – A team of the world’s best skydivers arrived at Skydive Dubai this week to push the boundaries of human flight and change lives. Raise the Sky, a non-profit organization that connects skydivers to humanitarian and charitable outreach, organizes Project XRW (eXtreme Relative Work) in which high-performance parachute pilots and wingsuit skydivers in freefall interact in the air.
Cutting edge wingsuits slow freefall speeds, and small, aerodynamic parachutes accelerate their pilots’ descent speeds without compromising safety, allowing this stunning achievement. Special GPS units from Project XRW sponsor FlySight aid in data collection that quantifies these developments. They can fly together, have a conversation, and even link up for extended periods. The team’s main goal was to complete the largest ever mixed wingsuit-canopy “flock”. That goal was achieved with an 11-person formation, five parachutes and six wingsuit pilots flying together over the Palm Jumeirah, one of Dubai’s most famous and recognized landmarks.
Skydive Dubai’s generous sponsorship of this Project aims to raise awareness and funds for Raise the Sky’s Flying Dreams program, which supports schools catering to underserved and low-income children. The skydivers visit the schools to talk about teamwork, facing fears, and following one’s dreams, all within the context of human flight. They also bring much-needed resources. “Every child has dreams for the future. For some, even the simplest goals can seem as impossible to attain as what we are doing here this week. Getting an education helps them to make their dreams come true,” said Taya Weiss, a Raise the Sky founder and Project XRW wingsuit pilot.
Project XRW Dubai will support the Pastoral Centre Preschool and Creche in South Africa, a secular non-profit school that provides 300 low-income children with early childhood education and basic nutritional needs. Situated in an impoverished community and working with very few resources, the teachers and staff give children a chance at development that will allow them to eventually graduate from high school and contribute to the upliftment of their families.
Raise the Sky thanks our generous sponsors, Skydive Dubai and the Habtoor Grand Beach Resort and Spa.
Project XRW and our entire team extends a special and heartfelt thank you to His Highness, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum for his visionary support of sport skydiving.
NOTAM: Lake Elsinore
November 15, 2011 by Taya Weiss·Comments Off on NOTAM: Lake Elsinore
If you happen to be flying over Lake Elsinore, you better hope you have Sully Sullenberger flying your plane…because there will be birds everywhere!!
Today, we saw many participants showing up early to the event. Duncan was organizing 16-Ways, while Justin and Jeff were handling the smaller groups. Austrians, Brits, Canadians, Danes, Finns, Germans, Italians, Russians, South Africans, and of course Americans are all coming together and making some great skydives…and the event has not even started yet!
Media attention began early, as we were featured in a HUGE front page spread of the local paper. Many thank you’s to Mark and Taya for providing information and pictures to make it possible! We also had a news crew show up from CBS2/KCAL9. It has been wonderful having an opportunity to not only raise awareness about wingsuiting and our event, but also for City Year and the wonderful kids we had the opportunity to meet yesterday.
If we can fly, you can graduate!
November 7, 2011 by Taya Weiss·Comments Off on If we can fly, you can graduate!
Yesterday part of the Raise the Sky and Wingsuit Bigway record team visited an elementary school in South LA, where a City Year Los Angeles group of volunteers (known as “Corps members”) tutor and mentor kids in an after school program. We were excited to see what City Year is doing on the ground, since we are supporting and partnering them through both fundraising and awareness raising at the US National Wingsuit Record attempt here at Skydive Elsinore in Southern California. We met some of the bravest young people you could imagine, shot some wonderful footage and interviews with students, Corps members, and a school representative, and saw a side of LA that most skydivers don’t get to experience.
Some of these kids have never been to the beach, even though they live only a few miles from the Pacific shore. The school sends food parcels home to their families because some can’t make ends meet. Their elementary school is surrounded by a tall fence and locked gates to guard against threats from the neighborhood. And this is only an hour away from where we soar through the sky wearing wingsuits, and where we are about to set a record in the history of human flight.
Did you know that every 26 seconds a student gives up on school in America? Many of the students we met yesterday are at the highest risk in the nation of dropping out eventually. They are bright eyed, cheerful, playful, and full of life – but because of where they live, graduating from high school ten years from now and succeeding in life is a dream as crazy as flying through the sky without an airplane. We wanted to tell them: If we can fly, you can graduate!
They responded by yelling: “If you can fly, WE CAN GRADUATE!” We even got to sign a few autographs and talk about our own experiences overcoming fear and challenges. I think there are some future City Year wingsuit champions!
Project XRW Elsinore VIDEO!
July 2, 2011 by Taya Weiss·Comments Off on Project XRW Elsinore VIDEO!
WINGSUIT SKYDIVERS BECOME HUMAN SURFBOARDS FOR PARACHUTISTS
First women in history dock wingsuit and parachute; “Project XRW” sets new records
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Winter Session begins on Saturday, January 6/7, 2018.
For more information regarding dance classes, schedules, and fees, please contact Malathi Iyengar at: malathisiyengar@gmail.com / 818-788-6860
Bharatanatyam is one of the oldest and most popular dance forms of the world today. The antiquity of Bharatanatyam has been traced to several manuscripts including ‘Natya Shastra’ (speculated to be at least 2000 years old) written by Bharata Muni, a comprehensive treatise on the performing arts of India. Bharatanatyam, once danced within the temple precincts moved to the proscenium in the early part of 20th century. The technique and dance style of Bharatanatyam has been evolving continuously over centuries.
Bharatanatyam is generally accompanied by Karnatic music, classical music of south India. ’Bhava’ (expression), ’Raga’ (melody), ’Tala’ (rhythm) are some of the basic elements of this dance form. The three main aspects of Bharatanatyam are: ’Nritta’ (pure dance movement with no interpretive meaning), ’Nritya’ (combination of rhythm, intricate hand gestures, expressions, narratives, facial and eye movements), and ’Natya’ (element of drama and story telling).
The Course of Learning
The learning emphasizes the physical activity of ‘Bharatanatyam’ and integrates aspects such as developing cultural awareness and appreciation for Indian art and custom. An outline of history, literature, music, language, and visual arts as related to the dance form is rendered to students in the course of learning. Students are introduced to basic stance, steps, rhythms, cross rhythms, dance phrases, gestures, and expressions. Students are guided to get a feel for the technique and learn small dances including ‘Kautuvams‘, ‘Alarippu‘, and ‘Shlokas‘.As students progress, they learn a ‘margam’ (repertoire) or several ’margams’ including ‘Jatiswarams‘, ‘Kritis‘, ‘Varnams‘, ‘Padams‘, and ‘Thillanas‘. Students also learn sophisticated compositions of great music composers and are further introduced to Choreography, Improvisation, and the art of ‘Nattuvangam’ (wielding cymbals and reciting rhythmic compositions).
Depending upon the resources and availability of musicians, a movement experience with live music may be scheduled for students of all levels to demonstrate the importance of rhythm, expression, and melody in music and dance. This is likely to happen during one of the two regularly scheduled events: The Annual Dance Showcase or ‘Vijayadashami’ Celebrations.
Students who demonstrate a potential towards high artistic caliber and a passion for dance, are encouraged to perform solo dance debuts (Arangetram), apprentice as teachers, participate in Malathi Iyengar’s choreographic works, Rangoli Dance Company performances, workshops, and other professional performing opportunities.
Arangetram (Solo Dance Debut)
Arangetram literally means, “ascending the stage.“ This debut performance of a Bharatanatyam artist marks the completion of initial training. This is an opportunity for the artist to acquire advanced repertoire, experience, knowledge, and to develop his/her artistic pursuits and embark upon a creative journey. The dancer performs carefully selected dances from his or her repertoire (Margam) before an audience of critics, artists, and well-wishers. The dancer offers the performance to the dance divinity Lord Nataraja and to the teachers. The aspiring artist, by means of dedicating himself / herself to the classical art form, not only experiences the teacher-student relationship but also seeks to find the path of devotion towards a higher living. Malathi Iyengar’s disciples who have performed their solo dance debuts (Arangetram).
Artistic Lineage ‘Pandanallur / Tanjore’
Malathi Iyengar, disciple of Guru Narmada (1942 – 2007), Bangalore, Karnataka, India)
Guru Narmada, disciple of Guru Kittappa Pillai (Tanjore, Tamil Nadu, India)
Guru Kittappa Pillai (1913 – 1999), direct descendant of the Tanjore Quartet (19th century), Tamil Nadu, south India
Guru Narmada, herself a recipient of many prestigious national and state awards encouraged her disciples to retain individuality and creative freedom within the classical guidelines.
Guru Kittappa Pillai’s artistic lineage was rich with maternal grand father being ‘Pandanallur Meenakshisundaram Pillai’ and paternal ancestors being the legendary music and dance masters, the ‘Tanjore Quartet’ (Chinnaiah, Ponnaiah, Shivanandam & Vadivelu).
The exceptionally gifted brothers called as ‘Tanjore Quartet’ were heirs to a very rich oral tradition in classical music and dance. The Tanjore Quartet brothers responsible for present day Bharata Natyam format called as the ‘Margam‘, were much sought after teachers by the temples & royal courts of Tanjore (Tamil Nadu), Mysore (Karnataka), and Kerala.
Malathi Iyengar’s Teachers and Mentors
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Dem Senator Implies Trump’s A Racist For Not Building A Wall On Canadian Border
On Friday, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) implied President Trump and others who support building a wall on the southern border of the United States are racist because they don’t push for a wall between the United States and Canada.
Murphy’s utterance was prompted by a tweet from Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) who tweeted, “Border wall ALONE wouldn’t stop illegal migration or drugs. But walls funnel traffic to monitored entry points Airports have barriers to keep people from getting around TSA checkpoints. If we use barriers to keep air travel safe, why wouldn’t we use them to keep country safe?”
Border wall ALONE wouldn’t stop illegal migration or drugs. But walls funnel traffic to monitored entry points
Airports have barriers to keep people from getting around TSA checkpoints. If we use barriers to keep air travel safe, why wouldn’t we use them to keep country safe?
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) December 21, 2018
Ignoring the data that show the huge preponderance of illegal immigrants into the United States come through the southern border compared to the numbers through the Canadian border, Murphy replied, “Here’s where the analogy breaks down. We have TSA at EVERY airport. You and Trump are advocating putting up a wall on only one border. No wall for the country filled with mostly white people.”
Here’s where the analogy breaks down.
We have TSA at EVERY airport.
You and Trump are advocating putting up a wall on only one border. No wall for the country filled with mostly white people. https://t.co/Nlv9gTowxJ
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) December 21, 2018
According to the Department of Homeland Security, in Fiscal Year 2018, 521,090 illegal immigrants were apprehended at the southern border, up from 415,517 in Fiscal Year 2017. In Fiscal Year 2016, 553,378 immigrants were apprehended; in Fiscal Year 2015 there were 444,859, and in Fiscal Year 2015 there were 569, 237.
Compare those numbers with these from the northern border of the United States. As USA Today reported in late July 2018:
In the Border Patrol sector that covers 300 miles (480 kilometers) of border with New York, Vermont and New Hampshire, agents have apprehended 324 people who crossed illegally from Canada so far this fiscal year, compared with 165 in all of 2017. Last month, agents apprehended 85 people across the three states, compared with 17 in June 2017 and 19 in June 2016, statistics show. So far this fiscal year, there have been at least 267 apprehensions along Canada’s border with Vermont alone, compared with 132 all of last year, according to statistics compiled by federal prosecutors in Vermont.
In June, Murphy attacked the Trump administration for “government agents ripping crying children out of their mother’s arms.” He stated, “I cannot describe the anger and shame I feel as I read stories about government agents ripping crying children out of their mother’s arms. America shouldn’t behave like a villain. President Trump could end this disgusting practice with a phone call if he wanted, but he won’t. Congress must pass the Keep Families Together Act for these innocent kids, and to show the world – and ourselves – who we really are.”
In 2013, after the Senate passed an immigration reform bill that strengthened border security on the southern border, stipulating that over 10 years, 700 miles of fencing had to be added to the border and the number of Border Patrol agents had to be doubled, Murphy voted for the bill, but commented, “I have no interest in turning this country into a fortress … it essentially militarizes our border. That money would be better spent somewhere else.”
Howard Hlsebus
Of course another lefty without a brain!
Really? Most Canadians I know are happy living in Canada. And, we would welcome them here if they wanted to come.
The drugs, criminals, welfare leeches are all coming from the southern border.
That sound good. Get up a bill and I thank the president would sign it. you are going to bitch about everything else. LOL
And it may happen as well. After all the LEGAL Canadians are law abiding citizens too. But those that have crossed illegally into Canada and may want to sneak back into the Us at some point we will try and stop them again.
whiteoak
just build a wall around LIBERAL CONN. keep them contained,, they are dangerous,,, their blikknah is broke
Robert Kenneth Pavlick
We don’t need a wall on the Canadian border, IDIOT, because Canadians are lawful and respect other nations borders, unlike the people of Central America !!!!!
I AM Canadian..for decades i could cross into the US from a point of entry with only an ID…but
since 9/11..i have to have a passport or an Enhanced driver’s license to enter the US
like all demonrats…murphy is an idiot if he thinks the US needs to build a wall along Canada to protect the US
we have more illegals coming in from the US into Canada than we have leaving
we have a leader who is weak and has no clue how much damage illegal immigration causes
you may know him as Justin Trudeau…we know him as Justine Trudork
you need to be grateful you have Trump as your President
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Daily News Digest June 28, 2019
It Is Not Wat – It Is Murder!
Encironmental Racism: ‘The environmental front line’: Patterns of development affect West Berkeley residents Quotes of the Day:
The moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped. — Hubert Humphrey
You cannot be a moral person and support Israeli apartheid and colonialism — I’m sorry. We salute the Jewish survivors who strip away the phony moral justification for opposing BDS against Israel. —Ajamu Baraka
Let’s be clear: The Trump admin sent a drone into what Iran says was its sovereign airspace. The US knew Iran would shoot it down in self-defense—but the US gov also knew the corporate media would obediently portray this as Iranian “escalation,” helping justify Trump’s aggression. — Ben Norton
“In the Trump world, there is no bargaining, only ultimatums,” said PEER executive director Tim Whitehouse, a former EPA enforcement attorney — With New ‘Imposed Contract,’ Trump’s EPA Tries to Neuter Worker Rights
“Bernie Sanders is the Enemy to Entrepreneurs” Says the Co-Founder of Home Depot
Honduras Erupts on Eve of 10th Anniversary of Coup
Istanbul Election Shakes President Erdogan’s Power
Where Do the Politics of Reparations Go From Here?
U.S.:
The Bi-Partisn Government Child Snachers:
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Condemns Pelosi’s Move To Pass Senate Border Funding Bill Without Changes: ‘Hell No’ Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spoke out against Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi Thursday for deciding that the House should approve a Senate-passed border funding bill without first trying to make changes. “Under no circumstances should the House vote for a McConnell-only bill w/ no negotiation with Democrats. Hell no,” the 29-year-old congresswoman tweeted about the Senate version of the bill, which will provide $4.6 billion in funding for operations at the southern border but without aspects many House Democrats had hoped to include. “That’s an abdication of power we should refuse to accept. They will keep hurting kids if we do.” In an earlier tweet, Ocasio-Cortez noted that the bill was not negotiated with the House despite Democrats offering “crucial amendments to protect children and families.” “None are even being considered,” she added.
Trigger Happy Joint Chiefs of Staff Thin They can Win a Nuclears War: Don’t Leave Nukes on the Shelf. Use Them! On June 20, the London Guardian ran a curious headline: “Nuclear Weapons: Experts Alarmed by New Pentagon ‘War-Fighting Doctrine.” Last week, a report from the Joint Chiefs of Staff was briefly available to the public on the Pentagon’s website. Titled “Nuclear Operations,” the report describes nuclear war in such upbeat terms that you will almost look forward to it. By Charles Pierson Syrian Refugee Terror Plot or Latest in Pattern of FBI-Manufactured Terrorism Cases? On the surface, the story of 21-year-old Syrian refugee and Pittsburgh resident Mustafa Mousab Alowemer has the elements to strike fear in many Americans and give ammunition to the Trump administration for its war on immigrants and refugees, especially those who would dare to flee violence in countries like Syria. By Kris Hermes Jockpocalypse: From the Ballpark to Team TrumpA half-century ago, the sporting Cassandras predicted that the worst values and sensibilities of our increasingly corrupted civic society would eventually affect our sacred games: football would become a gladiatorial meat market, basketball a model of racism, college sports a paradigm of commercialization, and Olympic sports like swimming and gymnastics a hotbed of sexual predators. Mission accomplished! By Robert Lipsyte
Our ‘Crotch Grabbing President’: After Demanding ‘Human Decency, Plain and Simple,’ Highlights Magazine Commended for Powerful Rebuke of Trump’s Abuse of Children “When a 72-year-old, apolitical children’s magazine feels the need to speak out you know we are lost as a country.” The popular children’s magazine Highlights is receiving praise on Wednesday after issuing powerful condemnation of the Trump administration’s family separation policy at the border, with its CEO saying the U.S. government’s current behavior is an affront to both “moral courage” and the publication’s core belief that “children are the world’s most important people.” By Julia Conley
‘It is a Stain on Our Country’: Warren Joins Protest Outside Child Detention Facility in Florida“There are a lot of different ways that we get in the fight. And one of them is that you show up.” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, one of the frontrunners for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, joined a protest in front of a migrant detention center Wednesday morning—hours before she was expected to join nine other members of her party for the first primary debate. “There are a lot of different ways that we get in the fight,” Warren said to supporters on social media. “And one of them is that you show up.” By Eoin Higgins
The U.S.-Iran Imbroglio: Dangerous Lessons To Be Learned The bizarre decisions and events over a 48-hour period between the United States and Iran outlined the dangerous times that we are confronting and point to Donald Trump as the most dangerous aspect of all. Iran is a problem for U.S. interests, but not a genuine threat. The same cannot be said for Trump whose instability and unpredictability threaten not only the United States but the entire global community. The fact that his key advisers—National Security Adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo—are bellicose and even irrational worsens the situation. The absence of a genuine national security process and the decline of U.S. diplomacy contributes to a situation that finds the Department of Defense and the Pentagon, without adult or even civilian supervision, playing an outsized role. By Melvin Goodman
Instigators of a Persian Gulf Crisis Recent weeks have seen tensions between the United States and Iran soar, initially after a May 2019 incident in which four commercial vessels were struck in the Gulf of Oman (two Saudi oil tankers, one Norwegian and an Emirati ship), ebb thereafter and escalate yet again when a similar attack took place a month later on the Japanese Kokuka Courageous and Norwegian Front Altair tankers, also in the Gulf of Oman. By Rannie Amiri
Fool Me Twice Yogi Berra experienced “deja vu, all over again”. Marx revised Hegel, saying history repeats itself first as tragedy, then as farce. Bush the Lesser, riffing on who to blame for being fooled, got lost in his trope. Now unctuous, obtuse Pompeo is selling war on Iran, bringing all three to mind. You’d heard the one about the Gulf of Tonkin LBJ pitched? And the one about Iraqi WMD Step’nfetchit Powell sold, ominously shaking a vial of foot powder? And Obama’s somber rap about “Assad gassing his own people”? The question now is whether the American Public will do Charlie Brown to Lucy’s football trick again? By Paul Edwards Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
Environmental Racism — Where They Built the Freeways: People Of Color Live With 66% More Air Pollution, US Study Finds African Americans in the north-east and mid-Atlantic are exposed to 61% more pollution particles from burning gasoline People of color live with 66% more air pollution, US study finds African Americans in the north-east and mid-Atlantic are exposed to 61% more pollution particles from burning gasoline. By Emily Holden Labor:
With New ‘Imposed Contract,’ Trump’s EPA Tries to Neuter Worker Rights Agency announces new collective bargaining agreement—which was not agreed upon The Trump administration continued its attacks on federal workers this week with a new “agreement” that would kneecap the power of unions representing EPA employees. The development, as watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility PEER) noted Wednesday, is a new “Master Collective Bargaining Agreement” between the federal agency and the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE). Far from an agreement, said PEER, the document is really an “edict.” It was not the result of negotiations. “In the Trump world, there is no bargaining, only ultimatums,” said PEER executive director Tim Whitehouse, a former EPA enforcement attorney. By Andrea Germanos
At #WayfairWalkout Actions, Workers Denounce Company Profiting From Child Detention “The safety and well-being of immigrant children is always worth fighting for.”Protesters filled Boston’s Copley Square Wednesday afternoon as part of the “Wayfair Walkout,” where the company’s employees staged a work stoppage to protest the retailer profiting from President Donald Trump’s child detention policies. Hundreds of Wayfair workers and supporters took part in the Wednesday action both in Boston and in Brunswick, Maine. The Boston Globe reported that management “indicated there will be no retaliation for employees who participate in the walkout.” By Eoin Higgins
Terrorists? Titans Of Wall Street? Wall Street Banks, In Drag as Trade Associations, Fight Indictments for Manipulating Precious Metals MarketsOn July 18 of last year, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted two Merrill Lynch precious metals traders, Edward Bases and John Pacilio, charging them each with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting a financial institution and one count of commodities fraud each. Pacilio was further charged with five counts of spoofing. (Spoofing is where a trader uses a high-speed computer to issue a rapid barrage of buy or sell orders, with no intention of executing the trades, in order to mislead the market and gain an advantage for his own position in the market.) On Tuesday of this week, a unit of Merrill Lynch was given a deferred prosecution agreement in the same matter by the Justice Department in exchange for an agreement to cooperate. Merrill also agreed to pay a measly $25 million in fines and disgorgement. (The amount of the fine and disgorgement is like a fly on the backside of an elephant. The parent of Merrill Lynch, Bank of America, had profits of $7.3 billion in just the first quarter of this year.) Merrill’s promise to “cooperate” is also looking quite specious. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
The Wolves Have Turned on Each Other on Wall Street Some decades back, the late MIT economist Lester Thurow wrote this: “Essentially, the economic problem is like that of the wolf and the caribou. If the wolves eat all the caribou, the wolves also vanish.” What Thurow did not take into consideration is that if the wolf pack is large enough, it can survive for quite a while by turning on other wolf packs. That’s what is happening right now on Wall Street. The wolves are at war with each other. The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq have filed a lawsuit against the Securities and Exchange Commission and are slinging mud in court at a former, long-tenured JPMorgan Chase executive, Brett Redfearn, who now polices them at the SEC. We’ll get to all that in a moment, but first some background. By Pam Martens and Russ Martens World:
Jeremy Corbyn | Our Schools
Jeremy Corbyn: Stop arms sales to Saudi Arabia now.
Venezuela Reveals Video, Audio Evidence Linked to April 30 CoupVenezuelan Minister of Communication, Tourism and Culture Jorge Rodríguez revealed Wednesday videos and evidence providing more details about the April 30 failed attempted coup, including division within the opposition forces that was a factor in the plan’s failure, while also the involvement of several foreign governments in the financing of the coup and its operatives. “What Guaido doesn’t know, is that we had people in all the meetings where they planned hits on members of the government; we have all the recordings, videos and information necessary to face down a coup,” Rodriguez told reporters. Holocaust survivors condemn ‘massacre’ of Palestinians, call for BDS against Israel A group of Holocaust survivors and descendants of those targeted by Nazi Germany have harshly criticized Israeli actions in Gaza and called for boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. Following a letter from survivors of the Holocaust printed in the New York Times on Saturday, the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, which helped coordinate the letter, organized a press call Monday, where some of those who signed the letter spoke out against the assault on Gaza. By Alex Kane
When the puppet talks back to the puppeteer, the pepeteer is in trouble:Iraqi President: US Has No Right to Use Iraq as ‘Staging Post’ for Attack on Iran “There is no military solution to this problem.” Iraqi President Barham Salih said Tuesday that the United States has no right to use his country as a launchpad for a strike against Iran. Salih, in his interview with CNN‘s Christiane Amanpour, also talked about the adverse impacts his own country has felt as a result of U.S. imposed sanctions, stressed the need to prevent another war, and warned that tearing up the nuclear deal entirely “could be disastrous for the entire neighborhood as a whole.” By Andrea Germanos
Health, Education, and Welfare:
Spain’s Revolution Against Franco: the Great Betrayal Under the most difficult and dangerous conditions, Spanish workers launched a strike movement that is unparalleled in history. Nothing remotely resembling it can be seen in Nazi Germany or Mussolini’s Italy. Beginning with the heroic movement of the Asturian coalminers 1962, there was wave after wave of strikes, general strikes, demonstrations and protests. This was a genuine revolution, which could and should have gone far further than it did. The Spanish workers and youth did everything in their power to bring about a revolutionary transformation of society. If they did not finally succeed, that was no fault of theirs. The Spanish revolution of the 1970s was shamefully betrayed by the leaders of the Communist and Socialist parties, who entered into an agreement with former fascists like Adolfo Suarez in order halt the revolutionary movement in its tracks. The result of this betrayal was the so-called democratic transition, which was merely a fig leaf to conceal the continuation of the old regime under the guise of a “parliamentary monarchy”. By Alan Woods
Author rsheppardPosted on June 26, 2019 June 27, 2019
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by Kim Carmichael
The world is nothing but one big façade. You have to be special to see the behind the mask.
Erik Renevant once lived in the spotlight. As lead singer for the wildly successful group, Specter the world revered him. When an accident destroyed his band and his face, he chose to live his life in the darkness, hiding away from the shadows of his former self and refusing to be seen again.
Christine Day longs to have her chance in the spotlight. Living her life flitting from one thing to the other and currently without a permanent residence, she sees her big break in becoming the backup singer for an unknown band and entering the Stage of Stars, the latest hit reality competition.
When Christine wanders into Erik’s perfectly controlled world and he hears her voice, he knows she is destined for super stardom. However, he never dreamed she would be the one to help him shatter his own façade and lead him into the light.
Façade is inspired by the beloved story of the Phantom of the Opera and is a combination of all the different incarnations.
A Knight to Remember
by Cynthia Luhrs
Fall through time…
Vacation to England.
Haunting castle ruins.
Proper English lord for a boyfriend.
Well, almost check.
Lucy Merriweather’s supposedly perfect boyfriend attempted to murder her during a visit to Blackford Castle. Falling through time to 1300s medieval England, she lands in a tangled heap at the feet of a tarnished grumpy knight with secrets of his own and no time to spare for a crazy damsel in distress.
Seducing Jordan
by Andrea Dalling
A weekend fling to satisfy their fantasies could destroy their friendship.
Princeton-bound Jordan Callahan is sick of lusting for Rick—his straight best friend and former captain of the football team. He can’t wait for college, so he can find a man to drive away his pointless crush.
Rick Ferguson can’t escape his strange obsession. For months, whenever he’s been with a woman, all he can think about is Jordan. Satisfying his curiosity is the only way to get his tall, muscular friend out of his system. Right?
On a camping trip just weeks before the semester starts, Rick takes Jordan to a one-bedroom cabin with a king-sized bed big enough for two all-stars to share. But Rick doesn’t want forever, and Jordan is in love. Giving in to desire could jeopardize their friendship, and the ugliness of the world beyond their cabin could tear them apart.
This steamy gay romance novella is intended for a mature audience. It contains scenes of groping, fumbling, wet kisses, angst, shirtless volleyball, grown-up toys, and two-man showers.
Winter Eve
by Lia Davis
Danica Welsh was born to be the leopard pack healer. An accident involving a drug induced youth left her badly burned and scared—emotionally and physically. Without the ability to heal by touch, she secludes herself to the edge of town, away from Ashwood Falls’ overly concerned citizens. All hope of mating and family become a distant dream. When she finally starts to accepts the long, lonely existence ahead of her, a stranger crashes into her life, and her heart.
After Nevan Mathews’ fiancée died three ago, he submerged himself into his work, cutting off all reminders of a life he dreamed of with the woman he loved. He lets his step-mother talk him into taking the first vacation in five years to visit for the holidays. But an accident delays his travel plans, sending him to Danica’s doorstep and raises a need he thought he would never feel again.
Can they tear down the walls around their hearts and submit to the passion before another claims Dani for his own?
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Mixed reality to revolutionise defence planning
The mixed reality visualisation system was developed by Saab Australia to help the Royal Australian Air Force explore complex problems and ultimately reach better solutions sooner then using legacy decision support and planning tools.
Mixed reality blends the real world with digital information, presented as fully interactive holograms.
“The application allows decision makers to explore scenarios from all perspectives and model behaviours before committing resources or responding,” said Inger Lawes, Saab Australia’s Mixed Reality Applications Program Head.
The application runs on the Microsoft HoloLens mixed reality device — the world’s first untethered holographic computer, worn comfortably over the head and eyes.
The scope for mixed reality technology is infinite and should not to be confused with virtual reality; an sythentic world where the user is isolated from the real world.
“Mixed reality is the perfect medium for learning, collaborating or visualising complex information, because users are connected by the real world and real situations” said Mr Lawes.
Saab Australia presented its mixed reality capability at the Australasian Simulation Congress last month attracting widespread attention from all business sectors.
“This technology is transformational and we have had significant interest from a diverse range of industries keen to understand how mixed reality can add value to their businesses,” said Inger Lawes.
The authority for information technology and communications market intelligence, IDC predicts that by 2020, worldwide revenues for the augmented and virtual reality markets will grow to more than $162 billion.
“Mixed reality applications is set to increase quality, productivity and safety— this opens up a whole new world for design, manufacturing as well as education and health care ,” said Mr Lawes.
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Topic Risk management strategies
SubTopic Risk assessments
Converging audit and risk management programs a flawed approach, says expert
Most risk management programs fail because they end up being another audit function, explains Alex Hutton, a faculty member at IANS.
George V. Hulme
Why do many risk management programs fail? How do security and risk managers know they're providing value to their organization? For answers we've turned to Alex Hutton, currently a faculty member at IANS and the director of operations risk and governance at a major financial institution. Previously, Hutton was a principal in research and risk intelligence with Verizon Business. While there he was co-author of the Verizon Data Breach Investigation Report.
Audit doesn't necessarily care about reporting an aggregate picture of the organization's risk.
Alex Hutton,
faculty member, IANS
Hutton is also a co-founder of The Society of Information Risk Analysts, and an author at the New School of Information Security blog. Hutton also contributes, or has contributed in the past, to the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), the Open Information Security Management Maturity Model (O-ISM3), the CIS metrics project and the Open Group Security Forum.
What do you see as one of the primary reasons why risk management programs fail?
Alex Hutton: The number one way to set yourself up for failure is to copy what your audit department does. You could say that audit is concerned with where failures can occur. Risk management should be concerned with the frequency and impact of failures. Audit's role is to be consultative and help the organization understand how they can implement or adjust controls -- risk management is an economic factor: It is consultative in terms of getting the most bang for your buck in mitigating risk.
So that's why I believe most risk management programs end up failing: They end up just being yet another audit function. They end up merely enforcing policy rather than being consultative about what risk management moves make sense.
You can see this lack of differentiation between audit and risk management affects the entire industry. There is this large movement to converge the two functions. This is especially so with the big four consulting companies. They're all talking about how they can come in and make you more efficient by converging audit and risk. When you hear [from executive leadership] that this convergence starts to make a lot of sense to them, it's because you are just probably duplicating audit and your program is fundamentally flawed.
How can those in risk management tell if they have become -- or have always been -- merely an extension of the audit department?
Hutton: There are inherent similarities. Both organizations need to understand controls. Both organizations are interested in impact. But audit doesn't necessarily concern itself with the threat community. Audit doesn't necessarily care about reporting an aggregate picture of the organization's risk. They say they are very interested in aggregate risk, but if you look at how people run audit programs, how the industry standards say what you should do, rarely do you get that level of reporting that a good functional risk management program will give you.
Look at the charts in the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report; when you look at the population of threats and their actions, the assets that they are attacking, and the impacts in terms of security attributes, you are digging into language that is completely foreign to most audit departments.
If you want to know how your program is viewed internally, ask your internal business customers for a very straightforward discussion about the differences between your program and what audit is providing. The most frank of your intra-business customers will say, "We already did this for audit. We're already doing this and this." A very frank conversation with a member of the business that you can trust, where you can ask, "How much value am I providing you over what happens there when you are audited?" and if they say, "Not so much," That's a huge indicator that you are doing it wrong.
And I think the full convergence movement of risk and audit is just a recognition that this problem is endemic in risk management programs.
You are not a fan of risk catalogues, could you explain why?
Hutton: You want to transition from risk cataloging to exposure cataloging. What most organizations do is they build this giant register of bad things that can happen. The risk register becomes the worry list of all the possible things that could go bad. The problem with a risk register is that you never know quite when to stop.
I used to work for a company that was on the flight path at Dulles. What about a jet engine dropping on the data center? Certainly something you could put into a risk register, but certainly not something that, a) is a high probability event, and b) something that you're going to spend a "bajillion" dollars to reinforce your roof so that you can withstand a jet engine dropping on you.
Organizations end up going out and doing this big kabuki dance about all the problems that could go wrong. But what if you start moving from the risk register population of all the possible bad things to asking, "What's the impact?" For example, go talk to your Exchange Server admin and ask some probing questions: talk about an event where the Exchange Server is compromised; talk about the sort of cost exposure the organization would incur; talk about how to make sure that you don't incur the worst case scenario there in terms of the distribution of losses; talk about how you may reduce the size of that loss distribution.
By cataloging that type of impact of losses with your assets will make a whole lot of more difference in the value you provide to the organization. You also don't care if the Exchange Server is out because it was attacked, or if it was shot by a laser-beam from an ancient alien astronaut who has come back to Earth after seeing a Star Trek episode in deep outer space.
What about your internal intel functions? What does that tell you about the health of your risk management program?
Hutton: That is one very quick way to tell whether you're duplicating an audit function or you have a real risk management program. How's your intel function? If risk is really the collision of four sets of information -- threat, controls, asset and impact -- and if there's a change to any of that information, such as a new threat, new controls, or a lack of efficiency in certain controls because somebody left the organization or whatever, that’s something you need to concern your program with. This could be new assets that you weren't aware of that don't go out according to security policy or are exposed, or impact perhaps a new regulatory impact. It can be anything that changes the status quo of your threats, controls, assets and impact.
If you don't have an intel function built into your risk management program then you are more like audit function than you are a modern risk management program. Think about it: How many current risk management standards really spend time describing what comprises a good intel function? How many tell you how to source intelligence? How to deal with the potential impact of that intelligence? A typical risk scenario to worry about, based on new intelligence, would be when new malware strikes OS X, and you have a population of 1,000 Macs. Now what?
Anything else you'd like to add about security and risk and how to tell if they're providing more value to the business than being an extension, or duplication, of the audit department?
Hutton: Yes. I love this exercise. It's about changing your perspective. I consider the point when you can remove the word "risk" from your vocabulary for a month you've actually achieved the Zen of good risk management.
Let's use that Exchange Server example. Someone sends malware that targets Exchange Servers. That's a risk. Most people would go on and talk about the risks: "We believe the risk is high and therefore we think that these controls mitigate that risk and that they should be put in place."
A different conversation, a more modern risk management conversation that didn't use the word "risk" would be: "The potential impact that we see in the operation of the Exchange Server from this malware are X amount of dollars, from between $10,000 and $10 million, possible impact. Those losses stem from productivity losses, replacement losses if we can't meet certain objectives. Also, there will be response costs, because we might have to pull in an incident response team. There may be privacy concerns, and we may have fines and judgments from various regulatory bodies."
If you can get through those sorts of conversations -- and if you can do that repeatedly for a month and never use the word "risk" -- you've won.
George V. Hulme writes about security and technology from his home in Minneapolis. You can also find him tweeting about those topics on Twitter at @georgevhulme.
Dig Deeper on Risk assessments, metrics and frameworks
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What Moody's cyber-risk ratings mean for enterprises
Using threat intelligence tools to prevent attacks on your enterprise
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Reviewing the threat intelligence features of VeriSign iDefense
Industries seek to improve third-party security risk controls
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Best practices for an information security assessment
Warning signs surround world's largest IT project – ComputerWeekly.com
Minister promises extra funding for NHS systems – ComputerWeekly.com
Industry is doomed by automation, misguided IT ... – SearchSecurity
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Read Hunt for the Saiph (The Saiph Series Book 3) Online
Authors: PP Corcoran
Hunt for the Saiph (The Saiph Series Book 3)
HUNT FOR THE SAIPH
The Dyson Sphere
Survey Command
Earth First
Out of the Wilderness
Compassion for My Enemy
A New Command
Tilting at Windmills
Piggy in the Middle
Project Bright Star
Seeds of Confusion
The Dragon’s Den
Settling Accounts
Mosquito Swarm
of future books in The Saiph Series, sign up here:
ppcorcoran.com/subscribe
Subscribers get lower prices on new releases.
The Saiph Series
PP Corcoran
Copyright 2015 PP Corcoran
Published by PP Corcoran Ltd
License Notes
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
2287 LIGHT YEARS FROM EARTH
The small ship reenters normal space and its sensors sweep the surrounding area. Penetrating the blackness of space, its systems register the nearby gas giant, invisible to the naked eye. More lifeless planetoids are detected at the very edges of the system by the astrogation computer, which compares the sensor readings to the data stored in its core. It confirms the ship has indeed reached the desired destination its makers programmed into it nearly ten centuries earlier. The ship adjusts its position and ignites its powerful intersystem engines, which come to life, pushing it toward the heart of the dark and lifeless system. Appearances, however, can be deceiving. No light reaches out from a central star to kiss the outer planets. No radiation is detected to hint at the presence of a hidden star at the center of the planetary system. The planets seem to have formed against all known theories of system formation. Where is the system’s star?
The engines power down and the ship coasts along its course, moving toward the center of the impossible planetary system. In the darkness the sensors pick something up, a very weak signal but definitely there, a latticework like a giant spider’s web which forms a complete globe at least two AUs in diameter and situated exactly where the system’s star should be.
As the spacecraft closes in, it becomes apparent there are small bulges at some of the junctions where the fine latticework meets.
Closer still and the true size of the bulges are revealed as the structures dwarf the ship. The seemingly smooth, seamless skin of one of these structures splits, and a brightly lit docking area is revealed. The ship enters and the structure’s skin closes behind it like the mouth of a shark.
The ship moves silently through the cavernous hangar passing the sleeping behemoths of kilometer-long warships. All were painted the same inky-black as the night sky. Flattened hulls with weapons’ pylons protruding above and below the main body like fins of some enormous deep sea predator. Gliding through another armored port, the ship passes yet more machines of war until it finally settles into a snug docking cradle. Powering down its engines, the onboard computers link with the overarching Artificial Intelligence. The AI receives the information the small ship brings, detailing the fate of the Chosen People at the hands of the Commonwealth forces. For what would be an eternity for any flesh-and-blood brain, but is in fact mere thousandths of a second, the AI ponders its next move until it finds the most compatible file. Instructions flash out to long-dormant equipment.
"Awaken!"
PLANET II - STAR SYSTEM 52980 - 107.3 LIGHT YEARS FROM EARTH
Planet II of System 52980 steadily orbited its G-type main sequence star. The planet consisted of six large continents, making up about one-third of its surface. The remainder was covered in liquid water, forming deep oceans.
Planet II was ideally located in its star system to be a viable life-bearing planet, but the ‘Others’ ensured whatever civilization may have sprung from its fertile ground would never have the chance to reach its peak.
According to the drone’s readings, the planet was subjected to an orbital bombardment sometime in the past four years. The bombardment had scoured the surface clear of life and plunged the planet’s ecology into a new Ice Age, brought about by the nuclear winter clouds that still blanketed the planet’s sky. Maybe in a few thousand years, when the ice began to recede and the radiation levels dropped, life would return to this dead world.
For what it was worth, the perpetrators of this destruction suffered the same fate. Second Fleet, under the command of Admiral Robert Lewis, descended on the Others’ final sector base like avenging angels. The sector base was built into a large asteroid circling a gas giant so massive it put Sol's own Jupiter to shame in a star system fifteen light years from its intended target.
If nothing else, the Others were consistent. They seemed only to build two types of base. The first was the sort the forces of Fifth Fleet encountered on 70 Ophiuchi: An orbiting facility designed to facilitate naval vessels, supported by a large ground installation. The second was of the type that faced Admiral Radford and Third Fleet out of Garunda: built into a large asteroid and surrounded by fire support bases mounted on smaller asteroids.
Whichever style of base, they were always located in an adjacent system to the intended target. Therefore, if one knew the location of the base, it was a relatively simple matter of scouting nearby systems to find a planet that piqued the Others’ interest and so must be slated for destruction.
Now, though, the fourteenth and last enemy base was neutralized. When the Others’ home on Narath was destroyed by its Artificial Intelligence, many thought it a simple matter of wiping up the remaining sector bases the enemy left behind. This cleanup operation took three years of hard fighting and cost the Commonwealth forces dearly in both ships and crew.
Following the battle around Earth and the destruction of Narath, only Second Fleet retained its full strength, so to Admiral Lewis fell the mission of taking down the surviving enemy bases until First and Third Fleets had licked their wounds and regained their former strength.
The first target of Second Fleet was the Others’ outpost in System 24901: A nondescript red giant star that had consumed the majority of the planets which once orbited it until what had probably been an icy moon of a now-vanished planet was its sole remaining satellite.
This dwarf planet had developed a thin but breathable atmosphere around which the Others built an orbital facility to support the two Buzzards and one Vulture that patrolled the system and the surrounding space. On the dwarf’s surface was a fortified complex exactly like the one on 70 Ophiuchi, which had cost the lives of so many marines in their futile attempt to capture it.
Many of the Commonwealth’s scientists and politicians refused to believe the detonation of nuclear weapons on 70 Ophiuchi and Narath was anything other than intentional. Lewis, however, was not one of them. He had read the paper written by now-Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Terrance Wilson, his wife’s nephew, and it left Lewis in no doubt that the Others, although not directly controlled by an artificial intelligence, certainly took direction from one. Lewis was determined that the waste of life, both friendly and enemy, would never be repeated.
His initial assault plan was almost identical to the one employed by the ill-fated Fifth Fleet. Second Fleet emerged from fold space and launched a merciless missile attack on the orbital base and its warships. In fewer than five minutes, the orbital works and enemy warships were nothing more than floating wreckage. With the space-borne threat neutralized, Second Fleet moved into low orbit, and as the rotation of the moon brought the surface base over the horizon, Lewis began his Kinetic Energy Missile bombardment. The missile strikes threw tonnes of debris into the air but ground-penetrating radar continued to identify targets for the fleet’s missiles. Anything and everything looking remotely like a weapon or command-and-control facility was targeted.
When the tactical officer was satisfied there were no viable targets left, Lewis ordered the deployment of the High Altitude Electro Magnetic Pulse (HEMP) weapons. Blinding flashes lit the night sky high above the Others’ base as the weapons detonated in the stratosphere and their gamma rays were converted into a prodigious electromagnetic pulse. Every piece of unprotected electronic equipment within 100 kilometers ceased to function.
Buried deep below the base, the artificial intelligence of the Coltus noted that all feeds from the surface had been lost. The “Self-Destruct” protocol was activated and the electronic signal triggering the ULF transmission and nuclear demolition charges was sent. It never reached its intended destination. Although the Coltus was housed in a hardened bunker, the cables and equipment it was trying to activate was not. The HEMP rendered the unprotected systems nothing more than expensive junk. When confirmation of the completion of its instructions was not received, the Coltus moved to the next step in the protocol and initiated the thermobaric explosives embedded in the walls of its own bunker. The AI ceased to exist, leaving the soldiers on the surface to fight on without its guidance.
The marines of Second Fleet dropped right on top of the base and no enemy fire rose to meet them. As they disembarked from the assault shuttles, they were met by enemy defenders, whose high-tech weapons were disabled by the HEMP pulse. But still they attacked. They were reduced to swinging their useless weapons like clubs. Picking up rubble and broken masonry to use as additional weapons, they flung themselves upon the marines.
As reports from the ground flooded into the flag bridge, Lewis came to a decision. He ordered his marines to switch to non-lethal weapons unless they were faced with no choice. Lewis understood this increased the risk of casualties among his marines but he refused to slaughter his enemy out of hand. On the surface, the marines slung their plasma rifles over their shoulders, pulled out their PEP pistols, and faced their charging enemy.
In the end, the marines managed to secure over 2500 prisoners. It was the largest number ever captured alive and Lewis was forced to request additional resources to help secure, house, and care for them. Units of the Garundan Army were shipped in and construction began of a vast prisoner-of-war camp. Their former enemy was now their responsibility.
Over three years of conflict, this method of neutralizing enemy surface bases had been successfully deployed on five occasions and netted the Commonwealth nearly 15,000 prisoners, spread over five different star systems. However, they had not devised a similar method of minimizing casualties on the two enemy bases housed within asteroids.
The Combined Joint Chiefs of Staff, given no choice, ordered the assault fleet to stand off at a safe distance and pulverize the asteroid until there was nothing left except dust if the enemy commander failed to signal his surrender. Enemy fatalities were inevitably total.
Images of the lifeless planets the Stealthy Reconnaissance Drone (SRD) returned to the fleet from the target planets of these enemy bases soon negated whatever pity was felt over the slaughter caused by the Others refusal to surrender.
With grim resolve, the sailors and marines went about their task of removing the threat the Others represented to innocent life in the galaxy.
Robert Lewis pushed himself back from the desk in his quarters on board the Bismarck class battleship TDF
Tsushima,
musing over the report he’d been reading on the terminal while absently rubbing a hand over his tired face. The analysts had pored over the SRD's data and noticed an anomaly. It was certain that whatever life existed on Planet II was long gone, but as the SRD had egressed the system, it passed close to Planet II’s single moon. The compact electronic sniffer package on the probe, originally designed to detect stealthy enemy warships, had sniffed what the analysts were calling a “non-natural occurring power source.” So either the Others had left something on the small moon or there was some other party out there who was yet to reveal themselves. Well, there was only one way to find out. Some lucky soul was going to have to go and take a look.
The Tanto class shuttle lurched slightly as it moved clear of the marine assault ship
. The heads-up display on Philippa’s Wraith suit was configured to show the small ship’s approach profile. The
had come out of fold space on the dark side of the small moon, exactly 180 degrees opposite the location of the power reading the reconnaissance drones had sniffed when they passed the moon during their final sweep of the dead planet it silently orbited. The Tanto carrying Philippa and her platoon mates was to spiral down to a height of fifty meters from the surface of the moon and then approach the area flying ‘nap of the earth’. A quaint military phrase for flying as close to the ground as possible without running into the ground. The idea of which was to fly low enough to avoid enemy fire. It may have been uncomfortable for the passengers but Philippa was willing to sit through a bumpy ride if it increased the shuttles chances of making it to its target in one piece.
Unfortunately, the brief glimpse the SRD had gotten only allowed the analysts to narrow the search area down to a few square kilometers so the Tanto's crew was forced to fly a search pattern and use their more powerful equipment to localize the source.
Philippa and her fellow marines were there to baby-sit the scientists who would actually look at whatever was generating the power source.
If they ever find it and it wasn't just a glitch in the SRD's data,
Philippa thought. The blinking incoming message icon appeared in her HUD.
"Go for Papadomas." Said Philippa accepting the call.
The slightly nasal voice of Lieutenant Travis came through her ear bug. "Corporal, five mikes till we reach the search area. Give your big brain types a gentle reminder the initial pass will be on passives only. Let’s not go active on anything which may be mistaken for a fire control radar until we know more about what we're dealing with here, OK?"
"Understood, sir." A small sigh escaped Philippa as she cut the link. She’d been lumbered with the unenviable task of herding the small scientific tech team while the platoon commander coordinated with the crew of the Tanto and the marines under the first sergeant, who would deal with the security of the site when and if they needed to put boots on the ground.
Philippa turned her head slightly so she could see the displays of the tech team’s equipment and verify the systems were in passive mode. The senior scientists saw her and gave her a weak smile. Philippa's face, blank under her helmet, stared at him until he turned away in discomfort. Before leaving the
Sheridan,
she had a quiet word with the senior scientist and made it plain to him that if he questioned her instructions in any shape or form, she would personally ensure he spent the next few weeks in the
Sheridan's
sick bay. Now, the scientist wasn’t a small man by any means. He was proud of his near-daily workouts in the
small gym. But one glance into the diminutive marine corporal’s steely eyes convinced him that perhaps following her instructions was a good idea.
The Tanto slowed as it entered the search area and the scientists’ focused their full concentration on the search for the elusive power source. The Tanto crisscrossed the search grid for nearly half an hour before the lead scientist cried, "We've got it. 1300 meters at 168 degrees. Definitely not a naturally occurring source. If I were to hazard a guess, I’d say it’s a condensing nuclear reactor. Pretty old tech but if properly maintained it could run efficiently for decades."
Philippa only had one question. "Is it the Others?"
The scientist shook his head. "We've never come across them using this type of tech, so my money is on ‘no’."
Good enough for Philippa. Changing channels, she called Travis. "Lieutenant. The eggheads have a hit. 1300 meters at 168 degrees. They’re calling it a condensing nuclear reactor. Most likely not the Others."
"Understood, Corporal. Let’s firm up an exact location. Permission granted to go active on all sensors. Travis clear."
It took another ten minutes while the Tanto flew in a wide, sweeping circle, but eventually the senior scientist was satisfied his team had narrowed the location down to fifteen meters below the dwarf planet’s surface in an area maybe 100 meters squared. It was as good as he was going to get. Philippa relayed the message to Travis, who came to a quick decision.
"Corporal, tell the scientists to seal up. I think it’s time we stretched our legs. Between our suits’ sensors and their portable gear, we should be able to get an exact fix on this thing. If it’s buried, we need to know where to dig."
Travis had the Tanto set down a couple hundred meters from the source. As the dust settled, Travis’ marines disembarked and shook out into a skirmish line, while Philippa and her scientist charges, along with two more marines as escorts, followed close behind.
Summer in Good Hope (A Good Hope Novel Book 2) by Cindy Kirk
La abuela Lola by Cecilia Samartin
Bride of the Alpha by Georgette St. Clair
Living London by Kristin Vayden
A Dog's Way Home by Bobbie Pyron
Physics Can Be Fatal by Elissa D. Grodin
The Rancher by Kelli Ann Morgan
Aegis: Catalyst Grove by Nathan Roten
Jordan Summers by Off Limits (html)
Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Høeg
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Log In Join Us
Books by Indigenous creators
Us Mob Walawurru
Publisher's synopsis
Central Australia, 1960s … Ruby lives on a cattle station and goes to the ‘silver bullet’ school where she comes across Mr Duncan, her well-meaning teacher. Follow Ruby as she seeks to understand why two cultures are at odds with each other. The more Ruby learns, the harder the journey becomes as she is drawn back to country to uncover the secrets of her past.
Becoming Kirrali Lewis
Grace Beside Me
Mrs Whitlam
Songs That Sound Like Blood
Lisa Wilyuka
Lisa Wilyuka is a Luritja woman from Titjikala, a community south of Alice Springs. She has lived in Titjikala all her life and works closely with youth in the community. She is especially passionate about young people being involved in sport and cultural activities. Lisa is an artist and is interested in exploring traditional dot painting techniques. Her work is sold through the Titjikala Art Centre and galleries in Central Australia.
David Spillman
David Spillman spent many years working on Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory. For some time he has explored the similarities and differences of Aboriginal cultures to his own western socialisation. He is excited by the contribution of Indigenous perspectives in resolving some of the challenges we face in the world today.
Magabala Books
Author Lisa Wilyuka, David Spillman
Publisher Magabala Books
Category Young Adult
© Copyright Agency and contributors 2019
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Reading Subtly
Dennis Junk's Fiction, Reviews, & Essays on Literature, Psychology, Anthropology & Evolution for Other Curious People Who Love to Read
Dennis's Fiction
Cog/Evo Lit Theory
Books: Reviews and Essays
West Central Stories
He Borara: a Novel about an Anthropologist among the Yąnomamö
This site is moving to a new domain: check out dennisjunk.com
“Some of these stories are closer to my own life than others are, but not one of them is as close as people seem to think.” Alice Murno, from the intro to Moons of Jupiter
"Talent hits a target no one else can hit; genius hits a target no one else can see." Arthur Schopenhauer
“Why does everything you know, and everything you’ve learned, confirm you in what you believed before? Whereas in my case, what I grew up with, and what I thought I believed, is chipped away a little and a little, a fragment then a piece and then a piece more. With every month that passes, the corners are knocked off the certainties of this world: and the next world too. Show me where it says, in the Bible, ‘Purgatory.’ Show me where it says ‘relics, monks, nuns.’ Show me where it says ‘Pope.’” –Thomas Cromwell imagines asking Thomas More—Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
My favorite posts to get started: The Self-Righteousness Instinct, Sabbath Says, Encounters, Inc., and What Makes "Wolf Hall" so Great?.
Roof Leaf Village: He Borara Ch 4.2
(11,373 words. Or start with the first chapter.)
Lac stands knee-deep in the river, watching smoke snake up over the trees on the far bank of the Orinoco. The hut he’s been paying the older boys, along with Waddu-ewantow, fish hooks and nylon line to help him build backs up to and shares a wall with Clemens’s hut. He’s abandoned the first building site, along with his first wall, because not only did he discover a colony of ants had lain claim to the spot already, but an inordinate number of snakes also liked to pass through the area. Plus, he’s fine admitting, it was a mediocre first attempt. The new hut, the extension to Clemens’s, will stretch toward the shore of the Mavaca, which is only a short stretch of tall sawgrass away, straight out from where the front door and the gabled roof will be.
But he still likes to walk through the tiny wedge of jungle separating Bisaasi-teri from the Orinoco; walking through this forest effects a change in his mental state, frightening him, but also connecting him to this main riverine conduit back to Puerto Ayacucho, back to Esmeralda, back to Caracas, back to Laura and Kara and Dominick. And he needs to watch for the return of the Malarialogìa men so he can hitch a ride with them to one of the towns or mission outposts, where he’ll buy a dugout with an outboard motor. Then he’ll be able to satisfy his urge to explore. He’ll be able to visit that priest living at the mission upstream at Ocamo, the one with the shortwave radio. He may even be able to use it to speak to Laura at IVIC.
The smoke twists up through the trees like a gnarled finger, pointing up into the blue tropical sky. It appears to be rising from a spot some distance from where he and Clemens found the Malarialogìa men’s hut that night, leaving him to wonder who else it may be camping in the wilderness across this unfordable river. Squatting down, he reaches for the water and nervously pulls scoops of it up over his arms, washing away the mud.
I could swim, he thinks. Once across, if I make it, I could hike along the trail we found leading back to the hut. From the hut, I could surveil the area, see what I can learn about these new guests in the region. Or I could just march up and announce myself. I don’t know if they’re Yąnomamö anyway. Even if they are, what do the Yąnomamö do to a man who walks brazenly into their camp? Porcupine him? I suppose, based on what I’ve seen, it would depend on the circumstances—had they just been in a club fight?—and the temperaments of the most influential individuals in the group.
He’s been told, however, that out toward the middle of the river the current is quite strong, and of course there are the caimans, anacondas, electric eels, and candiru to consider. And the piranha—who could forget those? He smiles. For the past two days, after a morning of mixing and stacking mud on a crude frame of wooden posts—sustained only by café con leche prepared the night before and stored in a thermos, along with a few crackers here and there—he’s been going into the shabono in the afternoon to attend the shamanic rituals, the hallucinogen trips, with all their green snot and noisy, only semi-rhythmic music. The children follow him wherever he goes, not always the same ones, but almost always numbering between six and a dozen or so. As he travels from section to section of the shabono, they tend to remove, by their mere presence, any element of threat he may pose, while the din engulfing them obviates any need for him to announce himself.
He’s working on his genealogies, trying to remain patient. Assigning fake names to a hundred plus unfamiliar faces—none of whose garb serves as a reliable cue to identity—and connecting them along gradients of relatedness is not something you accomplish successfully in a single pass along the rim of the plaza, poking your head into the shadowy gloom, each section a valve governing the flow of kinship, of genes copied, passed along, and shared. No, you don’t get it all on the first pass. Or the second. Or the third.
Lac has decided on a single complete pass a day, culminating in at least a handful of new names assigned to each area. But people move about, visiting. After seeing a few dozen nameless faces, they all start to blur. Meanwhile, some of the people can’t resist making demands for his belongings, or simply shouting at him, bullying him. They would take even his notebook and pen if he didn’t guard them doggedly. Waddu-ewantow in particular demands something new every time he sees him. Lac almost regrets giving him all the fishhooks and line—which he seems not at all inclined to use—as payment for helping him construct the walls and the palm-thatched roof for his hut. He definitely regrets that scoop of oatmeal, which marked the beginnings of his status as eminently bullyable.
“Leaf,” Lac kept saying yesterday as he held up the large flat unfolded thatching material. Waddu-ewantow finally became exasperated and proclaimed “bisaasi” as the proper term.
“Bisaasi? As in Bisaasi-teri?” Lac said, gesturing toward the shabono. Waddu-ewantow flashed him a look he couldn’t begin to read but that he nonetheless took a clear message from: “Yes, dumbass—how can you not know that?”
Bisaasi-teri. Roof Leaf Village.
It would be a couple of hours before Lac realized that if a village can be named for such an ubiquitous object, so too might the individual people—meaning his language lessons may come with the unavoidable risk of accidentally voicing someone’s name. Maybe whoever built the fire whose smoke he’s watching can help him sort out this name business. In the meantime, he has no choice but to wait, unless he wants to build a raft. No, that would take enough effort to suggest desperation, and the suggestion, once he let it take hold in his mind, would become a reality. Desperate to speak to outsiders, so desperate he’s taken hours away from his work to build a raft. And to what end? To book passage to a town where he can buy a boat. If you want to leave Bisaasi-teri so badly, have a firmly established mode of egress from the site of your work, as far as possible from the shabono, where everything is taut and vibrating and loud, the floor of the plaza like a drum skin pulled over some bottomless pit in the jungle, up through which rises—enough! Enough of your chasing down twisted metaphors. Enough of your suggestions and your desperation. You’re a Shackley. And you have work to do.
One last scooping of water up over his arms and splashed onto his face before he turns to the children on the bank, roaring playfully, brandishing his splayed fingers as make-believe claws. Stepping from the river, he climbs back up the bank to the trail, having decided to try something new. He’s brought two cameras with him to the field, both of which he’s been afraid to let the Yąnomamö get a look at. Today, he’ll use the faster-developing of them, the Polaroid, to document the day’s arguments with, and emulations of, the animal spirits. The Polaroids will be useful in their own right, allowing him to study the men’s faces in the porous pseudo-privacy of his hut, maybe helping him pick out details he has yet to notice. Beyond that, though, it’ll be an experiment; he’ll be able to test the Yąnomamö’s reaction to having their images reflected and fixed in yet another mysterious breed of straight-edged leafs.
Everyone knows the story—most likely apocryphal—of the natives becoming enraged when they see some hapless photographer-cum-ethnographer has stolen their souls. Likely apocryphal, but the images do need to be, if not explained—the Western notion of causal explanation is newer and less universal than one may assume—then at least incorporated into their belief system. They have to make sense of what they’re seeing, the same way we do back home. And however distorted the story of the Indians’ raging reception of this newly introduced technology, the Yąnomamö will probably make sense of what they see differently than many other natives would. They’ve already shown themselves to defy so much of what anthropologists think they know about primitive peoples. Lac can only hope to get a sense of the emotional aspects of the reception anyway, not knowing the words for spirit or ghost or soul, and Yąnomamö emotions are scary for more than just their exoticness.
Once he’s habituated the Yąnomamö to the camera—to seeing their own and each other’s images in small halide windows—he can begin the painstaking procedure of photographing them, first as families, then as individuals. It’s more than he can expect to accomplish in a day. Or a week. Or probably a month. Over that time, he’ll pick up how to ask for their cooperation, how to inquire as to which of his madohe they prefer as payment, how to label the Polaroids, perhaps with numbers at first, maybe later moving on to names. It’s not like any of them will be able to read what he writes anyway. Then again, he may have to give them some explanation of the felt-tipped scribbling underneath this two-dimensional rendering of their ghostly likenesses.
How comfortable are you lying to them?
If it’s just this one thing—but you’re going to be here a long time. Seventeen months. So much of this expedition, he thinks, this fieldwork, entails pushing ahead with tasks I’ll only acquire the necessary knowledge and skills to complete at some distant time. It requires a great deal of faith in my capacity to learn. A reader, a wanderer, a bit of a dreamer if I’m being honest, a seeker after truth, a lover of discovery—but am I smart? A good linguist? An observant reporter? A scholar with a gift for synthesizing diverse lines of reasoning and findings from multiple sources? What actual evidence do I have either way as I try to answer any of these questions?
As he enters the clearing, he has two contradictory reactions to seeing his hut: first, he’s proud of this growing structure, a shelter, solid and substantial, birthed into the world from the mud of the jungle, midwifed by his own hands, on its way to completion, exhilarating; second, it doesn’t look right, slopped up mud on a log frame, gooey and loose, not as sound as Clemens’s hut, the side wall of which it rests on for support. How had Clemens done it? Was his method somehow superior? He probably had access to techniques honed over generations by his Protestant forebears. Shouldn’t I have access to the hut-building lessons learned by generations of ethnographers? Alas, anthropologists avoid such topics in their studies, concentrating on their subjects instead, striving for objectivity. There’s something to be said for that. Or I used to think so anyway.
The children gather around him as he nears Clemens’s hut and its stunted conjoined twin. The din hovering over these boys keeps him from noticing the eerie silence that has overtaken the village. Lac goes inside the gloomy dwelling to find his barrels. As he cracks one open and rummages for his camera, the boys move in and out through the door as their game dictates. The constant bubbling up of laughter and lighthearted conversation will be my salvation, he thinks, but how can I know whether it’s worthwhile to pay closer attention at any given point? Kids are kids no matter what culture they grow up in. Just as he’s uncovering the box housing the Polaroid camera, one of the boys settles the issue by overtly endeavoring to capture his attention.
Lac looks over at the boy and simultaneously hears a cacophony of competing voices ringing out from the shabono. “Oh no,” he says aloud. “Not again. What the hell is wrong with you guys?” But he’s already on his way out of the hut, marching toward the outer wall of the village, fumbling with the box as he proceeds. The sidling duck-waddle, the pinched asshole, the brief wash of gratitude after standing up and not seeing war arrows aimed at his face—he goes through each stage of his daily initiation. Why, he wonders, do I never bring my shotgun?
Ah, but you know damn well why.
People are standing in front of their own sections of the shabono, shouting at each other across the plaza. Once again, Lac worries he’ll do something wrong, offend someone by walking or standing in the wrong place, or annoy everyone by showing up whenever there’s turmoil in the village. When he sees the gathering of bodies nearby, he moves, cautiously but unhesitatingly, toward the throng. Howls of pain and anger soar up over the courtyard, as women and men dance out their spiteful tirades. They’re all related, Lac thinks, but there’s so much bitterness, so much hate. Maybe that’s not so different from what you find in families anywhere though.
As he finds himself again trying to see over a rotating wall of backs, he braces himself for what he’s about to witness. How bad will the wound be this time? But if there was a club fight, it must not have lasted long. If it began around the time he heard the commotion, there would barely have been enough time for each of the two men to take a turn. Just as he’s wondering whether he may have overinterpreted the evidence from the one club fight he’s observed, he manages to spy the fallen man’s face through the press of bodies—only it isn’t a man. Lac first imagines two women squaring off in the center of the courtyard, their poles held vertically in grips toughened by years of chopping and hauling firewood.
But there wasn’t enough time for that, was there?
He circles around the group, taking a step back to see if he can get a read on what’s happening. Again, the shouts appear directed at a single focal point, but the factions aren’t the same as last time. “Damn it!” he curses aloud, his body suffused with the urge to grab someone by the lapels and demand to know what the hell is going on. He takes a breath and several more steps backward, then starts to chuckle silently. Lapels. Maybe grab him by the strings on his arms and wrists, try to shake the story out of him while his brothers and uncles reach for their clubs and nock their arrows.
Even as he muses, the details of the incident begin to resolve before him. It wasn’t a fight. It was an assault. This woman’s kin are raging at the man who attacked her, and at the man’s own kin. His family is in turn justifying the attack, perhaps with reference to her disobedience, her abiding disrespect, or her chronic infidelity. Her wound seems serious. The man must’ve struck her on the head. With his fist? A club?
Lac catches sight of his young translator and rushes to his side. Every cell of his body hums with the compulsion to pry the story out of someone by whatever means. The boy sees him and flashes a grin, somewhere between sly and demure. He’s guessed what Lac wants to know, and he seems to be working out how to tell him. Lac points at the injured woman amid the continuing uproar. The boy takes ahold of Lac’s arm and moves him toward one of the fires burning in the middle of the plaza. He points down at the log, the crime weapon.
“Ma,” Lac says, drawing out the vowel, doing his best to sound incredulous, remembering that this often prods Yąnomamö to expand.
“Awei,” the boy says, and proceeds to tell the story, incomprehensible. Lac in turn shakes his head meaninglessly. This is maddening, he thinks, grabbing the boy by his shoulders, directing his attention toward the log, and then sweeping his index finger in a wide arc implicating all the people of the shabono. The boy smiles, takes Lac by the arm again, and walks him to the other side of the plaza.
Men shout at them. The boy shouts back. Lac allows himself to be guided to the section occupied by whichever brutish man clubbed that poor woman over the head with a smoldering log from the fire. His intrepid translator marches them brashly up to the group—as if making a show of courage—and lifts his arm to point. Lac follows his finger and sees a woman, maybe a decade older than the injured one. She’s hurling insults back across the courtyard.
Now Lac and his translator are accosted by four men who take turns yelling into their faces, who then begin to grab them and shove them around. For Lac, it’s even more frightening than the club fight last night. He fears he may be attacked, struck, clubbed, impaled by an arrow, or porcupined by an entire fusillade. The boy tugs at his arm and they beat a hasty retreat across the plaza.
So a woman hit another woman with a piece of firewood. As if anticipating his next question, Lac’s translator bumps his shoulder roughly to get his attention, and then points to a gathering of children, some looking worried and frightened, others thrilled—like it’s all magnificent entertainment. Lac is nonplussed. His translator strikes him again on the shoulder and points to a woman sitting some distance away from the kids. From what Lac can see, she looks to be braiding something, but she periodically glances over at the children. She’s watching them, babysitting. And she’s not alone. Another woman sitting in a hammock nearby is likewise occupied, kicking around logs to help along the fire in her hearth, but also flitting glances at the children. Suddenly Lac understands.
The injured woman shirked her babysitting responsibilities, and the other woman, perhaps the mother of the neglected child, flew into a rage and clubbed her with the only weapon near at hand.
Lac’s face must register his dawning construal; his translator smiles, hammers Lac’s chest playfully with his fist, and then saunters proudly off, disappearing into the chaos. Lac, once again, is left wondering where the safest place to stand might be. Then he wonders if he should perhaps examine the woman’s wound, see if she needs stitches, though he’s not too eager to needle around in another gruesomely battered scalp; the image of the last one remains as vivid in his mind as when it was still right in front of him. Still, he finds himself moving toward the small crowd of family members surrounding her, partly because, while he may not feel safe approaching her, he doesn’t exactly feel safe standing in the middle of the plaza either, conspicuously observing the shouting match, and also partly because if he’s going to stay inside the shabono—and he’s duty-bound to—he’d prefer to be performing some service, serving some function.
Or as Laura might explain, he feels a profound desire to stay busy and prove his usefulness.
No one bars his entry into the clutch of bodies, this subhuman, this clown—this purveyor of magic tools and exotic foods, this sometimes healer. What important words, he wonders, are going undocumented? How should I record this incident so I’ll be best positioned to note the frequency of similar occurrences? How will I corroborate the story? If it truly was about negligent babysitting, maybe there’s an injured child around here somewhere. Lac tries to scan the rim of the plaza, but he’s distracted by his obligation to dumbly greet everyone meeting his eyes with an appeasing smile. He gets close enough to see the woman’s still unfocused eyes, the nauseated look on her face. There’s no blood to be seen.
Not much I can do for a concussion, he thinks. He’s already being jostled and grabbed and pushed, but then he feels a stiffer, more deliberate shove from his side. His body responds before he can reason out the proper course. Clutching the camera hanging from his neck while he recovers his balance, he steps back to reclaim his lost ground, and gives the culprit an equally rough retaliatory shove.
Now the man is glaring at him, flailing his arms, and releasing a torrent of threats and insults. Don’t wait around for the clubs to come out, Lac thinks—a quick one-two then hightail it. Another man joins the first in his dance of indignation. Lac’s limbs go weightless, his chest filling with white fire. They’re not so big, he thinks, burly but short. And there’s no damn way I’m standing here taking turns in some stupid ritual duel. I’ll swing and kick and shove until I have a clear path to the passageway out. Then I’ll barricade myself in Clemens’s hut and ready the shotgun.
Just as the kindling rage reaches the verge of igniting into violence, another man runs up to join the fray, his hands raised, placating. His words are hurried but not angry. Lac recognizes him. It’s his rescuer, the man who found him when he fell behind in the woods. He speaks, his tone emphatic, bordering on plaintive. Then the other man speaks, still angry. Lac rehearses his plan to escape even as he questions the ethical implications. They can hurt me, but I can’t hurt them. I’m the one who has no business here, the nabä, the nobody. How would Laura feel about that reasoning? Fortunately, Lac’s rescuer is prevailing on the man to back down.
In two minutes, Lac thinks, they’ll be distracted, maybe just as angry but with their ire directed elsewhere. My advantage is in not having a lineage, not mattering—except for my madohe. For all I know, that’s what the two men are arguing about, who has dibs on my cache of trade goods after my inevitable meeting with tragedy. Lac inches backward. But the argument ends abruptly before he’s made it more than a couple feet away. The aggressor storms off while his rescuer—twice over now—slinks up to him, smiling, putting both hands on Lac’s chest.
The man talks over him in his whiny, nasalized syllables. As far as Lac can tell, the Yąnomamö have no words of their own for saying thanks. They let tongue clicks and aweis suffice. You don’t need to acknowledge any favors because in accepting one you enter into the system of reciprocity. Does talking down an enraged attacker constitute a favor for which payment must be tendered? What about returning for you when you’ve fallen behind on a hunt? This man hasn’t demanded anything for that earlier favor. Perhaps his motives aren’t as material as I’m assuming.
The man steps back, giving Lac a gentle shove and leaving him to stand there, amid the commotion, moving his gaze along the edges of the circular plaza, into the homes nestled beneath the huge palm-thatch roof. Then he turns his gaze upward, into the cloudless sky, tired of seeing it all, tired of the never-ending racket, tired of the shouting and the anger and the threats, tired of the god awful smells, tired of being covered in slimy half dried sweat and set upon by vicious biting insects, tired of being in this boiling cauldron of human slop.
He walks over to the woman, who’s recovered enough to struggle to her feet with the aid of her family. No blood, no wound to stitch, and anyway I won’t be able to stitch them all, not at this rate. They’ve made do their whole lives without my Western supplies and shaky hands. They’ll manage long after I’m gone. Unless the missionaries prevail on them to stop fighting. Wouldn’t that be something?
Lac avoids every man he sees on his way to the passage outside, hoping to sneak out with as little harassment as possible. As he nears the two sections bracketing the exit, though, he sees the headman’s wife leaning over by the hearth. It’s the older one. Neither Bahikoawa nor the younger wife is anywhere to be seen. As Lac squats down to enter the passage, he notices the swelling, a thickness about the aging woman’s belly. How had he not seen it before? So many naked bodies. So much going on. He stands there watching her for several moments. Then he reaches for his pocket, withdraws his notebook, turns, and wades back into the mess of humans.
And there he sees Bahikoawa, moving quietly—yes, quietly—from one of the woman’s family members to another. If I hadn’t known this was the village headman, Lac thinks, he’d be about the last person I’d guess. He’s not urging anyone to stop spewing vitriol; he appears to be comforting them, touching them on the shoulder or arm, whispering condolences and reassurances. If he’s like most headmen among tribal peoples, he doesn’t have much authority—one word from the headman and everyone goes on doing whatever they were doing before is the joke—but he wears the mantle of his stature with such grace; he stands apart from his covillagers by exuding calm and tending more toward tranquility and, if not reason, then reasonability. A powerful man with a light touch.
Lac observes admiringly as Bahikoawa quells the rancor by not too insistently or too directly trying to quell it. How different, he wonders, are each of the Yąnomamö men temperamentally? And how common is it for a man of Bahikoawa’s temperament to rise to the status of headman? The simplicity of the roles in a culture like this would suggest fewer dimensions of possible differentiation for their personalities—they all do the same work, know the same stories and songs, look forward to or dread the same upcoming events, insofar as looking forward is possible to a people without calendars or clocks. So where does a man like Bahikoawa come from? More importantly, how did a man with such a light touch come to have any authority at all among a people so pushy and demanding and prone to violent outbursts?
Stepping to avoid the men wandering away from the scene, Lac begins to answer his own question, thinking, Bahikoawa must be part of a more dominant lineage, have more brothers and uncles and male cousins. That has to be part of it. But is your reasoning about less differentiation or less individuation between personalities sound? Could this man have somehow developed qualities that truly set him apart? Don’t the Yąnomamö also have more freedom to develop into who they naturally are, fewer restraints on their expressions of uniqueness?
A glance around the shabono belies this idea. They could be clones of each other, at least when it comes to their appearance, their tools, their houses. But the fine distinctions, he thinks, will start to pop out for me as I stay here longer—assuming they don’t succeed in chasing me off. Assuming I don’t just get fed up and flee the territory.
As the hubbub peters out, more passing men make demands on him. He folds his arms and utters a firm ma, then the second time shouts it, then the third shouts it louder still. After twice going through this progression with different men, he starts to lead with the louder ma. He looks around. People are dispersing from the tight tense clumps they’d formed for solidarity. The men are dribbling out through the passages to go hunt, and the women are picking up their baskets for hauling firewood—what are they using to chop it? The scene Lac had rushed to witness is over, so he finally feels like leaving won’t amount to any dereliction.
He walks over to take one last look at the injured woman, who appears mostly recovered, though still indignant, before turning toward the passage alongside the headman’s section of the shabono. Before reaching it, he’s stopped by a man who seems to want his shirt.
“Ma!”
“Yababuji.”
“Ma!!”
Lac steps to one side and proceeds to the exit as the man berates him. It’s getting worse, he thinks as he bends down. You’re going to have to figure out a way to get them to back off. Or sooner or later… As he stands up outside the shabono, he sees from a distance the door to Clemens’s hut is hanging open. My shotgun, he thinks. My food. The trade goods I’m supposed to be using for payment.
Sprinting over the clearing, he has no thought of snakes or feces. Even before reaching the open door, he’s brimming with rage. Bracing his hands against the frame, he catapults his head inside, turning to one side then the other. The camera dangles from his neck, reminding him that before hearing the brouhaha he was rummaging through the barrel that now stands open, its lid tossed aside. “I’m going to beat the shit out of whoever did this,” he mutters. “And I’ll do it right in the middle of the damned courtyard for all to see. I’ll beat him to within an inch of his life—as a lesson. As a message.”
Lac peers down into the barrel. Most of the contents remain. Before doing a thorough inventory, he scans the hut for his shotgun, his throat gripped with panic, his heart a dense block of wood. It’s been moved. It lies flat on the clay floor when before it stood braced against the mud wall. Lac feels as though every bone of his skeleton has vanished as his flesh is turning to mist. Not satisfied to see that the gun remains in his possession, he steps over to make sure he can feel it in his hands. They don’t know how it works, he assures himself. Plus, if they took it for some other use, you’d probably have no trouble finding it.
He steps over to the door to investigate the lock. It wasn’t latched. He hurried off and left the hut unlocked. Way to go, Shackley. Now, back to the barrel to see what’s been taken. His eyes leap from point to point along the way, as though every square inch has been tainted by the burglar’s intrusion. Everything he sees speaks of discrepancies, clues, signs pointing to motives, nothing, nothing, blankness. The sardine can. It was on his makeshift table. Now it’s gone.
Lac laughs.
What else? The barrel had three of the cheap machetes he brought so many of, and now it has one. At this discovery, Lac breathes easier, thinking about how much grander the larceny could have been. He goes to the trunk and digs through the plastic totes. He can’t tell if anything else is missing, but he’s reasonably sure someone rifled through the contents. Casing the joint. Maybe they didn’t take much of value this time—but they’d made it in and out undetected. Now anytime I’m away for any length of time, I have to worry about them breaking in and getting their hands on something vital.
The feeling of violation sets in deeper with each passing minute. Someone entered his hut, his living space, and fondled all his belongings, his shotgun, his food containers. Nothing is safe out here. Nothing sacred. The Yąnomamö must have only the most rudimentary concept of property, and they have no law enforcement, no laws for that matter. He remembers his Uncle Rob’s warning all those years ago in the UP, “Men start to forget all about the rules when they’re a hundred miles from any police, a hundred miles from all the things that might remind them who they are. You gotta be careful who you just walk up to when you’re this deep in the forest.”
No, he thinks, the Yąnomamö don’t have laws; they have customs, weaker rules based on relationships and individual status—neither of which I have any to speak of. I’m nabä. A nobody. Scarcely human. I can’t even speak for Christ’s sake. He goes back over and clutches the latch on the door. Even if it was secured, a good strong kick would grant entry to anyone sufficiently motivated. If the latch held fast, staving in the door wouldn’t pose any great difficulty. He steps back and sits on his hammock, his thoughts whirling. The children are already starting to show up again, an occurrence he’s not entirely displeased with. As long as it’s not the men. Not now. As long as it’s not Waddu-ewantow—though come to think of it, I would like to ask that bastard a question or two about how familiar he is or isn’t with the interior of this hut.
Ha, he sputters, like you’re such an intimidating interrogator. If you’re going to question anyone, it should be about family trees anyway.
Sighing, he gets to his feet and goes outside to continue work on his shoddy mud hut.
Lac sits atop the log stool, writing at his table. Yesterday was an especially trying day. After witnessing the aftermath of an altercation—a woman beat another woman over the head with a piece of firewood, likely for negligent childcare—I returned to find my hut had been searched and a few items, most notably a couple of machetes, had been stolen. It turns out that was only the beginning of my difficulties. Up till then, I’d only given a machete to the headman, Bahikoawa. Apparently, these two newer machetes showing up in the village created quite a stir. I was working on the side wall of my new hut for maybe a half hour when Yąnomamö men started showing up, demanding they be given their own machetes.
After expending all the time and effort necessary to figure out what they wanted, my first inclination was to oblige. Then I reasoned it may be tough using trade goods as payment after setting a precedent of handing them over to anyone who asks not so nicely. So I refused, repeatedly, raising my voice and lowering my tone each time. But they wouldn’t be dissuaded. They harassed me, pleading, indignant, angry—walking manifestations of unchecked emotion.
At first, it was the usual game, the one I’ve quickly become adept at, where one man makes a demand, I say no (ma), he repeats his demand, I say ma more forcefully, and so on. Then another man showed up and it was two against one. Soon, it was three against one. Then four. I was sure now I was in significant danger. If I allowed them to prevail on me to give everyone a machete, more men would arrive shortly afterward, demanding their own. That means between thirty and forty grown men total, among whom I’d have to divvy twenty—now eighteen—machetes. So I held my ground.
Then the sioha from Karohi-teri showed up, the man who bullied me out of my last bite of oatmeal on my first day alone in the field. The situation went from tense and frightening to desperately urgent. The man began his negotiations by putting both hands on my chest and giving me a stiff shove. It was time to flee. Only one problem: I’d left a machete on the ground inside the wall I was building. I was sure they’d find it if I left. It would be gone. But then if I picked it up before retreating inside the hut, they’d see it and never let me go through the door without handing it over.
I made a quick decision, a calamitous one. I allowed myself to be pushed in the direction of the wall, walked over, picked up the machete, and began walking back toward the sioha. Maybe it was the self-satisfied grin spreading across his face. Maybe I just couldn’t bring myself to give this man one of my possessions in response to his threats and harassment. I walked right past him, clutching the machete in a tight grip. I didn’t even look at him as I passed. It must have given him pause, my stubbornness, because I made it some way toward the front of Clemens’s hut unmolested—before the Karohi-teri man slammed into me with his shoulder and took up a position between me and the door.
Recovering my balance, I saw there was no clear route of escape from the growing crowd of men, and the only way into the hut was through my chief tormentor. I confess my strongest impulse was to lift the machete over my head and bring it down hard enough to bury it in his, splitting that ridiculous tonsure in half like a melon. The other men were frantic and whiny, but not nearly as angry and primed for fisticuffs as this one. Nevertheless, after I pressed the machete into his chest, making a single gesture of passing it to him and shoving him out of the way, the crowd roared, creating a deafening clamor. Several of them rushed the door behind me.
Two men were already inside when I turned around, but they halted in place when they saw what I was holding. They must have remembered my demonstration from a couple days ago. “Back up!” I shouted, lifting and shaking the gun, hoping it could be more of a talisman than a weapon. “That’s right, get out!” They couldn’t understand of course, but I had to yell something. They must have gotten the gist. They tried to back out of the hut but ran into more men trying to push their way inside. I held the gun up higher, still prepared to fire if necessary, but in ready view of this second row of intruders.
Word must’ve spread. The doorway cleared. My first thought was of how to reinforce the door. Before getting to that, though, I stepped outside and fired a round in the air. “That’s it!” I yelled. “If you want a damn machete, you have to earn it. And the next person I catch in my hut gets his ugly tobacco-stretched face blown off!”
What can I say? I needed to intimidate them.
Pressing the door closed, I saw my hands were shaking yet again. It was only a moment later that I heard the first pound on the door. I waited, terrified, ready to fire, but no one attempted to burst through. One of them must be testing it, I thought. I took a breath, swung open the door, stepped outside, and fired another shot in the air before stepping back in, securing the latch, and beginning the painfully long process of rolling and dragging one of the barrels to the doorway to use as a barricade.
I’ve been locked inside ever since, only squeezing out to piss after checking to see if all is quiet. The one good thing about these events is that I’ve had adequate time to prepare some decent meals for the first time in days. I’ve been starved to the point of lightheadedness ever since arriving in the territory. I’m still filthy, but I’m growing accustomed to that, as uncomfortable as it can be. The constant threats and bullying are really starting to take a toll on me though. I need to come up with a way to curtail the harassment before something truly tragic happens.
Lac looks up from the page, turning to glance into the corner behind him, the spot where he sat, huddled and shaking and weeping, clutching the shotgun for dear life, sinking to a depth of loneliness he’d never imagined could exist. I should write about that feeling of bottomless despair and impenetrable isolation, he thinks. None of the ethnographers you read talked much about the psychological toll of being far from home, far from loved ones, among bizarre people you struggle to communicate with—or if they did write about it, it was only in the abstract. Maybe you can help some young kid be better prepared in the future if you describe it in detail. At least they’ll know what they’ll be getting themselves into.
On the other hand, that could be precisely why past ethnographers kept mum; knowing how low you can sink doesn’t make the actual experience any easier, and if we knew how rough it could get beforehand it might discourage us from ever going into the field in the first place. If that’s the case, he thinks, then what else do I have to look forward to that my forebears opted against preparing me for?
It’s approaching noon. Lac hears the voices of children outside. Whatever threats from outsiders kept everyone on edge those first few days seem to have fizzled away. Not that anyone is gamboling freely about outside the shabono walls; people just seem less wary, less like they’re expecting an arrow flying at them from every direction. The downside is they now have more energy to devote to their mission of separating the resident nabä from his madohe.
The thought of Waddu-ewantow bullying him out of that third machete—after he’d already filched the two others—turns Lac inside-out with rage and embarrassment. I’m going to end up smashing that asshole’s head in before this trip is over, he thinks, God as my witness. He tries to laugh off the sick feeling of hopelessness. More likely he’ll end up smashing yours. And what does a vow before a god you don’t believe in amount to anyway?
Back to the practical matters at hand: making sure the shotgun is near at hand at all times from now on; bolting the door, sealing the barrels, locking the trunks, no exceptions; more than that—stand your ground. They usually respond when you shove and shout back, so do it as soon as you can, before the tension has a chance to escalate. Your willingness to start a fight will be your chief means of preventing a fight. Draw your line in the sand farther off so they don’t build momentum before reaching it. No is your automatic set-point. Ma. The response to any and every demand. No equivocation. No exceptions. As soon as you budge, as soon as you let them push you, they’ll push you right over—and they’ll know you as a push-over. You can’t afford that.
He stands, walks to the window, and lifts up on his toes to look outside, steeling himself against the anxiety attending his plan to go back to work, back into the Yąnomamö’s world, so he can continue building his new abode, cozy enough for his wife and kids. He thinks back to his sister’s ill-timed admonishment: “Oh my God, Lachlan, don’t get yourself killed in the jungle because you’re too damned stubborn to let anything go. Seriously, now would be a good time to learn how to recognize a lost cause when you see one.”
Well, Bess, if you don’t push up against your limits once in a while, how will you ever know where they are?
He laughs. That’s so perfectly what he’d say just because it seems like the thing to say. A platitude. Honestly, he thinks, I’d love nothing more than to stay in this hut until Clemens returns and then get the hell out of this awful place. But if Clemens doesn’t come back for three months—longer?—I’d starve. Whenever those European explorers lost their way in one of those blank spaces on the map, they had only two choices: they could either befriend the indigenous peoples, or they could die a slow, excruciating death. Humans are adapted to life with other humans, preferably ones who’ve developed traditions and industries that help them thrive in the local ecology, cultural adaptations that do the work of biological evolution in far fewer generations. Unless I get access to my own society’s products, I won’t last a month out here—not without the Yąnomamö. And if I want to catch wind of it if and when the Malarialogìa show up, I need to stay connected to the villagers socially.
Shit! I first need to get connected with them socially.
Lac woke up four times last night from dreams of Yąnomamö men rushing into his hut and binding his legs together with his hammock, pulling his arms out to the side, and lifting their clubs over their heads to bring them crashing down on his. In between the third and fourth repetition of the nightmare, though, he had another dream, a much more pleasant one. While watching the goings on inside one family’s section of the shabono and trying to write down every word he heard uttered, a Yąnomamö man, no different from any other, strolled up and said, “Good day, sir. How about this heat? I’ll tell you what, between the heat and the God damned bugs, I’m irritated enough to start a club fight. Care to join me?” Perfect English. A British accent even.
Lac, ecstatic, couldn’t restrain himself and immediately began peppering the man with questions. Unfortunately, he couldn’t remember a single one of the answers by the time he finally got up from his hammock and started preparing his breakfast of heavily sugared oatmeal. Could he live off that, he wonders now, if he had to, for three months? How long would his coffee and crackers and sardines and peanut butter last? God, what I wouldn’t give for a nice cold, crisp salad. He squats down to push the barrel out from in front of the door. Before unlatching it, though, he lowers his head and sighs.
“I don’t know how much more of this shit I can take,” he says aloud to no one.
After finally unlatching the door, he reaches for his shotgun. He’ll be keeping it nearby as long as he’s outside. But am I going to take it into the shabono with me? With all those women and kids around? He steps out of the hut and walks over to where the first wall of the addition is taking shape.
He’s barely had a chance to get his hands muddy before a few of the older boys start showing up from the shabono. Lac pretends nothing has happened and carries on like before, offering them fishhooks and line in exchange for their labor, which really occupies a conceptual space between labor and play—goofing around. They are kids after all. When Waddu-ewantow ducks out from under the lowermost edge of the sloping shabono roof and saunters up to the building site, Lac eyes his shotgun, measuring the distance, estimating the time it would take to lift, aim, and fire.
If he starts acting threating, Lac thinks, I’ll give him a good shove, and by the time he recovers his balance he’ll have the barrel pointed in his face. Sure, I’ll take turns in your little dueling game—but you can be damn sure I’m going first. You can do whatever you feel like doing to me after that. I won’t even ask for a second turn. But Waddu-ewantow does something unexpected. He walks up, flashes his sly, mischievous grin, and then kneels down to reach into the mud. Work for fishhooks and line, just like before. And why should it be any different—even though the man basically mugged me last night, and that was after he’d already burglarized my hut?
Lac considers his next move. He could chase the man away with the shotgun. He could sneak up behind him and stove in his skull with the butt of his rifle. He could wait until the man demands his payment and pointedly refuse—communicating somehow that the machetes were all the payment he can expect to receive for a while. Or he could go along with pretending nothing happened. For the most disappointing of reasons, Lac finds himself settling on this latter course: he’s exhausted, mentally, emotionally, and physically. If Waddu-ewantow wants to work for fishhooks, Lac will let him build his portion of the wall—even though he fears every liberty he brooks being taken, every offense he lets go unpunished, confers on his tormentors a greater sense of impunity. Because how much choice does he really have? After all, who will he get to do the rest of the palm-leaf thatching for the roof if he chases this guy off?
They return to work, Lac keeping the shotgun at all times within the periphery of his view, within ready reach. A few more boys wander over to check on the progress of the nabä’s building project, mostly out of boredom Lac assumes. One even starts to help. Shared work, Lac muses again, a universal pastime among men. Just men? Or maybe men in particular? Good questions to keep in mind. Either way, building the hut now was a good idea; it’s about the only thing I know to do to relate to them, through collaboration, the only thing I know to do where I don’t have to worry about whether I’m welcome.
Lac has decided he wants to divide the main room in half with an interior wall he can reinforce and hide his madohe behind. He stands near the center of the first wall and measures it out mentally, working through the steps to make it a reality. And what about another room while we’re at it, he thinks, a bathroom maybe, so we don’t have to worry about the kids going outside to pee and getting bit by snakes?
It’s going to be a long time, he realizes, much longer than I thought, before I’m ready to bring them out here. So I may as well take my time and make the hut as homey as I can. He imagines Laura’s smile, her calmed worries evaporating into simple delight at her husband’s ingenuity. Sorry I made you wait so long, he might say; we hope you enjoy the accommodations. He can’t help smiling. For all the shocks and stresses of jungle life among these boisterous people, it’s amazing how much time I’ve spent brooding about Laura and her plight, trapped in a strange place with strange people, the wife of an anthropologist who disappears for months-long stretches into regions where there can be no word from him. And something else? Something more persistent. A busy mind. She’s told him about her disappointment upon discovering most of the women at U of M were there for the sole purpose of finding doctors or lawyers or high-rolling businessmen to marry. He always knew better than to blurt out his first thought at hearing this complaint—what else would they be there for? Other than maybe acquiring some final polish to their manners, some sharpening to their wit, an added spicing of intellectual sophistication to their repartee?
Both of them were part of the second wave of first-generation college students following the war, she pointed out to him, and yet women are still barred from attending Ivy League institutions. An injustice, to be sure, but Lac might have interjected that he himself had no idea what the words “Ivy League” even meant until he’d spent some time at two separate universities. You may as well be barred from any institution you’ve never heard of.
To aggravate the wound still further, it didn’t take Laura long at all to find out her own parents were waiting for news of a boyfriend—a budding romance, an impending engagement. Though she’s never said it explicitly, Lac knows his role in this narrative of intergenerational conflict. “You wanted me to go off to college to find a husband,” he imagines her saying, “and that’s what I did. Oh no, he’s not a doctor, not a medical doctor anyway. Not a lawyer either. Lachlan is going to be an anthropologist. You don’t know what an anthropologist is? Well…”
Thus, Nick and Judy got the shock Laura felt they had coming to them.
Lac laughs, but his feelings are layered and contradictory. He’s proud of his wife’s defiance, her spirit—but was marrying him just that? An act of defiance? A message? Maybe it was a luxury afforded to him as a man, but in his case falling in love was a straightforward matter: he saw her, felt a stirring inside, and soon came to realize he cherished every moment with her, in a way he hadn’t relished his time with any woman before her, in a way that made him want to do everything he could to join their two futures together into one.
Smoothing a layer of mud over the drying seams between the growing stacks of solidifying bricks, he shakes his head. Here you are, he thinks, striking out into the wilderness, building a home with your own two hands among the hostile natives, all the while brooding over your wife’s complicated motives for marrying you, like a figure right out of the nineteenth century—and yet you feel contempt for everyone else’s small-minded backwardness?
Big picture, as in putting our lives in an ethnological context, these women here seem to have it much worse than women in most hunter-gatherer bands—if what I’ve learned is valid—so there must not be any gene that makes men have to treat them roughly while dictating marriage choices and career paths. Our society affords women a great deal of freedom, more than it has in generations past. Still, Laura’s probably right to feel cheated; she gets to go to college, preparing to enter some discipline or occupation, only to have it snatched away from her at the last minute, to be told it isn’t real. All that studying was really just so you could mingle with men whose prospects are good, and so you can hold your own in conversations with people occupying society’s higher echelons. You wouldn’t want your husband and his friends to be bored by all your frivolous banter, would you?
It’s the curse of living in a period of transition; you’re exposed to the promise of the future, but progress is too slow to deliver on it. And yet, he thinks, I seriously doubt ten or twenty years from now—even if the women’s campaign continues on pace—I’ll be hearing about the pioneering ethnographical work undertaken by a woman, not among tribes like the Yąnomamö anyway. We already have some giant female figures in anthropology, but it’s hard to imagine them doing work in conditions like this and having it turn out well at all.
Hell, it’s hard to imagine it turning out well even for me.
The thought aptly coincides with Lac catching sight of three men approaching the building site, by all appearances ready for trouble. For God’s sake, he thinks, I haven’t even been out here an hour. Am I going to have to fire off another shot every fifteen minutes? He sighs as he reaches for a rag to wipe his hands with before taking up the gun. But then Waddu-ewantow sees the approaching men—and guffaws. He turns to Lac and, pointing at the men, says, “Ew-afturn-it.” As Waddu-ewantow laughs again and gets to his feet, Lac feels tingles crawling over his shoulders and spine. The son of a bitch just spoke to me in English, he thinks, unprompted, sort of. Not exactly my dream come to life, but eerily similar. “You have to earn it,” I told this man about a box of matches. Now he’s saying—and it’s perfectly clear—make these clowns earn anything you might be wont to give them, i.e., “Don’t give these idiots any damned machetes.”
Lac can’t help smiling as he watches his tormentor walk up to the men and start tormenting them, and not for the first time judging by their reactions. Who is this guy, he wonders, this sioha from Karohi-teri, who now has three of my machetes, assuming he hasn’t traded any away? He doesn’t seem too happy with the men of Bisaasi-teri, nor does he respect their courage or fighting prowess. Maybe I should think of the machetes as payment for protection, like you’d give a crime boss like Al Capone.
The men exchange heated words, but the three are obviously afraid of Waddu-ewantow, and it’s not long before he’s sent them away, grumbling, probably making lame jokes to save face. Lac watches Waddu-ewantow walk back to where he was stacking mud bricks around the wood frame and take up working again. He may be guarding his source of madohe, Lac thinks, but shared work effects a kind of social alchemy, transmogrifying enemies into teammates. Collaborating to achieve common goals morphs rivals into allies, obstacles into assets. This might be one of the keys to making this whole project work—somehow create a shared sense, not so much of mission—nothing so lofty—but of joint effort and collective progress toward a worthy goal. Or Waddu-ewantow could just arbitrarily decide to split your skull with one of your own machetes. All he would have to conclude is that he can get more from killing you than from working for you. And that’s another reason it’ll be good to have a dugout: if the Yąnomamö know you make frequent trips to replenish your supplies, they’ll be less apt to estimate what’s stored here now at a higher value than what you could potentially bring in the future.
I didn’t enter the shabono today, Lac writes sitting at his table. I suppose I’m still decompressing after all that happened yesterday and the day before. Surprisingly enough, the Karohi-teri man showed up to work on the hut for fishing tackle again, as though nothing had happened. He even chased off three other men who seemed set on harassing me further. Later, both the men who returned for me when I fell behind during the hunt a few days ago also showed up to help. With all the young boys, we had a substantial workforce—not that we were especially coordinated in our efforts. (The boys may have started on an unnecessary wall or two.) We worked until the sun was lowering on the horizon, at which point I decided to turn to language lessons.
The two men from the hunting party weren’t much help, as they seemed to have no interest in what I was doing. But I managed to institute a dynamic with the Karohi-teri man: I’d communicate my confusion; he would in turn express incredulity at my ignorance (somewhat comically), his astonishment eliciting a desire on his part to remedy that ignorance. The chief difficulty I’ve been facing is in discerning where one word stops and another begins. I have page after page of unbroken chains of phonetically transcribed syllables: basically single words that run the length of a page. To illustrate to my informant what I needed, I wrote English phrases I knew him to be familiar with—“You have to earn it,” “What do you want now?”—and repeated them over and over, tracing a line under each syllable as I pronounced it. He gave no sign of understanding what I was doing.
Comparing the English phrases to the Yąnomamö syllable chains, I tried to stress the difference—no spaces demarking individual words. He tried helping me by directing my attention to small sections of the chain I had just passed over in my reading and pointing to the objects they correspond with, but he didn’t seem to grasp my larger problem. We’ll work at it again tomorrow. At least I’m learning the names of various common objects.
Lac awakes. Yesterday went by without crisis. So peaceful was it that he’s already back to wondering which activities he should direct his ethnographic gaze toward today. You can’t keep to yourself and your own projects forever, he thinks. Keep the shotgun with you, nip the begging in the bud before it builds momentum, and you should be alright. All the same, you may want to participate in and observe whatever Bahikoawa is doing, or your two rescuers—no reason to open yourself up to more opportunities for being bullied if you can avoid it.
After returning to his hut with the day’s first jug of water, he pours some of the café con leche he prepared last night from his thermos into a mug. It’s still plenty warm. That means he’s lighted on a new time-saving routine, a way to get started with his work earlier every day. He still plans on spending most of the daylight hours working on the hut, but he’ll at least check in with a few groups going through their own daily routines. First, he decides he’ll go to the gardens and see if he can’t pick up a few new vocabulary items for his growing stack of 3 by 5 notecards. Will he try to recruit Waddu-ewantow for another language lesson tonight? I guess I’ll wait and see how he’s behaving while we work on the hut, assuming he shows up for that. He must already have more hooks and line than he knows what to do with, unless the Yąnomamö are using them in some way other than what they were designed for.
Lac guesses he’ll come; he seems to be avoiding someone—his in-laws?—and he also seems bored with Bisaasi-teri in general. How long is he required to stay here? Maybe it’s time to start trying to get his personal story. If he shows up. Of course, with Waddu-ewantow, it’s just as likely he’ll show up and start getting pushy again. Lac takes solace in the presence of more peaceful, more reliable men like the headman and his rescuers. Who are these two men to each other, he wonders—brothers? What makes them so different from the others? Really, I should avoid the hot-headed tough guy from Karohi-teri and focus my efforts on these guys who’ll probably be much more compliant, much more cooperative, much less volatile. Because, let’s face it, you need more than information if you’re going to keep your sanity out here for a year and a half; you’re going to need something approaching friendship.
Finishing his coffee, he pours a dollop of water into the cup, sloshes it around a couple times, and casts it outside. That’s what doing the dishes amounts to now, since he’s decided to clean an item only if it’s truly dirty. The old trade-off: you can live comfortably with clean clothes, a reasonably full belly, and sanitary cooking, meanwhile getting no work done; or you can get lots of work done, but feel disgusting the whole time, light-headed with twisted guts, wrapped in a reeking film of old sweat oozing and congealing in layers, like sulfurous lava from an island volcano. He’s decided he’ll make do going on nearly empty, accept being repulsive—who does he have to impress who’s not at least as gross?—and prioritize vocabulary and hut-building, along with as much participant-observation as he can squeeze in, as long as he can stand it.
He grabs his notebook and pen, sliding them into the back pocket of his shorts. It’s early enough in the day that his skin and clothes are still dry—as crusted as they are with the vestiges of yesterday’s profusion of perspiration. When he steps outside, his eyes automatically scan the clearing, on the lookout for the next brigade of Yąnomamö charging toward him with spears and drawn bows. Instead, he sees people leaving the shabono to shit, some kids playing at archery with miniature bows—who’d have thought?—and a few women walking toward the gardens. That’s where he heads as well.
On the way, he stops and takes a breath, relishing what he knows will be a short-lived absence of children. They always find and surround him soon after he emerges from the hut, a good tradeoff really: some light babysitting in exchange for ongoing linguistic immersion. Their nasalized, whiny, but invariably lighthearted and playful words burbling up all around him, at once the source of his only inkling of belonging and a mild annoyance.
Lac continues to the garden and is examining the various species of plants growing in each of the sections—catching the brunt of his horticultural ignorance—when he sees one of his rescuers, the one who first happened on him after he’d been delayed by the fallen tree and couldn’t locate the rest of the hunting party. It takes a moment for Lac to register what he’s looking at. The man is squatting down in what must be his family’s plot, and he’s sweeping the ground as he waddles back and forth across it—sweeping the dirt with the blade of a machete held sideways between both hands. Lac is already rushing toward the man before he’s fully grasped the meaning of what he sees.
“Shori,” he says, but that’s the extent of his repertoire of Yąnomamö greetings. “What are you doing with that?” he asks stupidly, pointing at the machete. The man smiles and begins to speak, gesturing toward himself and then holding up the machete, obviously giving his justification for believing it rightly belongs to him.
Lac feels his chest engorging with a rage building toward immense proportions, puffing him out, whitening his lips, priming him for irrevocable action. I’d have expected this from Waddu-ewantow—hell, I already all but accused him, but… The thought of his earlier misdirected anger dampens his swelling fury before it’s reached its full intensity. He takes a step back just as the second of the pair steps out from behind some tall shoots. Lac’s gaze drops to this man’s hands, empty; he imagines him having overheard his brother’s hurried explanation and rushing to hide his own pilfered machete.
The man talks, taking turns with his brother—or whatever they are to each other—but language lessons and genealogies are the last thing on Lac’s mind. Remember this, he tells himself. It’s probably not so different from what you’d run up against in most professions back in the States. You’ve been sheltered from it on campus, probably one of the most civilized places on the planet. But in the real world, and probably still more so out here, nobody does anything for you unless they think there’s something in it for them. These people steal women from each other’s villages for Christ’s sake.
Lac is too dispirited to try wresting the machetes back from his whilom rescuers. They can’t all be bad, he recalls thinking. Maybe not, but just because someone smiles and helps you out a bit, that doesn’t mean you can suddenly count on him, pin your hopes of friendship on him, look to him for entrée into his entire society—there, see? It’s not like your own motives were so God damned pure.
Lac makes it all the way back to the hut, dodging some of the kids. He steps inside, turns around to latch the door, and leans his forehead against the flimsy wood. He tries to force a laugh but barely manages a smile. God, I haven’t even been out here a week; it’s not like they were the oldest and best friends I ever had. Still, who else do I have, as I steep in this buggy boiling stew of loneliness chockfull of the reeking bodies of hostile humans, like none others I’ve ever encountered. They seem so inhuman, bronze-wrapped, black-capped bundles of twitchy animal instincts, vicious and conniving. He knows this impression isn’t fair. He knows it’s horrible of him to think this way. What would Boas say? But there it is.
We all have our low moments.
He goes through what’s become a ritual checking of bolts, latches, and locks, waits a moment for his nerves to stop buzzing like so many maniac bees in a beleaguered hive, and then decides he needs to go back outside to work on the walls that will seal him off from the Yąnomamö—both the vilest among them and the most virtuous, the fiercest and the most friendly.
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Texas Inmate With a Wool Allergy Has Spent 10 Years Trying To Get a New Blanket
He's now representing himself in a lawsuit.
Joe Setyon | 4.4.2019 1:00 PM
Todd Yateas/2005 Todd Yates/Black Star/Newscom
A Texas inmate with a wool allergy has been trying to obtain a cotton blanket for 10 years. He eventually opted to file a pro se lawsuit alleging civil rights violations, and a federal judge ruled last week that the suit, or at least parts of it, can move forward.
Calvin Weaver's suit says he was diagnosed as "hyper-allergic to the wool blanket issued by" the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ). He reports that he got a medical pass in 2001 allowing him to use a cotton blanket. But in 2009, inmates with wool allergies were given non-wool blankets "with a recycled blend of waste by-products," the suit says.
"He alleges that the new blankets caused itching, open sores, and sleep deprivation resulting in hypertension and anxiety," according to a summary of the lawsuit included in Judge Kenneth Hoyt's March 29 ruling.
In August 2018, the defendants, all whom are employed by the TDJC, filed motions to dismiss the suit. While Hoyt did not rule on the merits of the lawsuit, he did decide whether or not Weaver can seek monetary damages and injunctive relief (i.e., a new blanket).
Weaver's suit named five people as defendants: the warden of his unit, a unit supervisor, the executive director of the TDCJ, a medical doctor employed by the agency, and a manager at a prison unit medical practice. The warden and the executive director cannot be sued, Hoyt says, but the three other employees can, because Weaver claims they knew he had complained about his medical reaction to the blanket yet either ignored him or denied his requests for relief.
"Under the liberal reading required on a motion to dismiss, these allegations are sufficient to state a claim for deliberate indifference to Weaver's serious medical needs," Hoyt writes. Weaver cannot sue them for monetary damage in their official capacities as TDCJ employees, though he can seek damages "in their individual capacities."
"Since the mid-2000's the blankets distributed to TDCJ offenders have been manufactured by Texas Correctional Industries," TDCJ Communications Director Jeremy Desel told Reason via email. "These blankets contain no wool and are made of 40 percent virgin synthetic poly staple and 60 percent recycled synthetic natural fiber. An offender who asks for an alternative due to a potential medical issue is tested for any potential allergies and if warranted offered a medical pass for an alternative blanket."
With that in mind, it's hard to understand why prison officials would be so opposed to granting a man's simple request of a cotton blanket. Unfortunately, this is par for the course for the TDCJ.
In 2016, six Texas inmates sued the prison system over dangerous conditions due to extreme summer heat. The issue was a lack of sufficient air conditioning. "Each summer, including this one, Plaintiffs face a substantial risk of serious harm from the sweltering Texas heat, and Defendants have been deliberately indifferent in responding to this risk," a federal judge ruled in 2017. But the state has fought efforts that would require all uncooled prisons to have air conditioners installed, The Texas Tribune reported last month.
As of August 2017, Texas had more prisoners who'd been in solitary confinement for six years or longer—1,326—than any other state in the nation. The second-place state, Pennsylvania, had just 151.
The TDCJ is the same agency responsible for recently refusing to allow a death row inmate to spend his last moments with his spiritual adviser. After the Supreme Court granted the man a stay of execution last week, the TDCJ changed its policy: It will now ban all chaplains from execution chambers.
This post has been updated with an emailed comment from TDCJ Communications Director Jeremy Desel.
NEXT: In the Space of One Minute, Joe Biden Defends the Death Penalty for Drug Dealers, Asset Forfeiture, and Mandatory Minimums
Joe Setyon is a former assistant editor at Reason.
Texas Prisons
JFree
When I was a kid, we used to dream of wool blankets in prison even though we were allergic to wool too.
In our prison, we had to sleep on metal spikes with rusty steel wool blankets.
AER1972
Gosh at least you had blankets we slept naked outside with ice cold water thrown on us every 30 mins and I wasn’t even in Prison…
Does Reason really expect the average Libertarian to give a rats a$$ about what kind of blankets child rapists, murderers, drug dealers are being given? What is wrong with this magazine?
More proof that Reason is now a tool of George Soros ..
What a rag!
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$park? is the Worst
Calvin Weaver
Why didn’t he build himself a new one?
Ah, do you take delight in mocking the least amongst us?
I knew people weren’t going to get it, but I figured they’d just move on. You shouldn’t feel like you have to let me know you didn’t get it.
SQRLSY One
Calvin Weavers don’t actually weave blankets, silly person…
Calvin Weavers weave CALVINS, dammit!!! That’s where my Calvin-Kleins come from, for example…
Its OK, my first thought was also about the irony of a man named Weaver being involved in a blanket controversy
Little known fact: WHY is Calvin Weaver a Texas jailbird in the first place? He was caught blowing on a cheap plastic flute, w/o permission from a Government-Almighty sanctioned doctor of doctorology, with current license, degrees, and doctorology credentials, and ALSO w/o board certification!!!
Do NOT follow in the footsteps of Calvin Weaver!!!!
To find precise details on what NOT to do, to avoid the flute police, please see http://www.churchofsqrls.com/DONT_DO_THIS/ ? This has been a pubic service, courtesy of the Church of SQRLS!
Good afternoon Most Righteous Feelz –
Can you furnish me the Readers’ Digest version of why Calvin was incarcerated?
You know that I am generally empathetic towards those railroaded by the state and public actors.
Good afternoon Dude-Sir!!!
“Readers’ Digest version of why Calvin was incarcerated”… Calvin (perhaps secretly enabled, aided, and abetted by un-indicted co-conspirator “Hobbes”, but I digress into the unknown) was SUPREMELY arrogant, and BLEW ON A CHEAP PLASTIC FLUTE (AKA “lung flute”) w/o proper permission!!!
That’s all I know actually…
Chipper Morning Wood
Try to never get arrested in a red state.
Necron 99
AGG SEX ASLT OF CHILD, so maybe the flute wasn’t plastic.
A nerdy Fred
Irrelevant, though, unless the statute prohibiting aggravated sexual assault of a child specified open sores as part of the penalty.
Seriously? Maybe you should ask the parents of the child he assaulted. Since lying is second nature to most Cons perhaps a little vetting would be helpful.. What is wrong with Reason these days.. just another progressive rag.
He means its irrelevant to the blanket controversy. You can aggravatedly assault all the children you want and still have a reasonable expectation of a hypoallergenic blanket while in prison (“cruel and unusual” and all that)
But in 2009, inmates with wool allergies were given non-wool blankets “with a recycled blend of waste by-products,” the suit says.
Green initiative, renewable resources, recycling, wind power. Suck it up, it’s for the earth, convict.
He’s lucky they didn’t issue him a smallpox blanket.
He’s allergic to wool; he got a blanket with no wool. What’s the problem?
He is not asking for a blanket, he is demanding a cotton blanket. Texas is right to refuse this obvious ‘camels nose’ ploy.
He’s allergic to wool;
Read it again. He’s *hyper*-allergic. Any more allergic and he’d be ludicrously allergic. Just be glad the sheets aren’t plaid.
according to him … do some real vetting this guy assaults and rapes kids you think he is capable of the truth?
Cotton is way cheaper than wool, so this is obviously just a power move by assholes.
We were given used blankets from the TDC for our dog rescue and they were all very heavy duty but soft cotton … this story is a lie. typical of most of the Reason progressive editorial staff these days. They simply don’t do much research.. I am expecting an anti-second amendment article any day now from the South Asian Nationalist/ Socialist.
Given that he already has a non-wool blanket, isn’t his wool allergy basically irrelevant? His claim has to be something like “the blanket I was issued is toxic”.
And, well, sure, it might be, but on the other hand, pro se litigation by prisoners on bullshit grounds are hardly unprecedented, so maybe let’s wait until facts are established at trial before deciding that the TDCJ is in the wrong.
As to why the TDCJ might be averse to giving him a simple cotton blanket, presumably the switch-over in 2009 from cotton to the new fabric was motivated by something. Major reasons might include flammability, suitability for conversion by prisoners into a garrotte or noose, and resistance to harboring disease/parasites.
marshaul
The reason is obviously FYTW. It’s good to know what sort of justifications are sufficient for you, and don’t come whining when the shoe is on the other foot.
I hadn’t thought of the flammability issue. There’s at least one prison system where blankets are required to be non-flammable.
It will now ban all chaplains from execution chambers.
So, obviously the solution is to ball all blankets from prison cells.
Chipper Jonze
Wool blankets are pricey! Looks like a place where the Lone Star State can cut their budget. Maybe give him one of those cheap-ass synthetic foam blankets you always find even in mid-priced hotels.
Considering here in Texas most “Prisons keep the ambient temperature in Prison between 68 and 72 degrees .. Texas really doesn’t get cold enough long enough to justify much in the way of bed covers. What is wrong with you progressives?
The Texas Prison system is not the Club Med. I get it and then it shouldn’t be. That said I have experience with the surplus blankets provided to the TDC. Our animal rescue charity was given a truck load .. They were well made heavy duty cotton. they were soft enough, warm enough and certainly better than what I was issued in boot camp. Since most con’s are not known for being pillars of veracity I question the child molester Joe Seyton lead the article with. What is wrong with Reason? My guess is that ever since they promoted the dual dunce progressive ticket of Johnson and Weld for President / VP they have found it necessary to appeal to a more progressive base in order to survive financially. Sorry Mr Seyton this article was a waste of space and a waste of time better suited for the Atlantic or Salon.
buybuydandavis
“What is wrong with Reason? ”
Maybe 3 or 4 years ago they were taken over by the Left. Hence the journalistic standards plummeted into the postmodern toilet.
They had one very good new journalist for a while. Ed K. Old school journalism. Actual relevant facts, light on the propaganda.
Naturally they shitcanned him in short order. Can’t say I was surprised. Way too honest and objective for the Postmodern Press.
“Sorry Mr Seyton this article was a waste of space and a waste of time better suited for the Atlantic or Salon.”
Don’t be sorry. This is the best compliment Seyton could hope for. Atlantic or Salon “journalism” is *exactly* what he, and most of Reason, is aiming at.
But since I’ve been indulging in my daily 2 Minutes Hate for Reason writers, in the interest of fairness, I’ll say that ENB seems to me to be improving. More like journalism, less like the hysterical pants shitting propaganda Reason favors these days.
If she gets any better, she won’t last the year without getting shitcanned.
Apparently the judge has merely said there’s enough of a claim to go to trial – so far the prisoner hasn’t proven his assertions, he’s simply sufficiently within the bounds of plausibility to warrant further proceedings to ascertain the true situation.
“It’s hard to understand why prison officials would be so opposed to granting a man’s simple request of a cotton blanket.”
Is there anyone here who finds this a puzzle?
Prison is not the Hilton. The customers to be served are the taxpayers, not the inmates. Particularly where security is important, “let’s have the employees make exceptions for special snowflakes” is not a policy that flies. And that’s merely the legitimate reason.
All the usual reasons one would expect of government apparatchiks apply. Dems Da Rules, and You’ll Take Em and Like Em. File under “Not My Problem”. BFYTW.
PaulTheBeav
What a waste of money. Just give the guy a cotton blanket.
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Allutz
This inmate’s plight truly reminds me of the classic movie, “Cool Hand Luke”. Next he is going to file a suit about losing his egg eating bet!
I am the 0.000000013%
I have the same wool allergy.
I’m now officially scared straight.
Raaj124uuw
Digidoty
Viratson
?Google pay 95$ consistently my last pay check was $8200 working 10 hours out of every week on the web. My more young kin buddy has been averaging 15k all through ongoing months and he works around 24 hours consistently. I can’t confide in how straightforward it was once I endeavored it out.This is my primary concern…GOOD LUCK .
click here =====?? http://www.Geosalary.com
ReconMarine1969
When I discovered libertarianism in my mid-30s, I was so excited that I finally found a political platform that so closely matched my own beliefs. However, in the last 5+ years, I’ve moved further away from it. If I had to name the single biggest reason, it would be: weakness on criminal punishment. Look, I get the concept of victimless crimes and I am all for decriminalizing them (drugs, gambling, prostitution, etc.) Violent crime and property crime are a different matter. We are WAY WAY too lenient on these criminals in america.
This story is about a man convicted of child sexual assault. This guy is lucky he is left to live. The LAST thing in the world
I care about is whether or not he gets a comfy blanket.
Libertarianism was about individual rights I thought? If someone is violating those rights through violent crime or property crime- why would we side with him? Just for the sake of going against the government? I thought most libertarians were FOR limited government. Specifically, I thought most were for limited government that, AT A MINIMUM, protected the rights of individuals. If that’s true, why are so many libertarian intellectuals preaching for the rights of the criminals that rob people of individual rights?
April.10.2019 at 11:51 am
That is an insane article – with all the new items jails are buying and all the options out there – I cant figure this one out.
Look at these options https://www.charm-tex.com they have a full line of bedding option
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Battlezone 98 Redux Dev Blog 1
5 April 2016 by Robbie Cooke
Battlezone 98 fans... it's nearly here!
As we get closer and closer to the launch of Battlezone 98 Redux ,we're excited to share with you a brand new dev blog series that will delve deep into the remaster's development. Here, courtesy of producer Mike Arkin, is the very first post. Further posts will go into even more detail, but to kick us off, here's a guide for what to expect from Battlezone 98 Redux!
Hi, my name is Mike Arkin and I’m the producer of Battlezone 98: Redux. By strange coincidence, I was also a member of the original team that launched Battlezone in 1998.
Since announcing Battlezone 98 Redux I’ve often been asked what a remaster means. While there is no one definition of a game remaster, I thought I’d use this first dev diary to explain what this remaster is.
Our high concept when we planned this project was to preserve the original gameplay, but enhance and augment the game in every way we could. Keep in mind that we constantly struggle with the idea that we want to make the game as modern as possible, but we also need to service the fans that have been playing Battlezone for so many years and have kept the community alive. It’s hard to please everyone, but I’m pretty sure that most people will be happy with what we’ve done.
Out with the old, in with the new...
So what did we do? Well, the short version is that we’re still working with the old engine, but we have ripped pieces out and replaced them with modern features. Also, we’ve replaced most if not all of the art in the game with modern versions. Some of the art looks similar to the original since we used all of the old art as reference, but when you put the two side by side the difference is clear.
We’ve not redesigned the game, though. Instead, we’ve strived to make the game we would have made in 1998 if PCs were 100 times more powerful back then, like they are now. In fact, based on some quick math, maybe perhaps 1000 is a better number (our minimum spec back in 1998 was a Pentium 90!).
Let there be light...
The longer version? For starters, we introduced a shader-based DirectX 9 renderer which allowed us to use an all new shader/material system throughout the game. All vehicles and buildings were remodeled and retextured in high resolution and high polygon meshes. We also used advanced shader techniques to add a little glow and shine to the new models.
And what’s the point of shine if we don’t have lights? So of course we added headlights to all the tanks and adapted the system to allow for real-time lighting.
Speaking of lighting, we now have a real lighting system, and all game objects like vehicles and buildings cast shadows and self-shadow! You might be thinking that Battlezone had shadows in 1998, but really it just had blobs, not actual projected shadows with soft edges like Battlezone 98 Redux has.
The in-game heads-up display (HUD) was also completely redesigned. And we’ve made it scalable so at higher resolutions it looks nice and sharp. This also means that if you have a giant monitor you can now have your HUD scale up way high, or dial it back down if you’d prefer! Oh, and the Russian vehicles now have their own HUD, as do the mysterious Furies!
Here is the stock HUD at 4x resolution (click for the full image)
Earthshattering ...
One of the most interesting changes we made (and the subject of one of my next blogs) is the terrain. Since Battlezone 98 Redux takes place in space on various barren planets, the terrain is really important since for many levels it’s most of what’s on screen. Also, it makes up a very large percentage of a user generated level, so it was vital to make the new terrain compatible with old maps.
So we rewrote the terrain system, cranked up the mesh to four times the current resolution, did a little shader magic to eliminate seams, added specular and normal maps to keep things interesting, and we added a detail texture to all the terrain tiles. The end result is terrain that is the same size and shape of the original terrain, but so much better looking.
Check out that terrain! (click for full image)
And, since we retained compatibility with all of the old file formats, all the user generated maps created over the years can go through a five-minute conversion process and run in Battlezone 98 Redux with upgraded assets. When an old map is loaded Battlezone 98 Redux takes care of upscaling and smoothing automatically, so it’s easy and quick to convert and modernize any map.
Speaking of which, back in 1998 we shipped the game with the tools we used to make the game. Crude tools, sure, but they were good enough that a healthy map and mod community grew over 17 years!
Well, Battlezone 98: Redux goes one step further by adding Steam Workshop support and a host of in-game options for pulling your new content into the game and running it. No longer do you need to edit text files to add a MP map; now the map is recognized and will be displayed in-game, ready to play! No longer do you need to load Instant Action missions from the command line; now all of your IA missions are displayed in a menu ready to load with a few mouse clicks! And for game mods, there is now a Mod menu where you can activate and deactivate mods simply and easily.
Here is the Mod selection screen with four mods loaded and active (click for full image)
In fact, there’s a dedicated group of map makers that have already converted maps and loaded them onto Steam Workshop so they are ready to go! So yes, when we launch Battlezone 98 Redux there will be plenty of content available on Steam Workshop, day 1.
These are the highlights of what’s new in Battlezone 98 Redux, but there are a host of other changes and improvements to the game which I’ll cover in future blog posts. Things like multiplayer, bug and AI fixes, menus and fonts. I’ll also get into some of the more detailed specifics of the vehicles, terrains and so on. Until then, thanks for reading and for your continued support of Battlezone 98 Redux. We can’t wait to finally show you the finished game very soon. If you have questions or want more info, feel free to post on the Steam forums – I’d love to respond to you!
Look out for more posts in the coming days, and make sure to stay tuned to Battlezone 98 Redux's Steam page and our Twitter and Facebook feeds for the latest news.
Battlezone 98 Redux is coming to Steam this spring...
rebellion battlezone 98 redux big boat interactive
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Sapphire Ventures
Investing in expansion-stage companies
Sapphire Partners
Investing in early-stage VC funds globally
Sapphire Sport
Investing in early-stage sport and media companies globally
Portfolio Growth
Companies of Consequence
Sapphire Ventures helps entrepreneurs build companies with our demonstrated expertise, value-add services, global reach and entrepreneurial values.
Learn how we help our portfolio
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Exabeam
Exabeam is the Smarter SIEM™ company. Exabeam empowers enterprises to detect, investigate and respond to cyberattacks more efficiently so their security operations and insider threat teams can work smarter. Security organizations no longer have to live with excessive logging fees, missed distributed attacks and unknown threats, or manual investigations and remediation. With the Exabeam Security Management Platform, analysts can collect unlimited log data, use behavioral analytics to detect attacks, and automate incident response, both on-premises or in the cloud.
Alation’s enterprise collaborative data platform empowers employees inside of data-driven enterprises to find, understand, and use the right data for better, faster business decisions. Alation combines the power of machine learning with human insight to automatically capture information about what the data describes, where the data comes from, who’s using it and how it’s used. Alation is based in Redwood City.
Auth0, a global leader in Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS), provides thousands of enterprise customers with a Universal Identity Platform for their web, mobile, IoT, and internal applications. Its extensible platform seamlessly authenticates and secures more than 1.5B logins per month, making it loved by developers and trusted by global enterprises.
Contentful powers digital experiences for major brands around the globe. Its content infrastructure provides developers a powerful set of APIs to manage, integrate, and deliver content to any device or service — be it mobile apps, IoT devices in the home, SaaS products, Super Bowl campaigns, smart car dashboards, digital signage, VR and AR experiences, or the next big platform yet to come.
DataRobot offers an enterprise machine learning platform that empowers users of all skill levels to develop and deploy machine learning and AI faster. Incorporating a library of hundreds of the most powerful open source machine learning algorithms, the DataRobot platform automates, trains, and evaluates models in parallel, delivering AI applications at scale. DataRobot provides the fastest path to AI success for organizations of all sizes.
Outreach, the leading customer engagement platform, automates and prioritizes customer touch points throughout the customer lifecycle, resulting in increased productivity for revenue teams. Thousands of customers rely on Outreach to increase efficiency and effectiveness of reps, drive collaboration between sales, marketing, and success, and deliver revenue lift.
Pendo is a product cloud that provides user insight, user guidance and user communication for digital product teams. With Pendo, these product teams can understand product usage, collect feedback, measure NPS, onboard users, and announce new features in app—all without requiring engineering resources.
ThoughtSpot, the leader in search & AI-driven analytics for enterprises, is helping the largest companies in the world succeed in the digital era by putting the power of a thousand analysts in every business person’s hands. With ThoughtSpot’s next-generation analytics platform, business people can use Google-like search to easily analyze complex, large-scale enterprise data and get trusted insights to questions they didn’t know to ask, automatically – all with a single click.
Segment provides the customer data infrastructure that businesses use to put their customers first. With Segment, companies can collect, unify, and connect their first-party data to over 200 marketing, analytics, and data warehousing tools. Today, thousands of companies across 71 countries use Segment, from fast-growing businesses such as Atlassian, Bonobos, and Instacart to some of the world’s largest organizations like Levi’s, Intuit and Time. Segment enables these companies to achieve a common understanding of their users and make customer-centric decisions.
Sapphire Ventures by the Numbers
M&A exits
countries Sapphire has investments in
$2.5B+
$100B+
in enterprise value Sapphire has helped create
events annually for our portfolio and ecosystem
With Sapphire Ventures you get access to more than just an investor, you get a team dedicated to helping entrepreneurs build and scale their companies through a collaborative, agile and efficient approach.
AllyO: Helping you win the Talent War with Boring AI (Artificial Intelligence)
By Jai Das - June 5, 2019
We believe AllyO is the perfect example of the real value of AI, which is replacing boring, repetitive tasks that a recruiter does not particular enjoy, and then mining the data to not only connect candidates to the most appropriate jobs, but also making sure that the candidates who become employees are productive and satisfied over time.
Riding High with Highspot: Why Sapphire and Highspot Are Excited to Partner
By Rajeev Dham - June 4, 2019
I couldn’t be more excited to announce our partnership with Highspot in their Series D. Before I let Robert Wahbe, CEO and co-founder of Highspot, shed some light on our partnership, I’d like to outline why we are thrilled to join the extended Highspot team to build the next Company of Consequence.
The Do’s and Don’ts of Sustainable Consumer Startup Growth
By Paul Levine - May 21, 2019
If you’ve been following the world of consumer tech for the last ten years, you know it's become increasingly difficult for consumer internet startups to find scalable and cost-effective growth channels. As an investor in consumer internet companies, I’ve found this question - does a company have a scalable growth engine? - to be one of the most significant determinants of success or failure.
© 2019 SAPPHIRE VENTURES. LLC. All rights reserved.
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Zika study may ‘supercharge’ vaccine research
A female Aedes aegypti mosquito while in the process of acquiring a blood meal from a human host.
Scientists looking at the genetics of Zika virus have found a way to fast-track research which could lead to new vaccines.
The study, led by The University of Queensland and QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, used a new technique to uncover Zika mutations that help foster virus replication in mosquito hosts, while hindering its ability to replicate in mammals.
Vaccine one step closer for one of the world’s biggest killers
Honey and money: invention has beekeepers abuzz
Bacterial toxin research could improve pesticides and help treat cancer
Professor Walker recognised by NHMRC
Top tutors honoured
Privacy & Terms of use | Feedback | Updated: 19 Mar 2019
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Endgame Theory: Pepper's Rescue Suit Is Based On Her Original Iron Man Costume
by Ana Dumaraog
Pepper Potts' Rescue armor from Avengers: Endgame referenced her gala dress in Iron Man. Shane Black's Iron Man 3 first teased the possibility of Pepper eventually having her own armor in 2013 when she briefly donned one of Tony's suits following the attack on their Malibu home. But that promise didn't come to fruition until six years later when she finally got to have her own battle costume thanks to her husband.
Rumors of Paltrow wearing her own version of the Iron Man armor began in late 2017 when the actress shared a video on her social media where she was wearing a mo-cap suit similar to what Downey and other actors who wear CGI costumes usually don. Several months later, art for the Avengers 4 Hero Vision toy line revealed a purple-and-white version of an Iron Man suit. And not long after that, another image of Paltrow, this time, wearing the chest plate for the suit, surfaced online reinforcing speculations.
Watch Now Endgame Theory Pepper's Rescue Suit Is Based On Her Original Iron Man Costume
ScreenRant TV
Related: Iron Man Movies, Ranked From Worst To Best
Lo and behold, during Avengers: Endgame's final battle, Pepper emerged wearing the purple-and-gold suit to help her husband and the Avengers take down Thanos and his army. Considering that Tony has worked on his other Avengers teammates' gears for years aside from his own, it makes sense for Pepper to get a suit from her husband. And it turns out, Tony may have gone a trip down memory lane while making the Rescue armor.
Pepper's Rescue suit was teased earlier in Avengers: Endgame when Tony caught their daughter, Morgan Stark, playing with it after finding it in the garage. The revealed that, aside from the practical applications of the Rescue armor, there's also a sentimental purpose for it: it's an anniversary present for Pepper (although Tony expects she never wears it). While Tony doesn't always come across as nostalgic, he's proven that he can be wistful in his own weird way (case in point: he lounged in his father's leopard robe in Iron Man 2).
Given this, it's distinctly possible he designed his wife's armor based on the purple-bluish gown she wore during Iron Man's charity gala where they shared a romantic dance and almost kissed in the balcony. This is an important moment for the couple as it marks when they first began to admit their feelings for each other (although, because Tony was pulled away to deal with the Ten Rings, they didn't officially get together until Iron Man 2). It's possible Tony designed Rescue inspired by that dress to call back to that moment. This would add to the long list of Iron Man Easter eggs in Endgame like the mention of cheeseburger and Stark's "I am Iron Man" line.
Of course, it's possible that this was just a mere coincidence. After all, a version of the Rescue armor from the comic books is also purple-and-gold, as well as in Iron Man Armored Adventures, and Marvel Studios tends to keep character designs faithful to their source material. Still, Stark has been extra thoughtful with his more recent creations - he outfitted Peter Parker's first Stark suit with a parachute after Rhodey's catastrophic crash in Captain America: Civil War, as well as a heating system coming from his own experience in Iron Man 3 - so it would still make sense in-universe.
Related: Predicting Iron Man's Future In The MCU After Avengers: Endgame
Tony and Pepper's love story is one of the best in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (rivaled only by Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter) because it was developed properly throughout the years. And while Tony's gone, his legacy will live on more likely not with Pepper, but with Morgan, who could the Rescue armor (something that was teased in Avengers: Endgame) down the road.
More: Every MCU Phase 4 Movie Avengers: Endgame Sets Up
Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) release date: Jul 02, 2019
Tags: iron man, the avengers 4
James Bond 25 Isn't The First Time There's Been A Female 00-Agent
John Orquiola
HIMYM Easter Egg Confirms Marshall Found The Loch Ness Monster
Kara Hedash
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Listen: Raptors, NBA And Demarcus Cousins discussed on High Noon
"Be earnest flawed? We have this Archie net. NBA finals tonight. This is a nice summer linen. We've a few updates by the way. Kevin Durant in Toronto cannot play DeMarcus cousins in Toronto, and he can play while Golden State is a massive betting favourite to win the series, the raptors we're actually slightly favored to win tonight. So shirts aside, let's start here. What do you expect game one to tell us about Toronto? Well, wrinkle, still skin. I think that if the raptors are fortunate if nothing else here, we're going to see your nipples, if nothing else here. Well they look like they're ready to play in the NBA finals because this happens with teams that don't have guys, we've been here before that, that first game, swallows them up and overwhelms him important. Look like we saw this happen to Milwaukee in the first game of their series against Boston. That's the only thing I can be certain that we're going to find out here. Are they going to punt a game away, or they going to actually be ready for this, because the warriors on the other end of things seem quite comfortable, and it's because they're going to play boogie cousins. It seems in game one. And that seems like a thing you do. When you feel. Confident about your chances. I remember Steve Kerr in the Western Conference finals against the blazers talked openly about. He was gonna play eleven guys against Portland and he did. And they won comfortably in this series. It feels like rehabbing your center, who doesn't really fit well into your offense during the NBA finals feels like a flex of the different kind. Well,"
Raptors, NBA And Demarcus Cousins discussed on High Noon
Raptors NBA Demarcus Cousins Toronto Steve Kerr Kevin Durant Archie Milwaukee
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Aired 1 year ago 2:34
abby russell Discussed on Bloomberg Radio New York
Bloomberg Radio New York
KNBR The Sports Leader
abby russell Discussed on KNBR The Sports Leader
Aired 3 months ago 94:08
Abi-Maria Gomes Recaps Episode 8 of Survivor: Edge of Extinction
Rob talks with Abi-Maria Gomes from Survivor: Philippines & Survivor: Cambodia about Episode 8 of Survivor: Edge of Extinction The post Abi-Maria Gomes Recaps Episode 8 of Survivor: Edge of Extinction appeared first on RobHasAwebsite.com.
Ep - 134 - GEMMA HOSKINS FROM THE KEEPERS
The Keepers is a seven-episode web series directed by Ryan White on Netflix. The series explores the unsolved murder of 26-year-old nun Sister Cathy Cesnik, an English and drama teacher at Baltimore’s Archbishop Keough High School, and her former students’ belief that there was a cover-up by authorities after Cesnik suspected that a priest at the school, A. Joseph Maskell, was guilty of sexual abuse of students. Gemma Hoskins was a student of Cesnik when she went missing November 1969, and with the help of her classmate Abbie Schaub has dedicated her retirement to finding the identity of Cesnik’s killer. Gemma, a key figure in the Netflix docuseries, helps narrates the events that took place at Keough High School in the 60s and 70s. She discusses in this interview how The Keepers changed her life, whether it brought new details about the murder to light, and its impact in the #MeToo era.Reality Life with Kate Casey http://www.loveandknuckles.comTwitter: @katecaseyInstagram: @katecaseycaFacebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/113157919338245/Facebook.com/loveandknucklesAmazon List: http://www.amazon.com/shop/katecaseycaDreams Become Real by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)Source: https://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1500027Artist: http://incompetech.com/
Aired 187:32
The Giant Beastcast: Episode 202
Gentleman Jack Gallagher comes by to finally put an end to this bathroom line cutting nonsense. We also talk about Satisfactory, Sekiro, and Yoshi's Crafted World.
Aired 64:54
Fame And Fortune
When filling out his bracket, Stugotz relies on the things he loves most (in order): (his family), money, fame, and the sound of his own voice. Stugotz and Abby navigate the first round of the NCAA Tournament by looking at famous alumni, but their views on celebrity differ dramatically. A handful of ESPNers stop by to stump for their schools by offering their best college stories. Plus, Papagotz returns to interview the head coach that led his alma mater back to the big dance.
Reggie has a message for everyone, and it's not what you think! Or... I guess it probably is since you know it already. Also, we talk about Anthem, continuing RE2, Dirt Rally 2.0, and we definitely don't give our impressions of Trials Rising.
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Loops is the fun, safe and easy way to share photos with people you trust.
Loops Released!
Submitted by justin on Mon, 11/02/2013 - 06:37
Loops is the fun, safe and easy way to share photos with people you trust, and is available now for the iPhone, iPad and Mac.
Loops for Mac has just been approved by Apple and is now available on the Mac App Store.
Download Loops for iPhone and iPad from the iTunes App Store and download Loops for Mac from the Mac App Store. The best bit - they're all FREE!
Loops for the iPhone and iPad has been out for a couple of weeks already, and Loops for Mac really completes the Loops experience. Use Loops for Mac to import other photos into your Loop and easily do bulk exports of Loops photos.
We hope you enjoy Loops!
Loops iOS 1.0.1
Submitted by justin on Sun, 27/01/2013 - 23:58
Version 1.0.1 for the iPhone and iPad is now live on the App Store.
This is a follow-up bug fix release where we've fixed a bunch of minor bugs that we encountered when using Loops for ourselves on a extended scale.
No new features in this one, but lots of little improvements that we're sure you will like.
MacWorld 2013
Submitted by justin on Wed, 23/01/2013 - 07:18
MovieShare
RevolverHD
Smart Converter
VoltaicHD
We're coming to MacWorld! Again!
We're all set and heading to MacWorld in chilly San Francisco in a few days time.
Shedworx will be in booth 1010, on the right hand side of the Expo hall, near Appalooza.
Its been two years since we were at MacWorld and a lot has changed for us in that time.
The biggest thing for us has been Smart Converter. Smart Converter is the number one free video converter for the Mac worldwide and Smart Converter Pro is the top rated, most popular and highest grossing video converter on the Mac App Store. Through Smart Converter and Smart Converter Pro, Shedworx software is now on a significant percentage of all Macs out there. This means a huge number of people use our stuff, and we can't wait to talk to people about it.
If you're in the Bay area, we'd love to see you down at MacWorld. As part of our booth package we have an almost unlimited number of Expo passes to hand out, so if you want to save $25 on the door charge, drop us a line at support@shedworx.com and we'll have a pass waiting for you at the door.
Among other things, we will be selling the MacWorld SUPERBUNDLE! All of our apps in one super bundle for $40 - a discount of 80%, available only on the Expo show floor.
Here's the flyer we will be handing out...
For those who can make it to MacWorld, we can't wait to see you there. For those who can't, stay tuned, we'll have our MacWorld post and photos up real soon!
Loops for the iPhone and iPad out now!
Following a quick review by Apple, and approval on first attempt, Loops for the iPhone and iPad is available now!
Loops is our new secure photo sharing app and service that makes it easy and safe for you to share photos with people you trust.
All you need to do is download Loops, sign up and start taking photos. Loops takes care of the rest, keeping all your photos synced to our private cloud servers.
When you're ready you can get your friends and family to join any of your Loops. They will then see anything you add, and you will see anything they add to your Loop.
It couldn't be easier!
Loops also has a version for the Mac. Loops for Mac lets you see and organise all your photos in all your Loops, as well as allowing you to import other photos from your Mac, and export complete Albums or individual photos to your Mac.
Loops for Mac is in review with Apple now for the Mac App Store, but it is available now from Shedworx.com if you'd rather not wait.
Introducing Loops!
Submitted by justin on Fri, 23/11/2012 - 08:56
Over the past year we've been working on re-launching the Cosmos photo sharing service with a new focus.
This new focus is on privacy and absolute control over who sees your stuff.
The new app is called Loops!
A better way to share
Loops takes the photo sharing strengths of Cosmos and adds a new and improved way of sharing.
Everything in Loops now revolves around, you guessed it, a Loop.
A Loop is a group of photos and notes that you want to share with friends or family. We've found that there will always be different groups of people that you want to share photos with, and there will be different photos that you want to share with each of those groups.
With Loops, you can now create a Loop for each circle of friends that you are a part of. Every Loop member can add photos and edit anything, except for the Loop membership - only the creator can change that.
All your Apple devices
Loops has an iPhone, iPad and Mac app available which all work the same way. Every type of app allows you to take and upload/import photos, manage your Loop memberships and send photos out to other services like Facebook, Twitter and so on.
iPhone and iPod
Loops for the iPhone is our main app. Based on how we've been using Loops for the past 6 months, 90% of your time will be spent in Loops for iPhone.
You can do everything from the iPhone app - sign up, created new Loops, invite friends and of course take photos!
Loops for the iPad is very similar to the iPhone version but includes a better layout to take full advantage of the iPad screen size.
We've used a simple layout that lets your navigate between albums easily, leaving the majority of the screen for photo display.
Loops for iPad is a great way to run through all the photos in all your Loops with a bigger screen.
and the Mac
We also have a full-featured app for the Mac.
This has grown out of our original Cosmos video management application and offers a great 'home base' option for all those photos.
Loops for Mac operates in exactly the same way as the mobile versions. You still sign in to the app, have easy switching between your Loops and can also export photos easily.
Loops for Mac also includes an import feature where you can bulk import photos from your Mac and even straight off a camera that you plug in.
This gives you a great way to add photos to Loops from other cameras.
Coming very soon...
Over the past year we have used every group photo sharing service out there and think that Loops offers a better way to share photos.
We've found that there is a lot of Facebook and Instagram "fatigue" out there, caused by the incessant drive of these services to invade your privacy.
On the other end of the privacy scale we have Apple's Photo Stream which is good for some uses, but is really a backup service for your phone, not a photo sharing service.
Loops fits in the middle of these two areas. Full privacy and security but with the freedom to share whatever you want with whoever you want (as long as they have an iPhone or iPad :) )
We decided to go for a non-advertising, paid, privacy-first service, as its what we want for ourselves.
The Loops apps will all be free, with every new account getting a free level of access. Loops Premium accounts will cost $4.99 for a year or 99c per month.
Loops is in Beta testing now and is about to be submitted to Apple. We will let you know when it hits the streets.
You can follow our progress with Loops on its Facebook page, Twitter and right here on the Shedworx blog.
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Sidelines Snapshot: Cards, Dot Journals, Puzzles and Lock Picks
From Emily McDowell & Friends
Erika VanDam, owner of RoscoeBooks in Chicago, Ill., reported that greeting cards have done particularly well lately with customers coming in for Father's Day and Graduation cards. Among VanDam's most popular card lines are La Familia Green, made by a local artist named Molly Green, Emily McDowell & Friends, Hello!Lucky and E. Frances. She's also brought in some new card lines lately, including Modern Printed Matter and Pencil Joy, both of which have done very well, she said. Around this time of year, VanDam added, customers often come in to buy gifts for teachers, and this year zipper pouches, such as those made by Out of Print, have proven to be popular.
From MerryMakers
When it comes to children's sidelines, VanDam said she carries a variety of MerryMakers dolls and plush toys. She explained that the plush toy and book sets, such as those made for Narwhal and Jelly and Dragons Love Tacos, typically do best. On the subject of perennial bestsellers, VanDam said in addition to greeting cards, journals do very well, as do most Out of Print products. She noted that many customers have "gone in big" on dot journaling lately, and her store has had success with journals from Baron Fig.
From Onion Hill Designs
Tamara Heupel is the gift buyer for both Bank Square Books in Mystic, Conn., and Savoy Bookshop & Cafe in Westerly, R.I., and she says puzzles and journals are doing especially well this time of year. For puzzles, popular lines include White Mountain Puzzles, Pomegranate and New York Puzzle Company. For journals, Decomposition notebooks are always popular, and Heupel also noted a recent surge in dot journals. On the subject of locally or regionally made sidelines, Heupel pointed to greeting card company Onion Hill Designs; card, guide and poster maker Earth Sky + Water; and Magic Stones, which sells small glass stones engraved with inspirational messages.
When asked about any perennial favorites, Heupel discussed what she liked to call the store's' "workhorse" sidelines. In that category were the aforementioned puzzles and journals, along with chocolates from Equal Exchange, Peepers reading glasses, a variety of socks from Blue Q, Sock It to Me, Rock Flower Paper and Sock It Up, as well as candles. Heupel said the stores "always have some sort of candles," though the lines may change. Lately she's brought in Paddywax candles, and for this holiday season Heupel said she'll bring in a line called Northern Lights.
Ada's Pride pins
According to Danielle Hulton, owner of Ada's Technical Books & Cafe in Seattle, Wash., lockpick sets from SouthOrd have been very popular lately, particularly as gifts for Father's Day, while for Pride, the store's branded Pride and Trans Pride pins are doing very well. Recently Hulton has expanded her store's puzzle offerings with the introduction of several Professor Puzzle items, and those have done well enough to warrant a reorder. Hulton noted that while Ada's doesn't typically carry many local sidelines due to its proximity to two stores that specialize in local gifts, Ada's has begun carrying Excelsior Pens, which are handmade by one of the store's neighbors.
From Creative Crafthouse
On the subject of children's sidelines, Hulton said she and her staff have yet to find the right mix, but currently she carries a few Melissa & Doug toys that do well. As for store favorites, Hulton said that wooden puzzles from Creative Crafthouse have been a hit since the store first opened, and people continue to seek the store out just for those puzzles. Ada's stocks a variety of electronics kits and components from companies like Sparkfun Electronics, Newark, Evil Mad Scientist and Arduino, and she noted that these items, most of which either are imported from China entirely or are made with imported parts, have slowly been increasing in price. Hulton added that she's worried the price of these items will increase dramatically in the near future. --Alex Mutter
If you are interested in having your store appear in a future Sidelines Snapshot article, please e-mail alex@shelf-awareness.com.
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Shinobi Speaks
A personal blog dedicated to the fun and beauty of video games and the creators that toil away to make them.
Game Developer Insights
Game Dev Insight: A Chat with BioWare Cinematics Lead Tal Peleg
May 10, 2017 May 12, 2017 / shinobi602
Hi everyone! I’m super happy to be able to share a nice chat I had with Tal Peleg, a Cinematics Lead at BioWare. His previous animation work includes a bevy of notable titles such as Mass Effect: Andromeda, Uncharted 4, The Last of Us and Dead Space 2 among others. We talk about everything from his path into the games industry to animation work and more.
Please feel free to check out some of his work on his website and YouTube channel. You can also check him out on Twitter at @The_Ur_Quan.
How’s it going Tal?
Tal Peleg: Hey, Nate! Thanks for having me on your blog. Love what you’ve done with the place.
Thank you. Let’s go back a little to the beginning. When and where did you first start out in the games industry?
Tal Peleg: I’ve been an animator (as well as a compositor) in film and TV shows for years before I made the leap into the gaming industry, around 2010. My first gig in games was at Visceral Games, on an undisclosed project. It was one of my favorite times in my career thanks to the awesome people and the project. Unfortunately, it was canceled; however, I ended up helping Dead Space 2 ship out the door instead, which was a good up-note.
Next chapter was Naughty Dog. I was a Senior Cinematics Animator on The Last Of Us from pretty much start to finish. I then animated a little on Left Behind, the sequel and shipped Uncharted 4. Half way through The Last Of Us, I began working on a fan-fiction short called “Dante’s Redemption”, which now has a sequel in the works. After five years at Naughty Dog, I joined BioWare. I hopped on Mass Effect Andromeda’s team late in production to animate on a few meaty scenes – you probably know which ones [laughs] – and get the game shipped out the door.
You’ve been around in the industry for a little while now. You’re a Cinematic Lead at BioWare Austin. What’s that mean exactly?
Tal Peleg: Typically, Lead Cinematics [animator] heads a team of animators to deliver the best work based on the creative direction. They’re responsible to help stir and dictate the look & feel of the animation in the proper direction as well as maintain top quality and continuity across the board with other cinematics teams as much as possible (and gameplay animation too). We’re responsible for the edit, cinematography and animation performance delivery of the narrative cutscenes at BioWare. While my team’s prime directive is cinematography and animation, we bleed over into lighting, simulation and other art departments.
You made a jump from TV and film into video games, that’s interesting! Any films or shows we might recognize? And what made you jump into games?
Tal Peleg: Not many [laughs]. But you may have heard of A Christmas Carol with Jim Carrey, Mars Needs Moms [both Disney animated feature films], Outlander and various VFX work for shows on the Discovery Channel and such. The main reason I have wanted to work in games is I’ve been an avid gamer my whole life. Additionally, I’ve always been interested in contributing to this medium as it’s an interactive one, which, if done right, can reach deeper levels of immersion and resonance.
So you ended up working on Dead Space 2 as your first project. What did you do exactly? Were you a fan of the series?
Dead Space 2 (EA Trademark)
Tal Peleg: Technically, second project, but yeah, formally the first one as shipped. I ended up animating the death pairing move of Isaac during the boss fight of these dark
minions over empowering him and just mutilating him to death. Fun stuff! Yeah, I was a fan of the series. Loved the first couple of games in the series; haven’t had a chance to play the third.
It’s definitely one of my favorites from the last generation! From there you moved on to Naughty Dog where you worked on The Last of Us. It doesn’t need explaining that it’s one of the highest rated games on the PlayStation 3. What’d you contribute to on that project?
Tal Peleg: Being a Cinematics Animator, I primarily animated on the cutscenes [Note: see the animation demo reel]; on The Last Of Us, they were all pre-rendered. I originally helped construct the facial rig on the animation side, created a couple of Key Art pieces, animated a partial gameplay moveset (Joel swimming underwater) and designed the poses for the collector’s edition diorama.
“The Clicker” statue (pose & base designed by Tal Peleg)
And you also created two little gems of the gaming meme world which I love, the infamous “Joel Banderas” and “Joel Nicholson” GIFs. What made you want to do that?
Tal Peleg: [Laughs] That’s right. I used to frequent a whole lot at NeoGAF, so some of the GIF reactions people had going on there were too priceless to not echo somehow in-game. The GIFS ended up in similar fashion in TLOU and U4 Multiplayers.
The infamous “Joel Nicholson”
I have to say that personally, Joel and Ellie are some of the most memorable and realistic characters I’ve seen in a game. Did you feel the same way while working on it? Did they feel different than other characters you’d experienced in games up to that point?
Tal Peleg: I didn’t think they were necessarily different from past experiences. I believe what set them apart to be more believable and sympathetic from the rest was the intricate execution of their characteristics along with the narrative. The pacing, the acting and the creative choices came together effectively for that matter. Take Red Dead Redemption as an example; John Marston’s story arc is simple, but it’s how his character evolved throughout the journey that made him so memorable.
I like that example. John’s one of my favorite characters from the last generation. So how does a scene go from conception to realization?
Tal Peleg: Generally speaking, the writers come up with the narrative, which leads to storyboarding. Next, is the editorial stage of creating animatics (edited storyboards) or 3D pre-visualization. Then animation, lighting and you basically got a full blown scene. With Motion Capture, depending on the company and their workflow, it typically takes place after the writing is ready (if not after the storyboards phase). Some companies don’t invest as much effort into pre-visualizing and dive straight into the mocap stage, which continues right into animation work and finally lighting.
You have public samples of some of the work you’ve done on The Last of Us, Uncharted 4, and Mass Effect: Andromeda. They’re all really impressive to put it mildly. What do you feel goes into making an animation lifelike or make a cutscene stand out?
Tal Peleg: Thanks for the kind words! For animated cutscenes it’s typically a few factors: Getting the right direction, performance, editing and pacing, as well as good execution in animation will pretty much guarantee a strongly presentable cutscene. As far as animation itself goes, it’s about the nuances of a character’s physical translation of emotions that accurately define what we deem as realism. Animators, to a high degree, are CG actors. So, having a strong animator hit subtle (or extreme) emotions, thought processes and expressions on a character will go a very long way for the scene to resonate.
Kind of a fresh example, on Andromeda: I was tasked with animating the romance scene between Scott Ryder and Cora Harper. After we locked on an edit, timing and cameras, it was time to take it to the max. That’s not just cleaning up animation curves, but also making sure you land the right eye darts and facial expressions at the right moments, on exertions and such.
Animation sequence from Mass Effect: Andromeda
I felt that at this point of the game, the emotions between Scott and Cora have to be at their absolute peak. That means, that on a directorial level, they need to radiate romantic love for one another. It’s how they look at each other with a smile, passion and even slight awkwardness. It’s how they connect with their eyes, how they kiss and react to one another.
All these things require great attention to detail and good level of execution to manifest it accurately. The choices of ‘Sex’ or ‘No Sex’ by the player will lead to different animations of these two characters as in the former they will act more physically and lustfully gaze at each other, scanning each other’s facial features, eyes and hair. The latter will showcase Cora smiling, closing her eyes to project immense gratefulness, as Scott’s choice to wait it out is rather a sign of true love. Each choice plays out in the best directive way to fulfill each tone.
I do think a huge amount of human emotion is conveyed through the eyes and little subtleties like that. You’ve also worked on things other than humans. Do you feel there’s some difference in difficulty between animating a human vs non-human?
Tal Peleg: Good question. I think the simple answer is no, but generally it’s a little more complex than that. If you animate, say a dog or a horse, you still want to adhere to their realistic characteristics or else you will fall short as you would with a human character. Another general point is that typically humans can have a very large range of motion, in action and performance, and animals typically have a smaller pool of performances, but it’s challenging on its own merit. It’s becoming more interesting and potentially more challenging when you get to animate a fictional character, like a hybrid of two different species fused into one (like a hind legged character) or a completely non-existent being; that’s where it can be arguably easier or more difficult, depending on its directorial traits. I had animated a lot of quadrupeds in my career, and although some were fictional they still adhered to real life quadruped animals of their size and type. So, all in all, it’s not necessarily more or less difficult. It’s different.
Let’s pivot a bit. You’re also directing a fan fiction short called Dante’s Redemption. Can you tell us a little about that? I take it you’re a fan of Dante’s Inferno! What was your goal with it?
Tal Peleg: Yes! I’ve been working on this project since around summertime of 2012, on and off. I got a few videos out of it, including an actually legitimate music album! I released a teaser trailer for the first short, the short itself and then a trailer for the sequel, which I’m still working on – and you got to have a glimpse on it [laughs]. Important to note Dante’s Redemption is an ongoing fan-fiction side project done in my spare time. There’s no budget for it; all is voluntary, if not off my own pocket. So it’s pretty tough to maintain progress, let alone wrap up a project in such scale while working full time. And yeah, you can say I’m a bit of a fan of Dante’s Inferno [laughs].
“Dante’s Redemption” fan poster courtesy of Tal Peleg
I think it hit the spot pretty powerfully for many reasons. It wasn’t flawless by all means, but it was actually a pretty epic journey, not to mention it was a literal dive into an actual theological interpretation of medieval times [editor note: The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri poem]. That’s kind of an uncommon deal considering typical fantasy games never really step this deep into an actual Christian theme. I thought it was pretty daring,
raw, and fascinating. I actually loved the diverse gameplay, the lore and the gameplay animations. Dante, who’s played by the awesome Graham McTavish, is a pretty deep character with a strong arc. I felt the game didn’t deserve the fate it was ultimately handed and so I was compelled to “revive it” through the fan-fiction. My personal goal is to share this with the fans; just like any type of art. My greatest hope is that maybe, this will pull through strong enough to get the IP holders to think about digging open the grave and resurrect it into the living [laugh]. Wouldn’t it be awesome if Dante’s Purgatorio was an ARPG, with just as rich of a combat, but a much stronger branching story and open world structure to it?
Oh I’d love that. I enjoyed Dante’s Inferno quite a bit. The production quality on the short is pretty incredible. Are you working on it with a team or alone?
Tal Peleg: Thanks, Nate. There has been a bunch of freelancers contributing to it, but I’m pretty much the only active artist on it. All the rigging of all the characters you see on screen were ultimately authored by a buddy and a colleague of mine, who’s former Tech Animation Lead at Naughty Dog (Tyler Thornock, who’s with us at BioWare Austin on a parallel role). The sequel, ACT 1, is a lot more invested as you’ve seen, with many more characters, new environment, sets, etc’. This time around we have mocap performance on it as well as additional animation help. There were more hands on deck with models and VFX, so all in all, a good few people chipped in to make this hit the quality bar I’m aiming for. Everyone integrally contributed and made all the difference on the project; I do have to point out the amazing work the composer did for Dante’s Redemption OST. This album is original from the ground up, hence why it’s authored on Apple Music and other online stores. Daniel Iannantuono is a music prodigy and I hope that one day we can collaborate on a full blown production to get some killer work out.
How long did it take to make that first trailer?
Tal Peleg: About a couple of years. Worth noting, it’s two years from inception to release; in between I have worked on full time, crunching on The Last Of Us. Typically, erecting such side projects takes an enormous level of patience and hard work to get things off the ground and moving. This means rallying artists to make the models and tech animators to rig them, etc’. It’s not easy, especially when there’s no income involved. I believe if this project was a full time gig it’d have taken about 8-10 months from start to finish considering I was the only animator, lighter, matte painter, VFX artist, compositor, sound mixer and editor [laughs].
Lastly, the games industry is a lucrative but hyper-competitive field. Do you have any advice for aspiring animators looking to get into games?
Tal Peleg: Don’t relent. Don’t let your emotions get in the way. Be smart, friendly and a diligent hard worker. You can be in tune with the latest animation trends from the best seminars and schools and GDC talks. But it’s ultimately ALL your own hard self-practice work. Over and over until you master it. Failure is just another step of the way. Be healthily competitive, but equally a team player. All the rest will fall in.
That’s great advice. Thanks so much for taking the time to talk with me today Tal. It was a real pleasure.
BioWare, Cinematics, Game Developer Insights, Interview, Tal Peleg
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5 thoughts on “Game Dev Insight: A Chat with BioWare Cinematics Lead Tal Peleg”
Paul Meyer
Enjoyed the interview…looking forward to more in the future
ytobio66@gmail.com
Nice Shinobi, Im really enjoying what Im seeing so far. Find it great for people that want to know more about the Games Industry
sreevenkat
Let’s hope “Dante’s Inferno” will resurrect
Mat Valdez
While I’m over a year late to this article, I really enjoyed learning about Tal’s contribution to gaming and his passion project. I work full time and often feel I don’t have enough time to dedicate to gaming, let alone pursue a new career path tied to gaming. Reading this interview reaffirmed the idea that hard work no matter how long the investment is will always be worth the time so long as it’s something you love! Tal crunched on The Last Of Us and continued to put in work on his Dante’s Redemption project, I have no excuses! Loved this read, Shinobi thank you for the work you put into getting this article up.
View shinobi602’s profile on Twitter
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You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘Theresa Souvignier’ tag.
Silicon Valley REALTORS® present scholarship awards to 18 public high school seniors
May 25, 2018 in Real Estate, Silicon Valley REALTORS® Charitable Foundation | Tags: Alan Barbic, Amy Sung, Bill Moody, Carole Feldstein, Chris Alston, David Tonna, Eileen Giorgi, Jasmine Lee, Mark Burns, Mary Tan, Nina Daruwalla, Nina Yamaguchi, Ranjana Shreedhar, Russell Morris, Suzanne Yost, Theresa Loya, Theresa Souvignier | Leave a comment
SILVAR President Bill Moody presented the Charitable Foundation scholarship award to Annacy Sampas, a graduating senior from Leigh High School.
The Silicon Valley REALTORS® Charitable Foundation, the charitable arm of the Silicon Valley Association of REALTORS® (SILVAR), is awarding $1,000 scholarships to each of 18 graduating seniors from public high schools in Silicon Valley for the 2017-2018 school year. SILVAR REALTORS® are presenting the awards to the recipients at their school’s senior awards night.
The scholarship awards are made possible by donations from REALTOR® and affiliate members of SILVAR. Now in its 19th year, the Charitable Foundation has presented $342,000 in scholarships to graduating seniors from high schools located in the communities served by SILVAR members.
The Charitable Foundation’s scholars program recognizes students who have exemplified outstanding achievements in academics, extracurricular/employment activities and community involvement. The selection committee includes representatives from the local business community, area high schools, area colleges and SILVAR.
Students who received scholarships, the schools from which they graduated, and the colleges and universities they plan to attend are: Kelsey Bohannon, Cupertino High School (Northeastern University); Li Qing Loo, Fremont High School (Tufts University); Emma Chiao, Gunn High School (Swarthmore College); Emily Korn, Homestead High School (Willamette University); Annacy Sampas, Leigh High School (Santa Clara University); Jodie Bhattacharya, Los Altos High School (Stanford University); Shomil Jain, Los Gatos High School (UC Berkeley); Anastasiya Poplavska, Lynbrook High School (Cal Poly – San Luis Obispo); Joseph Lohmann, Menlo-Atherton High School (University of Pennsylvania); Sydney Olay, Monta Vista High School (Cal Poly – Pomona); Cathy Xuan Zhang, Mountain View High School (Stanford University); Naima Castaneda Isaac, Palo Alto High School (Spelman College); Aditi Garg, Prospect High School (Scripps College); Kelly Koh, Santa Clara High School (University of Southern California); Dean Stratakos, Saratoga High School (Stanford University); Karissa Yau, Westmont High School (Stanford University); Michelle Mathew, Wilcox High School (UC Berkeley); and Alexander Caceres, Woodside High School (Oberlin College).
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Avera to add Human Performance Center at 69th & Louise campus
Jodi Schwan
The Avera on Louise campus is adding another building – this one to support a range of services from strength and conditioning to physical therapy and volleyball.
The 60,000-square-foot, $14 million Human Performance Center will be built to the south and west of the current construction, which includes a 24-bed surgical hospital and a focus on orthopedics, gastroenterology, rheumatology and internal medicine, as well as the Avera Addiction Care Center.
It makes the campus a health care destination, said Dave Flicek, president and CEO of Avera McKennan Hospital & University Health Center.
“Avera is known for our holistic approach and philosophy as we care for the whole person – body, mind and spirit,” Flicek said. “Not only will this new facility help us better serve athletes of all ages and ability levels, it will promote overall health, wellness and balance throughout a lifetime.”
The Human Performance Center will support the needs of many of those patients as well as the broader community, said Ann Heiman, assistant vice president for orthopedics, therapy and sports medicine.
“It’s not just about sports. It’s about performance and athletes of all ages,” she said. “It will house a variety of services – from prevention to injury diagnosis, treatment, recovery, strength and conditioning, and maintenance. We’ll be housing all this in that facility.”
Many of those services are spread out across Sioux Falls, causing patients to be referred to various places, she said.
“This is an opportunity to integrate those services for cross-utilization … and for one central, integrated model. This is a medically integrated model. It’s not about courts, turf and equipment. It’s about integrated and complementary services.”
A sports medicine space will include a clinic offering nonoperative treatment, biomechanical evaluations and specialized instructions after an injury or concussion.
There also will be a modern therapy gym with an antigravity treadmill, Pilates equipment, isokinetic balance equipment, a gait-analysis treadmill with a 3-D motion-capture system, as well as an underwater treadmill and an aquatic therapy pool.
The center will accommodate everyone from an orthopedics patient to a student athlete or adult “weekend warrior,” Heiman said.
“We’ll have therapy for the community regardless of their age or activity level,” she said. “It will be a really great clinic.”
The building will be home to Athletic Republic, Avera’s sports performance training program in Sioux Falls. This area includes a biomechanics lab, cardio equipment room, performance weight room, cycling room, turf and plyometrics floor. Specialized equipment includes super treadmills and a hockey treadmill. The space will include a room for movement classes such as yoga, Pilates, tai chi and more. It will be home to AR-FIT classes for active adults of all ages.
Sports psychology and sports nutrition also will be included in the new center.
The facility will house features for the general population too, including a nutrition bar, cycling center and mind-body fitness center.
A gym will provide space for seven volleyball courts and become the new home of the Avera Sports Kairos elite volleyball program, which reaches 3,500 athletes and doesn’t have its own physical location.
“We rent gyms everywhere, so we’ll be able to house that in one location,” Heiman said.
A second phase will become the future home of Avera Sports Warwick Workouts and South Dakota Attack Basketball, which operate out of the Avera Sports Center at 85th Street and Minnesota Avenue, though a time frame hasn’t been set.
Avera plans to keep that location as well as the Avera Sports Dome near 41st Street and West Avenue .
Construction of the first phase of the Human Performance Center will start in the fall, and the building is scheduled to open in December of 2019. The Avera Addiction Care Center at Avera on Louise will open in September of 2019, and the surgical hospital and medical office building will open in October of 2019.
Tags: Avera Avera Human Performance Center Avera on Louise
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By Jodi Schwan
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Dartmouth Search
West House
House Professor: Ryan C. Hickox
Assistant Director: Dr. Ted Stratton
House Administrator: Pamela Duffy
Resident Fellows
Undergraduate Advisors
Student Executive Board
Faculty and Staff Affiliates
Dinners at HP’s residence
Shows at the Hop 19S
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Author Archives: Ryan Hickox
The Westletter: Week of 3/26/17
Posted on March 26, 2017 by Ryan Hickox
THE WESTLETTER for the week of 3/26/17
as always, for more see sites.dartmouth.edu/west-house/
To add the West House calendar to your own calendar applications, you can use this iCal link.
COMMUNITY DINNER NEXT SUNDAY
Our next dinner and reception will be NEXT SUNDAY, April 2 at 6pm. Mark your calendars!
HOUSE INTERN JOB OPPORTUNITY
We will be hiring one or two West House Interns (approx. 5 hours per week each) to work on publicity, events, and other activities for the House. Thanks to those who already expressed interest! Application details will be available shortly and we hope to hire an intern(s) this week: if interested, please email Ryan.C.Hickox@dartmouth.edu for more information or details on how to apply.
House Professor’s Teas
The schedule for House Professor’s Teas is available here.
Our first HP Tea this Friday at 4:30pm in the Fahey First-Floor Lounge will be a general discussion about ideas for the future of common spaces in West House:
Fahey Lounges, the Hyphen, study rooms, the Russell Sage “Cage” — West House has many common spaces and your House leadership is thinking about these can be best utilized for the West House Community. Have ideas for how we could best use the spaces? (a library, a cafe, a music studio, etc.?) Come join us for a discussion!
We’re still finalizing a number of our HP Tea guests for this term; you have an idea for guests or discussions (or would like to lead a Tea yourself!), please let us know. We’ll be using one or two of the Teas to highlight research by West House students, and in particular senior theses! If you’d like to present your work, please contact Ryan.C.Hickox@dartmouth.edu.
Invite your student group to DINNER at the HP’S Residence!
Over the past term we’ve had a wonderful time hosting the West House first-year floors for dinner at the HP’s Residence on Webster Ave. This term we’d like to extend this to all student groups: For any Westian who is a member of a student group (musical group, sports team, activist group, outdoors club, anything!) and would like to extend a dinner invitation to your group (including all students, not just West House members), please contact Ryan.C.Hickox@dartmouth.edu. (Note that the most we can host our residence is about 25 or 30). Looking forward to seeing you in our home!
WEST HOUSE INTRAMURAL SPORTS
We’ll be continuing House IM sports this term – it’s looking like there will be House leagues in volleyball and potentially softball and/or kickball. Watch this space!
WEST HOUSE APPAREL AND INSIGNIA DESIGN
For Spring term we’ll be doing an order for more House merchandise; current ideas are fleeces, hoodies, T-shirts, baseball hats, PJ pants, and blankets. Every Westian will be able to order the specific item and size you like. The order form will be available soon!
The House Council is currently in the process of setting up a full design process for official insignia for all six Houses, and we’re looking for your input on the official design for West House. We already got some ideas from the design submissions last spring, and will be looking for more by early/mid-April to include in the official design process. Of course, if you like our interim “elm tree” symbol (below) please let us know that as well, as we could possibly go with something similar for the final insignia. All ideas will be considered — watch this space!
Free HOP tickets
West House has available free tickets for House members to attend world-class performances at the Hopkins Center each term. A full list of shows for Spring term is available here. If you’d like tickets, please contact Pamela at Pamela.K.Duffy@dartmouth.edu.
Hilary Hahn, violin with Robert Levin, piano
Fri Mar 31 2017 – 8:00 PM
Grammy-winning violinist plays probing interpretations of Bach, Mozart, Schubert and more.
STUDENT EXEC BOARD MEETING AND ELECTIONS
Our first Exec Board meeting of the term will be TONIGHT at 8:30pm in the McLane Seminar Room, to set the plans for the rest of term. This term we will be holding elections for the student Exec Board for 2017-18, to be run in concert with the SA election process. If interested, keep an eye on this space!
House Professor’s Teas 17W
A regular feature of life in West House is House Professor’s Teas, in which we get together refreshments and discussions on a wide range of topics of interest to our community. We’ll often host distinguished guests or our expert faculty and staff. Unless otherwise noted the House Professor’s Teas will take place in Fahey 1st Floor Lounge on Fridays from 4:30 to 5:30pm.
WINTER TERM 2017
Friday, January 13, 4:30-5:30pm
Prof. Ryan Hickox: Black Holes: Monsters of the Universe
Prof. Hickox is the House Professor for West House and an astrophysicist, with expertise in the cosmic evolution of galaxies and black holes. He teaches several astronomy courses at Dartmouth and is involved in multiple NASA space observatory missions. His research is funded by NASA and the National Science Foundation.
Prof. Brendan Nyhan: A perspective on the Inauguration
Prof. Nyhan is a Professor in the Department of Government at Dartmouth College. His research, focuses on misperceptions about politics and health care. He is a contributor to The Upshot at The New York Times (March 2014-).
Prof. David Kotz
Prof. Kotz is the Champion International Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Dartmouth College and an affiliate of West House. He recently served as Associate Dean of the Faculty for the Sciences for six years and as the Executive Director of the Institute for Security Technology Studies for four years. During the 2008-09 academic year he was a Fulbright Research Scholar at the Indian Institute of Science, in Bangalore India. His research interests include security and privacy, pervasive computing for healthcare, and mobile computing. He has published over 100 refereed journal and conference papers and obtained over $65m in grant funding. He is an IEEE Fellow, a Senior Member of the ACM, a member of the USENIX Association, and an elected member of Phi Beta Kappa.
Friday, February 3, 4:30-5:30pm
Scott Listfield ’98
Scott Listfield ’98 is known for his paintings featuring a lone exploratory astronaut lost in a landscape cluttered with pop culture icons, corporate logos, and tongue-in-cheek science fiction references. Scott grew up in Boston, MA and studied art at Dartmouth College. After some time spent living abroad, Scott returned to America and, shortly before the real life, non-movie version of the year 2001, began painting astronauts and, sometimes, dinosaurs.
Scott has been profiled in Juxtapoz, Wired Magazine, the Boston Globe, New American Paintings, and on at least one local television station. He has exhibited his work in Los Angeles, Chicago, London, New York, San Francisco, Miami, Boston, and many other nice places.
Friday, February 17, 4:30-5:30pm
Dean Matthew Slaughter
At the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth Matthew J. Slaughter is the Paul Danos Dean and the Earl C. Daum 1924 Professor of International Business. Dean Slaughter’s area of expertise is the economics and politics of globalization. Much of his recent work has focused on policy responses to the World Financial Crisis; on the global operations of multinational firms; and on the labor-market impacts of international trade, investment, and immigration. From 2005 to 2007, Dean Slaughter served as a Member on the Council of Economic Advisers in the Executive Office of the President. In this Senate-confirmed position he held the international portfolio, advising the President, the Cabinet, and many others on issues including international trade and investment, currency and energy markets, and the competitiveness of the U.S. economy.
Medical School Q&A organized by Resident Fellow Sophie Leung
Thinking about going to med school? Deciding between getting an MD, PhD or both? Then come to our informal Q&A where we will discuss:
Pros and cons of a career in medicine
Can you be a doctor and have a personal life? (Travel, family, kids, hobbies, fun)
How hard is it to pay off all that debt?
What is the work load really like? How much sleep will I get?
Are you sacrificing your 20s to get that degree?
Panelists will include Dr. Leslie Henderson, PhD and PhD and Dean of Faculty Affairs at Geisel, Dr. Martha McDaniels, MD, a vascular surgeon, as well as dual degree med students working toward their MD/MPH, MD/MBA, or MD/PhD. Event will be from 4:30-5:30pm in Fahey 1st floor common room. Feel free to bring friends. RSVPs to sophie.l.leung.med@dartmouth.edu are appreciated to get an approximate head count but not required.
Friday, March 3, 4:30-5:30pm
Prof. Vicki May
Prof. May is a Professor in the Thayer School of Engineering and an affiliate of West House. Her research includes studies of engineering education and seismic engineering. At Dartmouth her courses include the popular introductory courses ENGS 11: The Way Things Work – A Visual Introduction to Engineering, and ENGS 21: Introduction to Engineering.
COMMUNITY DINNER ON SUNDAY, APRIL 2
We had a wonderful Community Dinner and Wine & Cheese Reception last Sunday, and made good work of a delicious Italian dinner for 150! was Our next dinner and reception will be the first Sunday back in the Spring term (Sunday, April 2). Mark your calendars!
CEREAL BAR IN THE HYPHEN
Up late studying and don’t feel like going out in the cold? Come get a boost at the West House CEREAL BAR! in the HYPHEN (between Butterfield and Russell Sage) courtesy of your House Exec Board. We’ll keep it stocked throughout finals period. Milk, soymilk, and almond milk are in the fridge. Please keep the space clean and offer suggestions any additional cereal flavors. Happy Finals!
Starting Spring term we will be looking to hire one or two West House Interns (approx. 5 hours per week each) to work on publicity, events, and other activities for the House. A full job listing will be available soon; if interested, please feel free to email Ryan.C.Hickox@dartmouth.edu for more information or details on how to apply.
We’re currently scheduling House Professor’s Teas for next term. If you have an idea for guests or discussions, please let us know. We’ll be using one or two of the Teas to highlight research by West House students, and in particular senior theses! If you’d like to present your work, please contact Ryan.C.Hickox@dartmouth.edu.
For Spring term we’ll be doing an order for more House merchandise; current ideas are fleeces, hoodies, T-shirts, baseball hats, PJ pants, and blankets. Every Westian will be able to order the specific item and size you like. Watch this space!
STUDENT EXEC BOARD ELECTIONS
In the spring term we will be holding elections for the student Exec Board for 2017-18, to be run in concert with the SA election process. If interested, keep an eye on this space! There will be no Exec meeting this week during Finals.
House Professor Ryan Hickox and his family host a number of dinners at the House Professor’s Residence on Webster Avenue. These include weekly gatherings with West House first-year floors, meetings of the House leadership team, and concerts and discussions with visiting artists.
Winter Carnival 2017
Posted on March 9, 2017 by Ryan Hickox
West House was well represented at Winter Carnival 2017!
On Saturday the House competed in broomball on the Green (here in action against School House).
And we took part in the Polar Bear Swim with a warm-up station and custom West House towels over the House Professor’s Residence at 18 Webster. Your intrepid House Professor even braved the frigid waters himself!
The Westletter: Week of 3/5/17
THE WESTLETTER for the week of 3/5/17
COMMUNITY DINNER / WINE & CHEESE RECEPTION TONIGHT!
Our final West House Community Dinner of the term will be on TONIGHT, March 5 in the Fahey Lounge. We’ll once again begin with a wine & cheese reception at 5pm (with soft drinks, as well as beer, wine, and cider available for 21+), followed by a dinner at 6pm catered by Three Tomatoes Italian. See you there!
We had a very enjoyable and interactive HP Tea this past Friday with Prof. Vicki May of Thayer. We had a fascinating discussion about engineering, and got to build our own “tensegrity” structures to learn about the concepts of tension and compression. Keep an eye out for the schedule of House Professor’s Teas coming up in the spring term.
WEST HOUSE APPAREL ORDERS
We had great enthusiasm for the West House fleece sweatshirts that became available on Wed afternoon – they were all gone within 30 minutes! Westians are clearly now the best-dressed House members on campus. If you didn’t get one, don’t worry, for spring term we’ll be doing an order for more House merchandise (sweatshirts, long-sleeve T’s, hats, etc.) and every Westian will be able to order the specific item and size you like. Watch this space!
West House has available free tickets for House members to attend world-class performances at the Hopkins Center each term. Please see below the list of upcoming performances; a full list of shows for this term is available here. If you’d like tickets, please contact Pamela at Pamela.K.Duffy@dartmouth.edu.
Sally Pinkas, piano
Tue Mar 07 2017 – 7:00 PM
Hop pianist-in-residence performs solo works from Schumann, a meditative Bach partita and more.
STUDENT EXEC BOARD MEETING
Our next Student Exec Board meeting will be TONIGHT at 8:30 in the McLane seminar room. All are welcome to participate!
Update on House Elections
Begin Preparations for Formal in the spring
Field Trip to other House Systems
Details on upcoming apparel order
Each term West House hosts three Community Dinners that bring together members of the House community, usually in the Fahey Hall lounge.
For Fall 2018, the Community Dinners will be:
Friday, September 14, 5pm: Kickoff BBQ (courtyard in front of Fahey & McLane)
Sunday, October 14, 6pm
Sunday, November 11 6pm: Thanksgiving Feast
We had a great HP Tea this past Friday with our panel on med school and the medical profession, organized by Resident Fellow Sophie Leung. Thanks to Sophie for organizing, and to all our distinguished panelists for a very valuable discussion!
Our final House Professor’s Tea of the term will be this FRIDAY, March 3 at 4:30pm with Prof. Vicky May of the Thayer School of Engineering.
Economics Major advising session WEDNESDAY NIGHT
Interested in majoring in Economics? West House affiliate Prof. James Feyrer (Vice Chair of the Econ Department) will be hosting an evening Q&A in West House THIS WEDNESDAY, MARCH 1 to help answer any questions you might have about the major. More details TBA!
COMMUNITY DINNER / WINE & CHEESE RECEPTION NEXT SUNDAY, MARCH 5
Our next West House Community Dinner will be on Sunday, March 5 in the Fahey Lounge. We’ll once again begin with a wine & cheese reception at 5pm (with soft drinks, as well as beer, wine, and cider available for 21+), followed by a catered dinner as usual starting at 6pm.
For faculty and staff with families, as usual we’ll have some babysitters lined up so please bring the kids (parents please email me ASAP at Ryan.C.Hickox@dartmouth.edu if you’re interested in taking advantage of babysitting).
WESTHOUSE COFFEE, MUGS, AND APPAREL
A reminder that the West House Office on the first floor of Fahey now has its own Keurig coffee machine. If you’d like to get some (free) coffee, tea, hot chocolate, or cider (or to pick up a House travel mug) just come by the office. Be sure to stop in and say hi to Pamela or Darby! We also will have some new West House apparel that will be available soon – watch this space!
West House has available free tickets for House members to attend world-class performances at the Hopkins Center each term. Please see below the list of upcoming performances; a full list of shows for this term is available here. If you’d like tickets, please contact House Administrator Pamela Duffy at Pamela.K.Duffy@dartmouth.edu.
There will be no Exec Board meeting tonight, as we’ll be having a House leadership dinner with the UGAs and RFs this week.
Posted on February 27, 2017 by Ryan Hickox
For faculty and staff with families, as usual we’ll have some babysitters lined up so please bring the kids (parents please email me ASAP atRyan.C.Hickox@dartmouth.edu if you’re interested in taking advantage of babysitting).
WEST HOUSE COFFEE, MUGS, AND APPAREL
West House once again put together a team for broomball at Winter Carnival 2018. Great fun was had by all (click here for a video of the action)!
Posted in IM Sports
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Heavy monsoon rains drench Rohingya sites in Bangladesh
UNHCR The UN Refugee A...
Rohingya refugees rebuild walkways and riverbanks at Chakmarkul settlement in Cox’s Bazar, after three days of continuous rain that caused flooding, landslides and damage. © UNHCR/Kamrul Hasan
UNHCR The UN Refugee Agency
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is a global organization dedicated to saving lives, protecting rights and building a better future for refugees, forcibly displaced communities and stateless people.
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Cooperation |
Floodings
Three days of continuous rain in Bangladesh have destroyed 273 shelters and injured 11 people in the Cox’s Bazar settlements where more than 900,000 Rohingya refugees live.
An estimated 350mm of rain fell in 72 hours from Monday and more heavy downpours are expected throughout next week, with four months of the monsoon season to go. According to preliminary reports, there have been 26 landslides.
Refugee volunteers trained by UNHCR and partners worked throughout the night on Wednesday in heavy rain to help families in urgent need. In some cases, this involved rescuing refugees from shelters destroyed by landslides. UNHCR has temporarily relocated 2,137 people, either because their shelters suffered substantial damage or as a precaution.
UNHCR spokesperson Charlie Yaxley stated at the Palais des Nations in Geneva: "Our network of Emergency Response Teams has been mobilised to identify the needs of the most vulnerable and prioritise them for assistance. As an immediate response, pre-positioned emergency supplies are being distributed to help rebuild, repair and strengthen damaged shelters."
In support of the humanitarian response led by the Bangladeshi authorities, UNHCR and partners, including WFP and IOM, made preparedness for the monsoon season a priority, including building retaining structures on hillsides, installing drainage, and building roads and bridges. Reservoirs have been also constructed to hold monsoon rains and stabilise water supplies.
"We remain on high alert, ready to deploy additional Emergency Response Teams to support our network of refugee volunteers and partners as needed," added Charlie Yaxley.
To date, the 2019 Joint Response Plan (JRP) for the Rohingya humanitarian crisis in Bangladesh has received only a third (US$301 million) of the US$920 million that is needed.
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Longer dry season shrinks water supply for Rohingya refugees to critical levels
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M. Ndiaye (UNHCR): "To make the SDG 6 goal possible, everyone must step up and do their part"
10/01/2019 · Cooperation · 20
Innovation, green tech and sunlight help secure safe water for Rohingya refugees
Manuel Gomez del Pino
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Voith to replace Ritom pumped storage plant, Switzerland
A rendering of the new Ritom pumped storage power plant in Switzerland. (Source: SBB)
Voith is active in a wide variety of markets and therefore divided into four Group divisions: Voith Digital Ventures, Voith Hydro, Voith Paper and Voith Turbo. Each Group division offers individual solutions with high-quality products.
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Voith recently received an extensive order for the Ritom pumped storage power plant in Switzerland. The plant has been in operation since as far back as 1920 and will now be replaced by a new facility. Voith will be responsible for design, fabrication, installation and commissioning of the new high-performance generating units. The electricity produced by the Ritom pumped storage power plant is of crucial importance for the operation of the rail network by Swiss Rail (SBB) and for supplying power to the Ticino region. The total investment volume for the construction project is in the region of CHF 250 million. The new plant is scheduled to go into operation in mid-2023.
Client and plant operator is Ritom SA, a Joint Venture between SBB and the canton of Ticino. The company regards the energy project as the most important in the canton of Ticino in the last 50 years and one of the most substantial investments by SBB south of the Alps. As the Swiss Federal Office of Energy, the canton of Ticino and Ritom SA want to increase the proportion of hydropower in electricity generation in the next few years, the expansion of the power plant at this location is especially important.
Technically sophisticated project
The four Pelton turbines with a total rated output of 44 MW that are used in the Ritom pumped storage power plant will be replaced by much more powerful generating units in the new facility. To this end, Voith will supply two Pelton 60 MW turbines and a 60 MW storage pump.
The different designs and purposes of the generating units mean that Voith’s engineers have exacting requirements to meet. For example, the first machine unit will supply power for the 16.7 Hz Swiss Rail network and the operation of its trains. The second will feed the electricity it generates into the 50 Hz public grid.
The third unit, a 60 MW capacity storage pump with a delivery head of more than 700 m, will pump the water for reservoir management and to provide balancing power (operating reserve) from the Airolo basin to Lake Ritom. In combination with the turbine, the pump can provide the operating reserve for fast grid regulation and stabilization with maximum flexibility. This means that the new power plant will provide a feed-in reserve/intake balance of 60 MW for the 50Hz Swiss grid. “In addition, the storage pump can be speeded up with the help of the 50 Hz Pelton turbines using back-to-back starting and synchronized with the grid. In this situation the power of the turbine is used to start the pump in the water,” explains Christian Matten, Project Manager at Voith Hydro Europe.
Comprehensive simulations demonstrate benefits
Because of the special importance of this power plant, operator Ritom SA had very stringent design requirements for all components. “As well as conducting transient pressure (water hammer) calculations, we built a comprehensive simulation model for the entire electrical and mechanical scope of supply and carried out corresponding research beforehand,” says Matten.
27/06/2019 · Energy · 15
Voith subsidiary VolgaHydro inaugurates new production plant for hydropower turbines
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Hydro-Québec awards Rapide-Blanc contract to Voith
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Voith is awarded contract to supply equipment for Indian hydropower project
Asya Al Marhubi
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Nico Rosberg: 'When Mercedes come, they come to win'
(CNN)Nico Rosberg’s current life is a world away from the career he enjoyed as a Formula One world champion, piloting gas-guzzling race cars to victory at circuits around the world.
The German has transformed not only his professional lifestyle but his personal one, too, promoting a sustainable future with the help of his latest venture.In Berlin, the site of this weekend’s E-Prix, Rosberg has returned with his Greentech Festival, a platform for green companies from around the world to showcase the renewable technology of the future.Since its inception five years ago, Formula E has been at the forefront of promoting the possibilities of green travel in a fun and exciting way. Some of the world’s most prestigious manufacturers have already joined the rapidly-growing series, with one more big name set to be thrown into an already thrilling mix from next season in the shape of Mercedes.Read More”It’s so awesome what is happening in Formula E and all these manufacturers coming in,” Rosberg told CNN in Berlin. “From a German perspective, Mercedes against BMW against Audi against Porsche.READ: Can Formula E drive forward a female future?READ: Usain Bolt: From Olympic sprinter to business co-founder
Photos: Glimpse into a green futureNo, this isn’t a scene out of a sci-fi movie … it’s the world’s first fully 3D-printed, and functioning, electric motorbike.Hide Caption 1 of 6
Photos: Glimpse into a green futureDubbed “NERA” by NOWlab and BigRep, the companies which designed and printed it, the bike boasts several futuristic features.Hide Caption 2 of 6
Photos: Glimpse into a green futureWeighing just 60kg, NERA features airless tires with customizable tread, customizable seat and chest rest and the visually striking rhomboid wheel rim.Hide Caption 3 of 6
Photos: Glimpse into a green future”This bike and our other prototypes push the limits of engineering creativity,” said Dr. Stephan Beyer, CEO and co-founder of BigRep.Hide Caption 4 of 6
Photos: Glimpse into a green futureCustomizable LED lights are another of the bike’s innovative features.Hide Caption 5 of 6
Photos: Glimpse into a green futureIn building NERA, engineers “set a benchmark for truly creative design; breaking the limits of traditional mechanical engineering,” a statement said.Hide Caption 6 of 6
“Wow, that will be thrilling — and when Mercedes come, they come to win. Second is not good enough for them. They are already racing at the moment, just under a different name (HWA) and you can see it’s not an easy one, so they will need some time as well. “The other manufacturers have had a head start so will be interesting to see how quickly they get up to speed.”Under affiliate HWA Team, Mercedes has been testing the water in Formula E ahead of the team’s launch next season.It’s been a difficult start to life in the all-electric racing series, with drivers Stoffel Vandoorne and Gary Paffett languishing in 15th and 18th place, respectively, in the championship.HWA finds itself in ninth place with 28 points in the team standings, propped up by the Geox and Nio teams.Mercedes wants to avoid the ignominy of finishing in last place in its first season in a championship which technically and financially it will not be able to dominate like it has in Formula One.The German manufacturer is building a true F1 dynasty having been triumphant in the previous five seasons. It is already in pole position to win six championships in a row and will not want to tarnish the reputation of excellence it has cultivated by performing poorly in Formula E.Mercedes F1 team principle Toto Wolff, who Rosberg had a close relationship with in his time in F1, will play an active role in selecting the two drivers to represent the team in its debut season.
Photos: The 2018/19 Formula E season so farFormula E 2018/19 – The 2018/19 Formula E season is set to be a thriller, with the exciting new Gen2 cars boasting top speeds of 280km/h and more drivers than ever with realistic hopes of taking home the title.Hide Caption 1 of 10
Photos: The 2018/19 Formula E season so farFormula E finally got its first repeat winner of the season in race nine, as Jean-Eric Vergne led from pole to finish to secure his second victory of the season.Hide Caption 2 of 10
Photos: The 2018/19 Formula E season so farDutch driver Robin Frijns claimed victory in Paris on the day his country celebrated its national King’s Day. The Envision Virgin Racing man was the eighth different driver to win the eight races so far this season.Hide Caption 3 of 10
Photos: The 2018/19 Formula E season so farMitch Evans victory at the Rome ePrix was Jaguar’s first in motorsport since 1991. The Kiwi is the only driver to score points in the seven races so far this season.Hide Caption 4 of 10
Photos: The 2018/19 Formula E season so farSanya, race six – Jean-Eric Vergne put an end to a miserable run of form that saw him go pointless for three straight races by taking victory in Sanya, the first time the championship had visited the south China cityHide Caption 5 of 10
Photos: The 2018/19 Formula E season so farHong Kong, race five – Edoardo Mortara backed up his third place in Mexico by claiming top spot in Hong Kong, Venturi’s first ever victory in Formula E. Sam Bird had initially crossed the line in first place but after a four-hour investigation, was demoted for smashing into the back of race leader Andre Lotterer.Hide Caption 6 of 10
Photos: The 2018/19 Formula E season so farMexico City, race four – Former world champion Lucas Di Grassi celebrates his victory at the Mexico ePrix, arguably the most thrilling race in the sport’s five seasons. Race leader Pascal Wehrlein’s battery died just meters from the line, allowing Di Grassi to swoop past on the inside and snatch victory.Hide Caption 7 of 10
Photos: The 2018/19 Formula E season so farSantiago, race three – On a sweltering afternoon in Santiago, Chile — the hottest ePrix in history — Sam Bird stormed to victory at the Parque O’Higgins Circuit. After finishing third overall last season, the Briton will have hopes of coming out on top this time around.Hide Caption 8 of 10
Photos: The 2018/19 Formula E season so farMarrakesh, race two – Jerome d’Ambrosio followed up his podium finish in Saudi Arabia with victory in Marrakesh — his third in Formula E — to take an early lead at the top of the championship.Hide Caption 9 of 10
Photos: The 2018/19 Formula E season so farAd Diriyah, race one – The season got off to a thrilling start in Ad Diriyah, Saudi Arabia, as Portuguese driver Antonio Felix da Costa edged out Jean-Eric Vergne and Jerome d’Ambrosio to claim the second Formula E win of his career.Hide Caption 10 of 10
But Rosberg says a return to racing in Formula E, either as a driver in another capacity, is not something that is currently on his mind.”No, that’s not really something that I’m going for at the moment,” he admitted. “If I were a team principal, it would require the same dedication that I had to give as a driver and I am not ready for that level of commitment again — every day traveling the world. “I am quite happy with the freedom the way it is now in my life.”
https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/24/sport/formula-e-berlin-eprix-nico-rosberg-mercedes-spt-intl/index.html
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FIFA Women’s World Cup: 2019 World Cup| 2015 World Cup
June 24, 2019 sportsjone Uncategorized 0
The FIFA Women’s World Cup is an international football competition, which is fought by the International Governing Body of the Games by senior women national teams of the Federation International Team (FIFA) members. The competition is held every four years since 1991, when the inaugural tournament, which was called the FIFA Women’s World Championship, was held in China. Today we will discuss about FIFA Women’s World Cup: 2019 World Cup| 2015 World Cup
FIFA Women’s World Cup
FIFA (International)
24 (finals)
(3rd title)
Most successful team(s)
(3 titles)
The 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup is the eighth edition of the FIFA Women’s World Cup, which is a fourteen international international championship, in which national teams of 24 women representing FIFA member associations participated. It has been organized by France between matches between 7 June and 7 July 2019 in nine cities.
Host country
7 June – 7 July
24 (from 6 confederations)
Venue(s)
9 (in 9 host cities)
117 (2.93 per match)
740,246 (18,506 per match)
Top scorer(s)
Sam Kerr
(5 goals each)
In March 2015, France won the right to host the event, For the first time, the country is hosting the tournament, and for the third time by a European nation.
After winning the 2015 edition in Canada, the United States entered the competition as the defending champion.
This is also the first women’s World Cup to use the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system.
The eighth installment of the FIFA Women’s World Cup is going on in France, and the 16-action era begins on Saturday.
The United States women’s national team won all three of their group stage games – including a 2-0 win over Sweden – to finish Group F, the US will face Spain in the knockout phase and in the quarter-final with France Can match.
If the team defeats Spain then the United States will face France. France, Germany, England and Norway all reached well in the quarter-finals.
How to watch FIFA Women’s World Cup 2019?
The tournament will be broadcast on Fox and FS1 in the United States of America, while the Spanish Broadcasting Rights are with Telemundo, as well as the games are broadcast on the Universe. You can see the tournament on fuboTV (try it for free).
FIFA Women’s World Cup 2019 Knockout Stage Bracket
Germany 3, Nigeria 0
Norway 1, Australia 1 (NOR wins on PKs, 4-1)
England 3, Cameroon 0
France 2, Brazil 1
Spain vs. United States, Noon ET, FS1
Sweden vs. Canada, 3 p.m. ET, FS1
Italy vs. China, Noon ET, FS1
Netherlands vs. Japan, 3 p.m. ET, FS1
Norway vs. England, 3 p.m. ET, Fox
France vs. United States/Spain, 3 p.m. ET, Fox
Italy/China vs. Netherlands/Japan, 9 a.m. ET, FS1
Germany vs. Sweden/Canada, 12:30 p.m. ET, FS1
TBD vs. TBD, 3 p.m. ET, Fox
TBD vs. TBD, 3 p.m. ET, FS1
Third-place game
TBD vs. TBD, 11 a.m. ET, Fox
Group A standings and schedule
France* 3 3 0 0 +6 9
Norway* 3 2 0 1 +3 6
Nigeria* 3 1 0 2 -2 3
South Korea 3 0 0 3 -7 0
France 4, South Korea 0
Norway 3, Nigeria 0
Nigeria 2, South Korea 0
France 2, Norway 1
France 1, Nigeria 0
Norway 2, South Korea 1
Group B standings and schedule
Germany* 3 3 0 0 +6 9
Spain* 3 1 1 1 +1 4
China* 3 1 1 1 0 4
South Africa 3 0 0 3 -7 0
Germany 1, China 0
Spain 3, South Africa 1
Germany 1, Spain 0
China 1, South Africa 0
Germany 4, South Africa 0
China 0, Spain 0
Group C standings and schedule
Italy* 3 2 0 1 +5 6
Australia* 3 2 0 1 +3 6
Brazil* 3 2 0 1 +3 6
Jamaica 3 0 0 3 -11 0
Italy 2, Australia 1
Brazil 3, Jamaica 0
Australia 3, Brazil 2
Italy 5, Jamaica 0
Australia 4, Jamaica 1
Brazil 1, Italy 0
Group D standings and schedule
England* 3 3 0 0 +4 9
Japan* 3 1 1 1 -1 4
Argentina 3 0 2 1 -1 2
Scotland 3 0 1 2 -2 1
England 2, Scotland 1
Argentina 0, Japan 0
Japan 2, Scotland 1
England 1. Argentina 0
England 2, Japan 0
Scotland 3, Argentina 3
Group E standings and schedule
Netherlands* 3 3 0 0 +3 6
Canada* 3 2 0 1 +2 6
Cameroon* 3 1 0 2 -2 3
New Zealand 3 0 0 3 -3 0
Canada 1, Cameroon 0
Netherlands 1, New Zealand 0
Netherlands 3, Cameroon 1
Canada 2, New Zealand 0
Netherlands 2, Canada 1
Cameroon 2, New Zealand 1
Group F standings and schedule
United States* 3 3 0 0 +18 9
Sweden* 3 2 0 1 +4 6
Chile 3 1 0 2 -3 3
Thailand 3 0 0 3 -19 0
Sweden 2, Chile 0
United States 13, Thailand 0
Sweden 5, Thailand 1
United States 3, Chile 0
United States 2, Sweden 0
Chile 2, Thailand 0
USWNT vs. Spain Prediction
https://youtu.be/ocL1wynyZWE
The United States holds another clean sheet and with the hassle of closing Harmoso, the quarterfinals reach the finals.
Pickup: USA 3, Spain 0
USA vs. Spain History
This is the second meeting between the two countries so far.
The last match was actually done on 22 January this year. This was a 1-0 win for the US in the 54th minute with a goal from the Kirsten Press.
That match was made in four of Spain’s U.S. The record saw nine shots, and that day, 22 of the 25 Spanish players were on the World Cup roster.
Sixteen players from 17 players who play for the United States in that game are on this current World Cup roster.
World Cup path
USA: Beat Thailand (13-0), Chile (3-0) and Sweden (2-0)
Spain: Beat South Africa (3-1), lost to Germany (1-0) and drew China (0-0)
2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup was the seventh FIFA Women’s World Cup, which was the quadrangular international women’s football world championship tournament. The tournament was hosted by Canada for the first time and the third time a North American country In five time zones, matches were played in six Canadian cities. The tournament commenced on June 6, 2015, and ended with the United States victory on July 5, 2015 with the finals.
Final positions
United States(3rd title)
1,353,506 (26,029 per match)
Célia Šašić
Best player(s)
Best young player
Kadeisha Buchanan
Best goalkeeper
Fair play award
2015 tournament extended the World Cup to 24 teams in 2011.
The Canadian team got a direct entry into the host and a qualifying tournament of 134 teams was held for the remaining 23 venues.
With extended tournaments, eight teams started the Women’s World Cup.
All previous women’s World Cup finals qualify between the defended champions Japan and returning champions Germany (2003, 2007) and the United States (1991, 1999) between the seamed teams.
The first goal-line technique was with the Hawk-Eye system in the 2015 tournament.
It was also the first World Cup for men or women to play on the artificial turf, with all the matches played on such surfaces, although there were some initial concerns at the possible potential risk of injuries.
Also read https://www.bbc.com/sport/live/football/47323154
2015 Qualified teams
The tournament is shown in the latest published FIFA ranking brackets before the tournament (March 2015).
China PR (16)
Thailand (29) (debut)
Cameroon (53) (debut)
Ivory Coast (67) (debut)
Canada (8) (hosts)
Costa Rica (37) (debut)
Ecuador (48) (debut)
OFC (1)
UEFA (8)
Netherlands (12) (debut)
Spain (14) (debut)
Switzerland (19) (debut)
Knock Out stage
30 June 2015 United States 2–0 Germany Olympic Stadium, Montreal
19:00 EDT(UTC−4) Lloyd 69‘ (Pen.)
O’Hara 84‘ Report Attendance: 51,176
Referee: Teodora Albon(Romania)
1 July 2015 Japan 2–1 England Commonwealth Stadium, Edmonton
17:00 MDT(UTC−6) Miyama 33‘ (pen.)
Bassett 90+2‘ (o.g.) Report Williams 40‘ (pen.) Attendance: 31,467
Referee: Anna-Marie Keighley (New Zealand)
Third place play-off
4 July 2015 Germany 0–1(a.e.t.) England Commonwealth Stadium, Edmonton
14:00 MDT(UTC−6) Report Williams 108‘ (pen.) Attendance: 21,483
Referee: Ri Hyang-ok(North Korea)
Main article: 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup Final
5 July 2015 United States 5–2 Japan BC Place, Vancouver
16:00 PDT(UTC−7) Lloyd 3‘, 5‘, 16‘
Holiday 14‘
Heath 54‘ Report Ōgimi 27‘
Johnston 52‘ (o.g.) Attendance: 53,341
Referee: Kateryna Monzul(Ukraine)
2015 World Cup Final
16:00 PDT (UTC−7)
Lloyd 3‘, 5‘, 16‘
Johnston 52‘ (o.g.)
BC Place, Vancouver
Referee: Kateryna Monzul (Ukraine)
You can also read https://sportsjone.com/nhl-draft-2019-order-lottery-draft-result-prospectus/
FIFA Women's World Cup 2019
NHL Draft 2019: Order| Lottery| Draft Result| Prospectus
Live Rugby Today: Results| League Scores| Union| Fixtures
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Blog Columns Site News West Ham agree deal to sell Reece Oxford
West Ham agree deal to sell Reece Oxford
Sai 15 May, 2019 English Premier League, General Football News, Site News, Transfer News & Rumours, West Ham
West Ham have agreed on a deal to sell Reece Oxford this summer.
According to Sky Sports, German club Augsburg will pay £3 million for the talented young defender.
Oxford hasn’t managed to impress Pellegrini at West Ham and he isn’t a regular starter at the club. Moving on makes the perfect sense for him at this stage of his career.
He needs to play regularly in order to fulfill his potential and West Ham won’t be able to provide him with that opportunity.
He has two years left on his deal but the player has not played for West Ham since January 2018.
At one point, Oxford was regarded as one of the best young talents in the country. However, his progress has stalled and he needs to recapture his confidence and form now.
Augsburg are now looking to agree on personal terms with the player.
Oxford joined the German club on loan earlier this year and he managed to impress the manager Martin Schmidt.
He will be looking to continue his development with regular football in the Bundesliga next season.
Oxford knows the Bundesliga well. He has played there with Borussia Monchengladbach as well.
FA Cup Final: Preparation the key as Watford face huge test against Manchester City
Everton offered the chance to sign Joao Mario, they must steer clear
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Members of the team are:
Dr Vijay Purwar (m)
MB, ChB, MRCGP, DCH
Qualified in 1996 from Royal London Hospital Medical College. (Part-time)
Dr Tania Venison (f)
MB, BS, DRCOG, MRGP
Dr Arabella S C Staniforth (f)
BSc, MB, BS, DRCOG, DFFP
Qualified in 1994 from St Mary’s Hospital Medical School, University of London. (Part time)
Dr Colette Boateng (f)
BSc, MBCHB, DRCOG, DFFP, MRCGP
Qualified in 2003 from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana. (Part time)
Dr Ivy Teoh (f)
MBBS, BSc, DRCOG, DFFP, MRCGP
Qualified in 2000 from Guy’s, King’s and St Thomas’ Medical School, London. (Part time)
Dr Kevin Yee (m)
MRCGP, MBBS, BSc (Pharm) 2001, Guy’s, King’s and St Thomas’ Medical School, London 2004 & MRCGP 2009
Dr Jonathan Anthonypillai (m)
MRCGP 2018, Qualified with MBBS in 2012 at St Bartholomew’s and the Royal London School of Medicine and Dentistry, BSc Phsiology 2011 at Kings College London
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Grete Viddal joins the Stone Center as a Zemurray Stone Postdoctoral Fellow
Grete Viddal is a Zemurray Stone Postdoctoral Fellow. She received her Masters in Anthropology in 2007 and her Ph.D. from Harvard’s Department of African and African American Studies in 2014. Before coming to Tulane she was a Program Fellow at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard. This fall, she is teaching a seminar entitled “Revolutionary Identities in the Caribbean: Cuba and Haiti.” Taking two different nations as case studies, the course examines forces that shape both daily life and national identities in the Caribbean. Probing Cuba’s path to nationhood and racial, cultural, and religious policies under socialism, students examine its efforts to become a model of development for other countries. Reflecting on Haiti’s history as the first independent black republic in the hemisphere, the class delves into religion and power, post-Duvalier struggles to realize a system of democratic governance, and the challenges of rebuilding the material and social infrastructure destroyed by the earthquake of 2010. Using historical, ethnographic, and literary lenses, students consider how both Cubans and Haitians crafted revolutionary identities and envisioned their nations as models for independence, guiding an appreciation of the Caribbean in a global context.
Viddal’s book project, Vodú Chic: Cuba’s Haitian Heritage, the Folkloric Imaginary, and the State, is currently under agreement for publication with the University of Mississippi Press. Vodú Chic is an ethnographic study of Haitian descendants in Cuba that charts the ways in which state ideologies clash and resonate with local communities. In post-Soviet socialist Cuba, economic frustrations and housing shortages increasingly challenge national unity, and burgeoning spirituality tests communist ideology. Folkloric performances attract tourists and are described by state officials, local scholars, and performers themselves as evidence of Cuba“s multi-racial harmony. Viddal argues that Haitian descendants utilize emerging “economies of folklore”-particularly heritage conservation projects and the budding tourist industry-to assert their voices. Vodú Chic is based on fifteen months of sustained fieldwork in eastern Cuba from 2008-2010 and fifteen years of traveling to the island. Case studies analyze dance, music, and rituals of Vodú as they are re-imagined for the public stage in unexpected ways. Viddal documents how haitiano-cubanos, once Cuba’s most marginal migrants, achieve new visibility through links with international music promoters and anthropologists. She reveals how people of Haitian descent transform once-denigrated traditions into the exotic and desired. Vodú Chic also probes how ritual specialists occupy new terrains of citizenship by simultaneously professing Communist ideals and religious joy.
At Tulane, Viddal will engage in new research focused on practitioners of Afro-Caribbean religion in the United States. Attending Vodou spirit parties in Boston and New York, she became interested in the motivations of converts. While Vodou practice in Haiti is typically associated with the uneducated, the peasantry, and the urban poor, in the U.S., upwardly mobile middle-class Haitian immigrants express national pride by openly associating with the religion. Communities of American Pagans, Wiccans, and Queer Fairies have begun to enter Vodou, as have enthusiastic students of Afro-Caribbean dance and drumming. Many explain that they are searching for authenticity or ethnic expressions of the sacred that resonate as genuine, socially alternative, or gay-friendly, and they debate Vodou practice and legitimacy on a variety of blogs and social media. Other new adherents include Dominicans and Puerto Ricans familiar with island Spiritualist traditions, who find Vodou accessible to them in the US. Many perceive it “more African” and therefore mystically potent. These converts to new religious identities alter perceptions of authenticity and ownership. Viddal built ties to Haitian religious societies on the east coast and plans to continue her work at Tulane by studying with communities of practitioners of Haitian-style Vodou in New Orleans
Grete’s CV
Guadalupe García
Assistant Professor - History
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Anytime there’s the us versus them, and we paint these broad brush strokes against certain groups of people, everyone loses.
MANCHESTER CITY OUT RUN CHELSEA
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Community Shield: Man City’s fast start a pleasant surprise for Gundogan
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Russia 2018: Fans urge Eagles to redeem Africa’s image
As the Super Eagles face Croatia on Saturday in their group D opener, football fans in Ebo…
Nigeria Drop Out Of Women World Cup After Lossing To Germany;
Germany has the first team in the last eight women's World Cup after Lea Schueller's late strike completed a hard-fought 3-0 win over underdogs Nigeria on Saturday. The two-time world champions had a VAR to thank you for the first time in Grenoble before striker Schueller sealed the win eight minutes from time. Martina Voss-Tecklenburg's side of the World Cup …
EPL: Sarri gives Chelsea’s board name of player to sign
Chelsea manager, Maurizio Sarri has reportedly told the club’s board to sign £30 million Lyon midfielder, Houssem Aouar when the transfer window opens in January. According to French outlet, RMC, as cited on the Metro, Sarri is keen on bringing the 20-year-old French player to the West London club. The report also claimed that the Italian gaffer wants to strengthen …
EPL: How Mourinho saved my career in Chelsea – Didier Drogba
Chelsea legend, Didier Drogba has disclosed that the conversation he had with Manchester United manager, Jose Mourinho, during their time at Stamford Bridge helped to save his career at the West London club. The 40-year-old said that his Blues career could have been over before it had even got started, but Mourinho saved it by telling him that “I would …
EPL: Mourinho gives Manchester United board names of 2 players to sign
Manchester United boss, Jose Mourinho has told the club’s board led by Ed Woodward to sign one of Fiorentina star Nikola Milenkovic or Sampdoria centre-back Joachim Andersen when the January transfer window opens, according to Sky Sports Italia. Manchester United defence has let in 21 goals in 12 league matches so far this term. Chris Smalling and Victor Lindelof have …
Dangote reveals when he’ll buy Arsenal
in : News, Sports
Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, has stated that he will consider buying another football club if Premiership club, Arsenal, would not be sold to him. Dangote, who is a fan of the club and has for years been talking about buying the British club, disclosed that he would buy the club only after he has completed one of the world’s …
Champions League: Barcelona defeat Tottenham, Napoli net late winner against Liverpool
Lionel Messi scored twice as Barcelona beat Tottenham 4-2 in a Champions League Group B clash at Wembley Stadium on Wednesday night. Philippe Coutinho put the visitors ahead within two minutes, smashing a half-volley into an empty net, after Hugo Lloris was caught out trying to chase down a Messi through ball. Ivan Rakitic made it 2-0 with a stunning …
Tottenham vs Barcelona: Team news, injuries, possible lineups
Tottenham Hotspur will take on Barcelona on Wednesday night in the UEFA Champions League fixture. Spurs head to the game following a 2-0 victory against Huddersfield Town on Saturday in the Premier League encounter. Tottenham coach, Mauricio Pochettino is struggling with the fitness of Christian Eriksen, Jan Vertonghen, Mousa Dembele and Hugo Lloris. forward, Dele Alli is doubtful for the …
Livescore: Latest Champions League Results for Week 2 (Tuesday), 2018/2019, Fixtures
Group H Juventus 3 – 0 Young Boys Manchester United 0 -0 Valencia Group G CSKA Moscow 1-0 Real Madrid Roma 5 -0 Viktoria Plzen Group F Hoffenhein 1-2 Manchester City Lyon 2-2 Shakhtar Donetsk Group E AEK Athens 2- 3 Benfica Bayern Munich 1-1 Ajax
Liverpool’s Champions League squad against Napoli revealed [Full list]
Liverpool have released their line-up against Napoli in the Champions League fixture slated for Tuesday night at the Stadio San Paolo Stadium. According to Mirror UK, the Reds coach, Jurgen Klopp released a 23-man list that includes: three goalkeepers, nine defenders, four midfielders and seven attackers. Below is Liverpool’s Champions League squad against Napoli: Goalkeepers: Alisson, Mignolet, Grabara Defenders: Clyne, …
Livescore: Latest Premier League results for Week 7 (Saturday), 2018/2019 EPL scores
This Saturday will see a number of crucial games played in the Premier League. The standout fixture is Chelsea’s home game against league leaders, Liverpool. Maurizio Sarri’s men saw their perfect start to the season end last Sunday, following a 0-0 draw at West Ham. But Liverpool arrive at Stamford Bridge with their 100% record still intact. In the first …
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Rhete's Top 10 Worst Games of All-Time
by Rhete
#0 Final Fantasy XI
So shitty, it fell through the bottom of the list! But the real reason I'm putting it as #0 is that contrary to popular belief, FFXI is not a game. It can be called many things, a drug, an addiction, a curse, a habit, but perhaps the best title for it, is job. Final Fantasy XI is a job. Don't ever call it a game.
The various classes you can choose to be in FFXI, warrior, monk, white mage, bard, et cetera, are specifically called jobs. Because once you pick one, that literally becomes your job. To get anywhere is this game, you MUST group with 5 other players. You are absolutely worthless on your own. The enemies in this game are insanely powerful, and to even take down a single enemy that is above your level, you'll need a tank to absorb the enemies attacks, a healer to heal them every 3 seconds so they don't die, a few fighters to actually attack the enemy, then a status class to weaken the enemy overall, or boost the parties stats so they don't have to wait five minutes between fights. In a good group, everyone performs their job exactly to the letter, without any flaw. It's a beautiful clockwork, watching six players work together, all performing their specified tasks, to get the job done. Granted it's not fun at all, but it does have a certain elegance to it!
Because of the stringent requirements needed to form a good party, it takes about an hour or more to form a party with people around your level, another half an hour for everyone to travel to the hunting grounds, then you replay the exact same fight for the next few hours. A good party will find a spot in the dungeon where monsters won't normally walk to close to, then all sit there while one member lures a monster over to them, 6 on 1 kill it, then repeat. Then repeat. Then repeat. After 10 minutes or so, you're literally killing the same 4 or 5 enemies over and over as they respawn. Every fight is exactly the same, it is the very definition of repetitive. It is a job. You can't just sit down and get anything done with 15 minutes, or even an hour. To get anywhere, you've basically got to dedicate yourself, logging in for hours at a time, so you can find a party and have enough time to get to actually killing enemies before you or someone else has to go.
To be fair, FFXI actually does a lot right. It has the most realistic world of any MMO that i've played. In towns people are always coming and going to their various destinations. NPC shops will close at night and open in the morning. Airships that travel between towns have set schedules and departure times. The fictional elemental based days of the week affect many aspects the game, including crafting and magic potency. Even the cycles of the moon come into play, affecting how good fishing will or won't be for the day. The game even does a surprisingly good job of installing a sense of nationalistic pride for whichever of the three nations you decide to call home.
The problem? None of this shit is conductive to good gameplay AT ALL. I dont want to stand around for 40 minutes waiting for a fucking shop to open. I dont want to wait 15 minutes for a god damn airship to arrive. I dont want to wait until tomorrow to craft because it'll be fire day. I just want to fish whenever I want, not wait for the 20 minute sweet spot that shows up once a week. FFXI goes to extreme lengths, and suceeds, to feel like a real world. It just fails hard as a video game. There is a ton of stuff to do in this game, it just takes fucking forever to do. But for all its annoyances in time, the world isn't the biggest flaw. In fact, it's one of the strongest points, it's what makes FFXI such an addiction. Vana'diel becomes like a second home, and it becomes hard to quit even once you realize you aren't having any fun.
While PSU is a game that does nearly everything wrong except combat, FFXI is the reverse, it sort of does everything right, except combat. The combat in this game, is BORING AS SHIT. It's the worst. The worst ever. Imagine say, playing as Kain in FF2/4. Just him. The rest of the party is there, but they're being played by other people. Now remove items, because for all intents and purposes, FFXI doesnt have items. Now make it so you can only jump every 5 turns. So what do you have now? You get to attack once every minute, and jump every five minutes. THIS IS WHAT COMBAT IN FFXI IS ACTUALLY LIKE. It's unbelievably slow. While a lot of MMOs take shit for their "click the enemy to turn on auto-attack, wait for it to die" gameplay FFXI takes this to a whole new fucking level by making auto attack into "attack once every 20 seconds or so, pray you don't miss!" Melee classes have a handful of abilities, which have cooldown times ranging from 15 seconds, to two hours.
Most MMOs have an ability known as taunt. It's used by tank classes to get an enemy monster to focus their attacks on them, and not say, the squishy mages. The taunt/provoke skill in FFXI has a THIRTY SECOND cooldown. So for about 25 seconds, if you lose control of the enemy, you're damn near shit out of luck. This is how slow paced the combat is. Playing a melee is auto attack + a weapon skill every few minutes, tanks are provoke every 30 seconds and maybe a desperation move if you lose control, and mages are either spam heal, spam the same single attack spell, or spam refresh.
The only kind of interesting thing in combat is the pointlessly complicated skill chaining system. Try and look at those charts. I can't even make this shit up, it's one of the most pointlessly complicated systems in a game, ever. Every melee weapon has about 10 skills it can use every once in a blue moon, and by using two in a certain order, you'll get like 50 bonus damage! woo! Eventually it was discovered that this shit is totally bullshit, as its more damage overall to just spam weapon skills as soon as you can, and not bother coordinating multiple people trying to chain. Awesome system guys!
I once read a quote on gamefaqs that was something like this "EXP parties aren't supposed to be fun. They're a grind you have to get through to get to the fun stuff, which comes later" Well that's bullshit, why should combat not be fun? What the fuck is the point of a video game if 90% of it, isn't actually fun! And not to burst that guys bubble, but it never gets better. There is a grind after the grind. Each area it gets worse. There is no top of the mountain where FFXI suddenly becomes fun. It just gets worse and worse, the grind steeper and steeper, until at the very end, the mountain becomes a wall.
But the true, deep down flaw, game-ruining flaw is this: When you die, you lose 10% of current levels exp. It may not sound like a lot, but trust me, this is HUGE. Its huge because as mentioned above, EXP parties aren't fun. They're terribly boring, long, and insanely repetitive. Watching people freak out when they die in FFXI is more entertaining than any movie. There are people that when they die, fucking lose it. That's it, go home, parties over, I'm not talking to any of you fuckers for the rest of the day. The fear of death in FFXI is strong, almost as strong as the one in real life!
But what makes it such a bad penalty, is that this is a game entirely designed around helping other people. You cannot do anything alone. It's not just EXP parties. Everything requires a group. Getting your RSE? Better get a group. After your AF armor? Definitely need a group. Doing a story mission? You guessed it, grouping time! As an additionally evil twist, from level 50 on there are quests every 5 levels that MUST be completed in order to level. These are of course, fucking bullshit levels of hard. The level 60 one is so insane its usually done in groups of 18 people at once, with about 16 people who are level 59, and a handful of level 75s to babysit them.
The huge problem with this, is that no one in this game will help you. Because of the fear of death. The only way to get someone to help is if they have the same goal as you. No one will help you, even if they want to, out of paranoia of dying. They have nothing to gain, but a lot to lose if things go wrong. In a game where you are worthless on your own, creating an atomosphere where no one will help and lives in constant fear of death and can't just loosen up, and play the game for FUN, makes it damn near unplayable, and the worst video game ever.
Main Flasherized Menu
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(Soma)tic Ritual on DATABLEED
please click HERE for
"Denise Levertov vs Bruce Lee"
Many thanks to everyone at DATABLEED
Spider Symbiosis: Time With Freya
for Ariana Reines
A large spider moved into the house in early October and built her web above the large crystal grid made of gemstones gifted to me and collected for more than thirty years. In the center of the grid is a glass water pitcher with 9 pieces of clear quartz in the bottom, gathering the transmissions from all of the crystals in the surrounding grid and infusing the water. I asked the spider her name and later that night dreamt of the goddess Freya hanging from a thread on the ceiling. When I woke it made me happy to know the spider is named after a favorite Norse goddess. I took notes for the poem.
Each morning I meditated with the grid and drank from the crystal-infused water, chanting and humming and toasting Freya above me. On warm days I opened the doors and windows for insects for her web. Freya grew large enough to catch a bee in her web that she eagerly spun into a bee-sized package with her spinneret. I took notes for the poem. I carved a pumpkin that by the 9th day of candlelight began rotting and attracting fruit flies that I herded with a peacock feather up into Freya’s web. I slowly ate the toasted pumpkin seeds while watching Freya eat the flies fattened on sweet, delicious pumpkin meat. The notes became a poem titled, “...”
Mount Monadnock Transmissions
for Prageeta Sharma
Over a period of four centuries some nine million such hideous conflagrations occurred, driving Europe’s women out of power and their tribal traditions completely underground. Sometimes to add to the horror and drive the lessons home further, the bodies of strangled Gay men were stacked in with the kindling at the witches’ feet as ‘faggots’ of a new and horrible kind and as a sacrificial symbol turned upon the people who had valued living faggots, sacred Gay men.
--Judy Grahn, from Another Mother Tongue
Yes poetry can handle this. This is the third ritual I did to overcome my depression from my boyfriend Earth’s murder. The third because the first two, while I liked the resulting poems, left me feeling just as depressed, sometimes worse. The rituals for creating poems have the power to change us in ways we have yet to fully explore and I was determined to find the right ingredients for the ritual, and I did. It worked.
Earth had moved to a rural queer community in Tennessee to work the gardens and he was happy the last time we talked on the phone, telling me about budding trees and the delicious smells of spring. He told me about a cave he found where he liked to meditate in the mornings. We made plans for me to visit and spend the night together in the cave. We were excited. He told me to give Philadelphia his love.
Days after that phone call he was meditating in the cave when men bound and gagged him, tortured him, raped him, covered him in gasoline and burned him alive. The police ruled his death a suicide. The sheriff told me to mind my own business every time I insisted Earth was murdered, and he called me Faggot like it was my name, he would say, “Do you hear me Faggot?” Yeah, Faggot heard you. The police knew who did it. Or they just don’t care. Which is worse? My anger at the police and Earth’s rapists and killers haunted my days. The coroner and paramedics however always called his death a homicide, which provided some comfort.
I am grateful to MacDowell Arts Colony for providing me with a little cabin in the woods for a couple of months to do this ritual in the shadow of Mount Monadnock. It was autumn and the leaves had started to fall. One of the ingredients of the ritual was to sit in the woods and focus on a distant tree trunk. Being patient, staring at the tree long enough, I would suddenly see every falling leaf at once. It can be as harrowing as it is cathartic to abruptly capture all motion with the eye, permitting the movement to synch up with an internal avalanche. I took notes for the poems. One night I dreamed I woke inside a tree, the wood surrounding me was a warm, fibrous silk and I could hear the sap moving inside a soft steady heartbeat.
The last time I saw Earth alive he gave me a clear quartz crystal he had carried in his pocket for over a year. After his death I put it away. It caused me pain with its psychic barbed wire and whenever I found it by accident my day would be ruined. When the first two rituals failed I knew I needed a more potent ingredient. I took Earth’s crystal with me to the residency. This crystal had been on him everyday for over a year doing what such crystals do, receive and store information. His breath and laughter, planting seeds in the dirt, his lips on mine, the way he tasted different in sunlight with snow, his inimitable warmth stored in the crystal’s chambers. It was a little library of the man I loved.
Each morning I strapped Earth’s crystal to my forehead, making certain it was pressed firmly against my third eye. Then I would swallow a smaller, round clear quartz crystal. This was the worker-crystal whose job was to travel through my body, pulling the information out of Earth’s crystal and flood my bones, my tissue and blood, pumping his library through my heart and thoughts. Almost immediately my body calmed, every cell dropped their heads back and sighed. The stress of loving a man murdered without justice lifted each day of the ritual toward peace. When I passed the small crystal into the toilet I would sterilize it and start over the next morning. I took notes for the poems.
I found my joy again beneath Mount Monadnock and I am thankful. We are time machines of water and flesh patterned for destruction if we do not release the trauma. For years I had a movie playing in my head, my own little invention of torment, complete with a courtroom drama where Earth’s still unknown rapists and killers were on trial. After a week of ritual the pernicious movie in my head faded and I immediately began taking better care of myself. From 1988 to 1998 I had been macrobiotic, the healthiest and happiest decade of my life. Earth’s murder in 1998 and the additional violence of the police cover-up shook my confidence in this world and derailed me for years.
This ritual was my Restart Button. My love for Earth today is healthier in a world that continues to kill faggots since the days when Christianity colonized pagan Europe, burning faggots with the witches, incinerating all they had to offer the world. “Accelerant poured on victim and set afire,” the coroner wrote on Earth’s death certificate.
The last time I saw poet Akilah Oliver before she died we were sitting at a bar after a poetry reading and I told her of the ritual I was about to do to overcome my depression of Earth’s murder (not this ritual you are reading but the first one where I liked the resulting poem but felt no better). She was encouraging and we spoke of death as a shared space with all life and this conversation led us down a dark thread about our planet’s pillaged ecosystems and in a panic I said there was no way to fix our dying planet. She touched my shoulder and said, “CA you are about to do a ritual to heal yourself and you are part of the planet so you are healing part of the planet by healing yourself.” It made us both smile and toast to healing the planet by healing ourselves. And today I hold a glass to let Akilah know that it worked finally, “It worked Akilah, poetry did this to me and I am free!”
Of the 27 poems resulting from the notes taken during the ritual, 9 were from dreams from sleeping with Earth’s crystal under my pillow. I call the poems “Sharking of the Birdcage,” and I am very happy they showed me the way back to my strength.
for Jason Dodge
This poetry ritual was performed at the opening of Jason Dodge’s inimitable exhibition “Behind This Machine Anyone With A Mind Can Enter,” at the Institut D’Art Contemporain in Lyon, France. It is not up to me – nor is it interesting to me – to write a critical review of the artist’s work. I will say there is no other artist whose work I enjoy more in our tattered, bleeding, often unexpectedly beautiful world. Thousands of bits of trash the artist gathered from around the world over the years arranged through seven large galleries. Small, low doors for jaguars or leopards carved into the walls and one room where the florescent pink and white bulbs were changed continuously by a team of dedicated light bulb changers, rolling the room, keeping it in flux. Standing still for that MOMENT where every bulb is PINK or WHITE like two opportunities inside the artist’s soul to FLICKER an epiphany, a secret, a ransom note, I love this, I do!
During the crowded, excited, busy opening I followed 36 people, one at a time from a distance, quietly watching them. With each I would eventually stand still and stare at their clothing, shoes, jewelry, then shut my eyes to imagine them. Then I would suddenly replace their heads with owl heads: Barn Owl, Spotted Owl, Burrowing Owl, Great Horned Owl, Elf Owl, Screech Owl, Saw-Whet Owl, Gray Owl, one even insisted on becoming a Snowy Owl. I took notes for the poem as their heads turned 180 degrees and back again, poking among the exhibition at their feet.
Next I sat on a wall outside the museum with a clear vantage of the large opening to the first gallery. There with my notebook I watched 9 people walk into the show and later studied their faces as they eventually emerged again. The three who made their way to the refreshment table I approached with a bunch of tiny tomatoes to share and ask what they thought of the show. Excellent, exuberant reviews all three, one saying she was not sure what to think at first, expecting to see art hanging on the walls. But then she began enjoying how things fit together into political and familial frames in her life and the world at large. Her husband mumbled something, his glass of wine tilting back and forth but she waved her hand at him, saying to me, “Do not listen to him!” Then closer so only I could hear, “He does not like to THINK! Hurts him up here you see,” she said as she tapped the side of her head with a laugh. I returned to the wall to take more notes for the poem, which is titled, “Ready To Get Bleeding.”
P.S. The exhibition title, “Behind This Machine Anyone With A Mind Can Enter,” is from Matthew Zapruder’s beautiful, “Come On All You Ghosts.”
Déjà Vu Bus Ride
for Eleanor Wilner
For over a decade I would see her on the bus or in the vegetable shop near my apartment, always looking at everyone and everything, never on the phone or listening to music. One of those rare people who is truly present, I would see her see me and when I smiled she always returned the smile. We have observed people and things together for years, but never met, never talked, not once. We have never heard one another speak. In my journals I refer to her as my déjà vu friend because seeing her destabilizes my reality the way déjà vu will do. Then I closed down my apartment and left Philadelphia.
While house sitting for poet Eleanor Wilner after a year of being on the road I went to my old neighborhood in search of my déjà vu friend. I wish I could say there was a great search that lasted for days, but no, she was waiting for the number 21 bus and it was the first time I was getting on with her deliberately. I took notes for the poem. I didn’t want to break our pattern and introduce myself, so instead I occupied the space as a fellow observer of the world. I took more notes for the poem while studying the many hair wraps, shirt collars, and a myriad of expressions quite often in the same face. After a few blocks our eyes met as usual but she not only smiled she nodded. When I returned the nod my smile was one of my favorites because it was for my déjà vu friend. She got off the bus at 36th Street and I continued to write and observe to 45th Street.
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Power Sissy Intervention #2: Apostle Paul Suppositories
for Jo Mariner
“We’ve got to deal with the fact that the church has been violently prejudiced against gay people. We’ve murdered them; we’ve burned them at the stake; we’ve run them out of town for something over which they have no control. And that’s immoral.”
--Reverend John Shelby Spong
The Book of Romans by the apostle Paul is very popular in the United States among Christian extremists who justify genocide of queers. “Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error."
The Book of Romans is 9 pages long and for 9 days I would sing a page, then shout it, feeling the trauma this book used to condone violence against queer women and men. Then I would chop the page into a blender, add a little crystal infused water and pulverize it to a wad of pulp. I would take notes for the poem, then fill a gel suppository with the page, add lubricant and insert it past my sphincter and deep into my asshole. “It is me surrounding you now, time to meet your ghosts,” I would say and go into town ringing a bell and chanting the names of some of homophobia’s victims. Like my friend Jim McCormick who said he would rather kill himself than let his family find out he had AIDS, and then he did it. Erika Keels who was run over by a transphobic man in Philadelphia. The list of names filled the 9 days with a shower of unrelenting blood: Skye Mockabee, Amos Beede, Maya Young, Matthew Shepard, Kimberly Morris, Amanda Alvear, Kayden Clarke, and many others.
All my life Christian extremist politicians have used their homophobia to garner respect for their political campaigns. Religious extremism from positions of authority and their influence over the actions of their constituency is obvious in a world of confident bullies. From 2016 to 2017 US lawmakers submitted over 200 anti LGBTQ bills to become laws. I sat on a bench outside the courthouse to end this ritual each day, leaning forward, then back, then side to side to feel the page of the bible up inside me, apostle Paul deep-fingering me as I read printouts of some of these laws. In the state of Mississippi a law to allow any person or business to deny service to same-sex couples for religious objections. Arizona, Indiana, North Carolina, an ambitious stream of hateful anti LGBTQ bills issued with some of them sticking and becoming laws. In Tennessee a law that allows doctors to refuse treatment of queers without legal repercussions for instance. I would take more notes for the resulting 9 untitled poems, reminding myself of the words of the great poet Audre Lorde who said, “It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.” I tire of these inabilities. I will now shit out the cause. I will continue to Love this world despite the oppositions to do so.
Resurrect Extinct Vibration
Resurrect Extinct Vibration is a (Soma)tic poetry ritual I have been working with for the past year. Please let me explain. I create rituals that I do and while doing them I take raw notes that are later sculpted into poems. These rituals demand physical interactions with the world, keeping a strong focus on the present while writing. One might say the rituals create a space of “extreme present” where nothing except the ritual and the writing within the ritual can be concentrated on.
In the Resurrect ritual I use a mix of audio field recordings of recently extinct animals. When driving across the United States in my car I take time each day no matter where I am to lie on the ground and saturate my body with these extinct sounds, the speakers first at my feet then slowly moving up my body. I take notes for my poem immediately after the ritual is completed.
The World Wildlife Fund’s biennial report from 2014 revealed the stark results from analysis of accumulated research that more than half of our planet’s wild animals have disappeared in the past four decades. My goal with the Resurrect ritual is to focus on Ecopoetics as more than our degraded soil, air, and water, but to also consider and begin including the idea of vibrational absence. When a species becomes extinct they take their sounds with them: song, cry, breath, footfall, heartbeat. And we in turn replace their sounds with our human sounds, our metal, machines, bombs, cars, etc. When I was born over half a century ago my cells were formed on a more complex, organic vibration than the cells of children being born today.
My goal is to delve even deeper in 2017 and 2018 into this ritual, writing poems as a study through my body, the results of returning these missing sounds to my cells. Part of the ritual involves sleeping in my car in Walmart parking lots. I view Walmart as the epitome of the effects of Manifest Destiny upon the land. There are 9,000 Walmart stores in the lower 48 states with each one holding between 250,000 and half a million items on site for sale. Outside in the parking lots each night, and this is true no matter where I am in the United States, there are homeless families living in cars.
Another component to the ritual happens at sunrise, listening to the extinct animal sounds on headphones while walking in a spiral formation inside the Walmart, working my way into the middle of the store. At the center of the spiral I find a spot to kneel and take more notes for my poem. In the end it is a poem pointing a finger within the body living inside the structures of capital and religion and how those forces worked together to shape ideas that in turn reshaped the planet. As a transgendered / gender-fluid person I will write through the broad spectrum of my experienced genders as a vehicle for the poetry to compound its message and song.
Cremation Cocktail
for Jeremy Halinen
The Book of Frank makes me happy. I come from a poor, mostly illiterate rural American community where none of the houses of friends, family or neighbors had bookshelves. It humbles and amazes me to come from such an environment and have a book I wrote translated into half a dozen languages. Over a period of 18 years I wrote this work, totaling 1,584 poems in total. Black Mountain College poet and publisher Jonathan Williams was originally going to publish the book through his Jargon Society Press. I was incredibly honored and would go to his home in North Carolina to work on the manuscript with Jonathan and my friend Jeremy Halinen who was the Jargon intern at the time, and except for me they are the only two people to have read all 1,584 pages.
I miss Jonathan. Miss the endless supply of poets whose work he introduced
me to, like Merle Hoyleman and Mary Butts, the kind of writers who turn you around, lighting your way with their genius. He died around the spring equinox. I was walking with a group of friends to Dirty Frank’s Bar in Philadelphia after a poetry reading when someone read us a text that Jonathan had just died, jackknifing the evening to sorrow. The bar was packed and the music loud, but we found a booth. After we toasted to the long and adventurous life of Jonathan
Williams someone asked what was going to happen to my book now that he was gone. I said I didn’t want to think about it and that is when on the other side of the bar an old man stood up and started to shove people out of his way, walking toward our booth, a man who never bathed and mumbled to himself. My good friend Frank Sherlock was sitting across from me and had worked at the bar for many years and said no one had ever heard a full sentence from his mouth and his odor kept everyone at bay.
He plowed his way through the noisy crowd and stopped at our booth, staring at me for an uncomfortable minute. Then he said this same sentence a dozen times, “Don’t worry, we have it taken care of, it will be better than you can imagine, we’re looking out for you.” Then he said, “You are my little princess,” and kissed the top of my head, then plowed the way back to his barstool on the other side of the bar. We were amazed! Jonathan Williams did that! He wanted to tell me this information to put me at ease about the book we had worked so hard on together, but he needed someone in the room who was so far removed from normalized, respectable behavior that he could walk his spirit inside them and have them speak on his behalf. The man had said the sentence over and over, his inflection exactly the same each time as if a recording had been placed in his head. Knowing Jonathan’s temperament I can only imagine he was annoyed when the man repeated it too much and interrupted him with the little princess and kiss salutation. A week later I saw him again but he did not see me. The man who had said this incredibly comforting sentence to me and then kissed the top of my head calling me his little princess did not see me, just walked past me on the sidewalk.
Soon afterwards the manuscript won the Gil Ott Book Award, chosen by Nathaniel Mackey, Myung Mi Kim, Eli Goldblatt and Charles Alexander, published by Chax Press. Wave Books later published Frank where he continues to live happily today. I am grateful to all of the many dedicated people at these presses and my poetry hero Eileen Myles for writing the Afterword to the Wave edition. The book contains 130 poems and these are the only pages from the box of 1,584 poems that were published. For years I have been asked to consider a sequel or to enlarge the book, and I would sit with the box and consider it, but in the end I prefer the selections I made with Jonathan and Jeremy. The Wave edition is how I want the length and depravity of Frank’s life measured.
Poetry is a window into the magic of this world that never once asked me to apologize. Poetry took me out of the soul-crushing factory town of my childhood, revealing itself to be a source of autonomy that once grabbed by its horns utterly transfigures our lives if we refuse to let go and I will not take this force for granted. To honor that space is to have our poems be exactly the way we want them in the world. I read the box of poems out loud, all 1,584 pages of them, then placed a small, smooth piece of rose quartz crystal on top of the stack of paper and lit them on fire, watching them burn. Afterwards I swallowed the crystal, tasting like smoked blood. The pile of ashes was
remarkably small for 18 years of writing and that was humbling as I gathered them in my cupped hands and mixed them into a warm bath with jasmine flowers. In the bath I massaged the ash and jasmine into every inch of my body, and took occasional drinks of the cremation cocktail to join the crystal working its way through my digestive organs. During the ritual I took notes that became a poem titled “There Is No Prison Named Love.”
P.S. Edgar Cayce and Jack Spicer both understood that poets are recording whispers from the spirit world with our poems. Witnessing Jonathan Williams walk inside the man to have him relay his message was a gift, watching the recently deceased poet flex his new spirit body. “We” are looking out for you he said, the “we” meaning Jonathan and my other spirit guides? I am most appreciative to Jonathan for his kindness to me in life and after life.
P.P.S. The Book Of Frank is not about my friend Frank Sherlock or Dirty Frank’s Bar. I have been blessed with many amazing Franks in my life.
P.P.P.S. Frank Sherlock works at Dirty Frank’s Bar but it is not named after him. Although a mural of him was painted on the outside wall after he became Philadelphia Poet Laureate and you should go see it, it is a beautiful portrait of the poet.
POWER SISSY INTERVENTION #3: Powerball Vagina
for TC Tolbert
“Spare any money?” I panhandled outside Asheville Downtown Books and News to buy lottery tickets to win big time to pay for surgery for a new vagina. I will name a patch of pubic hair after Governor McCrory, whose mouth looks like a little talking asshole. The McCrory Patch I will call it and it will be kept combed and trimmed and I will rub my thumb in a circular pattern into the patch when his angry asshole lips are in the news. He has been a Christian extremist politician for as long as anyone around here can remember, and he is the architect of the HB2 law that prevents transgender people from using public toilets that match their gender identity. He tried to stop a production of the play “Angels In America,” he tried to prevent the Charlotte Gay Pride Parade from marching in a public space, suggesting that they have the gathering at a hotel. He also supported the YMCA for refusing membership to an openly gay man and his partner and son, stating in a letter to the man that he might want to consider a gym membership at the Jewish Community Center. McCrory’s supporters create prayer chains from the driveway at his mansion in Asheville and down the highway, praying that the governor keep their Christian extremist values intact. I took notes for the poem.
One man said it was rude to name a patch of pubic hair after the governor and I said it was rude of the governor to legislate hatred. Every time Christian extremist politicians speak out against LGBTQ people they sanction gay bashing and promote self-hatred in LGBTQ people who are already straining to negotiate survival in a highly charged religious and political landscape of morality. The culture of destroying queers is alive and well and we need public action. I have come to vandalize American Christian values for they have cost the lives of people I love. “Spare some money so I can play Powerball for a new vagina?” I took notes for the poem and bought some lucky feeling tickets that made my brand new vagina sparkle and tingle in the future.
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MONKEY GRASS
The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for whites or women for men.
--Alice Walker
for Divya Victor
Before visiting NTU (Nanyang Technological University) in Singapore I visited monkeys at the Philadelphia Zoo (Prison). It is very difficult to witness pitiless, unenlightened parents normalize (even CELEBRATE) the incarceration of innocent animals for their children. In this ritual I carried a small piece of celestite in my left hand with 9 blades of grass plucked outside the zoo (prison). Celestite’s name is derived from the Latin to mean “of the sky,” and it works on opening our top three chakras: Throat, 3rd eye, and Crown. It was important I chose a stone that was capable of allowing any communications to pass into it as a temporary battery and transmitter without the complications of me needing to translate the messages for myself since the messages were not for me. It was up to the wild monkeys of Singapore to interpret our unfortunate cousins’ stories from the United States.
I clenched the crystal and grass while making eye contact with Columbian black monkeys, and white-bellied spider monkeys. Their faces were anxious and sad. The Columbian government was not demanding the release and return of one of their nation’s most beautiful natural gifts and they knew it. The depression of the animals did not seem to register with parents and children pointing and laughing, eating candy and enjoying their freedom. I did not care that they occasionally stared at me as I spoke out loud to the monkeys, telling them that I am on my way to visit our cousins in Singapore where they swing freely in the trees. “What would you like me to tell them?” I stared into their eyes and said, “I love you little cousins,” then left the zoo (prison), putting the crystal and grass blades in my left pocket. I took notes for the poem before, during and after the zoo (prison) visiting hours.
When you know something is wrong in the world it must be confronted. Be sad, be angry, be active, and never apologize, ever! A couple years ago someone overheard me saying, “Zoos are prisons where not a single prisoner has ever seen a lawyer!” This person said, and this is a direct quote, “But animals really are better off in zoos. It’s safer for them.” And so began one of the stupidest conversations of my life and no matter what I said this person was confident that imprisonment was the best choice for animals. “It’s a dangerous world out there,” they informed me. I tapped the side of my head and said, “It is not nearly as dangerous as the world IN HERE this evening!” Conversations like this one is exactly why I prefer all other animals over human beings! I LOATHE my species for the overwhelming lack of empathy for any creature other than our own! In the mid-1990’s there was a fire in the ape house at the Philadelphia Zoo (Prison) and 23 sentient beings died that day. It was shocking, and when the news reporter said, “Luckily no one was injured,” I called the news station to complain, “You mean NO HUMANS were injured! How can you say 23 died but no one was injured?”
The eyes of the captive monkeys haunted me and I touched the outside of my pocket where I kept the crystal and grass. After I arrived in Singapore I asked my friend Divya if there were any wild monkeys in the area and was excited to hear that her husband Josh had an ongoing encounter with a wild monkey on the NTU campus. My eyes scanned the trees and lawns whenever walking. For most of the week I kept the crystal and grass in my pocket while hoping to spot him. The day after teaching a poetry workshop I walked from the building to find a small group of people photographing themselves with something in the background. When I craned my neck I was excited to see two brown monkeys hugging one another near the pond. All my life I had wanted to see monkeys who are FREE. I sat in the grass and threw several pieces of fruit to the creatures. One of them came over, then the other, eating delicious melon slices, their eyes and demeanor completely different from our enslaved cousins. I placed the crystal and grass on the ground between us with a last melon slice. When one monkey touched the crystal under the melon she LOOKED at me suddenly and ran away, agitated. I admit feeling guilty for causing her anxiety with the message from our enslaved cousins but the other monkey hugged her and comforted her. I took notes for the poem as they groomed each other and ran across the grass, their movements and play shaking off the humiliation and degradation of our cousins in Philadelphia.
It was one of the most exciting times of my life with nonhuman creatures. I was high with joy the rest of the day. Then after cooking dinner I turned on Channel News Asia and sat with my bowl of rice and beans. I went from being thrilled and high to completely shocked when a reporter stood on a busy street in Tokyo where a chimpanzee named Chacha was on a telephone poll after escaping from the zoo. Chacha had broken out of prison! And at first I was excited. It felt like a message. It was a surreal coincidence. How could this be? Then a man shot a tranquilizer dart into Chacha’s shoulder and the beautiful animal who had looked happy to be out in the world felt immediate and intense pain. Chacha SCREAMED at the man, then grew limp and fell to the outstretched net awaiting below. Humans wrapped Chaca in a blanket and put him in a van and drove him back to prison for the rest of his life on this human-dominated planet. Why do we cage animals? Because we can! Because they are weaker and we do not mind exploiting this weakness and sharing our authority over them on a Sunday afternoon with our children. It is also more efficient to gather all the animals and put them in cages in one place near our homes rather than fly all over the globe to see them.
Efficiency breeds brutality every single time. Chaca, my heart breaks for you and want to visit you one day in the Tokyo Zoo (prison) and tell you in person that I love you but have no idea how to save you. I unexpectedly took even more notes for the poem, the darkest of the day’s notes and watched the rebroadcast later in the evening to take more notes as Chacha screamed and fell from freedom all over again. The nightmares of my sleep that night assured me that the world is as chaotic and vicious as I imagined, and took more notes upon waking. Waking, we need to be waking.
(P.S. It was my luck that there were two monkeys. My crystal and the messages from the incarcerated monkeys in America caused trauma to the one and if it were not for their companion I do not know how they would have been comforted. Because the trauma was quickly extinguished I got to enjoy my day. This is something I will never repeat. It is bad enough that we humans cause so much suffering on the planet and I do NOT need to be spreading it around. Healing needs to begin and soon. The way we mistreat animals is evidence we are far from being able to rescue our own lives at this point. We need to start spreading compassion. Can we begin today please? I am asking this to myself, and passing it along.)
Power Sissy Intervention #2: Apostle Paul Supposi...
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Band of Horses - Why Are You OK - Soundblab - Soundblab
Band of Horses - Why Are You OK
by Nathan Fidler Rating:6 Release Date:2016-06-10 Label:
on 18 June 2016
Ten years in and Band of Horses are a fairly well known band now, with their fifth album Why Are You OK? It’s almost a sink or swim album. Mirage Rock didn’t go over so well, and the indie-americana of the noughties has lost some of it’s edge, but it’s been four years since then, so surely there is something else for them?
Things don’t get off to a new start on album number five, with ‘Dull Times/The Moon’ something of a mish-mash of two ideas. The first half meanders in their typical fashion, Ben Bridwell singing forlornly “put the garbage where it doesn’t belong”. The second half peps things up, more like their latest efforts, slamming chords and straightforward drumming - but it doesn’t hold too much attention.
There are a couple of gems on this album, that fact needs addressing. ‘Solemn Oath’ has a melody line hooting out, with gentle picking overlaid, while ‘Throw My Mess Around’ is a brief stomp which has the harmonised vocals on which most of their success has been made.
It’s not like they aren’t trying new things, ‘Hag’ has a cinematic width, with cooing keys and guitars, but that sound doesn’t impact much of the other songs and even self-contained, that single track doesn’t stretch the imagination very far.
One option open to this band is the move towards 60s and 70s pop or country, a Brian Wilson sound which is making something of a comeback. ‘Country Teen’ seems to be a play for this, but with drums and bass sounding like a preset keyboard demo, you’re ears are almost instantly turned off.
‘Casual Party’, ‘Lying Under Oak’ and ‘Whatever, Wherever’ are all bang average songs, none of them making much of a change or living long in the memory. Albums like ‘Cease To Begin’ and ‘Infinite Arms’ begged to played over and over, owing largely to the lovely harmonised vocals but the band seem to have done away with that sound (Brian Monroe on keys feels distinctly absent from their sound now).
There will be many, many albums out this year worse than Why Are You OK? but patient fans will be asking themselves why this album is only just “ok” after such a long wait.
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Victoria Station Update
Published by SfL on August 24, 2018 August 24, 2018
Thanks to train delays at my local station tonight, I decided to go to Shoreham via London rather than my usual routes via Clapham Junction or Gatwick. This gave me a rare opportunity to do brief step-free access spotting at Victoria station, which is, in all likelihood, the next station that will gain step-free access in the Underground. All in all, while there are no new step-free routes yet, I am happy to say that there are important updates and that this scheme may be coming to a close after long-drawn delays.
One of my readers notified me a few days that sections of the hoardings at Victoria had been replaced by light fencing, hinting at an imminent opening of another part of the station’s redevelopment. And then, this afternoon, TfL fired off a tweet announcing the opening of three new escalators at the station’s south ticket hall (the one connected to the railway station).
The Victoria Underground Station upgrade is closer to completion with the opening of 3 new escalators in the south ticket hall today.👍
Temporary station closures due to congestion will be reduced and there’ll be direct stair access to the westbound District and Circle lines. 🚇 pic.twitter.com/Uvx5vUfLIh
— Transport for London (@TfL) August 24, 2018
My immediate question, and reply to the tweet, was about step-free access and whether any new lifts had opened. While I got no reply from TfL, my changed travel plans allowed me to see the station for myself. I am always suspicious of TfL, which have developed a habit of not announcing when stations become accessible, which is exactly what happened last year when the first part of Victoria station gained step-free access.
Below is an illustration of the Victoria State Upgrade scheme, which aims to bring step-free access to all lines, increase capacity, and open a north ticket hall to reduce overcrowding at the south ticket hall.
Victoria Station Upgrade (source)
The olive green sections correspond to the new parts of the station, while the yellow structures denote the 7 lifts that will make the station accessible. Last year, the north ticket hall (the bottom one in the drawing) opened as well as three lifts bringing full step-free access to the Victoria Line. Unfortunately, since the north ticket hall is at the opposite direction of the railway station, step-free interchanges between London Victoria and the tube station are lengthy and a bit chaotic.
Maze between Southern trains at London Victoria and the north ticket hall of the Underground
Today, the remaining escalators as well as a new passageway to the westbound District/Circle line platform were opened to the public. You can see the scope of each opening in the drawing below, where the purple area opened last year and the red area opened today.
Phased opening of the scheme (purple = 2017, red = Summer 2018)
In addition to the aforementioned escalators, one of the 4 remaining lifts is located in this area. It will offer access between the south ticket hall, the westbound District/Circle line platforms, and an interchange level that leads to the Victoria Line and the north ticket hall. Frustratingly, the lift itself is not yet in service, but I was able to capture the new areas where the lift will operate.
Entrance to lift at interchange level
Entrance to lift (in the back) at District/Circle line level
Entrance to lift at south ticket hall level
The remaining lifts, which give access to the railway station and the eastbound District/Circle line platforms, are still hidden behind hoardings.
Hoarding in front of the lift at the railway station level
Old picture of lift to eastbound District/Circle line and Victoria line (still looks like this)
It is very annoying that, yet again, step-free access is the last thing to open when it comes to redevelopment projects. It is also unlikely that the “open” lift will be put into service before at least one other lift is ready to open, as this would give step-free access either to the railway station or to both sub-surface platforms.
Overall, the newly opened section looks very good and spacious, so I have no doubt that it will be a very well-received. The only question is: How much longer will we have to wait?!?
Categories: Stations
Tags: RedevelopmentUnderground
Melvyn · August 29, 2018 at 5:59 pm
Was at Victoria Station today and decided to use new route to access eastbound Circle/District Line platform. In fact, announcements were being made suggesting passengers use the new routes .
However, while the new lift in south Ticket hall has Circle, District and Victoria Lines the notice above the new escalators only has Victoria Line ( As per your photo above) yet these escalators are much shorter than the old ones . I suppose the other lines might be on the covered section?
Using this route to the westbound platform is not to bad but the eastbound platform seems much further away along Subway and is much further than the old route at booking hall level .
No progress on work or opening other parts and it looks like plenty of work to finish off surfaces remains .
Melvyn · September 7, 2018 at 6:28 pm
Victoria update – I was as Victoria Station today and noticed the hoarding has been removed at booking hall level to lift in south booking hall with closed fire doors now shown with one of those temporary closed barriers nearby. Hoarding is still in place at Mainline station level .
One other thing I noticed is the wide ticket gate just before the inaccessible old Circle and District lines booking hall has a sign to lift installed on the wall suggesting this will lead to lift access in future.
SfL · September 8, 2018 at 10:21 am
This is a great update! It seems like this station is very close to opening fully!
Melvyn · September 12, 2018 at 6:00 pm
Victoria Station update today – The hoarding has been removed in Mainline Station revealing two lifts which will serve South ticket hall below with both lifts having scrolled messages and temporary barrier . Both fire doors remain closed at Ticket hall level .
Hoarding remains on eastbound Circle and District lines platform.
It’s a question of whether TFL will wait to eastbound lift is completed or open lifts with those from Station to Ticket hall at least providing stair free access to Victoria Line using original escalators for those with luggage and prams .
SfL · September 13, 2018 at 9:58 pm
As always, thanks for the wonderful updates. They are certainly much more descriptive than the disappointingly vague information on the latest TfL Board Papers updates! I heard from a reliable source that the lifts were supposed to be completed this week, but the opening was delayed last minute. So we can be expecting some kind of opening, either full or partial, very soon! Have you had a chance to see the state of the hoardings on the Victoria line platforms (same lift as the eastbound Circle/District)? That’s one area I always forget to check when I’m at Victoria.
Hoarding on eastbound platform is was still in place today when I used Victoria Station . Same applies to Subway below.
One other temporary measure is escalators from District Line to Victoria Line are closed for upgrade work until next month meaning passengers changing from Circle/ District lines to Victoria Line have a much longer walk to Cardinal Place escalators.
Positive news today with both lifts from Victoria Mainline Station to southern ticket hall open and in use . Together with lift from southern ticket hall to westbound Circle and District Lines and Victoria Line thus creating easier interchange between Victoria Line and Mainline Station .
A notice in ticket alerts passengers to lift access as above being available.
Eastbound platform is still covered in hoarding at both levels .
SfL · September 23, 2018 at 11:02 pm
Amazing news! Shouldn’t be too long now until the last lift opens!
Daryl Major · October 9, 2018 at 5:21 pm
Does anyone know if all lifts from Victoria mainline station through to the Circle and District line’s are now open? Keep trying to ask TFL but alas not a thing! Many thanks!
Raj · November 12, 2018 at 8:52 pm
https://www.railadvent.co.uk/2018/10/victoria-tube-station-becomes-75th-station-to-become-step-free.html
Step-Free Access Update: Victoria Station and Delays – Step-Free London · September 23, 2018 at 10:56 pm
[…] long-awaited Victoria Station Upgrade is nearing its final stages. As of this past Friday, there is step-free access from the mainline […]
Station Spotting in Outer London
Last week I finally had the opportunity, after many months, to spend the whole day in London checking out the development of various step-free schemes all across the capital. Most of my focus was on Read more…
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The application has been started and linked to a lead, and now the lead has submitted his answers to the application. Here's how to work through his answers. You can also communicate with the applicant via Application Questions.
But first, some basics...
Applications > Summary gives you an overview of all the applications in your system. Use the filter to update the report. The default filter view shows you:
All applications that are In progress or submitted (for Admissions Admin users)
Applications for whom you are listed as the representative and are In progress or submitted (for non-admin Admissions users)
Click Actions to:
Assign representative: Choose an admissions user from the drop-down. Doing so will add this person as rep to all the applicants shown in the report—and will replace the current rep, if any.
Tag Results or Untag Results: Create and add a new tag to all the applicants returned by your filter conditions, or search existing tags and remove them from anyone in your filtered group with that tag.
Email applicants: This opens email in a new window so you can write these applicants a message.
Text applicants: Send a text message to the applicants on the report. You'll have options to email those who do not have a verified text number, to have replies emailed to you, and to set visibility for this message on the applicants' activity feeds.
Print Letters: This lets you send printed letters to everyone shown on the report. Choose a page layout and format and click Print. If you select .ODT, your letter will be sent to the print queue in Communications.
Export XLS: Creates a spreadsheet of the applicants shown on the report.
Applications > Fields breaks out individual application fields. The default filter view shows you all fields for applications that are in progress or have been submitted. See below for an explanation of application and field statuses.
Click Export to create a spreadsheet of the fields shown on the report.
The Questions report shows you all of the application questions your admissions department is working on. This article describes what you can do with application questions.
Application statuses
Application statuses indicate the overall position of the application independent of the status of any individual field.
In Progress: The applicant has started the application but has yet to submit it.
Submitted: The applicant has submitted the application and now it's up to you to process it. Once an app advances from In Progress to Submitted, there is no turning back—an application can not be "un-Submitted".
Pending Decision: You've accepted some fields, rejected others, and are awaiting other items—transcripts and online references, for example… basically, you're working through the application and are in the thick of it.
Accepted: This application did the trick. You like the cut of its jib. It has that certain something you're looking for. Read more about accepting applications.
Declined: This application did not do the trick. You dislike how its jib was cut. It lacks that je ne sais quoi you're after.
Withdrawn: The applicant has decided not to complete the application or no longer wants to be considered for entrance at your school.
Deferred: You may have accepted them, and they may want to confirm, but they want to delay their enrollment for whatever reason.
Waitlisted: You have 100 openings, but this is the 101st application you've accepted. If there's room, you'd take them, but for now, they'll have to wait.
Field statuses
Application fields can have one of four statuses at any given time:
In Progress: The applicant is working on this field. Normally, it indicates that he has started the application but hasn't yet submitted it. You can set a field back to In Progress after it is submitted if the applicant needs to do more work on it.
Submitted: The field is ready for your review and decision.
Accepted: You like what the applicant has to say.
Rejected: The applicant's answer didn't pass muster for whatever reason. Feel free to send it back to him for improvement (In Progress) or leave it as-is.
Getting to the application
You have a few ways to get to a given application...
1. Admissions > Dashboard
The Admissions Dashboard shows you all admissions-related activity, including updates to applications. Filter the dashboard to show applications from your leads. Then find the application you'd like to work on and click its name to go to its page.
2. Admissions > Applications > Summary
The Applications Summary lets you jump right into any application. Use the filter and click the applicant's name to go to the application.
3. Admissions > Applications > Fields
The Fields report also links you to applications. As with the Summary, just click the applicant's name to get to her application.
The application page
The left side of the application page shows you the application fields. The right side shows you general information about the application: summary, basic info, and settings.
Update any of the items on the right of the screen by clicking the field name and making your changes.
Resend Application Link Email: If the applicant loses his unique application URL, just re-send it.
Send Read-only Link: Lets you email a link to a read-only version of the application to anyone you wish (whether or not they're a Populi user).
Print View: Lets you create a printable application view containing the fields, answers, and some basic information.
Send Text Message Setup Email: If the applicant doesn't have a verified texting number, click this to send her an email asking if she'd like to set that up.
Unlink Person from Application: If you linked this application to the wrong person, this unlinks it from that person; you must then it to another person before processing the fields.
Clone application: If the applicant decides to postpone applying, this lets you clone his answers to a new application.
Choose the new Entrance Term from the drop-down and click Save.
The current application will be preserved so that your records show that he applied this time.
His answers (and their statuses) will be cloned to a new application with the Entrance Term you selected—no need to duplicate the work you've already done processing his answers!
Delete Application: The nuclear option, reserved for hopeless cases and needless mistakes.
Working with application fields
Processing applications consists chiefly of interacting with the applicant's answers: viewing answers, leaving notes, making decisions, updating statuses, and so on.
Here's what a typical field looks like after the applicant has submitted the application:
Degree is the field's name. Click the name to interact with the answer.
Submitted is the field's status.
What is...? is the field's description, which comes from the application form.
Associate of Fine Arts is the applicant's answer.
You can view and update almost any part of the field.
Change the field's status by clicking the drop-down and selecting a different status.
Click edit this response to change the applicant's answer.
Leave notes and files for internal use. You can also check to let the applicant see your notes when he views the application.
Answer History shows you all changes made to this field and who made them; changes made by the applicant are unmarked.
Using the field filter
The field filter at the top lets you view fields with a certain status and, if desired, make bulk changes to them.
Select which fields you'd like to Show—all fields, or only submitted fields, etc.
The next drop-down lets you select all or none of the fields you've filtered. You can also check off individual fields.
Use the Change status to... drop-down to change the status of all your selected fields to a different status.
For example, you might filter to see the submitted fields; you then check off the acceptable fields and change their status to Accepted. Or you might look at all fields on a particularly dismal application, select all Submitted fields, and change their status to Rejected.
Accepting applicants as students
Step six: set up one or more applications
Step seven: set up one or more communication plans
Personal account settings
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Secret Swindon
Swindon in 50 Buildings
A Ken White Retrospective
Swindon Resources
Swindon Groups & Orgs
Made in Wiltshire
Swindon in Business
Switch on to Swindon
Ten things to celebrate about Swindon
Sons & Daughters of Swindon
Architecture in Swindon
Arts/Culture/Heritage
The Health Hydro
Swindon Open Studios
Public art-sculpture
West Swindon Sculpture walk
Artsite and the Post Modern
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White Horse Pacified rides again
by amaatk123 | Jun 20, 2016 | Arts/Culture/Heritage, Rough guide: Public art, West Swindon Sculpture walk
Well listeners. This is a bit exciting and no mistake. This week I got a message via the blog from a lady called Julie Livsey – the creator of ‘White Horse Pacified’ – part of the West Swindon Sculpture trail.
https://swindonian.me/category/artscultureheritage/west-swindon-sculpture-walk-artscultureheritage/
https://swindonian.me/2013/07/11/west-swindon-sculpture-walk-part-3-white-horse-pacified/
She said: “It was a lovely surprise to see the image of my sculpture The White Horse Pacified in your article about the Swindon Sculpture Trail. It was constructed in 1987 when I was Artist in Residence for Thamesdown CC. The poet Carol Ann Duffy was Poet in Residence the same year. If you would like any further information about how and why the sculpture was commissioned I would be very happy to answer your questions.
Julie Livsey”
Wasn’t that lovely? She’s also very kindly scanned and sent across the leaflet about the sculpture so hopefully you can see it all okay. So here it is – straight from the horse’s mouth as it were…
The White Horse Pacified
About Julie’s residency
There’s a map and some information about the sculptures on the trail here: https://swindonian.me/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/The-Sculpture-Tour-West-Swindon.pdf
Summer stuff to do in Swindon on the cheap
by amaatk123 | Jul 23, 2015 | A Rough Guide to Swindon, Community, General Interest, Rough guide: general interest, Rough guide: museums, Rough guide: parks and open spaces, Rough guide: Public art
The kids have broken up from school and that means only one thing: ‘Mum, I’m BORED’.
So here’s a non-definitive list of a five places to go and things to do without leaving Swindon – for kids of all ages – and without spending much money. In straitened times such as we have right now stuff to do for free or very little is what we need.
I’ve called it ‘summer stuff’ but it’s equally applicable to any time of year. Because I’ve been thinking of things that require little or nor money I haven’t included such things as The Oasis, The Link Centre, STEAM and so on – as great as they are.
There are of course many more – these are just the first few that came into my head!
So – in no particular order:
Minis on building – Mike Pringle photo
1) Swindon has a great deal of public art dotted around the town. Much of it is in places that make great walks or cycling and is in proximity to playparks. Here’s a round up of posts about public art in Swindon: https://swindonian.me/category/public-art-sculpture/ so why not go and check them all out? Or -and this is my particular favourite – follow the West Swindon sculpture trail:
‘If one thinks of Swindon at all, most likely to come to mind are the Designer Outlet village, the STEAM museum and, perhaps, Lydiard House and Park. Somewhat surprisingly though this sometimes un-prepossessing town possesses a rich cultural landscape liberally scattered with public art – in particular in the West Swindon development. This extensive and surprisingly green suburban area links the town with the M4 and comprises several distinct ‘villages’, several of which feature a ‘village centre’. Intriguingly punctuating this conurbation is a fascinatingly diverse collection of sculptures that comprise the West Swindon Sculpture trail. Installed between 1982 and 1992 these sculptures are unexplained and mostly unnoticed by the locals. They are also rather neglected but no less interesting for that encompassing as they do a gamut of subject matter ranging from realism to abstract with a film star and a nursery rhyme in the mix ….’ Read more here.
mini train at coate
2) Get some train action and park life all in one hit. The Coate Water miniature railway is 50 years old this year and goes from strength to strength. Work is underway to extend the line so that it stops at the Richard Jefferies museum. Read more about the railway here: https://swindonian.me/2015/07/22/coate-water-miniature-railway/ It’s only £1.20 for a ride and the park makes great walking and cycling plus there’s a play ares for little ones. From now – August 2016 – this train goes to the Richard Jefferies museum. You can get off there, have a walk round the garden and the museum and get back on again.
3) The Richard Jefferies museum: Not just for literature lovers. The Richard Jefferies museum has an absolutely gorgeous garden and they serve cream teas on summer weekends. So why not combine a visit to Coate Water with an hour or two at the Richard Jefferies museum and enjoy a cream tea? There’s all sorts of information about the museum here: https://swindonian.me/2014/05/23/the-richard-jefferies-museum-needs-you/ Entrance to the museum and garden is free. The cream teas aren’t – but they are very reasonable.
http://richardjefferiessociety.co.uk/RJmuseum.html
http://richardjefferiesmuseum.blogspot.co.uk
http://richardjefferiesmuseum.blogspot.co.uk/p/education.html
4) The Richard Jefferies Old Town walk: Follow some of the haunts of this famous son of Swindon by following this walk around Old Town which takes in places he was associated with.
Combine it with a visit to the Museum and Art gallery and a walk around any of the parks in the Old Town area: Town Gardens, Queens Park and The Lawn.
See this nice post from Swindon in the Past Lane about Queen’s Park: http://swindonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/queens-park.html
There’s plenty of refreshment opportunities in Old Town too. Read about some of Swindon’s coffee shops and cafes here: https://swindonian.me/category/eating-drinking-coffee-etc/
I recently blogged about this walk so you can find more information here:
A) https://swindonian.me/2015/03/29/richard-jefferies-old-town-walk-part-1/
B) https://swindonian.me/2015/07/07/richard-jefferies-old-town-walk-part-2/
5) Ride the Hooter Express: – and get some retail therapy too at the Outlet Centre too. The new play area there is absolutely terrific. Being a fan of a miniature train I LOVE the hooter express. Read more about that here: https://swindonian.me/2015/01/31/all-aboard-for-the-hooter-express/ A ride on this costs £2. It goes all the way around the Outlet Centre and is brilliant fun. Waving at passers-by and shoppers is compulsory – so be warned! 🙂
6) The Explorer’s Guide to New Swindon – get the map produced by Swindon Civic Voice (£2 from the central library) and explore ‘New Swindon.’
7) Take a canal trip on Dragonfly – read more here.
8) Pack up a picnic and visit a park:
Queen’s Park and the Secret Garden
Lydiard Park and House
Faringdon Road Park
The Lawns
Town Gardens
Ten things to celebrate about Swindon No 4: The sculptures. E: The Wish Hounds
by amaatk123 | May 25, 2015 | Arts/Culture/Heritage, Public art-sculpture, Rough guide: Public art, Ten things to celebrate about Swindon
The Wish Hounds
“And then he sought the dark-green lane,
Whose willows mourn’d the faded year,
Sighing (I heard the love-lorn swain),
‘Wishness! oh, wishness! walketh here.'”
— The Wishful Swain of Devon. By POLWHELE.
THE tradition of the Midnight Hunter and his headless hounds–always, in Cornwall, associated with Tregeagle–prevails everywhere. Whether this slice of mythology and folklore is the inspiration for Swindon’s fantastical Wish Hounds sculpture I’ve no idea but I’ve certainly always been intrigued by them.
The hounds, created in 1994 by Lou Hamilton, have a menacing air about them even on a pleasant May Bank Holiday. It doesn’t take much of a leap of imagination to hear them howling Baskerville-like in the dusk and making mere mortals quake. Perhaps dusk is a better time to see them, to feel their hot breath, see their jowls heavy with saliva…
I found this information – and you can get the location of them here too on Geograph.org: ‘Wish-hounds also have other many other names, such as Yeth. It seems the word wish is from a Sussex word meaning marsh. Ghostly black dogs, usually with glowing red eyes, have been reported for hundreds of years, and probably date back to the mists of time. It is generally reckoned not to be a good thing to meet one. When this sculpture was first mooted, there were protests from some local Christians who objected to what they felt was pagan imagery and therefore, in their view, undesirable.’
The sculptor wrote a poem about them: the last two lines of which read: ‘They are the Guardians of the Earth’s secret; Wish-hounds of the Old Land.’ See the whole thing on this photo in the Swindon Flickr collection: https://www.flickr.com/photos/swindonlocal/6103658812/
The Wish Hounds is a sculpture in three parts – concrete cast lettering, powder coated scrap metal and earthworks in a circle of trees. As you can see from the pictures the lettering is becoming a bit grown over in places and the floodlighting that was illuminated the hounds is now broken.
Swindon’s erstwhile Thamesdown council was the first in the country to adopt a percent for art policy which encouraged developers, once their scheme was completed, to fund a piece of public art. This forward thinking and innovative scheme resulted in Swindon acquiring an unusual, if not unique, cultural landscape with public art being scattered the length and breadth of the town – amongst my personal favourites are The Great Blondinis, the West Swindon Sculpture Trail, and the lonely cow chewing the cud up at the hospital. Though really I love them all.
Though some of the original ones have disappeared new ones have sprung up and even though some of them are now somewhat unloved they are no less interesting for all that. Before I started blogging about it all I’d never heard of the term ‘public art’ and really the closest I got to it was an old village pump, the Cenotaph and a redundant pit winding wheel..
Croft wood bike trail
May 26th – comment left by a listener:
“If I remember correctly, the Wish Hounds are on their long legs because they were designed to appear above the tree line for drivers on the M4 – and they used to look magnificent, leaping over the trees.
However, I’m not sure whether it was because of budgetary constraints or simply forgetting that trees grow but, they were gradually hidden by the ever growing trees – which is a shame.
They used to provide a great introduction to Swindon art to drivers between J15 and J16″
They must have been a magnificent sight before becoming obscured by all the trees – as lovely as they are.
A rough guide to Swindon: The Magic Roundabout
by amaatk123 | Aug 31, 2014 | A Rough Guide to Swindon, General Interest, Rough guide: general interest, Ten things to celebrate about Swindon, The Magic Roundabout
The Magic Roundabout Swindon
Dare you navigate yourself across the infamous & world-famous counter-flow ‘Magic-Roundabout’ – the ‘white-knuckle’ ride of traffic?
The Magic Roundabout Swindon signage
You’d be forgiven for being perplexed at the notion of a traffic roundabout being of any interest to anyone other than traffic-system aficionados. But you couldn’t be more wrong. This fabled entity is known the world over.
Created in 1972, Swindon’s Magic Roundabout was originally named the County Islands roundabout due to its location in close proximity to the town’s County Ground football stadium, home of Swindon Town FC. But the locals were not long in bestowing upon it the nickname ‘The Magic Roundabout’ after the TV programme of that name. Eventually the local authority submitted to the popular consensus and officially re-named the roundabout and gave it appropriate signage.
Swindon is famous, even infamous, for its roundabouts. But this legendary one surely has to be the jewel in the town’s roundabout crown? Situated on a junction where five roads meet, the traffic-consuming monster vexes native visitors and utterly baffles those from across the pond. For all this though Swindonians love it and generally find their passage across it to be smooth and fluid, even at peak times.
The roundabout was created by the Road Research Laboratory (RRL) to deal with an area that was a motorist’s nightmare, being routinely unable to handle the sheer volume of traffic converging on it from five directions. Like many of the best ideas their solution was stunning in its simplicity. They simply combined two roundabouts in one. The first being of the conventional clockwise type and the second, revolving inside the first, sending traffic anti-clockwise. This counter-flow roundabout solved the congestion problems back in the 1970s and is still, despite the ensuing increase in traffic volume over the last 40 years, processing it all as quickly and as smoothly as a giant Magimix.
Traffic keeps moving almost all the time, waiting only a few seconds to join each mini-roundabout and thus steadily travelling at low speed across the junction. A normal roundabout would involve long waits to join; signals would involve bursts of movement and long enforced stoppages. As a result, it has been calculated that the Magic Roundabout has a greater throughput of traffic than anything else that it would be possible to install in the same space. Magic indeed! Moreover, it has an excellent safety record.
Although voted the seventh worst junction in the UK, the roundabout’s bark is worse than its bite. Though appearing difficult to negotiate, all it asks of the driver is to be observant and to always give priority to traffic coming from the right.
One approach to the roundabout is to drive down Drove Road from Swindon’s Old Town. If you don’t fancy manoeuvring it in a car it’s possible to stand and observe the carefully controlled mayhem from the safety of the pavement – you can even consume fish and chips from the chippy on the corner while you do.
Swindonians are very proud of their Magic Roundabout and the tourist information desk, situated in the town’s central library on Regent Circus, sells a wide range of Magic Roundabout memorabilia that runs the range from key-rings to mugs to tea-towels and even T-shirts. So, if you’ve braved this colossal contraption of a road system you can celebrate your feat of derring-do with a suitable souvenir or two.
Whether you love it, hate it or are indifferent to it one thing is for sure: visit Swindon and you can’t ignore it. Swindon-grown band XTC effectively and poetically, whether directly intentionally or not, capture the dizzying assault on the senses this behemoth can induce in their 1981 song: ‘English Roundabout’:
‘ … all the horns go ‘beep! beep!’
All the people follow like sheep,
I’m full of light and sound,
Making my head go round, round.’
#swindon #wiltshire #magicroundabout #swindonmagicroundabout #swindonblog #swindon blog #thingstodoinswindon #thingstoseeinswindon #swindonia #swindoniablog #hiddenswindon #swindonian #xtc #magicroundabout #swindonmagicroundabout #contraflowroundabout #travel #writing #travelwriting #guidebook
A rough guide to Swindon: The West Swindon Sculpture Trail
by amaatk123 | Aug 31, 2014 | A Rough Guide to Swindon, General Interest, Rough guide: Public art
The West Swindon Sculpture Trail
Take the sculpture challenge: follow the map and go in search of the sculptures
A map pf the walk is here: The Sculpture Tour West Swindon
Somewhat surprisingly perhaps this sometimes un-prepossessing town possesses a rich cultural landscape liberally scattered with public art – in particular in the West Swindon development. This extensive and extremely green suburban area links the town with the M4 and comprises several distinct ‘villages’, several of which feature a ‘village centre’. Punctuating this conurbation is a fascinatingly diverse collection of sculptures that comprise the West Swindon Sculpture trail. Installed between 1982 and 1992 these sculptures are unexplained and mostly unnoticed by the locals. They are also rather neglected but no less interesting for that encompassing as they do a gamut of subject matter ranging from realism to abstract with a film star and a nursery rhyme in the mix.
A circular walk, approximately five miles long, will take you around all seven of them. The terrain is largely flat so is therefore family friendly and suitable for those not inclined to inclines. Swindon is astonishingly rich in parks and green spaces and the trail traverses some of them. There are children’s play parks and an outdoor gym en route giving plenty of added interest and making it dog-friendly and picnic-suitable. And it would add a new element to a bike ride too.
A good starting point for the trail is the West Swindon Centre: home to a supermarket, a coffee and fast-food chain and the Link Centre – a sports centre housing an ice-rink, swimming pool and sports hall. It additionally offers a café and a play area for tots. There is ample free parking here and the centre is additionally well served by buses from the town centre making the start of this trail easily accessible.
Appropriately located outside a multiplex cinema on Shaw Ridge leisure park (across the road from the West Swindon Centre) the first sculpture encountered is a flamboyant bronze portrait of the late film star Diana Dors, a daughter of Swindon. Unveiled by David Putnam this piece is a larger-than-life homage to the woman billed as Britain’s answer to Marilyn Monroe. Also home to a bowling alley, a De Vere Village hotel, two Indian restaurants and a pizza restaurant this leisure complex also offers ample free parking.
A few minutes walk up a slight incline from the cinema brings you to the Shaw Ridge open space. Take a few paces more and you reach number two on the trail ‘How the Mighty Fall’ (1989). This cast iron and cast aluminium sculpture was envisioned by its creator to be imagined as an archeological artefact from the 20th Century requiring viewers to transport themselves into the future. A future that is now our reality. Here too you will find the outdoor gym and a children’s playpark.
A walk along the ridge and across the somewhat Stepford-like Bramptons housing estate and you arrive at the third sculpture on the trail: ‘White Horse Pacified’ (1987). Created in conjunction with the Portguese Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation this large blue and white work is an interpretation of the chalk-cut white horses surrounding Swindon.
The walk to the fourth sculpture ‘Hey Diddle Diddle’ (1982), passes through Shaw Village Centre which marks an approximate half-way point. Here you can stop for an ice-cream or even a meal in the Village Inn. This is a chain pub so be under no illusions about the fare on offer but it’s a convenient and comfortable pit-stop. Surprisingly set in a front garden in The Prinnels this charming sculpture is carved in Portland stone and depicts the popular nursery rhyme in a domestic setting.
You now have a lengthy but level walk to sculpture number five in Freshbrook village centre: ‘Nexus’ (1986). Comprised of Blue Pennant stone and railway sleepers this piece was carved with hand-made tools, in public and in situ by the late Japanese sculptor Hideo Furtura.
The walk from Freshbrook to Toothill Village centre, the home of the sixth sculpture ‘The Watchers’ (1982) gives a panoramic view over the Marlborough Downs. As the name suggests, this sculpture cast in ferro-concrete and featuring a mother, father, child and dog represent guardian figures looking over the then new community.
On leaving Toothill a downhill path and a short walk by a stream eventually takes you to the seventh and final sculpture ‘Looking to the Future’ (1985). Completed by the first artist in residence during the development of West Swindon, this glass-fibre resin sculpture depicts three life-sized sunbathing figures relaxing at the edge of the pond. Cross the road from here to return to the starting point.
This is an activity of which you can make as much or as little as you wish. At a steady walk, and with only a passing examination of each sculpture, it could be completed in a couple of hours. But you could really take your time about it and make a day of it.
NB: Both Freshbrook and Toothill village centres have shops and pubs so there’s further refreshment opportunities there before the walk returns you to the start point.
#travelwriting #publicart #publicartswindon #scultptures #art #swindonblog #swindon blog #thingstodoinswindon #thingstoseeinswindon #BAS #swindonia #swindoniablog #hiddenswindon #swindonian #travel #writing #travelwriting #guidebook roughguidetoswindon
A Rough Guide to Swindon: Introduction
by amaatk123 | Aug 31, 2014 | A Rough Guide to Swindon, General Interest
This section of the blog is going to be rather different from my other posts. Where they are written in my own voice, these are going to be written as if for a rough guide to Swindon so, therefore, from a neutral viewpoint describing things as they are and the merits or otherwise of visiting them.
The inspiration for this stems from a travel writing module I undertook in my 3rd and final year of a BA Hons degree in English and English language. The pieces on the Magic Roundabout and the West Swindon sculpture trail were written for my coursework portfolio for that module. So this new section of the blog is dedicated to Professor Robin Jarvis and Dr Melanie Ord of UWE’s English department for their support and guidance. Thank you both.
So to get it started here’s a draft of what could serve as an introduction to just such a book. It’s most definitely not a ‘finished’ piece but a serving suggestion as it were.
Swindon is a large town within the Borough of Swindon and the county of Wiltshire in South West England.
The home of the Great Western Railway, Swindon has excellent rail links to Bristol, 64 km to the west, Reading 64 km to the east and London, 130 km to the east and also to Bath. Additionally there are good road links to Cheltenham, Cirencester, Oxford and the Cotswolds. Featuring a number of decent hotels: The Marriott, the Hilton, a Jury’s Inn and a selection of budget hotels these combined factors certainly make Swindon an excellent base from which to explore the surrounding area. However, Swindon itself has many attractions that are well worth seeking out. Despite being the butt of many comedians’ jokes and having a dispiriting skin in places this is a many faceted town worthy of closer examination.
Swindon is a town of two halves. The original Swindon, Old Town as it is referred to, sits atop a hill. This is an attractive area with many coffee shops, bars and pubs. Old Town is home to Swindon’s museum and art gallery which houses a decent art collection – the displays of which vary periodically. There is also an art’s centre, the town gardens – a Victorian park complete with aviary and bandstand – and The Lawns, once the Goddard family estate but now another public park with spectacular views across the town towards Highworth.
Down the hill is the new Swindon born of Brunel’s railway and later the car industry. Neither particularly ugly nor particularly attractive the new town merits visiting if only for the vestiges of history to be found, notably the Railway Village – the housing built by Brunel for occupation by the men and women who toiled in his mighty GWR workshops. Paying homage to them is the renowned STEAM – the museum of the Great Western Railway. It has some decent shopping in the form of the Designer Outlet Village. Formed from the ashes of the great GWR works the outlet centre makes a historic supplement to the town centre, all of which is pleasantly pedestrianised.
Two other interesting museums in Swindon are the Museum of Computing and the Richard Jefferies museum. Though small-scale they are worth getting to if their subject matter is of interest to you. The former is located near the central library where you will find the tourist information centre. Unfortunately by dint of being situated in the library the tourist information desk is not open on Bank Holidays – the very time when a visitor may well venture to Swindon. The latter is right by Coate Water, another large park area that has a pitch and putt facility, lovely walks, a children’s play area and a miniature railway. At the time of writing the mini railway is being extended and will include a halt right by the Richard Jefferies museum.
To the west of the town centre is Lydiard Park and house, once the ancestral home of the Viscounts Bolingbroke. The town further boasts a range of leisure facilities and, spread across the town, an interesting collection of public art much of it on walking and cycle paths of which Swindon also has many.
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Shortwave Listening (SWLing): How did you get your start?
I love hearing stories about how shortwave radio listeners and ham radio operators got interested in the hobby. I’ll tell you about my experience, but I would enjoy hearing yours either in the comments section or by sending me an email. In the coming months, I will select stories to feature on The SWLing Post––especially if you have photos!
As I started to write a little of my personal history in radio, I felt a sense of déjà vu. That’s because in May 2011, Monitoring Times Magazine asked if I would write a piece describing how I became an SWLer and ham radio operator; of course this made for a nice segue into how I started the charity, Ears To Our World. After a little digging, I have discovered the unedited piece and added/updated where necessary.
So here’s my story–(now please share yours)!
[Update: Click here to read our growing collection.]
A Love of Listening: How I Relate to Radio
Growing up, listening…
I’ve never been a fan of television. Ironic, considering that I grew up in the seventies and eighties when most kids were glued to the tube, addicted to Nickelodeon. Perhaps one of the reasons why is that I find the visual often distracts from what I want to hear. Maybe it says something about my reluctance (or inability?) to multitask, but I’m much better at simply listening, rather than listening while also being asked to watch. I prefer to close my eyes, to just listen––and allow my mind to construct images from sound.
My father’s RCA 6K3 console radio.
When people ask how I became so interested in radio, the answer comes clear: I just love to listen. My father still has, in his living room, the vintage RCA 6K3 wooden console radio which emitted, like an aging, crackly-voiced Siren with her own kind of coarse charm, the various scintillating sounds that first caught my ear and captured my young imagination.
One of my earliest memories is of my father, tuning in WWV in Fort Collins, Colorado, on the RCA to set his watch to the atomic pulse coming through the aether, a practice he followed each Sunday morning. Sometimes he would allow me to tune around afterwards––on these occasions, I would catch broadcasts out of Europe, Australia, South America, as well as places I could not readily identify.
Not long after, my great aunt unearthed in her basement a classic Zenith Transoceanic, which she offered me; I took the dusty unit into my room and promptly set up a listening post. Little did I know at the time that I was joining a fraternity of radio listeners around the world who also logged and listened to stations, as I began to do, far into the night. I often fell fast asleep listening to my Zenith; no doubt, some of those mysterious DX stations I heard over shortwave and medium-wave infiltrated my dreams with languages and cultures altogether unlike my white-bread American one.
My trusty Zenith Trans Oceanic will always be a part of my radio collection (Click to enlarge)
Then when I was in my teens––again, in an ironic twist––a TV repair man who came to work on my parents’ set mentioned that he was a ham, and I was suddenly introduced to the intriguing world of ham radio. Though it took several years before I pursued my ticket, as I was busy with school, music, and other typical teen pursuits, my interest in the medium deepened.
While doing my undergraduate degree, I spent a year living and studying in France. At the time, the world wide web was still in its infancy, and my portable shortwave radio, which had helped teach me French back home, now became my English-speaking companion, bringing news from home courtesy of Voice of America. Unlike satellite television, cable TV, or an internet connection, radio was also inexpensive, vital for a poor student like me struggling to pay my own way in Europe. Through just listening, a virtual sonic flight home was free and nearly instant, arriving at the speed of light.
Mike Hansgen (K8RAT) teaching me the ropes at my first QRP Field Day in 1997. William McFadden was also there and was photographer for this photo. (Source: William McFadden WD8RIF)
After graduation, once more stateside, I encountered two hams who were to become lasting friends and elmers: Mike Hansgen (K8RAT) and Eric McFadden (WD8RIF). These two talented hams nourished my keen interest in the hobby, and in their company, I soon found myself in the field experiencing the scrappy fun of hands-on radio contests. I loved how my resourceful guides worked so many stations with the lowest-powered QRP equipment and only the simplest, cheapest wire antennas, and moreover, that they often derived their station power from the sun. I appreciated the remarkable skill with which they milked such modest equipment, initiating contacts all over the globe. With their steady encouragement, I finally got my ticket.
I’ve been a ham since 1997. Radio, no doubt, has influenced my decisions to travel, to live and work abroad, to pursue a graduate degree in Social Anthropology at the London School of Economics. Whatever I did, I did while listening to radio. I even changed my call not long ago to reflect my passion as a shortwave radio listener; my new handle is K4SWL.
Recently I found myself charmed and inspired by a BBC audio piece on Gerry Wells, the British radio repairman who in his eighties continues to do what he has always done, and is still sought for his skill. The story’s subject is truly enjoyable, if a bit of an anachronism: most remarkable is its relevance in the new millennium due to the simple fact that old mid-century (and earlier) radios continue to function today, and are still relied upon by listeners. As I listened to this report, I couldn’t help but wonder, as I have so often before: why does radio have such powerful nostalgic appeal? I reckon that, at least in part, it’s because radio has always been the voice of reassurance, of comfort, during darker times, reminding us that we are human, yet reminding us of our ability to survive. Radio is a friend––or, perhaps, a “great-uncle, in cords and a cardigan,” as Jeremy Paxman characterizes the BBC in his recent defense of this valuable institution in The Guardian––whose warm, familiar voice is there even when other media sources, or the internet, are down.
Shortwave, meanwhile, is much like the world’s pulse––we check in, we listen, and we confirm: all’s well, we’re still okay.
In this photo from Belize, I’m working with David (blue shirt), who is visually impaired–radio opens a world for him.
Listening as mission
One could say that listening to radio has shaped my life. I suppose that’s why radio has recently become a mission for me. Today, I’m the founder and director of Ears To Our World (ETOW), a charitable organization with a simple objective: distributing self-powered world band radios and other appropriate technologies to schools and communities in the developing world, so that kids like I once was, not to mention those who teach them, can learn about their world, too, through the simple act of listening. I want others––children and young people, especially––who lack reliable access to information, to have the world of radio within their reach.
Teacher in rural South Sudan with an ETOW radio. (Project Education Sudan Journey of Hope 2010)
Specifically, Ears to Our World works in rural, impoverished, and sometimes war-torn or disaster-ravaged parts of the world, places that lack reliable access to electricity (let alone the internet) and where radio is often the only link to the world outside. The heart of our mission is to allow radio to be used as a tool for education, so we give radios to teachers, who, in turn, use the radios in the classroom and at home to provide real-life, up-to-date feedback about the world around them.
Through the encouragement of our good friends at Universal Radio and the extraordinary magnanimity of Eton corporation, who donate our wind-up world band radios, in our first two years and on a budget of less than $3500, ETOW managed to distribute radios to schools and communities in nine countries on three continents––in Africa, Eastern Europe, Central and South America, and the Caribbean––as well as to both Haiti and Chile, where the dissemination of information through radio was life-saving when earthquakes struck.
Post-earthquake, ETOW radios continue to be a vital link for those in need in Haiti. Here, Erlande, who suffered a stroke in her early 30s and can barely walk, listens to one of our self-powered Etón radios, given to her by ETOW through their partner, the Haitian Health Foundation.
We’ve done all this through partnerships––with other reputable established non-profit agencies like us––that already help struggling schools throughout the world, and who believe, as we do, in freedom of and access to information. Creating these partnerships is an important move: due to the very nature of the remote regions we serve, extending our assistance demands persistence, financial resources, and logistical support, times ten. And often a great deal of patience. Just shipping radios to other countries usually involves detailed arrangements with national and regional governmental authorities (for example, to waive duties or taxes); once the radios arrive, safely distributing them to these remote areas can also be very costly and complex. We listen attentively to our existing partner organizations, who have often laid the groundwork in these regions, and have established reliable connections with communities in them. Their need is for resources—like radios.
By listening closely to and working cooperatively with other established organizations, we find we’re able to distribute radios much more cost-effectively, too. In other words, we can operate on a shoestring budget so that donations to ETOW are used wisely and to their fullest extent. For example, because of our strong partnerships, money otherwise spent on travel can be put into shipping costs instead, thus getting more radios to more of the world with less donated funds.
So far, our scope has been limited only by our financial resources. Meanwhile, we are looking to place radios in other countries farther off the beaten path; Mongolia recently received our radios. Yet we’re not simply focusing on expansion: ETOW is establishing strong, lasting bonds with our schools and teachers so as to better serve their needs long term. We endeavor to replace their equipment and batteries as needed. We would also like to develop on-air teacher training programs; a new partnership with Oklahoma State University seeks to develop and disseminate content on important subjects, among them literacy and health education, so there is new and valuable content to listen to.
June 2013: This map shows the world adjusted for each country’s Internet population. Click to expand (Source: Information Geographies project at the Oxford Internet Institute)
MT readers [and especially SWLing Post readers] will have already guessed why we prefer radio to, say, computers, for information access. It is because much of the world does not have the communications infrastructure to support access to the world wide web and other dynamic media sources such as digital television, wireless networks or even electric power or phone. [Simply take a quick glance at the map above which shows the world adjusted for each country’s Internet population; notice how central Africa is all but missing?] Political instability, meanwhile, can undermine even the written word [for examples, check out our tag category: why shortwave radio?].
Radio, however, is simplicity itself: all one needs is a modest yet capable receiver, and one has instant––speed of light––access to local and world media. So far, every teacher we’ve worked with already knows something about radio; indeed, many of them have an intricate knowledge of broadcast schedules. But in these places it can take up to an entire week’s wages to pay for a set of batteries. Thus ETOW’s wind-up radios become vital–we effectively eliminate this cost, giving them steady access to information.
And the reports we’re hearing from the field have been overwhelmingly encouraging: Teachers in rural Mongolia, Tanzania, and Kenya are able to teach current events. Visually impaired children in rural Belize can listen to the outside world and hear music and languages they’ve never heard. Children in Haiti and families in Chile learned where to go to get food and medical care and information about loved ones affected by the quakes. A remote community in southern Sudan was able to listen to reports of their burgeoning country’s first democratic election. Being able to listen is making a difference.
Listening and learning work together
Radio captured my imagination as TV never could, it travelled with me and taught me early on that everyone has a story. Listening to radio taught me, too, that each voice is different in the consideration of what’s meaningful or newsworthy. I learned to understand––or at least appreciate––the diverse perspectives I heard in my vicarious radio journeys, and from these sprang my own opinions, hopes, beliefs. Radio became my teacher, one who gave me, in my formative years, a global perspective.
Students in South Sudan listen to their favorite shortwave radio program, VOA Special English.
Just as radio taught me, and opened my young mind, I’m convinced that it can teach and open the minds of others. In some parts of our world, futures are still written on the airwaves. But it’s never just a one-way street–willingness to listen to those with whom we work helps us better serve them, but also to make the leaps of mind required to cross cultures, to become aware of those outside our Western sphere, to understand and grow and learn, ourselves.
Listen and learn. That’s ETOW’s tag line, but to some young people––and to me––it still means the world.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Want to help us give the gift of radio? Visit ETOW online at earstoourworld.org or write us at Ears To Our World, PO Box 2, Swannanoa, NC 28778, USA.
Your personal interest, or that of your local radio club or business, could put radios in a school or village in the most remote corner of the world.
This entry was posted in Articles, Ham Radio, Interviews, Listener Posts, News, Nostalgia, Shortwave Radio, Specials, SWLers and tagged Belize, Ears To Our World, ETOW, K4SWL, Listening Post, Radio Charity, Shortwave Radio Charity, South Sudan, SWL, SWL Stories, SWLs, Thomas Witherspoon on October 21, 2013 by Thomas.
← Mike’s QSL card from KVOH David Korchin’s photography captures ETOW radios in the hands of kids →
23 thoughts on “Shortwave Listening (SWLing): How did you get your start?”
N R Shenai August 11, 2018 at 8:15 am
The Tecsun PL-680 is still available on ebay & anon-co. Is the radio still being produced by Tecsun or are these refurbished units on sale. I am asking because there is more discussion on PL-660 & 880 during reviews and on sale on other web sites but not much on PL-680.
Also PL-680 is available cheaper on anon-co website than ebay. Is it okay to purchase from anon-co website directly.
I am interested in Tecsun PL-680 as I have read in reviews that it has all the pros of 660 and the speaker is better than 660.
N R Shenai
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Michael Black October 27, 2013 at 9:47 pm
March/April 1969, when I was 9 years old. I as so young that I’m not completely sure of the sequence, but I think it was that article in that issue of “The Canadian Boy” (a magazine for Scouting in Canada) that had an article about DXing the AM broadcast Band. I know that date because someone put the issues online and I went looking. Maybe I saw an article about amateur radio in “Jack & Jill” around that time, but I don’t know. I’m sure I didn’t realize there wa a shortwave band on the old rdio in the living room, until I read the article.
More important, there were some followup letters, and something about amateur radio, and for some reason, that caught my fancy. I can’t remember why. So it was pretty much from that point that I was going to get a ham license, except, at the time you had to be 15 or older in Canada. So over five yeas to wait.
The next year I worked through the “electronic” books in the children’s library (really mostly about electrical projects, like cooking hot dogs with two nails plugged into the wall) and then got access to teh books in the adult library. But I also got a telegraph set (an actual sounder, but it also displayed with a light bulb or a buzzer), in anticipation of the code requirement for the ham license. Not a useful thing, you need to receive before you can send.
IN January of 1971, I found the hobby electronic magazines on the newsstand. Those at the time covered a broad spectrum, CB, SWLing, amateur radio and all the projects. I couldn’t understand most of it at first, but I kept at it and picked up what was going on. That was the era when “Communication World” was put out as a quarterly by the same publisher as Elementary Electronics, and “Communication World” another quarterly, put out by Ziff-Davis, which published Popular Electronics. The former carried WHite’s Radio log, the latter was mostly an equipment roundup, with some articles, covering SWL, CB, scanners and amateur radio.
I was actually getting QST by April of 1971, another very foreign magazine that became familiar with time.
I didn’t get a shortwave receiver until July of 1971, a Hallicrafters S-120A (the solid state model), using up my accuulated birthday and Christmas money. It was the lowest priced receiver I could get locally (at Etco Electronics in Montreal), but it was junk. It had all the bad of the low end tube receivers, plus the problems of cheap solid state receivers. But it was exotic, the slide rule dial and all the locations printed on that dial, including Antarctica. Even the manual made it seem so fascinating. The limitations son became obvious, I couldn’t even receive SSB until I giture dout to use a potentiometer between the antenna and the antenna terminals, to attenuate the signal so the BFO was strong enough. But at that point, the incoming signals were attenuated so much, I cold only receiver a few really stong signals. It was good that there were still some people using AM on the ham bands, every night in the same frequency talking endlessly about nothing important.
Then in December of 1971, there was a small thing int he paper saying the rule about having to be 15 or older to get a ham license was being removed. So I took the test in May (mostly because I’d picked up enough through osmosis) and passed all but the code receiving, and the test in Canada was so much more difficult at the time. I went back in June, at the end of grade 6, and passed the code test and got the license. I never had to use the S120A as a ham, I had the use for a decade of a Hammarlund SP-600. Not perfect, but nearly infinitely better than the S120A.
And while I maintain an interest in both, I’ve never been a good SWL listener or a good ham. My interests were in the technical aspects. I didn’t even have a shortwave receiver for some years, until I started finding them at garage sales about 2006. On the other hand, I have now a fairly good collection, bought cheap. I paid more for the fist one, A Grundig Satellite 500 ($40) than any of the rest, and I made a high offer for that first once since it was the first time I’d seen a sw receiver at a garage or rummage sale. They were all solid state, until the TMC GPR-90 in the summer of 2012, only $20.
I don’t think I’d pursue either hobby if I found out about them today. But I would argue that’s because I’m forty years older. Some of the intrigue was because at 9 years old, the world was stilla very unknown place. Antarctica was exotic because I barely knew about it. Some of the driving force was probably dated, but that’s what appealed to me at that age. I think there’s still something for the young, but not by trying to compare it to the internet, but by showing how its different. SWLing and ham radio were never mainstream (though in the past, they got better mainstream coverage, it’s been years since I saw a reference in the local paper to amateur radio), it’s about finding the ones that are interested. And that seems harder today, when there are fewer general outlets to lure people in with. It’s way easier to find out about something today, but only once you’ve heard of it. Who would think there is anything about listening to anything but local radio. or talking over long distances for hobby purposes? I was the token kid with a ham license in high school, I got some others interested, but they never passed the test. But they already knew about the hobby.
Thomas Post author October 29, 2013 at 7:15 am
Thanks for sharing your story, Michael! I’m simply amazed at the number of SWLs who got their start on the Hallicrafters S-120. What a great first radio for many.
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Neil G W2NDG October 22, 2013 at 8:40 pm
Great stuff Thomas! I developed a love for electronic things in general at a very young age. My folks had a huge problem with me taking phonographs apart to try to figure out how they worked. I remember my older brother Lee, starting a log of AM radio stations that he could receive, and getting a Wards Airline multiband radio that received Shortwave. It was right about then (early 70’s) that I was given my first Shortwave radio. We had a family friend who lived nearby that had traveled the world. She referred to herself as The Baroness Charlotte Serneaux Gregori. She owned an import/export company in New York, and was an accomplished painter of abstract art. Her house was filled with things she had collected in her travels, and she found out that I was curious about Shortwave radio. She gave me a small National Panasonic AM/SW transistor radio. That hooked me.
My second radio also came from her. Another National Panasonic. I still have this one, but it is not functional anymore. I went through a series of radios, including some of the classics (Panasonic RF-2200, Sony 6500, Sony 2010, Sangean 803a). I owned some Ham Radio equipment for a time, hoping to get my license, but that didn’t happen till about 2 years ago.
Charlotte passed away when I was a teenager. I have a couple of her paintings in my possession, as well as that radio. I recently purchased a Bulova AM-SW transistor radio that reminded me of the original one she gave me. I am having it restored to its original glory, which I hope to also have done to the second one. That might be a bit more of a job though.
I think one of the most valuable things I got from radio listening was to get more than one view on world events. When something happened in the world, I would listen to the BBC, Radio Australia, Radio Canada, Radio Tirana (for comic relief mostly), and many others.
These days I’m a licensed Ham. I love experimenting, and playing with low-power equipment, and I’m thrilled with the way Ham radio has embraced my career in computers now with digital modes, SDR, and so much more. I have gotten back into building things. I have to think that being a SWL for 40 years before getting my Ham license gives me a different perspective on the world of Ham radio. With everything going on in that world for me, I still listen. I’m a little disappointed in the direction that Shortwave radio is heading, but there’s still something to hear, and multiple views and opinions to absorb. I miss the good old days, and wish I had some of todays technology back when there was more to hear. Can you imagine having a SDR in the early 80’s?
Great post as always Thomas, and great site!
Maxxx Dennis October 22, 2013 at 11:20 am
Such a fun post and I’ve enjoyed reading the other comments as well. I started listening to shortwave when I was in my early teens in the 80’s. It was around the time that I started collecting old radio shows on cassette (from Metacom…) that my great aunt let me near her shortwave radio. She was quite attached to it and she would let me listen and explore when I came to visit. My family and I moved in with her as we were waiting for a house to be built and my aunt couldn’t pull me away from the radio. It was (and is) amazing to scroll through the dial and hear all the voices and sounds from around the world; some that I could understand and many others that sparked interest. Once we moved away I wasn’t able to get near a shortwave radio for many years. It was only a few months ago that I finally bought a new radio and haven’t missed a day listening since. I’m so happy to have found your blog. I’m learning so much and find it very inspiring. Keep up the great work !
Thomas Post author October 22, 2013 at 8:02 pm
Wow–we share much in common as it was my great aunt who also gave me the means for a first step into SWLing.
Thank you for sharing your story!
Marty Delfin October 21, 2013 at 10:36 pm
Very nice piece, Thomas. I started out much like you, listening to crackling signals in my teens with my multiband in the mid 1970s, and then became an international broadcaster in the 1990s (Radio Nacional de Venezuela English program director and VOA news stringer in the Caribbean), but that is another story. Still do a monthly stint on Radio Nacional de España, in Spanish, as a panelist for a news program on Radio 5 / Radio Exterior. It will always stay in the blood.
Wow, Marty, your life did develop around radio! Honored to have your story on the site!
Dave Humphries October 21, 2013 at 3:48 pm
My interest in shortwave radio started in the early 1960s, I bought a National Transistor Radio that had the shortwave radio bands on it, I got the radio so I could listen to the local AM stations Top 40 Hits but that changed when I switched to shortwave.
I could not believe what I was hearing, stations from all over the world in dozens of different languages, I was totally amazed as to how I could hear all these stations in my flat situated in Melbourne Australia.
I used to look forward to the evenings so I could sit in my chair with a set of headphones and listen to the world, I had no idea what DXing was I simply enjoyed listening to music and news from the world over.
In the mid 1970s I did what many others did and got into CB Radio, I was just as amazed to find I could talk to fellow CBers in the USA, Japan and many other countries, it was then that I found out what a QSL Card was, I also learned about sunspots, the 11 year cycle, ionosphere and skip.
About the same time I rekindled my interest in Shortwave Radio, I got a circuit diagram for a Receiver and went off the an electronics shop and bought the components, building the radio took me about three months of spare time but I got it finished, with great expectation I connected a length of wire to the antenna terminal, by this time I had the Wife and four Kids standing around waiting to see what would happen, all of a sudden the radio sprung into life and the kids were dancing around the kitchen to fantastic music from the UAR Radio Dubai.
I Like so many other shortwave listeners I used a Realistic DX160 for quite a few years, my circumstances changed and I went for years without shortwave, I got hooked on HiFi equipment and worked as Manager of a large Melbourne HiFi Shop, as time went on my hearing started to deteriorate and I got Tinnitus (ringing in the ears) so music did not sound the same anymore.
Fifteen years ago I got back into shortwave, bought several desktop radios the Lowe HF-150 being my favourite, for the first time I started chasing QSL cards and finished up with a reasonable collection, once again my circumstances changed and I started playing guitar in a Counrty Band, this went on until six months ago.
Now in retirement I decided it was time to get back into shortwave, not knowing what to expect when I found out that so many of the major broadcasters were shutting down I bought a couple of Portable Radios put up a couple of random wires plugged the headphones in and now enjoy the hobby again.
I do not go along with the rumours that shortwave radio is finished, I believe shortwave has never been better, with some of the major broadcasters leaving the airwaves it has made it so much easier to hear those lower powered stations that were so hard to hear because of splatter caused by the big guys, there seems to be plenty of smaller broadcasters that have filled the void left by major broadcasters which to me has made the hobby of Swling so much more interesting.
Brilliant, Dave! I couldn’t agree with you more–I don’t believe shortwave is dead either. Just takes a little listening.
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Poll: The Best Anime of 2014
Richard Eisenbeis
Filed to: AnimeFiled to: Anime
anime poll
anitay
kotakueast
Hey there all you TAYers, Ani-TAYers, and everyone else who have stumbled across this post. Kotaku East's Richard Eisenbeis here. As the year comes to an end, it’s time to vote on your favorite anime series of the year.
Tomorrow, I will be posting Kotaku's picks for the top five anime of 2014, but before that I am anxious to see your picks.
For an anime to be included in the poll below, I have two rules.
1) The series must have finished its run in 2014. This means that still airing shows like Parasyte are not eligible, but 26-episode anime that started in fall 2013 are. Moreover, anime with split seasons where the second half has not yet aired—e.g., Aldnoah.Zero—must also wait till next year for consideration.
2) Movies, TV specials, and OVAs don't count.
It's also important to note that, unlike previous polls, you can only vote once on this one. With all that said, get to voting! And feel free to post why in the comments below.
*Note: If I missed adding a series to the poll you want to vote for that fits the above criteria, please drop me a line in the comments and I will add it.
Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.
To contact the author of this post, write to BiggestinJapan@gmail.com or find him on Twitter @BiggestinJapan.
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Tag: technewsworld
Be a part of as we speak and you can easily save your favourite articles, join within the conversation and remark, plus choose which information your need direct to your inbox. Fb has provided to build homes in Silicon Valley, here is why The growth of Facebook, Alphabet Inc’s Google and other tech companies has strained neighborhoods in the San Francisco Bay area that weren’t ready for an influx of tens of 1000’s of workers through the past decade.
That includes the very best technology & tech culture publications on the planet, together with TechCrunch, CNET, Engadget, The Verge, Vice and lots of extra. Monsanto Fund, the charitable arm of the agricultural tech firm Monsanto, renewed its help for Illinois Institute of Expertise’s Global Leaders Program on June 22 with a gift of $10,000.
To download and subscribe to Tech Information In the present day (Video-HD) by TWiT, get iTunes now. Appy Geek delivers breaking tech information together with mobile, gadgets, wearables, video games, product data, science, art, and tech tradition. As a reminder, the Illinois Tech shuttlebus won’t operate on Monday, July three or Tuesday, July 4.
From established names to startups, from mergers to modifications in administration; if the information is making waves within the tech sector, would be the first to carry it to you. This app has nice coverage on a wide range of tech information, how tos, and product critiques.
A tech startup on a mission to make trendy industrial and housing estates power impartial has outfitted the headquarters of a Dutch bank with the world’s first business, fully clear photo voltaic-energy-producing windows. Medical doctors within the UK are more and more using Fb, WhatsApp and Snapchat to debate details about their patients, despite a ban on the usage of web- based messaging apps, consultants say.
THE BIG APPLE (AP) — What distinguishes mainstream news websites from those dedicated to faux news or other hyper-partisan takes on events? We function a platform to grow the tech ecosystem, constructing programs and initiatives that uphold our core values: Be of Service, Succeed Collectively, Pay it Forward. Digital traits is apremium supply of getting newest tech information and unbiased product reviews of laptops, tablets, smartphones, hdtvs and smartwatches.
Specifically, the research — from the New York-based startup Mezzobit — showed that such fringe information sites are relatively unsophisticated in the best way they make cash from online adverts, perhaps as a result of many are shoestring operations that may easily cowl their prices.
If you’re busy and really need just the alerts, a good way can be to subscribe to e-mail alerts from The US Laptop Security Response Workforce (US-CERT) and that of any other country that is related to you (in our case, NCSC-FI ). If you happen to’re like me and don’t really want any extra e-mail, one other method could be to comply with US-CERT and NCSC-FI on Twitter and allow mobile notifications to always get safety alerts in your smartphone’s lock display screen from the Twitter app, or even through SMS.
In that time, we’ve got performed a privileged function in supporting the growth of the tech group that now includes over 9,000 corporations, employing more than 90,000 individuals, and that has been one of the strongest contributors to BC’s economic development over the past decade.
Fringe websites can generate income with just a small footprint,” mentioned David Carroll, professor of media design on the Parsons School of Design in New York. Reaching over 20 million tech consumers, PCWorld, Macworld, TechHive and Greenbot provide users with the expertise information, analysis and steerage they need – at house, at work and on-the-go.…
How will you decide whether or not a new technology is well worth the prices and risks and prices of adoption? Know-how service suppliers needed to learn how to configure and handle these new integrated networks to forestall applications and UC from negatively impacting one another while offering the specified stage of performance. The usage of basic technology is also a feature of different animal species aside from humans.
It is legitimate to have a plan to research new technology and how it may be applied to the enterprise. Growing a plan and working to implement that plan can considerably scale back the risk of adopting new know-how. Technology affords not solely efficiencies in the ease of take a look at administration and scoring, but in addition gives methods to evaluate abilities in additional interactive methods by way of using lively and interactive duties.
Increasingly, expertise is being used in learning and evaluation and this brings with it opportunities for using know-how to assess students’ knowledge and abilities in new methods. The benefits a brand new expertise supplies is probably not obvious – until a competitor adopts that expertise and makes your competitive drawback clear.
Some investments in new technology may require several years to begin to offer full value. Legitifi, a California-based startup, launched what it claims is the primary social ID verification app in early 2017 and says greater than 27,000 customers have signed up since.
If the technology is so new that you’re the primary to adopt it in your industry, try to obtain advisors who have used it in other industries. A good advisor should have some expertise with the brand new know-how and concentrate on the common problems to be encountered in its implementation.…
Connecting resolution makers to a dynamic network of data, individuals and concepts, Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and monetary data, news and insight around the world. Nepal SBI launches first paperless banking providers That is for the primary time the State Financial institution of India has expanded the paperless banking system exterior India. All the biggest tech information of the week, including Amazon’s drone hub patent, and the OnePlus 5 smartphone.
Google’s ‘moonshot’ manufacturing unit spins off its geothermal unit Dandelion Google father or mother Alphabet is spinning off a bit of-recognized unit working on geothermal energy referred to as Dandelion, which is able to begin offering residential energy companies.
Use of technology enhances passenger satisfaction level in travellers: Report The findings of a brand new report show that the more fliers use technology throughout their travel experience, the higher their passenger satisfaction levels rise. Schooling to go digital with ‘Swayam’ India will enter a new period in greater schooling on Sunday with the launch of a whole bunch of courses that shall be delivered by DTH channels, tablets and mobiles.
Fb has offered to build houses in Silicon Valley, here is why The expansion of Facebook, Alphabet Inc’s Google and different tech corporations has strained neighborhoods within the San Francisco Bay area that were not prepared for an influx of tens of hundreds of workers during the past decade.
Redmi Observe four becomes the most-shipped Xiaomi smartphone in India The income growth got here as the company shipped a report excessive of 23.16 million gadgets in the quarter ended June globally, Xiaomi founder Lei Jun stated in a letter to staff on Friday.…
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Research by Market - Mobile & Telecom Geography - Africa Geography - Chad
Bashir Ali (4)
Cecilia Zhu (1)
Ethiopia’s telecoms sector expected to liberalise
Bashir Ali | July 01, 2019
Ethiopia has the distinction of being one of Africa's few, remaining, major markets to liberalise its telecoms market. For instance, Ethio Telecom is the state-owned monopoly and the country's only mobile operator for a country with a population of 105 million. On 13th June 2019, Ethiopia's Federal parliament passed the Communication Regulatory Proclamation law. The law lays the legislative foundations for competition through the creation of an independent telecoms regulatory authority that will offer licenses to private and foreign companies.
Uganda’s government puts pressure on MTN to repatriate profits and list locally
Bashir Ali | March 20, 2019
In February 2019, MTN's Uganda unit faced unprecedented pressure from the government of Uganda. This pressure took the form of numerous MTN Uganda executives being abruptly deported from the country on the grounds that they posed a threat to Uganda's national security. However, in reality, these unilateral actions by Uganda's government was most likely driven by the Office of the President which has accused MTN Uganda of repatriating profits outside of Uganda without the state's permission. Another source of agitation from the government's side is MTN Uganda's constant delay in setting out a timeline of when the telco would list on Uganda's local bourse.
Bharti Airtel consolidating its position in Kenya’s mobile market
Bashir Ali | January 30, 2019
On 15 January 2019, it was reported that Airtel Kenya is in talks to acquire British-based Helios Investment Partner’s 60% stake in Telkom Kenya. Airtel Kenya’s efforts to acquire Telkom Kenya has been driven by a shift in strategy from its parent company, Bharti Airtel in terms of its operations in African markets through its sub-unit, Airtel Africa Ltd. Bharti Airtel adopted a strategy of consolidation for its Africa operations, meaning it plans to strengthen its position as market leader or a strong number two in the 14 African markets Airtel has a presence in.
MTN Nigeria in the firing line, again
Przemek Bozek | Bashir Ali | December 24, 2018
In 2018, MTN's Nigeria unit has continued to fall foul of the Federal government of Nigeria with fines being levied against MTN by both the Attorney General's office and the Central Bank of Nigeria. On 4th September 2018, Nigeria’s Federal government via the Attorney General’s office demanded that MTN pay USD $2 billion in tax arrears on imported equipment and payments to suppliers dating back a decade. MTN Group instead responded by filing for an injunction at the High Court and pointing to its total payments of around $700 million, over this same 10-year period, to fully settle said tax arrears.
Content Security Market Report - 2018
Merrick Kingston | August 21, 2018
This market report gives a high level overview of the global Conditional Access markets, with shipment and revenue data, regional and platform level discussion, and vendor market share information.
Set-top Box Software Market Report - 2017
Merrick Kingston | Cecilia Zhu | April 20, 2018
This market monitor provides in-depth insight into the market for set-top box middleware, UX software, and operating systems. Its comprehensive written analysis serves to draw attention to the industry's most important trends and competitive dynamics.
Car hailing apps extend ecosystem with new money features: Mobile money market monitor H2 2017
Ruomeng Wang | February 23, 2018
Google Pay accelerated its global expansion during H2 2017, it added four new markets. Apple and Samsung continued to lead the global expansion of device-based mobile payments services. Car hailing apps expand mobile payments offerings through diversified partnerships.
Airtel Africa makes its fifth market consolidation move by acquiring Tigo Rwanda
Airtel Africa confirmed that they have entered an agreement with Millicom to acquire Tigo Rwanda, marking their fifth market consolidation move in Africa since 2013. Whilst the details of the acquisition and approval from Rwanda’s Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA) have not been finalised, Airtel has spoken about the potential changes that will take place in the Rwandese telecoms market. Airtel Rwanda has experienced some volatility in the Rwandan market as overall subscriptions shrunk by 6% between Q4 2016 – Q3 2017 ,this acquisition will consolidate Airtel Rwanda’s position to become the leading operator in the Rwandese mobile market which now serves 8 million subscribers between three mobile networks with 68% mobile penetration. • As of Q3 2017, market share by subscriptions was split between MTN (44%), Tigo (36%) and Airtel (20%). • Millicom and Bharti Airtel both have existing plans to consolidate their assets across Africa and recently completed a merger of their respective Ghanaian mobile networks in November 2017. • If the acquisition is approved by RURA, Airtel is set to become the largest mobile operator in Rwanda with a forecasted market share of 54-56% of the market once Tigo’s subscribers are absorbed into Airtel’s network.
Kenya’s mobile market welcomes fourth mobile operator ‘Faiba4G’
Broadband internet provider Jamii Telecommunications (JTL), previously just an Internet service provider (ISP) has launched their 4G LTE mobile network – Faiba4G. The new network will offer Voice over LTE (VoLTE) and data services. • JLT entered the Kenyan telecoms space in 2004 providing wholesale and retail data services via Fibre To The Home (FTTH) and fixed wireless networks, satellite and WiMAX. • Faiba4G coverage currently includes areas in Nairobi, Thika, Machakos, Nakuru, Eldoret, Mombasa, Athi River and Syokimau with plans to extend across Kenya. • Faiba4G will offer subscribers free on-net calls for life, granted the subscriber has an active data bundle and 1-hour unlimited ‘Fisi’ data bundles for KSH150 (approximately US$1.50). • Kenyan’s mobile market has a mobile SIM penetration rate of 71% and is dominated by Vodacom-owned Safaricom, which leads the market with a 75% market share. • The entrance of international mobile network operators Airtel (2002), Orange (now Telkom Kenya - 2013) and Yu (2008) failed to challenge Safaricom’s dominance, which led to Orange selling off their Kenyan subsidiary and Airtel acquiring Yu in 2015.
Vodafone Cameroon service shut down following licencing issues
Vodafone Cameroon was forced to shut down their service on 14 September 2017, following investigations into the company’s wireless broadband operation. Vodafone Cameroon - an Afrimax-Vodafone joint company began offering wireless broadband services in Cameroon in September 2016. In November 2014, Afrimax, an African wireless broadband operator and telecoms management company, entered a strategic partnership agreement with Vodafone Group that allowed the two companies to enter new African telecommunications markets, launching mobile and wireless broadband services in Uganda, Zambia, Ghana and Cameroon. Through the Partner Market Agreement, Vodafone was able to extend their global footprint whilst Afrimax gained continued access to a range of Vodafone products, networks, and services. In all four countries, services are offered under the Vodafone Country brand and the company entities are being referred to as part of Afrimax Group.
Samsung leads device-based mobile money expansion: Mobile Money Market Monitor Q2 2017
Ruomeng Wang | September 07, 2017
Samsung lead the global expansion of device- based mobile money services in Q2 2017. Ant Financial expands to Spain and boosts Alipay’s acceptance in existing territories. OTT messaging services boost messaging payments penetration.
Tanzania’s Mobile Operators fined… Again
Tanzania’s mobile operators have struggled to comply with wave of new regulatory oversight that has seen a rise in fines for violating regulations and scrutiny over service quality in Tanzania. Despite having previously received fines, six of the country’s seven mobile operators still failed to comply with SIM registration regulations and have been issued a new series of fines on 14 July.
Etisalat Nigeria still in talks with creditors over $1.2bn debt
Etisalat Nigeria is still in a period of uncertainty, following the default on a repayment of the operators’ $1.2 billion loan to their creditors (led by Guaranty Trust Bank Nigeria, Access Bank Nigeria and Zenith Bank Nigeria) issued in 2013.
Developing beyond interoperability is the key for mobile money growth in Tanzania
Ruomeng Wang | June 07, 2017
Vodacom launched Tanzania’s first mobile money service M-Pesa in 2008, following the successful launch with Safaricom in Kenya in 2007. Other mobile operators in Tanzania took a while to follow Vodacom’s lead, with the launch of Airtel Money in 2011 and Tigo Pesa in 2014. Now, after 10 years of mobile money activity driving financial service inclusion in East Africa, this report analyses key factors behind Tanzania’s mobile money development.
Service providers push QR codes in emerging markets: Mobile Money Market Monitor Q1 2017
Ruomeng Wang | May 09, 2017
Mobile money services providers such as Visa and Mastercard rolled out their QR code mobile payments services in emerging markets. Samsung led the global expansion of device-based mobile payments services in Q1 2017.Both mobile payment related funding and M&A deals broke historical records.
Consolidation in Ghana’s Mobile Market: Tigo and Airtel Ghana Complete Merger Talks
Millicom International Cellular (Millicom) has completed another step in the consolidation of their African assets, focused on their Ghanaian subsidiary Tigo Ghana. Bharti Airtel and Millicom announced a joint-ownership merger agreement on Friday 3 March, which will see Tigo Ghana merge with Bharti Airtel’s subsidiary – Airtel Ghana.
Millicom sells Tigo Senegal for $129m to Wari Group
Millicom formally announced the sale of their subsidiary Tigo Senegal to payments processor Wari Group for $129m on February 8 2017, following an expression of intent by Millicom in early 2016 to consolidate their African operations.
Mobile Payments Market Monitor Q4 2016: Retailers and online shopping platforms intensify mobile payments war
Ruomeng Wang | January 26, 2017
Google's Android Pay expanded to five new markets during Q4 2016, which is more than Samsung Pay and Apple Pay, but Apple was still the leader for global expansion by the end of 2016. Retailers and online shopping platforms have stepped up their mobile payment activities.
Home Networks Broadband CPE Database
John Kendall | August 12, 2015
This workbook contains the full IHS Home Networks Intelligence Broadband CPE database, in Microsoft Excel pivot table format.
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Alphabet Might Invest $1 Billion in Ride-Hailing Company Lyft
Chinmay Bidkar September 15, 2017
15 September 2017, USA:
Alphabet Inc. is in discussions with Lyft Inc. about a possible investment in the ride-hailing company, potentially deepening an existing partnership between the two firms, as per the report by TechCrunch.
An investment of about $1 billion in Lyft may come from Google or CapitalG, Alphabet’s private-equity arm. In May, Alphabet’s self-driving car unit Waymo and Lyft announced a partnership to work together on developing self-driving technology; neither offered many details of the agreement.
Alphabet has previously invested in Lyft’s rival, Uber, but that relationship has soured lately. Alphabet’s self-driving car unit, Waymo, has sued Uber claiming that an engineer who left Waymo for Uber stole and shared proprietary information. Lyft announced last year it would be expanding its work in self-driving cars and was aiming to have autonomous vehicles account for the majority of Lyft rides within five years. An investment from Google could help the company achieve that goal and give it a leg up on arch-rival Uber.
Related read- Lyft, Waymo Join Hands for Self-Drive Cars’ Project
Lyft has gained market share this year as Uber has bent under a series of self-inflicted scandals. Uber faces at least three U.S. probes and several high-profile lawsuits. Dara Khosrowshahi, the former Expedia Inc. chief executive officer, took over as Uber’s new chief recently. He’s looking to complete a fundraising deal of his own: Uber is advancing on an investment from SoftBank Group Corp. and others of as much as $12 billion, most of which would allow existing shareholders to cash out as per the report by Bloomberg.
Lyft has announced that it is developing self-drive cars and is opening a new 50,000-square-foot engineering facility in Palo Alto, California, that it’s calling the “Level 5” center in reference to the most advanced level of autonomous driving. A couple of months back, Tata Motors-owned British luxury automobile maker Jaguar Land Rover invested $25 million in US-based ride-hailing company Lyft. (Image- Engadget)
Related read- Automation will Kill 30% Jobs in Banking Sector Says Ex Citi CEO Vikram Pandit
Alphabet Invest $1 Billion LyftfundingGoogleInvestmentLyftRide-hailing companyuber
Previous ArticleThe Human Factor, Will Artificial Intelligence Catch Up?
Next ArticleYuvraj Singh-backed Creator’s Gurukul Raises Funding from Multiple Investors
Chinmay Bidkar
Curious, Keen Observant & Dynamic! Chinmay finds peace in meeting people who work hard for humanity. He has new found interest in Gadgets and Techs and at Techstory he gets to write about it! Reach out at- [email protected]
Techstory’s TECH NEWS 21st June 2019
Rohan Mathawan June 21, 2019
CollegeDekho acquires SFS Scholarship Firm
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What is Traffic Calming?
Traffic calming is the use of physical solutions to reduce traffic speeds and/or cut-through traffic with the goal of making streets safer and more accessible for motorists, bicyclists, and pedestrians. It has been proven as an effective way to reduce speeding on residential streets, avoid traffic crashes, and prevent needless fatalities.
Traffic engineers, public works officials, and urban planners have many strategies for traffic calming including speed humps or tables, emergency-friendly speed cushions, lane narrowing, traffic circles, and improved bicycle access with designated bike lanes. These solutions are used to create more complete streets that offer safe access to all users.
Traffic calming has been shown to:
Reduce speeding
Improve speed limit compliance
Decrease injury severity when crashes occur
Lower fatality rates
Encourage varied transportation modes
Improve street aesthetics
Increase property value
Reduce crime
While solutions can be instituted at the street, neighborhood, or city-wide level, traffic calming is most effective when it is part of a proactive program to improve street safety based on highest need. This is often ascertained with a points program to determine where risk is highest.
Does traffic calming really slow cars down? Study after study has reached the same conclusion. Traffic calming solutions improve safety, reduce speeds, and prevent crashes every day.
An FHWA study on speed reduction found that the 85th percentile speed was reduced by an average of 18% with speed humps, 19% with speed cushions, and 18% with speed tables.
Research abounds on the effectiveness of speed humps and other traffic calming methods in reducing speed and improving safety. The American Journal of Public Health found that children who live within a block of a speed hump have significantly lower odds of being struck by a vehicle. The Journal also found a 53-60% reduction in the odds of injury or death for children with traffic calming in their neighborhoods.
Slower cars save lives
Does slowing cars just a few miles an hour really make a difference? View the survival chance (%) of pedestrians when a vehicle is travelling at the following speeds:
Vehicle Travelling at 20 mph 90%
Radar Sign Effectiveness
They’re easy to install, brightly lit, and can flash at drivers who speed. But do they work? In short, yes. Radar speed signs really do slow cars down. And slower cars have been proven to reduce accidents and decrease impact when accidents happen.
When cities use speed display signs they can expect to see reduction in average speeds, better speed limit compliance, and even long term reduction in speeding drivers and average speeds.
Here’s some sample data of the way speeds were affected after SafePace signs were installed on a local roadways.
Some studies that prove just how effective driver feedback signs are include:
A landmark study from Bellevue, WA which concluded that “At the majority of radar sign locations, results show an overall reduction of vehicle speeds between 1 and 6 mph, even up to 8 years after the signs were installed. Due to this level of effectiveness, the City will continue to use stationary radar signs….. to address vehicles speeds and/or….. motorist’s attention…..”
A report on speed sign effectiveness compiled by the Western Transportation Institute on behalf of the US DOT and the State of California found that:
•In South Dakota the percentage of speeding vehicles was reduced by 20-25%
•In Riverside, CA, drivers slowed by approximately 6 mph near speed trailer
•In South Korea, speeders were reduced from 27% to 10% with speed signs
•In Santa Barbara, CA average speeds were reduced by 10%
•In work zones, signs reduced the number of speeding truck drivers by 24%
An evaluation by the Texas Transportation Institute of speed display trailer use in work zones found that the signs reduced average speeds by around 5 mph and were well liked by construction workers who felt that they “increased awareness of the work zone and significantly lowered speeds in the activity area.”
A study by the Texas Transportation Institute found that driver feedback signs “significantly reduced vehicle speeds at a school zone.…the average speed decreased more than 9 mph… [even] four months after installation.”
Research quoted in Wired Magazine found that radar speed signs “have proven to be consistently effective at getting drivers to slow down- reducing speeds by about 10%, an effect that lasts for several miles down the road.”
A study conducted by the Maryland State Highway Administration of speed signs in work zones found that the display trailers reduced average speeds by 2-7 mph and increased speed limit compliance by 10-40%.
Want to read more about how SafePace signs will change the way people drive on your streets? Take a look at some success stories here.
Some eye-opening traffic calming statistics:
Most traffic fatalities occur during daylight hours, by motorists driving straight ahead, and in normal weather conditions.
NHTSA, FARS Data
Road traffic crashes are one of the top 10 causes of death worldwide, claiming approximately 1,300,000 people each year.
Traffic accidents are the only one of the top ten causes of death that are self inflicted.
Of all unintentional injury deaths among children 0-19 years old, car accidents were the leading cause of death.
CDC Child Injury Data
Teen drivers ages 16-19 are nearly three times more likely to be in a fatal crash than older drivers.
50% of people who die on the roads are “vulnerable users,” ie pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcylists.
1 in 4 car accidents involves cell phone use.
At any given daylight moment in America, approximately 660,000 drivers are using cell phones or electronic devices.
NHTSA Driver Electronic Device Use
Speed kills. Speeding contributes to a third of all fatal crashes.
NHTSA Speeding Traffic Facts
A pedestrian was killed every two hours and injured every 8 minutes in traffic crashes in 2014.
NHTSA Pedestrian Traffic Safety
17% of traffic fatalities and 10% of traffic injuries were among the elderly, aged 65 and over.
NHTSA Older Population Traffic Safety
Of children killed in traffic accidents in 2014, 72% were passengers, 20% were pedestrians, and 5% were bicyclists.
NHTSA Child Traffic Safety
A study of 43 international traffic calming programs found that traffic calming solutions decreased traffic accidents by 8-100%
ITE Traffic Calming: State of the Practice
Children who live within a block of a speed hump have significantly lower odds of being struck and injured by a vehicle in their neighborhoods.
Traffic calming has proven far more effective in preventing child pedestrian injuries than road safety education, which has been “unable to exert meaningful changes in the behavior of children”
Speed humps [and similar devices] were found to have a 53-60% reduction in the odds of injury or death among children struck by vehicles in their neighborhoods.
Unintentional injuries, including road crashes, are among the top 10 leading causes of death.
CDC Leading Causes of Death
Traffic calming reduces severity of childhood injuries in the event of collision and makes it easier for drivers to avoid accidents in the first place.
National Children’s Bureau
Speed management offers the best prevention against injuries from traffic accidents.
The faster a vehicle is traveling, the more damage is done to a struck pedestrian. 5% of pedestrians would be killed if struck by a vehicle traveling 20 mph, 40% at 30 mph and nearly 100% at speeds over 50 mph.
NHTSA Vehicle Travel Speeds and Pedestrian Injuries
TRAFFIC CALMING SOLUTIONS
SafePace 475
Guardian Cam
“Not only are the products well engineered and industry leading, but their customer service is just outstanding.”
ME, Greenwich, CT
“We can…. control the signs (at the port) right from our offices….. via the SafePace Cloud.”
RM, Charleston, SC
“It (the SafePace radar sign) is a neat little system that gets fantastic results.”
GL, Clearview, ON
“We love it (the SafePace radar sign)….. You’ll notice drivers instantly slow down. It really grabs their attention.”
SR, Greenburgh,
“People really slow down and they don’t speed up afterward. It (the speed hump) is a reminder to observe the speed limit and it actually seems to work.”
JM, Baltimore, MD
“It’s really great how we can download the data and share it with team members….. The response to the signs has been excellent.”
CL, Leading car manufacturing plant, Canada
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Working Blue
Why are all the best poems sad?
— Your father
That’s a good question, though I’m sure not everybody feels that the best poems are sad; they think that the best poems are the erotic ones by the 14th-century Indian poet Kabir.
But seriously, people tend to think that the best poems are the ones they can understand and identify with, and it’s not difficult at all to understand and identify with sadness, so it’s true: A lot of people think that the best poems out there are the sad ones. I think that’s because many societies often encourage overlook feelings of sadness or pain. Something bad happens, and we are pushed to move on, look to the future and not to the past. That’s not necessarily bad; it’s society’s job to mold each member into a productive contributor in the present, and we aren’t very productive when we’re sad. But a poet’s job is to capture emotion, be it humor, eroticism, or grief, and grief often seems the most poignant because we never look at grief as intimately as a good poem does. And maybe someone doesn’t want to look at grief. Maybe someone thinks that life is too damn depressing as it is and they don’t need a poem to tell them that. But poets draw the reader in with lyrical devices and concise language, so that when a person sees a short poem called “Saint Monday,” she’d probably read it because she just had a horrible Monday herself and she might think that the poem will make her cast Mondays in a whole different light.
Saint Monday
Without a raincoat
I can not go out
so I sit in the kitchen
looking at old snapshots:
She thinks, “Yeah, that’s pretty good. I remember moments when I did that,” so she continues to the next stanza.
the dead at parties
or at the beach,
you nude at three
reading the New York Times!
Love, it is winter:
It started off sad, but she is compelled by the rhythms and the concise language, and she’s so surprised by this precocious child! She reads on.
the summer broke us.
I might find work
before next Sunday
so we can take a stroll
with money in cold weather.
(Alan Dugan)
Then she realizes how truly sad that poem is, how much it resonates in these days of humid summer and dire finances. But instead of being dispirited, the poem lifts her up. Sad poems shake us up in a way that makes us more attuned to life, its unfairness and challenges, its beauty and preciousness.
If you’re wondering (and I know you are) why only the best poems are sad, but not necessarily the best movies, scores, or novels, I would have to say that that’s your personal choice, but if I needed a better response than that (and I know I do) I would say that poems are processed temporally, as are films, music, and other forms of the literary and performance arts, but they are so much more concise. You read a sad poem, and almost instantaneously you feel its sadness in your gut. You perhaps nod your head or mutter a heart-felt “Aw.”
The heart is a muscle, and if our muscles grow bigger after we break them down, then the heart also grows bigger with each heartbreak — the heart grows bigger every time we read a poem that opens us up to another facet of sadness. Often it hurts, but we know that it’s good for us, just like we know that leg lifts or five-mile runs are good for us, but they hurt, too, and as we get older, they really hurt.
Poets are like personal trainers, but nobody pays most poets for the exercises they design, and when we say, “You are not using ‘The Waste Land’ to optimize your growth,” people think we’re crazy. • 10 August 2009
Kristen Hoggatt
Kristen Hoggatt lives, works, and writes in Boston, where she received her MFA from Emerson College. She volunteers at 826 Boston.
Tagged advice, poetry, sad poems, sadness
The John Hughes Canon
Central Booking
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Poets in Paterson Chances are you have rarely seen a movie that draws substantially on the work of a major American poet. But this can change if you find a theater that is showing Paterson. This […]
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Endorsements are pointless, and other ways to use LinkedIn to get a job
We spoke to an employment expert about LinkedIn etiquette
You can guarantee employers will be heading straight to your LinkedIn every time you apply for a job. But unless you’re in a soulless recruitment career, no-one really knows how to use it or what it’s for. Expert interview tutor Ajeet Minhas (who charges £200 an hour for an interview masterclass) is claiming that if you use it properly, you can land a job. He told us what he thinks employers want to see.
Don’t brag about your qualifications
It looks like putting down all your A-level A*s and phenomenal GCSEs is pointless, but mentioning that you got Duke of Edinburgh Gold in the Peak District when you were 17 is good.
Ajeet said: “There is absolutely no expectation from employers for you to upload your grades – that’s not what LinkedIn is about.
“It’s perfectly acceptable for you just to put your place of education or training and any relevant qualifications that you attained from there. Any interesting stories which make your profile more interesting are better.
“Grades, in the traditional sense, I would leave off. I wouldn’t put up GCSEs, A-levels or even to many details about Masters degrees.
“Whether you got an A* or a 2:1 – nobody really needs to know online. Once you are engaged in the application process and your CV is requested, it will be on there and the employer can find out your grades then.
“D of E or any sort of extracurricular activity or scheme which wouldn’t normally be on your CV – I would definitely highlight on LinkedIn.”
Interview tutor Ajeet
Always be honest about your experience
Just like an interviewer can spot a lie on your CV, they can easily find a snake on LinkedIn too. Not telling the truth will always come back to bite you.
Ajeet said: “I would always be cautious and never lie. It could damage your chances of career progression, even if you do get the job. You just look like a liar and can’t be trusted.
“It’s not difficult for an employer to follow up with any institution you studied at or any work that you did at another company beforehand.
“They might not check, but why would you want to put yourself in that position? You’re putting your career and personal reputation on the line.”
Endorsements are basically a waste of time
Getting an endorsement on LinkedIn is like a virtual pat on the back. I think you’re good at communicating your ideas and thinking so far outside the box you’re on a different planet – so I’m going to click a button to say so.
Endorsements always make you feel good, but that’s apparently their only use.
Ajeet said: “There are two features you need to distinguish between. Endorsements and Recommendations. When it comes to getting them, it’s all down to the caliber of the person who is endorsing or recommending you.
“There’s no point just getting your friends to endorse you or if a random contact adds you then starts endorsing you out the blue.
“Companies are very aware of how LinkedIn works. If you get an endorsement from someone it just becomes a numbers game. How many endorsements can you get for a specific skill like leadership – even if you have no experience in that.
“If the person you’re endorsing isn’t likely to have any direct experience, it completely debases the endorsement altogether and does look transparent.
“In my experience, endorsements as a rule are treated with a great level of skepticism and it’s not really a respected feature.”
If you get recommendations, you’re more likely to be invited to an interview
Recommendations are better
Getting the personal touch always goes a long way, and this couldn’t be more true on LinkedIn.
Ajeet said: “You are likely to have a better chance with recommendations. Unlike endorsements, they’re more of a credible source.
“Your LinkedIn contact has gone out of their way to write something about you and that’s important.
“It has to come from someone in a good position to provide a recommendation, then it will be taken seriously.
“But if they come from a friend or a colleague then it’s going to look contrived. You want to avoid giving this impression wherever possible.
“I always make sure my recommendations come from industry leaders or credible individuals.
“Its difficult when you are young and you haven’t had much exposure. It’s about finding someone who is willing to say something about you – a manager or owner of the company is better than having nothing at all.”
Don’t look stupid in your LinkedIn profile picture
This might seem obvious, but LinkedIn is where you’re meant to look as professional as possible. When it comes to photos, it’s mostly the same as Facebook or Twitter if you’re on a job hunt.
Speaking more generally on using pictures on social media, Ajeet said: “The obvious thing to avoid would be anything that looks illegal – playing around with guns.
“Also anything that looks unethical like obvious drinking.
“If one person is likely to find it offensive then you should think about hiding that content.”
Your LinkedIn picture should just be of you in a professional setting. A headshot of you in smart clothing will usually work best.
Keep it up to date
Employers care what you’re doing right now and are less interested about the work experience placement you did three years ago.
Ajeet said: “LinkedIn is like an online resume. That’s the unique thing about it. You can get a pdf version of your profile and email that to other people who could be interested in working with you on some level.
“I’d seriously recommend keeping LinkedIn up to date. You wouldn’t want to present yourself offline as tacky, and online is exactly the same.
“This is your window display. Windows displays are made to look appealing and the same should apply to you.”
You can book your own personalised interview advice with Ajeet or Tavistock tutors here.
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Home › Culture
Marvel Pays Tribute to Hip-Hop’s With Dope Animated Cover Series
By Ian Freeman
Source: Ant-Man #1 artwork by Mark Brooks (The Notorious B.I.G.’s Ready to Die) / Joseph Taraborrelli
If you are a fan of hip-hop you know that the genre has a long-lasting love affair with comic books. Hip-hop artists for years have been leaving secret little love notes to comics in their verses with references to their favorite books and characters (check out Jamila Rowser’s blog Straight Outta Gotham for an eye opening list of geeky references in hip-hop). Comic book terms became integrated in hip-hop vernacular (remember when everyone was saying your shit was John Blaze?). Even entire groups like The Wu-Tang Clan had aliases taken from comic book characters. Marvel has returned the love by having hip-hop figures like Birdman and Rae Sremmurd appear on covers. Earlier this year, Marvel released a variant cover of Howard the Duck #2 and Deadpool #45 with a take on the Run the Jewels logo.
And now the superhero giant is writing its own love letter to hip-hop. Starting in October, Marvel will release a series of variant covers inspired by iconic hip-hop album covers across the Marvel Universe.
The first wave of covers (there are plans for more than 50) will feature tributes to albums by Wu-Tang Clan, The Notorious B.I.G., A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Lauryn Hill, 50 Cent and many more. The series is the brainchild of Marvel Editor-in-chief and hip-hop head, Axel Alonso.
“For years, Marvel Comics and Hip-Hop culture have been engaged in an ongoing dialog,” says Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso. “Beginning this October, we will shine a spotlight on the seamless relationship between those two unique forces in when we unveil the first of more than fifty variant covers, each of which pays tribute to an iconic album cover from the past 30 years that shaped pop-culture over the past three decades.”
Check out some images of the first wave below.
Source: Ms. Marvel #1 artwork by Jenny Frison (Lauryn Hill’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill) / Joseph Taraborrelli
Source: Extraordinary X-Men #1 artwork by Sanford Green (De La Soul’s 3 Feet High and Rising) / Joseph Taraborrelli
Source: Amazing Spider-Man #1 artwork by Mike Del Mundo (A Tribe Called Quest’s Midnight Marauders) / Joseph Taraborrelli
Source: Squadron Supreme #1 artwork by Mike Del Mundo (Wu-Tang Clan’s Enter the 36 Chambers) / Joseph Taraborrelli
Source: Captain America #1 artwork by Mahmud Asrar (A$AP Rocky’s Long. Live. A$AP.) / Joseph Taraborrelli
Source: Invincible Iron Man #1 artwork by Brian Stelfreeze (50 Cent’s Get Rich or Die Tryin’) / Joseph Taraborrelli
Source: Howard the Duck #1 artwork by Juan Doe (Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version) / Joseph Taraborrelli
Source: Doctor Strange #1 artwork by Juan Doe (Dr. Dre’s The Chronic) / Joseph Taraborrelli
Source: The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #1 artwork by Phil Noto (Tyler, the Creator’s Wolf) / Joseph Taraborrelli
READ MORE ON THE URBAN DAILY
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The Star-Studded ‘Suicide Squad’ Trailer Will Creep You The F*ck Out
Run The Jewels’ El-P Lands Composer Gig For ‘Fantastic Four’
Zoe Kravitz Loses ‘Dark Knight Rises’ Role For Being ‘Too Urban’
hip hop , Marvel
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Changing The Complexion Of Geek Culture: Ashley Woods
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Grim Fandango Remastered (2015)
By the Well-Red Mage on October 10, 2016 • ( 33 Comments )
“Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal.”
-Richard Puz
This is why I gladly take the recommendations of friends. Thank you, Timely Mage!
I didn’t get to play Grim Fandango when it originally came out in ’98 on Microsoft Windows and I was hardly even aware of it, in fact, until recently. I’d caught a few glimpses of it before but subconsciously brushed it off as gimmicky or excessively morbid (shut up, Tim Burton). My mistake. Grim Fandango is neither. I’m happy to report that I’ve finally been able to play this game to its completion thanks to the remastered version re-released on the PS4.
Grim Fandango was created by Tim Schafer and published by LucasArts (the remaster was with Double Fine Productions), back when they still made hilarious video games, and is an adventure game. This genre of gaming is rare nowadays but it was characterized by story driven puzzles, interactive conversations, item acquisition and even more puzzles. Many adventure games were text-based, as well, or point-and-click.
Widely considered to be a veritable classic, an award-winning achievement in video game artistry and narrative, Grim Fandango combines a series of bizarre and unrelated influences to create something truly unique.
The game splices stylizing from Mesoamerican folklore and religious beliefs, namely Dia de los Muertos, the Mexican holiday, and film noir mystery and crime melodramas. Day of the Dead and film noir? Together? In one game? Grim Fandango takes cues from the likes of The Maltese Falcon, Double Indemnity, and Casablanca. Here’s lookin’ at you, jefé.
Somehow the developers got the depiction of this afterlife to work. Most of the characters in the game resemble Mexican calaca figures, though they’re involved in a narrative straight out of a detective movie. Thrown together from two so dramatically different settings, you’d think this would be incoherent. Yet the charm and instant endearing quality of Grim Fandango is tangible. You can feel it from the very first cinematic cutscene.
Or as my wife, The White Out Mage, remarked: “After seeing all so many living people pretending like their dead, it’s refreshing to see dead people pretending they’re alive.”
This charm is no doubt due in large part to LucasArt’s distinguished unconventional humor. A kind of unexpected funniness. Think Zombies Ate My Neighbors, Maniac Mansion, and Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders, to name a few of my personal favorites. Snappy dialogue and the kooky, forced juxtaposition of (seemingly) mismatched ideas.
I’m sorry it’s over. I miss these characters.
Grim Fandango centers around a large cast of characters in the Eighth Underworld of the Land of the Dead. Manuel “Manny” Calavera is a Grim Reaper travel agent with the Department of Death in the city of El Marrow whose job is securing the best travel packages for recently deceased clients based on the moral merits of the lives they lived. Saints get to travel across the Eighth Underworld and avoid its hazards and pitfalls in style in cars or on cruises or by train, whereas sinners are forced to hike by foot, all on their way to the Ninth Underworld, the Land of Eternal Rest. Such a clever idea for an adventure game.
Creator Tim Schafer said:
“…I thought, what role would a person want to play in a Day of the Dead scenario? You’d want to be the grim reaper himself. That’s how Manny got his job. Then I imagined him picking up people in the land of the living and bringing them to the land of the dead, like he’s really just a glorified limo or taxi driver. So the idea came of Manny having this really mundane job that looks glamorous because he has the robe and the scythe, but really, he’s just punching the clock.”
The story is divided into four years, each a separate act centered around November 2nd. At the start of the narrative, Manny Calavera is working off his time in the Eighth Underworld by serving his clients, though he suspects he’s being stiffed with terrible ones he can’t offer good travel packages to. Manny is frustrated by the clients he’s getting, knowing that he’s stuck in the Eighth Underworld for a longer period of time unless he can secure some saints. Exacerbating his situation, his boss threatens to fire him unless he can get some better clients.
Meanwhile, Manny’s coworker Domino Hurley seems to be getting all the premium clients. So Calavera does the only sensible thing. He rigs the system to that he can receive Domino’s next client. This happens to be Mercedes “Meche” Colomar, an attractive young woman who died from food poisoning after apparently living a virtuous life. Unfortunately, Manny’s Department computer still assigns Meche the four-year walking journey, even though Manny is certain she qualified for the luxury express train.
But before our hero can figure out what gives, Meche disappears. Thus Manny, together with a speed demon named Glottis, uncovers a criminal racket that goes up to the very top of the Department of Death. He flees El Marrow after he’s caught for stealing Domino’s client and blamed for her unassigned travel package. He’s got something to fear, even though he’s dead, since in this afterlife the dead can “die” again if they’re “sprouted”: shot with a special bullet which causes plants and vines and flowers to grow painfully all over their bony bodies until they’re reduced to nothing.
Manny’s journey takes him through the Petrified Forest, to Rubacava, under the sea and all the way to the End of the World. Grim Fandango is positively unforgettable. I couldn’t help but be impressed with its surprisingly complicated plot and lifelike (heh) characters.
I was pleasantly surprised that this was a game with something to say, with the real drama of crime and corruption. It was even surprisingly mature-themed and serious, despite its humorous, cartoonish appearance.
One character, Olivia at the Blue Casket beatnik nightclub, recites the following poem:
“With bony hands I hold my partner
On soulless feet we cross the floor
The music stops as if to answer
An empty knocking at the door
It seems his skin was sweet as mango
When last I held him to my breast
But now we dance this grim fandango
And will four years before we rest.”
Grim Fandango would make a great movie.
The 8-bit Review
Visuals: 8/10
Grim Fandango uses 3D models over pre-rendered backgrounds but despite its aged graphics the game has a distinct sense of the art of cinematography. The scenes are always presented from dynamic angles with characters moving to and from foregrounds and backgrounds. Though the polygon models are crude by today’s standards, and they cannot mesh with the pre-rendered settings, they are articulate enough to imbibe real personality. Again, it feels like you’re watching a film. The unobtrusive, seamless, full-motion cutscenes ensure that.
Lighting is another significant aspect of Grim Fandango’s graphics. Moody, dark, brooding, mysterious, pensive, the game is well aware of how to create atmosphere in various scenes whether that’s with the light trickling in through half-opened blinds in Manny’s office or the low-lit ambience of his empty Rubacava café.
Lighting also takes us into the realm of discussing the visual merits of this remastered version. The character models were touched up, streamlined and given reflective surfaces for light to interact with. It’s night and day. So even though the pre-rendered backgrounds weren’t touched at all for the remaster, the updated models really improve the look of the game.
Audio: 10/10
This soundtrack is phenomenal. Songs morph and change and switch between scenes and different areas of cities, but there’s an inherent smoothness to all of it layered comfortably in the authentic swank and classiness of early 1900’s nightclub and crime drama jazz. This might just be the best video game jazz/big band/swing soundtrack I’ve ever heard. It’s a complex OST and it’s been fully orchestrated for the remaster.
I wish I could score Grim Fandango’s audio an 11/10 because of the voice acting. I don’t know who did the casting for this game but they deserve an Emmy or a free high five or something. The Spanglish slang and accents sound authentic. The dialogue these actors were given is nothing to sniff at, either. There are plenty of voices with instant charm, especially Manny Calavera’s. And I’m talking about virtually every voice in the game, even the basic nobody NPC. The game is lifted to a whole new level of cinematic art because of the incredible work by this cast….
Please take a few moments to listen to some of their outstanding performances:
Grim Fandango’s presentation is top tier but there’s a reason why adventure games have fallen out of fashion. This style of gameplay boils down to solving puzzles which require an OCD-level attention to detail and the ability to make correlations that aren’t there. The solutions result in hilarity but often times the puzzles themselves are inexplicable. You’ll get a couple of items and have access to but a few areas and have little to no idea what to do with them. I don’t know how you could solve your way through the game without an insane amount of trial and error, or without simply consulting a walkthrough (which I was forced to do several times).
A little tedious, but one of the more innovative item selection screens I’ve ever seen.
When you solve a situation on your own, the sense of reward and achievement is great. But that’s if you’re able to figure out what you need to do with a hole punch to put holes in a (spoilers: highlight to reveal) playing card so you can use it as an air filter to intercept your coworker’s mail, or how you have to use dirty sink water with a turkey baster and squirt it into a sailor’s liquor to make him pass out so you can steal his dog tag so you can throw it into a body at the morgue so the coroner can pronounce him deceased so you can take his place on a ship… Wow.
It isn’t even apparent why you need to solve a puzzle to get a certain item to progress.
Then there are the conversations. They are wonderful for characterization and storytelling. They feel organic, even, sometimes. But trying to get a character to say something specific in order to proceed with the game can make for frustrating repetitions.
The adventure game genre is fun in its own quirky way, though, and Grim Fandango is still one of the best examples of it.
Narrative: 10/10
With a highly involved plot and a terrific sense of storytelling, Grim Fandango excels in narrative. Nay, it revels in it. This game is all about its story of criminal conspiracy, being framed and becoming a fugitive, and all the homages to classic movies and tropes. Manny discovers that (spoilers: highlight to reveal) Domino Hurley is working with crime boss Hector LeMans to cheat recently deceased people who led good lives out of their travel packages in order to sell counterfeits and hoard the real tickets for themselves.
But it’s really the characters who make the game come alive. Every one is so unique and so well defined, even as parodies, infused with so much personality. How can you not love Glottis, Manny’s trusty mechanic, with his ridiculous voice and gigantic mouth?
Challenge: 10/10
Okay so I’m convinced that this game is almost impossible without a walkthrough. Certainly that’s in large part because of the sheer amount of patience it would require to solve some of its trickiest puzzles. I feel like it was borderline too hard. Some of the situations weren’t even enjoyable, or they certainly wouldn’t be without some kind of guide to help make sense of them.
Forget about figuring out how to disarm the bomb… this is one of the funniest video game images I have ever seen.
In retrospect, I can see how the game does in fact drop hints for you in order to help you figure out how items ought to work together. The game is constantly telling you that the “sprouting” bullets cause rapid plant growth when they hit bone, since that’s what happens every time the skeleton characters are shot with one, but you may still not be able to put two and two together once you pick up a hand-grinder with a bony arm stuck in it and a can of “sproutella”.
Grim Fandango is not for the faint of heart if you want to play it the real way and avoid all walkthroughs. If you don’t care and want to just enjoy it for the story and ignore the majority of its puzzles, then that’s fine. If you’re one of those people always saying “Now don’t tell me! Don’t tell me!”, well… expect to be stuck in the Land of the Dead for four years just like these characters.
Collection: 8/10
As a remaster, this version of Grim Fandango includes the new high-res graphics. You have the option to switch between the original and the remastered visuals with the touch of a button. Neat. The remaster also features the updated orchestral score and controls, trophy support, and an audio commentary by the developers which you can access at various points while playing the game.
That last addition is at the very least an interesting addition to the game. I’m not a huge fan of audio commentaries and I doubt I’ll ever listen to the typically dead pan tones of nearly any audio commentary, but it’s there if you want it. In my opinion, the game could’ve used an inflated art gallery or unlockable avatars, or the chance to win your own trip on the Number Nine express in a sweepstakes.
Uniqueness: 10/10
What else can be said to prove how unique Grim Fandango is? Can you think of any other video game that combines the Day of the Dead with film noir? The result is a classy, unforgettable, polished, hysterical adventure.
My Personal Grade: 9/10
I loved this game. I fell in love with its memorable class. When it was over, I woke up the next morning thinking about it. I didn’t mention that I was because I didn’t want to look like a weirdo in front of my wife. Husbands do try to impress their wives, still. But she impressed me when she said she missed the game. We were both sad it was over.
Thinking about everything that I’ve written here, I’m not sure that I’ve really captured what makes Grim Fandango so special. Surely it’s because of the great art design, the great music, the great characters and plot, the great presentation. But I feel like it’s more than just a compendium of great things. In many moments it transcends its own medium.
Grim Fandango might be about skeletons but it has a lot of heart. It is, as its name suggests, paradoxical: a morbid dance, dead-serious and lighthearted all at once.
Aggregated Score: 9.0
Categories: Game Review
Tagged as: Adventure, Day of the Dead, Dia de los Muertos, Double Fine, Film Noir, Grim Fandango, Jazz, LucasArts, PC, Point and Click, PS4, Remake, Remaster, Tim Schafer
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I love the game but, for me, the Curse of Monkey Island (which includes a Grim Fandango reference to the upcoming release) is the company’s masterpiece.
It has been a very long time since Monkey Isle for me. I think I loved Grim Fandango so much because I knew nothing about it and had no expectations for it. It was literally a surprise. A big, delightful surprise. Thanks for commenting!
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This sounds amazing, right up my alley, and perfect for Halloween. When you first started talking about it, it reminded me of The Book of Life with the way the characters look (plus Dia de los Muertos…which I’m probably butchering the spelling of). *sigh* Another game to add to my backlog, and I’ve no shame in using a walkthrough 🙂
Perfect for Halloween indeed! I hereby issue you a challenge to complete Grim Fandango before then. I know you enough to know you would enjoy it. It’s defeatable in a weekend with a walkthrough. And then make sure you come back and let us know what you thought!
I’m TERRIBLE at timing challenges :O I need to get a Vita so badly. I have a PS4, but my husband plays Destiny allllll the time. This is a game I’d want to play myself because it’s a puzzle game, and I love puzzle games. Plus it’s got that macabre motif, which makes my little, goth heart happy.
Tell hubby to take a hike and enjoy the great outdoors, while you sneak that PS4 for Grim Fandango!
He needs to play more Pokemon Go anyway!
Toby Saunders says:
I’ve always meant to play this, especially now that I got it for free on Playstation Plus a while back. Guess I probably should.
You definitely should, and then let us know how you liked it. Such a cinematic game. I myself am sorry I missed out on it for so long.
retr0pia75 says:
God I miss LucasArts.
Ahhh, I have Grim Fandango Remastered for Steam. What am I doing? I need to play it now! I finally got through Day of the Tentacle Remastered and loved it. This is pretty much next on my LucasArts adventure game list, and I am excited to play it, especially since you like it so much! Nice review!
What ARE you doing?? Put down that tuna fish and go play it right now! The tentacles demand it! Thanks for commenting! 😉
Jamie Wu says:
I’ve been meaning to give this one a shot. I got it for free from PS+. I need to finish Broken Age too. Would you recommend playing it on a vita? I would love to bring it around on the go.
Hey I’m sure any version of Grim Fandango would still be great. I’ve never owned a vita but I say go for it. I don’t see how it could ruin the presentation or the story. Thanks for commenting!
I love Grim Fandango! It is such a masterpiece of narrative and style. Great review.
We agree yet again! Thanks for reading.
evilwizardesq says:
As always, a fantastic review. I managed to miss this game when it was first out, and kicked myself for years until this great re-release!
Hey thanks for checking out the review! I loved this game. It’s good to know someone else who did, too.
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Episode 25: White Lightning and the Mad Queen
Until the Whistle May 14, 2019
On this episode, Marcus (@marcusmyers) discusses a few quick topics from the world of sports, the Texas State Track Meet and Episode 5 of Game of Thrones. THERE WILL BE SPOILERS – IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY WATCHED, STOP LISTENING AFTER ABOUT THE 23 MINUTE MARK.
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On this episode, Marcus (@marcusmyers) discusses the first-ever Longhorn Honors event, official visits and Game of Thrones. THERE WILL BE SPOILERS – IF YOU HAVEN’T
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Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 00:37:33 | Recorded on May 7, 2019
Episode 23: 2019 NFL Draft and Cinematic Greatness
On this episode, Marcus (@marcusmyers) discusses the 2019 NFL Draft, Avengers: Endgame and Game of Thrones. THERE WILL BE SPOILERS – IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY
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Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 00:54:38 | Recorded on April 23, 2019
Episode 22: Halfway Through Spring Ball
On this episode, Marcus (@marcusmyers) touches briefly on the passing of Nipsey Hussle (#RIP Neighborhood Nip!), Pro Day and what he saw over the weekend
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Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 00:35:49 | Recorded on April 1, 2019
Episode 21: The Natasha Hastings Episode
On this episode, Marcus (@marcusmyerss) has a conversation with his good friend and two time Olympic Gold medalist Natasha Hastings (@natashahastings) about her career as
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Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 00:48:51 | Recorded on March 20, 2019
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On this episode, Marcus (@marcusmyers) discusses some of the recent analyst additions to the football staff as well as dives in to a little recruiting
https://theyakk.com/austin/podcast-player/1804/episode-19-becoming-elite.mp3
Download file | Play in new window | Duration: 00:33:01 | Recorded on February 27, 2019
Episode 18: A Little Bit of Everything
On this episode, Marcus (@marcusmyers) discusses all sorts of topics from NDS2 to the Texas Town Hall to the grad transfer market. This episode is
https://theyakk.com/austin/podcast-player/1661/episode-18-a-little-bit-of-everything.mp3
Episode 17: The Beer Episode
Since it’s the off-season, Marcus (@marcusmyers) welcomes co-owner/CEO Jonathan Brown of For the Culture Brewing Company (@fortheculturebc) to talk a little Bru McCoy/WR room, a
https://theyakk.com/austin/podcast-player/1636/episode-17-the-beer-episode.mp3
Episode 16: QB Carousel
With all the talk around the transfer portal madness, Marcus (@marcusmyers) discusses the QB room at Texas, where guys may be headed and an impact
https://theyakk.com/austin/podcast-player/1601/episode-16-qb-carousel.mp3
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LET'S MEET...
Marcus Myers
Marcus Myers was born and raised in Austin, TX and spent most of his formative years passionately driven as a student and athlete. Marcus went on to receive a full athletic scholarship for football from the University of Texas at Austin where he was a member of the 2005 National Championship team. Marcus went on to receive his bachelor’s degree in Economics in 2006. In 2012, Marcus received his master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Texas at Arlington. Marcus still enjoys anything and everything related to football (and sports in general), loves to travel, and spend time with family and friends.
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Kaytranada Joins Talented Newcomer Nicole Musoni On Smooth R&B Song “Die With Me”
Jake Nixon | Dec 21, 2018 |KAYTRANADA, |Chill, Music, Premieres
Some people can only dream of getting a Kaytranada beat, and for good reason. Now Montreal R&B singer Nicole Musoni has done just that. The talented artist is making her TSIS debut today for the premiere of an incredible new collaboration “Die With Me” with production from none other than Kaytranada and we couldn’t be more pleased to be premiering this today.
“My brother is a producer by the name of ‘MUSONI’ and he’s been friends with Kaytra for a while now. They were part of the same collective called ’Alaiz’, which also includes High Klassafied & Da-P. In 2014, I released a single called “Runaway Love” and so I sent him the link to my video on Twitter and he loved it! I remember him saying “I don’t think it’s fair we haven’t collabed yet”, so I was like let’s do this then!” – Nicole Musoni
Not only is the Kaytranada instrumental incredible… but I don’t think Musoni could’ve done a better job. She’s instantly won me over with this one. Nicole Musoni has been quite the past couple years but just came back in a huge way with this must hear new song following up her other recent song “WAVES.” She puts her incredible voice and songwriting on full display here and we’ll surely have this on repeat for a minute.
Kaytranada recently said he has an album coming next year and dropped off his new EP we can’t get enough of. Check out this dreamy new collab below and stay tuned for more from both artists. This one should put Musoni on the map and we can’t wait to hear what else she has coming. Enjoy!
Nicole Musoni – Die With Me (Prod. By Kaytranada)
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About Times And Trends Academy (TTA)
We all know that in this ever growing and fast world change is the only constant thing. We at Times and Trends Academy believe in the same principle. We always keep updating our system of teaching and training because we need to follow the footprints of the time to make our mark in the world. Lets know about times and trends academy motto : “inspire and instruct others on how to improve their lives and achieve peace of mind, financial freedom and a career for life”.
Times and Trends Academy
is a multi-domain Academy founded by Mr. Amit Agrawal in Pune. Mr. Amit Agrawal with his 12 years of experience in the education field did an extensive research and formulated the best vocational courses and programs in the world which will enable students, youths and professionals across the world to achieve name fame and money. Still want to know more about Times and Trends Academy..?
Flagship Training Domains of Times and Trends Academy (TTA):
Fashion and Interior Design
Animation and Graphics Design
Life Coaching and Image Makeover.
Business Coaching and Training.
Finance and Accounts.
Times and Trends Academy (TTA) is an institute that runs on a philosophy to build careers for all students and aspirants. The Institute provides a perfect platform for all students to build technical skills along with the soft skills. Times and Trends Academy (TTA) takes extra efforts to bring out creativity from aspiring designers, and also develop their personality.
Times and Trends Academy (TTA), since its inception, has been able to churn quality professionals from the Institute. The Institute holds a good record to place its students across the industry verticals. The Institute focuses on building the personality of students. Therefore, a student who passes out does have not only sound technical skills, but also have amazing soft skills.
Amit Agrawal, Founder and Chairman, Times and Trends Academy (TTA), emphasizes on building overall skills of all the students. Amit has won a series of awards as a former Director of INIFD Deccan. Times and Trends Academy (TTA) envisions to offer the best learning to students, aspirants, and designers seeking admission in the Institute, and also help them build their career and make them highly employable.
Times And Trends Academy offers various domains in education sector. Few of their courses are Fashion, Interior, Jewellery, Event Management, Animation, Graphic Design, Image Makeover, Business Coaching And Finance&Accounts.
893/4 Bhandarkar Road, Deccan Gymkhana, Opp Oakwood HotelPune, Maharashtra411004
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Our Solutions Bring Patients and Researchers Together
Accelerating Research to Find Cures for Millions
Advancing Humanity through Technology
Developing innovative technologies & media for facilitating clinical research.
Appbakery. Mobile research study apps
TrialX-Products
iConnect. Patient recruitment management system
Trialspace. Study website builder & referral tracking tool
Dory. Clinical trials finder
Curetalks. Online talk show on health & wellness
8th Grade Media. Clinical trials media services
At TrialX we are a passionate group of MDs, PhDs from diverse backgrounds working passionately to build solutions to connect patients to clinical trials and research.
Sharib Khan
Sharib has a passion for merging technology and healthcare that changes the way we approach medicine. As product lead at TrialX, he is responsible for strategy, operations, and product development for all products and services. Prior to TrialX, Sharib co-founded Future Today Inc., a leading online and connected TV media company. Today, Future Today and its media properties reach more than 3 million unique visitors every month. Sharib holds a Masters in Biomedical Informatics at Columbia University and an MD from University of Medical Sciences, Delhi University.
Chintan Patel
Chintan brings in more than 15 years experience as a Computer Scientist and Biomedical Informatician. At TrialX, he builds stuff with funny acronyms such as REST, API, JSON, JSX, RDF and so on. His areas of expertise include software architecture, semantic technologies, biomedical ontologies, machine learning and natural language processing. Previously, he worked at IBM’s T.J. Watson Research, on ontology-reasoning and information extraction that then became the infamous Jeopardy winning AI software “Watson”. He holds a Ph.D. in Biomedical Informatics from Columbia University.
Aziz Rawat
Chief Creative Officer
Aziz grew up on the Shivaliks of north India. An alumni of the Faculty of Fine Art, Vadodara (India) and the VCU Brandcenter (Richmond VA), Aziz has helped launch and promote numerous global and regional brands while working for some of the top advertising and brand shops such as EnergyBBDO, DDB and Ogilvy. Proud of the diversity and breadth of work he has helped create over the years, Aziz believes is a result of a happy confluence of his pragmatic mother, perfectionist father and the paradoxical nature of all his experiences living in India, both coasts of the United States and the Midwest. Now living with his wife and daughter in Minneapolis, Aziz has made technology, health and wellness the focus of this work.
Priya Menon
Products Coordinator
Priya is Scientific Media Editor at Applied Informatics/TrialX. She hosts and manages CureTalks, an internet radio talk show on healthcare which brings together experts and people on the same platform engaging in ‘Discussions for Solutions’. She holds masters in Microbiology, degrees in Patent Law, Media Law, and certifications in Writing in Sciences from Stanford University, Content and Marketing from Hubspot Academy and HR Management from IIM Bangalore, India. She has extensive writing experience with a focus on cancer research, nutrition, and alternative therapies and presents a varied view on healthcare and associated domains. She is also a guest columnist at The Week.
Vice President, Clinical Trial Solutions
Robert Ryan is part of the leadership team. He manages TrialX business operations, including products, client relations, industry partnerships and business development
Yaseen Dar
Technology Lead
Yaseen started his career as an Intern at TrialX and has progressed to now become Product Lead and Senior Engineer. He holds a Bachelors degree in Mathematics and Masters in Computer Application. His skills include several open source technologies like Python, Django, Flask, Solr, MySQL, REST, Javascript Technologies and others. Yaseen is an all-rounder and is known for his big hits in cricket and also likes to take a dip in cold streams and go horse riding in the beautiful mountain valleys of Kashmir.
Aamir Bhatt
Web and Mobile Lead
Aamir’s responsibilities include team management, project development, delivery and implementation. He lead the team that ported Apple’s Researchkit into Android – ResearchDroid. His skills include Django, Java, Android, React Js,Redux, Team Management, Web and Mobile Architecture, mysql query optimisation and many more. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science from University of Jammu. Away from work, he relaxes on the golf course or swimming a few laps in the pool.
Erica Alshehabi
Clinical Trial Recruitment Specialist
Erica brings more than 10 years of clinical research experience. She is well versed in clinical research coordination and management, especially within academic medical centers. Her strength is her knack for finding creative solutions for overcoming recruitment hurdles. Erica works directly with study teams to educate them on using the data driven recruitment metrics behind iConnect, where patients match with trials. She is an iConnect recruitment specialist focused on helping teams achieve target recruitment goals.
Nasir Ahangar
Nasir is a Senior Software Developer at TrialX. His skills include Python, Django, Apache/Solr, RESTful web APIs, MySQL. He also has developed expertise in front-end technologies like HTML5/CSS, Javascript/jquery, Ajax, Bootstrap, Foundation. Nasir is also a poet and pens his thoughts in Urdu. He holds a Masters in Computer Applications.
Julie Dulude
Julie is one of the world’s most skeptical consumers. Ironically, it’s her cynicism for all things branded that make her good at what she does. Part copywriter, part strategist, Julie searches far and wide for emotional truths that will resonate with the intended audience. Julie’s work spans a diverse range of accounts including Dove, Kotex, CleanWell, Honest Foods, BlackBerry and American Eagle Outfitters, with special expertise in the wellness and natural foods markets. Julie has worked in all mediums from interactive to broadcast, but she brings to TrialX far more than a traditional advertising background. Some of Julie’s more memorable projects have been inventing new product ideas for Adidas and redesigning the consumer shopping experience for Westfield malls. She has named new companies and products, and helped launch multiple brands from scratch, in each case working closely with the client to create a unique and ownable brand voice.
Praveen Gupta
Design Lead
Praveen is responsible for creative vision, look & feel, and tone of Trialx brand and products. He has conceptualized, ideated and executed websites, UI & UX, print ads, and below-the-line collateral material for some of the best brands in the India, namely Dupont, Dabur, Yahoo, Nokia, Vodafone, Cisco, Unicef, Maruti, NIIT, American Express, Shell, British High Commission, Business Today, IndiaTimes, and SGI amongst others. He is a specialist across media platforms and has extensive experience in digital media.
Shweta Mishra
Content and Marketing Executive
Shweta is responsible for digital marketing and content initiatives at Applied Informatics/TrialX. A San Jose State University Graduate, she holds dual masters degree in Biochemistry and Nutrition Science, and is passionate about the science behind the diverse life phenomenas. She also holds certifications in Digital Marketing from Hubspot Academy, Protecting Human Research Participants from NIH and in Intellectual Property in Biotechnology from WIPO. At TrialX CureTalks she hosts the infertility/reproductive medicine talk series.
Mir Suhail Mohamad
Mir is part of the web and mobile team working with Android development in mobile health. He was instrumental in creating the Android library, ResearchDroid which is an android port of Apple’s ResearchKit. He holds a bachelors degree in engineering in Computer Science from Government College of Engineering and Technology, Jammu. His skills include, Java, Android SDK, Android Material Design and IBM tools like IBM websphere, cognos etc. He is passionate about social causes and has volunteered for many. He is a literature buff and loves cycling.
Shahid Ayoub
Shahid Ayoub holds a Bchelors degree in Information Technology from University of Kashmir and a Masters in Information Technology from Central University of Kasmir. He is an avid reader, likes to play cricket, socialize, and share his thoughts.
Yaseen Majeed
Computer Science Post Graduate, Ex MSP at Microsoft. Currently working as iOS Developer with Applied Informatics. Passionate about trending Technologies. Football freak and nature lover.
Ummer Akbar
Ummer holds an M Tech in Computer Science & Engineering from HPTU (HP). He is currently working as an Android Developer and is very interested in software development. His future goal is to become full stack developer. He loves reading programming books and is a cricket fan.
Shahid Tariq
Shahid Tariq is a highly motivated and enthusiastic team player who enjoys challenging work and the chance to deliver innovative and creative solutions. He is a masters in Information Technology from the University of Kashmir and has received award for developing an android application for Amar Singh College Srinagar from former Education Minister of Jammu and Kashmir in year 2015. He has strong analytical and problem-solving skills and experience in application development on JAVA /Android, web application frameworks and technologies. His skills include J2SE, Android, php, python, C, C++, VB, C#, SQL, HTML5, CSS, Bootstrap, VBscript, Java Script, PHP,Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle 10g , MySql and Sqlite. He likes going out for long drives and adventure tours.
Asreedh Nair
Asreedh is responsible for iConnect and new TrialX product prototype development. He interfaces with technology lead for sprint planning. His skills and expertise include web development based on Python and Django Framework from Requirement gathering, Data Modelling, Implementation and Deployment. Asreedh is a postgraduate in Computer Applications.
Burhan Aslam Wani
Burhan is a post graduate in software engineering. Getting to know how things work on core level drove him to Computer Science. He aspires master full stack development and is currently working as React front-end developer at Trialx. He tracks current developments in the world of politics and technology. Playing cricket and football is something that he has enjoyed since childhood.
Heeba Kawoosa
Software Test Engineer
Heeba, Ex-IBMer is working as a Software Test Engineer at TrialX. She holds a bachelors degree in engineering in Electronics And Communication. But her passion for learning new technologies drove her to softwares. Area Of Expertise are: API Testing and Mobile Testing.
Rumaya Rashid
Bussiness Analyst
Rumaya – A Computer Science Engineering graduate from Islamic University of Science &Technology. Currently Working as a Bussiness Analyst at TrialX. Previously worked as a software tester at IBM.
Shahid Yousuf
Yousuf is an Electronics and Communication Engineering graduate from University of Kashmir. Currently he is working as Web Developer/Software Engineer in the iConnect team assisting with maintaining and developing the software. His skillset includes Python, Java, C#, Javascript, Django, REST, MySQL and Linux. He is a self-taught programmer and in 2016, started his own software freelancing center, queboid (queboid.com). While not working, you can catch him keep doing programming hacks.
“iConnect was a very helpful tool while conducting our Glaucoma Awareness Campaign to recruit more glaucoma cases into our study. The user-friendly dashboard and campaign tracker feature made it easier for us to not only recruit patients, but to also collect study data for later analysis. The iConnect Research Recruitment Team always made themselves available to answer any questions we had. They updated us when new features or changes were taking place, and always welcomed any feedback or suggestions. We would certainly recommend this platform for other studies conducting similar recruitment campaigns!”
Joan O’Brien, M.D., Chairman, Department of Ophthalmology, Director of Scheie Eye Institute
“iConnect was a game changer for our Phase 1b study enrolling obese participants. It served as a repository where we could funnel all potentially interested people from our various recruitment sources. Hundreds of subjects were able to read more about our study at iConnect and then click a link to send us their contact information. The ease with which subjects were able to contact us increased our recruitment numbers for sure and contributed to the success we had on this study, which brought in $450,000 ($157k indirects) to Penn Medicine. We have only just scratched the surface with iConnect, and we are excited to use some of the advanced features including an initial eligibility screener as well as tracking the recruitment metrics for each recruitment source.”
Amanda Baer, Director-Clinical Research Operations, Clinical Trials Unit
National Semantic Web Challenge 2009
NYC Entrepreneur Business Plan Competition 2009
NCI Innovation Challenge 2012
Learn more about our Clinical Research Solutions
315 Fifth Avenue, 9th Floor, New York, NY
info@Trialx.com
A WCG Roundtable Sharing the Progress of iConnect Patient Recruitment Platform June 17, 2019
Matching the right patient to the right trial remains the most challenging task in the success of any clinical trial. This Clinical Trials day, our partners WCG (WIRB-Copernicus Group) organized the first invite only roundtable to share how iConnect – our patient recruitment platform is...
We Were in Goa for an Uber Cool Team Retreat! June 17, 2019
Meet a refreshed Applied Informatics team embodying empathy, excellence and grit! The Applied team caught up for an uber cool retreat at Goa, India. Team members from across the globe came together to let down their hair and enjoy some quality time together. This March...
TrialX at the White House TOP Health Showcase Event March 2, 2019
TrialX recently presented at the invitational-only event “Artificial Intelligence and Open Data Innovation for Health with TOP Health Showcase” at the White House Eisenhower Executive Office Building (EEOB). The event took place on 28th of February, 2019 to and TrialX presented the digital tools we...
VISIT BLOG...
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Home Local News Jeremiah: TT juniors need more exposure After Jr Fed Cup, Jr Davis...
Jeremiah: TT juniors need more exposure After Jr Fed Cup, Jr Davis Cup
NATIONAL coach Anthony Jeremiah believes TT’s Under-16 trio of Aalisha Alexis, Isabel Abraham and Keesa Lee Young could have performed one better than their sixth-place finish at the Junior Fed Cup North/Central America & Caribbean pre-qualifiers
Jeremiah, who shared this thoughts on the five-day event, which concluded in El Salvador, Sunday, said TT let some winnable matches slip from their grasp.
He said in terms of domestic training, the players were prepared. “All players are in a national programme which prepares them for these types of competitions. So yes, they had enough preparation, however, there weren’t much regional competition opportunities prior to the event,” Jeremiah said.
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He had just one suggestion for Tennis TT, the national governing body for the sport.
“Invest in exposing our players to more regional competition annually,” he said, “In this way they will get the necessary
exposure and a boost in confidence leading into such events. I believe they should be regularly involved since it’s the only Under-16s event in the region. It bridges the gap after leaving 14s to then play the 18s ITF.”
Alexis, Abraham and Lee Young closed their account in the fifth/sixth place play-off with a 3-0 loss to Costa Rica, one of the teams Jeremiah said TT should have beaten.
It was TT’s first appearance at the Junior Fed Cup pre-qualifying event for six years.
“We had a great week, great competition,” Jeremiah said, “The girls played well to be placed sixth overall.”
TT opened their account with a win on the first day, edging the Bahamas 2-1 with doubles partners Alexis and Lee Young combining to break the deadlock after the two teams won a singles match each.
A more convincing display followed on day two when all three players secured wins in a 3-0 result over Panama. The victory saw TT automatically progress to the first-to-eighth play-off.
Unfortunately, a 2-1 loss to Curacao in the third and final group match meant TT would finish second in Group D and face a tougher draw in the play-offs against Group B winners Dominican Republic.
TT’s bid for first place and a spot in the next phase to qualify for the Junior Fed Cup ended there as the Dominicans prevailed 3-0 win. A subsequent 2-1 win over Aruba and a 3-0 defeat to Costa Rica meant TT closed sixth.
“I believed we could have done better to reach fifth,” said Jeremiah, a former ITF development officer and coach with 20 years experience.
He added, “However, the only area we are really short is mental training and the belief that you can do this.”
Asked for his thoughts on the doubles partnership of Alexis and Lee Young, which looked unstoppable at certain junctures, Jeremiah said, “Keesa was the key player since she played with both girls at tournaments and could relate with both. Plus she can cover the court well, including volley.”
The TT pair won the opening doubles set against Costa Rica bur eventually fell 0-6, 6-1, 10-4. Jeremiah felt the duo should have been able to close out that match.
“I believe both Curaçao and Costa Rica, in my opinion, were winnable matches. We were in positions but did not convert,” he said.
The national girls team’s participation at the Junior Fed Cup competition followed their Under-16 male compatriots’ seventh place finish at the Junior Davis Cup in the same country the week before.
Source: Newsday https://newsday.co.tt/2019/02/20/jeremiah-tt-juniors-need-more-exposure/
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You are here: Home / Top Team Effectiveness: a 21st Century Imperative
Top Team Effectiveness: a 21st Century Imperative
6th November 2018 /0 Comments/in Articles /by Andrea Adams
In pursuit of top team effectiveness
Historically top team effectiveness has been measured by the influence the CEO has on business results. But in an ever-changing 21st century business environment, it takes more than a single heroic chief executive to deliver results.
When the single most important non-financial factor for investors is the top team and the quality of their leadership, it’s concerning to think that the vast majority of organisations are still wrangling with the perfect solution for this critical driver of business success.
Executive teams and Boards are perpetually characterised by repeating frustrations – lack of productivity or progress in meetings, the same issues appearing time and again, getting down into the detail of issues which could be better dealt with outside of the top team, and too much (or not enough) conflict derailing the decision-making process. There’s so much energy spent on so little results. As a board member or Senior Executive, I’ll wager the symptoms will be as familiar as the cures are elusive.
It’s no wonder that top teams rank in the top 10 most covered topics in Harvard Business Review over the last 40 years.
So, what are the missing pieces which will help top teams – already made up of the best-of-the-best a company has – become the high-performing units they need to be? How can you make sure your top team is focused on the right things in order to drive the right results?
Missing pieces
With the new imperatives presented by the 21st century – a more dynamic and unstable business environment than ever, fast-paced technological changes, and distinct shifts in the attitudes of the workforce – drawing on leadership, talent and capability is the only way to get ahead.
Yet despite decades of significant investment in team development we’re still not seeing universal improvements in top team – and therefore business – performance.
At our roundtable we’ll talk through the three major reasons for this lack of traction:
The focus has been on developing the wrong things. Team work is prioritised over task work, but like yin and yang, both need to be in balance to reap results
When the focus is on the right things, it’s often at the wrong time
Leaders get stuck in behavioural patterns which limit individual and team performance
At the heart of it all is one concept – shared leadership.
Marshall Goldsmith said: “No one leader can be good at everything. Shared leadership across a team of leaders will be the way in which excellent companies do business in the future.”
The real power for dealing with rapid change and hyper-competition lies in shared leadership within and across the senior executive team and Board. So, if the age of a single CEO doing most of the heavy lifting is over, how can you fine-tune your executive team and Board to deliver the performance the business deserves?
A new focus
It’s true that an effective team can become more than the sum of its parts, but what does it take to turn that group of great people into a high performance board which can truly deliver for an organisation?
How can you create shared leadership and harness that to enhance results?
At its core, a top team must build strong relationships in service of the organisation, because that’s what it takes to operate effectively. You don’t have to like one another, just figure out a way of communicating and collaborating that drives outcomes.
Research tells us that there are three key aspects of board or top team interactions that will really drive improved performance outcomes:
Influencing the effort that team members put into their contribution to the team’s work
The performance strategies adopted to achieve progress
The knowledge and skills people have
Here we briefly explore what each of these means for your board or senior executive team development.
Influencing effort
Most senior people will believe they work hard, but reaching the executive team or board means that we need not only to provide clarity and laser-like direction to the organisation but harness the efforts of colleagues to help deliver on the strategy.
It’s about the team’s ability to get the best from everyone and to develop relationships for enhanced performance, creating the conditions for 1+1=4, not necessarily by getting people to work harder, but by directing that effort to where it will have the biggest impact. Are you confident all members of your top team are consciously doing this?
Critical skills at this level are the ability to take an ‘enterprise level’ view and to remain open to hearing and at times acting upon views and perspectives that are different from our own.
Performance strategies – why you need them
Many boards and senior executive teams spend a large amount of time setting the what and where of strategic direction. The really effective ones also agree on the how, defining performance strategies that will ensure delivery of the work that only they can do, resulting in the organisation delivering against its targets.
If you’re using the wrong strategies, how can you expect to deliver the right results?
Knowledge and skills – the power of team
Learning and personal development must not stop because someone reaches the board. And a very real danger is that some of the skills that have supported a rise to board level will work against you, particularly in arresting learning in a misguided belief that those who reach the board are fully-formed and able to take on the challenge without further personal development.
Critical to team performance is not only personal development, but the skills mix the team possesses and how this can be put to optimum use. Do you even have the right people on the team to deliver?
Of course, if it was as simple as cracking these three things then we wouldn’t need an executive roundtable to go into more detail about how to get top teams to perform!
If you’re joining us for one of our upcoming roundtables we’re looking forward to hearing your experiences and views on whether high-performing top teams only really exist in mythology or whether it’s possible to create one in your organisation.
Tags: 21st century leadership, board effectiveness, high performance, leadership, top team development, top team effectiveness, top team performance, top teams
Leadership Coaching: How CEOs & Senior Leaders Build Resilience and Capacity for Change
How Women Thrive in International Business
How to Lead in the New Normal
Triumpha article one of the most popular in Strategic HR Review
Mapping a Strategic Approach to HR Leadership
Taking the right first step to future proof your organisation
Taking the right first step to future proof your organisation Five things to take your top team from average to outstanding
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Movies, Books, Gaming and More
Cinema/Film/YouTube
Positive Christianity in the Third Reich - Book Introduction
TOPIC: Positive Christianity in the Third Reich - Book Introduction
Positive Christianity in the Third Reich - Book Introduction 16 May 2019 15:43 #21
User is blocked
So if AH endorsed Positive Christianity, does that mean he was not a Roman Catholic?
You can't fix stupid
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Truthspoon
One foot in hyperspace and the other in some dogshit.
If nothing else..
Hitler was right about the Jews.
But was he set up to fail all along?
Was he a dupe of the very powers he thought he was fighting?
Poor guy.
It's rather tragic. I wish they'd won, then at least we wouldn't be ruled by dirty paedophile blackmailing Freemasonic Jew filth.
www.truthspoon.com
www.truthspoon.forumotion.co.uk
Last Edit: 16 May 2019 17:19 by Truthspoon.
User(s) who Liked this post: Rocco
Likes received: 1541
Truthspoon wrote:
But was he set upbtonfsil. all along.
Was he a dupe of the very powers he claimed to be fighting.
It's rather tragic. I wish they'd won, then at least we wouldn't be ruled by dirty paedophile blackmailing Jews filth.
If that were true, why didn't Dolfy do exactly what the mainstream version of his actions tells us he did; mass murder 6 million of those "filthy" jews and rid the world of 6 million+ "dirty pedophiles"??
The Only Limit is Your Own Imagination
A truth seeker is someone who dares to wade through thick series of toxic smoke screens and tries not to inhale - Gaia
"What do you call 'genius'?" "Well, seeing things others don't see. Or rather the invisible links between things." - Vladimir Nabokov (1938)
"The silence of conspiracy. Slaughtered on the altar of apathy." - Lords of the New Church (1982)
Gaia wrote:
He didn't want to murder them, it's likely that he planned on relocating them. But then again I hardly care. Why the hell are the Jews living in our countries in the first place? They are enemies of Christ and Western civilisation.
Do you doubt that Jews rule the world through paedophile blackmail and freemasonry?
Just look around......We live in a world ruled by Freemasonic paedophiles.
Freemasonry has been a tool of the Jews for at least a thousand years.
User(s) who Liked this post: Flare, Rocco
He didn't want to murder them, it's likely that he planned on relocating them.
Exactly, and that doesn't really count as a "Final Solution", does it? In a time with airplane development, what would stop "those filthy 6 million" to just continue "their evil deeds"?
I don't doubt there are many powerful families who think they have the right to rule others, of all races, religions, secret societies and other defining features. Among those indeed many are jews, but to claim all jews, and especially the working and middle class jews who got kidnapped and ended up in the camps, are/were responsible for those things is ridiculous.
Name is Mick, Age 71, right winger, Christian, English
Christian kindness: a Waffen-SS man tends a wounded Russian-
Last Edit: 16 May 2019 17:36 by Ugh.
User(s) who Liked this post: Steven, Truthspoon, Flare
Every Jew in Earth is sworn to defend his or her fellow Jews to the detriment of the Goyim animals.
This is all made clear in the Talmud.
Every Jew on Earth is an enemy to our way of life. They are sworn to destroy us. They are fighting a war against us when most of us don't even know who it is that is destroying the walls of our civilization around our very ears.
Who let the blacks in? Woof woof!
Who is forcing multiculturalism on everywhere except Israel?
Who owns all the banker debt?
Who runs the paedophilia rings?
It's you lot.
Time to break free and be a good honest Jew. If you have the moral power.
Instead of covering up for the foulest crimes this planet has ever known.
The traitorous political parties and the libtard mushbrains who vote for them are mostly responsible and the vast majority of them are not jews are they?..
User(s) who Liked this post: Steven
Ugh wrote:
But why would our political parties be forcing this agenda on us?
Who is controlling them?
Do you really believe Theresa May runs the country?
You're a witty fellow with a sprightly mind for your years, but if you ever believed that elected officials run the country then.....I don't know what to say
You're curiously quiet on the Freemasonry thing.
A smart bloke like you must surely have encountered them once or twice in your long lifetime.
User(s) who Liked this post: Flare
The Talmud is a book full of horror, but the quran and to a lesser, less literal extent the Bible too.
Do you really believe every jew is out there treating us goyim as an "Untermensch"? How many jews do you know personally? And not the Soros/Kissinger/Lansky/Netanyahu/etc. mofos, but normal everyday jews?
I have nothing to do with jews or judaism whatsoever, so there is no "you lot". My paternal grandfather hailed from a jewish family, but was not religious himself and married a christian woman. He was a very quiet and decent man, not busy with anything that the Zionist jewish cabal of scheming, tricking and manipulating was doing.
I have met other normal working class jews who had the same. That doesn't excuse the Barbara Spectres, Soroses, Kushners and others busy with their trickery, but your hateful stance against anything and anyone jewish is exactly what the ADL is hoping for.
No surprise the ADL and the Nazis share this ridiculous "racial" bullshit; they work for the same people with the same goals.
You have nothing to do with the Jews except you choose to post on an anti-Jewish forum; you defend the Jews at every opportunity; you happen to be demonstrably of Jewish stock.
Sorry but either get honest or get lost.
There's a word for it: 'dissimulation'
I defend "the jews"? Ha, I got banned for being "antisemitic". So what is it?
I have posted about a lot of filthy jewish influence in history and present, so who am I "defending"?
My grandfather was jewish, so what? My other 3 grandparents were christian, I am not a christian. All of them were Dutch, I am Dutch. Are you responsible for the family history of your grandparents? Do you believe in "collective guilt"? What separates you then from the locos who want to paint that to "the whites" (slavery) or "the Germans" (Holocaust Story) or "the muslims" (Osama and buddies), etc. etc,?
I just judge the tree by its fruit Gaia, and you here seem the least able to deal with objective reality and truth.
Therefore you have an agenda.
Would you be so kind to briefly save us all a lot of time and trouble and tell us what your agenda is please.
That'd be great.
I can tell you mine if you want it's not a secret.
Truth, Jesus and exposing evil.
What's yours?
I don't have an agenda. I am here to learn from others and to share my own research. If others like that, nice, if they don't, that doesn't bother me. I don't need a "mission"/"agenda" on an internet forum and have, other than some utopian keyboard warriors here, no illusions that "we" or "TZ" or the things we share here will "change the world".
Truth is something we will never know, but can only approach by stripping away lies.
Jesus is an invented figure whose alleged lessons hold value, you don't need to be a christian to recognize that.
Exposing evil is a result of the research.
1- The main parties all make it clear in their manifestos that they're for mass immigration, nobody is forcing us to vote for them if we don't want to.
The parties and their misguided dumbass voters think it's the "christian thing" to welcome heathens, whereas the truth is Christianity is hugely ANTI-immigration-
"Many deceivers who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ have gone out into the world...do not take them into your house or welcome them." (2 John 1:7-11)
2- May is on her way out fast back to the kitchen and good riddance, we Brexiteers have trashed her real good..
3- As a Truthseeker, I need EVIDENCE that the Freemasons are sabotaging us, but I can't see a shred of it anywhere because like everybody else I'm well-fed, well-housed and well off, so if the Freemasons or anybody else are trying to mess us up, they're doing a very bad job of it..
When you say Jesus is an invented figure it gives me no reason to credit you with any intelligence.
Why would I choose to communicate with a fool?
Did Buddha exist? Aristotle? Or do you just deny the existence of those critical of world Jewry?
To be frank I would rather talk to Flare.
He has an open mind.
So where is the anti-immigration viewpoint?
Oh yeah, it doesn't exist, because the media and establishment don't want it to.
For an old man you're frighteningly naive....or willfully deceived
And ever keen to protect the Jews and Freemasons because you....are probably one of the lodge brothers sworn to defend Zion.
1- There are millions of people who are anti-immigration including me. You say Jews are behind mass immigration, so in that case how can I be a Jew?..
2- There's a Freemasons "Masonic Hall" at the top of my street, and sometimes when I pass it I see a bunch of them going in and out, and they all wear creepy black suits, talk about "the Men in Black".
But holy men like me are free and don't do "suits" or belong to the Freemasons or any other cult.
3- I'm 71 years old and belong to the "rock legend" generation (for example the Stones are in their 70's) and they don't make 'em like us any more..
Nazi Protestant Church
In 1932 the Protestant church came under the influence of the Nazi movement called "German Christians" (Bewegung Deutscher Christen, also called "Stormtroopers of Jesus") and lead by the founder, Rev. Joachim Hossenfelder. This movement represented Hitler's "Positive Christianity" views and lawfully encoded into the Nazi "constitution." Hitler tried to force regional Protestant churches to merge into the Protestant Reich Church. Protestant churches throughout Germany participated in the movement but Hitler's union of the churches failed because of in-church bickering. Only one visibly apparent church remains in Germany that shows distinctive markings of Positive Christianity, a reminder of how Christianity and Nazism mixed together during the Nazi regime.
Martin Luther Memorial Church in Berlin
Consecrated in 1935, the Martin Luther Memorial Church in Berlin still stands in Berlin. Originally the Church bells and altar contained the swastika, but later removed because of post-war law that outlaws swastikas in Germany. Nevertheless, the church still retains many of the Nazi symbols and icons, including a muscular Aryan Jesus, Iron cross, statues of Nazi stormtroopers, and a bust of Adolf Hitler.
During the 30s, Nazi party members made up two thirds of the church attendance, where they also baptized their children.
Note, Hitler greatly admired Martin Luther (mentioned in Mein Kampf), and considered him one of the greatest reformers.
Religious services in the church took place until 2005 when loose tiles began to fall off making the church unsafe. Today, priests and parishioners work to raise money to save the church.
The photos below show a few of the Nazi icons.
(Photo source: Spiegel Online)
Inside the entrance hall of the church hangs a chandelier in the shape of an iron cross, complete with oak leaves (the symbol of courage in battle).
Wooden frieze carved into the side of the pulpit depicting Jesus standing next to a Nazi soldier and Aryan women and children.
Closeup of Jesus with a Nazi soldier.
Baptismal front with carving of Hitler holding an stormtrooper hat.
Stone carving on arch surrounding chancel of Martin Luther Memorial Church.
Close-up showing Christ thorns, and a helmeted soldier.
Nazi Protestant Altar at the Antoniter church in Cologne, 1935 (source, source)
German Soldier Death Cards
The following shows examples of German military "Death Cards" that served as mementoes for family and friends of deceased soldiers. (This tradition also occurred in civilian life.) Usually these mementoes came printed on small cards with a photo and information of the deceased on one side and, typically, a grave site or religious theme printed on the other side. It should not surprise anyone that many German soldiers and their families practicing the Christian faith. The following shows just three death cards of German soldiers that reveal the religious nature of Germans during WWII:
Joseph Littinger - A picture of him in his SS uniform with both black collar tabs plain. He died in a Russian prisoner of war camp on 19 January 1946. This fold out card has two religious pictures on the backside. (Source: georgejohnsmilitaria.com)
Lt. Toni Benkel A two sided fold out card. The backside has two religious pictures. The Front has a full picture of Toni in his parade dress uniform with an Army dagger. He died on 6 July 1940 in a field hospital in Brai, he served as a Lieutenant and a company leader in a Infantry Regiment. (Source: georgejohnsmilitaria.com)
Josef Buhler A corporal in the Luftwaffe before his death on 19 March 1943 in Russia. He was born October 5 1921.
(Source: georgejohnsmilitaria.com)
German Lutheran Church Gazette honoring Hitler
Translated below:
“German Deacons' Gazette MAGAZINE FOR MALE DEACONS Organ of the German Deacons One is your Master, Christ, but ye are all brethren 26th Year April 1939 Nr. 4
(Hitler Portrait) Heil to the Führer of all Germans!”
Note: the cross symbol on the upper-right corner. The Diakonisches Werk (run by the Lutheran Church) still uses the symbol.
(Source: Christian Horror Picture Show)
Propaganda slide pertaining to the issue of converting to Catholicism.
One image from a slide lecture produced by "Der Reichsfuehrer SS, der Chef des Rasse-und Siedlungshauptamtes" [the Leader of the SS, the Chief of the Race and Settlement Main Office]. The slide lecture, entitled "Das Judentum, seine blutsgebundene Wesensart in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart" [Jewry, Its Blood-based Essence in Past and Future], is Part I of the thematic series, "Judentum, Freimaurerei, Bolschewismus" [Jewry, Freemasonry, Bolshevism]. The text of the slide lecture is available at the Bundesarchiv Koblenz, record group number NS31/163.
(Source: USHMM)
When you see a cross
Page from the German children's book, "Der Giftpilz" (The Poisonous Mushroom)
The text reads, "When you see a cross, then think of the horrible murder by the Jews on Golgotha..."
(see 1 Thessalonians 2:14-15, "...the Jews: Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men")
In the Beginning was the Word (Am Anfang war das Wort) A painting titled by Hermann Otto Hoyer depicts the glorification of Hitler in messiah-like fashion. The light over him falls on the listener. Hitler represents the bringer of light.
"In the Beginning was the Word" of course appears as the first words in the Gospel of John.
(Source: The Visualisation Of National Socialist Ideology)
Nazi Election Poster
From the July 1932 Reichstag election. The text translates as: "Over 300 National Socialists died for you — murdered by Marxist subhumanity!!! For work and food vote Adolf Hitler List 2." The reference is to Nazis killed during the political battles on the streets and in political meetings. The Christian imagery is clear. Courtesy of Dr. Robert D. Brooks.
(Graphic and text source: German Propaganda Archive)
So we have come together on this day to prove symbolically that we are more than a collection of individuals striving one against another, that none of us is too proud, none of us too high, none is too rich, and none too poor, to stand together before the face of the Lord and of the world in this indissoluble, sworn community. And this united nation, we have need of it.
- Adolf Hitler, in Berlin, 01 May 1935
Last Edit: 17 May 2019 09:41 by Flare.
Hitler's paintings
In his youth Hitler lived as an artist (albeit, a mediocre one). Nevertheless he took it seriously and he produced between 2,000 to 3,000 drawings, sketches, watercolors and oil paintings. He considered himself an artist until 1920. As from any artist, his works reflect his philosophy and life. Raised a Catholic (but with a Protestant mind), Hitler also painted his ingrained religious ideas onto many of his canvases. Below shows just three:
Mother Mary with the Holy Child Jesus Christ, Oil/canvas, 1913
(Source: Two Austrians, An "artist" and a "house painter")
Observe that Jesus looks like a blond haired Aryan. Hitler did not believe that Jesus was a Jew [1].
Karls-Church, Vienna, Aquarell, 1912, by Adolf Hitler
Mountain scene with wayside cross, 1923 - 1925, by Adolf Hitler
Photos showing German Christian influence
The following photos provide a pictorial glimpse of Hitler, how Germany mixed Religion with government, and the support for Hitler by the Protestant and Catholic Churches in Germany.
(TV Photo from History Channel's "Hitler's Lost Plan," aired 18 April 2005)
(Photo source: The Hitler No One Knows: 100 Pictures of the Life of the Führer, by Heinrich Hoffmann)
(TV Photo from National Geographic Channel's "Dawn of the Nazis: Becoming Hitler," aired Dec. 2011)
Hitler With Whip (acting like 'Jesus')
Hitler's close friend, Dietrich Eckart, told of overhearing Hitler showing off to a lady by denouncing Berlin in extravagant terms: ". . . the luxury, the perversion, the iniquity, the wanton display and the Jewish materialism disgusted me so thoroughly that I was almost beside myself. I nearly imagined myself to be Jesus Christ when he came to his Father's Temple and found the money changers." Eckart described Hitler as "brandishing his whip and exclaimed that it was his mission to descend upon the capital like a Christ and scourge the corrupt."
And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables.
--John 2:14-15
(Note, a scourge of small cords describes a whip.)
Hitler wth Archbishop Cesare Orsenigo, the papal nuncio in Berlin, 1935
On April 20, 1939, Archbishop Orsenigo celebrated Hitler's birthday. The celebrations, initiated by Pacelli (Pope Pius XII) became a tradition. Each April 20, Cardinal Bertram of Berlin was to send "warmest congratulations to the Fuhrer in the name of the bishops and the dioceses in Germany" and added with "fervent prayers which the Catholics of Germany are sending to heaven on their altars."
(Source: Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII, by John Cornwell)
(see also USHMM)
The Fuhrer in Franken
Adolf Hitler (center) at the monument for the war dead in Franken Germany. According to Ray Cowdery, Hitler rarely missed an opportunity to visit war memorials, even when a photographer was not present.
(Source: Hitler: The Hoffmann Photographs, Vol. 1, Ray Cowdery, Ed., 1990)
Hitler greets Muller the "Bishop of the Reich" and Abbot Schachleitner
Hitler greets a Catholic Cardinal (Source: USHMM)
Hitler leaving Church
Hitler leaves the Marine Church in Wilhelmshaven.
(Source: The German Propaganda Archive)
Hitler at Nazi party rally
Note the "Church of our Lady" in the background as if it represented the foundation of the party. Photo taken in Nuremberg, Germany (circa 1928).
(Source: 20th Century History)
Hitler in front of "Church of our Lady" in Nuremberg, Sept. 1934. Photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann.
Hitler signing his autograph for a Christian fan
(Source: Hitler in Seinen Bergen, Heinrich Hoffmann, Berlin, den 24.9.35)
Hitler praying
The caption reads: "Der ergreifende Abschlub der Kundgebung in Wien: Wir treten zum Beten..."
[The touching and emotional end of the rally in Vienna: Let us pray...]
(Source: Hitler: The Hoffmann Photographs, Vol. 1, Ray R. Cowdery, Ed., 1990)
The Göring Wedding
Only Christians perform Christian weddings, and the Nazis were no exception.
Hermann Göring married Emmy Sonnemann, a famous Opera star.
Adolf Hitler stands in the front row as "Best Man" during the ceremony in the Cathedral by Reichbishop Müller.
(Source: ThirdReich.ca)
Nazi Christmas (Some people seem to think that Hitler banned Christmas, but at no time did he ever ban Christmas or any other Christian holiday.)
Autobahn workers as guests of Hitler in the Berlin Sportpalast at Christmas in 1938. Note the Christmas trees on the right. (Source: calvin.edu)
Hitler celebrating Christmas with his soldiers.
(Source: calvin.edu)
Christmas 1942/43
(Source: forum.axishistory.com)
Christmas 1944 with Nazi officers and their girlfriends.
Note the German Santa Claus.
(Source: www.dhm.de/)
The Concordat between the Vatican and the Nazis
Cardinal Secretary of State, Eugenio Pacelli (later to become Pope Pius XII) signs the Concordat between Nazi Germany and the Vatican at a formal ceremony in Rome on 20 July 1933. Nazi Vice-Chancellor Franz von Papen sits at the left, Pacelli in the middle, and the Rudolf Buttmann sits at the right.
The Concordat effectively legitimized Hitler and the Nazi government to the eyes of Catholicism, Christianity, and the world.
The full text of the concordat appears on the Concordat Watch website. (click here to see the text).
(Source: Wikipedia)
Hitler's Brown Army attending and leaving church services. These photos were published by Germans during Hitler's Rise.
(Source: Das Braune Heer: mit einem Geleitwort von Adolf Hitler [Translation: The Brown Army: with a foreword by Adolf Hitler], Photos by Heinrich Hoffmann)
A Nazi flag flies in front of the Cologne Cathedral, 1937
Hitler Oath:
I swear by God,
this holy oath,
to the Führer of the German Reich and people.
Adolf Hitler...
<Watch movie>
(Source: Hitler: Tyrant of Terror, shown on the History Channel)
(Source: Photoarchive of the Thrid Reich: stolz.by.ru/)
ST Front
(Source: Photoarchive of the Thrid Reich)
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Video Exchange Series is part of the Informa Tech Division of Informa PLC
Matt Stagg Director of Mobile Strategy at BT Sport at BT Sports
Matt has over 25 years’ experience in telecoms, media and entertainment and was recently voted in the top 50 most influential people in online TV for the fourth year running. In 2017, he was awarded the TV Connect People’s Choice award for the ‘Person who made the biggest impact on the connected entertainment industry’
Within BT Sport he is responsible for developing the broadcaster’s mobile capabilities and long term mobile strategy
As part of the wider BT Group Matt is also developing the technology strategy for the Broadcast, Media & Entertainment over 4G / LTE-B & 5G This encompasses a ‘glass to glass’ approach incorporating both contribution and distribution of media.
Matt is also the Founder and Chairman of the Mobile Video Alliance and co-founder of the LTE-Broadcast Global Alliance.
Mr Tim
Orme Mr Carlos
Speakers at this event
Carlos Tibi
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See Matt Speak
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Tony Puryear Design&
Brandbuilding, Worldbuilding..
Contact for a quote
The Tony Puryear Store
A Tony Puryear Portfolio
You can find my work in The Smithsonian Institution and in comic book stores worldwide.
I build brands through design that pops. I build worlds with richly imagined stories and art.
What can I build for you?
Posts Tagged: Branding
/ Branding, Comics, Logos, Mobile, Trademarks & Style
Mobile App Design For Concrete Park™
This is a major work in progress. When it’s finished it will be a deeply immersive mobile app for our award-winning Concrete Park graphic novel, published by Dark Horse Comics. With the app, you’ll explore the rich fictional world of
/ February 23, 2015 / Leave a comment
/ Branding, Logos, Posters, Trademarks & Style
New Branding Program for Julius Erving “Dr.J.”
As a lifelong hoops fan, I was happy and excited to be asked to come up with a new identity and branding program for an idol of mine, the legendary Julius Erving, better known as “Dr. J.”. This new identity
/ 3D, Branding, Trademarks & Style
Product Line Brochure for Third Degree
Third Degree™ has, for the past four years, been one of the best-selling brands of 3D models in the world. This brochure was designed to highlight the breadth, color and excitement of the product line, which includes category-changing 3D models
/ Branding, Comics, Logos, Trademarks & Style
Trademarks & Style Manual for Concrete Park
Concrete Park™ started as a graphic novel. It has grown, though, into a massive sci-fi story world that just keeps expanding. That story world generates trademarks and other forms of IP that need to be catalogued and protected. The Trademarks
/ 3D, Posters
Campaign for Vampiros Hermosos™
This campaign was designed to promote my new line of characters, Vampiros Hermosos™, which means “Beautiful Vampires”.
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New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber celebrate their fourth week at Number 1 as I Don't Care keeps its grip over the UK Singles Chart.
Lil Nas X's Old Town Road holds firm at Number 2 for a sixth consecutive week, while the rest of the Top 5 remains unchanged.
There are seven new entries landing in this week's Top 40 with Katy Perry scoring the highest of the week with Never Really Over, making its debut at Number 13, and Skepta scores three Top 40 entries following the release of his Ignorance Is Bliss album: What Do You Mean ft. J Hus lands at Number 14, Greaze Mode with Nafe Smallz, rebounds 29 places to a new peak at Number 18, and Bullet From A Gun jumps 36 places to Number 32.
Elsewhere, Lewis Capaldi's Bruises debuts at 16, Sigala and Becky Hill's Wish You Well makes another leap up the chart, lifting 15 spots to 24, and James Arthur's latest track Falling Like The Stars enjoys a ten-place climb to 25. Miley Cyrus's Mother's Daughter debuts at 31, earning the US star her 15th UK Top 40 single.
Finally, D-Day veteran and folk singer Jim Radford debuts at Number 72 with The Shores of Normandy - a song about his experience at the Battle of Normandy released to mark its 75th anniversary this week.
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"Concrete Heart" Hits No 1!
Jonas Brothers Announces Additional London Show To Due Demand
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